Read aloud Thursday: ogres, Africa and birthdays

CHAPTER BOOKS

We are still reading The Moffats, namely during snacks and some mealtimes.  Most days, but not every day.  Gemma and I will start the Latsch Valley Farm series (at bedtime) as soon as it comes in the mail (I got a super good deal).

FROM THE BOOKSHELF

The kids had our Nursery Rhyme books out the other day.  I just love these books so much, and the fact that they are board books makes them so very durable.  The illustrations are precious.

Hey Diddle Diddle (and other favorite Nursery Rhymes)

Hickory Dickory Dock (and other favorite Nursery Rhymes)

I have been encouraging Gemma to read to Clement from our copy of A Big Treasury of Little Animals.  This has long been a family favorite.  When Gemma was Clem's age I think she and her daddy read one before bed every night.  For months.

Excited to have our very own copy of Adele and Simon in America this year.

FROM THE LIBRARY
The Odious Ogre was one Gemma picked up because she thought she remembered it from kindergarten.  But then when we read it she said she'd never heard it before. Oh well, that's neither here nor there.  This was a neat story with great use of vocab and a very good (but not overly preachy) lesson reminding us that our actions (negative and positive) can often make a more lasting impact on ourselves than they can on others.  I would definitely check this one out again.

At bedime we've been reading books about Africa.  We really liked these.
Jamela's Dress
My Rows and Piles of Coins
Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears
I Lost my Tooth in Africa
The Butter Man
Beatrice's Goat
Galimoto

Since Clement has an upcoming birthday, we will be doing a week with our favorite birthday books.  Some of our favorites are:

Otis and Sydney and the Best Birthday Ever

A Birthday for Bear 

C is for Cake

Happy Birthday Moon

For something new we thought we'd try at least a few chapters from The Squirrel's Birthday and other Parties.

I keep wanting to get back to our Virtue Study, but have never really taken the leap to jump back in.  For whatever reason, courage has kept coming up, and when Gemma came out and asked me the other day what it meant to be courageous, I finally said, "OK, we're getting back into this".  For now, I decided to just use a virtue (courage here in a couple weeks) as our weekly (maybe two weeks) theme.  We'll see how this evolves once the school year starts.  But that's a whole other conversation...   For courage, I got much of my inspiration here, but I'll have to report back once we dive in.

That's all for now!  What are you reading this week?

Read aloud Thursday - inaugural post

As I was browsing the Read Aloud Revival FB page I came across a blogger doing Read Aloud Thursday posts, and then I saw this post about picture books and thought, "what a fun way to keep track of what we've been reading!"  So here goes!!  I may not be weekly about this, but will try to at least be regular.  ;-)  Without further ado...

Chapter books

Our current family chapter book is The Moffats.  We are only about two and a half chapters in, but this book has a fun feel to it.  Gemma and I read The Hundred Dresses (same author) a few months ago, but this book almost reminds me of The Children of Noisy Village (which I am dying to read again, maybe when Kolbe is just a little older).  There appear to be numerous other books about the Moffats, so I need to figure out the series order and decide if we'd like to read more.  Anyone else read these?

I am also finishing up the Samantha American Girl books with Gemma at bedtime.  I remember loooooving the American Girl books as a tween, but reading them aloud as an adult they seem to have lost a bit of their magic.  I don't dislike them, but I think I wish I would have waited and just let Gemma read them on her own.  She is still not reading chapter books independently and I don't want to force it, but I'm hoping once we finish Samantha I can draw her attention elsewhere (at least when it comes to read alouds).  I picked up a copy of The Courage of Sarah Noble from the library and am thinking about that.  Any other recommendations?

From the library:

Mushroom in the Rain was fun for the boys, especially since we've had so much rain here of late.

Yoko's Paper Cranes made its way back here for no less than the half-dozenth time over the past several years.  I like this book so much, we may have to add it to our "list".  I love books that give insight into other cultures, and this one did a beautiful job of portraying some of the intricacies of the Japanese family and traditions.

Bearymore. With some authors it's just hard to go wrong.

The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane is one I picked up after reading about it I don't even remember where, but it looks really cool so we will hopefully get to it soon.  We read a lot at random times during the day, but I try to be sure we read one picture book all together at the breakfast table. 
Molly and the Tornado was an interesting, true story with a semi-local flare.  A good one to read and discuss during severe-weather season.

I have a handful of books about the United States, and some specific ones about the midwest in hopes of doing a unit over the summer on the states and particularly Kansas.  I will update once we jump in on that.

From the bookshelf:

Clement has rediscovered our small but wonderful collection of Little Golden Books.  I may have to get him a few for his upcoming birthday.  For now his favorites have been Scuffy the Tugboat, The Little Red Caboose, The Poky Little Puppy and The Poky Little Puppy Follows His Nose Home.  The former two I love (although I never understand how the man with the polka-dot tie manages to show up just in time to rescue the tugboat from a life doomed to the endless ocean), the latter drive me a bit crazy but the nostalgia factor keeps me from hiding them.  What are your favorite Golden Books?

We also got daddy a copy of Hurty Feelings for his birthday, because his ability to read this one aloud rivals anyone's I dare say.  Fun times!

Little Pea has had its share of read aloud time lately, but I will say once I realized there were other books by the same author with different characters and essentially the same plot, I liked it a little less.  

A Fish Out of Water made its way out evening before last (I simply do not tire of reading this one), and I have found myself wishing more than once of late that we had more Sweet Pickles books than our two beloved copies (Very Worried Walrus and Me Too Iguana).

I suppose that wraps it up for this week.  Happy reading, friends!!