Embark on a journey of discovery and empowerment as Katie Berry, a beacon of inspiration, returns to our show to share her pearls of wisdom for homeschooling mothers. Delight in her transformative strategies for intertwining books into the fabric of a busy mom's life, and find solace in the pages that promise growth and wisdom. Together, we unveil the joys of incorporating reading into your daily rhythm, from the convenience of audiobooks during mundane tasks to the tranquility of printed stories in the stillness of the night.
As our episode reaches its thoughtful conclusion, we shine a light on curriculum choices and the pivotal role of continual parent learning. Experience literature-based curriculum that ignites curiosity and grow alongside your children, embracing Charlotte Mason's philosophy that elevates the role of the educated mother in the homeschooling voyage. As Mother's Day approaches, join us in honoring the remarkable dedication of homeschooling mothers and their profound impact on the tapestry of family life and education.
Book Recommendations (it did not let me link these :( but here are all the books we discussed):
Teaching From Rest
Brave Learner
Awakening Wonder
For the Children's Sake
A Pocket Full of Pinecones
Know and Tell
Educating the Whole Hearted Child
Mere Motherhood
Mrs Sharp's Traditions
Memory Making Mom
Katie's 1st episode- Episode #4
Episode with Pam Barnhill
The Tuttle Twins - use code Cheryl40 for 40% off ages 5-11 book series
JIBBY MUSHROOM COFFEE - try today with code CHERYL20 for 20% off!
Earthley Wellness - use code HomeschoolHowTo for 10% off your first order
TreehouseSchoolhouse for your Spring Nature Study Curriculum- use promo code: THEHOMESCHOOLHOWTOPODCAST for 10% off entire order
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool
How-To.
I'm Cheryl and I invite you tojoin me on my quest to find out
why are people homeschooling,how do you do it, how does it
differ from region to region,and should I homeschool my kids?
Stick with me as I interviewhomeschooling families across
the country to unfold theanswers to each of these
(00:26):
questions week by week.
Welcome, and with us today wehave Katie Berry.
Katie was on episode 4 on March4th 2023, so over a year ago
now.
Katie, welcome back.
Thanks, it's so fun to see youagain.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Cheryl.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Oh, you were such a plethora of knowledge.
Um, our your episode was titledcurriculum curriculum how kids
learn and what curriculum isbest for you.
You have had 1,498 downloadsfor that episode.
That is one of my top five.
People loved it, and you havealso referred so many
(01:09):
knowledgeable people to me totalk about other aspects of
homeschooling.
So thank you for that, becauseI think I pretty much got almost
all of them on.
But what you came on today, wewanted to do a little bit
something special for mothers,because Mother's Day is right
around the corner, and why don'tI just shoot it over to you?
What did you ask to come ontoday to talk about?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, I wanted to talk about books for homeschool
mom encouragement.
I've been a lifelong reader andas I entered the homeschooling
world I have found I've readprobably well.
When I say read, I eitherlisten to an audio book or I
read in print.
I've probably read over 50books about homeschooling and it
got to the point where I wasfeeling kind of like satiated
(01:52):
and then I so I kind of made mytop favorites and those are the
ones I revisit again and again.
But I just felt like mothers arethe heart of the home.
They're the ones that arerunning the home, they're the
ones that are making sure theirkids are being taken care of and
(02:12):
their families be being takencare of.
And one of the ways that for meas a mother, for me to have
something for myself, is reading, has become that I just I love
reading, I love the stories andI love furthering my own
knowledge and my own education,and that is something that I
have cultivated for myself, andso I just encourage moms out
there.
If you're homeschooling,reading kind of goes along with
(02:32):
that, and so if you're not areader, it's okay.
It's never too late to becomeone, and I just wanted to share
a few tips on how to become areader if you're not one, and my
number one tip is audiobooks,audiobooks, audiobooks.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, that's for me Like I want to be a reader.
I really do.
But I have this problem where Ifall asleep the minute I sit
down to read a book or someoneneeds something, and I think,
just because I wasn't likeproperly educated on how to read
well and retain the knowledgethat I that it carried with me
(03:10):
that you know you read somethingand I read slow, and then I
lose my train of thought becauseI'm thinking about laundry or
whatever else I have to do thatday.
So audio books have been mysaving grace.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yes, and I will say audio books.
I'm choosy with narrators and Ialso.
If I listen to the first hourand I can't keep full attention,
I abandon it, because I've justlearned that non-fiction in
particular, sometimes it'sreally interesting and it keeps
my attention.
Sometimes the book itself mighthave interesting information,
but the way it's presented Ijust zone out, and so I will
(03:43):
listen for an hour of anaudiobook and if I can't get
into it then I'll switch toprint.
But times you can listen toaudiobooks For me, I listen
while I'm making dinner, Ilisten while I'm folding laundry
, while I'm grocery shopping, ifI'm driving alone, just any of
those little pockets of timewhen I'm doing something that
frankly I don't want to be doing.
(04:05):
If I pair it with an audiobook,that thing feels more enjoyable.
But it's also allowing me toread more.
The other thing is that it'sokay to plod your way through
books If you have.
If you only read two or threebooks a year for yourself,
that's still two or three morethat you wouldn't have read
before.
And it's totally okay if youread two or three pages a day if
that's all you can do.
For me, I find I do bestreading books in print either
(04:32):
early morning, before my kidswake up, or late at night,
because in the early morning, ifthey're not awake yet, it gives
me a little time to focuswithout the kids needing my
attention.
Or in the evening it's a littleeasier because you've kind of
settled down for the day.
All your to-do list tasks aredone and you're winding down and
my brain is calmer and I'm ableto focus more.
And so those are the times Iread in print.
Books is early morning or lateat night.
(04:52):
I will also say that when Istarted homeschooling my
youngest was eight months oldand for the first couple years I
really did only read maybe fourbooks a year for myself.
I started reading books to mychildren out loud that I wanted
to read, so some of thechildren's classics like Secret
Garden and things like that.
So I was getting my readingwith my children as I was
reading to my children.
But in the last two or threeyears, as my youngest has aged,
(05:14):
I've had more time.
So that's.
The other thing is there's agesand stages to your family rhythm
and it's okay.
If you're in a stage where mostof your reading is done with
your children, that's totallyfine.
But I do think that if you'rehomeschooling it's nice to have
a few books for encouragement,because sometimes it can get
(05:36):
monotonous or it can be hard andit's just great to have some
wisdom to help you on yourjourney.
And I really like thespringtime and summertime to
read homeschooling books,especially if you are someone
that does a lighter summer oryou're taking summer off.
It gives you more time to kindof reinvigorate yourself for the
fall.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Awesome.
So what are the books that youdo recommend and where do these
come from?
Like, how do you pick?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Oh man, um, so I've I've been homeschooling I'm just
finishing our seventh year andso some have been recommended to
me from other homeschoolfriends.
Some I found on groups, um,some I've seen as
recommendations, like I go onAmazon to buy a book and then it
says other people have boughtthese ones, or um, on on
Goodreads.
I'm on Goodreads and I follow alot of homeschooler friends on
(06:22):
Goodreads and I will see whatthey're reading and then I add
it to my to read list.
So that's how I find them.
The other thing is that a fewbooks are written kind of by
homeschooling social socialmedia influencers and so you'll
be able to see on their accountsif they come out with books and
then I read those um, butreally it's just kind of been a
a smattering of places.
(06:43):
I found these and these havecome out on top as my favorites,
like I said.
So I kind of broken them upinto like encouragement books,
some that are kind of like thehow to homeschool.
Like that's kind of funny,yours is the homeschool how to
podcast, but how to get started,or kind of uh, processes,
homeschooling.
(07:03):
And then I had some bonus oneson kind of family culture.
So those are the categories thatI'm going to share, so I'll
just get started.
I'll start with encouragementmy hands down.
My favorite one is teachingfrom rest.
This is by Sarah McKenzie, umher, she has a podcast called
read aloud revival.
That's really popular and thisis just a short.
(07:24):
I think it's not even a hundredpages.
Read aloud revival that's reallypopular and this is just a
short.
I think it's not even 100 pages.
Yeah, it's like 80 somethingpages and it's just very short.
It's very Christian, just soyou're aware of that, but it's
just telling you how you can doit, and from a restful place,
and I read this almost everysummer as a refresher before we
start our year, to remind myselfthat relationships are more
(07:46):
important than than you know thecurricula.
Anyway.
I just I love Teaching fromRest.
That's probably my top one andI love, like I said, it's short,
really, really short.
So if you are in that stage oflike you can only read one book
a year, it's blissfully shortand you can get through it.
So I really love this one.
All right, another one that Idon't have with me because I
(08:07):
listened to it on audiobook, butis Brave Learner by Julie
Bogart, and that one is a littlebit of her journey with
homeschooling and how she did itand her friend Susie, and
inspiration Susie gave to Juliewhen they were homeschooling
together in the 80s and 90s andI just really loved.
(08:27):
She was kind of more unschoolyand I just loved seeing how it
can be done beautifully, howhomeschooling and unschooling
can be done in a very beautifulway that supports the individual
and is messy and artistic andjust.
I loved Julie's Brave Learner.
Julie herself is Christian butthat book has no Christian
(08:48):
material in it, so if you're asecular homeschooler you might
like Brave Learner.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Okay, and I will put links to these in the show's
description as well, so peoplecan easily find them.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, great.
And then I like to say that theChristian equivalent to Brave
Learner is Awakening Wonder bySally Clarkson.
So Awakening Wonder is kind ofthe same thing.
It's how you can homeschoolyour child and awaken that sense
of wonder in them and the joyof learning Anyway.
But it's written for more of aChristian viewpoint.
So whenever I have somebody newto homeschooling I say okay, if
(09:23):
you're more secular you mightenjoy Brave Learner, if you are
Christian you might enjoyAwakening Wonder.
To me they're very similar incontent, but one has Christian
content and one doesn't, andboth of those are just great,
giving you like the big pictureof what home education can look
like.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I tell you, I mean, I've been interviewing people
for over a year now and I thinkevery with every interview my
eyes open up even more.
You know it started with okay,I'm gonna look into
homeschooling.
For these reasons you know, x,y and Z.
That was my first episode.
Actually.
Should I homeschool my kids?
And I gave the reasons why Iwanted to and the reasons why I
(10:00):
was afraid to, and a year and ahalf later I'm just like the
reasons are still the same forwhy, but they've only expanded
and into more things like, forexample, just having that time
to connect more with nature,with our food, and connection of
our relationships with eachother.
(10:21):
It really is so I'm sure thesebooks can only add to that.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yes, absolutely, and I know for me, when I started
homeschooling I didn't knowanybody else that homeschooled.
I really jumped into that on myown, and you can listen to
episode four if you want to hearmore of that journey.
So I really appreciated thewisdom of these homeschoolers
that were doing it a generationbefore me and learning from
their experiences and seeingwhat it looked like in my home.
(10:46):
I'm a very like I wantapplication.
When I read books, I like theinspiration, but I also like,
okay, how does that apply?
How does that inspiration lookwhen it's being done in the home
?
And so I really yeah, so Ireally appreciate those books in
particular that guide methrough how it can actually look
in the day to day.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Because it's so easy to talk and hear people talk
about it.
But, like, my big thing wasalways like but what does it
look like?
And you know you're envisioninglike, okay, chop, chop, my
fresh muffins are on the counter.
And you know everybody'srunning out at 7am and you do
your curriculum and then you'relike reading books all day and
(11:26):
it's like it hasn't lookedanything like that for me and
every day looks different, notbecause I am even trying to, but
it's just like you're livinglife.
And then, when you can fit insome curriculum, you do, but the
curriculum's all around you andeverything you do, and making
those pancakes together in themorning and you know learning
how to make sourdough breadtogether.
(11:48):
And oh, look, there's a cocoonoutside, like let's check that
every day.
And where, like a year or twoago I would have been like, ew,
something is stuck in spider web, let's take a shoe and smash it
.
But like now that we're readingthese books about springtime
and nature, I'm like I bet it'sa cocoon and we're like, so
(12:09):
every day we're running outthere to see if it the silkworm
has hatched into a moth, andit's just like all these little
things that you know, thecurriculum happens all around us
.
Yeah, all right.
What else do you have for us?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
so then, um, I want to talk about oh, I guess
there's one more I wanted toshare in that category um, and
that is for the children's sake,by Susan Schaefer McCauley.
Now, this book is widely knownin the Charlotte Mason
homeschool community, but thisbook was written in the 80s and
it's what ignited the CharlotteMason movement.
(12:44):
To come back, oh, wow and soit's just about, um, it's like
on the back it says we hope theeducation we provide is a joyful
adventure, a celebration oflife and preparation for living,
and so she talks about and thisis also very Christian.
Anyway, this is the book thatCindy Rollins bought with her
high chair money and you know to, when she was homeschooling and
(13:06):
what ignited in her the desireto start Charlotte Mason
homeschooling.
So, um, but I do think, even ifyou're not a Charlotte Mason
homeschooler, the wisdom in hereabout, um, gentle education and
the Charlotte Mason methodsthat are in a very inspirational
way, I think is can benefit any, anybody, because the more you
learn about Charlotte Mason, themore you realize that her
(13:27):
education is more of like awhole life philosophy and not
just educational philosophy.
So Charlotte Mason's foreverybody, not just Charlotte
Mason homeschoolers, it's foranybody that's a parent.
So anyway, I do like, for thechildren's sake, if you want to
read about what ignited theCharlotte Mason homeschool
movement in the 80s, awesome,all right.
So then I want to go into a fewmore books that are kind of like
(13:51):
helpful in building, kind ofhow you want to do things in
your home, and one of that thatI really like is Better Together
by Pam Barnhill.
So this is all about basicallylearning together as a family
through something like a morningbasket.
So she talks about the benefitsof learning, having all your
(14:13):
children learn togetherregardless of their ages, and
how to do that, and there is abunch of information in the back
on how to build out a morningbasket where you guys can learn
together.
So if you're looking intobuilding a morning basket or you
want to do a lot of youreducation with all your kids you
(14:34):
know high school all the waydown to kindergarten Better
Together is a great way to helpyou see that big picture and
understand how to do that.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Okay, and we did have pam on this podcast as well.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
episode 30 your morning baskets pam barnhill and
her advice to a newhomeschooling mom I can link
that below too, along withkatie's episode yeah in the
show's description and then thisone is a pocket full of pine
cones nature study with theGentle Art of Learning by Karen
Andriola, and this one's alittle interesting.
(15:07):
I got this for Christmas twoyears ago when I ran over the
Christmas break and Karen was aCharlotte Mason educator.
Well, she's still alive, but Ithink she's a grandma now,
anyway, and she wrote this as afictional story on how to nature
study.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
You guys know I am a big fan of the Tuttle Twins and
their book series, and it lookslike you're enjoying them too.
All of the brands that Iaffiliated with for my podcast,
the Tuttle Twins is the mostpopular.
If you haven't checked it out,click on the link in my show's
description and give their sitea visit.
These books teach us real-lifeprinciples in a way that kids
can understand and, let's faceit, that I can understand, so
(15:50):
you will too.
Your kids will be learningthings like why a free market
economy is the best way to liftpeople out of poverty.
How property rights allow us todecide what's best for us and
make decisions for our family.
Why the world is a better placebecause of entrepreneurs who
create businesses to help servetheir fellow neighbors.
What socialism is and why it'sso destructive to our freedoms
(16:10):
and wellbeing.
How the golden rule, which istreat others how you'd like to
be treated, is so important topeople getting along with one
another, no matter where we live, what we look like or what we
believe.
Their book Education Vacationis all about homeschooling and
what a value that that can be.
Their books go over laws, whywe have them and what the role
of government is supposed to be,instead of what it is.
(16:33):
Grab the link in my show'sdescription and use code
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(17:19):
They have a nature studysupplemental curriculum and,
given that springtime is nowupon us, this is a perfect time
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Let's learn what's going onaround us.
I can't wait to do that onewith my kids.
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(17:41):
over to the homeschoolhowtocomunder listener discounts.
Thanks for checking out theshow today.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So her goal was to teach parents how to do nature
study with their children in aCharlotte Mason way, but in true
Charlotte Mason fashion.
She wrote it as a narrative, soyou read about this family.
So there's Carol, and she's gota boy and a girl and she starts
to homeschool.
And I think it takes place inlike the 1920s I'd have to
(18:11):
verify that, but it is beforemodern times and you follow this
mom through starting tohomeschool her children,
deciding to homeschool CharlotteMason style, and then how they
started doing nature study, andso one of the very early
chapters she talks about how herson saw a spider on their porch
and so she gave him hisnotebook and asked him to go
(18:33):
draw the spider and write downsome things that she, he
observed about the spider spiderand write down some things that
she, he observed about thespider, and so, um, anyway, I
just I loved this because ittaught me how simple nature
study can be.
Sometimes it feels like a bigthing and it talked about how
simple, how simple it is, but itreads like you're reading a
fictional story, so it's veryenjoyable.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
It doesn't feel like you're reading another, like do
this, do that so that's forparents, or something that you
would read along with yourchildren.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It's for parents, it's for you.
Although you could read italoud to your kids because it's
a story, there's nothing in itthat, as far as content, that
wouldn't be appropriate forchildren.
So you could read it aloud toyour children if you'd like and
that might.
Especially if you have childrenthat are maybe second, third or
fourth grade, that maybe you'restarting nature study with, you
could read it aloud with themand then say, okay, so maybe we
(19:22):
could do that, maybe we could gosee if we could find a spider
on our porch.
But it wasn't written to achild, if that makes sense.
Okay, yep, okay, I've got twomore.
One is Know and Tell by KarenGlass.
This is all about narration.
So if you and I know keeptalking about Charlotte Mason, I
(19:47):
but narration is basically justthe art of listening and
telling back what you hear in astory.
So, um, but narration can feelintimidating to parents if
they're trying to figure out howto get their child to narrate,
especially if they are CharlotteMason homeschooling or
switching to a Charlotte Masonmethod.
Um, you know my 12-old I cansay what did you read in that?
It was about bears.
And it's like okay, so what didyou learn about bears and you
feel like you're trying to pullthat information out of them.
(20:07):
And Know and Tell walks youthrough narration and how to get
good narrations from yourchildren.
So this is it, and there'spractical applications.
She tells you what to expectwhen you're just starting out.
You know, and then how toencourage your children in a way
that encourages them to want tonarrate.
If you are interested inhelping your children with
(20:28):
narration, know and Tell byKaren Glass is a great one,
awesome.
And then the last one I want toshare is Educating the
Wholehearted Child by ClayClarkson with Sally Clarkson.
One thing to know about this isthey are Christians and this is
a very Christian book, and inthe first couple chapters they
(20:49):
take the stance that if you readthe Bible correctly, you should
be home educating.
They state that in the openingchapters.
So if you don't agree with that, this book might not be for you
, but this is the one book thatthe Clarksons have written.
That is how they did it.
They've written.
I don't even know how manybooks Clay and Sally have
written More than I can count ontwo hands.
(21:11):
Oh, wow, yeah.
And because they have four verywidely successful children,
they homeschooled their fourchildren and two or three of
their children are authorsthemselves.
They've gone to Cambridge andsome of the Ivies and things
like that and just verysuccessful children, and so
people have asked them what didyou do in your homeschool?
And this is the one book theywrote about that, and this is
(21:35):
actually.
I like this because it doesgive curricula suggestions, but
it really just walks you throughcreating your own home
education in your home so how topick a math, how to pick a
language, arts or science orhistory, and so they give
curricula suggestions, but theyactually say, if you don't need
a curricula for this subject,then don't use one, right?
So I started reading this thisspring and I'm using this to
(21:58):
help me create my own curriculafor the fall, so we won't be
using a lot of curricula aswritten.
I'm gonna be using this as aguide on how I want to teach
those subjects in my home.
So, anyway, that's.
This one has been my favoriteas far as, like, if you want to
let go of the training wheelsthat curricula provide, then
this is kind of that steppingstone to letting off those
(22:20):
training wheels and starting topedal yourself Awesome.
I have three more books I wantto share.
Two of them are abouttraditions and this one's kind
of its own.
It doesn't really have acategory, but it's Mere
Motherhood, by Cindy Rollins,and this is her memoir.
So she homeschooled all nine ofher children.
She had eight boys and one girl.
(22:40):
This goes through her childhoodand upbringing meeting her
husband, getting married, havingall those children home,
educating, raising them andtrying to afford things.
One of the things I loved inthis book was she said she saw
friends buying these bigcurricula packages and she, she
was worried how she was going togoing to be able to afford math
(23:00):
, just math for her kids, and soI just liked how real she is.
In this book there are reallyfunny things.
I mean, with eight boys, youcould imagine that there's lots
of stuff that happened in thathome, and Cindy doesn't shy away
from telling some of thosestories.
This one has been my favoritebecause it, like I said, it's
another like view into howsomebody else did it and what it
(23:23):
looked like in the day and shehas like two or three chapters
at the end that have some gentleencouragement, but the vast
majority of the book is just hermemoir, and so I really really
like this.
And she was she was a charlottemason home educator.
That she's the one I said.
She tells a story about how shehad one child, was pregnant
with another, of her second orthird, and her husband had given
(23:46):
her money to go buy a highchair.
And she went into the bookshopbefore she got to the high chair
store or where she was going tobuy the high chair, and she saw
for the children's sake, um, inthat bookstore and bought it
with the high chair money, andthat's what ignited her desire
to homeschool in the CharlotteMason way.
Oh, so anyway, love thisbecause it's very relatable and
(24:08):
it makes you feel like whateveryou're doing is good.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
So anyway, yeah, yeah , yeah, and I love that.
I'm definitely going to checkthat one out.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
This one I think would be a great gift for
Mother's Day, because some ofthe other ones are ones that,
like you as a homeschool mom,you might want to preview and
buy yourself if you'reinterested.
But this one, I think, could berelatable for any homeschool
mom in your life, and so I thinkthis one is a great one to gift
to people oh awesome is a greatone to gift to people oh
awesome what a great idea yeah,and then the last two that I
(24:41):
wanted to share are aroundbuilding traditions in your home
.
For me, I, as my children havegotten older, I kind of have
left a lot of the parentingbooks behind because, number one
, I have enough.
I have wisdom that I've learnedfrom the early years that I just
feel like I don't really needas much, you know, of that later
(25:02):
in life.
And, like I said, my youngestchild is now seven and a half,
and so I just I've shifted.
I'm no longer building myfamily, I'm raising my family,
and so for me, I shifted from alot of like the parenting books
to more of like a family culturehow to build the culture I want
in my family and so I shiftedto learning more about creating
(25:26):
traditions.
Growing up in my home, wedidn't have a lot of traditions,
and that was something verymuch lacking in my childhood and
I just realized as an adultthat's a very easy way to bring
joy into your life is throughcreating traditions and breaking
up the monotony of every day.
So the first one I have is MrsSharp's Traditions Reviving
(25:49):
Victorian Family Celebrations ofComfort and Joy, and this was
written in the 1990s and thisone is all about bringing back
that Victorian culture ofcelebrating things like May Day
and Candlemas and having bigSunday dinners.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Let me ask you a question.
Do you follow the Homeschoolhow To on your favorite
streaming service?
If not, what are you waitingfor?
Click that follow button so youdon't miss another episode of
the Homeschool How-To.
I have some awesome showscoming up that I'm really
excited about and I don't wantyou to miss them.
And if you're enjoying the show, let me know about it by
leaving a review.
Click those stars right on theapp that you're listening to the
(26:30):
show on, or click leave areview and let me know how
you're liking it so far.
Hearing from you guys is reallythe only way I know if I should
keep the show going, so let meknow how you feel about the show
and if it's helped you out inany way.
I always love hearing from thelisteners, and guess what that's
you?
You can always follow me onInstagram as well.
At the Homeschool how ToPodcast, I post all sorts of
(26:52):
things homeschooling andanti-government so it's fun.
It's a great way to see whatshows are coming up and what
shows have just come out, and myjourney in the process.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
It walks you through the year.
So there's the art of domesticbliss and then the joy and
comfort of seasonal pastimes.
So there's a little section atthe front, about 50 pages, about
domestic bliss and how we canlearn from the Victorians in
creating domestic bliss, andthen it walks you through the
seasons month by month throughthe year and suggesting
(27:25):
traditions and holidays andcelebrating those the way the
Victorians would have.
I really like this one forthose holidays, like I said,
like Christmas or Candlemas,that I maybe want to spend a lot
of time on creating like a bigholiday cool thing and then, oh,
that's cool yeah.
(27:47):
And then this one is memorymaking mom, building traditions
that breathe life into your home, by Jessica Smart and um, I
believe she yeah, she's alsoshe's also homeschooler.
And this one starts out kind oftalking about her reasons for
wanting to create a memory.
You know a home full ofwonderful memories, with
(28:09):
traditions and celebrations, soit talks about her journey and
then in the back it hassuggestions for the holidays.
This one is a little moremodern, like it has examples for
you know, like maybe NationalDonut Day, you know, or
Groundhog Day, like things thatmight have not been around in
the Victorian age.
So this one has a little moremodern ideas.
(28:29):
I also find she gives reallyshe gives tips for really quick
things you can do, so somethingthat only takes maybe 30 minutes
of planning or like one trip tothe store.
So, like this one is great forif you're kind of a busier mom
where I feel like these ones,like I love the idea of bringing
these back, but some of them Iread the chapter on family
(28:50):
dinners and I was like thatwould take a lot of work like
like she talked about, um, likehaving the nice place setting
and using your nice china.
Everybody has to change intonice clothing.
You plan the meal, everybodyprepare something to talk about.
You know like and that mightsound I mean, we we do family
(29:11):
dinners right, like we do that,but we're very much like buffet
style Everybody get your foodoff the counter, then we meet at
the table, we eat.
Everybody eats as fast as theycan before we go to sports, you
know, and so yeah this like wecould probably do a sunday
dinner this way, but some ofthese in this book mrs sharp's
traditions might take a littlemore forethought, where I feel
(29:32):
like memory making mom is maybesomething you could do a little
more on the fly.
If you're like, oh, tomorrow,like tomorrow, like it's, you
know, 10 o'clock at night andyou're like what could we do
tomorrow, okay, I can grabsomething out of the art you
know, the art cabinet orwhatever, and we can do that
thing.
So I like both of them.
I feel like they each fill adifferent need in my home.
Oh, they sound awesome.
(29:54):
Yeah, so those are the booksthat I wanted to share with your
homeschool audience and I hopethat maybe somebody found a gem
in here that will help them ontheir journey in some way.
I love providing encouragementfor homeschool moms, like I've
said this, I think, probably onthe previous podcast, but I very
much appreciated the wisdom ofhomeschool moms that had come
(30:19):
before me, and so I love that inmy journey I can be that for
other people and point youtowards some awesome resources.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Oh, and we thank you so much for doing that.
It sometimes, especially whenyou have the younger kids, it
just feels like, you know,you're just trying to keep a
flow and, okay, how can we getthrough today and tomorrow?
You're not thinking of theselong-term extras like a Sunday
tradition, or you know, even I'mjust thinking like little off
(30:48):
of that, like, okay, for Sundaytradition.
You know, maybe you send thekids to make a craft for you
know each place setting at thetable and okay, well, you guys
can decide whatever that craft'sgoing to be, whether it be a
painting or a molding of youknow the little clay molds or a
Play-Doh mold or whatever.
While I'm cooking you do that.
(31:08):
Maybe we make dessert together,and so it's just little things
like that.
But yeah, they're going to growup and be like, oh yeah, my mom
always had us do that.
It was fun, or maybe I groanedabout it at the time, but now I
see the value in it and whatawesome little tidbits.
So thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
A couple things about traditions, just because those
were my last books.
I suggested One is that you cancultivate traditions at any
point in your life.
So, for example, like my oldestis 21.
If I decided to start atradition now, she'll still have
memories of that like itdoesn't.
It doesn't matter how old yourchildren are when you start
implementing traditions.
Um.
So for me, I really didn't do alot when I had lots of little
(31:49):
kids.
It was like, okay, we did likethe big holidays, we did
Christmas, and you know that wasit.
But now that my kids get olderI have a little more time that I
can do that.
So just recognize that it'sokay when you're in the baby and
toddler stage if you don'tbuild gingerbread houses this
year for Christmas, like noone's going to die because you
didn't do that.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
I think people needed to hear that.
Yeah, yeah for sure You're like, oh my gosh, we missed this
thing.
We missed doing that.
I remember my sister-in-lawsaying how, like on St Patrick's
Day, she had green foodcoloring in the toilet and then
said to the kids like oh, theleprechaun came and he peed in
our toilet and I'm like what?
(32:28):
I've never even that thought,would never even cross my mind
to celebrate St Patrick's Daywith children.
You think of it as like justlike a college drinking holiday.
But this year I did put somefood coloring in the toilet.
I was like, whatever, let's seewhat if he likes it.
He more was like mom, that'sdisgusting.
Can you flush that?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
I'm not peeing where a leprechaun peed, but it was it
was something funny to rememberand with traditions, you don't
have to do them every year forthem to be a tradition.
So like, for example, if youdecide that you're going to do
something really neat forvalentine's this day or this
year, but then next year youhave a baby and you can't get to
it and then you do it again.
(33:07):
Like it doesn't matter howoften you do it.
If you do it more than twotimes it can be a tradition, so
you don't have to do it everyyear.
I think that takes a lot ofpressure off to like just
recognizing that you don't haveto do every tradition every year
for it to be a tradition.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Awesome, and so we were also going to touch base a
little bit on the curriculum,since you are, like my,
curriculum expert.
You and I had done a live onFacebook together once as well,
where we totally went into depthon what you were advising or
recommending for me to do forthe kindergarten year for my son
, and we did so a solid sixmonths of.
(33:45):
You would recommended theHagerty phonics program, which
is what is actually done inschools in combination with all
about reading, the pre reading,and I have the curriculum series
that people are probablyfamiliar with.
At this point it is asubscription which just
basically covers the cost of,like, running the podcast, but
(34:05):
so three dollars a month and youget access to the curriculum
series.
But what I discussed was I gotreally into depth on what the
all about reading, pre-readingwas for us on a day to day basis
, like what that curriculumlooked like in our home, how my
son reacted to it, how I thoughtabout it and the different
things that the curriculumprovided, like versus, you know
games and and you know thepuppet, the little books with it
(34:28):
.
So we we did go into depth onthat.
We talked about the Hagerty Um,and we also went into depth on
our Instagram live on.
Uh, did we do a little math?
I think, yeah, we did do like agood and the beautiful math a
little bit.
So, yes, and then I also have acurriculum series episode about
that.
Are you trying to pick acurriculum but feel a little
(34:50):
overwhelmed at the variety ofoptions?
Me too.
I mean, how do you pick acurriculum when you don't know
what each one has to offer?
That's been my biggest problem.
Well, I am here to help.
I just launched a premiumcontent series, psst.
That means it's $3 a month,which will just help cover the
cost of running the podcast.
In my curriculum series, Iinterview homeschooling students
(35:10):
and parents and curriculumcreators about specific
curriculum each week so that youcan take the guesswork out of
your curriculum choices.
I'll be asking questions likewhat does the day-to-day look
like with this curriculum?
What does it cover from abird's eye view?
How long does one lesson taketo complete?
How many lessons does thecurriculum contain and what does
it cost?
Did you have to order the bookor could you download them and
(35:32):
print them somewhere like yourlibrary?
Does this curriculum have a lotof games, writing or crafts,
and did your child enjoy thiscurriculum?
Can you do it with more thanone child at a time?
And if I did this curriculumwith my child, would I need to
add any sort of supplements toit?
These are all questions I'vehad while I search for the
perfect curriculum to suit myson's personality and my
(35:53):
expectations.
Let's face it there is no onecurriculum out there that will
work best for every child andadult.
So I invite you to join me inmy search to find out what every
curriculum has to offer so thatyou can feel confident in your
curriculum choices and enjoyyour homeschooling journey that
much more.
Right where you find all of theHomeschool How-To Podcast
episodes, you'll see mycurriculum series and you can
(36:15):
subscribe today.
So we covered those.
I asked you what othercurriculums that you had kind of
gone through, so we're going tojust go through like an
overview so people have justlike a general gist of what I
cover on my curriculum seriesand then we'll go into depth in
a couple of future episodes onthe curriculum series for a
(36:36):
couple of them that you werereally excited to talk about.
But let's just go through ageneral overview on what you
have used and how you felt aboutthose curriculums.
Okay, am I saying it wrong?
Is it plural Curricula, and I'msaying curriculums.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
I think it's probably you could use either one, I
would guess.
I think I probably.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Oh God.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
So, like I said, I've been homeschooling now seven
years.
We're ending our seventh yearand I have approached curricula
in a different way than mostpeople.
A lot of people start withtheir philosophy and then they
narrow it down to curriculumwithin their philosophy.
For me, I'm eclectic Eileen,charlotte Mason, if haven't
noticed but I'm I really am moreeclectic, and so every year I
(37:20):
look at the needs of my familyand I look at like how the
previous year went and I look athow much time I'm going to have
and how you know what I'm goingto be having to help each child
with, like how parent heavy thecurricula is anyway.
So I have went through a lot ofdifferent curricula and I've
used different stuff almostevery year, and that's one of
(37:43):
the reasons.
It's not that because, likemost of the curricula I've used
has been good.
For some reason I haven't usedanything that I would straight
up would say like a bad one, butmaybe it served us one year and
then the next year it didn'tserve us.
So that's why I have tried somany things.
So for math, we have triedMathUC.
(38:04):
My oldest son did MathUC forthree.
The first three years westarted homeschooling.
We have done the good and thebeautiful math.
And this year my youngest hasbeen doing math with confidence
that is Kate Snow's program andmy older son moved into Denison
pre-algebra.
So those are the math that wehave tried.
Oh, and we've also tried beastacademy.
(38:26):
We had one year of beastacademy, so we've tried beast
academy.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, I've heard of Khan academy, I haven't heard of
beast Academy.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yeah.
So Beast Academy is a verycritical thinking style of math.
You can do it online or they dohave workbooks.
It's geared towards kids thatreally like math.
They're very math minded and itis very advanced.
So, um, but any, any kid coulduse, use Beast Academy and find
success with it.
It's just that if they strugglein math it might be a little
(38:56):
frustrating for that child.
Okay, so those are the mathprograms that we have tried.
And then language arts.
Oh man, I'm trying to thinkWe've done a few.
We did the good and thebeautiful language arts.
We've used IEW, which isInstitute for Excellence in
Writing.
We've used Essentials inWriting, eiw, and we've used the
(39:20):
vocabulary not vocabulary,excuse me grammar program from
Michael Clay Thompson.
And then, for science, we'vereally only tried two science
curricula.
We used the Good and theBeautiful Science for the first
five years that we'vehomeschooled, and then we have
been using Science Shepherd thisyear, um and yeah, and then for
(39:41):
social studies, that's.
That's the one I've jumpedaround a lot in as well, mostly
because I love social studiesand it's kind of like, oh, I
want to try that, oh, I want totry that, I want to try that, I
want to try that.
So I've I've tried a lot ofsocial studies programs for that
reason, because I love socialstudies and I just think there's
so many cool things out there.
So we've tried Story of theWorld, we have used Beautiful
(40:05):
Feet the most, we have triedHomeschool in the Woods and
we've tried Knotgrass Historyand we've done Tuttle Twins.
I think that's probably thehistory and social studies that
we've done.
Tuttle Twins, I think that'sprobably the history that in
social studies that we've done.
So anyway, yeah, that's kind ofa broad overview of curricula
(40:27):
that we have used over the sevenyears.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
So, and I'm obsessed with the Tuttle Twins books and
you know I'm an affiliate forthem.
I talk about that all the timeand so you know I can put a link
down in the show's descriptiontoo if anyone wants to check out
their stuff.
But I'm really excited to usetheir history curriculum because
I just feel that they have sucha way of talking about big
(40:53):
concepts but in a way that it'seasy to understand, like the
textbooks in school never put ittogether in like a story
version, it was just dates andpeople.
It didn't really connectanything for me and it seemed
like, oh my gosh, this stuffhappened so long ago.
Why do we care?
Now that I'm older and kind oflike looking at the big picture,
(41:14):
the timeline of the world andour first civilization and you
know the the world changing overfrom BC to AD and how things
really weren't that long ago,even America has just not been
here that long.
So for people to scoff at likewhy would you teach your kids
self-sufficiency skills?
That's so stupid.
(41:35):
It's like we've only been here250 years, like our country has.
It's so new.
How do you know we're not goingto get taken over by another
country in a decade, 50 years, ahundred years, and our kids
kids are not going to need toknow how to get food, like
that's so foolish to not thinkthat that's important.
(41:56):
So I love how the title twinskind of take these big concepts
and bring it down to a way thatit's easy to understand as a
parent and the child.
And so I'm excited to use theirhistory books.
I just my son's five and mydaughter's one, so I haven't
delved into it yet.
I really want them to like getthe most out of it, so I'm going
to wait a little bit.
But, um, but they have a couple.
They have volume one and volumetwo.
(42:17):
I believe that's it right now.
And just from what I have lookedinto on them, even just when
they talk about slavery, theyreally get into the more like
depth of it and and how it wasin relation to the rest of the
world, cause I think that'ssomething our schools lack.
They talk about slavery inAmerica and and again, we've
(42:42):
only been a country for 250years, so like we fairly quickly
I I don't again, I didn't gointo this yet, but from what
I've seen them talk about likethey talk about how long it's
been going on in every singlecountry and that we should
really give ourselves a pat onthe back for abolishing it.
You know, as quickly as we didwhen we were an established
(43:04):
country because of what wasgoing on another, it's going on
today and nobody cares you knowso it's like I really just I'm
excited to get into the TuttleTwins history of volume one and
two.
So for anyone that wants tocheck that out, even just check
out the website through the link, I'll attach it and you know,
they'll know I sent you if youuse the link.
(43:24):
So that would be awesome.
But tell me a little bit aboutjust what your take on the
Tuttle Twins History curriculumis like.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
I love it.
One of the things that you'llfind in homeschool curricula
like, for example, not grass,which we have used it's very
much like this is what happened.
Here's the dates.
Here was that person, here'swhat happened.
But there's not a lot of reasonof like well, why like?
Why were they doing that?
(43:53):
Or like because they made thesedecisions.
How did that influence?
For, like the, the next sectionof history that came, you know,
the next civilization, and Ithink that title twins is
probably one of the only thingsI've seen on the market that
really goes into well, why wasit happening this way?
What was the thought processbehind it?
How can we learn from that?
(44:14):
Because you know, the wholepoint of history is that we
learn from history so we don'trepeat past mistakes.
And if you're just learninglike this is what happened, then
for you as a child, they'rethinking well, it just happened
that way.
They don't.
They're not like thinkingthrough well, why did it happen?
Or what can I learn from this,or what was bad about that event
, or what was good about thatevent, or what was good about
(44:36):
that event, and Title Twinsreally leads that child through
that thought process.
So that's why I like it.
The other thing is that theirbook series, the 13 book series
I just saw they're working onthe 14th book in their
children's books and those takebig topics like government and
economics and free market rulesand they break that down into a
(44:58):
story that a child canunderstand.
I used the 13 books in a co-opclass last year and the class
was first to third graders andit was amazing how much they
picked up.
I think we had 14 weeks ofclass.
I would read the book and thenwe would discuss some things and
then we would do some hands-onactivities about the principle
(45:20):
that we had learned that day.
But they really did pick up onthings like the first book.
The Law talks about corruptiongovernment corruption yeah, you
know, yeah, plunder.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
And they relate it into a way yes, plunder.
They relate it to a way wherethe kids are talking to their
neighbor and they're goingthrough.
Well, this is what it lookslike in a day to day.
I'm growing a garden, I'mgrowing tomatoes, you know, the
lady across the street really,really likes them, um, if, uh,
(45:53):
and they're like, oh, why do youhave all these canned foods and
this?
And that he goes.
Well, I like to give away stufftoo.
You know, I have it foremergency.
But if somebody has a baby, ifsomebody loses a job, I like to
bring them food so that I canhelp out.
But is it right if a policemancomes to my house, takes my
stuff and gives it to someoneless fortunate, and so they're
(46:14):
putting it in, you know, andhe's asking the kids these
questions?
So it really puts it in a wayof like, well, if that's not
right, then why would it beright for the government to do
that?
Or?
You know?
So I love those books and theyhave discussion questions in the
back of the book too, so that Inever thought about using those
books for a co-op and actuallydo have a discount code for
(46:35):
people cheryl 40, um, you canget 40 off of the entire series
for the ages 5 through 11.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
And those books, yeah , they're, they're awesome oh
yeah, and they come like if youget the one, the book series, 13
book series, with the parentguides.
There's writing activities,like it gives them writing
prompts, there's crosswordpuzzles, there's mazes, all
sorts of things in those, inthose that come along, or the
workbooks that come along withit.
The other thing is that it'sinspired me to read some books
as well, like when we read theAtlas Shrugged children's book.
(47:04):
It actually encouraged me toread the real Atlas Shrugged by
Anne Rand, and I read that lastyear, and so it's encouraged me
because some of the books arebased off like the Law is a book
by, I think, frederick Bastiat.
There's Atlas Shrugged by IanRand, yeah, and then I know the
13th book was Dumbing Us Down.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
One of them is for the homeschool book is based off
of John Taylor Gatto's yes, Ithink Dumbing Us Down is what
they were referencing in thatone.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yes, so it's.
So.
Reading some of those books hasinspired me to go and read the
adult work that inspired thechildren's book, and so I'm
learning along with my kids thatway.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Yes, me too 100%, so you are enjoying the history.
Yeah, yes, now we are going toget into on our curriculum
series a little bit more, butlet's just tell the listeners
now which ones that you reallyliked and that we are going to
get in to talk to you about indepth on the curriculum series.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
So I mentioned before that social studies is my
favorite subject, and so the twocurricula that I love to talk
about the most is Beautiful Feetand Homeschool in the Woods
love to talk about the most isBeautiful Feet and Homeschool in
the Woods.
Now, beautiful Feet is a veryis a popular curricula.
That is a literature-basedcurricula, and we've been.
(48:25):
We've used the early Americanhistory and this year we've been
been using the around the worldwith picture books curricula
from them, and it has been handsdown.
One of my favorite curriculawe've ever used has been this
around the world with picturebooks.
And then homeschool in thewoods is a lesser known
curricula out there.
(48:45):
It is a history curricula.
They have their time travelerseries is the American History
and the Project Passport isWorld History and they are a
very, very hands on historycompany.
So those are probably my toptwo favorite curricula that we
(49:08):
have done, mostly because of howengaging they are, and so those
are the two that I would loveto talk about more Awesome, all
(49:31):
right.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Well, I would love to talk about more.
Moms can kind of find thatspace in the day where we give
ourselves the grace to let theclothes go unfolded, let the
dishes maybe stay dirty in thesink.
Give yourself that time to reada book, or even in the morning,
like that's when I startthinking I should get to this,
should get to that, and it'slike you need to kind of do
(49:52):
something for yourself too,because you deserve it.
You can't wait until all thekids are gone and out of the
house to start reading thesebooks, because you don't know
what you're going to read that'sactually going to inspire how
you live your life that day orfor that season.
These books just sound likethey would make you a much more
present parent and give yougreat ideas and insight about
your homeschooling journey.
(50:13):
So I think these are awesome.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
Yeah, and Charlotte Mason believed in educating
mothers just as much as childrenwere educated themselves.
She believed that an educatedmother is just as important,
because that mother is educatingtheir child, and so that's one
of the things that I encouragemoms is that I know it's busy,
but don't neglect your owneducation and don't neglect your
(50:39):
own needs as a mother, becauseyou can't pour from an empty
well.
You need to be taking care ofyourself, and I hope that these
books in some way can beinspirational in helping you do
that.
But no matter what, whether youread in these books or not,
just know that you're doing anamazing job as a mother, that
(50:59):
you've already done the hardthing by pulling your kids to
homeschool, and everything elseis just the cherry on top.
You're doing great as a mom.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
Oh, and you too.
Happy Mother's Day, and happyMother's Day to everyone
listening.
Thank you for tuning in to thisweek's episode of the
Homeschool how To.
If you've enjoyed what youheard and you'd like to
contribute to the show, pleaseconsider leaving a small tip
using the link in my show'sdescription.
Or, if you'd rather, please usethe link in the description to
(51:32):
share this podcast with a friendor on your favorite homeschool
group Facebook page.
Any effort to help us keep thepodcast going is greatly
appreciated.
Thank you for tuning in and foryour love of the next
generation.
Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool
How-To.
I'm Cheryl and I invite you tojoin me on my quest to find out
why are people homeschooling,how do you do it, how does it
differ from region to region,and should I homeschool my kids?
Stick with me as I interviewhomeschooling families across
the country to unfold theanswers to each of these
(00:26):
questions week by week.
Welcome, and with us today wehave Katie Berry.
Katie was on episode 4 on March4th 2023, so over a year ago
now.
Katie, welcome back.
Thanks, it's so fun to see youagain.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Cheryl.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Oh, you were such a plethora of knowledge.
Um, our your episode was titledcurriculum curriculum how kids
learn and what curriculum isbest for you.
You have had 1,498 downloadsfor that episode.
That is one of my top five.
People loved it, and you havealso referred so many
(01:09):
knowledgeable people to me totalk about other aspects of
homeschooling.
So thank you for that, becauseI think I pretty much got almost
all of them on.
But what you came on today, wewanted to do a little bit
something special for mothers,because Mother's Day is right
around the corner, and why don'tI just shoot it over to you?
What did you ask to come ontoday to talk about?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, I wanted to talk about books for homeschool
mom encouragement.
I've been a lifelong reader andas I entered the homeschooling
world I have found I've readprobably well.
When I say read, I eitherlisten to an audio book or I
read in print.
I've probably read over 50books about homeschooling and it
got to the point where I wasfeeling kind of like satiated
(01:52):
and then I so I kind of made mytop favorites and those are the
ones I revisit again and again.
But I just felt like mothers arethe heart of the home.
They're the ones that arerunning the home, they're the
ones that are making sure theirkids are being taken care of and
(02:12):
their families be being takencare of.
And one of the ways that for meas a mother, for me to have
something for myself, is reading, has become that I just I love
reading, I love the stories andI love furthering my own
knowledge and my own education,and that is something that I
have cultivated for myself, andso I just encourage moms out
there.
If you're homeschooling,reading kind of goes along with
(02:32):
that, and so if you're not areader, it's okay.
It's never too late to becomeone, and I just wanted to share
a few tips on how to become areader if you're not one, and my
number one tip is audiobooks,audiobooks, audiobooks.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, that's for me Like I want to be a reader.
I really do.
But I have this problem where Ifall asleep the minute I sit
down to read a book or someoneneeds something, and I think,
just because I wasn't likeproperly educated on how to read
well and retain the knowledgethat I that it carried with me
(03:10):
that you know you read somethingand I read slow, and then I
lose my train of thought becauseI'm thinking about laundry or
whatever else I have to do thatday.
So audio books have been mysaving grace.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yes, and I will say audio books.
I'm choosy with narrators and Ialso.
If I listen to the first hourand I can't keep full attention,
I abandon it, because I've justlearned that non-fiction in
particular, sometimes it'sreally interesting and it keeps
my attention.
Sometimes the book itself mighthave interesting information,
but the way it's presented Ijust zone out, and so I will
(03:43):
listen for an hour of anaudiobook and if I can't get
into it then I'll switch toprint.
But times you can listen toaudiobooks For me, I listen
while I'm making dinner, Ilisten while I'm folding laundry
, while I'm grocery shopping, ifI'm driving alone, just any of
those little pockets of timewhen I'm doing something that
frankly I don't want to be doing.
(04:05):
If I pair it with an audiobook,that thing feels more enjoyable.
But it's also allowing me toread more.
The other thing is that it'sokay to plod your way through
books If you have.
If you only read two or threebooks a year for yourself,
that's still two or three morethat you wouldn't have read
before.
And it's totally okay if youread two or three pages a day if
that's all you can do.
For me, I find I do bestreading books in print either
(04:32):
early morning, before my kidswake up, or late at night,
because in the early morning, ifthey're not awake yet, it gives
me a little time to focuswithout the kids needing my
attention.
Or in the evening it's a littleeasier because you've kind of
settled down for the day.
All your to-do list tasks aredone and you're winding down and
my brain is calmer and I'm ableto focus more.
And so those are the times Iread in print.
Books is early morning or lateat night.
(04:52):
I will also say that when Istarted homeschooling my
youngest was eight months oldand for the first couple years I
really did only read maybe fourbooks a year for myself.
I started reading books to mychildren out loud that I wanted
to read, so some of thechildren's classics like Secret
Garden and things like that.
So I was getting my readingwith my children as I was
reading to my children.
But in the last two or threeyears, as my youngest has aged,
(05:14):
I've had more time.
So that's.
The other thing is there's agesand stages to your family rhythm
and it's okay.
If you're in a stage where mostof your reading is done with
your children, that's totallyfine.
But I do think that if you'rehomeschooling it's nice to have
a few books for encouragement,because sometimes it can get
(05:36):
monotonous or it can be hard andit's just great to have some
wisdom to help you on yourjourney.
And I really like thespringtime and summertime to
read homeschooling books,especially if you are someone
that does a lighter summer oryou're taking summer off.
It gives you more time to kindof reinvigorate yourself for the
fall.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Awesome.
So what are the books that youdo recommend and where do these
come from?
Like, how do you pick?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Oh man, um, so I've I've been homeschooling I'm just
finishing our seventh year andso some have been recommended to
me from other homeschoolfriends.
Some I found on groups, um,some I've seen as
recommendations, like I go onAmazon to buy a book and then it
says other people have boughtthese ones, or um, on on
Goodreads.
I'm on Goodreads and I follow alot of homeschooler friends on
(06:22):
Goodreads and I will see whatthey're reading and then I add
it to my to read list.
So that's how I find them.
The other thing is that a fewbooks are written kind of by
homeschooling social socialmedia influencers and so you'll
be able to see on their accountsif they come out with books and
then I read those um, butreally it's just kind of been a
a smattering of places.
(06:43):
I found these and these havecome out on top as my favorites,
like I said.
So I kind of broken them upinto like encouragement books,
some that are kind of like thehow to homeschool.
Like that's kind of funny,yours is the homeschool how to
podcast, but how to get started,or kind of uh, processes,
homeschooling.
(07:03):
And then I had some bonus oneson kind of family culture.
So those are the categories thatI'm going to share, so I'll
just get started.
I'll start with encouragementmy hands down.
My favorite one is teachingfrom rest.
This is by Sarah McKenzie, umher, she has a podcast called
read aloud revival.
That's really popular and thisis just a short.
(07:24):
I think it's not even a hundredpages.
Read aloud revival that's reallypopular and this is just a
short.
I think it's not even 100 pages.
Yeah, it's like 80 somethingpages and it's just very short.
It's very Christian, just soyou're aware of that, but it's
just telling you how you can doit, and from a restful place,
and I read this almost everysummer as a refresher before we
start our year, to remind myselfthat relationships are more
(07:46):
important than than you know thecurricula.
Anyway.
I just I love Teaching fromRest.
That's probably my top one andI love, like I said, it's short,
really, really short.
So if you are in that stage oflike you can only read one book
a year, it's blissfully shortand you can get through it.
So I really love this one.
All right, another one that Idon't have with me because I
(08:07):
listened to it on audiobook, butis Brave Learner by Julie
Bogart, and that one is a littlebit of her journey with
homeschooling and how she did itand her friend Susie, and
inspiration Susie gave to Juliewhen they were homeschooling
together in the 80s and 90s andI just really loved.
(08:27):
She was kind of more unschoolyand I just loved seeing how it
can be done beautifully, howhomeschooling and unschooling
can be done in a very beautifulway that supports the individual
and is messy and artistic andjust.
I loved Julie's Brave Learner.
Julie herself is Christian butthat book has no Christian
(08:48):
material in it, so if you're asecular homeschooler you might
like Brave Learner.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Okay, and I will put links to these in the show's
description as well, so peoplecan easily find them.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah, great.
And then I like to say that theChristian equivalent to Brave
Learner is Awakening Wonder bySally Clarkson.
So Awakening Wonder is kind ofthe same thing.
It's how you can homeschoolyour child and awaken that sense
of wonder in them and the joyof learning Anyway.
But it's written for more of aChristian viewpoint.
So whenever I have somebody newto homeschooling I say okay, if
(09:23):
you're more secular you mightenjoy Brave Learner, if you are
Christian you might enjoyAwakening Wonder.
To me they're very similar incontent, but one has Christian
content and one doesn't, andboth of those are just great,
giving you like the big pictureof what home education can look
like.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I tell you, I mean, I've been interviewing people
for over a year now and I thinkevery with every interview my
eyes open up even more.
You know it started with okay,I'm gonna look into
homeschooling.
For these reasons you know, x,y and Z.
That was my first episode.
Actually.
Should I homeschool my kids?
And I gave the reasons why Iwanted to and the reasons why I
(10:00):
was afraid to, and a year and ahalf later I'm just like the
reasons are still the same forwhy, but they've only expanded
and into more things like, forexample, just having that time
to connect more with nature,with our food, and connection of
our relationships with eachother.
(10:21):
It really is so I'm sure thesebooks can only add to that.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yes, absolutely, and I know for me, when I started
homeschooling I didn't knowanybody else that homeschooled.
I really jumped into that on myown, and you can listen to
episode four if you want to hearmore of that journey.
So I really appreciated thewisdom of these homeschoolers
that were doing it a generationbefore me and learning from
their experiences and seeingwhat it looked like in my home.
(10:46):
I'm a very like I wantapplication.
When I read books, I like theinspiration, but I also like,
okay, how does that apply?
How does that inspiration lookwhen it's being done in the home
?
And so I really yeah, so Ireally appreciate those books in
particular that guide methrough how it can actually look
in the day to day.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Because it's so easy to talk and hear people talk
about it.
But, like, my big thing wasalways like but what does it
look like?
And you know you're envisioninglike, okay, chop, chop, my
fresh muffins are on the counter.
And you know everybody'srunning out at 7am and you do
your curriculum and then you'relike reading books all day and
(11:26):
it's like it hasn't lookedanything like that for me and
every day looks different, notbecause I am even trying to, but
it's just like you're livinglife.
And then, when you can fit insome curriculum, you do, but the
curriculum's all around you andeverything you do, and making
those pancakes together in themorning and you know learning
how to make sourdough breadtogether.
(11:48):
And oh, look, there's a cocoonoutside, like let's check that
every day.
And where, like a year or twoago I would have been like, ew,
something is stuck in spider web, let's take a shoe and smash it
.
But like now that we're readingthese books about springtime
and nature, I'm like I bet it'sa cocoon and we're like, so
(12:09):
every day we're running outthere to see if it the silkworm
has hatched into a moth, andit's just like all these little
things that you know, thecurriculum happens all around us
.
Yeah, all right.
What else do you have for us?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
so then, um, I want to talk about oh, I guess
there's one more I wanted toshare in that category um, and
that is for the children's sake,by Susan Schaefer McCauley.
Now, this book is widely knownin the Charlotte Mason
homeschool community, but thisbook was written in the 80s and
it's what ignited the CharlotteMason movement.
(12:44):
To come back, oh, wow and soit's just about, um, it's like
on the back it says we hope theeducation we provide is a joyful
adventure, a celebration oflife and preparation for living,
and so she talks about and thisis also very Christian.
Anyway, this is the book thatCindy Rollins bought with her
high chair money and you know to, when she was homeschooling and
(13:06):
what ignited in her the desireto start Charlotte Mason
homeschooling.
So, um, but I do think, even ifyou're not a Charlotte Mason
homeschooler, the wisdom in hereabout, um, gentle education and
the Charlotte Mason methodsthat are in a very inspirational
way, I think is can benefit any, anybody, because the more you
learn about Charlotte Mason, themore you realize that her
(13:27):
education is more of like awhole life philosophy and not
just educational philosophy.
So Charlotte Mason's foreverybody, not just Charlotte
Mason homeschoolers, it's foranybody that's a parent.
So anyway, I do like, for thechildren's sake, if you want to
read about what ignited theCharlotte Mason homeschool
movement in the 80s, awesome,all right.
So then I want to go into a fewmore books that are kind of like
(13:51):
helpful in building, kind ofhow you want to do things in
your home, and one of that thatI really like is Better Together
by Pam Barnhill.
So this is all about basicallylearning together as a family
through something like a morningbasket.
So she talks about the benefitsof learning, having all your
(14:13):
children learn togetherregardless of their ages, and
how to do that, and there is abunch of information in the back
on how to build out a morningbasket where you guys can learn
together.
So if you're looking intobuilding a morning basket or you
want to do a lot of youreducation with all your kids you
(14:34):
know high school all the waydown to kindergarten Better
Together is a great way to helpyou see that big picture and
understand how to do that.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Okay, and we did have pam on this podcast as well.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
episode 30 your morning baskets pam barnhill and
her advice to a newhomeschooling mom I can link
that below too, along withkatie's episode yeah in the
show's description and then thisone is a pocket full of pine
cones nature study with theGentle Art of Learning by Karen
Andriola, and this one's alittle interesting.
(15:07):
I got this for Christmas twoyears ago when I ran over the
Christmas break and Karen was aCharlotte Mason educator.
Well, she's still alive, but Ithink she's a grandma now,
anyway, and she wrote this as afictional story on how to nature
study.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
You guys know I am a big fan of the Tuttle Twins and
their book series, and it lookslike you're enjoying them too.
All of the brands that Iaffiliated with for my podcast,
the Tuttle Twins is the mostpopular.
If you haven't checked it out,click on the link in my show's
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These books teach us real-lifeprinciples in a way that kids
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(15:50):
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Your kids will be learningthings like why a free market
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How property rights allow us todecide what's best for us and
make decisions for our family.
Why the world is a better placebecause of entrepreneurs who
create businesses to help servetheir fellow neighbors.
What socialism is and why it'sso destructive to our freedoms
(16:10):
and wellbeing.
How the golden rule, which istreat others how you'd like to
be treated, is so important topeople getting along with one
another, no matter where we live, what we look like or what we
believe.
Their book Education Vacationis all about homeschooling and
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Their books go over laws, whywe have them and what the role
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(16:33):
Grab the link in my show'sdescription and use code
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They have a nature studysupplemental curriculum and,
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(17:41):
over to the homeschoolhowtocomunder listener discounts.
Thanks for checking out theshow today.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So her goal was to teach parents how to do nature
study with their children in aCharlotte Mason way, but in true
Charlotte Mason fashion.
She wrote it as a narrative, soyou read about this family.
So there's Carol, and she's gota boy and a girl and she starts
to homeschool.
And I think it takes place inlike the 1920s I'd have to
(18:11):
verify that, but it is beforemodern times and you follow this
mom through starting tohomeschool her children,
deciding to homeschool CharlotteMason style, and then how they
started doing nature study, andso one of the very early
chapters she talks about how herson saw a spider on their porch
and so she gave him hisnotebook and asked him to go
(18:33):
draw the spider and write downsome things that she, he
observed about the spider spiderand write down some things that
she, he observed about thespider, and so, um, anyway, I
just I loved this because ittaught me how simple nature
study can be.
Sometimes it feels like a bigthing and it talked about how
simple, how simple it is, but itreads like you're reading a
fictional story, so it's veryenjoyable.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
It doesn't feel like you're reading another, like do
this, do that so that's forparents, or something that you
would read along with yourchildren.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It's for parents, it's for you.
Although you could read italoud to your kids because it's
a story, there's nothing in itthat, as far as content, that
wouldn't be appropriate forchildren.
So you could read it aloud toyour children if you'd like and
that might.
Especially if you have childrenthat are maybe second, third or
fourth grade, that maybe you'restarting nature study with, you
could read it aloud with themand then say, okay, so maybe we
(19:22):
could do that, maybe we could gosee if we could find a spider
on our porch.
But it wasn't written to achild, if that makes sense.
Okay, yep, okay, I've got twomore.
One is Know and Tell by KarenGlass.
This is all about narration.
So if you and I know keeptalking about Charlotte Mason, I
(19:47):
but narration is basically justthe art of listening and
telling back what you hear in astory.
So, um, but narration can feelintimidating to parents if
they're trying to figure out howto get their child to narrate,
especially if they are CharlotteMason homeschooling or
switching to a Charlotte Masonmethod.
Um, you know my 12-old I cansay what did you read in that?
It was about bears.
And it's like okay, so what didyou learn about bears and you
feel like you're trying to pullthat information out of them.
(20:07):
And Know and Tell walks youthrough narration and how to get
good narrations from yourchildren.
So this is it, and there'spractical applications.
She tells you what to expectwhen you're just starting out.
You know, and then how toencourage your children in a way
that encourages them to want tonarrate.
If you are interested inhelping your children with
(20:28):
narration, know and Tell byKaren Glass is a great one,
awesome.
And then the last one I want toshare is Educating the
Wholehearted Child by ClayClarkson with Sally Clarkson.
One thing to know about this isthey are Christians and this is
a very Christian book, and inthe first couple chapters they
(20:49):
take the stance that if you readthe Bible correctly, you should
be home educating.
They state that in the openingchapters.
So if you don't agree with that, this book might not be for you
, but this is the one book thatthe Clarksons have written.
That is how they did it.
They've written.
I don't even know how manybooks Clay and Sally have
written More than I can count ontwo hands.
(21:11):
Oh, wow, yeah.
And because they have four verywidely successful children,
they homeschooled their fourchildren and two or three of
their children are authorsthemselves.
They've gone to Cambridge andsome of the Ivies and things
like that and just verysuccessful children, and so
people have asked them what didyou do in your homeschool?
And this is the one book theywrote about that, and this is
(21:35):
actually.
I like this because it doesgive curricula suggestions, but
it really just walks you throughcreating your own home
education in your home so how topick a math, how to pick a
language, arts or science orhistory, and so they give
curricula suggestions, but theyactually say, if you don't need
a curricula for this subject,then don't use one, right?
So I started reading this thisspring and I'm using this to
(21:58):
help me create my own curriculafor the fall, so we won't be
using a lot of curricula aswritten.
I'm gonna be using this as aguide on how I want to teach
those subjects in my home.
So, anyway, that's.
This one has been my favoriteas far as, like, if you want to
let go of the training wheelsthat curricula provide, then
this is kind of that steppingstone to letting off those
(22:20):
training wheels and starting topedal yourself Awesome.
I have three more books I wantto share.
Two of them are abouttraditions and this one's kind
of its own.
It doesn't really have acategory, but it's Mere
Motherhood, by Cindy Rollins,and this is her memoir.
So she homeschooled all nine ofher children.
She had eight boys and one girl.
(22:40):
This goes through her childhoodand upbringing meeting her
husband, getting married, havingall those children home,
educating, raising them andtrying to afford things.
One of the things I loved inthis book was she said she saw
friends buying these bigcurricula packages and she, she
was worried how she was going togoing to be able to afford math
(23:00):
, just math for her kids, and soI just liked how real she is.
In this book there are reallyfunny things.
I mean, with eight boys, youcould imagine that there's lots
of stuff that happened in thathome, and Cindy doesn't shy away
from telling some of thosestories.
This one has been my favoritebecause it, like I said, it's
another like view into howsomebody else did it and what it
(23:23):
looked like in the day and shehas like two or three chapters
at the end that have some gentleencouragement, but the vast
majority of the book is just hermemoir, and so I really really
like this.
And she was she was a charlottemason home educator.
That she's the one I said.
She tells a story about how shehad one child, was pregnant
with another, of her second orthird, and her husband had given
(23:46):
her money to go buy a highchair.
And she went into the bookshopbefore she got to the high chair
store or where she was going tobuy the high chair, and she saw
for the children's sake, um, inthat bookstore and bought it
with the high chair money, andthat's what ignited her desire
to homeschool in the CharlotteMason way.
Oh, so anyway, love thisbecause it's very relatable and
(24:08):
it makes you feel like whateveryou're doing is good.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
So anyway, yeah, yeah , yeah, and I love that.
I'm definitely going to checkthat one out.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
This one I think would be a great gift for
Mother's Day, because some ofthe other ones are ones that,
like you as a homeschool mom,you might want to preview and
buy yourself if you'reinterested.
But this one, I think, could berelatable for any homeschool
mom in your life, and so I thinkthis one is a great one to gift
to people oh awesome is a greatone to gift to people oh
awesome what a great idea yeah,and then the last two that I
(24:41):
wanted to share are aroundbuilding traditions in your home
.
For me, I, as my children havegotten older, I kind of have
left a lot of the parentingbooks behind because, number one
, I have enough.
I have wisdom that I've learnedfrom the early years that I just
feel like I don't really needas much, you know, of that later
(25:02):
in life.
And, like I said, my youngestchild is now seven and a half,
and so I just I've shifted.
I'm no longer building myfamily, I'm raising my family,
and so for me, I shifted from alot of like the parenting books
to more of like a family culturehow to build the culture I want
in my family and so I shiftedto learning more about creating
(25:26):
traditions.
Growing up in my home, wedidn't have a lot of traditions,
and that was something verymuch lacking in my childhood and
I just realized as an adultthat's a very easy way to bring
joy into your life is throughcreating traditions and breaking
up the monotony of every day.
So the first one I have is MrsSharp's Traditions Reviving
(25:49):
Victorian Family Celebrations ofComfort and Joy, and this was
written in the 1990s and thisone is all about bringing back
that Victorian culture ofcelebrating things like May Day
and Candlemas and having bigSunday dinners.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Let me ask you a question.
Do you follow the Homeschoolhow To on your favorite
streaming service?
If not, what are you waitingfor?
Click that follow button so youdon't miss another episode of
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I have some awesome showscoming up that I'm really
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And if you're enjoying the show, let me know about it by
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Click those stars right on theapp that you're listening to the
(26:30):
show on, or click leave areview and let me know how
you're liking it so far.
Hearing from you guys is reallythe only way I know if I should
keep the show going, so let meknow how you feel about the show
and if it's helped you out inany way.
I always love hearing from thelisteners, and guess what that's
you?
You can always follow me onInstagram as well.
At the Homeschool how ToPodcast, I post all sorts of
(26:52):
things homeschooling andanti-government so it's fun.
It's a great way to see whatshows are coming up and what
shows have just come out, and myjourney in the process.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
It walks you through the year.
So there's the art of domesticbliss and then the joy and
comfort of seasonal pastimes.
So there's a little section atthe front, about 50 pages, about
domestic bliss and how we canlearn from the Victorians in
creating domestic bliss, andthen it walks you through the
seasons month by month throughthe year and suggesting
(27:25):
traditions and holidays andcelebrating those the way the
Victorians would have.
I really like this one forthose holidays, like I said,
like Christmas or Candlemas,that I maybe want to spend a lot
of time on creating like a bigholiday cool thing and then, oh,
that's cool yeah.
(27:47):
And then this one is memorymaking mom, building traditions
that breathe life into your home, by Jessica Smart and um, I
believe she yeah, she's alsoshe's also homeschooler.
And this one starts out kind oftalking about her reasons for
wanting to create a memory.
You know a home full ofwonderful memories, with
(28:09):
traditions and celebrations, soit talks about her journey and
then in the back it hassuggestions for the holidays.
This one is a little moremodern, like it has examples for
you know, like maybe NationalDonut Day, you know, or
Groundhog Day, like things thatmight have not been around in
the Victorian age.
So this one has a little moremodern ideas.
(28:29):
I also find she gives reallyshe gives tips for really quick
things you can do, so somethingthat only takes maybe 30 minutes
of planning or like one trip tothe store.
So, like this one is great forif you're kind of a busier mom
where I feel like these ones,like I love the idea of bringing
these back, but some of them Iread the chapter on family
(28:50):
dinners and I was like thatwould take a lot of work like
like she talked about, um, likehaving the nice place setting
and using your nice china.
Everybody has to change intonice clothing.
You plan the meal, everybodyprepare something to talk about.
You know like and that mightsound I mean, we we do family
(29:11):
dinners right, like we do that,but we're very much like buffet
style Everybody get your foodoff the counter, then we meet at
the table, we eat.
Everybody eats as fast as theycan before we go to sports, you
know, and so yeah this like wecould probably do a sunday
dinner this way, but some ofthese in this book mrs sharp's
traditions might take a littlemore forethought, where I feel
(29:32):
like memory making mom is maybesomething you could do a little
more on the fly.
If you're like, oh, tomorrow,like tomorrow, like it's, you
know, 10 o'clock at night andyou're like what could we do
tomorrow, okay, I can grabsomething out of the art you
know, the art cabinet orwhatever, and we can do that
thing.
So I like both of them.
I feel like they each fill adifferent need in my home.
Oh, they sound awesome.
(29:54):
Yeah, so those are the booksthat I wanted to share with your
homeschool audience and I hopethat maybe somebody found a gem
in here that will help them ontheir journey in some way.
I love providing encouragementfor homeschool moms, like I've
said this, I think, probably onthe previous podcast, but I very
much appreciated the wisdom ofhomeschool moms that had come
(30:19):
before me, and so I love that inmy journey I can be that for
other people and point youtowards some awesome resources.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Oh, and we thank you so much for doing that.
It sometimes, especially whenyou have the younger kids, it
just feels like, you know,you're just trying to keep a
flow and, okay, how can we getthrough today and tomorrow?
You're not thinking of theselong-term extras like a Sunday
tradition, or you know, even I'mjust thinking like little off
(30:48):
of that, like, okay, for Sundaytradition.
You know, maybe you send thekids to make a craft for you
know each place setting at thetable and okay, well, you guys
can decide whatever that craft'sgoing to be, whether it be a
painting or a molding of youknow the little clay molds or a
Play-Doh mold or whatever.
While I'm cooking you do that.
(31:08):
Maybe we make dessert together,and so it's just little things
like that.
But yeah, they're going to growup and be like, oh yeah, my mom
always had us do that.
It was fun, or maybe I groanedabout it at the time, but now I
see the value in it and whatawesome little tidbits.
So thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
A couple things about traditions, just because those
were my last books.
I suggested One is that you cancultivate traditions at any
point in your life.
So, for example, like my oldestis 21.
If I decided to start atradition now, she'll still have
memories of that like itdoesn't.
It doesn't matter how old yourchildren are when you start
implementing traditions.
Um.
So for me, I really didn't do alot when I had lots of little
(31:49):
kids.
It was like, okay, we did likethe big holidays, we did
Christmas, and you know that wasit.
But now that my kids get olderI have a little more time that I
can do that.
So just recognize that it'sokay when you're in the baby and
toddler stage if you don'tbuild gingerbread houses this
year for Christmas, like noone's going to die because you
didn't do that.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
I think people needed to hear that.
Yeah, yeah for sure You're like, oh my gosh, we missed this
thing.
We missed doing that.
I remember my sister-in-lawsaying how, like on St Patrick's
Day, she had green foodcoloring in the toilet and then
said to the kids like oh, theleprechaun came and he peed in
our toilet and I'm like what?
(32:28):
I've never even that thought,would never even cross my mind
to celebrate St Patrick's Daywith children.
You think of it as like justlike a college drinking holiday.
But this year I did put somefood coloring in the toilet.
I was like, whatever, let's seewhat if he likes it.
He more was like mom, that'sdisgusting.
Can you flush that?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
I'm not peeing where a leprechaun peed, but it was it
was something funny to rememberand with traditions, you don't
have to do them every year forthem to be a tradition.
So like, for example, if youdecide that you're going to do
something really neat forvalentine's this day or this
year, but then next year youhave a baby and you can't get to
it and then you do it again.
(33:07):
Like it doesn't matter howoften you do it.
If you do it more than twotimes it can be a tradition, so
you don't have to do it everyyear.
I think that takes a lot ofpressure off to like just
recognizing that you don't haveto do every tradition every year
for it to be a tradition.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Awesome, and so we were also going to touch base a
little bit on the curriculum,since you are, like my,
curriculum expert.
You and I had done a live onFacebook together once as well,
where we totally went into depthon what you were advising or
recommending for me to do forthe kindergarten year for my son
, and we did so a solid sixmonths of.
(33:45):
You would recommended theHagerty phonics program, which
is what is actually done inschools in combination with all
about reading, the pre reading,and I have the curriculum series
that people are probablyfamiliar with.
At this point it is asubscription which just
basically covers the cost of,like, running the podcast, but
(34:05):
so three dollars a month and youget access to the curriculum
series.
But what I discussed was I gotreally into depth on what the
all about reading, pre-readingwas for us on a day to day basis
, like what that curriculumlooked like in our home, how my
son reacted to it, how I thoughtabout it and the different
things that the curriculumprovided, like versus, you know
games and and you know thepuppet, the little books with it
(34:28):
.
So we we did go into depth onthat.
We talked about the Hagerty Um,and we also went into depth on
our Instagram live on.
Uh, did we do a little math?
I think, yeah, we did do like agood and the beautiful math a
little bit.
So, yes, and then I also have acurriculum series episode about
that.
Are you trying to pick acurriculum but feel a little
(34:50):
overwhelmed at the variety ofoptions?
Me too.
I mean, how do you pick acurriculum when you don't know
what each one has to offer?
That's been my biggest problem.
Well, I am here to help.
I just launched a premiumcontent series, psst.
That means it's $3 a month,which will just help cover the
cost of running the podcast.
In my curriculum series, Iinterview homeschooling students
(35:10):
and parents and curriculumcreators about specific
curriculum each week so that youcan take the guesswork out of
your curriculum choices.
I'll be asking questions likewhat does the day-to-day look
like with this curriculum?
What does it cover from abird's eye view?
How long does one lesson taketo complete?
How many lessons does thecurriculum contain and what does
it cost?
Did you have to order the bookor could you download them and
(35:32):
print them somewhere like yourlibrary?
Does this curriculum have a lotof games, writing or crafts,
and did your child enjoy thiscurriculum?
Can you do it with more thanone child at a time?
And if I did this curriculumwith my child, would I need to
add any sort of supplements toit?
These are all questions I'vehad while I search for the
perfect curriculum to suit myson's personality and my
(35:53):
expectations.
Let's face it there is no onecurriculum out there that will
work best for every child andadult.
So I invite you to join me inmy search to find out what every
curriculum has to offer so thatyou can feel confident in your
curriculum choices and enjoyyour homeschooling journey that
much more.
Right where you find all of theHomeschool How-To Podcast
episodes, you'll see mycurriculum series and you can
(36:15):
subscribe today.
So we covered those.
I asked you what othercurriculums that you had kind of
gone through, so we're going tojust go through like an
overview so people have justlike a general gist of what I
cover on my curriculum seriesand then we'll go into depth in
a couple of future episodes onthe curriculum series for a
(36:36):
couple of them that you werereally excited to talk about.
But let's just go through ageneral overview on what you
have used and how you felt aboutthose curriculums.
Okay, am I saying it wrong?
Is it plural Curricula, and I'msaying curriculums.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
I think it's probably you could use either one, I
would guess.
I think I probably.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Oh God.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
So, like I said, I've been homeschooling now seven
years.
We're ending our seventh yearand I have approached curricula
in a different way than mostpeople.
A lot of people start withtheir philosophy and then they
narrow it down to curriculumwithin their philosophy.
For me, I'm eclectic Eileen,charlotte Mason, if haven't
noticed but I'm I really am moreeclectic, and so every year I
(37:20):
look at the needs of my familyand I look at like how the
previous year went and I look athow much time I'm going to have
and how you know what I'm goingto be having to help each child
with, like how parent heavy thecurricula is anyway.
So I have went through a lot ofdifferent curricula and I've
used different stuff almostevery year, and that's one of
(37:43):
the reasons.
It's not that because, likemost of the curricula I've used
has been good.
For some reason I haven't usedanything that I would straight
up would say like a bad one, butmaybe it served us one year and
then the next year it didn'tserve us.
So that's why I have tried somany things.
So for math, we have triedMathUC.
(38:04):
My oldest son did MathUC forthree.
The first three years westarted homeschooling.
We have done the good and thebeautiful math.
And this year my youngest hasbeen doing math with confidence
that is Kate Snow's program andmy older son moved into Denison
pre-algebra.
So those are the math that wehave tried.
Oh, and we've also tried beastacademy.
(38:26):
We had one year of beastacademy, so we've tried beast
academy.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Yeah, I've heard of Khan academy, I haven't heard of
beast Academy.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Yeah.
So Beast Academy is a verycritical thinking style of math.
You can do it online or they dohave workbooks.
It's geared towards kids thatreally like math.
They're very math minded and itis very advanced.
So, um, but any, any kid coulduse, use Beast Academy and find
success with it.
It's just that if they strugglein math it might be a little
(38:56):
frustrating for that child.
Okay, so those are the mathprograms that we have tried.
And then language arts.
Oh man, I'm trying to thinkWe've done a few.
We did the good and thebeautiful language arts.
We've used IEW, which isInstitute for Excellence in
Writing.
We've used Essentials inWriting, eiw, and we've used the
(39:20):
vocabulary not vocabulary,excuse me grammar program from
Michael Clay Thompson.
And then, for science, we'vereally only tried two science
curricula.
We used the Good and theBeautiful Science for the first
five years that we'vehomeschooled, and then we have
been using Science Shepherd thisyear, um and yeah, and then for
(39:41):
social studies, that's.
That's the one I've jumpedaround a lot in as well, mostly
because I love social studiesand it's kind of like, oh, I
want to try that, oh, I want totry that, I want to try that, I
want to try that.
So I've I've tried a lot ofsocial studies programs for that
reason, because I love socialstudies and I just think there's
so many cool things out there.
So we've tried Story of theWorld, we have used Beautiful
(40:05):
Feet the most, we have triedHomeschool in the Woods and
we've tried Knotgrass Historyand we've done Tuttle Twins.
I think that's probably thehistory and social studies that
we've done.
Tuttle Twins, I think that'sprobably the history that in
social studies that we've done.
So anyway, yeah, that's kind ofa broad overview of curricula
(40:27):
that we have used over the sevenyears.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
So, and I'm obsessed with the Tuttle Twins books and
you know I'm an affiliate forthem.
I talk about that all the timeand so you know I can put a link
down in the show's descriptiontoo if anyone wants to check out
their stuff.
But I'm really excited to usetheir history curriculum because
I just feel that they have sucha way of talking about big
(40:53):
concepts but in a way that it'seasy to understand, like the
textbooks in school never put ittogether in like a story
version, it was just dates andpeople.
It didn't really connectanything for me and it seemed
like, oh my gosh, this stuffhappened so long ago.
Why do we care?
Now that I'm older and kind oflike looking at the big picture,
(41:14):
the timeline of the world andour first civilization and you
know the the world changing overfrom BC to AD and how things
really weren't that long ago,even America has just not been
here that long.
So for people to scoff at likewhy would you teach your kids
self-sufficiency skills?
That's so stupid.
(41:35):
It's like we've only been here250 years, like our country has.
It's so new.
How do you know we're not goingto get taken over by another
country in a decade, 50 years, ahundred years, and our kids
kids are not going to need toknow how to get food, like
that's so foolish to not thinkthat that's important.
(41:56):
So I love how the title twinskind of take these big concepts
and bring it down to a way thatit's easy to understand as a
parent and the child.
And so I'm excited to use theirhistory books.
I just my son's five and mydaughter's one, so I haven't
delved into it yet.
I really want them to like getthe most out of it, so I'm going
to wait a little bit.
But, um, but they have a couple.
They have volume one and volumetwo.
(42:17):
I believe that's it right now.
And just from what I have lookedinto on them, even just when
they talk about slavery, theyreally get into the more like
depth of it and and how it wasin relation to the rest of the
world, cause I think that'ssomething our schools lack.
They talk about slavery inAmerica and and again, we've
(42:42):
only been a country for 250years, so like we fairly quickly
I I don't again, I didn't gointo this yet, but from what
I've seen them talk about likethey talk about how long it's
been going on in every singlecountry and that we should
really give ourselves a pat onthe back for abolishing it.
You know, as quickly as we didwhen we were an established
(43:04):
country because of what wasgoing on another, it's going on
today and nobody cares you knowso it's like I really just I'm
excited to get into the TuttleTwins history of volume one and
two.
So for anyone that wants tocheck that out, even just check
out the website through the link, I'll attach it and you know,
they'll know I sent you if youuse the link.
(43:24):
So that would be awesome.
But tell me a little bit aboutjust what your take on the
Tuttle Twins History curriculumis like.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
I love it.
One of the things that you'llfind in homeschool curricula
like, for example, not grass,which we have used it's very
much like this is what happened.
Here's the dates.
Here was that person, here'swhat happened.
But there's not a lot of reasonof like well, why like?
Why were they doing that?
(43:53):
Or like because they made thesedecisions.
How did that influence?
For, like the, the next sectionof history that came, you know,
the next civilization, and Ithink that title twins is
probably one of the only thingsI've seen on the market that
really goes into well, why wasit happening this way?
What was the thought processbehind it?
How can we learn from that?
(44:14):
Because you know, the wholepoint of history is that we
learn from history so we don'trepeat past mistakes.
And if you're just learninglike this is what happened, then
for you as a child, they'rethinking well, it just happened
that way.
They don't.
They're not like thinkingthrough well, why did it happen?
Or what can I learn from this,or what was bad about that event
, or what was good about thatevent, or what was good about
(44:36):
that event, and Title Twinsreally leads that child through
that thought process.
So that's why I like it.
The other thing is that theirbook series, the 13 book series
I just saw they're working onthe 14th book in their
children's books and those takebig topics like government and
economics and free market rulesand they break that down into a
(44:58):
story that a child canunderstand.
I used the 13 books in a co-opclass last year and the class
was first to third graders andit was amazing how much they
picked up.
I think we had 14 weeks ofclass.
I would read the book and thenwe would discuss some things and
then we would do some hands-onactivities about the principle
(45:20):
that we had learned that day.
But they really did pick up onthings like the first book.
The Law talks about corruptiongovernment corruption yeah, you
know, yeah, plunder.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
And they relate it into a way yes, plunder.
They relate it to a way wherethe kids are talking to their
neighbor and they're goingthrough.
Well, this is what it lookslike in a day to day.
I'm growing a garden, I'mgrowing tomatoes, you know, the
lady across the street really,really likes them, um, if, uh,
(45:53):
and they're like, oh, why do youhave all these canned foods and
this?
And that he goes.
Well, I like to give away stufftoo.
You know, I have it foremergency.
But if somebody has a baby, ifsomebody loses a job, I like to
bring them food so that I canhelp out.
But is it right if a policemancomes to my house, takes my
stuff and gives it to someoneless fortunate, and so they're
(46:14):
putting it in, you know, andhe's asking the kids these
questions?
So it really puts it in a wayof like, well, if that's not
right, then why would it beright for the government to do
that?
Or?
You know?
So I love those books and theyhave discussion questions in the
back of the book too, so that Inever thought about using those
books for a co-op and actuallydo have a discount code for
(46:35):
people cheryl 40, um, you canget 40 off of the entire series
for the ages 5 through 11.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
And those books, yeah , they're, they're awesome oh
yeah, and they come like if youget the one, the book series, 13
book series, with the parentguides.
There's writing activities,like it gives them writing
prompts, there's crosswordpuzzles, there's mazes, all
sorts of things in those, inthose that come along, or the
workbooks that come along withit.
The other thing is that it'sinspired me to read some books
as well, like when we read theAtlas Shrugged children's book.
(47:04):
It actually encouraged me toread the real Atlas Shrugged by
Anne Rand, and I read that lastyear, and so it's encouraged me
because some of the books arebased off like the Law is a book
by, I think, frederick Bastiat.
There's Atlas Shrugged by IanRand, yeah, and then I know the
13th book was Dumbing Us Down.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
One of them is for the homeschool book is based off
of John Taylor Gatto's yes, Ithink Dumbing Us Down is what
they were referencing in thatone.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yes, so it's.
So.
Reading some of those books hasinspired me to go and read the
adult work that inspired thechildren's book, and so I'm
learning along with my kids thatway.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Yes, me too 100%, so you are enjoying the history.
Yeah, yes, now we are going toget into on our curriculum
series a little bit more, butlet's just tell the listeners
now which ones that you reallyliked and that we are going to
get in to talk to you about indepth on the curriculum series.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
So I mentioned before that social studies is my
favorite subject, and so the twocurricula that I love to talk
about the most is Beautiful Feetand Homeschool in the Woods
love to talk about the most isBeautiful Feet and Homeschool in
the Woods.
Now, beautiful Feet is a veryis a popular curricula.
That is a literature-basedcurricula, and we've been.
(48:25):
We've used the early Americanhistory and this year we've been
been using the around the worldwith picture books curricula
from them, and it has been handsdown.
One of my favorite curriculawe've ever used has been this
around the world with picturebooks.
And then homeschool in thewoods is a lesser known
curricula out there.
(48:45):
It is a history curricula.
They have their time travelerseries is the American History
and the Project Passport isWorld History and they are a
very, very hands on historycompany.
So those are probably my toptwo favorite curricula that we
(49:08):
have done, mostly because of howengaging they are, and so those
are the two that I would loveto talk about more Awesome, all
(49:31):
right.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Well, I would love to talk about more.
Moms can kind of find thatspace in the day where we give
ourselves the grace to let theclothes go unfolded, let the
dishes maybe stay dirty in thesink.
Give yourself that time to reada book, or even in the morning,
like that's when I startthinking I should get to this,
should get to that, and it'slike you need to kind of do
(49:52):
something for yourself too,because you deserve it.
You can't wait until all thekids are gone and out of the
house to start reading thesebooks, because you don't know
what you're going to read that'sactually going to inspire how
you live your life that day orfor that season.
These books just sound likethey would make you a much more
present parent and give yougreat ideas and insight about
your homeschooling journey.
(50:13):
So I think these are awesome.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
Yeah, and Charlotte Mason believed in educating
mothers just as much as childrenwere educated themselves.
She believed that an educatedmother is just as important,
because that mother is educatingtheir child, and so that's one
of the things that I encouragemoms is that I know it's busy,
but don't neglect your owneducation and don't neglect your
(50:39):
own needs as a mother, becauseyou can't pour from an empty
well.
You need to be taking care ofyourself, and I hope that these
books in some way can beinspirational in helping you do
that.
But no matter what, whether youread in these books or not,
just know that you're doing anamazing job as a mother, that
(50:59):
you've already done the hardthing by pulling your kids to
homeschool, and everything elseis just the cherry on top.
You're doing great as a mom.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
Oh, and you too.
Happy Mother's Day, and happyMother's Day to everyone
listening.
Thank you for tuning in to thisweek's episode of the
Homeschool how To.
If you've enjoyed what youheard and you'd like to
contribute to the show, pleaseconsider leaving a small tip
using the link in my show'sdescription.
Or, if you'd rather, please usethe link in the description to
(51:32):
share this podcast with a friendor on your favorite homeschool
group Facebook page.
Any effort to help us keep thepodcast going is greatly
appreciated.
Thank you for tuning in and foryour love of the next
generation.
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