If you are looking for book suggestions here are some of my favorite resources:
Read Aloud Handbook - This is a classic. I used it in middle school to find books to check out at the library and was gifted a new edition when I had my first little one. Worth your time.
Read Aloud Revival - Here is her primary bookslist and thoughts about reading aloud (surprise) on this site. If you haven't ever tried her podcasts - you really should. She talks with authors, professors, moms and librarians about incorporating books into their lives.
Give Your Child the World - This book just came out last summer (and teamed with Read Aloud Revival for a summer reading challenge). It looks at all of the continents and provides reviews of books that give you glimpses into life in that place. The reviews are well done and offer age suggestions as well. Totally worth having on your shelves.
Free online lists:
Ambleside Online - This curriculum is based on reading quality literature - and the whole thing is available for free, for your perusal. You most likely won't follow the weekly outlines but to see the overview of the books they read each year click on a year on the left side bar and then click on the "YEAR ____ Curriculum, Basic Version" link. You can scroll down and see the poetry, litearature and free reads they recommend. If you look at the key of symbols after the suggestion you will see that MANY of them are available as free audio downloads from librivox or elsewhere. Now you have books to listen to as you travel in the car. Personally, I have found that many of these books might be a little tough for the age they are listed at - so it is worthwhile to look at the list of the grade your child is leaving - as well as the one they are entering.
Classical Reader - This searchable database by grade, genre, level and author provides a great list of books. They combine new and older books.
Sonlight Curriculum - A popular homeschool choice, it lays out all of its readers for each grade level on a variety of subjects. After finding the "browse by grade" section, pick your grade and then hit the tab "What's Included". Scroll past the teacher guides and just look at the books recommended and start picking what might work for you.
Beautiful Feet Books - They provide primarily history based reading lists (however they include horses, science and California history?). I have linked to the page that has their book packages. Once you find a pack you like, click on it - then click on the picture shown so that you can get the list of books. I just look for ideas and then use the library or Half Price Books. You don't need the teacher's guide (they use a very particular interpretation of history) to find some great reads.
Wayfarers - You can see all her reading lists for the 4 different time periods and SCIENCE for FREE by clicking on the links. She does a great job of using older books (like Ambleside) but also includes newer ones as well. You don't need the day by day so the booklist at the beginning of the program will give you some great leads. Once you download the PDF scroll past the first 20 pages or so (unless you want to read more about how to implement the curriculum she uses) and you will run into the bookslists - she has geography books (world and state) and history (by time period) and science (by subject area). Your library is your friend!
We use her English Lessons Through Literature (which is excellent) program. You can check out her booklist for each grade level (just scroll down). She does not have as many options as other lists but they are great (although not everyone is a huge fan of the Wizard of Oz series).
Memoria Press - Here are a few books for each grade level. If you want books to help you teach the book - they provide them. They offer only a few per grade but they are wonderful selections.
If you are looking for something more secular and school like you might want to check out the FREE Core Knowledge Sequence. It is a long document but it outlines the whole scope and sequence and the table of contents is easy to use. If you look in the Language Arts for each grade level you will see the poetry and literature chosen for that grade. It includes the history areas studied in each grade but they have created their own "textbooks" to cover the topic (I did find one at goodwill once). You can also get the "What your ____ Should Know?" series by E.D. Hirsch (I got all of these at Goodwill- people don't know what they have!). He also wrote Books to Grow On.
I am sure that there are other great places and resources. Share if you know some. I hope that your days, weeks and summer are filled with great stories. I spent all my time with Babysitter Club books and would have benefited from a bit more challenge!
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