The responsibility of teaching highschool literature can be a bit overwhelming. There are so many questions to be answered: what books ought to be read, should poetry be included, should literature and writing be taught separately, what are the elements of literature, how should literature be analyzed. The author of this book does a wonderful job answering all these questions and more.
If you plan to homeschool through the highschool years, you will find a wealth of information and encouragement in this book. The author explains in great detail her own goals in teaching literature, and gives several practical ways to accomplish these goals. There are ideas for teaching literature in a book club, through blogging, and also through traditional classes. In addition to detailed lesson plans for several different literature classes (which are alone a good enough reason to buy this book!) there are also ideas to help you plan your own classes. Two pages are devoted to analyzing literature, both verbally and in writing, with questions to ask about plot, setting, characterization, and point of view. Literary research papers are also discussed, with step by step instructions on how one should be completed. There is even a list of Christian works which can be used as refrences for these papers. Finally, there are several blank book report forms for your child to use in recording what they have read.
This book has everything you need (except for the literature) to teach literature to your highschool student. There are more than enough ideas to help you plan your own class. Or you can go the easy route and use one of the plans included in this book. This book has been a great blessing as I plan our American literature studies for next year. It has saved me many frustrating hours of trying to figure this all out for myself!
I've been saving for a while for the eleven volume Uncle Eric series that I want my older children to read through next year. I just received them last weekend and have already finished reading the first two. They are fantastic! I am honestly finding them hard to put down!
These books are written by Richard Maybury aka "Uncle Eric" as a series of letters to his nephew Chris and deal with the topics of economics and government. But there is so much more you can learn from them. For instance, in the first volume Mr. Maybury also touches on educatinal theory, ethics, and history. Volume 2, Whatever Happened To Penny Candy, contains almost everything I learned in two college level economics classes plus a few things I didn't, explained in a simple and interesting way that even a younger child could understand.
In his first book, Personal, Career, and Financial Security, Mr. Maybury introduces the concept of models as "the way we think and understand the world." I really enjoyed what he said in chapter five about how to learn or teach models. I think it sums up pretty well the way I prefer to teach my children and why it works so well.
"Experience creates models automatically . . .This is why classrom instruction via lecture is the least effective way to teach and hands-on learning by doing is the most effective. We are made in such a way that we build models autmatically by doing. Typically, classroom instruction is like teaching someone to play Monopoly just by making him memorize the rules and then giving him a test on those rules. . . Unfortunately, some models are impossible to learn using hands-on process, so one method humans use to substitute for real world experience is telling stories. Stories are used to demonstrate and illustrate ideas."
There is much more wisdom packed between the pages of these books, but I will leave that for you to discover. I can't quote the whole thing here.
There were a couple of things I disagreed with, but I see them as opportunities for additinal discussion. For instance, at one point, Mr. Maybury states, "Beware of certainty. Certainty stops inquiry. " In another place he warns to always be openminded because we are humans who make mistakes and we can never be 100% certain of anything. While I understand what he is saying and agree UP TO A POINT, as a Christian I do believe there some things ARE 100% certain. I will be sure to point this out to the children.
If you're intersted, you can find these books in many different places. I know CBD and Amazon both carry them. I did find them quite a bit cheaper if ordered as a set from Fun Books.
The Fun Spanish is a seventeen week beginner's course designed to teach children Spanish one phrase at a time, following the principles of Charlotte Mason. Common Spanish vocabulary is introduced in the context of somewhat unusual sentences which make learning fun. Each week a new verb is introduced, which the child must then practice conjugating each day. Several new vocabulary words are also introduced every day. These words are to be used in translating a short sentence into Spanish. There is then a silly Spanish sentence, using that week's verb and the vocabulary words that have just been learned, which must be translated into English. There is also a place for the child to draw an illustration to use as a memory aide for this sentence. At the end of the week, there is a two page review page which once more goes over the verb conjugation and vocabulary, and provides one more opportunity for the child to translate the Spanish sentences they have learned into English.
This program is laid out very well and is easy to use. There is no complicated teacher's manual to wade through, so you can jump right in and start learning. The introduction of a few words at a time breaks this subject into chunks which are easy to handle and fit well into an already overcrowded school day, the worksheet format allows children to work with little teacher assistance, and the continual review guarantees that the material will be retained. While it would be a good idea to also add some language tapes to your Spanish curriculum, this book will help greatly in the learning of vocabulary. $19.51$13.95
I want to introduce you all to a fantastic new product: educational scrapbook kits from ScrapandLearn.com! Imagine being able to purchase scrapbooking supplies to match your current area of study. Use these kits to decorate your lapbooks, create fabulous notebook pages, or make pages for your school yearbook.
ScrapandLearn Pirates kit
Over all, I am very impressed with this product. All the papers, stickers, and embellishments are high quality. There is a nice selection of papers. These, with the exception of the gold print page, are all cardstock. Another page or two of plain paper or some journaling boxes would have been nice, but the variety of prints was good. The resource list was very handy and includes some wonderful books and websites I had not heard of before.
I did wish there was a little more instruction as to how the kit might be used. A list of ideas would be nice. Also, the inclusion of "realia" in the form of pirates coins and jewels is a nice touch, but we were at a loss as to how to attach them to the pages. But creative students will have no problem finding ways to use this product.
Currently, the pirates kit is the only one available, but I am looking forward to seeing more of these in the near future.
Here my daughter is working on her page about Mary Read
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We are happy to announce the Grand Opening of CurrClick.com. Get 10% account credit on every purchase you make from March 10th-March 17th, add future purchases to your wish list, experience a more intuitive browsing experience that makes it easier to find what you’re looking for, send your wish list to friends and family members and find out what other people think about the curriculum you are considering, by reading our staff and customer reviews.
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Have you been wanting to try doing a unit study, but don't have the time to pull together a list of resources, look up websites, or plan the whole thing out? Or maybe you don't even know where to start? Do you just wish you could pay someone to do this for you? Well, now you can!
Heather Langston of Hip To Homeschool has just released a new series of units that are laid out so well that your kids could almost do them without you! These include book and website lists (just click on the link in the pdf document), and project ideas incorporated into a daily lesson plan. They even include daily notebooking assignments!
This isn't really a product and it's not technically homeschool, but it's very educational. In fact, it is just too excellent not to share. If you would like to learn how to knit or teach your children to knit, you have got to check out this website with knitting instruction videos you can watch. I did learn a little knitting as a child, but between being confused by right handed people attempting to "turn things around" to teach a lefty and adults who thought a child should learn the basic stitch before they learned to cast on, I never got very far. So when I saw this website, I decided my daughter & I would make some washclothes together. She has been doing a little knitting lately (with help from Grandma(, but didn't know how to cast on either, so we tried that first. She got it right away- it took me a few tries. The videos were nice here because I could rewind and watch just what I needed to - over and over and over. Then I refreshed on knitting and learned perling- all in about ten minutes! They even had lefty instructions, but I found it easier to do with my right hand. Oh, yeah . . .did I say FREE!!! Yes, all this for free. Knitting supplies not included. Enjoy! http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/basic_techniques/knit.php
OK, first the disclaimer: I don't actually OWN this product. However, I have seen their samples and I plan to buy it really soon.
I am just so excited about Drive Thru History America! I just had to write about it. After all, how often do you get a chance to get to know the men (and women) who helped to start this country and learn about the Christian values that guided them? And how many history curriculums give you an opportunity to actually SEE the landmarks that you are learning about? With it's combination of biographical "on site" videos hosted by the funny and engaging David Stott and detailed student texts, this program appears to do all that and more. On their website, you can watch a sample lesson (on Benjamin Franklin) and see samples of the student and teacher text for this lesson. (The text lesson includes a promotional code for 20% off, or you can purchase the homeschool kit from CBD for $39.99)
The only way this could be better is if it were free! Hey, according to the website, you can see these videos on Global Christian Networks and the History Channel International! Hooray! . . . If only we had television reception . . .
Lets face it, hands-on interactive education is not always easy. But there are several fantastic products out there that do a good job of lightening the load. This will be the first of a series of reviews featuring those products. My first "Product Worth Writing About" is the Time Travelers series on CD by Amy Pak.
This is the curriculum I have dreamed of createing. It has all the elements I would include, plus a heavy dose of Amy Pak's amazing artistic ability. Each of these studies is made up of 25 lessons which include lapbooking, notebooking, file folder games, projects, food, mapping, penmanship practice, timelines, and a party to top it all off. Lessons are short, but informational. All the printables are included and they are high quality. Teachers keys are given for all the maps and instructions are complete (down to the type of paper to print on) and easy to follow.
The CD is organized according to lesson, which is great if you print as you go. This was the one thing I found slightly annoying since I would prefer to print everything at once, from a single file. But it is a minor inconvenience. I'm really looking forward to doing these next year. They look like they will be a lot of fun.
We do a lot of notebooking around here, but our notebook pages sometimes look more like a modified lapbook. So when In the Hands of a Child asked me to review one of their custom designed project packs, I jumped at the opportunity.
In the Hands of A Child: The Renaissance is an excellent tool for studying this period of history. It includes a wide reaching ten page history lesson, a vocabulary list with definitions, and 24 different research activities with templates to print and assemble. The directions are clear, the graphics are very nice and there is a good variety in the types of mini-books (or foldables) that are included. The finished project is very impressive. My children were pleased that there was not too much writing required. I liked that there was enough to make them think and that they learned so much in the process. My only complaint is the large amount of paper that is wasted due to each template being placed on a separate page, but this does make it easy to print only the ones you want. It still pained my frugal concience to see all those scraps, but the finished product is well worth it. The Renaissance project pack is a fun way to learn what happened after the Middle Ages. It can be purchased here or visit the In the Hands of A Child website here.
