Ella's book list, 2011-present

Recently my sweet Ella, 10, closed the book she'd been reading, let out a satisfied sigh, and announced that she had finished it.  When I asked her why she liked it, she simply said, "Because it was about a family."  Of course.  It's what she knows: brothers and sisters and their interactions, a mother and a father and a home.  It's why she's not interested in an animal story- though she loves animals- unless there's also a family tucked into the story.  It's why she continues to pick up Boxcar children books off the library shelves-- the children in the stories are siblings, experiencing adventures together. 

Ella has a binder in which she records each book she's read throughout the year, and she's read a lot.  Over 100 books.  Some of them are from our our own shelves and are re-reads, some we've found throughout the year at Goodwill or garage sales, some from the library.  Some we assigned to her and she would not have read it otherwise.  I've tried to categorize the ones I could, and I'll start with her favorites, which were marked in her binder with stars and notations to me such as "This is was so good", or "Read this book", or "You have to read this book", or "I love this book!" Without further ado, here they are:

{Ella's favorites}

A Way Through the Sea, Beyond the River, Into the Flames, Far From the Storm, Chasing the Wind, A Light in the Castle, Follow the Star, and Touch the Sky, from The Young Underground Series, by Robert Elmer~ currently out of print, but our library still had them and she loved this series of 8 books.

The Borrowers, by Mary Norton

The Cottage at Bantry Bay and Francie on the Run, by Hilda van Stockum

Bridge to America, by Linda Glaser

The Moffats, The Middle Moffat, and Rufus M., by Eleanor Estes

 ***

That ends her marked favorites.  The rest of these to come?  She liked them, too- and many of them got happy sighs, also.  I have starred (*) the ones I know for sure were re-reads for her, which likely means they're on her bookshelf and thus were already favorites.

from the Five Little Peppers series, all by Margaret Sidney:
Polly Pepper's Book, Five Little Peppers in the Little Brown House and Five Little Peppers and Their Friends (the first book in this series, Five Little Pepper and How They Grew, is one we've read aloud and Ella has read several times by herself.  It's a favorite!)

from The Boxcar Children series, Gertrude Chandler Warner:
The Honeybee Mystery, *Blue Bay Mystery, *The Boxcar Children, The Mystery at the Mixed-up Zoo,
*Schoolhouse Mystery, The Woodshed Mystery, The Pet Shop Mystery, The Mystery of the Hidden Beach and The Mystery in the Snow

from the Heroes of America series, biographies of:
Benjamin Franklin, Jackie Robinson, Clara Barton and Daniel Boone

from the Childhood of Famous Americans series, biographies of:
Sacagawea, Buffalo Bill, Louisa May Alcott, Betsy Ross and Molly Pitcher

Other mostly stand-alone books, alphabetized by author:

the books of Daniel and Titus, from the Bible (these we did NOT assign, and are not on our Bible reading list, so I love these entries.)
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Aiken
The American Schoolhouse Reader, Allie
Bunnies in the Bathroom and Kittens in the Kitchen, Baglio
Corrie Ten Boom, Benge
*New Beginnings, Brunstetter
The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat and The Adventures of Prickly Porky, Burgess
Happy Little Family (1), Schoolhouse in the Woods (2), Up and Down the River (3) and School Room in the Parlor (4), Rebecca Caudill
*The Courage of Sarah Noble, Dalgliesh
Family Reminders, Danneberg
Adopted Jane, Daringer
Kisses from Katie, Davis
Because of Winn-Dixie, Dicamillo
Five Smooth Stones, Gregory
Trouble at Otter Creek, Hays
Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley, Henry
Survival in the Storm, Janke
Nellie the Brave, Jones
The Jungle Book, Kipling
*Almost Home, Lawton
A Light Kindled, Leininger
The Children of Noisy Village, Lindgren
Secrets of the Woods, Long
Three Against the Tide, Love
*Little Town in the Ozarks, MacBride
The Princess and the Goblin, Macdonald 
Gentle's Holler and Louisiana's Song, Kerry Madden
Whitetail, McClung
The Triplets Fly High, Moore
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, O'Brien
Island of the Blue Dolphins, O'Dell
*In Grandma's Attic, *More Stories from Grandma's Attic and *Still More Stories from Grandma's Attic, Richardson
(plays) The Taming of the Shrew and Measure for Measure, Shakespeare
Gentle Annie, Shura
Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Good Queen Bess, Diane Stanley
American Tall Tales, Stoutenburg
Hadassah, Tenney
The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, Trafton
Meet Molly, Tripp
Pegeen, van Stockum
Tapenum's Day, Waters 
The Kings Daughter and Other Stories for Girls, White
*Across the Puddingstone Dam, Wiley
My Name is Sally Little Song, Woods
Jotham's Journey, Ytreeide

Copywork selections

We're 10 weeks into our school year and it's already time for me to refill Ella's Copywork Jar.  I changed it up a bit this year- there are no longer different categories for different days of the week (Mondays-Poetry, Tuesdays-Quotes, etc); we just have several selections tossed in.  The other change is that I really aimed to make the copywork selections shorter, so that Ella will not get bogged down with a long passage (as was the case last year) and neglect neat handwriting.  Our focus is on quality, not quantity. So far I have had her print each one, but the next "batch" she will do in cursive.  She often draws a little picture to go along with it. It's been going really well!  I've listed her copywork selections below if any of you are interested in using them for your own children:

Thirty days hath September, April, June and November.

*

January brings the snow, makes our feet and fingers glow.

 

*

February brings the rain, thaws the frozen lake again.

*

March brings breezes loud and shrill, stirs the dancing daffodil.

*

April brings the primrose sweet, scatters daisies at our feet.

*

May brings flocks of pretty lambs, skipping by their fleecy dams.

*

June brings tulips, lilies, roses, fills the children's hands with posies.

*

Hot July brings cooling showers, apricots and gillyflowers.

*

August brings the sheaves of corn, then the harvest home is borne.

*

Warm September brings the fruit, sportsmen then begin to shoot.

*

Fresh October brings the pheasant, then to gather nuts is pleasant.

*

Dull November brings the blast, then the leaves are whirling fast.

*

Chill December brings the sleet, blazing fire, and Christmas treat.

*

Many hands make light work.

*

Practice makes perfect.

*

A man is known by the company he keeps.

*

A child should always say what’s true
And speak when he is spoken to

*

O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!

*

A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.

*

Red sky at night, sailors delight;
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.

*

Adopt the pace of nature: Her secret is patience.
    ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 


*

Never let us reflect upon small annoyances, and we shall be able to 

bear great ones sweetly.
    ~Charlotte Mason

*

All beautiful and noble possibilities are present in everyone.
    ~Charlotte Mason

*

Kindness is to make everyday life pleasant and comfortable to others.
    ~Charlotte Mason

*

A grateful heart rejoices not only in the gift but in the giver.
    ~Charlotte Mason

*

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.
    ~George Washington Carver

*

Recap of our first day

Or rather: Recap of our first week.

{an especially squinty Audra}

It's actually been a great week. I am really glad to be so organized this year, because that has made things go more smoothly. I'm satisfied with how much we're getting accomplished each day, and am relieved that I didn't overshoot it. (I didn't plan too much.)

 

Things went pretty much according to my plan here, except that so far the girls have played (fairly) quietly during our reading time for History and so they've stayed with us and I've postponed their video time a bit later during our table time.

The only thing I may be unprepared for is how fast they're going through the books to read on their Assigned reading shelves.  (I selected several books for both Isaac and Ella over the summer that I wanted them to read throughout this school year, and I think they've read three books each.  This week.  Nice.)  I mean, I'm really thankful they're such avid readers, but I was sort of hoping those books would last them a little longer!

The dishes sit while we do school and the house is more cluttered.  The little girls have been in pajamas all day long this entire week, and I am exhausted by the end of the day.  But we're good.  We're reading and learning and relating and praying and singing and in each others way and by the grace of God, I'm handling those (many) interruptions well and we're all loving it.  Truly.  Is there anything better than being with these dear children every day?  I love them so much.  I feel so incredibly blessed.

 "Snapshots" from the week that stand out in my mind:

*Isaac snuggled up to Adelia on the couch with a stack of picture books- reading aloud to her during their buddy time.

*Ella's first dication lesson: complete with tears at the start, but by the end of it? "I really love this, mommy!  This is fun!  Can we do this every day?"

*Pointing to a blank US map and quizzing them on states and capitals.  They SO know more than I do.

*Isaac announcing how much he loves math and he wants to order the next book.

*Daily readings from this book:

(You know how sometimes you just find the perfect book for your kids' ages and imaginations at that particular time? This is it. They are so captivated by this story, all of them- and it's been really fun to read aloud.)

*Audra's new term: "Pocka does" (otherwise known as "polka dots"), and how many times a day she says it.  Apparently she loves pocka does right now.  And I love her.

*Adelia's desire to be apart of every.single.thing.we.do- including asking all sorts of seemingly studious questions about our picture study piece.  Love that lively girl. 

*Lessons on my bed with Ella, then Isaac~ for one-on-one English time, and Ella's cheery, "I'll bet most girls don't get to snuggle up all cozy on their mommy's bed to do English!" 

*Reading lessons at the table with Isaias, and how delighted he was when he read a whole sentence!

I am blessed.  So blessed.