Tuesday 21 January 2020

A new favourite author of ours - Elizabeth George Speare

We decided on a Charlotte Mason approach to home education when we embarked on this journey, and draw heavily on the Ambleside Online curriculum. We've done years 1-5 with our eldest, and what's been an interesting by-product has been the discovery of some hitherto unknown (to us) authors.

As I've been reflecting on this, I think the simple reason is that been compiled in America and reflects cherished American children's literature - some of which is well known on this side of the Atlantic, but some of it isn't.

One author we discovered for ourselves in Year 4 was Elizabeth George Speare, who started to publish historical children's books in America from the 1950s. She won two Newbery Medals for her work and so far we've read three of her books.

Calico Captive was the book that got us hooked. It's based on the true story of an English pioneer family in 1754 who get captured by Native Americans and traded to the French in New France.

This was a historical period I was less familiar with (over 100 years before the Little House series), and as a result I was inspired to read for myself some (short) histories of Canada and America to understand the context better.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond was the next title we enjoyed, set a century earlier in a puritan Connecticut settlement in 1687. The heroine, Kit, encounters small-mindedness and prejudice in this small community and sets out to make a positive difference. Despite the title this is not a spooky book!

Our third title of hers is The Bronze Bow, based around the struggle for Jewish independence from the Romans around the time of Jesus. It's fitted in well with our Roman studies, especially the perspective of an occupied people.

Trying to sum up what it is about Elizabeth George Speare's books that really grabbed us, a few things stand out:
  • Interesting historical periods
  • Great writing and plots
  • Female lead characters (esp. in Calico Captive and the Witch of Blackbird Pond)
  • Clever comparison between cultures and belief systems
Eden (10) says:
"Elizabeth George Speare is a very good writer because she writes good stories with  strong female leads. Her stories are historically accurate and fun at the same time."
We didn't find the stories all resolved as we might have quite expected, which was a good discussion point! Either way, they have lingered with us more so than other books we've read, which is why we wanted to highlight them to you. We're looking forward to reading The Sign of the Beaver together later this year too.


We'd love to hear your experience of "discovering" new authors as you've home educated your tribe and what books have most resonated in your families. Please drop us a note in the comments below or on any of our platforms!

#charlottemason #ambleside #CalicoCaptive #BronzeBow #WitchofBlackbirdPond

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Monday 20 January 2020

Season 6, Episode 12

In this episode we're on location with the chicken breeder where we plan to get our chickens from, we do some chicken impressions and then share what we're excited about for our upcoming trip to Florida.

Please listen in, and if you have a moment to leave a nice review and rating of the show (wherever you listen) we would really appreciate it! 

Resources we mentioned include the 13 Storey Treehouse series

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Subscription links are all at the side, alternatively you can listen directly below.


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Saturday 11 January 2020

Season 6, Episode 11

As we embark on a new decade, on a wet and windy January day we talk about the new channels we've launched and connections we've made with listeners, as well as our usual activities, read-alouds and learning since the start of the year.

Please listen in, and if you have a moment to leave a nice review and rating of the show (wherever you listen) we would really appreciate it! 

Resources we mentioned include:
Eagle's Honour by Rosmary Sutcliffe
Our Universe - Russell Stannard
Quark Chronicles - Botany, by Ernest De Vore
13 Storey Treehouse series

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Subscription links are all at the side, we're also on Spotify, alternatively you can listen directly below.


Please enjoy and we'd love to hear from you! You can email us at homeedmatters@gmail.com or message/comment below or on any of our platforms.


Saturday 4 January 2020

Our love of read-alouds

A selection of books we've studied...
Read-alouds are a big part of our Charlotte Mason approach. Each term we have a number of books we work our way through (often from the Ambleside book list, although we substitute/supplement a fair few these days to tailor to our own context - ie slightly less US history). (Can you spot any books you know in the picture?)


Especially with a range of ages in our household, the read-alouds are a really effective way our kids to connect with the stories and concepts we're looking at, and doing a chapter a day is a good pace too. Our older two narrate back their understanding of what's happened, which helps them stay engaged when they're listening and also to practice being able to articulate the flow of the story in their own words.

How we track progress each term
We also have a list of free-reads each year for our kids to read (again, mainly the older ones), and some of the more ambitious ones I (Luke) will read to them at bedtime. Although I have some flexibility in my working pattern, and get to take "home ed" days every few weeks, the vast majority of the time I miss all the learning fun in the day. As a result, bedtimes are my priority time to connect with each of our kids in turn and read to them.

There are so many benefits to reading aloud to children that I won't even attempt to cover them all here, as Jim Trelease's  Read Aloud Handbook articulates them so brilliantly. This is a must-read book in my opinion!

One book which isn't a read-aloud but is related is Alice Ozma's The Reading Promise, which tells the (true life) story of a father and daughter's relationship through the lens of the stories he reads to her every night for many many years. I especially liked this book becuase I value the relational time I spend with my daughters (and son!!) each night, but also becuase our podcast has also ended up being framed around a father-daughter conversation.

We'd love to hear your experience of read-alouds and what stories have most resonated in your families. Please drop us a note in the comments below or on any of our platforms!

#charlottemason #ambleside #readaloud #readingpromise

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Thanks for reading, we hope you enjoyed our post. Some small print on our recommendations is in this post.

If you want to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes then follow this link, to listen on Stitcher go here or if you want the direct RSS feed it's here! (There's lots of platforms to listen - but if you can't find us on your usual podcast app please let us know and we'll look into it). We're also on Spotify somewhere!

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We love hearing from you and you can email us at homeedmatters@gmail.com