Juli Ford

feels like summer

Pssst...don't tell the kids...but I think school is out.  Of course, this is the beauty of homeschooling and we all know the learning just keeps on happening day and night all year through.  But, the plans I had to finish up a couple last things before we called it summer?  umm... forget it.  It feels like summer now.  So I think we'll just go with that.  (A few more photos of our summer kick off week-end here.)

Our Family Book Love List

I think this is going to be part one of a seven or eight part series about our homeschooling curriculum and organization that I have begun to put together.

Fair warning- this is a very lengthy post and it has no photos!  Sort of the precise opposite of how I usually post but I think the content calls for such a post.  So...here we go...

Here is what we’ve been reading over the past year or two.  I've mainly just included what we have read together as a family and what we have all truly enjoyed (you'll see comments if I thought otherwise).  In general, we don't ever drive anywhere without listening to audio books in the car so I have included a lot of commentary here on audio book versions of these books, particularly where I thought the narrators for the stories were really terrific.

The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder (I also highly recommend the audio books which are read by Cherry Jones.  Her voice is somehow just right for these books).  This is a series of nine books that we could read and listen to over and over again.  We have also purchased some of the other Little House books about Rose Wilder and there are others about Laura’s maternal line but so far absolutely nothing comes close to the amazing authenticity and beauty of the original series.  There are also Little House Chapter Books which are fun and brief versions of some of the original stories.  These are great for a very new reader who had already enjoyed having the original series read to her/him and wants to live into it a bit on their own.

The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis- This series was one of my absolute all-time favorites.  I don’t know how I missed these books growing up but I would read them again and again.  The audio books are also excellent.  There are differing opinions about in which order to read the books.  You can read the seven books in the order in which they were published or the internal chronological order of the series.  We read in the publishing order on the advice of a friend who is a Narnia fan and this seemed to work well for us:

Publication order:
1.The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
2. Prince Caspian (1951)
3. The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" (1952)
4. The Silver Chair (1953)
5. The Horse and His Boy (1954)
6. The Magician's Nephew (1955)
7. The Last Battle (1956)

Chronological order:  (this is the way the collection is ordered if you get them as a group)
1. The Magician's Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader"
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

 Tales from the Odyssey by Mary Pope Osborne-There are six books in this series and I highly recommend the audio book version of these stories.  The actor who reads them is fantastic.   We read these books as part of our study of ancient Greece. The kids absolutely loved these stories which are a very exciting and well-written version of Homer’s classic Odyssey.  Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well-Trained Mind advocates giving kids age appropriate versions of classic literature so that they grow to love the stories and are later able to appreciate the original texts without being intimidated by them and I completely agree with this concept. 

As an aside- Nick (at age 5) really loves Mary Pope Osborne’s Magic Tree House series.  I like that they include so much history in each of the stories but I find them far less exciting to read than the other books I have mentioned so far on this list.  I definitely think these are great for older kids to read to younger kids if parents (like me!)would rather read somewhat more eloquent and exciting writing.

 Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan - We really loved these five books and this is another audio book narrator that I would highly recommend (Jessie Bernstein does an amazing job with a huge variety of characters in the books.)  I am glad that we listened to the Tales from the Odyssey and studies Ancient Greece before we read these as I think it gave us a firmer foundation in Greek mythology before we were exposed to the mythology of Percy Jackson’s world (which is super fun but admittedly altered quite a bit from traditional mythology).  You also will want to exercise your own judgment on what age you think this series is appropriate for.  It worked very well for us but some kids might find some parts a little too scary.

We have just started the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and we love book one but I don’t know yet how far into the series we will go this soon.  I’ve heard it may be a bit old for them- stay tuned on that.

 Books we have read for our book club this year included:

Half Magic by Edward Eager- very fun and cute story about four siblings who find a magic coin that only grants half of what anyone wishes for.  We all enjoyed this one.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater- the kids loved this but it wasn’t one of my personal favorites (I thought it was a little dull).

Heidi by Johanna Spyri- I am really glad we read this and we all truly loved the story but it does seem to go on and on so prepare yourself for that before you dig in!

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin- We just loved this book.  It was so beautiful and alive with such vivid imagery.  We later read The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin and we enjoyed it but not nearly so much as Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

A Cricket in Times Square by George Selden- Not my favorite book club selection but the kids enjoyed it and it sparked a little interest in Italian Opera.

 Other great ones:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl- very fun.

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White- adored it.

The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White- another favorite

Stuart Little by E.B. White- loved this one too but a warning about some of these books that have been made into movies or even TV shows- I really try at all costs to avoid ever seeing the movie before reading the books.  It tends to really diminish the experience of the book because of how the movie has already hijacked the imagination of the child (or the adult for that matter!). 

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink- another pioneer girl story.  This was also an excellent audio book.

The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgiesh- A true story set in 1707, young Sarah Noble and her father traveled through the wilderness to build a new home for their family.  Another good audio book.

Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen- This was a beautiful story and a great audio book.  If you can read this in March and tie it in with a visit to a local maple sugar farm it really helps the story come alive for the kids.

The Moffats by Eleanor Estes- A wonderful story and a great audio book too- old fashioned and sweet family fun.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett- We absolutely loved this timeless classic.  The audio version is excellent.

 Some other books that Alexa (age 7) enjoys reading on her own:
Every American Girl book ever written
Nancy Drew Mysteries
The Bailey School Kids series
Rainbow Magic books
Ramona Books by Beverly Cleary
Hoofbeats: Katie and the Mustang series by Kathleen Duey
Pony Pals series
Pony Crazed Princess series

Some other books that are a bit of a yawn for Mom but that Nick (age almost 6) really likes having read to him (I am so happy when Alexa reads these to him):

A to Z Mysteries
The Boxcar Children series
Puppy Place series
Dragon Slayers Academy series

These last two sections are not necessarily books that I am highly recommending, more just fun reading that the kids enjoy and that I don't object to.  Not great literature but they are, I believe, appropriate for them, not in any way offensive and they often enjoy them together.

Stay tuned for more homeschool curriculum and organization posts.  And if you have any great reading suggestions, I would love to know about them!

merry making

And now for something completely different....we decided to switch gears a bit from all the usual Christmas cooking of yummy edible treats and cook up yummy smeliing bodycare gifts this year.  Inspired in part by this awesome and easy recipe for Peppermint Lip Balm from Amanda Soule of Soule Mama, we also concocted a few more potions of our own including Peppermint Bath Salts and Vanilla Coconut Sugar Scrub.  Yum!  The house smells so good and I didn't have to monitor anyone's sugar consumption while making the gifts!

The recipes were incredibly simple.  We just made them up after being inspired by many different recipes we came across while browsing lots of different sources online.

Peppermint Bath Salts (makes two 8 oz. jars)

2 cups Coarse Sea Salt
2 Tbsp. Baking Soda
2-3 Drops of Peppermint Essential Oil

Mix all ingredients together and pour or spoon (we used a funnel) into glass mason jars.

Vanilla Coconut Sugar Scrub (makes 4 or 5  8 oz. jars- we did the recipe twice to get 9 jars)

2 cups Coarse Sea Salt
2 cups Turbinado Sugar
1 cup Coconut Oil (liquified by placing jar in warm water)
2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Mix all ingredients together and spoon into glass mason jars.

Smell the goodness in the air!

Back to Homeschool

Just a few highlights from our homeschooling experience in September.  I'd like to blog more soon about the curriculum we're using this year and our schedule and rhythm...hmmmm....yes, I would like to do that.  In the meanwhile, there are also a few more pictures over at Flickr too.

Math fun with shapes. (I think what they actually enjoy most about these is when the elastics on the Geoboards "accidentally" spring off the board and fly randomly across the room.)

Alexa's watercolor of fall from our Art Class.

Second Grade copywork.

Alexa's drawing from our monthly Book Club.  We read Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin and we loved it!

Nick's Roman Legion Signum from History Class.

Checking the rain fall on our Science class rain gauges.

Dragon Lion Bread. Well, we had every intention of celebrating Michaelmas again this year by making Dragon Bread but when the 29th of September rolled around, we were so deeply into next month's Book Club selection, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, that it turned into Lion Bread instead.  Well. at least we got our dragon fix earlier in the month with Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

September would not be complete without an apple picking trip!  (Although this looks more like pumpkin picking, doesn't it?  Many of you know that I hold back a lot of apple picking pictures each year in case some of them make it onto the Christmas card so it will be a surprise.  So... I am sharing the apple-picking-picture-of-the-pumpkin-tree.  We loved Tougas Farm, by the way.)

It has been a really great start to our homeschooling year here and I'm so glad I took a few minutes to look back and blog about it.  It helps put the month in perspective for me.  I spend a lot of time reviewing what we've done, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't and make changes where we need to.  Sometimes that means I am caught up quite a bit in the details.  But taking a look at the month as a whole and sharing some of it here helps me see the bigger picture and helps me realize that, yes, it was a really great month!  We're off to a good start.

 

Life Lessons

This just suddenly appeared on the homeschool table today.  I am not sure if there is any particular incident (or just ongoing family conversations) that led to this but... I think I like it!  We are "back to homeschool" as of last Tuesday and I will have more to share on that soon but I couldn't resist posting this here right away.  It made me smile.

Feels like spring....

So we decided to do a little planting...

And get our hands into a bucket of dirt...

And reclaim a corner of our dining room that had been given over to a small table and chair set for the last few years that, thanks to the homeschool room re-do (more on that later), has been passed along to smaller children.  For now, the corner will host a little bit of whatever we are growing...

christmas album 2009...part two

The festivities continue but...where is the snow?!!

-Gingerbread House (and train!)- we decided to skip a lot of the work and go straight for the fun this year by buying kits instead of doing it all from scratch.  Last year we did it all ourselves, all organic, no fake colors etc....  This time, I told myself, let's make it easy and fun because we don't eat it anyways.  Well...I overestimated the self-control of a four year old boy and, let's just say, things are deteriorating around here in gingerbread village and I kind of wished I had used vegetable-dye based colored candies...

-Lots of yummy (and organic because we ARE eating them!) Gingerbread cookies.

-A little gift for our dear neighbor, Frank, who turned 90 last week!  He tells us he now has a new goal- 100!  Go Frank!!

-A special day (not pictured) with Grammy, Grampy and cousins, Noah and Miles, decorating Grammy and Grampy's tree, watching the Polar Express in Grampy's movie theatre and finding Willy the Bear's secret note and hidden candy in the woods behind the house.

-A couple of spiffy Christmas kids for the Plymouth Philharmonic's Holiday Pops Concert- an annual tradition we look forward to all year long.

-Joseph arrived on the star path- at last!

-A LOT of wonderful christmas stories.  We are particularly enjoying The Light in the Lantern.

Hope you are all enjoying this most wonderful time of the year as much as we are!