I haven't posted much lately cause Mini-Con is making me crazy. But now almost everything is done, so I thought I would post a reading update. (Those are my favorite kinds of posts.) This time instead of what I have been reading, I thought I'd update you guys on what Livy and I have been reading together.
Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling: Enough said. Wonderful, even for me, reading it for about the 15th time. Gotta love the book where she plants the seeds of the whole series.
Bob Books: A set of phonics readers that she can read to herself. We have done the first three packs, but we are going back through the first three again. She was starting to get frustrated with the harder books, so we are doing an easy read-through from the beginning again. I really like these books because the stories and pictures are actually funny, unlike the boring stuff usually made for beginning reading.
Arthur's New Pup: I hate these stupid Arthur books. But Livy LOVES them. I think they are poorly written and boring. She thinks they are hilarious. I have a limit; I will only read two on each trip to the library. Stupid aardvark.
Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares by Frank Murphy: A story about Ben Franklin, mostly focusing on his inventions and his mathematical puzzles (magic squares).
What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? by Jean Fritz: A great, great, GREAT children's bio. Lots more in this awesome series. We have, but haven't read, her book on Plymouth colony, Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and George Washington. The Ben Franklin bio was so awesome that I cannot wait to read the others. Livy wants to do Paul Revere next cause there is a picture of a horse, duh.
A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin by David Adler: Yes, we are currently obsessed. This was not my favorite, but I think it would be great for a younger child. It has fabulous pictures, but was a little sparse on facts for us. (Livy is nearly 7). We also have A Picture Book of Robert E. Lee but haven't read it yet. Won't it be fun to try and explain the Civil War?
Pompeii: Buried Alive by Edith Kunhardt: Loved this one. Since Livy wants to be an archeologist or a paleontologist, I have been trying to find books that show the real work those people do. I've been to Pompeii, so we had a wonderful time talking about what we learned in the book and planning a future trip to visit the site. Plus, what kid doesn't like natural disasters?
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald Sobol: Did you guys read these as a kid? SO AWESOME. The main character solves cases, and you get to try to figure them out before he tells you how he knew. Livy has trouble understanding some of the cases but has great fun anyway.
Choose Your Own Adventure: The Cave of Time by Edward Packer: This is Livy's first choose your own adventure book, and she loves it. We spend a lot of time backtracking and trying out other options. So far, we have ended up being hanged, owning a Philadelphia printing shop, and living out our lives with prehistoric people.
If You Traveled on The Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine: I love this series. It includes books on different time periods and different people's lives. We also have, but haven't read yet, If you Lived During the American Revolution, If You Grew Up With George Washington, If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, If You Lived at the Time of the Civil War, If You Lived 100 Years Ago, and If You Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln. The Underground Railroad book was particularly interesting to us because we recently visited a museum about it in Cincinnati, Ohio. We saw the area of the Ohio River where many slaves crossed into the North. So it was neat to read about places we had just seen.
George Washington and the General's Dog by Frank Murphy: Revolutionary War heros, beloved pets, Martha Washington chasing a dog called Vulcan who just stole a ham off the table at Mt. Vernon, a mule from the King of Spain - seriously, don't you all want to read this book?
Ant at the Picnic by Michael Dahl: A story about counting by tens as your whole picnic and Aunt Helen are carried away by ants. Math and hilarity. Yippee.
Prehistoric Actual Size by Steve Jenkins: I cannot recommend this book more. It is a collection of facts about dinosaurs, protozoans, early mammals, and early amphibians, all accompanied by pictures of them in actual size. Awesome.
What Killed the Dinosaurs? by Issac Asimov: Trying out an Asimov children's book since Aaron loves them so much. I think it's a little above Livy's head, but we aren't done. And she still wants to read more about meteorites. We saw one at the Tellus Science Center that had crashed through someone's roof not far from here in 2006. How cool is that? I hope we don't get a big one though. Don't really want to go extinct.
It's Not the Stork: A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Families and Friends by Robie H. Harris: We have only covered the anatomy of children's bodies so far, but Livy is hooked. There are these crazy cartoons (a bird and bee) that say funny things throughout the book. I love how frank and clear and well-illustrated this book is. Describes body parts, explains sex, explains baby development and birth, talks about appropriate touching, and does it all with humor and without making it seem at all taboo.
The Great History Search: A kind of Where's Waldo, except that instead of Waldo, you are looking for a pharaoh, a gladiator, a Viking drinking mead, an alpaca in an Incan villiage, a steam engine, a covered wagon, or a harpsichord in very busy two-page spreads about different time periods. Super fun. Unless you hate details which I do. So super fun for Livy.
several back issues of My Big Backyard, a kids magazine from the National Wildlife Federation: Livy is outgrowing this, and then we will have to stop, cause the next magazine up in age is full of environmentalist crap. This one is just focused on facts about animals and games and puzzles about them. We love the pictures!
As usual, I would love to hear about what you are reading and what you are reading with your kids. And, I would like to thank the Johnson Ferry Baptist Church Used Book Sale, where home-schoolers sold their barely used history books for 50 cents each.
