*ad – gifted items
We have been super busy in the last month with one thing and another, and I’ve not kept on top of sharing our favourite reads – a birthday last week for Damian and some planned work in our house this week has left me playing catch up. I thought I would, therefore, share some of our recent favourite books in one longer roundup post.
As ever, the children pour over books and it is so lovely to see. I think it is one of the things I am most proud of; that I have instilled a love of reading in them. Daniel gets up every morning and finds a book to read – he loves fiction in the morning. We have however had some really good non-fiction books in recent weeks so I wanted to share those here.
One book that I have been enjoying myself(!) is The First Book of Relativity by Sheddad Kaid-Salah Ferron and Eduard Altarriba. This is such a BIG concept idea and if I am honest, the thought of teaching some of the more complex scientific doesn’t fill me with confidence but this book has been a great intro. It’s delivered in a fun and engaging way and explains some really big concepts and ideas in a super accessible way – one that makes sense to even me! I do like these ‘First Books’ and this is the third we have from this series now. They do a great job of tackling really difficult concepts and ideas. It’s published by Button Books and aimed at children aged 8+.
Another that we have been enjoying from Button Books is the brilliant Discovering Architecture book by Eduard Altarriba and Berta Bardi I Mila. Children are always interested in buildings and often see the detail that we, as adults, no longer spot. I love walking around cities and looking up – up at the inscriptions on old buildings and learning more about what uses they would once have had. The Discovering Architecture book talks about some well-known buildings but also about the fundamentals of architecture. We have shared this book together a couple of times and it’s one we will come back to later in the year for our speaking and listening group as I want to look at this in much more detail with them.
Harry and Em have been enjoying In Focus: Forests which is by Libby Walden and illustrated by 10 people. Each illustrator delves into the woodland to create a fabulous world. The pages fold out in this book and there’s so much to spot. It’s a book I often from Emma and Harry sharing and them pointing out things they see together. There’s a lot to learn in here about plant life and forest creatures as well as details about people that call the forests and woodland home. All in all, this is a brilliantly engaging book.
We have a fair few books which feature details of inspiring people and I am pleased to see there is now more of a move into featuring books about boys and men. Whilst it’s important to show young girls that they can go into any profession and that they can make a difference, it is also important to show boys this too. I have had a copy of Boy oh Boy for a couple of weeks now and I’ve found Daniel reading through it. It’s a very bold and colourful book and quite different from others that I have seen recently. It provides details of 30 male role models and happily demonstrates that there is no single way to be a man. I am thankful that home educating allows us to stay away (for now) from some of the stereotypes but this book shows such a wide and varied range of men that any boys feeling like they don’t ‘fit in’ might benefit from taking a read. The author, Dr Cliff Leek is well equipped to deal with the issues this book seeks to address and it’s a very good and comprehensive collection of inspiring male role models.
