Here is the July update of what I have read to date for the Tim Challies 2016 Reading Challenge.

My reading:

A book someone tells you “changed my life”: (Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakeable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie)

A book by or about a pastor’s wife: (Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full by Gloria Furman)

A book more than 100 years old: (In Freedom’s Cause: A Story of Wallace and Bruce by G. A. Henty)

A book by a woman conference speaker: (The Question by Leigh Bortins)

A self-improvement book: Do More Better

Here is an update of what I have read to date for the Tim Challies 2016 Reading Challenge, and what my 5 year old daughter and I have read together for the CounterCultural School Reading Challenge.

We are a little late to the party, as we just discovered and started the Reading Challenge in late May. Notice I have chosen some titles that overlap my categories and hers, so I can kill two birds with one stone! If I am reading something to her or listening to it with her, it is great if it can count for my list, too. For example, my “book for children” was The Wizard of Oz, and it was her “movie tie-in” book. We did the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe together, which let us both check off a C.S. Lewis title.

After about 6 weeks of reading I am averaging a book a week, placing me solidly in the “obsessed reader” category! Sadly, once school starts back in a few weeks I will have to really curtail my reading and may only prove to be a “light reader” or at best an “avid reader”.

My reading for May/June:

A book your pastor recommends: (Fair Sunshine)

A book for children: (The Wizard of Oz)

A book by C.S. Lewis or J.R. R. Tolkien: (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)

A book written by Jane Austen: (Pride and Prejudice)

A memoir: Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: (The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson)

A novel longer than 400 pages: (Jane Eyre)

My daughter’s reading:

A book about God–theology for kids: (Everything a child should know about God)

A children’s classic: (My Father’s Dragon)

A chapter book: (Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle)—done as an audio book

A C. S. Lewis or George MacDonald title: (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)—audio book in the car

A movie or TV tie-in book: (The Wizard of Oz)—narrated on Audible by Anne Hathaway

My 10th grade son started the Classical Conversations Challenge program last year–in Challenge III. This is a pretty rigorous program for any student, and it was a bit daunting for him to start there, with no previous challenge background (we have a new challenge program on our campus). Also, he has dyslexia, dysgraphia, and slow processing speed. We knew we would need to have some plans in place to make Challenge III work for him.

In making modifications, it was important to us that he would not cut things that would negatively affect the class. In Challenge 3, students have a lot of responsibility for leading some of the classes, as well as presenting and debating in several classes throughout the year. I chose to shorten the length of some of his assignments (papers or recitations) or to make accommodations on classes that don’t affect anyone else (such as chemistry) so that he and his fellow students get the most possible out of their classroom experience. I would rather see him memorize 15 lines of Shakespeare (as opposed to the 30 assigned lines) than to just skip that assignment altogether. In this way, he was able to participate with the class and gain some of the benefit of the assignment while still taking off some of the pressure.

My son plays football for a local Christian school during the fall, so he has less time for lengthy homework assignments during those months. Also, he was a little on the young side for Challenge 3, being in 10th grade (this class is for 10th-12th graders). With that in mind, I made more accommodations in the fall, with the goal of increasing his workload during the spring when he had more time and experience.

Proactive accommodations

I sent his teacher a list of the accommodations I was planning to make at the beginning of each semester, and if  my son was able to do  more work than expected, he did–but I tried to set realistic goals up front. This took some of the pressure off, and it also helped him to know exactly what he was supposed to get done. I did not want to get into a situation where we were routinely shortening or removing assignments because he was behind or couldn’t meet the deadline. It was much better to accommodate PRO-actively rather than RE-actively.

Here is a list of the types of things we did last year:

• I gave shorter assignments at times instead of removing assignments altogether. It affects the class negatively when students do not bring something to the discussion. If I felt he could not complete a writing assignment in time, I would shorten the length of it. Some of these modifications varied from week to week, depending on how many things were due at one time. In the Challenge program there are weekly assignments due every week, as well as many larger assignments due where the student has to budget their time and do a little bit each week toward accomplishing a goal. Some weeks there were so many assignments converging at once that we chose the most important ones to prioritize and shortened the length on some of the others.
• I made more accommodation in subjects that were done at primarily home, rather than in class. For example, since the science portion is primarily labs rather than discussion, if he was going to fall behind in a subject we make sure it was science. Because of his slow processing speed, it was inevitable that he would need to fall behind somewhere, so he caught up on science over the Christmas break and again during the summer break. With that said, we were careful to make sure he did some science every week so that he didn’t fall more than 2 or 3 chapters behind. I didn’t want him to get into a situation where it was impossible to catch up, so this was a balancing act.
• We did some of the reading for first semester during the summer prior to starting Challenge, and some of the reading for 2nd semester during Christmas break. By getting a jump start on the reading, it was one less thing to do during the busy school year.
• Virtually all of the challenge literature for every level is available in audio format, through the public domain (check My Audio School, which is the website our family created for classical and Charlotte Mason educators who want access to audio books in an organized, child-friendly format. Click on the Curriculum tab, then click on the appropriate Challenge level. There are more titles when you subscribe but I have put a few unblocked titles in each category that are accessible to anyone so you can get a sense of how it works). We also use Audible for some titles. We found that several of the needed textbooks for challenge 3 were available on audible. I am finding the same to be true of the other challenge levels as I am currently gathering books for my sons who will be in Challenge 2 and Challenge 4 in the fall. My Audio School only has public domain titles (classic books as well as radio theater) whereas Audible has some of the newer titles (textbooks) that we needed–as well as the classics, if you prefer to spend more to get the professional narration. We use a mix of both in our homeschool.
• My son typically dictates his papers onto his phone and emails them to himself, then copies and pastes them into Word and does his editing on the computer, which is a big help because of his dysgraphia.
• Some assigned tasks were difficult for him, such as creating his own study guides, so we worked through it together side-by-side. He and I worked through Brightest Heaven of Invention together, starting with the review questions at the end of the chapter before reading and discussing the chapter, with a highlighter in hand. The book progresses in a very orderly fashion, answering most of the review and thought questions in order as you progress through the chapter. We would read the first question at the end of the chapter, then page back and read through the chapter to look for the answer.
• Instead of writing out notes by hand he learned how to take notes with a highlighter directly in the textbook. When he found the answer, it would be highlighted and a note was made beside that paragraph such as RQ1 (for Review Question 1), or the page number in the Shakespeare play where the answer could be located, in the case of the Thought Questions. In this way, he found all of the answers fairly easily and highlighted them in the book rather than writing them out on paper.
• For his history notebook and timeline, he used a timeline app, which would allow him to type or voice dictate the relevant dates and information into his phone, then the timeline could be displayed in a variety of ways. The history book for Challenge 3 has a timeline at the beginning of each chapter, and I allowed him to look at that timeline and select the dates he felt were most important after reading the chapter, rather than trying to extrapolate the dates from the chapter paragraphs. I wanted him to do the timeline exercise, but I didn’t want him to spend too much time on it. Selecting dates from the book’s timeline allowed him to do this fairly easily.
• Set a time budget for each strand, or for the work as a whole. CC suggests students spend about 1 hour per day per strand on the work. We decided to spend about 8 hours per day on school work this year (6 just felt like it wasn’t nearly enough to get most of the work done for my slow, methodical student). If he spent a little less time on one class that freed up some time for another class, and by sticking to our time budget he maintained a good work/life balance.
• Students took turns reading Meno aloud in class at the end of the year. My son is able to read aloud, but he can’t understand what he is reading while doing so–he has to either read out loud OR process the content, not both. If he is reading aloud, he is focusing on pronouncing the words and not losing his place, rather than on understanding what is being read. He has been open with his teacher and class about his learning disabilities, and that was (I believe) one key to his success. He has learned to own it and not be ashamed of it, and to advocate for himself. We simply explained the situation to his teacher and asked that he be allowed to follow along in the book in class but not be required to read out loud. Problem solved!

Here are some more specific ways we accommodated within each strand:

Latin: My son had already taken two years of high school Latin with another online program before he started CC. He did not get any accommodation for Latin, and got an A in it all 4 semesters. I remember worrying about how he could possibly tackle Latin when he began studying it in 8th grade, but he did just fine. I have since heard several other parents say that their dyslexic students did well with Latin!

If you choose to make accommodations in Latin, however, you could allow open book quizzes, not count off for spelling, or reduce the workload to only what could reasonably be accomplished in one hour per day, allowing your student to fall behind the class if more time is needed. The year my son took Latin 2 he was also taking an English grammar class, and that ended up being a LOT of homework for him. He didn’t get any accommodations in Latin but I ended up pulling him out of the grammar class 2nd semester, deciding to prioritize Latin and reduce his workload in that way. He had already had several years of English grammar and while it would have been great for him to finish the course, I decided he would do better to just focus on the Latin grammar and vocabulary. If Latin is a priority, you could cut the workload elsewhere to make more time for Latin, or you could set a time budget for Latin (CC suggests one hour per day, per strand) and adjust the workload until it fits within that time budget. 

Shakespeare and Poetry: Shakespeare actually took MORE time than required, not less, especially at the beginning of the year. This was mainly because we had to do a bit more to understand it well. First we read a children’s version of the play (CC sells the Charles and Mary Lamb children’s compilation and I also really like the Edith Nesbit book Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children).

Then we watched a DVD version, and then he listened to the original version on audio. Audible had the exact same Folger edition audios that his class was reading. After reading the play, students read Brightest Heaven of Invention and have many questions to “consider” each week. I read BHI aloud with him and we discussed the questions orally. Each question is answered directly and specifically, either in BHI or in the play itself. He highlighted the answer and marked it “RQ1” or “TQ3”, etc. for Review question 1 or Thought Question 3, as I explained above. In class he could go back to the text and find the highlighted answer if he needed to during the classroom discussion.

After the first couple of plays he no longer needed to listen to the children’s version, and we started saving the videos until the end, as he preferred to listen to the unabridged play first. It became much easier to understand once he got used to Shakespeare’s language and writing style, and the ability to get all the exact versions he needed through Audible was wonderful! We still had physical copies of the books, as well, so he could follow along, highlight them, and refer to them as needed in class and for the oral recitations.

Oral recitations: In the Shakespeare strand, students are asked to memorize 30 lines from each of the 5 plays they read. For the fall I shortened that assignment and he memorized 10 to 15 lines per play for the first two plays. This enabled him to participate in the assignment without the huge investment of time to memorize 30 lines. Our goal was for him to memorize longer portions as the year progressed. He thought this would be IMPOSSIBLE for him, but he surprised himself and did very well with it! We tried to find passages that were also available as You Tube videos (excerpts from movies) so he could watch those repeatedly as he worked to memorize the lines.

He also had to memorize a speech during spring semester (he chose Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech) and he did it! We did a google search of “Great speeches from history in audio” and found many audio and video links to choose from. I especially liked this list of great speeches for men from The Art of Manliness. I am so glad I encouraged (required) him to try to do the assignments, even when we had to shorten them from time to time. There were many assignments (like the memorizations) that he wanted me to remove altogether, as he didn’t think he could do it. He was stretched and he grew in confidence as he realized that he actually could do it, and although he occasionally stumbled over some of the words he recited his lines with a lot of drama and expression.

There was another student in his class who substituted some of the Shakespeare recitations with historical speeches or documents (I think one of them was the Declaration of Independence, for example). A friend of mine in another state said she would prefer her child to memorize a lengthy passage of scripture rather than a Shakespeare play. I thought there was value in memorizing the Shakespeare, but any kind of memory work has value so this would be another possible way to accommodate (by memorizing something different and presenting that instead). My son has rattled off many of the lines he memorized on various occasions in conversation where they were unexpected yet appropriate, so for him it provided a kind of cultural literacy that I am really glad he acquired.

Students are also asked to write a literary analysis paper about each play. I had my son keep the length of his first Lit paper about 5 paragraphs to keep this assignment from taking an inordinate amount of time. In the spring he was striving to write 1,000 words for each of his papers, but the 5 paragraphs seemed like a good place to start for a young 10th grader who works very slowly. Once again, I would rather have him write a short paper than no paper at all, and we worked to increase the length of the papers and their complexity as the year progressed.

There was also a poetry journal component in Challenge 3, where students wrote original poetry (sometimes following strict rhyming or metrical regulations). My son did not think he would be good at this and was resistant to trying it, but I made him do it anyway and he found out that he is pretty good at it! That was a pleasant surprise, and he was no longer resistant to writing the poems. I purchased a nice bound journal for him to write his poems in, so it would be a keepsake.

American History: I was able to get the (incredibly thick) Patriot’s History book on audio through Audible, so that was an important factor in even knowing that we could participate in CC. This book is 50 hours long in audio format, so it is a lot of reading each week. My son was capable of reading it, but the time required to do so may have become overwhelming pretty quick. A Challenge 3 director told me that some kids who aren’t ready for a book like this choose to substitute with another book covering similar topics, but I felt my son could handle it since it is available in audio, and that ended up being one of his favorite strands.

Students are to keep up a timeline and history facts notebook, choosing important dates and events from their text. It is virtually impossible for him to scan a text and pick out important names and dates while still grasping the sense of what he is reading, so he took the dates from the timeline that is conveniently placed near the beginning of each chapter, as I described above. He read the chapter first and then looked at the dates on the provided timeline and decided which ones were important enough to add to his timeline.

He made his timeline in the Beedocs app on his phone.  This app allowed him to add a lengthy note to any of the dates if he choose to, so he consolidated his timeline and history facts notebook on the app. After he decided what the significant dates were I helped him look through the text to find a few important sentences about the date and he dictated those into his phone right in the app. This was a very straightforward way for him to complete this assignment. The timeline and history facts notes are meant to help the student prepare for the end of semester Blue Book exams.

This app also allows you to put a photo with each date for a more visually pleasing timeline. He did that the first week but gave that part up as it takes a lot of time to find good images, and doesn’t add much to his understanding or memory of the actual events. It just looks nice.

He was assigned several research papers and some debates for this strand. The papers were meant to be 1,000 words and he had to abbreviate some of them, especially during the fall. For his first paper he aimed for 5 paragraphs to 2 pages, though by the end of the year (when football was over and he was a better writer) he was able to hit the 1,000 word target. For the debates he often had the accommodation of using note cards rather than memorizing his material. Once again, it just takes him so long to get his work done that I decided I wanted him to participate in the debates but not dedicate a lot of time to memorizing that part. Some of the other students in his class used notes for the debates,  so he was not alone in that.

Math:My son continued taking his math through a different local co op that I have used for many years with all my older kids. He does not receive accommodations for that. At CC the students can bring problems they are struggling with and discuss math and mathematical concepts together. Some students are at a lower (or higher) level than others but it works. Everyone can review or preview material, depending on what they are discussing. My son is great at math, but slow. His teacher does allow the class to solve problems using a graphing calculator. Without this accommodation I cannot imagine how long it would take him to do the work.

Logic: My son watched the  Logic (Memoria Press) material on DVD before looking at it in the book and answering the daily homework. One thing I am loving about CC Challenge is that a lot of the required resources are available on DVD or in audio book format. He was able to answer the logic questions in the book, using pencil.

He could, however, have used an app like One Note or Snap Type to take a photograph of the questions and then edit it on the computer to input his answers. He didn’t need to use this type of accommodation much last year, but I would like him to learn how to use some of the technology tools that are out there before he heads to college, so he has more options should the need arise. I love the Whiteboard feature on One Note and I use it a lot myself. It allows you to take a photo of a whiteboard, and it converts the photo so look just like a whiteboard, plus you can search within One Note and it will pull up words that are on the photos (whether they are white board photos or business cards!), as well as any notes you have typed in.

Philosophy: For Philosophy, the students read and discussed The Consequence of Ideas by R. C. Sproul. This book is also available in audio format from Audible, so my son was able to listen to it. We started the year by watching a video of R. C. Sproul by the same title, which covered some of the same material. The video was not identical to the book (they are designed to go together, as companions). The video is “extra” so it is not required. When we were able to get to it, I think it gave my son more thoughts to contribute to the discussions and a greater understanding of a very difficult subject, but eventually we let that go rather than add more work/time.

Sproul has a free study guide to accompany the Consequences of Ideas videos, so we discussed Sproul’s study guide as we worked together on creating a study guide he could take to class, including some questions he could contribute to keep the discussion going and help elucidate the material. I had originally thought he could USE Sproul’s study guide instead of creating his own, but the material on the videos is too different from the book for that to be useful. He could pull about 1/3 of the material from Sproul’s outline but had to add the rest directly from the reading.

LEARNING HOW TO STUDY:

The Challenge program is helping him learn HOW to study and prepare for a class, and the Philosophy study guide is one example. I wanted him to learn the Philosophy–but I also wanted him to learn HOW to make a study guide, how to prepare for a class discussion, how to outline a chapter, etc. This is a challenging skill area for him which took a lot of work. It was a balancing act, as I didn’t want him putting too much time into any one strand but this particular skill will serve him well in college if he can learn how to do it. So for most of the first semester, we worked through it together (preserving his time) with the goal of him learning how to eventually do it on his own (spending some extra time in order to gain a new skill). Also, the Philosophy material was some of the most challenging for him, so he listened to each chapter twice before working on the study guide with me.

Chemistry: Completing experiments together was the main focus on Community day, and kids could ask any questions they have about the text or assignments. For the daily work, my son used an audio book version of the Apologia Chemistry text (also from Audible) as well as the CD Rom version of the text (it is easier for my son to work on the computer than from a physical book, when possible). In some ways he wished he would have had the physical book, however, as he couldn’t take the CD Rom book to class since he didn’t have a laptop.

Another chemistry accommodation I made relates to the lab reports. Students are asked to turn in one formal lab report per module (16 modules altogether). I had my son write one formal lab report per semester (2 total). In addition, he wrote some informal lab reports, and for some labs he did not write a report at all. My son is not planning to go into a science field, and this was another area where we could accommodate to buy him some extra time without affecting the class.

Since community day was primarily for doing labs together, it did not affect anyone else if my son fell behind in his chemistry work. Therefore, this was the strand where I gave him the most leeway to fall behind if he had a busy week with a lot of deadlines. In return he had to sacrifice some of his Christmas/summer break to catch up again, but he took care not to fall too far behind so it wasn’t too burdensome for him.

Now we are starting to get ready for Challenge IV. I am planning to do many of the same kinds of things to enable him to succeed. He will be in 11th grade next year and we are beginning to look toward college. Therefore, as we plan accommodations we will be trying to prioritize two things: learning to use tech tools and learning to work in the way he is most likely to be able to work at college. We will be looking for a college that offers good accommodations to students with diagnosed learning disabilities, but we also recognize that some kinds of help may be hard to come by.

Do you have suggestions that have helped your child succeed in CC Challenge or another high school program? Can you suggest any tech tools we should investigate? If you have a child with learning disabilities in college I would love to hear what accommodations have been available and how your child has been able to survive and thrive in college!

After a year of Classical Conversations with my younger set we decided to take the plunge and enroll two of our older boys in the Challenge Program, which was new on our campus last fall. Our 10th grader was in Challenge III and our 8th grader was in Challenge A. Challenge A and B are for 7th-9th graders and there are 4 senior high levels (Challenge I-IV).

Why I was drawn to Classical Conversations for my older kids

I was drawn to Classical Conversations Challenge program because of the academic rigor and the opportunity for my children to interact with other teens and another adult (besides myself and my husband) on a weekly basis. In our busy home school (with 5 kids still at home) I haven’t had the time to discuss history and literature and worldview and philosophy with my teens as much as I did with their oldest brother (now in college).

Surviving–or thriving–in High School with learning disabilities?

I wasn’t sure how my older son would handle the Challenge Program in light of his learning disabilities. He has dyslexia, dysgraphia, and a slow processing speed, which means that completing all his schoolwork takes quite a bit of time. We have used some accommodations over the years, primarily audio books and various technical helps…but we struggled with other co-op style classes because I didn’t have any control over his workload and many times he felt completely under water trying to get everything done.

Last year (9th grade)  we were definitely in survival mode. He took two local co op classes and 3 online co op classes, plus two classes with me (6 credits). I ended up putting my two classes on hold and doing the majority of the work with him over the summer, after all his local and online co op classes ended. Even so, he was often the first one up during the school year, in order to hit the ground running, and frequently he was the last one in bed at night, just trying to get everything done. We didn’t have much in the way of Christmas, fall, spring, or summer break as he had to spend his breaks trying to catch up where he had fallen behind or doing the work for my two classes (Government and American Literature), which had been put on hold.

The Classical Conversations model keeps the parent as the primary teacher. On community day the kids go to class and their tutor leads them through their six strands (subjects), facilitating discussions and checking on their assigned work, helping with math and chemistry questions, listening to their speeches and debates and critiquing their recitations and papers. But the standards by which the student will be graded and the scope of the workload–as well as the final grade–rest with the parent. This gave me a lot of freedom to tweak my child’s workload and assignments to fit his needs. It was a huge relief to know that I am in control, yet he still has the benefit of the classroom environment and the great discussions and opportunity to learn from others. Even with the modifications we made this past year he benefitted from a rigorous, college-preparatory, stimulating course of study, and  even with some modifications it was no walk in the park–believe me. The Challenge courses are just that–extremely challenging, especially at the higher levels.

After 4 weeks in the program, I had not yet had to change any of the standards and he had done everything his classmates had done, yet the sense of panic was gone. He knew that I was in control and he was able to rest in that. We already had a sense of peace that things were not going to get crazy like last year. We put a plan in place and we committed to work the plan as needed.

As the year progressed, we did have to make some modifications, as we knew we would. I will write more about that in the next post. Although we modified some of the CC work, he ended up accomplishing an incredible amount of rigorous, college preparatory work, and he felt more in control of his schedule and his life. And that was so freeing.

Work/Life Balance

Classical Conversations suggests that kids in the Challenge program spend 1 hour per day on each of the 6 strands. My son had spent about 10 to 12 hours per day the previous year (in 9th grade) on homework (or about 2 hours per subject), because he works so slowly and his workload was quite heavy with a college preparatory classical curriculum. This past year in CC the curriculum was even more rigorous–yet we had some freedom to treat it like a buffet and glean from it as much as we could without feeling like we had to stuff ourselves with every dish.

We generally tried to use the “1 hour per strand per day” as a guideline and go from there. He still had to work more than 6 hours on some days–and sometimes he had to do some work on Saturdays–but he definitely did not work 12 hour days. Once the workload started creeping beyond the guideline, we had a plan in place to start making some accommodations. Our goal was not–and will never be–working just 6 hours per day. That is not realistic for him, sadly, if he wants to pursue this type of an academic load. And he does! But even an 8 hour day was so much better than what my son did the previous year, and he seemed to have more “work/life balance”.

*NOTE: I have seen it recommended (from CC) to offer as much accommodation as necessary to try and keep that “1 hour of work per day, per strand” model, so that is definitely a valid choice. We have chosen to use that as a guideline, while stretching it some to enable my son to get more of the assigned work done. This is a personal choice that he and I made together, and we felt it gave us the best of both worlds–he got the majority of the work completed but without the intense stress he felt his freshman year.

Accommodating for age as well as disability:

My son was a young student for Challenge 3. He was a sophomore, not a junior or senior as some of his classmates were. Some of the curriculum requirements would have been a jump for him even without a learning disability. So we modified some of the standards for the fall (shortened the required length of research papers and memorized recitations, for example) with the goal of being able to increase the length during the spring when he would have more experience.

In my next post I talk about the specific modifications we made last year for Classical Conversations Challenge III.

I love using the classical cycle of studying history, because I know that my children will encounter each time period in history 3 times throughout their homeschool career.

When they study a topic the first time, we can start to build a framework, and they can fill in the details when we hit that subject again.

The Classical History Cycle

The classical cycle begins with a year of studying the Ancient times, followed by a year devoted to the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, a year for the 19th century and a year for the 20th century. At the end of that four year period, you go back to the Ancients and begin again, each time using more resources which challenge your children at their current level of understanding.

What about “holes”?

Many homeschoolers worry about leaving “holes” in their child’s education. When I started homeschooling almost 10 years ago this was a concern for me, as well. As I began studying history for the first time with my child, I quickly realized that my own public school education had plenty of holes in it! There were vast time periods of history that I had never studied before!

I realize that I can never teach my kids everything there is to know about history, and that the most important thing is to give them a zeal for learning and teach them where to find answers when they have questions. However, I wanted to give them a more systematic approach than the one I had grown up with.

Throughout this Library Builders series we have been reflecting on how the principles laid out in Philippians 4:8 relate to what we should be reading. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Every book we read must be excellent

We are told to think on “Whatever is excellent or praiseworthy”. Families today are busy, and most of us probably don’t have as much time to read as we’d like. The bulk of our reading is done for school. Therefore, every book we read for school needs to be excellent.

Some homeschool curriculum providers give children snippets of the classics in textbook compilations. I view this approach a little bit like chewing up a child’s food and then giving it to him to swallow. There comes a point when a child needs to learn to chew the food on his own, and digest it himself.

I do use some excellent history texts as a spine, such as Your Story of the World. We listen to a couple of chapters a week from the volume that corresponds with our history study, as a kind of framework. But the bulk of our reading is classic literature, biographies, hero stories and moral stories relating to the time period of our studies.

Building on a Framework

This framework gives me a basis for choosing books topically. Each summer I get out all the books for the time period we will be studying next. Right now, I am prepping for our study of Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation and Revolutionary war.

I look at all the books that I already own for these topics….the biographies, the hero stories, the moral tales, the theological books, art and music books, and the classics. I set aside the ones we didn’t like the last time we went through this cycle, and make a note of which ones were favorites that we mus read again. Which sections of my bookshelf are wanting….do I need more biographies for this time period, or more art books? As I prepare to make purchases for the coming year, I take note of what I still need, and of which books on my shelves can be substituted for the books my curriculum recommends. I see no point in purchasing a new book about Michelangelo when one on my shelf will do just fine.

The Classical cycle has given me some boundaries, to know how long to spend on a given subject and when to move on. If we spend too much time on the Greeks and not quite enough on the Romans, that’s OK. I know we’ll be back to this material again in a few years, and we can make up for it then. I can feel confident as I look back over almost a decade of homeschooling that I have done my best to provide a systematic study of history. I’m trying to do the same thing with science, taking time to study biology, chemistry, physics and geology in a rotating cycle, as well.

Here are a few of the titles that we have enjoyed during our trip through the Classical cycle. I’ll build some of the links for you, and others you’ll have to google search for yourself!

Ancient Times

G. A. Henty’s The Cat of Bubastes

Tirzah by Lucille Travis

The God King by Joanne Williamson

Ancient Egyptians and their Neighbors by Broida and others in this series

Archimedes and the Door of Science

Classical Kids and other books by Laurie Carlson

Daily Life at the Time of Jesus by Vamosh

Peril and Peace by Mindy and Brandon Withrow

Famous Men of Greece and Famous Men of Rome by Haaren

The Story of the Romans by Guerber

Trial and Triumph by Hanula (spans multiple time periods)

The True Story of Noah’s Ark

books by Peter Connolly

Black Ships before Troy and The Wanderings of Odysseus by Sutcliff (it is worth it to find the illustrated versions)

Hostage Lands by Douglas Bond

Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation

The Great and Terrible Quest has been one of our all-time favorites for this time period

Crown and Covenant series

Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, both by Diane Stanley

Monks and Mystics: Chronicles of the Medieval Church and Courage and Conviction: Chronicles of the Reformation church by Mindy and Brandon Withrow

The Princess Adelina by Julie Sutter

The Spanish Brothers: A Tale of the 16th Century by Alcock (another memorable favorite)

To Have and to Hold by Johnstone

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children

Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford and other favorite books for Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims

Reformation Heroes

Stories of the Old Dominion

Famous Men of the Middle Ages

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

A Child’s Story of America by Michael/McHugh

Faith and Freedom series by Douglas Bond

Drums of War series from Peter Reese Doyle

19th Century

Charlotte in Giverny by Knight

The Boy in the Alamo by Margaret Cousins

Jack Archer by G. A. Henty

The Drummer Boys’ Battle by Jackson and others in the Trailblazer series

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Machlachlan

Seabird by Holling C. Holling

The Star Spangled Banner by Peter Spier

Modern Times

Twenty and Ten by Du Bois

My Secret Camera

Sergeant York and the Great War by Alvin York and Tom Skeyhill

World War II for Kids

Albert Marrin biographies

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp

The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

A classic is a book which has stood the test of time, captivating generations of readers. It often touches on topics which have universal appeal, such as love, friendship, betrayal or loss. Many classics are referenced in other works, allowing the well-read person to make connections between the two. For example, my son and I were recently watching the movie August Rush (not a classic!) and he immediately recognized several elements from Oliver Twist in the movie.

Although many classics are admirable, for these reasons and more, not every Classic is worth reading. Just as I would never watch every movie that wins an Oscar from the critics, there are many so-called “classics” which our Christian children should not be reading, such as books containing sensuality. I don’t give my younger children books with serious moral dilemmas which they are unprepared for. I look for books where the hero is a positive role model and avoid books which cause the reader to feel love and sympathy for someone who is disrespectful or immoral.

Reading Aloud with Older Children

I still some schedule read-aloud time with my 7th grader, because there are many books that are profitable for him to read with me, though they would not be good for him to read alone.

Last year, for example, my son and I read C.S. Lewis’ book The Great Divorce. Lewis paints an intriguing picture of heaven and hell in this allegorical story. Although I trust Lewis as an author, and would allow my son to read the entire Narnia series alone, it was important to discuss this particular book together, in light of its spiritual content. As we read we often paused to discuss passages that were difficult to understand or where we might disagree with Lewis. The book also raised questions in my son’s mind about spiritual matters, and it was important to be there as the questions arose.

Choosing books for strong readers

The books our children read will have a great impact on who they become, for good or for ill. Just as we would not allow them to play with fools and mockers, so we must protect their minds and hearts from authors who would seek to lead them astray. I would not allow my young child to spend hours alone, talking to a stranger. Do I allow him to read books I know nothing about?

Choosing Books for Voracious Readers

Early in this Home Library Builders series I addressed some of the concerns faced by parents of reluctant readers. But what about those voracious readers, who can never get enough? How do we choose books for them? Long ago I realized I would never have time to keep up with my oldest son. The days of pre-reading all his books are long gone, as he has more time and opportunity to read than I do these days.

Often my son has already read the books his curriculum suggests. Occasionally he re-reads a particularly excellent book, and I trust he will read with more understanding now than he did four years ago. Usually, however, I like to offer him new choices in his reading material.

In choosing books for him, I often rely on authors with whom we have experience, those whom I already have grown to trust. I also lean heavily on certain Christian curriculum providers, drawing new titles from their reading lists. Of course I draw from the curriculum I use, Tapestry of Grace. I also look through the Veritas Press, Beautiful Feet Books and Sonlight catalogs when looking for new books. I trust the screening they have done for me. Books that appear on more than one of my lists deserve definite consideration when I choose what we’ll read. It is also helpful to search extensive booklists like All Through the Ages by Christine Miller or Let the Authors Speak by Carolyn Hatcher when looking for new titles.

I am careful to consider age appropriateness when drawing from lists like these, particularly when choosing literature titles. Although my 7th grader reads at a high school level, that doesn’t mean he is mature enough to discern worldview on his own as he reads. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 appears on many high school reading lists, but a quick read-through of that book showed me that although my son would understand it, he was not old enough for it.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

This post in the Home library builders series continues the theme Whatever is Lovely, looking at Poetry, Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.

I enjoy reading poetry with my children! It is one of those things that I haven’t been able to work into our normal daily schedule, so we try to take time once or twice a year to do it as a mini-unit. Sometimes we choose a particular poet, like Robert Frost, and read some of his works. Other times, we just flip through one of our anthologies and read whatever strikes us.

Poetry for Young Children

For my young children, poetry is mainly about listening and learning to enjoy. They are not required to write poems yet. I’d like to investigate Andrew Pudewa’s Developing Linguistic Patterns through Poetry Memorization for possible future use in our homeschool. I just heard about it and it looks wonderful! If anyone has used this, send me a comment about how you liked it.

All of my children have loved A.A. Milne’s poems. His books Now We Are Six and When We Were Very Young belong on every child’s bookshelf. We have them on tape, as well, read by Charles Kurault. The children have memorized many of these delightful poems just by listening in the car or at bedtime. As an added bonus, these are poems adults will also love. I never mind reading or listening to them. It is worth searching for the version recorded by Charles Kurault.

Creating a Family Vocabulary

By the way, when you hear the same poems over and over again, especially as a family, the wording becomes a part of your vocabulary. We often find ourselves quoting from some of these A.A. Milne poems, and everyone knows exactly what is meant. If my oldest son wants something and he knows it is costing me a bit of time or trouble, he sheepishly smiles and quotes from The King’s Breakfast, “Nobody, my darling, could call me a fussy man, but I do like a little bit of butter to my bread!” He is instantly understood.

Another of our favorite poets is Carl Sandburg. From Daybreak to Goodnight has folk art drawings and some humorous poems for children. As an aside, we also like Sandburg’s prose. He is most famous for his Rootabaga stories, but our favorite is The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle, and Who Was In It is still available here for $6. Poetry for Young People is also a good series. It is inexpensive and has many titles, each dedicated to a different poet.

Poetry for Older Children

Last year our oldest son used Matt Whittling’s book The Grammar of Poetry in this endeavor. The idea behind the book is to learn about different rhyme schemes and meter, alliteration and personification and then to write your own poem using what you’ve learned. There are also examples of famous poems included in the book.

He enjoyed doing a unit on poetry, but I think this book would be better for a slightly older child. I plan to revisit it again in eighth grade, as there is a lot of great content in the book. Last year, though, I felt that in some cases he “lost the forest for the trees”. He was so focused on getting the right number of weak and strong stresses into his poem, rather than just listening to the musical rhythm and letting it flow. So this year I am keeping it simple.

This year we are taking a break from marking stress symbols, and figuring out how many feet there are in a line of poetry. Instead, we take about five minutes before his writing time and go over one element of poetry. It has been helpful to solidify what he learned last year in the Grammar of Poetry book, without devoting time to go over all of it again in detail.

We talk about the components of a limerick or a haiku or how to do an ABAB CDCD rhyme scheme. I try to pull an example or two from the internet or from our Top 500 Poems anthology, which was so generously sent to me by a CC School blog reader after she saw my Wish List post! Then he applies what he learned by brainstorming and writing his own poem, often on a history topic that we are studying. Today, for example, he wrote a limerick about Alexander the Great. Last week he wrote an excellent poem about the Battle of Thermopylae.

Poetry and Struggling Readers

Today I had my eight year old sit with me while I casually flipped through the 500 Poems anthology. My goal was not poetry reading at all, truth be told. I wanted to see how his tracking was, as he sometimes skips lines while reading. A friend told me to have him read aloud the first and last letters in each line of a poem, and see if he skipped any lines. We did this as kind of a game, and I read the selected poems aloud before he told me the letters.

I was stunned when this reluctant reader insisted on trying to read each of the chosen poems to himself. This child never picks up a book unless directed to do so, and there he was, nose buried in one of the thickest books in the house! I can only speculate that the short lines, wide margins and rhyme patterns made the reading seem easier to him. I plan to investigate this in the days to come. I’ll let you know if I find poetry helps this emerging reader gain confidence and desire to read alone!

Shakespeare Study

Many families following a Charlotte Mason approach study Shakespeare every year. We use the Classical Method, and have only studied Shakespeare once every four years. My children do enjoy listening to Nesbit’s Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare on mp3 from time to time. We also have a print copy of Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare, as this is another recommended version for children.

I have read that the Lamb’s Tales is easier for children to follow than Beautiful Stories for Children from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit, but the Nesbit version is still my favorite. There are many editions of Nesbit’s classic. This version (published by Barnes and Noble), is my favorite! Every page has a beautiful detailed border, with classic period illustrations throughout.  My favorite illustrated version is out of print, however.  Even though we only study Shakespeare once every 4 years, we still listen to Nesbit’s book of Shakespeare stories about once a year, just for fun.

True Confessions

I confess, I love this book so much that when I found out it was discontinued, I bought every copy I could scrounge on clearance (going from store to store in my quest) so that they could be distributed to worthy friends who would recognize what a treasure they held! So take a minute:  head over to My Audio School and bookmark Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children.  You and your kids will really enjoy it.

Learning About Shakespeare’s Life

Of course, it is important to learn about Shakespeare, as well. My young children like this book
William Shakespeare and the Globe Theater by Aliki.

My oldest son foundThe Shakespeare Stealer Series by Gary Blackwood to be exciting reading. This historical fiction book follows an orphan-turned-actor in his adventures as part of Will Shakespeare’s acting troupe, navigating intrigue and betrayal in Elizabethan London.

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is, of course, another author which deserves his place in every home library. His books pit good against evil in sharp contrast, and his phrasing is masterful. We read A Christmas Carol every year at Christmas, and attend a theatrical performance, as well. We also enjoy the Focus on the Family Radio Theater version, available here for free.

My oldest son read Oliver Twist, and I look forward to introducing him to more Charles Dickens as he gets older. Netflix has several Dickens movies, including some that can be streamed online. Preview, if you have young children. Many of Dickens’ novels deal with young children being harshly treated, and some scenes would be unsettling for young viewers. For young children, I recommend the picture-book biography about Dickens,
Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great Expectations by Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

Having an excellent library in our home is a high priority for me. I firmly believe that character is shaped and influenced greatly by what we read. It is important to me that every time my children pick up a book, it is an excellent one. I wrote a post a few months ago about choosing the best books, so I won’t rehash those ideas in this post. Suffice it to say that my guiding principle in evaluating reading material for my children and myself is this:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

This post is the first in a series dedicated to helping you build an excellent home library. I am including many links so you can see what these books look like. One of the posts in this series, however, will be about finding books through the library and through used book sources. I only buy new when I absolutely have to!

Whatever is true…

We read a lot of biographies in our home. It is valuable to read the stories of those who have gone before us, learning from their successes and failures. I particularly like reading missionary biographies and stories of faithful Christians which encourage and inspire myself and my children.

A good biography will tell “whatever is true”, not glossing over the struggles in order to portray a person who always went from glory to glory. Our family finds it encouraging to read real stories about real people to whom God was faithful, even in the midst of hard times. Truth alone does not make a book excellent, however. Some famous people aren’t worth reading about, so use your judgment.

Last year for Christmas I received two excellent books in this biography category. Beloved Bride tells the story of Stonewall Jackson and his wife through the loving letters he sent her while they were apart. He is best known as an amazing general, but he also had a remarkable marriage. I enjoyed every minute of this book. Another good marriage biography is Marriage to a Difficult Man, an encouraging book about the life of Sarah Edwards, wife of the famous theologian Jonathan Edwards.

Last Christmas I was also given Scots Worthies, which details the stories of faithful Scottish men who died for Christ during the 16th to 18th centuries. I confess, I haven’t made it all the way through this hefty book, but I intend to, even if it is slow going. This is not a “light read” by any means, but it is an encouraging one.

Another great biography for women (NOT children) is True Grit:Women taking on the World for God’s Sake by Deborah Meroff. This book tells the inspiring testimony of nine modern-day female missionaries. Brief fact files between the stories reveal global abuses faced by women and girls in other countries. It gave me lots of things to pray about.

My children and I will begin reading Trial and Triumph this spring, which tells the stories of many Christian martyrs. There are several excellent Christian biography series for older children, including the YWAM-published Christian Heroes Then and Now series and the Leaders in Action Christian Heroes series.

One of my favorite children’s biography series’ is difficult to find in the United States, but worth looking for. If you are in Canada or the UK you’ll have an easier time. Heroes of Faith and Courage has colorful pictures, an interesting story about the featured hero, and sidebars with extra information. For example, the book about Martin Luther has several sidebars which explain false doctrines and practices which led to the Reformation.

We don’t confine ourselves to Christian biographies only. I want my children to have a thorough understanding of history, and biographies play a crucial part in that, particularly for older children.

In choosing biographies about historical figures, it is important to keep subject matter age-appropriate. Last year when we studied World War 2, my younger boys read just one biography, My Secret Camera. This was a simple photo-journal introduction to the fact that Jews were made to live in ghettos during World War 2 and they were persecuted. That was the most I felt those boys could handle, and we read it when our youngest was asleep so that he wouldn’t hear it at all. The rest of their World War 2 study focused on age-appropriate battle tales rather than biographies.

My oldest son had already read Diary of Anne Frank with me when he was entering fifth grade. Anne Frank focuses on the time the family spent in hiding, with nothing said about concentration camps. It was a good “next step” for him at that age. Last year he was more mature, and we read Corrie Ten Boom’s biography The Hiding Place. This book has many pages which detail their lives in a concentration camp. Although I felt my son was mature enough to read that book last year, I didn’t want him to sit down alone with the material, so we did it as a read-aloud. I still do several read-alouds with him each year, even though he is an excellent reader, so that we can be “on the same page” as we discuss difficult topics.

A biography series I like for early elementary is Childhood of Famous Americans. For beginning readers I like On My Own Biographies and Rookie Biographies. Landmark and World Landmark are excellent series’ for this age group, too.

I highly recommend getting a book like All Through the Ages to aid you in your search for good biographies. Christine Miller has put together this exhaustive book which arranges over 7,000 living book titles by historical era, geographical region, and reading level.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8