Reading takes a vital role in our home education. Whether it be silent reading at 1:00 each afternoon (my favorite time of day), morning read aloud at 8:30 a.m. or our afternoon history and science reading, books are always around us. One of my favorite ways to display books is to pull themed books from the library basket and our bookshelves and place in front of the entertainment center. Usually on the left I have books pertaining to our history studies and on the right, books pertaining to our science studies. I also lean a group of books in the middle for Ray. He grabs a book and says daddy read me and dad scoops him up on his lap and reads in the early hours of each day. The 23rd Psalm illustrated by Michael Hague is his recent favorite. The pictures are so detailed yet so simple. And nature abounds on each page.
Last night was our weekly Family Formation time. Although we were late in celebrating St. Mother Teresa's feast day, the book was a real eye opener. Her complete giving of self and vow of poverty couldn't help but make me take a good long look at my own life. Am I giving more than receiving? Am I overly interested in material things? We used the book, Mother Teresa by Demi as our starting point for discussing her selflessness.
This afternoon I combined our study of Astronomy with History. I read selections from Roman Myths by Geraldine McCaughrean. The Romans really had no sense of morals, which gave us lots to talk about as we read about Apollo (the sun god), Diana (the moon god), Orion (a constellation) and others.
