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A Life Better Than I Deserve
Sep. 24, 2009
Review: EDUDPS
Jill J. Dixon, of Educational Diagnostic Prescription Services, is certainly one talented lady! This versatile author holds a Bachelor of Science degree in English Education (magna cum laude) and a Master’s Degree in Special Education (summa cum laude) with years of experience as both an educator and a home educating mother and has written several helpful books. I have been fortunate enough to receive four of these books to review.
The first resource is The Complete Career, College and High School Guide for Homeschoolers. This book contains over 200 pages packed full of information which should prove very helpful for any home-educating parent and her high school or junior high aged child. Four different types of assessments are given to help you and your child determine a possible career path. Dixon provides guidance in more than simply the assessments and interpretations of your child's personality, learning style and and work/service preference and work environment.
Dixon also provides excellent advice in such areas as good future part-time career choices for future mothers-homemakers as well as good career choices for future fathers which would allow them more time at home. She also counsels parents and their children on topics such as earning college credits through testing, on volunteering/service opportunities, on transcript preparation, advice on SAT and ACT preparation, cites which careers will have greater stability in the near future and more. I really also must mention that this book is really designed for parent and child to read and interact with together. This book is not meant to be handed off to a child who is expected to read it himself and figure it out on his own.
This resource is available in the following formats:
softcover for $39.95 or
an e-book download for $34.95 (on sale now for $26.20).
My daughter and I both took the four assessments and we both discovered a little something new about ourselves. While I greatly appreciate this resource and feel it is well worth the price, I must mention that for certain individuals it might not answer all questions about future career direction.
When I was sixteen my own father took me to a career testing service and spent hundreds of dollars to have me tested. In the end, it was suggested to me that I pursue one of several diverse occupations--all happening to involve at least undergraduate degrees and in most cases graduate degrees in one of many different majors--English, foreign language, law, and more. In my case, it was still difficult to determine my future career path. For my own daughter at the tender age of thirteen, I am finding the same experience with this resource. Perhaps as she matures somewhat and takes these assessments again in a couple of years we will have clearer direction. Yet I still do recommend this book.
Roots and Fruits: A Comprehensive Vocabulary Curriculum Covering Grades K Through 12 is another book offered by this author. This book is a Latin and Greek based vocabulary program. What is unique about this program is that is a very hands-on program designed for more kinesthetic (active) learners than a typical workbook approach. This program, with its fourteen suggested games to play in order to practice learning the vocabulary and the word roots, seems to be a far better approach for my second and third children who are less visual in their learning and more kinesthetic in their learning styles. We have now tried eight of the fourteen games, and my children have found them to be fun and engaging. Lessons are also short (around 15 minutes in length), which seems more appropriate for elementary aged children.
More parental involvement is required for this curriculum than for some vocabulary workbooks, however. A dictionary is necessary for this curriculum as well, and either an older elementary or older child must possess basic dictionary skills in order to research words as well must be able to write out the information on index cards. The teacher's manual is clear and provides suggestions for how to structure the activities throughout the week. I chose to cover two or three words per day followed by playing a vocabulary game at least every other day. This resource is affordable, geared to different learning styles, and the games are exciting and motivating for students. This book is also recommended.
It is available in the following formats:
comb-bound for $19.98 or
$17.48 with no binding (pages only) or
$14.98 as an e-book ($11.25 on sale now)
The final resource I want to share with you today is Write With the Best: Modeling Writing After Great Works of Literature Volume 1: Grades 3-12. This writing curriculum is based on excellent educational theory. The home educator reads wonderful examples of literature (from Jules Verne, Charles Dickens, Daniel Defoe and more) to her students. The children follow along in their books. Then they learn to notice elements which comprise excellent writing, completing step-by-step exercises within their books. Finally, they practice writing themselves, imitating what they have learned. This procedure generally takes two weeks per unit. The students learn the basics of literary analysis while learning some grammar along the way so that this study can count toward grammar requirements on at least some days.
I love that this curriculum can be used with multiple students over many grade levels at the same time. I actually enjoy teaching my children together and reading and discussing classic literature to all my young students together. That is perhaps one of my favorite parts of our homeschooling day. I also love that this curriculum really makes sense pedagogically. I find it to be mentally engaging for all levels while remaining interesting and challenging. Lessons are reasonably short, around 15-45 minutes in length, with approximately two weeks being spent on each unit--though each teacher can decide the pace and may even add in extra writing samples from a suggested list in the back of the text. I highly recommend this curriculum.
However, this curriculum is also one which is somewhat teacher-intensive. Furthermore, this curriculum could potentially be a stretch for some homeschooling parents to use. If you, as the primary homeschooling parent, did not learn basic literary analysis in high school or college and the thought of learning this seems daunting to you, you might find this curriculum too challenging to implement. If you would prefer to simply hand your child a workbook and have them quietly work on his own, this curriculum would not be a good fit either. Finally, because this curriculum may only be printed twice and the teacher and student pages are somewhat mixed, most if not all of the pages must be re-printed for your students' use. I took the copy I printed from my own computer to be re-printed into two copies for my students to place into binders.
This curriculum is available in the following formats:
$24.95 in a 3-ring binder
$22.45 with no binding (pages only)
$19.95 e-book ($14.95 on sale now)
I will review Write With the Best Volume 2 in the spring, after I have had opportunity to complete the current volume. Look for a link to be placed here at a later date.
Strengths of curriculum offerings from EDUDPS:
- affordable
- good for use with multiple children
- accommodates children of various learning styles and at various academic levels
- educationally sound in its approach
Weaknesses of EDUDPS's curriculum:
- more teacher-intensive than some
- if purchased as an e-book product, it is licensed to your own family and may not be re-sold and may only be printed out twice--you will have to photocopy your original for the necessary student pages for Write With the Best
Are you interested in purchasing any of these books? You may go to the EDUDPS website and download free samples of any of these four books I've reviewed. See for yourself whether these products will be fit for you and your own children.
Would you like to read another opinion? Go to the Homeschool Crew blog to read about this, and other products.
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