Step into Reading...

So many books. So little time!

Today I worked on the reading lists (among other things) and found a wealth of information. There are so many reading lists out there. I finally decided on 3 regular lists, 1 for classics, 1 for Charlotte Mason books, 1 for Multi-cultural books, and 2 for summer reading books.

I printed them all out by grade level, sorted them, 3-hole punched them, put them in my binder and used my nifty file tab punch to make some tabs so I know what's where.

I also printed out 3 or 4 different journal prompt lists and spelling lists for grades 3-5. That's a lot of paper!

And they are all in my binder and ready to go. I'm so proud of what I've accomplished today. And that's not all!

I also started going through the reading lists and looking the books up on Amazon to see what they were about. Only one of the lists actually gave me a summary of the book. Another list gave me the genre. I made it through 3rd and 4th grade books and am working on the 5th grade books. I also printed the 6th grade list, and I went ahead and printed all the Charlotte Mason selections through grade 12.

I'm going to have a hard time selecting books! There are so many I'd like to read myself!

I think I'm going to select certain books to read aloud with the lessons for that particular subject. I found some books about the Revolutionary War, some about inventors, things like that. So when we study those, I'll have some books we can read that fit in.

And then I'll have a list of books the kids can read during their 20-min a day. Plus they'll get extra credit if they do a book report. (Once I teach them how to do those!) I'm hoping these books will stir up some interest in them, and they'll want to read more on their own. That's the ultimate goal!

For the most part, the plan is to find as many of these as possible at the library. But I know I won't be able to find them all, so I'm keeping an eye out on Amazon to see what they run. A lot of these books, I noticed, I can get for less than a buck plus $3.99 shipping! That's not bad. But I think I'm also going to shop some of the used book stores around here and see what I can dig up. Some of the more costly books will go on the Christmas list.

I'd like to join the Paperback Swap website, but I don't have any books I can list to swap with anybody! All my books are back in MI sitting in storage. The only books I have with me here are the ones we need for school and my costuming books. And a couple Jane Austen books. Nothing that can go.

Oh well.