Book Basket; kids kindle and hardcopy reading.

Ronan got a Kindle for his birthday and he loves it. I love the fact that both he and Avila will spend quiet time reading, (Avila has my old Kindle) often with Profiterole and Cecily on their laps (Prof and Ces are the guinea pigs).

I had bought some books for the kids Kindles and a friend gave Ronan some money towards more books.

He has read the first two books in Meriol Trevors Letzenstein Chronicles. With the money from J N P I’ve  bought the third and fourth books in the series as he has requested.

He’s reading The Mitchells at the moment and says it’s good. I think I got it as a freebie some time ago.

Avila has been reading Alvin’s Secret Code and would like some more of those books. She’s reading aloud (to me) Children of the New Forest which is certainly stretching her vocabulary.

She’s also read Five Children and It

We don’t have a book basket this week but Ronan was reading St Francis of Assisi which is a book I bought for Alex for his Confirmation as he took that name.

Also they’ve been reading Marguerite Makes a Book

I do love the fact that both Ronan and Avila love to read. I hope I can encourage them to read good stuff and so grow with their reading. I don’t buy into the idea that all books are good and all screens are bad. That simply isn’t true. Neither do I believe that all old books are good and modern ones are bad. If that were the case Charlotte Mason would not have needed to warn parents against exposing their children to “twaddle”. It is sad that perhaps we can say the newer versions of twaddle are more poisonous than the old versions, but I think as parents we have to be cautious in all the stuff we expose our children to.

There’s plenty of really good books out there, especially once the children have hit a stage where they can read fluently.

Heleyna is reading some of the Oxford Owl books as part of her reading.

She loves it when Avila reads Winnie the Pooh and from me she always chooses Sheepford and Oxley (bk 1)  As Classical Academic Press are  promising bilingual versions I will hang on before buying more.

The other books she’s had out a few times is Our Lady of Guadalupe pop up book. She and her friends seem to love it.

Ronan has been reading the beautifully illustrated Gregor Mendel; the Friar Who Grew Peas

I like the way the children are able to mix happily between ebooks and hardcopy.

Meanwhile I am a Kindle only reader these days. I’ve just finished re-reading Marcus Grodi’s first novel How Firm and Foundation and I’m on to his next one Pillar and Bulwark I have the first one in hard copy but I’ve rebought it for Kindle and don’t mind as I know a lot of Marcus’ work is supporting those who in coming Home to the Catholic Church have lost everything; job home and sometimes a big chunk of their family and friends.

And for lighter reading I’m reading the Odd Thomas books by Dean Koontz

I am also slowly pre-reading The Mystery of the Periodic Table with a view to planning some lessons around it.

Also reading A Father’s Tale by Michael O’Brien

Iona is reading some Raffles books (in hardcopy) but the link is for the free ebooks

The Deacon brought me Holy Communion yesterday, and we gor talking about the joy of books

Book Basket

This weeks book basket has the following books:

Frog and Toad books. There’s a great story about frog and toad going sledging in the snow. Just right for all the snow we have here at the moment.

Diary of a Wombat This is a simple and funny little tale for the younger ones. Heleyna loves it and Avila often reads it to her.

Charlie Needs a Cloak. Another good winter story for Heleyna. It’s by the children’s favourite author Tomie DePaola.

Brother Jerome and the Angels in the Bakery Just a lovely story with beautiful illustrations about a monk who has a bakery to help make the monastery make ends meet. Rona loves this story as he wants to be a baker.

Paintings First Discovery/Art

The 5000 Year old Puzzle

I have given Avila my old Kindle, and have a Paperwhite for me now which is brilliant in all sorts of light from dark to bright sunlight. It’s a touch screen which I was unsure about at first because of my peripheral neuropathy. I wasn’t sure the screen would recognise my fingers but it’s been fine most of the time.

Keeping secrets in our house is nigh on impossible – (which I suppose is ok really because I don’t approve of secrets; they always end with biting someone) – but anyway, dear old Ronan has found out that he is getting a Kindle for his birthday.

At the moment he and Avila are sharing my old one.

She is reading E.Nesbit’s(opens list)  The Phoenix and the Carpet which I read to them as a read aloud some time ago. She also has Tom’s Midnight Garden for quick reading. She read it to me ages ago now.

Ronan is reading L. Frank Baum (opens list)  The Tin Woodman of Oz

What the adults are reading:

I am reading Les Miserables  which I read years ago and can’t remember well. Iona has seen the film and thinks we should go too.

I am also reading The Silmarillion which, like Les Mis I haven’t read for many years. Nice to go back to these things.

Al is reading Dorothy Sayers Strong Poison on the train as he goes to and from work.

Iona is reading Daphne du Maurier’s The King’s General. She’s a big Daphne Du Maurier fan.

Book Basket

I think the book basket this week might only be slightly changed next week. I am not pushing too hard on “personal reading” time but they do seem to just pick a book from the basket and sit with it for a quiet time.

The Usborne See Inside Your Body has been a long time favourite.  As they got Mr. Guts for Christmas it’s been revived as an interest.

Sir Cumference and Knights of the Round Table. A fun way to learn a few maths facts. Avila has taken to these books. I think they are a nice complement to the Life of Fred books they love so much.

The King’s Equal is short and easy to read. Nice relaxing book with some depth of story.

The Glorious Flight of Louis Bleriot across the English channel.

Uncle Chestnut Lovely whimsical stories based around our beloved G.K Chesterton. The book is a very slim paperback for the price. I must admit being taken about by how small the book was for such a price- but it is very well written. (perhaps it’s cheaper in the USA)

At night they are reading something different. The Roman Mysteries that they love so much have a set of mini stories and Ronan has just finished The Trumpeter of Krakow which he really enjoyed.

For read alouds Avila has just finised Kateri Tekakwitha and will read  Mates of the Kurlalong which her aunt has lent to her.

Ronan is reading Swallows and Amazons

I am finding that many books are available as ebooks from Bethlehem, Sophia and Ignatius press and are cheaper in dollars than in sterling. They are certainly cheaper in ebook than hard copy.

So, don’t tell him, but I’ve bought Ronan a kindle for his birthday (24th Feb). Between now and then I will get him a couple of books and I’ve already started loading it with free books. Amazon let you put together a wishlist so I’m building one for him as I go along.

I did spend quite some time looking at other ereaders before I caved to the Kindle again. But the advantage is that we can have the same book on up to five kindles which is brilliant for group reading times. I’ve decided to upgrade to a paperwhite and give Avila my kindle. She’s been asking for one almost more than Ronan.

Literature for Grade 4 (yr 5) (boy)

I am wondering if I should have some kind of book basket or box in which I lay out a number of books I would like the children to read together, alone or to each other. Not sure I need to as they seem to simply help themselves from the bookshelves without me needing to push it too much.

As his read aloud at the moment he is reading Swallows and Amazons

Both Ronan and Avila are reading the Roman Mysteries that Iona’s friend gave them.  This series has really caught their imagination and seems to be teaching them some genuine historical stuff.

Both of them are allowed quiet night time reading in bed.

There are some quick picture books for older children that Ronan has taken to such as Gregor Mendel; the Friar Who Grew Peas, which looks set to be harder to get hold of since when I bought it. Why are so many of the good books so hard to obtain but rubbish gets massive print runs? One of life’s little mysteries.

Don’t get into the idea that by Grade 4 they have grown out of picture books. There are many very well written and beautifully illustrated books that have something to offer for all ages and are ideal for mixed age groups of children. This book about Mendel goes into some detail about his genetic experiments with good illustrations for getting to grips with the science involved.

Another recent read-together that was good for all three of them was The Little Ships: A Story of the Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk.

Ronan has nearly finished reading me the Usborne adaptation of Don Quixote.

For Greek Lit which is recommended for this grade I have D’Aulaire’s Greek Myths (Another find at Wigtown)

The Children’s Homer

and

Archimedes and the Door of Science

Galen and the Gateway to medicine

I also want to revisit The Fairyland of Science.

I’m a bit disappointed that he hasn’t really taken to the Narnia books. I might leave it and try again later on in the academic year and have a go with the Hobbit.

He’s been doing some chilled on the sofa time with Archie’s War and he’s taken to the Usborne books Story of Painting and Story of Inventions

He’ll probably read more Michael Morpurgo as well. So far we haven’t stumbled on anything bad with his stuff, Obviously some books are more suitable for older children so he wont be reading them yet.

As you can see there’s a mixture here, some easy reading and some that will stretch him a little harder.

I’m sure there will be more as the year goes on.

Book Review, Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy.

I have just finished The Cross, the last of the Kristen Lavransdatter trilogy by the award winning author Sigrid Undset. I think the kudos for a beautifully rendered translation goes to Tina Nunnally.  When I blogged about books that are true and therefore speak to us in harmony with natural law,  I was still reading Unset. She shows a profound grasp of human life, love and struggle. She writes from the viewpoint and soul of Kristen as a child, young girl in love, wife and mother of seven sons and mistress of a great house to her old age and the final realisation of her life and struggle, brought about by a sudden opportunity to make an astonishing act of mercy.

Undset’s deep understanding of human nature and the consequences of choices and actions make all the characters of the book very real and believable.

Kristen’s relationship with her saintly father Lavrans and the more difficult relationship with her mother is drawn sympathetically while avoiding  saccharine and vinegar in her description of Kristin’s parents.

Undset’s deep knowledge of history also shines in this story. There are no glaring historical errors to irritate the reader. In fact, there are some details that ring so true that they left me saying “Ah so that’s it!”

While the story is placed in fourteenth century Norway, it has a timeless quality to it, most probably because of the depth of the characters and the fact that human nature has changed little, if at all. I love the complexity of Kristin’s life, love and faith. She commits some truly awful sins, and has to wrestle with her conscience, pride and guilt over them.

Life is way too short to spend reading what Miss Charlotte would call “twaddle” and too short indeed to read trash, so why not make every moment count by reading something good for the heart, mind and soul. This trilogy is it.

A more eloquent review is here: Under Her Heart: Motherhood in Kristen Lavransdatter.

This set of books will be read again (I hope) by me.

 

Home Education: Lent reading and soul scrubbing; and a Freebie

Lent is under way and we are plunging into the Lent term.

They will be listening to Glory Stories, which they love. I want Ronan to have a good saint book to read beside his Tom’s Midnight Garden. I think I’m going to get him to read Saint Ignatius and the Company of Jesus.

Avila will be reading some of the St Joseph books - we have a pile of them. (Some are better written than others)

There are also good LENTERN RESOURCES at That Resource Site. You might also like my new resource for the older ones and maybe even for you. THE SEVEN LAST WORDS. I am afraid it was a bit of a struggle to write, so please forgive me if there are bits in it that are a bit – how shall I put this? – fibro foggy. Perhaps you can offer up any irritation it gives you

Heleyna is still working through My First Bible Stories and she too will have some St Joseph Picture book stories and perhaps Amy Steedman stories such as In God’s Garden.

MY LENT READING

I am reading A Song For Nagasaki by Paul Glynn. It is the story of Dr Takashi Nagai, his journey from Shinto, through atheism to the Catholic faith, via Pascal and the beauty of Japanese poetry. But it is also the story of a man who risked so much and suffered so much to help the victims of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War.

You can get a good overview of the amazing life of Dr Nagai from Fr. Serephim HERE and HERE.

home education: reading week

As there is so much to organise for Christmas, we are spending this week reading and cooking.

The children are continuing their music lessons every day and then there are stories.

Ronan is reading Emil and the Detectives and Avila is reading What a Year from the 26 Fairmount Ave books.

Heleyna is reading Oxford Reading Tree stage 1+ books and the books on more.starfall and Starfall.

I have also just downloaded a free geography – maps and flags game called Seterra which has proved fun.

Read Alouds this week:

The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie de Paola (This book seems really difficult to get hold of these days.)

From my Kindle

The Pheonix and the Carpet

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (bought when Yesterday’s Classics were doing a massive deal). It’s not the real story of Santa Claus, but it’s a fun tale nevertheless.

My personal reading at the moment is Theophilos by Michael O’Brien

and Dorothy L Sayers Unpleasentness at the Bellona Club – but I can’t remember where I found it online.

I am sure there will be more, around all the cooking, prep and stuff and I’ll update if there is.

My Amazon store and Baldwin Project deal

I have made an Amazon store, which I suppose is anything but distributist of me, but then I suppose you could say it’s a bit like a corner store in cyber space.

Go and have a look at LIVING BOOKS, NO TWADDLE (Hopefully) To be honest I am not expecting to make much money from this, but as I am setting it out as a sort o curriculum I hope some one will find it useful. I’m still updating it so keep an eye on it.

I am presently setting up a separate blog with curriculum details that will include freebies and other stuff. It’s not ready to launch, and as things are busy right now, probably wont be for a while – but I’ll let you know when it’s done.

Meanwhile, if you want to spend your hard earned cash usefully, there is this lovely offer at the Baldwin Project where you get 200+ ebooks for under $100.

Enjoy.

home education book basket and kindle

I’m sorting out some holiday read alouds and self-reading books for the children, as well as some audio books for long journey’s ans days out.

Light up Your Brain has some lovely tales such as The Velveteen Rabbit and The Emperors New Clothes. There are a couple of Beatrix Potter stories too – but I really don’t like her stuff so can’t face it on long journey’s. (Yes I am a very bad home eductor).

Heleyna has asked for Dinosaurs Love Underpants and Chicken Lickin’ She is reading Can You See Me and some Starfall books

Avila is reading Danny’s Secret Fox and The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

Ronan is finishing off Detectives in Togas with me reading some and him reading some so we can finish before the end of term.  He is also reading a tatty old copy of Usborne’s Mysteries of the Unknown.

Finally, what is on my Kindle? Lots of stuff.

If you plug the Kindle into your computer and open the files you will see you have three files folders; documents where all the books go, music where apparently you can store and listen to music while you read. I haven’t tried that. I’m not sure I can read that well with something like that going on- but if it works for you, it’s a nice little feature.

Finally there’s a folder marked audible. This is where you can put mp3s and audio books. The speakers on the Kindle are pretty good considering and there’s an audio jack hole at the bottom.

Jimmy Akin has started his own podcasting which you can get with itunes. You can also download Catholic Answers with lots of Akin wisdom and knowledge.

The first Outline of Sanity podcast is available. The Distributist Review also has a list of distributist authors and their books, some of which are free.

I am not 100% sure of what I think of The Distributist Review, but there are some good articles.

And I have tons of  Cath Lab to listen to so that I can get my head around Science and Ethics and all that jazz.

Book wise I have just finished reading The Necromancers by R H Benson and I am reading his biography titled “Hugh” written by his brother. It’s a gentle story but it is clear that the brothers did not really understand each other. They come across as a loving but strangely separate family. Their father became Archbishop of Cambury in 1883 and was succeeded by the famous Archbishop Temple.

I enjoyed the Necromancers. It’s an easier read than “Come Rack, Come Rope,” which was the first of his books I ever read.

The Necromancers delves into the world of spiritualism that was so fashioable among certain people in those days. I think it was spiritualism that caused poor old Conan Doyle to loose his way somewhat (the Cottingely Fairies springs to mind.) Benson looks hard at the underbelly of this “light entertainment” and shows the very real damage that messing with that sort of stuff can cause. It’s a ghost story with a strangely even handed approach, treating the psychology od the situation, rather than ecto-plasm.

I recommend Lord of the World by Benson which is a piece of disturbingly accurate prophecy of the ‘future’.

Home Education (Summer week 1) Book basket with kindle

Heleyna (age 4) is reading The Pancake and Floppy Floppy from Stage 1 ORT. She is also reading Peppa Pig Stars (we have the copy without the CD).And The Big Alfie Out of Doors Story Book

Avila (age 6, K, yr 1) is reading Born to Dance ORT 11 and other stuff.

Ronan (age 8 g2 yr 3) is still reading Detectives in Togas and Treasure Island off my Kindle.

Read alouds this week are The Spartan Twins, Heroes of Israel poetry from Ambleside and Fairyland of Science (also available at Baldwin Books).

Other books this week: Exploring Creation with Botany and Science 2

Songschool Latin and Greek which the children reall enjoy and has boosted our classical language lessons out of the rut we were grinding through.

Our Catholic Legacy Vol 1 and Story of the World 2 (which I don’t recommend although Vol 1 is ok)

Religion 2 for YC which I am using for both Ronan and Avila. In Sept he will move onto R 3 and she’ll be on R 1 and I’ll run them alongside the Faith and Life books.

My personal reading Necromancers by Robert Hugh Benson

Iona had just started Plugged by Eoin Colfer. It gets some pretty mixed reviews on Amazon. I’ll let you know what she thinks of it later.

Free Resources for June the month of the Sacred Heart can be found at That Reasource Site and my Little History of the Priesthood

I am sure we’ll be looking at more books as the week goes on. I’ll try and update.

This will be a five week term and I really must plan the Autumn term from Sept to Christmas.

Confessions of a Kindle owner…

I have a confession to make. I have really annoyed my 17 year old daughter, a well brought up girl, who has a great love for books – real books. How can I have so offended her? Well, I have bought a Kindle.

This was not a sudden transaction on my part. I have been considering the merit or otherwise of e-readers for some time and have carefully considered the choices out there. Iona made it perfectly clear from the beginning that she utterly and completely disapproves of a book where there is neither booky smell nor the satisfaction of page turning. “When I am told a book is a ‘page turner’,” she tells me, “I think, that is the very least I expect of a book. What kind of book would it be if I couldn’t turn the page?”

Well the answer, which she finds most distressing, is a Kindle. Her most indecorous mother is now in possession of such an item. Worse still – I love it!

Now in part I have to blame dear Nonna for helping to lead me astray. She told me that not only is it gentle on the eyes, but (and this was the clincher) she can hold it easily and her arms don’t hurt!

Now, I must admit, all things being equal, I lean towards Iona’s point of view. Books are the most wonderful invention of man (properly written ones that is) and we have a house full of them. In fact we have so many books, it has caused  my poor husband to proclaim the oxymoronic phrase “Too many books.”

So why did I buy the darned contraption?

Firstly, because I just can’t see to read very often these days and when I can see well enough, it’s not a good time. I needed something that would allow me to read even when I normally can’t and wouldn’t hurt my eyes the way the computer screen does. Going by what I’ve found on line lots of people with sight problems for various reasons have one. The font size is adjustable and the “ink” is very clear on the page. It is light to hold and so doesn’t hurt the way a heavy tome tends to these days. For really bad days when my eyes wont even cope with super-sized print, there is the audible section where I can listen to MP3 downloads and audio books. So, you see all bases are covered and the Kindle has become a fibro-friend.

Free books are all over the place and then there are some fairly cheap books to be had too. Other books are not much cheaper for a digital version as for a hard copy, which is a surprise but perhaps as more people want to use  e-readers the prices of ebooks will come down. We’ll see. Can’t complain too much as the Kindle versions I could download are available straight away and I can read them! In fact there are some books we have in hard copy that I am finding so difficult to see, I am wondering about buying the e-version just so I am able to read it when I would like to read.

The fact is, as my eyes have become more unreliable and my hands don’t work so well, managing a book has been more difficult and I had reached a point when I was hardly reading anything unless it was on the computer (which was not helping my eyes).  This is my way around all these problems.

I will write another post telling you what I have on my Kindle.