Teaching Character (4-6)

We have completed the primary readers lessons and are about half way through the intermediate reader lessons. I have preschoolers all the way up to 5th graders and have so far been able to read all the books (in the lessons) with them all together as a family. Overall the books have been really well thought out and we end up having deep, thought provoking questions/discussions over each book. All of the kids have participated according to their ability and have loved all the books. The only book we weren’t particularly fond of was The Seven Silly Eaters. Their favorites so far have been Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox and The Hundred Dresses by Elenor Estes. The discussions and heart changes that happened after these two books were beautiful. Highly recommend this study!

I was very excited to receive this book. I was raised on BF books and I wanted to much to love this one. I have waited over two years to write this review because I thought maybe my feelings towards it might change, but they have not and maybe this review might help someone else. This book is 1 part Read Aloud Revival, 1 part Five in a Row, and 1 part Honey for a Child's Heart. Thankfully, the book is only $20 because it is a glorified book list. Of the 131 books listed in the Primary Lessons, only 12 have actual lessons (each with 1-6 questions). Of the 116 recommended Intermediate books, 13 are studied in 50 lessons (each with 1-6 questions). For example: Lesson 5, 10, 15, 18, 26, and 42: "Read Fables by Arnold Lobel (misspelled Label in two places in the book) and discuss the moral at the end of the tale." That seems a little unoriginal. We didn't like several of the selections. When God Made You prompted a quick talk about going off with creepy strangers. I am glad that you included a book with diversity, but we all found that one sketchy. Where were the little girl's parents and who was that strange man? One last thing I will mention is that The Green Ember did not call to mind C.S. Lewis. It is too wordy, descriptive, and poorly written to be mentioned in the same sentence as Lewis. A fun adventure story, maybe, but my husband and I both could not get through it as a read aloud. The Swallows and Amazons or The Princess and the Goblin are some of our favorites, but please don't disappoint us by calling Smith a Lewis.

This study is EXCELLENT. Highly recommend it. I divided it into seasons and we loved reading the books in that order. I also included the Obadiah trio with the Early American History study we did with BF books and it fit perfectly. I have 2 younger children still to come and can't wait to do this with them again someday.

So far we have really loved the books we have read. I will say there are a few books that are geared toward specific genders however I have a boy and girls so for our family that worked out well that I bought all the books. I will not have my girls read "The Whipping Boy" or "The Happy Prince" or "The Little Prince". As a girl myself I would not have wanted to read those as a child. As for my son, he will not be reading "The Hundred Dresses" or "A Gathering of Days" but otherwise we have loved this as much as the Elementary study.

An impressive selection of titles and authors, with one caveat. I skipped the Matthew Paul Turner title. He’s straight out of the progressive Christian camp, and the storyline that involved the little girl leaving her house alone and taking up with some random artist in the park wasn’t something I felt great about. I subbed in God’s Very Good Idea, which picks up the same theme of diversity in God’s family.