When we first started talking about homeschooling our daughter, I started to read.

I researched nearly every homeschooling philosophy out there, scanned blogs, subscribed to newsletters, checked out and pored through a huge pile of books from the library and realized pretty darn quickly that we are an eclectic secular homeschooling family.

There are bits and pieces from different schools of thought that really suit us. Art and nature-based learning from Waldorf. Theme learning from Unit Studies.

One that has reshaped the way we look at stories is Charlotte Mason’s theory on living books.

In a nutshell, living books are those that are “well put” and “well told”. They bring a place, time or idea alive through imagination, a tangible sense of humanity and inspiration.

That all sounded broad and vague to me at first.

But, then I started taking a look at books that I loved as a child (my mother had a classics-only rule in our house. I read a lot of Robert Louis Stevenson, Aesop’s Fables and C.S. Lewis), looking up authors that Mason’s followers recommended, and as our daughter and I read them together, I began to understand.

These books - and many others from Waldorf and Montessori reading lists - seemed to come alive in our hands.

Even though I read them to her as she fell asleep, the tiny person would wake up in the morning and want to retell the tales. She’d make up her own versions, want to dig into discovering the characters and recreating the worlds that spontaneously appeared from the pages.

We went from short board books to long, immersive tales that remained age appropriate, but took us both to a new level of stories and learning.

The nature nut tends to prefer tales that bring the forest alive. That is how we discovered two remarkable classics that most definitely fall into the “living books” universe and bring life in the woods into the realm of childhood.

Legendary children’s author Robert McCloskey has honestly taken me a while to warm up to. For me, it’s all about starting off with the “right” book in terms of getting me to come back. We first met McCloskey by test driving a tale that was more for a 2nd or 3rd grader and found it a tough read - so I backed up from him.

But, he kept showing up in our lives.

So, I asked our fantastic librarians at the Courtenay Library and they energetically passed along Make Way for Ducklings.

Written in 1941, this wonderfully spirited book about a family of ducks whom the city of Boston rallies around to help them reunite is sweet, connective and full of heart.

I love books that bridge the generation and gender gap, connect you to a place (it gives you a wonderful feel for the spaces and places of mid-20th-Century Boston and a statue of the mother duck and her ducklings stands in the Public Gardens today) and build a sense of community (we are really into reinforcing the teamwork philosophy around here lately).

On top of that, McCloskey’s illustrations make this Caldecott winner jump off the pages, as if the ducks could stomp right through the house.

Warning: I am about to gush.

When I cracked the cover on Thornton Burgess’ The Adventures of Mother West Wind’s Children the first night we brought it home from the library, the first few pages, filled with vintage illustrations of Green Meadow life sold me right there.

Then, as we began to explore the stories of Danny Meadow Mouse, Grandfather Frog and Reddy Fox, the tiny person and I discovered a world the likes of Beatrix Potter, Narnia (although far less scary) and The Velveteen Rabbit.

Written in 1911 and now only available through used book sellers and the library, this absolutely magical set of short stories is one of an 8-book Mother West Wind series that can easily claim a spot among the most beautiful writings in children’s literature.

Author Thornton Burgess found his inspiration in forest as a renown naturalist and conservationist, crafting more than 170 books during half a century of writing - including the beloved tales of Peter Rabbit.

The Mother West Wind series was among his first published works and carries with it the charm and simplicity of the early 20th century as well as a way about the vignettes which teaches profound childhood lessons (acceptance, persistence and teamwork) through the stories of nature.

This group of 20-page tales is absolutely magical for older toddlers and preschoolers as well as fantastic early readers for the K-2 crowd that get the imagination roaring and can be translated into time outside in search of the sites of Green Meadow.

If there is one set of stories I’d ever recommend for all ages - The Mother West Wind series is it.

Robert McCloskey book cover courtesy of Viking Publishing