Reading Aloud Challenge -- August 25th

I can't help but start of this week's Read Aloud Challenge post with a picture of what my three kiddos were doing while I read one afternoon this week. Yes, three children, three coloring book pages, one big bin of markers, and no fighting (at least long enough for me to take the picture).

As I had hoped, we finished The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. We've settled back into a school sort of mode, and I finally made a decision about which Civil War story to read first. We're now several chapter into Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt. At the moment, we're not doing a formal study of the Civil War, but we are discussing the things that come up in the story. For instance, today we pulled out a map to see why the Union victories at Ft. Henry and Ft. Donelson were so important and why they brought so much hope to the Northerners. Addison is currently reading Jeff Shara's Gods and Generals, and she's finding it interesting to see the war from two different perspectives -- the southern Illinois family with divided loyalties in Across Five Aprils and the armies fighting in the eastern part of the country in Gods and Generals.

As I had hoped, I was able to start reading the first "real" chapter book to Lauren. (I have a hard time with counting Junie B. Jones books and especially with admitting that one of those was the first chapter book she heard in its entirety.)

We also read an assortment of library picture books during her school time. Corduroy by Don Freeman is one of the books included in Before Five in a Row, and we also read the sequel A Pocket for Corduroy.

The other day at the library I found a new book in the Ladybug Girl series by David Soman and Jacky Davis. Not only did I read Ladybug Girl at the Beach, I also found a cool website that Lauren enjoyed. (www.ladybuggirl.com)

If you'd like to join the Read-Aloud Challenge fun, be sure to stop by my friend Debra's blog at Footprints in the Butter. She started this friendly meme so that we can be more intentional in making time to read aloud to our children.