Livng Books Books for St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is a fun opportunity to take a little side jaunt from our normal history studies. This week, we've been reading about St. Patrick of Ireland, and I thought I'd share some of our favorite books to that end. Sometimes one is overwhelmed with silly, stereotypical representations of Patrick, but these are excellent sources for a mini-study using living books.

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland

by Tomie dePaola

I love this storybook version of St. Patrick's life. Lovely illustrations, concise prose, and a clear distinction made between the historical life of Patrick and the legends that have been associated with him make for a great introduction to Ireland's beloved patron saint.

I Heard Good News Today: Stories For Children

by Cornelia Lehn

St. Patrick's story is among many tales of missionaries in this compilation of stories. About a five minute read aloud, I like reading this story as well because it emphasizes a bit more about Patrick's Roman background and fleshes out the circumstances like his pirate capture vividly (although it might be a little much for very sensitive young children - please pre-read).

A Hymn on the Life, virtues and Miracles of St Patrick

Saint Fiech, Bishop of Sletty

This roughly 10 page poem describing Patrick's life  and and work is an original source of many of the stories we know hear of St. Patrick. The Irish, English, and Latin  versions are all included. Being available free on kindle is an added bonus!

Favorite Resources: Jim Weiss Recordings

Have you discovered Jim Weiss's wonderful recordings? I came to stumble upon them on the Peace Hill Press website, while purchasing resources for our history work. We were studying the ancient Greeks at the time, and the Greek Myths cd we were able to check out at our library became and instant favorite in our house. . We are blessed that our local (fabulous) library has an enormous collection of these recordings, which range from folk tales and mythology, to American history, to classical literature. Since then, hardly a week has gone by that one of these recordings has not been either playing on an mp3 player at rest time or giving everyone something fun and interesting to listen to together in the car.

So my girls and I had an enormous treat last night - we got to see Jim Weiss, storyteller extraordinaire  perform in the flesh at our local library!   Last night you would have thought we were going to see Justin Beiber - if my children knew who he was. One of those moments I'm thrilled to have them woefully out of step with culture, but I digress. When we walked in to sit down front and center (yes, we were first in line to get in), we were thrilled to get to chat with Mr. Weiss - my 6 year old daughter was absolutely star struck. I am still kicking myself for forgetting my camera! But we did buy some recordings that we were able to have signed, so my girls have a souvenir.  I hope it won't be the last time we see him perform in person! Ok, end of fangirl rant!

Many of these recording have fit wonderfully into our study of history using Story of the World: Volume 1 as a spine.  I have just found a new, really helpful curriculum guide that I now have bookmarked over at the Greathall Productions website. There are a few we missed!  We have especially loved the three Greek myth recordings (She & He is my favorite!) as well as  Tales From Cultures Far and Near. We are currently listening to Julius Caesar and the Story of Rome.

Some of our favorite literature recordings are Tales from the Jungle Book (I let my little ones listen to this while my oldest was reading the actual book independently - this way we could all discuss), Sherlock Holmes for Children (after which everyone begged me to get some of the original books for read aloud), and King  Arthur and his Knights. 

I hope this helps! Happy listening!