We'll be starting on Mondays with Aesop's Fables for Children
. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we'll be reading Stuart Little
, a book I thought we'd read over the summer but we never really got started. (I have to keep this book out of reach because it's my copy from when I was a little girl and is already very in rough shape. I hope to keep most of the books where the kids can pull them out whenever they like, but we'll see how that goes as I also want to be sure I can find the books we're supposed to read during the day.) On Wednesdays, we'll be reading through Arnold Lobel's Fables
. I'm not sure if First Son will want to read these along with Aesop, so we may switch to something else, but I've had it on the shelf for a while and wanted to give it a try. On Fridays, we have a special treat. We'll be reading a beautiful copy of Classic Tales of Beatrix Potter
, on loan from Grammy.We'll have an afternoon story session as well. We always read stories together before Quiet Time. First Son and First Daughter each pick a story, and I'll probably have Second Daughter start choosing one as well (or picking one I know she enjoys). We allow them to choose whatever they like (excluding only those that are too long to prevent story selected purely to delay nap time as long as possible). One of the best aspects of building a strong children's collection is that many of the books the children choose are of a high quality.
I always pick a story as well, usually a new one from the current library pile, or one of the wonderful classics (like Miss Rumphius
).I've scheduled time on Tuesdays for Poetry. (There's also time on Wednesday afternoons during our afternoon activity time.) We'll be starting with First Son's favorite poetry collection, Eric Carle's Animals Animals
and one of my favorites, A Child's Garden of Verses
. We have a few other poetry collections we'll incorporate and will also be on the watch for some from the library, like Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings
which we recently enjoyed. I mentioned before that First Son seems to respond to poetry about his favorite subjects, so I want to alternate collections to appeal to his interests as well as introduce some of my favorite poems. We're going to avoid Shakespeare and Keats for a while, though.
