Reading Baskets

Wondering what we have in our reading baskets right now?

Morning Basket

This is our summer 2014 Morning Basket.  We’re finishing up a few books from Term 3 and this summer we’re working on our Latin in memory work.

• Morning prayers – I like using the St. Andrew’s Missal (copyright 1945) because of the rich liturgical/historical information on the different liturgical seasons and feasts.  It also has a wonderful guideline for Morning prayers in the front of the missal.  Of course, depending on the liturgical calendar you follow  – current or 1962 (if you follow the Extraordinary Form) – you may have to make some adjustments in the dates of the Feasts.  I also really like the Mother Love prayerbook and highly recommend it!
• Rush Revere and the First Patriots by Rush Limbaugh – go ahead…finish laughing…or gasping….  ALL of my kids love this series of books (Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims).  Do not expect lofty writing here, but the storyline is engaging and I have to admit – all my children come away with a more personal sense of the period of history read about (premise: a history teacher and a few students time travel to significant events in history using a horse with special time traveling abilities.)  You will not find any political references in these books in spite of the author’s well known conservative viewpoints.
• Life of Fred – Australia – this is the first book in the Life of Fred grammar series and I thought I’d give it a test drive in our Morning Basket.  I’ve just started reading it aloud to the group.  The book specifies that it is written for middle school students, but already I can tell that I think it’s a better fit for upper elementary.  I’m reading it aloud to children from 1st – 8th grades.
• A Wonder Book by Nathaniel Hawthorne – finishing this book up from last term.
• Laying Down the Rails for Children – a Habit Training Companion by Simply Charlotte Mason – I’m just reading through the lessons and stories in this very slowly, introducing and working on one habit at a time.

Children’s Independent Reading Baskets

• Katie (6) is reading: Faith and Freedom readers, Book 1 (these are reprints of excellent Catholic readers from the 1940s).  Her reading is just taking off and we’ll move on to the excellent Harriette Taylor Treadwell readers after this.
• John Paul (9) is reading: All of the Thornton Burgess Animal books and The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop
• Mark (13) is reading: Ben Hur by Lew Wallace and Why I Became a Priest by Rev. George Kane (excellent book for young men!!)

And…

• Sarah is reading: The Hobbit.  Again.  And then The Catholic Book of Character and Success by Fr. Edward Garesche.

Jen’s Reading Basket

• Beauty in the Word: Rethinking the Foundations of Education by Stratford Caldecott – oh my goodness!  If you haven’t read this book, I HIGHLY recommend it!  It’s completely readable and so inspiring!
• Dark Night of the Body by Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand – I have always really enjoyed Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand’s writing and I learn so much from her!  In fact, my first introduction to her was her compelling book about her husband, Dietrich Von Hildebrand, Soul of a Lion.  It set me down a path reading her writing and his!  In fact, I’m exercising restraint in not just giving you a lengthy list of reading from the Von Hildebrands!  Anyway, I just ordered Dark Night of the Body and I’m eager to sit down with it.
• Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo – I don’t follow the paleo approach religiously (which you would easily be able to tell by viewing the Ice Cream Sandwiches in my freezer!  🙂 ), but I do REALLY like this book.  It’s a great practical read in terms of approach, filling the pantry, basic cooking and it tends to blend a whole food approach with paleo eating which I like.  Love the pullout charts.  I built an entire pantry list based on this and it’s a good help in shopping and making menus.  If you try to follow any of these approaches: lower carb, whole foods, paleo, diabetic, low sugar – then you’ll really appreciate this book!

Rob’s Reading Basket

• If Aristotle’s Kid Had and iPod by Conor Gallagher – I really enjoyed this book, and even though it’s been some time since I read it, if I think Rob would enjoy, I hand it off and then we discuss it.

Family Reading Basket

• Bible Study – Rob asked if we could read through the Bible together and sort of have a husband & wife discussion time.  We’re using the Confraternity edition of the Douay Rheims Bible, and I have a few Bible study resources that I hope bring sound commentary and understanding…but I’m only just assembling resources so I’ll have to update preferences later.  Here’s what I’ve got lined up for us:
  • A General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture by A. E. Breen
  • A Textual Concordance of Holy Scriptures by Rev. Fr. Thomas David Williams
  • A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture by Rev. Frederick Justus Kneckt
  • Haydock’s Bible Commentary, available to read through the iPieta app on the iPad.
  • Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aquinas, 4 volume set – expensive purchased as books, so I have the 4 volume set for the iPad.
• The Catechism in Examples by Rev. Donald Chisholm – a 5 volume set of books that is just fantastic! {Hat tip goes to the comment below that Aimee left me – her comment sent me researching this set and I fell in love from there!  Thanks, Aimee!}  I may take a couple of years to read aloud from this set – a little at a time.  You can find the 5 volume set free on archive.org, but the front pages were missing from my ebooks, making it difficult to tell which volume I was in, and the Table of Contents formatting was wonky on my ipad. I tried to just load the pdf, but it was slow to load making reading seem choppy. So, I found a really inexpensive set of used books.  Here’s an excellent review and summary of the set written in 1910:

The Catechism in Examples by Rev. Donald A. Chisolm, priest of the diocese of Aberdeen.  Second edition in 5 volumes.  Benziger, 1908-1909.

Those who have familiar experience of the difficulty of making catechetical instruction clear and interesting will be grateful to Father Chisholm for the new edition of his “Catechism in Examples.”  The work has been considerably revised and augmented.  What strikes one at once is the abundance of material offered.  There are over three hundred illustrations and stories in each volume.  In such a  large collection we naturally find some unevenness, but the examples are rarely trivial or bizarre. and nearly all are selected with admirable judgement.  They are such as appeal strongly to the imagination, the dramatic feeling and imitative instinct of the child, and, for that matter, of the adult as well.  The lives and legends of the saints are drawn upon extensively, thought the other fields have been worked over well.  The extracts from missionary annals lead one to wish that this source had been used even more freely.  While the fact and punishment of sin are not balked at or glossed over, Father Chisholm has apparently made his selection rather with the view of directly encouraging and fortifying the child’s better impulses, of positively arousing and vivifying his natural love of goodness and affection for God, than of frightening him into doing right.  The work should prove a valuable aid to priests, catechists and parents, and would be read with pleasure and profit in Catholic homes.

John M. Cooper

Happy reading as you fill your own reading baskets!

As we move on to new books, I’ll update our reading baskets.  This post is a permanent page which can be accessed through the navigation bar at the top of my blog.  🙂