I love these quiet, unassuming little blue books!

About a year ago (I’m so sorry!) my sweet friend Donna came to town (she lives in Colorado) and handed me a plastic bag. The bag contained five books from The Farm Mystery Series. (Donna, there are supposed to be six books, did I lose one?) I have to confess that when I first looked at the books, I wasn’t very impressed. They weren’t flashy, or cute, or alluring…nothing about them called to me and said, “Read me”. Plus, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to read the books aloud or let my children read them on their own. To compound matters, at the time I had a basket-full of books waiting to be read and I was very pregnant and not up to adding to my “read-aloud” list. So the books sat until one day when Donna asked me to pass them on to someone else and I was embarrassed to say that I hadn’t read them yet. I tried to pass them on as requested, but the day I took them with me to pass on the person to whom I was to hand them over wasn’t in church so I took them home and they sat in my book basket until a few months ago. At which time I was looking for a character building book to read to the children and picked up “Footprints in the Barn” book one of The Farm Mystery Series.

Very rarely do we read books that speak to our situation in life – as Christians, as a semi-large family, and as homeschoolers…but these books do. They are written by Mr. and Mrs. Stephen B. Castleberry and are about a Christian homeschool family of six that live in the country on a farm (the Castleberry’s also home school and have several children).  The books are very, very wholesome and are just a joy to read. In the books the two oldest boys Jason and Andrew have a “detective agency” and solve mysteries “for free”. But, the books also paint a beautiful picture of a simple and Christ centered family.

The books remind me a lot of The Boxcar Children but with the added bonus of the children living within a solid Christian family unit. Where the early Boxcar Children books were just “wholesome” these books go one step further in that they are unashamedly Christian in orientation – for example the family has nightly devotions, prays for one another (at one point in book one mom gets on her knees and prays as dad goes out to check out a dangerous situation) and the gospel is shared (they pray using Voice of the Martyrs materials).

My children are thoroughly enjoying these books and every night after devotions we hear “We are reading Footprints in the Barn right? Please, please, please!” and then after reading a chapter, (because the chapters always end on a suspenseful note) “One more chapter…pleeeease!!!!”

If there is a drawback to these books, it is only in that they paint such a beautiful picture of family life that they make me feel woefully inadequate.  The children in the story are so obedient and good I find myself longing for my own children to be the same way. But, that said - which says more about my selfish pride than anything else- I like the books because they actually give me a goal to reach for and show me a vision of family life that I’ve only imagined in my mind. (If only I really knew a family like this one in real life.)

Happy Birthday Moon – Frank Asch

Lucy’s Summer – Donald Hall

The Gift of the Tree – Alvin Tresselt

Autumn Harvest – Alvin Tresselt

Sun Up – Alvin Tresselt In the Book Basket

The Milkman’s Boy – Donald Hall

A Tree is Nice – Janice Udry

Note:  The Tresselt books were a little tedious for Caleb.

blessings,

dani

God will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. (Job 8:21)

In keeping with the theme of Monday Meanderings…I’ve decided to keep a list of the books that we read.

Here is what we read last week:

1.  An Amish Year – Richard Ammon

2.  Raising Yoder’s Barn – Jane Yolen

3.  Down Buttermilk Lane – John Sandford

4.  What the Moon Saw –Brian Wildsmith

5.  Hot and Bright A Book About the Sun – Dana Meachen Rau

These were all wonderful and they all relate to what we’ve been studying.

On the Shelf This Week:

1.  Molly Bannaky- Alice McGill

2.  John and Tom – William Lange

3.  Homespun Sarah – Verla Kay

4.  Chocolate by Hershey A Story about Milton S. Hersey – Betty Burford

5.  The Canada Geese Quilt – Natalie Kinsey-Warnock

6.  The Mystery at Snowflake Inn – Gertrude Chandler Warner

7.  Caps For Sale – Esphyr Slobodkina

8.  Dinosaur Days – Liza Baker

9.  A Picture Book of Davy Crockett – David A. Adler

10. Saving the Liberty Bell – Megan McDonald

11. Bear Shadow – Frank Asch

12. The Moon Book – Gail Gibbons

13. Magic School Bus Takes a Moonwalk – Joanna Cole

14. About Space – Jana Carson

15. My Spring Robin – Anne Rockwell

I could separate these books by child, but the truth is they all listen to all of them so why separate them? Some of these books I have read before - like Caps For Sale…but as children grow there is a need to re-read what has been read before, and for Caleb this will be a new book, for the others a good book re-visited and read again by themselves during their own reading time, and for me- a joy as we do not own this book and it is worthy…

I have a secret I will share…I can hardly read one of these books without tears forming…for example, we have been reading The Canada Geese Quilt this week…it is a beautiful story about a little girl who loves to draw and her relationship with her grandmother…it isn’t a sad story…and yet, for some reason the beauty of the story and the gentle weaving of words well written tug at my heart – and I can hardly make it to the end of the chapter. Tears form and push at the edge of my eye lids and I have to pause, take a breath, and then push on… this is especially true when I’m pregnant.

I have no idea what my children think when they see this, but they are used to it…it happens to me all the time…I think they think it is just part of the story. They just wait patiently until I catch my breath and push the tears aside…

I have an even harder time when we are reading of the birth of Christ, His death, or the Resurrection. My heart nearly breaks…

You might be wondering about a “girl” book being read to a boy, (and a girl too – as I choose The Canada Geese Quilt for Bethany) I wondered too…but Aaron hasn’t complained and at the end of each chapter I’ve heard those precious words...from him - my boy… “Read another one Mom! Another one! Another chapter. Please!” And I usually do.

As Charlotte Mason says…learning is about forming relationships with things.

Note: The above are all library books. We are also reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Book basket books will be books we have checked out of the library - supplemental /additional reading.  

blessings,

dani

God will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. (Job 8:21)