We had another good month of homeschooling. Overall attitudes have improved over the school year so far. My pre-reader is now a solid beginning reader (when he believes in himself!). Seeing him slowly but surely learn to read has only given me more faith in the power of homeschooling.
Now as we head into December, we'll be enjoying many seasonal reads at morning time and every time in between. In another two weeks, we'll take off two weeks to finish preparing for Christmas and enjoying the slow days between Christmas and New Years Day.
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Poetry
This month we are continuing our study of Walter de la Mare's poetry. We also used morning time to revisit Paul Revere Ride which goes along with my son's history for this year. We read the following every day for one week at morning time:Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Hide and Seek by Walter de la Mare
November by Walter de la Mare
A Song of Enchantment by Walter de la Mare
Mrs. Earth by Walter de la Mare
If you want to see more poems that we enjoy, check out Poetry to Read Aloud.
Morning Time
Now, about six months after welcoming Harry to the family, we are starting to find our morning time rhythm again. Which is quite a relief because it really is one of my favorite parts of the day. And once again, with no planning and lots of serendipity, our readings relate to other parts of our studies. In The Fall of the Year, Sharp describes living on Mullein Hill and this is the first year that we know what mullein is. And we happen to be reading Cornish legends at the same time that we started Over Sea, Under Stone, as a lunch-time book, which takes place in Cornwall!We finished the following books at morning time this month:
The Fall of the Year by Dallas Lore Sharp (free online)
Thomas Alva Edison: Young Inventor by Louis Sabin
Mary Ann by Betsy James
Oliver Twist (Graphic Novel) adapted David Cerquiera and Philippe Chanoinat
The Story of Ben Franklin by Eve Merriam
The Gift of the Tree by Alvin Tresselt
Sir Cumference and the First Round Table by Cindy Neuschwander
The Little People's Pageant of Cornish Legends by Eric Quayle and Michael Foreman
We've also been reading at morning time, and will continue to read slowly for some time:
The Story of Painting for Young People: From Cave Painting to Modern Times by H.W. Janson and Dora Jane Janson
The Wonders of Chemistry by Archie Frederick Collins (free online)
To see even more books we've enjoyed at morning time, check the Morning Time page.
Lunch-time Read Alouds
A Little Maid of New England by Alice Turner Curtis (finished) The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson (finished)
Pinnochio by Carlo Collodi
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
Night Book
My husband has been reading to the kids:
Redwall by Brian Jacques (finished)
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Free Reading
Mossflower (Redwall, #2) by Brian Jacques
Mattemeo (Redwall, #3) by Brian Jacques
The Way Things Work by David Macaulay
The Wonderling by Mira Bartok
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Holes by Louis Sachar
Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger by Louis Sachar
The Time Garden by Edward Eager
Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager
Half Magic by Edward Eager
The Scarecrow and His Servant by Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2) by Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3) by Philip Pullman
Peter (8) has been reading up a storm. And now he and his younger brother have developed a new Redwall obsession. Thankfully, I had never signed up for a free audible trial before, so I was able to get Mossflower and Mattemeo for John (6) to listen on audio for free!
I've been reading
The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
I feel like I read a lot this month, yet I only completed 4 books. I really enjoyed both of the sci fi books, even though they had very different styles. I still have a large stack of books from the library so hopefully, I can keep working on my habit to read a bit more in the evening instead of zoning out with Netflix.
I'm also slowly re-reading Home Education by Charlotte Mason with an in-person reading group.
My husband and I are also reading The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book 1) by Robert Jordan aloud to each other in anticipation of the upcoming Amazon tv show in the works. I've enjoyed this series and told him so much about it over the years, but he has never found time to read it. I don't know how many of the 1000s of pages of this series we'll be able to complete, but we are going to enjoy what we can share together.
These are most of the books we've been reading outside of our formal lessons. You can see the ones we use during school time at 1st-grade plans and 3rd-grade plans.
Past Months:
What we're reading: October Edition
What we're reading: September Edition
What we're reading: August Edition
What we're reading: Summer Edition
What we're reading: June Edition
What we're reading: May Edition
What we're reading: April Edition What we're reading: February Edition
