In reading on Charlotte Mason’s style I came across a term I have heard many times now — Living Books. She says this about choosing reading material:

For the children? They must grow up upon the best . . . There is never a time
when they are unequal to worthy thoughts, well put; inspiring tales, well
told. Let Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ represent their standard in poetry
DeFoe and Stevenson, in prose; and we shall train a race of readers who will
demand literature–that is, the fit and beautiful expression of inspiring ideas
and pictures of life.

She warns against twaddle, a word I just love.  So, I have started a vigilant hunt for books that breathe.

We read living books because we love them, they bring us together. They prompt incredible conversations. Even my little ones surprise me with the observations that they make about a book and its connections with real life. They bring something to our home school that no unit study, hands-on project, or even a field trip can. They spark the imagination and make creativity soar.

Some look alive, but hold nothing of value beyond the front cover. Others look old and dry and yet have carried us on amazing adventures. How do I know? Where do I find a good book?

Just wanted to share some great resources for finding a good read:

Ambleside Online — This website builds directly off of the Charlotte Mason philsophy. It assigns a time period for each year and can and is used by many as the core of their homeschool. We used them loosely for a couple years. Now, I still refer to that site because the book lists are excellent. We have loved probably 90% of the books we found through that site.

Curriculum reading lists — I started looking through other curriculums (like Sonlight — which we also used for a year) to see what books they recommend at various grade levels. Lots of great recommendations made it into our reading list this way as well.

Five in a Row — For books and accompanying activities, these books can give you plenty to choose from. Books that have stood the test of time, and you will love reading and rereading with your kids.

The Book Guardians — This is a brand new site for which I will be a contributor. Be sure to check it out over time as more books get added to its ranks. It will list books and share in 10 key areas if they have content that might need consideration. I talked more about it on my blog post about book reviews.

Common Sense Media — This site offers a number of reviews, but does not seem to have a strong moral slant. I did not find the reviews as helpful because I tend to have a stricter standard on what I deem appropriate reading for my kids. Still, definitely some value in the sheer quantity of books they have reviewed.

Christian Children’s book reviews –A good site, but seems to review only Christian books.

Focus on the Family has a book review section — Some good reviews, but they seemed to be lacking a depth in their recommendations and information provided. Does come from a conservative preference morally.

Facts on Fiction — Lots of reviews and clearly targeting key areas of concern. Alphabetized and easy to find what you are looking for.

1000 Good books — compiled by 25 homeschool moms, you can find 1000 of their recommendations. That should keep you busy for a while!

Many books also offer lists and reviews:

- Honey for a Child’s Heart

- What Shall We Then Read

- Hand that Rocks the Cradle (from the Bluedorns)

- Books Children Love

- Invitation to the Classics

- The Read-Aloud Handbook

Finding the time:

With six kids, five of them now school age, the trick is finding time in a day to read books. We have employed a variety of means to do so. We read a bit each day. Sometimes at bedtime, sometimes in the afternoon. We have a silent reading time each day as well. Books on CD also help. We listen to these in our rooms, at bedtime, and definitely in the car. We “read” an extra book or two each month by listening in the car. And, it keeps the kiddos quiet while we travel!

Looking for some recommendation? Here are some of our favorite books:

The Little House on the Prairie series

The Princess and the Goblin

Gone Away Lake

The Calico Captive

The Endless Steppe

God’s Smuggler

Bruchko

Robin Hood

Galileo and the Magic Number

And, every year we discover a few more favorites. Stay tuned to hear what we unearth this year.

Please add some more resources or book favorites of your own in the comments. We are always looking for well loved books.

This post linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

It’s Time Again to Reserve Your 2010-11 BOOK IT! Materials. This year you must enroll your individual family, they are not accepting submissions from groups. It’s a very simple process though, so jump online and get signed up. You should receive the materials around the beginning of September and you can begin setting and rewarding reading goals with your child(ren) in October.

Easy to use and a simple motivator for kids that need an extra nudge to get their nose in a book, or a great reward for those that are already reading up a storm.

Enroll your homeschool family online at the BOOK IT! website

The enrollment period is from March 1 through June 30, 2010. Orders beyond these dates will be filled as supplies allow on a first-come first-served basis.

The program then runs starting on October 1, 2010, and concluding on March 31, 2011

This is located in Bloomingdale, and I have often found it a great source for fresh reading material for our at home classroom as well as little rewards for learning incentives. As usual, if you register in advance you can print out a coupon for money off if you spend over $60.

Read on for more details:

Please add BookFairs@emailer.scholastic.com to your address book.

Save BIG on Books During Our Dollar Days Sale! • Hundreds of GREAT BOOKS all $5 or less! (Sale applies to selected product only) • Register online and receive a coupon to save $10 OFF a purchase of $60-100, or $15 OFF a purchase greater than $100. (Enter source code: EMAIL) • Limited time only – Find great deals on quality books for home, school, and classroom libraries. • Dollar Days are exclusive sales for educators, librarians and Book Fair volunteers. • Preferred payment methods: Credit cards, checks, purchase orders, and Scholastic Dollars. Items purchased with Scholastic Dollars do not qualify for further discount pricing and will sell at the cover price. > Find a Sale Near You (Enter Source Code: EMAIL)

Visit Scholastic.com Book Fairs | Find a Warehouse Sale | Contact Us

Betty Davis, published author of How Jill Learned to Read Using Phonics and educator for more than ten years is offering resources and classes to children aged four through twelve in reading and writing. You may  check out her website at Funn with Phonics Tutoring.

She has designed this program that walk children through three main levels of reading mastery.

From her website
Level 1:

Students will clap , march, and sing as they learn the sounds of the alphabet. Art and other forms of media is used  to support the phonics concept that is being taught that  week.  Each week students’ are taught a new word family that is associated with a particular short vowel.

Level 2 and 3:

For students who are familiar with the word families associated with level one, level 2 focus on learning blends, while level three focuses on long vowels, digraphs, and diphthongs.

Based in McHenry County, Betty is available to meet at public libraries throughout the Northwest Suburbs.

For more information, feel free to contact her by email at: readingbooks52@comcast.net

Or see her website: http://www.funwithphonicstutoring.net/

A couple years ago I heard about a history text that caught my attention. It focused on not just the important events and people of history, but God’s working through it all, and from a biblical perspective. I kept an eye out for it at used book sales (my main avenue for accumulating new curriculum), but it never reared its cover.

No wonder. I have no desire to let go of this book either, and will move Volumes I and II closer to the top of my “Buy for homeschool” list.

It brings us all together to study one history, from the kindergartener to the middle schooler. I love things we do all together, and the kids learn even more from each other, even their younger siblings.

Product: Mystery of History Vol. 3 student reader and companion guide
Details: This full color history text offers 84 lessons beginning in the Renaissance and ending in early American history.
Price: $59.95 for the text and $29.95 for the CD of the companion guide (various packages available on their site as well)

What we loved . . .

• Scriptural basis. The book clearly looks at history and historical figures from a Christian viewpoint. The title tells it all, history is His story.
• Adaptable for a variety of ages. Although a bit above me four year old, my five year old will listen along and grasp the basics of what we have read and discussed. Activities are varied for the different ages as well.
• Related activity ideas. Some projects get a little involved, but lots of creativity and greater in depth study comes out of these extra tasks.
• The book is very high quality. Beautiful pictures, sturdy cover and pages, well written, interesting to read, and just overall impressive just to look at.
• Pretest quizzes to see what we already know (which was generally nothing . . . ) While these asked questions that were a bit specific (e.g. True/False: Columbus returned to the New World with 17 ships on his second voyage), it showed us how much we had to learn, and got us excited about the chapter ahead.

Challenges we faced . . .

• Some of the daily readings ran a little long. I probably could have split them up into a couple days, but they are well written and engaging, so it was hard to just stop in the middle and pick up another time.
• As great as the book is with its wonderful pictures, there were times they talked about a person or place and I thought, “Where’s the picture?” Thanks to the internet, we could of course find our own, but I did feel there were some gaps in that regard in the printed material.

I have no hesitation in recommending this product to anyone looking for a Christian based history curriculum that can work for a variety of ages. I definitely plan on purchasing more Mystery of History books after our experience with this one. Whether used exclusively or to supplement other secular sources, this book deserves a place on your home book shelf.

For more TOS Crew reviews on this product, check out the TOS Crew blog.

Disclaimer: This curriculum was provided to me free of charge from Bright Ideas Press as part of my participation in The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. I received no additional compensation and the opinions expressed here come from my personal experiences and sincere thoughts.

Here is information on a great reading incentive program that is open to homeschoolers as well. Students Kindergarten through eighth grade may participate and earn a free ticket to the Cougar’s game in the spring.

In summary their program works like this:
Ozzie’s Reading Club is an eight-week reading incentive program sponsored by the Kane County Cougars along with Provena Mercy Medical Center. The program is open to children in grades K-8; however, to participate, a student’s school must be a member of the Ozzie’s Reading Club program.

Ozzie’s Reading Club tracks the progress of a student’s reading around the bases of a baseball diamond with the three bases and home plate representing two weeks worth of reading. Each teacher may determine his or her own reading requirements for each base. Students completing the program’s requirements “hit a home run” and earn a free ticket to an April or May Cougars game designated by their school. Other rewards may include a bookmark, a voucher for a hot dog and soda as well as an official Ozzie Reading Club t-shirt.

For more information you need to contact their office:
Kane County Cougars  34W002 Cherry Lane § Geneva, IL 60134

Phone: 630.232.8811  FAX 630.232.8815

E-mail: ozziereadingclub@kanecountycougars.com

Formerly, I thought I had a pretty good handle on all my library had to offer:

Reading programs — great incentives in summer for individual reading and in the winter for family reading and we earn free stuff in the process of doing something we would spend our time doing anyway. And, the kids got even more excited about time spent reading.

Books – Obviously, books hold the main draw of the library. Thousands of books on any topic you could want to read on. I’m still not quite sure how I would homeschool if I did not have weekly access to the library and daily access to the Internet. I would spend a lot more money, I am sure.

Non-book items — we also enjoy magazines, CD’s, movies, puzzles, and other items the library makes available for home use through borrowing.

Online account access — We can easily keep tabs on all these items that constantly flow in and out of our house online with our account information readily available and renewable with the click of the mouse.

All those things are great. However, I recently found out I had just scratched the surface of information available to me through the library.

This summer I discovered the World Catalog (claims to have 1.4 billion items on record right now!) which I had access to from home with my library card. I can reserve a book from just about anywhere in the world and they will send it to my library for me to pick up. Now, living near a large city like Chicago, I rarely have a book sent from outside of my state, but I did recently get a book from Arkansas. If you have not learned to navigate the “World Cat” get in touch with your librarian and find out about the billions of items that you have access to through this data base.

We love audiobooks and devour a few of them each month during our errand running. Well, they come in a new format we can check out from the library as well. Playaways are preloaded auidobooks in an MP3 type device that you check out and take with you.

But, there’s more. My librarian also showed me the depths of internet options and subscriptions available through my library website. This will vary widely from library to library, but here is just some of what I can access with my library card, from the comfort of my own home (Clicking to these sites through my library site automatically enters me as a subscriber. On some I need to set up a free account to use them):

• Online language course through Byki.
• Book review sites
• Online picture books, through Tumblebooks.
• Local newspaper websites
• Premium research databases
• NetLibrary’s 16,000 electronic version of printed books.
• Naxos music library’s recordings of 85,000 pieces. (We love this one for our composer studies, no more scouring the internet for a suitable recording or trying to remember to get a recording while at the library. Immediate access from home!)

And the list goes on and on, figured I would just share a few favorites we have already used. When she started showing us this I could not believe the information that I had in front of me. All these memberships and subscriptions that I have a part of through my library card. Now, of course, as I said this will vary widely by library, but if you want your library to offer something that they do not already offer, just ask. If they can find a way to fit it in the budget, they might just do it.

Tiny, but powerful! The Homeschool Resource Center. Four walls packed with resources.

I could not talk about libraries and homeschooling without mentioning the Johnsburg Public Library. Tucked away in this small, unassuming town library is a Homeschool Resource Center that has helped homeschoolers across the country. If you live in Illinois you can drive to the library and check out items with your valid Illinois library card. They have microscopes, models, a vacuum pump, and lots of other larger items to help teach some of those tougher topics. Those items you must physically pick up and drop off at their library.

However, they have also used this $55,000 grant to stock its shelves with books, curriculum samples, and other resources that homeschoolers will benefit from. And, they are open to suggestions for new purchases as well. It would most likely be worth your time to peruse the 2000 plus items they have specifically for the homeschooler.

One last library advantage . . . If you live in the Chicago, Detroit or Minneapolis area (click city names for various local program sites), you have the opportunity to “check out” museum passes each week. These can provide for some great, inexpensive field trips for your family or homeschool group. They are first come, first served, but make sure to look into this great program if you live in any of those areas.

Enjoy more Works for Me Wednesday and Thirsty Thursday

With how often I have a book in my hands while still trying to accomplish something else (tie a shoe, referee a disagreement, answer the phone without losing my place, etc.), I looked forward to the opportunity to review the STUDYPOD, put out by Genio, “Smart Products for Smart People.”

This handy little gadget will hold your book of just about any size in an easily readable position while keeping your hands free for the other tasks of motherhood, blogging, paperwork, composition, Bible study, etc.

Earlier this year, for no apparent reason I experienced the pain of a ruptured disc in my lower neck. Proper posture holds a much greater weight in my estimation now more than ever before. The STUDYPOD puts my reading material at a more readable height and at a position that helps me maintain good posture while typing, reading, studying, and teaching my kids.

What I love about the STUDYPOD . . .
- stores right along with your books, and even looks similar to a book when closed up
- has a small storage area for pens, notecards, etc. right inside
- holds a variety of sizes of books and papers
- helps establish and maintain good posture while reading and studying
- keeps study area neat, encouraging focus and good time management

Not much to tweak in the use of this product. You can employ it in just about every room in the house. I was a little concerned initially that it might leave a mark or imprint on the page of the book. However, even after I left it for a while on one of our thicker books (still under the two and a quarter inch limit for thickness), it only left a small, almost imperceptible mark. Turning pages requires you to carefully work around the page support arm, but this can be accomplished with one hand without too much trouble.

As you can see, this versatile book stand can find many uses in your home and school. Everyone just might want their own . . . They have another version called the “Book” pod, so don’t feel like you have to be studying something to use their product. Pick from pink, black, blue, grey and beige. It regularly retails for $19.95, but if you buy two or more of either the BOOKPOD or STUDYPOD they will only cost $16.95 each and you can even take another $5 off your order with the code: TOSBLOG5

Might be an easy gift idea to tuck away for the upcoming holiday season.

Check out the TOS Crew blog for other reviewers’ thoughts on the STUDYPOD.

More sales . . .

I have personally enjoyed shopping this sale to stock up on free reading books, craft sets, and even stocking stuffers. Much of the warehouse is available at 50% off or more, they often have items for $1, and you can print out a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase when you register in advance. I don’t usually have a hard time finding $50 worth of items to fill my cart with.

Please add BookFairs@emailer.scholastic.com to your address book. Stock Up for the New School Year at Our Clearance Sale! • Deep discounts on selected titles • 100’s of items below $5 • Build home, school, and classroom libraries at a fraction of the price Sign Up Now to Receive a Valuable Coupon! Go online to pre-register (enter source code: EMAIL) for a sale and get your Fast-Cart Pass. You’ll skip the sign-in lines and receive a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $60-$100 or $15 off a purchase greater than $100! > Find a Sale Near You Exclusively for educators and Book Fair chairpeople / volunteers. Sale applies ONLY to preselected items marked down for clearance. Visit Scholastic.com Book Fairs | Find a Warehouse Sale | Contact Us

Home School Textbook and Guided Reading Sale

When: Friday August 7th from 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Where: 439 S. Liberty St. Elgin, IL 60120
What: Great bargains on individual and whole book sets including –

• Houghton Mifflin,
• Saxon
• Purposeful Design
• A Reason for…
• Open Court
• and more.

Plus guided reading sets to build your school library.

From K-12, new and used.

Cash only.