April has been a productive book reading month for me although I seemed to manage to read rather less to the children, over the Easter break. Anyway, I'm trying to catch up on this now.
Our current read alouds are
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. Youngest Son is loving this book although his sister is less keen and I'm realising that I don't understand a fair amount of this book. Nautical terminology is going right over my head. This book should come with a warning that it fuels the requests to go camping again!
Fine Print: A Story about Johann Gutenberg by Joann Burch. This is the Veritas literature selection for our current history. Again, a rather technical book in parts.
South Sea Rescue by Kay Walsh is our current book club selection.
13 Buildings Every Child Should Know by Annette Roeder has been a major success. I intended to read from this a couple of times a week but there have been requests for a building each day. We are due to finish it tomorrow and everyone will be sad. This is a beautiful book about 13 famous buildings around the world. There are details of the construction and reason for each building along with a time line and some simple architectural terminology.
My own reading has been dominated by prereading books for the book club. One of my current reads The Wheel on the School illustrates the issues around this. So far, the book is engaging and would be ideal for the book club except for one thing: it has to be purchased from the US so books will take a few weeks to arrive. I'm wondering whether this is such a problem that I will need to find a different book or whether there is some other way round this.
I've written about The Good Master.
Stone Fox is a short read and a bit of a tear jerker. Ideal for children probably from about six. Spoiler alert: avoid if your child is sensitive about animals dying.
How to teach Shakespeare to your Children by Ken Ludwig.
I'm not a great Shakespeare fan and this book hasn't changed that but it has helped me understand more about Shakespeare's plays and how to make them accessible to my children.
The main premise of the book is to teach the children short passages from the plays so that something is familiar to them. Along with the passage, the child needs to understand the meaning of the passage and the play. Ludwig uses passages from some of the most well known plays and goes over their background.
At the end of the book is a helpful list of resources including children's versions of Shakespeare and videos of the plays.
Our current read alouds are
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. Youngest Son is loving this book although his sister is less keen and I'm realising that I don't understand a fair amount of this book. Nautical terminology is going right over my head. This book should come with a warning that it fuels the requests to go camping again!
Fine Print: A Story about Johann Gutenberg by Joann Burch. This is the Veritas literature selection for our current history. Again, a rather technical book in parts.
South Sea Rescue by Kay Walsh is our current book club selection.
13 Buildings Every Child Should Know by Annette Roeder has been a major success. I intended to read from this a couple of times a week but there have been requests for a building each day. We are due to finish it tomorrow and everyone will be sad. This is a beautiful book about 13 famous buildings around the world. There are details of the construction and reason for each building along with a time line and some simple architectural terminology.
My own reading has been dominated by prereading books for the book club. One of my current reads The Wheel on the School illustrates the issues around this. So far, the book is engaging and would be ideal for the book club except for one thing: it has to be purchased from the US so books will take a few weeks to arrive. I'm wondering whether this is such a problem that I will need to find a different book or whether there is some other way round this.
I've written about The Good Master.
Stone Fox is a short read and a bit of a tear jerker. Ideal for children probably from about six. Spoiler alert: avoid if your child is sensitive about animals dying.
How to teach Shakespeare to your Children by Ken Ludwig.
I'm not a great Shakespeare fan and this book hasn't changed that but it has helped me understand more about Shakespeare's plays and how to make them accessible to my children.
The main premise of the book is to teach the children short passages from the plays so that something is familiar to them. Along with the passage, the child needs to understand the meaning of the passage and the play. Ludwig uses passages from some of the most well known plays and goes over their background.
At the end of the book is a helpful list of resources including children's versions of Shakespeare and videos of the plays.
Pitchin' a Fit by Israel and Brook Wayne was a challenging and Biblically based book about getting angry, or rather, not getting angry with children. Some of the questions were challenging in looking at trigger situations and the Biblical view of anger was helpful.
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 2 by JC Ryle. I have written before about how much I like these books. They are pithy, relevant and avoid the wordiness of much Victorian writing. The sections are ideal length of reading in about 10 minutes once a day.
Please recommend books. I am particularly looking for children's chapter books about the continents of Oceania, Europe and South America but any other recommendations are gratefully received.
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