We made the decision to homeschool a couple of years back, but then we tried preschool with Jackson and knew for sure we wanted to do it. Right before this school year though I wavered a bit, not really knowing (or not wanting to know) what we were supposed to do. At the last minute I thought how cool it would be to send Jackson off to school for several hours every day, but then I prayed and God gave us the same answer He had all along. Homeschool.

We have started and now I wouldn’t want to do anything else.  Jackson is 5 years old and is in kindergarten and Oliver (3 years old) is preschool age. They both are happy learners, they love to be read to even if there are no pictures at all and enjoy chapter books. Jackson has gone through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons , a book which we loved for learning to read and I will most certainly use it with Oliver as well.

Now Jackson is on to stage one reading, he can read short books and stay focused really well. He can write his letters and is working on his numbers now. We decided to not buy curriculum for this year, but wanted to concentrate on the basics of reading and writing and then next year we will see what we’ll do. I really like the SonLight curriculum, and am leaning towards that for sure. Oliver can’t wait to join in and he is starting to write his letters now too (wants to be just like big brother!) There are some books that we love that I want to highlight over the next couple weeks so stay tuned. And most certainly YES, learning can be is fun.

Look at that smile!

Today I want to highlight some chapter books filled with  good old fashioned values and tons of adventure to keep little boy’s minds fascinated, we love all of them, but the first two are by far the boys’ favourites. Since it is hard to read some of the titles, I have the titles listed below books from left to right and top to bottom.

The Sword in the Tree
My Side of the Mountain
Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook
My Father’s Dragon
Daniel’s Duck
Stuart Little
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

I hope you find some here that will be your favourites too. Do you have a favourite to share? Any ideas on good homeschooling curriculum? Do tell!

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The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook and More Milly-Molly-Mandy are the first two books in a series of chapter books written by Joyce Lankester Brisley. She wrote her first one in 1928 and then continued on to complete a total of 4 Milly-Molly-Mandy books.

The main character Milly-Molly-Mandy is a girl who is practical, clever and sweet as well as exuding the qualities that are admirable in children. She lives in a nice white cottage with a thatched roof along with Father, Mother, Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle and Aunty. She has several friends, but Billy Blunt and Little Friend Susan are her every day companions. Sure they get into things, as all kids do, but they are ultimately honest, caring, kind and gentle to all those around them.

At our house, with our little boys (3 and 5 years old) we sit in the middle of the day and read a chapter from one of these two Milly-Molly-Mandy classics. The boys love the smart ink drawings and learning about Milly-Molly-Mandy. She has enough adventures to make even two little boys very interested. The book was written during a time when children played outside, made things with rocks, sticks and enjoyed themselves creating adventures and living in their imaginations. I love reading these books to my two boys because I want that to be inside them as well. That they would dream, imagine and just be kids.

Milly-Molly-Mandy is that they are extremely well written, as Joyce Lankester Brisley does not dumb down and do child speech, she says words such as “presently” and responds to adults as “Yes, sir” and “Yes, mam”. The pages are filled with delightful illustrations. Not hasty low-quality art, but black and white drawings that hold vast amounts of vintage style charm. I have not one complaint about either of these books in any of the stories that we have read and my children don’t either.

What do the kids say from On the Lowest Shelf?
An Interview with my 5 year old son, Jackson about Milly-Molly-Mandy

b: Do you like reading the Milly-Molly-Mandy books?
j: Yes!
b: Why? Can you tell me what you like about them?
j: Everything. They do fun things.
b: What is your favourite thing that they did?
j: When they made a tree house. Oh and the stamps story! (story in which M-M-M becomes pen pals with a relative her age in America and collects the stamps)
b:Should we get the next book now that we have finished the two we have?
j: Well, um I don’t know. You have so many books already. Maybe for my birthday or something.
b: hahaha! Yes, maybe.

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I think every kid needs this one on their own shelf. Extremely recommended.

What are your kids’ favourite classic chapter books? Do you read these oldies, or would you rather go a-la-modern? No right or wrong answers, I just like to chat books