30+ Favorite Resources for Teaching History (& Geography)

 General - These resources will come in handy no matter what curriculum or method you use.

• Timeline Helps from Homeschool in the Woods. How to use timelines, inspiration, lots of resources both for purchase and free.
• Hyper History. An online timeline resource. 
• Notebooking Pages. Free and paid printables. The free section includes many that are great for enhancing history: biography pages, famous missionary pages, timelines, and geography printables.
• ClipArt Etc. Lots of printable images, including Ancient History, American History, Places, Military and many more.
• Online review quizzes for History and Geography are available at Quizlet. (Plus many other subjects!)
• Free History lapbooks and unit studies from Tina's Dynamic Homeschool.

 Ancients

• Learn all about Greek myths on Mythweb.
• Theoi Greek Mythology. Extensive galleries, bios and connections. Extensive links to other sites.
• Paper Dolls of Ancient History: free printables from Practical Pages. I love this blog!
• Clickable Mummy. Everything you ever wanted to know about mummification.

Geography

• U.S. and World Geography: Free maps from Owl & Mouse.
• Outline Maps from Education Place. Free printables, with and without labels. Great for coloring, tracing, & labeling.
• Lizard Point Quizzes. Online geography quizzes.
• Lots of information plus printable flags and maps here: Ducksters. (Other subjects & activities also available)
• Megamaps are available from Owl & Mouse. Big enough to walk on! These would be great for your kinesthetic learner.
• Coloring Book of Flags from Flags of the World. Full color and background information in addition to printables in several sizes.
• United Kingdom Flag Printables from Activity Village.
• Enchanted Learning has some geography resources for anyone and many more for subscribers.
• Many types of customizable online and printable classroom maps are available at Worksheet Works.

People - Use these resources for timelines, notebooking, or making your own lapbooks

• History Clipart Illustrations and Pictures from Classroom Clipart. Use for a timeline, notebooking pages, or however else you need.
• Portrait Gallery from the University of Texas. Public domain images of historical figures including scientists, politicians, musicians, and many more.
• Famous People printables and activities from Activity Village.
• Famous People coloring pages from Crayola.
• British Kings and Queens from Activity Village. 
• You can find printable notebooking biography pages for Artists and Scientists from Homeschool With Index Cards.
• The Historical Person Report page from Guest Hollow provides room for lots of information, including a map of where the person lived.

The Story of the World - This is our history "Spine" in our homeschool. We love the books, the activity guides, and the audio by Jim Weiss. But there are so many more resources to go along with a 4 year history cycle. Here are a few favorites

• Story of the World video links. Videos of songs, documentaries, and more that correspond to the four volumes of The Story of the World. Fantastic resource!
• Sonlight Books arranged by The Story of the World cycles from Home's Cool.
• Literature to Supplement History from Paula's Archives. I love these lists.
• Classical House of Learning: Free classical literature guides following a 4 year cycle.
• The Ultimate Resource and Activity Guide to The Story of the World from Muse of the Morning.
• I love these free planner pages that coordinate with The Story of the World from Homeschool Giveaways.

U.S. History - I know there are many more resources for teaching U.S. History (libraries are overflowing with this sort of thing) but here are a few I've used in recent years

• Printable Resources for Constitution Day. Reading comprehension, word puzzles, and more. 
• Printables and copywork from Harrington Harmonies.

Don't miss all the great resources from Notebooking Pages. They have a lot of free pages, as well as subscription options. (affiliate link)

What are your favorite free or inexpensive resources for teaching History and Geography?
This post is linked here:

You can find these and other resources on my Pinterest board for History:
Follow Karen (Candid Diversions)'s board Learning - History on Pinterest.

The Classical Preschooler - Notes from the GHC

The first session I attended at the GHC was: The Classical Preschooler, From Wonder to Wisdom presented by Lesli Richards.

When I decided to attend this session, I didn't remember that I had read this speaker's book just about a year ago. I just needed the kick start because my littles can sometimes get lost in the shuffle of "doing school" with the older girls.

Once again, there were some great reminders:

Mom's Education Matters - Notes from the Great Homeschool Convention

On Saturday I went to a panel about Classical Education by Andrew Kern, Martin Cothran, Christopher Perrin and Carol Reynolds. It was one of those things where you feel smarter just breathing the same air.

Some of it went over my head, but that just gives me something to aspire to reach. The rest of it I was feverishly scribbling notes.

Here are a few of those notes (be thankful you're not trying to decipher my handwriting. I took the notes and yet I'm struggling to read them). These are not necessarily direct quotes, but how I copied down what I was hearing:

Online Resources for Teaching Math

Math can be a dry subject. For those of us who don't necessarily enjoy Math for its own sake, we need all the help we can get in keeping the review from getting tedious. Here are few of the online resources I've used over the years:

Online Games for Review or Fun

• Fun 4 the Brain. Even our 3 year old enjoys this site. Many different games for addition through division. 
• Think Fun. This company has produced some of our favorite logic board games but they have a few games available to play online for free.
• Starfall. Primarily a phonics and reading site (one of our favorite sites ever!) but they also have a few free math games. There are more math resources for subscribers, but I'm not one so I can't testify to their quality.
• Math Practice. You can choose the operation and the numbers from 0 to 12. It's timed but a child may prefer this to writing out the answers on a time sheet.

Printable Worksheets and Flashcards

• Free Printable Flashcards from The Schoolbell
• Free Printable Flashcards (Color or Black & White) from Multiplication . com
• Online Math Worksheet Generator from The Math Worksheet Site. Includes Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Fractions, Graphing, Telling Time and much more.
• Kidzone Math. Worksheets by grade level (Preschool - 5th) and a few online games.
• Worksheets for Kindergarten through Fifth Grade from Math Worksheet Wizard. Includes shapes, colors, money, and time worksheets.
• Montessori for Everyone has Math and Geometry free printables.
• A Plus Math has worksheets up through basic Algebra.
• Kids Learning Station has printable worksheets for many subjects and over 100 for Math.
• Math-Aids has dynamically created worksheets for everything from addition to Venn diagrams.
• 1 Homeschool has free printable multiplication workbooks.
• Cool Math 4 Kids has printable lessons, games, and puzzles. We printed their colored guide to long division for Tigger last year and it helped her have a breakthrough on this sometimes confusing skill.
• There are Math downloads, games, and videos on this site: Mrs. Van Dyke.
• If your child needs more review on exponents, squares, and volume there are several printable worksheets here: A-Z Worksheets.

Help with Algebra

• Algebra Worksheet Generator from Math . com with an option to create an answer sheet with it.
• Mathway Math Problem Solver. Will solve your Algebra equation (also solves many other types of problems up to and including Calculus and Statistics . You might not want to show the kids this site!

Other Resources

• Free Online Graph / Grid Paper. You never know when you might need some. (For our handwriting challenged children, we have them use graph paper to keep their numbers and columns neat while solving equations.)
• Don't forget Donna Young. Her site is amazing and it includes many Math resources as well.
• Homeschool Math has worksheets, lessons, curriculum planners, videos and links to games.
• Living Math! is a great site with lists for books that teach math concepts naturally, among other things. Lots of inspiration here!

What are your favorite resources for teaching or enriching Math?

You can also see my Pinterest board where I collect Math ideas here:
Follow Karen (Candid Diversions)'s board For Learning - Math on Pinterest.

A Lost Art and Why It Matters

Last night was our Christmas program for our kids' ministry at church. The program usually consists of a few songs (instrumentals by the kids and singing as a choir) and a short reading. This year Prince Charming adapted some excerpts from The Jesus Storybook Bible (a book we highly recommend, by the way) to be read aloud to the congregation.

Due to our experience of the past few years, we knew we wanted only three readers. The sad reason for this is most kids are just not capable of reading aloud. I don't say that to judge them but I do find their education wanting in this respect. We tried to avoid having one of our girls do the reading (not wanting the evening to be turned into a Polly & Tigger Christmas Extravaganza) but one of our best readers (a 6th grade student) had a conflict and couldn't come, so Polly got called up.

Polly is in Fourth Grade. She is only 8 (until Monday, when my baby will be -gasp- nine). And I'm not saying this to brag, but the girl can read. Tigger just turned 6 and her reading skills are not quite as good as her sister's...yet. She's getting there. The really crazy thing is Tigger's reading aloud skills are almost as good as most of the fifth and sixth graders in our Wednesday night ministry.

I'm not kidding. When I coached the kids who wanted to try for our reading jobs this year, I had to tell sixth graders such obvious (to me) tips like:

"A period means you stop. Take a breath."
"A comma means you pause."
"A question mark means your voice should raise a bit at the end of the sentence."
"An exclamation point means you should sound excited!"
"Don't rush. We need to hear the words."
"Only read what's written." (For a child who continually made the same grammatical mistake even though the paper in front of her was grammatically correct.)

So, how can the apparently lost skill of reading aloud be taught? Here's what I think helps:

1. Read aloud to our children. With expression. With excitement for what will happen next in the story. I'm not saying you have to do all the voices, but if you feel up to it, it's fun! Prince Charming and I both read to the girls. Sometimes I'm reading a chapter book to the older two and he reads storybooks to the younger two. Sometimes we switch. We haven't quite graduated to the entire family listening to one read aloud yet but we want to do that too.

2. Books on c.d. Our girls have several books on c.d. and cassette that they listen to, along with the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre version of The Chronicles of Narnia. They have listened over and over again to these since our family has "quiet time" every day when they must be in their beds but can listen to these c.d.s. This also enables them to listen to stories that are slightly above their reading level. (For instance, Polly was well acquainted with Anne of Green Gables because of a book on c.d. long before she could attempt to read the book herself.)

3. Have children read aloud as soon as they've mastered the basics of reading. Tigger reads aloud to her sister Sweet Pea almost every night. This isn't something we've asked her to do, she just wanted to do it. Prince Charming and I were amazed the first time we peeked in their room and saw Sweet Pea hanging on Tigger's every word, since those two sisters are usually somewhat antagonistic toward each other. Apparently that's all forgotten at night when "reading time" starts. Everyone likes to read to an appreciative audience. Tigger started by reading to our borrowed dog, Onyx. (I guess Onyx was good training for what it would be like to read to an active, three-year-old little sister...)

I was proud of all our kids last night. They sang enthusiastically. They sounded sweet, if nervous, for the reading. They behaved well. And that's quite an achievement for 58 bustling youngsters.

But this is what worries me: learning about God requires reading. God gave us His word; the Bible is God's gift to us. What happens when these kids can't read? They have to take our word for what God says. And our goal ought to be for them to be like the Bereans and search the scriptures for themselves. So we'll keep coaching them on Wednesday nights. We'll have them memorize scripture. And we'll keep repeating, "A comma means you pause," when we have to. Because it matters.

Words for Wednesday - On Spelling

Spelling is one of the outward and visible marks of a disciplined mind. - James J. Kilpatrick

How flattering. I am - if I do say so myself - a natural speller. My brain thinks in words. I've tried to explain this to Prince Charming more than once. He doesn't get it because, apparently, he thinks in images. I don't get that either, so I guess we're OK.

Seriously though, it surprised me when he informed me that not everyone has a ticker tape rolling in their heads. Fine then. But I do. Though even it fails me sometimes. And then I ask him to confirm my spelling.

Take care that you never spell a word wrong. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well. - Thomas Jefferson (written to his daughter)

Now I have to confess that I do not use a spelling curriculum with my daughters.

Please don't take away my official homeschooler card. (Actually you can't. My papers are in and my dues are paid. So there.) I spend time (much, much time) teaching them phonics. I spend even more time reading aloud to them, making sure there are literally hundreds of books available to them in our home, encouraging them to write their own stories, to read to each other, to tell us about what they're reading.

All that to say, I know there are different schools of thought on spelling as a subject. One, of course, is that children ought to memorize list after endless list of isolated words. ("Write these ten words three times each") and then there is another school of thought that spelling is primarily a visual skill. This asks the child to visualize the word in her mind. And then there's my school of thought: if they need to spell a word, spell the word, since some folks seem to be natural spellers and some don't. By the way, vocabulary is taught in a similar fashion here at Chez Charming: as they come across a word in their reading, not isolated out of all meaning.

I reserve the right to change my mind on this in the future and implement the most intensive spelling curriculum you've ever seen. Until then, we'll muddle along. And you'll be watching this blog for any and all spelling mistakes this self-professed "Natural Speller" might make.

And just for one more view, don't forget what our seventh president thought about the subject:

It is a d**n poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word. - Andrew Jackson

Mom as Doctor

Did you know becoming a mother is almost as good as a medical degree? Don't believe me?

Well, I ask you, can a doctor simply kiss a hurt spot and "make it all better?" I can. And I do, almost every day (I have four children now. Someone is constantly in need of my make it better services.)

Another way this works is mad diagnostic skills. For instance, just this morning Polly came into my room.

"I itch all over," she told me, close to tears. (Side note: she had been working on a Latin lesson at the kitchen table for about 30 minutes.)

Time for Mom to diagnose what could have caused such terrible discomfort.

"Maybe put Latin away for awhile and work on something else," I suggested.

Problem solved. No need for creams, sprays, or even a closer look at her beautiful skin.

"You were right, Mom!" She called, much happier, from the kitchen a few minutes later.

Schoolwork may cause massive itchiness. Who knew?

Doctor Mom, of course.

Shaping Up Polly's School Year

Polly (currently 8, will be 9 in December, doing 4th grade work):

Bible: memorize 8 scripture passages I've chosen along with a few sundry lists of other things she needs to know.

Poetry: 5 poems from her grammar book (there would be 6 but she already knows one of them)

Grammar: First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Level 4. We love FLL!

Cursive: Pentime Cursive 3. We've been lax in this area in the past and are hoping to improve this year. Polly is left handed and that always throws me a little bit. She has two pen-pals that live in France and that has helped some, but we're hoping for improvement this school year.

Math: Saxon 5/4. Math is not Polly's favorite subject. We play a lot of board games, card games, computer games, etc. in addition to our math curriculum so that math is not just "book work".

History: The Story of the World 4: The Modern Age. We plan to spend some extra time on the American Civil War and gloss over some of the end chapters of this book. This will complete a four year cycle on history so at the end of this year Polly will have studied (chronologically) the Ancients through our Modern Age. Hooray! We've loved these books and I highly recommend them, especially when used with the activity guides. We also keep a Book of Centuries (notebook type timeline).

Science: Physics Experiments for Children by Muriel Mandell. We've followed the recommendations from The Well-Trained Mind, so this will complete a four year cycle of science (Life Science, Earth Science & Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics) Polly will be keeping an experiment notebook.

Latin: We need to finish up Prima Latina before moving on to Latina Christiana 1. Polly and I enjoy doing Latin together but if a subject has to drop, this is always the one.

Art: Picture study a la Charlotte Mason (6 different artists - chosen by me, 6 works by each artist). Polly keeps a sketch book and her dad has promised to teach her some better techniques. Now she just has to hold him to it!

Music: Piano lessons and informal composer study. We listen to a lot of music in this house. We also sing both privately and publicly, so I don't worry about this as a "subject" very much.

Other: we have a French program now but we'll see if we add it or not. Polly is a voracious reader so I don't worry much about that. There are books she'll need to read along with our History curriculum and a few classics I want her to tackle this year (Heidi, Caddie Woodlawn, Just So Stories, for instance) but again, it's not a big concern. She also enjoys Dance Mat Typing (an online typing game offered by the BBC) but it's not on our official schedule. As far as P.E. goes, we have a Wii (that does count these days, right?), my kids play outside most days, and Polly is working on earning her purple belt in Tae Kwon Do.

This post is linked up over at Kris's Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. I just hope I'm not too tempted by what everyone else is doing!

And Next I'll Juggle Three Children, Blindfolded

After a whirlwind weekend (baby shower, trip to our state capitol, swimming, staying up late, attending two church services, traveling back from our state capitol, attending another church service, picking up some food, putting kids to bed, late again...) we're getting back to regularly scheduled programing.

That is: we've started school again. My plan was to go nice and slow, for several reasons:

1. We didn't get much sleep this weekend so we slept in late. (see above)
2. I have two school age children for the first time. (3rd grader and Kindergarten)
3. We've missed some habit training this summer and are starting over again. (Yes, you do have to make your bed.)
4. We have a busy weekend this week too: our annual ballgame, Prince Charming is going away for a day to promote his game, our church picnic...

So, I thought Bible, History, Phonics, and Math would be enough to keep us busy for one day. (Plus grocery, library, and everything else, of course.)

The girls are not quite seeing it my way though. They understand we all slept in and we had a busy weekend, (Eating out! Swimming! Staying up late to watch the Parent Trap! And When! Can! We! Do! It! Again?!) but they do not understand the concept of easing into anything.

"Mom, can we just do all the other subjects too? Please?"
"Mom, can I have a piano lesson today? Please?"

Much as these requests warm my heart (I mean, I took piano for twelve years but I don't think I ever begged for a lesson), the answer is a resounding, "NO." They may be ready but I am not.

I need a few more brain cells awake before we start diagramming sentences and memorizing Latin vocabulary. And I need to discover a failure free way to contain the Two Year Old Terror. (Sample Dialogue from this morning: "Mom, she's kissing me! But she knows I don't want her to!" And that was before she crumpled the alphabet flash cards and tore down Polly's block pyramid.)

What can I say? There's no place like home and nothing like homeschooling.

I'm Not Really Here...

But I'm not there, either. So, yes, I am neither here nor there. It had to happen sometime.

Anyway, my regular blogging has been interrupted. I forgot (gasp!) to put up my "Thursday Thought" from my commonplace book because of all the Baby Shower Craziness yesterday.

And today my mom and I completely blew off all our regular responsibilities and pressing engagements to run down to the Midwest Homeschool Convention for the day. She paid the entry fee, I paid for parking and Afternoon Life Sustenance and general pick-us-up (a.k.a Grande Starbucks). Seems fair to me.

The vendor hall is huge. HUGE. I felt like I was whipping out my debit card every five minutes. Which is not exactly accurate, but I certainly could have been. Actually, I did pretty well, and even bought a few things for the girls for Christmas. And yes, I will be able to find their gifts in December. That's just how organized I am. Don't hate me.

I must confess the highlights of my day both occurred within the first hour and a half I was there:

1. I was privileged to hear the incomparable Susan Wise Bauer (read her blog here) speaking on the importance of educating ourselves. While I have already implemented many of the things she spoke about (probably because I myself am a homeschool graduate), the encouragement that I was on the right track was valuable. And, if I'm being honest, she is the person I want to be when I grow up. Or at least reasonably similar. If I've accomplished a third of what she's accomplished by the time I'm her age, I will be well satisfied. The worst thing was I hadn't brought my copy of one of her books for her to sign. And I was too sheepish to go up and speak to her without it. Plus I didn't want to sound like a pathetic groupie. She's just another human being, homeschool mom, and well-read person, right? That's what I told myself. But then I kicked myself the rest of the day for not speaking to her.

2. I got to introduce myself to the inimitable Spunky. I didn't actually get to hear her entire seminar but I slipped in for the end and spoke to her briefly. She comes by her blog moniker honestly, in case you were wondering. I wish I would have had more time to pick her brain discuss blogging, politics, homeschooling, and pretty much everything else with her. But, again, trying not to act like a groupie, pathetic or otherwise.

I'm already scheming making plans to attend next year. Maybe I can volunteer my proof reading services. There were several grammatical errors on the schedule that irked me every single time I consulted it. Schedules of education programs ought to be grammatically inoffensive. That's all I'll say about that.

Other than that, it was a great day.

Oh, and did I mention that I'm flying to London (England, not Kentucky), Monday?

Yes, my life is pretty much awesome. But then, I already knew that.

Time To Get Organized

I didn't know it until tonight, but one of my blog posts has been entered in a "getting organized" blog carnival over at Heart of the Matter Online. If I had known, I would have dressed up for the occasion. Or something like that. I would have at least put on my good blogging clothes.

I know what I'm going to be doing the next few days: checking out all the great ideas. Organizing is one of my favorite things to do. There are lots of great posts over there so go check them out!

And (imagine me saying, "But wait! There's more!" in my best sales pitch voice) you still have time to compose your thoughts, blog and enter - there are new topics every week.

Schoolwork With Sweet Pea

One of my favorite questions about homeschooling (right after, "What about socialization?") is, "What do you do with your other children?"

My initial response to this is, "Do? I'm supposed to do something with them too?" Don't worry. I hardly ever say that. I'm usually more polite than that in person.

My younger girls are usually kept busy by "doing" school with us. They listen to the same books, they color while we write, they watch our projects (and sometimes help) and sometimes they do their own thing (puzzles, dolls, or any of the other 54,731 toys we own).

However, sometimes they don't want to do the above activities and then I have to go to Plan B. Which, in our case, involves some new activity, usually Montessori inspired. Here's what I came up with last week:

This is Sweet Pea earnestly dropping toothpicks into an old spice container. (My apologies for the picture quality. I've promised myself a new camera someday soon!)
She was fascinated and wanted to do it over and over. Which was fine by me, as it kept her busy and let Polly finish her Math in peace.
Cost: nothing!

Benefit: priceless.

Here are a few of the blogs that have inspired me to get together some learning activities for Sweet Pea:

Chasing Cheerios

The Wonder Years

So, what are favorite ways to keep the younger set busy?

And don't forget to check out more great frugal ideas over at Biblical Womanhood.

Just A Day in the Life

*Warning: homeschooling heavy post forthcoming. And it doesn't concern the above picture. I just threw that in for free*

Today we:
- worked on our scripture passage for February (1 John 4:7-11)
- worked on our poem for this week
- wrote out Polly's letters for today (Rr / Ss)
- sent Tigger back to bed for excessive fussiness
- finished a math assessment
- let Tigger up
- put Sweet Pea down for disorderly conduct (I jest, but she wasn't. And she therefore won a ticket straight to bed)
- finished math page & time sheet
- read two books for History - we were in a chapter about China this week, which Polly loves. She can even find Beijing on the globe. And who knew that the Olympics were held there? I mean, Polly only told me that every day during history this week.
- worked on a Space Shuttle paper for Science
- did picture study of Sunflowers in a Vase by Van Gogh
- released Sweet Pea from solitary confinement
- wondered how on Earth I was going to manage to read our Shakespeare story for this week
- utilized my new best friend, Librivox

This is how amazing Librivox is: my three girls, yes, all three, sat in my room coloring papers while listening to a very lovely British voice reading from Nesbit's Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night's Dream, a favorite around here) for..wait for it...fifteen whole minutes. Together. In a row.

I know, I didn't believe it either. But it happened. They all sat at my desk (on two chairs. Sweet Pea likes to overlap both big girls) with their own papers and the good colored pencils (they can't be expected to use Crayola - these girls hold out for the Prismacolor every time) and listened to a classic story while I did other things.

OK, really I was switching laundry and cleaning up the kitchen, but I managed to do it without anyone screaming for my IMMEDIATE attention, RIGHT NOW, "No we cannot possibly wait five seconds and oh my word you are not going to believe what Sweet Pea just ate. HURRY!"

Librivox is my new best friend.

What Label Shall I Choose?

I love education books, homeschooling books, educational theory books...you get the idea. I am certain in my own personal theories (based on personal experience or not). I generally fall in the Classical / Charlotte Mason camps, concerning homeschool practices.

Earlier this month I read a book on "unschooling" just exercising my curiosity about other methods. What I read (some of which has already stirred up varied reactions in my post on phonics / whole language) astounded me.

Instead of being some variation on Charlotte Mason, these parents seemed to think they ought to always follow their child's lead and never, under any circumstances, induce a child to study something he/she is not "drawn to" or interested in. This quote is indicative of the mindset:

"We have no restrictions on television watching - except volume! I don't feel there is any point to restricting their viewing. I want them to learn to self-regulate, not to be dependent on me to tell them what they should do. Also, it would be antithetical to my unschooling philosophy to prescribe or proscribe any source of information." "Amy, Idaho" quoted by Mary Griffith in The Unschooling Handbook

Well, I want my children to learn to self-regulate too, but I don't set them in the midst of all our Christmas candy and let them gorge until they've had enough. Prince Charming and I - gasp - actually set limits on certain things. We do this not because we enjoy spoiling every one's fun (although I have been accused of this) and not because we're absolute control freaks (again, I have been accused of this too) but because these are our children. We love them more than anything else in the world. We believe part of our job is teaching them to set parameters and showing them how we follow rules ourselves. (Contrary to childish wishes, we never grow up to completely "boss our own selves")

I could get into how this all relates to the doctrine of man and doctrine of God, original sin or spark of divinity, etc., but I can sense your eyes glazing over already. Suffice it to say: I disagreed with most of what this book advocated. And the part I agreed with? We're already doing it.

See, that's the pertinent point. Not only do my children have a proscribed curriculum (chosen by me to fit each individual child) we also do all the fun stuff they encourage in this book. Board games? Real life experiences? Lots of books, movies, and computer games? Art projects? Science experiments? Um, yes. We do all that and much more. We just don't depend on it for all that we hope and expect our children to learn. (Charlotte Mason called this time "masterly inactivity", by the way. Which is: kids allowed to be kids, but with a purpose.)

Maybe I'm a Classical Educator / Charlotte Mason acolyte in the mornings and Un-Schooler in the afternoons? So, if you're looking for a label for what type of homeschoolers we are (other than just crazy, that's a given), this sounds about right to me.

My Two Cents on Learning to Read

I finished a homeschooling book yesterday. This book was a little different from my usual type and I will be talking more about how later, but right at the beginning of the book something jumped out at me. Specifically: the age old battle between "Phonics" and "Whole Language" advocates. Did you think there was anything new under the sun concerning education theory?

"When you show a child an object, a dress for instance, has it ever occurred to you to show him separately first the frills, then the sleeves, after that the front, the pockets, the buttons, etc.? No, of course not; you show him the whole and say to him: this is a dress. That is how children learn to speak from their nurses; why not do the same when teaching them to read? Hide from them all ABCs and all the manuals of French and Latin; entertain them with whole words which they can understand and remember with far more ease and pleasure than all the printed letters and syllables."

That was written in 1787 by Nicholas Adam. It is true that he was a very educated man and that he could speak several languages. Unfortunately, it is also true that this quote shows he had no idea what he was talking about.

When you are showing things to a baby, do you say, "That's a 'chair', that's a 'cow', that's a 'dog', I'm 'Mom' and tomorrow we'll move on to other words"?

I'm guessing (hoping) the answer is "no". In our house it goes something like this: "This is a dog, Yes, the dog is soft, isn't she? No, don't pull her fur. Yes, the dog does say 'woof''' and so on. In other words, we are explaining the object as we introduce it. And we will most likely have to explain it multiple times before the little tot catches on. (How many times do we say things like, "Say 'Mama'. Ma-ma. Ma-ma. Mama loves her baby. Say 'Mama'." Before our little one imitates us. And then it's only a short while before we are wondering why we didn't teach them "Da-da" first, but that's another issue!)

Phonics does the same thing. We introduce the sounds those tricky letters can make, and how they combine into words. We show similarities between words. We memorize some words for ease of reading. (Generally known as "sight" words.)

We surround our children with the best Children's literature, nursery rhymes, folk songs, picture books, and non-fiction books about their interests. We read cereal boxes, signs, Sunday comics, and joke books. Eventually (each child is different, but the only people who don't realize that are bureaucrats in Washington) the child wants to learn to decode these wonderful things. A rich literary background will give them more building blocks during phonics lessons, easing her entrance into the wonderful world of reading. (And it is wonderful!)

Oh and Mr. Adams? I'm guessing he never actually sewed a dress. It's complicated and you do have to learn each thing separately: this is the left bodice, this is the right, this little piece will become the collar, these two pieces must be sewn together, here are the buttons and do be careful when setting the buttonholes, have you measured twice?"

Knowing what something is and knowing why something is and how to duplicate the effect, are very different concepts. So now, as if there was any doubt, you know what camp I'm in: Phonics all the way, baby,with a thorough exposure to good books and language before, during, and after formal learning-to-read lessons. Why mess with what works?

*For those of you not familiar with my sense of humor: that last paragraph means I consider myself a "both are necessary" kind of person. You can't teach phonics without lots of great literature, you can't teach "whole language" without some phonics awareness. Sorry for my lack of clarity in that respect.*

Our Homeschool December

Over at Heart of the Matter online folks are talking about the holidays. Here's what goes on 'round these parts.

We do:

- Celebrate Christmas!
- Make a list of all things we would like to do (ride train at the mall, watch certain movies, bake certain cookies, etc.)
- Read from our extensive Christmas book collection. This year is the first that Polly has really enjoyed reading them by herself. She's read The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey aloud to her younger sisters at least twice already. These are books we only bring out after Thanksgiving and all the girls love looking at them and having them read.
- Take off for about two weeks, roughly around the same time as our local school districts take off.

We don't:

- Emphasize Santa Claus. We have fun reading the stories and poems. We have fun watching movies (Rudolph!). We do not pretend that Santa comes to our house. Our children know he isn't "real". We still manage to have fun. And yes, we do try to prevent our children from spoiling things for other children. So far, so good.
- Emphasize Jesus' birthday. The reason is simple: December 25th is, most likely, not the birth date of our Savior. If God had wanted us to know the exact date, it'd be right there in Scripture. We're still grateful for the opportunity to reflect on Jesus coming to Earth, and the eternal repercussions of His doing so.
- Have special lessons. We continue with our usual studies (Math, History, Science, & Reading. We ease up on Grammar for a bit). We do crafts and activities from the list mentioned above, but these are not from my school planning. They're more spontaneous, if you can consider listing everything first spontaneous.

So far we have not:
- Learned about other December holidays (Hanukkah). We will eventually study Jewish holidays (feasts and fasts). But we haven't yet. I have absolutely no plans at all to study other Winter observances (Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice).

It's a busy month for us. Polly's birthday is right before Christmas and we always have a party. We've managed to make it special for her, I think, because she told me that she loves having her birthday right before Christmas. Now, back to my mile long to do list.

And, it must be said, if there really were a Santa Claus "making a list and checking it twice", Tigger would be on the "naughty" list. It's been that kind of day.

What We've Been Learning

Today marks the last day of our first term of school. I don't divide things by quarters or semesters, at least, not yet. We officially started this school year August 18. We've taken four days off since then (one to go to a McCain-Palin rally, one because we didn't have any electricity for three days and therefore took a "wind" day, one for Tigger's birthday, and one for a family reunion). We've also done school work on three Saturdays. Which means only one day really "lost".

It's time for a break! This year we get to spend an entire week with Prince Charming's family (well, they're mine too, now, but you know what I mean, right?). We had planned to take a few items of school work for Monday and Tuesday but the Principal and the Teacher have jointly decided that we'll have an entire week of vacation instead.

I am actually more excited about this than Polly, I think. She won't miss her timed Math sheets, that's for sure, but everything else she really enjoys.

So what have we gotten done in these 14 weeks? A quick summary:
3 New Sections of Scripture memorized (Psalm 1, Matthew 5:3-12, Psalm 113:1-9)
7 Poems memorized ("Let Dogs Delight to Bark and Bite", "Little Things", "Something Told the Wild Geese", "Who Has Seen the Wind?", "The Goops", "'The Little Bird", and "The Year")
59 Math lessons (Saxon 2)
8 Math Assessments
47 Timed Math Fact Sheets
41 Language Lessons
31 McGuffey's Reader Lessons
14 Science topics + supplemental reading (my list is incomplete, much to Polly's annoyance)
14 Chapters of History (The Story of the World 2) complete
14 map pages for History
14+ coloring pages for History (some chapters have more than 1)
20 Supplemental Picture Books for History (6 read by Polly, 4 read by Mom, the rest by both of us taking turns) The last two we read are these:


We highly recommend the first one. Polly read the second one by herself. She came to me a few times for help. ("Mom, is this person really named 'Snorre'?" "Yes, honey. Glad you're not a viking?")

Polly has also started compiling a list of all the books she has read, whether for school or not. She's currently at nineteen. Thirteen of those are within the past two weeks. She's really annoyed that we didn't start this list at the beginning of school. ("I could have had 100 by now!")

We haven't really worked on handwriting like I feel we should but Polly has been writing. We've done copywork several times (not everyday) and dictation in accordance with our language textbook. We also use a lot of narration in Science and History. I do not require Polly to write reports and this will continue probably until she's around ten years old. I also don't test her in any subject other than math. And, even in math, it is simply called an "assessment" and we keep it very low-key.

Polly is really starting to take off with her reading and it is so fun to watch. Now the challenge of monitoring her reading choices (books from the library) has really begun.

And have I mentioned that Tigger is "doing school" these days? She's learned all 26 letters and their primary sounds. She knows two sight words ("the" and "I"). We're taking the whole "sounding out" thing very slowly. It hasn't quite clicked for her. No rush. She's not even a whole "handful" yet.

One of the benefits of being second generation homeschoolers is raiding the stash of the first generation (aka "Mom", aka "Gram"). One of my latest acquisitions there was a book about how to use Cuisenaire Rods. Tigger and I have done 4 lessons out of that book. She loves "doing math". And the best part is Polly wants to do the same thing, which makes Tigger feel like she's really grown-up.

Writing all this down makes me realize just how much we've accomplished in a few short weeks. Okay, they were occasionally really long weeks, but still - we've pulled it off! Fourteen down - twenty-six to go. Well, for this school year. After all, we've only been on this particular homeschool odyssey for two formal years (homeschooling really starts at birth, but that's another post).

So really we have many, many more weeks ahead of us. And I'm looking forward to them all.

A Week's Worth of History

These are the books Polly and I read this week to supplement our history studies:
This one I read to all the girls. Tigger really liked the kites. An interesting introduction to the concept of monks and monasteries.



This one Polly and I read together. Some words were a bit above her level but she did very well. We didn't like this story very much. I admit that I'm a little rusty on my Arthurian legends. I doubt I would have chosen this book had it not been recommended in the Story of the World 2 activity guide.


Polly and I read this one together. She enjoyed the story. It is actually the same story as the next book, although this older book has more detail.


This is about the same man as the previous book. The illustrations are just gorgeous. I read this aloud to Polly and Tigger. Polly really enjoyed it since she already knew a bit about the story. She could have read more of this one herself, but I read it to her while she was working on other things.

Hitting the books - eventually

All education has its traditions and homeschooling is no different. One of the best, in our house, is the "big book buy". That's in June or July when I start e-baying and used book-storing like mad to provide the spine of our curriculum for the year. That and I just really like shopping on e-bay and bookstores.

In case you've been wondering our homeschool style is what I am going to one day write a book on: Hybrid Homeschooling. (Seriously. I'm going to write a book about it. When I find the time. And when I have a few more years experience to flaunt tell about.) For us, this is mostly a mixture of Classical Method and Charlotte Mason. And, because of this inclination, we follow a book written by Susan Wise Bauer and her mother, Jessie Wise, called: The Well Trained Mind. We minimally follow their suggestions but we also do a fair bit of culling from every other homeschool idea I've ever had, read about, or heard mentioned, and they are legion.

Part of getting ready for a new "formal" school year, after the BBB (big book buy, remember?) is just piling up all the lovely new or new-to-us material. I make plans with these materials but my children are - this is important - not allowed to take these books and look at them. Absolutely no peeking. Maybe it's just my girls but this one simple rule gets them very excited to actually "start school". We've got some goodies lined up this year:

Polly is doing Saxon 2. Basically second grade work. She tore through Saxon 1, rarely hitting a snag. After careful study on my part I see no reason why this year will be different. We don't actually hit a "new" concept until after lesson 50.
This is our history for this year, also Second Grade work. We enjoyed last year, although we rarely any more than coloring or map work from all the suggested activities. This year we have a good plan and intend to really delve into the Middle Ages. We're both excited!
This is for reading aloud. Polly is reading really well now but in addition to other school things she will also read this to me so we can work on technique.
These two books are the spines for our science program. We're really looking forward to this part of school this year. Our science fell off towards the end last year and we don't want that to happen again. Again, I think with careful planning and then willingness to roll with "real life", we'll get a lot done.

In addition to these specific books we have lots of supplementals planned. And we're looking forward to Fine Art Fridays again. Polly's been asking when we can read another Shakespeare story. I'm not sure I was even aware that William Shakespeare existed when I was 6 1/2.

As a final note, and woeful instance of my own insanity, I will explain why we didn't start this week. I had tentatively planned to start last Monday. Then the opportunity for the two oldest girls to spend the night with one set of my grandparents came up. And - this is the beauty of homeschooling - Prince Charming and I were in complete agreement that they should go. Spending the night with great-grandparents is much more worthwhile than a few lessons.

All well and good but why not start school the next day? I can't. It has to be a Monday. It just has to. I know it's a sickness but I just can't understand starting on some random day of the week. Nope, Monday it is. Schedules will be altered, adapted and destroyed all year long. This one has to happen this way.

(Walter Cronkite voice) And that's the way it is. (end terrible Cronkite impression.)

Edited to add: forgot to mention that we are on year 2 of First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind. We're supplementing by adding more poems to be memorized and it's a bit too much writing for Polly (we skip some writing) but other than that we really like it.

Carry on.

A Mini-Rant

Prince Charming and I have been working on our homeschool notification for the up-coming school year. This is the first year we have to go hat in hand to the ego-maniacal local bureaucracy and beg inform them, "Our child will not be availing themselves of your institutionalized child neglect. Instead we will be actually educating and enjoying time with aforesaid child. Thank you, very much."

As you can see I'm just a little bitter about the whole thing. Everyone should go read Spunky's brilliant post about Truancy and Parental Rights to see why. She explains things much more clearly than I could. And she's just a bit less snarky about it, too.