.
Most recently, he read Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry
.
I chose Brighty because we would be going to the Grand Canyon on our vacation. I remembered hiking the Bright Angel Trail some 35 years ago, but hadn't read the book back then. When one homeschools, you get to fill in those literature gaps from your childhood. Dh finished reading it by the fire the night before we went to the Grand Canyon.
Brighty was based on an actual burro who lived from about 1882-1922. Named after a creek that flows into the Grand Canyon, he spent his days carrying water for tourists. The story is a murder-mystery and guess who holds the key to the answer? Brighty, of course! Mixed in the tale are true sub-stories about Teddy Roosevelt, boys lost in blizzards, and animals on suspension bridges.
All of Marguerite Henry's books are loved around our house. And the Wesley Dennis illustrations are just classic, aren't they? If you tell someone who has already read Brighty that you are reading it now, you get the sweetest "Awww...I love Brighty" response. Brighty even has his own facebook page full of interesting Brighty trivia. And for those of you following Ambleside Online, Brighty is a YR2 free read.
From joy to joy,
Nancy
P.S. -
Driving back to Mesa that night, we talked about how we were speechless when we first ran up to the rim and viewed the canyon. Then Marit tried to find words to describe that, while that view was awesome, how much greater God's beauty and love is. Brennan Manning states this fitting quote in The Rabbi's Heartbeat
."The God beside whose beauty the Grand Canyon is only a shadow has called us beloved."
- B. Manning
p. 249
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. When I received
the book, all I could remember from my scant education on explorers was that
Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean. I actually read it, not for any interest
in Balboa, but for a pre-read for my students. I could not put it down! I had
to pull out a map to track his exploration of Central America, whose geography
I knew nothing about. It explained so much to me about Spanish culture, Columbus’s
role in exploration and decline in popularity, and also the role of the
Spaniards in the annihilation of the Native American populations. I knew that
the Spanish brought disease to the Indians, what I did not realize was that it
was the mass genocide that wiped them out. I was grieved by the horrors they
inflicted. Iris helped me to understand the Spanish attitude about natives;
they were not considered people, not human. They were not even treated as well
as black slaves. Balboa was the only explorer who saw the Indians as people,
taking and loving a native wife as well as making excellent policies with them.
At the end, I gobbled that book up in a few hours—I just had to know what was
going to happen to him, and it was a sad ending. 
)and a fictional story
based on Fort Ross, CA (
that would be a great state history read. I already love
history, but as a good writer she makes it come to life in my imagination and
more importantly in the imagination of my young students. And that is the
definition of a living book. 
as an illustration of how our Reason can justify whatever it is we would like to do, however wrong. How deeply and richly do they now understand that Reason is not an infallible guide yet must be exercised from a correct starting point. Mason gives us this possible exam question from the book that can now be answered from her writings and illustrated by their familarity with The Tempest:
. I make a reading of a retelling prior to our class optional. While everyone knows about the venerable Lambs' and Nesbit's retellings, I find the youngers and myself occasionally enjoying a well-done picture book. 
. For video, I ended up showing clips from 
.
- a favorite of my girls about Edith's childhood in China (contains the famed Pilgrim's Progress story on the stairs)
.I have pulled that off my shelf to read now. I bought this copy at a thrift store Here is the inscription:
is a delightful collection of quirky drawings by two Victorian girls, Madalene and Louisa Pasley while they were between the ages of 12 and 16 (during the 1850s). It begins with this - "When we were young my sister Madalene and I preferred chasing beetles and butterflies to lessons in the schoolroom." -and we are immediately hooked! They portray themselves as Victorian spinsters (?), drawing pictures of their adventures with giant insects and difficult tutors who failed to understand their interest in entomology and lack of interest in arithmetic.
