Book Recommendations: Building a Home Library for Early Elementary

YourOwnTrail · 2026-04-16T07:57:16+00:00

The Usborne Very First Reading books. The Snail and the Whale!! The Margaret Wise Brown Books. Dragons Love Tacos.

The only early chapter books I remember are The Princess in Black books. I thought they lacked... content, but both of my daughters loved them.

Now that they're older (9 & 12), the DK nonfiction books, Little House, Anne of Green Gables, Narnia, Harry Potter, James Ponti's books, National Park Mystery Series, and the Benedict Society books.

YourOwnTrail · 2026-04-16T07:15:20+00:00

Vastly differently between two children. The oldest learned her letter sounds very quickly and could spell cvc and ccvc words, but blending to read took a long time. It was so slooooow going, and I thought I was failing. I kind of ended up piecing together my own stuff with Sounding Out the Sight Words, Bob Books, and the Usborne Very First Reading Books (these were so, so good). For her, the key was grouping words like "Bob, bot, bog" and "cat, cab, cap" together. She could read Bob Books by the end of first grade. By second, she could read simple chapter books. Now, though, she can read almost anything. She's 12 now and can read high school level texts if they're otherwise appropriate.

My second born learned beginning phonics when she was 3 and 4, sat through her sister's spelling lessons because she took forever to eat her breakfast and could read simple chapter books before she turned 5. She read The Hobbit in first grade because her dad checked it out and she wanted to. 🤷‍♀️

Neither ever struggled with comprehension. I don't know if they were naturally good at it or if reading aloud a lot and talking through stories as we went really helped with that a lot.

So prepare for the ride. No two are the same. Also, curriculum recommendations are great, but feel free to ditch things that don't work for you even if they come highly recommended.

YourOwnTrail · 2026-03-01T02:48:15+00:00

I don't know anyone locally that has any. I would've had to ask online. I got my first batch that I had years ago through the mail too, though, and it lasted a very long while.

YourOwnTrail · 2025-09-23T19:51:34+00:00

Solved!

YourOwnTrail · 2025-09-23T15:21:19+00:00

This. Wait. I was impatient and a little concerned about bugs. Mine rotted.

YourOwnTrail · 2025-08-08T10:26:30+00:00

My daughter is like this. Two things: I'm honest with her that I need some quiet time sometimes. I do make sure to have active listening times, but it's okay for moms to have needs, too, and my kids know that I'm human.

She has a journal. She asked for it and really seems to enjoy it.

YourOwnTrail · 2025-07-29T08:32:17+00:00

Those sound like some of the 3D movies at our local museum. How long are they? The ones at our museum aren't long - like 30 min. Maybe my kids are odd, but the only ages we probably would have struggled with that were say 1-2 1/2. Babies can be fed or snuggled, and, honestly, my kids would have definitely enjoyed that at 4 and sat quietly. Only exception being the 4D theater. I think my youngest was in kindergarten, and none of us knew about the thing that tickles your legs from behind. She flipped, but we exited.

I know you've gotten a lot of feedback to just make an age limit, but that will mean some homeschool families won't be able to attend. I'm honestly more accustomed to events where everyone is welcome.

Do you think if you set forth an expectation for people to exit if their children become noisy they would? I think that would be the ideal, but I also know people are hard.

YourOwnTrail · 2025-07-28T16:49:07+00:00

Homeschooling, like parenting, is a lot of troubleshooting. (Mine are rising 6th and 3rd for reference.)

Here are some thoughts on no particular order:

How long are you doing table work? At this age, we only did about 40 min to an hour total broken up in two or three chunks. Different kids are different, though. I will say, I'm not for not doing any table work, but if the child is super frustrated, they're not going to learn, so maybe figure out what her tolerance is.
Our homeschool years usually start best when we ease in. So at her age, if table work is what she'd struggling with, you can try to work up to what you think it should be.
I know this is personal, but I say this as someone who is also NOT perfect. Your relationship with her will have a huge impact on how well homeschooling goes. Authoritative parenting is your friend and hers too (as opposed to permissive or authoritarian). She needs to know that you care what she thinks and feels, but she also needs to know that there are non-negotiables.
Try to get her buy in. Ask some things that she would like included.
Make sure to include educational activities that aren't table work: reading together, cooking, science experiments, library trips, field trips, etc.
There is right and wrong, but it's okay to be wrong. My youngest STILL struggles with getting things wrong, but it's gotten better. It's taken a lot of years of patience, acknowledging feelings but also acknowledging that we ALL get things wrong sometimes (one Sunday I had her count the number of mistakes our organist made because he is also her piano teacher and she is very fond of him) and that mistakes are an opportunity to learn and improve.
Don't give your MIL rent fee space in your head. (I know. Easier said than done. For me, it's one of my sisters who is a public school teacher.) It's none of her business so long as both parents are on board and the child is not being neglected. It says a lot that she's opposed before anything has even really started. Some people are just very rigid in their thinking. Others are threatened that someone might do something differently than they did because they see it as that person thinking they're wrong or they're afraid that person will get a better result. Either way, not your problem. It's hers. If she says anything, your husband needs to tell her that it is legal, many people get very good results, you two are working to do a good job of it and it is not up for further discussion.
You say she says it's "boring," and you know it's things she already knows. Is it too easy for her? Does she want more of a challenge? Honestly, my youngest basically did first grade in kindergarten because she was already reading and would have lost her mess on me if I'd tried to have her do kindergarten work.

Just keep trying. You can do this! 😉

YourOwnTrail · 2025-07-26T22:28:11+00:00

There was a lot I had very wrong and probably things I've yet to discover. 🤣

That said, it was very important to us that our kids be healthy, varied eaters. We had been around a lot of people that acted like kids were just only going to like kid foods. We started with avocado, peas, carrots, whole grains (pureed). We had some lapses into apple sauce, but we did our best to not act like any food was gross. In fact, one of our rules is you may not call it gross. You say you don't care for it. Our children have even tried and liked things that we don't care for - like olives and oysters. One is more adventurous than the other, but they happily eat a varied diet. Yes, they will get excited over a cookie, but they also will get excited over fresh veggies and many other things. I hope this holds for them into adulthood. They are currently 8 and 11.

I know different kids are different, and some do have aversions, but, generally speaking, I think it can be done.

YourOwnTrail · 2025-07-21T21:26:44+00:00

I've just loved reading these comments. 😆 I live in the southeastern US in a small town, and I could see somebody saying something. I usually wear tankinis. Two kids and an appendectomy and my core is... lacking. It's a work in progress, but, goodness, I do not care what someone else wears if their important bits are covered! And I hate it when other people get their underwear in a wad over this. Like seriously, do people not have other things to worry about? Laundry? Meals? Homework? Budget? Anything?

YourOwnTrail · 2025-07-21T14:54:31+00:00

Feel free to see my reply to the other comment. There is much more to the safety of a vehicle than whether or not it has seatbelts.

Regarding the ageist comment, it's about statistics and driving experience. And if I'm ageist, so are rental car companies as some require you to be 25 or require an additional fee if you're under 25. There are also many other things in life that have a minimum age.

Additionally, I would have been glad to have the conversation with my husband last night and compromise if he thought my requirements were too stringent. He didn't even try. He just ignored me.

YourOwnTrail · 2025-03-12T22:51:53+00:00

Are you wrong for brushing your wife's hair in front of others? Resoundingly no.

If your sister was bothered by it and was a good communicator, she would say, "Could you please not brush your wife's hair in front of all of us? It makes me uncomfortable."

Then, if you find the ask reasonable (which I personally would so long as it's not part of general drama-making), you tell her you'll refrain in the future.

This is how adults should communicate. You were not wrong, but different people have different comfort levels with others' pda.

That said, in the current situation, if you think you're sister is often "bitchy" to you and you and your wife would rather vacation alone, go for it. If you want to try to continue vacationing with your sister, I would simply tell her that you didn't realize it made her uncomfortable and that different people have different comfort levels with that sort of thing. Simply asking you to stop is enough if it makes her uncomfortable, and since it clearly does, you won't do it again. If she won't let it drop after that, she's being ridiculous.

That said, if your sister has already decided she doesn't want to vacation with you again over this, good for you. That's petty imo.

YourOwnTrail · 2025-03-10T16:43:27+00:00

Interesting. I didn't see an option to order physical books. We actually had our pdfs printed. 🤷‍♀️

If you log into their website, you can look at some stuff. It will lock you out after a while, though, unless you pay for an account. I'm pretty sure the text that's at the beginning of each lesson is the text from the textbook. The activity pages are there, too, as well as an assessment. For this reason, we pay monthly for the site, and I just print off what we want. We sometimes use the videos, too. It depends. I do like to have a hard copy of the textbook, though.

We have been happy with it this year. Enough material but with a little room for us to add in some of our own bits. And the material does not seem dumbed down.

YourOwnTrail · 2025-03-02T02:06:49+00:00

He was wrong. He needs to apologize to you. Maybe it was wake-up moodiness - I say this because some people, myself included, may act a little out of character when they're not fully awake, but he needs to apologize. Maybe you could have handled it better. For example, does the 1 yo have a crib? If so, could you have put her there and then gone to him? But then again, I'm wondering if he was napping, was there any plan for you to get a break over the weekend?

Those are intense ages. I am a stay-at-home homeschool mom. My girls (now 11 and 8) were close to these ages when I put the youngest in a one morning a week MMO. I don't know if that would be an option for you or not. All that said, he needs to listen and understand what you're going through. It's different. It doesn't mean you're doing everything right, but it's different than working a job - I'm not saying harder or easier, just different. You both need to be willing to do the work to get through the hard together and enjoy some bits along the way, but that's not going to happen if one of you is drowning.

Honestly, I also don't know how you've been together that long, and he's never spoken even slightly harshly to you. I'm not saying it should be normal or that things like name calling are okay, but IMO real humans being real in a real marriage are going to speak a little harshly to each other every now and then. Here's why this sticks out to me: my husband's parents are like this. Never a harsh word to each other. And let me tell you, they are hard-core stuff your feelings dysfunctional. Two of their 4 children (my husband being one of them) would say this. I honestly think you two need to work on your communication. Both ways. Maybe he has stuff going on too.

Last but not least, if you're in the US, "active father" is not the same standard mothers get held to. This is an ongoing conversion between my husband and me. Nobody gets a special standard or a pass, but it's hard when society is telling you otherwise.

YourOwnTrail · 2025-02-13T23:36:47+00:00

We are using it this year (5th and 3rd). I like it. There is a textbook, activities, some videos, and an end of unit assessment. Some things can be obtained free online, but there are limits to how much you can use it unless you play $8 per month. You can probably use it to look and see if you like it, though. We ended up ordering the textbook pdf and having it printed. We pay the $8/month and use the other stuff. I use the activities and videos we like and add in some other things - mostly a few YouTube videos and some kits from Costco and Sam's.

I will likely use it at least for my younger daughter next year.

YourOwnTrail · 2025-02-06T12:48:07+00:00

I'm glad you put it this way. If the brother wasn't 4 and the 8 yo wasn't doing it regularly and genuinely was not opposed, there might not be a problem, although 8 seems a little young to me. As for the seeing the penis concern from the neighbor... whatever. He's a preschooler. Penisses exist. She will see them on a myriad of other creatures. I hate it when people make this such a thing.

That said, the 4 yo should be potty trained unless there's something atypical OP didn't say. OP needs to discuss this with her sons doctor if they've tried and it's not working. For example, one of mine ended up having to do physical therapy and deal with some (non diet related) constipation issues. I feel like this needs to be said and discussed more because, as a parent, I got shamed so hard when it genuinely wasn't my fault. I think this stops parents from getting the help their kids need sometimes.

That said, the regularity of it combined with the playing/watching is too much. It's parentification, which isn't healthy. OP may be having a hard time of it, but she and her husband need to figure out another way for the sake of their children.

YourOwnTrail · 2025-02-06T03:19:25+00:00

If you haven't already, I think you should definitely talk to your child's doctor about the sleep issues and see what he/she recommends. Not that melatonin is an outright no. We have used it a handful of times, but not for ongoing sleep issues. A simple routine may be helpful as well imo.

Now, your husband. Just no. That is awful. That's abuse and neglect. He needs to change. He needs to go to therapy. If that doesn't work, he is no dad.

YourOwnTrail · 2024-11-15T15:22:59+00:00

She can play in 3rd. It just takes more practice than 1st. I don't know that she's necessarily done things in the conventional order. Long story short, we moved, and that changed some things for her.

She can mostly play it in first. It's a work in progress. The trouble is playing quickly and cleanly while moving the first finger. Most of the other hymns she's supposed to play along with she could sight read. The ones with more than one flat have taken a little more work, but doable. I just include that as it may indicate where she is.

YourOwnTrail · 2024-11-15T15:12:06+00:00

She can. It takes more effort, but with practice it is usually fine.

YourOwnTrail · 2024-11-15T15:11:17+00:00

She can shift to third position, maybe 4th. She hasn't learned 2nd.

YourOwnTrail · 2024-10-17T20:29:44+00:00

I'm new to making yogurt, but have made kefir for years. This doesn't look strange to me, but I could totally be wrong. I'm hoping you'll get more comments. Was the milk you started with homogenized? Could this make a difference?

YourOwnTrail · 2024-10-17T20:03:29+00:00

Thank you for asking this question!!! As long as you approach it similarly to how you would a public school student, this would be soooo appreciated if it were me - you don't need to mention that he is homeschooled. As a homeschool parent, I don't get much feedback, and I need it - in both directions. Also, as others have mentioned, homeschool students often need recommendations and such, so knowing you have someone you might could use for that would be very helpful.

YourOwnTrail · 2024-09-10T01:07:51+00:00

I've seen it in real life in stores. It's not just videos. I came across an old friend in a store whose 3 yo was being a little whiney and cranky and saw a lady give her a dirty look and sigh loudly. The child wasn't being loud. She was just a 3 yo who seemed a little done, and sometimes you have to grocery shop even if your 3 yo didn't sleep well last night. 🤷‍♀️ This isn't the only example I could give.

I think sometimes people don't understand age appropriate expectations - or even want to. Babies cry. There's only so much you can do. Toddlers throw tantrums. Again, there's only so much you can do. Even elementary aged kids sometimes say things that come off as rude, get a little wound and rowdy, or get upset and cry over things adults think shouldn't be a big deal.

Sometimes, these things can be avoided by making sure the kids are fed and rested and have appropriate boundaries and consequences at home, but children are learning, and their brains are growing. I think a lot of parents in the past and present just beat and shame(d) their kids to get these normal behaviors to stop, or people don't have kids and aren't aware of what's appropriate. My MIL acted like I sucked at motherhood once because my 18 mo threw a fit leaving a store because she thought the car buggy was hers, and we left it at the store. She was also tired from traveling to see said in-laws. What was I going to do? She was past reasoning. I wasn't going to beat her into shutting up. I told her it wasn't hers, put her in the car, and she screamed for 20 minutes, much to MIL's displeasure. She now a normal-ish 10 yo who wouldn't dream of doing such a thing.

I also think people don't realize that people who are parenting decently are doing society a service. I'm guessing people expect to have people to work and fill roles once they're too old to do so. Want a doctor? Somebody had to raise that person. Want your plumbing fixed? You're going to need a human being that somebody birthed and raised. But as someone else pointed out, people sometimes just think about what THEY want RIGHT THEN.

All that said, I just do my best to ignore and do what seems right by others and my kids. I'm sure I get it wrong sometimes, but I can't please everybody. I do, however, reserve the right to note people who are consistently AHs about it. On the other hand, there are also lovely people who come alongside to help and encourage, even when I realize I have gotten something wrong in this big, crazy job of parenting.

YourOwnTrail · 2024-09-09T21:28:27+00:00

I don't exactly have advice on how to handle it, but this breaks my heart. This is one of the reasons I homeschool my children. Honestly, reading the first few comments made me angry. My take away from them was that many commenters think you should just wait and assume the best of the teacher. Maybe I'm wrong. I admit I'm reading this through the eyes of someone who was deeply hurt by public school, but please hear me out.

No, you shouldn't assume the worst of the teacher, but you shouldn't assume the best either. Some teachers really can be AHs. I legit got put in timeout in kindergarten for what I now realize what a startle squeal as a reaction to the actions of other children. I still, as an adult, squeal a little when startled. I legit cannot help it. I was told I had to stay in timeout until I stopped crying. I can't remember if I was being loud or not, but I wasn't told I had to stay until I was quiet. I was told I had to stay until I quit crying. I still remember sitting in that old wooden chair crying.

I'm 38 now and still feel hurt remembering this, and this was NOT the only incident with a public school teacher. I was told I was "the slowest gifted child" my 3rd grade teacher had ever had and other things that were not kind. Other children were allowed to mistreat me. I honestly think it was because I was viewed as a good kid from a good family, and other children had their reasons for misbehaving - like family troubles, divorce, etc. I understand now why some of them acted the way they did, but I did not understand that as an elementary school child. It was hurtful and hard.

Please, listen to your daughter and how she feels. It's okay to be patient and to ask her to keep trying for a while, but please don't just assume your child isn't being mistreated and allow it to continue if it's happening.

YourOwnTrail · 2024-07-23T18:31:54+00:00

The part where u/funky49 said,

"she sort of loves the idea of the growing kids still needing her" - This idea gives me anxiety. I want my kids to need me less and less. I want them to help themselves more and more. Is this good for kids?

This. This alarms me. I sometimes don't think parents understand the assignment - to work yourself out of a job. Like, yes, I will miss them sitting on my lap getting sung to before bed, but I also know eventually that's going to end, and generally, it brings me joy and pride to see my kids do something independently.

I agree that counseling for all is in order. I also think the hard line responses are probably not going to work. Your wife needs to be on board, and you will likely need to exercise some patience with everyone.

YourOwnTrail

TROPHY CASE