Heavenly Homemakers

I say this every year, so I just wouldn’t dream of let you down by failing to repeat myself. I must say it again:  This has been my favorite year of home schooling so far! (Just pretend you’ve never heard me say that before.)  Either the books keep getting better or I keep forgetting how good the other books were or I just like one-upping myself. Either way, our family had a great year of reading and learning.

If you’re new here, you may want to go back and read my Homeschool Hubbub posts to learn more about how school happens (or tries to happen) at our house, and to learn about our curriculum of choice.

I want to share with you my favorite pile of books for this year so that if you haven’t read them yet, you can look them up, and if you have read them already you can say, “I KNOW, that IS an awesome book! I’m not posting all the books we read, and that doesn’t mean I didn’t like all of them, these were just my very favorites. Here they are in no particular order (because by the end of our school year, our book shelf is not at all organized!):

The Great Turkey Walk, by Kathleen Karr

We read this book as a family and got a big kick out of this adventure. I love books that crack you up and make you think all at the same time.

 

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor

We also read this book as a family. Our kids were able to understand better the turmoil in the U.S. that was still going on years after the Civil War. Fantastic book.

 

The Journeyman, by Elizabeth Yates

 

Elizabeth Yates is an awesome writer, helping the reader fit right into the shoes of the main character all while teaching important facts of history. I never knew what a journeyman was before this. We learned about that and so much more.

Mountain Born, by Elizabeth  Yates

Another great one by Elizabeth Yates! This book was absolutely precious. Our boys could completely relate to the main character in this book, as the story was told through his point of view. This was one of those that I choked up at several times while reading it out loud. My boys love it when I do that {cough}.

Helen Keller, by Margaret Davidson

Justus and Elias declared this to be one of their favorite readers this year. They found it so interesting they could barely put it down. That rarely happens for my boys. (It’s usually pretty easy for them to put a book down and start kicking a ball instead.)  I love the understanding they gained and the inspiration they felt by reading Helen Keller’s story.

Indian Captive, by Lois Lenski

Wow, this book still haunts me and I can’t imagine that this “happened in real life”. And yet, what a story of love and courage. You’ve gotta read it. (Our eighth grader read this on his own – I read it too. I wouldn’t recommend it for younger grades. There’s a lot to chew on in this book.)

Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse

This was another book our eighth grader read this year. I believe he read it in two days…I read it in one. It is incredibly written and heart jolting. And obviously, hard to put down.

 

 

 

 

 

The Story of US, by Joy Hakim

Asa (8th grade) and I read through this series during the year as a part of his history program. I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll say it again:  Never did I know that studying history could be so intriguing. Joy Hakim is a fantastic writer. These books were so simple to understand and taught us so much. I recommend this series as a great set of books to have on your shelves to read and re-read through the years.

Books we’ll be reading this summer (this of course is not an exhaustive list, just some I’d really like to read through with the kids):

• Tell Me the Secrets, Treasures for Eternity, by Max Lucado and Ron DiCianni
• Missionary Books by Dave and Neta Jackson (someone gave us a nice set of these and I can’t wait to read through them with the boys!)
• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (again, someone gave us several of these books, which are historical fiction and perfect for my boys’ interests)
• By the Great Horn Spoon, by Sid Fleischman

What have been some of your favorite books you’ve read during the past few months? Are you reading anything exciting this summer that I should add to my list?! :)