The Only "Homeschool" Book You May Need

Why Every Homeschool Mom Needs to Read The Year of Miss Agnes

(From the back) “Ten-year-old Frederika doesn’t have much faith that the new school teacher in town will last very long. After all, they never do. Most teachers who come to their one-room schoolhouse in remote Alaska leave at the first smell of fish, claiming that life there is just too hard.

But Miss Agnes is different—she doesn’t get frustrated with her students, and she throws away old textbooks and reads Robin Hood instead! For the first time, Fred and her classmates begin to enjoy their lessons and learn to read and write—but will Miss Agnes be like all the rest and leave as quickly as she came?”

While there are many helpful "how-to" homeschool resources out there, sometimes we just need some inspiration in the form of a story. This one fits the bill in some of the following ways:

Miss Agnes doesn’t believe in grades

This tells me that she believes children shouldn’t be confined to learning skills simply because they of a particular age. She wants to develop each one’s individual strengths and help them through their unique struggles.

In many homeschool settings grade levels are merely a guideline and not necessarily adhered to. This gives the family freedom to study things together no matter what their age, similar to that old one-room-schoolhouse style. This also alleviates the stress involved in rushing a struggling student along when all they need is an extra few weeks honing in on that newly learned skill.

Miss Agnes introduces the children to painting

In order to decorate their classroom and have the students own their learning space, Miss Agnes begins by allowing the students to paint a picture to hang on the wall. She has each of them draw a border around the paper, to leave a sort of frame, and there’s only one rule. They may not leave any white space within the frame of the paper. “This is the difference between a fine painting and a drawing,” she explains.

Miss Agnes plays music for the children while they are painting

How therapeutic--listening to quality music while we are quietly involved in painting! This is a perfect way to introduce our children to some of the “greats” without bogging them down with biographical facts or turning it into a textbook study. Why not pair an enjoyable activity like painting with beautiful music. These are lasting memory connections in our brains.

Miss Agnes makes tea and offers to share it with the children

Developing a love for a comforting warm cup of tea is of great value. Allowing children to snuggle up with steaming tea while they are doing a challenging math lesson, or reading that long chapter of a book might be just the thing they need to keep them going. Combining drinking tea with other group activities such as poetry reading, or a game of cards, is also a terrific memory to foster for our kids.

Miss Agnes describes an entire handwriting curriculum

Struggling to choose the perfect handwriting curriculum for your child? Miss Agnes teaches her students how to write in the most simplest of ways. As a group, vowel first, with humor as well. No need for fancy handwriting books. Lined paper and a pencil is really all you need.

Miss Agnes reads aloud

Enchanting--kids love being read aloud to.

Miss Agnes teaches students with special needs

Miss Agnes doesn’t let a deaf student’s limitations stop her from learning. With special patience and a unique learning plan, Miss Agnes makes a way for this student. And the others learn alongside – they are challenged, they love, and they accept.

Miss Agnes believes you have to learn to read and write to get on in life

It is so easy to get bogged down with everything we need to teach. I remember feeling like I was failing my second-grader somehow if I missed a history or science topic that year! But really, learning to read, and understand what you’re reading, and then knowing how to write something, are two basic skills that are the springboard to learning anything else. Once our kids have mastered reading and they know how to write, their opportunities to learn anything are literally endless.

Miss Agnes believes we should be life-long learners

Treating school as though learning were limited to the morning, or Monday to Friday, isn’t developing an attitude of life-long learning. Even more so as Christians, and students of the Word, I want to develop my children’s attitude toward learning. That they remain curious, eager to seek out answers to questions they have, desiring to know more about how something works. Life-long learning also reminds me that while I want to remain responsible and diligent to teach my kids, I must also relax and remember they will continue to learn throughout life’s journey ahead of them.

Miss Agnes has creative ways to engage kids with history

We are taught how she uses a timeline and the kids play “Time Machine” to go back in time and tell what they see.

Miss Agnes recognizes strengths in each of her students—mental and emotional

Miss Agnes teaches her students that everyone is good at something. And she makes an effort at naming those things. These strengths range from mathematics to dancing, from running a house to making people feel happy. Can we name things each of our children are uniquely gifted at? Have we affirmed them in their strengths?

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This middle-grade novel is just plain inspirational. If you need a pick-me-up this February, a nudge to get you to the finish line in June, read this lovely story of a one-room schoolhouse, set in remote 1950s Alaska.

I enjoyed it just as much second time 'round as I did the first when I read it aloud to my 3rd grader about 4 years ago.