Weekly book shelf, 2/14/14

In our second week of Story of the World volume 2 we meet the post-Roman Celts and the incoming Angles and Saxons (SOTW2 ch. 2)

Raiders of the North is a large book with big, vivid pictures. It has good information and is well presented. Very engaging.

But my favorite supplemental book from this chapter was The Celts (See Through History). Maps and diagrams are just some of the beautiful illustrations in this book that presents the history and mythology of the Celts of yore. Lots of information presented clearly and invitingly.

And in science we are on our second week of studying the body systems (BFSU1 lesson B9), focusing on the Respiratory and Circulatory Systems. The books from the "Our Body" series are full of facts but avoid being overwhelming with clean and careful presentation.

This week in literature, Calvin read and took notes on Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. I have never read the book, but "The Rats of NIMH" was one of my favorite movies when I was little. Calvin loved the book, but he find movies a little too intense so it will be a while before we watch it together.

And he also read Winnie the Pooh for his notebook. It's a book that he read several years ago, but I think revisiting books is a good way for him to get used to our new literature study method. Plus Calvin loves revisiting books, and the Pooh series is adorable while still making use of creative sentence structure and good vocabulary.

And for free reading, he finished the NIMH series (Racso and the Rats of NIMH, and R-T, Margaret, and the Rats of NIMH), none of which were as good as the first one, of course, and he also read the entire "Plant that Ate Dirty Socks" series. Two brothers end up with a pair of junk eating plants in their room, and the misadventures ensue. Pretty much junk-food fiction.