Homeschooling: The Early Years Book List

 These first few years one of my goals is to introduce good reading to my little ones. I have put together a list of books that I have introduced or want to introduce to them during these preschool years. (Some of these are books for Mommy.) The books I have found so far are books recommended by Before Five in A Row, Simply Charlotte Mason, and some good friends that have been there, done that. I consider this a "rough draft" for the time being and hope to add more great books as we go along.

Momma's Book List

• The Mother at Home by John Abbott
• Before Five in A Row Parent Book
• Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons 
• Honey for a Child's Heart Gladys Hunt
• Leading Little Ones to God by Marian Schoolland
• Mommy Teach Me by Barbara Curtis
• Mommy Teach Me to Read by Barbara Curtis

Preschool Book List

• The ABC Bunny by Wanda Gag
• If Jesus Came to My House by Joan Gale Thomas
• Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
• Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
• Poems and Prayers for the Very Young by Martha Alexander
• A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Lewis Stevenson
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

• The Big Red Barn
• We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
• Ten Little Lady Bugs
• Runaway Bunny
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear
• Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton (other books by Sandra Boynton)
• The Mitten by Jan Brett (other books by Jan Brett)
• Guess How Much I Love You
• Jamberry
• So Many Bunnies
• The Snowy Day
• Goodnight Moon
• The Shy Little Kitten
• The Pokey Little Puppy

I was so lucky to have been able to preserve almost all of my books from my childhood. Several of these books are on my book list for the later years but even now...Lily enjoys Amelia Bedelia! I pray that each of my children will have the same love for reading that I had when I was a child.

some of my treasures

Do you have any books I should add?

Homeschooling: The Early Years

"In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mothers first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet and growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it for the most part spent out in the fresh air." Charlotte Mason

Several years ago, no one could have told me I would have the mindset I currently have on home education. Before Lily was born, I had the strong desire to home school. I even read articles and books well before it was time. My aspirations were to get started early in preschool and teach her to count and her ABC’s and how to read and write well before she needed to. God has made me much wiser since that time. I have come to see this time is precious and I have many years to come for “education.” Our focus now is building a firm foundation of godly character and having fun.

This is how we home school in the early years…

We play with Play-Doh…

We finger paint…

 We paint birdhouses…

We play in the kitchen…

 

We write on chalkboards…We fly kites…

    We play outside…

and we help Daddy in the yard.

So, it is really quite simple. We educate with life and nothing forced…all with in the security of own home. We talk about God and we talk about character. We show them they are loved and do all we can to make sure they never feel they are burdens to us.

Our First School Lesson

****Our family has a vision to home educate our children. I want to share our journey, thoughts, ideas, trials, errors, and successes. I will be adding a new side bar with links to homeschooling posts. I don’t believe this is the time to start a new blog so I will utilize Finding Michelle to share with you on this expedition. And like all things on Finding Michelle…this may last, it may not. My blogging life revolves around my faithfulness to my husband and children first and foremost.****

Lily really wants to ride a bus. And she also really wants to go to school with her 5-year-old cousins. Sometimes the bus thing pulls at my heartstrings a little bit since I know she will probably never go to a public school unless God has other plans. It pulls at my heartstrings, but not enough to become a Halloween Hypocrite all over. We’re just hoping Daddy can hook us up with a field trip ride on a bus.

This morning while in town Lily saw a bus and once again we spoke about her desire to go to school with her cousins. I explained that Daddy and Mommy felt that God’s desire was for them to teach her instead of sending her to school. She wanted to know what her cousins did in school and I explained that they learn about numbers, letters, shapes, and colors in school. I told her if she wanted we could go ahead and start school with her. Later in the car ride she spoke up and said she wanted to “do school” and when asked what she wanted to learn about, her answer was… “God.” (Reason #1 to homeschool, we can learn about God anytime!)

So, today when J.J. went down for a morning nap, Lily and I spent time “schooling.” Of course, the only difference between this and any other day of our life, I told her it was school. I have adopted the philosophy you homeschool your children from the time they are born. They learn simply though living. Some parents choose to do preschool curriculum. We believe we can teach them everything they need to know in preschool and probably through kindergarten virtually free.

View Full Album

Our first lesson today was on colors. I was aware she basically knew her colors, but this was really a great illustration for me to see just how much she knew. I equipped myself with a role of pennies and Lily with a small purse we got out of a kids meal. We decided to venture off in search of colors. The first few questions consisted of me asking Lily to find something a specific color. As we went on, she pointed to things and told me what color they were. She did a great job and earned 26 coins for her bag! After all the color finding, we counted the coins and she put them in her piggy bank to add to the money she is saving to buy a horse. And finally, we took time to pray and thank God for all the wonderful colors He has blessed us with.

What a great day of school and it only costs me 26 cents!