Simple Homeschool

Free range learning (Good Reads on Simple Homeschool)

Jamie — Mon, 21 May 2012 04:00:48 +0000

Like most homeschoolers, I love reading and discussing good books. I also enjoy sharing them with my readers, so I’m happy to have the chance to introduce you today to Free-Range Learning:How Homescholing Changes Everything by Laura Grace Weldon.

As someone who pursues interest-led learning with my children, I was drawn to the concept conveyed by this book’s title, and glad to have the chance to review it.

The author, Laura Grace Weldon, is a long-time columnist with Home Education Magazine, a farmer, and the mother of four homeschooled children.

I recently had the chance to ask Laura a few questions. Enjoy her insightful responses in this interview!

1. How would you define free range learning?

“Every one of us is born a free range learner. We have an innate urge to immerse ourselves in the exciting process of gaining mastery.

We observe, explore, pursue our interests, ask questions, make mistakes and try again—-continually looking for ways to challenge ourselves. That’s how we learn to walk and talk.

That’s how young people have become competent adults throughout human history. And that’s how our species has advanced the arts, sciences, and technology. Narrowing the innate way we learn actually interferes with the full development of our gifts.

Free range learning isn’t another “method” of education. It’s a deeper understanding of how we learn, develop competence, and express our best selves. It helps us to foster learning in our children (and ourselves) and to enjoy the wonder it brings to our lives.”

2. What advice would you give to those who want to pursue a free range learning environment in their homeschool?

“Although it seems counter-intuitive when we’re trying to achieve all sorts of educational goals, one path to achieving those goals more naturally is by paying attention to what’s fun and what engages a child’s interest. I explain that in more depth here, but really, it takes a whole book! Learning is intrinsically pleasurable and interesting.

There are all sorts of ways to motivate kids, but there’s no need for artificial inducements when we can foster curiosity. In fact, the extra time homeschooling children have to play as well as pursue their interests is associated with greater mastery in adulthood, a far more important road to success than good grades or high test scores.”

3. What are the foundational aspects of your personal homeschooling life?

“Homeschooling gives us the freedom to be ourselves and the time to create close family bonds. This builds lasting self-worth.

My kids have developed abilities much different than mine. Now that they are older teens and young adults, this is glaringly obvious. My four offspring can play bagpipes, fix old tractors, milk cows, weld, build, repair, and do differential equations. All easily. Not me.

Our homeschooling lives have been wonderfully balanced between relaxation and adventure. We read for hours together sprawled on couches. We launched ambitious ideas like building a trebuchet to propel pumpkins across the pond and entering a national science contest that landed us a visit with an astronaut. Other equally ambitious ideas, like making a hovercraft, were more notable for their humorous failures.

We gave homemade gifts from woodworking, sewing, and pottery projects and learned to make everything from marshmallows to pop rocks from scratch. We called exploding experiments “science,” invited everyone we knew for large-scale projects like batiking, jaunted all over for concerts and plays, hosted an international guest for six summers, and whenever possible learned directly from people who thrived on work they loved.

We’re still here on our small family farm together. Conversation around the dinner table is a lively mix of fervent opinions, esoteric interests and very dry wit. My grown and nearly grown kids seek each other out for hour long discussions and cheerfully do difficult chores together. I like these people. I’m proud of all they are accomplishing. The foundation here is love and mutual respect.”

4. What are your children doing now?

“My children (now older teens and adults) are remarkably successful young people. One is taking college courses toward a science degree and constantly working on his own projects. Another is in college, majoring in engineering, getting straight A’s and loving his field. Another has graduated summa cum laude with a biology degree, works monitoring aquatic wildlife areas and volunteers on the weekends at a bird rehabilitation center. Another was recently married, has just bought a house, and has a successful career.

I’ll admit, sometimes I wondered if our homeschooling choices were a risk of some kind, since society tells us that success comes to those who follow prescribed steps. But watching my kids and so many other homeschooling kids we know who are now grown, it confirms for me that this is not an “experiment.” This is how people throughout most of history raised children to capable adulthood.

I hear all the time when homeschooled kids go to college and/or the workplace, that their continued passion for learning and mastery confounds those around them, because they’re used to jaded young people who do as little as possible to get by. This is who we are as a species–always curious–and to stifle that that really staunches the possibilities each one of us brings to the future.”

5. What activities from your book do you recommend for new homeschoolers?

“First, build your knowledge networks. By that I mean seek out skills and experience in the people around you.

Consider your father’s interest in solar energy, your neighbor’s ability to fix anything mechanical, your friend’s volunteer time with a mountain rescue team, your sister-in-law’s expertise in running a small business. Chances are they’ll gladly share some of what they know with your child or your whole homeschool group.

Asking others to impart some of their wisdom is actually a way of honoring them. People who are passionate about what they do convey knowledge in ways that go well beyond what any flat page or screen can. They transmit enthusiasm. That’s priceless.

Second, look for ways your children can meaningfully participate at home and in your community.

They may want to sell unused household items on eBay and donate the proceeds to a charity of their choice. They may want to plant a garden and learn together how to preserve the produce. They may want to make puppets and stage a puppet show for the daycare down the street. There are endless ways to involve youth in useful endeavors. They’ll not only learn, they’ll build character and a wonderful sense of purpose.

And third, listen to your intuition.

It’s a vital resource. You will be demonstrating to your children the value of paying attention to their own intuition.

Your intuition will also help you trust that your children are well equipped to learn in the way best for them. Better yet, when you listen to your gut instincts you’ll notice you’re being guided toward what is authentic and undeniably joyous.”

****************************************

Thank you, Laura, for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us! You can also read more from Laura on her blog.

And I highly recommend Simple Homeschool readers pick up your own copy of Free-Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything. It has become one of my long-term, continue to flip through, homeschooling resources.

How do you try to cultivate free range learning in your home?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

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Sparkle Stories - Original audio adventures.

Free range learning (Good Reads on Simple Homeschool) is a post from Simple Homeschool

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Weekend Links

Jamie — Sun, 20 May 2012 04:00:06 +0000

loving our cottage in Yorkshire

What I’ve learned about learning :: Zen Habits
Keeping your child’s heart through the teen years :: I Take Joy
You’re doing it :: Vita Familiae
Six things adoption has taught me :: Simple Mom
The 5 stages of stay-at-home fatherhood :: Huffington Post

“But, good gracious, you’ve got to educate him first. You can’t expect a boy to be vicious till he’s been to a good school.” ~ H.H. Munro

CURRENT SPONSORS:

Oak Meadow - Discover the joy of learning at home.
Alphabet Glue - An e-magazine for children who love books (and their grown ups).
Great Homeschool Conventions - The homeschool event of the year.
UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Original audio adventures.

Weekend Links is a post from Simple Homeschool

Q&A Friday: What curricula do you plan to use next year? (2012 curriculum fair)

Jamie — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:00:27 +0000

Written by Jamie Martin, editor of Simple Homeschool and Steady Mom

Over the past month we’ve heard from all of our contributors, each sharing the resources we’ve found helpful (or not helpful!), along with our homeschooling plans for the upcoming school year.

I hope you’ve found this helpful as you begin your own planning. Personally I’ve bookmarked a few resources and recommendations to keep for future years. Now it’s your turn to share!

Each homeschooling family makes unique choices each year based on our educational philosophies and priorities, but we can always learn from each other. So please feel free to jump in today!

If you’ve written a post on your blog about the curriculum you use or will use, please leave your link in the comments.

Even if you don’t have a blog, you can still leave a comment letting us know about your favorite resources.

Enjoy browsing through the links–I’m looking forward to it!

CURRENT SPONSORS:

Oak Meadow - Discover the joy of learning at home.
Alphabet Glue - An e-magazine for children who love books (and their grown ups).
Great Homeschool Conventions - The homeschool event of the year.
UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Original audio adventures.

Q&A Friday: What curricula do you plan to use next year? (2012 curriculum fair) is a post from Simple Homeschool

Classical afterschooling (Curriculum Fair 2012)

Tsh — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:01:48 +0000

Written by Tsh Oxenreider of Simple Mom.

Ages of my children: 7, 4, & almost 2
Educational philosophies I pull from: Classical, Interest-Led Learning

A few weeks ago, I spent the weekend visiting Peace Hill Press and its founder, Susan Wise Bauer. Known for fostering a modern-day movement of the classical method of teaching, she is someone I’ve long admired. It was an honor to meet her.

So it might surprise you to hear that we’re not homeschooling next year. Oh, well, of course we are in the organic, basic rudimentary definition of the word—I hold the belief that education always begins at home, whether or not families are aware. But formally, we are taking a step of faith and enrolling our kids in a local private school.

This was a tough, tough decision, and most of my closer friends and family know that we wrestled with this decision most of the spring semester. But in the end, we feel a strong peace that this is our learning path next year, and we’re excited.

So why am I participating in the curriculum fair here, you might be asking? Well, because we’re going to try out something that I learned about this past spring, and it’s one of the things that released me from the disappointment in not homeschooling next year.

It’s called afterschooling.

Afterschooling: What is it?

It’s almost silly that this even needs a name, in many ways, but afterschooling is simply homeschool, after school. It can look a lot of ways, just like homeschooling. I’ve jokingly come to call it Homeschool Lite.

Increasing in popularity, many families choose to do afterschooling in order to go deeper in an area a student’s school isn’t able, to cover a topic that’s completely ignored at school, or to foster more interest-led learning. I learned a great deal about afterschooling at Teaching My Baby to Read, and the Well Trained Mind forums also has a forum just for afterschooling.

As we considered the possibility of afterschooling, one of our highest criteria was finding a school with a low homework policy. After all, kids need tons of play (where some of the best learning happens!), and I have no intention of bogging down our kids with more than is necessary.

We’re going to try it out this next year, and if it ends up being too much, we’ll slow down. We might even shelve the idea for awhile and pick it back up later. Or we may stop doing the private school and return to only homeschooling.

Our afterschool plan

We’re going to ease into it, and we may not even do afterschooling every week. But these will be our resources.

1. First Language Lessons

I really do love everything from Peace Hill Press, and their grammar curriculum is at the top of their game. We’ll continue doing First Language Lessons, since it worked so well for us this past year. I’m guessing we’ll do one to two lessons a week, tops.

2. The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading

Our 7-year-old learned to read using this curriculum when she was four, and we didn’t even need to finish it—it just clicked for her. I have a hunch it won’t be the same for her 4-year-old brother, but he’s showing eagerness to learn. We’ll pull out our Ordinary Parent’s Guide this summer and ease into phonics, slowly.

3. Story of the World

Of course, right? We love this history curriculum, especially the mp3 version. We just listen to Story of the World in the car, talk about it a lot, and pursue the activities and further research if the kids are interested. Tate begs to listen to SOTW, so it’s fun for her.

4. History sentences (and songs) from Classical Conversations

We participated in CC this past year, and we loved the 24 history sentences, easily learned by song. I’m blown away by how much history our entire family memorized. We’re not participating in our local chapter next year, but I’ll still order next year’s CDs and play those in the car as well.

5. Geography maps and memory work from Classical Conversations

My first-grader also learned an enormous amount of geography, and she loved it. We’ll keep on with the CC map tracing, memory work, and exploration of cultures and places as the interest arises.

I also love Writing With Ease and Telling God’s Story from PHP, and we’ll also incorporate these if it works out.

I know I’ll miss the longer hours of homeschooling next year. But we’re very much a year-at-a-time, kid-at-a-time family—I don’t for a second doubt that we’ll homeschool again. It might not be the best fit for our family next year, but that doesn’t mean that’ll always be the case.

Have you ever tried afterschooling? What was it like for you?

(Peace Hill Press gave me complimentary curricula for review.)

CURRENT SPONSORS:

Oak Meadow - Discover the joy of learning at home.
Alphabet Glue - An e-magazine for children who love books (and their grown ups).
Great Homeschool Conventions - The homeschool event of the year.
UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Original audio adventures.

Classical afterschooling (Curriculum Fair 2012) is a post from Simple Homeschool

Simple doesn’t always mean easy.

Jamie — Mon, 14 May 2012 04:00:29 +0000

Sometimes doing the simple thing isn’t the same as doing the easy thing. Know what I mean?

Last week I had the chance to share a guest post over on Simple Mom–The road to simplicity is marked by complexity. But it’s still worth it.

From my post:

“With all the talk about simplicity these days, you’d think that the route getting there would be, well, simple. But many find that with each step they take toward simplicity, they encounter temporary complications.

These complications sometimes feel so vast they make you want to quit before you’ve even started. Switching gears in life can be painful, and progress isn’t always initially visible.

I am a mother of three children, a homeschooler, a blogger and an author. Each day I spend the majority of my time on areas of my core values and priorities, crafting the life of my dreams. Yet getting here has required navigating through obstacles and complexities.”

Head here to read the rest of the post and share your thoughts.

CURRENT SPONSORS:

Oak Meadow - Discover the joy of learning at home.
Alphabet Glue - An e-magazine for children who love books (and their grown ups).
Great Homeschool Conventions - The homeschool event of the year.
UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Original audio adventures.

Simple doesn’t always mean easy. is a post from Simple Homeschool

Join our curriculum fair!

Jamie — Sun, 13 May 2012 04:00:57 +0000

the sunset Elijah and I watched during our flight across the Atlantic

Jet lag has just about cleared away from my brain now that we’ve been in England for a few days. This is good–it means I’m coherent enough to invite you to join in as we finish up our curriculum fair later this week.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading all the posts from our contributors about the resources we use to make life work in our homeschools. Now I’d like you to share with us!

Here’s how it works:

Write a post sometime this week on your own blog about the homeschooling resources you plan to use in the upcoming year (or those you use now if you’d prefer). Then come by here on Friday, May 18th, and leave your link in the comments for others to browse and read!

Don’t worry if you don’t have a blog–you can always share about favorite resources just by leaving a comment.

Sound good? I’ll see you then!

“Do not let the endless succession of small things crowd great ideals out of sight and out of mind.” ~ Charlotte Mason

CURRENT SPONSORS:

Oak Meadow - Discover the joy of learning at home.
Alphabet Glue - An e-magazine for children who love books (and their grown ups).
Great Homeschool Conventions - The homeschool event of the year.
UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Original audio adventures.

Join our curriculum fair! is a post from Simple Homeschool

Of America and war (2012 curriculum fair)

SarahS — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:00:34 +0000

Ages of my kids at home: 15 and 11 1/2
Educational Philosophy Influences: Literature-based, Eclectic, College-Bound

I am so excited about this upcoming year! I have always maintained that educational flexibility is the highlight of home education, and 2012-13 will be one of those years that embraces flexibility.

Shouldn’t education be crafted by creativity, rather than squished into a box labeled “scope and sequence”?

For me, part of the joy in homeschooling my kids comes with the designing, the knowing that my kids get an individualized education plan that suits them perfectly.

So here is what I have planned for my two at-home kids:

Student #1: All Things America

The upcoming year is an election year, and my daughter will be a sophomore. What a perfect year for all things America! I had already planned to teach American Literature at our co-op, and I knew U.S. history would also be offered there as well. That leaves government, and what better year to study government than an election year?

I remembered that a father in our support group teaches government at a local high school, so I contacted him to see if he’d consider teaching for our co-op. He was enthusiastic and immediately began planning. He put together a class description, which includes watching debates and election returns together, and reached his class maximum in just a couple of days. I am excited about my daughter having the opportunity to really be immersed in government during an election year.

So you’ve noticed that all her classes so far will be through our co-op? The rest of them—ecology, geometry, ACT Prep, and performing arts— are as well. In an area where public education is a strange mix of mediocrity and fierce competition, we are blessed to have a phenomenal high school program through our support group. We all agree that our life is richer within the network of the homeschooling community.

High School Resources

American Literature: I’ll be teaching this course, and I create my own course materials drawing on various resources. My three favorites are: Glencoe Literature Library, Shmoop, and Signet Classics Teachers’ Guides. We’ll be reading a variety of novels, plays, short stories, and poetry, as well as seeing plays, watching movie version of novels, and of course writing!
U.S. History and U.S. Government will both be teacher-created courses, not relying on one particular textbook.
Geometry will meet twice weekly, using Geometry by Harold Jacobs
Ecology: My husband, a biology professor, will be teaching this class for our co-op using Elements of Ecology by Thomas Smith and Robert Smith. Besides the weekly class, they’ll be doing lots of field work in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Can you imagine a more memorable science class?
ACT Prep: I am team-teaching this with two other moms. Students will be using The Real ACT Prep Guide.

Photo by justinday

Student #2: War

My youngest will be straddling 6^th and 7^th grades. We move him rather fluidly between levels, based on his needs rather than his age. (See my post Stepping Outside the Grade Level Box.) One day I remarked to my husband that, “I wish we could just spend a whole year studying World War II.” He looked at me with a look that was a combination of “Ummm, why can’t we?” and “Duh, isn’t that why we homeschool?”

Ah, yes. That is precisely why we homeschool. Why let this perfect timing slip away because the typical scope and sequence calls for a vague “global and regional studies”? We have a nearly 12-year-old son who is fascinated by this period in history. My father is World War II veteran, as well as an historian. What ideal ingredients for intense, delight-driven learning: an eager student, a primary source (my father), a library, the internet, and a facilitator (me).

So what will be doing? Lots of reading. My father is putting together an outline of events, from the start of the war to the fall of Japan. I have only just begun a reading list, but some of our possibilities include:

World War II for Kids by Richard Panchyk
The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won by Stephen Ambrose
Jimmy’s Stars by Mary Ann Rodman
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
The Tuskegee Airmen by Lynn Homan
When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park
Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyui Choi
I Am David by Anne Holm
Hitler’s Canary by Sandi Toksvig
Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida
A Boy at War by Harry Mazer
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolan
Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust by Alan Zullo

Our World War II study will include reading, writing, and history, but we’ll continue on with our regular math (finishing Teaching Textbooks pre-algebra and then beginning algebra) and grammar (Easy Grammar). I am excited to begin a new classical science program, Elemental Science, which “focuses on the science being studied instead of a person’s religious viewpoint.” My son and I will be doing Biology for the Logic Stage.

This year our trip to New York City greatly enhanced our homeschooling year. Next spring we plan to visit Washington D.C., a perfect trip for our daughter’s year in America studies and our son’s study of World War II.

Although we are just winding down 2011-12, I am already so excited about our upcoming school year! I have all summer to enjoy relaxing—and planning!

I’d love help in planning our World War II study! What are some of your favorite books, movies, field trips and other resources from this time period?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

Oak Meadow - Discover the joy of learning at home.
Alphabet Glue - An e-magazine for children who love books (and their grown ups).
Great Homeschool Conventions - The homeschool event of the year.
UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Original audio adventures.

Of America and war (2012 curriculum fair) is a post from Simple Homeschool

Buffet-Style Homeschooling (2012 Curriculum Fair)

Lora — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:00:40 +0000

One of the most common complaints I hear from new-to-homeschooling moms is, “There are so many choices! I just need somebody to tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

Well, I’ve got news for you, Mamas. Choosing a curriculum is just the beginning.

Several curricula actually offer choices within their content. They provide a myriad of activities, books, and assignments on a topic and allow you, the teacher, to choose what works best for your kids.

It’s a veritable smorgasbord of learning! With these “buffet-style” curricula homeschooling is like a “choose your own adventure” novel in living color!

In preparation for using a buffet-style curriculum when my children got older, I used Before Five In A Row for preschool. Each week we read one book and then had several different activities to choose from that related to that book. This gave me a chance to practice picking and choosing before I felt all the stress of “What if I pick wrong and they never learn the date of the Battle of Hastings and I ruin them forever????”

I loved the flexibility this type of curriculum offered. I’d read all of the options and decide what we were in the mood for that week. If I thought I could handle a craft without my head or the glitter exploding, we’d do that. If the science option looked more fun, we’d choose that. Anything I chose centered around our book of the week so it all tied together for my kids. I couldn’t make a WRONG choice.

The same held true when we did Five in a Row the next year, and as we’ve done Tapestry of Grace for the last two years. There are no WRONG choices. Just different choices. The curricula are designed with the understanding that you will not be able to do it all.

I found great freedom in knowing the curriculum I held in my hands was open to whimsy, to a crazy week, or to appealing to my children’s varying skills and talents. And knowing that I would never do it all gave me the freedom to do exactly what we needed.

Tips For Using Buffet Style Curriculum:

1. Prioritize.

I begin each year with a specific goal in mind. I decide what skill or character quality I’m looking to build in my kids for that year. For example, our first year of Tapestry (first grade for my twins), I set a simple goal of just “following and functioning within a set routine.” If they retained nothing about the ancient Egyptians, I wanted my boys to be able to follow the routine for school.

Use these goals to help you narrow down your choices for each week. When you start to feel overwhelmed or indecisive, return to your goals to help you focus on what YOUR children’s needs are. Since I knew my focus was mostly on routine, I only chose the most basic of options and didn’t stray from it much.

2. Know your curriculum.

Once you know your goals for the year, spend some time getting to know the ins and outs of your curriculum. Buffet-style curricula tend to LOOK overwhelming even though they are generally well-organized. I spent a weekend just reading the introductions and playing with the columns and the lay-outs until I understood the way it was set up and had a better idea how to make it work for me.

3. Play to strengths.

Photo by jimmiehomeschoolmom

You know the things you are good at. I know I stink at crafts. I’m much less likely to pick a project that involves knitting on a loom or making things out of felt. I like writing, though, so I will often steer my children toward the activities that have more writing since I am most qualified to help them in that area.

However, your children have strengths that are not your own. My son is excellent at art. I see a cereal box, he sees a Viking long-house. Sometimes I pick projects or activities that I know my children are strong in and I watch them excel and grow in confidence.

4. Let your kids pick.

My children love to have a voice in how we spend our days. At the beginning of our week, I present them with one or two options for their weekly project. (I usually don’t give them every single option because I know I don’t have all of the supplies or the time for some of them. But I narrow it down to two or three that are doable.) They get to pick which direction to follow for the week. They get excited about their learning and are much more motivated to finish projects and activities when they choose for themselves.

How do you like your curriculum? Is buffet style more your thing or do you prefer a la carte? How do you decide how to use your time each week?

CURRENT SPONSORS:

Oak Meadow - Discover the joy of learning at home.
Alphabet Glue - An e-magazine for children who love books (and their grown ups).
Great Homeschool Conventions - The homeschool event of the year.
UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Original audio adventures.

Buffet-Style Homeschooling (2012 Curriculum Fair) is a post from Simple Homeschool

Gearing up for a month overseas

Jamie — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:43:50 +0000

Written by Jamie Martin, editor of Simple Homeschool and Steady Mom

Something exciting is happening in our family tomorrow. We leave on a trip we’ve been planning for years –a month in England.

Why England? Well, my husband Steve is British. All of his family (my children’s grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles) still live there. Before having kids we visited frequently, and we took our firstborn, Jonathan, when he was nine months old to meet the British side of the family.

We’ve always had a dream to travel the world with our children. But then one child turned into two, and two turned into three. The idea of journeys overseas with toddlers and preschoolers in tow didn’t appeal to me, so we decided to wait until everyone grew up a bit to venture across the ocean together.

With my youngest having just turned seven, that time of life (that once seemed as if it would never arrive) is suddenly upon us! As a homeschooling family, we thank our lucky stars that we can nip off in the middle of the “school” year to let our kids encounter some real-life learning.

Here’s what we’ve been doing to prepare and make the most of our learning during the trip ahead. You could of course apply the same principles to anywhere you may be visiting or to just create a unit study about an area of interest.

1. We read British authors.

We’ve spent the past month with the likes of Beatrix Potter, James Herriot, and Robin Hood.

We’ll be staying in Yorkshire–the area where James Herriot worked as a vet. We plan to head to the Lake District to see the World of Beatrix Potter. (We hope to take a peek at her home Hill Top Farm as well.)

And we’ll be on our guard as we pass through Sherwood Forest and Nottingham. (Jonathan has already decided that if we get stopped by Robin or his band we can simply explain that we already give to charity, so they don’t need to rob us.)

We’re also taking some traditional British read-alouds with us: Winnie-the-Pooh, A Bear Called Paddington, and The Wind in the Willows. To say that (as a former literature major) I’m excited about this trip would be an understatement!

2. We took a trip to the library.

I combed our library’s shelves for nonfiction books about the British Isles. Upon checkout, the librarian asked if these books were for a school project and report. She seemed surprised that the books were actually for our own personal interest and travels.

We’ve learned a lot about the queen and other British basics from these titles.

3. We marked our destination.

We have a world map that hangs in our dining room. On it we’ve marked out our route–from Connecticut to England.

Also on the map we noted Italy, where Steve and I are heading for four days while the kids stay with their grandparents. (Yes, we’re thrilled!)

4. We had a family video night.

It isn’t always easy to find family-friendly travel documentaries.

Two that we really enjoyed are The Little Travelers: British Isles (this entire series is fabulous!) and Discovering England, which was divided by regions. We watched the segments relating to the areas where we’ll be visiting.

5. We’ve encouraged journaling.

I wanted to inspire the children to write while we’re away, so I set off on the hunt for the perfect kid-friendly travel journal. I think I found it!

I love this journal, which has space for more than a month’s entries–short sections to write what we did that day, and even what we ate (a fact that my kids always seem to be interested in recalling!).

My hope is that we’ll take a few minutes to work on these at the end of our days. They will make a special memory keepsake after our trip ends. We’ve already completed the sections at the beginning–about where we’re going and what we’ve learned about the country.

Now there’s only one thing left to do: Go!

Well, that, and about 100 other things on my to-do list for today. Like pack, for example. So I guess I better get back to that!

I will be blogging while we’re away, as it’s just too good of an opportunity not to share! Anything you’d like to read about? If you could take your family away for a month, what country would be your destination?

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Oak Meadow - Discover the joy of learning at home.
Alphabet Glue - An e-magazine for children who love books (and their grown ups).
Great Homeschool Conventions - The homeschool event of the year.
UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Original audio adventures.

Gearing up for a month overseas is a post from Simple Homeschool

Weekend Links

Jamie — Sun, 06 May 2012 11:25:06 +0000

loving these lilacs in full bloom in our front yard

How too much choice affects our kids :: Simple Kids
The unschooling summit: Embracing the new education paradigm :: An upcoming virtual conference
The case for book ownership :: Another Granola Mom
How unschooling is like lunch :: Everyday Snapshots
LauraPalooza 2012 :: Beyond Little House

The winners of the Alphabet Glue giveaway are Amy Golaski, Caroline, Dee, and Angela Van Heest. Congratulations! If you didn’t win, take a moment to read about Alphabet Glue, a downloadable magazine for families who love books!

CURRENT SPONSORS:

Oak Meadow - Discover the joy of learning at home.
Alphabet Glue - An e-magazine for children who love books (and their grown ups).
Great Homeschool Conventions - The homeschool event of the year.
UPrinting - Spread your message.
Sparkle Stories - Original audio adventures.

Weekend Links is a post from Simple Homeschool