Since this is the time of the year when many of us are agonizing over which programs and curricula we're going to use for the fall school year, I thought it would be appropriate to bring up the topic of textbooks. With the popularity of Charlotte Mason I doubt that there is a homeschool parent around who hasn't heard about "living books" and the importance and joy of using them in your homeschool. We particularly enjoy using living history books in our homeschool. Living books bring topics to life and go into much more detail about various topics and people than a textbook usually does. A history textbook, for example, might devote one paragraph to Eli Whitney, but you could go to the library and find whole books about him. Because living books are more engaging and include more information from many different authors, they do seem like the better choice. Using living books in your homeschool does take more time and sometimes more money, though. You must make time to go to the library and choose your books or you have to purchase them. Then, you have to make time in your school day to read the books to your children or schedule time for them to read the books themselves. If you have many children under foot, setting aside chunks of time for reading aloud may be next to impossible. If your child dislikes reading, you may have a struggle on your hands as well. Rest assured, using living books isn't for everybody. Textbooks may have been given a bad rap, but it really is okay to use them. Teri Maxwell's article, A Voice For Traditional Christian Textbooks, says it all. (Thanks, Kysha, for providing a link to this article on your blog a while back.)

Warmly, Mama Bear