The more I think about this, the more I love this option. Suddenly I get to do all kinds of cool stuff with my 1-5 grade kids that I struggle to fit into a chronology history cycle. But am I brave enough to dump my history plans and start over from scratch just one week before school starts? :o Thou I'm considering doing BF history of science (my kids would love that! I had sadly come to the conclusion we would never be able to fit it in) so I suppose there's not much planning involved. Mostly just mental shifting of gears. Piling all the Middle Ages books back on the shelf and rethinking what my kids will be reading during their quiet reading time. Hey, they might be free to read about their own interests during that time! :D I'll have to find out what they'd like to learn about. A whole new realm for us. Lol

I had been collecting books for this, now i see they've revised it and dropped some of The books I have. The new guide does look very nice. But I question the use of the DK science encyclopedia over The New Way Things Work Book. That is such a great book, I'm bummed they dropped it. Has anyone used the revised version and can tell me about it? :)

What a great idea. I like RLTL but find my self hesitating over the teach all the sound right up front. Teaching the sounds as they come up instead would be a great compromise. I love the fill in phonogram sounds chart too

I have to admit I haven't seen the point in studying Latin. Maybe cause I've never studied it. :) Yes, then you could read all these old books, but is that really necessary? :) For most kids, no. I do want to cover latin roots, that I see the point of. (I'd love suggestions for what to use for that. I've considered using R&S spelling levels 7&8 because I heard it focuses on roots, and would be something they could do independently). BUT what you're saying about knowing latin helping with learning other languages intrigues me greatly. I have given up teaching them another language because I don't speak one and it was just too hard for me to learn and homeschool and take care of babies. But if by doing latin they could then later learn other languages more easily, that could make it worth it for me. At least with Latin I don't have to worry about pronunciation so much, or being able to hold a conversation in latin. :D I have mixed feelings about teaching grammar too. ;) When I look at early grammar books, it's usage, and my first reaction was 'you have to actually teach these things?' LOL. I would have thought these are just things kids pick up because they grow up surrounded by the English language. And later grammar books... I wonder what is the point of slaving away diagramming sentences for years? A well written book is considered well written because the language sounds beautiful to the ear. They don't follow formulas. Paint by number does not produce great art. Over analyzing a painting or book makes you lose sight of the whole, and you lose the beauty of it. :) Diagramming feels like that. Confession: My name is Rebekah and I do not know what a gerund is. ;) BUT on the flip side, I have a friend who has/is learning another language and she says the grammar she's learned thru teaching her kids has helped her so much with learning the language (this language may be latin based, idk. i do know it doesn't use the same letters as other latin based languages, but the area of the world its from was part of the roman empire). Which does make me think there is some benefit from learning grammar. :D

As I tried to actually make and use this list, I've realized a few things. :) In history most of the books on my secondary list will get read in the chronological history thread. If one kid doesn't get every single d'aulaire or holling boo, does it matter? No. They'll get most of the anyway. Those Landmark books are what first started me doing this I think. So maybe all I really need to do is have in my plan for them to read 3? books about what interests them, not related to the time period, and use landmark books (or historical fiction if thats more their thing) for those. I found a chronological list of landmark books, so i can add them in to our chronological history too. Our library carries tons of these. Mostly the secondary list has really just become redundant and complicates things. I see the point of doing chronological history before high school, so that is now definitely the plan. I see two ways of us doing this: 1) I keep us all together as a family and use the Wayfarers history lists as my base (very close to what I want). or 2) I expand the first half of my list (all those great picture books) and read these to my k-5 kids all together (not sure if this would be willy nilly or organized in some way). Get in these great pictures books in the early years, cuddled up on the couch, foster a love for history and school in general. :) And then in middle school, grades 6-8, give the kid separate history... SOTW 1-4, thus getting in chronological history before highschool. I kind of like option number two. But I'm left with a couple problems- 1) we did ancients/bible history as a family last year and I really liked doing that one with the kids. If they read SOTW 1 themselves in 6th grade, I'm going to be less involved with what they're doing and making sure the connections between the bible and history are happening. 2) we just did SOTW 1 last year, so what is my oldest kid going to do in 6th grade? and what do I do this year if I drop SOTW 2? I would have to figure it out FAST, school starts next monday!! :o Option number one is easier for now because it's continuing what we are doing. But I don't know what it will look like in middle school- will my kid read the spine on their own? will the spine be too hard for that and now i have to read two spines aloud (SOTW to the younger kids and the middle school spine to the older)??? Frankly, just reading aloud the really great picture books in grades 1-5, no spine, more interest led, seems really nice. Sort of what Beautiful Feet does. :)

I have the first collection of yc books, but I find they only work for books in going to read aloud, for my kids I need print books. You're making me think what's my goal in adding these books... :) my kids love nature study and science. History and literature are OK with them, but nature stuff the favorite. I once had to read a dry (to me) non fiction book about fish over hour because wouldn't stop. my wiggly 5yo bit never sits still that long, but did it that book. :D They love Burgess books. I have William long and Fabre books that I want to use with them, those are right up their alley, but I'm looking for a bridge between the two to help get them ready for those. They're quite a jump up from Burgess. Printing vintage books isn't my favorite thing to do, but i can do it. I haven't seen anything else like these, so I think they'll be worth the effort. :)

Hunter, how do the Christian liberty nature readers compare to the PD books you linked earlier? Being able to buy print books is certainly easier. :)

This morning I've got to get my older kids packed up and off to the in laws for a week, but I'll post the list later this afternoon. Though now I have some nature study readers to add to it! :)

Forgot to mention... OP- take a look at the simply Charlotte mason nature study books. I haven't used any, but have the outdoor secrets one to use this year. It looks really great, very helpful for when you don't want to think :D

I take it back, the hardest part will be picking between these great readers! :D I love the nature study series by Troeger, but my sons would really like the science series and that one goes higher. :)

So far the only hard copies I'm seeing are some photocopy types on Amazon for $20 each. I'd rather have a real book, but I may print these out and bind myself with staples and duct tape. I've done it before. Well, I don't like crafts just for the sake of crafts. But geography crafts would have a purpose. :) My kids do lots of handicrafts. So we do crafts, just crafts with a purpose. The hard part is me needing to sit down and go thru those geography books and figure out what to teach where. But it may be easier than I think. Still, just reading the geography books thru chapter by chapter would be easier. :D Maybe I'm not seeing why vintage geography doesn't work with modern curriculum the way hunter says, because we already sort of do what she's talking about. :) We've done weekly nature study since they were toddlers, we do nature study type books too. Burgess, Pierson. I read the eyes no eyes series to my oldest at 6. (Tho I think that was too young) My older son is now reading Long and Fabre. I think see nature study readers will be just what I need to fill the gap between burgess and Long. Eta: our Friday afternoons are already set aside for nature study and afterwards park meet ups with friends. But I think the idea of having an afternoon time set aside for these geography crafts is a good idea. When I try to do crafts during our history time mid day, it just takes so much time that it throws the whole day off. I get thrown off too easily by the toddler already. :) I couldn't cut him out of the school day so I cut out time consuming projects instead. :D

Now I'm feel like I want to add cm geography and nature study reading to our week :) One of these nature study or science readers might be a better read for my 8yo then the among the meadow people books.

These look SO good. Now I'm going to have to read through them and make the hard choice of one series and get it printed somehow. I think my kids would like these. We don't currently do much geography. I can't say I've seen the usefulness of drawing the world by heart or memorizing the names of every single country in Africa. Wherever we are reading about in history we look at it on maps and discuss the difference in landscape/weather from where we live and why it's different, but not in any great depth usually. We may notice there are a lot of countries in Africa, and read off all the names, we may talk about ones we've read about in books and compare different ones and notice what physical features cause the differences. I do try to point out small things we see when we're out and discuss how they're similar to big things we don't get to see. The only purpose I can see to geography is learning about, And appreciating, the world around us, and the different kinds of habitats and how they effect the people who live there.

I have both of these books... Longs and CM geography. While I love your way of teaching it with history, it seems completely overwhelming to me. :) I'd have to throw out what we're doing now and rewrite everything. That's just not going to happen. Are you saying that reading/discussing these books with my children once a week is just not going to work? Can you tell me what goes wrong? I understand what goes wrong with cursive first and modern curriculum, but I'm having trouble seeing what goes wrong with this vintage geography and what I'm doing? I've been doing nature study with my kids weekly for years. We live in suburbia. But a lot can be done with even a tiny back yard. Bird feeders. Feed peanuts to the squirrels. Plant bushes that attract butterflies and birds. Let stuff go to seed, when I let our one kale plant go to seed the birds loved it. :) Let stuff grow a bit wild rather than be super landscaped. Wild life likes that. Our overgrown lavender bushes harbor lizards and katydids. When we first started I never thought we'd see as much variety as we do. Take a walk around your neighborhood and see how many different kinds of trees there are, watch them through the seasons (a bit of a let down for us in California. Lol. The seasons blend together and so do the trees. We can have the same variety of tree.. And in winter One will be green, one turned red, and another bare.). To me a lot of nature study is learning to really observe, once you try to draw that flower you have to look much more carefully at it! And once their curiously is peaked, find out more my reading books about the things you see. We aren't going to find birds nests or be able to follow an animal, but we can read about their homes.

Uh. As I'm trying to fill my kids book boxes I'm having trouble because I have way too many books here for them to read that match the time period. I need to prioritize these. Lol And as I'm starting to use my master lists, I hunk I need to take more stuff off my history list. All these great books are on the book list I'm using to pull from for books that fit the time period we are on. I'm thinking this extra list is to read stuff that doesn't get covered elsewhere. First off landmark books or historical fiction on stuff they are interested, not worrying about time period, and in middle school maybe OIS/TCOO... I could write out a whole huge plan for the chronological part, but wayfarers book lists are so close to what I would write. That it seems not worth the effort when I can just tweak theirs a little. Science... I added too many not must reads to my list. I need to cull, maybe putting those on a secondary list for any kid who really wants more.

haha! I got my couple hours with the computer. :) Once I listed my history core and put in a note to pick a handful of historical fiction or biographies to go with the time period, I found my other master history list for them to read through uncorrelated got much smaller. There were a number of good books that I decided if they read them when we do that time period, great! but if they never read that book it's not the end of the world. I haven't decided exactly on the order of some of them. Certain picture books that I might like to read with them when they're younger OR I could give them to read later on. For now I have them in the list with the idea that they will read themselves. This doesn't prevent me from reading it to them when they're younger. Good books are worth reading twice. :D I've also got a couple books tacked on at the end that I'm not sure are really must reads, mostly other HE Marshall books. Those probably won't get read. :) this list is meant to be thru 8th grade only. So if they read fast and need more to read, they might get read. :) Want to critique my list? I would be willing to share. :D

I don't really have a master science plan. :) we did RSO earth and space last year and I had planned to do RSO chemistry this year but then decided I only wanted to teach science once a week. So I switched to Ellen mchenry's the elements, RS4K focus on chemistry ( book only), some chemistry science kits, and the wonder book of chemistry. Next year I had planned to do RSO physics, but now I don't know what I will do. Either I will piece together some physics stuff OR I'm considering putting everyone into their grade rs4k building blocks grade level series. Not the workbooks, just the textbook. Have them each read a chapter each week (and narrate!) and then once a week do a science experiment that relates to the main topic every body's reading about, whether it's chemistry or biology, etc. Every years' book is set up the same way with the same number of chapters on each main topic, so it could work. One rs4k chapter per week to cover their bases, one fun experiment, and then they each read thru my master science book list! Which I probably need to flesh out, it's very animal/nature heavy. Lol. The building blocks books would serve as our spine, like SOTW does for history.

I really want a couple hours alone with my computer now! :) may not happen till next week tho. I'm excited by this master outline ... I get a little of both worlds, lol. A little chronological history together, plus a good book list for them to work thru on their own that I don't have to correlate. :) I like the idea of chronological artist and composer, but there's too many from one time period, and not enough from others. Lol. So right now I'm just relying on ELTL for artist. I'm hoping the artists and poetry in ELTL is good enough, just to make for less stuff for me to have to plan and schedule. and composer I'm randomly picking one of the opal wheeler biographies. I am trying to sort of alternate different styles, just so they don't all run together in our heads. :)

Actually it is the others I'm not sure about. :)

That's a good idea. Though I don't know how many of the books I have they will get through. Lol. I need to prioritize them. I guess I could even have two lists for them, a priority list and a secondary.. I was just going to throw the priority books in their book box. And if they had the time and inclination, give them others. :) Nice. The tests these days are so long and complicated. :)

Over all my shelf plan works, but mostly just cause there's so many historical fiction books that are good, but aren't really necessary. I guess I so want a want a master list, but I need to stick to just the real must reads. Not every good book. :) Even among the ones I'd probably include on a must read list, of they missed one here or there it's not the end of the world. So I'm thinking more of a master outline/plan than a specific book list. Though I'll list books too, but often an author or category rather than every single book. Now I just need some uninterrupted time to type this up. :)

Well I don't have a master list to tweak. My master history list is my book shelf. Lol. I have it organized by SOTW volume. :D

Oh fine. Now I have to write out my master list. Just when I thought I'd gotten out of it. LOL :D Maybe it would work to list authors instead of individual books? Less work...

Ok, I see what you mean. Well that's kind of what I had planned for this year. I read SOTW. Then I had a list of books for each kid for them to choose from doing our DEAR hour (I'm stealing that from hunter. :) ) so they get to pick which book they want to read, but from my options. And I had planned to give them the must reads first, then if they read fast or get interested in something, I have some back up books. I guess they don't need to read every landmark book, which ever ones they happen to get alongside our chronological history is enough. And I didn't think about them being biographies instead of historical fiction. I could see some kids preferring one over the other. Maybe I don't need to go to the trouble of writing out a huge master list after all. :) just keep doing what we are doing but with slight tweaks. Crafts... Yeah, I don't do any of those. :) they play/draw/build stuff from history on their own tho. Not tons, but some. Eta: well we did do one Egyptian feast last year. And We did some history pockets, but they weren't favorites. Maybe I just need better craft ideas. I skimmed the SOTW AG too and nothing seemed that fun. Maybe I'll pull out the SOTW 2 AG and look closer at the crafts. Crafts would draw my little guy in. :)

Ok so my master list.. How does is sound? Literature ELTL books are required Also have a required book list at they just start at the beginning and work thru over the years, maybe Doug some as audio books. I will scratch anything from this list that isn't a must read. Those can just be available if they want. Like the moffats, great books, but not a must read. I do allow them to drop a book if they've read 3-5 chapters, depending on length, and still aren't enjoying it. Science We can have our once a week core/experiments and then again a book list that they just start at the beginning and work on each year. Let's read and find out, burgess, Clara Pierson, Arabella Buckley, William long, jean Henri Fabre. If they like an author they can stop and read/listen to all their books or move on after 2-3. History Chronological spine (aloud for youngers. Aloud or on their own for older kids?) Pick out a few historical fiction books at their level that fit the time period. And finally a leveled master list that they work thru. Whether it fits the time period or not. D'aulaire, holling, landmark, 50 famous stories retold, Genevieve foster. Not sure if OIS and TCOO are on this list or the spine list? If I made up a master list, I could track which books each kid has read.