2013 Book List

I decided to make a list of books that I want to read this year. Here is my start:

My Books:

1. Divergence by Veronica Roth
2. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
3. Getting Things Done by David Allen
4. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Graham-Smith
5. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
6. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
7. Night by Elie Wiesel
8. Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1) by Orson Scott Card 
9. The Things They Carried  by Tim O'Brien
10. Game of Thrones Book 1, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

While I was perusing books, I thoughtt of a few kids books we definitely want to read so here are those:

Kids Books (Read Aloud):

1. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (We started this yesterday.)
2. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
3. The Bears of Blue River by Charles Major
4. The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
5. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
6. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Justen

October Reading (And Listening!)

In October we rediscovered the audio book. It all started with Ike wanting to read The Hobbit. I didn't want to read it aloud to both of them because I was sure Simon wouldn't be interested in it but I didn't want to quash Ike's enthusiasm for reading. So, I got him the audiobook from the library and he loved it. This inspired Simon to request audio books as well.  I figure out how to expand the display in my search results for the card catalog to show which books had an audio version as well. So far the kids have listened to:
1. Froggy Gets Dressed (Big hit, and especially good on audio book because Froggy bugs.)
2. The Gradener
3. Maurice Sendak Collection
4. Frog and Toad Audio Collection
5. The Big Red Hen

I got a bunch more from the library yesterday as well.  Simon has been really in to the ones where he can turn the pages and follow along.  

As far as what I actually read to the kids this month, we started with Ramon and Her Father -- awesome as always. Then we read the endless Boba Fett - The Fight to Survive.  This was Ike's pick and so very boring for me.  But Ike picked it out himself at his school library and it was his choice, so I read the whole thing. Both the kids loved it and it really didn't have anything objectionable.  The worst part is that Ike found out it was just the first book in the series.

Ike read the Magic Treehouse Book Revolutionary War on Wednesday.  Its encouraging to read these books because last year they were a pretty good struggle and he can fly through them now.  He read a bunch of storybooks as well. We are currently reading Meet the Dark Side.  It is one of those DK Star Wars chapter books. I am fairly sick of Star Wars but its a challenging book for Ike's reading level and he is excited to keep reading it so I am on board.

Simon has been reading the Bob Kindergarten Sight Words books and he is doing awesome.

August & September

All of August and most of September was spent on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  Ike LOVED it and Simon loved parts of it. There was a lot of plot in there for a kindergartener to follow. We decided we'll wait until at least next summer before we start book 5. 

Our next book to finish off September was Pippi Goes Aboard.  Simon picked this one. He said he wanted to read another story "about the girl who drew on the floor at school." It took me a little while to figure out he was referring to when Pippi tried to draw her horse in the first Pippi Longstocking book.

I remember really loving the Pippi books as a little girl and I still enjoy them, though not as much as I did. I remember really admiring Pippi, her strength and her independence.
 
I haven't had Simon reading too much since school started. He has "popcorn" words he practices and little books that come home from school. We basically just go over those. He seems to be getting plenty of study time between morning private kindergarten and afternoon public kindergarten.  Since school started he has learned almost the entire alphabet in sign language. Its actually pretty cute to watch him do it.

Ike has been reading the A to Z Mysteries. He is currently about halfway through the second one. He is always resistant when I say it is time to do his reading, but once he gets going he seems to really like the books. I continue to put "easy" reads in his room at night for him to read independently.  He really likes these grapic novels about "Stone Rabbit."

It is now officially my time to pick and I am deciding between Little House and Ramona -- really I can't go wrong with either of those!

July Extreme Reading Month!

Okay - so maybe it wasn't "extreme" reading, but it was WAAAY more reading than we were able to do in June.   We also read really fantastic books this month.  We finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and then read The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl. I actually really liked that book and it turned out to be one of my favorites that we've read by him.  Then we moved on to Holes by Louis Sachar.  This might have been the boys favorite book we have read so far. They were really in to it. It has some complicated plot lines that all converge in the end and I thought it might be a little bit too complicated for Simon to follow but I was wrong.  He understood all of it and so did Ike.  We watched the movie afterward and we talked about the differences we noticed between the movie and the book.  Finally we finished the month with Little House in the Big Woods. I had actually read this to them a couple years ago but neither one could remember it.

So what's on the reading agenda for August? All 760 pages of ...

If we finish this book this month, it will be a miracle.

June Fail

I think I read less to my kids in the month of June than I EVER have any month before.
We got started on Harry Potter 3 and read some of our old favorite picture books at bedtime but literacy-wise is was not a great month.  Between finals week, my sister visiting, and an 4 day camping trip to the Redwood National Forest, reading to the kids kind of got left behind.  Today is actually July 8 and I have read more to the kids in the past 8 days than the entire month of June.

We did read one great picture book that we all enjoyed -- Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes.

Cute book with a nice message.

Ike's school finished on Monday of my finals week so he had to commute with me 3 days. We did listen to the audio book Little Britches, the Home Ranch by Ralph Moody. It is probably my favorite of the 3 Little Britches I have read. but they are all fantastic.  Ike was really in to it. I am going to borrow the first book in the series for him to listen to as well.

May Reading

This has been a really hard month. I have been sick with about 3 different viruses not to mention a horrible case of food poisoning. I am just BARELY keeping ahead at work and this is having its toll on how much I have been reading to the kids. Luckily we only have 1 WEEK to go until the term is OVER!!!!

In May we finished Where the Red Fern Grows. Everyone cried. A lot.  However the next night when it was time to choose a new book Simon said he wanted to read that one again so I guess it didn't overly traumatize him.  We read Ramona and her Mother again instead. The boys love that book, probably because Ramona is so naughty.  We were supposed to be reading the next Ramona in the series but Simon saw the cover of that one and decided we had to read it again.

We tried to read a book from The Imagination Station Series called Voyage with Vikings but it was terrible. We read probably 5 chapters and none of us wanted to continue. We decided to start Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban instead.  The Harry Potter books are a little difficult for Simon but Ike absolutely LOVES them.

We have also been reading from the Jesus Storybook Bible in the mornings. Its is the nicest children's bible I have EVER read. The stories are told so well, the kids absolutely love it and so do I.   
 


My standout storybook this month is Tumford the Terrible.  Fantastic story about a cat who won't say he's sorry. Boy, that description sounds really lame but its a great book, with a great message without being preachy.


As far as the boys' reading, Simon finished reading all 26 books in the level 1 Reading for all Learners series. He has read the first book of the second level but I just haven't made it to the library recently so we are rereading some of his scholastic phonics readers.

Ike is enjoying the Rotten Ralph books. They are actually at pretty good level for him so we'll stick with them for now.

April Reading

This month we did read The Giraffe, the Pelly, and Me by Roald Dahl and it was actually not too bad.  We have been working on Where the Red Fern Grows but still have a couple chapters left.  I never thought I would be the censoring kind of mom but I just couldn't bring myself to read the part where the Pritchet boy falls on his hatchet.  Dogs dying is sad, boys dying is not something I want to discuss yet with the goons.

We also did manage to squeeze in simultaneously Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets.  Whew, I would HATE to have a month without Captain Underpants.
 
I've actually discovered  that the author Dav Pilkey definitely knows how to write for my boys. The Hallo-Weiner is easily one of the boys' favorite Halloween books.  They also really like the Dumb-Bunnies series.  So I may request some of his other books for the library.

As for the boys' reading practice, Simon is moving right along and doing great. He is up to the 20th book in the 1st level of the phonic readers we use.  We did books 10-20 twice for extra practice.

Ike is at a weird spot in reading. All the "I Can Read" books are really easy for him now.  I do borrow them for him to read at night to himself but I am looking for a few more books that will challenge him just enough but not too much.  I think 'Magic Treehouse' is about the right level but I am just so sick of those books. Annie gets on my nerves.

My standout story book for this month is The Fire Cat. Simon actually got his for Christmas but has been addicted to it lately. We've read it almost every day for the last week.