Books, Books, Books,

1. As a family we are listening to Swiss Family Robinson (unabridged from Blackstone Audio). I have to admit I have never read it, absolutely thrilling it is! We have added a few new words to our vocabulary such as CAPITOL. It is used as an adjective not a noun such as "We found a capitol red tomato in our garden, the first of the season." We have over used it since hearing it, but it is such a capitol word..... The other positive part of the book is the close knit family bond they have and the four strong manly boys that exhibit good character. They watch out for their mother and respect their parents authority while at the same time exploring, keeping the family supplied with food, and inventing new things to keep the everyone comfortable. The father also remembers to thank the Lord for their safety and His providing for them.
2. Mary and I are reading Rainbow Garden by Patricia St John. This is one of my favorites. I believe I have probably read it 10 times! Simple teaching from the Bible interwoven throughout the story. "In His presence is FULLNESS OF JOY"
3. Katherine is reading 3+ books right now! Across Five Aprils,  Because of Wynn-Dixie, and On the Other Side of the Mountain. She is also reading The Happy Path for Pathfinders.
4. Elizabeth has the usual 5 books going...one of the Soup Books, The Year of Miss Agnes, Adventures in Galilee, A Child's Look at the 23rd Psalms and can't remember what else right now. One of my major goals was that my children would be lovers of books. So far they all love to be read too and the older girls love to read.
5. Twins "listen" to a lot of what is read to the older kids and lots of audio books.  They do pick up more than I realize.  I have read a lot of Marguerite de Angeli's books to them and to Mary....Thee Hannah, Yonie Wondernose, and Skippack School.  Of course, we always read lots of picture books.  When I feel bad for not reading more at their level I remind myself that the older girls didn't have so much soaked up that was "above" them, so these little guys are really getting MORE read to them!!!
6. We just finished Caddie Woodlawn's Family which was a first for all of us.  Oh how we enjoyed the adventures of this endearing family!  This is the sequel to Caddie Woodlawn which we read last year.  When we were through we were all a bit sad.  Mary asked if we could start the next book....there is no next book I replied!  "WHAT!" she exclaimed, "Why not?"  I agree, why is there not more written for us to feast upon?????
7. What should we start next to read all together?  Ideas include....Lassie Come Home (unabridged) Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin (K and E remember me reading this to them, but would love to hear it again) or maybe a Kate Seredy book.  She is an author I am dying to read who wrote The Good Master and the sequel called The Singing Tree.  Another idea is a good biography about someone extraordinary!  Always a good choice to hear about the life of someone who sets an example for these children and myself.  We'll see....always so much to read and so little time!