Book Review: The Language of Sycamores

 

First, a little story of my own...

Today, I'm excited to share with you a book I read back in May, called The Language of Sycamores. We were on our family vacation, and the first half was camping in our pop-up trailer at a Jellystone campground. One slightly chilly afternoon, Hubby and I were sitting and dozing in our chairs near the campfire, while the kiddos were off playing their umpteenth round of mini golf.

Long story short: Hubby suddenly wanted a book to read, I was shocked but pleased. We needed a few supplies, so we made a trip into town to Walmart. We found said supplies, as well as a couple of paperbacked treasures.

(That was a lot shorter than my original version. You're welcome!)

Hooked!

When we got back to camp, I made it a point to finish A Charlotte Mason Home Companion. Then, I started The Language of Sycamores, by Lisa Wingate. I had never seen this title or heard of the author before. Ms. Wingate did not take long to pull me into the story of Karen Sommerfield. I finished it in a mere few days, before we even headed back home.

The Language of Sycamores

Karen Sommerfield is not in a very good place in her life. She's basically estranged from her extended family, and she and her pilot husband have been drifting apart. 

From the very beginning, you can see Karen had gotten herself to a place where she wrapped up her whole identity in her career. The day she found out the cancer she had previously beaten may be back, is the same day she and her entire department were laid off. For some reason, she keeps all of this to herself that day. She felt that telling her husband would cause undue stress and worry.

Through a series of events, Karen ends up flying to her late grandmother's farm where her sister and family now live. She had spent many childhood vacations at this farm, and has been avoiding it, as well as her family, for most of her adult life. She goes with the intention of saying nothing to anyone (including her husband still) about her job or health. It's just a temporary change of scenery, until she can figure out what to do next about finding another job. All while avoiding the tests she knows need to be done.

Karen's stay ends up being extended again and again. And she ends up finding unexpected answers to questions she'd been avoiding asking even herself for so long. Her short stay turns into a journey to finding life.

******************************

Lisa Wingate's writing is excellent and easy to read. This book was a page turner, for sure. It made me laugh, cry, and ponder. When I entered The Language of Sycamores into my Goodreads account, I found out it is actually book #3 in a series! I will say, this book can definitely be read as a stand-alone just fine. I loved this book so much, that I will definitely read the other 4 books in the series. Recently, I obtained and started reading book #1, Tending Roses. I haven't decided yet if I will review each book, or just review the whole series.

That wraps up my review of The Language of Sycamores, by Lisa Wingate. I highly recommend adding it to your TBR list! If you've read this book, or any others by Lisa Wingate, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. I would also love to hear what you've been reading lately, that you have enjoyed.

Have a great rest of the week!

Homeschool Changes, Plus a Book Review

 

Today, I want to share with you and review a book I recently finished reading. I've been hinting about changes coming to our homeschool in the next school year. I think this book review will give you a big clue as to what's coming! 

I've had A Charlotte Mason Companion, by Karen Andreola on my wish list for quite a few years now. For whatever reason, I never got around to purchasing it, until recently. After reading it, I could kick myself for not getting it sooner! However, I do think the timing worked out just as it was supposed to.

You see, I do love My Father's World. I recommend it enthusiastically to anyone just starting their homeschool journey, as well as to anyone looking for a new curriculum. It is an excellent open-and-go curriculum, and in my opinion, a great value compared to a lot of the box curricula out there.

Feeling the need for a change in our homeschool

However, there are a few factors leading me to make some changes. First, as my teaching style and my childrens' learning styles evolve, some of the curriculum recommendations are just no longer working for our family. We jumped around in our math choices over the last few years. Also, the language arts were just not..."there." Nothing in the curriculum changed. It worked well for my oldest (for the most part), and it works for many others. It's just too far away from my current students' styles.

Second, ever since we started homeschooling, I've been drawn to the Charlotte Mason method. My Father's World incorporates three homeschooling styles into their curriculum: Charlotte Mason, Classical, and Unit Study. From the tidbits I've read over the years about Charlotte Mason and her philosophy, everything about it just resonated with me. Quite a few years back, I found Ambleside Online, and really liked what I saw there. My Father's World absolutely does not need supplementing. But, I would supplement from time to time with some of the reading from that site. A few times, I was tempted to switch over. But ultimately, I knew it would be too overwhelming for me to go that route.

Finally, in planning our next homeschool year, I gazed a little further ahead. When my middle son starts high school, my youngest would be in his final year of the family cycle. For me, that means teaching the cycle for the third time. Even though I wouldn't complete 3 whole cycles, and even though I love the curriculum, I think you can understand how I did not feel the excitement.

Something new for our homeschool

My previous knowledge of Charlotte Mason, along with my search for new language arts curriculum, led me to Simply Charlotte Mason. After much research and prayer, I knew this was the route to go. This meant more decision-making and piecing together than I'm used to, but I was up for the challenge! I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here what I will be doing, as that will be in a few upcoming posts. For now, suffice it to say that I'm super excited and super motivated to finish our current year!

Book Review

Now on to the actual book review. Once I did my research, talked to God, talked to my husband, and made the decision to switch, I decided to finally purchase Karen Andreola's A Charlotte Mason Companion. I needed a more thorough understanding of Charlotte Mason's philosophy and method. And while I do plan to read Mason's own writings, I felt that Karen Andreola's book would give me enough to go on in time for our next year. It did exactly that.

Karen Andreola's gentle, eloquent writing style is both easy and a pleasure to read. She tells about how she discovered the Charlotte Mason method, and the book is filled with her experiences over her many years of teaching the CM way to her own children. The book covers the CM philosophy and method well, and makes it easy to understand. She teaches you how to incorporate that method into each subject you teach in your homeschool. Not only that, but the book covers why Charlotte Mason taught the subjects she taught and how she taught them. It also gives practical applications and examples for teaching each subject today. Karen Andreola does an excellent job of incorporating the CM philosophy as a way of life, rather than just having "homeschool" as something to check off of your list.

Finally, reading A Charlotte Mason Home Companion reminded me of certain aspects of My Father's World that I had become complacent on. Such as narration, nature study, and really just enjoying art and music study. Reading this book has really motivated me to refocus on these aspects, and I feel it has really improved our school days and weeks.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I am so glad that I finally purchased it! A Charlotte Mason Companion will be a staple on my bookshelf, and I know I will reference it often as I embark on this new journey.

Thanks for reading, everyone!

Starting this Friday, I will be co-hosting a collaboration series where myself and other homeschooling moms will be sharing what we will be using in the upcoming school year. We will go subject-by-subject, and first up is history/social studies/geography. That is where I will go into more detail as to what we will be doing in our next school year. So, if you're looking for inspiration or ideas and want to see what myself and other mamas are using, stay tuned to the blog!

Homeschool Subject-by-Subject: What We're Using for Math

 

Hi everyone! It's Friday! And we are on the final post in a collaboration where we share what we've been using for curriculum this past school year in our homeschool, subject-by-subject. This collaboration is hosted by April at The Simple Rugged Path, Michelle at The Brave Homeschooling Mama, and Ashley at Joyful Noise Living. Each of these ladies has wonderful content on their channels about faith, mothering, homeschooling, and more. Be sure to check them out!

Over the last few weeks, many of us mamas have shared what curriculum we use for Science, History/Geography, and Language Arts. Now in our final week, we are sharing what we have been using for Math. Be sure to check out the playlist at the end of this post. You will find a variety of curricula in these 4 areas, and real thoughts from real homeschooling moms!

We Have a History with Math Curricula!

Ah, Math! While for the most part in the past, we have stuck with My Father's World recommendations, math is one we have bounced around a bit with. Math is built into the main curriculum and everyday activities up through 1st grade. From 2nd-6th grades, they recommend Singapore. After that, their recommendation is Saxon. With the exception of Jacob's Geometry. 

My oldest (now an adult and no longer in our homeschool) loved math! With the exception of Geometry (he hated it, no matter what curriculum we tried), he was a rock star in math. For him, we stuck with the MFW recommendations and he did really well.

Enter my middle son. He is more the creative, artistic type. And he does not love math! He was struggling before the end of his first year of Singapore. After researching different math curricula, I settled on Life of Fred for him. Learning math through the life story of a 5-year-old university math professor? Right up this kid's alley! I switched him to LOF and never looked back.

Now, my youngest son, who is 2 years younger, was just starting Singapore when I switched my middle to LOF. When his big brother got the package with the nice, shiny, hardcover LOF books, he wanted to do it, too! All LOF books are non-consumable, so I tried it with both of them. We ended up deciding to scrap Singapore altogether. We went through the LOF elementary series and intermediate series within a couple of years. My middle has insisted on sticking with it. My math-minded youngest recently decided he likes the structure of Singapore better, so we switched him back to that. He is also an up-and-coming math rock star.

Our Mixed Bag of Math Curricula

Singapore

Singapore Primary Mathematics U.S. Edition. As I mentioned, my youngest loves this curriculum, and so do I! The lessons are short and gentle, yet effective. It does a great job of teaching mental math. Through My Father's World, we get a booklet with lesson plans and answer keys for each level. There is a placement test (click on "Required Placement Test") to see where your child should start. If you're moving your child to Singapore from another curriculum, it is perfectly normal for your child to test a level or two below their grade level. Singapore is considered a more advanced curriculum, so don't let yourself or your child be discouraged with that! My youngest is in 5th grade, but tested to level 3A, as he had not learned fractions yet with LOF. He's speeding through the stuff he knows, and then we slow down when he's learning something new. So it all works out.

Life of Fred

Life of Fred. As I mentioned earlier, this teaches math through a story. A story about a 5-year-old math professor at Kittens University. Read as Fred takes all the math concepts you’re learning about and applies them to his life situations. The elementary series starts off gentle. There is no drill & kill. You just read a chapter of the story. At the end of each chapter is a section called “Your Turn to Play,” with only a few questions about the math part of the lesson. With younger kiddos, you can have them answer these orally. As you progress into the older grades, it gets progressively more rigorous. But, you still get all the fun and learning of the story. The story line is silly and fun, and yet, even I’ve learned how to understand certain math concepts that seemed complicated to me before. Plus, there’s all kinds of other little facts from other subjects and life sprinkled into the stories. I can’t say enough about this curriculum! Seriously. If you’re looking for something fun, gentle, and effective, go check out LOF!

Khan Academy Online

For my middle, who is using Life of Fred, I also supplement him with Khan Academy's Pre-algebra course. He's been getting more of his questions wrong than in the past, so I decided to give him a more instructional boost with Khan. So far, it's working great! Khan is a great supplement for many courses, not just math! Sign up for a free account, and you have access to a well organized course site, complete with easy-to-follow instructional videos, exercises, and quizzes & tests. Plus, they have a point and "level up" system. Pretty much everything you do as you go through a course earns you points, and eventually "trophies." My son is super motivated by this!

That's all, folks!

That concludes this collaboration of sharing curriculum we've been using this year! I hope you were helped or inspired not only by my posts, but by the other moms who put this together as well. Be sure to check out the playlist below to see what all the other participants are using!

Playlist: Homeschool Curriculum Review 2019

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend everyone!

Homeschool Subject-by-Subject: What We're Using For Language Arts

 

It's Friday! And it's time for another review on curriculum we've been using this year. This collaboration is hosted by April at The Simple Rugged Path, Michelle at The Brave Homeschooling Mama, and Ashley at Joyful Noise Living. Each of these ladies have wonderful content on their channels about faith, mothering, homeschooling, and more. Be sure to check them out!

So far, we've talked about the curriculum we use for Science and History. Now, it's time to discuss Language Arts. As always, there will be a playlist at the end of this post. I'm looking forward to see what everyone else is using!

What We Use for Spelling

Spelling Power, by Beverly L. Adams-Gordon. I've been using this for years, as you can tell! The book started falling apart, so I have it in a 3-ring binder. Because of the reading you have to do to get started, many people don't like this program. But, seriously, the reading to learn how to do it, at least to me, is worth it! You only have to read it once, or at least until you get it.

The lists in Spelling Power are arranged according to phonetic rules, and then in increasing levels of difficulty.

How our actual lessons look like is this: test for 5 minutes or until the student gets 3 words wrong, whichever comes sooner; then, they study the words according to the procedure in to Spelling Power. With 3 words or less to study, this should take them about 5 minutes. Finally, they have to write sentences using each of the words they had to study.

Total time for spelling for each student should take roughly 15 minutes per day, once you get the procedure down. That's why I say, it's totally worth it to read and figure out how to do it! We do this 3 days per week, and then on Day 4, I follow the same procedure, but with all the words they've gotten wrong that week. This is laid out in Spelling Power, and it really helps reinforce those words.

What We Use for Grammar

For grammar lessons, we use the books put out by My Father's World, according to grade level. Language Lessons for Today are modified by My Father's World, based on Emma Serl's books, Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons. These books were originally published in 1911, and My Father's World obtained permission to update the lessons as needed. These lessons for the elementary and middle school years are simple. However, they are effective in teaching elementary grammar naturally through good literature, poetry, dictation, narration, picture study, and brief, informative lessons.

These lessons can also be done in about 10-15 minutes a day. Some require the student to write, but many can be done orally if you wish. We do these lessons 3 days a week, and one book lasts us for the year.

What We Use for Reading

At my kiddos' ages, 10 and 13, reading is done very simply. We will go through my book lists and together pick out a book for them to read for a few weeks. We check it out from the library. Then, each day, they spend 30 minutes reading in it. After the 30 minutes are up, they each tell me about what they read that day. Then, the book gets put away until the next day. If they are really into it, they are welcome to read further during their free time.

What We Use for Vocabulary

This year for vocabulary, we are studying Latin root words using English From the Roots Up, by Joegil K. Lundquist. Each week, we do 2 roots, making our own flashcards for each. On the flashcards, we include the definition of the root, plus common words that use that root and their definitions. With those common words, the kids have to write out sentences using them. At the end of the week, I give them an oral test on the meanings of the roots we learned that week, as well as all the past roots we have learned.

What We Use for Writing

Once again, we use books put out by My Father's World for our writing. In 3rd or 4th grade (depending on if they're ready), they start Writing Skills for Today. These books are based off of Writing Strands, by Master Books. My Father's World obtained permission from Master Books to modify the books for their homeschool families, in order to break down the lessons more simply.

The length of each lesson varies. Some are just preemptive reading, some require some research and writing drafts for papers. I would say, average, we spend 30 minutes per day. We only do writing from these books 2 days per week.

Changes are in the making

That's it for our Language Arts choices for this past year. I hope this post was helpful! I will throw out a teaser and say, as much as I've loved My Father's World and for as long as I have used it with my kids, there will be some changes coming for our next school year. Partially because I would be going back through the family cycle for the 3rd time, and partially because not all kids are the same, and I've been having to consider changes with my younger 2 that were not an issue with my oldest.

But that's for another post! Starting next month, I will be cohosting a collaboration where we share what curriculum choices we are making for our next school year. I am so excited to share with you the changes we will be making, so definitely stay tuned for that!

Playlist: Homeschool Curriculum Review 2019

Don't forget to check out the playlist! You will be able to see reviews for what other curriculum is out there for Language Arts!

Thank you for reading, and have a great weekend!

Books We've Read April 2019

 

It's the beginning of May, which means it's time to share the books we've read in April! I have to be totally honest. My personal reading was sorely lacking this past month. I even had three books from the library that I had to return without reading because they sat and became overdue. With all the planning and activity swirling around in my home and family, I just haven't found a lot of extra time! And that's okay. Life will settle down again soon. Right? Ahem. Anyway, moving on...

This is a collaboration hosted by Ingrid from Mommy & Mia Homeschool Chronicles, April from The Simple Rugged Path, and Lee from Creative 2X Mom. Be sure to check out the playlist for this collaboration at the end of this post, to see what books other moms have read in April with their families.

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures for every book, as some I had to return to the library before I could get them in the shots. But that's okay! Let's dive in to what we did read in the month of April.

Family Devotionals

I'll bet these are starting to look familiar!

Daily Light on the Daily Path, compiled by the Samuel Bagster Family. Our morning and evening family devotional that contains only selected scriptures and nothing else. This one will last all year long. I can count on one hand how many we've missed all this year so far. By now, the kids are really weirded out when we miss a reading!

Leading Little Ones to God, by Marian M. Schoolland. This is our bedtime devotional to read with the kiddos. They've really gotten into answering the simple questions after the reading, and they ask to read the Bible passage at the end instead of myself. I love that they're enjoying this so much! We will be done with this by the end of May.

Morning Reading with the Kiddos

We are continuing to read through The Book of Virtues, by William J. Bennett. The kiddos (and Mom!) are really enjoying all the different kinds of literature, as well as the character lessons that come along with the readings. I often get asked for "one more!"

We finished You Come, Too, by Robert Frost, in April. Both of my boys wanted more poetry, so we checked out this one by Scott Elledge, called Wider Than the Sky. This is an amazing collection of all different kind of poems from many different poets. I think this is our favorite book of poetry yet! Unfortunately, since it's an interlibrary loan, we don't get to renew it, so we will have to return it long before we finish it. I would love to buy it, but I will have to look around. There is a copy on Amazon for a little over $40, and I just can't justify it at the moment. I'm hoping to find something for a little bit of a better price than that!

How God Fix Jonah, by Lorenz Graham. This is a collection of Bible stories as they were orally passed down in Liberia. It is written so that when you read it aloud, you would say it how the storytellers in Liberia would actually speak it. This is probably our favorite book of the month! I love books that give us a glimpse into other peoples and cultures and how their perspective can be so different and yet so familiar at the same time.

We finally finished The Blue Fairy Book! Myself and the kiddos all enjoyed this collection of fairy tales edited by Andrew Lang. We also started The Red Fairy Book in the month of April.

Personal Reading

Personal reading? Not so much in April! I am in a year-long process of monthly readings out of The Life-giving Home, by Sally & Sarah Clarkson. But, I'm going to need to catch up in May. I'm sad to say, I didn't even touch this book in April.

School Reading

This is a book I did read in April, as pre-reading for my son. Black Hearts in Battersea, by Joan Aiken. This is the second book in The Wolves Chronicles. The book follows Simon, who we met in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, to London to study art. He finds himself wrapped up in a strange and dangerous mystery. This one really hooked my 13-year-old into wanting to read the rest of The Wolves Chronicles! I really enjoyed this one, too, it was hard to put down!

The Return of the Indian, by Lynne Reid Banks. This is the first sequel to The Indian in the Cupboard. After winning an award for writing about his adventures in the first book, Omri gets a hankering to see Little Bear again. So he gets out the key to the magic cupboard. My 10-year-old is really loving this series and going through it as quick as we can get the next book from the library!

Is That It???

I think that's it for the books we read in April! I really, really feel like I'm missing something. But I think it's just because for me, there's really not a lot there! I hope to be reading more in May!

Playlist: What We Read in 2019

Don't forget to check out the playlist! You will get some great ideas on books to read. Thank you for reading, everyone!

Homeschool Subject-by-Subject: What We're Using for History

 

Happy Friday, everyone! It's time for another installment in the collaboration I'm participating in, where we share and review the curriculum we've used in each subject this past year. This collaboration is hosted by April at The Simple Rugged Path, Michelle at The Brave Homeschooling Mama, and Ashley at Joyful Noise Living. Each of these ladies have wonderful content on their channels about faith, mothering, homeschooling, and more. Be sure to check them out!

Last week, we shared what we are using for science. This week, we will review History/Geography curriculum. Again, I will have a link with the playlist at the end of this post. So if you're looking for ideas for curriculum for next year, check out that playlist and you will see a variety of curriculum!

What We're Using for History

For the record, I will just be sharing our History curriculum and resources today. We did a whole year of just geography, cultures, and ecosystems before we started our History cycle. That will be a review for another day in the future. So for now, let's just jump in to what we're using this year!

Again, we do use My Father's World. The current year in the History cycle we are using is called Rome to the Reformation. The constant spine throughout this year is Streams of Civilization Volume One, by Albert Hyma and Mary Stanton. We started this book last year in Creation to the Greeks, and this year we just continued where we left off. This is probably the most "textbook-y" of our spines, although we don't use it as such. We just read the section that we are learning about that day. We don't bother with review questions or anything like that at the end of the units. The boys have chances to show what they have learned through discussion, notebook pages, and games we add. Also, we did not read from this book every single day.

Ancient Rome

During the first part of our school year, we studied Ancient Rome. So, along with Streams, we used the above books with our history reading.

Augustus Caesar's World, by Genevieve Foster. This book we pretty much read like a read-aloud, almost every day until we finished it. It flows really well and reads like a story. And we really did enjoy it. However, I would caution Christian parents who are trying to teach a Biblical worldview to their children. There were a few blurbs in this book where the author discusses the Bible in a way that didn't quite sit right with me. So you may want to skim through the chapter ahead, and be prepared to discuss with your child if they're mature enough, or just skip the blurbs altogether. I've seen Genevieve Foster's books labeled as "secular, but Christian-friendly."

Make it Work! The Roman Empire, by Peter Chrisp. This was a fun book that contained both information as well as fun craft activities. If there was information about a topic we were learning that day, we would read it. Most topics have a two-page spread with fun and informational pictures. Many topics have a relevant craft you can do with your child, such as make your own knucklebones game, a face pot, or armored shoes. We enjoyed this book, although I wish we would have done more of the crafts!

The Usborne Internet-Linked Ancient World, by Fiona Chandler. Again, we only read out of this as was relevant to what we were learning. Good info without the reading being too long. Lots of good pictures. And we love the internet-linked Usborne books! There were lots of fun, informational videos and activities.

Middle Ages

Once we were done with Ancient Rome, we moved on to the Middle Ages. While we still use Streams, The Story of the World Volume 2, by Susan Wise Bauer, became our main spine. This also kind of reads like a story, but it's also very informational. We have really been enjoying this.

My Father's World did not include The Story of the World Activity Book, but I added that in. I wanted to have the resources to add in more activities or notebooking pages as we were able, and the activity book has been perfect for that! It really solidifies and enriches what we're learning about. I do the review questions orally with my boys. There are narration suggestions, but I just use those to do dictation with my boys as we have time. This reinforces what they've learned while they study the summary, and again while I say it out loud and they write it down. In addition, there are cooking and crafting activities, as well as maps, coloring, and other notebooking pages in this activity book.

The Usborne Internet-Linked Medieval World, by Jane Bingham. We integrate this the same way as I described with Ancient World above.

Bible

I just love how My Father's World weaves the Bible and History together! While we studied Ancient Rome, we read in the Bible each day along with that time in history. Now that we're studying the Middle Ages, we're going back into the New Testament to study the life of Jesus more closely. We use The Victor Journey Through the Bible, by V. Gilbert Beers along with our Bible reading. This book is kind of like a mini Bible study about key events throughout the Bible. We really enjoy the background info, as well as many readings feature modern-day pictures of the area we're talking about. 

As we have entered the Middle Ages, we have started Trial and Triumph, by Richard Hannula. We don't read this every day, but as we come to a time where a biography takes place, we read about that person then. As hard as it sometimes is to read about what happened to that particular person (many martyrs in this book), this has been a good, faith-strengthening book to read. This is another book where I would caution parents to read ahead, as some details can be frightening to young or sensitive children.

Other Integrated Subjects

I won't go into detail on these subjects, since we're discussing History today. But again, I love how My Father's World weaves so many of it's subjects together! Both art techniques and art appreciation are studied according to the period of History we are in, with God and the History of Art.

Book basket is something My Father World incorporates that I think is wonderful. They have book lists in the teacher's manual for each week of the school year, with suggestions of books that go with our history and science for that week. I'll put books and any relevant DVD's on hold at the library and fill our book basket. Book basket time at our house is 30 minutes. They don't have to read a certain amount. They take that 30 minutes to read, just look at the books, watch a DVD, or play a relevant game.

For part of our science, we read Galen and the Gateway to Medicine, by Jeanne Bendick, when Galen's period of time came up in our History studies.

Finally, our year's read-alouds take place during the time that we are studying.
The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare
Twice Freed, by Patricia St. John
The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite de Angeli
Dangerous Journey, based on The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

Fun Extras

I try to bring in and incorporate fun extras and activities that have to do with the time period we're studying. My Father's World provided the chess book and castle set above. My boys have already learned to play chess, and they love playing one-on-one with Hubby. Later in the year, they will use the card stock set to make their own castle.

In the bottom picture, are a few things I purchased on my own. The two books are like Choose Your Own Adventure books, but they incorporate historical fiction in their scenarios. My boys have really enjoyed these! Also, I purchased Professor Noggins Medieval Times Trivia Card Game. We all really love Professor Noggins games, and hope to purchase more in the future! These games really help us all remember information about what we've been studying.

Whew!

That's it! I think I remembered everything! I hope you enjoyed my brief walk-through of what we've been using for History this year. If you have any questions, please comment below. Also, if you use or have used anything I talked about here, I would love to hear your thoughts!

Playlist: Homeschool Curriculum Review 2019

Don't forget to check out the playlist above and see what others have been using in History/Geography this past school year!

Have a great day, everyone!

Homeschool Subject-by-Subject: What We're Using For Science

 

Today, I'm joining in another collaboration! This will be an ongoing collab, where we share what curriculum we used this year for each subject as well as our thoughts on that curriculum. This collaboration is hosted by April at The Simple Rugged Path, Michelle at The Brave Homeschooling Mama, Ashley at Joyful Noise Living, and Ingrid at Mommy & Mia Homeschool Chronicles. Check out these channels if your looking for mom, homeschooling, and faith encouragement! The subject we're sharing about this week is Science. Make sure and check out the playlist at the end of this post to see what others are using for their science this year!

What We're Using for Science

Since we school year-round and take breaks as we need to, we're still in the middle of our current school year. The first half of this year, we've been learning about human anatomy. And we are just about to wrap this up, so I have a pretty good idea of how I feel about the books and materials we used.

Our core curriculum is from My Father's World. For science, we pretty much stick with their recommendations. In addition to the actual curriculum spines, we check out additional books from the library for whatever we're studying that week. The kiddos are then free to look through these books during our Book Basket time, to enrich and solidify their learning.

Anatomy

For anatomy, we used the following.

The Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human Body. We really enjoyed this book. The illustrations are wonderful, and the explanations are simple and easy to understand.

The Human Body for Every Kid, by Janice VanCleave. We also really liked this book. The lessons are short, but effective. Each lesson has a fun, short experiment, and at the end there is usually a diagram with a few questions about it.

The Scholastic Body Book. This book has a lesson and pages to copy for each body system. The kids make a paper model of that system to help them learn the parts and where they go. I'll be honest and say we did not enjoy this book very much. In fact, we dropped it about halfway through. The models became complicated, and the directions were not always clear.

The Wonderful Way Babies are Made, by Larry Christenson. We have not gotten to this book yet, but we did use it with my oldest. Since we have boys, Hubby has been in charge of reading this to them when the time comes. This presents a gentle, Godly approach to discussing human sexuality and reproduction. It is to be read aloud and discussed with your child. Each page has two readings. A simple passage for younger kiddos, and a more detailed passage for older kiddos. You decide what's appropriate for your child's maturity level. It also contains beautiful, appropriate illustrations.

Astronomy

For astronomy, we will be using Apolgia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy, by Jeannie Fulbright.

I did use this with my oldest and we loved it. But, I am excited about a couple of new additions. First of all, we upgraded our text book to the 2nd edition. Flipping though it, the book looks a lot more user friendly and exciting than the 1st edition. With My Father's World, we only get the text book. This year, I ordered a notebooking journal for each of my kiddos to use along with the text. I did this with my oldest with some of his later Apologia studies, and we really enjoyed the addition. These are fun with guided note-taking, study guides, and experiment notes. If you are using any of the Apologia books, I highly recommend their accompanying notebooking journals!

Nature

In Charlotte Mason fashion, My Father's World encourages nature study through a weekly nature walk. This can be conducted in any way you see fit for your family. Now that Spring is here and it's not so frigid out, we plan on making more regular trips to our local park reserve for our nature walks. In addition, I have a few books I've added.

Natural Science Through the Seasons, by James A. Partridge. This book breaks nature study up seasonally. There are lessons for each season, plus a calendar with a short activity to do each day if you wish. I love this book, but I honestly don't use it much, except to see what to look for each month on our nature walks.

Nature Study & Outdoor Science Journal, from The Thinking Tree. This is a recent addition I made after watching April's review over at The Simple Rugged Path. These journals are wonderful and both of my kiddos absolutely LOVE them! April has done many reviews on The Thinking Tree Journals and Funschooling on her channel, so make sure and check out her videos if you're interested in either of those. I'm planning on adding more Thinking Tree Journals into our school as we go on, since we are loving this first taste!

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That's it for now, everyone! I hope you enjoyed reading about what we're using for science in our homeschool this year. If you have any questions about what we're using, feel free to let me know in the comments below. Also, if you have used any of these books, I would love to hear your thoughts!

Make sure and check out the playlist below for more ideas from other homeschooling mamas. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else is using!

Playlist: Homeschool Curriculum Review 2019

And stay tuned as we each share a different subject each week on what we're using in our homeschool. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Books We've Read March 2019

 

I'm a little late, but it's time to share what we've read for the month! March was somewhat of a month of chaos for our family. Most of it good, but not all. That said, besides school and devotional reading, I did not get a lot of personal reading done. But, I will share what we did read.

Again, this is a collaboration I joined, hosted by Ingrid from Mommy & Mia Homeschool Chronicles, April from The Simple Rugged Path, and Lee from Creative 2X Mom. Be sure to check out the playlist for this collaboration at the end of this post.

Family Devotionals

We have continued in our family devotional, Daily Light on the Daily Path, compiled by the Samuel Bagster family. Everyone is really enjoying this morning and evening devotional, and I'm so glad devotional reading is a finally a habit in our home!

We have also been consistent with reading a chapter out of Leading Little Ones to God, by Marian M. Schoolland, each night before bed. As I said in my February post, it is a little young for my kiddos, but it is still a great read. And some of the questions are really thought provoking!

Morning Reading with the Kiddos

I guess this is what I would call my Morning Basket. I've been wanting to put one together, but I don't have anything "official" yet. But, I do have a pile of books we enjoy reading aloud from each morning before we start our curriculum for the day.

We start off with a poem or two out of You Come Too, by Robert Frost. Then, we read a story from The Blue Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang.

Next, I pull out the Children's Book of Virtues, by William J. Bennett, and read a selection or two from there, depending on how long they are. This book is broken up into different character traits. Rather than read from beginning to end, I rotate through the character traits. For instance, the first chapter is Self-Discipline. I will read a selection from that chapter one day, then the next day, read a selection from the next chapter, Compassion.

Occasionally, I will pull one of our local field guides and we will study one thing. I have local guides for birds, mammals, wildflowers, and trees. An example of what I do with these is, I will look up a bird that we should be seeing in our area this time of year. We will read the information on the bird that's provided. Then if I can find it online, I will look up the sounds that particular bird makes. Afterward, throughout the week, I will pull out just the picture of that bird and ask them what it's called, and maybe ask a question or two about what we learned about that bird. My boys really enjoy this study.

Lastly, if we are learning about a new composer, I pull out Lives of the Musicians, by Kathleen Krull & Kathryn Hewitt. This book is subtitled, Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought). This is a really fun book! If you are studying composers, I highly recommend this as a supplement.

Personal Reading

I have continued my monthly reading out of The Life Giving Home, by Sally & Sarah Clarkson. Along with this, I am working through the companion book, The Life Giving Home Experience, by Sally Clarkson. I am really enjoying these books, and look forward to a new chapter every month!

The only other reading I've done in March just for myself was Christy, by Catherine Marshall. This is a wonderful book about a young lady in 1912. She leaves her parents in the city to be a missionary to a rough, isolated mountain village. I really enjoyed this book, it is definitely one I will remember and cherish! 

School Reading

Our read aloud for March was Twice Freed, by Patricia St. John. We are big fans of this author, and this book definitely did not disappoint! This is historical fiction based on the book of Philemon in the Bible. It focuses on Philemon's slave, Onesimus, and life in Colosse during the time of Paul. We all really enjoyed this book.

For free reading, my 13-year-old read The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, by Joan Aiken. I did read this ahead of him, as I hadn't read it before. I really enjoyed it and decided that we would read all of the Wolves Chronicles. My son also finished it and loved it. He is chomping at the bit for me to be done with the next book so he can read it, too!

My 10-year-old read The Indian in the Cupboard, by Lynne Reid Banks. Again, I read this ahead of him. I thought it was a fun book. It took my son a few chapters to really get into it, but then he really enjoyed the adventure! He also wants to read the sequel, The Return of the Indian. I'm currently waiting on that from the library.

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That's it for the month of March, folks! I hope you enjoyed seeing what we read. And, I hope you've been inspired to read yourself and have found some books for your list!

For added reading inspiration, check out this playlist so you can see what other Moms have been reading.

Playlist: What We Read in 2019

Books We've Read February 2019

 

It's time again to share what we read for the month! This is a collaboration I joined, hosted by Ingrid from Mommy & Mia Homeschool Chronicles, April from The Simple Rugged Path, and Lee from Creative 2X Mom. I encourage you to go check out these YouTube channels! They all provide so much encouragement to this homeschool mama, and like me, they love reading and have great books to share. At the end of this post, there is a link to the YouTube playlist of everyone participating in this collaboration, so you can see what everyone has been reading! Now, let's get started!

Devotional

Daily Light on the Daily Path, compiled by the Samuel Bagster Family. I talked about this in my post about what we read in January. I also wrote a separate review on a different version. We have continued doing the morning and evening readings every day, and the whole family is really enjoying this.

Leading Little Ones to God, by Marian M. Schoolland. This is something I decided to add to our bedtime devotions. I have had this book for years, and I confess I started it many times, but never finished. I am determined to do that this year with my kiddos. The reading may be a little "young" for them now, but there are so many doctrinal truths about God, explained so simply! I dare say even Hubby and myself are learning right along with the kids.

Personal Reading

Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good, by Jan Karon. I mentioned this in January's reading list, but I did finish this in February.

And on that note, I have started reading To Be Where You Are, by Jan Karon. This is the final book in Karon's Mitford series, and I am almost done with it. I'm seriously sad this series is coming to an end. In a way, I feel like I've been with some of the characters their whole lives, and it will feel like I'm "done" with many good friends.

Fame, by Karen Kingsbury. Besides reading One Tuesday Morning years ago, this was my first Karen Kingsbury book. And I'm hooked! I posted a separate review of this book, so you can go check that out if you're interested.

Family Driven Faith, by Voddie Baucham Jr. This is a non-fiction book about the problem with teens and young adults falling away from the church. It presents some reasons and solutions, starting in the home and family. This book gave me a lot to think about with my own family. I really wish I would have read this years ago!

Honey for a Child's Heart, Honey for a Teen's Heart, and Honey for a Woman's Heart, by Gladys Hunt. As if I don't have a big enough TBR pile already, right?! I received Honey for a Child's Heart years ago as part of one of our curriculum packages, and have a acquired the other two since. I did not read these through in February, but have been browsing the book lists contained in them for ideas.

The Life Giving Home, by Sally & Sarah Clarkson. This is a book I purchased after seeing/reading reviews by a few friends. There are readings for every month of the year, so that's how long I will be reading it. This book goes along perfectly with my on-going goal of making my home a haven for my family and all who enter! I am very excited about this book, and have also bought the companion journal/study book to go along with it.

Kids/Homeschool

Winter Eyes, by Douglas Florian. This is a sweet little book filled with poems and paintings about winter. I have been reading a poem or two in the morning out loud to the kids, and we have really enjoyed it. In fact, if I forgot to pull the book out, the kids would quickly remind me that we haven't read from it yet!

The Book of Virtues, by William J. Bennett. I mentioned this in my January post. I originally was having my youngest read it as part of his quiet reading time. But, I have since integrated it as part of our morning time instead, as with the poem book above. I will pick a passage or two to read out loud every morning. From now on until we are finished, we will be reading through the book this way.

Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers, by Ralph Moody. This is an extra read-aloud we do apart from our school reading. I had never heard of this book or author before. It was recommended by Sally Clarkson in her companion book to The Life Giving Home I mentioned above. This is another book the boys will remind me of if we haven't gotten to it yet for the day. It reminds me of Little House on the Prairie. The book is about a family at the beginning of the 1900's, moving from the East to start a homestead of their own.

The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare. I mentioned this in my post from January as well. This was our read aloud for school. We finished it in February, and we all really enjoyed it. There were definitely tears at the end. Mostly mine, with the boys rolling their eyes at me. LOL!

Black Ships Before Troy, by Rosemary Sutcliff. This book is what my 10-year-old is currently reading for his quiet reading for school. I did read it ahead of him, and I really enjoyed it. I recommend this for anyone who is interested in Greek mythology. Either someone who is just beginning to learn, or for someone who, like myself, is struggling to understand it all. This book is about what started the war between Troy and Greece, and goes through until the end of that war. There is another book about the adventures of Odysseus as he makes his way back home, which we will also be reading. This really helped me to understand what the war was all about, the different characters, and who was on which side. The illustrations are excellent as well. My son is also really enjoying it so far.

Finally, we have Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech. I found this book through Honey for a Teen's Heart, and read it ahead of my 13-year-old. This is a book about a teenage girl's journey with her grandparents to find her mother. Along the way, she tells them the story of her friend. I really can't talk a lot about this book without giving some twists away, so I'll leave it at that. I admit I am nervous about giving this to my son to read, as it is definitely a new level for him. Not reading level, but mental and heart level. But, I remember reading books like this when I was his age. And, after talking it over with Hubby, we decided our son is ready.

That's it for the month of February! My, that was a lot of books! Of course, we didn't read through all of them start to finish, and some we are not finished with yet. Don't forget to check out the YouTube Playlist of others sharing what they read in February!

Playlist: What We Read in 2019

If you stuck with me through this long post, thank you all for reading! And I hope you all found some inspiration to add to your own TBR pile. Have a great weekend, everyone!