(This picture has nothing to do with this post, but I love Carl Larsson, and this camping scene is so fun.  It reminds me of growing up and camping with my family.)

I feel like my posts lately have been very disorganised and rambly--yes, I know disorganised is only spelled with an "s" in England, but the letter it's supposed to have isn't showing up on my computer for some reason.  Cra_y, huh?  (And inconvenient.  You don't know how often that letter is used until you can't use it!)

Back to rambling, see what I mean?  I used to write nice transitions with good flow, but my brain is so scattered nowadays that I can't seem to find any flow.  Case in point:  today's to do list had only very simple things, like school lessons, laundry, groceries.  If you count playing board games as school, I can say I checked off one measly thing.  But only barely.  I don't have a good reason; I'm just very unmotivated toward productivity lately.  This isn't good, but I'm moving like molasses and can't seem to speed up.  If you know me personally, you know this is odd and out of character, and I'm hoping I get a good burst of energy soon.  Until then, my writing is as disjointed as I am.

The point of this post--really, there is one!--is to answer some questions you've left me in the comments recently.  I've had two different people ask about where I find our book lists for each grade of school.  I use Lindafay's suggestions found in her free curriculum.  They are generally the same as Ambleside's, except that American history is studied before British history.  And I make one notable change--Lindafay has first grade begin "This Country of Ours," but I start it in the second half of second grade and just do more each week to finish by the end of third grade.  I'll probably start it in third for Grayson, so that Addie, who will be in second, can do it at the same time.  Two birds with one stone.  Caiden is in fourth grade, so this is our fifth year of a Charlotte Mason/Wholeheart education, and it works really well for us. It takes a lot of prep work, and I usually start making book lists and ordering books from Ama_on (pesky keyboard!) in early April, so that I'm ready.  This year I'm reading all of Caiden's books, so I'm starting a little earlier.  But for a book lover, that's not a chore!  I love "having" to buy books!

Another question, a frequent one, is for book suggestions.  I use several books for ideas for our own family:  Sarah Clarkson's "Read for the Heart" is my favorite, and "Honey for a Child's Heart," "Who Then Shall We Read," and "Books Children Love."  If a book is new, I read it before I let any of my kids read it, but generally very old books are pretty safe reading.  (Another benefit of old books is that they're usually free online or on my Kindle.)  Caiden loves G.A. Henty historical novels, as well as the entire "Redwall" series, which he has read multiple times.  Actually, Caiden loves any book I give him.  His favorite, beside "The Chronicles of Narnia," is historical fiction.  Sonlight has a good selection of books for each grade that I use as free reading for Caiden.  This year he read tons of books on both World Wars; here are some of them:

• Swift Rivers
• The Winged Watchman
• The Endless Steppe
• Snow Treasure
• Escape from Warsaw
• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
• Enemy Brothers

I buy most of our books from Ama_on with its Prime free shipping, and I am thankful for several sets of built-in bookshelves in our house!  Another series we just discovered is "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place."  I read the first two before handing them over, but they are very funny and very clean.  I always love finding a new series for the kids!  These are pretty short and easy reads; that's my problem with Caiden.  He reads so well and so fast that he needs difficult reading or else he finishes way too quickly.  Henty's books are great for that--they are meaty and full of harder vocabulary, so he can't race through them.  Edith Nesbit also has great stories, like "The Railway Children" and several lesser known ones.  I think Caiden has read all of her books in print, and he says they're all fantastic.  He also loves Eli_abeth Enright, Jean Craighead George, and Eleanor Estes.  "Viking Tales" was another early favorite, and it's the book that got him really hooked on reading back in the first or second grade.  Honestly, he has read pretty much every book and author that he can read at 10 years old.  His reading level is college, but of course he can't read books meant for college students, so he often re-reads old favorites.  I print out our book lists several years in advance so that I know what not to let him read ahead of time.  Otherwise, we will very truly run out of books for him to read!  A wonderful problem, I know.

Right now I'm reading "Around the World in Eighty Days," for the first time.  He'll be reading it in fifth grade, so it's the first on my list.  I love Jules Verne but had never read it, and somehow thought it was about traveling the entire world over in a hot air balloon.  So far Phileas Fogg is more than halfway around, and no balloon to be seen.  It's quite different than I expected, and the vocabulary is ama_ing--words I've never even heard of, and I was an English major!  This should be a fun book to discuss with Caiden next fall.

So that's what's going on of a bookish nature at our house.  I hope that answers some questions, and as always, I'd love any great book suggestions you have, too!