*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links which means I may receive a small commission from any purchases. However, these are all books that my children love and all opinions are my own. *
In my last post, I talked about the three strands of reading: silent reading, reading aloud, and being read aloud to. I shared in that post that the silent reading part is left completely up to my children. One of my favorite reads as a homeschool mom is The Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. There is so much in that book that I heartily agree with. Their suggestions for library visits is not one of them. In the book, Jessie Wise says that on library visits, she required her children to "check out the following books: one science book, one history book, one art or music appreciation book, one practical book (a craft, hobby, or 'how-to'), a biography or autobiography, a classical novel (or an adaptation suited to age), an imaginative storybook, a book of poetry." (The Well-Trained Mind p. 6) Even as an adult, this control sounds stifling to me. And who exactly has to hound the kids to actually read this list of books? I certainly don’t want to. And if there’s no guarantee that they are going to read, say, a book on how to knit, why make them check it out? To me, a library is like a carnival. Your library card is like that string of paper tickets, and you can explore and spend them however you like. So take your kids to the library and let them explore! The only limit I put on my kids is playing computer games - I give them like ten or fifteen minutes, then they have to go look at the books. (Of course, ever since Covid, our library has taken out the computers. They have the one with the card catalog, of course, but no computers to play games on.) The Well-Trained Mind also recommends monitoring what your children read. In some ways, I agree with this. We sometimes think as long as they are reading, it doesn’t matter what the content is. Yet we don’t let our kids watch, say, HBO’s Game of Thrones at age ten, so why would we let them read the book? Would you give them pornography as long as it’s in a book and not online? Of course not! I think most parents are on the same page there. However, Wise and Bauer take this one step further. They are also against comic books and series like Sweet Valley Twins. (In the outdated 2nd edition of the book I have, anyway. Newer editions may call out Junie B. Jones books or something, I don’t know.) Wise and Bauer first off claim that comic books don’t qualify as reading because they are too visual. As for popular series, they say they are “fluff” literature with over simplified plots and uninteresting sentences. They call them the reading equivalent of candy. I highly disagree. Let’s first tackle comic books. This genre has come a long way. Many are so complex, they have the much more accurate label of graphic novels. The stories can be very rich, the dialogue intelligent, and the themes surprisingly deep. Yes, many graphic novels and comic books have adult content. They can contain graphic violence, over-sexualized depictions of women, and mature sexual situations. However, this genre has overall gotten a bad rap. Not all of them are risque. Especially these days, there is a wide array of comic book content, even books written for kids, tweens, and teens. My rule of thumb is that if the comic book is in the children’s section of the library, it’s probably okay (not that I don’t still look them over). If it’s in the teen or adult section, proceed with extreme caution. Also, the visual nature of comic books is especially appealing to reluctant readers and students with learning challenges. It isn’t “dumbing things down” to encourage their reading passions. It’s just a different genre. To help you out, here are some great graphic novels and comic books that my kids love:
Now let’s talk about those series like The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley Twins that we read growing up. My daughter’s favorites would also fall into this category: The Never Girls and Nancy Clancy. Are these the literary equivalent of candy? If we let our kids read these are they never, as Wise and Bauer suggest, going to want to read more challenging books? Well, how about this: I read Sweet Valley Twin books like crazy as a child, and I went on to major in English and become a teacher. It’s just a ridiculous suggestion, in my opinion. Plus, it’s like the old adage: You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. I could tell my kids they can only check out the classics or Newberry award nominees or something, but I can’t make them read them. The books they read ON THEIR OWN have to be books THEY choose. And if I act like the snooty literary police, the joy of reading will be sucked right out of them.
I’m not saying I don’t sometimes say, “the content of this book is not morally appropriate, I don’t want you to read this.” I absolutely do. But that is VERY different than looking down my nose at them and saying, "that’s not a very challenging piece of literature, so you can't read that." This is what they are choosing to read for fun, for heaven’s sake! Some people look down their literary noses at what I like to read for fun. I like to read clean/Christian romance novels. There, I said it. I read romance novels. *whisper* I write them too. If what I read for pleasure is seen as “fluff” to many, who am I to judge my kids for just wanting to read something fun? So, moms, I set you free. Don’t worry so much. Just foster a love of reading in your kids. It will pay dividends for many years, I have no doubt. I know because it did for me. Here are some of my daughter's favorite "literary candy":
When she was a little younger, she loved this series:
So, go ahead, let them read candy!
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*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission from any purchases. However, all opinions are my own. I never recommend a book or curriculum that I have not used and loved myself.* There are things we do in our homeschool that I love, but my children aren’t that crazy about. Then there are things that they love which surprise me because I honestly have to make myself get enthusiastic about it. However, there is one part of our homeschool day that we all agree on. As a matter of fact, it’s my favorite part of the day, and my kids say that it’s theirs too. It’s when we settle on the couch, usually one on one, and we read a book of fiction together. Our literature, or reading time, has two components: me reading out loud to them, and them reading out loud to me. When they are young, they read easy readers while I read them a children’s classic. Over time, however, we simply go back and forth reading out loud with the same book. There are no discussion questions, no quizzes, no narrations. I don’t make them do a book report. We simply read. We laugh, we exclaim in surprise, and we even cry as we experience each book. Sometimes we make guesses about what’s going to happen next, or we talk about the poor choices that the character seems to be making. Through experiencing the book together, we are studying it and delving into its themes, characterizations, and plot development without ever making a formal lesson out of it. This may surprise you, but as a former English teacher, I think this is the best way to study a book. With a high school class of thirty, I couldn’t do it this way, but one on one with my child, I can. Guess what else? If we don’t like a book, we stop. Since I’m the teacher and the parent, there’s no need to force an assigned book. I want my children to associate reading with joy and pleasure. I don’t want it to be a chore. It’s fiction, after all. Why don’t I just assign them chapters to read on their own? Because there are three strands of reading, and each one is important. They are silent reading, reading aloud, and being read to. Most schools, by necessity, focus on read-alouds in elementary school and silent reading in middle and high school. However, all three strands are vitally important at all levels. This isn’t just theory. Studies have been done showing that different parts of the brain are engaged in each of the three strands. To fully exercise the brain, all three strands must be practiced. Reading out loud also builds children’s confidence and helps them read with more fluency and speed. Most people know this when children are young and first learning to read, but it is important that it continues into adolescence. I was first exposed to the idea of the three strands of reading when I taught sixth grade at a classical school. We were required to spend at least half an hour reading out loud to the students and having them take turns reading to us. Because of my job there, I also learned about Jim Trelease’s The Read-Aloud Handbook. Trelease’s book was fascinating to me as an English major and educator. It’s full of research and data backing up the importance of all three strands of reading. Of course, by the title, you can tell that Trelease is advocating specifically for read-alouds to be returned to the classroom, even in high school. The book would probably seem a little dry to the average parent, though. I’m just a nerd about this kind of stuff!
Why don’t I just read one book to all three of my kids? Wouldn’t that be a lot less time consuming? Yes, it would, but it wouldn’t be best for them educationally speaking. It is very difficult to find a book that is developmentally appropriate for all three of my children. I will sometimes read the same book with my younger two because they are very close in age, but for the most part, I try to make it one on one. It also gives my kids a special bonding time with me on a daily basis. The value of that can’t be measured!
What about the silent reading strand? Because books are so highly valued in our house, my kids do that all on their own! We visit the library weekly, and I let my kids pick whatever they want to read for fun. Whether it’s an American Girl book, a comic book, or an encyclopedia of Lego mini-figures, for the most part, I don’t dictate what they choose. There are moral guidelines in our family, of course. If I feel a book is morally inappropriate, that is the only time I say “no.” Yes, I’m okay with comic books. I’ll actually write an entire separate post addressing that at a later time. The point is, my kids' choices for their silent reading is up to them. As for our read-alouds, I read every book on my own ahead of time before we start the school year to decide if I think my children will enjoy them. (Of course, sometimes, I’m wrong, and then we toss said book.) Here are some of our selections for this school year: From Luke's reading list (age 13):
From Haley's reading list (age 10):From Ian's reading list (age 8):Ian and Haley's joint reading list:
As you probably noticed, I try to select some books that go with the historical period we are studying. I also try to balance the reading difficulty, choosing a few that are challenging, some that are easier reads, and a majority that are right on their reading level. You want to slowly build their reading skill by challenging them without frustrating them. That’s why you want to have two separate books in the earliest years: one for them to read to you and one for you to read to them. Kids can comprehend stories far above their reading level, but they also need to practice their own reading. Make sure you are doing both.
I encourage you to try your own read-aloud time and see how rewarding it can be!
*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission from any purchases. However, all opinions are my own. I never recommend a book or curriculum that I have not used and loved myself.*
My homeschool philosophy is mostly a mixture of classical and Charlotte Mason, and part of both of those philosophies is exposing our children’s minds to the good and the beautiful. Classical art and music is to be explored by the young child so they have mental pegs to hang later study upon. I completely agree with this, and I had grandiose visions of my kids enjoying Mozart while doing their own version of Monet’s Water Lilies. Yeah, it hasn’t exactly played out that way. No matter how hard I tried, I could never fit the arts into our curriculum. I remember buying an Usborne book that I was so excited about. It taught kids about a famous artist, then had them imitate their style. It was a disaster. My boys, who aren’t into art, would just make a big, ugly mess and yell, “done!” Meanwhile, their little artist sister would work for an hour on a painstaking first grade version of cubism, which meant we never got to math or phonics that day. I spent tons of money on supplies that I wasn’t even sure how to use, made a big mess, and stressed out myself and the kids. Music appreciation didn’t go much better. Both subjects ended up being done only sporadically. There had to be a better way, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Then, I went to an amazing session at a homeschool conference done by Sonya Shaffer of Simply Charlotte Mason. She showed us how to do scripture verse memorization, art appreciation, poetry appreciation, music appreciation, AND hymn study without taking up a huge amount of time. Thus, “morning school” was born in our house. Go check out their website in the link below to find the resources that make up the backbone of our morning school. It’s a fantastic website that also has videos and blog posts to help you with a variety of homeschool issues.
So here’s how our morning school works. As we sit at the breakfast table, I read a morning devotional to the kids. I have used various kids' devotional books and children’s Bibles over the years. Here are some of my favorites:
I end the devotional by leading them in prayer, Then, we go over our Bible memory verses. It takes just minutes, I promise you! Here’s Sonya Shafer explaining her Bible memory system - it’s so easy:
After that, we do our poetry, art, or music appreciation for the day. We don’t do all of them every day of course! Here’s our schedule:
For art appreciation, we use Simply Charlotte Mason’s picture study portfolios. I can’t rave about these enough! Each portfolio contains eight gorgeous, glossy 8x10 reproductions of paintings by a particular artist. We have done Van Gogh, Monet, Homer, and several others. There is also a short biography of the artist included and questions to ask your children as they look at the pictures. The key again is enjoyment, not a quiz or deep study. My kids love them and actually argue over who gets to look at them first! The teacher guide recommends choosing only six of the paintings to study, but I have such a hard time choosing, we just do all eight. After we’ve studied the picture and talked about it, I hang it on the bulletin board of our school room to enjoy all week long. For music study, I’ve used several different resources, but right now we are using the Meet the Great Composers series. I do NOT have the kids do the worksheets. I just read about the composer, then we listen to the selection on the accompanying CD. Again, it takes only about five minutes. Below you’ll find links to other resources we have used.
On Thursday, we do hymn study. We go to a church that worships with only contemporary music, and while I love our worship, it was a bit sad to me that my kids weren’t being exposed to the classic hymns I grew up singing in my little country church. Not only that, the stories behind many of these hymns are really inspiring! However, if hymns aren’t something of value to you, choose something else musical for Thursday. Broadway, movie scores, jazz, rock and roll - the possibilities are endless! If you do want to study classic hymns, these books are the best I’ve used (there are three volumes total):
I don’t do all of the hymns in these books. I choose the ones I am familiar with from my childhood and that I can find decent versions of on YouTube. Yep, I said YouTube. I have learned from personal experience: don’t search for a hymn on the spot! Search ahead of time, and save a version you think your kids will enjoy to a playlist. I’ve found versions of hymns by contemporary singers and bands that my kids recognize like The Newsboys, Chris Tomlin, For King and Coutnry, etc. I don’t want them to hear the hymn and hate it! Therefore, I avoid the big choir versions. All I do is read the brief one page history of the hymn from Then Sings My Soul, then we listen to the hymn. That’s it. To increase their exposure to both the classical music and the hymns, we also listen to them in the car on the way to co-op (it’s a forty minute drive). I call it “car school” and my kids love it. Okay, they don’t. They actually whine every single time and beg to listen to the radio instead. Oh well, our kids won’t always love school, right? Finally, Friday is “Stuff They Left Behind.” This is the name of another series of study portfolios from Simply Charlotte Mason. These are just as amazing as the art portfolios. For each historical period (Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Middle Ages, Early Modern, and Modern), you get sixteen, glossy, 8x10 photographs of artifacts, architecture, or feats of engineering from that time period. Also included is a teacher guide with a bit of background information and discussion questions. For example, Ancient Egypt has a photo of the pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, King Tut’s burial mask, and several others; Modern times has a photo of the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, a Faberge egg, and more. Again, my kids find these really fascinating and fight over them. Once we’ve studied the photo, I hang it up in the school room next to the painting of the week. So that’s it, that’s our morning school. It probably took you longer to read this than it does to actually do it - I’m not kidding, it’s that simple. The only prep time I do is writing our Bible verse of the week on an index card and finding the hymn on YouTube. The rest is just open and go. It’s really the easiest way I’ve found to expose our kids to the great artistic masterpieces of the ages! Well, my fellow homeschoolers, we’re well into August, and even if public schools aren’t back yet where you are, I’m sure you’re constantly inundated with back to school commercials and displays at all the stores. One thought always comes to my mind this time of year: how blessed I am to homeschool. Yes, honestly. I don’t have to buy that long list of supplies I see at the stores. I don’t have to carpool or worry about getting my kid on the bus. I don’t have to drag them out of bed at an obscenely early hour, rush to get some breakfast in them, then rush them out the door, hoping they didn’t forget anything. In short, our mornings are our own. We can linger at the breakfast table, talking and laughing. We can have a devotional together to start our day. I can make something like french toast or bacon and eggs without a clock ticking down in the back of my mind. I mean, there’s a reason I saw kids scarfing down protein bars or fast food biscuits as I did carpool duty when I taught. I don’t blame those moms; that would be me in the same situation. Take a minute and read that previous paragraph again. Notice how I didn’t describe our mornings. I didn’t say that everyone sleeps until ten and stays in their pajamas until noon. If that’s how you want to do your homeschool, then this post isn’t for you. I’ll be upfront: I don’t think letting your kids sleep in everyday is the best homeschool plan. For one, it doesn’t teach them the self-discipline that they will need in life. Second, it makes your entire homeschool day start off on the wrong foot. I have had homeschool moms ask me how they can finish the school day earlier, and I always ask this question first: what time do you start? Because, guess what? If you don’t start until 11:00 or later, most likely, you’ll still be doing school at dinner time. You can’t expect to finish by lunch if that time frame is only two hours. I’m not trying to be mean, it’s just math. That doesn’t mean you can’t be flexible. There are times I do let my kids sleep later, or even sleep as long as they need to. It’s usually after we’ve had a late night or I just see that one of them is run down. So yes, as homeschoolers you have the luxury to be flexible. But it’s like what one of my favorite professors in college used to say: you can always loosen up, but it’s almost impossible to tighten up. If the norm in your house is a structured morning, then your kids can handle the occasional loosening of that structure. However, if there is no structure, and you realize that your homeschool is in chaos, it is a lot harder to change course without your kids struggling. What that structure looks like is completely up to you, of course. I’m going to share how our mornings go, but I only do that to give you ideas. What works for me won’t work for everyone, so adjust accordingly. Also, full disclosure: I’m human. Things don’t always go exactly like this. I hit the snooze some mornings just like anyone. I get distracted some mornings by social media. Or I go to make breakfast and realize we’re out of eggs, so I have to run to the store. Life happens. I’m not perfect, and you won’t be either. The routine is a safety guide, not a prison. My alarm goes off at six each morning. I know, I’ve lost some of you already. But, I can’t stress this enough, you really need to be up before your kids. My kids are early risers, so it has to be six for me. For you, it may be later, but having that time to pray, breathe, fully awake, can make a huge difference. For me, I spend about half an hour in prayer and reading my Bible. Then, during the hotter parts of the year, I wake up my daughter for a bike ride. We get back at seven, and I jump in the shower. At seven thirty, I start breakfast, and the kids take turns helping me cook. Usually by eight, we’re sitting down to eat together. Eating meals with my kids has been one of the biggest blessings of homeschooling. I really encourage you to make it a priority. You have the time, so don’t waste it! After we eat, we do what we call “morning school.” (I’ve tried to think of a more clever name, but “morning school” has stuck!) It’s actually really simple and brief. Just enough time for a devotional, prayer, and art appreciation. My next post will be all about this “morning school” time. After morning school, it's time to “do our Bs”: Body (dress it), Bed (make it), and Brush (your teeth). Confession: this is the part where I tend to nag my kids. Why, oh why, do children drag out things that ought to take only minutes? Human nature, I guess. And, yes, I make them get dressed even if we aren’t going anywhere. I feel less alert and productive when I’m in my pjs, so I assume it's the same for my kids. Plus, if we suddenly have to leave the house, we’re all dressed. The times, I confess, vary, but typically by this time it’s nine am, and we’re sitting down to start school. Of course, I’ve already got things to record on their weekly sheets! Bike rides, cooking, Bible, and art appreciation. Not to mention their beds are made (okay, not very neatly, but they’re made). So, that’s mornings in our house. I encourage you to sit down and write out goals for how you’d like mornings to look at your house. Then come up with a plan. I think it will make for a less stressful start to your day. *I was inspired to take the above pictures by a post I saw on a homeschool blog called bluemanoreducation.com. Unfortunately, the specific post no longer exists, but I did want to give credit for the idea. *
School starts this week in my area, and that’s always a time of mixed emotions for me. For that reason, I’m pausing in my series on planning to make this special post. I’ll go ahead and be upfront: this post is for homeschooling moms ONLY. If you aren’t one, you may be offended by what I have to say. It’s not that I’m intentionally trying to be mean or offend anyone; it’s just that I want to encourage my fellow homeschool moms, and I can’t do that in this post without being completely candid. So there you are, homeschool mom, able to sleep until eight (or nine) because your kids don’t have to be on a school bus by seven am or dropped off by seven thirty. You’re feeling confident in your decision, free even, as you think of the carpool line you don’t have to line up for later this afternoon. Then you get on social media. Post after post of smiling children holding little chalkboards that say “first day of kindergarten” or “first day of middle school.” (Okay, those kids might not be smiling, lol.) Posts of smiling, beaming teachers with shiny hair like Miss Honey in Matilda. The brand new backpacks are so colorful, the pencils so sharp, the chromebooks so . . . Wait, you ask yourself, they give chromebooks to four year olds? Mine can barely use scissors! It seems like all these kids are headed straight to the Ivy League, and yours are still in their pajamas watching Puppy Dog Pals. And all of a sudden, doubt rushes in. Are you doing the right thing? You make the mistake of reading some of the posts. “Little Tommy just loves his teacher!” one gushes. “We are so blessed by our local school,” another one proclaims. “I can’t believe we have a high schooler,” another mom states with a crying emoji, “but I know these are the best days of his life!” Several moms relate crying after dropping off their preschoolers and kindergartners for their first ever day of school. Thank God, you think, at least someone is being honest! But these moms inevitably go on to say the same thing: “You have to let them go sometime!” Mommy guilt rushes in once again: are you holding them too tightly? Are they missing out? No, Mama, they aren’t. I can promise you that. Yes, we will have to let our children go someday. But at four or five? Is that really all the Lord expects of us? The preschool years, then we can hand them off to someone else for eight hours a day? Really? Those Chromebooks may look really impressive, but is that the best education for our kids? To stare at a screen all day long? But it’s educational! It’s technology! But don’t doctors and child experts tell us to limit ALL screen time on multiple devices? Or does that only apply at home? Are these really the best years of that high school kid’s life? All we have to do is think back to our own adolescence to know how much that rings false. And being in a traditional high school with its pecking order and intense pressure to fit in definitely doesn’t do anything to make those years easier. That’s all your teenager is “missing out on” - the encouragement to follow the crowd. So are all of these parents really being genuine in their gushing happiness? Maybe. But usually, if they were brutally honest, they’re relieved to have the kids at school again. They're excited to go to Target alone after carpool. They’re excited about taking that 11 am yoga class. And believe me, I get that. Sometimes I wish I could do those things. But I’ve chosen this homeschooling path because I truly believe it is best for my kids. It takes sacrifices that I am more than willing to make, and I can’t let the status quo cause me to doubt that. We also have to remember that social media only portrays people’s best selves. Those back to school posts don’t show us the whole picture. They don’t show us the seven year old melting down over his homework at four in the afternoon. They don’t show us the fourteen year old in tears after being bullied all day long. They don’t show us the parent teacher conference when a ten year old is failing math because it isn’t being taught in a way he understands. Not exactly Instagram worthy. So be encouraged, Mama! You may have chosen the road less traveled, but rest assured, it will make all the difference. |
AuthorHi, I'm Melanie! I'm a homeschooling mom of three kids ages 13, 11, and 9. I have a BS in English Secondary Education from Asbury University plus 30 hours of gifted certification course work. I've taught in just about every situation you can imagine. Public school, private, homeschool hybrid, and private tutoring. The most important thing I've learned? One on one, individualized instruction can't be beat. Archives
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