Recommend books for me please!

[Mackenzie]

Well, after uhm....say two years, we got right with the library. So I need book recommendations. I am looking for easy to reads, as I am usually reading about 4 things at once.

About us:

We are a simple family.
We don't have a lot of money
We identify as Christian but are WAAAAAAAAAYYY liberal and very accepting of other religions
We are not a textbooks/worksheets kinda family
We love to read, though the kids are not so hot at it on their own yet (3, 6, and 8)


Thanks for help!

[beeswing]

Hey there...avid book worm here:

I just have to tell you that I love old books for kids..the vocabulary is of a much higher level, the kids generally have an inner moral life, and the Family relationships are ones of love and respect. That said...

Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons"...this will be a read aloud
E. Nesbit's "Magic City" and "Five Children and It", and "Magic City" so will this, at least for the younger ones. We are currently reading Magic City and my 7 and 14 year old both love it!


Ruth Stiles Gannett's "My Father's Dragon" this is for younger kids, but it is still a fabulous story
Maud Hart Lovelace's "Betsy Tacy" series, It is a great series for 5-6 year old who are reading well on their own, or just a good book for anyone else.
"Betsy Tacy" and "Swallows and Amazons" are "real life" books and the others are fantasy.

Have fun...
Kate

[Roo_Online]

What are the age ranges of the kids?

[Mackenzie]

[QUOTE=Mackenzie;7049134]
We love to read, though the kids are not so hot at it on their own yet (3, 6, and 8)
QUOTE]

[AnnR33]

So are you looking for books to read aloud to the kids or homeschooling books for yourself? or both?

a few Favorite read alouds for that age range:
Mr Popper's Pengins
Homer Price
any of the animal stories by Burgess
Trumpet of the Swan by White
The Littles
My Father's Dragon (and the 2 sequals)

[annab]

Anything for the younger set by Beverly Cleary. The Ramona series would work for all three ages. I picked up Mitch and Amy, but it was for much older kids. The Henry Huggins books by her are good for that age too.

We are reading Rascal by Sterling North to my 4 year old.

Charlotte's Web.

Here is the Indiana DOE reading list. I get ideas from that all the time:
http://www.doe.state.in.us/standards/readinglist.html


Wonderful for theme studies:
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/

And I loved Homer Price when I was young. I am sure my mom has that somewhere--thanks for the reminder!!

[Mackenzie]

cool. Thanks!

[UlrikeDG]

Check out the Sonlight Read-Alouds and the Five in a Row books. Not all of them will be great, but those are two places I check whenever I'm out of ideas. Two of my favorites from the Sonlight Catalog that I never would have discovered on my own are Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher and The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill, both of which, strangly enough, are about kids at school, but they're rather un-schooly schools. My kids also loved Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald, which can be rather punitive, but funny.

My 3 year old is all over Curious George and Clifford right now. She knows exactly where those books are at the library. I let my 6 & 8 year old get one audiobook each visit. For my son, that usually means Harry Potter, and my daughter just discovered the Mandie books I loved when I was little, so she has listened to the first two of those (because the print versions were checked out). My son has also recently discovered the "choose your own story" books, and he thinks those are pretty cool.

[annab]

One of the great things about the Beverly Cleary books is that most can be found on audio. DS has my old, sad, barely-functional tape/CD player in his room, and he will kill a gray winter morning looking at Ranger Rick and listening to an audio book.

I tried to get him some of the picture books on tape, but he has to change the tape every few minutes, so if he wants to look at something or build or color, it is a pain. A good chapter book on tape is wonderful, especially if you have something you need to get done!