What My Child is Reading - July 31, 2010

This was a week of ups, and downs in our reading. We finished Kathleen Krull's Leonardo da Vinci. I'm happy to say, that after the first four chapters, the information on his sexual preferences calmed down, and I was able to read to the children with less editing. But, there was some pretty graphic information about his research involving cadavers, that the children objected to.

Still, overall, I can recommend the book. I'd just say, you might want to read it yourself first, before handing it over to your children. And, it's probably more suitable for middle school aged children, than the very young, though I did read it to all of mine (ages 4-12). When we were done, I printed out a copy of the cover art, so we could cut, color in, and glue Leonardo, to our time line.



I tried playing an audio version of The Magic Tree House Morning With a Mad Genius, Mary Pope Osborne's more child friendly take on the scientist/artist, to the children, but they wanted nothing to do with it. The older children have read the book before themselves, and enjoyed it, but they objected to the reading by the author. They didn't like the way she voiced characters.

I tried to tell them, since she is the author, it's probably the way they are meant to sound, but they didn't care.

We also checked out Maxine Anderson's Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself. There are some interesting looking activities in it, but all too complicated for us this week, so we'll have to return to them later on, when we're feeling adventurous.

In the meantime, I'm anxious to move on to the next "Giant of Science" in Kathleen Krull's series. I read her book on Albert Einstein, this week, on my own, and found it a good deal tamer than her Leonardo da Vinci. But, judging from the reader reviews on Amazon, I'll still be doing a good deal of editing for the children, as we read through Isaac Newton.



I have several more books of children's fiction, involving, or revolving around, Leonardo, on hold at the library, but I'm not sure when they will come in, so I think we'll move on, and leave our da Vinci study incomplete - like most of his own work.

Find out what others are reading, or join in and share your favorites, at this week's What My Child Is Reading blog hop, hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.



It's great to be a homeschooler.