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Children's Literature for April

March 28, 2017

April is almost here and as I'm working on putting together my list of books for April, I can hardly believe we are approaching the end of Cycle 2 in Classical Conversations.

Time really does fly by.

As I look back on all that we have studied in Cycle 2 this year, I am pleased at all the children's literature we have read that relates to our Classical Conversations memory work.

Good books help the memory work come alive.

As I put together this list, it really hit me how close we are to the end of this year in Foundations. We are going to enjoy these last few weeks reading plenty of good books together. I hope you do too!

*Thank you to Amy, Homegrown Learners' Children's Literature Expert, for this month's book list!

This list of children's literature for April covers the last couple of weeks of Cycle 2. I have not found any children's books specifically about The Gulf War. However, our family has a copy of The Liberation of Kuwait - Honoring The Veterans of Desert Storm that was a gift to my husband since he is a veteran of Desert Storm. He will spend some time going through this book with our children, showing them pictures of his time overseas, and sharing stories about his service.

If you know of any children's literature about The Gulf War, please do share in the comments.

I also included some books about September 11, 2001 since we will be covering that in the timeline. I always get choked up when we get to that part in the song. There are several children's books about 9/11 on the list. I'm particularly interested to read Saved By the Boats: The Heroic Sea Evacuation of September 11 with my children. This is a story I'm not familiar with. We all know that tragedy does happen in our world. But when it does, I like to point my children to the heroes and this book looks like it will do just that.

The science books I included are on the general topics of heat and electricity to provide some additional coverage of these topics for your children. My children just love anything Magic School Bus. And I think many of us homeschool moms have an inexplicable desire to be a little like Ms. Frizzle.

There are several books on the list to help you explore adjectives and interjections with your children. Zounds! is a dictionary of interjections that could be really fun for Essentials students.

There is also a list of books about U.S. Presidents since they will be covered in the final week of the year.

Children's Literature for April - Spring Sillies

In addition to the books related to our Foundations memory work, I have also included some books to help engage your children in the holidays in April.

The first day of April is known as April Fools' Day. I prefer to celebrate what we call Spring Sillies with my kiddos instead of encouraging them to play pranks on others.

So, I've included a few books that are just fun and silly books to read with your children like Do Not Open This Book! and Warning: Do Not Open This Book! The titles of these books just seem to draw kids in to wanting to see what's inside.

The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak is a unique book that demonstrates you don't have to have pictures to have an interesting book. Here's a snippet of the author, B.J. Novak reading it aloud to a group of students.

See how much fun they are having? Seems perfect for Spring Sillies to me.

Children's Literature for April - Palm Sunday & Easter

The books I've listed for Palm Sunday and Easter help bring focus to the real meaning of these important events. I've included Amon's Adventure: A Family Story for Easter that I'm reading with my ten year old this year. It is a historical fiction book designed to read as a family as Easter approaches. We have read and enjoyed some of the Christmas stories in this same series, but this is our first year reading the Easter book. This is one for your older children while the picture books would work well for younger ages.

Children's Literature for April

In summary, this list of children's literature for April includes picture books and chapter books on the following topics:

That align with our Classical Conversations memory work:
- President George H.W. Bush
- Nelson Mandela
- Beethoven
- Brahms
- Dvorak
- Orchestra Instruments
- September 11, 2001
- Heat and electricity
- Adjectives and interjections
- U.S. Presidents
April Fools Day / Spring Sillies
Palm Sunday and Easter

George Bush: Forty-First President 1989-1993 (Getting to Know the U.S. Presidents)George H. W. Bush (Kid's Guide to Drawing the Presidents of the United States o)Who Was Nelson Mandela?National Geographic Readers: Nelson Mandela (Readers Bios)Nelson Mandela (Great Figures in History series)Ludwig Van Beethoven (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers)Why Beethoven Threw the Stew (And Lots More Stories about the Lives of Great Composers)Beethoven (Famous Children)Beethoven Lives Upstairs What's So Great About Beethoven?: A Biography of Ludwig van Beethoven Just for Kids! (Volume 10)Beethoven's Wig: Sing Along Piano Classics Welcome to the Symphony: A Musical Exploration of the Orchestra Using Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music!Brahms (Famous Children (Paperback))Johannes Brahms (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers)Two Scarlet Songbirds: A Story of Anton Dvorak Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story I Survived the Attacks of September 11th, 2001 (I Survived, Book 6)Saved by the Boats: The Heroic Sea Evacuation of September 11 (Encounter: Narrative Nonfiction Picture Books)America Is Under Attack: September 11, 2001: The Day the Towers Fell (Actual Times)September 11 Then and Now (True Books)The Magic School Bus in the Arctic: A Book About Heat The Magic School Bus And The Electric Field Trip Charged Up: The Story of Electricity (Science Works)Many Luscious Lollipops: A Book About Adjectives (Explore!)Things That Are Most in the World If You Were an Adjective (Word Fun)Fantastic! Wow! and Unreal!: A Book About Interjections and Conjunctions (Explore!) by Heller, Ruth (2000) Paperback Cool! Whoa! Ah and Oh!: What Is an Interjection? (Words Are Categorical) (Words Are Categorical (Paperback))If You Were an Interjection (Word Fun)ZOUNDS!: A Browser's Dictionary of Interjections The Book with No Pictures Do Not Open This Book Warning: Do Not Open This Book!Humphrey's First Palm Sunday The Donkey That No One Could Ride Little Colt's Palm Sunday The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale The Berenstain Bears and the Easter Story: Stickers Included! (Berenstain Bears/Living Lights)Amon's Adventure: A Family Story for Easter The Legend of the Easter Egg Easter Bunny, Are You For Real?Benjamin's Box: The Story of the Resurrection Eggs

Smart About the Presidents (Smart About History)Who Was George Washington?Who Was John F. Kennedy?: Who Was...?Abe Lincoln's Hat (Step into Reading)If I Were President Don't Know Much About the Presidents So You Want to Be President?: The Revised and Updated Edition

Download the April Book List Printable

Children's Literature List for April - free printable

I want to remind you of the many wonderful resources Mary offers to help you teach your children about the orchestra. I am thankful to have someone like Mary provide guidance on teaching my children about classical music and the orchestra.

Did you attend her recent webinar on Vivaldi's "Spring"? My kiddos really enjoyed it and we are looking forward to what she offers in the future.

And her newest resource in the SQUILT family, Meet the Instruments: Explore the Orchestra is a beautiful way to introduce your children to the orchestra. These give you a beautiful hands-on resource to introduce your students to the instruments of the orchestra.

I am always on the lookout for good children's books. Do you have any other recommendations for children's literature for April?

5 Tips for Using the Library Successfully

March 13, 2017

Do you shy away from the library because it seems too difficult to manage having library books to keep up with and getting them back on time?

Could you use a few practical tips for using the library successfully?

Read on...

(Thank you, Amy for this contribution to the blog today)

We read a lot of books in our family. We have books all over our house, in almost every room of our house. And each week, I check out what feels like a ton of books from the library. That puts even more books in our house.

Reading good books is a big part of our homeschool. Books are just a part of our lives. And that's how we want it for our family. My husband and I each brought a library of our own books into our marriage.

Over the years we have had to let go of many of those books to make room for children's books. We only have so much room for books in our home. We try to reserve that space for books that we know our family is going to love reading over and over again - or books we will want to reference from time to time - or books that we will want to pass onto others when we have outgrown or finished with them - or books we want to savor and take notes in the margins.

But there are just so many good books we want to read! So we take full advantage of our library. Today I'm sharing some tips I've learned for using the library successfully.

I have found that the things I use most successfully in our homeschool are things I have organized.

If I don't have them organized, they end up falling by the wayside. Either I can't find them when I need them, or I don't have the supplies I need when I need them, or I don't have the right pages printed at the right time, etc., etc., etc.

Know what I mean?

So when it comes to using the library, I have learned some tips over the years to organize myself to make our use of the library successful, not stressful.

5 Tips for Using the Library Successfully

Find a "home" for your library materials

We have locations all around our house where things 'belong' and we call that their 'homes.' It helps my family know where to put things when we are tidying up. If we come across something that we don't know where it lives in our home, we need to discuss if it's something we really need or do we need to identify a home for it. Using this approach with our library materials has helped tremendously.

We have a wooden crate in our homeschool room and that's where our library materials live.

We take the books out and read or listen to them. My kids take them to their rooms. They take them in the car. But they know, through continued training I might add, that when they are done with them, library books get returned to the library box in the schoolroom. I admit, this is not something we have completely mastered.

We do misplace a book now and then. But when I look at the volume of books we have checked out of the library, I am okay with this.

Since the beginning of the school year, we have checked out close to 400 items from our library.

We have misplaced three during that time. One we eventually found. One we decided to replace because we just couldn't find it anywhere. The other one we are still looking for and hoping it will turn up soon.

Our library is allowing us to continue checking out this misplaced book unless someone else puts it on hold because they know we are looking for it. This means we are not racking up late fees on it. We will replace it soon if we cannot find it.

But knowing that we have kept up with almost 400 library items this school year alone, I am good with having to pay for a couple of lost books if it comes to that.

Schedule recurring trips to the library

Okay. This tip was a game changer for me.

Our schedule for going to the library used to be quite random. And that led to us racking up a lot of late fees. Because we weren't sticking to any specific schedule, we were sometimes hitting and mostly missing on getting books back on time. I hate to admit it, but our late fees were once over $50!

That hurt, that really hurt! After that, we quit going to the library for a while.

Now we go to the library once a week. We always go on the same day of the week. We go on Mondays because we are already close to the library on Mondays, at my daughter's dance class following our Essentials class. This makes it easy for a trip to the library to be included in our weekly schedule.

This means all of our books are due back on Mondays. This is huge for us! No more having books due back all throughout the week. Have you ever just returned from the library only to find you had another book due back in a couple of days? Not that our library is all that far from our house, but if returning books on time becomes a burden on our schedule, we won't go.

So I suggest that if you have had trouble with owing late fees at the library, like I have, that you try choosing a recurring schedule for going to the library that works for your family and see if that helps.

There is another bonus to going on a recurring schedule. If your family is anything like mine, they love going to the library. There are books they can read, for free! There are games to play, for free! There are sweet librarians who chat with them about what they are up to. There is a nice trail outside to walk on. There are occasional activities for families at the library.

Okay, it can be a real event going to the library.

But going weekly means my children know they will get to come back in a week. That means we don't have to spend all day in there for them to get their fill of the library. Our schedule just doesn't allow us to spend hours and hours at the library. Homeschool moms, you understand me, right? Some weeks we do have some leisure time to spend at the library. Other weeks we are dropping off books, picking up those we have on hold, and hitting the road.

Since my children know we'll be back in a week, we can do those drop and run days without too much complaint.

Identify something to carry your library materials in

We have a large, heavy duty bag that we carry our books in. As the week progresses, I put all the library books we are finished with in the library bag. It's 'home' is right by our wooden library book box. The night before our scheduled library visit, I check our online list to see what all has to be returned the following day and make sure it is in the bag. Then I grab the bag on our way out the door the following day.

Some people carry their books in plastic totes to and from the library. Those plastic milk crates work well for some families. I like using a bag because it's easy enough for my son to help me carry books in it. And I can put it out of the way when it's empty. Just choose something that works for you.

Find out what all your local library offers and how to use it

We are fortunate to live in an area with quite a few local libraries. But another game changer for me was finding out that some of them are connected to an inter-library loan program that covers most of our state. We can request books online from libraries all across our state. This means we can get almost any book we would like to read. Many libraries offer inter-library loan programs.

Check to see what's available to you.

Many libraries also offer services like Overdrive, where you can check out e-books and audio books. This is another great service for homeschoolers.

There are often free family friendly events at libraries. Ours offers chess clubs, summer reading programs, occasional Lego building events, puppet shows, and more. I've even heard of some libraries that have sewing machines for their patrons to use!

Librarians are usually eager to share with you about what all they have to offer.

Enjoy using the library!

One last tip - - don’t worry if you don’t read every single book you check out!

One piece of advice I read early on in our homeschooling journey was to provide a feast of books for our children to read.

They may not devour each one, but that's okay. Give them a variety of good books to choose from and watch their interest in books grow.

Book Suggestions About Libraries

So with all these tips about using the library, I thought I would leave you with some suggestions for books about libraries.

There are some interesting stories about different libraries throughout the world and history that are much different than our current weekly library experience. There are also some endearing stories here set at a the library. Add them to your library check out list or click through to add them to your personal library.

There's also a short video of T he Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore that you can view on Amazon. Enjoy!

Tomas and the Library Lady (Dragonfly Books)The Library Library Lion Library Mouse Library Mouse #2: A Friend's Tale Library Mouse: A World to Explore That Book Woman Bats at the Library (A Bat Book)Miss Dorothy and Her Bookmobile Curious George Visits the Library with downloadable audio Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library