Happy Wednesday! Here are some of the books that we’ve been perusing through the past 2 weeks. We were on vacation last week, so the majority of our reading came through audio books while driving. I love that my boys are audio book fans. I’m sure yours can be too! To read previous “What We’re Reading Wednesday posts,” click here.
Hunches in Bunches
and Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
(by Dr. Seuss)-If you didn’t notice between “What We’re Reading Wednesday” Installment #4 and today’s installment, we are currently on a Dr. Seuss kick with my youngest son! He can’t get enough of Dr. Seuss, so we’re emptying the library’s shelves of any and all of his books. We enjoyed both books, but I was especially encouraged by the story of Oh, The Thinks You Can Think! The encouragement of children to imagine and dream was the core theme. I feel like children these days are losing their imaginations, so read this and inspire your kiddos! AND…after you read it, let them have some paper, tape and crayons and create and imagine something new today!
The Child’s Story Bible
(by Catherine Vos)-This is on our list of FAVORITE children’s Bibles! Now that Easter is over, and we finished The Word Became Flesh Easter Advent devotion, we’ve returned to The Child’s Story Bible during our “Bible Time” (as our boys call it) reading at breakfast. This was originally published in 1935 (I LOVE OLD BOOKS!!!) is a story book version for children containing both Old Testament and New Testament stories. I can’t recommend this highly enough! The quantity of Biblical stories that my sons (and ME, let’s be honest!) have gleaned from this story book Bible is astounding. It is written in a captivating, narrative format. The readings only take 5-10 minutes, but the dialog and Q&A time that you can have with your children is endless! The Child’s Story Bible is geared for children ages 4-12, and I would say that’s been an accurate fit in our home. Vos includes great detail in each story, so younger children’s attention span might be lost with its reading. (See our list of Children’s Bibles That We Love to get a detailed list of age-appropriate children’s Bibles that we adore!)
The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education
(by Leigh Bortins)-We just finished our second year of Classical Conversations, and we could not have found a better fit for our family! I write about Classical Conversations on this blog a lot. If you are curious about what Classical Conversations is or how you can classically educate your child at home, this is a “must read.” I’m embarrassed that it’s taken me 2 years to read The Core. I think it would have helped me tremendously to have read it our first year. However, I was also a Classical Conversations tutor our first year, which had a huge learning curve. I didn’t do much reading last year. ha! I love the explanation of the 3 stages of the Classical Model: Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric and how this book “freed” me up as I continue to learn day by day how to classically educate my sons at home. This book is geared towards understanding the Grammar stage and explains how to approach subjects like Math, History, Geography, Reading during the Grammar stage. If you are new to Classical Conversations or thinking about classical education for your kiddos, I highly commend The Core to you. I am also reading and enjoying Echo in Celebration by Leigh Bortins. It is a FREE .pdf download, so I couldn’t include it in the above picture. 🙂 It includes more information on the classical model of education and implementing it at home. It’s another great read for those new or involved with Classical Conversations or wanting to know more about the classical model.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Magic
(by Betty Macdonald)-I loved Mrs. Piggle Wiggle as a child! One of my elementary school teachers read it aloud to us during rest time. I was excited to introduce my boys to Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, and they have loved her as much as I have! After reading the initial book in the series, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Magic, my sons have insisted that we read all of the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books. I happily obliged! Mrs. Piggle Wiggle is a quirky old lady, who eagerly helps parents experiencing crazy behaviors from their children. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s cures usually comes in the form of a magic concoction to help with such behaviors as being a tattle tale, constantly interrupting, or bad table manners. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s magic always helps rid the child of the unsightly behavior. Our favorite cure from this book was the “Thought You Said” cure. The 3 children in this family continually fail to do what their parents instruct them because they thought they said something else. My boys laughed outloud nonstop during that entire chapter. The children’s renditions of their parents instructions was hysterical. Thankfully, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle helped the parents rescue their children using her “Thought You Said” cure. My only regret is that I can’t call Mrs. Piggle Wiggle to get this cure for my sons! ha! “Clean your room?” my boys inquire. “We thought you said, ‘swing on a broom.'” Where’s Mrs. Piggle Wiggle when you need her?!?!?
Third-Grade Detectives #4: The Cobweb Confession 
(by George E. Stanley and Salvatore Murdocca)-My third grader was ecstatic about finding these books! Being in 3rd grade himself, he can empathize and identify with the characters in the book. 🙂 If you have a third grader or a second grader eager to be “older” (HA!), the Third Grade Detective series might hit the spot! My oldest son is currently reading this book aloud to me. The chapters are short and the story engaging, which is a win-win for him. I love to see him excited about reading; that has not always been the case! 🙂
Cora Frear
(by Susan E. Goodman)-Cora Frear is a book in the Brave Kids series
, which is a new-to-us series that we’ve been introduced to. Cora Frear was a real girl who lived on the prairie during late 19th century America. The book contains an Afterword and gives detail about the real Cora Frear; my boys loved the Afterword almost as much as the actual book! They were flabbergasted to learn that she was real!
Cora’s father was a doctor, and she often accompanied him on house calls, which often involved miles and miles of travel through the prairie. The story revolves around Cora and her father making a trek across the prairie for a house call, and in the midst of their journey, they find themselves trapped in a prairie fire. I was even on pins and needles as my son read this aloud. I was the one chanting, “one more chapter, one more chapter” to him; it’s usually vice versa! If you have a child insterested in American History or if you are in Classical Conversations and looking for Cycle 3 books, Cora Frear is a gem of a book!
Audio Books that we’re “reading”:
I’ve been writing a lot recently about how much we LOVE audio books. ( If you missed the previous 3 posts that were a part of my Friday Favorites series, you can read them here, here, and here.) I’ve decided to include audio books that we’re “reading” in my What We’re Reading Wednesday posts.
Since we traveled last week, I always stack up on audio books for our journey. As I mentioned, my youngest son is currently stuck on Dr. Seuss, so we enjoyed Green Eggs and Ham and Other Servings of Dr. Seuss
and The Cat in the Hat and Other Dr. Seuss Favorites
both collections of multiple Dr. Seuss books. We have previously started reading Little House In The Big Woods 
, but had not finished it. In my quick library run to stock up on audio books for the trip, I found the audio book version. It was a huge hit during our travels!
It’s Wednesday, so comment below and let Suzanne Shares readers know what you’re reading! Hip, Hip, Hooray for books and quality literature! Happy Wednesday!
Tags: Bibles for kids, Books I LOVE, CC Cycle 3, Classical Conversations, GREAT kid literature, What We're Reading Wednesdays
(by Graeme Base)
(by Lois Ehlert)–This book was leftover from our ‘clearing the library bookshelves’ of Lois Ehlert’s books as mentioned in our last 
and 
(by Dr. Seuss)–A faithful reader and friend, Lorie recommended that I look at the Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories, so I quickly snagged it at the library. It’s a fascinating book if you’re a Dr. Seuss fan. It’s filled with seven short stories written by Dr. Seuss that were published in the 1950s but virtually “lost.” If you’ve read all of Dr. Seuss’s books, you’ll enjoy this “new” one. As we were perusing the Dr. Seuss section of the library, I came across Fox in Socks and realized that we’d never read the book. We have enjoyed the silly, spit-all-over-each-other-as-we-read tongue twisters. Much like Animalia above, it’s filled with excellent examples of alliteration. The literary device of alliteration came up in our phonics curriculum this week, so it was great fun to connect what they learned in phonics with Fox in Socks and Animalia.
-This was on son #2’s reading list for school (thanks to 
(by Lillian Hoban)-I picked this up for son #2 at the library. He’s eager to read “big” books, so I was hoping he could read this and feel confident that he had read a “big” book. He read this with me and his 2 brothers, and we all enjoyed it.
The story is set in the United States during the years of the Korean War. My son’s eyes lit up when he read “war in Korea” since we had just been learning about the Korean War in 
and 
. I’ve been writing a lot recently about how much we LOVE audio books. ( If you missed the previous 3 posts that were a part of my Friday Favorites series, you can read them 
Suzanne Shares 