Reading List

Part of homeschooling in our state is that you have to keep a list of books that have been read by each child. There are several ways to do this. I just keep a sheet of paper for each child and as they finish a book, they write it down with the author's name. My friend L does something really neat. She keeps the receipts from the library and highlights the books as her kids finish them. One thing that has been very beneficial about this is that we have discovered some really good series that we probably wouldn't have known about. We get recommendations from our friends, from other families, and from the librarians. The big girl is in a book club that runs during the school year. There are three series of books that come to mind that we really enjoyed or are enjoying as the case may be.

The first series that comes to mind is Geronimo Stilton. My aforementioned friend L is the one that recommended this series. We read some out loud, but did some as books on CD. The books are cute and funny and easy to read. They go pretty quickly and we sometimes take turns reading them. I like books on CD because the readers usually do voices. I'm not usually good at character voices. This is a series about a mouse named Geronimo Stilton. I have blogged about them before. We always enjoy a good GS book. I would say they are more appropriate for elementary age, but even I get a good giggle when we read them.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians has been one of our recent series. We are actually finishing the last book. We have two CDs left. The kids wanted to read this because of the movie. They would see the trailers on TV and then the poster at the theater. I requested the first book and we loved it. They are action filled. They are clean. They are appropriate for my kids. They have introduced us to the Greek gods in a way that is fun for my kids. They have made us interested in something that we have just barely scratched the surface of previously. The writer, Rick Riordan, has a new series about the Egyptian gods. It's waiting for us at the library as we speak, or read I guess.

Because of Rick Riordan we have discovered another series. The 39 Clues has been alot of fun and has been our dinner book for quite awhile now. We are on book five. Each book is written by a different author. Each one lends their own specialty and style to the series. It also introduces us to places that we probably wouldn't find out much about without reading these. We are going to look up The Road of Bones in Siberia to see if it's real or not. Just cool stuff that makes you wonder and makes you root for two kids that are competeing against people, relatives, that have more money and more resources. And once again, they are clean, they are interesting, and they are fun. Good books to read with my kids.

We try to read as much as we can. My girls had at least two full sheets, front and back, of books they read last school year. We have already started a list for the upcoming year. We are also doing the summer reading camp at the library again. A friend of mine and I were thinking about starting a book club for our boys. The one that the big girl does is for girls, and we think our boys need an outlet. Any excuse to get them to pick up a book is good. They will read, they just prefer to do something else. If you have a good book, or even a good series, we'd love to know about it.

Have a great day.