Books, books, and more books!

I think I've said before I have had to "grow" into being a reader...it was a slow process for me personally...but something about starting to homeschool drove me to want to read good stuff and not "twaddle" to my kids...books that will make them want more, ask questions, remember plots, quote lines, recall stories, etc.  Thankfully, I have some great readers around me that read great books!  I LOVE our book club that we are apart of...that came along at the VERY best of times for us and it has engaged my children and myself and encouraged us to read GOOD books!!!  Not all of the books are our favorite but it feels so good to accomplish the task of reading the book together!  At our most recent book club (the end of the semester meeting) we read and discussed a biography on Marie Currie who discovered radium.  This school year our focus was on biographies which was really very interesting! We also had a little science expo where the families that wanted to did experiments or research on science subjects and gave a demonstration.  We did all of it at Macly Gardens and then had a picnic and swam! Even little Molly did a science board on dolphins and horses (which she loves).  Emily researched a bird called the Killdeer bird that we had seen and watched in the church parking lot.  John Daniel did some chemistry experiments that he and his Daddy have been working on.  He combined sodium carbonate and vinegar to make Carbon Dioxide and showed how it will extinguish fire. 

Tallest to shortest...ages 0-12 all in the same book club!

Molly shared her board during book club too!  Everyone listened to little Molly and she was so proud!

I think Emily is a little like me in that she likes to read but needs encouragment to do so.  Today I instituted family reading time around that sleepy time of day for us (really me).  We all snuggled up in my bedroom and read to ourselves.  I borrowed some classic children's literature first readers from a friend for John Daniel to try and he LOVED the stories!  He read 6 of the stories!  Emily is reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that she found on our shelf.  We read and rested for about an hour or so.  I was so nice! 

John Daniel said he wanted to lay down in my closet to read quietly to himself ( I think it helps him to hear himself say the words) and after about 45 minutes, he was fast asleep! :)

Today our book club "leader" sent out the book list for next semester!  I LOVE our focus next year...it will be the CLASSICS!  We will be reading Black Beauty, A Christmas Carol, Swiss Family Robinson, Anne of Green Gables, Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates, My Side of the Mountain, At the Back of the North Wind, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Theras and His Town, and Men of Iron.  I was so excited that I went and bought all except two of them online tonight :)  Each family does it slightly different....some read it together, some read it seperately, some listen to a couple of the books on CD, some of the moms read out loud, each presentation is slightly different, each family does it their own way....I just love the fact that we have all this great literature under our belts and that we do it as a family....the moms like discussing the books and the kids like discussing the books and sometimes even the dads get in on the "lesson."  I can't wait until next semester already!