After a few rough days around the house I decided to start homeschooling tomorrow instead of in September like I originally planned. I think all of my children, but the two oldest in particular, could really use the rhythm change. We are ridiculously behind with our schooling anyways so this will be good. I just dread all the work ahead of me and how Baby F will be during lessons (he is the reason we had to put homeschooling on hold in the first place). The girls also start AHG back up tomorrow as well. We are in for one hectic, transitional day for sure. Say a prayer for me, please!
In other news, I finished painting my bookcase. The blue turned out a lot lighter than the paint chip showed but I still really like it. I used a paint that had primer in it but it still ended up needing five coats. Next time I will just go ahead and buy a separate can of primer to speed things up. I really wanted to distress the bookcase but after doing all of those coats of paint I am afraid of how it will turn out. So for now I will just leave it as it is. I took that photograph of it before I moved it to it's new home at the end of our hallway. It really dark down there so I knew I wouldn't be able to capture it's color there.
Those books you see on the nightstand are K's current reads. She got fed up with the kids versions/re-telling of Robin Hood so we just went ahead and found the real thing. She is such a bookworm. I can't seem to keep her in books, she reads them so fast. I am rather picky about what she reads, too, making it that much harder to keep up a good supply. Classics are always good, though. She loves Anne of Green Gables and re-reads it regularly. I would LOVE any books suggestions you may have for her (5th grader, almost 11 years old and reading above her age level). I just purchased Lark Rise to Candleford to give to her on her birthday. I think she'll enjoy that.
Oh and you see that sweet, big-eyed, smiley baby? I took those photographs right after we finished a 5K run on base. The whole run he was either insanely happy or contently sleeping. This must be the secret to his happiness that I have been searching for for six months now - just keep running!! AND if you looks really close in that first photograph of him you can see his very first tooth popped through. His second one is on the way.
One last thing - I wanted to apologize for falling so far behind on responding to comments. I am not ignoring you!! I am hoping to play catch up later this week.
Logging you in...
Genevieve · 449 weeks ago
Maria · 449 weeks ago
Ariana W · 449 weeks ago
Louise · 449 weeks ago
Melissa · 449 weeks ago
P.L. · 449 weeks ago
Allison · 449 weeks ago
Christina · 449 weeks ago
As far as books go, Astrid Lindgren has written many books that are not well known in English (or not as well known as Pippi). The "Noisy Village" series is about three Swedish farms side by side and their children inhabitants, recounting many simple but beautiful childhood experiences from the point of view of Lisa, one of the girls (things like cherry picking, new school teacher, etc). "Seacrow Island" is set on an island int he Baltic sea, and the adventures of a bunch of kids there. The there is "Ronja the Robber¨s Daughter", which is more of a fairy tale adventure with good and evil. And several more. Well worth looking into.
I also loved the Patricia M. St. John books as a kid. These are adventure-type books set in different places, by a Christian author. "The Tanglewoods Secret", or "Treasures of the Snow", to name a couple.
She might be a tad too young for "Cue for Treason" by Geoffrey Trease - set in Shakespearian England.
The Noel Streatfield books, about ballet schools and dancing and such.
And finally: I am a big an of the entire Swallow and Amazon series, a book about sailboats and children who know how to sail. I think even if this isn't part of your environment you can still learn about this world and enjoy the series.
Good luck finding materials your daughter will enjoy!
Shel Tscherne · 449 weeks ago
I second the Pippi books and I'm assuming that she's already read Charlotte's Web but if not that's a family favorite. Has she done ALL of the Green Gables books? What about Little Women? We were gifted a new to us book called The Doll People that everyone says is fabulous though we have yet to read yet. I picked up a copy of All-of-a-Kind Family that sounds good too.
Have a wonderful week! Happy new lesson year!
Sarah · 449 weeks ago
cariemay 52p · 449 weeks ago
Sara · 449 weeks ago
With certainty I'll tread the path of life,
Love I'll cherish I the depth of my being,
Hope shall be in all my doing,
Confidence I'll impress into my thinking. Steiner
I remember enjoying Black Beauty, all other great nine year old change books that I would mention have been posted above. Waldorf related The Parenting Passageway has a post for the Third Grade (nine and 10 year change) Reading List and then look at the comments. A rather good list is BBC's The Good Reads List for some classics.
alisha t · 449 weeks ago
I'm not sure how old K is, but The Little White Horse is such a beautiful fairytale. I did a read-aloud to my 7 year old. We also recently did The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
We also like the color Fairy Books (The Blue Fairy book, etc.) but those require pre-screening at my daughter's age.
The Five Little Peppers, Betsy-Tacy books, All of A Kind family, and Noisy Village are all fantastic suggestions! I also grew up reading a series called In Grandma's Attic (author is from my home area) and they are sweet recollections of long ago girlhood.
Amanda · 449 weeks ago
Anne11 · 449 weeks ago
adelightfulglow 19p · 449 weeks ago
Kate · 448 weeks ago
EbsFamily · 448 weeks ago
The Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer
The School at the Chalet series by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
anything by Enid Blyton but these past few months it has been the Adventure series
Watership Down (this was a read-aloud about a year ago but she has re-read twice on her own)
The Phantom Tollbooth (idem)
the Wildwood Chronicles (though I've heard many mention that it has a socialist agenda, which is fine with me, but...)
Rascal by Sterling North (the writing...swoon!)
The Oz series (she has read or listened to all of them and they have enriched her life in so many ways!)
I'll repeat The Little White Horse (I loved it too), the Chronicles of Narnia (been read through four times, I think), Little Women (and the Japanese anime series), Anne of Green Gables (Anne and Matthew are absolute favourite characters around here).
Daughter is bilingual French/English, so reads a lot in French, but I wanted to say that she has learnt the very most from Asterix et Obélix. I'm sure the title is different in English but can't think of it. I am continually amazed by the history facts she just pulls out from reading that (of course, ahem, a lot of that has to do with military strategy/war but it's no worse than the British history she did in grade 3 or the French history she has done in school). She has also read several times every single Peanuts strip ever written, as well as all the Tintins and several other comics.
rlschatze 9p · 448 weeks ago
http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/100...
Ack...I have to run but I wanted to type more. I will try and come back. :)
Sara · 448 weeks ago
WrenX · 448 weeks ago
Kim · 447 weeks ago
valerie · 447 weeks ago
My other go to places for book lists based on age level are "Memoria Press" "Mater Amabilis" "Angelican Academy"
life2d 1p · 443 weeks ago
I have a book recommendation for your daughter: Nobody's Boy by Hector Malot. Also, Nobody's Girl by the same author. I think you would all enjoy them. I was very excited the other day to find them in electronic form on Amazon for free. It was really difficult to find the hard copy English translations when my girls were young. We still have them, even though 90% of our books haven't made the cut through our many moves.
Here are the links if you want to give them a try: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TQ6A8M/ref=... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TQI3Z0/ref=...