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!

Two more finished: 4. Bambi by Felix Salten - I think perhaps I picked the wrong read-aloud for Jan./ Feb. I can see the value of reading it, but I did not enjoy it, especially the gruesome hunting/death scenes (one in particular I edited a bit). It will be good to compare and contrast it with The Call of the Wild which I am reading to discuss with dd (it's pretty brutal, too, ugh). 5. The Living Page: Keeping Notebooks with Charlotte Mason by Laurie Bestvater - A lovely, inspiring book and one I think I will be referring to for years to come. I'm currently reading Eight Cousins to dd, so that will count for the number challenge. :)

Does 400 pages of Thomas the Tank Engine: The Complete Collection count? ;) Oh well, hopefully I'll finish another book by the end of the week.

Oh, no! But with all the talk here about the latest one I want to keep going with the series to find out what happens.

Ok, I'm going to swallow my pride, tiptoe in here and post my paltry list for the year so far - all audiobooks and one started in December. I've just been too tired, distracted and discouraged to do much reading lately. :( 1. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley - I was so-so about the first Flavia book, but decided to try the next one and ended up enjoying it more. Guess maybe Flavia is growing on me. :) I've now started the third one. 2. One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters - I enjoyed the first Brother Cadfael mystery last year and really liked this one. Great characters, romance, surprise twists, and lovely writing. 3. A Few Quick Ones by P.G. Wodehouse - Ok, but not the best Wodehouse book I've listened to so far. Some of the stories seemed a bit déjà vu. I was going to join the Inferno read-along, but after some of Dh's comments (he's currently listening to it), I think I might get more out of it if I read/listen to The Odyssey and The Aeneid first (which I hope to do later this year). I have just started a 13th century read, but won't post more about it now in case I give up on it. :P

I wasn't going to do the centuries challenge, but I enjoyed the first Brother Cadfael book last year, and the second one looks intriguing (and I have an Audible credit waiting...). I was thinking of joining in on the Inferno read-long - could that count for the 14th century, too? Do we have to cover the centuries in order? Ack, I'm trying to read too many books at once again (and just requested another from the library). I need to actually finish something!

Yes, I feel this way. I haven't watched the first Hobbit movie because it was a childhood favorite and I don't want all the movie images to spoil the ones in my head. :) And it sounds like they added a silly love interest for one of the dwarves (among other things) to the second one. I'm afraid they'll change Unbroken, too. And even though it was amazing, it was very intense, and I don't think I could handle it as a movie. I'm in a bit of a reading slump and haven't finished anything yet this year. I did get my online book club reading done (the intro to Desiring the Kingdom), but am having trouble getting into anything else. :( Hopefully we'll get into a good routine soon, I'll figure out my history plan for the year, and find a book that holds my attention.

I finally finished The Day I Became an Autodidact by Kendall Hailey last night (enjoyed it), so that makes 63 books for 2013.

Switching my 2013 book list to a new post: The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis (audiobook) (5 stars) Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer (3 stars) Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey by Fiona, Countess of Carnarvon (4 stars) The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne (audiobook) (4 stars) Adam and His Kin by Ruth Beechick (4 stars) A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (5 stars) The Duggars: 20 and Counting by Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar (4 stars) Evening in the Palace of Reason by James R. Gaines (5 stars) Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer (audiobook) (2 stars) Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John (5 stars) The Consequences of Ideas by R.C. Sproul (5 stars) Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (audiobook) (5 stars) Very Good, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (audiobook) (4 stars) The White Horse King by Benjamin R. Merkle (4 stars) A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters (audiobook) (4 stars) Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe by Sara Mae and Sally Clarkson (4 stars) How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill (4 stars) Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (5 stars) Unnatural Death by Dorothy Sayers (audiobook) (4 stars) Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick (5 stars) The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield (5 stars) The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (4 stars) Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (4 stars) Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg (4 stars) The Tempest by William Shakespeare (4 stars) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (audiobook) (4 stars) A Landscape with Dragons by Michael D. O'Brien (4 stars) For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay (5 stars) The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (audiobook)(3 stars) Raising Real Men: Surviving Teaching and Appreciating Boys by Hal and Melanie Young (5 stars) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (4 stars) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (audiobook) (4 stars) The King's Speech by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi (audiobook) (4 stars) The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gail Tszemach Lemmon (4 stars) How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig (5 stars) Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (4 stars) Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly (3 stars) Building Her House by Nancy Wilson (5 stars) The Code of the Woosters: Jeeves to the Rescue by P.G. Wodehouse (audiobook) (4 stars) The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer (5 stars) A Room with a View by E.M. Forster (4 stars) The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (audiobook) (4 stars) The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (audiobook) (3 stars) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (4 stars) Sun Horse, Moon Horse by Rosemary Sutcliff (5 stars) Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches by Rachel Jankovic (5 stars) Leisure the Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper (5 stars) Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry (4 stars) Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (audiobook) (4 stars) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (3 stars) A Glorious Age in Africa by Daniel Chu and Eliott Skinner (4 stars) The Iliad by Homer (audiobook) (5 stars) Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (4 stars) The Liberal Arts Tradition by Kevin Clark and Ravi Jain (5 stars) The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (audiobook) (4 stars) The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois (4 stars) Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (4 stars) Holy is the Day by Carolyn Weber (4 stars) Star of Light by Patricia St. John (4 stars) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (4 stars) The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer (3 stars) The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens (audiobook) (5 stars) We are studying ancient history this coming year, and I am hoping to read a few of the classics (The Odyssey, The Republic. The Aeneid) as well as read SWB's The History of the Ancient World and a few other history books.

Yours is the second mention of this book I've seen in the last few months, and it looks very interesting. :) Thanks for posting this! I've been wanting to read more about Africa, and this may be just the ticket. Sadly, neither of these books is at my library, but I found used copies on Amazon. And my to-read list grows longer... :D