With Mothers Day around the corner, I thought you might enjoy this post.

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/10929/about?ec=7D850815F185S18202

In my Raising Leaders package, I have a Classical Book List.  I received this question about the list:

In your Classical Book Lists report, what ages or grades do you consider early and late school age, and how do you define youth?  Do you feel these books are appropriate read alouds for younger children?  (Our boys are 7 and 9).

On the Classical Book List,  my age groups are definite.  They may differ for different kids.  So, here’s  rough estimate:

Early school age (5-8)
Late Elementary (8-11)
Youth (12 and up)

If my kids were 7 & 9, I would find some easy readers for them in the early stage and read aloud ones in the next stage. 

 I hope that helps.  Thanks for emailing and thanks for your support.

 Kerry

Take some time to make this journal with your children.  When you are finished, you can use it as a reading journal or notebook.  If you use it for a notebook, put pictures, drawings and paragraphs about the science, history or literature topic you are studying.  Have fun.

Change the colors and papers for a boy or a specific topic.

directions come from Splitcoaststampers.com right here 

My good friend, Noel Leithart, told me about a book list website that both my kids and I are using.  Since I love to read, it is so much fun to list the books I’ve read, the ones I’m reading and the ones I plan to read. 

Here’s the cool thing…you AND each of your kids can have their own shelf that has book covers of the books you’ve read

Take a look at my book shelf…My Shelfari Book Shelf

If you want to start your own book shelf, use this link:
http://www.shelfari.com/invite/rlj–iBgC5$5ZGPpjb76Jw

I gave you directions to Tag Book and I found another one. At least I found the pictures of one. I can’t find the directions. But, you could use the directions to the Mini Book and add the tags with information from the subject your child is studying.

Write on each tag a fact or paragraph about what has been learned.

ps. idea and pic from splitcoaststampers.com and scrapbook-crazy.com

This is a really cool notebook idea.  Does your child not like to write for a full page?  Mine doesn’t!

So, I tricked them into writing by buying smaller journals.  They still write one page, but it is a small page.

This CD notebook does the same thing.  Make the notebook and have your child write on each page.  Be sure they fill up a full page.  They won’t mind because it is much smaller than a piece of notebook paper.

Here are the simple directions to the CD Holder Mini Album

idea from scrapbook-crazy.com

My goal this Christmas season is to read a book each week. So far, I’m staying up.

Most of you know I’m a big proponent of reading journals. They give you and your kids an opportunity to write down what you are learning and thinking about.

Here’s a different type of journal activity. Take a few days off your reading journal and let your kids make their own Creative Journal.

Here is the template to get started. Creative Journal Template There’s a link in the middle to download the pdf of instructions.

All of this is brought to you by Two Peas in a Bucket.

The first book on my son’s reading list this year was Pride & Prejudice.  He was dreading it.

But I still remember a Sunday School teacher in Texas saying that is one of his favorite books.  Plus, one of our best friends wrote a book about Jane Austen.  The first chapter starts with something like, “Real Men Read Jane Austen”.  So, I figured he could handle it.

Well, he made it half-way through the book!

I guess that’s good, considering the murmuring around our house about the book.

Even though he didn’t finish the book, we had some great discussions.  Last night he told us he got to the part where Darcy asks Elizabeth to marry him the first time.  He went on to say that Elizabeth was just disgusting.  She made him so mad.

Well, I guess the book provoked emotion in my 14yo son.  Maybe not the same emotion my 17yo daughter & I had, but emotion nonetheless.

He went on to say that he couldn’t stand Elizabeth and the way she talked about people.  He couldn’t understand why she would say and the way she did.   I guess he hit upon some real truths about girls.

I was excited he had an opinion about the book.  When I talked to him about the book, he would barely discuss it with me.  Last night at dinner was the most lively discussion we’ve had.  That’s probably because his big sister kept quiet and let him talk about P & P for the first time.

Even if your kids don’t like a book, that’s okay.  Let them talk about it and express their feelings…especially if they are different from yours!

Kerry

ps.  What book will you be reading this week?  Will your kids have an opinion about it?

pps.  I just realized my non-reading son really does have opinions about our readings.  Just this morning, he stopped our read-aloud and asked why we had to read about geeks who liked school….We were reading about Louis Pasteur!

Hey, at least he was listening and taking it in!  Do your kids oppose your opinion?  That’s good because they are interacting with the text!

Teaching Classics

I must confess that I don’t always live up to everything I encourage you to do.

You see, my hip and lower back have been giving me problems the past 2 weeks.  Since I’ve been in pain, I haven’t been able to keep up with my reading…shame on me!  Although I’ve read some, it is usually in bed before I fall asleep with the book on my lap

I am sharing this to say that sometimes there are seasons of life when we can’t get it all done.  My plan is to get back into regular reading next week as we start a new literature book.

Hopefully, I will finish Pride & Prejudice this weekend while we are on the road.  My dd just finished it (again) yesterday.  My son only made it half-way through and I told him he could choose another book.  Even though he didn’t finish the book, he came away learning alot.  How do I know?  Read my next post!

Kerry

Mentor with classics