Last Saturday afternoon the fever started accompanied by a sore throat and a dry, unproductive cough that kept me up at night. Symptoms worsened, resulting in zero church last Sunday and no school for the entire week. Have you ever tried to read aloud when you couldn't stop coughing and hacking? No. Good.
In addition to being unable to read aloud, I knew that the day we finished school was the day I needed to take the boys to the donut shop near our house. It's tradition. We drive by this place at least six times every week. They used to ask when we could go. Now they know. On the last day of school (and the first day of school). Period. Not having the energy to even take Luke to his piano lesson and sit in the car, I knew I would not be able to accomplish the donut shop this week.
But today is different. The Daddy-Man is home. He can do the donut shop! So, I grabbed my water bottle, took my Mucinex, and settled down on the couch to finish school with the boys. For the record, this involved four pages from The Usborne Book of World History reviewing all the ancient history we have done this year followed by a chapter from George Muller narrating the peaceful end to his amazing life. Ever tried to read aloud while coughing, hacking, and crying? There were a few times that Luke had to read for me, but we made it. And it was a fabulous book. I highly recommend it.
Then came the pictures. I love our curriculum. Sonlight provides my boys with so many fabulous books that they cannot possibly pick a favorite or even their top three. I let them choose as many as they wanted.
Were there any they didn't pick? How many books did we read this year? There were some that didn't make the cut, but not many. I would say there were probably fifteen other books that we used this year, none of which were bad. They just weren't favorites.
My favorites? Sure, but don't ask for a picture. I'm still in pajamas and the name of my hairstyle is "And I didn't brush my teeth either." But I can tell you my favorite books from the year. In no particular order:
George Muller - The true story of how one man, called and equipped by God, cared for over 10,000 orphans over the course of his life, depending solely on the power of prayer and God's provision for all their needs. Um...life changing book for our household.
Mountain Born - A coming of age story that follows a boy and his bottle fed ewe from her birth through her lambing years. A leader of her herd, she teaches the boy about both responsibility and love. Absolutely beautiful book.
Charlotte's Web - Of course I had read it before and probably had it read aloud to me at least twice. But when I read the passage at the end describing Charlotte's loyalty and true friendship, I was again moved to tears. It was that well done.
Gooney Bird Greene - Sometimes you just want to laugh. This is the book to read. Gooney Bird arrives on her first day in a new school wearing a pink tutu and cowboy boots. She is an instant hit with her peers and her teacher as she regales them with absolutely true stories of arriving from China on a flying carpet and having her pet cat consumed by a cow. Seriously. Funny. Stuff.
The Wheel on the School - Speaking of funny, nothing was more fun than hearing my boys repeat lines from this classic imitating my pathetic attempt at a Dutch accent. The book itself follows a small Dutch village's school children in their attempt to bring storks back to Shora by acquiring a wheel for the roof of their school. The entire community is drawn together in this quest. The intergenerational aspect of this book was my very favorite part. That and hearing Luke say, "Oh! Oh, Jella stole that wheel."
I could easily pick ten more, but I'm tired. So, I'll end this post with a send up to Reading Rainbow: But don't take my word for it! :-)
