The Curriculum Choice

Ellen

A home schooling mother, Ellen lives in the Deep South with a transplanted Yankee husband, two middle grade daughters, and two adorable corgis, Jasper and Georgette. She espouses a literary-based education with a Charlotte Mason emphasis. She squeezes in time to write between teaching, managing the household, ferrying the girls to their activities, and volunteering with said activities. Hot tea and prayer keep her going. You can read about her life at http://bluestockingbelle.blogspot.com.

Is your family looking forward to the Olympic Games this summer? My children are already talking about which events they hope to catch on TV. (My secret hope is that the stations show more sports coverage and less chit-chat, but that’s just me.) Even if Olympics fever hasn’t yet hit your house, now is a great time for Olympic Games: A Study of the Olympic Games from Ancient Times to the Present, by Charlene Notgrass and Mary Evelyn McCurdy.

Available from home education publisher the Notgrass Company, this study provides 40 lessons on Olympic history, sports education, and notable athletes. Each lesson contains some sort of written or artistic response, including creative writing, sports vocabulary, mapwork, and puzzles. The puzzles are particularly intriguing and comprise missing letter, crossword, word search, acrostic, and word scramble varieties.

Moreover, the lessons encompass a wide variety of subjects, such as Bible study, world history, geography, and language arts. I was especially impressed with the scriptural tie-ins. For example, in the section on archery, the directions read: “The Bible often speaks of bows and arrows. One passage is Psalm 127:4. Copy it on these lines. . . . Read about King David, his friend Jonathan, and what they did with arrows in 1 Samuel 20.”

The artwork is another highlight. More than mere afterthoughts, the photographs are fascinating and pertinent to the text. Vivid color photographs of events and places of interest, as well as historical black and white photos of people and places, such as Wilma Rudolph crossing the finish line in first place, are integral to the study.

Olympic Games is officially for ages 7-14, and the activities are designed for this age group. But the subject matter, related in a well-written style, is engrossing enough for older students and even adults. I myself enjoyed reading the lessons, especially those covering an Olympic timeline.

This fun and engaging study is available as both an Ebook and a spiral-bound consumable workbook; I reviewed the latter. The high quality and reasonable price makes Olympic Games an excellent value. What’s more, it would be a fantastic accompaniment to your 2012 London Games viewing!

Written by Ellen of The Blue Stocking Belle

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Let’s be honest. In the ocean of children’s books, there’s a whole lot of flotsam and jetsam. Just because a book is popular doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile. On the flip side, just because a book is decades old doesn’t mean it’s a classic. Parents, particularly homeschooling parents, need someone whom they can trust to help them guide their children toward high-quality literature.

A superb resource that has directed me for years is Honey for a Child’s Heart: The Imaginative Use of Books in Family Life, by Gladys Hunt. Familiar to many homeschooling families, this excellent book makes a strong case for a life of literature. Hunt writes:

“Children and books go together in a special way. I can’t imagine any pleasure greater than bringing to the uncluttered, supple mind of a child the delight of knowing the many rich things God has given us to enjoy. Parents have this wonderful privilege, and books are their keenest tools.”

Honey for a Child’s Heart is divided into two parts. The first part, “Using Books to Help Children Grow,” offers many good discussions and much food for thought. Hunt underscores the extreme importance of reading and offers suggestions on how to foster a literary atmosphere in our homes. She challenges us to consider who or what we allow to influence our children. Moreover, Hunt discusses aspects of good literature and how to discern the quality of books our children read.

Part two, “Best-Loved Books for Children,” is an annotated book list for children up to age 14. Hunt divides the lists into groups such as classic picture books, books for beginning readers, classic children’s novels, historical novels, and animal lovers’ books, among others. She also offers a chapter on poetry.

Hunt’s writing style is rich and vivid, and her love for literature is reflected in every chapter. Moreover, I appreciate her Christian perspective, her awe of God as Creator of all things lovely, her expansive tastes, and her cautious stance on wholesale censorship. Every time I pick up this book to read, I find myself nodding in agreement with her. Yellow highlighter glows on so many pages of my copy!

Books are a powerful medium, engaging our imaginations, emotions, spirits, and understanding. As informed parents, we want to guide our children through the murky waters of children’s literature and help them select worthwhile books instead of twaddle. With Honey for a Child’s Heart in hand, you’ll be better equipped to help your children make the best literary decisions.

Ellen stays busy home educating two middle-grade daughters, chasing two corgis, managing the family’s busy household, reading as much as she can, and writing about life at Bluestocking Belle.

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Grammar is a subject near and dear to my heart. I know not everyone can (or will) admit to that, but there it is. Throughout my children’s elementary years, we explored several different grammar curricula, and all have had their good points. This year, however, I came across a FREE curriculum that is thorough and easy to use and free. (Did I mention that already? Sorry. I really like the word free.)

Daily Grammar provides 440 lessons, which cover:

the eight parts of speech
the parts of a sentence
grammar mechanics

Lessons are grouped by topic and include one quiz per topic. Nouns, for example, comprise five lessons and a quiz. Each lesson also contains an answer key, which is helpful if, say, predicate nominatives aren’t your thing.

Daily Grammar offers other useful features:

an archive page, which makes it easy to find the lessons you need
a glossary of grammar terms, in case you need to brush up on your grammar definitions
eBooks, FlipBooks, and Workbooks available for purchase, should you prefer to use these
the Daily Grammar Blog
a Facebook discussion group for questions, comments, and general grammar gab

One of the best features of Daily Grammar is its short lessons. Each lesson takes only a few minutes to complete.

At the beginning of each week, I print out the lessons we’ll cover that week. To keep our focus, I opt to stick with one topic per week. I’ve found that the easiest way to print the lessons is to copy and paste the text into a word processing document. I print the lessons and answer keys for myself and the lessons alone for my children.

Daily Grammar is comprehensive enough to stand alone as a complete curriculum for older elementary and middle grade students. Since each short lesson has only around five practice exercises, some children might need more reinforcement. Daily Grammar would also serve well as a refresher course or a supplement to other grammar curricula.

And the price is right, too.

Ellen stays busy home educating two middle-grade daughters, chasing two corgis, managing the family’s busy household, reading as much as she can, and writing about life at Bluestocking Belle.

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Hello, fellow homeschoolers! This is the first review I’ve written for the Curriculum Choice. I’m very excited to share my thoughts about and experience with various curricula and resources with the hope that someone finds them helpful. I thought I’d dive right in with everybody’s favorite subject: spelling!

Like math, spelling as a subject offers a variety of methods — and madness. Also like math, some children are naturally stronger in spelling than others. For some families’ mix of learning styles and levels of compliance (in both children and teacher!), spelling workbooks are the ticket. For others, copywork and dictation fill the bill. And let’s not forget the myriad spelling software programs and other books. Alas, none of those worked in my family. That’s why I’m so thankful a friend introduced us to Spelling Power.

Here’s the daily procedure in a nutshell:

You and your child sit down together. You administer the quiz on that day’s group of words.
Each group of words follows a certain phonetic rule (or exceptions to a rule), such as: “/ar/ is usually spelled ar as in jar.”
You use a specific worksheet (printable at home) and follow a certain protocol in giving the quiz: You say the word, use it in a sentence of your own creation (I enjoy that part!), and say the word again.
Your child then says the word aloud, writes it the best way she can, and then says the word again, to cue you for the next word on the list.
At the end of the quiz, you grade it together, with you saying and spelling each word correctly, and your child marking her incorrect words.
She lists the correct spelling of each word she missed on a list called Words to Learn. She then studies only the words she missed on the 10-Step Study Sheet.
The next day, you quiz her on the words she missed yesterday before beginning that day’s quiz. Easy peasy.

Of course, there’s much more to it than that, overall:

Beverly L. Adams-Gordon, the creator of Spelling Power and a home educator, has put much thought and research into this multi-award-winning program.
When you first begin, you test each child to find out in which level he or she should be placed.
Each level includes several review tests (given after several daily tests).
There are delayed recall tests about halfway through the level. Tests again at the end of the level and end of level tests.
If your child continues to miss words he’s studied previously, Spelling Power provides extra learning activities to strengthen his recall.

Don’t let the “Big Orange Book” scare you, though! Once you delve into the curriculum, Spelling Power is very easy to use:

Adams-Gordon provides a Quick-Start Guide to get you up and running.
Although the program is pricier than other spelling curricula, it’s designed to be used from ages eight through adult.
All the materials you’ll need are included via a CD-ROM and a link to a website with downloadable forms.
Moreover, Adams- Gordon designed Spelling Power to teach not only spelling, but dictionary skills and proofreading. It really is a complete program.

Spelling Power has been great for my family. My “natural speller” child loves that she has to study only those words she misses on the quizzes, and my less able speller enjoys Spelling Power’s focus on mastery of spelling rules. She’s able to translate that knowledge to her everyday writing. A boon for me and an accomplishment for her.

For more information on Spelling Power, visit the website at www.spellingpower.com.

Ellen stays busy home educating two middle-grade daughters, chasing two corgis, managing the family’s busy household, reading as much as she can, and writing about life at The Bluestocking Belle.

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