Out Loud (and in silly voices)

Reading aloud to children is something I enjoy doing whether it is to my own children or not.  I tend to really get into it using multiple voices, big loud booming ones and quiet timid squeaky ones. I use my hands and act out a knock on the door or stomp my feet and encourage the listeners to cheer along with the characters and get as into the story as I do.

As it tends to happen however, as my own children have gotten older I’ve read to them less and less.  With my youngest now being an independent and as enthusiastic reader as I am the importance of reading aloud to them seems to have faded.

That was until Harry Potter as over the last year we read the entire series together and I began to really see the value of reading aloud to both of them again. My oldest listened because she was too impatient for me to finish reading them to my youngest before reading them on her own, which she then did anyways.

What I’ve noticed since then as I’ve read other stories to my youngest is how my oldest surreptitiously listens to the story I’m telling rather than reading the one in her own book open on her lap.  Her eyes seem to lose focus and pages no longer turn.

So seeing as I have set my own goals to read some “better literature” I’ve decided in the next few months to do the same with my girls, reading aloud the classic children’s tales and whether they both admit to listening or not I think it will be well enjoyed.

   

1.       Chalotte’s Web – E.B. White

2.       The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson

3.       3. The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams

4.       4. The wonderful Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum

5.       5. Anne Of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery

6.       6. James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

7.       7. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

8.       8. Pinocchio - Carlo Collodi

9.       The Wind in The Willows – Kenneth Grahame

10.   Through the looking-glass – Lewis Carol

11.   Black Beauty – Anna Wewell

12.   The Tale of Despereaux – Kate DeCamillo

13.   The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis – full set

14.   The Black Stallion – Walter Farley

15.   The Neverending Story – Michael Ende

Exploring The Written Word

I’ve begun a new project or perhaps I’ve continued an old one depending on which way you look at it. I have been creating a list of books that I would like to read.  In recent years I seem to lean towards popular fiction reading the latest works of my favorite authors or picking up random best sellers. I haven’t read a piece of classic literature in years and I’ve recently realized that I miss reading those books that challenge my intellect rather than simply my imagination.

It’s quite the list I’ve created and while I have read many of these books previously it’s been a long time.  The first book on my list is in fact one of my favorite reads - Utopia by Thomas Moore.  I had read it many times over until one day I discovered that my dog-eared and well read paperback copy was missing. I never did find it and with slight astonishment I now realize I first discovered it missing nearly a decade ago.

I’m a rather voracious reader and I can and do read several books a week fairly regularly and so this is not really a daunting task at all but something I’m looking forward to.  Here is the first 25 I plan on reading.

1.       Utopia – Thomas Moore

2.       The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien (Just purchased the box set which is why these are so high on the list)

3.       The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien

4.       The Two Towers – J.R.R. Tolkien

5.       The Return of the King – J.R.R. Tolkien

6.       The Time Machine H.G. Wells

7.       The Iliad -  Homer

8.       The Odyssey – Homer

9.       Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathon Swift

10.   Dracula – Bram Stroker

11.   20,000 Leagues under the Sea – Jules Verne

12.   Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

13.   Around The World in Eighty Days – Jules Verne

14.   The Call of the Wild – Jack London

15.   Brave new World – Aldous Huxley

16.   Les Miserable – victor Hugo

17.   The Phantom o the Opera – Gaston Leroux

18.   Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell

19.   To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

20.   Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – John Le Carre

21.   Black Beauty – Anna Sewell

22.   Midnight’s children – Salman Rushdie

23.   A Passage to India – E.M. Forster

24.   Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

25.   Lord of the Flies -  William Golding

List It

This morning as I often do I spent a few minutes writing a list of things that need to get done.  I write lists for many things and whenever a day or entire weekend is going to be very busy, as is this one, I list what I need to do. 

It does make a big difference in keeping me organized and on track.  Although I’m afraid the available time slots for this weekend have shrunk down to infinitesimally tiny moments and I maybe overextending just a little. 

I’ve got a shopping list, a things to do list, I should really do list and a can’t avoid list just for this weekend.  My lists have sub lists.  It would be funny if it wasn’t so ridiculous.  

My youngest is having her birthday party this weekend and the only thing I can say that is actually done is having invited all the kids.  We also haven’t found a single birthday gift for her actual birthday as well as gotten anything done for our annual July 1^st party which is approaching rather quicker than expected.    

Oh well my penchant for lists has helped me out many more times than not.  It’s helped me to decide what updates I really want to do next, reminds me of projects I not quite finished and keeps me from having to return to a store for a single item.  My lists do make things go more smoothly.  

I’m kind of stuck on one item on one of my lists today.  Choose new shingles, as it turns out there are an awful lot of shades of grey and brown.  Both my husband and I have spent much more time than we expected staring at the “vizualizer service” which is supposed to make choosing easier. 

It hasn’t really helped that much and we need to let the roofing company know our final decision this morning in order to get the project started on time.  It needs to start on time for a variety of reasons and so we really need a final decision.

Fingers crossed no other list items get me stuck today.