Avivah Werner

Category: Homeschooling

  • Thinking about career options for ds

    Today we had a lovely lunch meal with our shul president and his wife.  They had us over to their house three years ago, and it took me until now to get around to inviting them!  They are such nice people, and it was an absolute pleasure to have them.

    One of the many things we discussed was my very tentative plans for my ds15 for the coming year.  We have tentative plans for my dd14 that she feels good about, assuming the program that she’s interested will accept her in the fall even though she’s so young.  If they won’t take her now, we’ll either wait another year until they will or reassess and make another plan.  But ds is a little harder.  He’d like to go to yeshiva when he’s 18, which we’re supportive of, but it’s important to us that he has a solid way to support a family when he’s married.  So I’d like him to be able to use the next couple of years to work towards a long term plan, but all the ideas I’ve come up with have left me unenthusiastic.  This has been something I’ve spent a lot of mental energy on, but haven’t gotten too close to making any decisions.  I’ve looked into trade schools, apprenticeships, community college options, dual enrollment choices, and spoken with him about some career choices.  And so far none of them match his interests, learning style, or long term goals – so far accounting is the main option and a lukewarm choice.  I told my dh that he needs to get involved in actively thinking about this because it’s too much for me to figure out on my own! 🙂

    The husband has a personality and learning style similar to my son, so he right away understood what I was expressing about what we were looking for and my concerns about a typical college path for him (very bright, hands on, motivated independent learner but not academic in the classroom – which is why I’m looking for alternatives to the typical college path).  He came up with a possible apprenticeship option and offered to call the person involved, and also thought of an idea for a short term work position for him.  Ds thought both of them were interesting.  Because it was Shabbos, we didn’t discuss any of this in detail, but I’ll follow up in the next couple of days and see what’s a possibility for ds. 

    Speaking with them made me think how important networking and speaking to others is, because they have other experiences and ideas that I wouldn’t have considered.   That sounds obvious, but I haven’t really been speaking with people about this. 

    We also discussed our community initiative to keep charity dollars in the community, with a certain amount going to the schools. I was initially positive about this, until I saw that a large percentage of the money being kept in the community was expected to be allocated to the schools.  I won’t make that kind of commitment – I gladly will allot the vast portion of our maaser (tithe)  money to our community (and already do), but there are causes much closer to my heart than the local schools.  Actually, they are almost at the bottom of my list. 

    Anyway, the husband had the same feeling about this initiative that I did – that there’s no discussion about new ways to approach the financial crisis that the schools are experiencing.  Calls for people in the community to give more money aren’t going to be very effective, in my opinion – I don’t think that the money is sitting around and waiting to be allocated to the schools.  But it seems no one wants to take an honest look at what the situation is, and to realize that only creative and new ways of thinking about it are going to change the status quo. 

    It reminds me of when a local teen died in a car accident this past summer, and there was so much talk about what the schools could do to help kids who were feeling disenfranchised by the school system. But when I asked one of the leading rabbis who was involved in all this some specific questions about what was being done, he told me that suggestions like mine were too radical to be considered.  Maybe something has happened as a result, but whatever it was, it wasn’t big enough to be noticeable by the average person.  All the talk then was just more of the same old, same old, and now I’m sensing the same dynamic.   

    But this doesn’t bother me very much, because I don’t expect the changes to come from the top.  Generally I think they have to maintain the communal equilibrium and are forced to make very small changes – that’s the most they can do because they can’t throw big changes onto the community. I believe that real change can only come from the bottom up, one family at a time.  That’s why all of this ties into my thoughts about my ds right now.  Every time one family makes a choice that works effectively for them – like homeschooling, teaching their children life skills, etc – that indirectly has an effect.  And it’s when there are enough people who are willing to do what they need to do, regardless of if it’s what everyone else is doing, that the financial situation the schools are faced with will be resolved. 

    Avivah

  • He’s three today!

    Today my little cutie turned three years old!  He’s been anticipating his birthday very eagerly for a long time – seeing everyone else celebrating birthdays keeps the birthday concept fresh in his mind.  And because this is turning three, we’ve been talking with him about how special that age is, getting to wear a yarmulke, tzitzis, and do lots of mitzvos. 

    After breakfast we took everyone to the duck pond for his birthday trip.  It was a multi purpose trip – it served as a venue to get rid of the last of our chometz, as well as a very nice outing with all of the kids!  We planned to use the leftover challah for the ducks, and took along some pretzels and bow tie cookies for the kids to snack on after feeding the ducks.  But they had so much fun feeding the ducks the bread, that they wanted to continue and gave them all of their snacks, too!  I didn’t mind that one bit!  On the way there, I bought ice cream sandwiches for ds3 to give out to the others in honor of his birthday, so they did have a birthday snack that they all enjoyed.

    While we were there, my kids noticed a mother goose on top of her nest – they were walking by when she started hissing at them, then got up off of it and covered it (so they wouldn’t see the egg, I guess).  They ran to me and told me they wanted to do the mitzva of shiluach haken (sending away the mother bird), but I told them that if they took a big stick and chased the goose away and there was someone watching who didn’t know what they were doing, it would be a huge chillul H-shem (desecration of G-d’s name) and so they couldn’t chance that.  Anyway, I said, there’s no mitzva to do it if you’re not going to eat the egg.  And they promptly corrected me and told me that my dh learned this mitzva with them recently, and explained to me why (very beautiful concept but not going to go into it here).  I told them if they could do it without it looking like they were chasing the bird, it was fine. 

    One child led the father duck away, then the mother followed, and ds15 lifted the egg from the nest.  Then ds14 told him he didn’t fulfill the mitzva because he didn’t lift it high enough, so he went back and lifted it again, higher this time.  The mother and father goose, during this time, were blissfully swimming in the pond, clearly thinking they had faked out the kids by covering the egg.  Though we’re not sure that they did the mitzva properly because they didn’t actually shoo the mother away, but kind of waited for her to lose her sense of being threatened and then led her away, they still all feel good about the opportunity.

    When dh came home from work, we all took turns snipping the birthday boy’s hair, and then dh and ds15 finished the job.  While we were cutting his hair, I had a sudden tug of sadness.  It’s one of those unexpected moments of poignancy that hits out of the blue, as you suddenly feel a sense of time moving on, of having completed one stage and moving on to another.  Dh felt it, too.  As far as the haircut itself, they did a great job on his haircut – he looks really adorable! 

    Afterwards we had a special dinner with a Pesach chocolate chip cake and macaroons.  Then we headed to my inlaws for them to admire his new look, and lastly, dh took him to our rav for a brocha.

    I’m glad that we were able to have a relaxed day like this to ‘celebrate’, albeit in our low keyed way.  If I was in the middle of Pesach preparations, I don’t think I could have as easily spent a day not doing anything in the house at all.  So I’m really glad we got everything basically out of the way – now, on to the cooking!

    Avivah

  • Surprise performance succeeds!

    For the past couple of weeks, dd14 and dd12 have been busy, busy, busy, preparing a surprise performance for their choir leader who got engaged.  They made up a dance, a song, and a short humorous skit in her honor.  This has meant hours of time – not just creating the dance, etc, but in planning who would do what, calling all the other girls in the choir almost daily, working out times and locations for practices, what they would wear, how they would present it so she’d be surprised, the music for the dance, costumes and props for the play, painting a sign to hold up when the engaged young lady came in – the list just goes on and on.

    I’ve been very flexible about giving them whatever time they felt necessary to do all of this (and they’ve been very responsible about doing all of the academic work that’s expected of them), but today I was thinking that I was very glad that tonight was the performance.  Because it’s nice that they’re so engaged and excited about this, but it’s nice when they’re available at home, too.  Not just home, but emotionally present. 

    I was so glad to hear when they came home that all went well.  (Because it was a surprise, no one extra was invited, or it would have been fishy.  But it was videotaped so we’ll get to see it.)  Dh and I reminded them before they left that however it went, it would be a success, but I know they wanted it to flow as they pictured it.  When you put so much of your time and effort into something, you want it to go well and be successful.  Even though it wasn’t perfect, they came home all smiles and happy with how everything went, as well as being able to surprise the girl it was done for – she said that this is the first time anyone has ever successfully carried out a surprise for her (usually she figures it out beforehand). 

    When they got back, they mentioned that Sunday morning they have a performance.  “What?!?” I asked.  “We told you about it!”  It turns out that they’ll be doing a short choir performance then, but when they mentioned it to me, I thought they were talking about their performance that they did tonight!  I didn’t realize that two separate things were under discussion.  So it’s not all over as soon as I expected, but I’m glad they have opportunities like these, and I can’t complain that they have so many good things to be busy with!

    Avivah

  • Raspberry bushes and other purchases

    It’s funny, I can go a long time and not buy anything extraneous, and then in one day buy a number of items.  This afternoon, my ds10 and dd8 accompanied me to make some Craig’s List purchases.  (I try not to do errands in the morning, because that’s our homeschooling time and it throws off our routine when I go out before their work is done.)   Usually it’s hard to coordinate private sellers efficiently, but today it worked out beautifully. 

    We started off by heading off to buy some raspberry and blackberry plants – a man who has a large garden dug up a bunch of the roots since his plants had spread so much and were getting overcrowded.  He told us that usually he throws them away, but this year it occurred to him that someone on CL might be interested.  He was very surprised at the response, which was much higher than he anticipated.  He had a beautiful garden – huge, well organized, the kind of place where you take one look and it’s clear he really knows what he’s doing.  I seriously would have wanted to take a picture of it home with me to study all the things he did.  We were all very impressed. 🙂  We bought five raspberry plants and five blackberry plants.  He threw in an extra raspberry and two extra blackberry, so for $20 we got quite a bargain!  (Each of the blackberry plants I ordered online a couple of weeks ago were $10.)  He asked the kids why they weren’t in school and I told him that they’re homeschooled, and this is part of their education.  And I mean it!

    Then we headed to the next private seller, and bought 2 garden shovels (we have only one shovel and that’s simply not adequate for a family our size!), one snow shovel (ds10 broke ours when he was shovelling for others this winter, and wanted to buy one for himself), and a couple of large empty propane canisters (for camping). 

    Directly from there, we went to yet another seller, the most trusting I’ve ever dealt with on CL.  He was selling two hardly used propane camping stoves (two burners each, $30 for both), and told me he’d leave them on his front porch and I could leave the money under the mat when I picked them up.  The kids wanted to get them from the porch, so I handed one the envelope with money and asked them to knock just in case someone was home.  It turned out his wife was there, and I was glad to be able to directly pay them instead of leaving it in an unsecured place.  I wouldn’t have wanted anything to happen to the envelope I left and then it would seem like I hadn’t left the money as agreed.  These camp stoves will be handy for our yearly family camping trip (that won’t take place until late May or early June), since every year until now we’ve borrowed one from someone.  Last year the stove we borrowed didn’t function properly, and it was a good thing that we’re a family who is able to improvise, because not being able to cook can throw a major crimp into a three day trip!  It will be nice to have our own, since it will be one less thing to organize before the trip (I think we’ll be able to hook up the big canisters I just bought up to this instead of buying several small ones, which should be a savings in fuel, too).

    All of these purchases added up to just $66, and though I realize it’s not the kind of thing most people are buying less than two weeks before Pesach with their miscellaneous funds, I’m pleased with them all and consider it time and money well spent.  🙂   Getting bargains means buying when things are available, not when it’s most convenient for you.  All of these errands went very quickly even though they were in totally different directions.  I enjoy taking a child or two with me when I do errands, because it’s an opportunity to spend one-on-one (or one-on-two) time together.  Being with them, the time went by so quickly!   

    Then I stopped at Whole Foods to speak to a manager about the possibility of them ordering coconut or palm oil in bulk for me.  I would have called but it was on my way home, and I thought it would be more clear what I wanted if I could show them which brand, size, etc.  This quick question took an hour to have answered, and I still didn’t get the details I wanted.  I don’t think I’ll pursue it further – she said I could get a 10% discount if I buy a case of small containers, but I don’t want small containers.  (Ds saw the 14 ounce container of coconut oil for $9, and exclaimed, “Whoa!  That’s how much we use in one day!”  And when we’re baking, he’s right.)  If I’m only going to get 10% off, I might as well stick to buying from the health food store close to me, which has 10% off once a week of all purchases, regardless of how much or how little you buy.  Fortunately, they had kosher organic corn chips out for sampling that the kids enjoyed, and on the way out they got to sample some fresh pineapple chunks.  Amazing how an unexpected little treat like that can redeem a lot of wasted time for kids!

    It’s been raining all day, but I was still hoping there would be a chance to get the berry bushes planted.  Ds10 wanted to do it, but it ended up being a lot more work than either he or I expected.  I haven’t had a chance to prepare the soil in that area – I wasn’t expecting to plant anything there for another three weeks – and it’s very hard and compacted.  Just in the nick of time, yesterday I gave away the basketball hoop that’s been in that space, so at least the space was available!  But the soil was like a rock.

    Ds was out there in the rain for a long time, digging and digging.  I told him he didn’t have to do it, but he said he started and he wanted to finish the job.  He has a lot of determination and persistence; a cold and rainy day is far from an appealing time for garden work.  He got five of the raspberry plants in (forgot about the one extra we were given when he was figuring the spacing; we’ll figure out what to do with that another time). 

    It’s currently ds10’s turn for dishes – we alternate between the oldest four kids every two weeks.  It’s a very intense job, which is why it’s two weeks instead of four.  He got a rash a couple of days ago on his arms, and yesterday night told me that washing dishes is exacerbating it.  I suggested he trade jobs with one of his siblings, to give the rash a time to heal, but he hadn’t yet found any of them who wanted to trade.  When he came in from digging, wet and muddy, I sent him straight upstairs for a hot bath, and did the dishes myself while he was soaking.  I told him afterwards I consider it a fair trade for all of his work, and asked him what he thought – I’ll do dishes for all of today in exchange for the bushes he dug this afternoon.  And if he wants to plant the five blackberry plants tomorrow, I’ll do the dishes for him again tomorrow (erev Shabbos and motzei Shabbos are the least favorite dishwashing times, for obvious reasons).  He was very happy with this idea – and only half jokingly asked if I had any more bushes he could plant for me a different day!

    Avivah

  • Running a business with small children

    >>I’ve decided to start a small business, selling ….  I know you have a small business as well, and I was wondering if you could write about homeschooling and children and owning a small business? 🙂  I’d appreciate any insight –  I’m kind of scared of doing this with a toddler and a baby. <<

    I don’t know what your specific question about running a business and having young children is, but I’ll share my general thoughts with you.  First of all, make sure it’s something that you love.  Even a small business can take up a lot more time and energy than you would ever expect, and it can easily drain you.  If you love it, you’ll still have the motivation to continue when you’re feeling worn out. 

    Don’t overextend yourself.  Know yourself and your limitations.  When I started thinking about a home biz, I had six kids, and the youngest was over 3.  Things were running in a very smooth groove, and I felt very up to taking on a bigger project, though I didn’t actually start my business until six months later, when my seventh was a month old.  Having the head space for something is what makes the big difference between feeling motivated or feeling overwhelmed.  At this point, I don’t want any extra things that I’m not passionate about taking up my time.  So I wouldn’t have started the biz at this point in my life, because getting started is pretty intense and takes a lot of energy.  So that’s just to say that something can be great at one stage of life and not so great at another stage. 

    Practically speaking, I clearly delineated time that I would and wouldn’t spend on the business.  Initially it was between 4 – 6 pm (not two full hours, just some point in between that time slot), when I was working together with the kids on it.  Other things I did in the evenings after they went to sleep (and I stayed up way too late way too often).  I chose an online business because I didn’t want the pressure of answering phones and needing to be available during the day hours when my priority was to be with my children. 

    Do you feel you’re at the stage that you have enough quiet time for yourself that you can spare some of it for working on a business?  Would working on the business be stimulating for you, something you would look forward to spending time on, or one more thing to feel pressured by?   Keep your initial outlay small enough that if you change your mind at some point, you don’t feel like you have to continue because of the money you’re already put into it.  You don’t want to buy yourself an obligation by starting a business. 

    If this is an idea that you’re excited about, and you can visualize how to fit it into your life in a way structure that will give you a meaningful outlet for your time and energy, without adding excessive stress or tension to your life, then go for it! 

    Avivah

  • Homeschooling and Pesach preparations

    >> How do you fit in homeschooling with your Pesach preparations?<<

    I think that preparing for a yom tov is the priority for that time of year, not the academics.  When my kids were younger and I had to choose between cleaning/cooking for yom tov or homeschooling, I declared an official vacation from homeschooling so that we could focus on holiday preparations without anyone feeling like they were being neglectful of something else they should have been doing.  During the weeks before Pesach, I read Pesach themed books with them, listened to the story of yetzias Mitzrayim, stories of Eliyahu Hanavi, discussed the Hagada, learned Ma Nishtana, did projects or colored pictures, etc.   But I dropped anything else with regards to homeschooling not related to Pesach, unless it was something the child himself wanted to do with his time.  We homeschooled year round, and it worked out very nicely to take a three week break for Rosh Hashana through Sukkos, three or four weeks for Pesach, and shorter breaks throughout the year. 

    As my kids get older and our family size continues to grow, I continue to adapt our schedules to what works best for us.  For the last three years, our schedule most of the year long is we do all of our academics in the morning, and generally everyone has their work finished by lunch time.  After lunch is free time, which for the most part I leave to the kids’ discretion to use as they want.  This is for Mondays through Thursdays; erev Shabbos is spent preparing for Shabbos.  And Sundays are very relaxed – they do some academics, but they have piano lessons/ Girl Scouts/learning on Sunday mornings, too, so I don’t expect them to do the same amount of academics they would do on a regular day.

    Except for the couple of days preparing the kitchen for Pesach (which as you all know is a bit of a marathon), we stick to this schedule even while integrating Pesach cleaning into our days.  What changes is that the kids have less discretionary time – the cleaning takes place in the afternoon.  They still have time to go swimming, play basketball, exercise, or get together with friends, but not as much time.  I don’t think that three hours of free time a day instead of four is suffering. 🙂    (To be very honest, though, unless they leave the house for the entire afternoon, they rarely use all of their afternoon time for just leisure.  All of them participate to some degree every afternoon in some meal preparation, playing with a younger sibling, diaper changing, clean up, or something like that if they’re around.) 

    Avivah

  • A play and free ices

    I just got home from taking the kids to a musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.  We did a lot of the preparations for Shabbos yesterday afternoon so we could enjoy going out on a Friday morning without rushing or being worried there wouldn’t be time to do all that needs to be done when we got back. 

    The performance was excellent – very well done and very fun.  Though it’s generally based on the classic Biblical story of Joseph, I told my kids to watch it as if it had nothing to do with that and was just about a person named Joseph and things that happened to him.  Otherwise, they would be bothered by inconsistencies or things that didn’t seem appropriate.  

    Since it was the dress rehearsal, we were able to enjoy it without having to pay the $10 per person fee that will be charged tonight (there was a basket for voluntary donations).  We’ve had similar opportunities in the past to attend wonderful performances of all sorts for free or for a token cost because we attended the dress rehearsals.  It’s only because the kids are homeschooled that we can take advantage of these showings, since most kids are in school during the day. 

    My ds15 stayed home, as did ds18 months, so I just took six kids with me.  The days of everyone being young enough to go to one performance are for the most part over – because of the singing by females in a number of them, ds doesn’t go to things like this with us.  Fortunately he doesn’t feel bothered to be missing it.  And it made it easier for me that he did stay home, since I didn’t have to take a child too young to sit still for more than five minutes. 

    The almost three year old did great, though it was a long time for him to sit, so he wanted to go out about fifteen or twenty minutes before the end.  I went into the hallway with him and joined the other two or three mothers with toddlers.  🙂  Fortunately, the door was open so I was able to still view the performance.  And afterwards I bumped into a couple of homeschooling moms I haven’t seen for 2.5 years when we met at a planetarium show I took the kids to, which was nice.

    Afterwards, I took the kids to get ices from Rita’s.  Today is the first day of spring, and every year, Rita’s has complimentary ices on this day.  (If you’re seeing this today, check their website to find the location closest to you, and you might be able to still take advantage of this if you have the desire and can find the time.)   Since we got there at 1 pm, there was virtually no line (when we went two years ago, it was after school hours so the line was huge and we waited for over a half hour); I hardly had time to park the van before the kids were ready to load up again!   Dd14 got an ices for ds15 to enjoy, since he wasn’t with us.  He would have been more sorry to miss that the performance. 🙂   A tip from my kids – the fruit flavors are much better than the flavors that imitate cake or candy.

    Even though I’ve already shared with you that I try to make a cleaning schedule that is relaxed for everyone, at this time of year, I make more of an effort to do fun activities outside of the house.  I want pre-Pesach to be a time of enjoyment, and things like this help add a nice balance to our schedules.

    Avivah

  • Visiting pediatric ward

    Today I went with my three girls to the pediatrics ward of a local hospital. Both of the older girls did service projects at their bas mitzvas, and together with their friends made items for the hospitalized children.  It’s a little embarrassing that it’s been over six months since the most recent bas mitzva, and 20 months from the one before that, and we’re only getting around to this now!  But the girls kept the things in their room, so I rarely saw them and so actually taking them to donate totally fell off of my radar. 

    I finally made an appointment to go last week, and very uncharacteristically forgot all about it. I was more than a little embarrassed, but made another appointment for today.  I was thinking after our visit today how obviously we were meant to be there on this specific day and for these particular children.  It was really a good experience for everyone.  The girls were able to personally distribute all of the fleece blankets they had made, as well as some of the washcloth bunnies.  They were surprised by how appreciative and happy all of the children, from ages 6 – 19 were about them – they weren’t expecting so much enthusiasm. 

    While we were there, a grandmother of one of the patients who received a blanket came over to thank us with a lot of emotion, telling us that we can’t imagine how much this means to her granddaughter and to her.  A little later, the mother saw us, and also very emotionally told us that last night was her daughter’s first night in the hospital (she had just been diagnosed with diabetes), and at night she was crying and crying because she left her ‘blanky’ at home and couldn’t sleep without it.  She said that we can’t imagine how happy the blanket made her daughter – we let each child choose the one they wanted, and it ‘happened’ to be that one of those we made was her favorite color and had her favorite animal – a monkey – on it.  And the girl told her mother that she wants to go back to her room (we met her in the playroom) to make her bed, and now she’ll be able to sleep tonight with her new blanky.   Her mother and grandmother were just so grateful.

    The youngest child we gave a fleece blanket to was a 7 year old who has sickle cell anemia and was there for pneumonia.  That mother also thanked us again and again and told us how nice it was for her daughter that we came by, and was so touched at the idea that our girls made these things with the intent to give them away. 

    As a mother, I felt so much empathy for the mothers sitting next to their children, obviously trying to keep a strong face for their sick children.  I spoke with both mothers that I saw, and as soon as I reached out to them, they reached out to hug me, too.  You could just tell that they were so glad to be able to get even a tiny bit of emotional support. 

    As a parent, I think it’s important for our children to have the experience of reaching out to others in various ways, and going somewhere like a hospital and seeing sick children really helps a child appreciate the gift of good health and being able to be in your home with your family.  We spoke with all of the children a bit and even though it was initially a little awkward for my girls, just because it was the first time they did this, they were all really glad they went.  They felt so good about it that they said we should do it again! 

    Avivah

  • Piano recital

    This afternoon we attended the first piano recital for any of our kids.  Three of our children are taking lessons from a talented neighbor – dd14, dd12, ds10.  Their teacher has a wonderful baby grand piano, and she has given the kids permission to come into her home any time during the day and practice.  Since that’s what they do, I don’t have much of an opportunity to hear them play, except for the occasional times they use our electronic keyboard. 

    So today it was really nice to hear all of them.  Each of them played three solo pieces, and then two duets.  I especially enjoyed the duets – all three of them played a piece together with one another, and I loved seeing the teamwork involved in playing together. 

    There was one other student who participated, and it was especially interesting to watch her interact with her parents, who are both deaf.  A friend of the mother brought some special electronic equipment, and during the intermission I asked about it.  She explained to me that it was something that could be hooked up to the piano, and amplified the music so that it could be connected to the parents’ hearing aids, making it possible for her parents to hear her play somewhat.  Isn’t that a wonderful benefit of technology?

    All of our parents were able to come, which was very nice for everyone.  The grandparents were all very happy they were able to make it, and even brought bouquets for each of the kids!  I’m so grateful the kids have this opportunity – as I’ve said before, music lessons aren’t necessities, but they are benefitting so much from them.

    Avivah

  • How to find good books for read alouds

    >>I need more read aloud ideas.  Where do you go for titles?<<

    I find books that are collections of reviews of good books useful – the two that come to mind most immediately are Jim Trelease’s Read Aloud Handbook, and Honey for a Child’s Heart, by Gladys Hunt.  I don’t own either of them, though, so every couple of years I check one out and get some new ideas.  I also own a book called Books Children Love, by S. Wilson, which is also good.  Honey for a Child’s Heart was especially valuable in choosing good quality books for my younger kids. There are a lot of kids books out there that just aren’t so good, and it’s annoying to read them repeatedly when you can hardly stand to read it the first time!

    I also look at online book recommendations, at the Sonlight catalog, the Robinson book recommendations, and the Newberry Honor and Newberry Medal lists.  The classics can be good, too, though you have to be careful that they’re age appropriate.  Because the language of the classics tends to be written in a literary style that is unfamiliar, kids can easily get turned off if introduced to them too soon.  I try to look for books that are engaging, well written, and fun to listen to together.

    I’ve thought that it would be fun to make a list of all the books we’ve read aloud over the years to share with you (just chapter books, not picture books), but the idea overwhelms me and I don’t know how I could possibly remember all of them!

    Avivah