Weekly Wrap Up and What My Children Are Reading

On September 6th we started school and I think we are mostly into a routine now, for the most part at least.  With a newborn it's tough to have any sort of routine, but we are doing pretty good.  Things will be different when Baby Matty sleeps less.  So the first week I started with Marrissa and Wyatt the Letter of the Week preK curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler.   She suggests starting with vowels.  So far we've done A, E, and this week was I.  The kids (all of them) are loving it.  I have a hard time keeping Kristyn and Cora concentrating on their schoolwork, but we've compromised and instead of me doing the craft with the younger kids, K and C are helping them.  It is working sooooo well.

Each day I have a small package of three or four activities, or coloring for them to do.  Three or four days a week (sometimes only one or two) we have a craft to do.  I still need rechargeable batteries for my camera so I can show you what we are doing, but I put the completed activities that I can in a duotang for M and W.  They think it's the greatest thing.  And they have something to show Daddy!

Kristyn and Cora are working in the grade 2 math workbook from ACSI.  They are really enjoying that; we do two pages (sometimes more) most days.  Kristyn is learning to tell time.  I think she's getting it.  Cora is working on geometry and sorting.  In addition to math, we are doing Building A Life (character study from ACSI) and God's Wonderful Works (a science program looking at the 7 days of creation).  These last two subjects, I have to "teach" (read the book and explain the content) them so I try to do those while Rayna is sleeping because she just gets into too much while I'm distracted with teaching the oldest two.  The math is more self-directed than these other two (especially the character study).

We are learning a lot more Bible this year.  The character study looks at the life of Daniel and his friends and has verses accompanying each virtue.  The science has us learning Genesis 1:1-5 so far and later we add more of Genesis 1.  Then the LOTW has a verse as well.  We are using Sing The Word for our LOTW memory verses.  Even Wyatt and Rayna are learning the verses.  You should hear Wyatt say Genesis 1:1-5!!!  He has almost the whole thing memorized!

 

So what have we been reading? We've been reading the "If You Give. . . " series of books by Laura Joffe Numeroff because they start with the letter I.  We've read about iguanas.  The book we've really enjoyed the most though is Dr Suess's Green Eggs and Ham.  We had it out for the week we did the letter E, but Wyatt wasn't ready to give it up yet.  We read it over and over and over.  I just returned it today.  Time to find a new bedtime story.  Rayna received Silly Sally as a gift from the library.  It's so silly.


Cora said to me this week, "I LOOOVVVEEE reading!"  YAY!  I'm so glad.  She's reading Junie B. Jones books.  She goes through a couple a week, I think.  I may have to have her keep track because I'm not reading them, nor am I keeping track of the ones she gets from the library.  The other day she told me she was up until after 11 reading.  Sound like anyone you know, Grandma Johnny?


Kristyn is not a reader, yet.  She may never be and that's okay.  However, I am going to be making some changes I think and will be requiring daily reading - silent and reading aloud.  I'm just not sure how to work it into our day.  I've started reading our read-alouds at lots of different times of day, but the silent reading is tougher.  (Our current read-aloud is the Little House series - book 2.)


I am reading lots too.  I am currently trying to get through Bringing Up Boys and The Read-Aloud Handbook.  Those two are my focus right now.  Also I'm working on a few others that you can see in my Fall Into Reading 2010 post.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Top 100 Children's Novels???? Not sure.

While perusing some blogs this week, I came across a list of the Top 100 Children's Novels from A Fuse #8 Production.  This list as since turned into a meme of sorts - how many have you read?  I've read the ones in BOLD.


#1 Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

#2 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

#3 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

#4 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

#5 From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

#6 Holes by Louis Sachar

#7 The Giver by Lois Lowry

#8 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

#9 Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

#10 The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

#11 The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

#12 The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

#13 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

#14 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

#15 Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

#16 Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

#17 Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

#18 Matilda by Roald Dahl

#19 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

#20 Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

#21 Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riodan

#22 The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo

#23 Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

#24 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

#25 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

#26 Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

#27 A Little Princess by Francis Hodgson Burnett

#28 Winnie-the Pooh by A.A. Milne

#29 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland /Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

#30 The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

#31 Half Magic by Edward Eager

#32 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

#33 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

#34 Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

#35 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire JK Rowling

#36 Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

#37 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor

#38 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

#39 When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

#40 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

#41 The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

#42 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

#43 Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary

#44 Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

#45 The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

#46 Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

#47 Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

#48 The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall

#49 Frindle by Andrew Clements

#50 Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

#51 The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

#52 The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

#53 Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

#54 The BFG by Roald Dahl

#55 The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

#56 Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

#57 Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary

#58 The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

#59 Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

#60 The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

#61 Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

#62 The Secret of the Old Clock (The Nancy Drew mysteries) by Caroline Keene

#63 Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright

#64 A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck

#65 Ballet Shoes by Noah Streatfeild

#66 Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary

#67 Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville

#68 Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

#69 The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

#70 Betsy Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace (listened to an audio version)

#71 A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

#72 My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

#73 My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

#74 The Borrowers by Mary Norton

#75 Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

#76 Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

#77 City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

#78 Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

#79 All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

#80 The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

#81 Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

#82 The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

#83 The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

#84 Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

#85 On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

#86 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

#87 The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg

#88 The High King by Lloyd Alexander

#89 Ramona and her Father by Beverly Cleary

#90 Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

#91 Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

#92 Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

#93 Caddie Woodlawn by C. R. Brink

#94 Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

#95 Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

#96 The Witches by Roald Dahl

  #97: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

#98 Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston

#99 The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks

#100 The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

You can see a couple of other lists at TEACHERNINJA and  Semicolon.

 I am surprised at a lot of these titles.  I remember trying to read lots of them and not getting past the first couple of pages, or even past the cover.  I am not surprised that I have only read 12 of them.  Some of the titles I do not recognize at all and Besty-Tacy I only discovered in the last year.  I got an audio version from our library and we loved it!  I do plan to use this list to introduce my children to a wide range of books and authors.  I will try not to taint them with my opinions.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,