Jump to content

Menu

Just Three Literature Books a Year. What would you pick?


Hunter

Recommended Posts

Pen, ...

 

Everyone here has very different world views and different educational and different mental health goals, making each list unique. One of the biggest differences I've noticed is that my list is closer to PS and Waldorf, than the TWTM 4 year history sequence.

 

...

 

Grade 3 in Waldorf is heavy on the Old Testament and farming. The OT gets done every year with me, so I wanted to really focus on farming in grade 3. I needed Charlotte's Web for that year.

 

...

 

I also remember reading about primary school students playing "Gallic War" in Latin outside a one room school house and being happy to go inside to translate more, to glean bits to add to their play for tomorrow.

 

We cannot choke a child with too much too soon. And with all the educational philosophies we will always be "behind" in one, while focusing on the priorities of another. I am so thankful for the bits I have gleaned from, and continue to glean from Waldorf, but it is not my primary educational influence. Shakespeare just is not as important to ME as living toys, talking animals, warm and cozy homes, certain play props, castles and a few exotic locales. Shakespeare in the 3rd grade is a step up from fairy tale play, adding a new delicious twist, and a relief from the more rustic farmyard and the deserted island of the other 3rd grade books.

 

...

 

 

Yes, I think your thread and your list both very interesting, and am glad you started the discussion. As you may, or not, know from past posts of mine, my son has been in both bricks and mortar Waldorf and PS as well as home school.

 

And yes, it is true that farm and OT are also themes in 3rd, as Norse myths are for 4th, and fairy tales are in K and 1st. Etc.

 

 

Just for others reading it though, and seeing, for example the references to what Waldorf does, I thought some other things maybe should be clarified. Children in traditional Waldorf do not read for themselves at all in the young years, nor even are they read to (in the pure form--the reality at home tends to be different)...so, for example, Aesop and Grimms would be for the parent/teacher to learn stories by heart, and then tell them to the children, orally (no looking at the book, no looking at the pictures), then in the next days after that, the stories are used for art, for retelling by the children, for acting out or puppet shows etc.

 

I found that outside of Waldorf, my son and his best friend (PS and HS, no Waldorf) would act out and play from things they had read or been read to themm. The two favorites for this purpose were: 1st grade-2nd grade Little House stories (my son as Almanzo, a girl neighbor as Laura, etc.), and drawing/art was also Little House based, 2nd grade summer: Macbeth (seen in a local production, and then read in the original--mainly the children took turns being Macbeth and Macduff and or Banquo, and had "sword" fights)... etc., ...anyway the point is that children will do the playing based on what they read/is read to them if it is engaging and if they have other children who share the same book experience. In any case, the spontaneous play based on such books has seemed more valuable to me than the required version I saw in the bricks and mortar school, and it has led to better rabbit trails of interest--such as say, from the Little House books into farming (but we live in farm area, so for us that is an all years thing, naturally present and available).

 

I guess since it is still not clear if, for you--as distinct from what each reader may glean-- these are to be gift books for grandchildren gotten year by year, or a home collection, or what exactly, it remains somewhat hard for me to understand how you would make this presentation of books at certain years work.

 

In other words, for example, will you be presenting a lovely edition of Charlotte's Web in grade 3 to children who have never had that before and will be utterly delighted, or to children who will be saying politely, I hope, thank you, while inwardly groaning because they already read that (or had it read to them) a gazillion times when they were in first grade? Or will you tell your children not to allow your grandchildren access to Charlotte's Web until you are ready to present it in 3rd grade? Or are these not intended to be for grandchildren, but rather for children you tutor? ?????

 

It also, of course, depends a lot on the individual children...are they children who gobble up books and stories, or ones who are reluctant and prefer other things, for example. The first type would be more likely to have already found something like Charlotte's Web before 3rd grade, the latter more likely not to have.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a great thread! My first three thoughts were David Copperfield, the Little House series, and The Grapes of Wrath (notice a theme here?). But there are so many, many more books I want to add to the list. I have a decent balance at a wonderful used book store here in town and I think I'll easily be able to deplete the entire balance with many of the suggestions here. Now I just have to find the time to spend an afternoon there perusing the shelves (the place is like a huge maze packed floor to ceiling with books).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wanted books about living toys, and warm loving homes, and far away places. Many of my students know nothing of these things. My children and I didn't get enough of it, but things can be different for the grand babies.

 

Well, in that case...

 

It sounds like what I want for my daughter. My original list was a lot of "should" read, though a number of them were well-loved. The best loved books of my childhood and Ariel's (so far) are some of these:

 

Clamshell Boy (Native American, from one of the tribes in the Pacific Northwest), I swear I had to read this book twice a day for awhile, just a few months ago.

Big Susan - toys that come to life for Christmas, a very happy story. It's a shortish chapter book, and we just bought it in December, but I had to read it aloud 3 times before Christmas. Ariel still goes back to read it.

Raggedy Ann (we read the original version, and it did not inspire either me or my daughter to become racist. :tongue_smilie:) and Raggedy Ann in Cookie Land. Cookie Land was one of my very favorite books as a child. Recently I went out and bought a copy of the original 1931 printing because the book I had as a child was lost. When we get through some of the current books, I may read it to Ariel to share the joy.

King Midas and the Golden Touch struck a chord with me and has stuck with me my entire life. I even chose my Latin name in school (and my board name here) loosely based on that story. The one illustrated by KY Craft is beautiful.

The Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales had a bigger impact on me than Grimm or Perrault (they still had a big influence, and I grew up collecting fairy tales and myths because I loved them so much), my favorite story of all time is The Steadfast Tin Soldier.

Even though it didn't make my list, I think no child should be without the stories in The Arabian Nights. My brother and I loved Sinbad and Ali Baba and Aladdin in their original (non-Disneyfied) forms.

I loved books like The Secret Garden, Ballet Shoes and Anne of Green Gables where orphans come to find a loving forever home. Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards is another one, very sweet.

Other warm loving homes - Five Little Peppers and How They Grew and Little Women. (I find it unfathomable that any girl can grow up without reading Little Women. I've been tempted to read Pilgrim's Progress just based on it's theme throughout LW.)

The Little Engine That Could is another favorite from my childhood, I even went to the trouble to find the version I read as a child.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Raggedy Ann (we read the original version, and it did not inspire either me or my daughter to become racist. :tongue_smilie:) and Raggedy Ann in Cookie Land. Cookie Land was one of my very favorite books as a child. Recently I went out and bought a copy of the original 1931 printing because the book I had as a child was lost. When we get through some of the current books, I may read it to Ariel to share the joy.

I was the one who pointed out there is a Mammy doll, but I never said it was a racist book! I did snort at the Mammy doll, though I do need to reread it.

 

I've got cookie land too. My kids found it terrifying! which struck me as hilarious since it was fairly tame

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't start off the thread, where I am at now. It has taken me 11 pages of posts to START to figure out what I want. This is a PROCESS that you are all watching unfold. I'm still tweaking and rearranging my list today. I'll probably post a new list in a couple days.

 

No list is set in stone. It would be adapted for each child, depending on their history, but a default list is good to have as a GUIDE.

 

If a child has already read and loved a story I might revisit it with them if they like, or pick a new one. If a child is gifted, disabled, foreign or special in anyway I might pick a special book for them. I'm not taking my list all that seriously. As well as working out my list, I like to start challenging threads on Sunday mornings that are meant to get as many people as possible thinking and participating. This wasn't and isn't all about me.

 

I have several different scenarios of children I might be teaching and buying gifts for in the future. And sometimes I tutor by proxy. Aunties come and borrow from my home library and ask for advice, and then run to assist their sister who is harried and trying to cook supper.

 

I enjoy self-educating and making my library available to others in this in-between time in my life. I love learning and teaching. It doesn't just turn off once it has been turned on for so many years. I have a friend who is a retired college science professor and she can't turn it off either.

 

I'm just playing around here. And offering other people a hopefully interesting thread to participate in, if they want to. A lot of people have clicked on this thread!

Edited by Hunter
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was the one who pointed out there is a Mammy doll, but I never said it was a racist book! I did snort at the Mammy doll, though I do need to reread it.

 

I've got cookie land too. My kids found it terrifying! which struck me as hilarious since it was fairly tame

 

Living toys can scare kids. My 24 year old son still has a chucky phobia, that is a REAL phobia.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not unless you count this, but it's not what I'd call a good introduction :001_smile: :

 

 

 

 

Foreign Children

 

 

 

Little Indian, Sioux, or Crow,

 

Little frosty Eskimo,

 

Little Turk or Japanee,

 

Oh! don't you wish that you were me?........

 

 

 

 

Okaaaay. I don't think I'll be using THAT!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was the one who pointed out there is a Mammy doll, but I never said it was a racist book! I did snort at the Mammy doll, though I do need to reread it.

 

I've got cookie land too. My kids found it terrifying! which struck me as hilarious since it was fairly tame

 

Oh, I wasn't trying to say you did, I was being hyperbolic. I'm like that sometimes, and it doesn't always come across well in writing. Sorry about that.

 

It's strange, some of the things kids find terrifying, when most adults wouldn't give it a second thought. To be fair, I was terrified of china dolls as a child after watching some Twilight Zone-esque movie (boy, did my parents regret letting me do that!) about one that went around murdering the family of the little girl she belonged to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just thought of a good trilogy of books that has stories from around the world. There's some Native American, some from Persia, the Congo, Maori, etc. by Geraldine McCaughrean. King Arthur and a World of Other Stories, Robin Hood and a World of Other Stories, and George and the Dragon and a World of Other Stories. I just got them, but I've skipped around and read a few, and I like them! I think they are well told. As a disclaimer, I like her books in general, though.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Little Engine That Could is another favorite from my childhood, I even went to the trouble to find the version I read as a child.

 

I had a friend who read this book with her nephew and then kept quoting it to me, at some times that I thought were inappropriate. She was making me NUTS :-)

 

Has anyone else been trying to track down books or editions from when they were a child?

 

I cannot for the life of me find a novel about a man who claimed to have gotten stranded in the arctic and having raised a polar bear cub.

 

I saw the edition of Pinoccio we owned. It's the only book I remember being read aloud to me. My mom's boyfriend read it to us before my sister threw up in his shoe :-0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just thought of a good trilogy of books that has stories from around the world. There's some Native American, some from Persia, the Congo, Maori, etc. by Geraldine McCaughrean. King Arthur and a World of Other Stories, Robin Hood and a World of Other Stories, and George and the Dragon and a World of Other Stories. I just got them, but I've skipped around and read a few, and I like them! I think they are well told. As a disclaimer, I like her books in general, though.

 

Samples anywhere?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John Bierhorst has a fantastic trilogy outlining the major mythologies of the Americas, but these would be for high school. He has also written small children's books, though these tend to deal with a single region or people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has anyone else been trying to track down books or editions from when they were a child?

 

Yes, I have found the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary, the Dark is Rising books, and Lisa and Lotte by Kastener in the same editions I had, and Tom's Midnight Garden and The Phantom Tolbooth (not same editions). I've still got my copies of Anne of Green Gables (series) and Jane of Lantern Hill (though not the Emily series yet, just the first), Girl of the Limberlost, Daphne's Story, and my mom gave me my scribbled in Paddington (annotated), a few Louisa May Alcott books (curiously, two copies of An Old Fashioned Girl), Blueberries for Sal, and the two Raggedy Ann books mentioned. I promise to try to find the one with the mammy doll to report in. I thought I have my omnibus edition of Sherlock Holmes somewhere. I have also become curiously attached to any Dell Yearling paperback I see. They seem to represent my childhood.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This one, maybe?

 

That is it! Thanks! :-)

 

I left my marriage with nothing but the bag I arrived at the hospital with. Refinding old books is one of the few ways I get to hold onto a bit of my old life. They may not be the same copy, but it's almost the same.

 

I read Iceberg Hermit as a child and I read it with my boys. It is special to me. It'll be nice to have a copy again.

 

Both times I had this edition. http://www.amazon.com/Iceberg-Hermit-Arthur-J-Roth/dp/0590015826/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1331768204&sr=8-1

 

I took off Eskimo Twins and put back on Dutch Twins. I'd rather have Iceberg Hermit as my arctic book, and I like the Dutch Twins book best of all.

 

I have ordered so many cheap used books the past couple days. The workers at the post office are going to be putting a lot of little yellow slips in my box. They laugh at how many packages I get. The workers that know about Amazon $0.01 books have to keep explaining it to the ones that don't.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have also become curiously attached to any Dell Yearling paperback I see. They seem to represent my childhood.

 

You are bad!!! I just searched for "Dell Yearling Paperback" at Amazon and see all sorts of good stuff. No more books this month unless it's am emergency. Not even Iceberg Hermit.

 

My wish list is bursting. But it's all good, though! :-) It's fun to have a bursting wish list of inexpensive books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Spy Car, I am drooling over the Barry Moser Moby Dick. The hard cover is about $50.00. Many tell me that Moby Dick and Pilgrim's Progress are in a whole other playing field, than all the other titles in my list. They are at the end of my list and I have time to dwell on them. They might need a little saving up for. I couldn't find many samples for the Barry Moser Bible, but what I saw was beautiful, but I'm not sure if the mood of the pictures worked for me. I couldn't see enough to tell :-(

 

 

It is true that the art is somewhat on the dark-grim side (not unlike Moby Dick) but it really works in context, and the typography and artful page lay-out make reading Moser's KJV a real pleasure.

 

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John Bierhorst has a fantastic trilogy outlining the major mythologies of the Americas, but these would be for high school. He has also written small children's books, though these tend to deal with a single region or people.

 

When you say trilogy, are you talking about this one of North America?

http://www.amazon.com/Mythology-North-America-John-Bierhorst/dp/0195146239/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1331822409&sr=8-8

 

And the rest of the trilogy covers Central and South America?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is true that the art is somewhat on the dark-grim side (not unlike Moby Dick) but it really works in context, and the typography and artful page lay-out make reading Moser's KJV a real pleasure.

 

Bill

 

Grim is the right word. Thank you. I was failing to be able to describe it.

 

I was impressed with the formatting of the page. I struggle with the mood of the illustrations though. It feels off to ME, and that saddens me, because I do adore the page formatting.

 

One the other hand, the mood of the illustrations in Moby Dick feel spot on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When you say trilogy, are you talking about this one of North America?

http://www.amazon.com/Mythology-North-America-John-Bierhorst/dp/0195146239/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1331822409&sr=8-8

 

And the rest of the trilogy covers Central and South America?

 

Yes :001_smile:

 

'Trilogy" wasn't the right word.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When you say trilogy, are you talking about this one of North America?

http://www.amazon.com/Mythology-North-America-John-Bierhorst/dp/0195146239/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1331822409&sr=8-8

 

And the rest of the trilogy covers Central and South America?

 

There's an old Newbery award winner called Tales from Silver Lands. I found a copy at a library sale, but I think it's OOP. I haven't read it yet, I confess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's an old Newbery award winner called Tales from Silver Lands. I found a copy at a library sale, but I think it's OOP. I haven't read it yet, I confess.

 

My library has this, so I put it on hold. Newbury Award sounds promising. I didn't know Newbury Award books went OOP????

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My library has this, so I put it on hold. Newbury Award sounds promising. I didn't know Newbury Award books went OOP????

 

Yeah, quite a few of the old ones have. My library keeps a copy of all of them in reference but in a surprising number of cases, there are no circulating copies for the oldies!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't start off the thread, where I am at now. It has taken me 11 pages of posts to START to figure out what I want. This is a PROCESS that you are all watching unfold. I'm still tweaking and rearranging my list today. I'll probably post a new list in a couple days.

 

No list is set in stone. It would be adapted for each child, depending on their history, but a default list is good to have as a GUIDE.

 

If a child has already read and loved a story I might revisit it with them if they like, or pick a new one. If a child is gifted, disabled, foreign or special in anyway I might pick a special book for them. I'm not taking my list all that seriously. As well as working out my list, I like to start challenging threads on Sunday mornings that are meant to get as many people as possible thinking and participating. This wasn't and isn't all about me.

 

I have several different scenarios of children I might be teaching and buying gifts for in the future. And sometimes I tutor by proxy. Aunties come and borrow from my home library and ask for advice, and then run to assist their sister who is harried and trying to cook supper.

 

I enjoy self-educating and making my library available to others in this in-between time in my life. I love learning and teaching. It doesn't just turn off once it has been turned on for so many years. I have a friend who is a retired college science professor and she can't turn it off either.

 

I'm just playing around here. And offering other people a hopefully interesting thread to participate in, if they want to. A lot of people have clicked on this thread!

 

 

That is lovely! I managed to hold onto some of my favorite books from childhood till I myself had a child--and there was quite a gap--only to discover that they were too mildewy by then to be any good. Sad, sad, sad. So in retrospect I wish they had been passed on to others who would have been able to enjoy them in the years they were mouldering.

 

An idea for you to put among your many possible ideas: With regard to the Waldorf inspired items (or could be others as well), how about instead of getting lovely books of Aesops or Grimms, etc., you instead start to learn the tales to tell (though often the Waldorf teachers just learn one in short term memory long enough for that week's telling) and then tell them to...whomever it is appropriate .... grandchildren in person or by telephone, tutored children, friends children or nephews or nieces, etc., or even to adults who have never had that experience. Being told the stories as stories in oral/aural tradition (and the memory of that) could be a gift to be treasured far beyond the most beautifully illustrated edition of a physical book.

 

What does OOPS stand for?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is lovely! I managed to hold onto some of my favorite books from childhood till I myself had a child--and there was quite a gap--only to discover that they were too mildewy by then to be any good. Sad, sad, sad. So in retrospect I wish they had been passed on to others who would have been able to enjoy them in the years they were mouldering.

 

An idea for you to put among your many possible ideas: With regard to the Waldorf inspired items (or could be others as well), how about instead of getting lovely books of Aesops or Grimms, etc., you instead start to learn the tales to tell (though often the Waldorf teachers just learn one in short term memory long enough for that week's telling) and then tell them to...whomever it is appropriate .... grandchildren in person or by telephone, tutored children, friends children or nephews or nieces, etc., or even to adults who have never had that experience. Being told the stories as stories in oral/aural tradition (and the memory of that) could be a gift to be treasured far beyond the most beautifully illustrated edition of a physical book.

 

What does OOPS stand for?

 

I am very interested in storytelling lately. I especially love the blogs that show how to tell the math stories.

 

My brain is doing acrobatics digesting some things I have noticed and discovered and heard the past couple days. I'll have to wait to get my thoughts together more before posting.

 

I was at the library today and noticed something surprising. Many of the books we have been discussing, that I think of as novels, were shelved in the "Folk Tales and Mythology" section. Maybe because of their cultural importance?

 

When I had free access to take home any of the books I wanted, I was again struck by my extreme reluctance for large hardcover books. I brought home a yellowed nasty paperback of Pinocchio instead of a beautifully illustrated large hard cover edition.

 

Those are question marks in "OOP???", not "s"s. I have a tendency to make statements, that I mean as questions, so put several question marks if I want to be sure to get that across. I write on forums like I talk, instead of "correctly".

 

I have teachers manuals and workbooks on "Independent Reading". I'm realizing that is a 3rd area that is sometimes very different than a "Forever Books" list. My "Great Books" and "Forever Books" overlap and are combined, and I mostly teach reading with simplified Bible versions and WRTR, but I can see how other people would be choosing books in what I think of as 3 different areas. Because of my strong use of the Bible as a literature and reading book, I do not have time or need for as much other literature.

 

I had a really enlightening time looking through the "Folktales and Mythology" section today. I have a few textbooks on children's literature. I might skim through them a bit tonight. As I said, my brain is doing acrobatics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Let's see, mine's based on my experience as a girl, teaching my only child, also a girl:

Pre-K: Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales, Oxford Treasury of Fairy Tales, some version of Mother Goose - I grew up with Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose Ever, as well as the one illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa. If I had to choose between those versions, I'd get the second. It has more poems.

Kindergarten: Favorite Poems, Old and New (to be read for multiple years), Winnie-the-Pooh, Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales

First Grade: The Aesop for Children, Little House on the Prairie, The Red Fairy Book

Second Grade: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Pippi Longstocking, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Third Grade: Charlotte's Web, The Secret Garden, The Wind in the Willows

Fourth Grade: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, The Chronicles of Narnia, Treasure Island

Fifth Grade: Anne of Green Gables, The Hobbit, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Sixth Grade: Little Women, The Westing Game, To Kill a Mockingbird

Seventh Grade: Flowers for Algernon, King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, Oliver Twist

Eighth Grade: The Diary of Anne Frank, Great Expectations, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Don't ask about high school, I've got smoke coming from my ears already, though it would include Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dostoyevsky, Homer, and A Tale of Two Cities.

 

I really like this list!! You hit all of my favorites, except maybe The Lord of the Rings for middle school.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is hard for me too...

 

Preschool:

Make Way for McCloskey: A Robert McCloskey Treasury

Tales of Peter Rabbit and Friend

The Harp and Laurel Wreath (poetry collection to be used for multiple years)

 

Kindergarten:

Little House on the Prairie

The Velveteen Rabbit

Winnie the Pooh

 

First Grade:

Fairy Tales (Hans Christian Anderson)

The Trumpet of the Swan

Charlotte's Web

 

Second Grade:

The Blue Fairy Book (Lang)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

50 Famous Stories Retold (Baldwin)

 

Third Grade:

Norse Mythology (D'Aulaire)

Greek Mythology (D'Aulaire)

Understood Betsy (Fisher)

 

Fourth Grade:

The Arabian Nights (Lang)

The Wind in the Willows

Alice in Wonderland

 

Fifth Grade:

The Hobbit

Complete Fairy Tales (McDonald)

Myths of the World (Padraic Colum)

 

Sixth Grade:

The Children's Homer (this has both the Iliad and Odyssey retellings in one book)

Treasure Island

Tales From Shakespeare (Lamb)

 

Seventh Grade:

Bulfinch's Mythology

Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery)

Huck Finn (Twain)

 

Eighth Grade:

The Iliad

Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare)

Lord of the Rings

 

Ninth Grade:

The Odyssey

Pride and Prejudice (Austen)

Uncle Tom's Cabin (Stowe)

 

Tenth Grade:

A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)

To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)

The Aeneid (Virgil)

 

Eleventh Grade:

The Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri)

Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)

Three Theban Plays (Sophocles)

 

Twelfth Grade:

Macbeth (Shakespeare)

The Oresteia (Aeschylus)

Mabinogion

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh man, I am so embarrassed reading my old post!! Does it count that I've become a lot better at this over the past year?? Pretty please?

 

For the record, I am *not* reading Les Mis with my 5th grader!!! :leaving:

 

Reading old posts is not a favorite activity of mine either, but I've had to learn to get used to it. I'm a work in progress.

 

We all try things that don't work. The good thing about homeschooling is that we can switch gears suddenly any time we want. Sometimes that freedom can actually be a curse when we use it too much.

 

One of the things I have learned since last Spring, is that if I use the What Your _ Grader Needs to Know series, I have more freedom to pick my 3 novels without worrying about missing something critical.

 

Julie Smith, there is a thread about homeschooling all of K-8 with just what fits in one carry-on. There is another thread about non-consumable K-8 curricula. I think there might be something else, but I forget right now.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Bible for all ages

 

Ages 0-5 - (this allows me 15 right?) Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Are You My Mother, Where's My Teddy, Ferdinand, Big Book of Dr. Suess, Mother Goose, AA Milne Books,Make Way for McClosky, Virginia Lee Burton Treasury, Curious George Treasury, Childs Book of Verses, Tales of Beatrix Potter, Dr Suess ABCS, book about numbers and Shapes, Book of Fairy Tales

 

1st- Charlotte's Web, Crickett in Time Square, Mr. popper's Penguins

 

2nd - Key to the Treasure, Little House in the Big Woods, The Whipping Boy

 

3rd- Boxcar Children, Black Beauty, Trumpet of the Swan

 

4th - Understood Betsy, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Island off the Blue Dolphins

 

5th - The Chronicles of Narnia, Huck Finn, Misty of Chicateague (or other Marguerite Henry Book)

 

6th - Robinson Crusoe, Witch of Blackbird Pond, Amazons and Swallows

 

7th - The Hobbit, Kidnapped or Treasure Island, Call of the Wild or White Fang

 

8th - The Hiding Place, The Giver, The Autobiography of Ben Franklin

 

High School - To Kill A Mockingbird, Bullfinch's Mythology, Works of Homer, Pride & Prejudice, Silas Marner, In His Steps, Something from Shakespeare, John Steinbeck, and Pilgrim's Progress

Dickens, and ??

 

ETA - Should add in - My side of the Mountain and Anne of Green Gables

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a fun idea to consider. We read constantly so there is no way I'd ever limit ourselves to so few books. Just for fun and based on what my DD has loved so far (with no great desire to put up the most sophisticated list), this is my list as of today:

 

Preschool (0-5): The Little House, Goodnight Moon, Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep, Bear Snores On, The Real Mother Goose, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a book of fairy tales, ABC book, Katy and the Big Snow, We Were Tired of Living in a House, and I'd probably fill in the rest of my 15 books with my favorite Patricia Polacco books. :)

 

K: Charlotte's Web, Little House in the Big Woods, Stuart Little

 

1st: Aesop's Fables, Little House on the Prairie and the rest of the series, Mandy

 

2nd: Pollyanna, The Year of Miss Agnes, The Little Riders

 

3rd: The Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden, Number the Stars

 

4th: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Adam of the Road, Heidi

 

5th: Tom Sawyer, The Hobbit, Anne of Green Gables

 

6th: Little Women, Huckleberry Finn, King of the Wind

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I'd leave it up, but of course you CAN delete it.  :grouphug:

 

There is nothing like old threads to humble us. I stay out of the high school forum, because when I first started posting over there I was just self-educating, and didn't talk about my kids and how I had homeschooled them, and I was on a LOT of drugs for my seizures then, and wellĂ¢â‚¬Â¦I did NOT filter what I said at all, and I was up to things I am NOT up to now. But, that WAS my life then, soĂ¢â‚¬â€œwhatever. I'm just glad I'm in a better place, now.

 

When I was younger and such a good little robot daughter, my mom once told me that we never regret what we do as much as we regret what we don't do. I'll bet my mom's biggest regret in life was giving me that advice. If she had only known what was really brewing under all that complacent obedience just waiting to be freed by some morphine and Ativan. :lol:

 

All you have to regret here is a booklist that you don't think is so hot any more. I'll trade places with you!  :D

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for bumping this! I've been making my older kids' lit lists, and this was great to read!

 

Right now, my 3 year old's top three that would have to go on my preschool list are:

 

The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go by Richard Scarry (I'd be fine with never reading this book again!)

I'll count the Beatrix Potter collection we have as one book, because he has three favorites in it that I have to read over and over: The Tale of Two Bad Mice, The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit, and The Story of Miss Moppet. (They all feature someone being naughty. He belly laughs at Miss Moppet.)

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd leave it up, but of course you CAN delete it.  :grouphug:

 

There is nothing like old threads to humble us. I stay out of the high school forum, because when I first started posting over there I was just self-educating, and didn't talk about my kids and how I had homeschooled them, and I was on a LOT of drugs for my seizures then, and wellĂ¢â‚¬Â¦I did NOT filter what I said at all, and I was up to things I am NOT up to now. But, that WAS my life then, soĂ¢â‚¬â€œwhatever. I'm just glad I'm in a better place, now.

 

When I was younger and such a good little robot daughter, my mom once told me that we never regret what we do as much as we regret what we don't do. I'll bet my mom's biggest regret in life was giving me that advice. If she had only known what was really brewing under all that complacent obedience just waiting to be freed by some morphine and Ativan. :lol:

 

All you have to regret here is a booklist that you don't think is so hot any more. I'll trade places with you!  :D

 

:lol:  Oh, I can live with my mistakes! When I have time, I'll redeem myself by posting the actual top three books we *did* read in 2nd-6th, and *maybe* next year's plans . . . I think I'm too humble to predict much farther into the future at this point . . .  :D

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm trying to come up with an 18 book list: 3 books to accompany each of the original NtK books.

 

My priorities are different. I am different. I'm no longer focused on the tactile experience of the book, and prefer eBooks now.

 

I want at least one books a year to be a gateway book to a series. I think Grade 1 will include Meet Felicity, as it also lines up with the American history lessons. And Grade 2 will probably include Little House in the Big Woods.

 

I don't know if I want to systematically introduce each genre. And If I do, which genre list I want to useĂ¢â‚¬â€œmore of a child's genre list, or more of an adult genre list. A lot of the "classics" are really adult novels.

 

I'm still really stuck on wanting to fit in Riki Tiki Tavi and The Iceberg Hermit.  :biggrinjester: , butĂ¢â‚¬Â¦I may have to let them go. Times change. Priorities change. And my list is even shorter now with just 6 years and 18 books total. And I have to factor in how well the books accompany the NtK lessons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Everyone should read this book! I would suggest prereading though because it is an intense story. I read it as a preteen, again as a young adult, and then with my oldest child. I will read it at least one more time when my youngest get older.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Flowers-Algernon-Daniel-Keyes/dp/015603008X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1331509535&sr=8-3

The reviews describing the book make me think of some movie.....I can't remember what it was (I don't think it was the name of this book)...with something very similar.  Does anyone know what I'm thinking of?

 

And, no, this isn't a guessing game to see who knows what I'm thinking....I really don't know and *I* need the answer. 

 

ETA:  I figured it out.  I'm not crazy.  See post # 158. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've just been reading a history of classical education in Britain, and it seems that it wasn't unusual for the more ambitious students to memorize all the literature they studied in class, and even some extra in their free time.   I knew that was common practice in the early years (for instance, the primer originally consisted of standard prayers).  But it went on at the public schools and Oxford, too.

 

If you see education as a formative process -- intellectual, emotional, spiritual, cultural -- then I guess it makes sense to have the subject matter become, quite literally, part of oneself.  And it's given me a new thing to consider.  Would I consider it worthwhile to have my children learn this by heart (even if I won't be requiring them to do so)?  If not, then maybe it makes sense to replace it with something else.

 

In ancient times, they learned poetry -- including all of Homer -- for the first several years of school.  In early America, it was the Bible and maxims.   In the 19th century schools, it was mainly poetry.  I can see the point in memorizing these.  But not, say, an entire book by Dickens or L. M. Montgomery.   :001_smile:

 

This is making me re-evaluate our literature choices even further.  I don't have a "three books per year" list, but if I ever came up with one, it might not have more than one novel each year.   But it would have poetry, traditional tales, Scripture, writings of the Church Fathers, other spiritual classics, and a book of speeches.  And some other things that haven't come to mind yet.  :001_smile:

 

(And yes, that all counts as literature, as long as the works are considered to have significant artistic merit.   The literature studied in classical schools has always been heavy on histories and speeches.  Although technically, the latter would be more "orature." ;)  )

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For anyone that is looking at hardcovers, I was at B&N and noticed that all of the following books are the same size and will look pretty on a bookshelf next to each other:

 

Barnes and Nobles Children's Classic Collection

Sterling Unabridged Classics

Everyman's Library Children's Classics

 

The B&N Books are leather. The Sterling are clothbound with dust jackets. The Everyman's are clothbound. I like the Everyman's best.

 

I like the puffin hardcovers best, but they are smaller and chunkier in size, and the selection is smaller.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've just been reading a history of classical education in Britain, and it seems that it wasn't unusual for the more ambitious students to memorize all the literature they studied in class, and even some extra in their free time. I knew that was common practice in the early years (for instance, the primer originally consisted of standard prayers). But it went on at the public schools and Oxford, too.

 

If you see education as a formative process -- intellectual, emotional, spiritual, cultural -- then I guess it makes sense to have the subject matter become, quite literally, part of oneself. And it's given me a new thing to consider. Would I consider it worthwhile to have my children learn this by heart (even if I won't be requiring them to do so)? If not, then maybe it makes sense to replace it with something else.

 

In ancient times, they learned poetry -- including all of Homer -- for the first several years of school. In early America, it was the Bible and maxims. In the 19th century schools, it was mainly poetry. I can see the point in memorizing these. But not, say, an entire book by Dickens or L. M. Montgomery. :001_smile:

 

This is making me re-evaluate our literature choices even further. I don't have a "three books per year" list, but if I ever came up with one, it might not have more than one novel each year. But it would have poetry, traditional tales, Scripture, writings of the Church Fathers, other spiritual classics, and a book of speeches. And some other things that haven't come to mind yet. :001_smile:

 

(And yes, that all counts as literature, as long as the works are considered to have significant artistic merit. The literature studied in classical schools has always been heavy on histories and speeches. Although technically, the latter would be more "orature." ;) )

I'm going to have to see if I can find this book. I like books like this.

 

I'm looking at my list and all I hear is the words of Solomon. Vanities of vanities and there is no end to books.

 

I think I'm just going to pick the 3 books I WANT to read most from a combined list of books used in NtK and LLtL and stop overthinking this.

 

I miss being an ultra-conservative Christian. Things were so much easier then. The Bible was the literature book, and then there were a few book for entertainment but not STUDY. And when we were radical LCC, the Loeb Classics made up the bulk of our literature, with a few books from a Great Books list.

 

Maybe it would be easier to pick just one book and read it slower. Books from a Great Books list.

 

Or maybe one Great Book, and two books I WANT to read.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Ă—
Ă—
  • Create New...