Reread a Favorite Classic

The last category in Karen's Back to the Classics challenge is to Reread a Favorite Classic.  I had several different thoughts originally about what book I was going to use for this category but I ended up going back to visit Anne.  I discovered the Emily books by L.M. Montgomery this year and loved them so much!  However, they made me nostalgic for Anne.  I've re-read the first two so far and am currently rereading Anne of the Island.  They're just as good as I remembered!  I didn't add this one to GoodReads for some reason but it says I finished Anne of Avonlea October 29th.

A Classic with a Single Word Title

A Classic with a Single Word Title...I grew up LOVING the movie Pollyanna but for some reason I had never read the book.  It did NOT dissapoint me.  I loved the book just as much, if not more, than the movie!  I felt like the book did a better job of portaying how much work it was sometimes for Pollyanna to play the "glad game" and that she was always making a contentious choice to look for the good in every situation.  I finished this one April 14th but I apparently slacked off greatly in getting my posts up for the Back to the Classics challenge. 

A Classic Crime story

This children's book barely squeaked in for the Back to the Classics challenge since it was published in 1959.  It is a mystery story which says it's ok for the Classic Crime catagory so that's where I'm using it.  According to GoodReads I finished this book October 2nd.  It is over 50 years old though and you're allowed to use up to three children's books for the challenge.  I checked this book out through inter-library loan for my daughter because she loves Carol Ryrie Brink's Caddie Woodlawn and Magical Melons so much.  While the story was totally different than those the writing was just as good and the story was so cute and charming.  A winner in my book for sure! 

A Children's Classic

For A Children's Classic for Karen's Back to the Classics challenge, we read The Book of King Arthur by Howard Pyle.  I've read several of his books now and the kids and I all love him and his writing!  King Arthur was no different.  We finished it up September 4th and it was given a resounding 5 stars by all. 

19th Century Classic

I'm using this one for the 19th Century Classic catagory in the 2018 Read the Classics challenge hosted on Karen's blog.  This is also an Ambleside Online year 7, Term 2 poetry book...overall I really loved this. The story about Pelleas was pretty stupid and definitely my least favorite part of the book, but Tennyson’s handling of Arthur confronting Guinevere was soooo good! Lots of insight into the consequences of sin, the outcome, the pain and lack of any gain on all sides, it was very moving. Writing a 300+ page book in verse form is impressive, to write one this well...it’s no wonder Tennyson is still famous, read, and lauded today.

Ambleside Online Year 1 Wrap Up

This is our 2nd year using Ambleside Online and it has been such a blessing to me personally and to our homeschool as well.  This was Zane's first "official" year using AO and my 2nd (and last!  Already?!?!) time going though Year 1.  In Ambleside the year don't necessarily line up with grade but if you start at the beginning they usually do.  So, Zane was 6 for most of the year (he turned 7 at the end of April) but he reads quite fluently for his (at least in my experience).  I feel like we had a great first year and he's ready for year 2! 

I do have one caveat if you're reading this and thinking about starting AO for the first time.  When you read what he did/does remember that he's the youngest of 4.  I feel that makes a big difference in some areas.  He's been listening to books way above his reading/comprehension level since he was born probably.  lol  He did get the shaft when it came to picture books for sure and I feel bad about that but he seems to be surviving.  :p 

We used Memoria Press for our phonics/read for him and once he finished it I just had him read to me every day out of good books at his level (not our AO books).  I didn't make him do most of the writing that MP assigns and we also didn't go over most of the questions, he would just narrate.  I simply chose to use MP because I had it already and didn't want to buy something new.  You really can modify most things to fit your needs. 

So, with MP, and after he finished, he read these books to me (I think there might have been a few others too but I'm blanking right now):
                                                   

He ended up LOVING the Billy Blaze books and has collected all of the re-printed one and read them and he also REALLY loved the Little Bear books.  It was a new story to him and it was sooo cute to listen to him as he discovered the story.  "Mom, who do you think it is??"  "Mom, what do you think is going to happen???"  Also, do you see that Cowboy Andy book?  It's one my mom picked up at a yard sale when my older brother was little.  It's a short chapter book written by Enda Walker Chandler and it's soo good!  Apparently there are multiple Cowboy Sam books (in the above book Andy is a "city boy" that goes to stay at Cowboy Sam's ranch) but it looks like they're rather hard to come by.  *sad face*  I did buy one on Facebook just yesterday so we're excited to get it!

His Billy and Blaze collection.

We didn't add on much "extra" work or busy work to his Ambleside readings.  When we first started reading Burgess' Bird Book I gave him the option of drawing the birds as we read...he did two birds and then stopped.  lol.  Oh well.  Ambleside has one chapter from this book scheduled every other week but I really wanted to read the whole book so we did a chapter every week for most of the year and we'll finish it over the summer.  Most chapters talk about two different birds so we would read about one bird one day and the second bird another day and he always narrated (told back) what we had read after we were done.  

When we first started the school year he was doing AMAZING at narrating and paying attention and seemed very engaged.  I would generally read an entire reading in one sitting and then have him narrate at the end.  As we neared the end of first term (so 12 weeks in) I noticed that he was complaining and whining a lot more about his work and his narrations had gotten significantly worse. 

So when I started planning Term 2 I split up his time with me even more.  We would do poetry and a short reading (Paddle or Aesop usually) and then he'd go do something else.  Later he would come back and we'd do another shorter reading (or even part of a reading) and then he'd do other things and even later he'd come back and read to me and we'd do his copywork together.  This arrangement seemed to help a lot with his attentiveness and the complaining (although don't think we didn't still have problems with them!  lol).

This is his copywork from November around the time I realized he might be picking up some bad habits and I needed to be doing it with him.  CM says they should be doing very little work but doing it "perfectly" so I backed off, started sitting with him while he did it (to ensure proper letter formation), and when he was done he would tell me what he thought he had done best and which letter he thought needed the most work and then he would usually write that letter a few times. 

Below is a passage he did over probably 3 days in April or May.

We took lots of nature walks, watched lots of birds, talked about a lot of fungus, and can even identify a decent amount of plants...but we did NOT do well at actually journaling things.   I'm hopefully that we'll do better this coming year. 

In addition to the Ambleside readings for Y1 we did several books together as a family (but I'll probably talk about those with the children they belonged to) and he also finished Saxon 1 and is a decent way into Saxon 2 (honestly I don't know that I would go with Saxon again but it's what we have and we're sticking with it), he and Grace listened to Song School Latin most days and went over Bible verses that they were memorizing for Bible Drill and AWANA.  In addition to this he did a little Spanish with the family and listened to Spanish books and songs. 

Below is an example of his weekly schedule.  During "rest time" he started out just listening to some of his longer free reads for the year (Peter Pan, Pinocchio, etc), around the middle of the year I started asking him to read 4 or so pages of a book like Billy and Blaze and then he could play quietly and listening to another audio book.  By the end of the year I've been requiring him to read a chapter in a beginner chapter book (he just finished The Bears on Hemlock Mountain and is reading The Matchlock Gun now) and then listen to something while he plays quietly for the rest of the time. 

I'm also going to add the YouTube videos of the passages he memorized this year as I get them up. 

(Side note, I'm doing these year in reviews mostly for my own benefit, to help me think through how the year went with each child, things that I need to do differently, etc.  I also hope maybe they'll be useful as a reference for others using AO.  I don't post them to brag about what we're doing or what we've read or anything like that.  I just like having a personal record that's easy to store and access!  lol)

A Classic Travel or Journey Narrative

This book was such a pleasure to read I almost feel like I'm cheating!  Plus, Zeke, my Year 4 student in AmblesideOnline, had to read it for school and I always pre-read their books.  

The Incredible Journey.  We've all seen the movie.  We all know about Shadow, Chance, and Sassy...but do you know about Tao, Bodger, and Luath?  There were moments in the storyline that just worked out a little too perfectly (you know the moments, things that ONLY could happen in a book) but despite those few moments this book made me cry, cheer, and smile.  It is a quick and easy read and WELL worth your time! 

(And just a note that this is the book I'm using for "A Classic Travel or Journey Narrative in Karen's Back to the Classics Challenge.) 

A Classic with a Color in the Title

I had planned to read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for the Classic with a Color in the Title (and I've started it and will finish it) but I found Agnes Grey on Librivox and ended up listening to it first. 

The recording I listened to was by "various" readers and that fact alone was quite distracting.  The first 7 or 8 chapters were all read by the same reader and then after that there were two or three different readers...one in particular that I had a really hard time listening to. 

Aside from the readers the story was simply ok.  I found it rather boring in parts although overall I was entertained and it had a happy ending.  Overall, only three stars. 

A Classic by an Author that is New to You

     Continuing on with my Back to the Classics challenge!  I read Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy for the "A Classic by an Author that is New to You" category and I thoroughly enjoyed it!   My copy had a lengthy introduction to Thomas Hardy that was quite interesting since I knew nothing about him. 
       Bathsheba Everdeen was a woman through and through.  I feel like some women might be insulted by the way she was portrayed but I just thought it showed a very good understanding on Hardy's part and often made me laugh!  lol
        There was great character growth and development and I'm so excited to discuss it with my book club.  My only complaint is that the ending felt rather abrupt to me. 

20th Century Classic

I finished my 20th Century Classic for the Back to the Classics Challenge today!  (That was a classic written between 1900 and 1968.  Animal Farm was copywritten in 1946)  

This book is assigned in term 2 of Ambleside Online for Year 6 and I had never read it so I was excited to read it along with my 11 year old (we didn't read it together, I just "pre-read" all her books...usually I'm only about a week ahead of her!  lol)

I actually had no idea that it was a social commentary on communism when I started it.  I had no idea what it was about at all.  It is blatantly about communism though.   So far Kessa hasn't made that connection and I'm not sure if she will until we study communism more in-depth.  We covered it very briefly at the beginning of the school year.  For now, that's fine.  She's enjoying it simply as a novel.  I'm interested to hear her final thoughts after she reads the last two chapters though!  

A Classic That Scares You

So, originally Bleak House didn't scare me.  I didn't know much about it honestly but I liked the other books by Dickens I had read and I was able to get the unabridged Audible version for a dollar or two so I downloaded it....and then I saw that it was over 35 hours long!!!!!!  EEK!!!!  Then I was scared!  lol!!! 

If you're like me and you don't know much about Bleak House I'll give you a VERY brief overview.  An illegitimate child grows up with a mysterious benefactor.  She meets this benefactor when she comes of age and she and two other dependents live a very happy life with him for a while.  A "chancery" case of an inheritance and a very bleak overview of the English legal system weave through the entire story and a mysterious murder takes up some time too. 

I was engaged for the entire story and enjoyed it very much!

A Classic in Translation

I finished my first book for the 2018 Back to the Classics Challenge! 

I "bought" The Phantom of the Opera for kindle for $0 and then added the Audible Narration (I think that was $.99)  and I'm so glad I chose to listen to this one because I don't speak French and I would have butchered all the names in my head if I had been reading it instead of listening to it!  lol 

I knew the very very basic gist of the story but I had never read the book, seen the Opera, or watched a movie of this so it was still a surprise to me what happened and how everything happened.  It took me a while to get into it...probably an hour or two.  I wasn't sure I was going to like it but once I got into it I found myself taking a bit longer cleaning up the kitchen or things like that so that I could listen longer!  It was well written and interesting.  It won't be on my Top 10 favorite books or anything but I gave it a solid 5 stars. 

Linked to Karen's Back to the Classics - Classics in Translation post. 

365 Days of Les Miserables

When I was looking through blogs linked to the 2018 Back to the Classics Challenge I stumbled upon a Chapter-a-Day Read Along for Les Mis and decided to participate.  We stopped by Barnes and Noble on January 1st and I bought the only unabridged copy of Les Mis they had and have read a chapter a day since.  I made a schedule in the back of one of my journals so that it's easy to keep track of where I am.  So far I think my biggest problem will be reading only 1 chapter a day.  LOL!  There's still plenty of time if you'd like to jump in too!

2017 Read Alouds

We read a lot.  We read all together, we read alone, I read one on one with each child.  We just read a lot.  I thought it would be fun to go back and see if I could figure out all the books we read together in 2017...so to the best of my memory, here are the books we enjoyed together last year!  (I think we might be missing some but I'm not sure...oh well.  It's a pretty good list either way!)

First up was the 2nd book in The Green Ember series, Ember Falls.  Rabbits with swords, need I say more??  My kids all really enjoyed this but especially my 5 and 7 year olds (now 6 and 8).  In addition to reading this aloud we also have the Audible version and they both listened to it (as well as The Black Star of Kingston and The Green Ember) over and over again throughout the year.  Oh, and there is a short(ish) story out now that goes along with them and book 3 is coming out in March! 

We finished this version of Pilgrim's Progress again...I think this is only the 2nd time we read it but it's possibly the 3rd time.  It's a great version, still rich language but my kids still know what's going on. 

I really really liked Oliver Twist.  I had never read it before (only watched the musical on repeat when I was a kid!  lol) so I decided we'd read it all together and we all enjoyed it.  There is SOOOO SOOO much more to the story than is in the movie.

The Wingfeather Tales - We read and loved four of Andrew Peterson's Wingfeather Saga books and helped support his Kickstarter campaign for the animated video so we were excited to read these short stories, written by other people, about the world Peterson created.  The kids will say they liked it...and I would probably say some of the stories were really good, but overall I probably wouldn't have given it more than 3 stars.  (The story that Andrew Peterson's brother wrote was really really good and now I want to read some of his books too!)

I'm going to count this one even though we listened to The Song of Hiawatha on Librivox rather than me reading it (those Native American words can be intimidating!) Most of the kids said they didn't like it but I LOVED it.  A LOT. 

Did you know that not all the stories from The Jungle Book(s) are about Mowgli?  Or even set in the jungle for that matter???  The stories were actually written in serial form for magazine publication over a series of several year.  2016/2017 was a bit of the year of Kipling for me and I fell in love with him and his writing.  His poetry, his novels, I haven't read any yet that I didn't love.  I'm sad now that I didn't read Kim when Kessa had to read it but I'm looking forward to reading it next year with Zeke.  Oh, and as for the Jungle Book make sure you grab a copy that has The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book and includes all the poems.  We all thoroughly enjoyed these!

Anything by Lois Lenski is sure to be a winner and Strawberry Girl was no different.  She addresses some really profound moral questions, her word pictures are beautiful, and she takes you back to a time all but forgotten.  We all loved it and we'll probably try and read another book or two by her together this year. 

Treasure Island- Another winner!  I had forgotten how many good books we read together last year and I'm really enjoying looking back over them again and reminiscing.  We finished this one in the dark while we were camping at Rend Lake over the summer.  I still overhear the kids squawking, "Pieces of eight!  Pieces of eight!" while they're playing sometimes. 

Five Little Peppers and How They Grew - ALL of my children LOVED this book.  It's such a sweet story of 5 children making the best of their hard life (although they certainly don't think they're too hard off) and how they love each other and "mamsie dear" with all that they are.  The one I linked is a kindle version with all 12 books.  We started reading the 2nd one together but I had other things I wanted to read to them so I passed it off and they all listened to the rest of it and I'm thinking at least several of them are going to read or listen to the rest of the series as well.  

After reading The Wingfeather Tales the kids wanted to read the Wingfeather Saga again.  Grace and Zane were so little when we read them the first time they don't remember them well.  Just as good the 2nd time around!  We love On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness! 

Kessa and Zeke and I read Richard III in the fall...it's...dark.  Kessa and I both liked it better than Henry V but it's certainly still not a favorite...I will have to say that I did enjoy it to some extent though...I didn't walk away hating it...or even necessarily indifferent...it was...good but not great.  

Read with Zeke -

Children of the New Forest by Freddrick Marryat is a captivating story about some orphans during the English Civil war and it's chalk full of fabulous history.  The chapters are rather long to read in one sitting but Zeke and I both really enjoyed this book. 

American Tall Tales - The 2016/2017 school year was the first time we dipped our toes into the Ambleside Online waters (we love it!) so I read almost all of my 8/9 year old son's books to him to be sure he was comprehending well.  He REALLY liked this one.  Most of them are fairly well-known tall tales but there were a few I wasn't familiar with as well. 

The Landing of the Pilgrims - I enjoyed this well written living book more than Zeke did I'm pretty sure.  lol.  The language can be quite challenging to child not used to it although he usually gave me pretty solid narrations even when he said he didn't know what was going on. 

I had never read Robinson Crusoe before but I'm pretty sure I'll read it with my next two children too because I liked it that much.  Zeke liked the adventure and humor but this book is chalk full of spiritual truth as well.  It's SOOO SOOO good and possibly my favorite book that I read all year.  

Read with Kessa -

Wild Animals I Have Known is a collection of (according to the author's note to the reader) true stories about the characters and personalities of different animals.  Kessa and I both LOVED this book.  I think she may have said it was one of her very favorite books from 2017.  Just be forewarned...there are not a lot of happy endings. 

Henry V was our final Shakespeare play that we read for the 2016/2017 school year (this year Zeke is joining us for Shakespeare!  Yay!  lol) and neither Kessa nor I were very enamored with it.  It had it's moments but overall...meh. 


Books read with Grace

Understood Betsy is an endearing tale of a little orphan raised by aunts.  While it's a "children's book" I think it could easily be argued that it is a parenting book through and through.  I very much enjoyed it and learned a lot. Grace proclaimed loudly throughout the entire thing that she hated it...but by the end she was asking me to read just a little further (so that we wouldn't have to read as much later of course, not because she liked it... lol)