Little House in the Prairie loves every homeschool mom I know. The booklist of my curriculum recommended it. We also live in Kansas right now and I was so excited to get this beautiful hardcover book with some illustrations. It looked beautifully. Then we started reading and we just could not get into it. For us were the chapters that explained exactly how the house or the hearth was made boring. I did not like how they talked about the Indians especially the mom and the neighbor (even though I understand it was not racism at that time and that's just how it was) and then always "Pa took his gun" and the thought of feeling safe because a gun is in the house just felt weird to me coming from Europe . I told my husband more than once "This is a book you should read to the kids because you are from Texas." Also that the kids were almost annoyingly well behaved did not impress my kids too much I understand that it has valuhato many people and that it shows the life in this time period and I can see why people like it but it's not our thing unfortunately. I really believe this is just an American classic though. I never heard from it back home and most classics you mention we have too. I read a short version of Black Beauty to my kids and they loved that book. I love all your suggestions by the way. I am already making a list right with books I need.

I habe "The Ordinary Princess" at home. That will be the next book I am going to read to my younger girls now . I did not have much English based literature but I really enjoyed Lassie (is that a classic?) and Black Beauty but I am also such an animal lover.

I wished I would be a teacher. I really get nervous around middle school and when my oldest approached high school I really did not feel qualified to keep teaching her. Especially because we are not staying in the US, I am not a native speaker and I don't know how European colleges feel about homeschooling. I really wished I could homeschool my kids all the way through though. Especially because I am not that impressed with high school so far.

Yes, German is our first language and they speak it better than English but we just started on reading and writing it, too. We also want to retire in Germany and while the two oldest will probably finish high school in the US, the two younger ones might finish school in Germany. They love Pippi as TV show but did not pay too much attention with the book.

When I decided to start homeschooling my neigbor at that time yelled at me. She meant it well and was like a mom for me but she said "Everybody I know that homeschooles is depressed and tired. I know that because in the orthodox church many people homescho. You will get tired and look bad and eventually your husband will leave you because you are tired all the time." I csn remember my other neighbors husband standing next to us and laughing "Well, that escalated quickly." However, I love it and my husband is still there but it'd true that it's not the right fit for every family.

There is so so much I loved Räuber Hotzenplotz Die Kinder aus Bullerbü Max und Moritz Die Kleine Hexe This is a good list I found really quick https://buchszene.de/buchempfehlungen/kinder-und-jugendbuecher/klassiker/

Yes, Wilhelm Busch, Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann and others are German classics. My mom always read it to me as a little child and I did not even think there was anything wrong with them and liked them . But it was also normal for me that on 5/6 December St Nicholas came with a bunch of horrible devils (the Krampusnacht) that take bad kids to hell or beat them up . Things I would not really tell my kids I really hope that audiobooks will be a good solution for us together with fun picture books.

Thank you all so much. I am going to look at all the suggested books and authors and we will definitely start audio books.

I just started TGTB math with my beginning 3rd grader and even though I love everything else I also think they teach the multiplication facts weird but thought I might try it. Now after what you said I wonder if I just teach it in number families how I learned it . I mean of course you can change it up and teach in number families instead of the random groups. I will definitely stick with TGTB because it's such a fun math curriculum and my kids love it so much. I also love TGTB language arts but don't do their spelling. We use All About Spelling instead.

I feel like that with some TV shows as well. I loved as a child all these Swedish Astrid Lindgren stuff like Pippi Longstocking, The Kids from Noisy Village (I think thats what it's called in English, and Emil Lönneberga but I don't think my kids would love it that much. When I read Pippi to my kids they listened politely but no magic there even though they love modern funny stories. I mean look at what I got read to if I would suck my thumb, play with fire or don't eat my dinner . These are also absolute classics and I don't think they are especially beneficial to my kids even though they think these stories are hilarious

We don't have many homeschool friends here. We are in a very conservative part in the Midwest and the one meeting I went to I knew immediately that we don't fit in (even though they were very nice and we are Christian too) . All my good friends are non homeschoolers and the kids mainly play with kids that go to public school but sometimes I also meet two homeschool families at the pool. Our neighborhood is filled with kids which makes it easy for the kids to find friends. I still hope that we find a cool homeschool group where we move now.

We are so lazy in our free time when I compare myself to other families here in the US. Mostly the kids here go to school until 4 pm, the parents both work full time and then the kids are in several after school activities a week and have sport games on the weekend or the parents take them out.. That is not for us. I am always home. My husband is the only one that works. My two older ones who started school just play with friends after school or we go to the neighborhood pool to cool of but I plan that they can choose one sport after we moved if they want to. My two younger ones are homeschooled and just hang out on the street with the neighborhood kids when they come back from school. We do go horseback riding once a week while everyone is at school but that's it. Everybody is different. Some families love to be busy all the time but for me that would be too stressful and my kids don't seems bored so far. You just need to find what suits your family best.

I did not try these books yet but thank you for thr suggestion. They really enjoy modern literature more.

I absolutely love it and I never thought I would. I grew up in a country where homeschooling is illegal. Like going to jail and get your kids taken away illegal. I never thought that people who are not teachers could teach their kids. When I saw my son failing in 3rd grade because he could not pay attention and nobody cared I made the decision to pull all four kids out of school and that was the best decision of my life (at least for the three younger ones). My boy got back on track and does so well in middle school now. My oldest also went back to school because I don't feel qualified to do high school but I enjoy to keep my two younger ones home and plan on homeschooling them at least through 5th grade. I really really love it.

I have to say that some stories are also really boring to me as well. Like that Little House on the Prairie book. Everyone recommended it and as we live currently in Kansas I thought it is a must. Then in a lot of chapters it was explained into detail how the dad built the house. English is not our first language and I did not understand some names of the tools and the kids just looked at me confused why we read now that somebody put on a hinge for the door and then hammered three nails in. My kids even busted out laughing out of irony because they thought it was so boring . I felt horrible because I did not see the magic in this book and every single person seems to love it. Maybe also because we are not American and we could not relate enough to the family. I don't know. Glued to my ear were the kids really in "When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit" now when I think about it(a gentle introduction how Jewish people had to suffer in World War II). They kept asking "That happened at home? Why did they need to leave? Did great grandmother not see what was happening? What did Opa do?" We watched the movie after the book and the kids really were highly interested and kept asking questions. My kids like magic and enjoyed the story of "The Wizard of Oz" but were not highly impressed and never asked to read more than I did. When we read picture books they can't get enough. Maybe audio books while relaxing and drawing or doing a puzzle are a good idea. So what do you guys think are absolute essential books every child should read at school?

I think I messed up all my kids. None of them appreciates good literature. In the last two years I kept hearing how unbelievable important good read alouds are. Every day we should read good literature to our kids, no matter the age and in the best case classics. Of course, the kids should also read good, classic literature. Now, I tried since last year. My then 8th grader had no interest in me reading to her. She actually told me that she prefers a conversation with me and me reading to her is boring. She also does not seem interested in any big books. She likes graphic novels and non fiction about things that interest her. She is however an A student in LA. My son (6th grade) let me read to him when we needed to do shared reading in our lesson but as a good night story he kept asking me if we could skip the story time. Also he doesn't really want to read in his free time. He likes to play outside until it's dark and then get ready for bed. If he needs to read graphic novels are his choice. Now my two little ones (2nd and 3rd grade) love read aloud time as long as we read picture books. I started reading chapter books to them at night and made the voices and everything but they kept asking how many pages we still have and did not enjoy it. We pushed through Litte House in the Prairie, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, The Wizard of Oz and Pippi Longstocking before we got back to picture books. Now they love reading time again. Also when they read they like shorter booklets with pictures (like easy readers) and don't show interest in chapter books. I just wonder why it seems that most homeschoolers love reading classic chapter books and mine don't. I asked my friend who doesn't homeschool but her kids are great students and she said that hers also only read graphic novels and that they think that most old good classics are boring. She feels they should just read what they enjoy and that times and interests change and we need to let the kids choose. I never read classics as a child unless they were assigned from school and we really did not read a lot of books in class. I mostly read horse or dog magazines as a child. How do you all go about this and how do your kids feel about good literature?

Yes, I need to look tomorrow and call. I wished we would already know the school district we belong to. I am going to do this Barton test with her tomorrow.

Thank you for all the suggestions. That was my plan to evaluate her at a public school. We are moving in October and I wanted to do it in our new state then. Our high school girl does not have any academic issues. I just feel the school environment is very rough. Like I get messages almost every day about some "threats" but that they are taken care of and later find out for example one student threatened the other with a knife and stuff like that. Also the students and teachers say bad words and I feel academically is it a weird schedule with only two time a week math. We are just a little shocked after our years of sheltered homeschooling and I don't really like it. Our girl on the other hand found some friends and she does not get bullied or anything. However, we are moving anyways and I hope that the new high school will be a good one.

Yes, I mentioned that she might have the same thing like dad that makes it hard to read. I like "brains are weird". Thank you for reminding me of the phonicspage. I did that with my songor a little bit as I did not know why he struggled in LA but it turned out that he did just fine as long as he managed to pay attention. It is a really helpful page.

We are also about to start cursive writing after she is done with her current handwriting book.

Thank you all so much. I really love TGTB. We just don't do the TGTB spelling for her. We use All About Spelling instead and are very happy with it. She does good on the TGTB level 2 readers for school and in her free time she loves this I Can Read books level 2 (I feel they are too easy but she loves them and always picks them at the library). The last time I wanted her to try a Magic Tree House book as it's always mentioned as a good transition to chapter books and it was a disaster. I don't know if it were the words or the small print or the missing pictures but she struggled so hard. So no chapter books without pictures for us for a while now. Is it ok if she reads easy books or would you try to challenge her more?

I always tell her that people are just different and everyone has different strengths and talents and also some can read earlier fluently and some later. Her little sister might have an easier time reading but she is more athletic. I also tell her that she just needs to work a little harder but that this is not a bad thing as she will get there, too. When she writes she does write the d and b correctly. She gets confused when reading stories and especially in longer words. I just feel that reading is hard work for her.

No, she has not but that is a great idea. Maybe the picture of a bed would be easier for her than the d doughnut comes first. I will try that. Yes, I already took a step back and we read together like she reads one page and I read the next. The good thing is that she is highly motivated but also gets frustrated and keeps asking me why her younger sister and best friend read better than her. It really bothers her a lot. Also maybe I need to go to speech therapy with her. My friend asked why she still says some words wrong (like probaly instead of probably, sudlendy instead of suddenly etc). I just started to pay attention and correct her when she says things wrong. I was so used to her to talk like that. Otherwise she is great with paying attention and her attitude towards learning is very good. She also has no trouble with math and is very social. It kind of hurts me seeing her struggle with reading and she is so aware of it that she struggles. However, she knows what she reads. When she made it through a story she can tell me exactly what she was reading.

I did not but I am going to look it up right now.

Hi I don't know if some remember me but I homeschooled 4 kids until last year. Now my two older ones go to school. My son that I was always so worried about goes to 6th grade now and so far behaves good and only brought home As so far. He tested in all grade at or above grade level. My oldest started 9th grade and I need to admit that public school is a little shock for us and we are not completely happy. However, I have a question reagarding my 8 year old daughter. She just started 3rd grade and we are still finishing The Good and the Beautiful LA Level 2. We did actually a long summer break and were home in Germany. We still read but no structured school work. Our first language is German but we speak English at school time. When I compare my youngest (7 years old, started 2nd grade) and my 8 year old, reading just comes so much easier to the younger one. She reads fluently and has so much fun reading books. My 8 year old loves writing. She still makes a lot of mistakes but I would say that her spelling is ok. The sad thing is that she hates reading. It's so hard for her. She really tries but she is still very slow and needs to sound out a lot. There are some things she does that are so weird: She always confuses b and d still, like it's impossible for her even with the d - donut picture and the b - belly picture, sometimes even m and w but not often She gets words like was - saw, that-what, there - where confused all the time even though I tell her to look closely at the first letter She sometimes completely mixes up letters in long words. She reads 3rd grade books but needs to concentrate so hard and after like 10 minutes she gets tired and starts making more and more mistakes. I want to add that her dad is severely dyslexic. What do you guys think and which strategies can help her?