HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for September 10, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 9/10/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman's brilliant (and Pulitzer Prize-winning) history of the month leading up to World War I, is $1.99. Tuchman has a knack for weaving sophisticated historical details into a text that reads like a story, and I feel like a high school U.S. history student who skipped this book would be missing out. (At least read the first chapter, about Edward VII's funeral, together!)
Salt: A World History is $1.99. I love books like this that trace some apparently insignificant item through history; Library Journal says: "Deftly leading readers around the world and across cultures and centuries, he takes an inexpensive, mundane item and shows how it has influenced and affected wars, cultures, governments, religions, societies, economies, cooking (there are a few recipes), and foods." Sign me up.
Still on sale
Sorcery and Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot is $1.99, and Suzanne and I are never going to stop recommending this epistolary novel set in a Jane Austen-ish world with magic.
Six of Crows is $2.99. We've recommended Bardugo's Grisha-verse trilogy as a binge-worthy series more than once, and this book returns to that world with a story of six talented people commissioned to pull off an impossible heist.
The Celery Stalks at Midnight — the third installment in the irresistible elementary series Bunnicula — is $0.99. The continuing adventures of the Holmes and Watson-ish family dogs and the (maybe) vegetarian vampire bunny are good, silly fun.
Rooftoppers is just $0.99. I am always surprised more people haven't heard of this lovely little book — Phillip Pullman likes it, too! — about a maybe-orphan in search of her origins on the rooftops of Paris.
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is $2.99. From Booklist: "Tommy and his friends think that Dwight is a weirdo who’s 'always talking about robots or spiders or something.' In true Dwight fashion, he shows up at school one day brandishing a little origami Yoda finger puppet. The really weird thing is that it doles out very un-Dwight-like bits of wisdom, and the mystery is whether the Yoda is just Dwight talking in a funny voice or if it actually has mystical powers." Hand this to your 4th to 6th grader who loves the Wimpy Kid series.
The Girl from Everywhere is $1.99. From our review: "I mean, really, how can you resist a story that centers on a time-traveling pirate ship that can go anywhere someone’s taken the time to draw a map of?"
The Wednesday Wars is $1.99. This is a quirky charmer of a story about how Shakespeare can change your life, set in Vietnam-era New Jersey.
American Street is $1.99. This was one of our favorite books of 2017.
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly is $1.99. We recommend this in our great books for young writers list.
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for September 9, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 9/9/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
The Greenglass House is $1.99. OK, it would be false advertising to compare this book to The Westing Game, but if there is a contemporary literary descendant of Raskin's deliciously complex mystery, it's The Greenglass House — a genuine, bona fide middle grades mystery that gives its readers credit for being intelligent and that delivers a satisfying mystery, sophisticated character development, and a few (well set-up) twists along the way. Adopted innkeepers' son Milo and his friend — the cook's daughter, Meddy — unravel the clues to discover why their off-season inn is full of unexpected visitors, at least one of whom seems set on sabotaging Greenglass House. It's a terrific mystery. Highly recommended.
Still on sale
Sorcery and Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot is $1.99, and Suzanne and I are never going to stop recommending this epistolary novel set in a Jane Austen-ish world with magic.
Six of Crows is $2.99. We've recommended Bardugo's Grisha-verse trilogy as a binge-worthy series more than once, and this book returns to that world with a story of six talented people commissioned to pull off an impossible heist.
The Celery Stalks at Midnight — the third installment in the irresistible elementary series Bunnicula — is $0.99. The continuing adventures of the Holmes and Watson-ish family dogs and the (maybe) vegetarian vampire bunny are good, silly fun.
Rooftoppers is just $0.99. I am always surprised more people haven't heard of this lovely little book — Phillip Pullman likes it, too! — about a maybe-orphan in search of her origins on the rooftops of Paris.
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is $2.99. From Booklist: "Tommy and his friends think that Dwight is a weirdo who’s 'always talking about robots or spiders or something.' In true Dwight fashion, he shows up at school one day brandishing a little origami Yoda finger puppet. The really weird thing is that it doles out very un-Dwight-like bits of wisdom, and the mystery is whether the Yoda is just Dwight talking in a funny voice or if it actually has mystical powers." Hand this to your 4th to 6th grader who loves the Wimpy Kid series.
The Girl from Everywhere is $1.99. From our review: "I mean, really, how can you resist a story that centers on a time-traveling pirate ship that can go anywhere someone’s taken the time to draw a map of?"
The Wednesday Wars is $1.99. This is a quirky charmer of a story about how Shakespeare can change your life, set in Vietnam-era New Jersey.
American Street is $1.99. This was one of our favorite books of 2017.
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly is $1.99. We recommend this in our great books for young writers list.
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for September 8, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 9/8/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is $2.99. This is a great book to hand your high school science student — its unflinching look at the intersection of race, ethics, and medicine in the history of science through one woman's story is a must-read.
Salt to the Sea is $1.99. In this historical fiction novel, Sepetys focuses on the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, an almost-forgotten World War II tragedy. This one's so good, you guys. I would put it on your WWII reading list, stat.
Still on sale
Sorcery and Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot is $1.99, and Suzanne and I are never going to stop recommending this epistolary novel set in a Jane Austen-ish world with magic.
Six of Crows is $2.99. We've recommended Bardugo's Grisha-verse trilogy as a binge-worthy series more than once, and this book returns to that world with a story of six talented people commissioned to pull off an impossible heist.
The Celery Stalks at Midnight — the third installment in the irresistible elementary series Bunnicula — is $0.99. The continuing adventures of the Holmes and Watson-ish family dogs and the (maybe) vegetarian vampire bunny are good, silly fun.
Rooftoppers is just $0.99. I am always surprised more people haven't heard of this lovely little book — Phillip Pullman likes it, too! — about a maybe-orphan in search of her origins on the rooftops of Paris.
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is $2.99. From Booklist: "Tommy and his friends think that Dwight is a weirdo who’s 'always talking about robots or spiders or something.' In true Dwight fashion, he shows up at school one day brandishing a little origami Yoda finger puppet. The really weird thing is that it doles out very un-Dwight-like bits of wisdom, and the mystery is whether the Yoda is just Dwight talking in a funny voice or if it actually has mystical powers." Hand this to your 4th to 6th grader who loves the Wimpy Kid series.
The Girl from Everywhere is $1.99. From our review: "I mean, really, how can you resist a story that centers on a time-traveling pirate ship that can go anywhere someone’s taken the time to draw a map of?"
The Wednesday Wars is $1.99. This is a quirky charmer of a story about how Shakespeare can change your life, set in Vietnam-era New Jersey.
American Street is $1.99. This was one of our favorite books of 2017.
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly is $1.99. We recommend this in our great books for young writers list.
Stuff We Like :: 9.7.18
Privilege can be a good thing if you use it the right way, how do you find new music, how to take a real vacation, and more stuff we like.
Anybody else having trouble wrapping your head around the fact that it is September already? And also wearing new Nikes?
What’s happening at home/school/life
I have set up an online meeting for high school curriculum users that I hope will turn into a weekly thing. Our first session is Monday at 11 a.m. EST in the curriculum Facebook group, so if you are a curriculum user who hasn’t joined the group yet and you want to join the meeting — you can ask questions, get me to check something for you, clarify points, nerd out over the readings, etc. — shoot me a message, and I will add you to the group.
Did you see that we’ve brought back the Kindle Book deals from their long hiatus?
We published this a few years ago in the magazine and last year on the blog, but I still get excited when I read it: There are so many post-high school possibilities for homeschoolers, and college is just one of them.
The easiest way to inspire your kids to love learning is to be a learner yourself.
Fun fact: Aaron Burr introduced Dolley and James Madison, which just proves Suzanne’s theory that Burr was the kind of guy you’d want at your parties. (Just don’t lend him money!) Dolley Madison’s parties were office-defining for the President’s role, and she’s a fascinating figure to learn more about.
one year ago: How do you cope when life interrupts your homeschool?
two years ago: Still the best homeschool advice I ever go: Keep a joy journal
three years ago: What to read next if you loved The Mysterious Benedict Society
four years ago: Learning to let go of homeschool fears
The Links I Liked
I feel like I need to be reminded of this sometimes: We have the power to spend our privilege to address injustice.
I really enjoyed this: How do you find new music?
I hadn’t taken a real vacation in years, and I didn’t actually plan to take one this summer — but our beach house ended up having the world’s worst wi-fi, and there’s only so much work you can do for an online magazine when you can’t connect to the internet. I was convinced the world would fall apart because it took me a week to answer an email, but I came home to no emergencies, no angry emails, and no where-have-you-been drama. It was a good lesson for me — I am allowed to not be available sometimes. I’ve actually been inspired to try to implement a little of that no wi-fi spirit into my routine this fall — I’m setting office hours for students and logging off the computer by 9 p.m. every night. I’m sure I’ll fall back into work overload sometimes, but I hope I can hang on to the realization that my 24-7 availability to work is not a measure of my success. Which is all a very long-winded way of saying that I related a little too much to this piece about U.S.-ians and vacations.
Long and thinky, but totally worth the effort: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the Tyranny of Language
What I’m reading and watching
Jason’s school officially started back this week, so I’ve been all aflutter staying on top of the million little things that need to get done — change the toner! off-campus lunch permission slips! Latin grammar reviews! I haven’t had a lot of time to read and watch things, but I’m proud to say that I have gotten my children hooked on Mystery Science Theater, and we’re having so much fun watching it together.
Hectic times call for comfort reading, and I’ve discovered a new one for my soul-soothing shelf: The Story Book Girls by Christina Gowans Whyte ticks so many of my comfort reads boxes: big happy family on a budget, quirky neighbors, serious attention to dresses and dinner preparation, cozy musical evenings, etc. Don’t read it if you’re looking for lots of action or big adventure — save it for the times when someone else’s hat shopping seems like the most excitement you can handle, and I think you’ll find it’s pretty much perfect.
(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.)
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for September 7, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 9/7/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
Sorcery and Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot is $1.99, and Suzanne and I are never going to stop recommending this epistolary novel set in a Jane Austen-ish world with magic.
Still on sale
Six of Crows is $2.99. We've recommended Bardugo's Grisha-verse trilogy as a binge-worthy series more than once, and this book returns to that world with a story of six talented people commissioned to pull off an impossible heist.
The Celery Stalks at Midnight — the third installment in the irresistible elementary series Bunnicula — is $0.99. The continuing adventures of the Holmes and Watson-ish family dogs and the (maybe) vegetarian vampire bunny are good, silly fun.
Rooftoppers is just $0.99. I am always surprised more people haven't heard of this lovely little book — Phillip Pullman likes it, too! — about a maybe-orphan in search of her origins on the rooftops of Paris.
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is $2.99. From Booklist: "Tommy and his friends think that Dwight is a weirdo who’s 'always talking about robots or spiders or something.' In true Dwight fashion, he shows up at school one day brandishing a little origami Yoda finger puppet. The really weird thing is that it doles out very un-Dwight-like bits of wisdom, and the mystery is whether the Yoda is just Dwight talking in a funny voice or if it actually has mystical powers." Hand this to your 4th to 6th grader who loves the Wimpy Kid series.
The Girl from Everywhere is $1.99. From our review: "I mean, really, how can you resist a story that centers on a time-traveling pirate ship that can go anywhere someone’s taken the time to draw a map of?"
The Wednesday Wars is $1.99. This is a quirky charmer of a story about how Shakespeare can change your life, set in Vietnam-era New Jersey.
American Street is $1.99. This was one of our favorite books of 2017.
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly is $1.99. We recommend this in our great books for young writers list.
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for September 6, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 9/6/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
Six of Crows is $2.99. We've recommended Bardugo's Grisha-verse trilogy as a binge-worthy series more than once, and this book returns to that world with a story of six talented people commissioned to pull off an impossible heist.
Still on sale
The Celery Stalks at Midnight — the third installment in the irresistible elementary series Bunnicula — is $0.99. The continuing adventures of the Holmes and Watson-ish family dogs and the (maybe) vegetarian vampire bunny are good, silly fun.
Rooftoppers is just $0.99. I am always surprised more people haven't heard of this lovely little book — Phillip Pullman likes it, too! — about a maybe-orphan in search of her origins on the rooftops of Paris.
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is $2.99. From Booklist: "Tommy and his friends think that Dwight is a weirdo who’s 'always talking about robots or spiders or something.' In true Dwight fashion, he shows up at school one day brandishing a little origami Yoda finger puppet. The really weird thing is that it doles out very un-Dwight-like bits of wisdom, and the mystery is whether the Yoda is just Dwight talking in a funny voice or if it actually has mystical powers." Hand this to your 4th to 6th grader who loves the Wimpy Kid series.
The Girl from Everywhere is $1.99. From our review: "I mean, really, how can you resist a story that centers on a time-traveling pirate ship that can go anywhere someone’s taken the time to draw a map of?"
The Wednesday Wars is $1.99. This is a quirky charmer of a story about how Shakespeare can change your life, set in Vietnam-era New Jersey.
American Street is $1.99. This was one of our favorite books of 2017.
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly is $1.99. We recommend this in our great books for young writers list.
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for September 5, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 9/5/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
The Celery Stalks at Midnight — the third installment in the irresistible elementary series Bunnicula — is $0.99. The continuing adventures of the Holmes and Watson-ish family dogs and the (maybe) vegetarian vampire bunny are good, silly fun.
Still on sale
Rooftoppers is just $0.99. I am always surprised more people haven't heard of this lovely little book — Phillip Pullman likes it, too! — about a maybe-orphan in search of her origins on the rooftops of Paris.
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is $2.99. From Booklist: "Tommy and his friends think that Dwight is a weirdo who’s 'always talking about robots or spiders or something.' In true Dwight fashion, he shows up at school one day brandishing a little origami Yoda finger puppet. The really weird thing is that it doles out very un-Dwight-like bits of wisdom, and the mystery is whether the Yoda is just Dwight talking in a funny voice or if it actually has mystical powers." Hand this to your 4th to 6th grader who loves the Wimpy Kid series.
The Girl from Everywhere is $1.99. From our review: "I mean, really, how can you resist a story that centers on a time-traveling pirate ship that can go anywhere someone’s taken the time to draw a map of?"
The Wednesday Wars is $1.99. This is a quirky charmer of a story about how Shakespeare can change your life, set in Vietnam-era New Jersey.
American Street is $1.99. This was one of our favorite books of 2017.
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly is $1.99. We recommend this in our great books for young writers list.
Women in History: Dolley Madison
Pretty much all our ideas about what the First Lady of the United States should be come from James Madison’s lovely and vivacious wife.
Pretty much all our ideas about what the First Lady of the United States should be come from James Madison’s lovely and vivacious wife. Celebrate the 250th anniversary of Dolley Madison’s birth this year by learning more about the woman who did a lot more than rescue George Washington’s portrait from the White House.
Plucky Mrs. Madison had already served as the White House hostess for widower Thomas Jefferson before her husband became the fourth President of the United States in 1809. She threw great parties, but she really captured the spirit of the young United States during the War of 1812 when she refused to evacuate the newly built White House during a British attack until the Redcoats were on their way to the city — and even then, Mrs. Madison kept her head, rescuing George Washington’s portrait and a copy of the Declaration of Independence on her way to safety. No one is certain whether the historical anecdote about President Zachary Taylor using “the First Lady” for the first time to describe Madison at her 1849 funeral is true, but the phrase began to enter the popular vocabulary after her death, suggesting that Madison certainly contributed to the ideas of what a U.S. leader’s wife should be like.
WATCH THIS
American Experience: Dolley Madison
Dolley definitely gets heroine treatment in this standard American Experience documentary, but it also touches on more complicated issues, including problematic treatment of slaves. It’s a fascinating look at the early days of Washington. D.C., when the nation’s capital was a ramshackle city in the process of being built, and at the woman who created the idea of the First Lady.
READ THIS
Women Who Broke the Rules: Dolley Madison by Kathleen Krull
The tagline of this book — “Parties can be patriotic!” — makes it clear that this biography’s focus is on Madison’s role in early Washington politics. Her networking dinners at the White House may have changed form, but there’s no question they’ve remained an essential part of U.S. political life. (Elementary)
A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation by Catherine Allgor
This biography offers a fascinating look at why the “women’s work” Dolley Madison did had such profound political implications, demonstrating how frivolous activities like shopping and throwing parties actually helped shape the develop- ing U.S. political system. (Allgor’s follow-up biography Dolley Madison: The Problem of National Unity, which focuses on the Madisons’ joint efforts to promote civil bipartisanship, is also worth a read.) (High school)
The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison edited by David B. Mattern
This book lets Dolley tell her own stories, from her life with her first husband in Philadelphia to her later difficult widowhood in 1840s Washington, D.C. (Money was such an issue that the former First Lady sold many of her late husband’s papers to cover expenses.) Madison’s distinctive personality shines through these letters, which help to illuminate her role in the nation’s political structures and standards. (High school)
First Ladies of the Republic: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and the Creation of an Iconic American Role by Jeanne E. Abrams
Dolley Madison couldn’t vote for her husband when he ran for President, but like Martha Washington and Abigail Adams before her, Madison contributed much to the notion of what the U.S. President’s role should be. This book is a fascinating look at the women who helped shape U.S. politics through their relationship with it, and it’s even more interesting to note that the debate about what a First Lady should and shouldn’t do and be is one that continues 200-plus years later. (High school)
Dolley by Rita Mae Brown
This historical fiction book about Madison’s life is thoroughly researched and full of historical details. Brown sees Madison as an intelligent and devoted wife who is perceptive, witty, and as charming as history would have us believe. You’ll enjoy this most after you have some basic familiarity with the people and events that influenced this slice of history, but there is an annotated character list if you start to get your politicians mixed up. (High school)
(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.)
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for September 4, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 9/4/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
Rooftoppers is just $0.99. I am always surprised more people haven't heard of this lovely little book — Phillip Pullman likes it, too! — about a maybe-orphan in search of her origins on the rooftops of Paris.
Still on sale
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is $2.99. From Booklist: "Tommy and his friends think that Dwight is a weirdo who’s 'always talking about robots or spiders or something.' In true Dwight fashion, he shows up at school one day brandishing a little origami Yoda finger puppet. The really weird thing is that it doles out very un-Dwight-like bits of wisdom, and the mystery is whether the Yoda is just Dwight talking in a funny voice or if it actually has mystical powers." Hand this to your 4th to 6th grader who loves the Wimpy Kid series.
The Girl from Everywhere is $1.99. From our review: "I mean, really, how can you resist a story that centers on a time-traveling pirate ship that can go anywhere someone’s taken the time to draw a map of?"
The Wednesday Wars is $1.99. This is a quirky charmer of a story about how Shakespeare can change your life, set in Vietnam-era New Jersey.
American Street is $1.99. This was one of our favorite books of 2017.
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly is $1.99. We recommend this in our great books for young writers list.
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for September 3, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 9/3/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is $2.99. From Booklist: "Tommy and his friends think that Dwight is a weirdo who’s 'always talking about robots or spiders or something.' In true Dwight fashion, he shows up at school one day brandishing a little origami Yoda finger puppet. The really weird thing is that it doles out very un-Dwight-like bits of wisdom, and the mystery is whether the Yoda is just Dwight talking in a funny voice or if it actually has mystical powers." Hand this to your 4th to 6th grader who loves the Wimpy Kid series.
Still on sale
The Girl from Everywhere is $1.99. From our review: "I mean, really, how can you resist a story that centers on a time-traveling pirate ship that can go anywhere someone’s taken the time to draw a map of?"
The Wednesday Wars is $1.99. This is a quirky charmer of a story about how Shakespeare can change your life, set in Vietnam-era New Jersey.
American Street is $1.99. This was one of our favorite books of 2017.
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly is $1.99. We recommend this in our great books for young writers list.
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for September 2, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 9/2/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
The Wednesday Wars is $1.99. This is a quirky charmer of a story about how Shakespeare can change your life, set in Vietnam-era New Jersey.
Still on sale
The Girl from Everywhere is $1.99. From our review: "I mean, really, how can you resist a story that centers on a time-traveling pirate ship that can go anywhere someone’s taken the time to draw a map of?"
American Street is $1.99. This was one of our favorite books of 2017.
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly is $1.99. We recommend this in our great books for young writers list.
HSL's Kindle Deals of the Day for September 1, 2018
We rounded up the best ebook deals for homeschoolers for 9/1/18.
Today's Best Book Deals for Your Homeschool
(Prices are correct as of the time of writing, but y'all know sales move fast — check before you click the buy button! These are Amazon links — read more about how we use affiliate links to help support some of the costs of the HSL blog here.)
The Girl from Everywhere is $1.99. From our review: "I mean, really, how can you resist a story that centers on a time-traveling pirate ship that can go anywhere someone’s taken the time to draw a map of?"
American Street is $1.99. This was one of our favorite books of 2017.
The Iron Trial is $1.99. From the fall 2014 issue: "Callum’s father has always taught him to avoid magic — so Callum is determined to do whatever it takes to get kicked out of the magical school he’s forced to attend."
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly is $1.99. We recommend this in our great books for young writers list.
Stuff We Like :: 8.31.18
The radical power of the bake sale, celebrating the legacy of Little Women, back-to-homeschool season, recent reads, and more stuff we like.
We’re back! You may have noticed that we took a few weeks off from regular blogging — honestly, I felt like I had kind of run out of things to say and needed a recharge. We have some fabulous blog contributors who write great stuff, but a lot of the day-to-day work falls (fairly enough) on my shoulders, and every once in a while, I think I just really need a break. I lounged on the beach, read lots of books, did a little bird watching, and have been banned from playing Scrabble with the rest of my family, so I think I got a pretty good one.
What’s happening at home/school/life
I have been really enjoying getting to know all the people who are using our high school curriculum. (And I apologize to the folks who have reached out about ordering it and can’t get it — because it’s kind of a passion project, I just don’t have the bandwidth to keep the curriculum store opened during academic year. You can get Years One and Two next summer, though!)
We are hard at work on the fall issue. Can you believe October is right around the corner?
Maggie wrote a great piece about looking beyond learning styles to explore the bigger picture of multiple intelligence in your homeschool.
In a sentimental mood, I republished an early “day in the life” of our homeschool. (It was our Hogwarts year!)
From the magazine: A six-step strategy to turn the homeschool you have into the homeschool you really want
And Shelli has a timely reminder that you are probably doing this whole homeschool thing better than you give yourself credit for.
The Links I Liked
I will read a Little Women think piece every time, but this one was particularly good: “The book is not so much a novel, in the Henry James sense of the term, as a sort of wad of themes and scenes and cultural wishes. It is more like the Mahabharata or the Old Testament than it is like a novel. And that makes it an extraordinary novel.”
Relevant to my life: 5 things to do when you feel overwhelmed by your workload
I am definitely a fan of the new, radical bake sale.
Related: Perhaps one of the recipes from the recently reissued suffragette cookbook would be a bake sale hit?
Idris Elba is signed on for the film adaptation of Ghetto Cowboy? TAKE MY MONEY.
If you have some time, this piece on how children’s picture books can disrupt existing language hierarchies is really interesting.
How to go back to a flip phone.
What I’m Reading and Watching
The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic might have been custom-created just for me (it’s about a PhD candidate in literature! Who finds herself in another world! Where she learns magic!), and there was so much I liked about it — but the end just killed it for me. Seriously, worst ending I’ve read in a long time.
I keep saying I’m going to stop reading postapocalyptic novels because I get enough of that in The New York Times these days, but I keep picking them up, and I am usually glad I did. Case in point: American War, which chronicles one girl’s life in the near future through the second American Civil War. It’s definitely dark, but if you can handle the weight of it, I think it’s a great read.
My daughter passed The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You my way with a sticky note informing me that this retelling of Much Ado About Nothing set in the super-nerdy world of a super-academic high school was “hilarious!” She was right.
The kids have gotten us all hooked on Gravity Falls, but we’re inching our way through it because there are only two seasons and anything that plays like a mash-up between Twin Peaks and Phineas and Ferb is worth savoring.
What’s Happening in Our Homeschool
Though we homeschool year-round, our official new school year starts after Labor Day. That means I get to buy school supplies, so I am in my happy place, surrounded by fountain pen cartridges, new Moleskines, sticky notes in every size and color, my favorite highlighters, and more.
This year, I have a junior and a brand-new 11-year-old. (I’m not even trying to figure out the grade for this kid right now — he’s all over the place!) Our year is definitely more structured, partly because I’ve got to be organized about managing our time now that I work outside of the house half the week and partly because we’re in heavy college planning mode with my 11th grader. It feels different — not bad, just really different from most of our previous years — and I am interested to see how it comes together.
(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.)
Don’t Be Hard On Yourself, Homeschool Parents
Homeschooling isn’t always easy, but you’re probably doing a better job than you give yourself credit for.
Homeschooling has its challenges no matter what. Even if your kids are healthy, non-special needs, and you have money, there will be difficult moments. Throw in anything else, and homeschooling can be extra tough. Every homeschooling parent will have days when they’re wondering if it’s the right decision.
I don’t have any remedy for the difficult parts. All kids are different, and all families are different. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and our own capacities for dealing with certain stuff. While some parents handle stress well, others might feel it’s not working.
Either way, it’s okay. None of it means we’re better or worse than anybody else. It just means our situations are different.
My husband reminded me about something that made me feel so much better that I thought I’d pass it on in case it helped anyone else. He reminded me that the public school down the street didn’t have one teacher. It has a huge staff, and every person working there supports each other. There are the teachers, but there’s also the principal, assistant principal, librarian, IEP specialists, nurse, cafeteria workers, and the janitor. There are people who order the books, pick out the curriculums, and there are people who continue to teach the teachers how to teach. Not to mention volunteers or tutors that come to help.
Granted, many homeschoolers don’t like how public school works for their children, and that’s why we’re not sending our kids there. But regardless of how you feel about them, you have to admit that there are a lot of people (usually good people!) working hard to try to teach and help the students.
And at home, there’s just me. There’s also my husband when he can help (and I’m lucky I have a husband that helps!), but I’m the main teacher, librarian, curriculum chooser, lesson planner, cafeteria worker, janitor, and occasionally nurse. And not to mention, I must also be a motivator, disciplinarian, appointment maker, calendar-keeper, chauffeur, and don’t forget Mom.
I also have to teach myself how to teach. I have to figure out why something isn’t working and find something that does work. I rarely have the opportunity to speak to an expert. (And I’ve had experiences where the “experts” I did speak to were not helpful for my particular situation.)
Fortunately, I only have two students, but they are in different grades, and they have different learning styles. I still have to go through all the steps with each of them. I don’t get the advantage of teaching the same material year after year until I know it like the back of my hand. I always have to teach something new, and I always wonder if there’s a better resource or way to teach it. And since it’s impossible to teach everything, I have to decide what to teach and what not to teach. (That’s what worries me the most – the things I’m not teaching. Am I failing them?)
I’m not complaining. I actually love being a homeschool mom. I love planning lessons, shopping for materials, and I love learning with my kids. I feel like I’m finally getting a good education for myself! But I’m not saying everything is perfect or easy.
It’s hard for one or two parents to take on the role of what in our current society is usually left to an entire institution with a full staff and trained teachers. There was a time in history when all kids learned at home or on the farm, but today we have many more expectations for our children. They will become adults in a much different world, and they will need to find careers that will support them in a very competitive job market.
So if you’re feeling a lot of pressure as a homeschool parent, I think that’s normal, and if you’re having a hard day and wondering whether you’re doing it right, I’m here to tell you that you can give yourself a break. You’re taking on a lot. And you’re probably doing a much better job than you think you are.
A Day in the Life: Flashback to Amy's 4th Grade and Preschool
Here’s what a typical day looked like in our homeschool when the kids were in 4th grade and preschool.
As we round the corner into my daughter's junior year of high school, I've been feeling very nostalgic about our homeschool life. I found this old post chronicling a day in the life of our early homeschool—when my daughter was in 4th grade and her brother was a tag-along preschooler—for the summer issue.
We didn’t set out planning to homeschool, but traditional school stopped working for us by the time our daughter was in second grade. So we pulled her out and dove into homeschooling with no idea what we were doing. We’re still figuring things out, and our typical homeschool day definitely reflects that work-in-progress feeling. Still, if we’re going to stalk other people’s homeschool days, it seems only fair to share our own.
8:45 A.M.
I’m scouring my favorite websites for a good story to post on the Atlanta Homeschool Facebook page before the day starts in earnest. I’ve been up for a while, responding to email, updating the calendar on the website, and trying to find a photo for a story in our winter issue, but finding a good morning post is proving elusive.
The kids are still asleep. When we first started homeschooling, I worried about them getting up at a regular time, but their natural rhythm seems to be waking up later and staying up later, and since there’s no real reason to push them in another direction, I’ve tried to just go with that. Honestly, I enjoy having the morning to myself.
9:15 A.M.
Jason and I are having coffee on the couch and trying to make sense of his schedule for the day when T comes running downstairs. He stops off in the schoolroom first and then races the rest of the way downstairs.
“We do have Hogwarts letters!” he says.
This year, we’re doing a Hogwarts correspondence program (I spent way too much time planning this around their favorite readaloud series!), so most of the kids’ assignments get delivered (by owl post, of course) to their designated Hogwarts mailboxes while they are sleeping. There is a lot of prep work involved in this, but the kids love it.
T wants cereal and milk for his first breakfast (the kid eats like a hobbit), so I pour his Cheerios while Jason gets ready to teach his math lab at a nearby group that offers homeschool classes.
9:45 A.M.
O’s still sleeping, but T can’t wait any longer to open his Hogwarts mail, so I tell him he can wake her up. I gulp the end of my coffee and run to check my email one last time before school starts.
10 A.M.
We always start the day with a readaloud, so T and I snuggle up on the couch while O grabs a strawberry smoothie from the fridge. (She won’t eat breakfast these days, but she loves fruit smoothies.) We’re reading Dealing with Dragons as part of our Care of Magical Creatures class for Hogwarts and comparing literary depictions of dragons.
Sometimes T kind of drifts off and colors or builds with his math manipulatives while I read, but today he’s very interested in how the princess in the story is going to do a spell to make herself fireproof. O reminds him of the time we had a Girl Scout science class here, and the instructor taught us how to soak a dollar bill in alcohol and set it on fire. (The bill stays intact and unharmed, which made a big impression.) I jump in, too, and it takes us a while to get back to the story.
10:45 A.M.
The kids tear into their Hogwarts mail, which turns out to be a letter from Professor Sprout telling them that it’s time to learn about chamomile, an herb that has the power to calm people down. O starts to make a page for it in her Herbology notebook, then flips open the Rodale Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs to find a picture to copy. The picture in the book isn’t very good, so I grab the laptop and google “chamomile.” O finds a picture she likes, and we print out a copy for her so she can use it while she’s working. While she carefully draws and labels her chamomile, T is drawing dragons in his notebook. He wants me to write down their names and a story about them, so I do. I suggest that he could use his alphabet stamps to write the dragons’ names, and he says okay — but he’s actually more interested in just randomly stamping letters, which is fine with me. For now, anyway.
11:30 A.M.
O tells me all about chamomile, and we decide to have chamomile tea with lunch. She asks if we can grow our own chamomile, and I suggest she see how she likes the tea before we start growing anything. (I’ve learned that automatically agreeing to every project means we start a lot of things that we don’t follow through on — which is okay sometimes, but I want to also introduce the idea that we can be thoughtful about what we choose to do.)
12:20 P.M.
Jason isn’t home for lunch, so I make grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for lunch. We eat at the table — O is reading her American Girl magazine, and I’m flipping through an old issue of Smithsonian.
The chamomile tea isn’t a big hit, so we pour it out and have orange juice instead.
1 P.M.
O and T remind me that I promised I would watch an episode of Beakman’s World with them after lunch, so I remind O that she still has some Latin from her Monday Hogwarts Ancient Runes assignment hanging around to finish. Does she want to finish that before we watch Beakman?
“Maybe not all of it,” she says, but she sits down and works on her translation. (We use Ecce Romani for Latin, so each chapter has a short story to translate.)
1:35 P.M.
We watch an episode of Beakman’s World, a show about a wacky scientist and his curious sidekicks that my daughter loves. We’re doing Herbology, of course, and a little chemistry in our Potions classes, but I feel like we’re a little light on general science this year, so I am happy to let the kids squeeze in a little Beakman science.
After the show, O decides she wants to work on her Littlest Pet Shop village, a project she started a week or so ago with her friends J and C, so she heads up to her room. At first T goes with her, but he comes back down to me complaining that O is too boring, so I offer to paint with him. I tell him to put on an old T-shirt while I check my email. (I check my email a lot.) While I’m at the computer, I see a tweet about a homeschooling article that looks interesting, so I post it on the Atlanta Homeschool page. I’m also thrilled to see that an expert I’ve been waiting to hear from about a story has gotten back to me with a great answer, so I send off a quick “Thanks.”
3:00 P.M.
T and I are painting peg people at the school room table when Jason gets home from class with a few bags of groceries. I take advantage of the fact that he’s home for a few hours and wrap up our painting project so I can work on a few articles. O asks if she and T can play Fossil Fighters for a little while, and I give them the go-ahead while I’m cleaning up the paint and wiping down the tables. I realize that I meant to work on the letter of the week (It’s H) with T and didn’t get around to it, but I figure I can let it go for today.
5:00 P.M.
I’ve put in a couple of hours of work. The kids have been in and out of the house a few times, but now they’re back inside since it’s O’s night to cook dinner, and we have to serve it before Jason heads out for his evening tutoring classes. (He’ll leave around 6 p.m. and be back home a little after 9 p.m., which makes today a fairly light day for him.) O makes scrambled eggs with cheese and broccoli, and I help her out by making toast and keeping it warm in the oven while she’s cooking. Most days of the week, we manage to squeeze in a family dinner, though there are days — like Thursdays, when Jason’s only home between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. — when we eat at weird times and end up having a dinner-snack later in the evening. When I finish the article I’m writing, I’ll knit on the couch while the kids watch a movie.
This article was in the summer 2018 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.)
The Bigger Picture of Multiple Intelligences
Thinking beyond a single learning style can open up the possibilities in your homeschool. Maggie explains how it works for her.
Thinking beyond a single learning style can open up the possibilities in your homeschool. Maggie explains how it works for her.
“Find out your child’s learning style.” It’s advice that’s frequently given to new homeschool parents, and it’s not bad advice. Certainly, the more we can know about our children as learners, the more effectively we’ll be able to tailor our efforts to their needs.
Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences proposed that there are eight different types of human intelligence (musical, visual, verbal, logical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic), and he later added existential and moral to his list of intelligence modalities. There are plenty of resources out there for determining your children’s learning style. You might simply read a description of each modality and realize that it fits your child’s aptitude to a tee, or you might decide to take a quiz to narrow down your child’s top intelligence modalities. Either way, it’s a handy little nugget of knowledge to have about your child.
When you hit a proverbial educational wall with your child, it can be valuable to consider your child’s strongest modalities. A child who is struggling with division and has strong kinesthetic intelligence might finally “get it” by walking along a number line and placing a marker to divide the number line into equal parts. A musically-inclined child who struggles to memorize the parts of speech might finally be able to recall the definition of an adverb by singing School House Rock’s “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here.”
At the same time, I think that sometimes multiple intelligences are misunderstood. Sometimes people think that when they discover their child is strongest in one area, it’s best to focus only on learning via that method. The thing is that all people are capable of learning using all of the intelligence modalities. In fact, it’s best if we can teach using as many of those modalities as possible. When we’re using methods that appeal to many of Gardner’s intelligences, we’re taking a multi-sensory approach.
Why is it important to use a multi-sensory approach? In a homeschool setting, there are two major advantages:
Appealing to more than one sense (or type of intelligence) means more pathways to learning. If you’ve had the privilege of sitting in on a good lecture, you know that you can learn a lot just from listening to a dynamic, knowledgeable speaker. If that speaker either draws or uses a slide of a visual organizer that illustrates his or her talking points, that learning becomes even more clear for you. Then, if you record the speaker’s words and visual organizers by hand onto your own paper, your knowledge of the lecture content is yet further enhanced.
When students make more connections in the brain by using multiple senses, long-term learning is more likely to happen. A young child might see the letter s on a paper and then recall the “sssss” sound she made while she carved the letter shape into a pan of shaving cream, which reminds her of the “s” puzzle piece she manipulated in her hand, which reminds her of when it was her turn to say “s” when she and her mother took turns singing the letters in the alphabet song.
Research shows that knowledge occurs in webs, or, in other words, that we build knowledge by attaching it to other knowledge. Let’s help our kids build really great webs with plenty of diverse strands that attach in many ways.
Stuff We Like :: 7.27.18
Martha Gellhorn is so much cooler than Hemingway, changing representations of women’s roles in pop culture, the handwriting of famous people, the last week of our curriculum sale, and more in this week’s edition of Stuff We Like.
Is it really almost August?
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
It's the last week of our high school curriculum sale! You know how you have an idea for a project, and it just keeps growing and growing? Yeah, that’s kind of what happened here. The full curriculum is clocking in at eleven volumes and nearly 2,000 pages, but I’m pretty pleased with how it came together.
This week in summer reading: What to read next if you need a little more magic in your life.
Looking for a science study? Rebecca reviews The Science of Climate Change, a science topic that feels particularly important these days.
one year ago: Suzanne celebrates the joys of summer reading. Plus: What to read next if you love Roald Dahl.
two years ago: How to make P.E. part of your homeschool. Also: What to read next if you loved the Warriors series.
three years ago: Your child doesn’t have to be a homeschool poster child. And: What to read next if you loved Harriet the Spy.
four years ago: You have all the time you need.
THE LINKS I LIKED
Martha Gellhorn is so cool, and this makes me want to take “Hills Like White Elephants” off my reading list and sub in some of her reporting.
More people should do this! Tracee Ellis Ross annoys everyone by asking if the housework part of her character’s script is actually part of the story and not just gratuitous wife-making-dinner.
I find roundups like this endlessly fascinating: The handwriting of famous people
I know I’m an old-fashioned editor at this point, but this kind of thing drives me crazy. Let’s be honest about what we're covering and why.
WHAT I’M THINKING ABOUT
I’ve been up to my ears this week editing the high school curriculum for its final print run. As I mentioned, it kind of outgrew me a little, so it’s been a particularly busy week—good-busy but definitely busy-busy. That’s about all I’ve got to talk about this week, though, which makes me a little boring.
(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.)
Curriculum Review: The Science of Climate Change
Forget alternative facts and deal with actual science: Rebecca Pickens reviews The Science of Climate Change, a hands-on curriculum that tackles one of science’s most important issues.
Homeschooling offers our families wide open space to explore complex and topical issues like climate change. But finding science-based, kid-friendly materials to support these efforts can be surprisingly difficult. Blair Lee’s new curriculum, The Science of Climate Change: A Hands-On Course, has arrived on the scene just in time!
A former science professor with a background in environmental chemistry, Lee has gone on to pursue a career as a curriculum developer. You may know her as an author for the popular resource R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey or as the Smart Science columnist for HSL magazine.
In developing content for The Science of Climate Change, Lee has relied on her own scientific training as well as the research of reputable organizations which include:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Earth Systems Laboratory (ESL)
National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
The Science of Climate Change is a concise 69 pages divided into four parts titled: The Greenhouse Effect; Global Warming; Climate Change; and What Can Be Done to Help? A useful glossary, answer key, and additional resources follow.
Lee’s writing is inviting and succinct. From the start, her admirable objective is clear: to make vital information concerning climate change accessible and relevant to a wide variety of learners.
Like many home educators, Lee believes scientific understanding is developed through “a careful pairing of information with an application of that information.” In order to achieve this balance, Lee has developed 16 hands-on activities to accompany her straightforward, science-based explanations of global warming. Preparation for these activities is minimal since many of the required materials can be found in most households.
Activities include making an empty box and predicting the number of air molecules inside of it. By making a Kool-Aid mixture that models the gas mixture found in air, kids learn about the significant effect a small concentration of greenhouse gas has on our planet. Another activity encourages students to gather and interpret data by tracking the temperature, amount of precipitation, and wind speed in one’s hometown every year for the past 30 years. Other activities include labs, graphing, and scientific modeling. Each activity is supported with helpful charts, tables, illustrations, and substantive data.
“Never in my lifetime has it felt more imperative to provide young people with substantive science and opportunities to develop the critical thinking skills required to make positive change.”
Lee does not sugarcoat the serious threats posed by climate change. At the same time, she provides her readers with a sense of hope and purpose by sharing pragmatic strategies we can all use to help minimize our carbon footprints. Making a case for practices that reduce, reuse, and recycle, Lee also encourages—and shows readers easy ways to—moderate energy consumption.
The Science of Climate Change was developed for a range of age levels. Though the information presented is most suited for children ages 8 to 15, it could easily be modified to accommodate older and younger learners. This curriculum will work well with multi-age siblings and is likely to inspire terrific mealtime discussions.
In an effort to ensure the book’s activities are accessible for a multitude of learners, lee sometimes presents two versions of the same projects. One such example is a graphing activity. Lee explains, “One set of graphs is a dot-to-dot activity for younger learners, where much of the graphing work has been done, and the real work is answering the questions at the end of the activity. There is also a version for older learners who use the information from a data table and to plot data points on the graphs.”
The Science of Climate Change is a secular program containing peer-reviewed, objective science. Even children who don’t yet consider themselves to be “good at” or engaged with science will be able to interact thoughtfully with the material presented here.
The PDF version is $20, and soft-cover copies are $30.
Many times throughout this year I’ve considered what an increasingly complex world my sons are living in. Never in my lifetime has it felt more imperative to provide young people with substantive science and opportunities to develop the critical thinking skills required to make positive change. As moms and dads everywhere put forth their best efforts to raise a new generation of responsible global citizens, they are fortunate to have resources such as Blair Lee’s new book to support them in their efforts.
Disclosure: Blair Lee is a sometimes columnist for HSL magazine. Her work for the magazine did not influence this review.
This was originally published in the summer 2017 issue of HSL.
Summer Reading: Magic and Enchantment
If you’re craving a reading list full of magic and fantastic creatures, these books deliver.
Magic and enchantment abound—and a few fantastic creatures—in these tales.
Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo
You may like this book if: You liked The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Guardians of Ga’Hoole
You may not like this book if: You already love the Harry Potter books
Charlie Bone discovers he has a knack for magic and gets shipped off to Bloor Academy, a school for the magically gifted, where he finds a connection to the mythical Red King.
(Early grades)
The Lost Years of Merlin by T.A. Barron
You may like this book if: You liked The Once and Future King, The Castle in the Attic, The Arkadians
You may not like this book if: Memory loss as a plot device really annoys you
Spoiler: Emrys is Merlin, Yes, that Merlin, the one serves the legendary King Arthur. But right now, Emrys can’t remember anything about who he is. Half-blinded and stranded on the island of Fincayra, Emrys will have to save the island if he ever wants to remember who he really is.
(Middle grades)
The Magic Hill by A.A. Milne
You may like this book if: You liked Catwings, The Night Fairy, The Fairy Rebel
You may not like this book if: You don’t like fairy tales
Poor Princess Daffodil is cursed: Wherever she walks, flowers bloom. Confined to her rooms to keep the castle grounds and village tidy, Daffodil longs to play outside.
(Elementary)
Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
You may like this book if: You liked the Chronicles of Narnia, Inkheart, Dealing with Dragons
You may not like this book if: You’re not that interested in magical creatures
What would you do if you found out your grandparents were running a secret preserve for magical creatures? Kendra and Seth aren’t supposed to know, but an accidental discovery plunges them into the battle of good versus evil.
(Middle grades)
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin
You may like this book if: You liked the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Name of the Wind, The Dark Is Rising series
You may not like this book if: You prefer lots of action to lots of introspection
Young Sparrowhawk has a natural talent for magic, but his sense of responsibility isn’t as great. When he tampers with long-hidden magic, he must battle dragons, wizards, and ultimately himself to restore balance to the world.
(High school)
Outside, Over There by Maurice Sendak
You may like this book if: You liked Where the Wild Things Are, Labyrinth
You may not like this book if: You’re spooked by things like goblins and kidnapping
Ida’s father is away at sea and her mother is pining for him, so when goblins kidnap her little sister, Ida is the only one who can save her.
(Early grades)
The Magicians of Caprona by Diana Wynne Jones
You may like this book if: You liked Howl’s Moving Castle, The Golden Compass, The Wee Free Men
You may not like this book if: You like to have everything that happens spelled out for you
Tonino Montana’s and Angelica Petrocchio’s families have been sworn enemies in an alternate, un-united Italy for as long as anyone can remember. But when the two children are kidnapped by a villain with nefarious intent, Tonino and Angelica will have to work together to save themselves and the rest of the world.
(Middle grades)
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
You may like this book if: You liked the Harry Potter series, The Hobbit, the Chronicles of Narnia
You may not like this book if: You don’t like it when you have to keep reading the series to get all the answers
Assistant Pig Keeper Taran is an unlikely hero, but with the help of an enchantress-in-training, a clumsy king-turned-bard, a dwarf who can’t make himself invisible, and a furry creature named Gurgi, he’ll have to save the mythical land of Prydain from the Death-Lord Arawn.
(Middle grades)
The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree by Bill Brittain
You may like this book if: You liked Figgs and Phantoms, The Thief of Always, The Halloween Tree
You may not like this book if: You like the bad guy to get his comeuppance in the end
Thaddeus Blinn sells wishes — but when you press your thumb on his magical cards, you’d better be darn careful what you wish for.
(Middle grades)
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
You may like this book if: You liked The Princess Bride, Enchanted
You may not like this book if: You’re not ready for violence and adult situations
Tristran impulsively promises to catch a falling star for the woman he loves, but when he follows the star’s path, he finds plotting lords, flying ships, dark curses, and a flesh-and-blood star who holds the key to his heart’s desire.
(High school)
The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
You may like this book if: You liked The Beggar Queen, the Green Knowe books, the Dalemark Quartet
You may not like this book if: You don’t like fantasy that’s as think-y as it is action-y
For some children, turning 11 means getting a new bicycle. For Will Stanton, it means discovering that he’s one of the Old Ones, a warrior on the side of the Light in its ongoing battle against the forces of the Dark.
(Middle grades)
The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart
You may like this book if: You liked Time Cat, The Dragon’s Boy, My Father’s Dragon
You may not like this book if: You’re looking for an epic read
A little broomstick, an enigmatic cat, and a wildflower called a fly-by-night take Mary on a grand adventure to a spooky school for witches. Luckily, Mary discovers that she’s smart and brave enough to take them on.
(Elementary)
Ordinary Magic by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway
You may like this book if: You liked Wizard’s Hall, The Spiderwick Chronicles
You may not like this book if: You’re looking for a hero with magic powers
Magic is an everyday thing in Abby’s world — so she’s crushed when she discovers that she’s an Ord, a non-magical person. In a world where Ords are shunned or sold off to adventurers looking for quest assistants who are impervious to magic, Abby lucks into a spot at a special school for non-magic kids.
(Middle grades)
(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.)
Stuff We Like :: 7.20.18
More problems for middle children, it’s time for a new world mythology, the polite protest myth, bringing back forgotten books, and more stuff we like.
Suzanne and I had so much fun at the SEA Homeschool convention last week! It was great to meet so many readers in real life, and you really have made us feel properly guilty about being Podcast Slackers.
WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HOME/SCHOOL/LIFE
Suzanne raves about the new world of science-fiction and fantasy literature. (I am not super familiar with the old world, but some of these books are really great, so count me in.)
Why is homeschooling so lonely? This is a question I think we don’t ask often enough — it can be hard and isolating finding your way as a homeschool parent, and it’s even worse if you think you’re the only one who feels that way.
one year ago: Our 9th grade reading list. (I should do one for 10th grade.) Also: Nanette reviews the podcast adventure Eleanore Amplified and Suzanne’s reflections on a decade of homeschooling
two years ago: What to read next if you loved the Percy Jackson books. Plus: Busting myths about homeschooling high school and following where summer homeschooling leads you
three years ago: People still ask why we don’t have a print edition. Also: My best tip for organizing your high school homeschool
four years ago: Finding the beauty in chaos
THE LINKS I LIKED
I think I like this idea: We need a new mythology to tell the story of climate change.
Belt Revivals publishing company is bringing back forgotten books from Midwestern writers. (And there’s some William Dean Howells and Ida Tarbell in the queue.)
Are middle children going extinct?
What if we just gave money to people who need money?
It’s okay not to be polite about things like genocide: “Poor people, immigrants, black activists, and perhaps LGBT employees at a restaurant in Virginia are bludgeoned into silence by the constant cry for civility, made to hold still as injustices are visited upon them. Meanwhile, those with no real fear that they’ll ever wind up on the wrong side of the power dynamic in America can scold and hector.”
WHAT I’M READING AND WATCHING
At the top of my stack is Be Prepared, recommended to me by @khanrott, who is my book twin! We like all the same books, so if she says it’s good, I am so in. (Plus the cover could be a drawing of me on a camping trip.) This plus lots of sunscreen and my pool recliner is pretty much the sum of my plans for Saturday afternoon.
I am having a hard time this summer. Politics is … hard. Realizing that my daughter is about to be a junior in high school is hard. Juggling too many big projects is hard. And I’m really struggling with trying to being kind and compassionate when other people are … not kind or compassionate. I find that books help, and I’ve been slow-reading books that are basically balm for the soul: Pablo Neruda’s Odes to Common Things, Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns, Audre Lord’s Sister Outsider.
The kids and I have been watching Gravity Falls together — they watched it on their own a while ago but picked it for our summer binge. It’s hilariously Twin Peaks-ish, which doesn’t seem like it should be a sentence.
WHAT I’M THINKING ABOUT
Academic stamina. I don’t know if that’s an official term, but it’s the best one I can think of to describe the ability to work through a long-term assignment, setting goals along the way, and wrapping up with a finished product that you’re genuinely proud of. As my daughter heads into 11th grade this fall, I want to be sure she is building these learning muscles. I see so many smart kids who just don’t have the ability to work through a project from beginning to end—I don’t want my daughter to coast on being smart and a good writer. I want her to really push to do the hard work to make a good paper excellent. I see many multi-step projects in our future this fall. Do you worry about academic stamina with your homeschoolers? What do you do to help them develop it?
(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.)
It's that time again! We've rounded up some great ways to celebrate your first day of the new homeschool year, whether you want to keep it simple at home or take a big adventure together.