It's bookclub day!

I was approached by our librarian last year about the idea of starting up a bookclub, at the library, for homeschoolers. The library already runs a teens bookclub, and an adults bookclub; but a homeschoolers bookclub hasn't been done in any of the local shires before.

What a great idea! We'll have opportunity to meet more people, broadening our homeschool social circle. The children can read and discuss books, a favourite thing in our household. But then she asked if I could facilitate the meetings. Gulp! Okay ... I think?!

Our dear librarian had it all planned out. We could have around 15 children, ages 8 to 15, and meet once a month. If we needed to have two books running at the same time, to accomodate reading levels, then that's fine. We'd have basic rules like listening without prejudice, open discussion with some questions highlighted as topic starters, a list the children can contribute to re: favourite authors/titles, etc.

So, it all kicked off last year in October. 16 children showed up at the start, all keen to get their noses into the first book. The librarian started everyone off with a middle-of-the-road book, Matilda by Roald Dahl. We ended up discussing some interesting points on what our ideas of school are, how families should treat each other, when children have special talents and then ended up discussing how we all came to homeschooling.

The following month, the older children read Tolkien's The Hobbit, and the younger ones read a book called Wish by Felice Arena (Mariposa is still trying to 'catch' 100 planes. She's almost there.)

This week, we're focusing on Jackie French. The children have taken home various titles, quite a few that I have already read personally. Maestro's been reading The Horse Who Bit the Bushranger, They Came on Viking Ships, and The Night They Stormed Eureka. I've been helping Mariposa read The Secret World of Wombats.

I really like Jackie French's writing style. Her 'living history' books are great incentive to have a look into more about the time she writes. I know that Maestro has enjoyed They Came on Viking Ships, and Mariposa is learning all about the mysterious antics of wombats. Jackie writes in a very 'real' way, engaging with fun bits of humour, whilst still trying to stay serious with the topic.

So, I'm looking forward to hearing what all the children have been reading over the summer break. I wonder what our librarian has in store for us to read this coming month?