May 23, 2024 • 18 mins
Ever wondered how to weave the threads of classical education into your homeschool tapestry? Join us for a captivating discussion with homeschooling pro, Kara, who has mastered the art of integrating Memoria Press into her children's learning regimen. She brings a treasure trove of experience to the table, discussing how she enriches her kids' education with poetry, art, music, and literature. Discover the transformative power of read-alouds and how they deepen the educational experience, contrasting sharply with independent reading. Kara doesn't shy away from the tough stuff, either. She opens up about the tightrope walk of blending Charlotte Mason concepts with the need for discipline, giving us a candid look at the peaks and valleys of homeschooling.
Are your daily homeschooling adventures feeling a bit scattered? Get ready to map out your journey with precision and creativity. We tackle the logistics of laying out a homeschool week that's as structured as it is flexible, focusing on how to fold core subjects seamlessly into a four-day schedule. From aligning seasonal festivities with educational content to overcoming the obstacle course of resource acquisition, this episode is a goldmine of practical advice. Hear firsthand how one family turned their home into a personal library, cleverly leveraging scholarship opportunities and the local library system to ensure their children are surrounded by rich learning materials. Whether you're a veteran homeschooler or just dipping your toes in the educational waters at home, this episode is your guide to crafting a harmonious and stimulating curriculum that will spark a lifelong love of learning in your children.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my
Curriculum, a series where wetalk all about curriculum.
I've been interviewinghomeschooling families for over
a year now on my main podcast,the Homeschool How-To, but I
really wanted to zero in oncurriculum.
There's so much out there.
How do I know what would workbest for me and my child?
How do I know what works forone child would work for the
other?
I might like the curriculum I'musing now, but how do I know
(00:25):
there's not a better one outthere, especially if I don't
know all the curriculums?
And what about supplementalcurriculum?
Should I be using that too?
This series is to help youdecide just that.
I'm going to interview parentswho are using all the
curriculums so that you candecide the absolute best way to
unfold your homeschoolingjourney.
The absolute best way to unfoldyour homeschooling journey.
(00:51):
Welcome With us.
Today we have Kara, and she'sgoing to talk to us about
Memoria Press.
So thank you for being here,kara, thanks for having me.
All right, tell me aboutMemoria Press before, because I
know you've got kids in thebackground.
I've got kids in the background, so we'll have to run through
this one, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, okay, yeah, but what is Memoria Press?
You have already talked to meabout Story of the World, so if
you haven't checked out thatepisode, go ahead and listen to
that.
That's history.
What's Memoria Press?
So?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Memoria Press.
You can get, you can do all ofyour core subjects enrichment,
history, science.
They have everything.
I personally only use theenrichment part of it.
So we do the poetry, art, musicand literature through them.
I have so many questions.
Yeah, they, their main thing islike a classical education.
(01:38):
Yeah, you know they do Latinand you know all the poetry and
art and music and they reallyfocus on that stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Okay, all of which I don't remember doing in school
at all.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So okay.
So for, like the homeschoolparent, that is like I don't
even know where to begin.
As you were telling me beforeabout story of the world and the
history, I'm like, wow, Ireally haven't thought too much
about history Like my son's inkindergarten, so we haven't
gotten there yet.
I am an affiliate for theTuttle Twins and I know they
(02:14):
have some volumes of history.
Oh yeah, and I'm like, well,those would be cool, because I
know they would be like, nope,that's a conspiracy theory,
that's a conspiracy theory.
So I'm like I would probably getalong with that one pretty well
.
So to think of adding history,and then, on top of that, to
think of these enrichment onesthat are so like worthwhile I'm
sure, and needed, like how doesa parent even know to add this
(02:38):
stuff?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Oh man, I just spent lots and lots of time on YouTube
watching homeschool stuff andgot into like Charlotte Mason
and I love like the idea of that, and I bought a few curriculums
that were Charlotte Masoninspired and tried doing them at
like putting it into actionjust failed for me.
Every time I was like I don'tknow why.
(02:59):
Yeah, I love the philosophybehind it, but like I need, I
need something that's liketelling me what to.
I need a schedule that's likedo this on this day and say this
to the child and you know and Idon't use that verbatim, but I
like that it's there, yeah, if Ineed it.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So I think a lot of parents are like that and I
haven't used any Charlotte Masonstuff, but I know it's more
getting into the story.
So was it kind of like theunschooling?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
No, it's quite the opposite actually, for if you
were to use like all of MemorialPress stuff, they're kind of
they're openly like they don'tthink that school has to be fun
and they're not about that.
They're like get this work done.
You have eight hours a day,like you need to do all this,
(03:49):
and so I'm not like 100% likethat, but I like the subjects
that they do.
I just liked their literature,their list of literature, their
books, that they do that theyuse in their curriculum.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
What differentiates literature from just doing like
reading?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So I have my son read on his own and he can pick
whatever level books for him.
But this is stuff that I readto them read alouds, okay, so,
and we'll talk about it.
So that's kind of like theCharlotte Mason in that way,
where they still want you todiscuss the story because
there's so many things to belearned in the story and they
(04:26):
handpick all these stories.
A lot of them are likecaldecott honor books and so
yeah, so these are likeread-alouds that I read to them.
He can read some of them on hisown.
It's for me to like sit downand read with them, so that's
what I want to do.
But there's like I bought likethe third grade for next year.
They have like American history, so like those are books he's
(04:47):
going to read on his own.
You know they have that kind ofstuff too.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
So you said, this was this.
Enrichment encompasses poetry,literature music.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
So I'll let you know what it looks like.
So we just do so.
They have a read aloud book forthe week, and then they have
music and there's actually likea little music book with a
biography on the artist.
Sometimes we read that,sometimes we don't, so uh, but
we always listen to the song andthey just listen to it, you
know, just so.
(05:18):
It's familiar and they loveclassical music.
Actually I love that.
So, uh, and then there's an, anart card for the week.
So I bought their little set ofart cards and we just look at
it and talk about it, and thenthere's a poem for the week, and
usually all these things gotogether.
So they usually relate in someway, and then I think that's it.
It's those four things, yeah.
(05:38):
And then they also have like abook of crafts.
So you could add in crafts, ifyou want.
They have that too.
That also goes with all ofthose things.
So they'll allow a little bitof fun.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, in the younger years.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Oh, that's so funny.
So how long does it take foryou to go through all of this?
Or do you do it every day aweek, or, you know, five days a
week?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, in their schedule they have like one
thing a day, like you'd readaloud the or do the read aloud.
On monday, do the music and art.
On tuesday, do the poetry.
On thursday, do the science on.
But we just, we just do fourdays of school a week and this
doesn't take long, so we just doit all in one day oh, okay or
sometimes we'll just break it up.
It's just whatever comes tomind where I'm like, oh, now
it'd be good time to turn thismusic on, or you know says the
(06:26):
woman that said I needed acurriculum that told me
literally what to say to thechild.
Yeah, well, there's nothing tosay for the music, really, I
just turn it on and the art.
But but they actually do havelike a guide for me if I want,
where it's like discussionquestions about the art and the
(06:48):
reading and stuff like that.
So it is there if I want to useit.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yeah that's the stuff I need for like art.
I wouldn't know what to whatcolors, do you see?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Okay, me too.
All right yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Give me an overview of what your week even beyond
Wait.
Why can I not?
Remember the name of it.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Memoria Press.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So give me an overview, from like Monday to
Friday, of what your homeschoolcurriculum days look like.
Like, just chop it up, becauseyou talked a little bit before
when we talked about Story ofthe World.
How do they all fit in, and areyou doing anything more than
Story of the World and MemoriaPress?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
So, yeah, we do math, writing, grammar, handwriting
and we do all about reading also.
So all of those things plus thehistory.
And then we also do science,which again I just do that one
day a week.
All these extras I just do oneday.
Our core stuff is every dayyeah, memoria Press I count as
(07:46):
like an extra thing.
So ideally I do like historyone day, science one day, memory
press one day, and I thinkthat's all of our extra stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So yeah, so mondays you might be doing you're all
about reading your math andhistory writing, right?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
grammar and history, yeah, okay, and then the next
day we do all those things, butinstead of history we do science
.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Okay, and then and then you do, but you only do it
four days a week.
So Right, and you said it takesabout four hours a day for you.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, between for me between the two kids.
Yeah, okay, my second grader,it's about two hours to do all
of it, Like if we sat down andjust did it all without breaking
.
It would be about two hours.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay, which, when you think of a?
Kid in school, you know, forlike seven hours.
Yeah, that is it's two hourssounds like a lot when you're
juggling kids and you knowmultiple.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, it is.
It's really all day for me, but.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
All right.
How many lessons does it havethat like?
Will this cover you for thefull year or does it maybe
caught up?
It was easy to catch up justreading all these read alouds
and doing the art and musicbecause it doesn't take long.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So we were just doing it like every day to catch up.
Because what I love about thisis they have holiday books.
So I wanted to read the holidaybooks during the holidays.
So I was like I got to catch upto Christmas here or
Thanksgiving and read thosearound that time.
So we caught up quickly andthen and now, like they have a
(09:34):
book on St Valentine, then Ithink they have some for St
Patrick's Day, and then theyhave Easter ones, and I just
love that they put the holidaybooks in there.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, for readalones.
How do you get the books?
Do you have to get them fromthe library, or do you them?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
So I bought them.
It is pricey.
If you bought so the curriculum, like the manual that has like
when to read all the books whichyou don't even need that Like
if you just want to read thesebooks and you know figure it out
yourself, that'd be easy to do.
But I wanted this to like guideme, like reading, you know,
doing the art and music all atthe same time when they have it
scheduled.
But it's expensive.
(10:09):
It's like two to four hundreddollars because there's like 36
books or something picture books, and they're all like hardback,
so they're so you could try tocheck them out at the library or
get them used on a secondhand.
You know bookstore here inflorida they have a scholarship
for homeschoolers, so I use thatto get it.
(10:30):
Otherwise I wouldn't havebecause I'm like I'm not gonna
spend.
Between the two kids it couldbe like a thousand dollars for
all these books.
I was like not gonna spend thatmuch on it, but our library
just isn't very good here.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So um, now, do you, does your library, have like a
network where and mine inupstate new york it's called
like the Upper Hudson LibrarySystem and I can go on an app
and request a book by its titleand they will order it from one
of the other local libraries andship it to my library so that I
(11:03):
can go pick it up.
Do they have anything like thatwhere you are?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I haven't been able to figure that out.
Actually, we've lived in otherstates where they had that and
I've gone on their website andhaven't been able to see that
they do that.
So, yeah, the Florida librarysystem's lacking.
It's a frustration of mine.
So I was like I just have tomake my own library here.
But you know, with thescholarship funds I'm like I'll
(11:28):
get it.
Yeah, just have it on hand,because I'm going to use it for
all three kids.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So it's worth it to me all right.
Well, at least people ifthey're hearing it, they know
that that's.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
That could be an option too yeah, and you know
I've I've done that.
I've bought used books on eBaybefore.
With other curriculums that arereally book heavy, like
Sunlight and Bookshark, I'vesaved a lot of money going on
eBay buying those, so that's anoption.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
And how do your kids like doing this curriculum?
Are they looking forward toWednesday when it's Enrichment
Day?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, to be honest, they don't really care about the
art pictures To me.
I'm like it's just exposingthem to it.
That's important to me.
Um, so they look at it.
Obviously my second grader's alittle more interested than my
coon gardener.
He's kind of like I don't know,it's funny.
They looked at a picture of, Ithink, louis the 14th and they
were like why is that guydressed like a girl?
(12:22):
So it was really funny.
I I'm like, okay, if that'swhat you get out of it, that's
fine.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I mean, you can go to Walmart and see that.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, it was really funny.
He's in heels and tights and so, but they love classical music
and so they love that part of itand you know the real louds.
Of course they love those.
There's definitely a couplethat have been a little boring,
but most of them, like, theylaugh out loud, they love the
stories.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Awesome.
All right, so you'll be usingthis again and you can do it
with more than one child.
It sounds like at a time.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Oh yeah, I mean I have separate.
I have the kindergarten and thesecond grade sets, but you
could totally do it, for youknow multiple grades for sure
kind of like mesh them all in,like k through, yeah, like you
could get the.
The kindergartner coulddefinitely, you know, enjoy the
read aloud.
I mean, I do, I actually doboth of them.
They both sit with me to do thekindergarten and the um second
(13:21):
grade books and music and stuffand then is this um secular or
religious?
yeah, I think it's hard to say.
I think both they also.
I think memoria press ischristian for sure.
If you were just using this forthe read aloud and stuff, I
would say I mean, they havechristmas books.
(13:42):
I guess it is.
It is.
I'd say it's christian.
Yeah based?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
okay, awesome.
So is there anything else thatyou wanted to discuss about
Memoria Press that we didn'ttouch?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
on?
I don't think so.
So they okay, I do.
They have reading where you, sothese are like read aloud
picture books, but then theyalso have read alouds that are
novels.
I just love their book options,so you don't even have to use
their curriculum, but they'rejust a really good resource for
books to read to your kids atthose ages.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Okay, so do they have a book list that you could just
get?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, you can go on there and just look at their.
You know, you go on there tothe listing where it's for sale,
and it has a whole list of whatthe books are and you could
just, you know, pick what youwant to pick, read what you want
to read, and I think it's agreat resource for that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, I love book lists.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I love their.
I love them.
I just have no idea.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
We, you know you go to the library.
You're like I don't know whatis quality.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I wasn't like read to as a child.
I don't know even how todecipher.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I know it's really hard to know what.
There's so much junk at thelibrary too that I'm like, yeah,
there really is so so yeah, Ireally like memoria press for
that like I trust their, theirchoice of books here.
So, and you?
want it, um, you want it to belike good literature, but you
want them to also enjoy readingit, because you don't want to
kill their spirit of loving toread or story, you know yeah,
exactly yeah, and they likehandpick these stories of like a
lot of them are classics, solike winnie the pooh and mary
(15:16):
poppins this is the third gradebook I'm reading from or, uh,
yeah, oh.
And then they have like jamesharriot's treasury for children.
I don't know if you've heardthat book, but I already had it
on hand.
It's just a veterinarian fromlike the early 1900s or maybe
mid 1900s in the UK and it'sjust stories that he has about
(15:36):
animals, but he wrote them forchildren and it's beautiful
artwork and I just love it.
And then, yeah, they also dolike Norse myths and Greek myths
, and so I just love it.
This is my thing.
I'm like all these topics arejust things I love, so sharing
it with my kids is great.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
And it's really nice for, like, I never had any of
that.
All this stuff is forward to me, but like I want to know it.
So I think homeschooling isreally just my way of learning
all the things I never learnedthe first time.
And my son just has to sitthrough it, sorry.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
No, I totally agree with that.
It's like learning this stuffagain, like especially science.
I mean, my mom homeschooled usup until seventh grade.
Oh wow, I mean we're all kindof different, there's six of us,
so we all were likehomeschooled, different grades
but, um, but she only didreading, writing and arithmetic
(16:32):
because she read a book.
That, um, where they were likethis is all you need, this is
the important stuff, the extrais just extra.
So we didn't do any science.
Um, so like I'm doing sciencewith my kids and I'm like this
is all new to me, I have no idealike any of this.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So, yeah, so I definitely have to have you back
on the main podcast to talkabout that experience like being
homeschooled, and thenobviously you went to
traditional school if you wereonly homeschooled to seventh
grade.
So hearing that experience andthen kind of what led you to
homeschool your kids, I wouldlove to know all of that in a
(17:08):
separate episode.
And you said your husband wantsto wanted at one time to do a
podcast, so I would love to havehim on with you to talk about
being the homeschooling dad andmaybe ignite his little desire
to podcast again.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
He'd love that Because he got the headphones
and the microphone.
You can't let that go to waste.
I know I was like I'm all setup for this, Like I need to do
this, so we'll get that on thebook.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
So everybody keep an eye out for Kara and her husband
.
We'll be talking about that,and you guys are in Florida,
right?
Yep, nice, all right.
Well, thank you so much, kara.
I hope you'll come back on andchat with us more.
Thank you for being here today.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, I hope so, thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thank you so much for listening.
Please consider sharing thispodcast or my main podcast, the
Homeschool how To with friends,family, on Instagram or in your
favorite homeschool groupFacebook page.
The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it
going and the more hope we havefor the future.
Thank you for your love of thenext generation.
Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my
Curriculum, a series where wetalk all about curriculum.
I've been interviewinghomeschooling families for over
a year now on my main podcast,the Homeschool How-To, but I
really wanted to zero in oncurriculum.
There's so much out there.
How do I know what would workbest for me and my child?
How do I know what works forone child would work for the
other?
I might like the curriculum I'musing now, but how do I know
(00:25):
there's not a better one outthere, especially if I don't
know all the curriculums?
And what about supplementalcurriculum?
Should I be using that too?
This series is to help youdecide just that.
I'm going to interview parentswho are using all the
curriculums so that you candecide the absolute best way to
unfold your homeschoolingjourney.
The absolute best way to unfoldyour homeschooling journey.
(00:51):
Welcome With us.
Today we have Kara, and she'sgoing to talk to us about
Memoria Press.
So thank you for being here,kara, thanks for having me.
All right, tell me aboutMemoria Press before, because I
know you've got kids in thebackground.
I've got kids in the background, so we'll have to run through
this one, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, okay, yeah, but what is Memoria Press?
You have already talked to meabout Story of the World, so if
you haven't checked out thatepisode, go ahead and listen to
that.
That's history.
What's Memoria Press?
So?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Memoria Press.
You can get, you can do all ofyour core subjects enrichment,
history, science.
They have everything.
I personally only use theenrichment part of it.
So we do the poetry, art, musicand literature through them.
I have so many questions.
Yeah, they, their main thing islike a classical education.
(01:38):
Yeah, you know they do Latinand you know all the poetry and
art and music and they reallyfocus on that stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Okay, all of which I don't remember doing in school
at all.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
So okay.
So for, like the homeschoolparent, that is like I don't
even know where to begin.
As you were telling me beforeabout story of the world and the
history, I'm like, wow, Ireally haven't thought too much
about history Like my son's inkindergarten, so we haven't
gotten there yet.
I am an affiliate for theTuttle Twins and I know they
(02:14):
have some volumes of history.
Oh yeah, and I'm like, well,those would be cool, because I
know they would be like, nope,that's a conspiracy theory,
that's a conspiracy theory.
So I'm like I would probably getalong with that one pretty well
.
So to think of adding history,and then, on top of that, to
think of these enrichment onesthat are so like worthwhile I'm
sure, and needed, like how doesa parent even know to add this
(02:38):
stuff?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Oh man, I just spent lots and lots of time on YouTube
watching homeschool stuff andgot into like Charlotte Mason
and I love like the idea of that, and I bought a few curriculums
that were Charlotte Masoninspired and tried doing them at
like putting it into actionjust failed for me.
Every time I was like I don'tknow why.
(02:59):
Yeah, I love the philosophybehind it, but like I need, I
need something that's liketelling me what to.
I need a schedule that's likedo this on this day and say this
to the child and you know and Idon't use that verbatim, but I
like that it's there, yeah, if Ineed it.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So I think a lot of parents are like that and I
haven't used any Charlotte Masonstuff, but I know it's more
getting into the story.
So was it kind of like theunschooling?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
No, it's quite the opposite actually, for if you
were to use like all of MemorialPress stuff, they're kind of
they're openly like they don'tthink that school has to be fun
and they're not about that.
They're like get this work done.
You have eight hours a day,like you need to do all this,
(03:49):
and so I'm not like 100% likethat, but I like the subjects
that they do.
I just liked their literature,their list of literature, their
books, that they do that theyuse in their curriculum.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
What differentiates literature from just doing like
reading?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So I have my son read on his own and he can pick
whatever level books for him.
But this is stuff that I readto them read alouds, okay, so,
and we'll talk about it.
So that's kind of like theCharlotte Mason in that way,
where they still want you todiscuss the story because
there's so many things to belearned in the story and they
(04:26):
handpick all these stories.
A lot of them are likecaldecott honor books and so
yeah, so these are likeread-alouds that I read to them.
He can read some of them on hisown.
It's for me to like sit downand read with them, so that's
what I want to do.
But there's like I bought likethe third grade for next year.
They have like American history, so like those are books he's
(04:47):
going to read on his own.
You know they have that kind ofstuff too.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
So you said, this was this.
Enrichment encompasses poetry,literature music.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
So I'll let you know what it looks like.
So we just do so.
They have a read aloud book forthe week, and then they have
music and there's actually likea little music book with a
biography on the artist.
Sometimes we read that,sometimes we don't, so uh, but
we always listen to the song andthey just listen to it, you
know, just so.
(05:18):
It's familiar and they loveclassical music.
Actually I love that.
So, uh, and then there's an, anart card for the week.
So I bought their little set ofart cards and we just look at
it and talk about it, and thenthere's a poem for the week, and
usually all these things gotogether.
So they usually relate in someway, and then I think that's it.
It's those four things, yeah.
(05:38):
And then they also have like abook of crafts.
So you could add in crafts, ifyou want.
They have that too.
That also goes with all ofthose things.
So they'll allow a little bitof fun.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, in the younger years.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Oh, that's so funny.
So how long does it take foryou to go through all of this?
Or do you do it every day aweek, or, you know, five days a
week?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, in their schedule they have like one
thing a day, like you'd readaloud the or do the read aloud.
On monday, do the music and art.
On tuesday, do the poetry.
On thursday, do the science on.
But we just, we just do fourdays of school a week and this
doesn't take long, so we just doit all in one day oh, okay or
sometimes we'll just break it up.
It's just whatever comes tomind where I'm like, oh, now
it'd be good time to turn thismusic on, or you know says the
(06:26):
woman that said I needed acurriculum that told me
literally what to say to thechild.
Yeah, well, there's nothing tosay for the music, really, I
just turn it on and the art.
But but they actually do havelike a guide for me if I want,
where it's like discussionquestions about the art and the
(06:48):
reading and stuff like that.
So it is there if I want to useit.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Yeah that's the stuff I need for like art.
I wouldn't know what to whatcolors, do you see?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Okay, me too.
All right yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Give me an overview of what your week even beyond
Wait.
Why can I not?
Remember the name of it.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Memoria Press.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So give me an overview, from like Monday to
Friday, of what your homeschoolcurriculum days look like.
Like, just chop it up, becauseyou talked a little bit before
when we talked about Story ofthe World.
How do they all fit in, and areyou doing anything more than
Story of the World and MemoriaPress?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
So, yeah, we do math, writing, grammar, handwriting
and we do all about reading also.
So all of those things plus thehistory.
And then we also do science,which again I just do that one
day a week.
All these extras I just do oneday.
Our core stuff is every dayyeah, memoria Press I count as
(07:46):
like an extra thing.
So ideally I do like historyone day, science one day, memory
press one day, and I thinkthat's all of our extra stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So yeah, so mondays you might be doing you're all
about reading your math andhistory writing, right?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
grammar and history, yeah, okay, and then the next
day we do all those things, butinstead of history we do science
.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Okay, and then and then you do, but you only do it
four days a week.
So Right, and you said it takesabout four hours a day for you.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, between for me between the two kids.
Yeah, okay, my second grader,it's about two hours to do all
of it, Like if we sat down andjust did it all without breaking
.
It would be about two hours.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay, which, when you think of a?
Kid in school, you know, forlike seven hours.
Yeah, that is it's two hourssounds like a lot when you're
juggling kids and you knowmultiple.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, it is.
It's really all day for me, but.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
All right.
How many lessons does it havethat like?
Will this cover you for thefull year or does it maybe
caught up?
It was easy to catch up justreading all these read alouds
and doing the art and musicbecause it doesn't take long.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So we were just doing it like every day to catch up.
Because what I love about thisis they have holiday books.
So I wanted to read the holidaybooks during the holidays.
So I was like I got to catch upto Christmas here or
Thanksgiving and read thosearound that time.
So we caught up quickly andthen and now, like they have a
(09:34):
book on St Valentine, then Ithink they have some for St
Patrick's Day, and then theyhave Easter ones, and I just
love that they put the holidaybooks in there.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, for readalones.
How do you get the books?
Do you have to get them fromthe library, or do you them?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
So I bought them.
It is pricey.
If you bought so the curriculum, like the manual that has like
when to read all the books whichyou don't even need that Like
if you just want to read thesebooks and you know figure it out
yourself, that'd be easy to do.
But I wanted this to like guideme, like reading, you know,
doing the art and music all atthe same time when they have it
scheduled.
But it's expensive.
(10:09):
It's like two to four hundreddollars because there's like 36
books or something picture books, and they're all like hardback,
so they're so you could try tocheck them out at the library or
get them used on a secondhand.
You know bookstore here inflorida they have a scholarship
for homeschoolers, so I use thatto get it.
(10:30):
Otherwise I wouldn't havebecause I'm like I'm not gonna
spend.
Between the two kids it couldbe like a thousand dollars for
all these books.
I was like not gonna spend thatmuch on it, but our library
just isn't very good here.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
So um, now, do you, does your library, have like a
network where and mine inupstate new york it's called
like the Upper Hudson LibrarySystem and I can go on an app
and request a book by its titleand they will order it from one
of the other local libraries andship it to my library so that I
(11:03):
can go pick it up.
Do they have anything like thatwhere you are?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I haven't been able to figure that out.
Actually, we've lived in otherstates where they had that and
I've gone on their website andhaven't been able to see that
they do that.
So, yeah, the Florida librarysystem's lacking.
It's a frustration of mine.
So I was like I just have tomake my own library here.
But you know, with thescholarship funds I'm like I'll
(11:28):
get it.
Yeah, just have it on hand,because I'm going to use it for
all three kids.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
So it's worth it to me all right.
Well, at least people ifthey're hearing it, they know
that that's.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
That could be an option too yeah, and you know
I've I've done that.
I've bought used books on eBaybefore.
With other curriculums that arereally book heavy, like
Sunlight and Bookshark, I'vesaved a lot of money going on
eBay buying those, so that's anoption.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
And how do your kids like doing this curriculum?
Are they looking forward toWednesday when it's Enrichment
Day?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, to be honest, they don't really care about the
art pictures To me.
I'm like it's just exposingthem to it.
That's important to me.
Um, so they look at it.
Obviously my second grader's alittle more interested than my
coon gardener.
He's kind of like I don't know,it's funny.
They looked at a picture of, Ithink, louis the 14th and they
were like why is that guydressed like a girl?
(12:22):
So it was really funny.
I I'm like, okay, if that'swhat you get out of it, that's
fine.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I mean, you can go to Walmart and see that.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, it was really funny.
He's in heels and tights and so, but they love classical music
and so they love that part of itand you know the real louds.
Of course they love those.
There's definitely a couplethat have been a little boring,
but most of them, like, theylaugh out loud, they love the
stories.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Awesome.
All right, so you'll be usingthis again and you can do it
with more than one child.
It sounds like at a time.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Oh yeah, I mean I have separate.
I have the kindergarten and thesecond grade sets, but you
could totally do it, for youknow multiple grades for sure
kind of like mesh them all in,like k through, yeah, like you
could get the.
The kindergartner coulddefinitely, you know, enjoy the
read aloud.
I mean, I do, I actually doboth of them.
They both sit with me to do thekindergarten and the um second
(13:21):
grade books and music and stuffand then is this um secular or
religious?
yeah, I think it's hard to say.
I think both they also.
I think memoria press ischristian for sure.
If you were just using this forthe read aloud and stuff, I
would say I mean, they havechristmas books.
(13:42):
I guess it is.
It is.
I'd say it's christian.
Yeah based?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
okay, awesome.
So is there anything else thatyou wanted to discuss about
Memoria Press that we didn'ttouch?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
on?
I don't think so.
So they okay, I do.
They have reading where you, sothese are like read aloud
picture books, but then theyalso have read alouds that are
novels.
I just love their book options,so you don't even have to use
their curriculum, but they'rejust a really good resource for
books to read to your kids atthose ages.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Okay, so do they have a book list that you could just
get?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, you can go on there and just look at their.
You know, you go on there tothe listing where it's for sale,
and it has a whole list of whatthe books are and you could
just, you know, pick what youwant to pick, read what you want
to read, and I think it's agreat resource for that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, I love book lists.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I love their.
I love them.
I just have no idea.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
We, you know you go to the library.
You're like I don't know whatis quality.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I wasn't like read to as a child.
I don't know even how todecipher.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I know it's really hard to know what.
There's so much junk at thelibrary too that I'm like, yeah,
there really is so so yeah, Ireally like memoria press for
that like I trust their, theirchoice of books here.
So, and you?
want it, um, you want it to belike good literature, but you
want them to also enjoy readingit, because you don't want to
kill their spirit of loving toread or story, you know yeah,
exactly yeah, and they likehandpick these stories of like a
lot of them are classics, solike winnie the pooh and mary
(15:16):
poppins this is the third gradebook I'm reading from or, uh,
yeah, oh.
And then they have like jamesharriot's treasury for children.
I don't know if you've heardthat book, but I already had it
on hand.
It's just a veterinarian fromlike the early 1900s or maybe
mid 1900s in the UK and it'sjust stories that he has about
(15:36):
animals, but he wrote them forchildren and it's beautiful
artwork and I just love it.
And then, yeah, they also dolike Norse myths and Greek myths
, and so I just love it.
This is my thing.
I'm like all these topics arejust things I love, so sharing
it with my kids is great.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
And it's really nice for, like, I never had any of
that.
All this stuff is forward to me, but like I want to know it.
So I think homeschooling isreally just my way of learning
all the things I never learnedthe first time.
And my son just has to sitthrough it, sorry.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
No, I totally agree with that.
It's like learning this stuffagain, like especially science.
I mean, my mom homeschooled usup until seventh grade.
Oh wow, I mean we're all kindof different, there's six of us,
so we all were likehomeschooled, different grades
but, um, but she only didreading, writing and arithmetic
(16:32):
because she read a book.
That, um, where they were likethis is all you need, this is
the important stuff, the extrais just extra.
So we didn't do any science.
Um, so like I'm doing sciencewith my kids and I'm like this
is all new to me, I have no idealike any of this.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
So, yeah, so I definitely have to have you back
on the main podcast to talkabout that experience like being
homeschooled, and thenobviously you went to
traditional school if you wereonly homeschooled to seventh
grade.
So hearing that experience andthen kind of what led you to
homeschool your kids, I wouldlove to know all of that in a
(17:08):
separate episode.
And you said your husband wantsto wanted at one time to do a
podcast, so I would love to havehim on with you to talk about
being the homeschooling dad andmaybe ignite his little desire
to podcast again.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
He'd love that Because he got the headphones
and the microphone.
You can't let that go to waste.
I know I was like I'm all setup for this, Like I need to do
this, so we'll get that on thebook.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
So everybody keep an eye out for Kara and her husband
.
We'll be talking about that,and you guys are in Florida,
right?
Yep, nice, all right.
Well, thank you so much, kara.
I hope you'll come back on andchat with us more.
Thank you for being here today.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, I hope so, thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thank you so much for listening.
Please consider sharing thispodcast or my main podcast, the
Homeschool how To with friends,family, on Instagram or in your
favorite homeschool groupFacebook page.
The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it
going and the more hope we havefor the future.
Thank you for your love of thenext generation.
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