Teresa’s recent post on books got me thinking about what WE read around here on a regular basis.  I am homeschooling my oldest son (who just turned 8 and is in second grade), and doing a lot of informal preschool activities with my almost 5 and almost 3 year old kids as well.  This means we do lots and lots of reading!

One of the things I looked forward to most when becoming a parent was the idea of reading to and with my kids… and sharing with them the books *I* loved as a kid.  It took us awhile to get there (for some reason, they were not all that interested in Laura Ingalls Wilder when they were babies), but we’re finally starting to read books I read as a child.

Today’s links post will include a few of some of the books I read (and recommend) for boys! (I’ll tackle the girls next week)

Encyclopedia Brown is definitely geared more towards boys, but I still LOVED reading these. Probably because I loved a good mystery and had aspirations to being a super sleuth detective. Samuel and I sat down to read the first in this series last night, and I think he is going to love it as much, or more, than I did (do).

The Great Brain – we tried to read this last year, but I ended up taking it back to the library about half-read. It had a lot of obscure references to things that Samuel just didn’t understand yet. (As I read it, I realized how much *I* had missed when reading it as a kid). I’d recommend this book (and the following books) for kids around 10 and up, with parents who don’t mind explaining a lot of details.

The Hardy Boys – Yes, I’m a girl, and yes, I read these as a kid… but only after I’d read every Nancy Drew book in the library. I didn’t like them as MUCH as I liked Nancy Drew, but they were mysteries, so they worked for me. I’m sure Samuel and Allan will appreciate them in a much deeper “boy” kind of way than I did.

The Boxcar Children – I didn’t actually read these books as a kid, but I’ve heard such good things about them, so this series is next on our list after we finish Encyclopedia Brown.

The Chronicles of Narnia Set – love, love, love these books, and most especially the first one, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”. I started reading this one to Samuel when he was around five, and I thought it would be over his head (some of it was), but he still LOVED it.

And I could go on and on, but I’ll hush for today! Next week, I’ll do my best to keep the list of GIRLS books to only three pages.

Happy Friday, everyone!

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