Lovin' Literature: Paddle to the Sea

I love it when fellow blogger share books that they're enjoying for themselves or their little ones. I would love to share with you some *living books that we're discovering, as we discover. I hope you'll find these interesting, maybe good gifts or books to check out at the library.

I want to share a favorite book of ours with you:




Paddle to the Sea
by Holling C. Holling


Paddle to the Sea is a story about a small wooden canoe that a child makes and sets to sea. The book tracks the canoe's journey, going through stream to beaver dam, by river to lake and ocean. I have loved this book for all the nature studies and industry the canoe 'observes' as it travels. This is a good family read, provides a lot of platforms for discussion.

What is a living book?

The books Living Books Curriculum uses are considered “living” according to Charlotte Mason. That is, the books “warm the imagination,” nurture thinking, and communicate knowledge mind-to-mind. Children require books that are living in order to develop to their fullest capacity. The high quality of thought expressed in great literature breeds like thought in the child. When the books are many, varied, and living, the child is able to adopt the ideas in them just as a plant takes nutrients from the soil.

“For this reason we owe it to every child to put him (or her) in communication with great minds that he may get at great thoughts…and the only vital method of education appears to be that children should read worthy books, many worthy books.” Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education, p. 12.d

Definition taken from Living Books Curriculum