Thursday 1 October 2015

October Books

As usual, there are plenty of read alouds on the go.

Autumn is here and to fit with this we have pulled out the Ladybird book What to look for in Autumn. This was dated when I was a child but it is fun to get the children to notice changes: the stooks of corn, the old tractor and so on. These books tend to be popular with a picture on each double spread.

Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingals Wilder, starts in deep winter. As always, the food eaten amazes me but then the family worked so hard and the weather was cold. Realistically, my eight year old enjoys this more than her younger brother. The same seems to be true of our latest read linked with the Veritas self-paced history course, A Door in the Wall.

More successful books for my youngest are The hen who wouldn't give up by Jill Tomlinson, Tim to the lighthouse by Edward Ardizzone and The Pied Piper by Henriette Barkow and Roland Dry.

We have just finished volume 1 of A Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos. I am often asked to read an extra section and it is clearly told. The pictures are odd. I remember disliking the pictures as a child and I haven't changed my mind.

For our home education group, we are reading Return of the White Book,  which I recommend, and a selection of picture books about Asia.

Please recommend books especially any that are likely to be particularly enjoyed by a six year old boy.

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5 comments:

  1. We are reading Farmer Boy right now as well, with the same observation about the food! I actually borrowed the Little House Cookbook from our library so I could see some recipes, though we haven't tried any of them yet.

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    1. Yes, we loved that book, too, and its food is something I think about fairly regularly. For Laura, who actually went hungry for parts of her childhood, such an abundance of food was a big deal, I once read in a biography of her, and that's one reason she described it so joyfully.

      For six years old, how about the Billy and Blaze stories, and any of the other excellent older picture/story books? Does your library still have any of the old books? Or books of maps, photography books of countries, cars, bugs, space ships, or whatever interests him? At that age adult photo books can be a hit, especially if fiction is not.

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    2. The contrast between Farmer Boy and the Long Winter is quite dramatic. I hadn't thought about Farmer Boy that way before.
      Billy and Blaze sounds ideal. Yes, I think that we have to concentrate on easier chapter books. I like the idea of books of maps-these fascinate him. I hadn't thought about adult photo books but thinking about it, we have a book of aerial photographs of the coast which would almost certainly be a hit. Thank you for these useful ideas.

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  2. Hi Sarah, the I Can Read Science Books are good for that age. My boys enjoyed them & they were interesting although the chapters are quite short. I wrote about them here:
    http://journey-and-destination.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/books-for-beginning-readers-nature.html

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  3. I'm reading Rudyard Kipling Just So Stories to my little ones at the moment. I had forgotten just how good they were! A is seven and she is thoroughly enjoying them. Also any of Burgess' animal or bird books are really good and the children learn about nature as well.

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