School does not need to be complicated!
In fact, it's better if it's kept simple.
1- For mother's sanity
2- The kids don't get overwhelmed
3- It keeps it fun!
For Christmas the kids received more Curious George science books! to which they were thrilled!
This is by far the easiest way of doing science for grades K-1. Story based learning should be incorporated in other areas of school too, I think!
Reading, reading, reading, is one of the best ways for them to learn, even if all you do is read to them! And some days that's probably the easiest for mom, because I am battling with health issues.
(Don't get me wrong, we do school every day, math and reading and writing!)
So, if are struggling with homeschooling, that's OK, you just do what you can do, and don't sweat the rest, the important thing is, they're learning!!
The kids each have a Curious George book with 8 stories. They are fun stories, though the monkey gets in to a lot of trouble. We use that to talk about what he should have done, so as not to get in trouble. Turning it into a lesson helps them enjoy the story, but realize there are consequences.
I came across the first book of Sophie the Mouse at our second hand store. My daughter 'fell in love' with them, and wanted more for Christmas. So you can imagine what we had to read during the Christmas holidays! I believe there are still 6 more books in the series that we do not have yet, and she will probably be looking for those for her birthday! Isn't it great when they want books!!!
These are adventure filled books about a mouse girl and her brother and friends.
I also got these for our daughter. She loves Brambly Hedge, the pictures and adventure stories are very well done, and mom enjoyed them too. The Princess Twins are also very well written, easy to read, though she is still learning, but she's great at sounding out words.
These are some of our favorite Bible story books. They are no longer in print, so I have hunted them down second hand. I believe there is probably 4 more in the series that we don't have yet. I really like them for the reason being, the Bible stories are spot on. These are called The Muffin Family Bible Stories, by the way, and with every Bible story, there is a Muffin family story to go with it, teaching a lesson. The kids love it, getting two stories together, and they 'get it' when it comes to the lessons.
I have just started reading Billy and Blaze to our kids, and my son LOVES them. A boy, his horse and dog, and my boy just laps the adventures up. We're starting to read them all over again! I wish there were more! This collection has 9 books all together. I noticed that Billy and the Indian Cave was not included, and is the only book not with this collection, so there would be 10 in all. I'm not sure why it's not included, but that's OK. Though I will be on the look out for other horse stories by this author. He did all his own illustrations and they are lovely drawings!
And since my son loves Thomas, readers that he WANTS to read, are very important for incentive.
These are great, and we have more than are pictured.
I hope this inspires and helps someone out there. Happy Homeschooling!
S.L. Kliever
