A Year with Memoria Press
Are we really wrapping up another school year? Indeed time flies by faster with every turn of the calendar. We have a mere 5 school days left, and while there is much that did not get completed or checked off this year (as we welcomed a baby into the family)- there is so much that DID.
This was the first year in many years that I made some big curriculum changes. I was a hardcore Rodd + Staff/Saxon/Mystery of History and the like kind of Mom. But after my kids went through a year of Catholic education in our parochial school (2018), I saw so many things I loved and wanted to bring those changes home.
We started with literature, of course, all the books. I am forever running out of storage for the books. But not just any books. Classics. Great books. Books that challenge and make us think. Tolkien and C.S Lewis. Treasure Island and Homer Price, The Odyssey. Now, we had been doing this previously, but we had not switched over to a full literature-based classical curriculum yet. This was the year we made the big transfer and we chose Memoria Press.
Why? I didn’t really have one single reason. It came highly recommended by trusted friends who use it or their children use it in school. I fell in love with it last summer while perusing through literature guides and looking over their History books. I joined a Memoria Press Homeschool group online and that became a wealth of knowledge for me- such a great source and it invoked more excitement over the curriculum. The opportunity for my children to take classes through them online (which we did, and we loved the experience so much we will be taking more in the fall). The books, the books, the books. The customer service and care from the Memoria Press team, I could go on. Now, I can look back with gratitude after our first full year with Memoria Press and I can identify the areas that I have watched my children grow, learn and discover.
Collectively “we” read The Hobbit and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, King Arthur, Homer Price, Mouse in Time Square (for 4th grade and up). With the younger ones, classics like Corderoy, Caps for Sale, Little Bear, Tea with Bear.
I watched my 4th grader identify and collect bugs on her own, because she learned all about it in Science. She finds a lady bug and tells me a random and unbeknown fact about them. I read a paper that my 7th grader was excited to write and have me read because she loves the writing curriculum and loves writing. I watched my first grader progress leaps and bounds in reading this year- from having a reading aid in school and repeating a grade because of reading struggles to being able to read short readers and gain confidence. I treasured the time spent together studying Gods word in the Christian Studies series and how my 6th grader enthusiastically got every question right about everything we studied (which doesn’t surprise me, she was a protestant kid (at the time) in a Catholic school and was Awarded for her knowledge in Religion class at the end of the year! The History of Medicine was also a favorite among the older kids, while Art and Music enrichment was a favorite for my younger two.
I just can’t say enough good about Memoria Press and I am encouraged each time a Mom posts about what her MP homeschool graduate is doing today. We’re staying the course again this coming year and I can’t wait to get our books in for this coming year! I haven’t planned it out too much, but I know we will be doing the Odyssey, Treasure Island and more.
