Yes, we are a homeschooling family and this post will have our education choices for this term.
Home Education So Far
I looked back through old posts and realized that I never shared what we did last year for school! We read through most of the Narnia books, were finishing the last one currently as you’ll see below. And we also worked through the pre-school curriculum from Gentle Classical Press. We enjoyed doing it daily together, but I didn’t put too much pressure on ourselves to accomplish a lot of lessons. I have really enjoyed reading Charlotte Mason’s book on homeschooling and she encouraged me to wait for more formal teaching until my daughter is 6-years-old.
For this fall term, my daughter is 5.5! So we are doing a few more books… I may be overly optimistic at how much we can get through by December!
In the Charlotte Mason style of home education, you mostly read a lot of good books and then discuss what you have read. So that will be our focus for the next few months. My daughter does read on her own now, however, I will read most everything to her for now.
I hope this list of books that I’ve selected gives you a taste of what we will be up to. I’ve also included a few non-book things at the end of this post. I’m looking forward to doing school together this year at home.
2023 Book List
*These links are Amazon affiliate links.
Our Island Story goes through the history of England. We are not sure how much longer we will live here in Oxford, so I want to read this one right away!
Winnie the Pooh is a classic story of adventure and imagination. This will be one that my daughter can read on her own. The pictures are beautiful as well!
Frog and Toad is another collection of classic stories with profound truths. She will also read this on her own.
The Last Battle is the last book in the Narnia series. We are literally in the final pages! We’ve read the whole series during our time here in Oxford. It’s been so special to read CS Lewis in his own town.
Parables from Nature is a collection of short stories about nature that have moral implications. I’m excited to see how my daughter takes these in and answers questions about them.
Trial and Triumph is a book that tells stories about heroes of the faith. Martyrs, missionaries, and brave Christians are included.
The Biggest Story Bible Story Book is my favorite picture Bible for kids. We started reading through this one quite a while ago, so we’ll just continue through the New Testament stories to the end.
Math Manipulatives are the one item that is not a book on this list! We will work on some basic math equations using manipulatives. I’ve linked some, but you can really use anything that is countable: beans, blocks, beads, etc…
Piano Adventures is my favorite beginner piano lesson book. I taught beginner piano during my gap year before college and used this book series, I find it very easy to understand for the student. It does not have a lot you have to prepare as the teacher either, it’s basically all in the book.
Lavender’s Blue is a collection of old-fashioned poems. We already enjoy reading this book for fun but we will begin memorizing at least one poem this term.
Latin for Beginners will be our introduction to Latin for this year. To be honest, I found this book at the charity shop and it’s very good! I didn’t really plan to look for a book like it, it just happened and so we will use it this year.
Non-book Education
Apart from the books we’ll read, there are a few other things that we’ll do for education. Nature walks are a big part of Charlotte Mason’s method. So we will continue walking outside as much as we can. There is a nature preserve just around the corner from our house that we go to often and we still go out to our allotment at least once a week. Both of these places shift and change throughout the seasons, making them wonderful locations for nature
For art, we will study watercolors and go to a few art museums.
We read through the Bible and sing hymns during daily family devotions, so I don’t have specific hymns we learn for school.
And, finally, we will be part of a new home education co-op this term. It meets one day a week and I’m sure it will be a great opportunity for my daughter to be with other children doing school together.
