Our Favorite Non-Fantasy Books

A while back, I wrote a Top Ten post of our favorite fantasy book series.  It was supposed to be a list of our favorite kids' books, but then I realized that most of them were series, and the vast majority were fantasy.  So I promised to do another post about our favorite non-fantasy stand-alone chapter books.  Here it is: our favorite (mostly) stand-alone chapter books:

The American Girls Series
Look at that - the first one is a series.  Oops.  And it's not just a series, but a series of series.  What can we say?  My girls loved them all.  (The "Julie" books came out just after they had decided they had outgrown them, so when I say "all", I mean all the ones that came out before that time.)  Swimmah's favorites were Kirsten and Felicity, and Turtlegirl's were Kaya and Molly.  These are great for introducing American history.

The Little House Books
Oh, wait, that's another series...  I read Little House on the Prairie many, many years ago, when the TV show first started.  I liked it, but not enough to read the other books in the series.  So a few years ago, we started with Little House in the Big Woods and continued through the series.  I think my favorite was The Long Winter.  These are also great for sparking an interest in American history.

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
Winner of the 1956 Newberry Medal.  Based on the life of Nathaniel Bowditch, this book retells his life story, from his start as an indentured servant to his self-education and his eventual writing of The American Practical Navigator (also known as the Sailor's Bible, still in use today). This was suggested for a book group discussion by one of the families in the group.  The kids voted on which books to read each month, and this one only got one vote each month, until the end of the year, when there wasn't much left to choose from.  The kids reluctantly agreed to read it.  It ended up being the favorite book read that year!

Call of the Wild by Jack London
Another book group book.  I thought this book was a little advanced for the kids in the group at the time, but they seemed to love it.  I know Turtlegirl did.  She was only about 10 at the time and I was concerned that it was too violent for her, but it didn't seem to bother her.  Should I be concerned about that?!

Winged Watchman by Hilda van Stockum
Another book group book.  This is about a Dutch family during the Nazi occupation of Holland.  They hide a downed air pilot as well as others.  Exciting and suspenseful, not to mention a great discussion starter.

The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr
Yet another book group selection.  This takes place in the US in 1860.  A young man decides to herd a huge flock of turkeys from eastern Missouri to Denver, where he can get a good price for them.  Rather more lighthearted than the previous two listed.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Winner of the 1959 Newberry Medal.  We actually read this twice, once to go along with our history study, and again with the above mentioned book group.  In the year 1687, Kit Tyler arrives in Connecticut Colony from her home in Barbados to live with her uncle and his family.  It's quite the culture shock.  When I was a little girl, we had a copy of this book in our house, but I never read it because there was the word "witch" in the title and the picture on the cover looked spooky.  I was such a chicken!  When I read this as an adult to my children, I wanted to go back in time to tell my nine-year-old self that there is nothing spooky about it and to just read it!

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
This is another we read with the book group.  We also watched one of the movie versions (think it was Disney) and also got to see the play at Hartford Stage.  We all really enjoyed this as a book and as the play. The movie was less memorable.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Turtlegirl picked this up at the library to read as a follow-up to Tom Sawyer, but found it too difficult on her own.  I was actually happy to read it aloud to both her and Swimmah so we could discuss it as we read.  I know a lot of people have issues with a particular word in this book, but I explained the historical context (as well as the contemporary context).  I guess they're pretty sheltered - I don't think they have ever heard that word used except in a historical context.  It was a bit awkward for me reading it aloud - I did consider looking for an audio version so I wouldn't have to deal with it, but in the end I just read it myself.  Despite that issue, it really is a great book and well worth the read.  There's a reason it's considered one of the great American works of literature.

Hmmm, looking over this list, I see that most of the non-fantasy books my kids have read were required reading.  Oh well!

What are some of your favorite books?

Our Top Ten Favorite Kids' Fantasy Book Series

I intended this post to be a list of favorite kids' chapter books, but I started writing down our favorites, and realized that most of them are series.  Then I noticed that they were mostly fantasy.  Then I kept thinking of others that I had forgotten about.  Maybe I will do another post with favorite stand-alone chapter books, and maybe one with non-fantasy books (there must be 10 they liked...). The series on this list range from the ones we read together when we first started reading chapter books to books my kids have been reading on their own more recently.

Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osbourne
These were Swimmah's first chapter books that she read.  When she had progressed beyond them and was reading other books, she still wanted to read "the whole series".  I pointed out that a new book comes out every 6 months or so, she decided that maybe she didn't really need to read them all.  These are great for introducing history (there's one - or a "mini-series" of four - on the Olympics, fyi).  The only down side I found was all the incomplete sentences.  I know the author/publisher wanted easy-to-read, but couldn't they have done that and still be grammatically correct?  It just irked me...especially after listening to upwards of 20 of them!  Hence my need to point out that a new one comes out every 6 months - "You'll NEVER be done with them!"

Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin
These are great beginning chapter books for cat lovers!  Mrs. Jane Tabby doesn't know why her kittens are all born with wings...

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
More great beginning chapter books, but if I remember correctly, we read these aloud, at least the first time.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
I first read these to my girls to appease them for not reading Harry Potter to them.  Now, don't get me wrong, I am (and was then) a huge Harry fan.  But I don't think they are appropriate for 7 and 5 year olds.  I thought that Narnia was a little less violent and scary, but still exciting.  They have loved this series!  I read them aloud, we have listened to them on CD, they have each read them to themselves.  And we've seen the movies that have come out so far (isn't the next one due soon??)

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
I think these were the first chapter books Turtlegirl read completely on her own.  More action and adventure, without being too scary.

Redwall by Brian Jacques
Oh my.  Turtlegirl loved this series.  It has all her favorite things: animals, action/adventure, and humor.  She picked up the first one at the library when she was about 8 years old.  She tried reading it by herself, but found it too difficult, so she asked me to read it to her.  Well, I found it a bit difficult myself.  Each type of animal has their own British accent - and the moles!  I'm not sure what part of England they're supposed to be from, but I never did master that one (although Swimmah got pretty good at it).  I was thrilled to discover that our library has recordings of some of them, but unfortunately only the first 5 or so.  Then it was back to me reading aloud.  But Turtlegirl was so taken with the series that she sat down, at 8 yrs old, and sewed little stuffed animals of many of the characters. (just a little bragging)

Martin the Warrior and Cornflower on a whale watching trip.

And Winifred the otter came with us almost everywhere for a while:

She's much larger than the mice, but then, otters are bigger than mice.  At a butterfly conservatory.

Tales From Dimwood Forest by Avi
More talking animals, more of Turtlegirl's favorites.  There are five books in this series: Ragweed; Poppy; Poppy and Rye; Ereth's Birthday; and Poppy's Return.

Warrior Series by Erin Hunter
Feral cats, prophecies, warring clans.  These were Swimmah's favorites for a few years.  We read these at bedtime for a while, until I got really bored with them and told her that she had to read the rest on her own.  I'm mean like that.  She continued to read them and love them, but Turtlegirl admitted that she got bored with them after a while, too.  Depends on the kid, I guess.

The Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lasky
This time the animals are owls.  I never read these, as the girls both read them on their own.  I saw the movie - does that count?  Part hero legend, part dystopian society.

Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
Perhaps you are familiar with this one?  Unless you are living under a rock, I'm sure you've heard of Percy Jackson.  Great fun, great introduction to Greek mythology.

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Did you really think I could write a list of favorite fantasy novels and not include this?  I love this series as much as my kids do.  I started reading HP when they were babies, after my sister, who had read the first two with her sons, recommended them to me.  I put off reading them to the girls as long as I could, back during the height of Harry mania.  I knew that they get progressively scarier, so didn't want to rush into the series too soon for them and ruin the experience.  I read them aloud, we listened to the audio recordings (Jim Dale is fantastic as the narrator), and they read them to themselves, and we watched the movies (disappointing).  They still listen to the audios and re-read them from time to time.  They are truly modern classics - every time we read them, we discover something new.

Wait, that's 11 already!  I could go on...  I didn't even mention the Lord of the Rings trilogy!  The automatic numbering gets messed up when I add pictures, so I've stopped using that.  I suppose I could just manually type the numbers in, but that seems so archaic.  Another time I will list non-fantasy favorites.  What are some of your favorites?

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

Top 10 Things You Should Know About Me

This week's Tuesday Top Ten is 10 Things You Should Know About Me.  Yes, things you should know...all very important, of course.

1. I/we am/are beginning our 10th year of homeschooling.  I believe I've mentioned this before, but I'm kind of amazed myself!  Where does the time go???
2. I'm certified as a Montessori teacher, so that affects my approach to homeschooling and parenting.  
3. I'm the youngest of six.  And I'm 6 years younger than my closest sibling.  5 sisters, 1 brother - he got his own room.  Actually, I did, too, after the others started moving out.
4. I love tea.  There's nothing like a mug of hot tea on a cold day.  I miss it in the summer when it's too hot for a hot beverage.  Sure, I switch to iced tea, which is good, but it's not the same.
5. I am an INFP.  This is based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which I find to be the most accurate personality test for me.  
6. I'm a procrastinator.  Sometimes I put things off because I really don't want to do them, like hemming my husband's pants, but then when I finally get around to it, I wonder why I dreaded it.  I mean, really, hemming isn't that big a deal - just a little boring.  Other times I put things off because I'm not sure how to do it, so instead of just jumping in and trying, I put it off and make starting all the harder.  And most of the time, when I do get around to doing it, it's not as bad as I thought it would be.
7. I hate to shop.  The crowds, the annoying music, the trying-on (nothing ever fits).  And it's about a 35 minute drive to any of the three closest malls.  That makes a trip to the mall take up almost the whole afternoon!  (I just found out I have to return a pair of Land's End shorts to the closest Sears...)
8. I'm just 5 feet tall.  If you were to meet me in person, you would notice.  It also helps explain why I have such a hard time finding clothes that fit me.
9. I have issues with my glucose levels.  Even on a low-glycemic diet (essentially low carb), I struggle to keep my glucose out of pre-diabetic levels.  When I first started this diet, I lost about 10% of my weight, and I have managed to keep the weight down, but not necessarily the glucose level.  I need to go for a blood test later this week to see how I've been doing the last few months.  Wish me luck!
10. I got a Kindle this past winter, which I like overall.  I love the convenience of it fitting in my purse when I know I'm going to be waiting, such as waiting for my kids' activities to be done.  I also love that when I come across a word I'm unfamiliar with, I can just touch it and the definition pops up!  So much easier than waiting until I get home (or walking across the room) to look it up, which I normally forget.  But my kids keep hijacking it to play Every Word Crossing.  They even changed it to a timed game.  I prefer the non-timed game, so I can find all the words and not have the game just end on me!  

So there you have it, 10 things about me.  And now you know why I always post these Top Ten lists so late in the day: I procrastinated!

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

10 Totally Random Things On My Mind

The last few weeks I have been following the iHomeschool Network's 10 in 10 blog hop, and linking up to Many Little Blessings' Tuesday Top Ten.  This week's top ten is 10 Totally Random Things On My Mind.  So here goes:


It's hot.  I know, all you (all y'all?) Southerners are rolling your eyes at this New England girl complaining about the heat and humidity.  But it is hot...and we don't have central air, so there!  Or a pool, as my kids keep reminding us.  OK, we do have window units.  But they're loud and wake me up at night.  Which probably explains all my kvetching today.

This is what I feel like doing.

What's for dinner?  This is the burning question, so to speak.  I know anyone who is responsible for feeding a family struggles with this.  It's complicated a bit in our home by having to feed two vegetarians and two non-vegetarians, one of whom also needs to keep the glycemic load to a minimum (meaning that pasta really isn't the best meal).  I have a few meal ideas that make everyone happy, but just a few.  And one of them is chili - and who wants that in this heat??

I think we're going to use The Story of US by Joy Hakim for our history spine this year.  It's at our library so that's a plus.  We have 2 of her The Story of Science books, which I like, but my kids aren't crazy about them. That is why I'm thinking that we'll use them as a spine, rather than the main reading source.  I'll look for other books, field trips, and movies to supplement.

I've become a chauffeur.  It's official.  Older kids means more activities, and until Swimmah can drive, Mom has to drive her.

I have picked 3 zucchini from my garden so far.  And one tomato is almost ready to pick.  We also have a tiny little eggplant and several teeny, tiny cucumbers.  Oh, and I made a small batch of pesto a couple of weeks ago, and have used some cilantro and rosemary as well.  OK, maybe summer heat isn't all bad.

I'm reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster.  It's lively and entertaining.  It is readable and I am enjoying it.  I'm also reading Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier, and am finding all kinds of symbolism in it!  Well, I think it's fun, but I've always been kind of a word/literature geek.

How do people find the time to blog every day?  I'm struggling to find the time to blog 2 or 3 times per week.

I think I'm getting arthritis in my left index finger.  And aren't I too young for that?  I'm only 40-something.  But the top knuckle is enlarged and it feels a little stiff.

One of our cats has a sprained ankle. Or some part of her hind leg/paw.  And we did not take her to the vet, shame on us.  We had just had both our cats to the vet for their regular check-ups (ka-ching!), when she started limping.  We first noticed it in the evening after dinner and decided to see how she was doing the next morning.  She was noticeably better the next morning, and she does seem to be getting better every day.

I really need to get Turtlegirl to clean up her art supplies.  She's great about cleaning out the turtle/lizard/frog tanks - in fact that's usually what she's doing when I want her to do something else.  Hmmm.  But putting away bottles of paint?  Not high on her list of priorities.  After all, she knows right where to find them next time she wants to use them.

Was that random enough for you?  What's on your mind?

Tuesday Top Ten (or Eleven): 10 Pieces of Advice I Would Give to a New Homeschooler (plus a bonus!)

So you've decided to homeschool your kids. If you're like me, it seemed like a great idea (not that my husband and I made the decision lightly) until the time to actually start crept closer.  Then the panic set in: "What was I thinking?!"  "I can't do this!  I have no patience!"  "How am I going to teach chemistry?!"

First, take a deep breath.  Relax.  You can do this.  There are a few things to keep in mind to make sure you're successful.

1. Your relationships need to come first.  You are their parent, first and foremost.  Yes, they need to learn discipline, but let that come from household chores rather than academics.  We want them to love learning, right?  Julie Bogart of Brave Writer has lots of great advice on this.  She says to make brownies and tea or hot chocolate and maybe give them a little shoulder massage before they sit down to write.  The point is to make them want to write, to look forward to these times.  If there is a subject that they're really resisting, take a break from it and reflect on why they're resisting so much.  Then you can approach it in a way that is more appealing.  Your goal as a parent is to promote healthy relationships.  And as my Montessori teacher-trainer used to say, "Never get into a battle of wills with a child.  They will win."
2. Become familiar with different learning styles.  There are many, many books on this topic.  Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences is a classic.  Another that I like is Discovering Your Child's Learning Style by Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Kindle Hodson.  Knowing how your child(ren) learn will make life for everyone involved much easier.  Expect that if you have more than one child, they will most likely have different learning styles.
3. Don't buy any curriculum until you have a sense of what will work for your children.  Just because your friend loves a particular curriculum doesn't mean that it will work for your family.
4. Use the library.  Your library is a great resource for books, and librarians usually love to suggest or help you look for books.  Some books you will return to again and again so you'll want to own those, but really, most we use for a short time and them move on to something else.  I also recommend going to libraries in neighboring towns as well.
5. Get your kids' input, especially as they get older.  When they're younger, you can try to tie academics in to their interests.  When Swimmah was about 6 and 7, she was heavily into dinosaurs.  I found dinosaur math worksheets at enchantedlearning.com.  I also found early readers at the library about dinosaurs.  They were really a little too advanced for her at first, but because it was a topic she loved, she put more effort into them than she did other early readers.  I was amazed at how quickly she learned to read words like "pachycephalosaurus".  Last year, she and I discussed which Algebra curriculum would work best for her and I narrowed down some of the options so she could choose from 3 or 4.  This helps them learn to take charge of their education.  And really, isn't that the point?
6. Find a support group.  Unless you live way out in the boonies, there should be other homeschoolers around.  It's so nice to have friends who get why you're doing this (for the kids, too!) and to have people to bounce ideas off of, as well as possibly get together to form co-ops and classes.
7. Have them help clean the house.  Really.  You can't do it all, at least not without driving yourself crazy!  Besides, I like to think of it as part of their education.  Someday they will need to be self-sufficient adults.  They will need to know how to clean, do laundry and some basic cooking at least.  And possibly some basic home repairs, like changing a washer on a faucet.
8. Don't sign them up for every activity that comes along.  You will run yourself ragged trying to get them to everything.  I know all those classes and co-ops look so interesting, but try to stick to classes that tie into what you're already studying and/or are related to your child's interest.  Having goals for what you want to accomplish during the year helps with this.
9. Re-read your favorite homeschooling books regularly to keep yourself on track.  This will remind you of why you chose to homeschool in the first place, and keep you motivated.
10. Remember that you are the expert of your own family.  You know your children better than anyone else.  You (and your spouse) should be the ones to make the final decision about what goes on in your home, not the expert on TV, or who wrote that book, or even the well-meaning relative. 
11. Remember that just when you think you have it figured out, they change.  Kids do that!  They grow physically, emotionally, academically.  Every few months, sit down in a quiet moment (or hour) and reflect on what's working and what's not working, and how to fix things if they're not.  I've been doing this the last few years, and I find that it helps immensely.   

Homeschooling is a lot of hard work, but it is so worth it!  Our first year homeschooling, I remember being so tired, it was so much effort.  Like any new job, it gradually got easier (not easy, easier).  Nine years later, it's just life.  :)

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday.

Top Ten Questions People Ask Me and My Kids About Homeschooling

When you do something different from the mainstream, you tend to get asked a lot of questions.  Homeschooling seems to strike a chord with almost everyone, as almost everyone has gone to school.  Why would we choose differently?  Some people seem to take our decision rather personally, although it had nothing to do with them, but most seem genuinely curious.  When people find out that we homeschool, there are some fairly predictable questions we get asked, some more common for me, and some more common for Swimmah and Turtlegirl.  

The top ten questions we get asked are:

1. "Are you going to homeschool through high school?" I have been asked this question probably the most frequently, right from the time we started homeschooling when my kids were 6 and 4 years old.  Back then, my response was typically, "We'll see when we get there."  Now we are there and people are still asking if we're going to continue through high school.  
2. When I say "yes", the next question inevitably is, "What about chemistry?" Occasionally they'll ask about algebra or physics, but it's usually chemistry.   Then I explain that they can take classes online, or at a community college, or we can get together with some other homeschoolers and hire a teacher - or maybe one of the other parents could teach something like chemistry (or algebra or physics).  Or we could find some books and do it ourselves at home like we have with every other subject.
3. Then there's usually a moment where they think for a minute or so and then ask, "What time do you start in the morning?"  I kind of cringe inside when they ask this one, because to be honest, we're not morning people.  We tend to be slow to get moving in the morning.  I try to get us going by 10:00 and usually we're pretty close to that.  Swimmah's good about starting her routine (practice piano, then study French, then math, then Shakespeare...) around 10 without me reminding her.
4. Then another moment, and, "Do you have to do standardized tests?"  "Well, it varies by state, but in Connecticut, no."
5. At this point, they either look baffled or indignant.  "How do you know they're learning?"  I want to say, "Um, I live with them...And I talk to them..."  In the early days of our homeschooling, I was genuinely confused by this question.  But one day, the light bulb went on in my head - if someone's only experience with learning is in a traditional school setting, with a teacher lecturing to a large group - indeed, how would the teacher know that the students are learning?  But at home, we have a student-teacher ratio of 1:2 or even 1:1.  We can have a dialogue going the whole time.  When they were little, I would see the things we were learning in their play.  Now that they're older, they are expected to do some writing or projects, and in the case of math, workbook pages and tests.  And if they're not getting it, they don't just get a bad grade and we move on.  We do it again until they do get it - maybe taking a different approach, or taking a break and coming back to it later.
6. "Do you wear your pajamas?"  Yes, my kids do.  I like to exercise, shower and get dressed before we start, though  (which partly explains the later start time).
7. My kids have been asked, "Isn't weird to have your Mom as your teacher?"   "Well, as she's been my teacher for almost as long as I can remember - no."  It's interesting to think about the different relationships/family dynamics homeschooling can create.  Rather than an outside teacher being the expert and the parents being "clueless", homeschooled kids see their parents as knowledgeable (at least a little bit).  Not that we don't have our clueless moments as well...
8. They also get asked, "Don't you get tired of being at home?"  "Don't you get tired of being at school?  And we don't actually stay at home all the time, anyway."  I do actually let my kids out of the house now and again.
9. They have even been asked, "Do you have any friends?"  Rather indignantly, "Yes!"  It's really kind of funny to think about the image many people have of what homeschooling looks like.  They think we just sit at home around the kitchen table by ourselves all day.  In reality, we often overbook with outside activities.  We get together with other homeschoolers for park days and classes and book discussion groups.  We had a homeschool Girl Scout troop for seven years, and now my girls are part of a community service group (all homeschoolers).  Homeschoolers also participate in town or YMCA sports, dance or martial arts classes, and many other activities.
10. But I think the question they get asked the most, followed by a snicker, is, "Do you have homework?"  They either answer with a smile, "It's all homework!", or they patiently explain that they do, in fact, get homework for classes taken outside the home.

Then when they have asked all the questions they could think of, they say, "I could never do that." or "I don't have the patience."

Yeah.  That's what I used to think, too.  **Snicker**

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday

10 Reasons We are Eclectic, Relaxed Homeschoolers

If you have read the "About Me" section of this blog, you know that I consider us eclectic homeschoolers.  I have also always considered us "relaxed" homeschoolers, meaning that we are not school-at-homers, but not quite unschoolers either.  Being certified as a Montessori teacher (primary level, AKA: pre-school) I started out homeschooling thinking that we would use the Montessori method.  I quickly discovered, however, that the more money and/or time I spent on Montessori materials, the less likely my kids were to use them.  They're contrary like that.  But that doesn't mean that I abandoned the philosophies that drew me to the Montessori method in the first place.  And I found many of the same philosophies in other methods as well, such Charlotte Mason, and to a greater extent, Thomas Jefferson Education.

So these are the top 10 reasons we homeschool the way we do:

1. We prefer an individualized education.  No two people are exactly alike, so why should their education be exactly alike?  Everyone has their own unique combination of strengths and weaknesses, interests and aptitudes.  Education should reflect that.
2. No boring textbooks.  Nothing kills interest like a dull, dry textbook.  I think back to how much I hated science and history in school, and it was because of the boring textbooks.  Once I was out of school and started learning from real-life sources and "living books", I found that science and history are two of my favorite subjects!
3. We are more relaxed in the early years.  Young children learn by playing.  My children always made it abundantly clear when I started being too structured and formal for them.  So I would take a deep breath, remember why we were homeschooling in the first place, and "follow the child".
4. They naturally will start to get more serious about their studies as they get older, particularly in their areas of interest.  They are also more open to working on areas of weaknesses, as they are able to envision goals for their lives (even if they just want to go to college, but don't have any plans beyond that, for example) and can see where that area (read: math) may be helpful. 
5. I try to follow my children's interests.  We are all more likely to remember what we are interested in.  Yes, that makes more work for me.  But I would rather spend my time inspiring them to want to learn something than forcing them to do something they don't want to do, because then they're just going through the motions and not really learning anyway.  Then it's just a big waste of time and effort for us all.  And yes, sometimes in life we all have to do things we don't really want to do - ask my kids about cleaning the bathroom.
6. I love the flexibility this allows us.  We are not tied to any arbitrarily imposed schedules or a canned curriculum's lesson plan.  We can take a day off if it's nice out and we want to meet some friends for a hike, or go for a field trip, or even if we're all out of sorts and just need to get out of the house.  Or if we're learning about xyz and it's just not grabbing us, we can drop it, and either come back to it later, or not at all, depending on what it is.  If it's something like fractions, we come back to it later, because they will need to know how to work with fractions at some point in their lives.  But they didn't seem all that interested in watching the hawks on the hawk-cam fledge.  I don't think their lives will be negatively impacted for not having seen it, even if I thought it was pretty cool.
7. We want our children to be life-long learners.  By following their interests, often on their own, they are learning life habits of, well, learning, which is something we want them to see the value in continuing. 
8. We want our children to learn how to think, not just what to think.  This is definitely a work in progress, and probably always will be.  So often in traditional schools, the emphasis is on memorizing and spitting the information back out on the test.  We want them to be able to apply that information, rather than just memorizing it.
9. Books, lots of books.  If we are going to learn by reading living books rather than textbooks, we end up having lots of them around.  And I love books and reading!
10. I have time to pursue my own learning.  When they were younger, they spent less time on academics, and now that they're older, they work more independently.  This allows me time to read and do activities of my own interests, like writing a blog.

What are some of the reasons you homeschool the way you do?

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday at  http://www.manylittleblessings.com/