Reading is an integral part of my life.

Not only is it good for my soul (who doesn’t love a good story?), it has also proven beneficial in my role as a homeschooling parent - or lead learner as I prefer to describe myself these days!

Last year I read a lot.

This year I want to deepen that experience and read more for my professional development.

Enter the Homegrown Learners Book Club!

Many readers gather in our private Facebook group, Equipping Homegrown Learners, to discuss homeschooling ideas, resources, and concerns. They come to the group for encouragement and support.

Our conversation naturally drifts towards books, so it is time to formalize that conversation into a book club.

In the Homegrown Learners Book Club we will discuss a book each semester that is pertinent to our roles as home educators.

These discussions will typically take place on a Thursday evening at 8 p.m. ET. You will be able to join in the discussion via Facebook or (if you aren’t on Facebook) through a simple webinar registration.

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Beauty in the Word

I have long had Beauty in the Word on my shelf.

To be honest, it has intimidated me. It is quite deep - AND - it is written for Catholic schools and educators.

Let me debunk both of these myths: yes, it is deep, but after reading and re-reading I am finding so much BEAUTY and wisdom in this book! And, I am not Catholic, but am gleaning so much from the Classical principles in the book.

Beauty in the Word - Homegrown Learners Book Club Selection #1

The central idea of the present book is very simple. It is that education is not primarily about the acquisition of information. It is not even about the acquisition of ‘skills’ in the conventional sense, to equip us for particular roles in society. It is about how we become more human (and therefore more free, in the truest sense of that word). This is a broader and deeper question, but no less practical. Too often we have not been educating our humanity. We have been educating ourselves for doing rather than being. We live in an excessively activist civilization, in which contemplation and interiority are often despised and suppressed in favor of mere action and reaction. ~ p. 11 - Beauty in the Word

Let the above passage sit with you for a moment.

This book is rich and timely - relevant and pertinent. I am excited to make this our first Homegrown Learners Book Club selection!

More information will be published soon, but we will meet on the following dates:

January 31 @ 8 p.m. ET
February 7 @ 8 p.m. ET
February 21 @ 8 p.m. ET
February 27 @ 8 p.m. ET
March 7 @ 8 p.m. ET
March 14 @ 8 p.m. ET
March 21 @ 8 p.m. ET
March 28 @ 8 p.m. ET

All sessions will be recorded and made available, so no need to worry if you cannot attend live. Live attendees, however, will have the benefit of an interactive discussion and asking questions.

Subscribe to the blog for updates and reminders about book club.

I hope you will join me - I look forward to learning with you and from you as we discuss great books together!

Any questions or comments?

Have a book you’d like to suggest?

Let me know in the comments below.

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?

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

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.

Our favorite new cookbook - teaching a homeschool high schooler to make healthy meals

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.

The Homegrown Learners Book Club