Family Read Alouds {Fall 2022, 2nd & 4th grade}

There’s a distinctive middle ages theme to our book list this time around, with a sprinkling of Christmas stories, too. Novels provide such a rich way of delving farther into our history topics, so we enjoyed the books below to complement our homeschool history spine (Story of the World, volume 2). In our spare moments we enjoyed a few unrelated audiobooks and a darling Christmas read aloud:

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How Winston Came Home for Christmas. After reading the first Winston book last Christmas, we were pumped to see that a second was released in time for this season! We enjoyed it just as much as the first, with the kids begging for more chapters than my voice or stamina would allow each time!

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite DeAngeli. This won the Newbery Medal in 1950. It’s a challenging text in its vocabulary– there are many terms related to the time period of the story, and the characters even speak with “thees and thous.” We persevered, however, and I am glad we did (and proud of my kiddos for hanging in there!). The story was really endearing- such a tale of character growth and perseverance, and we were immersed in the medieval time period we’d been studying.

Voyage with the Vikings (Imagination Station series). Several years ago we tried the Imagination Station series, and it was too intense for my sensitive listener (he was probably 5 at the time). While he’s still a sensitive listener, he was just fine this time around! I was glad for the sign of deepening plot complexity that he’s now ready for, but doubly glad that the book paired perfectly with our history studies. This is a Christian series, and it was interesting to learn about Leif Eriksson’s conversion to Christianity (his father Erik the Red did not convert) and how that impacted him and history as well. We will take a look at the rest of the series in the coming months.

Leif the Lucky by Ingri & Edgar D’Aulaire. This isn’t a true chapter book but instead a lengthy picture book. We enjoyed this one evening after the baby was snoozing. It was a nice complement to the above.

Knights of the Round Table, adapted by Gwen Gross. This 109-page adaptation presents a great intro to the classic tales of King Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, Sir Gawain, and the round table. My kids loved this!

Audiobooks

The Vanderbeekers on the Road and The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street. We eagerly downloaded the newest Vanderbeeker novel for audiobook listening on our travels around town and for a good portion of our fall roadtrip. It was a perfect listen. We always enjoy the Vanderbeekers; in fact, the kids enjoyed it so much they asked if we could start the series at the beginning again! It’s been a while, so it had become fuzzy in our memories. The first was ideally timed for our December listen as it takes place in the weeks leading up to Christmas, with the most heartwarming Christmas scene!

During their quiet time, the boys have been devouring more Boxcar Children, free from our library’s hoopla app. They’ve been enthralled by this 6 book subseries: “the Aldens have been recruited by a secret society to return lost artifacts and treasures to their rightful locations – all around the world!” Even my younger boy has been excitedly narrating (summarizing) the plot for me.

Will in Scarlet (abandoned). I was disappointed the boys wanted to abandon this one, but I respected their wishes. The story was engaging and exciting and definitely provided a fun angle on our history studies as it discussed feudal life and King Richard/John loyalties. My kids, however, are sensitive listeners, and they found the story too intense, particularly when the protagonist was in a fight scene unarmed.

That’s it for now! Keep up with our latest reading adventures on my social accounts: instagram / facebook.