Book Goal

My goal last year was to read a book a week, and I used this blog to keep track of them.  Even though I stopped blogging about the books I read, I surpassed my reading goal.  Life has been super busy and blogging has been pretty low on my list of things to do.  But, I still want to give mention to some of the great books I have read. 

I borrowed "Honey for Child's Heart" from a friend and really enjoyed it.  Gladys Hunt writes about the importance of books and shares some of her favorite experiences with books.  She brought back so many memories of great books that I've loved and reminded me why I share books with my kids.






"Parenting With Love" is another great, borrowed book.  I love reading books about parenting--I recognized that there is always room for growth in that area.  The biggest thing I got from this  book was that I need to praise more.  Glenn Latham has a whole chapter dedicated to praising.  It is an area that I struggle with and strive every day to focus on the good. 



My 5th grade teacher read "Johnny Tremain" aloud to us and I remember loving the book and wanted to share it with my kids.  I hoped that they would pick it up and read it on their own, but that didn't happen.  A lot of the books I choose to read aloud are books that I want my kids to be exposed to but are ones they won't pick up on their own.  More often than not they love the book and will read it again on their own later.  This book fit right in with the Key of Liberty class I am mentoring and Braedi is taking.  It takes place during the Revolutionary War and we get see some of what did happen and might have happened in Boston. 

"Hans Brinker" or "The Silver Skates" is a book I've never read, but I remember from my childhood.  It takes place in Holland where my dad served his mission.  He might have read it to my siblings and I or told the story, but I don't remember anything but the name.  I ( and I hope my kids did, too) loved the story even though Mary Mapes Dodge gets a little wordy with her descriptions of Holland's history. 


I've continued to listen to audio books on my ipod in short increments.  I listened to the Maze Runner series, which consists of "The Maze Runner", "The Scorch Trials" and "The Death Cure".  A fun, fluff series about a post apocalyptic time where a group of kids is put through a series of trials to help find a cure for a  horrible disease. 





The Bloody Jacky series is another great audio to listen to.  The reader is fantastic!  I enjoyed her so much that one time when I couldn't find the audio at the library I bought it on audible instead because I couldn't stand reading it without her voices.  It is a bunch of adventure stories about a girl pirate.  I just noticed that the next book is out and I'm going to have to find an audio.  Lots of fun!


I've also been reading all the books that the kids have been reading for their classes at our commonwealth school.  Dyllan and I read the whole Samantha American Girl series.  For the longest time I was against that series, but I was basing my opinion on someone else's.  Just goes to show that I need to get my own opinion, because it was a cute series and I learned a lot from reading the books. 




Corbin's class is based around World War II so along with The Narnia series (which I am not rereading, but he his) we have been reading other books about the war.  We read "The Art of Keeping Cool" about a German artist who comes to America to escape persecution only to get persecuted here.  We also read "The Amazing Story of Aldophus Tips" about a girl in England and how the ward affected her family. 



Braedi and I read several books to help us understand the American Revolution and it's heroes better.  We read "The Red Scarf Girl" to show what life is like without liberty and freedom.  We read "The Landing of the Pilgrims" to get a vision of the first Americans.  We read "John Adams, the Reluctant Patriot of the Revolution" and "Meet George Washington" to learn about 2 of the great men of that time period.  I have been doing a lot of reading to prepare myself for this class, but only in spurts.  I hope to finish some of the books I have started over the next few months. 

There might be more books that I have read on my own or aloud, but I don't remember.  What have you been reading lately?