What's everyone reading at the moment?

[Shred Betty]

I read Miss Peregrines a couple of years ago... I can hardly remember it. I guess I am reading too much.

 

DD7 is reading Harry Potter 1, book and audiobook. Various other things like the complete Beatrix Potter collection.

Read aloud still Tanglewood Tales for boys and girls by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Her jaw drops slowly as I read - I've never seen her so engrossed.

 

It's time for us to get some new interesting titles started.

 

Me: I'm reading BFSU our science text, TWTM4 and lots of web articles and blogs and so on right now. I'd like to finish the 5th Wave by (? I'm guessing) Rick Yancey then re-read Marie Kondo's books on tidying, among a couple of the books on my wish list.

Edited September 26, 2016 by Shred Betty

[Runningmom80]

Yikes! Good thing I posted about it. I'll have a talk with DS tomorrow. He didnt get very far I think just a chapter.

[Runningmom80]

Yikes! Good thing I posted about it. I'll have a talk with DS tomorrow. He didnt get very far I think just a chapter.

I traded him for The Mysterious Benedict Society, and he's liking that better anyways. :)

 

Thanks for the heads up everyone!

Edited September 27, 2016 by Runningmom80

[chocolate-chip chooky]

I traded him for The Mysterious Benadict Society, and he's liking that better anyways. :)

 

Thanks for the heads up everyone!

 

Oh, we LOVE Mysterious Benedict Society. Our absolute favourite in the series was book four - it's the one that gives the story of Nicolas Benedict's own childhood. Excellent.

[Tanikit]

DD5 is reading Dick King Smith books - All because of Jackson was the latest.

DD9 is reading The Encyclopedia of Cats (this daughter of mine devours non-fiction)

 

I have been reading a long list of children's books trying to find which are and which are not suitable for my children, which should be read aloud and which handed to them to read - I know I could re-read to my youngest what I read to my eldest, but I myself need something new and only re-read the best of them. The age gap between them means that ones I read to both of them are usually too simple fr the 9 year old). I am also reading The Playdate.

[Runningmom80]

I just finished The Paris Wife.  Meh.  I'm a Hemingway fan, I just didn't care for the writing.

 

I'm re-reading Free Range Learning.  Because of course I am. :laugh:

 

I also have a stack of New Yorker's I need to get through.

Edited September 29, 2016 by Runningmom80

[Plink]

Just finished the Becoming Marie series about Marie Antoinette's life and I loved every minute of it.  I obviously knew the end of the story, but It was well written enough that still enjoyed the ending.

 

Lady Jane is barely started, so I can't give a thumbs up or down yet, but friends have recommended it so I have a feeling I'll enjoy it. The trick is to find enough time to get myself immersed - I've re-read the first chapter twice already.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

It can quite tricky finding suitable books for the age range 9-13ish, especially for our ALs who are confident and capable readers.

I'm just not ready to throw my 10yr old into most YA fiction yet. There's often too much adult content and I'd like to keep her a child for a bit longer if possible. 

 

Another one we're thinking about at the moment is The Book Thief. Any thoughts on this one?

[eternalsummer]

DD is reading a lot of Shakespeare (and watching a lot of plays). Our shared reading is Hawkmistress, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, which I remember as being very influential to be at about DD's age (main character is a teen girl with a psychic link to animals, who flees her home to escape an arranged marriage and passes as a boy, becoming involved in a revolution.) . Based on the stack by her bed, she also appears to be rereading Rick Riordan's books.

 

I'm reading...uh, currently a collection of Erma Bombeck books. And trying to at least stay with DD on Australian history, since it's new to me. I've given up on trying to stay with or ahead of her in biology, but since she has outside mentors there, I feel less of a need to do so.

 

 

Ah, I was just trying to remember what this book was!  I remembered reading it as a kid and thought of giving it to my DD11.  I wasn't sure exactly when I'd read it, though (or what the title was) so I didn't know how adult the content was.

[eternalsummer]

The Book Thief is okay I think; the broader themes are kind of grim and frightening but it's not cynical, at least (my main complaint with a lot of current YA fic)

[eternalsummer]

I am rereading some obscurish UK Le Guin (to the extent that there is such a thing).  She's recently had a heart operation and she's quite old.  She's been my favorite writer since I was 9 years old.  

 

I just reread The Beginning Place (don't know what I could have gotten out of that when I first read it at 12-13, but it was good this time around).  Am now going through the short stories in The Wind's Twelve Quarters - The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas used to be my favorite short story but I found myself slightly irritated with it this time.  I also read City of Illusions, which I had missed, so it was completely new to me, an incredible treat.

 

DS8 is very into the Wings of Fire books (he rereads and rereads and rereads); DD11 is ready for something new but we are having the same trouble with reading ability/desire outpacing maturity (plus we find a lot of modern society unacceptably degenerate, so it's doubly hard).

[SeaConquest]

It can quite tricky finding suitable books for the age range 9-13ish, especially for our ALs who are confident and capable readers.

I'm just not ready to throw my 10yr old into most YA fiction yet. There's often too much adult content and I'd like to keep her a child for a bit longer if possible.

 

Another one we're thinking about at the moment is The Book Thief. Any thoughts on this one?

I loved The Book Thief. I don't remember it being uber mature, beyond the general subtext of the Holocaust.

[Porridge]

I am reading Norms and Nobility for the first time.

 

Just finished the Hobbit (never read it as a child!).

 

Kids are reading Underground (David Macaulay), At the Back of the North Wind (MacDonald), Island of the Blue Dolphins, Little House in the Big Woods.

 

George MacDonald books have been wonderful for my DD8. He writes beautiful fantasy with uplifting themes.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Wow, we loved The Wednesday Wars. It stimulated great discussions and also research into the Vietnam war.

We'll head into The Green Glass Sea next.

 

For independent reading, my 10yr old is starting the new Rick Riordan about Magnus Chase. All I know is that there is a talking sword with attitude. Sounds fun.

 

For fun, I'm reading The Rosie Effect. Wow, I love those books. The first is The Rosie Project. If anyone is interested, be sure to read it first. Really funny and really thought-provoking.

 

And I've just ordered Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. I'm hoping it will be a fun educational read-aloud for us. 

 

 

[IsabelC]

I'm reading the Brotherband Chronicles to the kids (and my husband listens too!) for our fun family readaloud.
For myself I'm reading Straight.
I have a pile of other books but haven't decided what to read next.

I really enjoyed Rosie Project / Rosie Effect.

Edited October 12, 2016 by IsabelC

[chocolate-chip chooky]

I'm reading the Brotherband Chronicles to the kids (and my husband listens too!) for our fun family readaloud.

For myself I'm reading Straight.

I have a pile of other books but haven't decided what to read next.

 

I really enjoyed Rosie Project / Rosie Effect.

 

I just adore Don in The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect. I wish I was one of his 5 friends  :)

[madteaparty]

Ah, so I might just keep it in that file for awhile before moving it to the 'oh, okay then' file. There are plenty of other books to keep us busy in the interim months/years.

 

DS is loving these but told me the other day: "MOM. These are NOT children's books"  (he has a very acute and rigid sense of propriety...We call him Javert ;)

[vonfirmath]

DD7 and I are reading the Upside-Down Magic series and the Beasts of Olympus series (fun, light, suitable for both genders - She didn't really like the Heros in Training series as it's written more for a male audience and a little scarier, although the Grimmtastic Girls and Goddess Girls series {same author} were huge hits). If anyone has any recommendations for more like those I'd love to hear them.

 

DD7 has another pile of 80 books she's racing through, mostly graphic novels, Geronimo Stilton, Beverly Cleary, etc. She still doesn't want scary yet, likes at least a few drawings but reads so darned quickly. Four different libraries are keeping her fed and watered so far. I often think I'm going to be stumped when I'm looking for new books to catch her attention, but so far so good. The neighboring city's libraries help a ton.

 

I am reading The Awakened Family by Shefanli Tsabary - interesting so far. Also The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine (awesome!! Love this book! You can open it up to any random page and find cool, surprising nuggets) :thumbup:

 

My son (age 9) likes the Upside-Down Magic series too (though there isn't much out there for it yet)

 

He also does not like scary.  He is re-reading Encyclopedia Brown. Sherlock Holmes stories. Shel Silverstein poems.  And Wrinkle in Time for school.  (They recently finished Number the Stars)

[vonfirmath]

 

I'm reading Sense and Sensibility with DS. I'm also reading Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee. The latter is fantastic. I would highly recommend to anyone who likes science or just likes really good non-fiction. 

 

Agreed. I just finished the Gene book. I really liked his Cancer book and am fond of genetics so it was interesting to hear his history

[Runningmom80]

I finally finished The Paris Wife. It was "meh"

 

Just picked up "Why I Read" by Wendy Lesser. It looks like a quick little read.

[Donna]

Dd is reading Sanditon by Jane Austen and "Another Lady."

 

We are reading How the Irish Saved Civilization together and I am reading Juniper: The Girl Who Was Born Too Soon."

[chocolate-chip chooky]

One of my most favouritist, favouritist books ever is An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

Golly McGoshypants I love that book. Gush gush gush. When I'm not sure what to read, I just read it again.

 

It's a Young Adult book about a child prodigy who has finished school and is wondering what's next and if he can live up to his potential. He and his friend go on a road trip to find themselves.

 

He anagrams everything, is a fountain of trivia and is striving to create the perfect mathematical equation to predict the success of relationships.

And he only dates girls named Katherine. 19 of them so far and they've all dumped him.

 

It's hilarious and it's witty and it's oh so fun.

How can you not love a novel that is full of maths and humour?  :hurray: .

[Emerald Stoker]

Child is reading China Miéville's The City and the City, I am reading George Meredith's The Egoist, and my husband is rereading Proust.

[SKL]

Update:

 

Miss A (10) [not an avid reader] is in a literature program for which she's supposed to read 3 books this semester.  The first was The Indian In the Cupboard, which she should be finishing today (2 weeks late).  The second is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but I have decided to let her slide on this, since she has heard the audiobook and watched the movie before.  The third will be Old Yeller.  In between she has read a bunch of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books for fun.

 

Miss E (9) is the avid reader - she reads everything, but specifically she is supposed to be working on Black Beauty when her sister is doing assigned reading.  It seems to be slow-going, either because she rebels against my reminders or because there is a lot of sad stuff in that book.  Independently, she has been enjoying a series called Wolves of the Beyond, among others.  So far this school year she has tested on 43 books (though some of those were from our summer reading).  :P  She also enjoys a variety of magazines.

 

The kids continue their middle school book club, but for this we listen to audiobooks in the car.  (My slower reader could not keep up with all those books in print version, with b&m school homework & activities.)  In between the assigned books, we've listened to some additional audiobooks.  So far since the below post we've heard the following audiobooks, most of which were much enjoyed:

• Pax.  (Least favorite audiobook so far.)
• Rush Revere and the First Patriots. (Loved it.)
• Pinocchio.  (Should have done this younger.)
• Holes.  (The kids enjoyed it.)
• Masterminds (we are on the last CD - we are in suspense!)
• On their own, the kids listen / re-listen to Harry Potter audiobooks while they do their homework.

For read-alouds, we finished the first book of Little Women, and started the second book.  In between the two, we enjoyed a collection of short stories called The Kashmiri Storyteller.

 

For grown-up reading, I am reading Stolen Lives, a true and recent story of a family of political prisoners in Morocco.

 

My reading fiend is reading whatever she is reading - I stopped keeping track years ago.  :p

 

My other kid is finishing up Penderwicks.  She was supposed to read it in the summer, but it has been slow going for her.

 

We are listening to the audiobook of The War that Saved my Life.  The girls find it very interesting.

 

I'm reading aloud Little Women.

 

For grown-up reading, a lady lent me the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, so I am reading that.
 

 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

I love to hear what everyone is reading, either the kids' choices for pleasure, our choices for learning, for read-alouds, or our choices for ourselves.

 

Books are such a huge part of every day here that it's great to get new ideas.

 

Thanks everyone for joining in the conversation.

 

Our fiction read-aloud right now is Deadend in Norvelt (quirky characters and full of history facts) and our non-fiction read-aloud is Bomb (about the Manhattan Project, which we got all interested in after reading the novel The Green Glass Sea).

 

And I'm savouring every moment of my beloved An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. Some of my favourite books are YA books.

[bakpak]

My very sensitive 7 y.o. just enjoyed Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke. Fun fantasy/magic/knights; graded 5.7 level reading but without excessive violence or angst. It was nice to have a spunky female character who is kind and brave, but quirky compared to a 'typical female' character. Probably a great read-a-loud for multiple ages and genders.

[madteaparty]

Together: Antigone (for school)

On his own: The Last of the Mohicans and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (it's an American history sort of year), Tin Tin (in French) and his French magazine

DD is reading ;) A thousand and one nights.

I am reading Ill Fares the Land and Tempest Tost. I'm always suffering for good fiction. Stuff by Europa publisher usually works so I need to return to that.

Edited November 24, 2016 by madteaparty

[nobeatenpath]

The boy usually has multiple books, and audiobooks, on the go for pleasure, so I will just list that for 'school' he finished Farenheit 451 today. He will soon have to give Itch by Simon Mayo (yes, that Simon Mayo!) another go, the Napoleon's Buttons, though I have tied the chapters to what he is studying in Chemistry so not the usual order.

 

Me: I am listening to Fight Like a Girl by Clementine Ford (it's excellent), reading My Family and Other Animals by Durrell and Tokyo from Edo to Showa by Seidensticker (though that is more dipping in and out). Hoping to get a few books on my TBR list finished soon as I am developing a multi-year Fantasy and Science Fiction Literature course for the boy so I have a lot of pre-reading to do (books I haven't read before and books I need to re-read to see if my memory of they are appropriate for him is correct or not!)

[chocolate-chip chooky]

The boy usually has multiple books, and audiobooks, on the go for pleasure, so I will just list that for 'school' he finished Farenheit 451 today. He will soon have to give Itch by Simon Mayo (yes, that Simon Mayo!) another go, the Napoleon's Buttons, though I have tied the chapters to what he is studying in Chemistry so not the usual order.

 

Me: I am listening to Fight Like a Girl by Clementine Ford (it's excellent), reading My Family and Other Animals by Durrell and Tokyo from Edo to Showa by Seidensticker (though that is more dipping in and out). Hoping to get a few books on my TBR list finished soon as I am developing a multi-year Fantasy and Science Fiction Literature course for the boy so I have a lot of pre-reading to do (books I haven't read before and books I need to re-read to see if my memory of they are appropriate for him is correct or not!)

 

How did he like Farenheit 451? That book has been sitting in my bookdepository wishlist for a long time. 

 

Oh, we loved Itch. Science + action. Good fun. We also enjoyed the sequel and we have the 3rd sitting here ready for a gap in our other reading. So many books and not enough hours in the day  :)

 

Audiobooks are really helpful for my daughter to fall asleep. Night time can be tricky, as she struggles to turn her brain off and ends up all anxious about a range of things. Our solution was to have her listen to audiobooks that she already has read. It keeps her brain a bit busy so that she doesn't dwell on her worries, but she isn't overly stimulated by wondering what might happen next. Right now, she's listening to The Westing Game for the gabillionth time. 

Edited November 26, 2016 by chocolate-chip chooky

[nobeatenpath]

How did he like Farenheit 451? That book has been sitting in my bookdepository wishlist for a long time. 

 

Oh, we loved Itch. Science + action. Good fun. We also enjoyed the sequel and we have the 3rd sitting here ready for a gap in our other reading.

 

 

He didn't 100% 'get it' but I think it was a good time for him to read it, and he will come back to it again. I had guided questions for him at the end of every section and he answered them. He acknowledged that it is a book that is referred to so often that you really do have to read it so you get what is being referred to.

 

He didn't particularly like Itch a year ago when he tried it, and didn't finish, but has agreed to give it another go.

[scrapbookbuzz]

Just started reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to my 12yo son tonight.

Figured it was high time he knew the story and he likes the time we spend together.

[SKL]

Update since November 20 post above:

 

Audiobooks:

• Masterminds series - finished the 1st and 2nd audiobooks.  These are good, but they both leave you hanging at the end!  My kid has already put the 3rd book on reserve, but it isn't being published until March?
• Rush Revere and the Presidency - another good one for middle-schoolers interested in US history.
• Save Me a Seat - the current audiobook for the middle school book club.  So far so good.  :)

Read-Aloud:  we have 1 chapter to go on Little Women.  Then we'll read some Christmas stuff and then I'm planning to start Arabian Nights.

 

Miss A is supposed to start Old Yeller this week.  How she's going to do that with Christmas performances and parties almost every day, I don't know.  :P  Miss A has also read several more Wimpy Kid books (she tries to finish one each week).

 

Miss E zipped through the hardcopies of most of the audiobooks we've listened to (she could not stand the suspense).  She's also reading some middle school series at school - I am not familiar with them.  She is slowing down since I started pegging her allowance to average AR comprehension score.  :P

 

I finished Stolen Lives and went back to laboring through a nonfiction book my brother gave me.  It is boring so I won't bore you with the name.  :)  I ordered a couple autobiographies by Condoleeza Rice for my Christmas gift to me.  :)

[chocolate-chip chooky]

I've just finished Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson, the Bloggess.

I just find her hilarious and her life stories make my crazy life seem downright boring. It's the second time I've read it. Sadly our library doesn't have her second book, Furiously Happy. I may need to gift it to myself.

 

DD10 and I have just finished One Crazy Summer, which took us off reading about the Black Panthers.

 

We're working through Horribly Famous Einstein and his Inflatable Universe as our non-fiction read-aloud. Horribly Famous is an excellent series, but some titles are hard to find. I'm pretty sure I happy-danced when I found this Einstein one at a second-hand book fair.

 

 

[bookbard]

Kids both reading Pokemon books. Even my not really reading 4 year old seems to be teaching himself to read via Pokemon!

 

 

I've just finished the "Mysterious Benedict" series. Thanks for the suggestion - they were great, I really enjoyed them! I am now reading the much-recommended "How Children Fail" by John Holt. I have mixed feelings about it. There's great stuff in it - but some terrible stuff too (esp about children with disabilities!) Interesting on a historical level, maybe. 

[zaichiki]

Me: a book about the Kennedy family as children, one of Hillary Clinton's biographies, and another book about notable moments in presidential campaigns in US history

Ds(17): re-reading Sherlock Holmes

Dd(14): a pile, including the 100th re-reading of  Pride and Prejudice

Ds(10): a pile, including a re-reading of a dragon series by Chris D'Lacey

Dd(7): a pile of library books consisting mostly of Magic Tree House books

[Seeking Squirrels]

DD8 is reading Survive! Inside the Human Body vol. 1

 

Current read-aloud with both girls: Tales of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

 

I'm reading

Flesh and Blood by Patricia Cornwell - when I'm reading a physical book at home (Though honestly I've been on this book for months because I keep setting it aside and forgetting about it. I like it, I'm just too tired to read by the time I get a chance.)

Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb - When I'm reading on my phone/away from home

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - audiobook when I'm cleaning or driving and not listening to a podcast instead

Thinking about starting Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism by Aron Ra. DH got it and it's been sitting on the counter staring at me for two weeks. 

 

 

[Rush]

My DS 8 has started reading "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time" and said it was ok. He had managed to read about 2 pages only when I opened it on the page number 4 and read this:

 

She was wearing pyjamas and a housecoat. Her toenails were painted bright pink and she had no shoes on.

She was shouting, "What in f@@@'s name have you done to my dog?

I do not like people shouting at me. It makes me scared that they are going to hit me or touch me and I do not know what is going to happen.

"Let go of the dog," she shouted. "let go of the f-word dog for Christ's sake."

 

Is this a normal language for teenagers now? The book was on the shelf 12y+. 

i checked quickly reviews while being still at the library and there were so many positive ones, but no one ever mention about such a strong language. 

Would you let your kid to read such a book?

 

Edited December 15, 2016 by rushhush08

[bookbard]

It isn't a book for children - and there are so many other better books out there. I didn't feel that it was a particularly good portrait of autism, either. 

[Rush]

It isn't a book for children - and there are so many other better books out there. I didn't feel that it was a particularly good portrait of autism, either. 

some info I have found online...

The Curious Incident was considered his first written for adults; yet he also won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime award judged by a panel of children's writers.

after that it happily moved to the section 12y+.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

My DS 8 has started reading "The curious incident of the dog in the night-time" and said it was ok. He had managed to read about 20 pages only when I opened it on the page number 4 and read this:

 

She was wearing pyjamas and a housecoat. Her toenails were painted bright pink and she had no shoes on.

She was shouting, "What in f@@@'s name have you done to my dog?

I do not like people shouting at me. It makes me scared that they are going to hit me or touch me and I do not know what is going to happen.

"Let go of the dog," she shouted. "let go of the f-word dog for Christ's sake."

 

Is this a normal language for teenagers now? The book was on the shelf 12y+. 

i checked quickly reviews while being still at the library and there were so many positive ones, but no one ever mention about such a strong language. 

Would you let your kid to read such a book?

 

I really like that book but I would not let my 10yr old read it for quite a few years yet.  From memory, there's even stronger language in it than what you mentioned.

I remember one of my older daughters reading it at about age 15 or 16.

In our local library it is filed in adult fiction.

[jjeepa]

On my own, I'm reading Hidden Christmas by Tim Keller and listening to The Importance of Being Earnest and The Handmaid's Tale.

 

Read aloud with dd:  The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

 

Read aloud with dd and ds:  A Christmas Carol 

 

Audiobook with dd:  Book of a Thousand Days

 

Reading simultaneously with ds so we can discuss:  A Scarlett Letter

 

Plus, dd and I are reading through our Christmas picture books collection aloud just for fun.  I love that she isn't too old to do this.  We read The Story of Holly and Ivy yesterday.  Such a lovely story!  

[Rush]

I really like that book but I would not let my 10yr old read it for quite a few years yet.  From memory, there's even stronger language in it than what you mentioned.

I remember one of my older daughters reading it at about age 15 or 16.

In our local library it is filed in adult fiction.

Yes, I took it away immediately. Luckily he managed to read 2 pages only. Something is bothering me though as I didn't expect my kid to find such a book in the kids section and I was definitely very surprised that no one even mention swearing in this book, especially when the book get so many children's awards and included in a must-read list for every teenager. 

 

Edited June 4, 2017 by rushhush08

[Arcadia]

Today is sunny instead of rainy so we walk to the library as usual. I am reading 8 Keys to Raising the Quirky Child: How to Help a Kid Who Doesn't (Quite) Fit In for information and Geek Parenting: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us about Raising a Family for leisure.

 

8 keys https://www.amazon.com/Keys-Raising-Quirky-Child-Doesnt/dp/0393709205

Geek parenting https://www.amazon.com/Geek-Parenting-Joffrey-Maleficent-Raising/dp/1594748705

[SeaConquest]

Sacha finished The Black Stallion, which he enjoyed. He is now reading the 7th Harry Potter, the 4th Narnia, and the last book in the Protector of the Small quartet, depending on his mood.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Today is sunny instead of rainy so we walk to the library as usual. I am reading 8 Keys to Raising the Quirky Child: How to Help a Kid Who Doesn't (Quite) Fit In for information and Geek Parenting: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us about Raising a Family for leisure.

 

8 keys https://www.amazon.com/Keys-Raising-Quirky-Child-Doesnt/dp/0393709205

Geek parenting https://www.amazon.com/Geek-Parenting-Joffrey-Maleficent-Raising/dp/1594748705

 

What's that first one like? Sounds interesting. My daughter self-describes herself as a martian on earth. That's how much she feels she doesn't fit in. We need to find her some peeps somehow...

[Arcadia]

What's that first one like? Sounds interesting. My daughter self-describes herself as a martian on earth. That's how much she feels she doesn't fit in. We need to find her some peeps somehow...

I find the book informative without being condescending. It is written in a sharing rather than a lecturing style. He talk about high IQ with low EQ and how to help our kids be better EQ wise. He also mentioned how parents tend to worry and concentrate on fulfilling the high IQ needs of their kids and unintentionally cause a bigger gap between IQ and EQ.

 

He gives a rough guide of norms for each age group so parents have an idea of how far off the norms their kids are. For example a child who talks non stop about his/her passion despite an annoyed or bored "audience", when does it cross the line from normal exuberance to a lack of social skills.

 

My DS12 was recommended for social skills group while in public school 1st grade but the teachers realize he actually knows the unwritten social rules but choose not to play by the rulebook. My DS11 is the one that can read social cues as in whether someone is happy or irritated but being diplomatic, but he is much slower in picking up unwritten social rules. So he is usually not invited to join in playtime or conversations. Kids who are strangers would walk over and chat with DS12. That is what my DS11 need help in.

[Runningmom80]

I just finished Pride & Prejudice, (for the first time!) and Twilight of the Elites, America after Meritocracy by Chris Hayes. (That one was dryer than I would have liked, but still good. It's definitely skewed Liberal)

 

I'm going to do the reading for growth challenge from Modern Mrs Darcy blog, so I'm looking for some "Beach reads" to finish out the year. I found a series by Louise Penny, hopefully it's good!

(Modern Mrs Darcy has lots of great book suggestions and posts daily kindle deals! http://modernmrsdarcy.com/great-kindle-deals/)

 

Read aloud with 10yo is Little Women and with 6 year olds is Little House in the Big Woods. (I adore both so we at least do read aloud a every day. Haha!)

Edited December 18, 2016 by Runningmom80

[rwilk]

DD(5) is reading the Henry Huggins series and My Father's Dragon.  And because she's five, she's also reading The Owl Diaries series (painfully dull in my view). 

 

We're reading The Castle Glower Series, which is a pretty female positive series about wizards, castles, and princesses. The lead character is a 8-12 year old female (she ages during the series) who is not interested in boys.  DD is in a princess phase, and I'm all about strong female princesses that aren't all damsel in distress-y. 

 

I'm continuing my project to read through Agatha Christie in chronological order. I have about 6 books left.  I'm also working on The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun.  

 

I suppose I should read something more adultish and challenging, but I'm so not in the mood.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Yay! New books for Christmas!

 

We are reading What Einstein Told His Cook #2 and What Einstein Told His Barber.

 

These are nothing to do with Einstein. They're just fun and factual sciency reads about everyday things and cool science questions eg Why do green foods change colour when they're cooked? Could I hear the radio if I'm travelling at the speed of sound? What colour is water?

 

The Told His Cook books are all about the science of food and they also include recipes.

 

Yay for new books!

[strawberryjam]

My DS just finished "Holes" by Louis Sacchar and is now reading "City of Ember" series.

 

I'm reading:

"Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations" by Thomas Friedman

"How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare" by Ken Ludwig

"Fluent Forever: How to Learn Any Language Fast and Never Forget It" by Gabriel Wyner

"The Bible Story Handbook" by John Walton (Professor of OT who has written books on ancient civilizations, culture, science and Genesis)

 

Current read alouds (more for my younger DD) are "Mr. Poppers Penguins" and "Paddington".