I am typically not the flashcard type of homeschooler (at all!), but we are currently using them to learn states and capitals. (We are using this deck, which is super inexpensive and the cards are high-quality and beautiful.) Anyway, we are using them as part of Morning Time. For 5-10 minutes each morning, my girls sit across the table from me, and I hold up individual cards to first one daughter and then the other. (This is NOT a competitive exercise at all, each girl is learning the info for herself and the other one has to be quiet when it is not her turn, even if she knows the answer. We try to make it fun--sometime we'll race the clock, or I'll let the girls answer in funny voices and such, so long as they are on task and focused, etc.) We have been doing this for several weeks and the girls have pretty much mastered them all! (We are moving on to international capitals next.) So, because we're using the cards in a game-like fashion, it's been a fun and effective way to learn this info. So, thus far, my experience is that flash cards have a place and can work well when used sparingly to learn specific facts. Good luck!

Julie Andrews' Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies is lovely. (I recently got it on sale on Audible. I think the sale is on for another day or two!)

Poetry Teatime is probably my kids' favorite thing that we do in our homeschool! We did it all last year and it was a hit, so we will definitely continue. We do it a couple times per month and even weekly when I'm on top of my game. Our teatimes are not super fancy, but they're just special enough for my kids to feel like Poetry Teatime is an event. They don't actually care for tea, so we drink hot chocolate in the winter, and juice, lemonade, or just plain water at other times of the year. We have a little set of pretty plates* we put out and everyone gets a little treat. Ideally, the treat is something we've recently baked, but sometimes it's sliced fruit or a store-bought granola bar taken out of its wrapper and lovingly cut into dainty pieces that are arranged nicely on the plate. Before we begin, I light two tea lights (so the kids each have their own candle to enjoy and blow out at the end). I usually start reading poems while the kids eat, and then when they are finished eating, they like to take turns reading poems as well. We usually just get a new poetry book from the library each week, but we often return to favorite books we own, like A Child's Garden of Verses. If it's a library book, we typically read the entire book of poems in one session. That's it! (About 20-30 minutes.) I might do an extra special version of Poetry Teatime during Christmas, etc., but I generally find that simpler is better. (Too fancy/fussy, and I can't get it done. Better to keep it simple enough that you actually do it!) I think the most important thing is to set the mood with your attitude. If we take a moment to breathe together at the beginning (usually right after I've lit the candles), and go into it with peaceful minds, then the session is great. (This is one place where a rushed or impatient atmosphere kinda ruins the spirit of the whole thing.) *Goodwill or Salvation Army is the BEST place to find pretty plates for Poetry Teatime! I took my daughters there to look, and we found the prettiest little set of dishes with purple flowers on them that I bought for literally $2.00. We also found pink cut-glass cups with matching saucers that they use for their "tea." (The girls think they are crystal, lol, and they love them! I bought them for pennies!) We only use these dishes for Poetry Teatime, so it makes it very special. I love the idea of getting each of the girls their own mini teapot for their water, so I think for Christmas, we will try to get them those.

In our house, the parents decide what is best for the children. (My husband and I don't think young children have the knowledge or life experience to make a choice of that magnitude. The consequences are just too far-reaching. We welcome and encourage lots of age-appropriate decision-making, but in our opinion, the question of whether or not to homeschool is simply too much responsibility for a child to wield.) That said, when our kids reach high school, we are more open to considering other possibilities. (Our hope and plan is to homeschool all the way through, since we have homeschooled from the beginning, but if one or both of the kids have compelling, mature reasons for seeking alternatives to homeschooling, we would consider them.)

I've got A History of US in my Audible wishlist, for future reference when my kids are older. (I've heard good things about them and they are all well-reviewed!) Also (not sure how old your kids are), but I think all the David McCullough books will be great for high school! I also plan to do a lot of history-related literature via audiobook (stuff like The Iliad, The Odyssey, etc.) For my elementary-aged kids Black Ships Before Troy was a recent Audible purchase.

Hatchet by Gary Paulson is my favorite, off the top of my head.

I recently did this with Brave Writer Arrows. I printed them all at home on my own printer, then took them to FedEx Kinko's to be spiral-bound. They put black spiral bindings on, with a clear plastic cover, and a black plastic back. I think it cost $5.00/each? (I had ten things bound and the total came to about $50.00.) It was very easy and I will definitely do it again.

I agree with this! My husband and I are card-carrying feminists raising two daughters, and as a general rule, we absolutely look for strong female characters in the literature we read and the movies we watch, etc. But I don't think every single story we read needs to perfectly check all my feminist boxes. There's value to reading these classic stories, as EKS says here, simply for their cultural relevance/importance. And any flaws I perceive in the narratives simply serve as great springboards for conversation/critique with my kids (at a level they can understand, obviously). Put another way, last year, we read all of the Little House books. Now, there is a lot of racism in those books! But it would be ridiculous, in my opinion, to reject Wilder's entire series because of the racist scenes; instead, my family used these scenes to frame discussions about how terrible racism is/the views many people held in Laura's time/how we're still trying to fights these viewpoints in our own time, etc., etc. I recently taught a co-op class called "Cinderella Around the World" - we read (and critiqued) the version of the story our own culture is most familiar with (Charles Perrault's 1697 version), but then, each week, we read several different versions of Cinderella from all around the world. (There are over 500 known versions of the story!) It was fascinating because the fairytales really reveal what each different culture values. (For instance, one version set in Poland, called Raisel's Riddle, values Raisel's intelligence above all else--not her beauty, as in our version.) After we read the various versions, we went on to read modern "fractured fairytale" versions of Cinderella that turn the story on its head (feminist retellings, versions in which Cinderella is a boy, etc.). I think all that was a more nuanced way of dealing with/exploring a story that has endured for hundreds of years in our culture, rather than just rejecting it wholesale, as if it doesn't matter. Since your child is just a preschooler and you're not ready to share the original Grimm's, there are lots of versions that are more age-appropriate! We have this version of the Grimm's fairy tales, and it's gorgeous! The illustrations are lovely; I think it would be great for a younger child, but YMMV. ETA: Speaking of feminism and fairy tales and preschoolers, you might enjoy Peggy Orenstein's Cinderella Ate My Daughter. It explores all this sort of stuff! Great read.

I've been eyeing the Charlotte Mason Picture Study Portfolios for years now, but haven't had room in our schedule to work them in. I'm thus thinking about doing them as a co-op class next spring. (I was thinking of maybe studying one artist per class?) I've never actually used these portfolios, though, so thought I'd get feedback about using them in a co-op setting. Any reason they wouldn't work? Any other opinions on the portfolios? Thanks for any feedback! (Edited to add the link.)

Hey, I have this nonfiction reading list that we used; I figured I'd add it here for anyone who might want it. (It took me all of two seconds to cut and paste it from my own Google doc!) But basically, we read the historical novels in the same way as the OP, then we would read these nonfiction books. (The book The American Story also had relevant chapters I sprinkled in wherever possible.) We would do field trips wherever possible, too. We studied 8 historical characters in all, but some we spent more time on some than on others. (For instance, we did quite a deep dive with Kirsten, reading all 9 of the Little House books for our bedtime read alouds at that time. We were also deeply interested in Addy's and Felicity's times.) But all of the time periods are fascinating! Note: All of the books below were available at our library, so YMMV. Hope this is helpful to someone! Nonfiction books for Kaya: Welcome to Kaya's World, 1764: Growing Up in a Native American Homeland by Dottie Raymer The Nez Perce: A First Americans Book by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve A Picture Book of Sacagawea by David A. Adler Sacagawea by Liselotte Erdrich A Picture Book of Lewis and Clark by David A. Adler Nonfiction books for Felicity: Welcome to Felicity's World, 1774: Growing Up in Colonial America by Catherine Gourley A Picture Book of George Washington by David A. Adler The Journey of the One and Only Declaration of Independence by Judith St. George George Washington's Teeth by Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora Nonfiction books for Josefina: Welcome to Josefina's World, 1824: Growing Up in America's Southwest Frontier by Yvette La Pierre Susanna of the Alamo by John Jakes Nonfiction books for Kirsten: Welcome to Kirsten's World, 1854: Growing Up in Pioneer America by Susan Sinnott Roughing It on the Oregon Trail by Diane Stanley Frontier Home by Raymond Bial Sod Houses on the Great Plains by Glen Rounds Nonfiction books for Addy: Welcome to Addy's World, 1864 by Susan Sinnot Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln by Judith St. George Our Abe Lincoln by Jim Aylesworth Abraham Lincoln by Amy L. Cohn An Apple for Harriet Tubman by Glennette Tilley Turner A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman by David A. Adler A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln by David A. Adler A Picture Book of Harriet Beecher Stowe by David A. Adler The Silent Witness: A True Story of the Civil War by Robin Friedman Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson Nonfiction books for Samantha: Welcome to Samantha's World, 1904 by Catherine Gourley Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass by Dean Robbins Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass by Lesa Cline-Ransome Teedie: The Story of Young Teddy Roosevelt by Don Brown The Camping Trip that Changed America: Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and our National Parks by Barb Rosenstock Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909 by Michelle Markel Mr. Ferris and His Wheel by Kathryn Gibbs Davis Timeless Thomas: How Thomas Edison Changed Our Lives by Gene Barretta A Picture Book of Thomas Alva Edison by David A Adler Alexander Graham Bell by Victoria Sherrow To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers by Wendie C. Old Nonfiction books for Kit: Welcome to Kit's World, 1934 by Harriet Brown Eleanor, Quiet No More by Doreen Rappaport Eleanor by Barbara Cooney Make Your Mark, Franklin Roosevelt by Judith St. George Potato: A Tale From the Great Depression by Kate Lied Nonfiction books for Molly: Welcome to Molly's World, 1944 by Catherine Gourley A Picture Book of Anne Frank by David A. Adler Hiding From the Nazis by David A. Adler Anne Frank by Josephine Poole Anne Frank by Yona Zeldis McDonough Memories of Survival by Esther Nisenthal Krinitz and Bernice Steinhardt

Yes, as far as ages, we started our 2-year study when my girls were 8 and 6, and finished when they were 9 and 7. It was perfect! (Though there is definitely no objectionable content in any of the books, if you happen to have smaller ears listening along to the read-alouds.) But I agree that 6-9-ish is the perfect age range to not only enjoy the stories, but also to retain important historical facts and really understand/contextualize everything. FWIW, I originally started doing ancients (the classical history cycle) when my oldest was in first grade, but she just wasn't connecting with the content--it seemed too abstract to her, I think. So we fumbled around for a bit, but I finally decided to ditch the classical cycle until 5th grade and just do American history for 1-4th grades. It worked well for us! My girls really seemed to be able to understand things that happened here, you know? It helps that we live on the east coast where lots of significant early American history took place, and we were able to weave in lots of exciting field trips, etc. Now that my oldest is headed into 5th, we are picking up the classical cycle once again (ancients, this coming year) and I don't think my girls have been harmed a bit academically because of those decisions. As for the commercialism of AG, the historical books are really not commercial at all. I mean, they were obviously originally produced by the AG company for the purpose of selling their stuff, but nothing in the books themselves is trying to sell you something. My daughters each have a TrulyMe AG doll (a doll that looks like them, not a historical character), but that's it. We enjoy AG, and will occasionally buy doll food or outfits for holidays, etc., but our two-year history unit has not turned my kids into shopaholics or anything, I promise! You can absolutely enjoy the books alone with no worries about the commercial aspect. (In fact, if your kids don't know that AG dolls exist, they are going to think the historical characters are akin to any other character in any other book.)

It IS! (Can you tell I'm obsessed?) lol. I think everyone should at least do the free trial. We've had it for years now and I just love it. And $4.95/month is an insanely good deal. I could go on and on... ;-)

We did almost this exactly same plan when we did our American Girl studies! I just want to encourage anyone out there to try this; my girls and I did this as our history studies for the past two years and it was just the best. It gave them so much context for American history. (We now constantly say things like, "Yes, that happened during Addy's time," or "That event happened between Molly and Julie" etc.) I just feel like my kids have a solid mental timeline for American history now. (And no, the novels aren't great literature or anything, but they make the time period so accessible to kids, and the nonfiction books (Molly's World, etc.) are excellent. We also added in nonfiction picture books about relevant figures, events, and presidents, etc. It was great! My oldest is about to begin 5th grade, so we're returning to the classic history cycle/the ancients this year, but I thought American history and especially the American Girl stuff was so great for early elementary. (It's so great of you to share your plans!) The American Girl audiobooks are also great. (We read the actual books, but my girls wanted to listen to the audiobooks from the library over and over again afterward.) Anyway, highly recommend! :-)

I rave about this site all the time on here, but I can't recommend Creativebug.com highly enough. It costs $4.95/month and there are classes for everything under the sun, from all types of drawing and painting to sewing, quilting, knitting, jewelry design, cake decorating, etc. It's like Netflix, but for art classes; you pay $4.95/month and get unlimited access to all the classes and you get to keep one video for good each month, even if you cancel your subscription. The video lessons are all gorgeously produced and all the classes are taught by working, professional (talented!) artists. Everyone in our family uses the site constantly. As for how we use it in our homeschool, we do a formal lesson all together (me included!) each Friday, but the girls are also free to watch and "do" a Creativebug lesson anytime they have creative playtime. (That is, whenever they are done with school, chores, free reading, etc., etc.) (But they also make art spontaneously all the time, for sure. Art is really important to us.)

Yes to all the previous recs, plus any of Kate DiCamillo's books for beginning readers: Mercy Watson (which is hysterical), Leroy Ninker, etc. Oh! And Cynthia Rylant's Poppleton (this would be great, I think - the reading level is very much beginner, but it has chapters and Poppleton is this really lovable adult pig with a bunch of animal friends.)

Oh, I love those illustrated Harry Potters! (I LOVE gorgeous illustrations in general!) I'm not sure if these are all exactly what you're looking for (not all of these are fiction), but below are a couple books we have that are gorgeously illustrated: -A Year Full of Stories -The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen -Usborne Illustrated Grimm's Fairy Tales -Women in Science -All the Diana Hutts Aston nature books - Maps -50 States -City Atlas -Animalium Tip: If you search for "Usborne Illustrated Classics," or "Usborne Illustrated Originals," tons of beautiful books come up. (I found an Usborne Illustrated Wizard of Oz for you here!) I only have the one Usborne book--the Grimm's one--but it's gorgeous and I definitely plan to get a bunch of these others in the future. Another tip: I've learned that if you like a particular illustrator and search for their name, lots of their other books (as well as lots of similar artists) will come up. So I often search by illustrator. Hope that helps!

Our state requires music, but it is not a priority for us this particular year, so we are just going to watch a bunch of classic family musicals on Amazon over the course of the year and call it good. We're all excited about it, and I feel thrilled that I am not stressing about music this year! (And I'm really looking forward to finally watching famous classics like Singin' in the Rain, etc., that I've never actually seen, but feel like I should have by now!) My kids are younger, so we're sticking to very family-friendly titles, but since your son is older, you could really get into more modern titles, or musicals with more complex/grown-up themes, etc., if you're so inclined. Good luck with whatever you decide! (I also agree, though, with the pp who said that if your state does not require music, by all means, just take a break!)

Pam Barnhill has an entire podcast devoted to Morning Time, and also writes about it in depth on her blog. I've gotten lots of ideas from her!

My apologies if this was already posted, but thought it would be nice to pass along. I'm working on planning and was browsing Audible and saw that they have a TON of kids' books on sale right now for $3.95! So many great titles available! (I noticed that lots of them happen to be Brave Writer Arrow books, if that's helpful). There are some duds sprinkled in there, of course, but lots and lots of good ones. To find the sale, scroll to the very, very bottom of the home page and click on "For Your Kids--NEW" in the bottom right-hand corner. Just FYI!

Thank you for sharing this article; it has reinvigorated my love for homeschool as I get to work today on all my planning! (As I read the article, all I could think about was how narrow everyone's focus was--so many of the educators in the article seemed to place so much emphasis on insignificant bits and pieces that just don't add up to much.) I used to teach English in a public high school before I had kids. I tried so very hard to make class fun and informative and engaging and like a great big writer's workshop, but even the best classroom simply does not--cannot--compare to an entire childhood lived in what Julie Bogart refers to as the "Big Language Arts River": kids who read books on blankets in the summer sunshine, who giggle over poetry teas, who write in diaries and in homemade notebooks, who write in pencil and paint and gel pens, who watch great movies and go on nature walks and listen to audiobooks at breakfast and lunch, who listen to a parent's read-aloud at bedtime. That sort of richness simply cannot be replicated in a classroom setting. (Now, parents whose kids happen to attend school full-time can absolutely still create this sort of environment and culture in their homes! I could always immediately tell which of the kids in my classroom came from book-filled, loving homes; their work was lovely. But kids who ONLY get this stuff from school, who do not live in homes with books or engaged parents...it's just heartbreaking as far as their language arts educations go, and it's really hard to overcome as a teacher. Two semesters of eleventh grade English instruction can absolutely yield improvement, but it can't, in that time frame, completely make up for a childhood starved of books and language.) Anyway, I'm rambling, but thank you for sharing that article. It helped me check my gratitude and remember that homeschooling is seriously the greatest privilege of my entire life. We homeschooling mothers are so lucky to get to choose to do this with our kids.

I had a full set that I got at a yard sale. They were beautiful Brittanicas and only a couple years old. I thought we would use them often, but you know what? We had them for three years and literally only cracked them open once or twice. My kids are huge bookworms, too--they love to page through books, but something about the format just wasn't inviting for my children. They found the books too heavy, too unwieldy to hold on their laps/take around the house. And I found that I just never thought of them. (If I had a quick question, I found I would just Google the answer or seek out a library book on that specific topic instead. And if my children wanted to leaf through a book, they would always reach for our beautiful illustrated books instead--DK encyclopedias, other spines recommended in TWTM, etc.) So, in my experience encyclopedias are not worth it; for us, they just took up a ton of shelf space. I gave ours away to a friend. (I think the friend enjoys them, though!) So, I think you just need to be honest: do you really think you'll use them? Or are you more likely to reach for other topic-specific non-fiction resources, like the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, etc.? Good luck!

S/O of previous post... It looks like Amazon has some glasses on offer that seem okay, but I was just wondering if anyone could share where they got their glasses and if they are happy with them. (Nasa's safety recommendations here.) Thanks!

My oldest is going into 5th, so this is the first year I will be preparing a formal planner for her to reference. (Thus far, and with my younger child, I just go by my own notes/checklists, but I want my fifth grader to start seeing/using her own planner.) So, this year, I will be using Pam Barnhill's Plan Your Year, specifically the calendar pages and the student planner pages. I've been using Plan Your Year for a few years now for myself. I don't use all her available sheets, but I just cherry pick the ones that work for me. I really like these because you can edit the PDFs, fill in the blanks to suit your own needs (you could type in all the subjects you do, days of the week, whatever), and then print it all out. I think I am going to print out a year's worth of her calendar pages, a year's worth of the weekly student planner pages, and then have the whole thing bound at the copy shop so she has her own little customized planner notebook. Then, on a weekly basis, I will fill in her assignments and she will check them off as we go through the week. (I usually am a fan of clear-page-protectors-in-a-binder for homemade notebooks, but in this case, it would be a pain to take the pages out of the clear covers out each time you need to write on them/check things off, so I want to have it bound.) So, I haven't actually used this yet, but I'm hoping it will be a good first planner for her.

It's funny - becoming a reader is a lot like potty training. A child can be "potty trained" but still have accidents at night. Likewise, a child can be a "reader" and still forget various rules or need support with new words. (I remember when my oldest was a toddler, I kinda assumed that one day she would be in diapers, and then, the next, whenever she was officially "potty trained," she would suddenly be in undies and that would be it, lol. But of course, potty training is a process--your child does go from diapers to undies, but there are sometimes days and weeks of small accidents, or Pull-ups at night, or they'll happily do #1 in the potty, but not #2, etc., etc. It's a messy two-steps-forward, one-step-back process and you can only sorta declare your child Officially Potty Trained after the fact. Reading was the same for us; my children learned it in spurts, learning letter sounds, and then certain words, and certain blends, but sometimes they'd forget stuff I thought they had mastered, and on and on until one day it all just clicked and I'd realize that they were suddenly reading aloud to me from a chapter book with no mistakes.) At any rate, I feel like a child is "reading" whenever they are actively learning how to read. (I think any child who is trying to learn should absolutely self-identify as a reader.) For the purposed of this conversation, I guess I would consider them an "established reader" when they can read "I Can Read" books and early chapter books completely independently and with strong comprehension.

Thus far in my homeschooling, I've tended to "let things take as long as they take to complete." So, for example, on a typical Monday, I'll assign my children two math pages each, and then they do them, whether it takes us 15 minutes or 35 minutes to complete. I've been reading a lot of Charlotte Mason-type stuff lately, though, and I am intrigued by her idea of working for time instead, and in that time, just getting as far as we can. So, if I'm understanding her philosophy correctly, this means giving focused attention to the subject of math for 20 minutes and then moving on, whether we've completed two problems or two whole pages. I feel as though working for time (as opposed to completion) would be less stressful to my children, is likely to produce better, more focused work, and--bonus--would make it easier to plan my homeschool days, but I admit I am concerned about not getting very far. I'm not a slave to my curriculum--I definitely consider it merely a tool--and I'm okay with not completing, say, all 36 lessons in a school year, but at the same time, I'm a little worried that working for time will leave me only halfway through our current math book by next June. In other words, I'm really interested in trying out the work-for-time idea in the coming school year, but at the same time, I don't want to get into a situation where my child truly isn't as far along as I would like. Long story short, if you are someone who does the Charlotte Mason "scheduling for time, not completion" thing in your homeschool, how's it going? Do you find that you actually get pretty far and stay pretty much on track? How do you determine how much time to devote to each subject? (I realize we do already do this for free reading - we read for one hour each day, with no pressure on how far each child must get in their book, and that works well, but I'd love to hear how it works out for actual subject matter/content.) Thanks!