Reading Aloud Challenge -- August 18th

Now that we're back in our school schedule, we've made a lot more time for read-alouds this week.

I'm currently reading The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin to Addison and Brennan. Since we took a long reading-aloud break this summer, it seems like we've been reading it forever. I hope to finish in another few days. We're getting to the exciting part and only have six or eight chapters left.

After we finish this book, we're going to choose something related to the Civil War. We have a few options that I read to Addison about four years ago during our last Civil War study. She likes both of my first choices, so I don't know which one we'll start with.

Lauren and I read lots of books together this week. I'm currently reviewing Before Five in a Row and therefore chose one of the books used in that curriculum to start the week. After reading Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom for several days in a row, we headed to the library to find some more of the titles in the series. I believe the original book is far better than the sequels, but Lauren seems to enjoy them all equally.

We also read Yellow Ball by Molly Bang (another Before Five in a Row selection). Lauren's main curriculum is IEW's Primary Arts of Language, and it included a few stories to discuss this week. I remember reading Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, and a few Aesop's fables. 

Of course, no week would be complete without a Junie B. Jones book or two (or five). We often read several chapters at a sitting, but I'm not sure we finished one this week. Sometimes Lauren prefers to start a new one instead of picking up where we left off earlier.

Next week, I hope to report on which Civil War book that the big kids and I have decided to start as our new read-aloud. I also hope to report that I've finally started reading Lauren's first real chapter book.