Trim Healthy Mama Baking Day (THM)

I've been making yummies again. I love the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook (THM) because:
~ recipes are pretty easy and you can usually make things using one bowl or the blender
~ even the E (carby) meals are low glycemic
~ the recipe uses things like gelatin, whey, coconut - almond - oat fiber type flours, flax, in other words flours that I can eat (and I use often)
~ many are good, there are times I'm so disappointed like with the truffles but many I love!

Since I was baking today I kinda ate not so good, hehe. It was all low glycemic and who doesn't like donuts and coffee for breakfast.

To make it sound super good for you I tell people I had two low glycemic donuts and an antioxidant rich cup of coffee, bwahahaha.

These donuts are sooo good. I wasn't expecting them to actually taste like those cake donuts at the store but they did! Annette, Caleb, Ethan, and Brent tried them and gave them a thumbs up!

Here's a recipe that might be close to the THM one I made.

For Lunch I had the Cry-no-more brownies, I know, I know, really bad but they were so yummy. I even got some veggies in too because these brownies have 3/4 cup of okra!

When I desribe to my friends what I had to lunch it sound more like this, "I had some yummy low glycemic ~ okra brownies and a mug of antioxidant & gelatin rich coffee", too funny but it's true.

I've also been drinking water and my good for me Apple Cider Vinegar drink. I add Ceylon Cinnamon Bark Oil and stevia.

The rest of the house is a mess with boxes because we moved a few weeks ago. I'm thankful the kitchen is unpacked because it's one of my favorite places to hang out.

I've been organizing my specialty foods too. One thing I like to do is put together the dry ingredients for smoothies, shakes, and coffee type drinks. I bought these Rubbermaid container and the are perfect for this!

I do this with muffins, cakes, and other recipes, like today, I made a donut mix by putting only the dry ingredients in a container. Later when I want to make more donuts all I need to do is pour my "donut mix" in a bowl and ad the wet ingredients.

On each of the little containers above, I put the name of the smoothie (abbreviated), the cookbook. I abbreviate THM for Trim Healthy Mama and B for Briana's, etc. and the page number. I'll have to write more about this later but that's what I've been up to, lots of baking =)

Fun-Schooling the High School Students

It's hard to believe that I'll have 4 kiddos in high school come this fall. Ethan will be a 9th grader, Brent 10th, Caleb 11th, and Annette 12th. Oh- where did the time go? Was it just yesterday we were using Rod & Staff 1st grade with Annette & Josh!

With my three boys I plan to use the Just for Teen Guys and/or the Steampunk High School Guide. It depends on the boys with which one they choose.

Our fun-schooling looks way different from Sarah's and that's okay. My boys learn better with lots of structure and textbooks (that's why I love the new high school journals because they work so well with both).

In my perfect fun-schooling world we'd use lots and lots and lots of books. "Real" books, like from the library or from the hundreds and hundreds that I've purchased (because you know, my kids were going to love reading). Unfortunately I have reluctant readers which puts a wrench in my fun schooling plans, haha!

I can make a beautiful basket or put together a cool container of goodies for a subject, set it out and guess what? Yup, nobody (when I say nobody, I'm talking about my 4 boys not Josh & Annette) touches it.

So, with that said, I am still a fun-schooler even though we use textbooks like ACE and Notgrass. We are just a different kind of fun-schooling family. My high schoolers will learn lots of real life skills, read great leadership books that aren't found in your average high school curriculum, have fun baking, playing games, and kicking a soccer ball around, and of course use some Thinking Tree books and journals.

My high schoolers will even use the new Yum-Schooling journals which reminds me, I need to order another Yum-Schooling Journal. You can watch a video of this journal HERE.

Now, because we are more of a traditional fun-schooling family I plan to use the high school journals a little different. At first I was going to have them use the journal every day. I thought that instead of them writing in their workbooks they could sum up what they learned and write in their journals instead but then I started thinking and praying and remembering how my boys learn best. Unfortunately for this fun-schooling mama is filling out workbooks, bleh, but it is-what-it is.

Instead I'm going to have them use a days worth of pages over a week. My teen guys will write what they learned or found most interesting in each subject that week and write about it. Basically I'll use the High School journal as a portfolio.

FUN-Schooling is Happy-Schooling. If your teens are enjoying what they are doing and learning, I believe they will retain more, yes, even if it's a textbookish. My boys have LEGOs near by and in between lessons they are free to "play" with them. In fact having them do something like playing with LEGOS (or coloring in Thinking Tree journals) gives the brain some downtime so it's not so stressed out it will help solidify memories and information. Mental downtime is a good thing and we need to make sure our teens get plenty of if in between learning and lessons.

There are some other Thinking Tree journals and books we'll use but I'll write about that another day!

Hope that helps all you Thinking Tree mamas that not all Fun-Schooling looks the same. I'm sure to many our way of Fun-Schooling may look more like Boredom-Schooling to you all (smile).

Remember too that season change. At times we have used the Thinking Tree journals as our main curricula and other times as more of a supplement.

Hello, friends! So, it's an exciting time of year for many homeschoolers as the Spring planning season is upon us. Catalogs and Vendor Halls and Conferences, OH MY!

This year, I spent most of January and February praying, researching, and planning. This was mostly done while feeding a precious baby in the middle of the night. *wink* We had a beautiful baby boy join our family in December through adoption and it has been a wonderful whirlwind! I haven't done babies for 8 years... but we are back in the swing. And loving it!

I realized quite quickly, however, that I couldn't possibly put together all my own plans this tear.

And actually, I didn't want to. We prayed for years for this baby in my arms (yep typing one-handed...) and I want to spend as much time as possible holding, cooing, and cherishing and as little time possible planning, printing, scheduling.

I previously used and reviewed Sonlight and Heart of Dakota.

So, I already knew I liked these curriculum choices.

I knew Heart of Dakota would give me what I needed. I knew Sonlight would enrich our learning with wonderful literature, meaty history books, and some great maps, vocabulary ideas, and discussion prompts.

So - this year, we are doing Sonlight Core B+C along with Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory together as a family. All three of my bigger kids (age 12, 10, 8) will be doing these programs together with their individual Language Arts, Math, and Reading mixed in.

There two major differences between HOD and Sonlight that I'd like to mention with regards to implementing the programs in the home:

Sonlight gives a weekly grid style schedule of readings from wonderful books. These include the subjects of Bible, History, Geography (mapping), and Literature. There is usually a poetry book or two mixed in. The Teacher's Guide includes discussion questions, maps, and vocabulary words. There are very few (if any) hands on activities or projects in the program (though you could add your own and many people do). It is pretty much all reading, mapping, discussing for Cores in Sonlight. This does not include Science. One weekly grid is shown on one page of type. It is historically based (so everything revolves around an historical time period).

HOD gives a full-out daily program schedule/outline including: Scripture memory, Bible Study, Literature, History, Geography, Science readings, notebooking activities, plus experiments, poetry and poetry assignments, narration prompts, hands on activities and history projects, crafts, recipes - not to mention individual assignments that include copywork, art, sketching ... there are just way more things 'to do'. The daily spread takes up two pages of print. (See my snapshots in this post.) It is historically based also.

So, you can see how these programs could definitely compliment each other if you want a really rich curriculum for your kids with lots of reading and activities added in.

(P.S. I actually plan to write a post completely comparing and contrasting these two very popular Charlotte Mason-friendly, books-based homeschool curriculums really soon...)

Can I just interject with my two cents for Canadians?

I know one of the biggest stumbling block for SO MANY Canadian Homeschoolers wanting to use programs like these is the seemingly overwhelming amount of "American" content. I'm in this boat as well (being Canadian) but haven't found this to be a huge issue - you can navigate around it or you can go with it...

For example: Fellow Canadians - If you love Sonlight or Heart of Dakota but fear getting all messed up when it comes to years that focus on American History, let me encourage you. First of all -worry about one year at a time. Don't start worrying about 4 years in the future. Secondly - We actually ended up doing a massive amount of American History over the past two years and we LOVED IT. Don't write it off so quickly!

I would highly recommend just doing the year or two of American History and adding in some Canadian History books... American History is FASCINATING and so connected to our own history. Thirdly - If you really don't want to do the American History years, there are ways around it by staggering and slowing down and adding in your own content to 'skip' forward in most literature based programs. Don't let it stop you from looking into these amazing programs just because they are American and you are Canadian. *smile* Ok, I'm done.

OK... back to the plan...

A good friend was selling the Sonlight B+C Teacher's Guide for $20, so I happily bought it from her. (Thanks MC!) I then took the required books we already owned off the shelf and ordered the rest of the required titles from Amazon. For a couple hundred dollars Canadian, I had a Sonlight Core. B+C is a bit young for our age range but it uses the same spine as Heart of Dakota Preparing Hearts for His Glory - A Child's History of the World. They also cover the same time period - a sweep through all of history!

So that is how I ended up with 2 programs. You don't need both. One would MORE than suffice... but I'm always filling in space and reading through the Summer and adding titles for Morning Time or evening reading. Our kids are accustomed to a ton of read-alouds, so getting lots of reading in isn't usually a problem.

Also, in a nutshell, I'm a little crazy.

Here's a peek at the Teacher's Guide and books for Preparing Hearts for His Glory:

This is a bunch of the titles from the 'basic' package. Draw and Write through History is optional but I knew my daughter would love it as an independent History study (it's scheduled in the guide).

So, we absolutely LOVE the Hero Tales series (there are several volumes) from Dave and Neta Jackson. Volume 1 is included in the Preparing Hearts curriculum, but we own all 3 volumes. These are treasuries of inspirational devotionals based on the lives of heros of the Christian faith. Super well done and very engaging. I definitely recommend them for any family looking to learn more about faithful servants of God who have lived in the past and enjoy meaningful family devotions. So inspirational and also challenging!

A Child's History of the World is a wildly popular history narrative among Classical and Charlotte Mason-inspired home educators. I like it. I don't LOVE it because to LOVE it, it would need to be Christ-centered, which it is not. It is a narrative of history and so well written, but written in a secular/neutral perspective, so I need to add commentary here and there. Still, a wonderful living book.

Grandpa's Box is a spine too - and it is a creative walk through the redemption story using a Grandfather's heart-warming chats with his grandchildren. He focuses on the idea of Spiritual Warfare through the Christian perspective using the carved pieces he has created to illustrated the various parts of the account of Christ.

More titles recommended by Heart of Dakota for Preparing and a few of my own choices mixed in.

The Science package from Preparing Hearts. I'm missing one title from the One Small Square series... still on its way.

All the Science is done with living books, notebooking pages, narration, and one experiment per week to go with what you are reading and studying. Science is scheduled into the guides but it is optional - I think you'd be missing out on a huge part of the program, however, if you didn't do the Science portion. It coincides with the historical timeline and time frame.

I'm used to doing a lot more outdoor, hands-on Nature Study but this works for us in this season.

A peek at the Heart of Dakota guide for Preparing:

The two page spread show ONE DAY of the program. It is very detailed.

A look at one day of the schedule of Preparing from the HOD website:

The Preparing Teacher's Guide is very comprehensive. I actually LOVE the layout. Having a two page spread for each and every day is so simple and easy to follow along and check off boxes as we go. There is enough detail to make it that I actually don't have to do any planning. (How many times have I purchased programs then had to add 70% more to make it enough to amount to something worthwhile...?)

I do add ideas for videos we can watch or additional maps or books to read, but I don't need to. The program is beefy enough already, especially with language arts, math, and various other things mixed in naturally.

The categories include things like: Reading through History, Research, Vocabulary, Storytime, History Projects, Geography, Poetry, Language Arts, Bible Study, Independent History Study, Math, Science prompts for reading/notebooking/experiments, History Notebooking ideas and written narration prompts, and more...

If you really want to see what these guides look like close up, you can download a free week of any of the levels at the Heart of Dakota website.

A look at the Teacher's Guide and titles for Sonlight Core B+C:

*NOTE - our collection of books and Teacher's Guide are from a few years ago. There are differences with the current Core B+C available through Sonlight. Both programs are awesome and will be very similar but I wanted to note that there are differences between what you see here and what will be on the Sonlight website right now. :)

Alright, I need to be completely honest, I'm a bit nostalgic about Sonlight.

Sonlight was the first homeschool 'curriculum' I ever bought when I started homeschooling. The older two children actually worked through Core A (then called Core K) and Core B about 5 years ago.

ONe of my biggest regrets is selling our books to Core B. I have purchased back most of the titles sice then. (ha...)

So, it might seem odd to you that 5 years later, we would be picking up and doing Core B+C. Well, the thing is... Sonlight, in my opinion, is a very advanced program. The books are rich and can be enjoyed by all ages. My now 8 year old remembers nothing of the program and my now 10 year remembers very little. I was basically reading through the books for my eldest and many were read exclusively with my eldest. I also believe I had the 2008 version and this is the 2012 version. So, the titles have changed. There are only a few of the same books and actually none of the read-aloud novels are repeats at all. (Not sure how that happened...!)

I could have placed my kids higher up in Sonlight, but this Core is so lovely and fits beautifully with Preparing Hearts - so we went with it and I'm very glad we did. The books are so rich...

Having said this, if we were to do Sonlight again next year or the year after - I'd leap them up to the Eastern Hemisphere Core. *smile

In the top photo: The Teacher's Guide, and several core books. One core not photographed is A Child's History of the World. Bottom photo: Many of the read-alouds scheduled in Core B+C.

How we will use Sonlight:

So, although I LOVE Sonlight, I've never been very good at following their schedule... I want to follow it... but our family doesn't seem to be able to do it that well.

It looks like this -

This is a screenshot taken from the Sonlight samples section of their Core B+C listing on their website. This is the most current format of their Teacher's Guides.

I LOVE that everything is so beautifully laid out with map prompts and timeline suggestions, and a wonderful daily mix of quite the 'feast' of literature. The problem for us occurs usually with the read-alouds... my kids aren't the best at reading only one chapter a day of a novel they love. They will beg to read more of the titles they love and less of the titles they don't love as much and it takes only a few weeks for us to get that beautiful schedule all muddy.

So... what I've learned to do is relax and use the guide as what it is A GUIDE and not worry so much if we get ahead or behind. I just work through and add checkmarks where we've read the given title and discussed the questions/maps/timeline figures. Slowly but surely, it all works out.

Readers and Reading Titles:

Alright, these are now the individual readers the kids will (hopefully) be using. I've chosen them based on their personal level, interests, and based also on the book lists I trust for readers. I used Sonlight's Grade 3 and Sonlight Grade 4 readers as a guide as well.

The kids will always read WAY more than their assigned readers, but these are books we will be intentional to read aloud together (the kids reading to me for the younger two) in order to improve our reading skills and comprehension.

Some of the Assigned Readers For Alex (grade 3):

Some of the Assigned Readers For Audrey (grade 5):

Some of the Assigned Readers For Simon (grade 6/7):

Individual and Additional Studies:

*Deep breath*

Alright... so if you are still reading this post... BLESS YOU! I know, I'm long winded! But it's homeschool planning... c'mon!

I always get asked what we are doing for individual studies, so I thought I'd better add it here.

As for individual work, the kids are doing quite a bit of Notebooking, Narration, and some writing and projects, etc. through Heart of Dakota. For example, every week they will do Copywork of the memory verse selection in their Common Place Notebooks, a Science Notebooking page, a Science Exploration page, etc.

Here's the other stuff we are doing:

Language Arts:

I really love Christian Light Publications. They offer such Godly, wholesome books and resources. I have ordered many books from them and always wondered about their Language Arts and Math, which I've heard great things about from friends. Just as a side, their Bible Curriculum looks amazing... I'd consider using it as a guide for family discussion and study or even allowing the kids to do their own level and then narrate aloud for some of the questions rather than having them become exasperated with too much 'writing' (for the boys anyways).

So, this year, we are doing Christian Light Language Arts with all three big kids.

It isn't how we have typically done Language Arts in the past, but I actually love it. This is a workbook based Language Arts program that is extremely open-and-go. In these grades it includes spelling lists and activities, penmanship, grammar, and writing (though minimally).

My Workbook-loving daughter THRIVES on these because she adores working independently and following a checklist type system. If she can do a test, score perfect, and get stickers and checkmarks, she's a HAPPY GIRL. (So, you Charlotte Mason people out there can see how CM's methods of Language Arts wouldn't be as exciting for this type of learner...)

You can very easily work through the lessons just by following each step consecutively. The lessons say things like, "Go to page 62, cut out your spelling list, keep it somewhere safe... or, Underline the common nouns, circle the proper nouns..." etc. (See a sample here.) Some kids love this style. It is helpful for parents (like me!) who just want to open and go with certain subjects and also offer the kids a chance to take some initiative and work independently.

My boys are a bit reluctant to this style of learning, but they are reluctant to a lot of things that look like 'school'. (So... yea...)

I find this style of Language Arts helps with getting through content in a logical manner in which they can measure their progress. So, reluctant workers can see they need to accomplish Lesson 5 and can visibly understand how much is included in this work. Sometimes I compromise and do a bit orally rather than having them write as much as my daughter likes to write.

This is much different than the super free-spirited style of Language Arts we've embraced in the past where my kids would always be asking me, "are we done yet?". Now, they can see when they are done and it isn't me making it up as I go. It is a book telling us when we are done for the day. It's kind of nice.

The 'tests' have actually been enjoyed by the kids (go figure, after 7 years of never implementing a single test in our homeschool... they LIKE it...).

I've seen progress already in my youngest son's handwriting and the kids' spelling overall.

The boys do willingly accomplish these books and my daughter enthusiastically embraces them. She woke up one Saturday recently and begged me to 'let her do her tests' because she was SO looking forward to them and didn't want to wait until Monday. *HAHA!* I love her. Her brothers just think she's completely nuts.

More Language Arts...

Copywork has somewhat run its course in our home. I think my kids are actually getting tired of it and I am a little bit as well. However, they will do one copywork assignment per week based on the scripture memory work for the week. This they will copy in their Commonplace Book.

Dictation has been of huge benefit to our children over the years. I know they have learned a ton from it because I didn't do any other spelling for years and my kids are decent spellers.

For Dictation, we are using the Dictation Day by Day passages at the back of the Heart of Dakota Preparing guide for Alex. This is a resource that is available for free online.

We are also using Spelling Wisdom and Using Language Well for Audrey and Simon. A review of this Simply Charlotte Mason resource is coming next week. These are dictation exercises (Spelling Wisdom) coupled with short, easy grammar lessons that go with the dictation.

Math:

We have done Teaching Textbooks for Years and will continue to use Teaching Textbooks for as long as it is working well for our children. I love this program because I have the option of implementing the computer-based program or the kids can opt to do their workbooks. If the children did the computer program, it would be entirely independent.

They are touch and go with the computer component but I do encourage them to use the computer based part of the program because it is what the program is based upon and it cost me a fortune! It's also really well done and engaging. Mind you, once you own the CDs, you can use them over and over and add students as needed.

To be honest, part of me wishes I had of never bought the textbooks, but rather, just bought the CD-Roms. The reason is because it would force the kids to use the computer program and simply write questions in a spiral notebook.

The computer takes a little longer, yes (their biggest beef) but that's because you are actually covering the material more thoroughly.

This year, Simon is in Math 6, Audrey is in Math 4, and Alex is in Math 3.

Individual Task Books:

I adopted the Spiral Bound system for daily planning/records of the kids' individual work a few years ago. It's helpful in letting them know what is expected of them individually. I've adapted it as we go along.

Typically, parents would write out what is needed for the task list the next day (like a daily hand-written bullet list). I LOVE the idea of hand writing their work but, boy, have I have struggled with actually getting 3 lists written out every night. I either forget, can't remember what to put on the list, or write the wrong thing. I als find it very repetitive as they do much of the same thing every day.

This year, to simplify, I created weekly grids for each child to be able to easily see and check off the work they need to do every day of the week. There is a little space for me to jot in specifics too. These print outs get glued into or taped into their little spiral notebooks. A fresh one goes in each week.

This is for their individual work and does not include our family learning, which makes us a good portion of our day. That information is in my own planning binder (the Teacher's Guides).

Here is what Audrey's looks like close up:

Planning Tools for your Homeschool:

I love using the Plan Your Year resources. They are a great planning springboard and super helpful.

You can see my review of Plan Your Year right here. It is honestly a great resource - one of the best I've seen for planning homeschool.

I've also shared Morning Time resources many times before and highly recommend the Your Morning Basket resources!

Check out my reviews and posts:

A Review of Your Morning Basket

Our Morning Basket

High School The Thinking Tree way =Fun-Schooling

This is a picture of Annette from yesterday. She was working hard on her history.

Every morning she makes herself a smoothie (or at least most morning).

Annette has used Heart of Dakota since 7th grade and continues to use it but this year she's been using some of the Thinking Tree journals instead of the ones that come with the programs.

This journal is the Timeline one from the Thinking Tree. She is also using the history pages from the Portfolio and the Science Handbook. She's waiting for Sarah to finish a History Handbook.

Oui, pour moi aussi avant les mangas c'était NO WAY. Des mangas? Ces trucs trashs et vulgaires chez moi? Jamais: plutôt rester enfermée toute une journée en tête à tête avec Najat.

Et puis...

J'ai découvert de vrais petits bijoux, qui m'ont comme souvent fait revoir ma copie. Le manga est un genre littéraire comme un autre: on y trouve de tout. Du vivant comme du sec, de petites merveilles comme des horreurs.

Voici le top 12 de mes petits et grands homeschoolers, à peu près trié par niveau de difficulté croissant!

1- Kamisama, la mélodie du vent

Que de tendresse! C'est LE coup de coeur de ma jeune lectrice de 5 ans. Kamisama fait penser à une sorte d'Alice aux pays des merveilles, version japonaise! La petite Lucie a le don de pouvoir communiquer avec les animaux. On ne sait pas trop si elle rêve ou si elle glisse dans un univers parallèle. C'est très lent, mais les dessins sont empreints d'une poésie remarquable. D'habitude les livres pour les grands débutants en lecture sont très pauvres. Ici les dialogues sont rares et courts, mais tout ce qui n'est pas dit est transmis par la richesse des dessins. Une belle trouvaille pour les petits!

2-Pan-pan panda

Pour les très jeunes lecteurs. C'est kawaï à souhait, mais ma fille de 6 ans a lu les 8 tomes d'une traite. Praline, une adorable petite fille, vit avec Pan Pan, un panda géant qui se trouve être aussi le syndic de l'immeuble. Ca ne s'invente pas. On découvre toute la vie de la résidence: c'est frais, créatif, doux... On se sent presque comme devant un Miyazaki!

3- Chi

Chi a rencontré un tel succès qu'il a été décliné en petits albums, en romans pour jeunes lecteurs... Mais franchement, c'est dommage: c'est encore dans sa version originale, en manga, qu'il est le plus "riche". Chi est un chaton qui découvre le monde à sa façon. C'est drôle, touchant, les dessins sont très beaux... bref, c'est vivant! (et si vous n'en avez pas eu assez avec les douze tomes de Chi... son cousin Choubi-Choubi prendra le relai!)

4-Nekojima, l'île des chats

Oui, encore des chats. C'est nippon que voulez-vous! L'auteur est le même que celui de Pan-Pan Panda, mais l'univers est très différent. La petite Cathy vit avec ses parents, tous deux vétérinaires, sur l'île de Nekojima... une île uniquement peuplée de chats. Pour ne pas perturber les autres habitants de l'île, Cathy se fait passer pour un chat. Bref, c'est encore un gros coup de coeur de mes filles!

5- Minuscule

On monte d'un cran au niveau difficulté. Jusqu'ici c'était vraiment très axé jeunes lecteurs (4-7 ans). Minuscule est un peu plus complexe, et c'est écrit en tout petit. Hakumei et Mikochi mesurent 9 centimètres et vivent dans la forêt. Elles habitent dans un tronc d'arbre, se déplacent à dos de scarabée et construisent des tentes avec des feuilles de mandarinier... C'est très proche du film Arietty, pour les fans de Miyazaki!

6- Les classiques en Manga

J'ai longuement hésité avant de les leur prendre ceux-là. Je trouve un peu dommage de leur faire découvrir les grands classiques directement en manga. Attention ils sont vraiment très bien faits: les dessins sont superbes, les dialogues ne sont pas "gnangnan"... Mais Heidi en manga ne peut pas rivaliser avec Heidi en roman... Par contre mes enfants ont beaucoup aimé les lire après avoir lu ou écouté la version originale. Je les distribue donc au compte goutte, une fois qu'ils ont découvert l'oeuvre "en vrai". Sauf pour Roméo et Juliette et pour les misérables: j'ai trouvé intéressant qu'ils connaissent l'histoire avant de la découvrir sur scène, en ballet ou en comédie musicale.

7- La Bible en manga

J'étais sceptique mais c'est une vraie réussite: les 5 tomes sont extrêmement bien faits! Mes deux grands homeschoolers de 8 et 10 ans les lisent et les relisent.

8- Les grandes théories scientifiques et philosophiques "Soleil Manga"

La collection compte je ne sais combien de tomes, mais alors tout est expliqué à merveille. Nietzsche, Rousseau, Marx, Machiavel, Tolstoï, Confucius... Pour le niveau collège, lycée et au delà: incontournable!

9- Les Misérables

Nous avions déjà la version "les classiques en manga", destinée aux petits. Avec cette collection en 8 tomes on entre vraiment dans le détail. Attention, le public visé n'est pas le même: c'est beaucoup plus sombre! Bref: très bien écrit, remarquablement bien dessiné... c'est un très bel hommage à Victor Hugo!

10- Orgueil et préjugés

Ne me remerciez pas: je vous ai trouvé LE cadeau indispensable pour tous les ados un peu fleur bleue qui vivent, pensent et respirent "Jane Austen", ou qui au contraire sont un peu fâchés avec la lecture de "gros" romans!

11- Pline et Thermae Romae

Une série de très grande qualité sur la vie de Pline l'Ancien, le plus grand naturaliste que l'Histoire ait connu. A réserver aux ados en raison de quelques scènes dénudées un peu limite (Rome antique oblige, mais ça reste "soft"...)

Du même auteur que Pline, Thermae Romae est plus humoristique.

"Lucius Modestus, un architecte romain de l’Antiquité boudé par la profession décide d’aller se détendre aux thermes. Alors qu’il s’immerge dans l’eau, il se retrouve aussitôt transporté dans le temps et l’espace, atterrissant dans un bain public du Japon contemporain. Ces étranges voyages lui permettent de s’inspirer des inventions japonaises et des techniques modernes pour briller à Rome et s’attirer les faveurs de l’empereur Hadrien." Un vrai régal pour tous les adeptes des voyages temporels et de l'Antiquité! (à réserver aux ados et adultes!)

12-Bride stories

Un grand merci à Mélanie qui nous l'a conseillé!

L'histoire se déroule au xixe siècle dans un petit village d'Asie centrale au sud-est de la Mer d'Aral, sur la route de la soie. Sur fonds de Grand Jeu, le lecteur suit en parallèle les tribulations de Henry Smith, ethnologue travaillant sur les traditions de l'Asie centrale, et accessoirement agent de renseignement pour le gouvernement britannique, et d'Amir et Karluk, un jeune couple autochtone. Le manga débute avec le mariage d'Amir, 20 ans, avec Karluk 12 ans, son cadet et membre d'un clan voisin. Autre village, autres mœurs… La jeune fille, issue d’un clan nomade et chasseuse accomplie, découvre une existence différente, entre l’aïeule acariâtre, une ribambelle d’enfants et bien sûr, Smith, qui tente de se faire aussi discret que possible.

Mais aussi...

En scène! pour les ballerines en herbe (à partir de dix ans je dirais),

La balade de Yaya, en 1937, à Shangaï en pleine invasion japonaise, Yaya et Tuduo se lient d'amitié alors que tout les sépare.

Sacrée mamie (la nouvelle vie à la campagne d'un petit garçon d'Hiroshima confié à sa grand-mère),

Yotsuba (l'histoire d'une petite fille trouvée, dotée de cheveux verts et d'une bonne dose de fraîcheur!),

Happy clover pour les petites lectures "plaisir" (oui, c'est un peu gnan-gnan mais ça reste plus riche que les livres "jeune lecteur" qui pullulent sur les étagères des rayons jeunesse),

Ichiko et Niko, pour toutes les petites filles qui rêveraient de vivre dans un champignon géant et d'avoir pour papa un inventeur.... complètement déjanté!

Et vous, quels sont vos coups de coeur à partager au rayon manga?

Just For Teens - High School Journals from The Thinking Tree

I was super excited to work with Sarah to create a High School Journal. As much as I love all her journals, I wanted something more like the 10 and 12 Subject Portfolio but separated by days instead of subjects.

I also wanted my boys writing more. Especially with being in high school I really think they need to up their game in this area. The more they write the better they will become. So with that said I'm so excited to share these two Teen/High School Journals with you all!!!

This journal's suggested pages is 12 per day making this a 6 week journal. With this journal your child will choose from their stack of books four to read. They will also need a book for English, Math, and Science. These can be books or textbooks or both.

With one of the chosen reading books your teen will choose one to write a summary and illustrate it. I thought this would be a great way to focus on one book. I notice my kids write more when they have more space as well.

Using their subject books your teens will write what they learned in science and history. I think it will be fun to see illustrations of what they are learning about. The history page, your teen can draw an illustration or make a mini timeline!

If your kiddos don't like to do a whole lot of drawing they can print something from the internet and/or use timeline figures for the history side.

With the nature study pages I wanted my kids to write a little bit about what they saw or research what they saw (if it was an unusual bug or something) and write about it.

I know not everyone does English daily. My boys have Latin assignments and use what they learned for this page. Latin has a lot of grammar so it works out. There are a lot of grammar non textbookish types out there that your kiddos can use for this page too or have them google what they want to learn. Life of Fred Language Arts series would work great for the English page too!

Math, Finances, & Economics, this page your teen can rotate. Use it for math one day, finances another, and economics a few times a week or just have them work out their math problems using this page. Make it work for your teen.

I LOVE copywork. If your teen is beyond copywork, use it for dictation. I like the idea of my boys copying things that are meaningful to them (although it doesn't always work out that way, but that's okay =)

The Film Study pages in the younger journals were too busy for my guys so I love this one. My boys can watch a tutorial, documentary, or movie and write a review about it, draw a scene, and have fun rating it.

I absolutely love the Spelling Time pages in the younger journals but I wanted to up their game by having them look for specific words.

My boys are not in to coloring much (so sad for this mama) but what I did notice is that they would add to the illustrations. In the other journals they would draw little people or add to the picture so I thought this could be another way for them to 'relax' their brains and help them to remember what they are learning.

Isaac, Sarah's eldest child drew the illustration on the left above and I absolutely love it!

Really make the journal work for your homeschool. Another way to use it (especially for a younger student) is to use the 12 pages per day, spread them out for the week. Use the Date Page this way too! Have the child fill out the Day as the first day of the week. Write the week you are on above the 'Verse or Quote' section like this, "Week 6"

Throughout the week the student can write what he's learning about in history, science, English, etc.

Take a peek inside!

The difference between these two journals is the illustrations. The color-yourself Steampunk cover doesn't have a lot of tanks and army illustration. It has more architectural type pictures.

Also the campfire cover has the words "Just for Teen Guys" but of course gals can use it too.

You can also purchase the Color-Your-Self Steampunk one on pdf at Educents.

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