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

Magic Wands & Boogers

I had an appointment with an ENT (ear, nose, and throat doctor) earlier today and went in to the appointment with a bad case of the jitters. Call me crazy but I just was not looking forward to having a wand pushed up inside of my nose. Yeah, so not looking forward to that!

The appointment had a bit of a rough start. I was there at 9:30 and I wasn't seen until nearly 11:00. Add a seven year old kid who is bouncing off the walls, a doctor who is running late and a nervous patient and you've got a mix for a disaster. Thankfully, once my doctor came in, he got straight to the task at hand - checking out a cyst in my right sinus cavity.

My doctor had a lot to work through as I've been dealing with a nasty cold and sinus infection this week. I guess the timing was good for that though. Who better to deal with a sinus infection than an ENT, right? After spraying a decongestant and lydocain in my nose to open up and numb my sinuses, my doctor threaded the dreaded wand into my nose. As he is working his way to the back on my sinuses, the doctor tells me to feel free to take a look on the screen. Umm, no thank you! I was doing well to remain seated and not come unglued at that particular moment. But that didn't stop Violet from taking a good gander at the insides of her Momma's nose! Seriously, what kid could resist that?!!! It wasn't long after that that I heard Violet say, "Ooohh Mommy! I can see your boogers!!!" The proclamation wasn't lost on my doctor, who started laughing as he has a wand inside of my nose!!!

I guess you could say we lived our own real-life episode of The Magic School Bus today. And after I finish a two week course of antibiotics, nasal sprays and rinses, and decongestants, I get to go relive today's magical adventure. Oh joy!

Sickness & Blessings

You might be wondering how the two go hand in hand. In our case, they really don't, but you'll understand the title in a moment.

One bug or another has been making its rounds in our little family. Well, not all of us. Just me and kiddo actually. Gregg, thankfully, has a magical immunity and rarely gets sick. Violet doesn't get sick very often but once she does it takes a while for her to get over it. Me, if you sneeze in the general vicinity of me I'm likely to catch something. My immune system is null and void. And no, I'm not imagining things. A fever doesn't lie folks.

So, that's where we've been at the last few weeks. Ain't life grand?!!


I had to take Violet out of school early because she started to run a fever again. Her sinuses have been screwed up due to all the spring allergies and wind we've had lately. When she woke up yesterday, her voice had dropped three octaves. Violet wasn't running a fever when we left for school and didn't act sick. All that changed in a three hour time frame.

It was a heartbreaking scene when I told Violet we had to go home. The water-works came on so suddenly and so hard that you would have thought she had gotten hurt. But she wasn't. She just didn't want to leave school. And that right there is a crazy example of blessing number one. How incredible is it that my daughter loves her homeschool program so much that she'll cry at the thought of leaving it?

Our homeschool group had a fundraiser for one week, which closed today. We have a sweetheart of a mom who sells Thirty-One products. She held a catalog party and then donated all the proceeds to our group's facility fund, which is going up next year. So basically, she worked this party for free! That's blessing number two.

I went through the catalog and developed quite a wish list. It was hard to choose just one item to buy. I finally settled on the Large Utility Tote. The practicality of the bag was just too overwhelming for me not to get it. I carry a TON of items to school on the days we meet and really needed something that would hold everything. Also, with summer already breathing down our necks here in the south, I can use the bag to carry everything to the pool. No more juggling four or five things and a bag that barely holds our towels! Even though I purchased this bag, this is blessing number three.

We are truly blessed to be a part of the Katy, Texas branch of Classical Conversations for many, many reasons. The curriculum speaks for itself. It is hard (especially this year's cycle) but fun at the same time. A love of learning has been instilled in Violet and renewed in me. We have an incredible group of families who all bring their unique qualities to our program. Everyone works hard to make things run smoothly and we all get along. A group of forty or so women who all get along is pretty amazing if you ask me!

Not every branch does things like our does. We all follow the same outline for the most part. Meaning, if you go from one branch to another, you'll be in the same cycle and working on the same material. We all start and end at the same times. We cram as much as possible into a three hour morning session, then lunch, and then an afternoon program. A LOT of material is covered in one day! Violet and I are usually so tired when we come home that we veg out until the next day. Dinner on those nights are always simple and easy.

Our director though has planned many outside things. She has worked hard to ensure that our families develop relationships within our group. We have a Mother's Night Out once a month. We keep in contact throughout the week through email in regards to many different things: outside learning opportunities, field trips, questions and support, and prayer. We are a little different in our morning assembly as well, which happens to be one of my favorite times of the day. We have time set aside to start our day with worship. Just a few songs but it really sets the tone for the day. We have joined this group not only for the outstanding curriculum but also because it's Christ centered. And to start your day off with worship is yet another blessing to be incredibly grateful for.

Dewberry Farm Memories

Oh, what an incredible day this day has been! Our homeschool group had a field trip today to Dewberry Farm. I've wanted to go for a few years now but have never been. And let me say this, we've been missing out!


Our day at Dewberry Farm started with a wonderful hay ride (minus the hay, thankfully). We missed the first tractor that had the majority of our group thanks to my fantastic directional disability! Yeah, I got lost, what's new? It doesn't matter if I travel with Miss. GPS (which I didn't) or with printed directions (which I did), I could get lost trying to find my own house! But I digress.

Where was I? Ha! Get it? Where was I? I don't know! Okay, enough about my directionally challenged self and back to Dewberry Farm! After a short wait for the second tractor we were on our way with Farmer Dewberry himself as our driver and guide. See? Sometimes it pays to be late!


Farmer Dewberry was a great guide as he carefully drove us around the farm. We rode out to the 16 acre pumpkin patch where we found out the patch didn't do too well this year thanks to all the rain Mother Nature dumped on us not too long ago. So, we didn't get to see all the pumpkins that they've had in previous years but it was still a lot of fun. And, there were enough of the tiny pumpkins in the field to last the groups that came out today. Unfortunately the groups that come in after today will have to pick out a pumpkin that wasn't grown on Dewberry Farm. Yet, even though that's not ideal, at least their desire for every kid to have the opportunity to walk through a pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin is very commendable! I'm impressed by that kind of thinking and I appreciate the effort that takes.


We found out on our hay-less hay ride that Dewberry is now branching out into Christmas tree farming. Get it? Branching? I'm on FIRE people!!! Oh, bless you for sticking with me so far! Anyway, they are growing several different types of Christmas trees. I wish I could name all of them for you but it was early in the morning and my brain was pretty much still asleep. I do remember though that the trees are on the back 40 acres of land. They have a massive irrigation process and even with the distance from our tractor to the actual tress, we could easily see that the trees were beautiful. Gregg is wanting a fresh/real tree this year and I would love to buy it from Farmer Dewberry.


With all this chatter about farming let me assure you that that's not all they do at Dewberry! Granted, much of the land is farm related but there's nothing boring about it. There is a fantastic playground called Fort DewHickey that has a great variety of rope walks, slides, levels to climb, and so forth. One of Violet's favorites was something called The Flinger! It's housed under a giant pavilion and is basically a mountain of hay bales that the kids can climb. But here's the kicker. They have rope swings that they can use to get air borne and fly up in to the air. The only drawback to that though is if your kid doesn't understand the concept of gravity and let's go of her rope when she's over five feet in the air.


And she falls. A. Direct. Face. Plant. Into the hay. And her mother's heart did the same dive of terror as I watched her. With a few "ouches" and "I'm okays" the next words that Violet uttered was, "I didn't eat the hay Momma!" Woo hoo for not eating the hay baby girl, now, is your spleen in the right space? What about your brain? Did it drop into your stomach? After a quick inspection of my precious, yet very clumsy child, I determined that she was okay. And with that quick assessment she was off to the next adventure. Away we go!




After a brief lunch we took off in another direction. We had farm animals to meet. The most adorable farm animals I've ever seen. Goats, chickens, ducks, geese, miniature donkeys, a couple of cows, a few baby piglets, and even some cute little bunnies. Violet's favorite animals were the goats and mini donkeys. They were the most social out of the bunch. Her least favorite were the geese. They were cranky birds and would honk at you if you got within five feet of their space. Very cranky, antisocial geese! But they sure were pretty to look at. And, those honks of warnings were actually pretty funny to listen to after a while. Which, of course, lessened the fear factor that was attached with them. Still, just to be safe, we kept a wide berth of the geese. I've been chased by a goose before and I didn't want my child to suffer the same trauma. Besides, it would have looked really bad if I thew her in the way of the geese and I took off running in the opposite direction, right? Yeah, that's what I thought too.


Okay, I really wouldn't have tossed my daughter to the geese. But I may have thought about it for a second or two before I would lay myself down as the sacrificial lamb so that my daughter escaped a horrible experience of being pecked to death by some vicious geese! I'm a good mom like that!


We ended our visit at Dewberry Farm with their 4 acre Corn Maze. Yeah, me. The one who is severely directionally challenged! So, how well do you think this little escapade turned out? You guessed it! I got lost. And not only did I get lost, I got my group lost. Why can't I just be a follower? Really, it would be so much easier. After walking through the maze of corn for about 30 minutes we found our way out. We ended up right back at the beginning! Hey! At least we made it out!


There is so much to see and do at Dewberry Farm that it was impossible for us to fit it all in one day. We're fortunate enough to be able to go back for another visit next month thanks to a dear friend's sweet gift. Needless to say, we're looking forward to our next visit! And no, I'm not getting paid by Dewberry Farm for this fantastic review of their program. They don't know me. Yet!


So folks, if you live within an hour or two of Dewberry Farm, I would highly suggest that you take a little country drive and head out there. Enjoy some good old fashioned fun with your kids. Let them run around. Let the make memories of being on an actual working farm. Let them wear themselves out! And be sure to take plenty of water with you because you will find yourself thirsty. Also, if you want to buy a small jar of their all natural, locally produced honey that is grown right on the farm, you may want to buy it as soon as you get there. I was really bummed out when they didn't have any left at the end of the day. (Note to self: Buy honey immediately and take it back to the car!)