Coming soon is a long post about the curriculum we have liked/disliked this year for our eclectic first grade, and I realized I should pair it with a shorter one about our read alouds. I try to mix classic literature with newer, wholesome reads. Following is a list of the longer read alouds I’ve done with my first grader at home. In addition, we’ve read stacks and stacks of picture books (fiction and nonfiction) from our weekly library visits and our own home library.
Curl Up with a Good Book
Book One of Tumtum & Nutmeg: Adventures Beyond Nutmouse Hall, by Emily Bearn. A funny, endearing read about two mice who decide to adopt two motherless children in spite of a warlike Aunt Ivy who hates mice. Both of my children loved this book.
Pippi Longstocking (leaving out the last chapter about Pippi pretending to be a ghost). This classic Swedish tale of the super-strong redhead caught my children’s imagination. They often ran around our back yard pretending to be Pippi and her friends Tommy and Annika. I got the three first books in one book, so we will probably read the next couple of books over the summer.
Old Classic Read Alouds
The Secret Garden, a classic and lovely story about a selfish little girl who is transformed by a garden. I bought a lovely oversized edition illustrated by Inga Moore (from Christianbook.com), and I would 100 percent choose that same edition again. The illustrations are evocative, hauntingly beautiful, and pure perfection for this story. But I did have to leave some parts out of this unabridged book. For example, the derogatory words used toward Indians in the beginning of the story. (Normal at the time this was written, but not the kind of language or thinking I want to teach my child!) And also some of the speeches about the power of magic by Colin toward the end of the book. (In my opinion, Colin’s monologues are mostly repetitive nonsense. But he’s a little boy, so I suppose he can be excused.)
In the future, I’ll probably wait to read The Secret Garden. I’d recommend closer to age 10, which is the age of Mary and Colin in the novel. The only reason my first grader stuck with me for this book was Inga Moore’s amazing illustrations. (See below for an example.)
We have just begun E.B. White’s classic The Trumpet of the Swan. The language used is rich and descriptive–exactly what I want my first grader to learn. We’ve chosen some passages for his copywork from The Trumpet of the Swan.
All About the Illustrations
A Beatrix Potter Treasury. This is my first grader’s second time to hear the entire treasury read aloud, as I was reading it to my preschooler and he sat in on the reading times. Peter Rabbit never gets old. He also listened to me reading her the complete Brambly Hedge tales. I bought him a used copy of James Herriot’s animal stories, which are beautifully illustrated, and he loves hearing them read aloud.
Since I’m reading the complete Winnie-the-Pooh stories to my preschooler, my son is getting a round 2 of those as well. (I think he likes them even better than she does. And I might like them best of all. “Silly old bear!”) They enjoy hearing the true story about Winnie occasionally as we go through the big book of Winnie-the-Pooh: Finding Winnie is one of the sweetest picture books ever!
Stories of Faith
Missionary Stories with the Millers, by Mildred Martin. These stories about the exciting adventures of missionaries around the world (many of them Mennonite, FYI) paired well with our geography studies. (Note: I left out some of the words used by the author to describe skin color differences, etc.)
Pilgrim’s Progress, adapted for children. We finished both of the Little Pilgrim’s Big Journey books by LithosKids publishing (we’ve read them MULTIPLE times now). I can’t recommend them enough as read alouds for children ages 2-98. If you need the perfect gift for a child in your life, you just found it. 🙂 I’ve been brought to tears many times by the simple, beautiful words.
Currently, we are reading Joe Sutphin’s newly illustrated Pilgrim’s Progress for children. I don’t love the old text by Helen Taylor as much as the Little Pilgrim’s Big Journey text. However, Sutphin’s animal illustrations are absolutely lovely.
And a Couple More…
Last year, I read aloud The Boxcar Children, which was far more developmentally appropriate than The Secret Garden. 🙂 This year, I’m going to have him read it aloud to me, along with Avi’s Prairie School.
My wonderful mom-in-law brings books to read aloud whenever she visits us, and this past year she read him most of Beverly Cleary’s Ralph Mouse Collection, including The Mouse and the Motorcycle. He loved listening to stories about the intrepid mouse.
All of the Holling C. Holling books are beautifully illustrated books for teaching American and oceanic geography and biology. My mom passed down all the books to me, and right now I am reading aloud Paddle to Sea.
Biography Read Alouds
We are also working our way through all the Simonetta Carr biographies for young readers. They are really beautifully presented short biographies of church fathers and some mostly unknown women, such as Marie Durand. (Here’s a link to an article I wrote about her several years ago.) The Carr books can be very expensive, but I was fortunate enough to get them on sale from Ligonier. I like that she chose to write about people we otherwise might not know much about, and I particularly like that faithful women are represented.