How to Hang Out with Your Homeschool Friends in a Socially Distanced World
Covid cases are spiking, and lots of secular homeschool families are still navigating social activities with extra caution. Having clear policies for homeschool co-ops and get-togethers can help all the folks in your community make the best choices for their families.
With Covid spiking and the usual back-to-school sniffles, this fall might start to feel like a tough season for homeschool get-togethers. If you want to keep your homeschool groups healthy, you don’t have to go no-contact, but you do have to be smart about how you socialize.
“In some ways, it’s harder for people to navigate socializing now than it was when the pandemic first started,” says Andrea Chronis-Tuscano, a clinical psychology professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in parenting and parent mental health. “The rules were clear.” But now that hanging out is back on the table, it’s hard to navigate: How can you stay safe? What does it mean to be a good host now? What does it mean to be a good guest? How do you say no when you’re uncomfortable with the way a social situation is going?
The good news is that we’re all figuring this out together, says Chronis-Tuscano. “No one has a rule book with all the answers, and everybody’s answers look a little different.”
We all know the basic rules: Wear masks, maintain six feet of distance, don’t share food and drinks, stick to small groups, stay outside, and wash your hands frequently. But how does that play out on a homeschool play date or at an in-person co-op class? Here are some things to keep in mind.
Respect the strictest rules.
People may not always want to disclose why they’re being extra-cautious, but the why doesn’t really matter — if you’re hanging out with friends, you want your friends to be comfortable. This is why it’s important to spell out the safety guidelines you have in mind for a get-together when you’re issuing invites. You don’t have to change your plans to accommodate someone else (you’d love to hang outside, but your allergies are killing you this fall), but you may find that there’s an easy fix (sure, you can bring your own food instead of ordering something with the rest of us).
Follow your own rules.
If you issue an invitation for an outdoor gathering, resist the urge to move the action inside. If you’ve promised social distancing, don’t send the kids on the trampoline together. No one wants to be the killjoy who has to keep reminding everyone else to follow the rules, so don’t put your guests in that unpleasant position. If you’re the unfortunate person in the killjoy position, you may find it easier to make an excuse and leave than to try to persuade people to follow the rules. (Even though they made them. And you’re not being a killjoy!)
Set up in advance.
Make your hangout area social distance friendly by setting chairs six feet apart and removing extra seating. If you’re a throwing an art party, have everyone’s station set up before they arrive — if you’re having a snack together, set up the tables and chairs in advance with space between them.
Stick with your comfort zone.
It’s fine if you’re more relaxed than your pals, or if you’re sticking to a stricter quarantine plan than they are. Everybody has to make these decisions for her family individually. It’s OK to say no to get-togethers that make you uncomfortable. We’re all looking forward to the day when we can hug our friends and share a bag of pretzels at the park, but until that day comes, we’re all doing the best we can.
5 Ways to Get Excited about Teaching Math Beyond 5th Grade
Don’t dread higher math! Get inspired with these resources that will give you confidence and ideas for middle and high school math in your secular homeschool.
Don’t dread higher math! Get inspired with these resources that will give you confidence and ideas for middle and high school math in your homeschool.
If math is pushing your buttons, reconsider your perspective. Math beyond the elementary years can be creative, inspiring, and even fun.
Read This : Rethink the Classroom
Finally, an answer to that inevitable question: “But how will you teach your child calculus?” Wherever you are in your math timeline, you’ll appreciate the existence of MOOCulus, a massive open online course created by Ohio State University mathematics professor Jim Fowler that’s totally reimagining the way people learn higher math.
Watch This : A New Math Philosophy
Getting the right answer is not always the point of math, says math teacher Dan Meyer in the TED Talk “Math Class Needs a Makeover.” If we make fill-in-the-blanks teaching the cornerstone of a kid’s education, of course that kid is going to hate math. Meyer suggests we shift focus to math reasoning, emphasizing figuring out how to solve a problem over filling in the right bubble.
Expert Advice : Throw Away the Textbook
Can’t find the right curriculum? Why not skip that textbook altogether? Sarah Hagan, an Ohio math teacher, has students DIY their own math text- books each year from scratch, using a wild mix of materials (including origami and lots of doodles). Hagan says it makes math more personal and helps kids remember what they’ve learned.
Read This : Shift Your Emphasis
“I don’t see how it’s doing society any good to have its members walking around with vague memories of algebraic formulas and geometric diagrams, and clear memories of hating them.” writes mathematician Paul Lockhart in “A Mathematician’s Lament.” This essay is an impassioned criticism of classroom math and its negative lifetime effects on so many students.
Be Confident : Embrace Your Inner Genius
NPR’s Math Guy Keith Devlin thinks math is everywhere — and we learn it best not in a classroom but out in the real world, doing real-life math and observing real-life math-ing in nature. If you’re feeling math-insecure, boost your confidence with Devlin’s The Math Instinct: Why You're a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs).
3 Middle Grades Fantasy Books I Really Liked
Looking for a middle grades fantasy for your next homeschool readaloud? We review three of our newer faves: The Time of Green Magic, Amari and the Night Brothers, and The Language of Ghosts.
The Time of Green Magic by Hilary McKay
★ ★ ★ ★ ½
I stan Hilary McKay, y’all, and I was so glad to get my greedy little hands on the advance copy of her new book. What I love about Hilary McKay (I think) is the way her big, messy, complicated families are big, messy, and complicated — there's no attempt to simple them up. Some people change and some people don’t, some people get better, some get worse, but everyone is ultimately accepted for who they actually are. I love that.
So in The Time of Green Magic, a new family is forming: When Theo and Polly fall in love, they move their two families together into a rambling old house covered with ivy (and at the very top of their budget). Theo’s daughter Abi is used to being an only child and having her Granny around — but now Granny’s gone back to live with her sister in Jamaica, and Abi’s stuck with two annoying brothers instead: Polly’s sons, grumpy teen Max, who is in the middle of a stupid fight with his best friend (that he knows is stupid but that he can’t bring himself to end), and little Louis, who wants to spend every minute with Abi and Max and can’t understand why they don’t want him around. Voracious reader Abi is the first to discover that there’s something strange happening in their new house — when she drifts deep into a book set on the ocean, she returns to reality with a salt-water-wet book in her hands — but lonely Louis is the one who nurtures the magic, when a mysterious and dangerous creature creeps through his window at night.
In some ways, this reminds me of Edgar Eager and Eva Ibbotsen — there’s magic here, but it’s matter-of-fact, everyday magic that believably flies under the radar of busy parents. Underneath the everyday, though, there’s this wonderful sense of eerie mystery, a reminder that the world is more magical than we assume. But it’s also pure McKay in the way that Abi, Max, and Louis become a family — a big, messy, complicated family, which is a kind of magic all its own.
Oh, I loved it. If you are in the mood for something warm and whimsical, give this one a go.
Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
★ ★ ★ ★ ½
I can’t wait for the follow-up to Amari and the Night Brothers, and that’s about the highest praise I can offer.
Amari’s big brother Quinton is a legend in the Rosewood low-income housing project where they grew up: Not only did Quinton get into the fanciest prep school in town, he was also accepted to two Ivy League colleges and ended up with a mysterious government job. Amari’s brother is her hero — and so when he suddenly goes missing, she’s devastated. In her search for clues, she finds a ticking suitcase in her brother’s closet (surely it wasn’t always there?) and a nomination for the summer tryouts at the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs.
Quinton’s weird nomination opens up a world Amari never imagined — suddenly, she’s roommates with a weredragon, full of dangerous magic, and learning that there’s a whole magical world to explore. She’s determined to seize this opportunity to find out what happened to Quinton — but to do that, she’s going to have to follow in her brother’s footsteps and ace the summer Junior Agent competition against kids who’ve been training for this their whole lives. But that’s OK: Amari’s never run from a challenge before, and she’s not going to start now.
I loved so many things about this book, but one of the things I loved most was how effortlessly B.B. Alston demonstrates that a book can be a fabulous fantasy and also have strong family relationships, address racism, classism, and feminism, and refuse to settle for easy binaries of good and evil. In a middle grades book, y’all! The story doesn’t miss a beat, but it’s full of good, challenging questions and important discussions. This really may be that middle grades fantasy series you’ve been looking for — it was for me.
The Language of Ghosts by Heather Fawcett
★ ★ ★ ★ ½
The Language of Ghosts is a middle grades charmer, and practical, competent Noa is one of my new favorite heroines. When the novel begins, she’s utterly unmagical, but she’s the one who solves problems through observation and critical thinking. Noa’s always assumed that the magic skipped her, and she’s content to keep life running behind the scenes — which is no small task when your parents have been murdered, your family has been forced into exile, and your big brother is working to retake the throne. This requires him to channel the dark side of his magical abilities, however, and Noa becomes more and more worried that the darkness is overtaking him. She’s also worried because it turns out the magic hasn’t skipped her after all, and she has abilities that have been forgotten from magical lore. Her ability may be exactly what Julian needs to win the war — but it may also be the power that pushes him over to the dark side.
I really loved this book — the family relationships feel real, and I definitely identify with Noa, who is managing everything behind the scenes and not getting much credit for her work! In fact, in a lot of ways, this a family story that just happens to take place in a world where magic is real. This gives the story an emotional heft that plenty of middle grades fantasy don’t have — because we’re invested in Noa and her siblings, we genuinely care how the adventure turns out. Cleverly, the author uses these emotions to push toward a finale that is — if not surprising — pretty satisfying. My only complaint: The pacing is a little weird. It takes a long time for the story to get going, and then the ending feels kind of rushed. I liked it, though, and definitely recommend it for middle grade readers who like their magic with an emotional anchor.
YA Book Reviews: The Inheritance Games, The Stolen Kingdom, The Ivies
Three action-packed YA novels that might just scratch your homeschool reading sweet spot.
We review three action-packed YA novels: The Inheritance Games, The Stolen Kingdom, and The Ivies.
The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
Several people recommended The Inheritance Games to me, and I totally see why: It’s a fun, fast-paced read full of puzzles and surprises. Is it the best book I ever read? No. Did it make the perfect poolside reading pleasure? Totally.
Avery has no idea why she’s named in the will of billionaire Tobias Hawthorne — or why her inheritance depends on her making his enormous Texas estate her home for one year. (This is complicated by the fact that Hawthorne’s family, who have been disinherited by the same will, will be living in the house with Avery.)
Still, after being broke since her mom died a few years ago, Avery is up for the challenge. This inheritance could be her ticket to college and a life where she doesn’t have to wait tables to keep the lights on. But it quickly becomes obvious that Tobias Hawthorne is up to something, and his will is just the beginning of a long game. With help and hinderance from Hawthorne’s four grandsons, the media stalking her every move, and an estate full of secrets, Avery is going to have do some quick thinking and careful strategizing to figure out why a wealthy stranger made her his heir and what secret the Hawthorne estate is hiding. Luckily, Hawthorne picked the right girl for the job. Avery was born for this challenge.
There’s a big mysterious house full of hidden passages and secret codes. There’s a complicated family that is full of people who are Up To Something. There are Mysteries From the Past coming to light in the present. And there’s a reasonably satisfying conclusion. I’ll forgive it the love triangle and occasional plot hole for the sheer fun it was to read. This is a perfect summer book.
The Stolen Kingdom by Jillian Boehme
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
The Stolen Kingdom has a lot going on, and that may have been its downfall. The action happens from two perspectives: Maralyth, a winemaker’s daughter, discovers that she has magical powers and a claim to the throne of the kingdom; and Alac, the kingdom’s spare heir, is beginning to suspect that his father’s rule may be based on some shady sorcery. When their paths cross in an attempted coup, political and romantic sparks fly.
I love a stand-alone fantasy — you all know how I feel about cliffhanger endings! — but this one may have tried to do too much. The seeds of this book are good: There’s a complicated political/magical system, and I learned a lot about winemaking, which was cool (if possibly off-topic?). I think this wanted to be a feminist fantasy, but it fell into so many misogynist fantasy tropes: Maralyth is different from all those other girls, you guys, the ones who are happy to just get married and have babies. (Because of course they have so many choices about their lives in this fantasy world.) She is Special. She is so Special that the moment Alac sees her, he falls in insta-love and sees everything in his world in a whole new way. (Their “romance” is the second-flattest part of the book; the flattest is Maralyth’s relationship with her brother.) This is a real peeve of mine in fantasy literature, the One Special Girl trope, and so I know that people without this peeve might see the book very differently. If there had been a strong sense of world building, if there had been interesting political relationships, if the magic system had been developed, if the characters had more depth — maybe if any of these things had been the case, I could have gotten over my bias, but they didn’t, and I couldn’t. I didn't love this one.
The Ivies by Alexa Donne
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
The Ivies has so many things I love: Boarding school hijinks! Academic rivalries! Murder and mayhem! So it’s fair to say that I was prepared to be obsessed with this book — and that I was a little bummed that it didn’t quite live up to its promise.
First, the good: At super-competitive Claflin Academy, the Ivies are the ultra-elite, the five girls who have their Ivy League futures mapped out for them. Scholarship student Olivia knows she’s lucky to be included in this hotshot group — and she knows she's risking her luck when she applies early admission to Harvard, which is queen bee Avery’s exclusive domain. Avery doesn’t get in, Olivia does — and so does fellow Ivy Emma, who also went behind Avery’s back to apply. When Emma turns up dead, everyone’s a suspect and all kinds of hidden secrets are revealed.
It’s a good set-up! But the bad part is that it doesn’t quite work. Olivia herself is a big problem: A lot happens around her, but she never becomes a fully realized character, and the more the plot hinges on her, the more obvious that flatness becomes. The plot is full of twists and turns, but they feel predictable — though once you’ve read a bunch of YA thrillers, this is maybe inevitable, so it could be a Me Problem not a Book Problem. And the end — well, I didn’t like how things resolved, and I’m not sure what the ending says about all the different narrative threads the book was tugging along. It definitely seemed to contradict itself.
Still, boarding school murders are summer reading classics for a reason! I don’t think you’ll regret picking this one up if that’s your jam, but don’t expect any profundities or surprises.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Unit Study: Investigating Isaac Newton
Celebrate the birthday of the renowned physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian on January 4 with an Isaac Newton homeschool unit study.
Celebrate the birthday of the renowned physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian on January 4 with an Isaac Newton homeschool unit study.
Newton was a radical whose insights transformed the scientific landscape and laid the ground for modern mathematics and physics. He was the first person to truly quantify the law of gravity, the discoverer (with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz) of calculus, and the first person to recognize the spectrum in white light. Perhaps even more significant was his method, which focused on the mechanics of nature rather than any attempt to discern a cause.
Start Here
These biographies make a solid introduction to Newton and his most important ideas.
Isaac Newton and Physics for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities by Kerrie Logan Hollihan lets you get to know Newton by doing some of the same kinds of experiments he did.
Isaac Newton (Giants of Science) by Kathleen Krull is an intelligent, lucid look at a complex man, though it touches on is- sues that may be more appropriate for older readers.
Isaac Newton and His Apple (Dead Famous) by Kjartan Poskitt is as hilarious as it is informative (though you may have to help your kids translate the occasional British-ism to get the joke).
Get Hands On
After all, Newton helped codify the practice of science. He’d want you to get messy with it!
Newton Connection: This simple experiment gives you a hands-on look at how the forces of gravity work.
Newton Connection: If you punch a hole in a cup full of water, the water leaks out. But if you drop that cup with a hole in it, the water stays inside because of freefall weightlessness.
Keep Water in an Upside-Down Bucket
Newton Connection: If you’re spinning the bucket steadily, the forces of gravity will keep the water inside, even when the bucket’s upside-down.
Dig a Little Deeper
Sample Newton’s influence with these activities online.
So just how important was Isaac Newton’s work to modern science? Let Albert Einstein tell you.
Find out how Newton’s discoveries influenced the invention of the airplane.
PBS has a fun look at Newton’s laws in action at the Big Apple Circus — plus ideas for further activities and resources to learn more.
Newtonian Explainers
Newton’s theories seem obvious, but they can be surprisingly hard to explain. Taking a look at different explanations can help you make sense of what Newton’s laws really mean and not just what they say.
NEWTON’S THREE LAWS OF MOTION An entertaining and easy-to-follow look at Newton’s laws of motion.
NEWTON’S PHYSICS NOTEBOOK A great introduction to Newton and his ideas.
MR. TRASK’S PHYSICS With required reading, extra resources, and lab projects, this online supplement is an in-depth look at Newton’s laws.
Newton in Action
Newton on the Bumper Cars Newton’s third law of motion is what makes riding in bumper cars so much fun.
Newton’s Favorite Toy Learn about Newton’s Cradle, a model used to demonstrate principles of physics.
Marble Maze Newton’s laws of motion determine how your marble moves.
Moon Craters The moon’s gravity attracts objects and pulls them to its surface at super-fast speeds, creating craters.
Advanced Reading
A Portrait of Isaac Newton by Frank Manuel paints a psychological picture of Newton’s life, picking up the threads left by John Maynard Keynes 1947 character study. What kind of person dedicates his life to understanding the world in this particular way? That's the question Manuel wants to answer.
Isaac Newton and Natural Philosophy by Niccolo Guicciardini summarizes the most current view of Newton — weaving together the different threads of his scientific and philosophical interests to explore intersections and contradictions.
Great Homeschool Readalouds: 12 Great Book Series to Read Together
Need a new series for winter readaloud season? We have a few ideas.
Sometimes you don’t just want a book — you want a whole series to read aloud in your homeschool. Discover a whole world of series to obsess over together when you’ve finished Harry Potter and the other usual suspects.
The Time Quintet by Madeleine L’Engle
Start with: A Wrinkle in Time
When Meg Murry comes downstairs on a dark and stormy night, she sets off a chain of events that will take her from the farthest reaches of the galaxy to the microscopic universe inside a single human cell, from the birth a star to the wasteland of a nuclear winter. L’Engle’s fascination with science is well-matched to her philosophical musings about good and evil, and this series manages to be as readable as it is thought-provoking.
The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
Start with: Shards of Honor
You may be tempted to dismiss this science-fiction series, especially if you get hold of one of the 1980s editions with laser beams and spaceships on the cover. But you’ll be missing out. Bujold’s politically and technologically complex space opera, set in a future world where humans have colonized space, is a delight — smart, funny, and utterly absorbing.
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Start with: The Golden Compass
The original sin of curiosity becomes a triumph rather than a fall in Pullman’s fantasy-world retelling of Paradise Lost. Stubborn, wild Lyra Belacqua comes from an alternate Oxford, where humans’ spirits live beside them in animal form. Independent, untrusting Will Parry comes from our world. Together, they’ll travel through other worlds, meeting witches, cliff ghasts, armored bears, and long-missing parents, on a quest that will save or destroy every world in the cosmos.
The Pendragon Adventures by D.J. MacHale
Start with: The Merchant of Death
Time travel is just the beginning for Bobby Pendragon, who takes on the Quantum Leap-esque burden of influencing civilizations across time and space to make the right decisions at pivotal moments in their development. Lots of action keeps things interesting, and the worlds — distinct but connected in space-time — are delightfully imagined, from the watery ocean world Cloral to the virtual reality wastelands of Veelox.
Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries by Dorothy Sayers
Start with: Strong Poison
You have my permission to skip Five Red Herrings, which gets a bogged down with time tables and bus routes, but no Sherlock fan should miss Lord Peter. High-strung, over-educated, aristocratic Lord Peter assists in solving tricky mysteries with the help of his gentleman’s gentleman Bunter and (eventually) his Oxford-educated, detective novelist wife, whom he meets when she is on trial for murder (in Strong Poison).
Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
Start with: The Adventures of Captain Underpants
This series, about two boys who inadvertently turn their principal into a crime-fighting, underpants-flashing superhero, is unapologetically silly, but that’s part of what makes it so fun. George and Harold find themselves caught up in an increasingly ludicrous series of adventures, including battling lunchroom zombie nerds and bionic booger boys.
Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery
Start with: Emily of New Moon
If Anne of Green Gables is a domestic fairy tale, Montgomery’s Emily trilogy is its original-Grimm-version cousin. Like Anne, Emily Starr is an orphan in love with the beauty of the natural world and passionate about the power of words. But Emily lacks Anne’s charm, her easy friendships, her ability to make the best of things. Oh, there’s plenty of Montgomery’s gentle fireside humor, but Emily must fight much harder and sacrifice much more for her ambition.
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
Start with: Gregor the Overlander
Though her Hunger Games trilogy is more popular, Collins’ underworld epic is arguably a better work. Gregor falls through a grate in his New York City laundry room and finds himself in an underground civilization, where enormous spiders, cockroaches, bats, and rats, coexist with deep-dwelling humans. A series of Underland prophecies may point Gregor toward his destiny, if he can survive the perils of the underground kingdom.
The Melendy Quartet by Elizabeth Enright
Start with: The Saturdays
When you find yourself wishing life were simpler, blame the Melendys. Enright’s family — including actress Mona, pianist Rush, dancer Randy, and little brother Oliver — inhabit a golden 1940s New York, where children can safely roam the streets of Manhattan solo and go swimming in dammed-up brooks. Nostalgic but never treacly, the Melendy stories are a pleasantly absorbing trip to the past.
The Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan
Start with: The Ruins of Gorlan
Orphaned Will’s not so sure he wants to become an apprentice to the Rangers, the spy network for the country Araluen, but the alternative is working in the fields. So Will sets off with his new mentor Halt to protect the kingdom from traitors and invaders.
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Start with: Leviathan
Set in an alternate World War I, this steampunk trilogy pits the Clankers and their mechanized war machines against the Entente Powers and their genetically fabricated living creatures. It’s up to the on-the-run heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a girl who’s disguised herself as a boy so she can join the British Air Service to bring the world back to peace.
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
Start with: Swallows and Amazons
Homeschoolers have helped rediscover this old- fashioned British series about two groups of families who bond over a shared love of sailing in an idyllic countryside where kids are perfectly safe setting up camp on an island for the summer.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Great Homeschool Readalouds: The Hundred and One Dalmatians
In this funny, old-fashioned story, two Dalmatian parents set off to rescue their kidnapped puppies. It's so much more fun than the movie!
THE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIANS by Dodie Smith
Don’t confuse the Disney adaptation with this delightfully old-fashioned story — the book is much funnier and more charming than its animated or live-action cinematic version. And the original book makes a really lovely holiday readaloud.
Pongo and Missis live a dog-gone (sorry — I couldn’t resist) perfect life in London with the Dearlys, who adore their pets and their fifteen Dalmatian puppies. But Mrs. Dearly’s old school mate, the fabulous, Bohemian, and kind of evil Cruella de Vil, has her own ideas about those distinctively spotted puppies’ future. When she kidnaps the Pongo puppies — and a slew of other Dalmatian pups—Pongo and Missis set off on adventure across London to Cruella’s estate to rescue their family, helped along the way by a host of plucky pets.
There’s enough action in this short novel to keep you on the edge of your seat, and Cruella de Vil is an iconic bad guy. (There’s not a sympathetic backstory in sight.) And the animal heroes are delightful — like Beatrix Potter characters raised in the city or the canine characters of some pre-Jeeves Wodehouse story. And the snowy backdrop of the English countryside has a cozy wintry feel that’s just right reading over the winter holidays.
Sure, there are some quibbles: You can definitely argue that there’s more than a little sexist stereotyping in the story, but for a product of its time, it could be a lot worse. (For instance, it’s Mr. Dearly who does the round-the-clock feedings for two days for the new puppies, which seems quite progressive). There’s a also a scene set in a Christmas Eve church that may feel too religious for some secular homeschoolers, but it really seems to be more about kindness and community than any particular kind of religion. I like old-fashioned books, though, so I may have a soft spot for some of their features that might spark more annoyance for other readers.
Ultimately, I think this is a funny, charming children’s story that makes a perfect multi-age readaloud.
Quotable: “Like many other much-loved humans, they believed that they owned their dogs, instead of realizing that their dogs owned them.”
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Great Homeschool Readalouds: The Greenglass House
A wintry middle grades mystery that may remind you a little of The Westing Game.
The Greenglass House by Kate Milford
I’m always updating our winter readalouds list, and The Greenglass House is a terrific addition.
Winter is supposed to be the quiet season at the Greenglass House — even the smugglers who tend to frequent the old inn don’t work over the holiday. But this year is different: Guest after guest turns up at the inn’s front desk, each with an improbable, complicated story, and Milo and his innkeeper parents find themselves rushing around trying to take care of their unexpected guests. Now things are going missing, and Milo teams up with the cook’s daughter Meddy to figure out what’s really going on — and what secrets his adopted family’s old hotel is hiding.
It’s surprisingly hard (The Westing Game excepted) to find really good middle grades mysteries — you know, the kind with actual clues that you can piece together to figure out what’s going — and The Greenglass House really delivers on the count. It feels like a really charming mash-up of classic detective tropes (smugglers, ships, and blackouts!) and more nuanced ideas about family, friendship, and identity. Milo is a genuinely likable 12-year-old — he pretends to be his Dungeons and Dragons-ish alter ego when he needs to feel brave, and he’s totally confident in his parents’ love for him even as he wonders about the parents who gave him up. Milo and Meddy collect information along with the reader, piecing together the mysteries of the Greenglass House as they put together the clues. Whether you guess the twist at the end or you’re totally surprised by it, the solution to the book’s layered mysteries comes together in a satisfying, Agatha Christie-ish way. All the clues really are there for you to put together, if you can.
You could read this any time of year, but it’s murky, chilly, timelessness feels especially appropriate in the lead-up to the winter holidays. Kate Milford does a really lovely job of setting the story just outside of chronological time — Milo watches television, but the story lacks other trappings of modern life, and its old-fashioned keys, smugglers, and plot points give it an almost steampunk, fantasy-ish vibe. And it’s hard to imagine a more atmospheric winter story — this is a perfect book to read snuggled up by the fire with a mug of hot chocolate. Reading The Greenglass House feels like winter in all the best ways.
There are some places where the story gets a little complicated to follow — there are a lot of backstories to keep up with, and Milo and Meddy confuse things a little by referring to themselves by their role-playing identities as well as their real names. But mysteries are supposed to be complicated, aren’t they? And I think the little bumps along the way really do a nice job of making you feel like you’re part of the mystery, too.
Quotable: “It is not merely our adversaries we must investigate. We must always work to know ourselves better, too.”
You might also enjoy: The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Chasing Vermeer, The London Eye Mystery
Curriculum Review: Michael Clay Thompson’s Language Arts
Rebecca loves the nerdy grammar fun of Michael Clay Thompson’s Language Arts. It may not be for everyone, but it’s definitely for word lovers.
Michael Clay Thompson’s language arts curriculum is the sort of treat we homeschool moms and dads enjoy as much as our kids. In my experience, too few people know about this gem of a resource, and I’m excited to have the chance to share it here with you.
Thompson is no ordinary teacher, and this is not your run-of-the mill curriculum. Seeking to introduce students to English language arts in its highest forms, Thompson writes eloquently, with frequent literary references. My 11-year-old son has noticed, “This is like taking a class with a professor.”
Those looking for a secular classical resource to teach language arts will be especially appreciative of Thompson’s approach. Vocabulary lessons based on Latin and Greek stems are far more interesting than those normally found in traditional text books. Classical literature is referenced throughout the program so you’ll want to keep a pen and paper handy just to jot down all the reading suggestions. Thompson’s program might serve as launch pad that sparks your child’s interest in classical history as well.
Thompson endorses the Socratic method of teaching—asking probing questions that encourage students to unearth answers themselves. Throughout the teaching manuals, he provides tips for parents that encourage lively, organic discourse, and critical thinking skills.
For the purposes of this review, I looked at the complete set of texts for Level Two which is written for the 4th grade and up. In all, there are 4 levels:
Level 1 (for 3rd grade and up): Grammar Island, Practice Island, Building Language, The Music of the Hemispheres, Sentence Island
Level 2 (for 4th grade and up): Grammar Town, Practice Town, Caesar’s English I (or CEE 1), Building Poems, Paragraph Town
Level 3 (for 5th grade and up): Grammar Voyage, Practice Voyage, Caesar’s English II (or CEE 2), A World of Poetry, Essay Voyage
Level 4 (for 6th grade and up): Magic Lens 1, 4 Practice 1, The Word Within the Word 1, Poetry and Humanity, Advanced Academic Writing 1
Each level contains texts that can be ordered separately or, for a small savings, as a bundle. Those who purchase the full set will have a comprehensive language arts program that teaches grammar, vocabulary, writing, and poetry at an accelerated level. Thompson designed this curriculum with gifted students in mind; however, by adjusting the suggested grade levels, this program could be adapted for a wider range of motivated learners.
To better acclimate to this program’s unique style, some families might find it helpful to start at the beginning of the series. While each level could serve as a stand-alone program, the material is cumulative and diving into its middle may be difficult for learners accustomed to a more conventional curriculum.
Each student book has a separate accompanying teacher’s manual. Families wishing to save a few dollars could do so by purchasing only the teacher’s manual which includes the student text in its entirety. Much of the information for teachers appears in the back of the teaching manuals. Although text boxes for parents appear throughout the guides, they are small and unobtrusive; most students could still read the books without distraction or difficulty.
Formatting in each book is straightforward with lots of white space and stylized fonts. At first glance, the slim texts might appear to lack substance. However, upon closer inspection, most students will find the content on these pages to be generous, dense, and rich with detail. Photographs of art and important quotations are sprinkled throughout each text and form a significant portion of each lesson.
For those wishing to further enhance their child’s experience, an optional literature component can be purchased separately. Level Two takes a look at the novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and The Wind in the Willows. Each book is reproduced to include an examination of poetic techniques, four-level analyses of interesting grammar, and a look at writing strategies. Vocabulary is reviewed at the end of each page. By working through these stories, concepts studied in Level Two’s textbooks can be reinforced in the context of compelling literature. The accompanying parent manual features commentary from Thompson about each novel, advanced vocabulary words, discussion questions, activities, and guidance to support students’ efforts practicing academic writing.
The Royal Fireworks Press website features free videos and sample readings from the books, along with other materials to support parents’ teaching efforts.
Pricing details vary depending on how items are purchased. The complete Level Two homeschool package, which does not include the literature trilogy mentioned above, is $260. If ordered on the publisher’s website, the cost is $225. The Alice, Peter, and Mole Trilogy Set and Parent Manual is an additional $40. For more pricing information, visit the Royal Fireworks Press website.
Not every student will enjoy this program. Some learners may consider the elevated, formal style of prose stuffy or pretentious and the level of detail too difficult. This is a curriculum for a family in love with language and all its complexity who wants to explore this subject in depth. If that sounds like you, this is a curriculum worth checking out. Enjoy!
How to Celebrate the Winter Solstice in Your Homeschool
Celebrate the shortest day of the year by exploring the science of the seasons.
Celebrate the shortest day of the year by exploring the science of the seasons.
As part of a nature loving family, and with a child who loves science, I find the idea of celebrating the winter solstice appeals to me. What better way to honor the mystery and beauty of this earth than mark the changing of the seasons? The winter solstice marks the official beginning of winter. It is the day that the northern hemisphere has the shortest daylight hours, so the days following it get a little longer. Because of that, we can celebrate “the return of light.” I love that.
Last year I decided to try to institute what I hope will become a tradition in our house — celebrating the winter solstice. We also celebrate Christmas, so I didn’t want to make our solstice celebration something that would end up being a lot of extra work for me, and since at that time my boys didn't even know what the solstice was, I decided to use the occasion to teach them about it.
I discovered that there aren’t many books about the winter solstice that would appeal to my kids, but the one I did find was just right. I read The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice by Wendy Pfeffer to my seven-year-old. My younger son, who was four, lost interest in the book, but that was okay. We have many solstices ahead of us! (And I’ve already found a few new books to add to our list: The Return of the Light: Twelve Tales from Around the World for the Winter Solstice and The Shortest Day — Carson Ellis’s gorgeously illustrated version of Susan Cooper’s poem — are at the top of our list!)
The book did a good job of explaining how for thousands of years people all around the world have wondered about and celebrated the solstice. While the book does not get bogged down in details that young children might not care about, I wished there had been a few more details for my sake, but nevertheless, it was just fine for my seven-year-old.
For example, it tells about how ancient people became scared when the sun began to disappear and how they would hold long ceremonies to try to get their gods to bring the sun back, but it doesn't explain where or exactly when or where these people lived. It also tells of how some of the earliest astronomers measured the days and figured out which days would be the shortest and the longest, and it explains that many of our current customs stem from some of these old rituals held around the winter solstice. Illustrations help explain the story a little more.
The book has a good graphic showing the position of the earth at each solstice and equinox, and it has several suggestions for activities that you can do with your kids. I picked one where you use an orange and a lamp to demonstrate how the tilt of the earth stays the same as it travels around the sun. Only I used our globe and a lamp. This visual even helped me understand that as the North Pole tilts away from the sun, we have our winter and the Southern Hemisphere has its summer.
This coming winter solstice, I am hoping to add some more fun things to the day. Perhaps we will make peanut butter bagels dipped in birdseed and hang them in our trees to feed the birds. Maybe we’ll bake something special for us to eat as well. Maybe we’ll light some candles for a while. Or maybe we’ll go on another family hike that day.
I have also considered marking the summer solstice and the spring and fall equinox. But getting myself to remember to do one more thing when our calendar is already so busy is hard. This summer all I managed to do was to tell my boys that it was the summer solstice. When I told my four-year-old that it was the shortest night, he got excited. He thought that meant that he wouldn't have to sleep very long!
Creating new family traditions can be tricky sometimes, but I’m determined to at least celebrate the winter solstice, even if it ends up being something we do in a low-key, last-minute kind of way. Whatever ends up being our yearly solstice tradition, I hope it can be another way to inspire awe in my children for this earth, the universe and our abundant lives.
This column was originally published in the winter 2014 issue of HSL. (We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Gift Guide: Gift Ideas for People Who Love Nancy Drew
If you’ve got a reader who’s always ready for an excuse to hang with the gang from River Heights, one of these gifts might be a fun addition to your holiday wish list.
We think there's no better holiday gift than a good book. But sometimes you want to kick it up a notch, so we've put together a few fun gift lists based around some of our favorite books and authors.
There’s no mystery Nancy Drew can’t solve — except the mystery of how she manages to stay perfectly coiffed and totally calm in even the stickiest situations. I grew up with the intrepid girl detective, and she’s still the coolest teenage investigator I know. If you’ve got a reader who’s always ready for an excuse to hang with the gang from River Heights, one of these gifts might be a fun addition to your holiday wish list.
Juniper Books has this fabulous Nancy Drew boxed set with Nancy’s distinctive silhouette emblazoned across the spines. It’s not cheap, but it’s a great bookshelf addition for long-time Nancy Drew fans.
The Official Nancy Drew Handbook: Skills, Tips, and Life Lessons from Everyone's Favorite Girl Detective is a love letter to the sleuth who had girl power to spare decades before girl power was even a thing. It’s a fun guide to unleashing your inner Nancy.
Wear your love for Nancy Drew on your wrist with an adorable charm bracelet just jingling with nostalgia, including a sporty blue convertible, a flashlight, and a stylish trench. I kind of want one of these for myself.
Store your treasures in a hollow copy of The Mystery of the Glowing Eye. It’s exactly the kind of hidden treasure you’d expect Nancy to uncover in a mysterious library she’s somehow discovered at the end of a secret passage.
These Nancy Drew paper dolls feature outfits from some classic Nancy Drew mysteries, including The Secret at Shadow Ranch and (my fave) The Clue of the Velvet Mask.
Every Nancy Drew fan needs a Mystery Solver patch. (Wouldn’t it be fun to make a Girl Scout-style checklist of Nancy Drew-esque activities to complete to earn your patch?)
The Nancy Drew computer games are surprisingly challenging. You play Nancy in a mystery story that could be taken from one of the classic books: You must solve puzzles, piece together clues, and follow mysterious noises into dangerous situations to get to the root of the mystery in these addictive computer games.
When Nancy’s between mysteries, she keeps her detection skills sharp putting together jigsaw puzzles. This 1,000-piece puzzle includes all the classic Nancy Drew book covers.
If you’re a crafty gift-giver or if you’re giving to a crafty Nancy Drew lover, you are going to want a stack of these Nancy Drew-inspired Get a Clue fabric squares. How cool are they?
This amazing Nancy Drew scarf contains the first 30,000 words of the very first Nancy Drew classic The Secret of the Old Clock.
Every aspiring detective needs a flashlight and a magnifying glass for investigations — this LED magnifier gives you the best of both worlds. For bonus points, stash it in an upcycled purse made from a vintage Nancy Drew book.
Nancy used her fabulous homemade blondies to sweet-talk a little information from someone more than once, so a batch of brown butter-hazelnut blondies seems like the perfect foodie present for a Nancy Drew fanatic.
Add this t-shirt — inspired by the original cover of The Secret of the Old Clock — to a Nancy Drew fanatic’s wardrobe, and you’ll definitely get a spot on her Nice list.
It’s not cheap or easy to track down, but if Nancy Drew hosted a board game night with George and Bess, they would definitely be playing Crack the Case: A Compelling Game of Mini-Mysteries. It’s a great critical thinking game with more than 100 mysteries to solve from the given clues.
You’ve got to stash all that sleuth stuff somewhere — why not in this stylish Nancy Drew tote bag? I think it makes a great library bag upgrade for your favorite mystery reader.
Dress up your wardrobe with this charming Nancy Drew pin. I’m not sure you could pick a lock with it, but there’s sure to be some ingenious detective girl benefit I’m just not thinking of.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Great Homeschool Readalouds: The Tomten
In this sweet winter story, a friendly troll reminds a farm full of creatures that spring is coming.
THE TOMTEN by Astrid Lindgren
We always know it’s the holiday season in our homeschool when The Tomten finds its way into the reading basket. Even though my kids are older now and we’ve always inclined toward chapter books for our family readalouds, this sweet winter picture book is essential holiday reading at our house, and I think your family might love it, too.
The Tomten is a kindly Swedish creature who — when winter is at its darkest and chilliest — wakes up from his dreams to remind animals (and any children who happen to be awake) that spring is coming. Busy grown-ups can’t hear the Tomten’s silent language as he quietly makes his way around the farm, but that’s okay: The Tomten is watching over those grown-ups, too, as he keeps his winter vigil. The Tomten is either a troll-ish gnome or a gnome-ish troll; either way, he’s a white-bearded, pointy-capped mythical creature who channels the hope of spring in the chill dark of winter.
And that’s it, really — nothing much happens in this little picture book, with its spare language and dark, dreamy illustrations of a snowbound farm. But there’s something about its magical quietness that captures the way I want the holidays to feel: peaceful, patient, and a little bit enchanted. We read this book and make rice pudding for the Tomten (we eat some, too!), and it feels as though the season of joy and celebration has arrived in the best possible way.
If you’re feeling creative, you could expand on this readaloud with some art projects: Make a snowy farm with cotton wool and (if you’re feeling brave!) a little glitter, and use it to decorate your nature table, or set out gray cardstock and black and white pastel crayons, and let your kids make a winter scene in monochrome. But it’s a lovely readaloud all by itself, snuggled up together right before bedtime, too.
You might also enjoy: The Tomten and the Fox, Winterfrost, Hedgie’s Surprise
Homeschool Gift Guide: Gift Ideas for People Who Love A Wrinkle in Time
Our homeschool gift guide for A Wrinkle in Time readers features gifts inspired by classic literature, from t-shirts to kitchen tools and everything in-between.
We think there's no better holiday gift than a good book. But sometimes you want to kick it up a notch, so we've put together a few fun gift lists based around some of our favorite books and authors.
Like pretty much every other nerdy girl on the planet, I have a deep, abiding love for Meg Murry, the heroine of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time who discovers that her inability to fit into her everyday world is exactly what makes her special. If you, too, have a young reader who’s fallen in love with all things L’Engle, one of these gifts—plus a copy of the imperfect but also awesome in random spots Ava Duvernay-helmed movie —might make a perfect addition to your holiday gift-giving.
Wear your love for L’Engle on your sleeve (or your lapel) with an adorable Wrinkle in Time book cover pin. (I think this might be the cover I got from my Scholastic order form back in the day.)
Obviously a lovely edition of your favorite book is always a welcome gift. The 50th anniversary edition of A Wrinkle in Time is really gorgeous, whether you opt for the hardback or a paperback version. Or, if your obsession with the Murrays is new, consider the Time Quintet collection, which includes A Wrinkle in Time, plus the loose sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time.
Another great book option: A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel is perfectly illustrated by Hope Larson. (It’s especially fun to see how she visualized characters like Aunt Beast and the Happy Medium.)
I actually own this Wrinkle in Time book cover t-shirt and wear it on the regular. It’s the perfect fashionable way to proclaim your love for this genre-blurring sci-fi adventure.
(There’s also a “Stay angry, little Meg” version!)
A Wrinkle in Time is one of the books Andrew DeGraff maps in the gorgeous Plotted: A Literary Atlas. He maps each character’s journey with a different colored line—a process that took him 140 hours to complete. (You can get a peek at it here.) The book also has cool maps for other books, including Pride and Prejudice and Watership Down.
Warm up your late night conversations with a tin of hot chocolate. This old-fashioned sipping chocolate — you melt the chips into milk — is thick and rich. Liverwurst and tomato sandwiches optional. (Bonus points if you serve it in this heat-activated constellation mug.)
Be prepared for wherever dark and stormy nights might take you with an umbrella that maps the constellations. (You might also tuck a handy star map into a stocking — you never know when it will come in handy!)
This chemistry spice set is a nod to Mrs. Murry’s habit of cooking dinner on her Bunsen burner when she’s in the middle of an experiment that needs her steady attention.
Math-loving Meg doesn’t seem like the jewelry type, but I think she might love this math puzzle ring. (It seems easy, but it’s really not!)
We can’t guarantee that the Stormy Night Candle will lead to otherworldly adventure, but it does smell like a rainy fall evening, which is maybe almost as good.
My kids’ Funko Pop! collection didn’t even know it was missing this awesome Mrs. Which figure, but it definitely was! (Mrs. Who and Mrs. Whatsit are also available.)
Meg Murry is one of the inspiring young women featured on the Heroic Girls in Books poster — along with Omakayas from The Birchbark House and Miranda from When You Reach Me. If you’ve got a corner that needs a little awesome artwork, this is a great pick.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Easy, Thoughtful Holiday Gifts to Make with the Kids
Homemade gifts you can actually make with your kids that your friends will actually be happy to get.
We’ve rounded up a bunch of easy DIY gifts that are simple enough to make with your kids (obviously you know their abilities best) but nice enough to make your friends feel like they ended up on your family’s NICE list this year.
Now’s the time of year when I start thinking, “Oh, crud, what the heck am I going to make for the holidays this year?” I like my friends, so I want to make them something awesome — but my time and budget are always limited. Maybe you’re in the same boat? We’ve rounded up a bunch of easy DIY gifts that are simple enough to make with your kids (obviously you know their abilities best) but nice enough to make your friends feel like they ended up on your family’s NICE list this year.
Reusable produce bags: Little drawstring bags stash neatly in a market tote and keep broccoli and kale organized and out of plastic bags. Package them in bundles of three with a tag including laundry instructions.
Shibori scarves: Mixing up dye is a messy project, so pick a sunny day to do this outside — it’s really just a fancy version of a basic tie-dye, but the end result is surprisingly elegant. If you wanted, you could use the same technique to dress up simple tote bags.
Recycled vases: Paint glass jars that would end up in the recycling bin with multi-surface acrylic craft paint. For the sleekest finish, tape off sections to paint one solid color, then let kids paint decorations on the solid sections with contrasting colors. Give them in a set of three with fresh flowers or evergreen stems.
Travel checker set: I think this duct tape travel checker set is one of the simplest, most appreciated friend gifts we’ve ever made. There are obviously all kinds of ways you could fancy it up if you wanted to.
Love jar: This one’s for someone you know well: Jot down your favorite things about someone on scraps of paper. You may include characteristics, memories, or just thoughts like “I love spending time with you.” Fill a mason jar with all these loving affirmations, and tie a bow on it. Boom! A gift almost guaranteed to make grandparents tear up.
Custom candles. Use tissue paper and a little heat to transform dollar store pillar candles into something special. Patterns are easy for little kids to help create; older kids can make simple images or initials to personalize candles.
Cat cord keepers. Cord keepers are one of those handy things you use all the time, and this easy felt version is super cute. If you’re crafty, you could change it up by making different animals.
Chai tea mix: Honestly, making this will make your kitchen smell so good that it’s like giving yourself a present, too.
Fort kit. If you have a little relative, a bag full of everything you need to make a pillow fort makes a great gift. Fill a drawstring bag with a couple of flat sheets, clothespins, clothesline, a flashlight, and a KEEP OUT sign.
Pinecone fire starters: The Farmer’s Almanac is predicting another shivery winter this year, and these pretty pinecone fire starters seem like the perfect accessory for a snow day.
Homemade soap: Does anybody ever have too much fancy soap for the downstairs bathroom? These grapefruit-lavender and coconut-mint bars would be so pretty molded into fancy shapes like these, but plain rectangles work, too.
Felted sweater tote: A thrift store run can yield enough cheap wool sweaters to make these cute totes for all your friends.
Door organizer: These door pockets are the kind of thing that you don’t know you need until you have one, and then you find a million uses for it.
Felt coasters: I feel like we never have enough coasters, and these sweet embroidered felt ones are festive for the holidays.
Infused sugar: Vanilla sugar makes baked goods extra yummy, gives your morning coffee a little something extra, and looks pretty in a mason jar.
Herbed almonds: Perfect for holiday munchies, these herb-spiked almonds feel virtuous and decadent—the perfect combo. They keep well in an air-tight canister.
Gift Guide: Gift Ideas for People Who Love The Mysterious Benedict Society
What makes a great gift for your favorite Mysterious Benedict Society fan? Puzzling puzzles, in-case-of-emergency-supplies, and — of course — books.
We think there's no better holiday gift than a good book. But sometimes you want to kick it up a notch, so we've put together a few fun gift lists based around some of our favorite books and authors.
Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance quickly won a place in our hearts when they formed the Mysterious Benedict Society to help Nicholas Benedict save the world. Each smart in a different way, the fab four have combined their individual strengths to tackle brainwashing, kidnapping, and everything in between with impressive aplomb and puzzle-solving skills. If you’ve got a would-be member of the Society, these gifts might be a fun addition to your holiday list.
Obviously every member of the Mysterious Benedict Society has been saved at least once by Kate’s red bucket, so every Mysterious Benedict Society fan should have a red bucket of her own. For bonus points, fill yours with extra-strong magnets, a handy penlight, and a spool of fishing line.
This boxed set includes all three books in the Mysterious Benedict Society series, plus the series prequel The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict and the companion puzzle book The Mysterious Benedict Society: Mr. Benedict’s Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums. It's pretty much a must-have for any Benedict Society fan. (And if you haven't already read it, Trenton Lee Stewart’s new book The Secret Keepers is not about the Benedict gang, but it is a puzzle-filled, fun mystery.)
Put all your puzzle-solving skills to work with a BePuzzled mystery jigsaw puzzle. In this one, you must complete the puzzle in order to find the clues that will help you discover who committed a dinner party poisoning, but I’m also tempted by the Sherlock Holmes option.
Channel your inner Constance in a sturdy red raincoat. You may get damp while you’re saving the world, but you won’t get drenched. (The matching boots are pretty adorable, too.)
Every grouchy preschool poet needs her own rhyming dictionary. Who knows? You might be mailing out a stack of snarky thank-you poems instead of the traditional boring thank-you notes.
This groovy little kaleidoscope doesn’t double as a spyglass, but it’s still a nifty gift for your favorite Kate Wetherall fan.
Every good Mysterious Benedict Society member knows that you don’t leave home without a pencil. This one doubles as a hand-held decoder.
You can put your pencil to work solving the increasingly challenging puzzles in What Is the Name of this Book?, an addictive collection of conundrums. Similarly, Lateral Thinking Puzzlers is a fun choice for logicians who want to practice solving puzzles that require them to think outside the box.
The adventure begins for the Society because each of them reads the newspaper every day. Young fans might enjoy their own subscription to your local newspaper or a classic publication like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.
You never know when a sling shot might come in handy. Stock this one with a set of colorful marbles, and you’ll be ready for any unexpected adventures. (This can be a dangerous gift, so it may not be the best choice for kids who are still working on impulse control!)
It’s not quite as cool as figuring out the way through the maze under Mr. Benedict’s house, but the Gravity Maze game lets you practice your problem-solving skills in a fun, hands-on way.
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Our Favorite Homeschool Books of 2022
Our favorite homeschool books from this year’s reading lists.
Here are the best books we read in our homeschool in 2022.
We are big readers over here, so we tend to read a lot of books. I read books because I want to read them, not with the idea that they need to fit into our curriculum somewhere, though some of them will end up on future reading lists. Many of the books we read are just fine, some are notably terrible, but there are always a few really great books that I want to tell everyone about. So consider this me telling everyone about these books. (The usual caveat: I read these books in 2022; they weren’t all published this year!)
My Picks
People sometimes comment that they wish I’d include reading levels on books, but as a reader, I’ve always found them weird and limiting. Why can’t I read a picture book on an airplane, or read a “grown-up” book to my preschooler? I’ve tried to indicate reading levels for some of these books, especially when there’s content that you might want to screen for younger readers, but this list is honestly all over the place in terms of recommended reading levels. (If you see a star in front of a title, it’s because that book is on my personal Best of the Best list.)
* Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution
In an alternate Oxford, translation is a magical act, and a Chinese orphan finds himself at the intersection of language, learning, and imperialism. This is a weird, dense, charming book that maybe isn’t for everyone, but it is probably the best book I read this year. (It has footnotes!)
A House Between the Earth and Moon
Suzanne recommended this to me as a company town book, only the company town is in space. A group of hopeful scientists in the near future take their work to a corporate space station, hoping that they can save the planet (and their own families) while making an oasis for billionaires. Of course, nothing goes according to plan, and every mistake is chronicled by the corporation’s omnipresent technology. I’m looking for a place to fit this in my high school reading lists.
The New Way to Cake
I’ve been very into baking this year — some years are like that! — and The New Way to Cake has joined Snacking Cakes at the top of my favorites list. I like the herby surprise of these recipes — sage adds an unexpected note to apple cake, mint kicks a ginger cake up a notch. (We made the custard donuts for our Thanksgiving this year, and they were a big hit!)
Marple
A dozen modern authors — including Naomi Alderman, Alyssa Cole, Elly Griffiths, and Karen M. McManus — bring their own spin to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple in this short story collection. Some of the authors bring some interesting diversity and feminism to Miss Marple, while still channeling what feels like the authentic Marple charm. There are some hits and some not-so-much-hits, but I found the overall book a lot of fun.
* Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky
This picture book is gorgeous. And it’s one of the most antiracist picture books I’ve ever read, just because it doesn’t assume a white version of history. Exploring the history of blue, from the Egyptians wearing lapis lazuli to the blues singers of the U.S. South, this book is one I’m buying for every picture book reader in our circle and some people who think they’ve outgrown picture books, too.
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
I’m recommending this new history of humanity to everyone. What if everything we think we know about human history is rooted in racism, ignorance, and greed? What if “uncivilized” people actually exhibit more characteristics we consider civilized than modern societies? David Graeber upends world history to give us a view of human history that’s ultimately so hopeful and empowering. Definitely a dense book, but I loved it.
Piranesi
This weird, slim volume is a specific kind of book: Piranesi spends his days mapping the mysterious house he inhabits, a labyrinth of rooms containing an entire ocean and many mysteries. The story is as meandering and slow to reveal itself as Piranesi’s house, but I found its dreamlike patience soothing and compelling.
Once More Upon a Time
A prince and princess cursed to forget their love go on a road trip to save their kingdom — and you’ll never guess what happens. This is a fun, frothy, utterly likable fairy tale.
* No One Is Talking About This
There is a baby with serious health problems in this book, which is something I like to know upfront. But if you can handle that, this is a book that I insisted Suzanne read immediately because I really wanted to talk about it. The narrator, a social media personality who travels around the world riding the wave of ideas and voices that make up “the portal,” goes offline when her sister’s pregnancy takes a turn for the tragic. The way this novel reads feels as fragmented and fascinating as the social media its narrator is surrounded by.
The Lion of Mars
This is a delightful middle grades book about an 11-year-old settler on a U.S. Martian colony. Bell can’t remember life before he came to the Martian settlement, and his life on Mars is full of routines and projects that keep the space station running. When a virus infects the settlement’s grownups, Bell and his fellow space kids have to figure out a way to save the day.
Ophie’s Ghosts
I’m putting this on my middle grades U.S. history reading list. Ophie has the power to see ghosts — something she learned when she saw her father right after he was attacked by white supremacists in the Jim Crow South. When she and her mother move to live with family and Philadelphia, Ophie finds an old house full of ghosts in search of resolution.
Build Your House Around My Body
Another Suzanne recommendation — this book tells the stories of two girls who go missing decades apart in Vietnam. They seem to have nothing in common, but as their stories unfold, it becomes clear that their fates are linked. I hear “story of two missing girls,” and my brain goes in a particular direction — toward a kind of book that I don’t love reading these days. Believe me when I tell you this book goes somewhere else entirely — a weird, surprising place that felt ultimately like exactly where I wanted to be.
Skin of the Sea
Natasha Bowen reimagines the mermaids of African mythology in this gorgeous YA novel. Simi is one of the Mami Wata who collects the souls of the drowned before blessing their journey home — a task that has become sadder and more dangerous with the ships carrying kidnapped and enslaved Africans across the ocean. When Simi saves a boy who has been thrown overboard, she must undertake a dangerous journey to make amends for violating the ancient decree that Mami Wata not save the lives of drowning victims. The only caveat I have is that this book ends on a giant cliffhanger, which is one of my readerly pet peeves.
The Chosen and the Beautiful
What if The Great Gatsby was retold from the perspective of a queer, Asian Jordan Baker who lives in a world of magic and supernatural forces? I know! This one’s going on my YA reading lists for sure.
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness
Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about this book, but I have not been able to stop thinking of it since I finished reading it, and it’s been a long time since a book stuck with me like that. Partly about the tension between motherhood and creativity, partly about the Manson family cult, and partly about living with mental illness, this is a weird, weird book, and you should read it.This is one I’d probably only recommend to adult readers.
* The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred
OK, this book is brilliant, and it deserves a spot on your high school physics reading list. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s book is an intellectual history of the cosmos, as informed by particle physics, a memoir of her own life as a cosmologist and particle physicist, and an examination of racism and sexism in science and the history of science. It will blow your mind.
The Marvellers
I am loving the awesome new middle grades magic school books that I can recommend instead of Harry Potter. (See also Amari and the Night Brothers.) The magic school in The Marvellers is the Arcanum Training Institute, where Ella is the first Conjuror to ever enroll. Being the first is always hard, and a lot of the magical community is pretty distrustful of Conjurors, but Ella is finding her footing — and some friends — when things go terribly wrong.
White Smoke
Here’s the modern Gothic novel I was looking for all winter — Mari and her newly blended family move to a picture-perfect small town where her mom is the new artist-in-residence, complete with a shiny renovated house. But the house is on the gentrified edge of a neighborhood of dilapidated houses, and it’s full of haunted house tricks, like lights that turn off on their own and doors that open and shut unexpectedly. Even more suspiciously, Mari’s new stepsister has a new imaginary friend who doesn’t seem to like Mari very much. This is a fun YA read — but beware if you have bedbug anxieties!
* Light from Uncommon Stars
Another book I’ve raved about — this one I’m handing out to my high schoolers left and right because it’s so life- and self-affirming. I can’t explain what it’s about — there’s a trans violinist who plays video game music, a musician who made a deal with the devil, a family of aliens who run a Los Angeles doughnut shop — but please just believe me that it’s a book you’ll probably be glad you read.
* Pretty as a Picture
Please let this be the first book in a series! Extreme introvert film editor Marissa Dahl takes a job on a top-secret set for a legendary director and finds a mystery: The actress playing the murder victim is murdered right on set. Two teens with a true crime podcast enlist Marissa’s help solving the murder. I think this would be a great addition to a YA mysteries reading list, even though it’s not shelved as a YA book.
Gallant
In this eerie middle grades fairy tale, orphaned Olivia returns to her mother’s family home, where dark magic is afoot. I know a lot of middle grades books lean heavily into action, but I liked the slow, introspective pace of this one.
* The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
I loved this gorgeous Korean folktale retelling. Mina saves the girl her brother loves — the most beautiful girl in the village — from being tribute to the Sea God by throwing herself in the water instead. Beneath the waves, she finds a strange new world and new allies. I’ve already added this to our high school reading list.
The Anomaly
I just thought this was fun: In 2021, a plane lands in New York twice — once in March and again in June. All the people on board, who believed they had double lives, now really do have double selves. Do they prove the universe is a simulation? Are they a second chance? Does any of it even matter? And what if another plane lands?
* Snake Falls to Earth
I know I raved about this one on the podcast, too. I loved it, though — I’ve already reread it, I liked it so much. This one’s on the middle grades reading list! And maybe the high school list, too.
Gideon the Ninth
Tamsyn Muir writes the weirdest books! Orphaned indentured servant teams up with the Ninth Necromancer on a mission for the Emperor, designed to pit all the Houses against each other in a battle of wits and skill. This book has A LOT happening, but it’s one of the most vividly imagined fantasy worlds I’ve been to in a long time.
Serwa Boateng’s Guide to Vampire Hunting
Here’s a middle grades vampire novel that leans into African mythology in the coolest ways. This is the first in a series, so there’s a lot of set-up, but I had to put it on the list because I can’t wait to read the next one.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Suzanne recommended this to me as a comfort book after we lost one of the moms in our homeschool community. She was a gorgeous, brilliant, compassionate human being, and we loved her. This was the perfect book for reminding me that it’s the depth and beauty of human connection that we mourn when we lose someone. We mourn because those feelings are real and they matter. I don’t know if that’s what this book is about, but for me, that’s what it will always mean.
Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species
This has been a highlight of my evolutionary biology class this semester (see below), and I understand why: This group biography focuses on the people whose scientific discoveries led to the modern theory of evolution. I love this book because it’s about people actually doing science and about how scientific theories change and develop as people add new understanding. I’m always trying to remind students that science is a work in progress that they’re participating in — not a list of already-figured-out things they just have to memorize.
Matrix
I will always read a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine. This one is mostly about one of Eleanor’s ladies of the court, Marie de France, who is sent to England to be the prioress of an abbey there, a job for which she turns out to be extraordinarily well-suited. I think this would be a great addition to a high school medieval reading list.
The Upstairs House
Suzanne did not warn me that there are Babies in Peril when she recommended this book, so I am warning you — but other than that, she was right: This novel about a woman coping with postpartum depression and an unfinished dissertation who finds an apartment upstairs where the (late) children’s book author Margaret Wise Brown is living is weirdly compelling.
Anxious People
I feel like sometimes I just want a book where people turn out to be kinder and better than you think they are. This book, about a botched robbery, is exactly that.
Within These Wicked Walls
On the podcast I called this a “kind of supernatural African Jane Eyre,” and I stand by that.
* The Space Between Worlds
The multiverse is real. The catch is that you can’t travel to any world where you’re alive — which means that marginalized people, who are more likely to die from illness, crime, abuse, or poverty, make the best inter-world travelers. Cara is only alive in eight of the almost 400 worlds known to exist, so she’s plucked from poverty in the Wastelands to a prosperous life and a powerful job. When another one of her selves is murdered, Cara discovers that the multiverse is even more complicated than she realized.
The Man Who Died Twice
The Thursday Murder Club is so much fun! I want to be part of a geriatric Scooby gang when I retire. In this one, former secret agent Elizabeth has to solve the mysterious murder of another former spy, her ex-husband.
My College Kid’s Picks
My homeschool guinea pig says she only included books she read for fun, and there weren’t a lot to choose from because she had gigantic piles of reading to do for her classes this past year. Fair enough!
Crumbs
This is a sweet little graphic novel about finding yourself — and a little love, too.
The Last Session
Other Dungeons & Dragons fans will appreciate this story of a high school D&D group trying to finish their unfinished first campaign before their college graduation.
What Is Home, Mum?
We all know that home is people and traditions as much as a place, but this book is a really beautiful reminder of all the ways that is true.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
My mom thought I would like this book about a teenage wizard who bakes up magic, and she was right.
My High School Kid’s Picks
My teen also opted for books they read purely for fun this year, but they assure me that doesn’t mean they didn’t enjoy the books we read together.
Accidental Gods: On Race, Empire, and Men Unwittingly Turned Divine
Why is history full of people being turned into gods? (Hint: Some of it might be because of colonialism.)
Queer Ducks (And Other Animals)
This YA book is all about same-sex relationships in nature — ducks, sure, but also albatrosses, clownfish, and doodlebugs. Nature is gay, and here’s the science to prove it.
My Volcano
This is a very weird novel with intersecting storylines, including a time traveling boy who witnesses the fall of the Aztec empire, a trans writer trying to finish a sci-fi story set on an impossible planet, and a Mongolian farmer who becomes a sentient green cloud creature that wants to connect to every other living thing. My kid won’t stop raving about it.
Out of Your Mind
My child is majorly into Alan Watts this year.
Bonus: Our students at the Academy vote on their favorite assigned books each semester — these are the ones that got the most votes in 2022.
The Academy Junior High Picks
The Academy High School Picks
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Homeschool Gift Guide: Books We Want to Give and Get This Year
Here’s our annual roundup of all the books we want to give and get this holiday season.
A book is my all-time favorite gift to give and get for the holidays, and picking out books for people I love is one of the holiday activities I always look forward to as we roll into the holiday season. These are the books I’m excited to give this year — plus a few I’m hoping to get myself.
For People Who Know the Past Is a Story We’re Still Writing
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile
I’m always looking for the stories that SHOULD be part of Western history, and Sidi Mubarak Bombay’s is one of them. Richard Burton and Henry Morton Stanley get all the credit for “discovering” the source of the Nile, but this book shows Bombay as the clear leader of the expedition.
The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family
Sarah and Angelina Grimke were two of the best known abolitionists in the United States, and their work to end slavery gets a lot of coverage in U.S. History. But there’s a darker side to the Grimke family, which includes both Black and white members (and Charlotte Forten, whom you know I love!). This is definitely not a light, fun read, but it is fascinating.
For Your High School Friends Who Are Eying Their (Gulp!) 50s
The Nineties
I love Chuck Klosterman anyway (I used to give a copy of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs — which is apparently a steal for Cyber Monday at the time I’m publishing this — to everyone I liked!), so his book about the decade I grew up in really hit my sweet spot. Weirdly, it also made the 2020s make so much more sense.
For All the Moms Who Made It Through Covid and Then Realized Things Were Not Actually That Much Easier When There’s Not a Pandemic
Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change
For a minute during Covid, the world appreciated the working mother — by which I mean ALL mothers because the unpaid and underpaid domestic labor mostly women do holds our society together even while it doesn’t get much recognition from the world at large. Angela Garbes’ work is the acknowledgement — and the manifesto — we didn’t even know we needed.
How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing
I don’t know that I’d give this kinder, gentler guide to cleaning to anyone else, but I would really like it for myself.
Present Tense Machine
Such a weird novel — nobody does weird like Norwegian authors! — but funnier and more delightful than its descriptions make it sound: When a mother misreads a word, she breaks the universe into two, with her daughter in one world and herself in the other. I want to call it a feminist creation myth.
For the People Who Feel Like Home to Me
What Is Home, Mum?
It’s no secret that I am not usually a memoir fan, but the genre-bending graphic novel is a happy exception: Sabba Khan’s deep dive into what home means and how it shapes our identity is powerful, profound, and ultimately joyful.
Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things
Home is all about food, and no one makes food feel special better than Yotam Ottolenghi.
A Good Day to Bake: Simple Baking Recipes for Every Mood
Benjamina Ebuehi’s A New Way to Cake (those custard donuts!) was one of my favorite books this year; the follow-up is a must-have.
Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew
PASTRAMI AND COLLARD GREENS SPRING ROLLS, y’all.
For People Who Need a Good Book
Liberation Day: Stories
A George Saunders short story collection may be an obvious choice, but it’s too good to pass up.
Joan Is Okay
Chemistry was one of my favorite Covid book discoveries, so I am excited to unwrap this book — about a Chinese-American doctor monitoring reports of a strange new virus — myself. (Hint, hint.)
Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution
Possibly the best book of the year.
For My Activist Friends
Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America
The past political decade has created a whole new crop of feminist heroes, and Dahlia Lithwick celebrates many of them in this chronicle of progressive women’s organization and efforts during the Trump administration. We did make a difference.
For the Teens I Love
You Gotta Be You: How to Embrace This Messy Life and Step Into Who You Really Are
I kinda wish Brandon Kyle Goodman (who is Black, queer, and nonbinary) had been around to talk to me about how to love myself and respect my own boundaries while still being open to the world and the people around me.
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
This Korean folk tale retelling was one of my favorite books this year.
Light from Uncommon Stars
Trying to describe this book — there’s a trans violinist who plays video game music and another violinist who made a pact with a devil and a family of aliens who run a donut shop in LA — will always fall short because it’s the connections between characters and defiant hope that runs through it that make this book so amazing.
For the Tween Readers on My List
Attack of the Black Rectangles
What can kids actually do about censorship and book banning? This novel — about a 6th grade teacher who doesn’t want to talk about slavery, stolen land, or the Holocaust and “adjusts” her classroom books accordingly — suggests the answer is “a lot.”
American Murderer: The Parasite That Haunted the South
Hookworms are scarier than zombies! This medical history of the hookworm in the 19th and 20th century South may not sound like an obvious middle school pick, but kids who like creepy and gross will dig it.
Different Kinds of Fruit
I am always looking for books about normal families who don’t fit the 1950s model, and this one is great: Annabelle worries her dad might be homophobic because of the way he treats her nonbinary friend Bailey; she learns her dad is in fact trans and gave birth to her. I love this book because it recognizes that the LGBTQ+ experience is a lot more than just a simple coming out story.
Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler
A free verse biography of Octavia Butler by Ibi Zoboi? Yes, please, and thank you very much!
For Little Readers
The Velveteen Rabbit: 100th Anniversary Edition
Erin Stead’s illustrations make this edition a lovely must-have.
Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky
This book is gorgeous, a visually stunning history of the color blue that also decenters whiteness in a series of visual surprises. It’s beautiful — if you don’t have littles to shop for, you should buy it for yourself.
The Catalogue of Hugs
Fun, silly, and sweet (the “Work from Home” hug is the stealth hug you give off to the side when you’re Zooming), this list of hugs will probably inspire some hug names in your own family.
My Brother Is Away
We don’t talk enough about incarceration, and that can make it really hard for kids to know how to talk about it when someone in their family is in prison. This book is tender and hopeful — and a great conversation starter about an important subject.
Listen to the Language of the Trees: A Story of How Forests Communicate Underground
Kids — and their grownups! — will be fascinated by this scientific deep dive into how trees communicate with each other.
Knight Owl
It’s a little owl, but he’s a knight. Come on, that’s adorable.
The More You Give
Give this book instead of The Giving Tree.
For My Theatre Nerd
Transforming Space Over Time: Set Design and Visual Storytelling with Broadway’s Legendary Directors
Who wouldn’t want a peek behind the scenes at the collaborative process of bringing a Broadway set to life?
For People I Really Love Who Really Love Poetry
Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency
Buy all the Chen Chen. You will not be sorry!
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Great Homeschool Readalouds: The Hoboken Chicken Emergency
Thanksgiving gets weird when a butcher mishap leads a kid to a 266-pound chicken.
THE HOBOKEN CHICKEN EMERGENCY by Daniel Pinkwater
Arthur’s job is picking up the turkey for the Bobowicz’s Thanksgiving dinner, which should be easy, right?
Except the butcher has lost the Bobowicz’s order, and he doesn’t have any extras. In fact, nobody in Hoboken seems to have a turkey for sale. Or a chicken. Or a duck. Or anything remotely bird-y. Arthur is wandering the streets, getting increasingly panicked — what will everyone say if he comes home without the star of the Thanksgiving table — when he spots a CHICKENS FOR SALE sign on an apartment door. Instead of a shady poultry vendor, Arthur finds a mad scientist looking to get rid of some seriously oversized chickens. Arthur buys a 266-pound chicken, but by the time they get home, he’s decided that he’d rather have a pet than a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Mrs. Bobowicz makes meatloaf for dinner instead, and the chicken — named Henrietta — becomes part of the family.
Of course, life with a 266-pound chicken isn’t always easy, and when Henrietta escapes, the citizens of Hoboken freak out, treating the perfectly nice chicken like a monster until she’s so hurt and angry with their unkindness that she starts acting like a monster. Arthur knows his sweet chicken is still in there, and he’s determined to save the day.
This is such a fun, funny readaloud with a great message about the ways that ignorance can make us act like — well, jerks if we don’t recognize it. Any book that emphasizes kindness and not being afraid of differences feels totally in the spirit of Thanksgiving to me. It’s a quirky, fun tour of Hoboken, and if you’ve been there, you’ll recognize the docks, the park, and other locations where Henrietta and Arthur’s adventures take them. Even though it was written in 1977, the book has a casual diversity that feels refreshing, and I love that it’s a Thanksgiving book that isn’t all about the Pilgrims. (I can’t with the Pilgrims.)
You might also enjoy: Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer, The Enormous Egg, The Qwikpick Papers: Poop Fountain!
Holiday Gift Guide: Our Favorite Homeschool Board Games
Be a magical librarian, choose your own adventure, get your Shakespeare on, and more games we want to give and get and (mostly) play this holiday season. These are our favorite homeschool board games.
Board games are an essential part of our holidays, and while we will be playing many old favorites over the break (Adventure Time Munchkin, The Battle for Hogwarts, Castle Panic, Gloom, and King of Tokyo are stacked in the middle of our dining room table right now), we’re also excited to add some new games to our collection (and to the Junior High’s game closet at Jason’s school). The games that made this list are still frequently played in our homeschool, but we’ve updated the list with some new games we can’t wait to play, too.
Trekking Through History
I’m probably not outing us as history nerds since if you read this blog, you already know that we get Very Excited about studying history. But this game, which takes players on a three-day tour of the past where the goal is to visit momentous historical events in chronological order, is definitely for people who get a little too enthusiastic about planning their history curriculum. In fact, if you’ve got some reluctant historians in your homeschool, you may want to see if this is that little boost of fun your secular history curriculum needs.
Ark Nova
My kids would have loved this zoo-building game when they were elementary age homeschoolers: Up to four players compete to acquire the most interesting animals from around the world, build enclosures, and support projects to protect animal habitats. If you have kids who want to learn everything about animals, this game can be a lot of fun.
Planted
OK, sometimes the world is a difficult place, and you just want a soothing game with low stakes and lots of eye candy. Enter Planted, a game that’s all about growing the best collection of houseplants. That’s it. That’s perfect. And if you’re like me and struggle to keep your real life houseplants alive, this game is pure wish fulfillment fantasy. (Maybe 2022 is the Year of Houseplant Board Games because I also enjoyed Verdant.)
Forgotten Waters
I love the choose-your-own-adventure vibe of Forgotten Waters: You (and two to six other players) are pirates on a mission. You each have your own goals and priorities, but you work together on the main quest. It’s lazy, open-ended gaming fun perfect for sleepy winter weekends — and if the five scenarios included with the base game start to get old, you can download a new scenario and more than 100 new events to keep things interesting.
Chameleon
If your homeschool crew loves word games like Codenames or Taboo, you may love Chameleon, too. In this game, one player becomes the Chameleon; every other player gets clued into a “secret word.” The players move around the circle, saying words that relate to the secret word, and the Chameleon has to try to blend in by making educated guesses about what the secret word is when her turn rolls around. It’s quick and fun.
Wingspan
Bird nerds: This is for you! This gorgeous bird game is all about attracting and discovering the best birds for your wildlife preserve. It's also a sneaky way to learn to identify different bird species if your homeschool is doing a birds unit study any time soon.
Get on Board
You're going to have to trust me on this: A game about building bus routes (in Manhattan or London) does not exactly sound exciting, but this little game is totally addictive. You've got objectives, both public and private, to meet, but you have to be careful not to circle back on your route at any point.
** My favorite game of 2022, though, is Cat in the Box. Yes, it's based on Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment, and yes, that's all I’m going to tell you about it. I wouldn’t want to accidentally cause any paradoxes.
Bring Your Own Book
I actually picked this up to perk up my son’s reading log — he gets bored with narrations and mini book reports, and this is a really fun way to mix things up. With a stack of books on the table, you flip through a volume to find rhymes for a rap, dating advice, tabloid headlines, and more based on the requirements of the card you’ve drawn. (It sounds dorky, but it’s a ton of fun.) We’ve enjoyed playing it as a twosome, but it’s even more fun with bigger groups.
Genius Games Cytosis: a Cell Biology Game Board
This game started out as a Kickstarter project and it’s an obvious fun addition to your biology curriculum, but you don't have to be into science to enjoy this fast-paced strategy game. You’re in charge of a human cell, so you’ve got to figure out how to create resources with your available organelles and use those resources to keep your cell healthy. It’s surprisingly addictive.
Munchkin Shakespeare Deluxe
Screw your courage to the sticking place, and get ready for this Bard-themed edition of Munchkin. We are big Munchkin fans here, so this one was a must-get for us. I am looking forward to some treachery, backstabbing, and serious punning in the weeks ahead.
Mysterium
I think I’ve had this on my wish list for a couple of years in a row, but telling me that a game plays like a mash-up of Dixit (still my number-one game recommendation for middle school literature classes!) and Clue will pretty much always have me shouting “Take my money.” And we tend to dig cooperative rather than competitive games, so this one is right up our alley.
Rock Me Archimedes
This critical thinking game is surprisingly challenging: You have to get four marbles to your end of the teeter-totter board without tipping it over.
Modern Art
Yes, please, I would like to run an art museum! I love the idea of this game — it’s a lot like those strategy city-building games, only instead of dealing in crops and fortresses, you’re buying and selling modern art. I think I’m going to DIY some cards for other modern artists and call the time we spend playing this game “art appreciation.”
Zooloretto
If you’d rather run a zoo than an art museum (see above), this is the game for you. (For some reason it’s super expensive on Amazon right now, so I would definitely wait for the price to drop again!) My kids used to play “zoo” with their Littlest Pet Shop collection, so I think they might love this one.
Bohnanza
A friend brought this game over for a party earlier this year, and I thought, “Really? Bean trading?” But oh gosh, it’s so much fun — very fast-paced and action-packed as you decide what beans to plant and where and what beans to trade with other players. This is the game my kids both put on their wish lists. Don’t let the weird art put you off trying it.
Anomia
I love word games and am always trying to get people to play with me, but I am kind of a bad winner, so it’s hard to do. This year I am pinning my hopes on this word game because my kids really, really love it when I blank on a word, and there seem to be lots of opportunities to do that. I’m also thinking of snagging an extra copy for the school.
Timeline
I promise this isn’t edutainment! It’s really fun. Players have cards depicting various historical events that they have to put — as the name suggests — into chronological order. It’s challenging —was chewing gum invented before or after the sinking of the Titanic? — but also friendly, since there are plenty of opportunities where a little reasoning and critical thinking will carry you over a card you aren’t sure about.
Sagrada
The point of this game is to create gorgeous stained glass window — which gets challenging as your windows get more and more complex because of the game’s restrictions on what pieces can and can’t go together. It’s like a beautiful puzzle that changes every time you play it.
Magic Maze
Also more complicated than it initially seems, Magic Maze lets players team up for a heist at a labyrinthine shopping mall. Each character has to nab the weapon that matches his color — the catch is that you can move every character but only in specific ways (like, you might be able to open doors or move south), and you can’t talk to the other players while the game is going. It gets pretty intense really fast.
Near and Far
If you were as hooked on Choose Your Own Adventure novels as I was, you will appreciate the fact that this game plays like a Choose Your Own Adventure story — the story is where the action happens. You and your game mates set off on adventure in the mystical land of Arzium, where you run into major choice points that will significantly affect the rest of your gameplay. It’s really fun.
Thames and Kosmos Exit : The Polar Station
Rebecca introduced me to Thames and Kosmos science kits, but apparently they have board games, too! This one hops onto the “escape room” trend — you play as a bunch of climate change researchers locked in an Arctic lab who must solve a series of coded puzzles to get out before you freeze.
Photosynthesis
I promise: This game is as fun as it is scientific — it’s not one of those learning-is-fun games that make the kids groan every tim you pull them out. You’ll need to use your critical thinking and strategic planning skills to plant, grow, and harvest your trees, and the game play is more like chess than Candyland. (I’m giving this one as a gift this year because the board and pieces are so pretty.)
Ex Libris
I feel like all I need to say about this game is that it lets you pretend you are the Grand Librarian of a magical library. I am pretty much all in for that, any time. (I would play this just for the book titles.)
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Gift Ideas for Kids Who Love Good Omens
If you’ve got a kid who finds the humor in this hilarious apocalyptic tale, these gifts may be just the ticket.
The funniest apocalyptic novel of the 20th century pulled in plenty of new fans with its much-anticipated screen adaptation. These gifts have the same apocalyptic appeal.
Something You Need
The full-cast radio production will have you laughing out loud.
SOMETHING YOU WANT
IdealBookshelf Neil Gaiman Print
This gorgeous illustration features Gaiman’s best- loved work, including Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, and The Sandman as well as Good Omens.
Pratchett invented this surprisingly fun strategy game for the eponymous book in the Discworld series, and it’s as weird, complicated, and satisfying as the rest of Pratchett’s work. (And bonus: Pratchett wrote the user manual, which is brilliant.)
Neil Gaiman has penned some of the best-loved episodes of the Doctor Who reboot, but even if he hadn’t, it’s easy to imagine the newest reboot of The Doctor jumping into the action with Crowley and Aziraphale.
SOMETHING TO WEAR
You don’t have to understand it, you just have to wear it.
SOMETHING TO READ
You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps by Tom Holt
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones
Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China that Never Was by Barry Hughart
The Gates by John Connolly
(We’re Amazon affiliates, so if you purchase something through an Amazon link, we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Obviously this doesn’t influence what we recommend, and we link to places other than Amazon.)
Covid cases are spiking, and lots of secular homeschool families are still navigating social activities with extra caution. Having clear policies for homeschool co-ops and get-togethers can help all the folks in your community make the best choices for their families.