Read-Aloud Thursday: de Paola and Homer

I'm joining in Read-Aloud Thursday at Hope Is the Word.    We finished three read-alouds this week; two of them I got from reading previous Read-Aloud Thursday recaps!   

The first two books (from a previous RAT post!) were intended to be for the benefit of my six year old, but they were favorites of my nine year old as well.  The 26 Fairmount Avenue series, by Tomie dePaola is so funny, smart, and engaging.   We laughed all the way through them and learned so much. They give you a true picture of what life was like growing up in the 1930s in middle class America.   We have the next in the series ready to start tomorrow! 

 

The other big accomplishment this week was finishing Black Ships Before Troy : The Story of the Iliad, by  Rosemary Sutcliff.   This coincides with our study of Ancient Greece in The Story of The World.    Obviously it would be difficult for my children to make it through the Iliad by Homer, but this retelling came highly recommended by Susan Wise Bauer, of The Well Trained Mind, so it gets my vote!

I honestly thought the book would be hard for my youngest to sit through, but with the help of some character cards I laminated and put in a Zip-loc for him, he was so interested in the story.   I have a tip, too:

 *I had a small paperback version of the book and found a larger version of the book (with illustrations) at the library.  My youngest followed along in that copy and whenever I stopped during reading, he had to tell me where we were.  It worked GREAT!  Making our reading into a bit of a game kept him engaged and interested.  

I learned quite a lot from this book, as well.   We have The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Story of the Odyssey to begin next week, which is the next book in the adventure. 

 

If you read aloud in your homeschool you might want to consider joining Read Aloud Thursday.  It isn't a traditional link-up.  Rather, all of the comments (submissions) received on Thursday are compiled into a post for the following day ~ giving all sorts of suggestions for books to read aloud to your children.    I know you'll find some great ideas!  

I try to keep an updated reading list on the blog - have you seen it?    

What is your current read aloud?   Leave me a comment and I'll add it to my list of books to read! 

*All images courtesy of Goodreads.com