Heavy Bedtime Reading

We finished Mary on Horseback tonight, which is a biography about Mary Breckinridge. She founded the Frontier Nursing Service in the 1920s to help people in the Appalachians. I didn't preview it- I guess I figured it would be fine. And it is- I want her to know about stuff like that. The first two stories were ones where people got hurt and she made them better, or got them vaccines when they were sick. I didn't count on a mama AND a little girl dying in the last story and having my five year old cry herself to sleep and ask how she can help people and WHY did Lily die? She is so sensitive. I love that about her, but it was hard to get her settled down for bed. I had to do a lot of reassurance about how I am not going to die soon and she doesn't need to be worried about me dying if we have another brother or sister. And it's highly unlikely her dress will go up in flames while she's tending the cooking fire. She just has such a vivid imagination, and such empathy.

The next novel better be some fluffy stuff, let me tell you what. After this one and Twenty And Ten (about hiding Jewish kids during WWII), we're ready for a break from the hard topics!

Reading Good Stuff

Well, we finished My Father's Dragon in 24 hours. We both loved it, and last night we went to the library and got the sequel, as well as the second Boxcar Children book and a few stories about Moses and Exodus. We need to sit down and work on catching up with the children's encyclopedia- we're behind on social studies. So far though, it's been really fun to just READ. I had such a good time last night showing here where the information desk was and coaching her to ask for help, and finding the books on the shelves. I really wish that we could go to the library during the day where it would be obvious we were homeschooling and there wouldn't be a billion kids there. Maybe someday.

We're already on chapter 4 of Elmer and the Dragon. I'm so glad she loves to be read to- I love to do it!

We're Back!

We started My Father's Dragon tonight as a bedtime story. I read three chapters and she begged me to read more. She's in love with it. She asked me to wake her up extra early tomorrow so we could start school before breakfast. I believe she wants to do some dragon art- he's described as having yellow and blue stripes with a long tail, and red on his horns and the bottoms of his feet, and gold wings. It'll be interesting to see what she comes up with.

I'm ready to be back. Having a week off was really nice, but I think we both are missing the time together and the reading.

Day 2

I'm going to try to use this as a record of what we get done daily, so it may be a bit dry. I'll try not to make it as boring as the 95 Theses though.

~She is now on Lesson 8 in the math book and can't get enough of it. I figure her enthusiasm may slow down later on, so I don't mind her getting a bit ahead right now. It'll give us wiggle room if we need it in a few months or get caught up in other topics.
~We are in the middle of chapter 4 in The Boxcar Children. Same situation there.
~We've read some poetry this morning: "hello and good-by" and also some Mother Goose rhymes. Little Bo Peep (I wrote Poop at first, whoops) and that has more verses than I remember, by the way. We also read Little Boy Blue and Rain.
~more Martin Luther discussion and she's actually starting to get into it a bit. She wanted to get out the map and have me show her where Rome is and how far from his hometown in Germany that would be if they made him go there for his trial, and we talked about how it took much longer to get places without the modern transportation we have now.
~We also worked on her Book of Time. I can't say enough good things about this. Even if you don't use Sonlight, I think every kid should have this book. It makes time much more concrete for her. It comes with stickers for all the major events and people we'll be discussing this year, so we put in Adam and Eve, Martin Luther, and a bunch of family birthdays and anniversaries so she can see how it all fits together. She had no idea how many years ago ML's birthday was (1483) until she had to turn SO MANY pages backward from her birthday to put his sticker in.

The only thing we haven't done for today's work is read the bible story. Pages 12-16- I'm not sure what story it is. I think maybe Noah's Ark. And then I'm sure we'll work with the Book of Time some more because there's a sticker for that too.

She asked me today why it takes so long for everybody else to do school and have to be there all day when we get finished so quick. :) She's catching on already.