We have begun our home school curriculum read alouds for the year. The kids and I are really enjoying them. As I've stated before, we use the Sonlight curriculum read alouds. We are only doing the read alouds and Ben's and Caleb's readers from Sonlight this year, not the rest of the Sonlight stuff. This year's lists are focused on American history. History was my minor in college and I took a lot of American history.The two books that we've read so far are both Newberry award winners. I think if you just went through and read all of the Newberry award winners to your kids, you'd be doing pretty well. The first book, Secret of the Andes by Anne Nolan Clark was a gem. I love a book where the words are as important as the characters and the plot. Clark paints the landscape of the Andes mountains and the Inca people with beautiful words. The story is one of a young boy who is raised as a llama herder with only his older tutor in a hidden valley. He knows that there is something very special about his life and the golden plugs in his ear lobes. He must discover the path that the Great Inca has laid out for him.
It was interesting how Ben especially picked up on the difference in the religion of the Incas and our faith. When the older man would talk about how the Great Inca had made the sun and how they worshiped it, Ben would shake his head. I didn't take a lot of time to do a comparative study, but it was interesting that the boys were recognizing differences.
I love that all of the books that we've read lately have been so well written. Children's books should only be distinguished from well written adult works by their subjects and maybe some vocabulary. As the boys get older, even these distinctions are disappearing. I would recommend Secret of the Andes to anyone who is interested in a good story of Peru or for anyone interested in simply a good story.
2 comments:
these are great suggestions. justin is required to take one 'advanced reader' test every week this year. needless to say, this is a TON of reading, so we are constantly on the search for new books.
I looked at the sonlight read aloud list...very challenging and fun too! I am especially excited that you'll be reading Paddle to the Sea. It's one of my favorites and will be especially meaningful to your kids since it is about the Great Lakes area and mentions places in both Minnesota and Michigan that they have visited. It's a great geography lesson where you will often refer to the enclosed map. My students always loved it.
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