Recap and Recs
Hi friend!
I don’t know about you, but we are in full summer-mode these days. May was busy with the beach, finishing up baseball, dance, and school, and celebrating our new FIVE year old! Whew. The May marathon makes me even happier for the slower pace that follows. Now it’s on to all the summer things! I hope your June is off to a really wonderful start.
Today’s newsletter isn’t a typical one — I’m just here to share some recaps and recommendations that I didn’t have room for in my most recent newsletter. Below you’ll find books I’ve read or am currently reading, our curriculum review from this past year of homeschool, and other things I’m loving that I want to pass along to you!
One more quick note - for anyone local to me who is considering homeschooling or is preparing to start this fall, I’m holding a homeschool meeting on June 15th to cover some homeschool basics, what I wish I had known before we started, and answer any questions. It will also be an amazing opportunity to meet other moms who are in the same boat! If you’re interested in joining us, email/text me or send me a message on Facebook for the details. (We’ll also have an alternate date for anyone who can’t make the 6/15 meeting, but it has not been scheduled yet).
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BOOKS
Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne – friends, this book is excellent and so helpful. It’s broad spectrum - covering almost all developmental ages and pretty much all aspects of parenting through those stages. He teaches how to simplify routines, homes, toys, schedules, meals, rhythms, etc in order to give your child and yourself a life you can thrive in. The principles are both inspiring and practical.
The Bradley Method by Susan McCutcheon – I didn’t really know what to expect from this but the amount of information she covers about childbirth is pretty astounding. I think every pregnant woman should read it regardless of your delivery plans – as in, you don’t need to be committed to the Bradley method to glean all kinds of insight about the mechanics of labor and the various medical interventions you may encounter. If you want to be able to truly give informed consent to an intervention/procedure, it’s unfortunately up to you as the patient to educate yourself.
The Call of the Wild + Free by Ainsley Arment – I re-read this one just because and I’m inspired all over again. It’s basically all about the new homeschool movement that places high value on reclaiming childhood, wonder, nature, and making life your schoolroom. It should be required reading for anyone who’s considering homeschooling or just getting started. It will help you cast a vision of what home education can look like as well as dispel the common stereotypes, myths, and doubts.
Miss Maple’s Seeds by Eliza Wheeler (Picture Book) – we picked this up on a whim at the library and it was the perfect book to welcome warmer weather. It’s a sweet story about a woman caring for seeds until they’re ready to go out into the world, and the illustrations are precious. Enjoyed by all of my kids and myself!
Once Upon a Book by Grace Lin (Picture Book) – Aven has enjoyed novels by Grace Lin, so when I saw this picture book by the same author at the library I knew I wanted to read it to the kids. It’s short and intriguing, and the illustrations are possibly the best part!
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THINGS I’M LOVING
Chore Checklist Board - I’ll be using this for general to do’s, not only chores, but the kids are very into being able to check off their own lists these days. I love that it fosters independence and reinforces routines.
Fidgets - we get a lot of use out of these type of toys. Can be party favors, for car rides, or even in your homeschool to keep hands busy while you read.
1000 Hours Outside Podcast w/ Jonathan Haidt – if you’ve been online at all lately, you’ve surely seen the book The Anxious Generation being talked about. This episode interviews the author of that book and it’s a message we all need to hear, whether you have children or not, because technology is fundamentally changing the next generation:
Planner — I love this beautiful new planner I found at Walmart! It’s compact and colorful and I love that it’s faith-based.
Spillover Podcast with Midwife Lindsey Meehlis - such fascinating information about labor and delivery, physiologic birth, interventions, etc.:
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Here’s an overview of our main curriculum elements from this past year of homeschool.
HISTORY
We got a little more than halfway through our Beautiful Feet Early American History, and I definitely recommend it. I decided to stretch it out over two years so we can take our time with it. We love using this curriculum “family learning style”. It works for my 4th grader and 1st grader, and even my preschooler enjoys listening in on most of the lessons, which involve reading through living books, discussion questions, and notebooking. There are additional “rabbit trail” reads and resources for older kids so they can dive in deeper as desired. I’ve utilized the free downloadable coloring pages from the BF website to go along with our readings and we paste these into the kids’ notebooks.
MATH
We have enjoyed Mammoth Math for Finn, age 7. I have to say that initially it seemed out-dated (one look at the website and you’ll see what I mean) but I ordered it after hearing great feedback and have been pleased with it. The lessons are short and easily laid out, breaking concepts down into simple steps. I appreciate the explanations and additional resources like games and links to videos, etc. There is a good bit of repetition involved, but that doesn’t bother me because we can always skip ahead once he has mastered a concept.
Aven (age 10) used Teaching Textbooks Math for the second year in a row and it’s a great fit for us. Your child can personalize the background and characters, and for added motivation they earn digital stickers as they work their way through the modules. I typically sit in on the lessons to hear the lecture/explanation alongside her and then she works through the lesson problems. It generates a report for the parent that I can easily review, and includes quizzes periodically for extra practice. One thing that has been helpful with a computer-based program is to keep a notebook where she jots down the lesson for the day and any notes, and then she uses that same notebook for scratch paper to work on problems.
ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS/READING
Aven completed Level 2 of Fix It, Grammar! and we both enjoyed this approach to learning parts of speech and language rules. It also includes vocabulary words and handwriting practice, but even with that, the lessons are short - finished in about 10 minutes. In addition to this, she worked through a practicing cursive notebook, and wrote her own creative stories based on prompts (there are lots of story prompt books on Amazon).
Finn and I worked through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons together. We started off strong with this one but about halfway through we hit a slump where he was just not motivated to keep plugging along. This is when I began to rely more heavily on our Dash into Learning early readers. These are similar to “BOB Books” but have engaging stories and adorable illustrations. Once he gained some confidence with the Dash books, we began rotating back and forth between those and the 100 Lessons book.
Additional resources + methods we’ve used and loved this year:
Tuttle Twins books
Art for Kids Hub
A Child’s Anthology of Poetry
Notebooking: we use it for documenting learning everything from history to science to read alouds. The kids draw pictures and take notes of what they remember, resulting in a collection of illustrated narrations from the entire year.
The Gospel Story Bible
Watercolor
Animals book by David Alderton (we used this in conjunction with our Julia Rothman Anatomy books for our “creature studies”, plus a drawing tutorial from Art for Kids Hub and the kids loved it)
The Good and the Beautiful Youtube channel for kid-friendly exercises
Attributes of God cards (originally from the Daily Grace Co, not sure if they sell them anymore but they likely have something similar!)
LCD microscope
Air dry clay
Letter writing to friends and family
Yoto Player for listening to stories and songs
Logic Workbook for Gritty Kids (there are various levels)
Library card :)
That’s all for now! I’m in the planning phase for next year’s homeschool so once I have that finalized I’ll make sure to share it in a newsletter.
Hope this was helpful! Talk soon,
Shanna