Book Basket Thursday

I love our local library's children's section with it's colorful decor and neat chairs. Who wouldn't want to cozy up with a good book in one of these cute seats?

Let's get to our library picks for the week!

We are learning about early explorers in Social Studies for the next few weeks. The Vikings and Marco Polo have been our main topics so far.






• Lords of the Sea: The Vikings Explore the North Atlanic by Allison Lassieur (Graphic Novel)

• History Dudes - Vikings by Rich Cando

• How Would You Survive as a Viking? by Jacqueline Morley

• The Adventures of Marco Polo by Russell Freedman

• The Adventures of Marco Polo by Roger Smalley (Graphic Novel)

The boys have discovered graphic novels and love reading them. At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. But, I've since discovered that there are graphic novels based on classics and they're a great way to sneak in education while the boys think they're just reading a "comic."

Science is all about Newton's Law of Motion this week.

• Isaac Newton: The Greatest Scientist of All Time by Margaret J. Anderson

• Forces Make Things Move by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

We are also learning about Albert Einstein.

• Ask Albert Einstein by Lynne Barasch

• Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein by Don Brown

A couple of Connor's "just for fun" picks this week are:

• B is for Bookworm: A Library Alphabet by Anita C. Prieto

• Five Little Monkeys Go Shopping by Eileen Christelow

Our read aloud book is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. I'm grateful that my parents, who sent the book as a gift, also purchased the audio CDs so the boys can listen without me getting frustrated trying to pronounce names and places I'm not familiar with.

In lieu of a full book review this week, I'm going to give you my homeschooling/parenting book idea. Before school started, I ordered 5-Minute Math Problem of the Day: 250 Fun, Multi-Ste Problems That Sharpen Math Reasoning, Number Sense, and Computation Skills by Martin Lee and Marcia Miller. This book is geared towards grades four through eight. We used it for the first time yesterday and I found it interesting that the first page dealt with place value, which is exactly what we were discussing in our math class. Perfect!

The problems are short, but fun. They're a great way to get the mind working. I don't know about you, but as I get older I find I need to keep the brain nimble or it kind of goes dormant. This book would also be great for parents who do not homeschool, but want to enrich their children's education at home. Get out some paper and pencils and have fun!