Alice's Adventures in Wonderland narrated by Jim Dale! It's almost 3 hours long, but he does such a fantastic job with the different voices that it would probably hold their attention. I also second the Paddington audio books.

:grouphug: to you, Julia.

I hesitate to post - I have nowhere near the education or experience that you do - but I must respectfully disagree with the bolded. If I thought that my kids' education ultimately depended on me, I would give up in despair and send them to public school. In fact, I have come close to despair quite often recently. But I believe, along with Charlotte Mason, that God the Holy Spirit is the Supreme Educator of my children. That does not absolve me of responsibility. I still want and need to be that "guide, philosopher and friend" in my siggie quote, and in order to do that I must educate myself and prepare to discuss the books my kids are reading, especially as they get older. But I cannot do it all, and I must trust God to "fill in the gaps" as a previous poster stated. My mom homeschooled my sisters and I. Sometimes as we got older, and people heard of our accomplishments, they would say to my mom, "You must be so proud of your children!" But my mom was keenly aware of her shortcomings as a teacher (and she went to teacher's college!), and would respond that she was grateful to God for giving her children the abilities and opportunities that she could not.

Thanks! Dd is excited to do this!

When I read it, I started it as an audiobook, but ended up borrowing a copy from the library to finish it - couldn't take the narrator anymore. Thanks :) I will confess that this was my second try and that I often had to read a paragraph or passage multiple times in order to begin to understand what he was saying! But it was VERY much worth it, and I highly recommend it! Part of the motivation for me to get through it this time was that my dd will be in 7th grade in the fall (yikes!). Both his proposed curriculum and Ambleside Online's House of Education (based on his ideas) start in 7th grade.

I'm glad you mentioned this, as I am planning to read Animal Farm to my dd soon. I read Marrin's bio of Hitler and his book about D Day a couple of years ago, and thought they were quite well written and informative (enjoyed wouldn't be the right word here!). Unfortunately the Stalin bio isn't at our library or ILL, so I'll have to buy a copy. I finished two books in the past few weeks: Norms and Nobility by David Hicks, and The Call of the Wild by Jack London. Not getting a whole lot of reading done lately. :(

Just wanted to say that I too liked Jenny Rallen's video, but felt discouraged thinking that my kids couldn't do the discussions and plays like those kids. But you all are helping me see what can be done. Thank you!

Floridamom, I hope your son's surgery and recovery go well.

I finished reading The Confession of St. Patrick today. No snakes or floating altar stones, just a humble man motivated by love and gratitude to God. The Confession itself isn't very long, but my edition had a long intro and lots of footnotes, which I found helpful. I also finished two other books in the past couple of weeks: A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley (audiobook), and Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott (read-aloud). Both ok books, but as my mom would say, nothing to write home about. Dh loves the book and movie. I started listening to the audiobook, and so far I would concur with your description of Mattie. :D Yeah, I tried to read it a few years ago to dd. We got to the part where he puts out the fire in Lilliput, and I was, um, a bit surprised. Decided to put it off...

The Irish stew is simmering, Pandora is set at Irish traditional radio, and I'll whip up some soda bread in a bit. :) This morning, we enjoyed reading Tomie dePaola's Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland during Circle Time. Darby O'Gill and the Little People looks fun. I watched a bunch of those old Disney movies as a kid (Kidnapped, Swiss Family Robinson, etc.), but don't remember that one.

Not too get too far ahead, but he is addressing the problem of egocentrism in classical ed. at least somewhat in the chapter I'm currently reading, The Promise of Christian Paideia. N & N sure is a challenging read, but I'm glad I finally took the plunge. :)

I read it a few weeks ago, and loved it! It's definitely not too late for you and your teens. One of the things she said was that the Book of Centuries, the Commonplace Book and the Nature Notebook were meant to be "life-long companions" (or something to that effect). :)

I think a new thread with Norms and Nobility in the title would make it easier to find and others might see it and join in, but I'll go with what everyone else decides. :) I may not post much, but I'll definitely be following along! Reading others thoughts helps me clarify my own.

I read this last year and loved it, too! I finished a book today: The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by Elizabeth Payne. It was very well-written and reminded me why I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was a girl. :) I don't know which was more interesting - the stories of the Pharaohs or the stories of how archaeologists found various artifacts and clues to Egypt's past. It's meant for older kids (my dd is reading it as well), but I think anyone interested in ancient Egypt would enjoy it.

Yay! Thank you!