My Own Education

I have spent so much time going through curriculum magazines and looking at different book lists. I want so desperately to make the right choices for my kids. It saddens me that Laura, while she loves books, learns from a mix of methods. I so wish she was the type that would thrive with just living books. It's been a tough lesson to learn that I want her to learn that way for me and not for her.
I love books. In first grade I remember being in the slow reading group. I had a tough time at first. My grandma always had a closet loaded with books on shelves. I remember taking out the books that probably should have been too easy for me and reading them over and over. From that moment on something just clicked. I progressed very quickly. The running joke in my family is that my face rarely was seen because in front of it was always a book.
Not much has changed. It is only recently that I've realized how lacking my public education truly was. Going through all the homeschool curriculum sites and magazines and seeing all the wonderful books that I never read just floored me. Last night I read a book called 'Books that Build Character' by William Kilpatrick. I saw all the lists of these wonderful books with sound moral values and I wondered why I never read them when I was in school. I look through the Sonlight catalog with the same longing.
I know that my daughter needs a gentler program than Sonlight. However, I am excited to read these stories that I never got to read as a child. I plan to read to both of my younger girls as many stories as they will let me from these lists. I am hoping that my youngest is like me and loves literature. I would love to use a strong literature program with her to homeschool.
Both of my girls love to be read to, so there is a strong possibility that one day a child of mine will love to learn the way I love to learn... through books and literature. I think I read too much stuff as a child that was not strong. It was series stuff like Sweet Valley High. It wasn't until high school that I really got to delve into some literature. I guess that is one of the downfalls of the giant school reading books. They have a bunch of short, politically correct stories with grade appropriate reading levels, but they don't have a lot of depth or value.
I may have to take things with a gentler pace with Laura. She tends to get overwhelmed right now. I have hope that exposure to quality literature will develop a love for books that will stay with her for a lifetime. She is in fourth grade. It is my hope that one day she will be able to build up to using lots of living books for her learning.
In the meantime I am developing quite a book list of my own. I am reading The Bronze Bow right now. I plan to start the Narnia series. I also plan to begin reading again to Laura every day. I do right now with the history portion of Heart of Dakota, but I want to fit in some stories that will capture her imagination... and mine.