This will be my fourth year {officially} homeschooling and with Classical Conversations. And now that I'm past the initial concern that I'll screw up this whole thing, I'm committed to totally enjoy this journey we're so blessed to navigate together. This will be my second time through Cycle One and I'm HERE. FOR. IT. I'm committed to exploring and adventuring through the amazing content in all of the best ways. I am particularly excited to dive in and experience Ancient History with my kids!
Of course, there are a ton of great books geared toward kids out there, and we homeschool moms are rockstars at collecting them. Check out my Usborne Books and More Cycle 1 Matchup here for an awesome list of fantastic books, and message me for how to get your homeschool momma discounts!
To enhance the experience EVEN MORE, this year I've decided to compile a collection of MOMMY reads, too! I asked my awesome fellow homeschool moms for their recommendations, and have dropped them into an excel sheet here. These books have NOT been vetted in any way by me. It's purely a list of IDEAS to pick through as we wade through Cycle 1. My goal is to supplement my teaching experience with personal reads (both fiction and non) that give me new insights and appreciation for the time periods we are studying.
Do you have ideas to add to the list? I'd also love to hear your recommendations for podcasts and documentaries! Drop them in the comments or send me a message!
I know I am biased and all, but Usborne Books & More really does have some FAN.TAS.TIC opportunities to stock up on books! Today I'm here to take a minute to break down the options for grabbing the best deal on books!
Join Group: Are you in Buck & Chuck’s awesome literacy groupyet? It’s basically where I drop the fun activities we’re doing in homeschool and peeking inside aaalll the Usborne Books. It’s also where you’ll get exclusive access to special deals and giveaways. You can hop in here.
Host a Party: Fun get together with friends + free books. What’s not to love? At our online parties, your job is to invite your friends and spread your book-lovin' enthusiasm. I do the rest! My average hostess earns over $200 in free and half-priced books! Contact me via Facebook or Text (847-595-1858) to ask about hosting!
Bulk Stock Up: This is my favorite deal for moms who want to really bulk up their library quickly! I use this deal myself every year when I’m ready to buy my books for the next Cycle in Classical Conversations.
When you spend $375, I get to give you 33% off and FREE shipping (another 8% off). It sounds too good to be true, but I assure you IT’S THE REAL DEAL. The order must be placed through me (not on the site) so shoot me a text or message me here to get started on your order!
Host a Virtual Book Fair: Are you a part of a homeschool co-op, private preschool, or other group that would LOVE to have a book fair for their organization? Virtual book fairs are all online, catered to your group, and so fun! Host has the choice of offering a stack of FREE books to the organization (preschool classroom, for example) or offering a steep discount to all attendees (great for homeschool moms!). Message me for more information!
Become a Book Lady In my three years as a book lady, I’ve earned over $5000 in free books and have bought many many more with my awesome discounts! Our library is BEAUTIFUL and I am SO grateful for how it’s molded the reading culture in our home! To learn more about Book Lady Life, visit the website here, or text me so we can chat!
Back to School is my total, absolute jam. As a teacher, I loved getting all ready for Back to School. As a homeschool mom, I'm even more swoony over the time of year. And having complete access to Usborne Books amplifies the giddy-factor by about a million.
I get asked ALL OF THE TIME for my top recommendations for Back to School and homework helpers. This question is nearly impossible to answer, but I've compromised and am bringing you my TOP FIVE SERIES you should definitely consider for your home!
Each of these has a fantastic variety of subjects to fit your families' specific needs, and they're all listed & linked below for your convenience! :)
For access to sales and discounts, tips and encouragement for raising readers, to follow along on Buck & Chuck's homeschool journey, and to get regular peeks inside all UBAM has to offer, make sure you Join our Literacy Group by clicking here!
And now, five homework helpers you'll love!
1. Lift-The-Flap Everything!
Lift-the-Flap are MA.GI.CAL and Usborne Books has perfected the art of combing a fun, engaging activity with the opportunity to reinforce aaalll of the necessary skills for success. Lift-the-Flap allow your kids to practice their important new concepts without feeling like homework or drills. The colors and flaps are inviting instead of overwhelming and intimidating like so many boring and dry worksheets; and the motion of the lifting flaps actually helps the brain reinforce learning! My kids can sit and lift these flaps for an impressively long time, and they're actually interested in the questions and answers! Click on the photo to see inside!
Here are just SOME of the subjects you can get in this awesome format. Some subjects are available in multiple styles for a variety and age levels, and some are available in Spanish! Click to see these:
In an era of the internet, I am a firm believer that every home should have quality encyclopedias. Unlike just anybody posting on the internet, encyclopedias provide quality, reviewed content by authors and publishers held accountable for the information they put out there. Usborne encyclopedias are incredibly well-designed, contain magnificent photography as well as information presented in bite-sized chunks! This makes the content accessible to young readers instead of intimidating or overwhelming. Our encyclopedias are also internet-linked! This means there are links or QR codes provided throughout the book. When followed, they will take your student to safe, reviewed websites with even more fantastic information on whatever subject they desire! Click on the photo to see inside!
Check out the variety of encyclopedias at your disposal. Geography, Science, and History are available in paperback as well:
These aren't just your old Websters Dictionaries. These are the most beautiful, helpful, necessary to all families everywhere MATH AND SCIENCE dictionaries. Believe me when I say: these things come in handy. FOR REAL. They are so well written, with verbiage and explanations that will help either your CHILD navigate their homework on their own, or help YOU as the parent be able to explain tricky ideas or remember concepts you've long forgotten! They're full color and beautifully illustrated for inviting, appealing adventures through the worlds of math and science.
Usborne Activity Books are TOP NOTCH. They are creative and engaging to keep your kiddos interest, but also rigorous and thorough, to be sure they're getting impressive practice! The workbooks are consumable (one-time use), but have LOTS of great pages for practice. The wipe-clean are great to use over and over again!
Writing is a difficult skill to master. Good writing requires creativity, structure, and an extensive vocabulary - all endeavors that can be intimidating to overcome. Our Write Your Own series is fantastic for developing these necessary skills in a FUN, low-stress environment. They give your kids the freedom to create and explore writing while simultaneously gaining incredible skills in organization, vocabulary, and imagination! I HIGHLY recommend also adding a thesaurus to your wish list. My personal favorite is the Not-Your-Everyday Illustrated Thesaurus!
Bonus: Wrap-Ups & Palettes
More like toys than homework helpers, the Learning Wrap-Ups and Palettes have become a STAPLE in our homeschool. We use them DAILY! My kids think they're fun, they are a great way to get a little movement in, avoid the fine motor skills my son despises while still getting in INCREDIBLE practice. They are simple to use, self-check, and cover a wide variety of skills (including reading, math, Spanish and music theory!
Are you ready to stock up on Classical Conversations Cycle 2 books from Usborne Books & More? Below you'll find handy dandy lists of my absolute favorites, my top picks for each subjects, and VIDEOS to peek inside EVERY TITLE LISTED!! (Don't forget to PIN IT!)
I can get your books DISCOUNTED or FREE!MESSAGE ME and ask how!
Join our Literacy Group to follow along on our CC Homeschool Journey, keep up with all things Usborne Books, and be a part of a community of people RAISING READERS!
ENCYCLOPEDIAS
If you don't pick up ANY OTHER books for the year, or you want to keep it as simple and streamlined as possible, I recommend our ENCYCLOPEDIAS! Click here to peek inside this stack.
These encyclopedias have fantastic photography, are well laid-out, full of great info without being overwhelming, and are internet-linked!! They are absolute must-haves for every home.
The top three encyclopedias here are sold as a set in HARDBACK, or you can buy them individually in hardback or paperback.
All of these math books are fantastic. In our home, we use the Lift-the-Flap REGULARLY as part of our math practice. The activity books are engaging, bright, creative, and perfectly challenging! Peek inside this entire stack here.
If I had to pick just one of these, it would totally be the Lift-the-Flap (an obviously favorite in our home!) It's fun to explore, full of info, and still a great map reference! Peek inside of them here.
Each of these Bible Story Books are fantastic in their own right. I love the Illustrated Bible Stories because of the fantastic, bright illustrations. I love the Book of Bible Stories because it's a dual reader. Dual readers have TWO levels of text, one for beginners and one for more advanced -- an absolutely perfect pick for shared reading! Click here to peek inside!
We are particularly excited about history this year! What a fantastic line-up of studies! From this stack, I recommend definitely grabbing the Timelines of World History book. It will be a great reference for ALL THREE Cycles! I also highly recommend the World Wars book. It is sooooo well done, perfectly written for a variety of ages, and loaded with beautiful photography!
If we're talking the Renaissance, we can't skip Shakespeare! My favorite book in this stack is Complete Shakespeare! EVERY PERSON needs this book! It is an abridged version of ALL of Shakespeare's plays, written in modern English. These are great for introducing his works before moving on to complete and original versions. Peek inside here!
Art Treasury is my personal favorite, because it teaches about artists and then teaches the reader to create art using the same techniques! Informative and fun!
Narrowing down my favorite in this stack is near impossible. They ALL get a lot of use in our home! The pocket books are probably pulled out most often. Otters, Snails and Tadpole Tails is an EXCELLENT book of poetry that I cannot recommend highly enough!!
We have SO MANY great space books that they needed a category of their own for sure! Again, I could make a case for every book in this stack, but if I were forced to pick just a couple, I would say our two personal favorites are Look Inside Space and Big Book of Stars and Planets.
This year, we started our official Homeschool adventure. It's a place I thought (and swore) I'd never be, but here I am. Homeschooling my two kiddos. What's better is that my sister-in-law has decided to embark on the same journey. Just another incredible way these four cousins get to do life together!
One of the benefits of raising our kids together, and being on a similar homeschool journey, is that we get to support each other in really fun ways like Cousin Camp! What is Cousin Camp, you ask? Well, it's basically an opportunity to dump our kids on the other aunt so we can have a day to ourselves. (Let's pretend I'm kidding).
I got to take on the first Cousin Camp of the year, and we chose to dive into Greek gods and culture, to support our current history topic in Classical Conversations. I divided the day into half an hour chunks, alternating lesson/activity time with play time (aka "you run out your energy while I transition" time). This day turned out to be SO MUCH FUN! Here's what the day looked like:
Introduction
We started out the day gearing up in our togas. The girls weren't interested at first, but the boys were... liberated (need I say more?). Ha! We sat around for a bit, flipping through our Ancient History Encyclopedia and soaking in the awesome photography & illustrations. We talked about what looked familiar or interesting, and then discussed the role and importance of the gods in ancient cultures.
We charted the Greek & Roman gods that we are memorizing in CC, discussed each of their divine realms, and then made up motions to represent them while we sang our memory song!
Craft Time
I originally had no intention of including a craft in our day, but I saw this brilliant & simple idea on Pinterest and couldn't pass it up. It was an excellent way to learn a little bit about ancient Greek & Roman cultures, and an even better way to keep their hands busy while I read aloud to them!
The kids love this craft! All four sat for a good 30 minutes working diligently on their wreath crowns. While they worked, I read aloud The Odyssey (obviously an awesome abridged version for kids). I was impressed at how well this story was retold to be appropriate (and engaging) for young children. See inside that book here.
Lunch & Rest Time
During lunch, I continued our read aloud. Then we followed up lunch with Disney's Hercules (thank you, Netflix). I'm pretty sure this was a first for all of them, and they loved it! Beckett was so entertained and kept coming upstairs to fill me in on what was going on. Hercules for the win!
Greek Architecture
After the movie, we busted our encyclopedia back out and flipped open to the page about architecture. We used the images to evaluate what we noticed about the architecture and discussed the impact the Greeks had on architecture. We followed it up with another awesome Pinterest find!
First, I let the kids stand on paper cups to see how easy they crumpled beneath them. Then we build towers based on the Greeks' strategy. The kids predicted that our structures would not hold, and were initially intimidated to even stand on them, but they were VERY pleasantly surprised to find those paper cups could hold quite a bit when used correctly! They spent quite a bit of time, and ALL of the cups, seeing how high they could stack their structures, and were THRILLED to learn that even TWO of them could stand together!
I'm Denise! I'm a former teacher turned SAHM! I spend my days adventuring with two of my favorite people, Buck & Chuck! This little space is where I share my adventures in shaping tiny minds, raising Kingdom kids, and attempting to find balance in this crazy journey we call MomLife!
