"Boy-friendly" Books

Maybe you were wondering what I meant in my Adaptation post when I mentioned my fourteen-year-old son not being thrilled to read books with girls on the covers. Here's an example of four of the Sonlight 100 titles that he's not thrilled about reading.


















Do any of these look like they'd scream READ ME to a teen boy?

I actually skipped 3 of these books already, and I just may require him to read Christy.

To be fair to Sonlight 100, there are plenty of "boy-friendly" books in the reading list: My Side of the Mountain, The Red Badge of Courage, Amos Fortune, Maniac Magee, The Call of the Wild, The Cross and the Switchblade, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. That's just a sampling of titles.

No shortage of good literature choices, that's certain. Plenty to choose from, even if I decide to skip a few. And my daughters will certainly enjoy these four books even if my sons don't find them intriguing.

Weekly Review - Second Week

All the kids:

• Practiced our hymn (The Solid Rock) and praise chorus (Mighty is Our God)
• Family prayer each day
• Read and discussed 1 Corinthians 1-6
• Re-read the first few pages of Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends by the Mallys
  
• Attended the first session of homeschool co-op
  
• Listened to several chapters from our read-aloud: Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze by Elizabeth Enright
• Completed Module 1 in the Creativity Express software (art history & appreciation)
• Completed 1 session of typing instruction (using Mavis Beacon Teaching Typing software)
• Read one letter from Mom and wrote one letter back (in Communication Journals)
  

David - 13yo/8th grade:

• Did Math-U-See Pre-Algebra - 3 pages in lesson 24 and Test 24
  
• 4 pages on prepositions in Easy Grammar Plus and played Preposition Bingo
  
• Did silent reading for 30 minutes (or more) 4 days.
• 2 spelling placement tests and 2 days spelling study
• Reviewed IEW SWI-B lessons for Weeks 1-4 on DVD
• Read the History of US Volume 1 (Hakim) - chapters 1-8 - and discussed with Mom
  
• Helped coach soccer and refereed one U8 soccer game
  
• Read Cameron Townsend Chapters 4-8
  

Emily - 11yo/6th grade:

• Worked on multiplication facts
• 4 pages on prepositions in Easy Grammar Plus and played Preposition Bingo
• 2 spelling placement tests and 2 days spelling study
• Reviewed IEW SWI-B lessons for Weeks 1-4 on DVD
  
• Read some of Sarah, Plain and Tall & did comprehension questions and vocabulary for Chapter 2
  
• Silent reading - 30 minutes (or more) 4 days
• Did 2 pages of penmanship - cursive review
  

James 8yo/3rd/4th grade:

• Math-U-See Gamma - Test 4 and 3 pages in Lesson 5
  
• Finished Monster Bugs and started reading Terror on the Amazon: Quest for El Dorado
  
• Wrote in literature journal - one sentence about each day's reading.
• Silent reading - 15 minutes (or more) each day.
• Explode the Code 5 - 2 pages each day
• Read and Think Skill Sheets 3 (A Beka) - 1 lesson
• Penmanship - cursive introduction - 4 pages
  
• Went to soccer practice twice and played one soccer game
  

Suzy - 6yo/1st grade:

• Math-U-See Alpha - 4 pages
  
• Alphabet Island - 4 phonics lessons on short vowel words
• Practice learning sight words
  
• Explode the Code Book 2 - 2 pages each day (consonant blends)
• Silent reading - 15 minutes each day
• Wrote in literature journal - one sentence about each day's reading.
• 4 pages in her ABC Journal
  
• Went to soccer practice once

I had assigned the 3 older kids to begin English From the Roots Up this week, but I decided to wait another week or two to start it. We haven't started our Science or History yet either. One of them will start this week and one the next.

I think I'm going to have David take 2 years to do Sonlight 100. It's far more work than we are used to doing - so much READING. But I don't want to give any of it short shrift, so I think we'll just take our time doing it instead.

Curriculum Shopping

I went to some garage sales today and came home with a cursive workbook and a placemat with the cursive formation. I think the placemat will be helpful to Emily who has trouble with cursive letters. I think I'll use the workbook with James, who is ready to learn cursive in the upcoming year.

This week I also finally bought Sonlight Core 100 along with a great number of the necessary books for the program. She gave me a GREAT deal on this package. I am very excited about using this. David? Not so much, since it will require a HUGE amount of reading for him. I will get as many audiobooks as possible to make it easier on him.

From the same lady I got Apologia Physical Science. I have the first edition of the science, however. I do plan to get the read-along CD or the multimedia CD (or both?), even though they go with the second edition. This is also for David. The younger kids will be using one of the elementary Apologia books.

I have nearly all my curriculum now. Still need to acquire Mystery of History 2 and the art curriculum I want from Timberdoodle. Also need to stock up on construction paper.

How are YOU doing with your purchases? How about selling?