Living outside of the US

I have been thinking about your post.  I would second getting an e-reader like a Kindle.  I would even have someone load it with all sorts of books before they bring it to you, so many are free.  I can see you have some internet access since you posted here so perhaps that would work out well.  Also, consider going to Amazon when you are considering ordering a print book and many of their books have a “Look Inside!” feature where you can read a few pages or a chapter of the book right there for free.  That could be a wonderful way to check the reading level/how the book is written, so you can decide if it might be a good fit for your son before purchasing.

Now, I also have a lot of boys (baby #9 due this fall will be my 7th son!) at my house so let me recommend some book titles my boys have liked.  Many or all of these will be available both in print and ebook format (Kindle) so they will work either route you go.

• The Phantom Tollbooth (though older kids get more out of it because of all the word play)
• Misty of Chincoteague
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• The Secret Garden
• The Mysterious Benedict Society series
• The Moffats (slow start, but good if you stick with it)
• The Penderwicks series
• The Saturdays series
• A Nest for Celeste
• The Twenty-One Balloons
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit and all the Beatrix Potter books
• Farmer Boy (and the other Little House on the Prairie books, but this has always been my boys’ favorite of the series)
• The Chronicles of Narnia series
• Paddington Bear books
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

So, my response may not go over well, but I have some experience. My family and I live in Uganda. Many people in the city here in UG have plenty of internet and electricity, so their situation is different. We actually live out in the bush country in a small village. That means electricity is never guaranteed and internet is like dial up from the 90s at best.

Last year I switched to Sonlight because so many other missionaries told me that is what they used. Ordering from Sonlight has made my life so much easier but also been a huge blessing to us. I order what I need and they ship it to my stateside church. When my pastor or a team comes, they either divide it among suitcases or just bring the boxes that Sonlight sent. Back in March, I ordered for next year. It went to my pastor. He brought it here in late May and I realized they had made an error in shipping. I sent the duplicate item back with him and contacted them. They shipped out a replacement immediately, even offering to send it to Uganda for free. Also, they told me to keep the duplicate item so as not to trouble anyone. I offered to pay for it because it’s a consumable that I’d have to buy for my next child in a year anyway, but they refused. They told me to just keep it.

Above that, we absolutely love the stories and have so many books that I never would have heard of or ordered on my own. Even my oldest, who started homeschooling after 5th grade, grabs some of my younger kids books off the shelves and reads them for fun. She’ll say, “y’all are going to love ________ when you get to it” because she has read something we have coming up.

I am not a CM purist because I’ve never studied it enough to know, but I do know that Sonlight’s use of books rather than texts matches up really well and the one stop shopping is great for me (and those bringing stuff to me)!