Reading List 2009

I have so many reading lists: Sonlight, Veritas Press, Ambleside,... among others. I don't want the boys to miss out on all the good books. So I have all these lists strewn about my desk and somewhere in my mind. But sometimes, too much of a good thing leads to nothing, which has been the case in our household (well, we have a toddler as well, and reading out loud is.... well, you know what I mean). So, instead of trying to go through one list at a time, or trying to compile my own complete list, I've decided to pick books from here and there that would interest B (or whatever we have on hand). And I'm going to attempt to list them here for future reference. So, here goes. I will add to the list as we read through the books.

2009 Reading List (B - 2nd grade)


Read-A-Louds (Read-a-louds for both B and S)

Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie (current)



Assigned Reading

The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Ben and Me
Wind in the Willows


Free Reading (He reads so much, but I'm going to list here only the ones that I want him to read, the ones that I put in his basket.)

Secret Agents Four
Balto and The Great Race
Third Grade Detectives #2 (The Puzzle of the Pretty Pink Hankerchief)
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Baby Island
The Trumpet of the Swan
Owls in the Family
Barry the Bravest Saint Bernard
Tall Tails: Wingin' It with the Wright Brothers
The Big Balloon Race
Dolphin Adventure, A True Story
Capyboppy
Stuart Little

The Year of Miss Agnes

What a great little book. I started this as a read-a-loud but just finished it myself. I think it should be a must read for every homeschool mom! Miss Agnes is inspiring. I think Charlotte Mason would be proud of Miss Agnes. Through Miss Agnes, the children "woke up to see the world around [them], and way beyond them" (p111). And the love of learning burned strongly in them. Miss Agnes played opera and read Robin Hood to them. She made a wall timeline and would pretend play, going back in time through a time machine to test them. Miss Agnes did not use written tests. She also did not like the "Dick and Jane" readers, so she made little books for each child, about the child. She encouraged the love of learning, and encouraged each child in his or her gifting/passion, whether it be sign language, science, music or printing, airplanes, making people feel happy, to running the house and dancing. She affirmed each child and made them feel good about themselves and each other.

It starts off a little slowly and uses "stupid" a couple times, and the use of poor grammar from the kids gets a little irritating sometimes, but the book gives an intimate look into the village life on the Alaskan frontier. Miss Agnes is absolutely inspirational in her one room schoolhouse. And the book is also full of practical teaching ideas and tips. What a great little book!

Geography

For our FIAR class, we've been using some books in class or at home that we've been enjoying as we travel to different cities and countries












We learned about the Eiffel Tower and the Great Wall of China.


And a new series that I discovered is great. They're books by Miroslav Sasek.










We'll be using this one when we row Papa Piccolo. Other ones in the series include This is Paris, This is London, This is Israel, among others.

And The Usborne Internet-Linked Introduction to Asia has beautiful pictures that give you a good feel for what the countries are like.













Here's another interesting one. It's called Anno's Spain. It's a wordless picture book, with two page spreads, covering different historical periods, different regions, etc.... It's quite beautiful and interesting. If you look carefully, there's a lot of interesting details. We'll have to check this one out again to take a closer look.