Amber on the Mountain
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One of my favorite books in the autumn, just as school is shiny and new, is Amber on the Mountain. It's the sweet story of Amber, a girl in the mountains, far from school and books and even pencil and paper. Another little girl, Anna, moves into the town for a time while her father builds an "impossible" road. Anna teaches Amber to read and gives her a great gift in the process. She so persuades her that she can "do almost anything if you fix your mind on it" that Amber teaches herself to write after Anna leaves.
The book is beautifully illustrated with rich, luminous pictures and we all sigh a happy sigh every time we greet Amber and Anna. We've had a bit of a rough beginning this semester in the reading department. It's hard when you are well old enough to read and write and people littler than you seem to do it much more naturally and easily. Much perseverence and hard work is going to be required this year of some of my middle kids. But reading and writing are worth it and they know it.
{Karoline, on the other hand, is reading right along and setting all "reading lesson" plans on end. Note to self: don't order the reading program in the spring and think you can set it aside until fall. It just might be irrelevant by then.}
