The Boys' Book Picks

We've had such a wonderful time this year reading some amazing books!  I asked the boys to give me their top five.  As we sat in the schoolroom and started pulling out books, that list quickly turned into a top ten each list and a list of books they like "together."  So cute.  Some of these have been favorites for a long time and some are new favorites this year.

Isaiah's Picks:

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas
Psalm 23 by Richard Jesse Watson
The Magic Tree House Books by Mary Pope Osborne
Boy of the Pyramids by Ruth Fosdick Jones
The Mystery at Pelican Cove by Milly Howard
Treasure at Pelican Cove by Milly Howard
The Prince's Poison Cup by R.C. Sproul
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss


Elijah's Picks:

Little Toot by Hardie Gramatky
If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff
The Adventures of Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
Bread and Jam for Francis by Russell Hoban
The Otis Series by Loren Long
Mousteronaut by Mark Kelly
Mousteronaut Goes to Mars by Mark Kelly
The Whispering Rabbit by Margaret Wise Brown
The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper
Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel


The boys "together" picks:

Mouse Soup by Arnold Lobel
The Little Bear Treasury by Else Holmelund Minarik
Corduroy by Don Freeman
The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
The True Story of Noah's Ark by Tom Dooley
The Little House Series {we're on our 6th book and we can't get enough!}
Jotham's Journey by Arnold Ytreeide {So excited to read the rest in this series.  Just got Amon's Adventure to read leading up to Easter...YAY!}

Until next time, friends :)

Blessings!

The First Four Months...

Let's start with a picture of the boys :)  This was taken during our family pics and I giggle every time I look at it.  I love their silliness.

{JW Baugh Photography}

Ok, on to school stuff!  I'm so happy with how the first four months of school have gone.  The boys have responded so well to the Charlotte Mason way of learning. It's been AMAZING seeing how much their minds soak up and remember. Elijah {our kindergartner} has done so well!  Most of the time I'll give him the option of drawing/coloring or playing with his pattern blocks while I read--and someday's he's good with just sitting or laying by me with his favorite blanket and pillow :)  Our read aloud time is one of our favorite parts of the school day.  We're reading through The Little House series right now--we're on book #4...LOVE THEM!

A few other books we're reading aloud right now:

{Science - The Burgess Animal Book for Children}

{History - Boy of the Pyramids}

{Bible - Herein is Love:  Exodus Commentary for Children}

Math-U-See Beta has been great for Isaiah!  One worksheet a day {tests on Friday's} and we're moving right along.  He likes to watch the DVD everyday {you're only supposed to watch it when you start a new lesson.} It's only a few minutes long and it's a refresher each day, so I'm all for it!

                                      

Since we're almost to multiplication, we've started listening to the Math-U-See Skip Counting Songbook CD. The songs are cute, catchy and Bible based.  We incorporate it into the end of our lesson. Just an extra five minutes or so...

Elijah is doing great too!  We're continuing through number recognition and are working our way up to 100! We're starting to add a little bit and getting lots of practice writing our numbers.  We're also moving right along in our reading, writing and phonics curriculum {Abeka.}  He's reading well and I'm so excited about his progress...so proud of my little guy!

{On this day he was dressed as a Pilgrim :)}

{Elijah practicing handwriting & Isaiah coloring and labeling his map of Africa}

We said goodbye to Alfred, Lord Tennyson a few weeks ago and have since started learning about and reading poems by Robert Louis Stevenson.  Love this little book.

We finished our copybook readers that I had ordered from Simply Charlotte Mason around Thanksgiving so I started printing free resources from www.freehomeschooldeals.com.  LOVE this resource!  I had no idea how many free resources were available to us.  Here were the two resources I used for Isaiah during November and December.

{November Copywork ~ http://homeschoolencouragement.com/}

{December Copywork ~ http://www.freehomeschooldeals.com/}

We got a new student in our schoolroom over Christmas break...YAY!  Meet Rusty, the Shetland Sheepdog :)  Rusty likes to hang out with us in the schoolroom during school...so sweet!

I can't believe we're already halfway through the school year, friends!  Looking forward to the next few months and everything me and the boys will be learning together :)

Blessings!