Cultural update

It has come to my attention that I neglected to write an update here regarding a post I made last year.

In 2010, I wrote that I hoped to someday read The Hobbit to the girls. As it turns out, I read it to them before that year was finished!

When it comes to long books like The Hobbit, Jadzia is definitely the one who will sit and listen. Ludi tunes out after a while if the story is long and there aren’t pictures on every page. Part of that is age and part is personality. Then again, I think Ludi took more away from The Hobbit. She still occasionally asks me about BIlbo or Gollum.

We often have to do a lot of explaining or summarizing. After hearing a chapter, Jadzia has been known to ask, “So, what happened?”

Here are some of the long books the girls (primarily Jadzia) have read over the last year:

• The Hobbit
• Charlotte’s Web
• The Wizard of Oz
• Little House in the Big Woods
• Little House on the Prairie
• Farmer Boy
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• American Girls: Felicity (series)
• American Girls: Kirsten (series)
• American Girls: Josefina (series)

We are currently in the middle of Swiss Family Robinson and we have also started the AG Kaya books. Swiss Family is interesting. It’s an old book, and not originally in English, so much of the syntax and word choice sounds funny to my ears. It also doesn’t have a plot. It’s like a series of obstacles, projects, and discoveries by the family. Despite this, Jadzia remains interested. I suppose we have the movie (which does have a plot) to thank for sparking this interest.