Current Books

I am reading five books right now. I think five is a good amount to keep going as I am not usually in the mood to read the same book night after night. Perhaps it's the Charlotte Mason mental feast thing rubbing off on me. Heh heh. Or maybe I don't see the need to discipline myself into finishing one book before beginning another. Whatever it is, that's just how it is with me right now. Along with CM's Volume 2, I am reading The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer, the Something or Other of Motherhood ... Meaning? Method? It's a Sally Clarkson book I have been reading bits of for months now. So those are the grown up books I'm reading. Definitely each of them need to be savored. I don't think any of them would benefit me at all if I just read them cover to cover. They require Thinking.

So now that Joel is beginning Ambleside Online Year 3, I am finally through the Year 1 free read list. Until now, I have read all the free reads aloud. But at the last visit to the Library I picked up Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry for Joel to read himself. I have him read two chapters a day (they are short chapters), at separate times. Since I have never read the book, I have been reading several chapters at night a few nights a week so I can stay ahead of him. It's a great book, and I'm glad I chose this one for him to read. I also checked out Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit. I plan to have Joel read it when he's done with Brighty. It Is a completely different flavor (from Brighty), and is quite delightful. It has longer chapters, and I am slowly working through them. I never thought I'd be staying up late reading children's books, but I am! Five Little Peppers and How They Grew is what I am reading to the boys at night, with Poems and Verses for Children interspersed. I am finding that reading children's literature while I have children is helping me. It reminds me of my own childhood, my own feelings as a child, and also to have more reasonable expectations of my children. To remember what's important.

Oh yeah, the Sally Clarkson book is The Mission of Motherhood.