Nov. 9, 2009 - American Math Challenge

This week US children can enjoy the free online American Math Challenge for students ages 9-14.  The Math Challenge is an exciting, interactive way to improve mental math skills; our children participated in the World Math event last winter and loved it. 

I’m assuming this US event will be similar, with kids playing in real time against others across the country. They will accumulate points for each one-minute game as well as for each curriculum activity they do.

Enjoy!

Nov. 7, 2009 - Homeschool Crew Review: America’s Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free,

in a state of civilization,

it expects what never was and never will be.” 

Thomas Jefferson 

The United States is, undeniably, facing difficult times.   The American Heritage Resource Education Foundation says these problems arise partly because the citizens are forsaking their roots, expecting to remain civilized and free while being ignorant of the past. The website proclaims, “The experts agree--America is in such significant social, cultural, philosophical, governmental, and educational decline that, if continued unabated, it will result in the death of the country.”   

For a country built on the concepts of “individual rights and the four key themes  of Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility,” disaster looms when these concepts are no longer taught and reinforced in schools and institutions.

The mission of the American Heritage Resource Education Foundation, Inc. is to promote constructive citizenship among students and citizens by teaching, reinforcing, and practicing these four themes.  That is why they put together the Adventure in Liberty curriculum supplement for grades K-12.  In its three levels, Elementary, Middle School, and High School, it discusses basic US documents, songs, and symbols, and teaches some US history and citizenship. 

The elementary level of An Adventure in Liberty  features a silly radio play containing the chorus “We got to get independence."  It also includes the Independence Game (to understand the effects of colonial rule), some crosswords of poor quality,  a silhouette of Washington, pictures of the signers of the Declaration of Independence(poor quality), president cards (decent quality), a list of Presidential Fast Facts (very interesting), and finger puppets.  Topics such as Thanksgiving Day, the flag, the Star Spangled Banner, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the National Motto are discussed as well.  For us Canadians, the information about the presidents is worthwhile, but the rest of this curriculum level is quite nationalistic.

The middle school level   is much more appealing.  It contains the same Independence Game as the elementary level, but no poor quality puzzles.  Various documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Gettysburg Address are included and discussed.  The US motto is explained, with references to the Masonic affiliation of some of the founding fathers.  The Statue of Liberty and the Pledge of Allegiance are also included, as is a discussion of what a citizen is.

The high school level of An Adventure in Liberty contains the above documents, as well as the Mayflower Compact, a discussion of the First Amendment, and Federalist Paper #47.  These and other documents are carefully explained.  This level also includes a fascinating chapter about four successful entrepreneurs, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Hill, and Rockefeller.

I have a few issues with the premise of this curriculum.  The four values (freedom, unity, progress, and responsibility) were not, it seems to me, foundational to the vigor of the early United States.  The credit for that should go to the Christian beliefs of the majority of the people, and to God’s blessing.  You can’t expect to repair the structure of the country without going back to the foundation, Christianity, and this may not be taught in US public schools.  What is more, it was the people who were Christian; many of their leaders had abandoned the historic faith and hints of this are evident in the documents they drafted. 

For US citizens  this is a valuable collection of source documents, presented in an appealing way.  It would benefit both homeschools and day schools.  I also think that everyone could benefit from reading the preface (see page 9 in the link), which is identical in the different levels.

Being Canadians, we are not enthusiastic supporters of the revolution, and I was repelled by some of the nationalism in the elementary curriculum.  The other two levels are more factual and contain important information about the United States that can benefit citizens of every country.

The real value of this curriculum for our family is as a collection of source documents, often with illuminating discussions.  I also appreciate the mini-biographies in the high school curriculum as well as the Presidential Fast Facts in the elementary curriculum. An additional document, focusing on character education, has resource lists about famous men and women.  Since the topics in the elementary, middle school, and high school character education syllabus are similar, this is an excellent opportunity for the entire family to study the same famous person or topic. It is available on the website but not on the CD.  

You can read opinions of other Homeschool Review Crew members on the Crew blog.

Where to Get It

All three levels of America’s Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty (including the elementary level in Spanish) are available as free downloads from the website.  The chapters of each level can also be downloaded individually as needed.  To choose what you wish to download or to examine these curriculum supplements more closely, please see the elementary level outline,  the middle school level outline, and the high school level outline.

Those with a dial-up internet connection would be better off requesting the free CD that contains all three levels of the curriculum.  A printed version is available for $19.50 US per level.  

Donations and other support to the American Heritage Resource Education Foundation are welcome. 

Policies

Disclosure Policy:   As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a free CD with all three curriculum levels. 

Dial-Up Friendly Policy:  For the sake of my dial-up readers, this blog avoids visuals. Note that the files of this curriculum supplement are large; if you are on dial-up, you should probably request the free CD.

Nov. 5, 2009 - The Week, So Far

We’ve been scurrying around like chickens, doing one thing after another and feeling very busy. 

Besides all the usual learning and home jobbies, we’ve

• done a few haircuts (Miss 16 Year-Old does a great job on my hair),
• ironed the Lord’s Supper linens (only have to do that a few times a year, thankfully),
• discovered that around here it’s difficult to find AP testing locations for homeschoolers, and started exploring our options  (Sigh!)
• had a doctor’s appointment (I’m still trying to get my energy and health back, and it’s going well but slowly)
• put snow tires on the cars (that was my husband’s effort, with some moral support from the children)
• fed and medicated the bees
• returned 34 library books
• started writing novels (two of the children are doing NaNoWriMo)
• finished the last of the lawn mowing for the year
• ordered more buckwheat grits (gluten-free, easy, and delicious)
• broken the microwave (Sigh!) (Some people say it’s healthier not to use one, so maybe this is good.)
• decided that the current schooling method just isn’t working for Littlest Miss, and started exploring options on that, too; (She can do phonics but when she’s reading she just says what ‘should’ be the next word; she can add and subtract, but can’t seem to remember what the ‘+’ and ‘-’ signs mean.  She’s smart, but things just don’t seem to get into her head through her eyes.  Sigh!) 
• struggled with sniffles and headaches

This morning we’re off to the orthodontist’s… We're feeling a bit overwhelmed, but also thankful that we have such a wonderful, easy, luxurious life compared to most ot the people in the world.

Nov. 2, 2009 - Homeschool Crew Review: DISCOVER Online, EXPLORE, and PLAN

No wonder, then, that it took me a while to realize that the ‘company’ I was supposed to review was actually part of the group that sets the ACT test.  But it is.  And I’m meant to review, not the ACT test itself (phew!), but other services provided by their educational program, ACT Advantage: 

• DISCOVER Online (career and college planning)
• EXPLORE (assessment for grades 8 and 9)
• PLAN (assessment for grade 10)  
• Educational video service (not available to Canadians, and therefore not reviewed by me)

ACT Advantage’s DISCOVER Online

“DISCOVER is a premier career guidance and information system that helps students learn more about themselves, explore career options, and make sound educational decisions.”   It includes

1.      A detailed and interactive online college and career planning program

2.      The DISCOVER High School Curriculum Guide

1. DISCOVER, the Online Program

My only previous experience with computer career planning was a program in high school that told me to be a forester (a result shared by other geeky types), so I wasn’t too hopeful about DISCOVER’s accuracy.  Rather to my surprise, the program discovered my interests and inclinations accurately.  Out of all the possibilities, I ended up smack dab in the sciences where, by interest and aptitude, I would still be… except that I’ve been called to a higher task: that of raising and educating my children. 

This is how DISCOVER works.  You answer three detailed questionnaires to gauge your interests, abilities, and values.  After this, you’re presented with a list of your results, which are also plotted on a colorful hexagon according to your interest in people versus things and data versus ideas.  For each suggested career area you can see whether it matches your interests, your abilities, your values, or a combination of these.  All this information is stored in your portfolio for you to access the next time you use the program.

You can click on each of these career areas to see what individual occupations are available, preselected by the education level you might be interested in (high school, some training, 2-year degree, 4-year degree, or graduate degree).  Each occupation has an ‘I’ listed if it suits your interests, an ‘A’ if matches your abilities, and a ‘V’ if it matches your values.  If an occupation interests you, you can click on it and find huge amounts of relevant information. (Just keep on clicking ‘next’ at the very bottom of each screen.)   Information for each occupation includes:

• work tasks and settings,
• abilities needed,
• training (including recommended high school courses and extracurricular activities as well as university majors),
• detailed salary information and projected growth rate for each state,
• businesses or institutions you would work for,
• occupations of  people you would work with, 
• related occupations,
• personal qualities and skills that would help in this occupation,
• things workers in this occupation may like or dislike about their job,
• whether or not the military offers this occupation,
• contacts for more information.

Finally, there is an opportunity to add occupations to your portfolio and to print out what you are interested in.

You can also explore occupations by salary, number of openings, growth rate, income, physical demands, and more. 

You can explore college majors in a similar way, determining what courses are involved in your chosen major and what occupations it can lead to.  Colleges themselves are listed by state, majors, admission selectivity, cost, and more.  You can state what is important to you in the choice of a college, and the program will give you a list of institutions meeting your criteria.  It also has general information about scholarships and financial aid.

Finally, for students not interested in post secondary education, DISCOVER helps with resume building, and has information on finding a job, planning an internship or apprenticeship, and even on starting a business.

When our children took the inventories, the results were not surprising.  The value of the program for them was to confirm what directions to explore.  It also suggested occupations in fields that they would never have explored on their own, and gave them detailed information about each one.   

2. DISCOVER High School Curriculum Guide    

This is a 250+ page book ‘designed to integrate career exploration into the classroom.’  It offers several options to explore and enhance the DISCOVER Online program, including

• a mini-course (importance of career exploration; interests; values; abilities; planning for the future)
• subject matter activities (English, math, science, social science),
• career planning activities (importance of and approach to planning),
• educational planning activities (high school courses, colleges, affording college)
• job search activities (jobs, applications, resumes, evaluation job offers)

This curriculum guide offers many approaches to using DISCOVER, including detailed handouts and games.  Even though the guide is not necessary to use DISCOVER online, it’s worth a parent’s time to look through it carefully.  It contains quite a few useful activities that are not easily found elsewhere, such as planning to live on a budget, exploring possible obstacles to one’s goals, and evaluating job offers.  It also highlights the possibilities of the online program, and showed me some features that I had missed.

The guide is not something to work through from start to finish, but its five sections seem to make up three comprehensive options.  The first is the mini-course, the second comprises the subject matter activities, and the third contains the sections on career planning, educational planning, and job search activities.  Some projects in these options overlap. 

Each project has an overview listing its purpose, objective, required time, needed materials, and suggested grade level.  Then the activities are outlined, followed by instructions and/or an answer key and then by the activity pages for the student.  Note that this guide is for classroom use but can easily be adapted to a homeschool setting.

My Quibbles with DISCOVER

Even though the DISCOVER program itself is very good, a few points bother me.

• The website is occasionally difficult to navigate.  For one of my children, two of the three inventories were impossible to access without using the site map.  If you buy DISCOVER, do use the site map; it is clear, organized, and complete.

• The curriculum guide doesn’t have consecutive page numbers (!), so I handwrote the page numbers of the book's pdf file onto the table of contents and the pages I printed out.  Although the book is thorough, it is organized in a complicated way and will require some study before you can decide what you want to use and what not.

• When you look at the DISCOVER site it is not immediately obvious that there is a curriculum guide. 

• As a highly educated stay-at-home mom it bothers me that being a mother or even a housewife is not listed as an occupation.  This is, of course, quite common in secular career exploration, but it is something worth keeping in mind as your children explore the program.  Needless to say, the curriculum outline is also totally secular, but it does encourage students to think about their goals for their whole life, not just their career.   Parents should be available to discuss their teen’s future from a Christian viewpoint.

Finally, I noticed that my children completed the inventories and then thought they were finished with the program.  This is not a problem with DISCOVER, but I think many young people would make this mistake and miss a lot of helpful information.  So if you enroll your children in this program, make sure they explore it thoroughly.  After carefully exploring the program to write this review, I’m going to encourage my children to spend more time with it and to print out any useful results.

Our Recommendations

A video gives an overview of the online DISCOVER program, but it doesn’t do it justice.  Features of the program are listed here.  With this program, you get out of it what you put into it.  Those who explore DISCOVER thoroughly and use the curriculum will have a good idea as to what career fields would suit them and will know a lot about their chosen occupations.

Many young people waste years as well as thousands of dollars drifting through post-secondary education, uncertain of their career goals.  DISCOVER helps young people understand their interests and abilities, and suggests suitable occupations and college plans.  It gives detailed information on these occupations and so helps students decide which ones could work for them.  For a very reasonable cost, young people can gain knowledge, confidence, and purpose that could save them a lot of time and money.  Therefore, I highly recommend DISCOVER Online.

The program could also help homeschoolers plan a sensible high school program.  Most high schools ensure that students take the right courses at the right time to meet their goals, but many homeschooling parents don’t have this information.  Although such information can be found elsewhere, having it tied in to a career exploration program is very convenient.

An uncertain, drifting post-secondary student could also benefit greatly from the program, using the College Curriculum Guide rather than the high school one. 

For that matter, DISCOVER Online could benefit anyone planning a career change.

ACT Advantage’s EXPLORE and PLAN Sample Tests

EXPLORE and PLAN are two-hour assessments for grades 8-9 and grade 10 respectively.  Each test assesses the student’s skill in four key subject areas—English, math, reading, and science.  The kit we received contains sample tests, answers, and detailed instructions to calculate a student’s scores. It also includes a College Readiness Standards handbook.    

The PLAN test is meant to be taken in the fall of grade 10, but the EXPLORE test has different scoring options depending on whether the student is in the fall term of grade 8, the spring term of grade 8, or the fall term of grade 9.  Each individual test score is compared to students across the United States.  Thus, at the end of the assessment process, you will know how your student compares to others in English (as well as its two skill subsets, ‘Usage/Mechanics’ and ‘Rhetorical Skills’), in math (separated into algebra and geometry for PLAN only), in reading, and in science. 

Test results can be used to see whether or not a student is on track to succeed in college and to show his or her strengths and weaknesses.  The College Readiness Standards handbook includes teaching suggestions, depending on the child’s score.  Skills in each subject area are divided according to test scores, and each score range has a detailed list of topics to study to improve a student's skill.  This 30 page document could be a practical guide to enhance a student’s learning and to strengthen any weak areas.

On two gloomy, rainy afternoons, my children sat down at the kitchen table with pencils, erasers, scrap paper, and a timer and worked their way through the tests.  The format was not difficult for them to understand, and they had no trouble taking the tests.  Determining their final score was a bit tedious for me, but the instructions were clear.  I had to adjust the results for my grade 7 student as well as those for my grade 11 student, but even so I was very pleased.  This was a good independent assessment of the children’s abilities and of the academic success of our homeschool. 

For Canadians, who rarely need to take the ACT, this testing program isn’t necessary.  Canadian tests of basic skills are available to homeschoolers instead of EXPLORE and PLAN, but I don’t think the Canadian tests come with a detailed list of teaching suggestions. I also don’t know how detailed the tests themselves are. 

If an American student is planning to write the ACT test in the future, taking these PLAN and EXPLORE sample tests could be helpful preparation. In any case, the College Readiness Standards booklet can help optimize his or her future studies.

If you wish confirmation that your children are doing well and that your homeschool program is working, some form of testing could be the answer. The teaching suggestions in the College Readiness Standards booklet could also be helpful, but I think any well-planned educational program, whether purchased or homemade, automatically includes most of them. 

Purchasing Information 

For more reviews, as well as information about the educational videos, please see the Homeschool Review Crew blog. 

DISCOVER Online,  the career planning program, costs $19.95 US for a three-month license and $24.95 US for a six-month license.  I highly recommend it.  If you get DISCOVER, look for the curriculum guide under Home/Support Materials/ Counselor’s Action Guide near the bottom of the page.  There’s also a College Curriculum Guide right below it. 

EXPLORE,  the grade 8 and 9 assessment in English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science, costs $22.95 US.

PLAN,  the grade 10 assessment in English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science, sells for $22.95 US.

Policies

Disclosure Policy:   As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a free 3-month license to DISCOVER for my oldest children. This included the High School Curriculum Guide.   I requested and received a license for myself as well, to explore the program thoroughly for this review.  I also received a sample PLAN test and EXPLORE test with answer keys as well as the College Readiness Standards.

Dial-Up Friendly Policy:  For the sake of my dial-up readers, this blog avoids visuals. 

Nov. 2, 2009 - Experiment While the Sun Shines!

After all the rain, we finally have enough sunlight to do the Little Miss’s science experiment! They were quite excited.

Right now they’re on the front lawn with their big brother, and the dog is safely tied up to a tree.  The girls each have three chocolate wafers and a large magnifying glass, and they’re trying to melt the chocolate by focusing sunlight on it.  Actually it’s easier to burn the chocolate than to melt it, but it’s fun either way. 

Of course, big brother had to try it out on a piece of wood, and he burned clear through it.  I don’t think the kids will ever forget the power of sunlight, especially not if we manage to start a camp fire and roast some marshmallows.   

Sunshine does make everything so much better!  I wish you all a sunny week.

Oct. 31, 2009 - Weekly Wrap Up

Rain, rain, rain.  The ground is soggy, the river is high, and very little of the yard work is getting done.  It’s cozy weather, just right for studying, eating popcorn, and preparing reviews.

Reviewing

Sometimes I get tired of looking at new curriculum materials, but we have been so blessed by the many opportunities we had this year!   Every day the children use Quarter Mile Math,  My Access,  and All About Spelling.   Every week, we use products from abcteach, wear aprons from Sense and Sensibility, study Professor in a Box accounting,  continue the interests in computer started by Web Design for Kids,  and do a chapter in Nutrition 101.  

This week we’ve been looking at an online career planning program and some assessment tests put out by ACT Advantage.   I hope to post that review on Monday.

Memory Work

The children learned their usual catechism work as well as a hymn.  We continued memorizing Psalm 91, and reviewed previously learned texts and songs.  Our Proverbs memory project has been progressing, but not as well as I had wished.  Even though the three oldest will continue to study it on their own, from now on we’ll also all work on a few verses together. 

Outside

If we wear our rubber boots and water-resistant jackets, we can go for walks along the newly-made paths in our woods.  The river rushes by as though it were spring.  One of the children surprised a racoon.  The dog found a porcupine and was sadly surprised by it; our two oldest removed dozens of quills from her mouth.  We found another wild apple tree in the woods, but after all the frosts the apples are not very good anymore.  The Little Misses and I went for a long walk, creeping over roots, rocks, and piles of old logs, exploring river banks, and finding rushing rapids instead of the massive stones we used to play on.

Food

Each week we’ve been eating 3-4 pumpkins, 3-4 squashes and 4+ turnips (raw as a snack).  We also still have kale, brussels sprouts, beets, turnips, Jerusalem artichokes, Italian dandelion, parsley, and parsnips in the garden.  I hope to freeze the last of the beets today and to preserve, somehow, the dandelions.  Ham has been on sale here, so we’ve been enjoying that as well. 

Health

We’ve had colds and sniffles, but no flu and we’re grateful for that.  So many people are ill!

Read Alouds

• With everyone, in honour of Reformation Day:  Luther the Leader by Virgil Robinson.
• On days when Miss 16 Year-Old is away at work:  Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen. (This book requires some editing on account of unpleasant sibling interactions.)
• With the Little Misses:  Little House on the Prairies by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

To read more Weekly Wrap Ups, visit Three LIttle Ladies.

Oct. 29, 2009 - Remnants of Kindergarten: A Number-Writing Rhyme

Today I took the last remnants of kindergarten from my kitchen bulletin board.  Sigh.  Here it is, a little rhyme that my five children used for more than 10 years.

A straight line down and then you’re done—

This is how to make a one.

 

Around and back on a railroad track—

Two, two, two!

 

Around a tree and around a tree—

This is how to make a three.

 

Down and over, then down some more—

This is how to make a four.

 

Down the trunk and around the tree—

Add a branch. It’s five, you see!

 

Curving down into a loop—

Number six can roll a hoop.

 

Across the sky and down from heaven—

This is how to make a seven.

 

Make and S but do not wait—

Climb back up to make an eight.

 

A loop on top and then a line—

This is how to make a nine.

 

Make a one and then an 0—

It’s easy to make a ten, you know.

from the Rod and Staff Pre-School Series

It’s hard to believe that those days are really gone, but, believe it or not, the ditty sings on and on in my mind.  I like to think it’s keeping me young, but some days I fear it may be a sign of approaching senility.

For more neat homeschooling tips see Thirsty Thursdays.

Oct. 28, 2009 - Homeschool Crew Review: abcteach

We’re not a worksheet kind of family.  At all.  So when we were offered a month’s free membership with abcteach, I wasn’t excited. I thought it was just some massive, boring worksheet factory.  Dutifully I began to explore the site so that I could write a review… and what I found thrilled me.  There’s a LOT at abcteach that will work for our family.

When our review membership ran out, we bought a year-long membership.  The children wanted it for the crafts, clip art, and border paper.  I wanted it, too—for the maps, handwriting sheet generator, French vocabulary word search generator, and more.  

Let me tell you more about abcteach.  It is a site full of downloadable worksheets, clip art, templates, teaching aids, and activities of all sorts.  Here are some examples (I’ve added my comments in brackets):

The abctools Section contains worksheet generator lists and options

• Handwriting (I can input the children’s Bible memory work so they can practice two things at once, rather than using $10 handwriting workbooks with sentences that are irrelevant to their other learning)
• Frequently misspelled words (and I can use my children’s personal lists as well)
• Interjections, conjunctions, prepositions, compound words
• Many French vocabulary topics (very helpful)

Art and Music

• Paper bag puppets with templates for different animals, occupations, holidays
• Art projects (great, including illuminations)
• Art quotes
• Lots of craft projects
• Paper beads (Neat for preschool and kindergarten, which is in our past now.  Sigh!)
• Paper roll pals (based on toilet paper tubes) great for making figures of Shakespeare characters to keep them all straight while reading the plays.
• Music: instrument board game, note board game, vocabulary cards

Clip Art (black and white, color, or grayscale)

Barnyard, colors, awards, animals(realistic and comic),  flags, fractions, maps, money (including Canadian coins—yippee!)….

Homeschool

• Report cards,  trackers,
• Why abcteach is good for homeschool
• field trip forms and evaluations
• book reports
• gardening, bird watching and pet project planners, reports, notes

Middle School/Junior High

• Kipling’s If, and more literature
• Language arts assessment (rubrics for writing)
• reading (how to write poetry)
• book units on many good books
• science (red cabbage indicator experiment, all ages)
• geography (map skills, report planner)
• templates (including Power Point)
• thinking skills
• frequently misspelled words
• writing (composition:  how to write, etc; very good)
• writing prompts
• Shakespeare quotation bookmarks

Science

• Great force and motion booklet (under ‘physics’)
• Chemistry: periodic table, excellent section on crystals (We’re going to make a crystal garden like I did when I was a kid.  That was so much fun!)
• Electricity
• Human body
• Simple machines
• Solar system diorama, planet bookmarks, and a booklet about the phases of the moon (to go with our Little Misses’ astronomy course)
• Weather graphs
• Labeled and unlabeled diagrams of cells, ants, elephants, wolves, frogs, and much more

Social Studies includes everything from maps and flags to economics, history, and community helpers…. 

I’m going to stop listing things right here because, really, it’s more efficient for you to go look for yourself; 5000+ of the 35,000+ pages are available on the free site, and you can also see the titles of the member-only pages.   

There’s so much that you could spend hours on the site without seeing it all.   However, everything is sensibly organized in various categories and cross referenced so it’s easy to find. If you have something specific in mind, the search feature will find it, if abcteach has it.  If the site doesn’t have it yet, just ask, and there’s a good chance that what you want will soon available since the company welcomes suggestions for new projects.

This video shows some of the features of the site.  Note that there are also abctools to generate worksheets of all sorts across your curriculum, and they come with tutorials.  I found the worksheet generators a bit tricky, so the tutorials are very helpful.

A weekly newsletter lists seasonal materials as well as new materials that have been added that week.  Here’s a small fraction of the topics that have been added since we got our membership just over a month ago:

• A hundred board and tiles,
• early years rebus writing materials,
• Australian flags,
• bookmarks with quotes from Shakespeare,
• long and short vowel posters,
• a poster with the text of In Flanders Fields,
• report forms,
• Montessori materials.

Our Opinions

I think this site would be valuable to most homeschoolers with children below grade 8.  An energetic mom on a budget could use library books and this site to cover all possible subjects (including most math) with as many worksheets, projects, maps, and goodies as her children could use. It does take time to look at the site and learn to use the different tools, but that is time well-spent.

On the other hand, if you already have all the worksheets, maps, spelling information, and so forth that you need, and if no one in your family likes crafts, then this won’t work for you.  But I’d check the site before making that decision, if I were you.  Recall that I wasn’t at all interested either, until I started to explore.

What does an abcteach membership include?  Access to all 35,000+ pages, use of all the abctools, and a weekly newsletter to tell you what new features have been added.  All this is available for $40 US a year or $70 US for two years. 

To see how much other homeschooling families enjoy this site, please visit the Homeschool Crew blog.

Policies

Disclosure Policy:   As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a free one month membership in abcteach.

Dial-Up Friendly Policy:  For the sake of my dial-up readers, this blog avoids visuals. 

Oct. 27, 2009 - Great Deals from the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op

I just found out about these deals from the Homeschool Buyer’s Coop and wanted to pass them on to you before it’s too late. 

1. They’re selling My Access for 50% off until October 31.  That’s a great deal, and if you need more information about the product, see my Homeschool Crew review.  

2. They’re also selling abcteach memberships for 50% off until October 31.  I haven’t yet finished writing my abcteach review, but you can read my preview  and (shhh!!) I’ll let you in on my conclusion:  I think most homeschooling families with children up to grade 8 would benefit from an abcteach membership.  Check out the abcteach site to see if it would be for you, or wait a few days and, Lord willing, I’ll post my review.    (Please note that, though they've decorated the web page for Halloween, I found very little that was objectionable in the site itself.) 

I hope that this information will help some of you out. 

Blessings,

Annie Kate 

Disclosure Policy:  

Just in case you were wondering:  I have no affiliation of any sort with the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op, and I have received My Access and abcteach as a reviewer on the TOS Homeschool Crew.

For more great tips, see Being Frugal's Tightwad Tuesday as well as THAT Family's Works for Me Wednesday.  Canada Girl, listed under My Friends, usually also has a great Tightwad Tuesday going.  My computer has recently become allergic to large blogs, so I can't visit her but you probably can.  Enjoy!

Oct. 26, 2009 - New Planning Lists for the Little Misses

Our older children use weekly check-off lists for their school work and successfully plan their own week.  Somehow, this year I had forgotten that little ones can’t manage that.  Oops!!

Little ones need their work for the day planned out.  They need to know when they’re done each day because they cannot decide that for themselves.  No wonder they kept rushing off to play every time my back was turned! 

So I’ve just finished typing up a chart for both of the Little Misses (ages 9 and 7) that lists the work that we’re planning to do for each day of the week.  This will, hopefully, increase the girls’ learning and reduce my frustration.  Some things are done everyday (Quarter Mile math, regular math, reading/phonics/English, Rosetta Stone Dutch, organ, and recorder) and others are done less often.

I hope these charts will help the Little Misses with their daily work and will also remind me to work with them on the things we don’t do every day, such as nature walks, picture study, history, science, and PE.  Not only the girls were running away from their work;  I was doing the same thing, figuratively speaking.    With our new charts, we’ll all be more accountable, and I'm hoping that will make a difference.