Homeschooling

Russia Children’s Books

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“Folklore is important for understanding people’s cultural narratives – story lines that describe something unique to the culture’s history and its people. They help to define a cultural identity and, in subtle ways, shape future choices…In Russian fairy tales, the main character eventually prevails. He doesn’t win through his own virtues, though, but through the intervention of a magical being – a fish, a frog, a horse – that does all the hard work while the main character claims credit.”

− Mia M. Bloom & Sophia Moskalenko

Russian folklore is, indeed, entrenched in the Russian people, Continue reading →

Ukraine Children’s Books

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As we approach two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, escalating the Russo-Ukrainian war that began in 2014, I’m sharing some (mostly) fiction set in the Ukraine. Sadly, the backdrop is either the wars of the twentieth century or the current war.

If I were to pick one from my list below, I would start with the remarkable diary of 12-year-old Yeva Skalietska who fled Ukraine in 2022. My girls and I attended a remarkably composed presentation given by Yeva at the Oxford Literary Festival last spring and came home fighting over who was going to read the diary first.

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Books for Boys 12+

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“I can always tell when you’re reading somewhere in the house,” my mother used to say. “There’s a special silence, a reading silence.”
― The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading, Francis Spufford

How wonderful, if in homes and libraries across the world, 2024 became the year of increased “reading silence”. As Spufford says, it is indeed “special” when we know those around us are lost in a faraway world or making new friends as they turn the pages of a book. This is a different silence from the endless tense scrolling of images and reels. The “reading silence” requires, not just the eyes and brain, but a conscious immersion of the whole body. Continue reading →

Visiting Madrid

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The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

— Saint Augustine

With 2023 stretched out ahead, perhaps plan a city trip with the family and discover a few more pages of the world. Cities are great places to take children of all ages – museums, parks, food, buses to jump on and off, and new treasures around every corner. It may be a nearby city such as Exeter, Manchester or York, or somewhere further afield.

Last October half term took us on our first family foreign city trip since pre-Covid. And what an adventure! It was a 5-day trip including travel, so we had 3 full days to explore Spain’s capital city. Short but sweet. Any longer and the kids might not have been so willing to walk for miles. Continue reading →

Over 20 Books for 9-12yr olds

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“It is through the power and music and magic of stories and poems that children can expand their own intellectual curiosity, develop the empathy and awareness that they will need to tackle the complexities of their own emotions, of the human condition in which they find themselves.”

— Michael Morpurgo

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10 Audiobooks for 4 +

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If I were the Principal, boy, things would change.
Our school would be fun, if a little bit strange.
We’d keep kangaroos in the classrooms as pets.
We’d travel to Tonga and learn to fly jets. Continue reading →

Children’s Fiction 8+

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The children should have the joy of living in far lands, in other persons, in other times—a delightful double existence; and this joy they will find, for the most part, in their story-books”

— Charlotte Mason (Vol. 1, p. 153)

So it looks like holidays are off the cards this summer for most of us but in Charlotte Mason’s words we can still “have the joy of living in far lands, in other persons, in other times…”  So at a time when we can’t travel and see people so easily, books are a magical way of doing just that both for us adults and our children. So let’s help our children travel this summer and choose books to take them places.  They may even make some friends along the way. Continue reading →

Oxford Stories

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Excerpt from “Oxford” by Tom Lovatt-Williams

I see the coloured lilacs flame
In many an ancient Oxford lane
And bright laburnum holds its bloom
Suspended golden in the noon,
The placid lawns I often tread
Are stained and carpeted with red…

These lines from Lovatt-Williams’ poem ‘Oxford’ capture perfectly the beauty of this city over the last few weeks.  Lockdown has definitely made me far more appreciative of the  way nature is changing around us here in Oxford as we take our ‘daily exercise’. Continue reading →