How We Homeschooled

This post started out as a comment on another blogger's site, turned into a post and then became part of a theme!  "How I Homeschooled" and "How I Put My Own Curriculum Together" are subjects that you will begin to see more often here.  By the way, if you are thinking of Homeschooling, read this post on "How To Begin Homeschooling."


We used the library extensively in Homeschooling.  (But be discerning. Read my post and the links to find out more.)  It was at the core of our History-based curriculum (not purchased, but made by me).  We found excellent, twaddle-free books and read them together as a family.  I searched the Library website for the time period we were studying, then looked up real people who lived in that time period, did some research, and we read fascinating biographies about these people and the time they lived in.


Childhood of Famous Americans, Cornerstone of Freedom, and Landmark books are series that I would highly recommend.  Our public library system had many of these.  Remember to look for the old books.  Go to the search site of your library and find the category "series" and type in the name of the series.  One of our favorite authors was Augusta Stevenson, who wrote many books for Childhood of Famous Americans.


We also read many missionary biographies.  When I say "we" I mean our whole family.  We did quite a bit of "school reading" together as a family in the evenings.  Twaddle-free books will be interesting to all ages.  We always encouraged our children to do something with their hands while listening, whenever possible, (drawing, handwork, etc.), which often could be counted as school, as well.  I love doing two things at once, especially crossing off two school subjects for the day when no one knows they're doing even one!


We still read as a family, and my children are now 25 and 21.  A side benefit: Even though my husband didn't start out liking to read (his family didn't read growing up), he became a lover of books through our reading together over the years. He now asks for gift cards to cbd.com and Amazon.com at Christmas and birthdays in order to buy books, and keeps a running list of titles he wants to buy. Our reading started out being for Homeschooling, but reading aloud at night was a way to include Dad in our schooling.


Now, he is oftentimes the one suggesting in the evening, "Why don't we read together." This causes me to be on the lookout for great books which will "change our lives" for the better. Then when he wants to start a new book, we have excellent choices on hand!  Everyone in our family is an extremely avid reader. Trained, not born that way.