Along with our regular school readings, we always have read alouds going on. Read alouds are getting so fun now that my children are getting older! There are so many great books I missed out on as a kid because I just didn't know good literature, so it's just as exciting for me to read them as it is for my oldest daughter to listen! (The other girls come and go while I read for now, and that's okay. I intentionally choose pictures books for them as they still are all more on that level.)
This year we read so many great books. I don't have much of a rhyme or reason for how I pick the books other than choosing books that I think we will like and trying to vary the books to explore a variety of styles and stories.
This year the books we covered as read alouds from August-May were:
Three Tales of My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Lucky Orphan by Ida Cecil Moore
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Macaroon by Julia Cunningham
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
A Tree for Peter by Kate Seredy
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
For sure, my favorite was Heidi. I never read this book before, and it is such a well-written story as well as completely captivating and beautiful. A Little Princess and A Tree for Peter would be my next favorites. I had never read the complete Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and it was definitely a very interesting story and not my favorite type of book, but I am so glad I finally read the story in its entirety as it truly is a classic, and so many references are made to it!
My Father's Dragon really grabbed the girls' interest. Brielle sat for the entire book, which is rare for her with books of this length. She loved it! Sophie enjoyed it so much that she went off and read the whole first story on her own, which is quite a bit of reading for her still, as she usually reads smaller stories.
I asked Sophie which book was her favorite, and she said Lucky Orphan was her favorite, and My Father's Dragon was her second favorite. I was actually surprised, because she loved Heidi so much while we were reading it that I assumed it would be her favorite. She loves books, though, so she begs every night (and sometimes afternoon) to read more of our read alouds!
Though I certainly liked some of these stories more than others, I would recommend all of them as read alouds (or just to read on your own or as recommendations for your children). They are all wonderful books, each in their own way. So thankful these books all rest on the shelves in my mind now, and it really is a treasure to share in the enjoyment of these books with my daughter. We love talking about them afterwards, as they are a part of both of us now!
A few side notes:
- If you follow this blog because you love yearly updates on the girls, I have moved those updates back to an old blog that I used to use just for updates on them. With this blog gaining popularity, I wanted to provide more privacy for my girls as well as to keep this blog more focused on homeschooling, homesteading, and renovations. Email me if you'd like the web address for the updates on the girls. You can find my email icon on the main page (if you're on an iPhone, you'll have to scroll to the bottom and change to "view web version" to see the email icon).
- I will still do house and renovation updates on here... I just haven't had any big ones to share since the kitchen :) We have lately been doing a lot of work outside- planting grass for a field, planting a garden, taking down limbs as well as some trees. Our farm has a lot of upkeep, and some that had been neglected for several years, so we are happily playing catch up :)
- I do many more updates on Instagram, if you don't already follow me there. You can find me @littlewomenfarmhouse.
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