Home Learning Year By Year

 Encouragement, Mom Helps, New to Homeschooling, Organization  No Responses »
Feb 032012
 

What’s one of the biggest homeschooling questions you are asked or find yourself asking? I’m not talking about the, “Is this enough?” question, rather the, “What should my child know?” It’s so easy to wonder if you’re teaching your children the right information at the right time, especially if you’re not using standard textbooks.

There are solutions to this problem but my favorite comes in one small book. Home Learning Year By Year by Rebecca Rupp. This book has saved my sanity many times. Really, it has. Home Learning Year By Year breaks down exactly what children will be tested for or are learning in most US based public institutions for kindergarten through 12th Grade. One book. So much information!

How I use it:

I’m sure there are many ways you could use this. The book has an overwhelming amount of information. About once a year, during summer break or before the start of our new school term, I make a list of items I want my child to learn for his grade.

I also go back over the information my child should have learned from the previous grade , just to be sure I covered everything I wanted. You’ll find that much of the standards carry over. For instance, in Grade 2 a child is meant to learn how to use a comma when writing a date, address, or when making a list within in a sentence. By Grade 3 your child will expand their knowledge of commas, so don’t panic if you didn’t teach it in Grade 2. Just teach commas in Grade 3 and expand on it more.

The list making process isn’t complex. I read through the chapter for each of my children’s grade levels. I jot down, in a notebook, the things I know they don’t know or that I’m not sure if they’ll be covered formally in any of our curriculum. From there I type that list out and group things together. All math information, for instance, is tucked under a Math heading. I make sure to make a little check mark box next to each item I put on my list. It’s very simple. I also make sure to put the school year, grade level and child’s name on the top of each paper. I also leave some space for putting notes on my pages. I then print the pages out, and tuck the note into my Teacher/Mom notebook for school. As we go along I can tick off boxes when things are taught or learned.

Not everything has to be taught in a formal way. For instance, I’m really great for making the lists and leaving it laying around so I can bring certain topics up, “Do you guys know what an animal home is called?” If they get the right answer, I tick it off my list. Wrong answer? I plug in a Magic School Bus video and pull out a matching book, then I tick it off my list. Explaining terms like biography and autobiography can happen right at the dinner table. Where as teaching children how to alphabetize is better suited on the living room floor with an alphabet puzzle spread before you.

What I love:

I love that this one small book can guide me through my children’s entire school careers. There’s no need to purchase a new book all the time.

I love the price! Seriously, one book that will last me all 13 years of my children’s schooling and it only costs between $10 – $16 depending on where you purchase it. {Amazon.com has it for $10 + shipping & Book Depository has it for $15.97 with free shipping}

I love that Rebecca Rupp has taken the time to type out resources you can use to teach a variety of the things on her list. From main stream math programmes to lesser known picture books. It’s all right there at your finger tips!

I love that the book is small. I know that sounds silly, but really that’s big! I can toss this in my bag and take it with me nearly anywhere during the summer when I’m making my lists. It’s not much bigger than a typical paperback book!

What I don’t like:

I honestly can’t think of much about this book I don’t like. I think, if you live outside of America, you may not find the book as helpful because it is made to pass the US tests at the end of each grade. I can’t consider this a dislike because I knew that going in. I also don’t teach my kids to pass tests, so that’s not a problem for me.

There’s also the factor that while this explains what US children will be learning for history at different years, there’s going to be huge amounts of US history. Again, not something I dislike about this book for a couple of reasons. First off, I knew that going in. Secondly, my children are both American & Australian so it’s important that they know US history. For those of you not interested in learning US history you could simply substitute your country’s history in it’s place.

Bottom Line:

I love Home Learning Year by Year. I love the treasures inside of it. I love the peace of mind it helps me achieve! When asked what book to recommend to new homeschoolers this is one that’s on the top of my list!

Extra:

Rebecca Rupp has also written a book entitled The Homelearning Source Book. This book is a coffee table type book that is just bursting full of resources for teaching your children anything and everything. It’s very simple to use. And on top of the awesome resources, there’s also notes about which resources The Rupp Family used and how they enjoyed them. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if it’s still in print as neither Amazon or Book Depository seem to be selling copies of it, all though CBD seems to have copies {they do ship overseas as well.} If you can get your hands on a copy it’s well worth it!

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How to Raise Your High School Grades by Half a Point in One Semester

 High School, Highschool  1 Response »
Dec 022011
 

Teens need to think about thinking, studying, time management, and the future. There are all sorts of serious, sober, and expensive approaches to these topics. However, if your family has a sense of humor and likes outside-the-box ideas, Gary North’s free study course might work for you. How to Raise Your High School Grades by Half a Point in One Semester is full of quirky opinions mixed with excellent advice. The excellent outweighs the quirky, but it’s the quirkiness that made this course such a success in our homeschool.

Our children delighted in their weekly sessions with Gary North. There seems to be something in Dr. North’s writing style that brings out humor and independent thinking in my teens, because their summaries were almost always insightful and often downright funny.

In this guide, Dr. North discusses:

  • study skills
  • attitudes
  • time management and tricks
  • study partners
  • vacations
  • textbooks
  • note-taking
  • test-taking
  • writing
  • keeping up with the news

The lessons are short, full of short sentences and definite opinions that sometimes had me sputtering. Aim for a B in your book reports!  Indeed! But they generated great discussion. What’s more, many of the suggestions are truly wise.

Although Dr. North set this course up so that students would get one lesson a day—and presumably raise their marks quickly—our approach was more long-term. Once a week our teens would go to the website, read the lesson, summarize it, and write down the take-home message. This kept them interacting with the material for a much longer time, which is better for real learning and thinking.

I have not read much other material by Gary North and cannot vouch for the rest of the things he says. In fact, I don’t even agree with all he says in this course. However, How to Raise Your High School Grades by Half a Point in One Semester has been a highlight in our homeschool for the past 27 weeks, and my teens are sad that they have finished it. 

Your teens might also enjoy it.  They will certainly learn from it.

-Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five, who reviews and blogs at Tea Time with Annie Kate. You can read her other Curriculum Choice reviews here.

Teaching Textbooks

 Mathematics  7 Responses »
Nov 212011
 

For the past few years we haven’t used a math curriculum of any sort. Yes, you read that right. For several years we’d been “free flying” as I call it, learning math through games, hands on applications, & stories.

We had a grand time of it, and both of my children had a firm foundation in basic mathematics. However, we made a few changes to our little homeschool & one of the changes I decided to make was to use a math curriculum again.

It wasn’t that what we were doing wasn’t working, but rather that I wanted to be sure all the gaps I might have were filled. I opted to go with Teaching Textbooks after trying out the free samples online & administering their placement tests.

My 2nd grader easily fit into the Third Grade math with Teaching Textbooks & my Fourth Grader knew too much to use the Grade Four cds thus bumping him up to the Fifth Grade choice.

How We Use it:

This is an extremely easy programme to use, and after chatting with fellow TT users I decided not to purchase the books that came with it, but rather just the cds.

On any given Teaching Textbook day my child will load his cd into the computer and work studiously. If they need help and Mum is busy they merely skip the problem until I can come to their aid.

Because I chose to only purchase the cds I also went online to the Teaching Textbooks website and printed out the Table Of Contents for each grade level we’re working on. I file that in my teacher notebook and highlight bonus rounds with what facts the children will cover; see below for more information on Bonus Rounds. I also highlight lessons I don’t want a child to miss, but might mark lessons we won’t need because we all ready know the information.

The Break Down:

Each of the various grades that we own comes with four cds, and there are roughly 30 lessons on each disc. Every 7th lesson or so is something dubbed as a Bonus Round.

My kids live for Bonus Rounds! Okay, so a Bonus Round is just a three minute chance to show how many math facts you know by heart. It’s set up similar to a game show complete with a robot host & robot crowd.

In each Bonus Round you have the opportunity to gain up to 4 additional points towards your grade for the day. If you can answer a quarter of the problems correctly you get 1 point, half the questions you get 2 points, three quarters earns you 3 points, & obviously answering them all correctly gets you 4.

This can be a challenging time for children who don’t work well under pressure. In our home, the kids don’t mind the ticking time and the encouraging little robots, but they do get flustered making sure they are hitting the right keys on the number pad in a quick fashion. So, in our house when we hit a Bonus Round I go ahead and type for them while they spout off answers.

Note that each bonus round concentrates on a specific operation each time. These are noted in the table of contents so you can remind your student to brush up on their addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division facts.

Each lesson starts with a lecture that the child listens to. In it a male voice explains how to do the days lessons or new topic. This is generally well done, all though I wasn’t as impressed with the way they taught facts. By this, I mean when it came to multiplication facts the fellow would tell them the answer to each of their 12 times table facts, then he’d tell them they needed to memorize them. The flashed on the screen for a mere matter of seconds disappeared and the child was to set about the lesson for the day. We chose to supplement for learning our times tables due to this.

After your lecture for the day you are given 5 practice problems, not alway based on your lecture. Then you have an additional 23 problems to answer for the day. Sometimes we chose to do them all, sometimes I permit the kids to skip problems.

For instance, if my child knows how to do the problem, I see no point in having him do 6 of the same problems so long as he got the answer correct the first two or three times. There are some downsides to this, but we’ll discuss those later.

Every 13 lessons or so there is also a quiz. There is no lecture for Quiz days, you merely load up your lesson and answer 23 different math problems.

The programme automatically keeps track of the grades & scores for quizzes, bonuses, & lessons. As my children finish with a cd I print out the final scores for each of those lessons and I file it so I have proof of the math they’ve done for the year and the scores they achieved.

What I don’t like:

As mentioned before I’m not keen on the way some lectures are given. I respect that teaching a student math facts can be a challenging process & I know that by adding in the Bonus Rounds they are encouraging memorization, however I was still unimpressed with the way some facts were taught.

I don’t like trick problems. My student was dutifully working away one day when I heard a problem come up that I felt was a bit too tricky and sneaky and would merely frustrate my student. The problem was down the lines of, “If it’s 2:00 and it’s dark outside is that am or pm.” For an 8 year old I’m pretty sure he’d associate dark with pm, thus I felt the problem was a tad too sneaky/tricky.

I dislike the fact that there are 23 problems for each lesson & if I have my student skip those problems it’s reflected in his grade. For instance if my child only does 19 our of 23 problems his grade will be an 85% or there abouts.

I don’t love what they wanted to charge me for international shipping when I know it can be done for half the price. I really struggle with this, but also understand that people who don’t ship internationally regularly might not know that.

What I love:

I love that this little programme can do the grades for me. Until this programme my children have never really had a grade before and they actually enjoy seeing what their score is.

I love that if my children make a typo and get a problem wrong I can log in to their grade book and reflect the change OR I can even delete answers and have them rework problems. This is a huge deal if your child has the habit of being a tad heavy on the keyboard.

I love that I can also delete out a Bonus Round and have my child redo that too. This is funtastic if you want your child to have a creative way to practice their math facts. Or, if your keyboard gets unplugged during the middle of a round and your Mum doesn’t know it until there’s 10 seconds left.

I love that these cds are both Windows & Mac compatible! This excites me in ways I just can’t explain. As a Mac family it was a huge deal for us to be able to use these on our Macs!

I love that if you have a US or Canadian postal address you can get free shipping from this company!

I’m also really impressed with the resale value that this programme has. The programme is $110 brand new from the published/creator, but it has an average resale value of $70.

I love that there are not 180 days worth of lessons! This means my children can use this programme only 2-3x a week and we use those extra days for our Living Math lessons. They can still accomplish more then enough, if not all of, the programme.

Bottom Line:

We really enjoy using this programme. It’s a really fun way for kids to get both computer skills and math skills in. Not to mention, if you’re not a math fan and feel you lack the skills to teach your children this programme would be a wonderful fit for you!

Kendra lives in Tasmania Australia with her husband, the Man From Down Under, two curious boys, a dog, & a bird that constantly talks back. Creator, and avid user, of the Homeschool Book Of Days & The Nature Game she can be found retelling tales from The Land Down Under over at the Aussie Pumpkin Patch.

Foundations in Personal Finance Curriculum

 Economics, High School, Highschool  2 Responses »
Oct 172011
 

During school time Mr. 16 was sitting at the computer, chuckling. Having that much fun doing ‘schoolwork’ suggests to me that it’s not really schoolwork on the computer….

So I sternly asked, “What are you doing?”

Sweetly he answered, “Dave Ramsey,” and continued chortling.

After listening to a few more minutes of this laughter, I pulled up a chair beside him to watch “Bargain Shopping,” Chapter 8 of the Foundations in Personal Finance Curriculum, Homeschool Edition, a wonderful curriculum by Dave Ramsey. Soon the Little Misses joined us and we finished the chapter…and then started again at the beginning, laughing and learning all the way.

Sure, not all of the lessons are this funny, but we love this curriculum. It’s fun and relevant and practical. Dave’s mission is “empowering students to make sound financial decisions for life,” and he does it in such an appealing way!

He covers a lot of topics too, and, besides being excellent training for life, this course also meets state standards. In his 4 teaching DVD’s, Dave covers the following topics in great detail:

  • Unit 1: Saving and Investing
  • Unit 2: Credit and Debt
  • Unit 3: Financial Responsibility and Money Management
  • Unit 4: Insurance/Risk Management and Income/Careers

There’s also a Teacher’s Guide CD-ROM with lesson plans, tests, answer keys, activities, case studies, and more, as well as a Student Workbook containing worksheets, reviews, and many interesting tidbits of information. (For more information, please see the very detailed review on my blog.)

We are extremely pleased with the Foundations in Personal Finance Curriculum. While studying other subjects is very important, learning Personal Finance may well have the most practical impact on your teen’s future life. This curriculum is not inexpensive, but I believe it is an investment that will pay back many times over, both in your teen’s life and your own.

-Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five, who reviews and blogs at Tea Time with Annie Kate.  You can read her other Curriculum Choice reviews here.

Disclosure I received a complimentary copy of Foundations in Personal Finance, Homeschool Edition, in order to give you my honest opinion of it.

 

How to Read a Book by Adler and Van Doren

 Charlotte Mason, Classical, High School  3 Responses »
Aug 262011
 

So now your children know how to read.  Congratulations!  That’s a major step, but does it mean that their reading instruction finished?  Not at all, we’ve found.

How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading teaches the average reader how to understand, analyze, and learn from books.  It takes students beyond the basics of reading to become scholars.  It is, I think, the foundational book in our homeschool high school, besides the Bible.

Summary

How to Read a Book discusses and explains the four levels of reading as well as different approaches to different kinds of reading material.  The book is divided into four exceedingly well-organized parts:

  • “Part 1: The Dimensions of Reading” includes information on the first level of reading, which is what we homeschool moms teach our little ones.  Then it goes on to discuss the second level, inspectional reading, occasionally called pre-reading.
  • “Part 2: The Third Level of Reading: Analytical Reading” includes topics such as pigeonholing a book, coming to terms with an author, determining an author’s message, and agreeing or disagreeing with an author.
  • “Part 3: Approaches to Different Kinds of Reading Matter” presents tips for reading both fiction and non-fiction: novels, plays, short stories, and poems, as well as history, science, math, philosophy, and social science.  It also includes an insightful section on how to read ‘canonical’ books.  For example, it explains how reading sacred writings as the revealed Word of God, rather than as mere literature, is entirely different from other kinds of reading.
  • “Part 4: The Ultimate Goals of Reading” explains the idea of syntopical reading and tells us what good books can do for us.
  • Appendices:  These include a recommended reading list as well as exercises and tests at the four levels of reading.

Throughout the book, examples and explanations are taken from the literature of ‘the great conversation’ as the greatest Western literature is sometimes called.  This adds immeasurably to the book.

How we use it

We were introduced to this book several years ago by both Ambleside Online and The Well-Trained Mind (first edition).  Both resources recommended that students work through How to Read a Book in great detail, and that is what we have been doing.  My children go through it paragraph by paragraph, for at least half the book.  Each paragraph is summarized in one or two sentences, and I check each summary.  This process teaches my teens a lot since it’s one of the few books meaty enough to make such careful attention to detail worthwhile.  (It teaches me a lot, too. )

Of course, this is a great deal of work and we spread it out over at least the four high school years.  I allowed Miss 18 to absorb the last half of How to Read a Book on her own during the last two years of high school, since she’s the kind of person who will read ahead and study independently.  Although she would have learned more if she had continued the detailed summaries, there are only 24 hours in a day; she did read it several times. Mr. 16 and Miss 13 are both doing the detailed summaries.

As mentioned, How to Read a Book uses great books as examples.  Thus my teens were exposed to much great writing in an enjoyable and inspiring way.  In fact, Miss 18 designed her Intro to Western Literature course using the reading list in Appendix A. Recently Mr. 16 chose to read and analyze Machiavelli’s The Prince because of How to Read a Book’s discussion of an intriguing statement beginning with “A prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred;…”

Although this book is challenging and uses challenging examples, the subject matter is appropriate for Christian teens.  They will need to think, true, but they will not be taught evil, immorality, modern political correctness, or revisionism.

Our family has been able to understand other books more deeply because of insights gained from How to Read a Book.  Thus studying this one book has had a huge impact on everything we learn from other books.  It both enhances the time spent reading and increases our efficiency in understanding new material.

I highly recommend How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading for all teens whose studies involve a lot of reading, and for their moms as well.

Disclosure:  I do not receive any compensation for my reviews, and my opinions are entirely my own.

-Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five, who reviews and blogs at Tea Time with Annie Kate.  You can read her other Curriculum Choice reviews here.

Comprehensive Record Solution

 Encouragement, High School, Mom Helps, Organization  1 Response »
Jul 112011
 

The prospect of getting homeschooled kids into university can seem quite frightening.  I was recently talking with a mom who is going to do online public school so that her children will have ‘the right courses’ to enter university.  She was cheerfully determined to follow this course, so I didn’t try to dissuade her, but really, it’s not necessary.

Instead, she could have continued the excellent home education she was giving her children and added a few standard tests such as SAT’s or AP’s, whatever her chosen universities required.  Using the Comprehensive Record Solution would have enabled her to document her homeschooling so that universities would have been eager to admit her children.

I go to great effort to choose rigorous, quality curriculum for my children.  I consider the worldview of each curriculum, its goals, how easy it is to learn from, and the amount of time and effort it will demand from me.  As a reviewer, I love to evaluate curricula, and I’m excited when something exceptionally good crosses my path.  Of course we want to use these excellent resources to provide the best individualized education for our teens.  We don’t want to settle for public school standards and values just to be able to get into university.

And that’s why I love the Comprehensive Record Solution.  It gives me both the confidence and the tools for keeping track of my teens’ high school learning.  It’s clear, organized, effective, and professional looking.  It helps me translate my ‘mommy courses’ and ‘mommy marks’ into something admissions officers can understand and get excited about.

I think this resource will help families continue to homeschool though high school Because it builds parental confidence and provides the tools to justify that confidence, it’s such a valuable resource that I’m posting a review of it here on the Curriculum Choice in addition to the preview and review posted on my blog.

First of all, the Comprehensive Record Solution is a parental confidence builder.  Lack of parental confidence is one of the main reasons for sending homeschooled kids to public school.  “If I keep homeschooling them they won’t be able to get into university,” I’m told over and over.

Lee Binz, mom, author, and successful homeschool high school coach, asserts that the quickest and easiest path to college admissions and scholarships is to focus on helping the student become the person God created them to be.  She does not advocate a rigid, stressful style of high school at all.  In fact, she says that a big advantage of homeschooling is the opportunity to enjoy life-defining experiences during the school year. This is our family’s style, too.  Although we encourage thorough and rigorous courses, we also allow ample opportunity for exploring personal interests.  Knowing that Lee’s philosophy is similar to ours makes me feel more comfortable with her suggestions.

Furthermore, the Comprehensive Record Solution provides helpful tools to prepare high school records.  It consists of four modules:

  • Module 1: Encourage, in which we meet Lee and her family, understand the importance of record keeping, and see the records of her sons and of some other homeschooled students.
  • Module 2: Equip, in which Lee shares a thorough record template as well as all you’ve ever wanted to know about course descriptions, including many examples.
  • Module 3:  Educate, in which Lee gives wide-ranging video and audio advice to help prepare your teen’s comprehensive record.
  • Module 4:  Empower, in which Lee will personally help you, hands-on, with four individual course descriptions you develop.

The backbone of the program is the Comprehensive Record Template from Module 2.  This well-designed document includes transcript forms to help organize and record students’ work in a format which universities and colleges appreciate.  It has prompts to record textbooks, grades, course descriptions, and more.  Because of the template, I could focus on just one step at a time, and that really reduced my stress level.

The program also includes a wealth of helpful information in E-books, audio downloads, videos, templates, and documents.  I loved Lee’s course descriptions, and used them to make my own…and I really enjoyed her empowering and helpful input on four of them.

We used the Comprehensive Record Solution for Miss 18 who is entering her chosen university in the fall, and I am also using it for Mr. 16 and Miss 13.  Although the thought of preparing adequate high school records used to keep me awake at nights, I’m now confident and relaxed about it.  Of course, there’s still work to do, but the stress is now gone.  I am pleased to be able to homeschool right through high school using our own style and top quality resources…and still get my children into university.

As mentioned, more information is available in my earlier preview and review, as well as on the Comprehensive Record Solution webpage.  You can purchase the program there as well.

Disclosure:  I received The Comprehensive Record Solution in order to review it and give you my honest opinion.  I do not receive any compensation for any of my reviews, and my opinions are entirely my own.

-Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five, who reviews and blogs at Tea Time with Annie Kate.  You can read her other Curriculum Choice reviews here.


Apologia High School Science

 High School, Mom Helps, Science  No Responses »
Feb 252011
 

Homeschooling parents used to send their teens to school, feeling they couldn’t provide quality high school science instruction at home.  That hasn’t been necessary since Dr. Jay L. Wile wrote and revised his Apologia high school texts.  These excellent, Creation-based courses are clear enough to be essentially self-teaching, even though they cover difficult material.  In fact, as a scientist, I am impressed by the breadth and depth of these texts as well as their clarity.

The Apologia high school science textbook series includes

Each well-organized textbook is full of important and detailed information, presented in a chatty style.  Dr. Wile is an excellent teacher and explains the material carefully, especially in the second edition texts.  Each book contains worked out examples and ‘On Your Own’ questions that are answered in detail in the text.  At the end of each chapter, a series of questions summarizes important concepts and checks for comprehension.  These questions are answered in the separate Solutions Manual.

The texts also contain detailed instructions and explanations for the labs. Many of these labs can be performed using only household materials, but others require specialized equipment such as dissection kits, microscopes, and an array of chemicals which are available in a kit.

For detailed tables of contents and a sample of each course, click on the above links. The texts we own (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Advanced Chemistry, and Advanced Physics) are all quite similar to Advanced Chemistry which I’ve reviewed in great detail here.

Each of these Apologia courses comes with a Solutions and Tests Manual as well as a textbook.  The Solutions and Tests Manuals provide solutions for each chapter’s study guide questions.  They also contain tests and answer keys, and the second edition manuals include detailed marking schemes and exams with solutions as well.

Each course also comes with full curriculum support by mail, email, fax, or phone.  Some also have other supporting components such as CD ROM’s, lab equipment, and an invaluable website.

Most of these courses have been revised to make them even more user-friendly. For details of the differences between the two editions, see my review of the second edition of Advanced Chemistry.  If at all possible, I recommend buying the second edition.  At the high school level, ease of use for both student and parent is crucial and is well worth the difference in price between a new second edition and a used first edition textbook.

Obviously, these are Christian courses, written from a creationist viewpoint. That is one of the reasons I love them.  They do, however, present and explain evolution respectfully, while pointing out problems with current theories.  Christian students need this sort of knowledge to be able to function and thrive in secular universities and colleges.  However, if students plan to write the big standardized subject tests, they would do well to learn more about evolution from a secular source.

We’re in our fourth year of high school at home, and Miss 18 has completed the second editions of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, and is currently studying Advanced Chemistry and Advanced Physics. Unfortunately, at this time Apologia has no plans for a second edition of Advanced Physics.  Mr. 15 is working on Biology and will soon begin Chemistry.

After all these years of using Dr. Wile’s texts, we are very pleased with the breadth, depth, and user-friendliness of these courses.  The textbook explanations are so clear that my teens rarely come to me for help with their science, but I know they are learning much more than I did in high school, including a good many first year university topics.

Because of the Apologia science texts, homeschooled high school students have access to better quality science education than most students in public or private schools, even if their parents do not know science.  The extensive support system mentioned above, the clarity of the textbooks, and the many detailed examples all help to make the courses essentially self-teaching, even though they are rigorous.

Dr. Wile’s high school science texts are an incredible resource for the Christian homeschool movement and should also be used by Christian private schools that do not have qualified high school science teachers.

For information about Apologia’s  junior high science, please read this informative review.

Disclosure: I am not compensated for this review and the opinions expressed are entirely my own.  I received one of the textbooks, Advanced Chemistry, for the purpose of reviewing it.

Written by Annie Kate, a Christian homeschooling mom of five, who reviews and blogs at Tea Time with Annie Kate.

Read for the Heart – A Book about Books

 Elementary, High School, History, Junior High Language Arts, Language Arts, Literature, Living books, Preschool, Unit study resources  No Responses »
Jul 122010
 

I have yet to meet a homeschool family that did not love books.  On my quest to find wonderful books to be read to or by my children I have read quite a few ‘books about books’.  One volume has earned a place on my personal shelf to be used often.  That book is Read for the Heart: Whole Books for Wholehearted Families by Sarah Clarkson.

Read for the Heart is 384 pages full of information and ideas.  The first four chapters give the reader an in-depth look at the author’s personal view of books, a guide for becoming a reading family, as well as a chapter on the state of literacy in America today.

The next eight chapters are booklists divided into the following topics:

  • Picture Books
  • The Golden Age Classics
  • Children’s Fiction
  • Fairy Tales and Fantasy
  • History and Biography
  • Spiritual Reading for Children
  • Poetry
  • Music, Art, and Nature

Each chapter begins with a story and treatise by Miss Clarkson on the book genre at hand, giving you an even better idea of what qualities she has used to select books for that chapter. I love this part.  It makes me feel like I’ve just sat down to chat with a good friend, and she is sharing adventures she has had with books.  The lists in each chapter are generally arranged alphabetically by author, with the main exception being the history and biography section arranged by time period.  That has been a big help when I am looking for books to go along with our current history studies.  Most of the books have a review telling more about the story, awards won, general age guidelines, and any cautions if necessary.

The end of Read for the Heart has six appendices of book lists such as Newbery and Caldecott Award winners and special favorites of the author.  There are two indexes, one sorted by author and illustrator, one by title, giving a quick way to check on a specific book or to find more by an author or illustrator my children enjoy.

You can view a 32 page excerpt from Read for the Heart on the Apologia website.  The book can be purchased there or on Amazon for $17.00.  I bought mine through Amazon with some gift cards I had.

My only complaint about Read for the Heart is that she stopped at 384 pages!  Sarah Clarkson’s guide has been a huge help as I have navigated the library catalog searching for books to share with my children.  I would love if she made a second book with reviews of even more titles.

Written by Tristan, mom to 5 going on 6 children, homeschooling through unit studies with a side of lapbooks.  You can visit her at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool.

Making Charlotte Mason Simple

 Charlotte Mason, Elementary, High School, New to Homeschooling, Philosophies, Preschool, Uncategorized  3 Responses »
Jun 142010
 

What a wonderful experience I have had the last few months!  I received the All-Day Charlotte Mason Seminar on DVD, seminar workbook, and the Laying Down the Rails book and Workshop on DVD from Simply Charlotte Mason to review.  If you have never been over to visit Simply Charlotte Mason, I highly recommend you take a look.  They offer free curriculum guides, free ebooks, and many materials for purchase as well.  They truly help make Charlotte Mason’s homeschool ideas simple.  Their blog is one that always inspires me.

I began by watching the 3 DVDs for the All-Day Charlotte Mason Seminar and taking notes through the accompanying workbook.  I did this over the course of several evenings while my children were falling asleep in their beds, which allowed me some quiet to focus.

Session 1 (34 minutes) introduced me to Charlotte Mason, who she was, when she lived, and her ideas about education.  It was neat to get to know her this way.  I had tried to read her books in the past, but just could not get through them.  It took too much brain power at a time when I was trying to just keep up with my young children and get sleep.

Session 2 (78 minutes) and 3 (71 minutes)held my hand as we went through each subject applying Charlotte Mason’s methods.  Here is where I had many, many ah-ha moments. Short lessons, living books, and narration – these things made sense and could easily be integrated in our unit study family.  I appreciated that I was not expected to add everything in at once.  The appendix explained a doable plan for making the transition to a Charlotte Mason approach a step at a time.  Here is a short clip from the workshop about using narration.

Are we now becoming a Charlotte Mason family? Yes and no.  (grin)  I think narrowly defining any homeschooling family by one method is usually inaccurate.  We prefer to pick and choose the pieces that work for our family.  I have discovered that many of the Charlotte Mason pieces fit our family!  We have already begun to incorporate the following:

  • living books
  • narration
  • scripture memorization

We have plans to incorporate these ideas over the next year:

  • map drill
  • picture study
  • music study

Now let me tell you a little bit about the  Laying Down the Rails book and DVD Workshop that came as part of this set.  I watched the DVD first (45 minutes), using the workbook section for it from the All-Day Charlotte Mason Seminar as I went.  I love Charlotte’s idea that good habits are like railroad tracks, they smooth life out because a child is not having to make the same decisions over and over and over.  I know that is true, even in my own life.  Habits help me to accomplish many of the routine things in my day without the extra effort of decision-making.

Sonya, the workshop presenter, is funny and helpful as she leads you through many of the habits a child can learn.  While there is an extensive list, she emphasizes to start with one habit, and not to add another until the first is truly habit.  It was really helpful to watch the DVD with my husband. He was not up for reading the book, all 230+ pages, but the workshop got us both on the same mental page easily.  He was as excited about habit training as I was.  You can watch a short clip from the DVD right here.

I next spent nearly a month reading and pondering the Laying Down the Rails book.  What a treasure!  It contains Charlotte’s words on each habit gathered into one place, prefaced by a concise definition of the habit and a story that shows how the habit is important.  There are entire chapters on ‘repairing the rails’ – breaking the bad habits we already have, including chapters on some specific problems like dawdling, temper tantrums, and lying.  See a sample from the book HERE.

Where are we now? Well, habit training is a process, and I will be honest that the first person who has to acquire the new habit is me.  However, we are working on our habits slowly and steadily, and I find a lot of support and encouragement when I read through Laying Down the Rails.

Would I buy these products? Yes!  That is an unequivocal yes.  The entire set can be purchased HERE for $54.95.  That includes 3 All-Day Charlotte Mason Seminar DVDs, the Session workbook, 1 Laying Down the Rails workshop DVD, and a print copy of the Laying Down the Rails book.  I love having the All-Day Charlotte Mason Seminar on DVD, a shot of motivation that I can turn on whenever I need a boost.  Homeschooling is a process, and the experience is different with each child.  Having Charlotte Mason’s ideas broken down into manageable tasks gives me easy action plans to try when we need something adjusted.  Laying Down the Rails is a treasure trove of ideas for habit training.  Time will pass and our children will acquire habits.  The question is what habits will they develop – ones we have carefully helped them build or contrary habits that we lazily let develop?

Written by Tristan, mom to 5 going on 6 children, homeschooling through unit studies with a side of lapbooks.  You can visit her at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool.

{Disclaimer: I received these products free from Simply Charlotte Mason to enable this review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}

Careers Units for Kids – Wanna Be’s Review

 Unit study resources  No Responses »
Feb 282010
 

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a question most children love to answer. Those answers change many times through the years.  When I came across a sale for the Wanna Be series from The Old Schoolhouse, which are unit studies about different careers, I grabbed my debit card and ordered.  We love unit studies and I had nothing for careers in yet.  The series covers the following ten careers:

  • Firefighter
  • Veterinarian
  • Chef
  • Military
  • Doctor
  • Police Officer
  • Missionary
  • Farmer
  • Artist (upcoming release)
  • Pilot (upcoming release)

While these units are written for ages 4 – 10, even my husband and I learned a lot as we used our first two units.  I love that these units are written from a Christian homeschool perspective. I love reading how families make these careers work in their life.  The information for high school homeschoolers is wonderful, giving them direction on how to prepare for that career, while the end of unit activities have fun games and activities for younger kids.

What’s inside a unit?

  • Information pages about the career, with information for preschoolers through high schoolers.
  • Crossword puzzles
  • Coloring pages
  • Handwriting Practice
  • Vocabulary
  • Copywork
  • Applied math problems – relating to the career.
  • Word Search
  • Creative Writing Prompts
  • Quiz
  • Fill in the Story
  • Experiments
  • End of Unit Activities – games, memory verses, and ideas for great themed parties.
  • Great resource lists that are internet linked.

Our first adventure centered around a police officer’s job as peace keeper and law enforcer with When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a Police Officer. Each day we read a few pages from the e-book as a family and did activities.  I used the library list to gather books for our unit study basket, which we explored throughout the week.  You can find the ones we chose HERE.  We found out the tools of the trade, training needed for the job, and even some of the science behind fingerprinting.

My oldest wrote a story called The Jewelry Thief (read it HERE ) in response to one of the writing prompts in the unit.  She really enjoyed learning about how police use clues to solve a crime.  We finished up our unit with a trip to our local police department.

Our next Wanna Be adventure took two weeks using When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a Firefighter. We were able to compare many things we had learned about becoming a police officer with the path to becoming a firefighter.  Again, the library list and end of unit activities gave me plenty of ways to include my younger children.  Our second field trip in a month led us to Fire Station 3, where we saw up close and personal many of the things we had learned about during the unit.

The Wanna Be series is a great fit for our unit study family. Each title is a complete unit study.  I do not have to find books at the library unless I want to.  Many creative ideas are included for some themed games and activities perfect for my younger crowd, while the information is meaty enough that we will reuse these when the kids are older.  My children are already debating which career we will learn about next – I hope they choose chef!

Written by Tristan, mom to 5, homeschooling through unit studies with a side of lapbooks.  You can visit her at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool.

{Disclaimer because the FTC says I have to:  I bought these books with my own money, and yes, we really used them.  All opinions presented herein are my own.}

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