Homeschool Year 12: 11th, 9th, 5th, and 3rd Grade

 

If you had told me in the fall of 2010 that I'd still be homeschooling all of my children 11 years later, I'm not sure that I would have believed you. Yet, by the grace of God and with some fantastic support, here we are about to start our 12th year! 

A big part of why we're still homeschooling is our CC Community. Classical Conversations is such a blessing to our family. We meet once a week and have fellowship and are spurred on to keep on keeping on--in our faith, and our academics. We joined when Jon was 5, and I can't imagine homeschooling without our CC family!

Speaking of family, at home we'll be reading some missionary biographies together and watch World Watch News each morning. Then the older kids will go get to work, and the younger kids and I will continue our morning time by doing some of the following:

• hymn singing
• learning part of the West Minister Shorter Catechism
• reading/memorizing some poetry
• reviewing CC memory work
• reading a chapter book (some of the books we'll read are listed below)
• Little Pilgrim's Progress
• Pages of History
• The Last Battle
• Vanderbeeker's Make a Wish    
• Archer's Cup, A Green Ember story

Here's a quick rundown of what each of our kids will be doing this year individually:

Maggie, 8, 3rd grade:

• Math: Saxon 5/4
• Language Arts: The Good and the Beautiful level 1
• Handwriting: The Good and the Beautiful level 2
• History: Veritas Press Self-Paced Ancient History
• Science: The Good and the Beautiful Animal Kingdoms

My girl will also be continuing to take ballet, and adding jazz and art classes this year. She's pretty excited!

Will, 10, 5th grade:

• Math: Saxon 7/6
• English Grammar: Essentials of English Language
• Writing: Institute for Excellence in Writing
• Spelling: Spelling Workout E
• Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears
• History: Veritas Press Self-Paced Ancient History
• Science: The Good and the Beautiful Animal Kingdoms and Marine Biology

Will's excited to be a part of Acting Academy Jr this fall, and to be trying out for a musical in October!

Sam, 14, 9th grade, Challenge 1:

• Math: Shormann Algebra II with Integrated Geometry
• History: American History/Government/Economics
• Logic: Memoria Press Traditional Logic
• Latin: Henle Latin 1
• Science: Apologia Physical Science
• Literature: American Literature novels

Sam will be playing basketball again this year. 

Jon, 16, 11th grade, Challenge 3:

• Math: Shormann Calculus
• History: American History/A Patriot's History of the U.S.
• Music Theory: Math in Motion (dual enrollment)
• Latin: Henle Latin 2
• Exposition: Shakespeare and Poetry (dual enrollment)
• Science: Apologia Chemistry

Jon will be swimming again this year, and leading worship at youth group. 

I'm so thankful for the gift of being able to learn alongside these kids, and I'm praying that this year the Lord will help us all to ask great questions and dig deeper and learn amazing things together!

What We've Got Checked Out: Non-Fiction Books for Cycle 2

   After my recent post explaining our current schedule and showing off our amazing new table, I was asked by more than a few people what non-fiction books my kids, ages 11, 0, 5 and 3, read before lunch. Honestly, I have compiled books from a hodgepodge of sources, many of which I'm sure I'll forget. Mostly, I've taken the recommendations of lovely ladies that I follow online like Sarah Mackenzie, Pam Barnhill, and Brandy Farrell, and even some of my real-life friends-gasp! 😉 I am also an Usborne Books and More rep, and I try to order their amazing non-fiction books as often as I can afford. However, since I'm not much of a salesperson, I mainly just check out a ton of books at the library. Thankfully our library has an educator card which lets me check out unlimited books with NO FINES or late fees! This summer I googled "living books" and came up with several great lists that I have used to fill our library basket. Here are a few lists of living books I have really loved with links to buy the books if that's your cup o' tea.
Living Books for Science and Nature Study
Living Book for History and the Middle Ages
Living Books for Math

When I look at all these lists, I like to get a wide variety of levels. Honestly, more often than not I like to get the simpler books. I want my older kids to really enjoy this time and I want them to read to their younger siblings during this time at least once a week. With that in mind, here is a quick list of the non-fiction books we currently have checked out from the library:

(We do have a gazillion fiction books checked out and we love Audible, but these are books I've picked and assign them time to read to reinforce our learning)

History Books:
The Kitchen Knight: a tale of King Arthur retold by Margaret Hodges
Caedmon's Song by Ruth Ashby
Year of the Pilgrims, 1620 by Genevieve Foster
Year of Columbus, 1492 by Genevieve Foster
Abraham Lincoln's World, 1809-1861 by Genevieve Foster
Son of Charlemange by Barbara Willard
Leonardo and the Flying Boy by Laurence Anholt
Augustine Came to Kent by Barbara Willard

English Grammar:

I, You and Don't Forget Who: What is a Pronoun? by Brian P. Cleary

Mine, All Mine by Ruth Heller

Behind the Mask by Ruth Heller

Animals:

Lemurs and Other Animals of the Madagascar Rain Forest by James Martin
The Galapagos Penguin by Kim A. O'Connell
Meerkats by Therese Harasymiw
I Am a Sea Turtle by Darlene R. Stille

Science Books:
Nicolaus Copernicus: the Earth is a Planet by Dennis Brindell Fradin
Neptune: the Stormy Planet by Greg Roza
Pluto: the Dwarf Planet by Greg Roza
Mars: the Red Planet by Greg Roza
Saturn: the Ringed Planet by Greg Roza
Uranus: the Ice Planet by Greg Roza

Find the Constellations by H.A. Rey
The Stars: a New Way to See Them by H.A. Rey
Stars by Steve Tomecek
Asteroids, Comets and Meteors by Giles Sparrow
The Moon by James Buckley Jr.

Planets: a LEGO adventure in the Real World by Penelope Arlon and Tory Gordon-Harris
Planets by Becky Baines
The Water Cycle by Rebecca Olien
Full STEAM Ahead by Paul A. Reynolds (Water Cycle)

Nature Study:
Crinkleroot's 25 Mammals Every Child Should Know by Jim Arnosky
Crinkleroot's Guide to Walking in Wild Places by Jim Arnosky
Butterfly House by Eve Bunting
A Tree is Nice by March Simont
Rocks in His Head by Carol Otis Hurst

Math related:
The History of Counting by Senise Schmandt-Besserat
Bedtime Math by Laura Overdeck
Bedtime Math: The Truth Comes Out by Laura Overdeck
Getting Started with Coding by Camille McCue
The Adventures of Penrose, the Mathematical Cat by Theoni Pappas
Sir Cumference and the...series by Cindy Neuschwander

Art Related:
The Noisy Paint Box by Barb Rosenstock (Kandinsky)
The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst

And a few others that I have purchased for this year:

History/Biography:
The Magic Runes: A Tale of the Times of Charlemange by Emma Leslie
Ten Boys Who Changed the World by Irene Howat
*The Story of Inventions by Anna Claybourne and Adam Larkin

Science/Animal:
Astronomy by Emily Bone (Usborne Book)
Penguins Usborne Book

Bees and Wasps 

The Solar System

Art:
Usborne Book of Famous Paintings

Encyclopedias:
Usborne Encyclopedia of World History 
The Usborne Medieval World 

Math:
Life of Fred Apples through Honey by Dr. Stanley F. Schmidt
The Math Curse by Jon Scieszka
Fractions, Decimals and Percents by David Adler
Math Start Books by Stuart J. Murphy

*Disclosure: None of the Amazon links are affiliate links, but the Usborne Books are linked to my own Usborne Website. Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the books that I own*

How Our Family Uses-and LOVES-Audible!

I love reading, but if I'm honest since college I haven't read nearly as much as I'd like. Life is busy. Whether it's work, kids, extracurricular activities or laundry, by the end of the day turning on Netflix seems easier and let's face it easier is appealing at the end of the day. I kept hearing about people using Audible either for themselves as they commuted to work, or for their kids, but thought, "I don't have a commute, I'm a homeschooling mom." Or "I can read to my kids" and I do, but I cannot tell you how much I love Audible. 

In December I saw a deal on Living Social or Groupon that was similar to this one and decided to give Audible a try. We had three months to see if it would really be useful to our clan. We're now 6 months in and it has decidedly changed how I spend my time. But I'm getting ahead of myself! 

Honestly what pushed me over the edge was the busyness of life. I wanted to be reading aloud to my kids more than I was and they wanted me to be reading to them more, and I saw this as a way to meet that need without having to rearrange my schedule. Since I homeschool them and we're all together nearly 24/7, we have quiet time daily from 2-3:30 pm. During this time, everyone goes to their own space-a bedroom or the basement-and plays quietly by themselves. They have often used this time to listen to Adventures in Odyssey or Jonathan Park or books on CD from the library, but now they are bringing a Kindle or iPad and listening to Audible instead. They have gotten so wrapped up in an audiobook that they will stay past 3:30 and are often found listening other times of the day. 

The first several months I used our credits on children's book collections (the Ramona collection, Henry Huggins collection, etc) but would pick up other books with our Audible membership discount like A Cricket in Times Square, The Jungle Book, Blackstart of Kingston, My Side of the Mountain and many others. I love knowing that they are listening to books that I have chosen and then hearing one child recommend one to another child. Sometimes more than one of them is listening to the same book at the same time on different devices. It's really been wonderful to see them diving more deeply into books they might not have picked up on their own. 

Personally I wasn't sure it was going to be very useful, but I was content to use Audible to be filling my children's heads with good literature. However in April I was trying to read a Jane Austen book for book club and was not finding as much time to sit with my nose in a book as I had hoped and saw that I could get the audio version for less than $2. I spent the next few days listening to Emma as I prepared dinner, washed up pots and pans, folded laundry, drove to the store, and more. I followed that with a few other Austen works and just recently finished three of the Anne of Green Gables books that way. I have always wanted to read them, but have never actually done so until now. I just started David Copperfield and plan to check off many other Bucket List books this way. My favorite thing to do at night now is to crawl into bed, click off of Facebook or email and onto Audible, stick my earbuds in (my hubby falls asleep within minutes of his head hitting the pillow), and play 10 10 while I listen to someone read to me. It's really quite delightful. 

If you've ever considered Audible and have any questions, please let me know. I am no expert, but I am thoroughly enjoying it and highly recommend it! 

For more helpful information, this blog post is very helpful: http://www.plumfieldandpaideia.com/audible-reading-with-my-ears/