Living Books and Toads

Using a Charlotte Mason education or homeschooling in general, you are often questioned about "textbooks." Here in this house we are anti-textbooks and workbooks in everything except math. Real books are the way to go! Sonia Shafer's definition of living books is this: "Living books are usually written by one person who has a passion for the subject and writes in conversational or narrative style. The books pull you into the subject and involve your emotions, so it’s easy to remember the events and facts. Living books make the subject 'come alive.' " We are experiencing first hand the pleasure of learning through living books. My decision to use Apologia or living books has been temporarily answered by the amazing things we are learning through The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad by Thornton Burgess. These sweet books are full of great information and yet so entertaining for the kids.

Thanks to this sweet little chapter book my five and six year old know so many neat things about toads! They have learned about mating calls and polliwogs. They were amused and amazed when Peter Rabbit caught Old Mr. Toad changing his suit and eating it! They know all about his sticky, long tongue and even where it's connected in his mouth. And just today we learned how he hides in the ground to hibernate. All of this through playful dialogue between Peter Rabbit, Old Mr. Toad, and other of Burgess' fictional creatures.

After reading about the toad shedding, we were even able to go on YouTube and watch a video of a toad actually shedding and eating his own skin. Technology is good for something!

I am really looking forward to reading more of Burgess' animals adventures and plan to use The Burgess Bird Book for Children for science next year.