We just finished a book that we enjoyed so much that I wanted to tell you all about it too in case you were looking for any good books to read. This book is one that we read during our school beginning time, it had nice short sections that fit in perfectly there.
The book is: "The Signers" -The 56 stories behind the Declaration of Independence. by Dennis Brindell Fradin and Illustrated by Micheal McCurdy. In the book it tells a little about each of the 13 colonies (and shows a map of how it was at the time) and then after it tells about the colony it has a couple of pages to tell about each signer that came from that colony. There are pictures to go along with each signer.
This book made me cry several times, not so much because of how wonderfully it is written (though I think the author did a good job) but just realizing what all the founding fathers of our country went through to give us the country that we have. Some of them gave so much and we hadn't even heard their name before. I definitely came away from this book with an even deeper love for our country as well as a better understanding of all the choices that were made and the great thoughtfulness that went into declaring Independence.
Another book that I just read that deepened my feeling of patriotism was "Walk across America" by Peter Jenkins. I really enjoyed reading it (that one was just to myself) and enjoyed learning more about what the U.S. was like during the early 70's.
Homeschooling has been going well. The beginning of this year felt a little rough. We were so extremely busy during the first couple of months that we struggled with getting into a routine. It has been a big blessing to have things be a bit less busy now. The kids are learning well. Some areas (for the boys especially) are still a challenge but we keep plugging away at them little by little and it is always exciting when we discover that something that had been hard earlier this year is now a piece of cake!
What we have read together this year has been so much fun. I am constantly amazed at how when we are reading many books (at our reading times we read the Bible, a book about a country, Story of the World and a book for fun but is often educational as well) they will so often tie together so well without any planning by me. I think God must be arranging our learning schedule for us. I try to get educational videos to watch every so often and those have tied in amazingly well too. God is so good!
This afternoon we are off to the library for the kids to go to a program on MN history and for me to go looking for more jewels of books. I am excited!
How is your school year going?
