Episode 78: Library List Tips

The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

Library List Tips

The Library Lists from Layers of Learning are a great tool if you understand how to utilize them. Most curricula gives specific reading assignments from specific books, but Layers of Learning approaches things differently. Instead of required reading, we offer lots of ideas for you to choose from. The Library Lists begin with the spine recommendations – the encyclopedia-style references we suggest for each subject. After those basics, we recommend all kinds of books about the topics from the unit. Just like the Explorations within the units, the Library Lists are full of pick-and-choose options. None of the lessons are based on a specific book and no specific titles are required. Even though we don’t require specific books, we encourage you to utilize books to round out your lessons. Research is an important part of this program, so we encourage you to feel free to go BEYOND the Library List. We avoid books that are violent or obscene (although many of the art books contain nudity in some form). We also include some books that include some types of controversial or more mature information, but we include warnings with those. We try to present a large variety of books that span the topics so you can find things that will help your family.

Here Are A Few Topics You’ll Hear About In This Podcast

• The smiley faces within the units indicate what levels of kids it will work best for.
• If a topic is difficult to find in books and resources, we include extra information within the unit book for you to rely on.
• If you have trouble finding the specific books, use the provided search terms to help you find other books, websites, or videos about the topic.
• If a book is tagged as “highly recommended,” that means we consider it worth buying!
• We also tag the Great Books so you can pick out the classic literature we recommend.
• The sidebars also have great read-aloud selections and other books that fit in with the topics. You’ll find them in the Bookworms sidebars.
• You can utilize the yellow and green books for your whole family together.

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