I moved my blog to

www.independenceacademy.blogspot.com

because I find it easier to use, so that's where I can be found.

Does anyone know if it's possible to move posts from here to a new location?  I hate to lose my old posts.

We are using My Father's World Adventures for a US history overview and have found it to be very Charlotte Mason influenced and think that all of their recommendations (Serl's Primary Language Lessons and Spelling by Sound and Structure),have been right on.  I have gone back and forth about unschooling for a long time.  I won't go into all the gory details here right now, but a love of learning has always been my number one goal for the kids, and I deeply believe that kids already come with a natural curiosity and desire to learn.  There are reasons we need, and thrive, on more structure though, and I feel like what we're doing this year has been a beautiful balance so far.  We love the short, gentle lessons of a CM inspired curriculum and we still have plenty of time for playing and pursuing our interests.  I am not one who feels I have to commit myself to one curriculum and there are some reasons I don't believe we'll use MFW long-term, but for this year we're just going to enjoy where we're at now. 

Here is the annual "first day of school" pic:

(Max demonstrating his fourishness).

Making notebook covers:

Max's spelling "test"

What's funny is that all of my kids think spelling on the white board is just the most fun ever, so they all had to take a turn.  He spelled all those words without help, as long as I enunciated each letter sound as I said it.

Trying to sail Christopher Columbus' ships:

So this was us today...

Lots of crabiness and grumping about these constant My Father's World Adventures notebooking pages we're doing, eyes glazing over while I read one of the spines which even I thought was a yawn and quickly figured out not to read all 5 pages that were scheduled, but to skim ahead and summarize. 

A little while later, I decided enough was enough and got out some picture books and a chapter book I knew they would like.  Complete silence, happy kids gathered around me on the playroom loveseat. 

Obviously I'll have to start doing some tweaking.     I'm glad I've tried several different approaches with them, because it's helping me figure out what works best for us.  I've gotta say, I find the notebooking and other projects very time consuming and am dissapointed in the low amount of reading aloud we're doing.  But we're only on week 2 and it will take awhile to find our rhythm and tailor it a bit.

I've been busy getting ready to start our new school year.  We school year round since it's so hot where we live and a lot of outdoor time isn't possible.  We take a little break but prefer to save most of our time for early spring when it's beautiful outside, and for a long Christmas break.  Of course, learning happens all the time anyway.   We don't need a curriculum to learn but we all seem to thrive on having some structure.  

During our current break, Luke has been busy pursuing all kinds of interests.  He really enjoys memorizing and is on a kick about the presidents, this started with a poster in our playroom and a book we got at a Scholastic Warehouse Sale:

He has been memorizing the order of the presidents, their nicknames, and how they died.  That's what he wants to know, as well as if they were a good president, which isn't the simplest question to answer.

This new interest of his coincides nicely with the fact they we're doing a US history overview that includes studies of presidents as they come up in the time period, and a states study.  He loves geography also, so I think we'll have fun with this.  There are lots of hands-on activities and projects, including cooking.  Him and Maddie are going to love it. 

"Mom,  can God see through the walls?"

Me thinking:  What a deep thinker of a 4 year old I have!

Followed by

"Mom, how do you spell cookie?"

And then:  "I know how to spell poop, p-o-o-p."

This article by the Bluedorns is worth a read, it's too long to c&p here, so I'll post a link for anyone interested:

http://www.triviumpursuit.com/articles/research_on_teaching_math.php

The Bluedorns advaocate classical education, but not until age ten.  They believe that the focus should be lifeskills and character training for young children and that most kids aren't ready for formal schoolwork before age ten, especially boys. 

This part of their article that I have highlighted struck a cord with me:

What we suggest is:

1. Formal textbook or workbook instruction in arithmetic may begin at age ten. It is about age ten that the developmental light bulb goes on, and the child becomes capable of a great deal more mental and physical skill. (Of course that’s not an absolute rule. With a few children, it is as early as eight. We call them "bright" children because the developmental light bulb goes on early.) Waiting until the child is developmentally prepared to handle the concepts makes instruction in arithmetic very easy, because the child learns very quickly.
2. There is no necessity for formal teaching in arithmetic before age ten. Once all of the developmental parts are there, most children can learn – in a few weeks – everything which they might have spent six years learning (kindergarten through fifth grade), that is, if they haven’t already learned it through questions and experiences and working things out on their own — which is generally the case.
3. Depending upon the child, upon the method, and upon the subject matter covered, there exists the potential for developmental harm from the formal teaching of arithmetic before age ten. Small children cannot understand many arithmetic concepts at an early age. We can teach them to perform the process, but we cannot make them understand the concepts. The child "learns" to hate "learning." The child’s understanding develops along the wrong lines. He may actually develop mental "blocks" to arithmetic – actual physiological blocks in the brain. (This may give new meaning for the term "blockhead.")
4. Not formally teaching arithmetic before age ten frees up a lot of time for other activities which will build the vocabulary of the child. Vocabulary is the number one index of intelligence. Developing vocabulary was one of the deliberate foci of ancient education. We waste valuable time for developing vocabulary and verbal language skills if we instead spend those hours teaching a five year old to count by fives. (He’ll know it intuitively by age ten anyway, without ever being taught.) Instead, we ought to spend those hours reading to him. We only have so much time in the day. Do we want to spend it trying to force math skills into a child who developmentally is not optimally prepared, or spend it doing what is developmentally natural to a young child – learning new words and associating them with new ideas and experiences. Stretch the child’s vocabulary during the formative years, and when he’s developmentally ready to do some deeper thinking, he’ll have a mind prepared to take on the task, and he’ll take off like a rocket.

Please note: We are not saying that no child should ever utter the name of a number before age ten. Not at all. About age four, most children discover money, and there is no hiding numbers from them after that. They encounter numbers all of the time. If we encourage learning, then they’ll be asking lots of questions, and we’ll be full of opportunities to teach numbers and measurement. But we would not encourage using a formal workbook before age ten, unless the child has a genuine desire to do so, he shows that he is competent to handle the work, and it does not take away time from other valuable activities. We are not going to ruin the child if we wait until age ten before beginning formal teaching of arithmetic.

The little kids and I just finished Pippi Longstocking.  They enjoyed Pippi's antics and even I had to laugh out loud a few times.  Here is my favorite part:

Everyone in town has found out that Pippi is living alone in Villa Villekula, so two poilcemen are sent to fetch Pippi and take her to a childrens home.  This conversation follows:

"Don't you realize that you have to go to school?"  said the policeman.

"Why do I have to go to school?"

"To learn things, of course."

"What sort of things?" asked Pippi.

"All sort of useful things," said the officer.  "Lots  of useful things, like multiplication tables, for instance."

"I've been fine for nine years without any plutification tables," said Pippi.  "And I'm sure I can manage in the future, too."

"Yes, but think how sad it will be for you to be so ignorant.  What about when you grow up and someone happens to ask you what the capital of Portugal is and you can't answer?"

"Of course I can answer," said Pippi.  "I'll just answer like this:  If you're so desperately anxious to know what the capital of Portugal is, then by all means write a letter to Portugal and ask them!"

These are the kids current favorites:

Zach is enjoying I, Juan de Pareja, about a slave who studies under a great artist in 1600s Spain.  It's based on true people.

Luke rereads this one over and over and we have all learned a lot about flies, fleas, wasps, and other insects that Luke tells us about.

Today, I was folding laundry in my bedroom and had the windows open, (it's a beautiful 87 degrees today), and overheard this conversation between Luke and Max who were in the backyard, companiably swinging side by side:

Luke:  "Fleas suck blood,  they like cat fur the best because they're the fluffiest.  But they like dogs too, sometimes even people.  Even lions and tigers can have fleas.  Fleas can jump 200."   [I think he was reading that they jump 200 times their body length.]

Max:  "WOW!  Can they jump to the moon?"

Luke: "No, they can't jump  to the moon."

Max: "Oh."

Maddie's favorites stories lately are fairytales.   We have several different collections and her favorite is one called The Worlds Greatest Fairytales.  I can't find a picture of it anywhere because it's old, from the 60s, and is one of the many books the kids inherited from their Dad's picture books from when he was a little boy.  We like this version of Rapunzel, the pictures are beautiful.

Max's current kick is reading Harold and the Purple Crayon and George Shrinks over and over from the Harper Collins Treasury of Picture Book Classics.

This was in the appendix of Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax.

Author Unknown

John Holt says that  "Children are by nature and from birth very curious about the world around them, and very energetic, resourceful, and competent in exploring it, finding out about it, and mastering it.  In short, much more eager to learn, and much better at learning than most of us adults." *

I am continually amazed by how much my children learn on their own, without any adult interference.  (The fact that I am amazed would point to the truth that we adults are programmed not to trust our kids and their natural instinct to learn.)   Here are some fun examples of what they have been up to this week; they needed no encouragement or direction from me:

Maddie(5) and Max(3) found some addition and subtraction flashcards lying around and Maddie asked Max to quiz her.  I came upon them with Maddie sitting on a kitchen chair, Max standing on another one asking her:  "What's fouw plus thwee?" , she would give the answer and he would say "cowect."   When Maddie was stumped by one of the flashcards she didn't ask me for help; she told Max to hang on while she went and got the cuisenaire rods, and then she figured it out herself. 

We love the storytelling CDs by Jim Weiss.  Who knew that these would encourage narration skills?  Luke narrated The Bremen Town musicians to me in his excitement to tell me about this funny story the morning after he had listened to it at bedtime.  The kids are even learning new vocabulary from listening to these.    Last night, after we'd tucked in the kids and were sitting in the living room, Max came in and asked dh and I what a word meant.  We couldn't quite make out what word he was saying so I went with him to his room where he had paused the CD and he played it over for me.  The word was "shelter".  Delphinium  the donkey had said he was looking for food and shelter, and Max wanted to know what shelter was.  So we talked about how shelter is a house to us, but to someone else it might be a hut made out of banana leaves or for an animal it might be a space underground or in a tree.   Delphinium just wanted to find a place to stay warm and dry.  Max was satisfied and went back to bed and finished listening to his stories, but I thought it was great that a 3 year old seeks out information all on his own because he's naturally curious! 

Unschoolers often say that when a person is interested and self motivated, they learn a lot faster; as opposed to learning on someone else's timetable about something they're not interested in at the time.  I have observed this with our kids.  We have several Mother Goose books and have used a curriculum in the past that encouraged reading these nursery rhymes periodically for years, I'm assuming in the hopes of the child memorizing them for cultural literacy.   On a trip to  half -price books Maddie picked out a Mother Goose book and cd and I remember thinking "Another Mother Goose book?  We already have those and read those at home."  But it was her pick, so I didn't say that aloud and we bought it.  Her and her brothers loved this CD and would turn it on in her room while they played for days after she got it.   Before I knew it, they had memorized most of the rhymes and poems on it and could recite them.  So much for needing to repeat something for years: when they were interested they learned it quickly with no help needed.   Maddie also enjoyed listening to it and reading along in the book, and I think it helped her with reading proficiency.

Yesterday Max wanted to know how paper was made.  I don't know what made him think of this but he asked so dh remembered that we had a How It's Made episode that Papa had burned on dvd for us (our kids really like this show), on how they make toilet paper, so we put it in and  Max sat with rapt attention.  When it was over a commerical came on and Max said "We don't  need your junk!"  which made us laugh- do you think he has heard some rants about commercialism?

Having an older sibling really impacts the younger kids.  They think anything Zach(13) does is cool, so his interests often become their interests.  Luke (7) was playing with the Playmobil Roman colliseum we have the other day, telling me a bit about Ancient Roman history that his brother had told him while they were playing with it previously.

Luke is on a kick about the solar system and has all the planets and their order memorized.  I am embarrassed to say that I was never that interested in this, (at least in the way I was taught it in school), and had forgotten the order.  Luke has been helping me remember though.  :D   He is also interested in cooking and got the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook for Christmas so him and I went to the grocery store and got the ingredients and made something he had picked out.  He made it mostly himself and figured out how to triple the recipe with a little help.  (I told him to multiply by three, he figured out the answers himself).

There is a school where a group of kids learned 6 years of math in 20 contact hours.  Here is the article:

http://www.mountainlaurelsudbury.org/Rithmetic.asp

Here is a fun website with ideas for games and picture books for math:

www.livingmath.net

In my experience, the biggest thing you can do for your children is to read aloud to them and provide a literature rich environment.  Read something aloud everyday, let them see you reading frequently, take them to the library and bookstores frequently, get them fun magazine subscriptions, and buy audio books or get them from the library.  A lot of things will take off from there.  Strew fun and enriching things around: maps, books, music, board games, manipulatives, art supplies, scissors and paper, open-ended toys for imaginative play, computer games, things to smell, touch, and taste, art prints, and anything else that seems fun.  We have a big plastic box full of rice and beans that the kids play with with sieves and containers and spoons, little chalkboards and chalk, dry erase boards, playstands, blocks, legos, a sandbox, and so on, and have found them all to be valuable for playing and learning.  A cardboard box to pretend in or cotton balls to make a collage with can be exciting too.   All things can be educational, and there is value to be found in all things that kids find joy in. 

*From Teach Your Own by John Holt

The other day Maddie came up to me when I was a little distracted and said:

"Mama, I just love to eat flamingoes, they're so juicy and sweet."

Me:"Eat what?!"

Maddie: "You know, flamingoes.  That fruit that is so yummy."

Me: "Oh, mangoes!"

Maddie (with an exasperated look because in her mind that's what she'd been saying all along): "Yes, mangoes!"

I'm currently reading a few books that I came across that weren't on my 888 list:

Educating the Whole Hearted Child- This book was written a little over 10 years ago and has some Charlotte Mason ideas, and other ideas for implementing Christian homeschooling that were probably new and helpful at the time.  There are so many other good CM resources out now that I didn't find it to be anything new and greatly prefer other books to this one.  This book didn't jibe with our way of doing things, and there were a few sections I didn't agree with at all.  I won't be rereading this one.

Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow. by David H. Albert - A collection of essays from David Albert about his experiences unschooling his two daughters.  Easy to pick up and read an essay and then put it down for awhile.  Nothing earth shattering; John Taylor Gatto and John Holt make me think more, but an interesting read.  I'd like to read one of his other books: And the Skylark Sings With Me.

Gil(dh) says that this book he's currently reading is good:  Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense by David Guterson, a highschool teacher. 

I have Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax waiting for me and can't wait to read that one, along with John Holt's Teach Your Own. 

On a homeschooling reading kick lately.

Zach and I finished our current read aloud- Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle.  We both loved it. 

The little kids and I are reading Dr.Dolittle. 

Since a few people asked how to get access to the teacher store, I thought I'd just put it here.  So sorry it's taken so long, we had a long Christmas break since we work through the summer and I hadn't been here at the hs blogger site for awhile.

When you go www.Scholastic.com, you'll see a space to sign in and register,after clicking on that, you'll see where you can choose to register as an educator or parent.   Click educator and it should take you through a process for signing up.  I can't remember the exact details but recall that it had you type in your school name and then the computer does a search in your area, being a homeschooler, it won't show up, and you'll get a message that a representative will call you.  They ask for your school district so they can verify you as a homeshcooler, but here in Texas we don't have to register with anyone at all, and so Scholastic just took my word for it.   It took me signing up two times and about a month before I got a response, you might get a faster response by calling them. 

Once you're approved, you can sign up to receive notifications of warehouse sales in your area and they'll send you the book club catalogs.

Hope that helps someone!  Oh, and also be sure and take advantage of the educator discounts at Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Half Price books.  It's not possible to have too many books!  ;)

I heard about this reading challenge on a homeschooling discussion board and thought it would be fun to try:

http://triple8challenge.blogspot.com/

I started compiling my lists by first getting down what I've been wanting to read for awhile; I still had space so I started perusing some suggestions from various bibliophiles discussion forums and looking around on Amazon, and there were so many that sounded fabulous that I ended up not being able to keep most categories to 8 selections.  I think I usually read more than 64 books in a year anyway, (though not certain as I've never kept track before), so I can probably get to most of these, or am hoping to.  I figure I'll have lots of alternatives if I just can't get through some of my selections, (life is too short to waste on a book that's not being enjoyed), but I'm also reminding myself that I'll have 29 books to read already for Zach's next school year, (egads!) , I like to read them ahead of time so him and I can discuss them when he gets to them, and our next school year starts early this summer.  So my list might be a little too ambitous.  It'll be fun to take a look at this list again late this year and see how much I actually read.   I see lots of good  reads in my future.  :D

I apologize for how sloppy this looks; for some reason everytime I try to re-space the paragraphs it won't save.

Here is my list:

The numbered items I'll make priority, but am hoping to have time for the others.

8 Biographies or Autobiographies

1. Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote(squeaking it in there, it's technically fiction of a "semiautobiographical" nature, but was already on my list and this was the only place I could fit it).

2. Period Piece: The Victorian Childhood of Charles Darwins Grandaughter  by Gwen Raverat   May

3. Forever and Ever, Amen by Karol Jackowski

4. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs   April

5. The Cat who Covered the World by Christopher Wren  June

7. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt  May

8. No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in WWII by Doris Kearns Goodwin

9. Beatrix Potter:  A Life in Nature by Linda Lear

10. Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes    May

11. The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father by James Wight

12 .The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood by Sy Montgomery  Feb.

13. The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antartic Expedition by Caroline Alexander

14. Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light by Mother Teresa

15.Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

16.The Power of the Powerless by Christopher De Vinck

(I know it was supposed to be 8 but these 15 looked too good not to make time to read).  The others below look interesting too, but not as compelling to me as the ones above.  Maybe I'll have time for them all!

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J.  Jacobs

Eat,  Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

'Tis by Frank McCourt   June

The Diary of Anne Frank: The Definitive Edition   May

 8 Non-fiction

1.Keeping a Nature Journal: Discovering a New Way of Seeing the World Around You by Claire Walker Leslie  March

2. Baby-Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent   Jan

3. The Well Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had by Susan Wise Bauer(She includes a reading list in here which I won't be able to get to this year but would like to glean some info about approaching a book in a purposeful way where appropriate).  

4.Superfoods RX: Fourteen Foods that Will Change Your Life by Steven G. Pratt

5. It Takes a Mother to Raise a Village by Colleen Down 

6. James Herriot All Things Bright and Beautiful     Jan.

7. James Herriot's All Things Wise and Wonderful(I've already read All Creatures Great and Small and loved it).  Feb.

8. James Herriot The Lord God Made Them All.  July

9.  A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird

 The Intentional Family: Simple Rituals to Strengthen Family ties by William J Doherty

The Case of Abraham Lincoln  April

 Blink: the Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It by Jim Wallis

French Women don't get Fat by Mirieille Guilliano

8 Books on Religion/Spiritual growth

1. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

2. Church History in Plain Language by Bruce L. Shelley

3.Prayer: Does it Make any Difference? by Phillip Yancey

4. Jesus, the One and Only by Beth Moore

5. Rebel With a Cause by Franklin Graham  

6. The Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas

7. Grace(eventually): thoughts on faith by Anne Lamott

8. Whose Bible is it anyway?: A Short History of the Scriptues  by Jaroslov Pelikan

 Here's one dh just came home and told me about that I had to add:

The Case for Christ: A Journalist's  Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel

8 Mysteries

1. Lean Mean Thirteen- Janet Evanovich (Haven't read past the 12th one)   March

2.  Fearless Fourteen- Janet Evanovich (Due out this summer)

3. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters(a reread but from 10 or so years ago and I don't remember it)

 4. Aunt Dimity's Death by Nancy Atherton-    Jan.

5. Murder on the Orient Express by Agath Christy

6. Bootleggers Daughter by Margaret Maron

7. Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs

8. T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton(my all time favorite mystery series)  Feb.

God Save the Queen by Dorothy Canell  April

8 Classics

1.Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

2. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather  July

3. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

4. Portrait of a Marriage by Pearl Buck {Not at my library so nevermind. Humph.]

5. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson  Jan.

6.The Awakening by Kate Chopin

7.Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen

8.Walden by Henry David Thoreau

9. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain  July

10. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain July

11. Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain July

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

8 history or historical fiction  (I'll make these adult only, since I already read a lot of young adult historical fiction with Zach for his Sonlight core reading).

1. 1776 by David McCullough    July

2. The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

3. The Life of Elizabeth I - Alison Weir

4. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet

5.  Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

6. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

7. The Flames of Rome by Paul Maier

8. Mayflower: A story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick June

These is my Words by Nancy Turner  June

Widow of the South by Robert Hicks

The Widow's War by Sally Gunning

Katherine by Anya Seton

The Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton

Shadowbrook by Beverly Swerling

Speaks the Nightbird by Robert McCammon

The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow

Historical Fiction I've been prereading for Zach's school year:

George Washington's World by Geneveive Foster   (April)

The King's Fifth by Scott Odell  (April)

A Murder for Her Majesty (April)

Madeleine Takes Command (May)

The Kidnapped Prince (April)

Escape Across the Wide Sea (May)

The Iron Peacock (April)

The Sherwood Ring (May)

8 books on Parenting (includes homeschooling)

1.Learning All The Time- John Holt   March

2. The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Raymond and Dorothy Moore(a reread but it's been a long time)

3. The Relaxed Homeschool by Mary Hoode (a reread but it's been awhile and it's a worthy one) 

4. Parenting With Love and Logic by Jim Fay and Foster Cline

5.Raising Your Spirited Child: A Guide for Parents Whose Child is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive,  Persistent, and Energetic by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka 

6.The Vaccine Book by Dr. William Sears

7.Math Power: How to Help Your Child to Love Math, Even if You Don't by Patricia Clark Kenschaft

8. The Unschooling Handbook: How to use the Whole World as Your Child's Classroom, by Mary Griffith    Feb.

9. Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home by Elizabeth Foss

Love and Logic  Magic for Early Childhood by Jim and Charles Fay (a reread but worth a second look for the terrible threes we are currently experiencing ;) ; great tips in there)

Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series

Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers (reread that I absolutely love and is definitely worth a second read through)

The Discipline Book by Sears(a reread)

8 books on home management/cooking/hobbies/handicrafts

1. Totally Organized by Bonny Runyan McCullough

2. A Mother's Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to your Soul by Holly Pierlot

3. Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson   (Didn't really read this one as once I had it in my hands I could see that it's more of a reference, but it would be good to have on hand).

4. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

5. Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson  June

6. Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson

7.Knitting in Plain English by Maggie Righetti

8.In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

Food: The History of Taste by Paul Freedman

The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution by Alice Waters

Omnivovore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

The Way We Eat and Why it Matters by Peter Singer and Jim Mason

The Book of Photography by John Hedgecoe

Fiction I want to read:

Not part of the 888 challenge categories I set for myself, but I came across too many great suggestions not to record them for future reference:

Thrush Green by Miss Read- March

 The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton

Spencer's Mountain by Earl Hamner

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger

 Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

Tara Road by Maeve Binchy

The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

Keeping the House by Ellen Baker

The 13th Tale by Diane Setterfield

Under the Sweetwater Rim by Louis L'Amour

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati

Trinity by Leon Uris

 Books I'd like to reread if I have the time:

A Midwife's Story by Penny Armstrong

Jan Karon's Mitford series

The Harry Potter series

Travel Books that look interesting:

Talk to the Snail - Stephen Clarke- maybe
In a Sunburned Country(also published under the title Down Under) - Bill Bryson
Blood River - Tim Butcher
Round Ireland With a Fridge - Tony Hawks[not at my library so disqualified.]

 Childrens books I haven't read yet but would like to:

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

The Narnia series

I'm also adding a Read-Alouds category for the kids and I, as our read-alouds in the past have been random and not consistent:

*Little House in the Big Woods and maybe the entire Little House series if Maddie, or Luke, shows interest; if not, we'll try again when they're a little bit older.

*In Grandma's Attic

*The House at Pooh Corner-we've read just bits and pieces

*The Littles- to try to get Luke interested in reading them on his own

*The Story of Dr. Doolittle    Jan.

Stuart Little     March

Pippi Longstocking  March

The Boxcar Children #3  April

*Peter Pan

*Alice in Wonderland

Cappyboppy

* Farmer Boy

*Socks(from our Winter Promise Animal Worlds package)

Mr.Poppers Penguins Feb.

Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates

Oliver Twist

*Magic Treehouse books(not exactly great literature, but a good springboard for learning about history)

1. Mummies in the Morning   Jan.
2. Pirates Past Noon (which Maddie read to us) March.

*A Little Princess- because for some reason Max really loved the abridged little copy we got from Chick fil A, so I want to try reading them the whole thing.

*The Swiss Family Robinson

*Five True Dog Stories(From SL Core C)

*Dolphin Adventure (From SL Core C)

Dolphin Treasure (From SL Core C)

*My Father's Dragon  April

The Hundred Dresses  April

*Henry Huggins

*The Light at Tern Rock- Christmas read aloud (From SL Core C)

*The Best Christmas Pageant Ever- Christmas (From SL Core 7 which we'll be getting soon for Zach, but I think all the kids will like it)

*James Herriot's Treasury for Children (From SL Core C)- Maddie just picked this one out with her Barnes and Noble gift card from Christmas, and it is beautiful.

*The Wind in the Willows

*Thronton Burgess' Animal Tales 

The Indian in the Cupboard

*Bill Wallace books we have: A Dog Called Kitty; The Fying Flea, Callie and Me  Feb.; The Legend of Thunderfoot 

Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims  June

* Indicates the ones I'm going to make priority to read by the end of this year

I finally got approved by Scholastic to use their teacher resources as a homeschooler and got a customer number.  I can not wait to get the book club catalogs and go to a warehouse sale, there is one around here in early December.  Books at awesomely low prices- what could be better?!

We are finishing up The Wizard of Oz.  I would have to say that this has been their favorite read aloud to date, and that's saying a lot since we've read a lot of chapter books aloud.  Luke is not big on sitting through long readings, but even he was getting engrossed in the story and asking for another chapter.  And today he reread a chapter on his own, voluntarily.  Max has been paying attention too, and was telling his dad all about how the Tin Woodman chopped down the tree that the Scarecrow was stuck on, in order to help the Scarecrow get down from where he was stuck after the flying monkeys had thrown him there.  It's pretty cute hearing a three year old give a narration in lispy preschool language. 

We read this version from the library, it's the complete, original story by L. Frank Baum, but also has illustrations from Michael Hague.  It's a really pretty copy.

We finally got all of our books for Winter Promise Animal Worlds and started  today.  I think this program is going to be a good mix of some higher level reading, and picture books that Max can enjoy also.  There is a lot of non-fiction in this program, which might appeal to Luke more than chapter book after chapter book. 

So today the kids made the covers for their animal notebooks.  I helped Max but he wrote his name all by himself,  Maddie did her's completely by herself; including making the giraffe, and Luke wasn't interested so he just used the cover that came with the notebooking pages.   Luke did really enjoy doing the habitats page and inserting it in his notebook though, and that was surprising. 

After that we read the Dk Animal Encyclopedia.  Maddie and Max really liked the pictures, and we just pointed to things and said their names.  (We were reading about skeletons and exoskeletons and organs).    We also read a few pages out of a book from the animal behavior series, called Animal Defenses, and I noticed that Luke couldn't help getting interested in this one.  We're saving our reading from Richard Scarry's giant storybook for bedtime. 

Luke and I had our one on one time after that and he did a lot of Explode the Code, Spelling Workout (his choice, I usually just have him pick one or the other), and Miquon math.  Then he read me his choice of a reader, which was Mouse Soup.  His reading proficiency and speed has improved so much- he read me the entire book about as fast as I could have read it, with no mistakes, and only asked how to pronounce one word out of the whole book.  I would say that the book's level was on the easy side for him  and I'm so pleased with his progress.  For the three younger kids, my main goal for now has been to get them all to the point where they're strong readers, and it feels good to have accomplished that with one of them so far. 

Max had his turn for one on one time with me next, and he chose to cut some things out of his Kumon cutting book while I watched.   While he was cutting, he told me that without his bones he would not be able to stand up, and then stopped cutting to demonstrate by laying down on the floor.   I think this came from the reading we did about skeletons today.  He also told me that God made him good at cutting.  Then he pasted his cut outs onto some construction paper and made a new picture.  When I asked him what color paper he wanted, he said 'Kid blue, not baby blue."  It took me a second to realize he wanted the darker blue construction paper instead of the light blue.  LOL.  Funny kid.

After that, Maddie and I did Miquon and Explode the Code and read me a Dr. Seuss book,  then it was time for lunch.

Zach is just starting the middle ages in Sonlight Core 6.  He's doing well with SL language arts, Math U See, and some other things mixed in.   I can't wait until he gets to read The Great and Terrible Quest, that's a great book and I think he'll really like it.

We took all of the kids to the pumpkin patch last weekend and this weekend we're hoping to find time to go to the zoo and see all of the animals we're studying.   We are finally, just this week, enjoying cooler temperatures.

Zach and I are almost done studying Ancient Rome.  We are finishing up The Eagle of the Ninth as a read aloud and Zach's current readers is The Bronze Bow which is about Galilee during Roman occupation, in the time of Jesus.

The younger kids and I have been reading about volcanoes so we made one out of salt dough and then today we made "lava" with red food coloring, baking soda, and vinegar, and we watched it erupt. 

Some other things the kids have been busy with:

Making musical "instruments"

Trying to make a rocket out of a bottle and vinegar and baking soda

Reading with dad

Losing teeth

And my favorite, Luke reading to the other kids

Luke had a meltdown about cleaning up his toys, so I told him he didn't have to put them away then, but he couldn't keep them if he wasn't able to pick them up and take care of them, so I'd be taking them all.  I started tossing them all in a bag, and then caught him tip-toeing down the stairs to slip a note to Zach.  The note said SAVE THE TOYS. 

Max's latest thing is looking at me soulfully and saying "I love you in the whole wide world."   You also can't just ask for a kiss,; oh no, he gives what he calls "kiss-hugs".  He wraps his little arms around my neck and then gives me a big smooch. 

This year Zach feels he's too old to go trick or treating, (at 13), and wants to just decorate the yard and stay home and pass out candy.  That went much too fast.

On a recent search for cool homeschool t-shirts, I came across these two which I especially liked:

What homeschooler hasn't heard the ol' socialization argument?  And the one below cracked me up, because a lot of it is true for us, and because my oldest gets a weekly schedule so that he can keep track of his history reading and independent work, and on one line I do write "CHORES" to remind him to go look at his chore chart everyday. 

I have no affiliation with this site, but thought I should list where I found them:

Great homeschool tshirts

Or maybe it should be whom?

I am learning a lot from my kids.  I had all of these grand ideas last spring when planning our new school year and have learned that being flexible is really important, because having fun with them and buidling a good relationship with them is a lot more important than if they learn a particular thing now or a year from now, or if they want to learn something now that I hadn't planned on. 

I wasn't going to do any formal math with Maddie this year, I think that for a kindergartner, simply providing a lot of opportunities to count and sort and add and subtract, during everyday life is enough.  Just setting the table, or counting people while in line, or sorting m&ms by color.   But Maddie kept asking me when she would get to do math like Luke and I realized it was silly not to take 15 minutes to do a math workbook with her if she prefers that to math games and everyday math.  We'll still do those other things as they come up, but I got her a Miquon Orange math workbook because they're only $6 and I had one for Luke that I really was impressed with.  She is still at counting and sorting and simple addition, so I'm sure she'll need more help later, but right now she doesn't need much help.  Being Maddie, she is making all of her workbook pages beautiful too.  When there was a number 7 with a blank space to draw 7 simple objects or shapes, Maddie took that one step further and drew 7 people, all with different hairstyles and expressions, all with balloons over their heads saying different things.  She had a whole story going on with this page.  She has been totally unspoiled by a traditional school setting, and thinks math is fun.  How great is that?!

And some of the books I love and was looking forward to reading to them, they have not liked.  I've had to put those books away and remind myself that there are many years still for them to want to read those books, and in the meantime, I've found that none of us will die if I give in and read them The Magic Treehouse.  ;)