Image source: Books, by shutterhacks
It looks like everyone is scrambling to put together their homeschool curriculum for the year. We take it pretty easy at our house because my oldest is in Kindergarten, so most of our day involves digging in the dirt, climbing trees, playing with LEGOs, and reading books. Not much structured school time yet. But we do have a few homeschooling resources that we’ve loved in the past or are beginning this year. Maybe it’ll help out a homeschooling mama who is a year behind us!
Books About Homeschooling:
Teaching in Your Tiara: A Homeschooling Book for the Rest of Us by Rebecca Frech
I bought the ebook and found it so helpful as I’m figuring out what kind of homeschooling fits our family. And then at the Edel Gathering a couple of weeks ago, a woman sat down and struck up a conversation. After two minutes I saw her name tag: Rebecca Frech. “THE Rebecca Frech? Teaching in Your Tiara Rebecca Frech?!” I had a bit of a fangirl moment (or really, I just followed her around all evening.)
Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakeable Peace* by Sarah Mackenzie
I plan to re-read this book before September because it was just so inspiring and beautiful. I need it to wash over me again before the school year picks up. This is less about the practical logistical day-to-day of homeschool and more of a deep-breath-hot-cup-of-tea-perspective-changing retreat. I can’t say enough about it.
Pre-Reading and Reading Resources
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann
I tell everybody about this book. We’re on lesson 98 but Benjamin doesn’t need it anymore. By the second half of the book he started reading everything from street signs to nutrition facts. It’s just simple phonics and I thought it would be boring but Benjamin was literally begging me to do more lessons. We started just before he turned 5, but I think we could have started sooner. I will definitely be using it again to teach Lucy to read. The BOB books are also a great resource to use with this book. Benjamin is a little past them but I’m saving them for Lucy.
Twenty-Six Letters to Heaven by Sarah Park
Great preschool resource for Catholic families. Each letter of the alphabet is accompanied by saints, activities (and I mean EASY activities involving mostly construction paper, markers, and glue, not anything crazy that this un-crafty mama can’t handle), Scripture verses, and fantastic lists of picture books. We didn’t always do the activities, but we checked out all the books from the library and then ended up buying many of them because they were just great. I may do more from this one in the Fall since Lucy will be preschool aged and is starting to be interesting in letters and sounds.
For This Year….
Five in a Row by Jane Lambert
I JUST got this one in the mail and I can tell it jives with my style which is very literature-based.
Tons of Read Alouds (I’ll read to the kids and Benjamin will read to me) There will be lots of picture books and some chapter books. Right now we’re reading The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. If you’re interested, you can read about our favorite authors and favorite picture books.
Tons of Audiobooks (I really should do a post on our favorites.)
Beginning Math Concepts (I have no idea what curriculum we’ll use here. I’ve heard great things about Life of Fred, though. Any recommendations?)
And I’m thinking about starting Story of the World. Any suggestions on the best age to begin SOTW?
And to keep it all straight…
Mama’s Notebooks Homeschooling Notebook. I love the original Mama’s Notebook for keeping track of everything. But I think as we add a few more homeschooling activities in this year I’m going to really enjoy having this to job my memory–it’s not what it used to be! In fact, I opened the microwave because I needed to reheat my coffee only to discover yesterday’s coffee that I had reheated and forgotten about. C’est la vie!
Got homeschool resources to share? Tell me about ’em in the comments!
I need to bookmark these posts. We’re two years behind you just dipping our toes in the water with sporadic Before 5 in a Row and some circle time.
Please do post a list of your favorite audio books. A trustworthy list would be extremely welcome!
Sounds like you are leaning more towards a Charlotte Mason style of schooling which I love! We are a revert/convert family and were using SOTW during that transition. We love SOTW but the author definitely presents certain events for the reformation /counter reformation in a different light than we would present them. She doesn’t seem to be anti Catholic which is nice, but you have to know your own history to know how to get the facts right. There is a momma who did that and I can find the link for you if you want. We are sticking with SOTW to finish out the 4 book series. Seton has some good history fill ins. . Speaking of school, we need to get our booties out of bed and get going this morning! We have the post bday party sleepies.
I’m trying to pick a theme, such as manners, health, or teddy bears for each week. Thanks for the reminders about some great picks!
I learned how to read with “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” 25 years ago. And then my brother, a nanny of dubious qualifications, taught my children to read with the book. It’s really excellent. I don’t homeschool, but I’d recommend it to anyone *before* their kids go to school, too.
I haven’t blogged about our homeschooling in a long time but currently my girls will be 7 and 5 this Fall. We started SOTW this summer and I love that they are old enough to do it together…that’s why I waited even though my oldest was ready last year.
We did some Five in a Row stuff but I wasn’t always jiving with the book choices…but the patterns helped me create some of our own studies on other stories.
For math we are LOVING Saxon. Zola is doing Saxon 2. There’s a pre-test online that helps decide which level the child should be in. There’s a lot of repetition but if it’s too much you can easily do every other worksheet. I don’t use the meeting book because we do our own family times that anchor our days. I do use the teacher manual but only when I need to introduce a new concept or brush up on something she’s struggling with. Eventually we will use some Life of Fred as a supplement but I don’t think it covers everything well enough.
Word Ladders!! So fun and a great way to work on spelling and vocabulary.
I love these suggestions! My two oldest will be going to a classical Catholic school (4th and 2nd), but my third child will be home. I will do some preschool with him, as I have done in the past. I started SOTW with my oldest at home for 1st grade, but their school does the first SOTW book in Kindergarten and first grade — spreading it out over two years. That’s probably a good idea. It makes the pace a little more manageable for the younger ages. So I say go for it — Try to get halfway through the book this year and do the other half next year. My baby is too little for school, so my third will get lots of attention from me this year! And I will supplement my older children’s schooling at home too, because I just can’t resist :). I loved homeschooling when we did it, and I still do it. Now I just focus on the subjects of my preference and let their awesome school do some of the work for me.
Great recommendations! We are using Rod and Staff grade 1 math. It is suitable for a kindergarten-age child. It’s excellent, based on a classical model, and really emphasizes memorization and math drills. The lessons can easily be split up over two days (which is what we’re doing), and the teacher’s book is very helpful.
skip SOTW and do RC Connecting with History! (Roman Catholic History: Connecting with History)
http://www.rchistory.com/
Its SOTW style – chronological, beginning to end, but no heresy! all Catholic! no editing, REAL history, saints fun! seriously it is SO SO SO good. we’re on Vol i and loving it. (each vol is divided into 4 stages – beginner, grammar, logic and rhetoric, so you can use it the life of your homeschooling).
We started this year with it in 1st grade, but totally could have done it in kinder. the beginner level is very gentle.
and its heavily lit based, which is right up your alley 😉
This looks like a great resource! For those who do SOTW, we usually switch to the Ignatius Press history series after doing ancient civilizations with SOTW. That solves the anti-Catholic problems. Or you could do it like Kendra and read the anti-Catholic volumes and pull other resources to show your kids the complete history, using it to discuss bias and resources. Lots of great ways to do it. I would stick to the story versions (SOTW or the RC) for the younger grades.
Ignatius: http://www.ignatius.com/IProducts/150009/all-ye-lands.aspx
yea but i don’t want to give them my money and, i dont *want* to pay money for a curriculum i’m going to have to fix, doctor, etc to make it both true and accurate.
(I’ve also read some reviews on Amazon, and the facts – non sectarian ones – are randomly incorrect, as well as typos which drive me nuts )
And discussing bias and resources, for me, as a classical educator, is something for the rhetoric level (10-12 grades). I don’t think its something that the 1st-3rd grade set can really wrap their head around.
I want a curriculum that is ready to go, solidly historical AND Catholic 😉 I also love how RC History ties salvation history and God’s hand into explaining how history unfolds – how we see ourselves in the past, how we can learn from it, how God has a plan for humanity and each one of us.
Its really an awesome program (and no, i’m not a spokesperson :-p ). and its more than just a story. It includes everything you need – fiction, nonfiction, etc to give a thorough and complete history presentation to the whole family 🙂
*don’t want to give them my money when they’re admittedly anti-Catholic
I also come from a mixed family — Many of our extended relatives are strong, anti-Catholic Protestants. My husband and I are Catholic and joined by a few other Catholic relatives. I wish we could wait until the rhetoric stage to explain some of this stuff, but my kids get these explanations from the earliest toddler years. They always have lots of questions about Grammy and Grampy or so-and-so and why they do or think what they do. We keep it age appropriate and simple, but we definitely cannot put off bias and resources until later years. Oh, to have a fully Catholic extended family! 🙂 Fortunately, we have great relationships with these relatives, but we have to tread carefully with the differences in theology, which surprisingly come up at very early ages.
It sounds like you found a great curriculum for your family! 🙂 I was just listing alternatives, because many families do it differently. Our classical Catholic school does the mix and match with SOTW and Ignatius, as does Angelicum Academy, another great classical Catholic homeschool. I love that there are so many great options to fit different needs, and I’m glad to see another great one out there with RC!
My oldest is only three but I’ve heard enough good things about Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons to know that I definitely want to get it. I’d also recommend any unschooling books by John Holt. I think my homeschool style will be a combo of “do whatever you want” and “do whatever I say” lol
I’m a mama 1year behind you in homeschooling, so THANK YOU for the awesome recommendations!
We used MCP for math until Lotus hit 7th grade and just couldn’t take it anymore. Then we switched to Life of Fred, and she LOVED it. She passed her end-of-year CAT test at or above grade level, and for the first time maybe EVER wanted to do math.
I’ve never used Life of Fred for the lower levels, but I’m interested in hearing about it.
Thank you for posting this! And thanks to everyone commenting. This is really helpful. My son is only two but this definitely helps me think ahead. I would love to know what homeschooling looks like with young children in the house. If I were a fly on the wall, what would I see during homeschool time? How much time is structured? What are your littler ones doing during school? A post on the subject would be greatly appreciated 🙂
thank you thank you, so well-timed – getting ready for our first year of HS with my 6 yo 1st grade son and 3 yo daughter, and while I think I know my philosophy and desired approach, I need some resources to pull from so that I’m ready – also expecting baby 3 in early Oct, so we are getting started SOON! Didn’t realize SOTW could be used this young, very cool. Or Life of Fred. Interested in checking them out.
My MIL homeschools a very active boy who struggled A LOT with math until they discovered Life of Fred! I have heard great things from other moms as well.
These all sound like great resources, even for those of us who don’t homeschool! I’ve been reading The Charlotte Mason Companion myself, getting ideas for things to do during the summer and after school. I love how important books are and finding things they’re passionate about to inspire learning!
We used Saxon math for littles when I had more time but use Singapore now that we’re busier because it is so streamlined.
I’ve really enjoyed SOTW. We began it in 3rd grade. I did not find it to be deliberately anti-Catholic. There was one significant error about Napoleon and the pope in Vol 3. Martin Luther is not portrayed as a hero.
My personal preference is to spend the primary years really learning Bible history, memorizing poetry and Scripture as much as possible, and reading fairy tales and hero stories. I don’t think the chronology of world history sticks very well until they are more mature.
Also, even if you enjoy volume 1 at a young age the following volumes get more violent as time goes on. Vol 1 is appropriate for a 6 year old but I don’t think vol 3 is appropriate for an 8 year old.
I like the old fashioned Baldwin’s Fifty Famous Stories for younger kids and learning history through the saints.
We love Alpha Phonics, Making Music Praying Twice, Little Hands to Heaven, and Catholic children’s treasure box booklets. We have started with Math U See. My kids love the blocks and they have already been a great teaching tool.
We use SOW starting in first grade. I didn’t notice it being blatantly anti-catholic, but perhaps being protestant I missed it… I think she tries to be fair, but it pretty clearly Christian. I will say, if you want two kids at a time to use it as they grow the first three are pretty easy to do together. The fourth one the activity book changes–where there were once pictures to color there are outlines to fill out. This is excellent for older kids, but if you have a younger child tagging along it can be too challenging for that child to do alone.
Life of Fred wasn’t available in the younger ages when we began, so we started with Singapore’s Primary Mathematics (not the standards edition). It is not as gentle as I would expect L of F to be. It does seem to provide a strong basis in math though, without a lot of filler. It expects children to sort out word problems starting young enough that I sometimes had to read them out loud to small ones.
We do use Teach Your Child to read and Five in a Row. I love them both. For FiaR we also have the Christian Character Supplement and the holidays book–I’d suggest the character book, but the holidays weren’t quite as exciting for us.
Wishing you the best!!
What wonderful ideas! This will be my 1st year homeschooling (while I work for a few months the beginning of the school year) . My son is 5 1/2 and we’ll be doing a combo of K and 1st grade levels: Saxon Math 1 and SOTW. I wish I had heard of RC Connecting with History – it looks great! Perhaps I can combine the 2? (or would that be too overwhelming?)
Five in a Row is awesome! My mom used it for both my brothers (I was a little too old for it when we started homeschooling). They had a lot of fun with it, and I always secretly loved any activities that were family-based…because then I got to do it too! 🙂
I loved Catholic Heritage Curricula ‘s Exploring the Continents (lots if real pictures if animals and related story book lists, but more geography than history)
We are starting RC history this year , but love Ignatius press history. So well written I have used them as bed time stories 🙂 They just seem honest…and none of the outdated language found in some of the older Catholic History books. We also like history pockets and usborne ancient history books (so many pictures:)
We are trying Math u see, but have had good success with abeka workbooks. Super curious about the Fred books.
Found this little gem today…and there’s more free stuff on the site I’m printing and putting in plastic page protectors to use over and over again 🙂 http://www.pinterest.com/pin/192106740330598483/
That’s me… a year behind you! We started 100 Easy Lessons but Anthony doesn’t seem to really be ready so we’re taking a break from that. We read aloud several books every day. I think we’ve read every train-related book in the library, along with lots of Mama-selected ones. I will check out the 26 Letters book! I think you’ve posted it before and then I forgot to get it.
We did preschool last year but not this year. Our “homeschool” is looking like morning prayer, lots of reading aloud, and Children’s Adoration once a week. Really just normal life, although I would like to do more art and music things, just for enjoyment.
What fun! Enjoy those moments when they are all little and life is not so scheduled and feeling crazy! If ever you are looking ahead, we love Math Mammoth, AmblesideOnline.com, and the Ignatius Press Vision books series about the lives of Saints. I would highly recommend reading Charlotte Mason’s Book 1: Home Education. It is sooooooooooo good. If I could recommend only one homeschooling book, that would be it!
We are not planning to homeschool, but I used Twenty-Six Letters to Heaven with my son this last year, when he was three. He loved it! I wrote out the poems for him each week and he traced that week’s letter, counted them, and wrote the number. Then we started making lists of words that started with the week’s letter. Variations on what’s included, but a huge boon to helping him learn to read! Thanks for sharing, Haley!
Hi Haley,
Thanks for sharing such awesome books, I will definitely go through all of these.
Thank you.