Reading time

My most favorite time of our school day is reading time- the kids all cozy up and we read whatever read alouds are required for the day- and some that aren't. Hearing "Maple's" leaves blowing in the breeze and cuddling with everyone as we read and sip a warm drink (once again, chai, mocha or hot cocoa!) is so calming and the perfect mid afternoon break for all of us. Now, besides Katy reading out loud, we also have Hannah joining in. She loves reading out loud to Stephen- her current favorite being "Albequrque Turkey," which we unpacked from the fall bin in early celebration of Thanksgiving. As you can see, Stephen enjoys it, too! We just finished reading Charlotte's Web (I think we've read that out loud at least 3 times, and no one tires of it), and we're going through A Child's Garden of Verses (the girls all love Robert Louis Stevenson- this is our second time through it), more poems by William Blake, American Tall Tales, Parables of Nature, Heroes by Kingsley, Aesop's fables, Just So Stories, Paddle to the Sea, James Herriot's Treasury, The Blue Fairy Book, and continuing through Pilgrim's Progress and the Lamb's Book of Shakespeare. Hannah has St. George and the Dragon (another favorite) to read before moving on to Little House in the Big Woods, which Katy and I are really looking forward to because it's been three years since we read that out loud- Hannah and Erin really don't remember it. Whew! I know it seems like a long list, but we cover the books over weeks/months/years so it really isn't a lot- in fact, you start to feel like they are your friends. I still remember our first year sticking to just Ambleside Online's reading list- when we finished Five Little Peppers and How they Grew and Understood Betsy, Katy and Hannah were literally teary eyed that the book was done... they wanted to know more about them and read them over again! What a great testimony to how these books can impact us and how important it is to pick the right books!