HELP! I'm drowning in possible reading Lists!!!

[training5]

HELP! There are so many good ones out there that I am having a hard time narrowing down to which one to follow and in what order to place my collection of book lists.

First, it was just the Well Trained Mind lists, then the Logos School list, then I found the Good Books list, then the Highland Latin School list, then Ambelside Online lists, then the Calvert School list, then the lists posted on here. I've become a book list junkie!!!!
Help me decide which to follow before my brain explodes!!!!:confused:

[Trivium Academy]

What is your history program?
What will your approach be for literature?

History should take care of itself, the problem is balancing out children's fiction with historical fiction. Too much good stuff.

[training5]

We are going to use Hist. Ody. Level 2 Ancients next year. The problem is keeping them stocked in good books for their assigned reading list.

[Susan in TN]

I went through all the lists, picked my favorites, and divided them up into grades - 25-35 per grade. It took a while and I do adjust my master list occassionally - it's on an excell spread sheet.

Then I made a read aloud list with my favorite choices there; many overlap with the reading lists.

Each year, my kids have to read 10 books from their grade list to read over summer break, and then 8-16 additional books during the year depending on their grade. Each list has 5 or 6 that are required, but for the rest my kids can pick from the list. Over that, they can read whatever they like (within reason).

Here are a couple lists as an example. I try to have a good range of reading difficulty, plus some books of poetry.

3rd grade list -
A Bad Beginning (L. Snicket)
Book of Nonsense (E. Lear)
Borrowers
Charlotte's Web
Courage of Sarah Noble
Dangerous Journey
Door in the Wall
Fly Away, Fly Away…(Christina Rossetti)
Four-Story Mistake
From the Mixed-Up Files…
Gathering of Days
Ginger Pye
Harry Potter
Incredible Journey
Lion, the Witch, and…
Little House on the Prairie
Little Lord Fauntleroy
Little Princess
Misty of Chincoteague
Saturdays
Story of the Treasure Seekers
Stuart Little
Trumpet of the Swan
Twenty-One Balloons
Wind in the Willows

4th grade list
Adventures of Pinnochio
Ann of Green Gables
Black Beauty
Bud, Not Buddy
By the Shores of Silver Lake
Five Children and It
Five Little Peppers and How…
Gone-Away Lake
Harry Potter
Heidi
Hobbit
King of the Wind
Lassie Come Home
Love That Dog
Number the Stars
Old Possum's Book…(T. S. Eliot)
Phantom Tollbooth
Poetry of Carl Sandburg
Prince Caspian
Princess and the Goblin
Redwall
Secret Garden
Songs of Innocence… (W. Blake)
Sounder
Summer of the Swans
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Thimble Summer
William Wordsworth


(Titles in bold print are required books)


Hope this helps. There are so many great books that you won't ever cover them all. Choose the ones that you love most and your enthusiasm will rub off on your kids! Plus, any that are missed can be read aloud for story time and/or incorporated into history lessons.

[Shasta Mom]

Gosh what a great list! Just curious - can your 3rd grader read Wind in the Willows him/herself or is that a read-aloud?

[angela in ohio]

I did the same as Susan. it was getting too hard to keep up. So I devoted a few weeks' extra time to compiling them all and making out an overall list for dc. I picked books based on frequency of recommendation and reviews and categorized them by required reading, should-reads, and extras. Now each year, I just take the right grade level of the list as their reading list for the year. they are on my blog, also, so that I can shear them with IRL (or other) friends.

[Beth in Central TX]

I did something similar. I took the list from here: http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html Then I identified all of the books on the list that we have at home from the 4-6, 7-9, & 10-12 categories. I pulled these books out and put them on a shelf by group. I started this late, so we are still working through the 4-6 list. Next we'll move into the 7-9 list. I have my boys read the books themselves, but sometimes we read the books aloud too. My goal is to have all of the books read before they leave home. I've set aside 1/2 hour each day for this "good book" reading. I have about 100 books on the list; over 9 years (4th-12th grade) that averages out to about 11 books a year. I'm sure some of these books will be included in our history or literature studies, so I think this is a very attainable goal.

[Susan in TN]

Gosh what a great list! Just curious - can your 3rd grader read Wind in the Willows him/herself or is that a read-aloud?

My current 3rd grader read it but pretty slowly (she's 9yo); my oldest couldn't really read it at that age, so I mostly read it aloud to him.

[Shasta Mom]

That's admirable. I never even asked my 3rd grader to read W in the W - we started it as a read-aloud in 2nd-3rd summer and he said it was too difficult to understand. So I tried a few months later, read aloud more slowly, and we both decided it was the best-written book we've read. I get intimidated because so many of the reading lists show too-difficult books for my son, even though he reads at a mid-5th grade level. Do I need to force him to read this more difficult stuff? Wouldn't it take the fun out of reading? Right now, he reads Harry Potter - that's about maxing him out on level, I think, but since he loves the story he keeps at it...