Reading aloud (good literature) has been the backbone of our home educating - and our home culture in general. It's been such a gift to my husband and I to read aloud books that we missed reading as children to our own children. Also, I second the recommendation of A Landscape with Dragons by Michael D. O'Brien. I've found so many amazing books through following the feast of titles offered in the back of the book.
Melisa, Thank you for this list, I used to hate history in school. However, as I teach my son history, I'm learning history all over again, and have come to understand its importance. After reading a few chapters of Benhur, I realized the value of good historical fiction.
This list is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again.
AMEN!! Reading aloud is just about the best thing you can do with and for your kids.
All I would add is a recommendation for "The Read-Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease. He spends the first half of the book outlining the importance of reading to our kids, with some inspiring and even tear-jerking stories and anecdotes; the second half is dedicated to a list of great read-alouds, for all ages. It's a great book to own and refer to often.
Thanks for this, we do seem to have lost the imagination to immerse ourselves in the past with interest and humility. Good writing still finds an audience as with Hilary Mantel and C J Sansom - but probably for older readers. You provide an American perspective, but there are great classics for the taking in Britain. Robert Louise Stevenson and Walter Scott were masters of their art in the 19th century. What schoolboy could not be moved by the Hornblower novels set in the Napoleonic wars. Rosemary Sutcliff's Eagle of the Ninth takes us to Roman Britain, then there's Robert Graves for the classical world and R H Benson for Catholics - there's a long list out there to be mined, we just need some good miners.
Reading aloud (good literature) has been the backbone of our home educating - and our home culture in general. It's been such a gift to my husband and I to read aloud books that we missed reading as children to our own children. Also, I second the recommendation of A Landscape with Dragons by Michael D. O'Brien. I've found so many amazing books through following the feast of titles offered in the back of the book.
Filling in the gaps of my own education is one of the best parts.
I agree. That's been my experience too.
Melisa, Thank you for this list, I used to hate history in school. However, as I teach my son history, I'm learning history all over again, and have come to understand its importance. After reading a few chapters of Benhur, I realized the value of good historical fiction.
This list is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again.
AMEN!! Reading aloud is just about the best thing you can do with and for your kids.
All I would add is a recommendation for "The Read-Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease. He spends the first half of the book outlining the importance of reading to our kids, with some inspiring and even tear-jerking stories and anecdotes; the second half is dedicated to a list of great read-alouds, for all ages. It's a great book to own and refer to often.
Thanks for this, we do seem to have lost the imagination to immerse ourselves in the past with interest and humility. Good writing still finds an audience as with Hilary Mantel and C J Sansom - but probably for older readers. You provide an American perspective, but there are great classics for the taking in Britain. Robert Louise Stevenson and Walter Scott were masters of their art in the 19th century. What schoolboy could not be moved by the Hornblower novels set in the Napoleonic wars. Rosemary Sutcliff's Eagle of the Ninth takes us to Roman Britain, then there's Robert Graves for the classical world and R H Benson for Catholics - there's a long list out there to be mined, we just need some good miners.