The Children's Charter by Mother Mary Loyola was written for catechists of First Communicants. Always searching for the imagined better sacrament preparation materials, I gingerly read my inter-library loan copy as it nearly crumbled in my hands, hardly believing the lending library would send it out. Thank goodness it survived! If you haven't read anything on preparing students for First Communion, you might find much good advice here. (It is available in newer copies, as you'll see if you follow the link to Amazon.) I intend to incorporate at least one new idea into Second Daughter's preparation next year. This is not, however, a book to read aloud with your First Communicant. (The Good Shepherd and His Little Lambs Study Edition: A First Communion Story-Primer is my favorite so far, which I purchased from Sacred Heart Books and Gifts.) (inter-library loan)
The Trailblazing Life of Daniel Boone and How Early Americans Took to the Road by Cheryl Harness is recommended in Connecting with History (find it here at RC History's store). Enjoyable and informative. I love the timelines at the bottom of the pages of these Harness books because they help me place events in the context of world events. First Son (in sixth grade) is reading this book independently, mostly for fun and without narrating it. (library copy)
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo - Read my review. (library copy)
Helena by Evelyn Waugh - Read my review. (library copy)
The Father Brown Reader II: More Stories from Chesterton adapted by Nancy Carpentier Brown is a companion volume to The Father Brown Reader: Stories from Chesterton which I started reading to the children when my parents were in town because they (my parents, not the children) love to watch a television series about Father Brown. The second volume is more serious in that in contains stories of murders rather than just thefts. Additionally, there is a suicide. My children were confused by that idea at first. Apparently, it's the first time they noticed a suicide in a book I've read to them. (It may be the first suicide; I can't recall another.) A few times, too, I had to walk my eight year old through the conclusion as often it is not explicitly written out. (read aloud to the children, borrowed from a friend)
The Extraordinary Journeys: Around the World in Eighty Days (Oxford World's Classics) by Jules Verne, translated by William Butcher - Read my review. (purchased copy used on Amazon)
How to Babysit a Leopard: and Other True Stories from Our Travels Across Six Continents by Ted and Betsy Lewin is a new book from these renown picture book authors and illustrators. It's a collection of bits and pieces from their journals, dating back decades in their lives together of travel and adventure. Illustrated with drawings and photographs, it's a fantastic example of observation and sketching I'd like to encourage in my children's nature journals as they grow. It may be best to wait until children have matured a little before sharing the book. Experiences described include a shaman's prophetic trance and blood gushing at a bull fight, among other things. The authors mostly refrain from making too many environmental or disparaging comments (about minority or majority populations), but there are some. This will be a book First Son can choose this year for independent reading (sixth grade) and I would have been comfortable with him reading it last year. I think it could appeal to boys and girls. (library copy)
Books in Progress (and date started)
- The Education Of Catholic Girls by Janet Erskine Stuart (February 2014)
- Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol 2 (sixth edition) (August 2014)
- Good Poems ed by Garrison Keillor (October 2014)
- For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay (January 2015, with my Start Here book club)
- The Story of the Amulet by E. Nesbit (February 2015, listening with the children on LibriVox)
- Humility of Heart by Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (February 2015)
- Towards A Philosophy Of Education (Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series) by Charlotte Mason (May 2015)
- Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition by Karen Glass (June 2015)
- Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott (September 2015)
- Laudato Si -- On Care for Our Common Home by Pope Francis (September 2015, with our parish's adult education class)
Links to RC History are affiliate links.
Links to Sacred Heart Books and Gifts are not affiliate links.
These reports are my honest opinions.
