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Thursday, April 9, 2015

What We're Reading :: Easter Edition

The children's Easter baskets were filled with books, so suffice it to say that those have kept them entirely occupied over the last few days.  More on that in just a moment...

Me:
Wojtyla's The Jeweler's Shop (for my local book club)
Karen Glass' Consider This (doing a re-read alongside the "slow simmer" thread on the AO forums)
Goudge's Pilgrim's Inn (still barely started)
Lowry's Number the Stars (pre-reading for my kids)
Linney's Getting Started with Latin (trying to decide on a Latin option for next school year)

To the Kids:
Lewis' Prince Caspian (on audio--we're doing all of Narnia on audio for summer!)
Wilder's These Happy Golden Years (just finished!)
Marigold Hunt's St. Patrick's Summer (on the last chapter of our Lenten reading)
deJong's The Wheel on the School (just finished this free read up from Term 3 yesterday)

For Vincent, age 8:

For Gianna, age 8:

detail of the red hardcover -- swoon

For Cate, age 6:

For Xavier, age 4:

For Bridget, age 3:

For Clara, age 2:
we have these in full size, but these are sweet miniatures that I couldn't resist
Baby Andrew didn't get a basket this year; he was very happy playing with the kids' leftovers. ;)

(Oh, and as always: every one of these was pulled from the box I keep in the garage for all the used children's books I buy throughout the year!  My favorite kind of holiday shopping is sorting through that bin for books that will suit each child. :))

So did books fill your Easter baskets this year?  (Ours had a few other goodies too--I'll share those in another post.)  What does your early-spring reading look like?  Any current favorites?  I'd love to hear!

11 comments:

  1. I love these posts! We are in the middle of Little Town on the Prairie, and plan to do Narnia this summer as well! Also starting Danny, the Champion of the World with my middle next week. Love the overlap.

    I'm not reading anything good right now, it's time to admit that and stop pretending I'm going to read my current book!

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    1. I love the overlap too--always so fun to see other families reading the same books we are. :)

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  2. These books loook wonderful, writitng down some titles for sure!

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    1. I get most of my book recommendations from other bloggers (and the forums), so I definitely know what you mean! :)

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  3. We are also going to be doing Narnia this summer! We have about 6 more weeks of school left (give or take, depending on viruses we seem to be getting hit with) and then we will be starting the Narnia a thon!

    Do you have a specific audio version that you know is read well? I will for sure read some aloud, but breaking it up now and then w audio would be good. That's what we did for the Little House Series and it worked well.

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    1. We have the Harper audio version (it's sold as a box set with different readers for each book, including Lynn Redgrave, Kenneth Branagh, and other famous Brits as the readers), and so far it's fabulous--we just finished the second book. My mom got the set for me for Christmas. :) I have heard there is a free version floating around somewhere...maybe Focus on the Family, if I'm remembering right? I'm not familiar with it personally, bit it might be worth trying before purchasing, the other. My only warning is that they are numbered according to the "new" Harper-Collins order rather than original order, so if you want to listen in original order, ignore their book numbers and follow the list on Wiki. ;) I imagine I will read some of the books aloud at a later date, but I plan to go through the whole series on audio this time around. It has made for a couple weeks of very, very enjoyable naptime listening so far with my oldest four! :)

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  4. My daughter did Getting Started with Latin for her first Latin course. She really liked it. BTW, have you all finished Water Babies yet? If so, what was you overall thoughts of the book?

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    1. Yes, I'm trying to decide between GSWL first or just straight into the Memoria Press courses (either Latina Christiana or First Form). We prefer ecclesiastical pronunciation and hope to move on to Henle in the future, which narrowed down our options nicely. LOL

      Yes, we did finish The Water Babies a few months ago. It's funny because although I love Kingsley, the book was a little odd for my tastes...but the kids loved it, so go figure! I liked the second half of the book better than the first, as did they, so it's definitely one of those that gets better as you go on. The scenes of forgiveness and redemption at the end were powerful. So I would say that I don't regret reading it at all, and I would encourage my future kids to pick it up as a free read, but I wouldn't necessarily read the whole thing aloud again. It took a long time! ;)

      So are you reading it? I'd love to hear your thoughts too!

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    2. My daughter did the ecclesiastical pronunciation with GSWL. She then moved on to First Form Latin. I think that the GSWL laid a good foundation for moving into First Form Latin. It has a slow, incremental approach that makes it great for an introduction to the language. My daughter was older when she started Latin though. What age(s) will your children be when you start Latin?

      I haven't started Water Babies yet. It's sitting on the bookshelf waiting. :) I actually was waiting to here your thoughts on it once you finished it. We are getting ready to pick another book for our family read-aloud time so maybe we'll give this one a go. :)

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    3. Yes, I was going back and forth between GSWL and Latina Christiana as an intro to FFL, but I have GSWL out from the library right now and it looks like a good option. And it's a lot cheaper too. ;) My kids will have just turned nine and be in AO Year 4 when we start.

      I'll be interested to hear what you think about Water Babies if you do end up reading it!

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    4. I will be looking at Latin programs before too long for my youngest. I noticed that the Prima Latina is geared towards grades 2-4. I wonder if it might be good to go ahead and use that and begin Latin with my youngest next year in 2nd grade instead of doing another year of Spanish.

      I think we will give Water Babies a try. But I think I'd like to go ahead and finish up some of the Just So Stories first. :) I'll have to jot myself a note to be sure to come back and let you know what I think of Water Babies. :)

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