January Reading Update

One of the glorious byproducts of homeschooling is self-education.

Much of my self-education has been done through reading.

(My husband gave me this shirt for Christmas - my family gets it now that mom needs time to READ!)

Homeschool moms should read often, widely, aloud - you get the point! Carve out that time for yourself.

Through reading we deepen our knowledge, empathy, and understanding of the world.

We model for our children how to settle down and enjoy a good story. We model a hunger for knowledge. We model discipline, curiosity, and self-care.

January is typically a wonderful reading month. The weather is cold and the calendar isn’t as hectic.

I will update you on my reading, my son’s reading with me, and professional development reading. (My kids’ reading will be saved for another post!)

Here’s an update on reading accomplishments for January.

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Books for Pleasure for Mom

I always read two books each month for book clubs. One is an in-person book club, and the other is the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club.

I enjoyed most of these (and you can see more about them on my Homegrown Book Picks Instagram account). The Time Traveler’s Wife wasn’t for me - I know a lot of people enjoyed it, but it didn’t resonate with me.

If you’re looking for a great audiobook, I enjoyed 84, Charing Cross Road on Audible. I also watched the movie with Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft

The other three books - Harry’s Trees, The Lake House, and Where the Crawdads Sing - get a hearty recommendation from me!

Read-Alouds for Homeschool

We learned quite a bit from Jefferson’s Sons. It brought up many interesting points for discussion between my 8th grader and me. Can a person still be a GOOD person and own slaves? What was Thomas Jefferson’s motivation behind owning slaves? Did Thomas Jefferson do what was right in the eyes of God? Much to be discussed!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a short story for Grant’s Challenge B curriculum. The complexity of the language, along with an extremely interesting premise (aging backwards) also lent itself to a lot of discussion!

Professional Development for Homeschool Moms

It is important for us to understand WHY we homeschool, and what our philosophy of homeschooling and education truly is. Mine has evolved and deepened over time.

Beauty in the Word has been on my shelf for at least two years. It is a deep book, and it has taken a couple of readings to let everything soak in.

I HIGHLY recommend you read this book if you are classically educating your children and, contrary to what a lot of people think, this isn’t just for Catholic educators.

I am leading a book club on this book and EVERYONE is invited! We begin this Thursday, January 31 @ 8 p.m. ET and continue for the next 7 Thursday evenings (excluding February 14).

Join us via Facebook, or through this webinar registration link (if you don’t do FB).

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What have you been reading this month?

Let me know in the comments below!

You might also like:

Learn About C.S. Lewis - a Parent’s Guide to Self Education

Engaging Book Series for Middle School Boys

What We've Been Up To Lately: Life Skills & Culture

I think the high school years might just be my favorite of all the homeschooling years.

The lightbulbs that constantly went off when my children were little were certainly gratifying - and often times extremely cute - but watching my kids learn and achieve BIG things is exciting. Additionally, being able to learn WITH them and cultivate interests together is super fun.

The key to this age is understanding how to reach their hearts.

(Let’s just not talk about the fact that my oldest will be going to college in the fall, ok?)

This week found us in the kitchen a lot (a good thing), and also filling our time with CULTURE.

Did I mention how much I like this stage of life with my kids?

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Life Skills in Our Homeschool

Laundry

We can all agree that laundry is not glamorous or exciting - or cultural for that matter. It does, however, have to get done, and I’m NOT doing it for my kids anymore.

My oldest has been doing her laundry since middle school, and with the turn of the calendar year I decided to have my son take charge of his laundry, too. So far, so good.

I love that both of my children will leave this house knowing how to do their laundry.

And, my daughter has a great laundry hack: she uses an Expo marker to write on top of the washer what DOESN’T go into the dryer. Clever, huh? No more dress shrinking up to a shirt because it was put in the dryer accidentally!

Cooking

Because Anna’s schedule is lighter this LAST semester of high school we are using the time to hone in on some skills for LIFE.

She has been making a lot of meals for us - healthy meals in particular.

This week our favorite was One Pan Healthy Sausage and Roasted Veggies.

We served it with some quinoa & wild rice. Perfection.

Each week she also picks one recipe from a new cookbook I got for Christmas.

Chicken Fajita Pasta was a hit in our house - and I can’t wait to have her try more!

Part of me wants to have her stop cooking (because what will I do when she goes to college?!?!), but she enjoys this so much and it is such a practical, useful skill for her to have. In an age of fast food and anything EASY I feel like our kids aren’t learning the basics of how to cook a healthy meal.

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Culture

Music

Because I write a music appreciation curriculum I try to go to as many performances as I can. This year my husband and I subscribed to a series of concerts with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Saturday night we heard an all Bernstein program, which was quite fitting because in SQUILT LIVE! this month I am teaching the students all about musicals.

Something I didn’t quite realize was what a great JAZZ composer Bernstein was. Listening to his Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs got me VERY excited for February in SQUILT LIVE! - Jump into Jazz! (You can join me at any time for live lessons - we have so much fun!)

We also enjoyed dinner out together - Lebanese food (yum!) - before the symphony.

When you have big kids it’s easy to go out for date night. Bonus.

Books

I started reading The Lake House by Kate Morton this week. I love everything she writes.

Being in a local in-person book club has been a lot of fun for me. Last week three of us from the book club met to talk about our book goals for the year. I know that I want to read more non fiction this year, and in particular I would like to focus on more religious and education non fiction. (Did you see the most recent post I wrote about C.S. Lewis?)

I put the question to our private Facebook group, Equipping Homegrown Learners, about starting a book club on the page - with the first book being Beauty in the Word by Stratford Caldecott.

Come join our FB group, by the way - I think we have great discussions and encouragement.

I also really enjoyed the latest episode of What Should I Read Next? - and seriously wish I had a little one so we could do a 1,000 books challenge like the mom in this podcast!

Latin

My 14-year-old is odd.

He loves Latin.

I think it is the challenge of solving a big puzzle as you parse a sentence that intrigues him the most. As he is working through Henle Latin in Challenge B this year I am starting to think about adding a second language in high school next year.

The National Latin Exam is taken in March of each year and I coordinate the testing for our Challenge community. This morning I spoke to their class about the test and what we will do to prepare, and then I stayed for the hour of Latin they had afterwards.

They were talking about the quality and quantity of adjectives and the endings that go with them. It was at this point in my daughter’s Latin studies that I remember jumping ship; I think I might try to make it a bit further this year.

I love the discipline and precision the study of Latin brings to our homeschool. I love watching a room full of eighth graders seriously discuss how to approach translating a sentence from English into Latin.

It isn’t hard to learn Latin - it just requires commitment and patience.

That’s what we have been up to.

I’d love to know what YOU have been up to in your homeschool lately.

Leave a comment below!