We are using The Well-Trained Mind as a navigational tool in our homeschooling journey and one of the hardest parts to decide about is what to read aloud. There are so many wonderful books!
Here's what TWTM suggests for first grade and how we are going to use this at Trivium Academy:
Bible: Reading from Egermeier's Bible Story Book every night during our family reading time. We have also read various other related Bible story books as Camille has wanted to read them.
Homer: We have already read Rosemary Sutcliffe's The Wanderings of Odysseus. This was a long read so we moved on after this- it took us two months.
Greek and Roman Myths: I purchased A Child's Book of Myths and Enchanting Tales from Books-A-Million for $9.95 and Mary Pope Osborne's Favorite Greek Myths but I still feel like I need to get other books from the library. I'll have to see what I might have on hand for Roman Greek myths. TWTM has a list of recommended titles that I'll get as we study about that time period.
Aesop's Fables: I don't have a single book with just Aesop's Fables, I do have multiple books that have them though.
About Aesop and other stories: I have purchased books that have a multitude of stories from different sources so that I wouldn't be spending money for each type.
• What Your First Grader Needs to Know by Hirsch Jr.
(This is a very valuable source with numerous read alouds for under $10! We will be using these books for every year);
which includes Indian, West Indian, Swedish, Arabic, Old English, African, Native American, and a few Modern;
• Storyland Favorites (linked to Ebay listing for $4.50) by Harold Shane
this is a 1961 schoolbook reader. I buy these whenever I can find them in good condition, they are very wholesome and God is front and center. Inside Storyland Favorites: Aesop, German folk tale, Robert Louis Stevenson, American Indian folktale, Norse folk tale, Mother Goose, Scandinavian folk tale, East Indian folk tale, and other poems.
• Parade of Stories: another old school book of complied stories, poems and folktales. I shop thrift, used books, Goodwill stores and find wonderful wholesome treasures like these that are often barely used.
• Childcraft's Stories and Fables -folktales, Aesop, Grimm, myths, legends, Hans
Christian Andersen, Rudyard Kipling. I love the Childcraft How and Why Library!
I spent $10 maximum collecting these books from thrift stores, used book stores, etc.
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Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Virgil: What am I supposed to use for these? I found biographies but not a Plato for Kids type books. I guess I'll use biographies- like the ones I found in a previous post- Looking for Cicero. There is an adaptation of Aeneid.
Here's a list of books that has been created by an Amazon user: Myth & Literature Adaptations
Egyptian Myths: We've been reading these in various books and I bought Jim Weiss' Egyptian Treasures: Mummies and Myths. Jim Weiss has a wonderful selection for audio stories. I still like to read aloud so I don't use too many audiobooks although these are great.
Indian Folktales, Chinese and Japanese Folktales: I'm going to rely on the library again for this. I have a few books that have tales from all over world like The Identical Dolls. These are included in book I listed above.
English, Irish and Welsh Folktales: I have The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm and a few folktales scattered in other books like The Identical Dolls. These are included in the books I listed above.
That concludes TWTM's suggestions but I also want to read some other books from our home library:
The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne √
A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson √
A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond √
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Atwater
The Finches' Fabulous Furnace by Roger Drury
The Wind in the Willows by Grahame
Giant Treasury of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter
A Treasury for Children by James Herriot
I just don't know if we'll accomplish all this! I see other books I want to read to them, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, The Penderwicks, and other books that I feel might be better appreciated when she's older. Of course, we still have a lot of shorter readers to read and Camille is enjoying reading to us! Last night she read Dr. Seuss' Mr Brown Can Moo, Can You?
I don't list the books she reads to us as finished reads because we have so many and they are so short or the ones we read that are short. I need to see if there are "reading guides" to the books we have. I found that website I mentioned in the Looking for Cicero post that asks Philosophical Questions with children's books and I think that's an excellent way to get the children thinking about what we're reading and how it effects them.
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