Reading

Ukraine Children’s Books

/ classicallycuriousblog / Leave a comment

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.

Continue reading →

Books for Boys 12+

/ classicallycuriousblog / Leave a comment

“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 →

Children’s Fiction 8+

/ classicallycuriousblog / 4 Comments

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

/ classicallycuriousblog / 3 Comments

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 →

Getting to Know Wild Flowers

/ classicallycuriousblog / Leave a comment

Open Your Eyes!

To shop, and school, to work and play,
The busy people pass all day;
They hurry, hurry, to and fro,
And hardly notice as they go
The wayside flowers, known so well,
Whose names so few of them can tell.

They never think of fairy-folk
Who may be hiding for a joke!

O, if these people understood
What’s to be found by field and wood;
What fairy secrets are made plain
By any footpath, road, or lane—
They’d go with open eyes, and look,
(As you will, when you’ve read this book)
And then at least they’d learn to see
How pretty common things can be!

— Cicely Mary Barker

 

With hardly a shop or school to go to, one of the silver linings for us during lockdown has been time to walk or run most days.  Without the rush of normal life, we have had time to appreciate the wild flowers growing along nearby pavements, paths and in meadows and woodlands. Continue reading →

Audiobooks are the Answer

/ classicallycuriousblog / 3 Comments

We’re in ‘Week 2 of Unexpected Homeschooling’ as I write this. Lunch is cleared away and I’m sitting in the quiet on the sofa.  This is my sanity hour and I highly recommend it! Continue reading →

Easter Books and More

/ classicallycuriousblog / 4 Comments

With Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday upon us, I’ve updated my book list. Perhaps you are looking for ideas for your family or as gifts for godchildren or grandchildren, you can browse my list here, Continue reading →