Classical Conversations Unofficial Cycle 2 Book List compiled by Kimberly Wiltshire

Hello friends! It's that time of of year again where we're gearing up for our big homeschool adventure. One of my favorite parts about homeschooling Violet is that we get to read all kinds of books to ignite her imagination as we study certain topics. We follow Classical Conversations' program for our educational journey and I always love researching the topics for each year and compiling a list of books to either buy or check out from our local library. 

We're very excited about this year as this will be our first year to repeat a cycle in Classical Conversations. Cycle 2 was when we joined this incredible program and it was an amazing year for our little family. Here is my little princess meeting the ill fated Anne Boleyn at the Texas Renaissance Festival four years ago. That day will forever be one of my favorite days of all time. We had such a wonderful time!

This is a list of books that I have compiled after researching the topics for Classical Conversations Cycle 2. These books are recommended for children ages 4 to 10 based on the ratings and reviews either from Amazon or our public library. I have not read all of these books and cannot personally account for their material. These are generally Read-Aloud books that can be read individually or to a group of children. As with everything, please review these books before buying or checking them out from your library. I hope you enjoy this list. 

Happy Reading!

Kimberly

* MSB = Magic School Bus

* Please note that each subject is missing a week or more due to the lack of books

 found for that particular week.

HISTORY

Wk 1  Gisela’s Holiday Story (Gisela, Daughter of Charlemagne) - Lois Jarman

The Marvelous Blue Mouse - Christopher Manson

The Elephant from Baghdad - Mary Tavener Holmes

Wk 2  William the Conqueror, Get a Life - Philip Ardaqh

William the Conqueror: Last Invader of England - Tom McGowen

Wk 3  Richard the Lionheart:Crusader King of England - Thomas Streissquth

You Wouldn't Want To Be A Crusader!: A War You'd Rather Not Fight [Paperback] 

- Fiona MacDonald

Wk 4  The Magna Carta - James Daugherty

Wk 5  Joan of Arc - Diane Stanley

You Wouldn’t Want to be Joan of Arc -

Wk 6  Leonardo and the Flying Boy

Wk 7  The Adventures of Martin Luther - Carolyn Bergt

Wk 8  Who In the World Was the Forgotten Explorer? The Story of

Amerigo Vespucci - Lorene Lambert

Magellen’s World - Stuart Waldman

Wk 9  Peter the Great - Diane Stanley

The Three Musketeers - Alexander Dumas

Wk 10  The Fairy Tale about Ivan the Son of Czar and Firebird and about

 the Grey Wolf - Elienne Burkatovskii

Wk 11  Marguerite Makes a Book - Bruce Robertson

Wk 12  Time Warp Trio: Meet You at Waterloo - Jon Sciezka

  Minstrel in the Tower - Gloria Skurzynski

  A Medieval Fiest - Aliki

Wk 13  All About America: The Industrial Revolution - Hilarie N. Staton

  The Bobbin Girl - Emily Arnold McCully

Wk 14  Where Poppies Grow: A World War 1 Companion - Linda Grarfield

Wk 15  Ten and Twenty - Claire Bishop

  Christmas In the Trenches - John McCatcheon

Wk 16  You Wouldn’t Want to Be a WWII Piolet - Antram

  Hannaha’s Cold Winter - Trish Marx

  Benno and the Night of Broken Glass (Holocaust) - Meg Wiviott

Wk 17  Teedie: The Story of Young Teddy Roosevelt - Don Brown

  TIME For Kids: Theodore Roosevelt: The Adventurous President

  - Editors for TIME For Kids

  You’re On Your Way, Teddy Roosevelt - Judith St. George

Wk 19  My Freedom Trip: A Child’s Escape from North Korea - Francis & Ginger Poork

Wk 20  The Wall - Eve Bunting

  My Grandpa’s War - David Volk

Wk 21  The Fall of the Berlin Wall: The Cold War Ends - Nigel Kelly

Wk 22  The Wall: Growing up Behind the Iron Curtain - Peter Sis

Wk 23  Ashely’s Yellow Ribbon - Barbara Davoll

Wk 24  Nelson Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom - Chris van Wyk

            Mandela: From the Life of the South African Statesman - Floyd Cooper

SCIENCE

Wk 1  Tropical Rainforest - Donald Silver

The Frozen Tundra: A Web of Life - Philip Johansson

What Is a Biome? - Bobbie Kalman

Animals Sleep: A Bedtime Book of Biomes - Thomas A. Heffron

Wk 2  Carnivores - Aaron Reynolds
Bear Wants More - Karma Wilson

Wk 3  MSB Gets Eaten: A Book About Food Chains - Pat Reif

Pond Circle - Betsy Franco

Gobble It Up - Jim Arnosky

Wk 4  Down Comes the Rain - Franklyn Branley

MSB Wet All Over: A Book About the Water Cycle - Pat Reif

The Water Hole - Grame Base

MSB At The Waterworks

Wk 5  MSB Goes Upstream: A Book About Salmon Migration

Going Home: The Mystery of Animal Migration - Merianne Berkes

Home At Last: A Song of Migration - April Pulley Sayre

Wk 6  The Wump World - Bill Peet

The Lorax - Dr. Seuss

The Berenstain Bears Don’t Pollute (Anymore) - Stan & Jan Berenstain

Wk 7  Stars - Mary Lyn Ray

How the Stars Fell into the Sky - Jerrie Dughton

Wk 8  Brother Sun, Sister Moon - Katherine Paterson

(based on the writings of St. Francis Assisi)

Wk 9  The Planets In Our Solar System - Franklyn M. Branley

National Geographic Readers: Planets - Elizabeth Carney

Clarice Bean, What Planet Are You From? - Lauren Child

Wk 10  What the Moon is Like - Franklyn M. Branley

The Moon Book - Gail Gibbons

Wk 11  What’s Out There? A Book About Space - Lynn Wilson

What Do You See? Our Solar System - Carme Sevenster

There’s No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System - Tish Rabe

Wk 12  My Grandpa Was An Astronaut

Man on the Moon - Anastassia Suen

Moonwalk: The First Trip to the Moon - Judy Donnelly

Wk 13  The Solid Truth About States of Matter with Max Axiom,

Super Scientist - Agnieszka Biskup

Solids: States of Matter - Jim Mezzanotti

What Is The World Made of? All About Solids, Liquids and Gases

  - Weidner Zoehfield

Wk 15  Energy Makes Things Happen - Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Wk 16  A Crash Course in Forces and Motion with Max Axiom,

Super Scientist - Emily Soho

  

Wk 17  Forces Make Things Move - Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Wk 20  All About Heat - Lisa Trumbauer

Wk 24  Charged Up: The Story of Electricity - Bailey

  MSB And the Electric Field Trip - Joanna Cole

  The Shocking Story of Electricity - Anna Clayborrne

ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Wk 2   I And You And Don’t Forget Who: What Is a Pronoun?

(Words are Categorical) - Brian P. Cleary

Wk 13  Dearly, Nearly, Insincerely: What Is An Adverb? - Brian P. Cleary

Wk 23  Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What Is An Adjective? - Brian P. Cleary

GEOGRAPHY

(The following books are not necessarily about the geography for the week listed. They are for your use to encourage children to look up the locations mentioned.)

Wk 1  Little Dog Lost:The True Story of a Brave Dog Named Baltic -Monica Carnesi

Wk 2  The Three Golden Oranges - Alma Flor Ada

The Beautiful Butterfly: A Folktale from Spain - Judy Sierra

Wk 4  A Walk in London - Salvatore Rubbino

This I London - Miroslav Sasek

Wk 5  One Step At A Time (Hugo The Happy Starfish) - Suzy Liebermann

Heidi - Johanna Spyri

Wk 9  Kite Flying - Grace Lin

Wk 10  Child of The Sun - Sandra Arnold

Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale - Carmen Agra

MATH

Wk 14  Benjamin Franklin and the Magic Squares - Frank Murphy

Wk 16  Sir Comfrence and the First Round Table - Cindy Neuschwander

Wk 17  Sir Cumfrence and the Dragon of Pi - Cindy Neuschwander

TIMELINE

Wk 4  You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Assyrian Soldier!: An Ancient Army You’d Rather Not

         Join [Paperback] - Rupert Matthews

Wk 5  You Wouldn’t Want to Be in Alexander the Great’s Army!: Miles You’d

Rather Not March [Paperback] Jacqueline Morley

Wk 9  You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Viking Explorer!: Voyages You’d Rather Not Make

(You Wouldn’t Want To) [Paperback] - Andrew Langley

Wk 14  The World Made New: Why the Age of Exploration Happened and How It

  Changed the World (Timelines of American History) [Hardcover]

  - Marc Aronson

Wk 16  You Wouldn’t Want to Be an Aristocrat in the French Revolution!: A Horrible Time

  in Paris You’d Rather Avoid [Paperback] - Jim Pipe

Wk 18  Trail of Tears (Step-Into-Reading) - Joseph Bruchac

Only the Names Remain: The Cherokees and The Trail of Tears - Alex W. Bealer

 

Wk 21  You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Secret Agent During World War II!: A Perilous

Mission Behind Enemy Lines [Paperback] - John Malam

SCORE!!!

I am a self-professed book worm. I love books. I love books so much that I actually get giddy when I get a new one. So, you can imagine the mile-high cloud that I'm walking on right now!


We had a Scholastic Book Fair in our area earlier this week. Never having been to a book fair before, I didn't really know what to expect. What I found upon entering the fair was a little glimpse of heaven to me. Books everywhere! New books that were all marked down to 50% off or less. There were all kinds of goodies to be found there. And there was something else that I loved ~ Violet was just as giddy as I was at the sight of all the books.

Pioneer Woman Meets Houston

It's been an exciting few days down here in our neck of the woods. We really don't have woods down here, just patches of trees actually, but there is an area of Houston called the Woodlands. Yes, that's the name of a city that is just outside of Houston's city limits. But I digress, back to the excitement in our area. The past two days have been awesome but for totally different reasons.

We had SNOW yesterday! Lots and lots of glorious snow!

Snow, Snow, SNOW!!! Snow. It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow. Snow. I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow. Snow. I long to clear a path and lift a spade of snow. Snow. Oh, to see a great big man entirely made of snow.

Do you know what movie that song came from? I'll give you a hint ~ it has Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney in it. It's from my favorite Christmas movie.

Today's excitement came in the form of waiting in a crowded store for 3 1/2 hours to meet someone I've never met in person. Ree Drummond, also known as The Pioneer Woman, came to Houston today and did a book signing for her cookbook. Needless to say, I left the family at home! This was time just for mommy (and at least four hundred other women and a few men). The book signing was arranged by Blue Willow Bookshop which quickly moved the location to Georgia's Farm to Market due to the overwhelming response of Ree's fans.

[photo courtesy of Pioneer Woman.com]

I've been looking forward to this day for a few months now. Once Ree's cookbook was ready for publication I told Gregg that he needed to be prepared to buy me one. There were no subtle hints because Gregg doesn't always get subtle, which is okay. He's a man and sometimes I have to spell things out for him, kinda like how he has to repeat directions to me more than once (I can get lost just trying to get home!). Fortunately for Gregg he didn't have to buy me a copy because I won one. Yippie for me!!!

After reading about the crowds/lines at Ree's other book signings I decided to call Blue Willow Bookshop and ask how they were organizing theirs. I'm SO glad I made that call. Blue Willow was handing out Signing Line Tickets, which are basically just different colored post cards that were done in blocks of 50. Their store is just a few blocks from Gregg's office and so he went by on Tuesday and picked up a card for me on his way home from work. Gracious, I love that man! My card/ticket was orange. The cards/tickets ahead of me today were blue, yellow, red, and green.

The lady knows how to make an entrance!

I love her boots (not that I could ever wear them!). Ree was just as charming in person as she is on her blog. Her brief Q & A was rather entertaining as we learned that Marlboro Man (Ree's hubby) prefers boxers over briefs (a very funny moment). Also, we learned that Cowboy Josh is still single and is on board for The Ranchelor (think The Bachelor on a ranch, only it's rated PG) and how he cooks chili for Charlie, the family's trusty basset hound. Of course, there were questions related to cooking (it IS a cookbook signing after all) and grocery shopping. And then the lines were formed! Everyone played nicely and got in line when their card/ticket colors were announced and didn't try to cut in line. There were no brawls on the floor as people tried to climb over one another. It was a very civilized event. Texans can be civilized when we need to be. ;) Overall, I think it was an excellent book signing event considering it's the only one I've been to so far. I had a lot of fun.

I'm the dorky one with the pretty red-headed Ree.

Thank you Ree for coming to Houston. I had a great time today and look forward to your next book, Black Heels To Tractor Wheels, to come out. I'll be there if you come back to Houston.

Best Shot Monday

Our daughter loves books. It's no wonder considering how much everyone in her whole family loves to read. Violet cannot go to bed without a bedtime story (or two or three). While visiting with my parents last month she got a wonderful book written by Billy Crystal, Grandpa's Little One. It only seemed appropriate that her Grandpa read her this new bedtime story nearly every night we were there. I cannot begin to adequately describe to you how sweet the moments were when Grandpa read this new book to Violet. I still get teary eyed just thinking about it.

For more Best Shot Monday photos go to Tracy's blog.

Another Book That'll Make You Cry

The Crippled Lambby Max Lucado

Here's another book that'll make you cry. The Crippled Lamb is a sweet tale of a lamb who is left behind at the stables while all the other lambs get to go out. After feeling left out from all the other lambs he soon finds out why he is different and why that difference made him special. The Crippled Lamb is another great Christmas story to share with your little ones.

Grinch!

How The Grinch Stole Christmas
by Dr. Seuss

It just wouldn't be Christmas without this classic book. My dear husband bought it for me several years ago, before Violet came into our world. I love this book. It's so much better than the movies.

I have a wonderful memory of Violet sitting in my Daddy's lap while he read this book to her. Absolutely precious! She was only a few months old but the pictures on the pages leaped out to her. It's still one of her favorites.

This One Makes Me Cry

Small One
by Alex Walsh

This book makes me cry, in a good way! The story is so sweet and it touches this mother's heart in tremendous ways. It's another book we leave out on display on our bookshelf and bring down to read to Violet. It is longer than the other books I've shared with you but well worth the time, if you can get your kiddo to sit still long enough for it. I often tell the story in my own words so that I can shorten it some to suit Violet's attention span. Anyway, if you get this book I hope you enjoy it! I'll be sharing a few more children's book recommendations for Christmas over the next few days.

Another Fabulous Christmas Book

Bear Stays Up For Christmas
by Karma Wilson

We love everything by Karma Wilson but especially her books that are illustrated by Jane Chapman. Bear Stays Up For Christmas is another book we display along with our other Christmas-y decorations and then bring it down to read. Violet adores this book, as do I. I hope you enjoy this book as much as our family does.

A Wonderful Book

The Night Before Christmas
by Mary Engelbreit

This is one of our favorite books to read at Christmas time. The artwork is absolutely lovely and brings this classic book to life. When it's not being read we proudly display this gem on our bookshelf on a cute little stand. A Christmas book and artwork all in one, you can't beat that!

Lookie At What I Got!!!

It's no secret, I love books. Love them! So, it should be no surprise that I get giddy when I find a real gem of a book. And the only thing better than getting a great book is getting it for FREE!!! Thanks to Freecycle.org, I found this precious children's book, More Riddles by Bennett Cerf, that happens to be older than me! Wow! Of course, since the book is so old, Violet will not be handling it without adult supervision.


What should you do when you see a big lion?

Hope the big lion doesn't see you!

Ha! This little book is filled with more great riddles and jokes that a preschooler can enjoy. Heck, even a preschooler's parents can enjoy the simplicity of this precious little book and its contents.

Bedtime Routine

I love the bedtime ritual in our house. One of my favorite things to do with Violet is to tuck her in at night. We have a routine that brings me great joy and is something that I never get tired of. The lights are turned off upon entering the room. The only lights left on are her nightlights and a sweet flower light that I got from our local IKEA that hangs on the wall. These emanate just the right amount of light that allows for reading the pre-requisite bedtime stories. Violet's flower light is solid white but is the same design found on this picture. I'm going to try my hand on personalizing it by painting the petals and the center of the flower. I think that would be really pretty. Also, I would like to get at least one or two more of these precious wall lights that make you think of spring. I think they go well with the butterflies Violet has hanging in one corner of her room. Don't you think it's adorable how the cord looks like a stem?

The bedtime books that are in perpetual rotation as of right now are some of my favorites. Goodnight Sweet Butterflies is the perfect book for bedtime. Each butterfly is drifting off to sleep until "they wake to find another beautiful spring time day." Violet's second book for bedtime is Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book. I am particularly fond of this book with the the pictures and wonderful rhymes. Even Violet enjoys it. She knows this book well enough that she immediately picks up if we miss a page or two. Also, she has started telling the story along with us while we are reading it to her. I think it's safe to say she enjoys her bedtime with books. So, if you are in the market for some new bedtime books then please pick these up. I promise you, you won't be sorry you did.

Once we've read the obligatory books Violet then gets comfy in her bed. The light is turned off and I sit next to my precious girl and sing to her until she falls asleep. I sing a few songs that are traditional but mostly I make them up as I go along. My bedtime songs are sort of a prayer that I sing over my precious little girl. As I sing to Violet, I gently slide my fingers through her hair. Gently pushing the strands of hair off her forehead and relaxing her with my touch.

I remember falling asleep in my own Mother's lap with her stroking my hair and the memories of that comfort me even now. I enjoy doing the same thing for Violet that my Mom did for me. In a way, I'm passing on to Violet something of her Grandmother (MiMi) and hope that she'll appreciate it someday. Who knows, maybe Violet will do the same thing someday with her own children.