In our home school we read a TON of books for all subjects, but we do have some books that are specifically for Literature. Some books we read in a couple weeks, and other books are spread out over the whole school year.
Literature - Chapter Book
These usually take a couple weeks to a month to read, depending on how interested we are in the story.
We started reading The Princes and the Goblin by George MacDonald, but the kids were worried about the idea of goblins (their previous exposure to goblins being The Lord of the Rings), so I read the book and found these goblins to be stupid, awkward sort of fellows, but my kids aren't buying into my reassurances, and freak out when I bring it out. So we are listening to the Redwall series by Brian Jacques (currently Mattimeo - book 3) which we started listening to on our recent family trip to California. This is one thing I love about homeschooling - when something doesn't work for us we change it! But I would still recommend The Princess and the Goblin to anyone who may be interested and doesn't have a fear of goblins.
Literature Tales
These are books we will read over the course of the school year. We usually read one chapter spread out over a month or one story per week depending on the length of the chapters/book.
American Tall Tales by Adrien Stoutenberg - For example, this books has 8 chapters, so we will read several pages once a week to read an entire chapter in a month.
Little Pilgrim's Progress by Helen L. Taylor - The chapters are short enough to read one per week. This is a beautiful children's version of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and we are really enjoying it. I was amazed that my kids understood my explanation of what an "allegory" is and were able to point out some of the symbolism from the first few chapters (King, Celestial City, etc.)
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit - This will be the third year we have been reading from this book. We do one to two plays a month. We've read Romeo and Juliet more times, because it is Nyah's favorite (She loves all that drama!). Next year we will move on to Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb, which have a little more detail and story complexity. I am hoping we will catch some live performances of Shakespeare's plays this year, but we'll see what happens. And ever since I watched the movie Tea with Mussoulini I have wanted a miniature Globe Theater with puppets, and I finally found one!! Shakespeare's Globe is on my Christmas list!
Ambleside Online and Milestone's Academy (two curriculum guides I use) both recommend reading Charles Kingsley's The Heroes, which are Greek myths, but instead I am using a beautiful book I already own called A Children's Treasury of Mythology by Margaret Evans Price, which are Greek myths with some Roman tales as well. We read one per week and the kids are really enjoying these as well.
Books & Mud Puddles - Sharing our homeschooling adventures with our family, friends, and the homeschool community.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Sketch Tuesday
We missed doing last weeks assignment so I gave Austin & Nyah two options: Sketch something you see at the library OR Sketch an animal that can climb.
I love how Nyah combined the two and drew a picture of a book about "How Things Can climb" with monkeys on the front cover.
I love how Austin always uses arrows to show the action of his pictures: the squirell climbing the tree to get to its hole and the bees flying into the beehive.
Outdoor Hour Challenge
Due to the wind and rain we have today we didn't get to do all the activities we had planned for our tree study, such as sitting by our trees or the bark rubbings. Hopefully we'll get to do those sometime soon. So today we looked out the window and the kids braved the outdoors to find some leaves, and then we did our journal pages. I look forward to watching our trees all year long.
Nyah and I both picked a maple tree in our front yard:
Nyah's journal page:
My journal page:
Austin picked a japanese maple in our backyard:
Austin's journal page:
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Natuer Study/Science - Fall 2009
Nature Study
We have been doing the Handbook of Nature Study blog Outdoor Hour Challenges, and plan on continuing this as long as Barb keeps posting challenges! Sometimes we do write and draw in our nature journals, but mostly we enjoy learning about the world around us.
For nature tales (fictional nature stories), we are currently reading Pagoo by Holling C Holling, and we will read Secrets of the Woods by William J. Long next.
Science
For science experiments we are trying out the Backyard Scientist series for the first time. We've only done it once so far (our official school start was September 16th), but the kids really enjoyed it and have been asking to do more.
We will be finishing up God's Design for Life: The Animal Kingdom this year as well. It is a short book, but with all the other things we do we moved through this really slow last year. I like that it is told from a christian viewpoint (acknowledging the world and all its creatures are God's creations), but there are some ideas that I'm not completely confident about, so I carefully pre-read and leave out what I don't want to include. Also, it can be "textbook-y" so I keep it really short- Yesterday it wanted us to label a pie chart - why? Nothing against pie charts, but I can just say insects make up the majority of arthropods, we don't need to label a pie chart to get it.
I am still waiting on a couple books from amazon, and Science: 100 Scientists Who Changed the World is one of them. It gives (can you guess?) a brief biography of 100 scientists whose work changed the world.
We are also reading another book that is similar to 100 scientists, called The Story of Inventions, but this focuses on inventors and inventions of the last 200 years, while the 100 Scientists includes other time periods (such as the one we are studying this year - the Renaissance & Reformation).
For science tales we will be reading Look at the Sky and Tell the Weather, which is a collection of stories about "a single air mass traveling from the Canadian Rockies to the northeastern United States (back cover)."
We have been doing the Handbook of Nature Study blog Outdoor Hour Challenges, and plan on continuing this as long as Barb keeps posting challenges! Sometimes we do write and draw in our nature journals, but mostly we enjoy learning about the world around us.
For nature tales (fictional nature stories), we are currently reading Pagoo by Holling C Holling, and we will read Secrets of the Woods by William J. Long next.
Science
For science experiments we are trying out the Backyard Scientist series for the first time. We've only done it once so far (our official school start was September 16th), but the kids really enjoyed it and have been asking to do more.
We will be finishing up God's Design for Life: The Animal Kingdom this year as well. It is a short book, but with all the other things we do we moved through this really slow last year. I like that it is told from a christian viewpoint (acknowledging the world and all its creatures are God's creations), but there are some ideas that I'm not completely confident about, so I carefully pre-read and leave out what I don't want to include. Also, it can be "textbook-y" so I keep it really short- Yesterday it wanted us to label a pie chart - why? Nothing against pie charts, but I can just say insects make up the majority of arthropods, we don't need to label a pie chart to get it.
I am still waiting on a couple books from amazon, and Science: 100 Scientists Who Changed the World is one of them. It gives (can you guess?) a brief biography of 100 scientists whose work changed the world.
We are also reading another book that is similar to 100 scientists, called The Story of Inventions, but this focuses on inventors and inventions of the last 200 years, while the 100 Scientists includes other time periods (such as the one we are studying this year - the Renaissance & Reformation).
For science tales we will be reading Look at the Sky and Tell the Weather, which is a collection of stories about "a single air mass traveling from the Canadian Rockies to the northeastern United States (back cover)."
Monday, September 21, 2009
History - Fall 2009
We are at the start of a new school year, so I thought I would share some of the resources we plan on using, starting with History.
For World History we are studying the Renaissance & Reformation era. The books we will be using are:
Famous Men of the Renaissance & Reformation will be our main spine. This just barely shipped from amazon today, so we will be about a month late getting started. Last year we used HA Guerber's The Story of the Middle Ages, which told history in a story format (the link has sample chapters), and my kids had a hard time listening and following along. Too many extra details I think. I'm hoping with Famous Men we can focus on the stories of the important people of the era and fill in details (dates, places, politics, etc.) with later school years.
For history biographies we are going to read Bard of Avon, Leonardo da Vinci, and Good Queen Bess by Diane Stanley. We might also read her Michelangelo book if we have time.
We will also check out library books, such as those recommended by Simply Charlotte Mason, to give the kids an idea of how people lived, what the houses and buildings looked like,
For American History we are mainly reading biographies (some fiction), and aren't really focusing on a specific time period. Some of these books I specifically want to read with them, and some I just already have and may include.
Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims
Path to the Pacific: The Story of Sacagawea
A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple (Mayflower, 1620)
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32
We will read also read The American Revolution
Nyah's Liberty Girls club is reading the Kaya books, which is the Native American - American Girl.
Austin's Knights of Freedom club is doing the American frontier era through the Childhood of Famous Americans series and will be reading Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Buffalo Bill, and Crazy Horse.
I also have the I Love America teacher resource kit which highlights an american history story each month September through May, which I sometimes remember to use.
There are also other subjects where we touch on history information, such as our Foreign Country Study, Composer Study, Artist Study, and Poetry, but history isn't the focus of these subjects so they aren't included in the history journals, but we do add important people and events to our timeline.
We do history 2 days a week (Mon & Wed), for about 15-30 minutes at a time. After I read from the book the kids illustrate the story in their history journals and I will write or help them write anything they want to say about it. We also place a picture with a little bit of information in our timeline notebook, and find the places discussed on our maps.
For World History we are studying the Renaissance & Reformation era. The books we will be using are:
Famous Men of the Renaissance & Reformation will be our main spine. This just barely shipped from amazon today, so we will be about a month late getting started. Last year we used HA Guerber's The Story of the Middle Ages, which told history in a story format (the link has sample chapters), and my kids had a hard time listening and following along. Too many extra details I think. I'm hoping with Famous Men we can focus on the stories of the important people of the era and fill in details (dates, places, politics, etc.) with later school years.
For history biographies we are going to read Bard of Avon, Leonardo da Vinci, and Good Queen Bess by Diane Stanley. We might also read her Michelangelo book if we have time.
We will also check out library books, such as those recommended by Simply Charlotte Mason, to give the kids an idea of how people lived, what the houses and buildings looked like,
For American History we are mainly reading biographies (some fiction), and aren't really focusing on a specific time period. Some of these books I specifically want to read with them, and some I just already have and may include.
Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims
Path to the Pacific: The Story of Sacagawea
A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple (Mayflower, 1620)
A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32
We will read also read The American Revolution
Nyah's Liberty Girls club is reading the Kaya books, which is the Native American - American Girl.
Austin's Knights of Freedom club is doing the American frontier era through the Childhood of Famous Americans series and will be reading Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Buffalo Bill, and Crazy Horse.
I also have the I Love America teacher resource kit which highlights an american history story each month September through May, which I sometimes remember to use.
There are also other subjects where we touch on history information, such as our Foreign Country Study, Composer Study, Artist Study, and Poetry, but history isn't the focus of these subjects so they aren't included in the history journals, but we do add important people and events to our timeline.
Outdoor Hour Challenge
We looked at a few pictures online, and I shared some things from the Handbook of Nature Study before heading to a nearby park. I know I was surprised the cattail is found in the "Wild Flowers" section of the handbook. I'd never thought of it as a wild flower.
"(Cattails) are very flexible, and therefore yield to the wind rather than defy it. (HNS p.501)" We found this to be true with the heavy winds blowing around here today! 
The last time we visited this park (~18 months ago) there was a pond with cattails growing on the edges, but today the pond is gone, the land is marshy, and the cattails have taken over the area.
Sword fighting cattail-style
Can you spot their little golden heads? I can because I know where they were when I took the picture! 
No adventure with little kids would be complete without a stop at the playground.
Austin & Nyah decided to use Barb's notebook page, and I did mine in my nature journal.
Austin-
Nyah-
Kelsey-
Sunday, September 20, 2009
A Scene with Clouds
Nyah's
The beach has been in a lot of pictures this week.
She called this one New York City. I guess it could be Central Park. I like the squirrel climbing down the tree. It reminds me of a crazy squirrel that was showing off for Amelia and I at a park in South Carolina. 
Austin'sThe beach
Here is a close up of his crab - the arrows are for things that are falling on the crab- waves, rain, and a coconut. 
This is the rain forest
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