The Secret Garden

Our Family Read Aloud book for this month is The Secret Garden by Fances Hodgson Burnett. Isn't is fitting for this time of year?

The kids are loving it! (Even Zoe seems interested for longer periods of time. Which, to be honest, surprises me.)

The language of of the book takes some getting used to. Not only in listening to it, but also in reading it. The chapters are longer, so occasionally I'll break them in half and read part of the chapter one night, then finish it the next night.

We are learning all sorts of new words (wuthering)and dreaming of far away places (India and England). Our imaginations are running wild in the garden and it's brought a new dimension and interest to creating a garden here at home.

I love how books can do that!

Little Wonders

Last night (Thursday), we finished The Borrowers. The book has twenty chapters. Around chapter 15, Aryn decided to check the book out from the school library so she could follow along. Look at what we found inside...

If you look closely, on line 7, you'll find my name! With ditto marks underneath 3 times. The last date reads, January. 24. 86. Isn't that incredible?! I read the exact same book around the same time of year, 23 years ago. It seems life is full of little wonders.(Back view) Look closely. You just might find someone you know!

By the way, Aryn and Isaac really liked the book. Aryn even decided to try another book by the same author: Bedknob and Broomstick. She said it's different than the movie, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, which we've watched as well. Family movie night.

The February Family Read Aloud

The new book is The Borrowers by Mary Norton. We're a few chapters into it, and I'm beginning to wonder whether it was the right choice...

So. This is how we start the reading. All the children on the bed. (With the Littlest bouncing around everywhere.)Zo-issima's attention tapers off and she begins playing around. (But that's one of the reasons we're doing this, right? To develop an ATTENTION SPAN.)

And this is how we end the reading. With the two oldest still listening and wanting more.

(Asher did like the book, however the pictures look. So much so, that he tore the cover off. Won't my mom be thrilled.)

Jim Trelease explains in his book, "how easy it is to overlook the very purpose of literature: to provide meaning in our lives" (The Read Aloud Handbook, pg. 18).

Family Read Aloud

So. Some of you may have noticed the picture of the book on the left-hand side. Zoe got this book for Christmas. We have been reading Nim's Island by Wendy Orr as a family read aloud every night before the kids go to bed. I read one chapter each night. Last night we finished the last chapter.

For the most part, everyone liked it. Zoe did like to jump around on the bed a bit. But Aryn just wanted me to keep reading. She didn't want the chapter to end. That's what I love about reading just one chapter each night. The anticipation.

I love to read. And I love to read aloud. If there is one thing I would like to pass onto each of my children, it is the love of reading. You'll be hearing more about the books we read together as a family here.

We'll be starting the next one soon. It's a book my mom read to us when we were little...