ambleside online — Simple Studies

As a mom who started homeschooling in 2014, no one prepared me for the shifts that come when your children grow into tweens and teens. Your homeschool will change, and it isn't always as glamorous or Instagram-worthy as many make it out to seem.

I've cried. I've laughed. I've prayed and researched late into the night. Some days the homeschool table feels like sacred ground. Other days it feels like a battlefield.

But here's what I know: only you know your children. Only you know what season the Lord has called you to. Don't compare your homeschool to anyone else's, and don't be afraid to grieve those sweet, slow mornings with picture books and nature walks.

Homeschooling has never been a hobby for me. It's my full-time job and one of the greatest callings of my life, even when it's hard.

We're officially homeschooling our oldest again, and I am in joyful chaos mode curating high school curriculum, reading excellent books alongside him, and diving into the world of dual enrollment.

It’s all a HAPPY whirlwind!

For those who've been following our journey: our son still attends his private Baseball Academy six-plus hours a day, and they've graciously allowed him to continue homeschooling alongside that. We never know where the Lord will take our children, and that's exactly how we like it. We are so grateful to keep walking with him toward his academic AND athletic goals.

A few high school reads are listed below in no particular order.

Many are read slowly together, some independently, all looped each week. We're using Ambleside Online and a mix of other living books and adding in a few reads, curriculum and video courses to round out his lessons.

Are You Liberal? Conservative? or Confused? by Richard J. Maybury (We are working through the second half of my Simple Studies: Exploring Political Ideologies guide with this book since we put it down to move across the US last year!)

The Odyssey by Homer

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

Common Sense & The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine

Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington by Richard Brookhiser

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (He’s reading one of our beautiful, illustrated versions printed in the 1800s)

Chemistry (We own the Apologia books both early and high school but are supplementing with various other videos and curricula)

Saxon Geometry

The Art of Construction by Salvadori

Never Give In! The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches by Winston Churchill (we are reading this aloud with his younger sister, and he reads one Historical Document each week listed on Ambleside Online.)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Fool and the Heretic by Wood & Falk (This is turning out to be one of his favorite books this term so far).

A History of the English Speaking Peoples: The Age of Revolution by Winston S. Churchill

One Race One Blood by Ham & Ware

Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves: Book I of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene by Roy Maynard

101 Great American Poems — (Dover edition)

The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

Sometimes I turn to audiobooks to help me pre-read some of our books we’re discussing together.

And I hear Amazon is currently running a FREE TRIAL for their brand new Audible Standard Membership! 🎧🤩

We recently announced our latest new release: Simple Studies: Western Marvels — A Literature Guide for Grades 5–12.

So many of you have pleaded for guides that your middle and high schoolers can use.

I’m reading through Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels: The Occident a second time around with our youngest, and I created a Simple Studies guide to go alongside it and am sharing it with you, because I know you're also looking for resources that actually meet your kids where these living books take them.

Thank you for being here!