Reading Reading Reading

Make reading aloud a routine in your homeschool and in your daily life with your child. Guard this time with your life. 

"There is no academy on earth equal to a mother's reading to her child."

~Horace E. Scudder

Oh have we been reading this year. We've found some real treasures. This is our list so far- not bad for halfway through the school year! Good thing we have our book journals from Grammy all set up.

Book List:

BOOK CLUB: The Sign of the Beaver

Together:

Man of the Family by Moody

Way to Be by Gordon B. Hinkley

All Of A Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick

Understood Betsy by Fisher

Along Came a Dog by DeJung

The Sign of the Beaver by Speare

Mountain Born by Yates

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleichsman

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Farm by Betty MacDonald
Story of the World volume 4
Caddie Woodlawn

Jane- Strawberry Hill by Hoberman, Elder Holland- Modesty, Uncle Tom’s Cabin Young Reader, Ginger Pye, Rain Reign, Gone Away Lake, Return to Gone Away Lake, Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Work and the Glory Series, 7 Habits for Highly Effective Teens by Covey, The Chosen by Potok, Jane of Lantern Hill, Gentle Ben, Heaven to Betsy by Lovelace, Time Like a River, Gypsy From Nowhere, All Things Great and Small, Jack and Jill by Alcott, The Book of Three (Prydon Series), The Shadow of the Bull, Shard of Glass, Calvin and Hobbes, Hope Chest, Across Five Aprils, The Wingfeather Series, Eight Cousins by Alcott, Laddie by Gene Stratton Porter

Charlie- Holes, Out of my Mind, Because of Winn-Dixie, Half Magic by Eager, Uncle Tom’s Cabin Young, Bunnicula, Diary of Anne Frank, Little Britches, Tale of Despereaux, Elijah of Buxton, 7 Habits for Highly Effective Teens by Covey, Thimble Summer, Return to 100 Acre Wood by Milne, Aesop’s Fables Collection, Five Little Peppers, You Choose Book Series, Calvin and Hobbes, The Saturdays by Enright, Witches by Roald Dahl, The Four Story Mistake by Enright, McBroom Books, Then There Were Five by Enright, Wild Animals I Have Known by Seton, Calvin and Hobbes, Smithsonian Animal Encyclopedia, Counting by Sevens

Jacob- Holes, The Brothers LionHeart, Jungle Book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Aesop’s Fables Collection, You Choose Book Series, 7 Habits for Happy Kids by Covey, Encyclopedia Brown Series, McBroom Books, 100 Cupboards by Wilson, The Secret Benedict Society by Stewart, Dandelion Fire by Wilson, The Green Ember by Smith, Calvin and Hobbes

Scarlet- Princess Academy by Hale, Box Car Children Series, Aesop’s Fables Collection, The Witches by Roald Dahl, Matilda by Roald Dahl, 7 Habits for Happy Kids by Covey, Wide Awake Princess Series, A True Gift by McLachlan, Unfortunately the Milk, The BFG by Dahl, The Dragon Princess by ED Baker

Ezra- The Boxcar Children by Chandler, Wagon Wheel Early Reader, Charlotte’s Web, CS King Arthur, A True Gift by McLachlan, CS Robin Hood, 7 Habits for Happy Kids by Covey, Magic TreeHouse Series

Here's my quick recommendations from the read together list:

#1 Understood Betsy was our favorite of them all! It starts off slow but as soon as Betsy gets to the farm it's fantastic. So many good life lessons.

Here's a little snippet (Deborah is a doll):
"Often Deborah was taken to school. You never heard of such a things as taking a doll to school, did you? Well, I told you this was a queer, old-fashioned school. As a matter of fact, it was not only Betsy who took her doll to school; all the little girls did, whenever they felt like it, Miss Benton, the teacher, had a shelf for them in the entryway where the wraps were hung, and the dolls sat on it and waited patiently all through lessons. At recess time or noon each little mother snatched her own child and began to play. As soon as it grew warm enough to play outdoors without just racing around every minute to keep from freezing to death, the dolls and their mothers went out to a great pile of rocks at one end of the bare, stony field which was the playground. There they sat and played in the spring sunshine, warmer from day to day."

#2 All Of A Kind Family- We quite enjoyed learning about some Jewish culture in this one. All the 5 girls sleep in the same room in the story so we were relating on some of those kinds of parts. This one is really heart warming.

#3 The Year of Mrs Agnes- very inspirational.

I couldn't stand The Mouse and the Motorcycle. It was the first time I would dread reading together. It was just painful. I chose it because I thought Ezra in particular would enjoy it but good grief I'm glad that one is over!

We've enjoyed other DeJung novels but Along Came A Dog was super weird. We understood all the chicken coop drama from experience with our own hens but I was ready for it to end too.

Mountain Born was just beautiful. I LOVED it but the kids weren't as captivated as I was. They liked it but didn't swoon over it like me.