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Laura’s Favorite Books for Homeschool (and how I feel about starting over)

July 17, 2020 by Laura 5 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

If you’ve been reading here long, you already know my favorite books for homeschool. But who doesn’t love talking about books? So I thought I’d share again and talk a little bit about what our school year might look like.

Do you like how I said, “…what our school year MIGHT look like”?? I’ve been homeschooling for many years (18!) and if I’ve learned anything about homeschooling or about life in general it’s that one should not make firm plans. Instead, one should try to be fairly organized, but be willing and open to changes that are sure to be necessary!

What? Life is uncertain?

Yes, just a little bit. I’m looking at you, COVID. But on a personal level, I will share this example:

Malachi is a sophomore in high school this year. (Asa has graduated from college, Justus will be a college senior, and Elias a college freshman/sophomore.) We had planned to homeschool for just three more years and then tra-la-la right out of this homeschool life that we’ve loved so much.

Then two years ago God (long story short) said, “You know how you got rid of all your elementary school books? Well, here are some more kids for you to raise and teach. Indeed, you are starting right over again. Go ahead and order all the books again.” If this hasn’t been the biggest lesson in not making plans, I don’t know what is.

It’s also been the most beautiful lesson.

So here I am, with my adult and college sons out of the house. And my sophomore “baby” who has now become the oldest of four boys at home, hahahaha.

What might school look like this year?

Malachi will be finishing most of his high-school-only classes this year and begin taking college classes for dual credit for the rest of his high school years. You can read here about how we do this for our family.

Brayden is a 1st grader this year, and I need to tell you this:

We have truly loved homeschooling our older kids. But I was tired and truly ok with and even excited about being finished three years from now. When God gave us more babes, I actually had to grieve a little (more than a little). I thought I was done raising kids and teaching and training and chasing. I was ready to move on, and I might have already danced a jig on the biology book I thought I would never have to teach from again.

While I was so grateful and amazed and excited that God was adding to our family, I simultaneously grieved the loss of what I thought my life would be at this point. It’s hard to explain, but my feelings were big and intense.

What if homeschooling wasn’t the answer?

We considered public or private school for our new guys. It’s not that we’ve been opposed to the school system anyway, especially in our area. Homeschool is simply what we believe God led us to with our older four sons. So sending our new ones to school when the time came…might that be what this new season would bring for us?

But God said no to that option, at least for now. We prayed for months over this, and we only had peace about homeschooling. Brayden especially needed the stability and daily consistency that homeschooling would provide. So I said, “God, if you want us to homeschool these babes, please, please make me want it.”

And He did.

Only after experiencing such hard emotions over what this new life brought could I experience the big joy over what God said yes to. He truly made me want to do this again. It is all Him.

God does not give us these challenging gifts with a pat on the head and a “go get ’em!” No, He gives us these gifts and He says, “I will provide you with everything you need to serve me in the ways I’ve asked you to.”

God absolutely made me want to – and even excited about – homeschooling all over again. I might even be more excited than I was when I homeschooled “Round One” because I know more now than I did when I first started out 18 years ago. Our God is good, big, faithful, and the best provider there is. I love how He works, and I love experiencing His goodness in these brand new ways.

There are no words for the beauty of this life with Bigs and Littles.

So we ordered this years’ books, and I cried.

Why? Because seeing the books and remembering the beauty of my time with our Bigs back when they were my Littles has been precious. And thinking about how much I love our new Littles and how I can’t imagine life without them now, and realizing that I get to live this life with them and enjoy these books and times of learning with them – well. I cried.

I GET TO DO THIS ALL OVER AGAIN!!!

I snapped this picture when our box of Sonlight books came in and sent it to our Bigs saying, “Remember unboxing day?!” They had a variety of fun responses. Yep, they remember!

Brayden is excited to be considered a first-grader this year. He’s a bit behind in a few academic areas, so we’ll be working through the Sonlight’s Kindergarten history, readers, and literature books. We’ll give him a mixture of K-1 math lessons from a variety of sources. He’ll do grade 1 handwriting (Getty-Dubay). We’ll get books from the library to learn about whatever he is interested in. We’ll do lots of enrichment activities (more about this soon!).

I started with Sonlight 18 years ago and while there are many more options now, I still always go back to Sonlight. Part of this is because it’s familiar and comfortable. But it’s also awesome, so why change what’s working for us, right?

My Favorite Books for Homeschool

My favorite thing about Sonlight curriculum is how there are no textbooks involved. We read awesome literature together, learning history and science in a more natural (and more fun!) way. Not only that, the history and the reading options almost always sync up. So when we are learning American History, the readers are from that time period too. Or if we’re studying World History, the readers go along with that era. And they are age/grade appropriate. I just love this!

So that’s a bit about our upcoming school year. Though I have more to share about how I’m trying to organize our days to actually make school happen since we are also chasing around two busy toddlers while keeping up with a high schooler and a college community. So stay tuned for that post!

Tell me what your upcoming school year is looking like! So many are choosing to homeschool this year because of the changes COVID has brought to us all. Have any questions? I don’t know everything, but I do have many years of experience and can answer what I can!

 

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Charlotte’s Web, Learning Through Literature Packet Giveaway

June 19, 2017 by Laura 15 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Who has joined our Summer Reading Party? How’s it going? Is your family reading, reading, reading this summer?

If you haven’t already, join us here! It’s free, there will be prizes all summer long, and there’s a big freebie packet for you just for signing up.

previewweb2

Also included in the freebie packet is my favorite part of all – a Summer Family Bible Reading Guide!

summer bible reading

Grab it all here and enjoy!

And now for this week’s giveaway…

One of our family’s favorite read-aloud books has been Charlotte’s Web. I loved this book when I was a little girl, and my boys have all loved it too. While ordinarily I’m not a huge fan of pigs or spiders, they are perfectly wonderful and lovable in Charlotte’s Web, right?

wilbur and charlotte

Last summer Malachi and I read the book and started creating learning activities to go with it as we went. We made fun foods, learned fun vocabulary words, made fun crafts, did some creative writing – truly reading Charlotte’s Web together offered so much more than just fun reading time!

Peek Into Charlottes Web

I turned it all into this fun Read~Learn~Create book, which you can grab here. Wait. Let’s make this better. Use the code SPIDER to get it for a big discount. Now everyone loves spiders. Ha! (That code will expire June 30.)

Charlotte's Web coversm

Today we’re going to give away two copies of this great family fun learning book! Sign up below for a chance to win!

Charlotte’s Web: Learning Through Literature

This downloadable book includes 43 pages of learning activities, games, crafts, recipes, and fun! Use this eBook to encourage creativity and learning while you read Charlotte’s Web with your family.

If you don’t already have Charlotte’s Web, you’ll need that to go with this activity book, of course! Grab it at your local library or get it here to add to your shelf.

Ready for the giveaway? Sign up in the Rafflecopter below. I’ll draw two random winners on Monday, June 26.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Burning Barns, Talking Spiders, and Loving Literature With the Kids

May 19, 2016 by Laura 12 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

I’ve loved the Charlotte’s Web classic book since I was a little girl. I wanted to get my own baby pig and find a cool spider in my own barn. (I also wanted a pet monkey, thanks to Curious George.)

As it turns out, I actually did have pigs, which turned out to be – something else. But we’ll stop there. I mean, should we even talk about what happened with our barn? (Really. It’s fine. I’m over it.)

And that's where the barn was...

Just last week my brother took his kids to the property where he and I grew up.
My sis-in-law later posted this pic to Facebook and tagged me with the caption,
“And that’s where the barn was…”
I can’t stop laughing at this.

(What? You don’t know my barn story? Go read this.)

Seeing as my pigs were not cute, nor did they talk, and the actual spiders in our barn (may it rest in peace) creeped me out – I lived vicariously through Fern, Wilbur, and Charlotte. Did you, too? Did you love this book?

Do you still love this book?!!

Ahhh, Charlotte’s Web

I have read this book to my kids several times through the years. Last summer, I picked it up again to read to Malachi. He saw the cover – with a girl and a pig on it – and he was like, “Meh. I don’t think I’m going to like this book.” I told him to give it a try with me and see if he didn’t change his mind. I’m pretty sure I had him hooked about three sentences in.

Main point of this post: Read with your kids, enjoy books with your kids, love experiencing life through books with your kids. But now back to Charlotte’s Web…

wilbur and charlotte

We had so much fun reading this book together that it wasn’t long before we started creating projects. Then games. Then snacks. Then I thought of some learning activities he could do as we read. (There are some great vocab words in there. Malachi uses the greeting, “Salutations!” regularly now just because he loves the word, thank you, Charlotte.)

Activities and projects and games and “recipes” and crafts turned into 41-pages of family fun and learning. We decided to put it all together in a book and share it with you. This is THE BEST way to make learning fun.

Since creating this book was quite a labor intensive project – and turned into 41 pages worth of educational fun – I can’t give this to everyone for a $0.00 price-tag like I’ve been able to do with several of the learning packets I’ve created the past few months. (I’ve got more of those freebies in the works, by the way.) Instead, we came up with a better idea, in which you and I both win!

The price is low, but the value is high in our Learning Through Literature packet focused on the marvelous Charlotte’s Web classic book!

Grab your packet today and start using it with your entire family!

Our Heavenly Homemaker’s Club Members have access to this amazing resource plus ALL of our eBooks, eCurriculum, printables, and so much more – for one very low price! Join us here!

Or purchase separately below:

Charlotte’s Web ~ Learning Through Literature
$7.95

[wp_eStore_fancy1 id=1]

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Some Of Our Favorite Books

July 14, 2015 by Laura 38 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

This post was originally posted in October, 2013. Our kids are older now but this list of books is still our favorite!

Books, books, the magical fruit. The more you read, the more you…

Oh wait. Wrong poem.  Sometimes I get confused. Although I’m sure if I threw that poem starter out to my boys, they’d be sure to finish it with something creative. And by creative, I mean gross.

I am excited to share that all four of our boys are now all independent readers. It was a little slow in coming for our youngest, who is now a 3rd grader. But late this summer, it all clicked for him. He now loves reading! Last week he said, “I can’t believe math used to be my favorite. Now reading is so much fun!” Awesome – just what I love to hear. (Although you still have to do your math, Buddy.)

malachi_reading

Our Family’s Favorite Books

Boxcar Children Books
These books were some of my favorites when I was little. (You know I had my very own boxcar, right? Okay, it wasn’t my very own. I shared it with my cousins.)  All of our boys have loved the Boxcar Children books, and now I am reading them to Malachi (age 8). Elias (age 11) has already read most of these books, but sits in to listen when he can, because who can resist?

boxcar_children

Ralph Moody Books

We read through most of the books in this series (as a family) a year ago, and now I’m having my two older boys read the last few on their own. What I love most about these books is that they show how important it is to be a hard worker, how much fun it can be to work together as a family, and how if you put your mind to it – you can always find a way to provide. I am so inspired by these books, and my boys love the adventure aspect they include.

Books by Clyde Robert Bulla

These are the first chapter books our boys have read. We have about eight of them on Malachi’s shelf this year – and he’s made his way through two of them already. I love that Clyde Robert Bulla keeps his vocabulary simple and easy to read – all while teaching history and making his books fun and intriguing. When I pulled these books out for Malachi, all three of his brothers said, “Oh, he gets to read those this year? Malachi, you will love them.” I love hearing the boys talk together about books they’ve all read.

clyde_robert_bulla

Ramona the Pest Series

Malachi pulled his first Ramona book off the shelf this year, too. So far he’s loving it, just like his brothers did. I read this series several times when I was younger. It’s so much fun re-reading these books with my kids.

ramona_2

Christian Heroes Books

I can’t say enough good about all of the Christian Heroes: Then and Now books by Janet and Geoff Benge. We’ve actually decided to use about 15 of these books this year to go along with our History/Geography studies with Justus, Elias, and Malachi. What better way to study the culture and history of a country than to learn about missionaries who worked there? These books are so well written and inspiring!

I also have to share that as we reach the end of each book, Justus (age 13) likes to point out, “You know Mom, this is the chapter when the missionary dies and you cry.” Pshaw.  Okay, fine. So I cry at the end of all of these (and the Ralph Moody Books, and just about every other book I read aloud to the boys). I can’t help it.

benge

In addition to these sets of books, our three older boys are all reading lots of books from the Sonlight reading lists for their grade level. Asa (a junior in high school) is reading some Shakespeare, C.S. Lewis, The Hiding Place (you MUST read this!), and quite a few others Sonlight recommends.

What books are you and your kids reading these days?  I know I’m not the only mom who cries at the end of a good book. Help me out here – do you get choked up when you’re reading books to your kids?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Our 2011-2012 School Year Schedule

August 2, 2011 by Laura 29 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

If you’ve been reading here long, you know that I keep a very loose schedule during our school days. I like to have a general routine in place, but just about every day looks different depending on the needs of the moment.

For instance, this week our family is helping with our local Meals-on-Wheels. Matt’s been taking two boys with him each morning. We’re just rearranging the schedule a little bit to make this happen. We want our boys to understand that serving others comes first (and that they still have to get the school work done later!).

As is our tradition, we hit the store last week to purchase a few school supplies, then went out for lunch.
We’ve had this before-school tradition for at least seven years and we look forward to this treat every year!

Here, without any specific hour of the day assigned to each line item (because it truly is different each day), is what I’ve outlined for our routine this year. (Read the specifics about the curriculum we’ll be using here.)

1. I wake up first in our household. After beginning my morning with prayer and Bible reading, I use this quiet time to check email and do website work. (one hour)

2. The boys wake up and spend time reading their Bibles while I fix breakfast. (20 minutes)

3. We eat breakfast together and during this time, I read the Bible and a devotional book to everyone. (We’re reading through the book of Matthew and More Than a Carpenter, by Josh McDowell right now.)  We work together to clean up the kitchen. (one hour)

4. Asa, Justus and Elias begin working through their assigned school lessons – doing what they can do on their own (math, English, etc.). I work with Malachi on reading, phonics and math. (one hour)

5. I read History/Geography to Justus and Elias. Malachi does individual work (if possible) or plays legos. Asa continues to work on his own. (30 minutes)

6. Justus and Elias work together on their History/Geography projects (Eastern Hemisphere Explorer, adapted from Sonlight). I read History with Asa (mostly because I want to learn myself!). Malachi does puzzles or magnetics. (45 minutes)

Malachi had a great time working on these Three-Letter Words Puzzle Cards today.
I highly recommend them if you have a beginning reader. I think I got them at Walmart,
but linked them to Amazon if that’s easier for you, and so that you could see what I was talking about.

7. Matt does Spelling with Justus and Elias, then works with Asa on Science, Spelling and/or Spanish (depending on the day). Malachi is assigned to work in his Explode the Code books. I check email and take care of any pressing website work, then I work on fixing lunch. (one hour)

8. Lunchtime! Matt leads us through Bible memory work. While we eat, I read a read aloud. (I eat a little faster than my kids, by the way. That’s why I’m able to read while we have meals. Plus, this helps mealtime be a little more…calm.)  ;)

9. I read Science to Justus, Elias and Malachi, then they work on their Science Animal Project, with help from me as needed. Asa works on his own. (30 minutes)

10. Justus and Elias have their reading time. Asa works on his own. I read to Malachi. (30 minutes)

11. Everyone finishes their assignments for the day and works together to put away books and tidy up the house. (however long this takes)

12. Downtime, Curious George time, trampoline time, mess the house back up time – for the boys. I try to get some writing done or answer emails. (2-3 hours)

13. Work together to make dinner, then eat together. We visit or read aloud while we eat.

14. Evening times look different every day depending on whether we have company, soccer games, Bible class or a free evening. Bedtime is therefore flexible, but always includes family prayer time and sometimes more reading aloud.

15. After the boys are tucked in, I do more website work while Matt gets any work done that he needs to do.

Here are all of my past home school posts if you’d like to read through them to learn more about how this works for us!

I’ll be sure to let you know if ever a day actually goes exactly according to schedule. Don’t get your hopes up.

Do you like to keep to a strict schedule each day, or do you hold a loose routine like we do?

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What We’re Studying This Year (Unless You’re More Interested in Chocolate)

July 31, 2011 by Laura 58 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

I realize that some of you won’t be interested in reading about our curriculum choices for this year, but since I continually receive emails from gals asking about what books we like to use in our home school, I’m going to go ahead and share our list. If looking at our book list isn’t exciting to you, perhaps you would like to take a look at our Death By Chocolate recipe? Or maybe many of you will be interested in both? Because chocolate and books – aren’t those just two of the finest creations on the planet?

Once I finally got all of our books organized, I decided to take a picture of our shelf. Enjoy it now – that shelf won’t look so organized after we start digging in. But we can pretend that it stays pretty like this. ;)

The top shelf is Asa’s (grade 9), the middle shelf belongs to Justus and Elias (grades 6 and 4) and the bottom shelf is Malachi’s (grade 1).

We’ve been schooling with Sonlight curriculum for all nine of our home schooling years – yes this begins our tenth! We love that Sonlight is literature based and that we are able to explore and learn without using textbooks. Instead, we read both fiction and non-fiction books as we work our way through History, Science, Geography and Bible. In addition, we choose what Sonlight recommends for Readers (kids reading on their own) as well as Read-Alouds (parents reading to the kids).

Here is a breakdown of our curriculum for this year:

Asa (grade 9)

  • Sonlight is literature based, in which we will study Church History (I’m so excited!!!) and read through many literature classics. Shakespeare, Austen, C.S. Lewis – it’s gonna be a great year!
  • Apologia Physical Science
  • Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1
  • Analogies 2
  • Vocabulary from Classical Roots A
  • Spanish (still haven’t decided – Rosetta Stone maybe?)
  • Spelling Power

Justus (grade 6) and Elias (grade 4)

  • Sonlight Core F, in which we will study the Eastern Hemisphere and read about many other cultures and missionaries who have lived among these cultures.
  • Reading – Sonlight book lists for grades 4-5 and Readers D
  • Science – using multiple science books from Sonlight, as well as others we have on hand, mainly to study animals
  • Wordly Wise (book 3 for Elias and book 5 for Justus)
  • Sequential Spelling
  • Teaching Textbooks 6 for Justus; Saxon 54 Math for Elias
  • Getty Dubay Italic Handwriting (grade 6 for J; grade 4 for E)
  • Learn to Cook

Malachi (grade 1)

  • Some of Sonlight Core B,  intro to World History
  • Science with Justus and Elias, on a lesser scale, to learn about animals
  • Reading – Bob Books and other easy readers
  • Getty Dubay Italic Handwriting grade 1
  • Miquon Math Red Book
  • Explode the Code Books 1-3
  • Teaching Your Kids to Cook

Next, I’ll share about our home school schedule for this year – stay tuned!

I’d love to know what your kids will be studying this year (whether you home school or not!). Also, I need to know which you like better:  Books or Chocolate?

I know, that is hardly a fair question. (And yes, your answer can be “chocolate with a side of books”).

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