The transformative power of historical fiction

by on April 19, 2013
in curriculum · 23 Comments

historical fiction recommendations for ages 9-18 simplehomeschool
The following is a guest post written by Caroline Starr Rose of Caroline by line and the verse novel May B.

What’s the point of historical fiction? Publisher’s Weekly recently ran an interview with Newbery and Newbery-Honor medalist Karen Cushman, one of children’s literature’s most celebrated authors. Here’s what she had to say:

“I think for readers historical fiction is important because it helps them to see beyond the boundaries of their own experience. It helps them to stretch and to see what life is like for others. This helps illustrate both how we are the same and how we are different, and can give readers more empathy.”

As a social studies teacher turned children’s author, nothing fires me up as a much as a well-crafted historical novel. Nothing has made history more personal than the books I’ve treasured in childhood and beyond.

Here are some historical titles worth celebrating, worth sharing, worth reading with the young people in your lives.
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Free educational resources you might not have heard of

by on April 15, 2013
in curriculum · 15 Comments

free educational resources ~SimpleHomeschool.net

Once upon a time I believed that homeschooling, done well, required a significant financial investment. Private schools and the amount spent by the government on each public school student certainly suggest that education comes at a high price.

After a couple of years, however, I began to notice that my kids needed less and less in order to learn. A library card, favorite book titles purchased for our home collection, a stack of blank paper, and a few well-chosen resources here and there have done the job quite nicely thus far.

Have you made the same discovery? If you’re interested in saving your pennies while still helping those little minds grow, here are a few free and inexpensive educational resources you might not have heard of.
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Becoming brave writers: A review of The Writer’s Jungle

by on April 10, 2013
in curriculum · 13 Comments

Becoming brave writers: A review of The Writer's Jungle
Written by contributor Lora Lynn Fanning of Vitafamiliae

Last semester, I determined my third grade twins should do a writing project. I requested a paragraph from each about their history studies. Simple, right?

A week later, we were all in tears and only after much angst did they eke out their boring four sentence paragraphs. I was baffled. I’m a writer. I love to edit. They like to write. Why was this so painful???

I spent my Christmas vacation evaluating our writing program. Or lack thereof. Apparently, my kids weren’t going to learn to write or to love writing just by living with their blogging mama. I needed something else.

I stumbled across the Brave Writer website and the correlating book The Writer’s Jungle by Julie Bogart. By the time I finished it, my copy of the book looked like this:

junglenotes

In The Writer’s Jungle, I found the tools to make writing pain-free:
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Lessons learned from Little House

by on April 8, 2013
in curriculum · 57 Comments

Jamie Martin, editor of Simple Homeschool, also blogs about motherhood at Steady Mom

After several months, my three kids and I recently finished reading all nine books of the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Reading these to my own kids was like a dream come true.

I fell in love with Laura and her life as a young girl myself and have read through the whole series three or four times. But experiencing them as an adult with children of my own gave me a new perspective  than I had before.

Certain parts made me laugh, some parts made me cry, a few parts shocked me, and I took away a few lessons to remember as well.
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Using YouTube for homeschooling

by on December 14, 2012
in curriculum · 10 Comments

Written by contributor Lora Lynn Fanning of Vitafamiliae

Late one Sunday night while lesson planning, I discovered I’d neglected to obtain the books I needed for the following day’s lesson.

I couldn’t make it to the library and I wanted to keep us on schedule. So I did what any mother in the 21st century would do: I went to YouTube.

First, I gave myself a quick crash course on our topic:
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Giveaway: Oak Meadow curriculum package (Back to School Week)

by on August 7, 2012
in curriculum ·

This giveaway has now ended. Thanks for entering!

Thanks for joining me for this year’s back to school week! I hope this week’s posts encourage you in your school and life planning as the start of the traditional school year grows nearer.

I discovered Oak Meadow through the magic of the blogosphere, and found it to be just what I needed for my kids at the time. The curriculum and the philosophy behind it have become a steady part of our home learning experience since then.

What first drew me to Oak Meadow was the heart behind it–is it possible for a curriculum company to have heart? Yes, it totally is! And I found that Oak Meadow’s connected with much of my own–their gentle approach, their slow introduction to academics, their focus on nature, free play, and stories.
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