Homeschool Literature

As in all subjects, there are many different homeschool literature choices for you.

Gets confusing doesn't it?

To cut through a lot of that confusion, here are a few of the different curriculum programs that I have used with my children over the years.You may or may not like these - It all depends on what you and your children like, how they learn, and your teaching style.

Keep all of these things in mind as you read over these homeschool literature curriculum reviews.

Do-It-Yourself Homeschool Literature Curriculum

Books Children Love: A Guide to the Best Children's Literature

You can certainly find lists of the best books for children to read on the Internet, but...a word of caution.

Many of these books are written from a secular and/or New Age viewpoint and they may contain things that you don't want your children reading.

For homeschool literature, I have found it best to always go with recommendations made by Christian Homeschool resources, by other homeschool moms, or a resource like Books Children Love.

It's just safer.

Another good book is Let the Authors Speak by Carolyn Hatcher. This book is organized several different ways -

• By author
• By time period
• By Title

I found this book very useful for my homeschool literature lesson plan because we did a lot of "unit studies". With this book, I could look up the time period we were studying in history or look up biographies about people we were studying and then buy these books or, preferably, find them in the library. This way, everything we were studying fit together.

If we were studying the Civil War, I would simply look up the books in the time period, see what was available and choose a "read-aloud" or find a book on their grade level for them to be reading while we studied the Civil War.

Literature Study Guides

The recommendations in this section are for homeschool literature study guides that are "ready to go." In other words, you don't need to do anything to prepare or sit down and write your own unit study, literature study guide, or literature lesson plan. Pretty much, everything has been done for you.

This obviously has it's benefits :)

The two homeschool literature study guides that I have listed below are used by MANY homeschool families.

I have used both of these, and they are good.

But...I love doing unit studies and putting my own studies together; so, we didn't use these guides all the way through.

Let me tell you why, and then you can see which way will fit you best.

I like to read and have my children read a LOT of books about whatever we are studying. I feel that this way, they really get to see and experience a time period or a person completely.

What happens is that we will find books that we just love and can't put down.

We want to read as much as we can - as fast as we can. While the homeschool literature guides below are very good, you can't do this. You have to stay on schedule and read just a few chapters a week.

For me and my kids - that doesn't work.

When we get a hold of a great book - we read....and we read....and we read....

So, you might want to keep that in mind. An option is that you could use these guides and follow their program but go crazy reading additional books at the same time - whatever works for you :)

Five in a Row

This homeschool literature curriculum is based on some of the very best books available to read to your kids.

I love every book that is included in this study. Be sure and read my homeschooling article on The Best Kid's Reading Books for a complete list of these books.

This series starts out with Before Five in a Row. This book is for children ages 2-4. You will read this entire list of absolutely wonderful books to your child and do the provided activities that go along with each book. This book is intended to get your child ready to read.

This all new product includes 23 FIAR-style mini-units (plus an extra mini-unit!) on outstanding AND simple children's books for ages 2-4 as well as a large section on learning readiness activities in everyday life:

• things to do in the kitchen
• at the store
• at bedtime
• bathtime

After Before Five In A Row, you have Five In A Row for children ages 5-11. There are 4 volumes to use that are based on a selection of high quality books that both you and your kids will love.

This is unit-study approach to early education based on outstanding children's literature. Together, the four volumes of Five in a Row provide 55 lesson plans covering Social Studies, Language, Art, Applied Math, and Science in a way that causes children to fall in love with learning.

Intended to be easily usable, even for new homeschool mothers, each days activities are carefully laid out so you don't have to do your own literature lesson plans. With this homeschool literature curriculum, expect to be ready to teach with as little as five minutes of preparation time.

You'll find everything you need to be an effective teacher at your fingertips -

• pronunciation guides to foreign words or phrases
• background information on history
• geography
• art
science lessons
• facts
• figures
• activity suggestions

Beyond Five In A Row is for kids 8-12. There are 3 of these books and each one will take you a semester to complete. It is similar to FIAR, but chapter books are used instead of picture books. The books that are used are:

• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
• Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
• Thomas Edison and Betsy Ross from the Childhood of Famous Americans Series
• Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
• Skylark by Patricia MacLachlan
• The Story of George Washington Carver from Scholastic Biographies
• Helen Keller from Scholastic Biographies
• The Cricket in Time Square by George Selden
• The Saturdays by Elisabeth Enright
• Neil Armstrong - Young Flyer by Montrew Dunham
• Marie Curie and the Discovery of Radium by Ann E. Steinkefor

There are creative writing or essay projects with every lesson, social studies including history, geography, human relationships, science, vocabulary, career path studies, internet connections and much, much more. All you'll need to add is daily arithmetic and the trio subjects grammar/spelling/penmanship. Everything else is included.

Learning Language Arts

Built upon literature, this course combines the language arts into one comprehensive curriculum that teaches reading, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, writing, research, and more.

This teacher's guide gives you everything needed to keep track of your student's progress and follow them step by step through the program. Student lessons are reproduced, with teacher's notes and answers in outside side margins. Other features include 'everyday words' that help reinforce basic language arts skills, cursive handwriting activities, spelling tips, assessments and more.

• Grade 1 (Blue)
• Grade 2 (Red)
• Grade 3 (Yellow)
• Grade 4 (Orange)
• Grade 5 (Purple)
• Grade 6 (Tan)
• Grade 7 (Green)
• Grade 8 (Gray)
• Highschool (Gold)

These are obviously just a few options and suggestions that you can choose from and use for your homeschool literature curriculum. Remember that it's good to get information from other homeschool moms, but choose what best fits you and your children.

Please read The Best Kid's Reading Books for a complete list of great books that kids love.