Read Alouds for 2015-2016

I am so glad that I logged everything that we read together this year in our homeschool.  I felt as though I was doing the minimum in terms of schooling all of this year, but keep this ongoing list is a nice way to look back and see some of the fruits of reading just a few minutes each day for a year.  Most of these books were targeted to my 1st grader, though my 4-year-old was definitely listening in on many.  And this does not include any picture books-- we definitely read hundreds of those thanks to our local library!  

Literature

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

A Day on Skates by Hilda van Stockum

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Columbus by Edgar Parin D'Aulaire

The Moffats by Eleanor Estes

The Twenty-Four Days before Christmas by Madeleine L'Engle

The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink

The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla

Little Pear by Eleanor Frances Lattimore
The Book of Virtues by William Bennett

Catholic Faith Read-Alouds

Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls by Caryll Houselander

More Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls by Caryll Houselander

Catholic Stories for Boys and Girls, Vol 1-4

More Once Upon a Time Saints by Ethel Pochoki

A Little Book about Confession for Children by Kendra Tierney

Artist/ Composer studies

Joseph Haydn The Merry Little Peasant by Opal Wheeler

The Story of Peter Tchaikovsky by Opal Wheeler

My First Classical Music Book by Genevieve Helsby

Saint Studies

Saint Isaac and the Indians by Milton Lomask

Saint Francis of the Seven Seas by Abert Nevins

Patron Saint of First Communicants: The Story of Blessed Imelda Lambertini by Windeatt

Saint Martin de Porres and the Mice by Eva K Betz

Saint Brigid and the Cows by Eva K Betz

A Story of St. Catherine of Alexandria by Brother Flavius

Science/Nature Lore

Treasury for Children by James Herriot

Pagoo by Holling C. Holling

The Adventures of Peter Cottontail by Thornton W. Burgess

The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse by Thornton W. Burgess

Audio Books

Story of the World Volume 1 by Susan Weiss Bauer

One Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

Rufus M. by Eleanor Estes

Happy Little Family by Rebecca Caudill

All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown by Sydney Taylor

More All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum by Thornton W. Burgess

The Adventures of Reddy Fox by Thornton W. Burgess

Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes

Pinky Pye by Eleanor Estes

Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lingren

The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

The Henry Huggins Audio Collection by Beverly Cleary

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty McDonald

Nim's Island by Wendy Orr

The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Other Audio Sources

Tchaikovsky Discovers America by Classical Kids

Sherlock Holmes for Children by Jim Weiss

Greek Myths by Jim Weiss

Three Musketeers/Robin Hood by Jim Weiss

King Arthur and his Knights by Jim Weiss

The Jungle Book by Jim Weiss

Egyptian Treasures:  Mummies and Myths by Jim Weiss

Family Field Trips

We are slowly easing into our homeschooler identity and starting to seek out new ways to enrich our learning through our regular family time.

One of our goals for 2016 is to accomplish sixteen nature walks.  We've finished three so far, so we still have quite a ways to go, but its fun to intentionally plan time together enjoying God's creation.

We also recently enjoyed a day at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.  The boys have been asking to see a dinosaur exhibit.  It was a worthwhile experience and I am so glad we made it happen!

2015 Reading Log

Six months of nausea followed two months in the NICU and more months of colic do not make for a very bookish year!  That being said, a habit of 5-minutes or so of daily reading did add up to about 30 books (hoping I recorded them all!)  And I do like having a record of what I read for myself however, so here we go...

Spiritual Reading

**Conversation with Christ by Rev. Peter Thomas Rohrbach

*Story of a Soul by St. Terese of Lisieux (reread)

The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila

Holy is the Day: Living in the Gift of the Present by Carolyn Weber

Lay Siege to Heaven by Louis de Wohl

Familiaris Consortio, by Saint Pope John Paul II

The Apostolate of Holy Motherhood, by Mark I. Miravelle

*Saint John Paul the Great: His Five Loves, by Jason Evert

Prayer Primer, by Thomas Dubay

**Holiness for Housewives by Hubert Van Zeller (reread)

33-Days to Morning Glory by Michael Gaitley

The Advent of Christ by Edward Sri

Fiction/For Fun

*Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

*Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery

Anne of Avonlea by LM Montgomery

Anne of the Island by LM Montgomery

Anne and the House of Dreams by LM Montgomery

Lizzy and Jane by Katherine Reay

The Precious One by Marisa de Los Santos

Non-Fiction

**For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer-Macaulay

Blueprint Homeschooling by Amy Knepper

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin

Read for the Heart by Sarah Clarkson

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

Anchored by Kayla Aimee

Teaching in your Tiara by Rebecca Frech

*Essentialism by Greg McKeown

I'll include a log of the many books I read with the kids towards the end of our school year.  Here is our list from early 2015.

*Favorite

**Drop everything and read it now!

advent preparations

One of this year's First Grade art projects was to roll our own Advent candles out of beeswax.  The boys enjoyed the challenge!  It made our Advent wreath especially personal to them this year.

And they're off...

On the evening of August 2nd, I carefully lined up all of our new curriculum and books for the year on my desk.  My inner-nerd could hardly wait to start our first lessons for the year the following day.  The plan was to homeschool in August so that we could take the month of October off to adjust and bond with our newest addition.  And of course, you already know that all the plans quickly changed.

After taking a couple of weeks off to heal from my c-section, I decided to give 1st grade a go.  Everybody was busy doing something- working, babysitting, bringing us meals.  I felt helpless and hopeless.  I was tired of having nothing to do but let my body heal and dwell on the difficulties of our situation.  I also realized that Celeste might be in the hospital for weeks AND following this we would still have to make the newborn-transition that I had expected.  We ended up taking a two-week break to babymoon after her homecoming.

So, enter homeschooling.  

This year we have a 1st-grader and a preschooler.  Here are our "first day of school" shots.

Read-Alouds for 2014-2015

It is so easy to look back on a period of time and feel as though nothing has been accomplished.  To fight this, I attempted to keep track of many of our Read-Alouds for this school year (Summer of 2014 until Spring of 2015).  I am posting it for accountability, and because I am a book list junkie.   Most of these were targeted to Dominic (5-years-old).  Also, this record does not include the stacks of picture books we read (though I truly wish that I was that organized!)

Literature Read-Alouds
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater
A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond
Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

James and the Giant Peach by Road Dahl
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh
A Story of St. John Bosco by Brother Ernest
Ahead of the Crowd by the Daughters of St. Paul

The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

Pipi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Their Hearts are His Garden by Sister Mary Marguerite
The Catholic Child's Treasure Box Vol 1-20 by Maryknoll Sisters

Charlottes Web by EB White
Stuart Little by EB White

Trumpet of the Swan by EB White

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder 

History Read-Alouds
I've listed these in a separate post.

Audiobooks

Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know by Hamilton Wright Mabie 

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie 

Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary
Ralph. S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary 

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

Other Audio Sources
Mr. Bach Comes to Call by Classical Kids
Beethoven Lives Upstairs by Classical Kids
Tales of the Old Testament by Jim Weiss
Christmas Carol & Other Favorites by Jim Weiss
Wee Sing Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies

More details from our Kindergarten homeschool year.

what we've been up to: April

 As I look back on the month of April I feel struck by the wonderful, small joys spread throughout.  Family life has it's ups and downs, but it truly filled with blessed moments.

We have entered second trimester with our newest little bump, and the intense fatigue has thankfully passed.  My saintly husband has completely taken over nighttime parenting duties, which means that this mama is currently enjoying long stretches of deep, blissful sleep (for now).  I am still battling a lot of nausea, but that is expected for me at this point.  I was sick for 40-weeks with Dominic, 20-weeks with Gabriel and 22-weeks with Nicholas (who's comparing?)  So at 16-weeks bumpage, this little one still has a shot at making me a happy momma by ridding entirely of the sickness... tomorrow? We still don't know whether we will be adding to the Ricci hockey team or buying ballet tutus for the first time... I have my guesses but I can't wait to officially find out!

Back to April.  I have already blogged about Easter, which was a beautiful memorable day.

We have been trying to live out the liturgical season of celebration with a few family outings as well.  We took the boys out for frozen yogurt for the first time since last summer...

First taste of ice cream for this boy:

I think he hated it...

Michael took the older boys on a hike on the beach with their scouting group.  It turned out to be a gorgeous day and the kids are still admiring the extraordinary rocks they collected.

 

 

Michael and I were more than honored to be invited to the LA Premiere for Little Boy by some close friends of ours who helped produce and co-write the film.  We dressed up, enjoyed a dinner-out friends (no kids!), watched the movie from our cushioned leather seats, and even made an appearance at the fabulous after-party.   Little Boy is a beautiful independent film and I would encourage you to see it in theaters if you haven't yet!  We are so proud of all our loved ones who were involved in the making of it.

 Dominic and I enjoyed some one-on-one time at a Pacific Symphony concert, targeted to families and children.  My moments with just one child are far and few these days, so I definitely always cherish them. 

Spring is also dance competition season.  In case you worry that I don't get enough girl time...Aren't my little dancers the cutest?

On the 19th we celebrated Dominic's sixth (!) birthday, which I documented as well.  We partied with family and let the boys enjoy their first Shirley Temple cocktail.

The bigger boys and I joined our homeschool group for a field trip at a local nature park titled "Where are the Animals?"  They dressed the part as the Kratt Brothers from their favorite show, Wild Kratts.

 To finish-off April with a bang, I upgraded my mommy-vehicle status with our first MINIVAN purchase.  I swore I wouldn't, EVER.  And then I had a couple of babies and swore I wouldn't before I was in my thirties.  But here I am, twenty-nine years old and confessing that I am thrilled about cupholders galore, automatic sliding doors and a spacious aisle.  I tried taking a selfie with the kids behind me, but this photo does not do justice of how big and beastly our new van really is.  And just in case you think that I have completely fallen off the deep end, I will mention that OUR living room on wheels is fashionably black.  That counts for a little more style than beige, right?

And Hockey is still a big deal around here, especially with the Ducks in the play-offs.  The kids are utterly OBSESSED with the website wejustscored.com  We play pretend hockey games in the living room and listen to the "goal songs" for each team over and over and over again.  All. Day. Long.  I am sure that memorizing each NHL team's goal song will come in handy one of these days... 

Finally, I went on-and-on about LA movie premieres and super stylish car purchases, but I would be lying if excluded that MOST of our days actually look a lot more like this:

 

And this...

 And this...

A pretty decent life, I will admit.  :-)