Making homeschool decisions easy
So now your children know how to read. Congratulations! That’s a major step, but does it mean that their reading instruction finished? Not at all, we’ve found. How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading teaches the average reader how to understand, analyze, and learn from books. It takes students beyond the basics of reading to become scholars. It is, I think,
We all appreciate any help we can get in teaching anything to do with Shakespeare. How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig is a guide to teaching your children to memorize some of the best passages from Shakespeare. This post contains affiliate links because I own this book and highly recommend it. See full disclosure policy for more details. This book uses memorization
In our home, anything that makes offering music appreciation easier is a big plus. Our family has used many of the The Story of …An Introduction to The Classics CDs as part of our weekly music selections. This series makes learning about great composers super easy and enjoyable. There is nothing more enjoyable than turning on one of these CDs as a family on
This spring the National Gallery of Canada is hosting an exhibition about the Impressionists; we bought a membership for this exciting event. To prepare, I borrowed Monet and the Impressionists for Kids by Carol Sabbeth from the library. Since I love art myself and can’t help sharing it, our kids know about the Impressionists, especially Monet. In the past we used to do Ambleside Online’s
When I began researching homeschooling options way back when, I ran across Ambleside Online and was immediately intrigued. For various reasons, I ended up selecting another curriculum to begin with; however, Christmas found me lingering on the Ambleside Online website. By the New Year, we jumped into Year 1 and haven’t looked back since. Ambleside Online (AO) is a K (Year 0) through 12
I think most parents want their children to memorize things. For me, as a Christian parent, I want my children to “hide God’s word in their heart”. Putting that into reality can be another story though. I have a child with a photographic memory, he can see something done and repeat it with little to no trouble. My other child, not so much. We also
Grammar is a subject near and dear to my heart. I know not everyone can (or will) admit to that, but there it is. Throughout my children’s elementary years, we explored several different grammar curricula, and all have had their good points. This year, however, I came across a FREE curriculum that is thorough and easy to use and free. (Did I mention that already?
People have strong opinions about interjecting morals onto stories. Are Aesop’s Fables improved by tacking a pithy moral on the end? Should we read stories to our kids that aim to improve them? On first glance Laying Down the Rails for Children might seem to fall into such a category–stories intended to help kids form good habits. But what I’ve found, is that really the
