Literature with Charlotte Bronte

I am a huge bibliophile, I always have been. I read classics for fun and now I am passing on that love to my 10 year old.

Daisy and I are reading for fun Jane Eyre. Ok, I am reading it to her because frankly, it isn't an easy book to read. Even with her just listening I sometimes find myself wondering if she is following the story and then she asks a question or laughs at a funny part. So she is following it, she is even enjoying it. She is wanting to know the solution to the mysteries - why Mr Rochester is keeping Grace Poole in the house, and why Mason wanted to talk to Mrs. Poole - but she doesn't want me to give away any of the plot.

She wants to know if Mr Rochester will choose Blanche or Jane to marry but she is eagerly anticipating the next chapter.

I can't wait until she finds out the answer to the mystery and then I can show her how much richer the hints are that Mr Rochester gives to Jane about what the "error" he made in his youth.

I think each time I read it, I enjoy it more than the previous times. If you haven't read Jane Eyre, you really should because it is very worthy of being called a classic.

Wizard of Oz

We have been reading Wizard of Oz as part of our literature and the kids love it. If you have never read the book, it is vastly different from the movie. Not only are there things that have been left out - such as in the book they cross a river and the scarecrow is almost left - but there are things changed and things added - Dorothy doesn't run away in the book and there is no Elmira Gulch.

In some ways, it is almost like a completely different story.

Daisy had a vague memory of seeing the movie but Junior didn't remember seeing it at all but luckily it came on TV on Sunday. I have to admit, watching Junior watch it is almost as entertaining as the movie itself.

He will sit mostly still for tv or a movie but is in constant motion when listening to me read. In fact, I would think that he is not listening at all except his narrations are very in-depth. Today I asked him to tell his dad how the poppy field escape is different.

Here is a summation: They tried to run across the flowers but they couldn't and the tin woodman and the scare crow carried Dorothy and the dog but couldn't carry the lion because he is so big and so they were going to leave the lion and they saw a wildcat chasing a queen mouse and the tine woodman took his ax and cut off the woldcat's head and the queen mouse thanked him and and more mice thanked him and asked if they could do anything to help the tin woodman and the tin woodman told them to help with his friend the lion and they didn't want to but the tin woodman said the lion was a coward and so the woodman built a cart and the mice pulled the cart and they had to work very hard to get the lion on the cart and then the mice pulled and the woodman and the scarecrow pushed and they were able to get the lion out of the poisonous flowers and the lion woke up and they told him that the little mice had saved him. and yes I am pretty sure there was not a comma or period in his entire narration.

Through the entire narration he was spinning and bouncing and moving much like he was during the reading. Hubby asked him if he could tell the story without moving so much and he said "let Daisy tell you."

Considering I was expecting something more like "the mice helped them" I was very impressed. Hubby was impressed as well at how long the narration went on, even if he understood very little of it because of all the movement.

He learns best while he moves and trying to keep him still ensures that he will learn nothing. It is so difficult for me to understand why or how but if he has to be still, then all of his attention is on trying to stay still and he has none left for anything else. My rule for him is that he can squirm and wiggle or play with blocks but he must do it quietly.

Well, and that I don't want to be kicked in the head during a headstand on the bed.

We are also reading Treasure Island, Redwall, The Phantom Toll Booth and The Borrowers.

While we were at the library, Junior found The Phantom Toll Booth and told another homeschool mom that it is a good book (although I don't think he is getting as much out of it as Daisy.) I love it when they get excited about what we are reading.

I dearly love booklists

As a confirmed bibliophile, I have to admit one of my favorite things is booklists. Children's booklists, adult booklists, Christian booklists, I love them all.

So when Ang over at Hanging Out The Wash posted a booklist of classic children's literature, I had to look it over. She got the list from Best Children's Literature.

I am going to italicize those that we have already read and bold those I have read. If it is bolded, I will probably read it to my kids, or have them read.

Classic children's literature - Kindergarten through Grade 6

* Recommended children's literature for K-3, either for reading by children or for reading to them.

• Adamson, Joy * Born Free



• Aesop * Fables*



• Alcott, Louisa May * Little Women



• Andersen, Hans Christian * Fairy tales



• Atwater, Richard and Florence * Mr. Popper's Penguins*



• Bailey, Carolyn Sherwin * Miss Hickory



• Barrie, J.M. * Peter Pan



• Baum, L. Frank * The Wonderful Wizard of Oz



• Bemelmans, Ludwig * Madeline series*



• Bond, Michael * A Bear Called Paddington



• Boston, L.M. * The Children of Green Knowe



• Brink, Carol Ryrie * Caddie Woodlawn



• Brown, Margaret Wise * Goodnight, Moon*



• Brunhoff, Jean de * The Story of Babar*



• Burnett, Frances Hodgson * The Secret Garden



• Burton, Virginia Lee * Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel*



• Butterworth, Oliver * The Enormous Egg



• Clark, Ann Nolan * Secret of the Andes



• Cleary, Beverly * Henry Huggins series



• Coatsworth, Elizabeth * The Cat Who Went to Heaven



• Dalgliesh, Alice * The Bears on Hemlock Mountain*
  * The Courage of Sarah Noble*
  
  
• De Angeli, Marguerite * The Door in the Wall



• De Jong, Meindert * The House of Sixty Fathers
  * The Wheel on the School
  
  
• Dodge, Mary Mapes * Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates



• Du Bois, William Pene * The Twenty-One Balloons



• Edmonds, Walter D. * The Matchlock Gun



• Estes, Eleanor * Ginger Pye
  * Moffats series



• Farley, Walter * The Black Stallion



• Field, Rachel * Hitty, Her First Hundred Years



• Fritz, Jean * The Cabin Faced West



• Gilbreth, Frank B. and Ernestine G. Carey * Cheaper By the Dozen



• Gipson, Fred * Old Yeller



• Godden, Rumer * The Mousewife*



• Grahame, Kenneth * The Reluctant Dragon*
  * The Wind in the Willows



• Gray, Elizabeth Janet * Adam of the Road



• Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm * Grimm's Fairy Tales



• Hawes, Charles * The Dark Frigate



• Haywood, Carolyn * Betsy series*



• Henry, Marguerite * King of the Wind
  * Misty of Chincoteague



• Keith, Harold * Rifles for Watie



• Kelly, Eric * The Trumpeter of Krakow



• Kipling, Rudyard * Captains Courageous
  * Just So Stories for Little Children*
  * The Jungle Books



• Kjelgaard, Jim * Big Red



• Knight, Eric * Lassie Come Home



• Krumgold, Joseph * ...and Now Miguel
  * Onion John



• LaFarge, Oliver * Laughing Boy



• Lamb, Charles and Mary * Tales from Shakespeare



• Latham, Jean Lee * Carry on, Mr. Bowditch



• Lawson, Robert * Ben & Me
  * Rabbit Hill



• Leaf, Munro * The Story of Ferdinand*



• Lear, Edward * Book of Nonsense*



• Lenski, Lois * Strawberry Girl



• Lewis, C.S. * Chronicles of Narnia series



• Lindgren, Astrid * Pippi Longstocking series



• Lofting, Hugh * Doctor Doolittle series (I remember reading one of these on a drive from Sydney to Melbourne, so it is hard for me to think of these without remembering the Aussie countryside)



• London, Jack * The Call of the Wild
  * White Fang



• MacDonald, Betty * Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle



• MacGregor, Ellen * Miss Pickerell series



• McCloskey, Robert * Blueberries for Sal* every year when we go pick blueberries
  
  * Homer Price
  * Make Way for Ducklings*



• McSwigan, Marie * Snow Treasure



• Meigs, Cornelia * Invincible Louisa



• Milne, A.A. * The House at Pooh Corner*
  
  * Now We Are Six*
  
  * When We Were Very Young*
  
  * Winnie-the-Pooh*



• Minarik, Else Holmelund * Little Bear



• Montgomery, L.M. * Anne of Green Gables



• Mukerji, Dhan Ghopal * Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon



• Norton, Mary * The Borrowers series



• O'Hara, Mary * My Friend Flicka



• Pearce, Philippa * Tom's Midnight Garden



• Perrault, Charles * Cinderella*



• Potter, Beatrix * The Tale of Peter Rabbit*



• Pyle, Howard * The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood



• Rey, H.A. * Curious George series*



• Richter, Conrad * The Light in the Forest



• Selden, George * The Cricket in Times Square*



• Seuss, Dr. * The Cat in the Hat*



• Sewell, Anna * Black Beauty



• Sorenson, Virginia * Miracles on Maple Hill



• Speare, Elizabeth George * The Witch of Blackbird Pond



• Sperry, Armstrong * Call It Courage



• Spyri, Johanna * Heidi



• Steinbeck, John * The Red Pony



• Stevenson, Robert Louis * A Child's Garden of Verses*
  * Kidnapped
  * Treasure Island



• Travers, Pamela L. * Mary Poppins series



• Van Loon, Hendrik * The Story of Mankind



• White, E.B. * Charlotte's Web
  * Stuart Little



• Wilder, Laura Ingalls * Little House series



• Williams, Margery * The Velveteen Rabbit*



• Wyss, Johann * Swiss Family Robinson



• Zion, Gene * Harry the Dirty Dog*