Every week for school, I read the girls a chapter book out loud that goes along with what we are studying in history, these are called our "read-alouds, and Megan also has one to read to herself, which we call her readers. These also have to do with what we are studying in history. In addition to the read alouds and readers, we also have a history book that we are reading. In addition to these three everyday, we have also thrown in a chapter book for Bible class this week! At night, I have started reading Megan's "reader" for next week, so I have been trying to keep straight many books this week and unfortunately, a couple of them are overlapping! (If you missed it, that is five books right now!)
Here is why my head is spinning:
1. Our book for Bible class is Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World.
We just finished a unit on friendship and this book is about a missionary family who moved to Taiwan (right next to China) from America. The first three chapters so far have been a lot about the differences between American and Chinese culture and how the main character, Amy Kramer, just wants some friends.
2. This is Megan's reader for next week.
This book takes place around the end of WWII when Jackie Robinson is playing baseball. This story is about a young girl who moves from China TO America!! (See why I am confused after I read the Peanut Butter book!) I have read about half the book and again, a lot of the reading is spent on comparing the two cultures! It's funny to see the overlap between the two books.
In addition to these two books, I am reading this book to them too as their read-aloud this week.
We just finished a section on the Great Depression in history and this story is about a young girl and the struggle her family is having to earn money during this hard time. The main character actually writes a letter to Mrs. Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt answers and helps the family! We have twenty pages left as of yesterday and of course the girls were saying, "Just finish the book! Just finish it! We need to know what happens!" I didn't finish it, so it will have to wait until Monday.
Last week, we finished this read-aloud.
This about the struggle between whites and African-Americans in Mississippi during the 1930's. It was a GREAT book! You felt like you were right there within the struggle and your heart went out to these people that were being discriminated against! (This book is one reason why I would much rather teach history from a chapter book than from a textbook AND one reason why I continue to teach from Sonlight curriculum!) At the end of the book, a young African-American boy got accused a killing a white store owner and the book never really says what happens to this young man. They hint around that he was going to be killed for it, but don't say exactly. We do know at this time that many African Americans weren't even given a trial and were usually punished right away, even if it wasn't fair because that's just the way things done in the that time and place.
I was talking to another mom last week who has also read this book and they said, "Don't you know that there is a sequel to the book?" I had no idea there was a sequel! I was very interested because I also want to know what happens to the young man!
I went home and looked online and there are four books in the series! Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is actually book #2. I found book #3 and after reading the summary, I found out what happened to the young man, but I refused to tell the girls.
The library did not have it to borrow, so I just ordered it off Amazon for $3. It came in the mail the other day and both girls, at the same time, said, "When can we start??"
Looks like we have a story to read at bedtime now because I don't think I can read anymore during the day!
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