Blog: Home School Curriculum Advice

All through the many years that we have homeschooled our children, Usborne Books has been apart of their education. The books were not textbooks, to be studied for a test, but I imagine, if I did test my kids, they could tell me more about the content of those books than the homeschool curriculum we were using. I was happy to have them, because they helped add interest to subjects we were studying like no other books we have ever used. Usborne books have a way a drawing you in to the subjects discussed there. One of the first Usborne books that we read was about taking care of small pets. It talked about budgies (parakeets), mice, rats, rabbits, and hamsters, if my memory serves me right. It talked about how long the life span of each animal was and how to care for it. I am not sure if this particular book is still available, but the reason I do mention it was because it was so compelling that it convinced us to buy our daughter a pet. We were going to get her a hamster, but the person at the pet store convinced us, much to my dismay, that a rat would make a much better pet. Needless to say, I don't think I handled that rat very much, if at all. The rat's name was Tillie and it lived in my daughter's room for about 2-3 years, until one day, we came home and it had died. It was a sad day. Later, we had a pet rabbit, several birds, and of course our dogs, which is another story.

Another book, Called Then and Now is a very interesting book comparing what it was like in say the 1800s to now and so forth. I remember my children looking at this book over and over again, it doesn't have many words on the pages.

My favorite is a book called Growing Things. You have to see the pages of this book to see how cute, but very educational this book is. This has little people demonstrating how to sow seeds, planting bulbs, make window boxes, growing herbs, tomatoes, beans, potatoes houseplants and so on. My favorite page shows how to grow potatoes, and every year I vow to grow them just like this book, but I have yet to do it. Maybe it will be this year. But just looking through the pages and looking at the pictures are so entertaining and yet gives you the desire to do the very projects so artfully laid out on these pages.

One book in particular that had my 3 older children sitting together on several occasions, was the World History book. Those pages are chock full of interesting facts on world history. I must confess that history was never really interesting to me, but it did come alive through my kids as they expressed their delight in the things that they learned through this book. As a result, my boys especially, grew to love history, even in their homeschool curriculum.

Another great book that makes history interesting is The Medieval Messenger. This book is written in a tabloid style, talking about events from that time period, which can help put a smile on your face, including historical type ads.

As my youngest son was packing up his room (to make room for his little sister), before leaving for West Point, he wanted me to make sure that we didn't get rid of one of his favorite Usborne books, Improve Your Survival Skills. You would be surprised how much information all Usborne books pack into their pages. This one is no exception. Here is an small example of the table of contents: Cold survival, Survival in wet conditions, Water survival, Finding your way, and Rescue. There are several subtitals that give further details of each catagory.
There are books for any age level, from baby to adult. What I have always loved is that they are reasonably priced. It is such a small price to pay, to enhance a child's interest and foster the love of learning.

This introduction doesn't even scratch the surface of the hundreds of books that Usborne Books offer. I wanted to give you a personal experience with our Usborne Books. Every book that I have seen is very quality and interesting. There are books for every age level. I am sure that your children will find Usborne books to peak their interests in many subjects. The books are chock full of information, quality, and have a way of drawing you in, making any subject most interesting. To see all the books that Usborne Books carry as well as the current specials, Click here... Take it from me, it will enhance your homeschool experience!

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