Visual Assessment Observation

I observed my 10 year old son who does display what his teacher's describe as ADD type behavior; however, he doesn't display all of the typical symptoms and I have always doubted  the idea as well.  He has always passed vision tests at the pediatrician's office and school screenings.  After completing the checklist for possible referral to vision evaluation, I found he scored an 18.  I also recognized he has issues with math and a lot of those problems do seem to be related to the problem of the numbers being located too close together.  Typically, when we do math homework, I have him copy the problem onto a blank piece of paper first.  This seems to alleviate some of the tension and frustration he has with math problems.  I never thought of it as being related to vision though!

Library Visit

I visited the Anastasia Island Public Library.  Currently, this branch is servicing both it's regular patrons, as well as the main St. John's County Public Library located in downtown St. Augustine because the main branch is undergoing renovations.

 

 

I visited the library midafternoon on a weekday.  This library is located within a neighborhood and a small retail area.  There were several patrons utilizing different features of the library during my visit.  Three or four people were using the library's desk top computers.  One couple appeared to be paying bills or doing their taxes.  One man was reading the news online and another lady was watching a movie.  The library has a small young adult/teen area and there was one teen studying and taking notes from a book in this area.  There were several people who appeared to be on their lunch breaks reading newsprint newspaper and a few on their own personal laptops.

 

 

The printed book section in the general library section was quite small (only about 8 aisles).  The only person I saw in the aisles was actually looking at DVDs. There was a sign stating that the library would be hosting tax preparation and filing services.  The library has 2 or 3 separate meeting/conference rooms for classes and community events.

 

The children's section was surf themed.  There were two children in the library at the time of my visit.  One child was sitting on a bean bag chair reading a book and the other was playing a aviation computer game on one of the 4 computers dedicated to the children's section.  There was a toddler/infant play area.  This was a good idea I thought so that parents could assist older children in finding books while the younger ones played.

 

Overall, the children's section was very inviting and seemed to have a wide selection of traditional books available for children.

 

 

I looked up the utilization numbers for the St. John's county library system.  They report that there were a total of 1,037,328 library visits county wide in 2012-2013.  There were 156,987 computer usages and an average circulation of 1,704,138 books annually or 142,012 books per month.  I was surprised to find that there were only half the number of website visits (516,082) than actual library visits.  The library had a wide variety of ebooks available for all ages, as well as audiobooks.  There were 21,257 Ebooks available for patrons and 405,961 print items. Additionally, there were nearly 3 times as many audiovisual materials than ebooks available for patrons to check out. 

 



Ebook Reading Review

I read Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney via the www.wegivebooks.org website.

This is a wonderful, rhyming story that follows a little llama on his first day of school.  This book would be perfect for preschoolers and kindergartners because it helps allay anxiety about being away from parents.  The rhythmic rhyming pattern of the text also encourages developing readers to guess at new words that they may not already recognize. 

The www.wegivebooks.org website allows users to register for free and has a good variety of high quality children's books available to read for free.  I liked that the book could be enlarged to full screen - this made the pictures and words clearly visible.  An internet connection and Adobe Flashplayer are necessary to view books, so you can't read the books on iPADs.  This would be a drawback for some, but you can also buy the book in a Kindle or NOOK format. 

I was actually surprised that I liked reading this ebook with my kindergartener as much as a traditional book. We weren't slowed down or distracted by turning pages or seeing how close we were to the end of the book.  One thing that would be nice would be adding audio to the book.  I think I will record us reading a book like this with my iPhone and then he can play the recording when he rereads the book alone.  We will definitely be reading more ebooks in the future!!

Ebook Set - Dinosaurs

 

http://freekidsbooks.org/filter/Children/date/DESC?page=2

 

A good chapter book for emergent readers - find out why being different can be a good thing!

Read online or download PDF version for free.

 

http://freekidsbooks.org/view/80

 

Another chapter book for emergent readers - doubles as a coloring book.  Read online and download PDF version for free.

 

 

http://www.kidsdinos.com/

Website features interactive, maps, flashcards, games, and time lines for dinosaurs.

 

 

 

 

http://www.tooter4kids.com/DinosaurIndex/acrostic_poetry.htm

 

Printable acrostic poem layout for kids to come up with descriptive words related to dinosaurs. 

 

 

http://www.wegivebooks.org/books/skippyjon-jones-and-the-big-bones/reader

 

Available through Pearson's wegivebooks.org website as an online book.  You must register for the site, but it is free.  Good read aloud story for group reading times.

 

http://www.wegivebooks.org/books/lets-look-dinosaurs

 

Preschool/Kindergarten level book with large words and vibrant pictures.  Introduces dinosaur facts and has an I SPY activity as well.

 

 

Etextbooks for 5th Grade

http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog/editions/mcleanbuseng-business-english-for-success-1-0

This textbook would be appropriate for either a college freshman level Intro English class or College Prep Level 10th-12th graders.  Provides student access to the e-textbook for a basic price of only $24.

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dickens/charles/d54ch/

Available in many formats (EPUB, web, Kindle)for free.  Appropriate as supplemental text for 4th-8th grades for British history review.  Chapters follow the timeline of British history from Roman times through King James II.

 

http://www.davidpetersstudio.com/books.htm

 

Free e-textbook that covers dinosaurs and early reptiles.  Easily accessible for downloads.  Colorful illustrations along with timeline and detailed descriptions of the dinosaurs and relevant time periods would supplement any elementary level class learning unit on dinosaurs.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:Big_Book_of_Fun_Science_Experiments

A wikibook of science experiments.  Great textbook and resource tool for STEM experiments, etc.  Elementary and Middle School level.


CK US History SourceBook Basic - http://www.ck12.org/book/U.S.-History-Sourcebook---Basic/ -
Comprehensive overview of American History from Colonial Times to WWI.  Great, free textbook for all K-12 educators depending on time period of American history being covered.