Great Non-Textbook History Sources for Older Kids

When I was a student about the age my son is now, I frequently had homework that involved reading a chapter in a social studies textbook and answering the comprehension questions at the end. All the significant names and concepts were in bold. I literally had to scan the chapter for the key words and find the answers in almost the exact wording as the question. I agonized over it, because  I was just so bored by it, until my mother sat with me and did it with me. There was not much thinking involved in the work. Even by answering those questions, I didn't comprehend the big ideas and I certainly didn't hold onto the specific names and dates and places. I knew history was important, but I often did not find it very engaging as a student. 

Thankfully I feel differently now. And I have a son who is naturally quite interested in history, so that alone helps make social studies a part of the day we both look forward to. In our homeschool, we've managed to "do" history in a way that makes the people and events of the past feel real and important; history topics seem to make their way to the dinner table more than any other subject. For this I also credit some great sources we've found to use in our studies. Last year when I was faced with teaching an upper elementary aged child of my own and figuring out what materials to use, I didn't want to trust any single source to shed light on the complexities of history. So I didn't consider buying a textbook or packaged curriculum. Instead I depend on a variety of (almost entirely free) articles, books, photos, and web sites. We've started to identify favorites that are particularly rich and reliable. In social studies (even more than in other areas), and especially with my 5th grader, I feel that I am not teaching, but learning and relearning right along with him. 

Some of our Favorite Non-Textbook History Sources for Older Kids: 

• At the top of my list are Perspectives Flip Books (above). Half of the book tells about an important event/issue in history from one perspective; flip the book over and the other half tells about the same topic from a different perspective. Last year we read The Split History of the American Revolution, told from the points of view of both British and Patriots. This year I was excited to get The Split History of Westward Expansion from the library, told from both settlers' and American Indian perspectives. It's all too easy for kids to take sides and see things as black and white. So I like to purposely seek out multiple angles and this series is one way to do some of that easily.  

• W absolutely loves history books by Steve Sheinkin. This author "confesses" in the foreword that he used to help write textbooks for a living, and that now he writes his own books, packed with "all the true stories and real quotes that textbooks never tell you." The books are really funny, and humor is a big sell for my son. Last year we discovered these by reading aloud together King George: What was his Problem?: The Whole Hilarious Story of the American Revolution. W has since read Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks didn't tell you about America's Westward Expansion and Two Miserable Presidents: The Amazing, Terrible, and Totally True Story of the Civil War. As a reader and learner in general, W holds onto details first and later hangs the main ideas on those, rather than the other way around. These books include the key facts but are big on the amusing details; they seem to be written with a kid like him in mind. I wouldn't want these books to be the only source we used to learn about a topic, but as part of the mix, they are a super fun way to help you visualize history as real people and situations.  
• Whoever thought up the Who Is...?/What Was...? enterprise was really smart. Written by many different authors, the Who Was...? series consists of hundreds of biographies about influential people of all kinds, aimed at kids ages 8 - 12, while the What Was...? line tells about important historical events or time periods. W has read a bunch of these just for fun, and I always borrow relevant ones to go with whatever we are studying (right now we have What was the Lewis and Clark Expedition? and What was the Alamo?). W says one thing he really likes about these books is the great pictures. Some have photos, and all seem to have evocative drawings on almost every page.
• Our library has magazines to check out and we've found that kids' magazines with a history focus, like Cobblestone and Kids Discover offer bite-size articles and text features on many aspects of a historical event or time period, often in greater depth than many "all about" books for kids tend to include. We've found battle maps, timelines, games, poems, how-to sections, recipes, lots of great illustrations and photos, even fun historical comic strips.  
• Primary sources are powerful. Last year we examined the Declaration of Independence through the Library of Congress web site. This year while studying westward expansion, we've viewed some relevant works of art through museum web sites, read some of Lewis and Clark's journal entries (W found some of the content, as well as the spelling, very entertaining) and read and listened to some contemporary song lyrics that give a sense of that time in history.
• We've found some solid web sites that we go to first before random internet searches. Ducksters is one such site. It has concise fact sheets on many history topics and subtopics. What you get is fairly basic overview material, but sometimes that's what you need. There's an option to have the information on the page read aloud to you. Each page also contains a brief quiz at the end; W actually likes these and always sits up a little straighter and reads a little more closely because he knows it is at the end. National Park Service web sites are always worth looking for as well. I was impressed with the slew of information available on some of the NPS sites we visited this fall, including Trail of Tears and Pony Express-- maps, videos, timelines, photos, artwork, and interactive activities.
• When we've done enough reading, sometimes we want a quick video to snappily summarize a topic as well as provide some good visuals. We search for the topic in question and generally find it worth clicking on videos from a few specific YouTube sources: History Channel, Smithsonian Channel, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, and Biography. (These all have good web sites with good articles as well.)  
• National Geographic kids books are always good. Their Everything series (Everything World War I, Everything Battles, etc) has been a hit for W, but we are also currently really enjoying the Little Kids First Big Book of the World with M. No matter what age they are aimed at, National Geographic books seem to have just the right balance of right-size text and amazing photographs, along with neat text features (graphs, glossaries, fun facts, etc.).  

 

• Don't forget picture books! I believe in picture books for big kids as well as little ones. Even though W is a voracious and capable independent reader, he is delighted when I say I have a picture book I want to read with him. If I leave them lying around, he'll read them himself but I tend to save them to share aloud because we all enjoy them. I love to find relevant picture books to go along with any of our studies in history. Above are a handful I currently have that all have to do with our current big topic of westward expansion. Stories and pictures help round out understanding of any topic and bring it to life.

I think by layering and weaving sources on any given topic, rather than having history handed to him between two covers as it was to me, my oldest gets more of a chance to form impressions and construct meaning for himself. Some facts we read over and over in every source-- those facts really sink in. But he finds some unique facts in every new source he reads as well. It's a skill in itself to notice where there are inconsistencies among sources and to question why that might be. In using many sources we also get some practice evaluating credibility.  

Here are a couple of other notes about the way we do history:

Seek Context

With everything we read, even fiction, it helps to pause to provide context, or prompt for him to do that for himself so that it becomes a habit. If the book takes place in a particular year, I ask what was happening around that time in our country or in the world? If the book contains hints or references to key events, I try to make sure he is making the connection to when and where it is. (Our house was built in 1841; as we've read lots of things this fall, we've paused to think about it in terms of whether our house was here yet or not.) All these connections help make meaning. Maps of all sorts help with some of this context. I hung up a world map we have (it came from one of our KiwiCo. crates) near our school area at the beginning of the year and I can't tell you how many times a day that somebody refers to it as they tell a story or that little fingers trace a route across it. When you mention or read about something happening in a particular place, kids can't necessarily visualize it, so going to the map often, or grabbing the globe, helps a lot. 

Depth over Breadth

As far as what we study and for how long, I prioritize depth over breadth. Rather than "covering" history chapter by chapter, if we stay with one significant time in history for a while-- through varied reading and writing and activities and projects-- that knowledge becomes more permanent. Thorough understanding of a time period makes it more likely we'll be able to make authentic connections with other time periods, and/or with current events. Knowing a time period deeply gives us the opportunity to analyze and work with big ideas, not just concrete facts. It allows us to fully appreciate cultural, social, literary references that might otherwise have gone over our heads. Last year we overviewed U.S. history up to about the year 1800, but with a central focus on the causes and effects and events surrounding the American Revolution. Late this summer, W and my husband and I watched Hamilton. W loved it not just for the swear words and the catchy songs, but because he really understood it. He kept hitting pause to explain references to us-- there are so many and they are presented so quickly. I am excited that we are well on our way with the same sort of deep dive this year on new topics as we move forward through history. I love seeing the self esteem boost as he comes to feel like a bit of an expert on a period in history once again. 

Immersion

Inspired by the units of study in reading and writing that I used last year, I am again, for a period of time, using our reading and writing time to work with the same big topics that we are studying in history. 

For several weeks, I set aside independent reading time for W to read nonfiction under a big umbrella topic like westward expansion, after we've gotten a sense of the topic during social studies time. This is when he makes use of many of those favorite sources described above. (I check out a bunch of books and magazines from the library on the topic and he chooses which he wants to read. He still has plenty of other time to read his favorite fiction series of the moment or other choice reading.) By reading lots of nonfiction, on different subtopics by different authors, as well as historical fiction and graphic novels about the time period, he is immersed in it. He really is doing research, whether he realized it or not, and we work on research skills and how to take decent notes without getting bogged down by notetaking. The research and reading become easier as new knowledge fits into his growing schema. After a while he chooses a subtopic he wants to focus on, that he already knows a bit about, and researches and reads more, zooming in on that. 

While learning about a big history topic and reading about it independently, we also focus our writing time on it for a portion of time. You have to really know a topic well to write about it, and at the same time writing about a topic helps you really know it well. W is still so proud of a couple of "books" he wrote last year about two specific battles of the Revolutionary War, each book consisting of several short chapters. He wrote essays into those books, he wrote historical narrative, he wrote opinion sections and all-about sections, not to mention maps and diagrams. He had to organize and construct meaning in a big way in order to create his own coherent writing pieces. 

Surrounding ourselves with the topics and ideas of a history study, beyond social studies time, at least for a portion of time, works well for us. Of course, immersion includes going places that are historically relevant. The bit we did of that last year was wonderful-- seeing paintings and dioramas and artifacts of things we'd learned about in museums. But I have lots more field trips in mind-- battlefields, reenactments, national parks, monuments-- that have been temporarily slowed by the current pandemic. As I continue to add new excursion ideas to my "After Covid" to-do list, I console myself with the knowledge that when kids become immersed in a time period and come to know it well, the knowledge takes on a life of its own... One hobby of W's is to watch and make his own stop-motion Lego videos. He made several in the past year reenacting (with his own creative license in some details) battles of the Revolutionary War. Lately, a Pony Express rider and some Native American battles have started to feature in his creations, which is neat to see. I am pretty certain that I myself never brought my social studies lessons into my free time as a kid! 

Project Time!

We all want for our kids to love learning, to feel motivated, to put forth their best effort, and to take ownership for their work. Those were among our big goals before beginning to homeschool a year ago. And there are sundry ways I've seen growth in those areas. But one concrete thing we've done that has spurred big strides toward those important goals is a new routine we started this year: individual project time.     

  

The First Project...

It all started one day late this summer when W was helping my friend dig potatoes in her garden. He asked if she had ever made potato gnocchi and described how much he likes it. (It's a favorite dish in our house that my husband and I learned to make in a cooking class in Italy before W was born. W likes it so much he usually requests it every year for his birthday dinner-- with pesto-- and helps make it.) She said she hadn't made it, and told him he should show her how over Zoom or FaceTime sometime, like a cooking show. 

He got really excited about that idea of showing how to make this treasured dish and kept talking about it at home that night. I started tossing him ideas about how he might present it like a real cooking show. Then it occurred to me that I he'd never seen a cooking show, so he didn't have any reference points for the format. I asked if he wanted to watch a few cooking shows to get an idea of what they are like, and the kinds of things the hosts do. We Amazon Primed an episode each of Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals, Julia Child's The French Chef, and Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa. We paused the shows occasionally as we watched and I jotted the observations W made on a piece of paper. As we watched, he realized that Ina Garten had messy hands one second after tossing onion rings in batter, then they were magically clean the next! He also noticed that all of the cooking show hosts tended to just demonstrate how to do something, and then the camera skipped ahead to when that step was all done; we didn't see every single thing that happened. Armed with this big idea, and several other ideas he got from the shows, W decided he'd like to make a video to send to my friend B, and to share with anyone else who might be interested in making his favorite dish. He was excited to include just the important steps, not trivial stuff or the lengthy process of forming every gnocchi piece that he decided might get a little boring over FaceTime. So he started planning. 

He decided he wanted to first make a practice video to try out the whole process. I was rooting for practicing by making something like a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, or a piece of cinnamon toast, so he could really focus his efforts on delivery and process, but he was adamant that since no one needed how-to videos for those things, there was no point in them. So for his first cooking video he made a favorite accompaniment for gnocchi: pesto. He wrote the ingredient amounts on a card and taped it at eye level across the room so he could refer to it while he worked. Using my phone, I filmed the process in lots of short videos. We worked out a signal so I would know when he was ready for me to stop recording each time. We spent an entire afternoon at this. But his energy never flagged. I think the thought of creating a type of thing he'd never made before (a "show"), and of making something that other people would see (he kept asking if I could put it on YouTube), was hugely motivating. He incorporated all sorts of ideas he'd gotten from watching the celebrity chefs. He noticed and tried to emulate how "nice" they all sounded, like they were talking right to us, and how they all made it look easy, and how they tasted their food on the show, and made it sound delicious. Because Ina Garten had started an episode about making a steak dinner by driving to the butcher shop, W decided to start his pesto video at the source-- out in our garden picking the basil. Because each of the hosts we watched, but especially Rachael Ray, just kept talking the entire time she worked, filling the air space with friendly chatter, he tried hard to share tips or little stories here and there as he worked. The shows all included close-ups of specific techniques, so he directed me to zoom in at specific points as well.  

The day after filming, we researched together and figured out how to edit the videos. We don't have any special software so ended up using the Photos app that is included in Windows 10 on our computer. W was completely delighted by how simple it was to "trim" out the bits he didn't like. I had never edited video before in my life, so this was all new to me as well, but I felt we both learned a cool new skill that afternoon. Once we figured out how to do it, he did all of the clicking and was very much in charge. Finally, the next day, we stitched the videos all together, he played around with adding a special effect or two and voila-- he had his very own cooking show! He was proud of his non-scripted but well-thought-out first show and couldn't wait to sit us all down after dinner that night so we could watch it. 

After that, armed with all these new skills, he jumped into making the gnocchi how-to video he had set out to make originally. That one took an even longer afternoon to film, as gnocchi is a bit involved to make. But the video editing process was smoother his second time around and he was equally excited by the result.  W's final pesto and gnocchi cooking shows are linked below. The first is ten minutes, and the second eighteen, so I know that only a couple of grandparents out there will probably want to view these in their entirety, but I can't not share them here because I am so proud of the effort that went into their creation. These are dedicated to my friend B and her family, with thanks for inspiring a grand idea, and with hopes they can enjoy a delicious gnocchi and pesto night in the near future! 

W's How to Make Pesto Video:

W's How to Make Gnocchi Video:

The cooking show project sprouted from a little idea and carried into our first couple of weeks of the school year. It was so motivating for my son, so full of learning and excitement for learning. It was interest-based and followed its own natural timeline defined by the process. I helped with some research and resources and was an extra set of hands where needed (and M was his assistant in one video) but it was W's project, his creation. The whole experience was so positive and it gave us a model for project time, a new homeschool routine that we've all be enjoying since.   

Project Time

Three or four afternoons a week, we reserve the last hour or so of the day for project time. It is a time for my kids to follow their own interests with me available to help as needed. But, instead of being just a choice time to do whatever they feel like (which can easily turn into not doing much at all), focusing on it as a time for projects-- time to create a product or work toward a goal-- has made it feel wide-open to them, yet purposeful. Project time is for dreaming big-- for learning a new skill, for making things happen that we might not get around to otherwise. Sometimes I suggest an idea for project time and we do it if they are interested. But for the most part, the kids guide and plan what will happen during project time. Occasionally a great project pops up spur of the moment, like when the kids discovered tons of wild grapes in our yard and made juice and jam with them that afternoon. But in general we try to plan ahead. I check in with them over the weekend about what they want to work on in the coming week so we have a rough plan and the materials we need. Because project time has become a routine and because they love it, they are often interjecting in conversations these days, "Ooh! I could do that for a project!" I love hearing that. It's nice having a set aside time to allow them to make a habit of attending to the things they are interested in, and of following through on those thoughts. We do project time at the end of the day so as long as we don't need to be anywhere, they can keep at it as long as they feel like. 

Project Ideas

Projects W (age 10) has done, in progress, or in mind for the future:

• Filming and editing his own cooking shows to teach others how to make some favorite dishes
• Harvesting wild grapes and making juice and jam with them
• Making jewelry with polymer clay
• Studying presidential speeches and debates by watching and discussing current and past ones
• Drawing/carving pictures on shelf fungus he collected 
• Learning to whittle objects out of wood 
• Figuring out how to keep minnows he caught as pets for a few days
• Making a diorama of a specific battle, inspired by some he's seen in museums
• Making specific weapons out of cardboard 
• Gift making for family birthdays
• Making a coconut cake (Ina Garten's, of course) 

Projects M (age 5) has done, in progress, or in mind for the future:

• Memorizing "Let it Go" from Frozen
• Drawing Elsa using different online drawing lessons describing how to do so
• Learning how to play the board games Robot Turtles and Qwirkle 
• Reading books to learn about doctors/nurses/doctor's offices/germs
• Making applesauce, and cookies 
• Assisting in her brother's pesto-making video
• Harvesting wild grapes with W and making jam and juice 
• Writing a letter and mailing it to a friend
• Learning how eyes work (?) 
• Doing something to do with outer space or the moon or astronauts
• Making Halloween decorations for our porch, inspired by some exemplary houses near us
• Making a grapevine wreath
• Taking nature photos, perhaps to make a photo book
• Giving her dad and brother a haircut after watching how-to videos, with only slight assistance from me
• Putting together a particle-board shelf from Target
• Performing a magic show
• Making an owl box or bird house 

Finding all the cool stuff to photograph

Project Time and Younger Kids

Project time has been a little different with my 5 year old. For one, shortly after filming those first cooking videos for W, I realized that, unsurprisingly, it was hard to be available to help both kids with separate projects at once. It all depends on what the projects are, of course. But I wanted them both to have their own time to delve into things, and count on having a hand from me when needed, so I have actually been finding other times in the day to fit in M's project time so it is not at the same time as W's. 

Also, because she's younger, the things she names that she is interested in are either really big and somewhat unrealistic (as in "I want to learn how to be a doctor"), or quite small and manageable in one sitting (as when she pulled a game off our shelf that she'd never played and asked if I would teach her how). She doesn't always package her ideas neatly for planning sake so I have to decode a bit some of the wishes and interests she expresses; I end up often suggesting the particular form projects might take to her, inspired by her interest or comments-- whereas W, being older, often names not just the interest but the goal or product as well. In general, so far she has done a greater quantity of projects that are shorter-term than W, while W has done generally fewer and longer-term projects. 

Other Homeschool Project Time Tips

Here are some guiding principles I've learned about how to do project time well. Not every project is big and grand, but they all follow a similar path.  

Start with compelling questions or interests. Tune into your kids to hear these topics as they come up, even if they won't always state them clearly. (Although after a bit, they will start saying as part of daily conversation, "Hey! That's something I could do for a project.") 

Name a goal (what they hope to learn or be able to do) or a product (what they want to create). Motivation seems to stay higher when we aren't simply fiddling around with a material or topic, but working toward something. That doesn't mean the goal can't evolve or change. But I think having a stated starting goal keeps things focused. Also, feel free to suggest things, especially for younger kids who might have a harder time clearly stating goals or reasonable project ideas, but don't force any project or topic. The whole point is that it is interest-based. 

Find mentor examples of the thing they are trying to create (when it is a product). We watched cooking shows to learn what made them effective, which was fun and easy to do. But whether a kid is aiming to complete a piece of writing for a certain purpose or make a birdhouse, starting by studying the craft and examples of the type of thing they want to make is powerful. They can examine and appreciate but also ask questions: what makes this good? What makes this work well?

Figure out what they need to know and gather resources accordingly. We needed ingredients, and had to learn how to edit video. (We returned repeatedly to an article about using Windows 10's video editor on a web site called howtogeek.com, which made W laugh every time.)

Let the process, and how long their interest in it holds, guide the length of time it takes. For smaller forays and/or for younger kids, one or two sessions on a project topic might be plenty, but other things might fill project time for weeks. 

Share with an audience if possible/applicable. There's nothing like celebrating a final product by sharing it with someone outside of your own home to make it feel real and worthwhile. 

...It's funny because I have realized a lot of things about our project time fit with the big ideas of PBL (project-based learning), an initiative in education that some schools really value. I even took a training in PBL through the Buck Institute for Education several years ago. Yet as a parent I often used to feel frustrated with how much time was spent on PBL in my son's school. It felt like the projects would drag on and on, the kids would lose motivation for them along the way (and not every kid was invested in the whole-class projects in the first place), and the amount of time and energy devoted to them would take the place of learning basic skills that should have been taught consistently, in the primary grades especially. I always felt that, while you can learn a lot through a project, and projects are memorable, the bottom line is teachers in a classroom have a bigger responsibility to teach a lot of important skills that aren't all going to come up organically through a teaching philosophy that focuses on project after project. 

Aaaand stepping off my old soapbox now, clearly I have started to see first-hand more of the benefits of learning that is project-based. One of the biggest is the confidence and self esteem that results. My kids are so pleased with themselves for what they've accomplished during project time. They use the phrase "my project" a lot in conversation and I see them swell with the knowledge upon completion: I made this. They show ownership in the products themselves, but also in their own learning-- by constantly naming things they want to do during that part of the day, and eagerly working on things they care about. I think project-based learning may be especially beneficial and workable for homeschool, and especially when each kid gets to define the project based on what they see as interesting and important. We aren't following any official PBL procedures at home though. We aren't using any rubrics (true PBL educators love rubrics; there is even a "rubric rubric" on the website I linked to above), nor are we doing any busy work related to the projects or formal reflections after the fact. Just things they're excited about, for the sake of learning and creating. Our own incarnation of project time, and the way it helps them love learning and celebrates individual choice and agency, is a big part of the energy of our homeschool this year.  

Finding our New Groove for Year Two: Homeschool Curriculum

We are entering our second year of homeschool and we've all settled in more. In my last post I wrote about our revamped schedule for year two as well as changing the space we use in our house. 

In this post I wanted to share my two cents on curricula. We've made some changes from last year, adding some new subjects and deciding to forgo packaged curriculum in certain areas. Here are my thoughts on the homeschool curricula I bought or planned for each of my children (a kindergartner and a fifth grader) this year.  

Homeschool Curriculum We're Using

Math

5th grade: Primary Mathematics

I am using Primary Mathematics from Singapore Math with my son this year for the second year because it worked for us last year! It feels like serious, down-to-business math. There are no bells and whistles, and it is cheap. The teacher's guide is written for homeschool (it is called a home instructor's guide). The materials you occasionally need are usually things you already have in the house. It jumps right into concepts, and aims high, which is good because my son catches on pretty quickly in math. The activity suggestions move from concrete (working with actual blocks when introducing volume, for example), to pictorial representations of the same, to abstract (solving equations or word problems).  

Kindergarten: Dimensions Math

We wanted to stick with Singapore Math for my kindergartner, but found that Primary Mathematics doesn't start until the first-grade level, so we tried Dimensions, which is another line from the same company. Dimensions is in full color, with more bells and whistles. There are a good number of materials (game boards and cards and such) that can be downloaded and printed. One thing to note is that Dimensions (unlike Primary Mathematics) is written for use in a classroom. It goes at a slower pace so as to encompass a wide range of abilities. There are many activity suggestions within a lesson to get at the same concept; we don't do them all unless M needs a lot of extra practice on a concept. Most of the games are written for a small group but we can adapt them to play at home, and she loves them. There are so many developmentally appropriate, play-based, hands-on activities. We've used paintbrushes and water and chalk and play dough and flour to practice forming numbers. We've played hopscotch and card games and sorted objects around the house. It is very interactive and dependent on an adult's involvement the entire time (this may be kindergarten-specific, but I'm not sure). There are a couple kindergarten workbook pages each lesson, but they only take about two minutes. The many active components are the bulk of the lesson.  

Reading 

I didn't buy any curriculum for reading. 

Last year I purchased an expensive program that I knew well from my classroom teaching days, that I really believe in. Research on good teaching and on how kids get to be better readers was embedded. The philosophy of all the lessons was excellent. W learned so much and we had some wonderful experiences with it. But it was a bit intense. Too intense to read through and plan for every day, too intense for my son to take it all in some days. It added some unnecessary stress for us both, which was silly because reading was already a major strength of his. Plus, this year, the thought of buying something that expensive, times two kids (plus a similar cost for the same authors' writing programs, times two kids again) was overwhelming. So I did a lot of online research for ideas of what to teach, dug out my guides to best practices for teaching reading, and sketched out my own plans for the year. 

For my 5th grader, I have a plan of several genres we'll spend time reading for a month or two at a time and discussing. (I don't choose specific titles for him, but rather check out a bunch of books within a genre and let him select from those based on interest). He's reading fiction right now and I'm managing to not kill the joy in that with too much teaching, so my plan has been a success so far! I try to spend a few minutes each day before he goes off to read modeling a strategy or tip for being a good reader of fiction. This is usually a thinking/analyzing strategy because that's the part about reading that he doesn't do on his own naturally. I encourage him to jot for about three minutes of his reading time a day in a reading notebook-- about theme or character traits or the author's style, etc. I'm looking forward to helping him delve into fantasy and mythology and reading about particular topics in history and more at other points in the year. 

And with my daughter, who is just beginning to grasp the bits and pieces of what it is to read, reading time is a whole other, exciting story. I didn't purchase curriculum for her either. I hope to share more about this soon.  

Writing 

We're forging ahead on our own without packaged curriculum in this area as well. Same explanation and decision as above, but in writing. I'll share more about our work in writing soon!

Foreign Language

5th only (for now): Rosetta Stone online homeschool subscription 

We decided to experiment with my oldest learning a foreign language this year. When we asked W what language he would be interested in, he said immediately, as I had predicted he might, "Could I do Greek?" Mostly born from his love of the Percy Jackson series, he has learned a lot about Greek mythology so he was intrigued. The pros and cons of different languages were discussed. After he realized that Greek uses a different alphabet, he at first backtracked and thought more about something seemingly easier like Spanish or French. We encouraged him to choose what he was most excited about. Who knows if he will stick with or get real use out of any language he learns. (I don't "use" my six years plus two college semesters of Spanish. But I'm glad I learned it. It helps me have a better sense of the world. And it would come back to me and help me if I moved somewhere with a lot of Spanish speakers.) So we decided to treat a language for now just like any other interest: it's great to see how curious he is about this one right now, and see where that leads. 

As far as program, there were a lot of choices and we chose Rosetta Stone mostly because of name recognition. (There were also back-to-school promotions so I was able to get it for a lot less than it is currently offered for a 12-month subscription.) W has been logging in and using the program a few times a week. It jumps right in, teaching vocabulary and short phrases, and it focuses on listening and speaking right away and primarily. W loves to speak and see if he gets full credit for echoing the pronunciations. He has learned that if he rolls his Rs, he gets higher points. There are also reading and writing components that have recently started (a Greek keyboard comes up on the screen and he clicks the appropriate keys to spell a word). He loves it and feels so pleased with himself for knowing bits and pieces of something so foreign. But every so often, there will be a day where he feels really confused. While Rosetta Stone is billed as something homeschoolers can do independently, and it is, sometimes it really helps if I sit with him and we work through it together for a bit. It introduces things through pictures and listening and speaking. It never provides the English translation. So it's a whole new way to learn. Sometimes he has to really be a detective and it takes a while to figure things out, taking notes to eliminate possibilities of what a word that keeps appearing might mean (often it's not what he first guesses it to mean). 

M is intrigued and likes to watch and is picking up on bits and pieces, so she may yet join in the foreign language adventure this year-- we'll see. Important note, though: we can only have one account on each online subscription, so would need to pay for another entire subscription for a second child to use the program. Also of note: the Rosetta Stone program does not seem to teach the names of letters of the Greek alphabet, so we researched that and learned it ourselves by listening to a YouTube video a bunch of times.  

Grammar

5th only: Easy Grammar

This program has worked well for us since last spring. We do a lesson a few times a week, with an accompanying workbook page for practice. The teacher's guide is the only thing I purchased, as it includes the student pages and is reproducible. The parts of speech and sentence structure were foreign to W, and quite frustrating at first, but he is catching on and loves to impress/stump his dad now by giving him sentences to mark. This program starts with identifying prepositions and prepositional phrases, so once students learn how to do that, it makes identifying the subject(s) of the sentence much easier. This program does not teach diagramming sentences on branches the way I vaguely remember being taught in sixth grade. I thought about trying to teach diagramming the old-fashioned way, but decided that it wasn't the diagramming that was important but rather meaning-- understanding the functions of different parts of a sentence. This program teaches this in a simple, bare bones way.    

Spelling/Word Study

5th only: Words their Way

I am a big fan of Words their Way because it is a small, concrete way to easily personalize for your child and give them exactly the challenge they need. I wrote a post last year with more details on how this program works. This overview book contains spelling inventories and directions on administering them to help you find what level your child is at in his spelling (what types of features in words they are on the cusp of understanding). Once you know the developmental stage they are at (which is not a grade level), there are multiple books available full of curated word lists for the various stages to be used as spelling/vocabulary words for the week. All the words in a list contain a similar feature (such as long a sound) and students have to learn the generalization, or rule, to remember which ones are spelled in which way and why. Kids aren't simply memorizing words, but learning about word meanings, spelling rules, and exceptions to the rules. We work with one of these word lists each week, studying, defining, and doing some activities with the words, and a spelling test at the end of the week. 

Phonics

Kindergarten only: Guidance from Wilson Language approach and Fundations program

The basic idea of the Wilson Language approach is systematic, consistent teaching of the way the English language works. There is an order in which it makes sense to teach letter sounds and later other spelling rules. I had used the Fundations program in my first-grade classroom. For this year I bought the Kindergarten Fundations teacher's guide and a few individual materials I thought were important. I got a poster of Fundations key words for each letter of the alphabet (a, apple, /a/; b, bat, /b/, and so on) and I am glad I did because M is fascinated by it and utilizes it constantly. I also bought a pocket chart in which we can move word cards around to form sentences, and letter cards around to form words. My mother-in-law passed on to me a set of letter cards she had in her attic. I bought a dry-erase board with special lines to help M learn how to form her letters. I made a file-folder and sticky-note version of a magnetic letter board (see picture below). And I already had a supply of dry-erase markers. We add more letters to M's repertoire each week. It's amazing how empowering this is to her and how much she likes to show off her latest letter-sound skills. The program focuses on all the lower-case letters first, because those are what we use most of the time. I like Fundations, but as it turns out, I could have gone without the teacher's guide; my one kid at home is going at a quicker pace than a class of kindergartners would and we often do more than one day's lesson in a session. I probably could have forged my own way with just my pocket chart and white board and by following a general scope and sequence for language learning and we would have been okay. 

Cursive

5th grade only: Can-Do Cursive book from Handwriting Without Tears 

W knows how to write in cursive, but handwriting has always been an area he needs reminders in. This book is just review of the finer points, and he does a practice page a couple times a week. 

Keyboarding

5th grade only: TypingClub 

I wrote recently about our experience with TypingClub as a way to learn how to type efficiently and keyboarding skills in general. We're still using it a few times a week for 15 minutes or so each time and his WPM is increasing! It is online, free, and students can use it mostly independently.  

Science

5th grade: Mystery Science

Kindergarten: Mystery Science 

I am so impressed with Mystery Science. A year-long homeschool subscription is inexpensive; it includes every child in a household, so we don't pay more to utilize both the kindergarten and grade five lessons. They are online-based science lessons, but I think that can give the wrong impression until you've actually done a "mystery" (as each lesson is called) with kids. These are by no means videos to watch passively, though they do include brief video. There are great introductions to topics that hook my kids every time. The videos pose questions and contain lots of stop-and-think moments. They contain well-chosen, appropriate, short footage of animal behavior, or volcanoes, or whatever the topic is being studied. They align with the Next Generation Science Standards. And almost every lesson centers on active, hands-on activities. Science class was never my favorite subject when I was in school, so I love having this company to make science feel fun and accessible. Last week we set up a fifth-grade experiment to test how well mold grows in different conditions (the kids came up with the variables they wanted to test). Tonight my daughter reenacted the defensive animal behaviors she had observed today-- a scared praying mantis is something to see. The lessons are written for classrooms (and I know a lot of classrooms that use them) but they include specific instructions for using them in a homeschool setting as well (very little modification needed). Usually household supplies and the online printables are all the materials you need but occasionally you need to buy something special ahead of time like the red worms we are currently housing for a various observations and experiments this week (eww).  

We currently have pet worms!

Social Studies

I didn't buy any curriculum for social studies because we are making use of free curriculum online-- some school districts put their entire curricula online, so if there is a school you think is doing things well, it's worth checking to see if they have done this. There is a school in Missouri that has an incredible amount of information online. I have found that their social studies units and lessons align with topics we wanted to study this year and seem really well thought-out. These include activity ideas and clickable links to great relevant web sites. I have downloaded these and use them as a guide for social studies. (I feel a little like I am stealing, but these are free and available to the public online...) 

We also may use, as we did last year, some of the Core Knowledge (also free, also downloadable) units as backup or if we end up with extra time this year. These are highly traditional-- essentially mini textbooks for students and discussion ideas for the teacher-- but we certainly gleaned lots of knowledge from them on a few particular topics last year. We also always check out a lot of library books to go with the topics we are studying in social studies.  

Art

For art we do various projects together and try to keep it fun and encouraging. I find ideas everywhere. Last week we made color wheels-- a younger-kid version with primary and secondary colors, and a bigger-kid version that included intermediate colors as well. Here and here are some things we did last year. 

Trying to imitate their llamas' facial expressions

Music

For music, in the past we've checked out venues in person or online, listened to and learned about types of music and specific well-known pieces of music as well as some musicians and musicals. Music comes a little less naturally to me than art, but as with art, I just find ideas everywhere without a master plan for the year (here's a great web site and podcast we just discovered). Each of my kids is taking lessons in and practicing an instrument daily, so I feel that lets me off the hook a little. Here are some things we did and resources we used last year. 

P.E. 

We aren't doing anything formal (though, like everything else, there are homeschool P.E. curricula for sale online). We get outside daily for a good chunk of time late morning as well as after school. We go on lots of family hikes and bike rides on the weekends, as well as the occasional school-day hike; come winter there will be skiing and skating. Last year my son did P.E. at the public school twice a week, but as our local school isn't even open yet this year, we are holding off on that. But my kids are both able to participate in a masked, game-free, shortened soccer season this fall. I have plenty of web sites earmarked that a quick search of homeschool P.E. ideas yielded in case we need a boost of activity, but haven't needed to tap them yet. 

Finding our New Groove for Year Two: Homeschool Schedule and Space

One thing I've always loved about teaching is that you get a fresh start at the beginning of every year. As I begin our second year of homeschool this year, I feel that same sense of renewal. 

We had a great first year of homeschool last year, but we're in a pretty different place as we start year two. For one, it doesn't feel as surreal to be spending each day with my own children-- though I'll never take that for granted. 

Also, last year my son struggled with several things: in the very beginning he had a rough time with the idea of not being in school with his peers. Last year was one of the first times he was asked to do challenging work that required real effort, and we unfortunately debated a bit about that, but we also worked hard to find strategies to help him focus better. Now that this is more of a way of life for us and he's past the difficulty of the transition, he frequently talks about the perks of homeschooling and how much he likes it. W's not surprised or irritated by the work I ask him to do. He's become so much more confident and responsible and self-driven, and he's proud of that. The good start we've had to year two is in no small part because he has fully adjusted to homeschool. 

Then there's me. Coming from years in a school system and my own education there, it took me a long time to fully realize that at home we often could and should do things differently.  

And the biggest change of all: last year I was homeschooling just one fourth grader; this year both my kids (a kindergartner and now-fifth grader) are home. I am finding myself thankful that I was able to start with one kid and then transition to homeschooling both my kids, especially with their disparate ages. My five-year-old is so excited to "do kindergarten" every day. Just this weekend she worked out a word on a hiking trail sign and then exclaimed, "See, I knew I could do it! I'm doin' kindergarten!!" as she punched the air and marched off ahead of us down the trail. Her spunky energy for learning and growing is contagious, and we're all delighted by the big-kid skills she is soaking up at lightning speed recently, from shoe tying to bike riding to spelling words phonetically.

This year we aren't doing everything differently from last year, but we've made some changes. I've chosen some new curricula (and opted out of buying curriculum in some cases), changed the space in our house that we use, and breathed new air into the routine we follow each day. I'm loving the new groove we are finding together this year and thought I'd share about it.

Schedule

It seems there are as many ways of scheduling the day as there are homeschool families; it all depends on your philosophy. A few weeks ago, I listed some of my own current guiding principles for making a schedule. We went through several revisions of our daily routine last year simply due to changes that came up. Over the summer, I put a ton of thought into what our new schedule would be. One of my big questions had been, how do I teach two kids, at very different ages, while giving them both the attention they need, and without me going crazy? Staggered lesson times has been the answer (see below for details). 

I've been asking the kids their input regularly on what they like about school so far and what they wish was different. I want us all to feel good about the day. I try to convey to them something I learned last year-- we can always change the routine, so they can always tell me if they have ideas of better ways to do things.  

When I made the schedule, I sketched in time frames for everything just to make sure it was feasible (for example, "8:30 - 9:15 math"). Then I removed those exact times before I printed it. My oldest, especially, really likes to know what to expect for the day and looks at it regularly. I didn't want him, or me, being too driven by being "on time" or "behind" or "ahead." I wanted us to keep our priorities straight by focusing instead on learning, finding good stopping points, and completing quality work. It is working. Sometimes we've decided something is just too much/too long and we'll put it on the agenda for the next day, but for the most part, math or anything else is done when it's done each day, and then we move on to the next thing. Our schedule is more about the order and flow of things, and less about where you can find us at any given time. Below is my current "master" version with both kids on it. (I hung on the wall one copy with only W's columns on it and one copy with only M's columns on it, so they each have an individual version they can look at which is a little less busy.) 

Notes: W's columns are color-coded by subject, but M's aren't. I wanted to see when each subject was during the week but didn't have enough colors to do this distinctly for two kids so her columns are unhighlighted just to help them stand apart. Also: we have done other stuff and will do lots more stuff that isn't on this schedule this year-- hikes, field trips, appointments. We aren't locked into this, but it gives us a framework that we follow for the "normal" days. 

What I love about our schedule so far: 

• Morning gathering time together after breakfast. I got the idea of homeschool "morning time" from homeschool blogs all over the internet, and adapted it for us. The big idea is that this is time for all of us to do shared things together to start the day. It sets the tone for the day. It's easy and accessible for everybody. We've studied some artwork during this time (they are loving spotting the details in the book Can You Find It?). I've read aloud some picture books and portions of nonfiction books (we love The Outside Story which gives a week-by-week poetic synopsis of notable plant and animal happenings outdoors in our part of the world). We've practiced memorizing things that are just important to know or relevant to something we are studying (the first thing we worked on was the months of the year because somehow, my 5th grader was not yet solid on the order of the "-ber" months, and followed that up with learning the "30 days hath September..." poem). I use it as a time to fit in anything I am not getting to otherwise-- a news story I've saved to share with them, a picture or video shared by a friend, a necessary conversation or finishing touch on a project. Start of the day is a nice time for odds and ends and general enrichment. 
• The bulk of our day is in the morning. We're all most alert in the morning. It feels good to take care of the core subjects-- reading, writing, math-- as well as several other smaller things by lunchtime. 
• We don't even attempt to do everything every day. Core subjects are four times a week, other things are three or less. I prefer quality over quantity, finishing over being rushed.
• Staggered learning blocks. Of course, there are parts of the day we do together, like art projects. But for the core subjects my 5- and 10-year-old need different things. So in general, during each core chunk of time, I start off working with my oldest first, spending about ten minutes with him, while my youngest plays. She understands she's not supposed to interrupt during the brief time I am focused on her brother. When I'm done working with him, he goes off to write or do math practice or whatever the work consists of independently (usually into the next room). Then I call M over and work with her for most of the rest of that chunk of work time (which might consist of reading with her, or playing math games, or working on letters and sounds). As a kindergartner she can not work independently for long, and the learning activities she needs to do are mostly interactive and dependent on my presence. When I have a moment, I go check on W briefly and answer any questions he has. She has more playtime during the day this way, which feels right. I get one on one time with both of them this way. Lessons are to the point with my oldest this way and can't drag on and on, which is great for both of us. The overall time my fifth grader is spending on any one subject is greater than my kindergartner, which also feels right. (This might not feel so perfect if my kids were closer in age, but it works for us right now!) 
• Outside time before lunch every day. We all need fresh air and exercise and I've been making sure we drop all work, whether it's done or not, by a certain point late morning and get outside for a good chunk of time. I hope to keep doing this no matter how cold or wet it may be some days. We plan bigger hikes and big excursions other times, but this is a time to run around, visit the brook, go for a walk, or play a game outside, and it benefits us all. 
• A nice long lunch time (~an hour) that is realistic and unhurried. This is especially good because several days a week, my husband works from home and lunchtime is a time they love to catch up with him, show him recent accomplishments, or just spend time with him.
• Brief yoga (or meditation or mindfulness) exercises after lunch to settle and refocus for the last part of the day. We like Mind Yeti (you can access some of their activities for free on their web site as well as their YouTube channel), and sometimes Cosmic Yoga (for yoga or mindfulness), or we just do some poses or activities that we all know. We usually spend no more than five minutes on this, but it's nice that it's becoming a habit. Even if W might grumble about doing it sometimes, he settles in once we start and I feel like it is doing him good to grow a repertoire of these sorts of strategies. Just the other day he told me he had used a breathing activity we had done to help him go to sleep at night. 
• Our afternoons are slower with more time to dive into things. We do just science OR social studies and then something else-- music, art, or project time (see below). I am enjoying trying a routine where every day all of one week we do science, then every day the next week we do social studies, and so on. It's the same amount of total time I would have scheduled for those subjects anyway, but it's been nice to keep up momentum on one topic all week rather than alternate days as I've done in the past. And it's nice for my planning purposes to not have to switch gears all the time to be ready for one then the other. 
• Project time! I will post more about this separately, because we are all loving it. Three days a week, the last hour of the school day is devoted to pursuing the kids' own choice of projects and topics. We've been doing some exciting stuff during this time that I can't wait to share about. I also love that project time is the last chunk of the day, because if they are really into it they can keep doing what they are doing as long as they want to, which has happened several times. 

Space 

Last year we had a devoted homeschool space. It was a small spare room upstairs that we didn't use for much other than storage. It worked for us pretty well last year. But, my husband now works from that room several days a week. Also, I couldn't see staying in one room most of the day with two kids, or having them on different floors doing different things while I ran back and forth. 

So we moved out of that space and into the part of our home where we live the most. We have the materials all stored in a central cabinet. Each kid has a cubby that is specifically all of their stuff-- their own best pencils, their own workbooks and writing folder. I have supplies for general use in another  couple of cubbies, and my teaching materials in the top cubbies. Things we use less often or that I want to have more control over (like glitter and the glue gun) and in drawers below out of sight. 

The dining room table is our home base where most of the actual lessons happen. (Our big table comes in handy because a few school things that are in progress can be left out and we still have the other end to eat at.) But the work happens wherever it makes sense-- the table, the floor, the couch, or even outside a few times so far in good weather. We're finding that certain work in certain locations works best, but I like including the kids in those choices and working that out naturally. 

Recently my son described how he loves to do math pages sitting on the couch next to our dog: "...When there's a problem that frustrates me, I just pet him and that calms me down and then I can figure it out." He summarized by saying, "I just love how homeschool is like, so loose, but I feel like I'm learning so much." 

That's become my homeschool motto that I want to live by all year: keep it loose while making sure they are learning a lot.  

In the next post, I'll share about the curricula we are using this year and why we chose what we chose...