Thanks, she might really like Dracula- she has some vampires in the story she’s currently writing. I think that gradually she’ll be more comfortable with more difficult concepts and so will I in discussing them with her. I’m encouraged that you have kept read aloud going- I hope she’ll still be up for it for a few more years! I’m open to trying a different Dickens-not right away because we need a change in style, but maybe the year after. Maybe it was the combo of the more challenging language (so often meaning the opposite of what he literally says) and the challenging topics including violence to kids that made it not work well. Thanks for your other suggestions too. I want to raise awareness without inspiring hopelessness.

Yes, she reads other things every day- many books she chooses, and textbooks, and she hears other books I read to her siblings. The one I read to her are often books that are more challenging than she would choose to read on her own, though, and are my deliberate contribution to the homeschooling effort. My partner is the main homeschool parent, while I am off at work most weekdays. Yes, I’m trying to get my head around that! It’s not something that I have a good feel for yet, since she’s my oldest.

Thanks, there are some really good ideas here too! My book philosophy in general is that there are always more fascinating books to read, and it’s not about finishing a list.

It’s certainly not enough books to represent the whole time period. I figure we can finish about 5 books in a year, but we have three more years (maybe?) which will probably also be mostly more recent books. We read together every night, so if we were done all 5 before the end of the year, I’d just pick a new one and keep going. This is a good idea. My first reaction is that I fear the daytime reading would be the thing that didn’t get done, due to our schedule, while the bedtime reading has pretty much happened for the past 10 years and will keep going for a while longer. And it might, but she also might lose interest in read-alouds. With that in mind, I think I do need to broaden things out, both in terms of not being too focused on “happy”, and also to realize that as she gets older, this needs to supplement other work on literature rather than being the work on literature (even if we’re reading Goethe’s Faust or something similarly challenging).

I am interested in this, because my daughter loves writing and writes every day for fun. Thanks, I will look this up! Thanks for this suggestion, as well as the other ones you listed. I do have two elementary age kids too, and my oldest listens to their stories too so she would hear it either way. I like the idea of a biography, and I had thought of I Am Malala as a possibility. Either of the Obama’s’ books is another good idea (I’m also Canadian).

This is a question that I’m thinking about. There aren’t mental health issues at play for my daughter (thanks, @Lori D., for considering this), it’s mainly that we’re reading right before bedtime, and for me, that the times are so dark in general that I don’t want to load on more. For Oliver Twist, there was child abuse, anti-semitism, then more child abuse (which we both read and discussed) then I read ahead to Nancy’s murder, and I couldn’t bring myself to keep going. Dickens’ appropriately named Hard Times is lighter. I’m not trying to avoid all books with difficulties, but I do want to avoid despair.

She really likes fantasy and adventure stories, though probably Pride & Prejudice was the favourite from our last-year list, which is neither. Thanks for all these ideas! Many of them I am not very familiar with so I will look them up. Thanks for your detailed list! I picked mostly classics rather than obscure books from the first time period, but they ended up being entirely British writers (some deliberately female) so I do want to branch out more than this, in particular, people from different ethnicities and regions. Do you have any particular favourites of YA books on current big topics or by non-white writers?

I remember reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and really enjoying it at some point as a teenager. Thanks, these are great suggestions. I’m open to all genres. We have read Peter Pan but none of the others.

I’m coming to the end of my selection of novels from 1700 to around 1850 to read aloud with my 13 year old and so I need to come up with a new plan for next year. My partner has suggested 1850 to present, which is pretty broad, and so I’m trying to come up with around 5 books that are age appropriate and ideally not too dark because we read them right before bed, as well as being well worth reading, and common cultural references. They can be a stretch in terms of writing style because I read them to her. I’m finding this age kind of challenging because we’re moving out of children’s books but many adult books and high school typical books are dark and hopeless, and I’m not sure whether to just go with this anyway if it’s some kind of developmental need or seek out cheerier books. I didn’t personally enjoy or feel like I gained much from the required books from high school English except the Shakespeare plays. Over the last year we read Lorna Doone, Pride and Prejudice, half of Oliver Twist (too depressing), Gulliver’s Travels, and we are nearing the end of Jane Eyre. Do any of you have suggestions for not-to be missed books since 1850, that would work well with a 14 year old? This could include non-fiction too. Do I need to include depressing books with hopeless endings? Thanks so much!

No name or link shows for me, @Ordinary Shoes

I read yesterday that there were plans to get them initially to the city of Zaporizhzhia and from there, to the western part of the country. I don’t know if the same corridor is to be used today.

I learned from experience that tea tree oil can give you bad rashes if you become sensitized to it, so if it seems to be making things worse then it’s best to stop.

Missed you too, hope the trip back goes smoothly!

Yes, we got both of them (10 and 7) vaccinated within the first two weeks it was available. Their second dose isn’t due quite yet but they’ll get that too as soon as it comes up. One kid was a bit off for a day and they both had sore arms, but no serious reactions.

I haven’t been diagnosed with anything, but at times during the night I just have to move my legs. This makes it really hard to sleep because I can’t lay still. During my last pregnancy, the doctor recommended supplemental magnesium for this and I still use it when it flares up, like last night. If I take magnesium regularly, it mostly prevents it, and if it happens, taking one in the middle of the night will often make it ease. I didn’t know restless legs was also associated with iron deficiency, though. Caffeine makes it worse, as does being over-tired.

We’ve been playing Sushi Go Party, Photosynthesis, Calico, Wingspan, and Voyages. I think Sushi Go and Voyages are the kids’ favourites. We didn’t play Everdell over the holidays, but I do really enjoy it. I find it more relaxed than Agricola, and also very whimsical.

Not in UK, but our local transit bus services are being reduced due to staff either ill or isolating. This started within about 2 weeks of initial Omicron spread, and is getting worse going forward.

In you area it probably is almost all Omicron, but in the areas that were getting an upswing of Delta in November then it wouldn’t have been such a high proportion, especially if they didn’t have early Omicron case exposure. Orlando would get way more visitors than many other places. I think the wastewater testing is a really good way to monitor what’s going on.

I’m sorry to hear that! I’m also not sure that ours won’t take a sudden swing up, with kind of a step-wise growth pattern that happened last week. Our numbers for today haven’t been released yet. I sincerely hope that Ontario’s and Quebec’s growth rates will slow.

Our testing capacity is stressed, but appointments are only about 2 days out, if you have symptoms. Asymptomatic PCR tests aren’t available at all. Here, I think the stress to testing doesn’t explain the whole change in the curve since our positive test rate is still only 6% or so (though I’m not sure, and there could be a pattern resulting from the transmission time where it hovers around one rate for a few days, then sharply increases for a few days, since all the cases started from one superspeader event only a few weeks ago- if this is the case, the daily case rate will rise steeply in the next 2-3 days). It’s likely that behaviour changes are also helping to flatten the curve somewhat. Looking at the graphs, though, the curve still looks shockingly vertical, so I suppose it’s really lowering the slope by just a few degrees. Almost every province in Canada now has the characteristic vertical line.

In my part of Canada, the high numbers don’t include rapid test results, only if people then followed up with a PCR test as required and that was positive. That may change next week as our testing prioritization to high risk people takes effect.

In Ontario the rate of rise of new cases appears to have decreased, and it has in NS too, which could be a good thing if it’s true, from people really limiting contacts. A lot of social things got cancelled last week, and even more this week. It’s possible that Public Health actions can control the spread in a meaningful way, and that makes me a bit more hopeful than I was. It could also be resulting from limited testing capacity, though, and that we just can’t see the new cases.

It’s looking like this where I am too. I’m currently quarantining after close contact at work last Friday. I was notified on Monday, booked PCR test immediately, the closest is Thursday, and I’ll get results after Christmas. But as of next week, I wouldn’t be eligible for a PCR test at all, since I am not in health care, or certain higher risk groups. Everyone else will get rapid tests only. They are not being handed out to people anymore but will be saved for testing everyone with symptoms/exposure who is not eligible for PCR. I fully support prioritizing the testing, but I so wish they didn’t have to! That’s how strained our testing capacity is. Public health also announced rising hospitalization and health care & emergency services worker shortages due to illness and quarantine. One good think is that numbers are rising slower, but I wonder if some of that is related to testing capacity? Some of it likely is also related to people responding and reducing contacts, though. People are pretty community-minded here, and try to protect their neighbours.

Yes, we do this every year. We decorate the tree on Christmas Eve, and then we have Christmas stories (a book we always use) every evening at bedtime for the 12 days of Christmas, starting on Christmas Day. My time off is mainly after Christmas. Are your kids into historical stuff so that they could go for a Shakespearean Christmas schedule or something like that? I hope that you and your family have a very cozy and restful 12 days of Christmas!

I’m in the same country, but a completely different part. Local numbers went from around 100 early last week to over 400 by the end of the week, so the same kind of gain, proportionally. I’m very concerned about overwhelm due to numbers.