Which Classics to Read and when???

[bamdavis3]

There are so many great books to read. How do you decide which to read to your children and when? My son is 7, and reads beyond his years, but it has been hard for me to decide which classics to read to him. How do you choose? Which do your 6-8 year olds LOVE??

[Chris in VA]

I read the WTM! It has excellent suggestions, and often ties lit to history, which is convenient for me.

I also just pick stuff off the shelf--I have a lot of my own children's classics, and I enjoy sharing them with dd. When we finish one, we just pick another.

I have to consider her interests, and the level of the book, but I've been surprised how "high" I can go--I also don't want to go too "high" and miss the books that are really for her age and younger. It's more likely she won't pick up a book that's too easy, if we've missed it, but she can read some of the more difficult books for herself when she "gets there" so I don't want to read too many of them.
But, we've read above her read alone level for 4 years now, and she does go back to the more difficult books we've read and reads them herself.

Our fav's for the last couple of years have been
Little House books (first 4, esp.)
Little Princess
Secret Garden
Charlotte's Web
Caddie Woodlawn
The Odyssey series by Mary Pope Osborne
Tale of Despereaux
Swiss Family Robinson (but we read an abridged version of this)
By the Great Horn Spoon
Chancey and the Grand Rascal (BTGHP and this one are by Sid Fleishman and are great "boy books")
Heidi

We just started Anne of Green Gables--the language is probably the most difficult of any we have enjoyed so far, but dd is getting the plot pretty well.

[Janice in NJ]

I just wanted to make sure that you knew about this list. Lots of good titles!

http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html

You might also see if you library has:

Gladys Hunt's Honey for a Child's Heart:

http://www.amazon.com/Honey-Childs-Heart-Gladys-Hunt/dp/0310242460/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210803655&sr=8-1

or Books Children Love

http://www.amazon.com/Books-Children-Love-Childrens-Literature/dp/1581341989/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210803727&sr=1-1

There are others of course, but I thought of those off the top of my head.

Peace,
Janice

Enjoy your little people
Enjoy your journey