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The first one in the series is a particular favorite for both of my boys -- Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy. Not only did it introduce my boys to this fun series, but they love this particular period in history. Not long after my oldest first read this one, we toured a lot of sights from the Revolutionary War. We even saw a statue dedicated to Nathan Hale while in CT! It kind of helped bring all of this to life for him and it has stuck ever since then.

It amazes me how much my boys have picked up from these books. I will tell you -- they've learned more history (that they can still reference in conversation months later) from this series than anything that's stuck from traditional history textbooks. I'm honestly amazed at some of the things they'll point out. Whether we're at a museum -- this happened shortly after they read Big Bad Ironclad! -- or watching a documentary, they'll reference something they read in one of these books with complete excitement. It's the joy that comes from knowing the answer before it's taught -- it's fun seeing their faces when they'll excitedly share what they know about the topic and proudly say they knew it because of what they read in Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales. It's not every day that you find something that causes this response!

Definitely consider adding this series to your reading list this year if you have a child in elementary school! My oldest fell in love at around 8 years old, but my youngest followed in his footsteps much younger -- although I'm sure some of that was because he wanted to be like his big bro!

*UPDATE*

GREAT NEWS! Nathan Hale is releasing a new book this fall about the Cold War! I know what my boys will be reading in October! 

"The Reading Journal is 168 lessons recommended for grades 2-8. Comprised of 28 unique lessons that focus on vocabulary, word study, comprehension, and higher-level thinking skills, the journal cycles through each lesson 6 times throughout the year, providing just the right amount of practice without too much monotony.

Whether you're a newbie or an OG Homeschooler, curriculum choices can be tough. Do you continue with what you've used before? Try something new? Do a box curriculum? Follow a friend's recommendation? There are SO many options! And honestly, there are way too many amazing options to choose from. I personally struggle with being able to narrow down our choices and actually stick to something. There are so many that I love that I find myself trying to squeeze in more than I should...

In the midst of the craziness that we all live in right now, reading has been a highlight for my boys. Sure, they have had their fair share of time playing Minecraft and we take daily bike rides to the lake nearby, but we have done a LOT of reading over the last month. It's been wonderful!

Well, timing couldn't have been better...A publisher contacted me a few weeks ago asking if I'd be willing to help spread the word about one of their brand new children's books. Due to the pandemic, they decided to release the digital copy earlier than expected and want to get the word out about it. (The print copy will be available later this summer.) Since we're always up for new educational activities, I was happy to do so!

I've got to say...my youngest and I LOVED Jiema and Friends! The story is fun, but to top that, the artwork is beautiful! It's hard to keep the attention of my 5 year old at times unless the book draws him in. Not only was he glued to it, but the book created a great conversation about culture, geography, and friendship. My kinder enjoyed a fun story while learning some new vocabulary in the process -- always a win-win!

Here's a little summary of the story...

After reading Jiemba and Friends, my kinder and I had fun talking about who our favorite characters were -- he especially loved Darwin, the dingo, because he LOVES dogs. Mine was Hetta, the koala bear, because well...koala bears are adorable!


I highly encourage you to check it out! If you're like me -- sad that libraries are closed for the time being -- new digital books are a great option to mix things up a little with our daily reading. Plus, they're offering *free* educational resources (coloring sheets, activity pages, art lessons with the illustrator, etc.) to go along with the book! This is offered as a weekly email -- you just need to sign up on their website -  https://hiddenshelfpublishinghouse.com/jiemba-and-friends/.

If you haven't checked out Mrs. Wordsmith, I'd highly encourage you to do so! To be honest, I had never heard of it until now. However, we're totally sold now. We received it for free as a product tester and are so glad we did! My boys were so excited when it arrived in the mail. They couldn't wait to rip it open and check it out! The quality is top-notch -- the paper is thick (can withstand the terror of a 4 year old), the colors are bright and vibrant, and stories and pictures are fun and inviting. Sam was laughing the second he started looking through the flash cards and reading the activities. The activities are silly, while still being very educational.

So far, we've only truly sampled it. I didn't want to get too far into it just yet, as I'm going to try and incorporate it into our curriculum this fall and I want to wait until then. However, from what we've used so far, it's a total win in our book!


If this sounds like something that might fit the needs of your family, you can check it out here.






I plan to use both for each of my boys. I'll be sure to come back and write more once we've gone through more of the curriculum, but I wanted to write a little note now!

It's the perfect time to go buy it before school starts!

According to Amazon, the recommended age range for the series is 9-13 years old (grades 3-7 on most). My guy just turned 7 a few days ago and is going into the 2nd grade in the fall, but he hasn't had an issue reading through the Shark volume. I love that it's jam-packed with facts and goes in depth on all things relating to the topic. Plus, the drawings are fun and keep his attention! In fact, my son spent the first few days just looking through the book and enjoying the drawings. This book has become his reading material for the 40-60 minute drive to and from hockey each week. Total win!


After watching my son fall in love with this and request more books from the series, I grabbed the only other one I could find while at the library last week. I wasn't sure if it would pull in his interest, since it's about plagues. However, it's been a total win, too! Except, instead of my older son finding interest, my four year old has declared it his. Ha! He will sit and pretend to read it aloud as he looks through the drawings and carries it around with him everywhere. In fact, while taking a nap earlier today, I caught him holding it in his sleep. Who would've thought a book about plagues could be so interesting?!


Since we lean towards a more unit study/unschooling/Charlotte mason approach to homeschooling, I love that these books could totally be the start of a fun study! We have been homeschooling for two years now and at the start of each year, I have this big grandiose plan of what curriculum we'll use for science. Within a week or two, we drop it and go the child-led route. I let my son pick a topic and we learn about it. This Science Comics Series is PERFECT for that! There are so many fun topics that you could use as a base and branch out into an entire study! I fully intend to get more this fall and use them in our homeschool. Between being factual and fun, my son can read it on his own and actually enjoys doing so! You can't ask for anything more than that!

Depending on where you're from, teaching your students the difference between short I and short E might be harder than you'd think! We have this problem. It wasn't until I found a great blog post giving validation to my struggle that I realized this is a legit issue -- it's not just me, ha!

Over the years, our family has lived in several different states (and even overseas). All this time, I never really thought that I had much of an accent. That was until I started trying to teach my son how to spell, ha! No matter how hard I try, I personally can't separate the sounds of short I and short E (in certain words). It almost feels painful to deliberately say pen instead of pin or men instead of min. Every time I ask him to spell pen or men, he immediately jumps to pin or min. The same goes for get being spelled git. I find myself slowing it down and deliberately saying "g-eh-t" if I want to ensure he understands what I'm asking him to spell. I can't help but laugh about it, but it drives us both nuts!



Well, in the frustration of it all, I started looking up ways to help remedy this problem. Luckily, I ran across a fantastic article that validated our struggle! It helped me realize I'm not crazy. It's not just me. It turns out, there's a whole section of the country that typically struggles with this! Who knew?!

Thanks to the wonderful people at All About Spelling, I found a great game to help my son work on the spelling of words with the short I and short E sounds! I highly recommend checking out this free printable if your student has a similar struggle. I think it's something we're going to continue to play once a week to really reinforce it.





I would also recommend checking out the other great tips given by All About Spelling to help with distinguishing between the two sounds. If you're like me, you'll take all the help you can get! Hey...anything to make it easier on both you and your student, right?!

For those of you in California, you've probably heard of charter schools being an option when it comes to homeschooling. Sure, you can always choose to go independent and submit a PSA (Private School Affidavit) -- giving you COMPLETE freedom to do as you wish with your homeschool. However, for many, going with a charter can be a huge blessing -- whether it be for financial reasons or support, etc. Being a former military family, we've lived in several different states and this is the first that we've been in that offers such things. I LOVE that we can choose what works best for our family and go that route confidently, knowing that we can change things up if we don't feel it's working out. For our family, going with a charter has been a huge blessing and I can't imagine homeschooling any other way. In fact, I hope we can stay put for a little while so that we can enjoy the opportunities homeschoolers have here!


Before I get into the many reasons why we love it, I will say...there a couple downsides. These include things that you wouldn't have to deal with if you filed a PSA...

• State Tests - When going with a charter, state tests are required. I'm not a huge fan of this. In fact, I had originally planned on going independent for this reason alone. However, for now, it's not an issue. My son is only in 1st grade and these state tests aren't required until 3rd grade, so we'll cross that bridge when it comes.

Okay, well, the state tests are really the only downside in my opinion. I will mention the other aspects that some parents complain about, but none of them really bother me...

• Attendance - If you homeschool through a charter, you have to submit attendance after each learning period. The way in which this is done varies with each charter -- ours just requires us to literally check a box for each day that we do schoolwork. Easy peasy. I don't have personal experience with the other charters, but I've heard from friends what all they're required to do with that and let's just say, I'm glad we don't have to, ha! 

• Samples - Our charter requires us to submit 4 samples every other learning period. This again appears to be easier with our charter than others I'm familiar with. All I have to do is snap a shot of work with my phone from each of the four subjects (language arts, math, history, and science), convert them into pdf's and email them to my ES (Educational Specialist aka certified teacher that oversees my son's progress). This takes just a couple minutes of my time once every other learning period. I know some charters require that you turn in hard copy samples, some require more than 4, etc. It really varies with each one -- ours seems pretty low-key. 

Aside from what was mentioned above, I can't think of any possible downsides. I realize many don't want the state to have any part in their homeschool -- I completely respect that. At one time, I felt the same way. As I've said before, I'm still not fond of the state testing, but I feel like it's a small price to pay for the benefits that we receive by being a part of the charter. I suppose you've got to decide if the good outweighs the bad in situations like this. For us, it most certainly does!



Now to get to the perks...

• Funding - First and foremost, the funding. Oh, the funding. If I'm being honest, that's what sold me. I was going to go independent until my current ES (who also happens to be a neighbor) told me all about the opportunities, the flexibility and the funding. With this funding, we have been able to do things that we probably wouldn't have otherwise done. Those who know me, know that I'm cheap. I'm all about the clearance rack. If it's not on sale, I won't buy it! When it comes to curriculum and enrichment activities with our homeschool, the funding we have received has allowed me to be a lot more lax with what we choose and what my son gets to do. I don't stress over finding the lowest price on a used math book and if he wants to take an art class that I'd normally think is ridiculously overpriced, sure...why not?! Even better, if I don't feel like a certain curriculum is working, I don't feel as guilty ditching it and going with something else since I'm not technically out any money. 

With that said, we have complete freedom to teach what we want and use whatever curriculum we want. They will pay for whichever curriculum we choose under one condition -- they will not pay for anything religious. I have no problem with that, though. While I'd like to incorporate a few things that happen to be from Christian publishers, I have no problem paying for those out of pocket. They don't care if we teach those -- they just won't pay for them and will not accept anything from them for our work samples. 

Other than the obvious curriculum purchases, we have also used the funding we receive towards school supplies (like printer ink), martial arts, homeschool PE classes, basketball, hockey, art classes, fun monthly kits like Spangler Science Club and Little Passports, and the coolest of them all...Disneyland tickets(!). Yes, that's right. Tickets to museums, theme parks, zoos, etc. -- they all qualify. After all, there is SO much you can learn while on a field trip! We took our Disneyland tickets and converted them into annual passes (paying the difference out of pocket), so we try to go at least once a month. There is SO much to learn there and thanks to groups like Disneyschooling, you can easily make the day an educational one. In fact, I've submitted some of the things my son has learned while at DL for our work samples with the charter. The opportunities provided by the funding have truly been a blessing... 

• Enrichment Classes - We no longer attend the one offered with our charter, but I know many that do and love it! Unfortunately, the one closest to us is on the same day at the same time as a class we're already a part of (that I already paid for out of pocket due to it being Christian). I still list this as a perk, though. Offering a free morning of classes once a week is a great benefit! I love that (at no charge to you) the kids can get together in a classroom setting and have fun while learning! If we weren't already in a class that we love, I'd definitely consider joining the one through our charter!

• Support - Being with a charter requires that you meet with an Educational Specialist once every learning period. While I listed this as a downside earlier, I personally feel like it's a perk. I have a certified teacher (with former brick and mortar experience) that I can call on if I ever have questions. When I was debating on what to use for language arts -- if it was too much or not enough -- I could ask her. She's been there. She's taught 1st grade. She has excellent insight into this dilemma. When I wasn't sure what to use to teach writing, she gave me some ideas of things she used and what other families like. I love that I can shoot her a text if I ever need help with anything...

• Accountability - This is another one of those things that kind of goes along with a possible downside, but I actually like it. With being attached to a charter and having to report to them, it keeps me accountable. I sometimes feel like I need that. In a way, it's comforting to me to know that we're on the right track and they have verified such things as they keep an overall eye on my son's education. They're not in my face -- in fact, things are pretty hands off -- but knowing they're there is nice. To me, this kind of fits in with the support aspect. On those days when we have no motivation to do anything, knowing that I have to report back to the charter -- it can give me that nudge to get moving...

• Field Trips - With our charter, they offer planned field trips and park days. I love that they try to get families together so that we can get to know one another! We already have a separate park group that we're part of (and my boys LOVE it!!!), but when they set up a charter park day, you better believe we'll be there! In the past, we've joined the charter for field trips to the paleontology museum, state park, nature center, etc. I'm sad to say we can't join them on an upcoming field trip to Legoland! Scheduling just won't work, but I think it's awesome that they're offering such a fun trip!

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LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!! I'll forever love and promote this program! If you've been following my blog, then you've read how I truly believe this program is what helped knock out my son's speech delay -- if not, click here to read about it. It has truly been a blessing to our family. My 6 year old now reads anything and everything and is excited to do so! He completed Level 3 in December and while we still plan on going through Level 4, he can now read chapter books without issue. It warms my heart hearing him read various things that I wouldn't expect. Just last night, he was looking at the book for his Rube Goldberg toy he bought and read (out loud) every little things on the box out of curiosity. It's so sweet hearing the inflection in his voice as he has little "ah-ha" moments as he reads. This is by far my favorite curriculum we've used!


LOVE IT! Even though we shelved our science textbooks and decided to just do interest-led science this year, this is still a winner. Sam loves every chance he gets to pull these kits out! After reading up on others' experiences though, I will only recommend getting the STEMdeluxe. We have only ever done the STEMdeluxe and it sounds like those that got the regular one received something much different (and not worth the cost). I love the experiment guide and parent booklet that helps teach the lessons. Plus, there are enough supplies to do the experiments multiple times -- total win!

Sort of LOVE IT! Overall, I love it. I continue to struggle at times with how long lessons can take, but this is a solid curriculum and for that, I love it. I continue to go back and forth on wanting something a little more bright and colorful, but every time I lean towards trying something else, I come back to this. Whether it's because the methods in which things are taught, or the lack the teaching assistance. I REALLY love having the script. I'm a math nerd and LOVE it, but I still don't want to have to worry about missing something on how to teach a method. I love that I can just open and go with Saxon. Sure, there are things it tells you to prep ahead of time, but I don't do that, ha! Who has time for that? ;) I love that no matter what distractions are around us (usually having to do with my 3 year old), I can read the script and know that all is covered and understood. I will say, once I know my son has mastered something in the Meeting section, we don't bother with doing it daily. We also only do Side A of the daily worksheets unless my son is struggling with something -- then we review that portion on Side B. Otherwise, the daily lessons would take MUCH longer. I think we'll be sticking with Saxon for the long haul...

LOVE IT! We've been using this for our social studies curriculum and Sam has really enjoyed it! After trying SOTW and hating it, I just decided to do People and Places and call it a day. Any other history lessons are interest-led and via library books that Sam picks out. At 6 years old, I figured this is sufficient. I love that we got it for $4 and can print all the worksheets for free from the website. I also love that it's at Sam's reading level, so he reads all the lessons himself and feels a sense of accomplishment as he goes through it. We have also been enjoying the crafts/activities that are suggested throughout the book. We'll definitely be using it again with Caleb!



While I really like this program (and will highly recommend it), I'm not going to put it in the LOVE it category for a few reasons. I'm still torn on how I want to approach spelling in our homeschool. The more I read about the Brave Writer lifestyle, the more I want to consider going that route with spelling. We haven't been as dedicated to this as we are All About Reading. With that said, I do still like that this program teaches the rules rather than just memorizing sight words or having a list and test every week. I love that my son can just sound out a word and know how to spell it based on the rules he has covered. This has allowed for him to figure out the spelling on words we haven't specifically covered. If you're looking for a specific spelling curriculum, I'd definitely use this one. The only decision I need to make is if we're going to continue down this road, or move towards the Brave Writer mentality with spelling -- I'm leaning that way...


This has been a good handwriting curriculum for us. My son has enjoyed this more than what we used last year (Handwriting Without Tears), and his handwriting continues to improve. I like that each week focuses on a Bible verse and that it encourages the student to produce their best work on their final draft of the verse to give as a gift to someone. Sam loves deciding who he's going to give his final draft to and works hard on making it look nice. Ultimately, for a specific handwriting curriculum, I'd definitely choose this one. The only reason it's not in the LOVE it category is simply because I don't think it's completely necessary. You could easily replicate it for free and make your own handwriting worksheets. However, if you want to buy something and not have to worry about preparing anything, I'd grab this...




I border between liking and loving this curriculum. It's very repetitive, which is sometimes a drag. However, I know that's also a good thing in the long run. Sam has retained much of what we've covered and the lessons are super short -- major win! Sometimes, we do multiple lessons in one sitting. I like that it's a very gentle introduction into grammar while still covering everything. We plan to continue with Level 2 next year...


I still like the idea of this curriculum, but we shelved it for now. I think we may try again next year when Sam's a bit older. I couldn't keep his attention with it, and I let myself get overwhelmed with the recommended activities -- trying to do them ALL. We ended up just doing an interest-led science this year. Whatever Sam's interested in learning about, we'll cover that via the library, Netflix, and Youtube. I'd still recommend this if you want a Christian-based science program, though. It's a very solid program...



HATE IT! I'm sorry...did I say that out loud? I feel like it's blasphemous to say that as a homeschooler. Most homeschoolers love it and promote it like crazy. We lasted less than a week. Sam was falling asleep. I was falling asleep reading it to him -- literally...in the middle of the day, a total snoozefest. We tried the audio version -- it's worse. I'd say our family loves learning history, but not with this curriculum. My husband is a total history nerd and he couldn't take more than 5 minutes of the audio version in the car. To each his own...this one was not for us. I still have the material and keep saying we might try again next year, but I'm only kidding myself. I will say, there is one perk...If I put the cd's on at bedtime, my boys are out in less than 5 minutes, ha! In all seriousness though, I won't say don't try it. There are SO many families that LOVE it! However, don't feel bad if it's just not for you. I would highly recommend checking with your local library before you buy it, though. Ours had it, but I was #7 on the wait list and it took all summer before it was my turn to check it out. Knowing it would take that long, we gave in and just bought it -- lesson on patience right there, ha! I'd recommend testing it out to see if it's the right fit. After our experience with this curriculum, we decided to just let history be interest-led this year, but I am looking into Beautiful Feet for next year...


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