I also want to make sure that all my selections don't linger around the knights and castles theme, as much as that is my favorite. :D

Thanks! This helps because I am not familiar with many of these books. I am definitely looking for books to read and study allowing 2-3 weeks per book (therefore not the ones that are little one or two day reads). The kids will be in 3rd and 4th grades but since I'll be reading aloud to them, harder books are fine. So far I'm planning on The Door in the Wall and The Whipping Boy for sure (I think) but I'd like to have a good ten or twelve total.

My DD seems to have a knack for language and reading so I've definitely got plans for her. :D She's going to start Latin next year (4th grade). She'll do that for two years before adding Spanish. She'll do Latin for 5 years and when she's finished with that (and still working on 5 years of Spanish), she'll add a third language of her choice. My goal is to five years of Latin, five years of Spanish, and four years of something else, working on two at a time. Now I don't know if I'll be this ambitious with DS as words are NOT his favorite thing. He's more my mathy/science guy but we'll see...

I did. That's where about a third of my list came from. But I need to narrow it down. Which ones do you like?

Sorry, I mean novels, mostly. No picture books. I'd like to have a book to coincide with the different time periods of our history study if possible. At the risk of a huge post, here is the list I have compiled that I'm trying to whittle down. Favorite Medieval Tales, by Mary Pope Osborne His Majesty’s Elephant, by Judith Tarr (about Charlemagne’s daughter) Tales of the Kitchen Table, by Jon Scieszka The Sailor Who Captured the Sea: A Story of the Book of Kells, by Deborah Nourse Lattimore Aladdin and Other Tales From the Arabian Nights (Puffin Classics)- Amazon Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves by Walter (One of the tales from A Thousand and One Arabian Nights) Odin’s Family: Myths of the Vikings by Neil Philip Ivanhoe by Marianne Mayer Pendragon series Stories of Robin Hood (Told to the Children)- Amazon Sir Gewain and the Green Knight by Tolkein If You Lived in the Days of the Knights by Ann McGovern Stories of Beuwulf (Told to the Children)- Amazon Tales of King Arthur (Usborne Classics Retold)- Amazon The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli- Amazon The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman- Amazon Viking Tales (Yesterday’s Classics)- Amazon A Grain of Rice - Pittman SLC (Ancient China) The Apple and the Arrow - Buff SLC (Wiliam Tell) The Usborne Time Traveler (Medieval & Viking sections) SL1 The Viking Adventure - Bulla SL2 Eric the Red & Leif the Lucky - Schiller SL2 (Vikings) Marco Polo - Graves SL3-5 (middle ages) A Door in the Wall - De Angelli SL2 (Plague) The Sword in the Tree - Bulla SL2 (Middle Ages - King Arthur) The Minstrel in the Tower - Skurzinsky SL1 (Middle Ages) Castle Diary - Platt SL2 Michaelangelo - Stanley SL2 Good Queen Bess - Stanley SL2 The Explorer's News - Johnstone SL2 Tales of Robin Hood - Allan SL2 Incas, Aztecs & Mayans - Holzmann SL3 The Secret of the Andes - Clark SL3 (Incas) The Corn Grows Ripe - Rhoads SL3 (Mayas) Walk the World's Rim - Baker SL3 (16th cent Cabeza de Vaca) North American Indians - Gorsline SL3 Pedro's Journal - Conrad SL3 (Columbus) The Story of the USA Book 1: Explorers and Settlers - Escher SL3 Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest - McGovern SL1 Fine Print: A Story About Johann Gutenberg - Burch SL2 Joan of Arc - Stanley SL2 Mistrel in the Tower Beorn the Proud Minstrel in the Tower Marguerite Makes a Book St George and the Dragon The Sword in the Tree Sir Small and the Dragonfly Knights by Daly Leif the Lucky Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess by Richard Platt Hidden Treasure of Glaston Favorite Celtic Fairytales

Okay, so we're doing Middle Ages for history next year (400 AD - 1500 AD, 3rd/4th grades) and I want to coordinate our literature read alouds to go along with it. I have a list of DOZENS of books! There is no way I can read all of them and I have no idea how to narrow it down. So, I need the help of the Hive Mind. Will ya'll please give me your top ten must-reads for medieval history-based literature? :bigear: Thank you!!!!

Wow! Thank you so much for all the great information! You just cemented my decision to use Kolbe for my DD. :D

I was able to buy single test books through Rainbow Resources. Hang on and I'll look it up for you... Okay, here it is: http://www.rainbowresource.com/searchspring.php?sid=1302705777-279457&q=voyages+in+english+assessment#/?resultLayout=list If that doesn't bring up my search results, just search Voyages in English assessment and it will come up.

DD9 is using Wordly Wise 3000 right now. For next year we're going to continue using that but also alternate with VfCR.

My DD will be starting Latin next year, too. She checked out a few sample videos and chose Visual Latin. She said the teacher was funny. Not sure that's a great criteria but it definitely has her excited about doing latin. And I like how their program is built- 3 videos per lesson with a printable worksheet to go along with each. I think there are currently 60 lessons so we'll get about two years out of it.

I looked at samples of these online and thought they looked great. My problem is that they only have three or four books for each grade level and not necessarily the books I want DD to read. I also wanted her to read books at a little bit higher grade level (say 6th grade) but I don't think she's ready for assignments at the higher grade level. I think I'm going to like Kolbe better because of the wide variety of books and the range of grade levels available.

I bought the student book, the practice book, and the answer key. I also bought one of the assessment books (not the pack of 25). DD is using the 3rd grade stuff right now and I'm not having any problems not having the TM.

We love TT in this house. My "mathy" 2nd grader is almost finished with TT3. My 3rd grader wants to do it for next year. As to the too easy question, I don't really think it is. DS is obviously working ahead of grade level so I thought maybe DD would need to move ahead, too. She's been working through a Harcourt 3rd grade textbook for her math this year, pretty standard, grade-level stuff. But, I gave her the TT5 placement test and she couldn't do it (she hadn't gotten to a lot of the things on the test). So, she's going to do TT4 along with her brother next year. And the beautiful thing is that I only have to buy one set of discs! Yay! I just saved $99! :D

Me, too, on Kolbe. I'm thinking about using that for DD next year. I'd love to hear from some who have used it.

We are almost done with AAS1 and it's going pretty well. My son is definitely doing better with listening to the sounds of the letters when he's spelling. That said, I don't think the rules are sinking in. He can recite them with me and applies them while we're doing the lesson but he doesn't seem to think of them even by the end when we're doing the "test." I also really don't like how teacher-intensive it is. His eyes start to glaze over sitting and listening to me already and he's only 8! :tongue_smilie: I think for next year we're going to switch to R&S Spelling instead. I want him to see the words as he's working with them and learning to spell them.

Thanks for all the replies! Here's what I think I've decided on: Voyages in English (grammar and writing) R&S Spelling with Sound and Structure (spelling) ETC (phonics) Content Reading workbooks (reading comprehension) Daily read alouds with weekly assignments (literature) Daily independent reading (reading) I know this is heavy on the language arts portion of the show but that's his weak area so I really feel the need to hit it hard.

DD is going to start using Visual Latin next fall.

I thought about dropping ETC in favor of AAS but he really likes ETC. I looked at the next books that he'd be doing next fall (5 and 6) and they do include the rules, which I really like. I think I can use those with an AAS-style lesson at the beginning to make sure he understands the concept and then let him work on his own to do the exercises in the book. I'll use RS separately for spelling. I like the idea of having him do some type of activity for his independent reading books. Maybe I can change up writing with drawing or an art project, depending on the book. I am currently having him read aloud to me but I'd like to start scaling back on that as he really doesn't like it. I could just have him read me random pages a couple of times per week, though, just to stay on top of his fluency and pronunciations. You guys are giving me some great ideas! Thank you!

Thanks for the information, guys! The reading comprehension workbooks serve a dual purpose for me. The first, obviously, is to make sure DC are understanding what they read. But secondly, I chose workbooks with science, SS, and geography topics as an additional "layer" to make sure I'm covering everything thoroughly. Two birds with one workbook, as it were. :D I am also doing Voyages in English with him next year as well as RS Spelling. So, maybe between everything we'll be covering enough. DD (she'll be in 4th) is an advanced reader so she is going to start more analysis-style literature. I think I'm going to use Kolbe Academy's Elementary Literature Curriculum for her, but DS is definitely not ready for that. I do really like some of K12's stuff but it is sooooo expensive!

We do weekly assignments based on the read alouds but that's about it for DS. The other reading he does for school is just to get him to read. We don't do anything else with it. I'm really not sure he's ready for that much writing and response. That's why I'm using the comprehension workbooks. It's a way to make sure that he is understanding what he's reading in small doses without overwhelming him. I don't want to short-change him, certainly, but I don't want to make him hate reading because of all the "work" that goes with it, KWIM?

I forgot to mention that I will be reading aloud to the kids each morning, too. That is part of our "literature" study. We'll also reinstate our reading for 30 minutes before bedtime. This is either school reading (if it didn't get done during the day) or just reading for fun.

How do you "teach" reading in 3rd grade? We are going to continue with ETC and he will have a book to read from each day. He will also do a variety of reading comprehension workbooks (topics in science, social studies and geography but comprehension is the primary focus). Is this enough? If not, what would you add?

My 2nd grade DS is using TT now and we like it so much that I'm ordering it for my 3rd grade DD. It usually takes DS maybe 20-30 minutes per lesson (depending on how much playing around he does :rolleyes:). It will probably take longer next year as I will require them both to work the problems by hand in the workbook prior to entering their answers in the computer. But, I absolutely love that he can do all his work by himself, with only needing the occasional help from me on particular problems. And as he gets stronger in his reading, anything he doesn't understand from the computer lecture, he'll be able to read through in the workbook to reinforce. My DD is somewhat the opposite of my son. She reads very, very well, but tends to "skip over" most of the explanations in her math book and just move on to the problems. By doing TT, she'll have to listen to the lecture before doing the work.

That's why I'm reluctant to give up AAS. It is definitely helping him. I just won't be able to sit and do spelling with him everyday. But he is a struggling speller so I want him working on something everyday. I think I will go with the combo plan and just use both. I just wanted to make sure this wasn't going to be overkill. Thanks, guys!

Anybody? :bigear: