Homeschooling

Homeschooling, Nonfiction, Parenting

The Middle Years – My Favorite Parenting Books

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When I began this blog in 2012 or so, my parenting journey was in the new, shiny, rosy stage. I was full of optimistic ideals. Homeschooling was the plan but not the reality yet, as my two children were just 3 and 1 years old. In my memory, that time of my life was a time of very little sleep yet comparatively lighthearted days in ways I couldn’t even be grateful for at the time.

This current parenting stage is a bit more…muddled. I am still in those young children days, with a 3-year-old keeping us both laughing and on our toes, but I also have a high school student, middle school student, and two in elementary school. If you lost count along the way, that’s five. To put the icing on the cake, the fifth child of our family is a handsome, healthy, robust handful. Now that he’s three, I have fewer nightmares involving him jumping out of top story windows or swallowing button batteries, but those 2:00 a.m. night terrors still are about a once monthly occurrence for me. This kid is wild. Like, got straight up yelled at by a librarian yesterday wild. (Was I, a lifelong library addict, absolutely mortified? Yes, yes I was, and also very thankful we were not at our usual library; in this librarian’s defense, it is spring break in our school district and her last nerve had probably already been shattered). I am so very grateful for five healthy children; I don’t take that for granted for one second.

Without taking on a complaining tone, for life is indeed so beautiful and full of gifts I don’t deserve, I wanted to take a minute to be honest here that this current parenting stage I am in is a bit more muddled than shiny and idealistic. I’ve always heard that the middle years are full of mixed emotions, but it’s pretty dizzying to actually be in those years, realizing you have been working hard, but have so much work left ahead, yet somehow you have hardly accomplished anything you set out to, or so it seems many days. A lot of my current thoughts when I compare who I was as a mother twelve years ago and who I am now look something like, “How did I get here? I wasn’t always this grumpy/stressed/frazzled/unengaged.” To lessen the daily stress of being a parent, playing games like 카지노 커뮤니티 can be soothing.

So though there used to be occasional posts here along the lines of “here’s a gem of a parenting thought or tip I have this week” mixed in with book recommendations, now there’s been a years-long complete quiet on the topic, and an absence of assuredness that I can offer any wisdom at this point. For now, while I don’t have the answer for how to thrive in the middle years fully worked out or a whole lot of confidence in any part of my mothering “methods” at all, I have found great hope and direction from two books in the last few months that I would love to share with you.

Remaining You While Raising Them is the number one parenting book I’d recommend to moms today, now that I am in the middle instead of at the idealistic beginning. I have read many, many parenting books, but this one is really the most encouraging, refreshing, and practical. I highly recommend the audio, and listening to the podcast episode of Don’t Mom Alone when author Alli Worthington is the guest. For anyone worried that this book will focus too much on a mom’s me-time or encourage you towards selfishness rather selflessness, I cannot stress more how pleasantly surprised I was with the way Worthington handles the topic of a parent’s health (mental, physical, and spiritual) without becoming in any way unbiblical (in my opinion, at least) or unbalanced.

Mothering by the Book is just absolutely a kindred spirit book for me. Not only does it draw from examples in novels and nonfiction books at homeschooling mom and author Jennifer Pepito has read aloud to her kids to combat the fears that mothers face on a daily basis, but it met me exactly in that middle years parenting place I have been struggling to figure out lately. Everything Pepito has to say on parenting is deep yet thoroughly practical and easy to understand. If you’re a homeschooling mom like I am, I also can’t recommend her podcast episode on Read Aloud Revival enough. The lay out of the book is brilliant, and I truly loved the book recommendations and scripture to memorize at the end of each chapter.

I’ve read many parenting books, and will continue to do so, but I really can say that these two books have been more helpful, refreshing, and applicable to my life than any others have in years. I’d love to hear from you on what parenting books you’d put at the top of your list! Or anything you’ve enjoyed reading at all lately. Until next time, happy reading!

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Children's Books, Homeschooling, Parenting, Reviews, Summer Reading

Read-Alouds for The Rest of Summer

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Reading aloud with my kids is one of my favorite parts of parenting. Ever since they were small, we have made it part of our days. We read aloud during the school year most days at 10:00 a.m. That also happens to be snack time, ensuring at least a little bit of quiet from the toddler. Exploring books together is magical, like walking into the Narnian wardrobe together; it creates a connection and family culture that is invaluable to us. During the summer, reading aloud gets more sporadic, but we’re still drawn to it during the hottest days when everyone is at loose ends in the late afternoon, or the grumps from not enough structure and a lot of free time together set in.

The best read-alouds for us have been the ones I’ve read by myself and loved so much, I immediately read them again to my kids. If a book is good enough to read twice in a row, it’s a winner! Sarah Weeks’s Pie was one of those books, and I can’t recommend more that you read it in the summer. It is so good. We found that treasure two summers ago. This summer, the gem has been Howl’s Moving Castle. I read it in June, adored it so much I went on and read the whole series (which didn’t live up to the first book but was still pretty fun!), then started reading it aloud to my kids last week. I would rank it well below the Narnia and Harry Potter books as far as deep themes and fully developed fantasy worlds go, but Howl’s Moving Castle is a light-hearted and perfectly wonderful with very original characters. Though published as a children’s book, it is absolutely captivating and fun for all ages.

Another discovery we made was Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink, author of Caddie Woodlawn. In this historical novel, an eccentric father and his two daughters, one very practical and one an adventurer, find themselves lost in the woods during the Great Depression as they are traveling to live with a dreaded aunt in Chicago after not being able to make ends meet in their own home town. They find an abandoned cottage, and a nice, long adventure ensues. It’s a fun book for all, a nice imaginary trip away from the sweltering summer we’re having, and especially good if you like to explore historical eras with your kids through fiction. For us, there has to be an even mix of girl characters and boy characters to appeal to all my kids, and this book checks that box, too, after a couple of chapters. Note: this book is out of print, but can easily be checked out for free on Internet Archive, one of my favorite websites ever.

Honorable Read-Aloud Mentions from this spring go to The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt and 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson. Both of these books are geared toward older kids, I’d say ideally ages 10 and up.

The Wednesday Wars is another 5 star read from Gary. Schmidt. It is set in the 1960s and will help readers understand that time period during the Vietnam War and even maybe develop an interest in Shakespeare. But I need to warn you, Schmidt knows how to throw deep emotion and tear jerking scenes into books that mostly seem written for 11-year-old boys. It’s kind of miraculous. My oldest son especially liked it (and also loved Pay Attention, Carter Jones, my personal Schmidt favorite). I really appreciate how Schmidt breaks down age barriers in the friendships his characters develop and how the tween boy protagonists learn to see life through others’ eyes. Particularly powerful in this book is the friendship between a teacher and student (it’s completely appropriate, rest assured). I deeply appreciate the noble character qualities included such as the courage it takes to stand up to peer pressure and bullying, and what heroism is in every day life…I could go on and on. I hope you read some Schmidt for yourself!

100 Cupboards is another fantasy novel we just finished that was almost an enjoyable page-turner, but falls short at creating a secondary world that makes sense in the first book of the series. Also, I was surprised by the amount of blood and gore and scary characters. I read it aloud without previewing it first on Sarah Mackenzie‘s recommendation, and while it was still good, I wouldn’t choose it as a read aloud for families with young kids. Did it leave me wanting to read the next book in the series to fully understand what’s going on? No, not really. My oldest son might explore the series further on his own, though, and I know lots of readers who love the books, so don’t go on my opinion alone!

During the spring in the school year we also read aloud The Secret Garden. This was a re-read for my oldest two, now ages 14 and 12. It’s still a favorite of my 14-year-old daughter, but my 12-year-old son complained it was boring (he secretly enjoyed it, I could tell); he liked it a lot when he was 6 and all my girls (currently ages 14, 8, and 6) thought it was “the best.” When my oldest two were ages 7 and 5 we read-aloud Heidi, and that’s another classic that is a beautiful and meaningful piece of literature I’d like to pick up and read again for the benefit of my younger girls.

And for the bonus review section, here are some other “kids” books that I read on my own recently.

The Star That Always Stays – 5 Stars! Loved it, and so did my 14-year-old daughter. See review here.

Treasures in the Snow – This book was beautiful. If you like Heidi, you will love this book. I am now realizing that I am a big fan of books set in the Alps and Nordic countries!

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas – As a piece of literature for a class, this book could be very useful in its symbolism, character contrasts, points of view, etc. Also, it has obvious value in discussion of the time period and awful history of Auschwitz. But, dear publishers, classified as a children’s book? With the alcohol misuse, extramarital affair, and decidedly tragic and grim themes throughout? No. Teens and up. I absolutely hated the ending, but I know it is the point of the whole book, so I will try to reconcile my dislike with the message of the author.

That wraps up the read aloud list from us for now! As always, share your read-aloud wins in the comments if you’d like!

{All of these are Amazon links, but full disclosure we get 99% of the books we read from the library. These are not affiliate links, please support whatever bookstore you love!}

Children's Books, Homeschooling, Quick Lit, Reading, Reviews, Young Adult

Reading Recap – Read-Alouds Up First!

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Hi, bookish friends! It’s time for a reading recap. As promised in my last post, I’m starting off with the books we have read aloud so far this school year. For context, my kids I read to are 13, 11, 8, and 5. Below are books I have read myself in the last couple of months and some I’m in the middle of now.

Sweep – Most recently, we finished Sweep: A Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier, and wow, what a wonderful book. I loved the Victorian London setting, the perfect balance of magical realism, and the delightful characters. It is a little bit hard on the emotions, with child labor and terrible living conditions a very big part of the story, so ideally I’d recommend for eight or nine and up unless your younger children are used to drama and some sadness.

Half Magic and Magic by the Lake – We started the school year with these two books by Edward Eager and they were big hits. We particularly like this series for the old fashioned yet not dated settings and fun filled adventures, and also that the stories are about a brother and three sisters, which is the family dynamic we had going until 2020, and still feels very relatable since our little toddler brother isn’t part of all the fun and games around here quite yet. Recommend for all ages, with a content warning of a bit of cartoonish violence in book one.

The Moffats – Another family story but less magic adventure and more true to life in 1930s America, we loved being a part of the Moffats’ and getting to know their beloved yellow house and all the ups and downs of life inside it.

For the rest of the year, I am reading aloud selections of the 2-week curriculum Christmas Around the World by A Gentle Feast and doing some of the videos and crafts included instead of most of our normal school. I still have to pick a read-aloud for the coming New Year, so suggestions are very welcome!

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As for my own reading, I am currently in the middle of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry, The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama, The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, and The Dean’s Watch by Elizabeth Goudge. Reading four books at a time is pretty normal for me. I rotate them like this: early morning reading, Willard; after Willard, a bit of Goudge; then in the evening, a little bit of Obama, and then the Uriah Heep book for as long as I can keep my eyes open, which can be quite a while with such a page turner, much to my morning self’s chagrin. I get up about an hour or an hour and a half before my kids and spend way too much time in books to accomplish all the things I should, but there it is. Winter is for reading, amiright? ; )

A few others I finished since the last update:

The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Five stars! Not sure how I missed out on this as a kid or teen, maybe because it has “witch” in the title and that was not a popular topic at my house, but this Newberry winning book is amazing. I read that it is the only book to receive an unanimous vote for the medal. It’s assigned reading for my two oldest kids this spring at our homeschool academy, so it was high time I read this classic.

Miss Clare Remembers – Book 4 in the Fairacre Series by Miss Read was…a bit gloomy. I felt like impending doom settled into my thoughts during the duration of this reading. But, the strength of characters wins out, making it worth the read in the series; my longing for pictures of steadfastness and faithful hearts in literature is staying put!

That’s all for now! I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading lately, and hope you and yours have a very Christmas.

Children's Books, Everyday Life, Homeschooling, Nonfiction, Parenting

Favorite How-To Books for Kids

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Hi, readers! Can you believe it’s almost summer vacation time! Maybe you’re dreading all that free space in your children’s lives, or maybe you’re like us right now: every May, as our school year winds down, everything we’ve been doing all year suddenly feels unbearably stale and burdensome. Our minds have already taken in a lot, and they’re begging us, “Please, not one more date and important historical event to remember, not another science fill-in-the-blank sheet! For heavens sake, do not give us another “fun” book report assignment!” As the seasons transition to more sunshine and energy, we naturally want to run and play.

So how do we finish the academic year strong?

Or how do we keep our minds engaged all summer without killing our souls with more of the same schoolish stuff?

We pull out some how-to books and learn some skills with our hands!

Here are our current favorite how-to books. I’d love more ideas if you have them!

Sewing School 1 and Sewing School 2 – These books are so perfect for kids who want to learn to sew. They include pictures and detailed instructions, patterns…everything but the actual sewing materials. The projects are very doable in just a few hours (or less!) and will appeal to both girls and boys. My six-year-old daughter, nine-year-old son, and eleven-year-old daughter have all enjoyed these projects! If you don’t have a sewing machine for the projects in Sewing School 2, this machine has been awesome for us. I am a very out of practice and mediocre seamstress, so I am totally re-learning as I go along with the help of these books.

Cooking Class – This is the best starter cookbook for ages 5-8! The recipes in Cooking Class are easy to follow along, tasty, use mostly wholesome ingredients, and don’t require trips to the store every time your student asks to make something from her very own cookbook. I gave this to one of my six-year-old for Christmas and she has made many recipes out of it. They were all delicious and crowd pleasers.

In Bloom – As I mentioned in a recent Things that are Saving My Life post, I love this book even more than my kids do. We also have several other how-to-draw books, like this one about cartoon cars and this one about horses. I have heard amazing things about the classic Drawing with Children and have had it on my shelf from my mom’s days of homeschooling for years, but haven’t pulled it out yet. Next week I plan to open it up and try it. Maybe I’ll do the Brave Learner method and sit down with the book at the kitchen table by myself, start drawing, and see what happens….

The Redwall Cookbook– Any cookbook based on whatever literature/books your kids are into right now will be a welcome change to an otherwise ho-hum school or summer day. My two oldest have been devouring the Redwall series, and my son is always raving about how good the feasts sound. Both he and his older sister were so excited to get this from the library! Until they realized it features quite a lot of vegetables…English mice and other animals have very different tastes than American children, apparently! But they have been writing up grocery lists for me based on the dessert section, and that has been worth it.

That wraps up our favorite how-to books that are keeping us sane as we finish up the school year. May is also the time of the year I seek out a movie or two based on the literature or history or whatever connections to our studies I can draw. Last year we finished out with the film version of our literature read-aloud, Anne of Green Gables. This year I don’t see an obvious connection between what we’ve beens studying: The Gold Rush and Simon Bolivar, and also Newton’s Laws of Motion…any ideas for me??

I hope your school year ends well and your summer gets off to a great start! I’ll be back with some book reviews in just a few days, but until then, Happy Reading!

Everyday Life, Homeschooling

How We Homeschool Multiple Grades Together

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Raspberry Cordial!

Hello, readers! I hope you’re having a great summer of fun and good books! I’ll be back with some summer reading book reviews on July 15th. Today, I’m addressing the slew of questions I’ve gotten lately about homeschooling.

Schooling choices loom large for parents this year. With the strange kind of world children’s education has been plunged into thanks to a pandemic, all our hot summer days filled with pool splashing and popsicles are tinged with the ever tingling question, “What should we do this fall??” There aren’t any easy answers. Since we’ve been homeschooling for a while now and many parents are considering giving it a try, I’ve received lots of questions about what curriculum we use and how we homeschool multiple grades. The answers to these questions are bound up in each other, so I’ve decided to layout what books and programs we use to homeschool together, from 1st grade to 6th.

But first, a disclaimer! Homeschooling is a work in progress always, and there are very few experts. I am not one of them. The beauty of teaching your own children is knowing them well and making choices based on that knowledge. If you have this freedom to teach your kids at home, whether it be just for one year or for ten, I hope you also feel the freedom to make your family’s needs and culture a top priority in how you go about it. Everything doesn’t have to be mastered in one year. Homeschools aren’t one-size-fits-all, and families are so very unique and give something completely different to the world than the next family. All that being said, I’m happy to share what’s working for us and what we like

We are now homeschooling our 11-year-old, 9-year-old, 6-year-old, and 3-year-old. Yes, I’m including the 3-year-old, because we are all together all the time!

For the 2019-20 academic year, I had two goals when it came to curriculum choice: it had to flex for multiple grades and it had to be something I would enjoy using. If the teacher dreads the material, what student wouldn’t? Our school year in 2019-20 was our best yet, so I continued most of the same curriculum for 2020-21.

Math – We have used Horizons since the beginning. I chose this one because of its engaging, colorful workbooks and open-and-go nature (it’s a spiral math curriculum, for anyone wondering). Each child does his or her math lesson at a desk, and Dad, the math teacher, rotates around and helps anyone who needs helping. We start with math because that way Dad can teach it before he goes to work each day.

Math Time!

Language Arts – After a short break, the kids are back at their desks. First-grader Violet pulls out her phonics (Sing, Spell, Read and Write) and does a few pages in her workbook. Then we practice reading together. (Note about the SSRW program – we do the “Off We Go!” book for Kindergarten and don’t start “The Raceway” book until 1st grade). Fourth-grader Isaac and 6th-grader Ella do a literature based program called Brave Writer Arrows that incorporates copywork/handwriting, spelling, grammar, and writing. I like it because I get to co-write it, but that’s my inner English major nerd talking. =) I customize their assignments in this program based on ability and grade level. Last year Isaac also went through a Handwriting Without Tears book to get him writing well in cursive. He really liked it! I would choose that over the Bob Jones handwriting that my oldest did, especially for kids who don’t like to write or have short attention spans.

Cultural Studies – We read a devotional together and then rotate between an artist, composer, hymn, poet, fable/legend, and poem memorization. I have used A Gentle Feast’s Morning Time book, which is beautiful and easy to implement, for four years now. This year, I’ve chosen one art anthology, one poem anthology, and one composer biography collection to work through, because I would like to try more of a survey approach to these subjects instead of just doing a few artists/composers/poets each year. I do highly recommend A Gentle Feast’s booklets if you’re just getting into these types of cultural studies (or some call it a “beauty loop” or “morning time”), for its ease of use and guidance.

Science (2x per week) – We will be using Science in the Scientific Revolution by Jay Wile from the Berean Builders curriculum. We used Science in the Ancient World last year. I was drawn to this curriculum because it introduces science on a historical timeline (I am a history lover, not necessarily a science lover…). Each lesson contains a very doable experiment or illustration that does not require special equipment. Best of all, it is written for many grades to work together! At the end of each lesson, there are assignments broken down for younger students, older students, and oldest students. The target age is Kindergarten to 6th grade, but truly, I am learning so much as an adult from this book! This year I also purchased the new student workbooks for my rising 4th grader and 6th grader to make applications even less confusing.

Science in the Ancient World

A note about science: Up until our oldest entered 4th grade, we did a lot of nature science assigned in A Gentle Feast‘s curriculum. We read the Burgess Bird Book, Burgess Animal Book, nature readers, and went through Exploring Nature with Children. We all liked this format for 1-3 grades, but when we reached Form II in the Charlotte Mason style curriculum, we weren’t fans of thes books assigned, and that both science and history were scheduled every single day of the week. The Berean Builders science has been a huge improvement for our family’s schedule and sanity, but I do appreciate and miss the value of nature studies, and plan to get back into Exploring Nature with Children again this year to supplement our other science studies, especially for the benefit of my 1st grader.

History (2 x per week). Oh, how we love history! We read lots of historical books, but our core structure comes from The Story of the World Series. Last year we read The Story of the World, Volume II: The Middle Ages (400-1600), which overlapped with our science time period. We read two chapters a week, and I used the maps and activities in the companion activity book to flesh out the information and include geography in our history lessons; the two subjects are intrinsically linked, anyhow. We also use blank maps for tests and geography quizzes on Seterra.com. We also like these map coloring books. This year, we’ll do more of the same with Volume III and the activity book that contains the maps and other applications.

Literature – I choose various read-alouds based on what I think everyone would like, what history period we’re studying, and what I can match up with the Brave Writer Arrows. Last year we completed Frindle, All-of-a-Kind Family, The Sign of the Beaver, The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, Anne of Green Gables, and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Usually during this time the kids are sketching or creating something. I never require them to only sit and listen. Modeling clay, sewing, drawing, painting, whatever can be done quietly at the kitchen table or on the living room floor goes! (I count this as “handy craft” time). The littlest plays with whatever she wants as long as it’s quiet. A lot of times, a snack is involved. =)

Raspberry Cordial!

Foreign language – All three of the kids have a Spanish lesson once a week at our homeschool co-op, and the older two have recently gotten really excited about learning French with the Duolingo app this summer. I picture this being an afternoon thing this school year.

And that’s the bulk of our curriculum guided work! I don’t currently choose “readers” for the kids to read on their own. My oldest two are voracious readers, and I keep an eye on what they read, but I mostly let them choose for themselves. I am thrilled that they both love to read and don’t want to burden their joy with assignments! We have ballet, basketball, and other various sports mixed in throughout the year. Once a week the kids go to a co-op where they do P.E., Spanish, science, art, and literature. My oldest was tutored in art by a family friend last summer, and she is continuing to practice all she learned at home. Seasons of busyness and more intense home-learning come and go. It’s an ever-changing endeavor, and we have found it both rich and rewarding, especially when we take the time to jump in with both feet when a student expresses an interest in a certain topic or new skill.

I hope this post gives you some ideas on how to make homeschooling doable for your family, whether you’re in it for years to come or for this one crazy pandemic year. If you’re looking for further reading, two books that have influenced my homeschooling practices are The Brave Learner and For The Children’s Sake. I’d also highly recommend Teaching from Rest and Honey for a Child’s Heart (this one has awesome book lists!).

See you back here soon for more bookish discussions!