We started back up with school this last Monday. It was a little rough at first, but so nice to start getting back into a routine. We just worked on our WWII unit, no math yet.
I'm loving the two read alouds we are doing right now, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Parallel Journeys by Eleanor H. Ayer and Alfons Heck. They are both such wonderful books.
Parallel Journeys is so powerful because it's two first-hand accounts of WWII by a Hitler Youth German and a German Jew who had to flee Germany with her family to survive. The children and I are learning so much.
The Book Thief I had already read on my own and loved. It's a bit hard to read aloud, the language and point of view and even the set-up of the book make it a challenge but it's such a lovely, tragic book and I think the kids are enjoying it.
We also are trying to watch more documentaries, we finished 1940's House which was excellent and also watched a PBS documentary on Winston Churchill called Churchill's Deadly Decision, which talked about a part of WWII we knew nothing about; the French surrender to Germany, which violated an agreement France and Britain had, and Britain taking over the French warships instead of letting them fall into Hitler's control. Very interesting and makes it all the more real to us what difficult decisions are made during war.
All week I had been fighting a cold and Thursday I finally gave up and stayed in bed for the day. Caitlyn and Brett both read their books, Cait is reading Under a War-Torn Sky and Brett is reading a biography on Albert Einstein. Friday I just read to them from The Book Thief and took it easy. We have our final Disney vacation coming up this week before our passes expire and I didn't want to take the chance of being sick during the trip. Thankfully Cait and Brett are recovered from it and Jody is almost recovered. We are so looking forward to going back to Disney, a little sad our passes are almost over but it was such a fun year and it's time to put money elsewhere. We plan on trying to take some day trips this coming year instead, one definitely to Savannah.
I have a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs simmering on the stove, Brett is playing online with friends and the girls took baby Maverick on a walk. He is 11 weeks today and every day it seems he does something new. He's so smart already and very strong.
Here are the books and videos we are currently using:
Build Your Library WWII unit
The Book Thief
Parallel Journeys
1940's House
Churchill's Deadly Decision -Currently available on Netflix
Under a War-Torn Sky
Who Was Albert Einstein?
