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For those who like or use Robinson Style curriculum


homemommy83
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I am interested in putting together a minimalistic required reading list for my children to read through as part of their basic educations.  I put up a thread in the general forum about favorite books not to miss, but I also wanted to know which books you may have felt weren't worth their space in the Robinson Booklist.  If they were twaddle (everyone's idea of this different, but I am wanting to only require the very best classics or books that are excellent informationally) or for some other reason shouldn't be used could you list what you wouldn't use.  Also what do you feel is something that you would want to add to the series and about where would you place it in the sequence.  For sake of typing one could just list numbers from the booklist-kwim.

 

I do not plan to use his upper level sciences as I prefer to have my own physical textbooks.

 

Thank you ladies!  I hope this helps a lot of families put together personal family based list rather than only leaning on Robinson.  With a vast majority of Robinson available free on Kindles, I do find this useful in finding some great books inexpensively.

Brenda 

 

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Is this the booklist?  I'd strike several of them.

The animal books in level 2 - I'd replace them with animal books about local animals.  We did the Burgess books (similar to the Bailey ones) because we "met" each of the animals outside.
Elsie Dinsmore would be forced back down the child abuse filled racist hole she crawled out of.  I read as far as I could before there were 3 Elsies and 3 Roses in the same family and everything started getting convoluted.more than they were.  I would never hand one to a child because I find the principles pressed within to be revolting.
All the Uncle Remus books?  Isn't one, with a historical background of the author and dialect study, enough?
I'd skip any book that talked about Columbus discovering America, too.  We have updated resources that are much better. 

Most of these books seem to be chosen for the sole reason that they are free.  That doesn't make them good.  It makes them available. Did you want free?  I'd scale back what was there with Henty and Alger and poke around on Gutenburg.org. 
I have my own booklists I've made for my kid.  James Baldwin stories are on them, because we already have copies, but I really think your best bet is to create bookcases full of cherished stories that you love, too.  Dh gets me a new classic each Christmas that I immediately sit and read and then is available for everyone else.  And some I buy for my own kids so that we can read them the first time through together, and then they can pull it off the shelf and read with all the unfamiliar vocabulary made familiar already.  There is something about holding a physical copy of a book that doesn't compare.  The booklist I linked missed so many staples of my and my children's childhoods:
The Wind In The Willows
The Oz books
The Secret Garden (I loved A Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy, too)
Winnie The Pooh books
Anne Of Green Gables
The Princess And The Goblin

We have loved several on there, notably
Treasure Island
Alice and Through The Looking Glass
Aesop's Fables
Heidi
The Five Little Peppers
Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm
The Jungle Books (did I skip over Just So Stories in the list?  If that's not there, it should be first)
Hans Brinker

The one thing I did find interesting was that Swiss Family Robinson was scheduled a level lower than Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and I found Rebecca much easier to get into and connect with the characters immediately, whereas Swiss Family took time.
 

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Thank you Home Again?.  I am not necessarily looking for free, but I do love a lot of books available on Kindle Paperwhites as my kids got them for CMAS from Grandma and love them.

 

I am mainly looking to make a minimalist list of books that I want to require of my children.  I want to also leave room for their free reading time, which is why I am wanting to make it contain books that are so great that they shouldn't be missed, but I also don't want to download books not worth their spot on their Kindles-kwim.

 

Thank you for sharing your favorite books.  I thought with the McGuffy and Christian Liberty Nature readers that I would cover some of my framework goals in the younger years.  I also want to include missionary biographies and Bible- which is pretty limited in their curriculum.  I definitely want the best literature listed as I can only read aloud a chapter daily- due to my time/physical restraints.

 

Thank you for the truth about some of those book choices as I don't put up with child abuse in books at all.  

 

I will download the ones you loved for sure- they are going to be on my list.

 

Brenda

 

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You could say we do a Robinson Curriculum style.  We haven't owned the CDs in years though.  I always found different books that seemed more interesting to our family.  I have slowly worked up a quality over quantity personal library and require reading from that library for school (they get books from the library for fun as well).  I have tried making a list, but each kid is different so I leave it more interest led until high school when there are more subject requirements.  I think as long as you are choosing quality books, it's the discussion/study of the book that is important not the specific title.

 

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 I followed the link posted by HomeAgain.  I would personally not choose many of those books, especially the ones in the younger years.

If you want free books you can read online, I would look at books available through Gutenberg like Journeys through Bookland volumes. I do have my kids read through those volumes in addition to our other reading. I personally think the selections are better quality literature.

For example here are the titles for volumes 3 and 6 (out of 9 volumes, each with progressively more complex lit)

Volume 3
JOHN'S PUMPKIN .......... Mrs. Archibald
THE MOCK TURTLE'S STORY .......... Lewis Carrol
THE SPIDER AND THE FLY .......... Mary Hoiritt
A FAREWELL .......... Charles Kingsley
QUEEN ALICE .......... Lewis Carroll
THE LEPRECHAUN .......... William Allingham
THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER .......... Lewis Carroll
BETH GELERT .......... William R. Spencer
ROBINSON CRUSOE .......... Daniel Defoe
FAITHLESS SALLY BROWN .......... Thomas Hood
THE MARINER'S DREAM .......... William Dimond
THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON .......... Johann Rudolph Wyss
ECHO .......... John G. Saxe
THE STORY OF ALADDIN, OR THE WONDERFUL LAMP ... From the Arabian Nights
THE SECOND VOYAGE OF SINBAD THE SAILOR . From the Arabian Nights
BARBARA FRIETCHIE .......... John Greenleaf Whittier
BEOWULF AND GBENDEL
CUPID AND PSYCHE .......... Adapted by Anna McCaleb
THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN .......... Robert Browning
FRITHIOF THE BOLD .......... Adapted by Grace E. Sellon
THE STORY OF SIEGFRIED .......... Adapted by Grace E. Sellon
NIGHT .......... Robert Southey
LOCHINVAR .......... Sir Walter Scott
ROBIN HOOD
ROLAND 

volume 6

CONTENTS

                                                                     PAGE
  HORATIUS                                           _Lord Macaulay_    1
  LORD ULLIN'S DAUGHTER                            _Thomas Campbell_   23
  SIR WALTER SCOTT                                 _Grace E. Sellon_   26
  THE TOURNAMENT                                  _Sir Walter Scott_   38
  THE RAINBOW                                      _Thomas Campbell_   91
  THE LION AND THE MISSIONARY                    _David Livingstone_   93
  THE MOSS ROSE                         _Translated from Krummacher_   98
  FOUR DUCKS ON A POND                           _William Allingham_   98
  RAB AND HIS FRIENDS                             _John Brown, M.D._   99
  ANNIE LAURIE                                     _William Douglas_  119
  THE BLIND LASSIE                                     _T. C. Latto_  120
  BOYHOOD                                       _Washington Allston_  122
  SWEET AND LOW                                    _Alfred Tennyson_  122
  CHILDHOOD                                     _Donald G. Mitchell_  124
  THE BUGLE SONG                                   _Alfred Tennyson_  133
  THE IMITATION OF CHRIST                          _Thomas à Kempis_  134
  THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB                        _Lord Byron_  141
  RUTH                                                                143
  THE VISION OF BELSHAZZAR                              _Lord Byron_  153
  SOHRAB AND RUSTEM                                                   157
  SOHRAB AND RUSTUM                                 _Matthew Arnold_  173
  THE POET AND THE PEASANT                         _Emile Souvestre_  206
  JOHN HOWARD PAYNE AND _Home, Sweet Home_                            221
  AULD LANG SYNE                                      _Robert Burns_  228
  HOME THEY BROUGHT HER WARRIOR DEAD               _Alfred Tennyson_  231
  CHARLES DICKENS                                                     232
  A CHRISTMAS CAROL                                _Charles Dickens_  244
  CHRISTMAS IN OLD TIME                           _Sir Walter Scott_  356
  ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD                _Thomas Gray_  360
  THE SHIPWRECK                             _Robert Louis Stevenson_  371
  ELEPHANT HUNTING                         _Roualeyn Gordon Cumming_  385
  SOME CLEVER MONKEYS                                  _Thomas Belt_  402
  POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC                         _Benjamin Franklin_  407
  GEORGE ROGERS CLARK                                                 422
  THE CAPTURE OF VINCENNES                     _George Rogers Clark_  428
  THREE SUNDAYS IN A WEEK                          _Edgar Allan Poe_  453
  THE MODERN BELLE                                           _Stark_  463
  WIDOW MACHREE                                       _Samuel Lover_  464
  LIMESTONE BROTH                                   _Gerald Griffin_  467
  THE KNOCK-OUT                                      _Davy Crockett_  471
  THE COUNTRY SQUIRE                                _Thomas Yriarte_  474
  TO MY INFANT SON                                     _Thomas Hood_  478

 

Volume 10 is a parent volume that has good teaching suggestions.  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24857/24857-h/24857-h.htm

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