"If one has not read the newspapers for some months and then reads them all together, one sees, as one never saw before, how much time is wasted with this kind of literature."
I quite agree. I read somewhere that if a newspaper only came out once a decade, or once a century, the stories it featured would be very different to the dailies. What would make a roundup of the 20th century? Not the stuff that filled the papers most days!
My 8, almost 7 year old, and 5 year old sons are in year 2 of LEGO obsession. And they, too, spend many waking hours constructing and strategizing and battling. They, too, only use their Magnatiles or blocks or bigger Duplo LEGO blocks as props for their little LEGO "creations," as we call them.
Other read alouds we've loved in the last year- All of a Kind Family, Mary Poppins series, and The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie.
That is so reassuring Susie! The thing that drives me most crazy, possibly, is how none of the Lego is ever allowed to go away. Which of course adds to the obsession, because it’s always right there in view. I’m seriously considering putting it all in a big cardboard box and putting it away, even for just a couple of days, to give the other toys a chance!
It is! It was new to me this year. My fantasy-loving son especially enjoyed it. I thought it had a depth similar to old fairy tales that stick with you. I'd now like to read all of his stuff.
I love your read-aloud list. My kids and I started reading The Borrowers this week and are enjoying thinking about the interesting problems of scale it raises! I want to read Anne of Green Gables but will probably save it for a few more years (my daughter is 5 and my son is 3). So many wonderful books to read! I'll have to take a look at The Children of Green Knowe. Other Rivers also looks quite fascinating.
Thanks also for sharing your idea about lists. I might try that with my five-year-old this week.
This is my first year homeschooling, and I am really enjoying reading about what you do!
My two loved the Studio Ghibli film ‘Arietty’, but they haven’t read the book yet. (We don’t normally allow movies before books, I don’t know how that one sneaked through!).
I started My Family and Other Animals with the children over the summer, and although they laughed hysterically over some of it, I think really it will be better in a couple of years. Patience!
My kids are 14, 12, 10, 8, (and a couple younger ones)— we waited to read aloud Anne of Green Gables until this year; it has been amazing. The older three had already read it independently but it was still so very enjoyable to read it all together.
The book about Chinese education looks quite interesting - thank you for mentioning it. I listened to a podcast a while back on a scholarly book about the differences between Eastern and Western education, Cultural Foundation of Learning: East and West by Jin Li, and it was VERY thought-provoking.
Yes, I’m keen to add some E Nesbit. My daughter loved Five Children and It as an audiobook last year, and tried The Story of the Treasure Seekers recently but it didn’t grab her. I have terrible memories of Treasure Island at school, painfully slow and dull. This is a barrier to trying to introduce it to the children in an unbiased way!
We loved Five Children and It, but didn’t love any other of the Nesbit we have read (Enchanted Castle, Railway Children). The sequel Phoenix and the Carpet was good, but not as great as the first one!
And yes I agree; overcoming those early biases is difficult!
With regards to Lego - enjoy this fairly cheap stage (I know how irritating this sounds!) where they will replay with the same bricks. Mine became obsessed with ellieV on you tube at this age who makes houses out of lego for people - it was the absolute cutest stage ever. Now they want 3 figure sets to build in one focused multiple hour long builds which then never get touched again - but God forbid you try and put them away! On the subjects on newspapers I wonder if you would enjoy the Day? I receive daily emails from them based on a specific reading age and I read out the headlines to the mermaids each morning and ask them which ones we should read aloud. The stories cover soe more gritty stuff but the ones they remember are the stories like Eton kids given old fashioned phones or the man who bought a country in America and created his own National Anthem. Happy to do a Day in the life Homeschool for you.
Thank you for this Catherine I love reading your posts I felt like I was waiting for this and I said to my husband yaaaay I'm going to be able to have a really good read later.
We weren't going to have the whole summer off either but then it just sort of wound down and a break happened. Then on Monday we just seemed ready to go again.
“So much so-called science for children is really just craft activities or magic tricks with no scientific learning going on at all.” Ha, yes, how very true; it’s frustrated me, too. This year I’m starting Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding with my home ed kiddo for exactly that reason.
By the way, I was a Lego-obsessed kid. I never really moved on in some ways — I just look forward to building flat pack furniture instead. 😉
Ha! I LOVE assembling flat pack furniture! So satisfying. I hope the Lego obsession will give my children the same skills!
I hadn’t heard of Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding. It looks interesting. You’ll have to give me your review when you’ve got to grips with it!
My 5 year old races through readalouds ("Another chapter!") so I've also frantically been compiling a list so that we've always got another one to reach for. One of my favourite activities and even the 3 year old listens in half the time. Has your daughter read 101 Dalmatians?
101 Dalmatians is a great suggestion, I’d completely forgotten about it. She was given it as a gift when she was maybe 5 or 6, and it was too much for her to read alone. But I think they’d both love it now as a read aloud.
When my two were 5 and 3 we used to spend hours every day all snuggled on the sofa reading book after book. I loved it. I think now they can read themselves, and have lots they want to fit into their days (even if a lot of it is Lego!), there is more competition for the time and reading aloud gets pushed aside. But I’m trying reading to them at tea time, when they’re eating and I’m not, which is working quite well.
What a great booklist! Mr Popper’s Penguins is another classic that might fit the criteria- it may feel “old fashioned” to start, but with a bit of a nudge they might enjoy the adventure.
Second Mr Popper’s Penguins! My youngest had this as a read aloud in his kindergarten co-op class and loved it. We also have the audiobook, and it’s one he reaches for again and again
"If one has not read the newspapers for some months and then reads them all together, one sees, as one never saw before, how much time is wasted with this kind of literature."
Goethe
A quote to live by!
I quite agree. I read somewhere that if a newspaper only came out once a decade, or once a century, the stories it featured would be very different to the dailies. What would make a roundup of the 20th century? Not the stuff that filled the papers most days!
My 8, almost 7 year old, and 5 year old sons are in year 2 of LEGO obsession. And they, too, spend many waking hours constructing and strategizing and battling. They, too, only use their Magnatiles or blocks or bigger Duplo LEGO blocks as props for their little LEGO "creations," as we call them.
Other read alouds we've loved in the last year- All of a Kind Family, Mary Poppins series, and The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie.
That is so reassuring Susie! The thing that drives me most crazy, possibly, is how none of the Lego is ever allowed to go away. Which of course adds to the obsession, because it’s always right there in view. I’m seriously considering putting it all in a big cardboard box and putting it away, even for just a couple of days, to give the other toys a chance!
Ha! Yes, never allowed to go away. I hear you on that.
The Princess and the Goblin is so, so good!
I’d never heard of it. Adding to the list!
It is! It was new to me this year. My fantasy-loving son especially enjoyed it. I thought it had a depth similar to old fairy tales that stick with you. I'd now like to read all of his stuff.
I love your read-aloud list. My kids and I started reading The Borrowers this week and are enjoying thinking about the interesting problems of scale it raises! I want to read Anne of Green Gables but will probably save it for a few more years (my daughter is 5 and my son is 3). So many wonderful books to read! I'll have to take a look at The Children of Green Knowe. Other Rivers also looks quite fascinating.
Thanks also for sharing your idea about lists. I might try that with my five-year-old this week.
This is my first year homeschooling, and I am really enjoying reading about what you do!
My two loved the Studio Ghibli film ‘Arietty’, but they haven’t read the book yet. (We don’t normally allow movies before books, I don’t know how that one sneaked through!).
I started My Family and Other Animals with the children over the summer, and although they laughed hysterically over some of it, I think really it will be better in a couple of years. Patience!
I didn’t know about the film! I’ll check it out. It is so hard to wait for the kids to grow into books sometimes!!!
My kids are 14, 12, 10, 8, (and a couple younger ones)— we waited to read aloud Anne of Green Gables until this year; it has been amazing. The older three had already read it independently but it was still so very enjoyable to read it all together.
It’s always so hard to wait for the right moment when you know there are so many great books to read!
Good luck and enjoy your days.
The book about Chinese education looks quite interesting - thank you for mentioning it. I listened to a podcast a while back on a scholarly book about the differences between Eastern and Western education, Cultural Foundation of Learning: East and West by Jin Li, and it was VERY thought-provoking.
Thank you Sara, I will definitely have a listen.
The Saturdays is a good one too. Mary Poppins. I do find Lego is a phase that ebbs and flows. We are back on the piano and Pokémon now.
A piano phase sounds delightful! We have also had the Pokemon phase - I prefer Lego! Good to hear that these things come and go.
Fantastic list of read-alouds! I would also add Edith Nesbit’s *Five Children and It* and Treasure Island.
Yes, I’m keen to add some E Nesbit. My daughter loved Five Children and It as an audiobook last year, and tried The Story of the Treasure Seekers recently but it didn’t grab her. I have terrible memories of Treasure Island at school, painfully slow and dull. This is a barrier to trying to introduce it to the children in an unbiased way!
We loved Five Children and It, but didn’t love any other of the Nesbit we have read (Enchanted Castle, Railway Children). The sequel Phoenix and the Carpet was good, but not as great as the first one!
And yes I agree; overcoming those early biases is difficult!
Love the litter picking!
Up to Bag 16 now!
With regards to Lego - enjoy this fairly cheap stage (I know how irritating this sounds!) where they will replay with the same bricks. Mine became obsessed with ellieV on you tube at this age who makes houses out of lego for people - it was the absolute cutest stage ever. Now they want 3 figure sets to build in one focused multiple hour long builds which then never get touched again - but God forbid you try and put them away! On the subjects on newspapers I wonder if you would enjoy the Day? I receive daily emails from them based on a specific reading age and I read out the headlines to the mermaids each morning and ask them which ones we should read aloud. The stories cover soe more gritty stuff but the ones they remember are the stories like Eton kids given old fashioned phones or the man who bought a country in America and created his own National Anthem. Happy to do a Day in the life Homeschool for you.
Every time we visit a Lego shop the majority of folk in there are Millennials and their kids are absent - maybe at home maybe non-existent!
Thank you for this Catherine I love reading your posts I felt like I was waiting for this and I said to my husband yaaaay I'm going to be able to have a really good read later.
We weren't going to have the whole summer off either but then it just sort of wound down and a break happened. Then on Monday we just seemed ready to go again.
That’s so nice to hear Zena, thank you!
It’s funny how children/families seem to innately have these rhythms, times when we need a break and times when everyone is raring to go again.
“So much so-called science for children is really just craft activities or magic tricks with no scientific learning going on at all.” Ha, yes, how very true; it’s frustrated me, too. This year I’m starting Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding with my home ed kiddo for exactly that reason.
By the way, I was a Lego-obsessed kid. I never really moved on in some ways — I just look forward to building flat pack furniture instead. 😉
Ha! I LOVE assembling flat pack furniture! So satisfying. I hope the Lego obsession will give my children the same skills!
I hadn’t heard of Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding. It looks interesting. You’ll have to give me your review when you’ve got to grips with it!
My 5 year old races through readalouds ("Another chapter!") so I've also frantically been compiling a list so that we've always got another one to reach for. One of my favourite activities and even the 3 year old listens in half the time. Has your daughter read 101 Dalmatians?
101 Dalmatians is a great suggestion, I’d completely forgotten about it. She was given it as a gift when she was maybe 5 or 6, and it was too much for her to read alone. But I think they’d both love it now as a read aloud.
When my two were 5 and 3 we used to spend hours every day all snuggled on the sofa reading book after book. I loved it. I think now they can read themselves, and have lots they want to fit into their days (even if a lot of it is Lego!), there is more competition for the time and reading aloud gets pushed aside. But I’m trying reading to them at tea time, when they’re eating and I’m not, which is working quite well.
My kids did eventually grow out of Lego.
Thank you, that gives me hope!
What a great booklist! Mr Popper’s Penguins is another classic that might fit the criteria- it may feel “old fashioned” to start, but with a bit of a nudge they might enjoy the adventure.
Thank you Kerri, added to the list! Nothing wrong with old fashioned!
Second Mr Popper’s Penguins! My youngest had this as a read aloud in his kindergarten co-op class and loved it. We also have the audiobook, and it’s one he reaches for again and again