Journey Through the Classics FREE High School Literature Program!

0:00Hi, everybody. Welcome back to homeschool Minnesota. My name is Dale. I'm so glad to have you guys here with us today. Homeschool Minnesota is a podcast outreach of mache Minnesota association of Christian home educators. We're so glad you guys are with us. Today I have something for our high school moms and our junior high rising high school moms that you guys will love. I have Jessica love it here with me today. She is the writer of the blog homeschool with joy on the internet. I will put all the links. Don't worry about it guys. Always always always the links are in the description of this podcast. So you will find everything there. But we're talking about homeschool with joy today. She has a really great blog and it's something with lots of resources and one of the things that caught my eye because you all know I love a good Charlotte Mason moment. Because that's just my jam. It is. She has literature guides called journey through the classics and it is phenomenal. It is a great literature program for high school students to walk through

1:01the classics. It's all online and you guys are not going to believe this but it's absolutely free. You guys for real it's free. This is not a joke. And so I just want to introduce Jessica and then we're going to dive right in. Hi Jessica. It's so nice to be here. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming today. I really appreciate it. Once you tell us a little bit about yourself and your family. Yeah, absolutely. I am so excited to be here on this show. My family I have two kids which is kind of a minority in homeschool world. But we homeschooled always and we've been in central Texas this whole time. So I've also been involved in lots of different homeschool non-profits. I've been involved as a homeschool coach. I probably coached like hundreds of families at this point and then coaching it like ask of homeschool parent booths at different places across Texas. Written lots of articles. I've done homeschool classes and webinars and you name it. So I'm just really excited to be here. I wrote this curriculum as my daughter was getting into high

2:02school and my son was a lot easier to do like a literature curriculum and he was into history and lots of things like that. But as I was prusing curriculums there just wasn't anything that I really really lashed on to. And so I just started writing it and then it just kind of turned into this. Wow. Well it's a wonderful curriculum. Now you guys I told Jessica ahead of time so if you see my eyes venturing off is because I have my phone and on my phone see I love the phone and I know most of you moms out there I watch you I see you I know what you do you're on your phones a lot but that's because it's with us everywhere we go we bring our kids to swim lessons and we can be on our phones and get stuff done right we're double shooting things and so I'm going to be looking on the phone so that I can see what it is she's talking about and talk to you guys about it too okay so all right so we're going to talk about um journey through the classics it's a 700 page four year high school curriculum literature curriculum covering covering 34 complete book units

3:04can you talk to us a little bit about what books you cover right I would love to and I kind of got just overly excited about this my background is in graduate work in literature and I have a couple of literature degrees if they're wondering like who is this person why does she think she can like I have your own school mom you can do yeah absolutely but I think you have background in literature and in teaching literature and whatnot in a graduate assistant program and things like that so the books that I covered I have 34 of them so what I do is I start in the beginning and I go through ancient literature Shakespeare and British and I go all the way up to some modern works so what I wanted to do is make self-contained units so you might think like 700 pages oh no I have to print this massive thing but no so what I did was is that every unit is separated in its own PDF and so you can pick and choose you can go in chronological order or different order for what your child is interested in and just print off those units each one is about 2025 pages for whatever you're interested in it's completely self-contained and one thing that I did about it

4:08is I felt like so much curriculum is is really expensive and a lot of the parents I coached kind of hesitated about that and a lot of times when you get those literature curriculums in a box you get a bunch of books that you don't necessarily like all of those books like right and you're still stuck with those so what I did with this was every single book self-contained you can choose that book and within every unit I have free resources for where to get that book for free so you can yeah so every book has a completely free read online link which isn't my favorite thing but it is there if you need it and I have where to get it different places and I also have a built-in shopping list where I went through and I found the most beautiful unabridged edition I'm kind of picky about an abridged so so I went through so you have a click to go read it online or get your library copy or if you want a hard copy I have that already picked out for you don't have to shop you don't have to think and then get it and it's abridged or the font is too small or too big or whatever

5:11and then all of that for you yeah there's nothing worse than abridged Jane Austen I got to say why would you do that to Jane Austen see now when I go to heaven she's gonna be my neighbor because I know I love my goodness yeah or so for you the 1995 pride and prejudice or the new prejudice oh so the 95 one we are too I don't we have some friends that are like die hard the new one and my daughter and I are like no no I think you're making it I will never know just get back and watch that one and I'm sorry but Colin Firth is Mr. Darcy yeah yeah I will die on the Colin Firth Hill anytime 100% I'm right there with you Jessica see I do be friends yeah absolutely yes and pride and prejudice is in my workbook I saw that and I was very excited absolutely yeah so talk us through like a unit what would it look like if we were to download like say pride and prejudice for our children because it's a great book and everybody should read a Jane Austen

6:12even a boy right should read a Jane Austen maybe they'd be more into persuasion or something along those lines but definitely they should read a Jane Austen what would what would it look like to do like the pride and prejudice version right absolutely so every unit has these certain elements so every unit let me go through and make sure I'm giving you exactly what we have we have a teacher's guidance so I have all of the answers there in the back of every unit so in the unit each unit has let me see let me gather this up for you oh I opened the wrong PDF here I have the whole if you want to see what it looks like all printed out I did that yeah look at that oh my world thing if you print it out which I don't necessarily recommend doing I did this at humble heart printing which she was so awesome and printed it off for me but I'll just grab a unit for you to give you an example but okay so the first unit that I've grabbed and here's the art each thing in the curriculum I also made a big deal about art so each unit has decorative art and each

7:16little setting like I have it all figured out for your notebooks so each notebook also has art so what I would recommend doing is being a divider with a sleeve and then each one has art so like here is what a unit would have so each unit starts out with an author biography and then I thought it was important that students understand sort of where you are in history my daughter like goes American girl like which American girl is that yes I tried to get the setting yeah yeah and so I love how they make it accessible where they say what inventions what were happening so I tried to do that in my unit so each unit starts with where are we in time what did they have what was life like for that person so then it has where to get the book and then I have it broken down with a reading schedule and then each unit has vocabulary lists of words that might be difficult for those students to learn and it also has phonetic spelling and everything then each unit also has spelling words each unit is exactly unified with that and then after

8:19dispelling I have discussion questions and deeper discussion questions that you can go into your student and I do have insert like abbreviated answers in the back for parents if they read it in high school and don't remember or didn't actually read the book well I also one thing that I read the Hebrew yeah one thing that's really important to me also is grammar as a English major and so each unit and it goes in order like you can do units in different orders but the way that it's designed the first unit it starts out with a grammar and editing focus so each unit like this is the the Iliant unit and so it's focusing on how to do quotations correctly and so then you just go through and it has everything outlined for you so another thing that I really put a strong focus on is essay writing and so because that's another thing that's super important to me so I have an entire guide that's about 40 pages on how to write essays and then I have examples I use the Hobbit for fun because the Hobbit is not a book in our unit but I have an example essay I have

9:23example citations and I walk the student through because a lot of curriculum that I saw with my kids I felt like they gave an example but they didn't really show them how so I didn't want it to be super handholding but I wanted a tangible example of what does a real essay look like what should a real essay have you know something they could have but not something to copy just something to see what it looks like so I go through all of that and then also a fun thing that I have for every single unit is an art lesson so I partnered with and with the talk pastel you are an artist I put every single unit like the little women unit goes to their there's a link to go to their little women art lessons so you don't have to use the art lessons but I think that adding art is such a fun and lush and colorful and like I said homeschool with joy always tries to make everything joyful and so every single unit from Homer all the way to Mark Elpren all has an art project so everything has that and every unit also has a research paper so a research paper on something or a topic and I

10:30tried to cover the whole gamut of different types of papers you there's an argumentation papers academic paper there's disgusting story allegory like the whole thing so when they're done they will know what's up and they will know how to do this and after being in the graduate world and seeing what's expected at graduate level I wanted kids to really have a good grounding in that and I just wasn't seeing anything that exactly had that so also like every single book I have student check-off sheets of what they need to finish and I also have these I'm kind of obsessed with water color art and you can see if you go on homeschool with joy so every unit has that and I also have student planners that are colorful and cute inside actually for that that you can use to check off for everything so I guess that's just I mean it's phenomenal so where to begin you get a lot okay you just do and and so first of all you get really good classical literature it's not going to be fluffy literature it's good literature that's going to teach your kids something about just

11:32the world historical or any a scientific just all kinds of good good literature that they should have read or should read before they graduate high school the other thing is the is you know when when I look at like today's statistics for graduating seniors from schools around the country just oh gosh was it a year ago or less than a year ago Minnesota Department of Education released its statistics that I want to say it was like 36 to 37 percent of high school seniors can read at grade level or or kid or eight graders maybe it was eighth graders I don't want to say the wrong thing but it was really really low okay it was yeah and and writing and math it's our scores have dropped and I know that they blame a lot of it on COVID and maybe that was kind of part of it however it has not bounced back and that's that's not good and we need to do better and our kids

12:35giving them the advantage of something like this where they're not only are they reading good literature but they're learning to be analytical about it to discuss it in a meaningful way which is exactly I mean even if your kid doesn't go to college these are skills that they need in their day to day life how do you take in information how do you disseminate that information and then how do you communicate the information and so these are things that they need to have and any job that they do no matter what it is and any skill that they try to achieve anything that they're doing from this point on post high school these are skills that are just basic skills but then you also get writing all these different kinds of papers which is only going to help them in the long run but also art which now this is something that remember Minnesota families you have to teach art this is part of the required subjects to teach in Minnesota art is part of it now some of your other states that are listeners and around the world if listeners maybe you don't have those requirements but in Minnesota we do art is part of that and so you're getting that too you're not

13:41having to worry about now what do I do about art it's like well it's there so that's already built into the program this is why I love unit studies it's just it's the lazy moms a really good education system um but um so when you're going through the program is this something that they can do very independently how involved does mom have to be yes absolutely I want it to be as independent as you want it to be and you can be involved with it and I do I think that parents you know I should check those answers and and of course grade the essays and things but I wanted it to be something that the student could open and do so everything is outlined with instructions for them with helps and explanations everything goes through that and I also have a scope and sequence that sort of outlines everything and lets parents know but I wanted reading comprehension I wanted literary analysis I just couldn't find a curriculum that had every single element that I wanted with writing and grammar and spelling and also just MLA and critical thinking and all those things and so I

14:41wanted to make it and also um I wanted to have something that was easy for the parent to do because I feel like a lot of curriculum that I've looked at had difficult parent instructions and so this it isn't hard to find if you're doing the unit on Romeo and Juliet the answers are in the back for the parent and it's on a separate page so that you can take it out for the kid everything just unfold as easily as you can and since I've been a homeschool parent for so you know like 15 16 years now I know what is annoying so I tried to avoid those things and make it easier for parents well and just when as a parent as a homeschool parent your job is ramping up because you're having to take keep really good records do transcripts do post graduate things with your kids start to think about the future trying to make sure you're planning the curriculum so that they're getting everything they need looking at their college or their post graduate what are they planning on doing and making sure that you're your tailor making their high school curriculum to kind of benefit that and to and to go into that so they can get accepted at the college of their choice or

15:46the vocation of their choice or the internship or the apprenticeship or whatever it is that they're doing the military whatever that you are getting them prepared for that this is something that you need them to be as independent you don't need it to be one more thing to put on your plate is this really big literature program yeah so we appreciate that thank you Jessica yeah absolutely well mom time understand that yeah and I wanted to pick books that were fun too yeah so tell us a little bit about the stories what are the what are the different books that you do yeah I have things from every genre just about not every genre you can't do everything but yeah I have essays I have eb white essay I have Sherlock Holmes I have Shakespeare I have the secret garden I have ancient Homer I have the Iliad I have Jane Austen let me see great expectations um I tried to cover everything I possibly could in a circle just of the main classical beautiful things that were uplifting like I have counter money crystal I have around the world in 80 days I have I tried to

16:50get things that both boys and girls would like and I also have notebook page covers like all the art I have and it's based on my own kids but I have a boy and a version in a girl version all that's perfect yeah I love you I thought you know I wanted people to feel included and loved and I wanted units that were just uplifting and fun like Connecticut Yankee is fun to read and I also have fantasy in there I have the ones in future king I have CS Lewis I just wanted things that were lifting I even have fairy tales and stuff I have standards and I have more fun things but I just felt like so many curriculum said I looked like some books and it's not that we shouldn't ever read sad books and there certainly are sad things in the books that I included but I wanted things that had an overarching joy like an overarching optimism that was throughout the book I love that that was kind of my standard like it has to be uplifting it has to be something that has a

17:52not necessarily a Christian message like a sermon but it has to be something that has that joy you know because as Christians we have the joy that you know God is overall all these things and so I wanted that I didn't want something that was just depressing or sad or something that would weigh down your homeschool I love that okay so tell us a little bit about more about homeschool with joy homeschooling with joy your your blog you have a planner on there that looks really good um what other things can you find on there yeah absolutely I I worked for so long for other homeschool organizations and this is my new thing that is just my site on its own so that's another reason I made the curriculum because I was trying to spread kind of the word about my blog and I wanted something to be useful and fun so that's why I made it for free so but on my site I have lots of different articles um getting started all the way up to doing different schedules and I have tons of different printables in the resource library like I have a Hobbit theme schedule

18:56for people that they can download for free that has like a Hobbit Lord of the Rings font that you can download to make it exactly perfect and I have things about internet safety I have book lists I have party plans I've tried to make just every possible thing I like screen free ideas so I have a newsletter that goes out every week with different ideas as well but yeah yeah it's not just high school no it's I have all ages absolutely that's a good point to you I have absolutely every age of activities I I focus on things that are uplifting and fun uh mostly screen free ideas like my last blog post is how to make a Charlotte Mason Easter basket for your kids my gosh yeah and I have from the youngest like little kids all the way up to high school because I think high school kids still deserve to have some things make themselves feel special so I have a shopping list on there I have everything and there's still time to get that in April 5th is you know absolutely I might

19:56be taking that off my grandbabies my word yeah so tell okay so we we've been talking about Charlotte Mason and I always forget that not everybody knows I can't even imagine this but they don't know who she is or what her method is can you tell us about Charlotte Mason a little bit yeah absolutely I think that what Charlotte Mason emphasized in her books are really fun to read sometimes I'll just pick one up and just read a few quotes and feel refreshed and then yeah so she was an educator in the 1800s and early 1900s I think and her point was that she didn't want students to learn in a sterile environment with like dry books she had something called living books which was like authors that pull you in that feels joyful to read that's not dumbed down for kids she she didn't think kids should read stuff that's just so quick that's the word she is yeah yeah I've read this stuff to my kids yeah she wanted kids to be able also a big thing was that she

21:02wanted kids to be able to say back to you not memorizing but to be able to speak about what they're reading and learning so that makes it their own and she made a big deal about treating kids like that they are people you don't treat them like you must march in this line and you know but how would you want to be treated as an adult will treat your kid you know of course age appropriately but respect the child the individual you know and she also put a lot of nature and art and beautiful things like that so just it's what I love about it is it's disciplined like you have a disciplined habitual life but it's flexible and fun and joyful in that discipline if that makes sense yeah she really valued beauty and art and music and science and and outdoors things as being like essential to a child's learning and their ability to learn and to retain and to absorb

22:03what it is that they're learning and the reason why living books are so important she calls like living books it's like it calls out to the it touches a child deep like it's an emotional thing you know if you remember I mean I remember the first time I read Little Women and it was the first time I read a story where a character a main character died and I never had that experience before and it was like I still to this day I get a theory and I'm like oh my gosh I remember that feeling like yes I died yes what and and it was just emotional to me and as a little girl and I remember thinking how how can that be this is a book nobody dies in books yeah it's like well nobody dies a little house in the prairie but they do die in Little Women and so it just trying to remind you know that these are just books that they bring a child like they they awaken the soul of a child is really what it was that she wanted that to be I love that about her and the thing that that makes your curriculum good is that it brings those kinds of stories into the student's life

23:09and into your family and and it sounds like you all your curriculum and everything that you have on your blog is to do that is to bring that awakening of that emotional response to the world into your family so that you can have those conversations with your kids in the safety of your home right yeah you're gonna make me cry thank you oh well I just want you to know that's what I saw thank you that's really sweet yeah and I just think that something like that is just invaluable and the fact that you're doing it for free blows my mind it really does and so I just I just am so grateful and so thank you so much um any last words you want to leave with our listeners I would just love to hear from you at homeschool with joy and if you need any help with homeschooling I have experience with all different types like getting started getting your kids started in high school just wherever you are I'm happy to help and reach out to you wherever you are yeah so good we're here bringing the resources guys that's what we do at homeschool in the soda so thank you

24:13so much Jessica I just want to remind everybody that the link to Jessica's blog is in the description of this podcast you will find everything she talks about there it is a wonderful place to explore I'm telling you you're gonna love it it's so good um it is bookmarked I'm not even homeschooling anymore and it is already bookmarked I'm like oh there's some great stuff here I've grandbabies I want to do stuff with them you know I want to get out of the house I like them to get out of my kids don't do screen time with their kids I mean it's very ultra limited screen time my kids my grandbabies are very much about you know I mean they're I say grandbabies they're like six years old four years old five years old but they're also like could you just sit in front of a TV for 20 minutes and give me a minute you know and it's a temptation but you know what to get them outside and to get them exploring and to get them interacting with each other in a in a very meaningful way is so important and um I just I'm so grateful so we're gonna put the links to

25:16everything in the description of this podcast as always I just want to thank Jessica for being with us Jessica love it thank you so much um and I want to thank our listeners for being here thank you guys so much for tuning in we appreciate you we thank you for being a part of what we do here um if you have any questions there's also in the description of this podcast a way to contact us at homeschool minnesota mishay we're very excited to be of help to you with whatever if you aren't from minnesota you can still contact us and we will get you in contact with somebody who can help you that's what we do here so we just want to thank you you have a wonderful day and God bless and we'll see you next time