Classical Curriculum

2012-07-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Classical Curriculum!

I'm so glad you found this resource! This is a homeschool site devoted to assisting families while they navigate the world of curriculum choices for the classical education method. If you have decided to conduct your homeschool using the classical education model, congratulations! It is an excellent way to ensure that your children get the very best education that they can. I think the leaders of the future will be classically educated. These books and materials are what I use and have found to be the best for our homeschool.

I hope you are as excited as I am when you think about curriculum and and the choices there are out there. If you feel overwhelmed right now, know that others have gone before you and have successfully taught their children this way-- for hundreds of years. Bookmark the site, and check back to see all the new materials.

2012-07-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

Here at Classical Curriculum, I don't want any of your attention to be drawn away from the spectacular array of books and materials. Therefore, there will be no internet advertising. Enjoy the clean space!

Please remember that one way you can support Classical Curriculum is by purchasing the books and materials you learn about through this site. Click on the links to take you straight to Amazon, an internet name you know and trust, with a secure checkout. If you buy a book through my link, I get 4%. I really hope Classical Curriculum can become a rescource for your family. Please know that I don't write about books I love to make the pocket change- but I'm not going to turn it away! Thanks, dear readers!

2012-07-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

I base my version of Classical Education on the book by Susan Wise Bauer,

The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home.

To see what SWB (herself!) thought of my ramblings...

CLICK HERE!

(excuse me while I shriek again)

2012-07-10T17:39:00.000-07:00

So Classical Curriculum is on a blog host, but I've set it up like a website. If you click on "older posts" you'll be brought into a land of unorganized and uncharted territory which I can't recommend. So investigate by grade or by subject, or return to the Home page... but don't go off wandering! Thanks for visiting!

Christian Curriculum?! NEW!!

2010-06-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

I get worried remarks from my father, a geology major and not a believer, about teaching science from a Christian worldview. Christian Kids Explore Chemistry and Christian Kids Explore Physics are written by Robert and Elizabeth Ridlon. They do a great job of representing the God-glorifying aspect expected in a science book entitled "Christian Kids..." So in case you were wondering, here's excerpts from CKEC. The "Christian" parts are in the introductions to each new unit, for instance:

Unit 1 Intro:
"Studying chemistry, just like other sciences, is a way to appreciate creation more deeply and examine the beauty of all that God has made. The universe was created by God and is made up of matter and energy that can be studied."

Unit 3 Intro:
"Matter is part of God's creation and it is subject to certain rules. Just like God has rules for people, the Bible tells us that He has rules for all of creation. In this unit we are going to see how different chemicals behave- how they act and how they react."

Astonishingly, they do not ask the student to memorize Colossians 1: 16 and 17! A friend of mine is married to a chemist and he has it tattoed on his arm. It is clearly about chemistry:

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible... all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Other books are written by an author who is madly in love with his subject, like you find in The Mystery of the Periodic Table, where it was made evident that an intelligent design was behind the elements. The book points out many ways that Chemistry is orderly, exact and not accidental. He doesn't say, "God invented the elements and their properties" but he has at least three paragraphs full of exclamation points and sentences which express wonder at the perfection that the chemists were astounded to find. Here a Christian parent could easily fill in with their world view.

So there you have it. A firsthand report of just what it means when you hear "Christian Science Curriculum." More soon when I look at Apologia.

What is a Worldview? article HERE

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum! Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Grammar Stage Physics: UPDATED!

2010-02-14T23:05:00.001-08:00

WTM's recommended book, Physics Experiments for Children came in the mail the other day... I was pleasantly surprised when I looked through the table of contents. It's organized by topic:

air
water
energy and machines
heat
sound
light
magnetism and electricity

It would be easy to do a unit on each one, or try to hit all of them by doing the first experiment in each group, and then the second, etc. WTM says this is the only book she has seen that includes all 7 topics in one book. This book is a tad annoying sometimes because the experiments are soo old school. Completely do-able, but somewhat... I don't know how to phrase it. For instance, in the section on "Heat" you are instructed to knead softened candle wax into lumps and stick them onto a metal rod or knitting needle. As the heat from hot chocolate travels up the knitting needle the wax will melt. Couldn't we just stir our hot chocolate with our spoon to see the heat move? (This is actually the first part of the same experiment!) A few other experiments can get talked about for just a few minutes and my daughter understands the concept. She has experienced many of the principles in real life and can recall them, and understand the idea behind it, without re-enacting it.

Physics has been a little intimidating to many because they didn't master it themselves in school. I have been looking forward to it so that I can master the principles- I figure a fourth grade level physics will be ok! However I have been quite intimidated by the figures I come up with when I try to budget for all the gear I want to get. That's right, want. I know it's done every day with way less, but that's the rub with homeschooling- you get to look at all those gorgeous glossy catalogs.

If, like me, you're coming from a "schooled" past yourself, you can easily remember the gear and equipment you used when you were young. Of course we want the best for our kids, and we can become distracted by all that we want to give them. A one-on-one ratio is better than equipment any day! Wants vs needs and all that.

Here's my wish list of wants.

Amazon.com Widgets

Many homeschoolers enjoy Janice VanCleave's Physics for Every Kid: 101 Easy Experiments in Motion, Heat, Light, Machines, and Sound also. The one I rec'd above is recommended by SWB in WTM because it has all the topics in one book and uses generally available household items.

However, if you want to get your salivary glands pumping (but that's biology, I guess) you can click here to get Delta's (free) Science and Math catalog.

If you are enjoying Elemental Science's lesson plans, here is her book list. Many are duplicates of the books above, because she is also WTM-based.

Amazon.com Widgets

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Grammar Stage Biology

2010-02-07T21:25:00.000-08:00

We follow the The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, which means first, fifth, and ninth graders study Biology. First grade Biology is an easy-going investigation of the human body, the animal kingdom, and plants.

If you remember from WTM, the study of the human body and the animal kingdom is an encyclopedia-based study, and the plant kingdom is mainly hands-on plant growing. Some parents find that a little overwhelming, since there isn't a laid-out plan for each day's lesson... but I like it. I let my kids choose a body system or animal (depending on what we're studying) and then we go with it.

(Here's an example of a perfect science lesson from last year.)

If you're intimidated by so little guidance, look here for a homeschool mom's lesson plans for every WTM year of science. Also a link in the left sidebar.

Remember to gently direct your kids to not do all cute and cuddly animals, or not all fierce and scaly ones, as their gender or preference may dictate. You definitely want them to explore what they love, but stretch them a little to also check out how strange a slug, blowfish, toucan, or swordfish can be.

I created a form for my kids to fill out that uses the "big science words" like hibernate, omnivore, endangered, and camouflaged. When we fill it out together- circling choices or filling in the blanks, we can talk again about what the words mean. The entire right side of the page is blank so he can jot down more info. Sure, he could just circle "lays eggs" but why not write "1-3 eggs" or "up to 50 eggs" in the side too? This is true for most of the answers.

This form will also work for any type of resource too. It is open-ended so that pretty much any encyclopedia or reference work will have this information. I really like it.

Check out the Magic School Bus books- you know how excellent and fun they are. Tivo them too!

When we're having a rough day but I want to stay on track, we climb in my bed with a short book that usually tours the human body in less than 30 pages. The kids can do most of the experiments with things we have on hand. The Human Body: A First Discovery Book has durable plastic pages with colored overlays and is appealing and hardy for the smaller kids, but you might have to answer some questions about the egg and sperm, FYI.

I really, really like the e.Encyclopedia Animal (DK) a whole lot. It has great first pages on classification and organization, beautiful photos, and easy-to-read format, and tells you which animals are similar to the one you're reading about. Well organized!

The "Life of Plants series" series is really interesting, with beautiful and engaging photos. It's an easy read on the couch on the days you wait for the seeds to sprout. "Slugs, Bugs, and Salamanders: Discovering Animals in Your Garden" is WTM recommended, a great study on the yard where the plants are popping up, very Charlotte Mason to me.

If you are enjoying Elemental Science's WTM-based lesson plans for the Grammar stage, here is her book list. Many of the books are duplicated from above. (it is, after all, WTM-based!)

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Table of Contents SOTW Vol. 2

2010-02-05T19:53:00.000-08:00

Boy oh boy, do I love you, since I typed all this out for you. This is the table of contents straight out of Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World Volume 2: The Middle Ages. It's all listed here so you can go through it and know what biographies and extra materials you might want to get for when you study this time period.

Foreword

Ch 1: The glory that was Rome; wandering through the Roman Empire, the fall of Rome

Ch 2: The early days of Britain; the Celts of Britain, barbarians come to Britain, Beowulf the Hero

Ch 3: Christianity comes to Britian; Augustine comes to England, medieval monasteries, writing books by hand

Ch 4: The Byzantine Empire; the beauty of Constantinople, Justinian, the just emperor, the empress Theodora, the church in the east

Ch 5: The medieval Indian Empire; a king named Skandagupta, monks in caves

Ch 6: The Rise of Islam; Muhammad's Vision, Muhammad flees to Medina, the Koran: Islam's holy book

Ch 7: Islam Becomes an Empire; the fight for Mecca, the spread of Islam, the city of Baghdad, Sinbad in the Valley of Snakes

Ch 8: The Great Dynasties of China; Yang Chien unites north and south, the Tang dynasty

Ch 9: East of China; the Yamato dynasty of Japan, a tale of three countries: Korea, China, and Japan

Ch 10: The Bottom of the World; the first people of Australia, the long journey of the Maori

Ch 11: The Kingdom of the Franks; Clovis, the ex-barbarian, four tribes, one empire

Ch 12: The Islamic Invasion; Islam in Spain and Africa

Ch 13: The Great Kings of France; Charles the Hammer, the greatest king: Charlemagne

Ch 14: The Arrival of the Norsemen; the Viking Invasion, Eric the Red and "Eric's Son", the Norse gods/ Thor and the giant king

Ch 15: The First Kings of England; the Vikings invade England, Alfred the Great, the battle of Hastings

Ch 16: England After the Conquest; the English language, serfs and noblemen, stone castles

Ch 17: Knights and Samurai; the English code of chivalry, the Samurai: Japanese knights

Ch 18: The Age of Crusades; a command from the Pope, recapturing Jerusalem, Saladin of Jerusalem, El Cid and the "reconquest of Spain"

Ch 19: A New Kind of King; Richard the Lionhearted, John Lackland and the Magna Carta, Robin Hood/ Robin Hood and the butcher

Ch 20: The Diaspora; the scattering of the Jews, a tale of the diaspora/ the clever rabbi of Cordova

Ch 21: The Mongols Devastate the East; Genghis Kan, emperor of all men, the Mongol conquest of China

Ch 22: Exploring the Mysterious East; Marco Polo goes to China, the forbidden city of the Ming

Ch 23: The First Russians; the Rus come to Constantinople, Ivan the Great and Ivan the Terrible

Ch 24: The Ottoman Empire; the Ottoman Turks attack/ the sheep-rocks, the capture of Constantinople, Suleiman the lawgiver

Ch 25: The End of the World; the plague, a new way of living

Ch 26: France and England at War; Henry V and the battle of Agincourt, Joan of Arc

Ch 27: War for the English Throne; the wars of the roses, the princes in the tower

Ch 28: The Kingdoms of Spain and Portugal; Ferdinand and Isabella unite Spain, Henry the Navigator, Prince of Portugal

Ch 29: African Kingdoms; gold salt and Ghana, Mansa Musa of Mali, the Songhay Empire

Ch 30: India Under the Moghuls; the Moghul dynasty, Akbar of India/ the bad-luck servant

Ch 31: Exploring New Worlds; Christopher Columbus, Vespucci and Magellan

Ch 32: The American Kingdoms; the Mayans of Central America, the marvelous city of Tenochtitlan, the Incas

Ch 33: Spain, Portugal, and the New World; the slave trade, Cortes and Montezuma

Ch 34: Martin Luther's New Ideas; Martin Luther's List, Henry VIII's problem

Ch 35: The Renaissance; a new way of thinking, Gutenberg's great invention

Ch 36: Reformation and Counter Reformation; the spread of reformation, the council of Trent

Ch 37: The New Universe; the revolution of Copernicus, Galileo's strange notions

Ch 38: England's Greatest Queen; the queen who almost wasn't, good queen Bess

Ch 39: England's Greatest Playwright; William Shakespeare/Macbeth, Macbeth's decision

Ch 40: New Ventures to the Americas; Walter Raleigh and the new world, the lost colony

Ch 41: Explorations in the North; the new-found land, jacques Cartier's discoveries

Ch 42: Empires Collide; Spain and England's War, the world at the end of the 16th century

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Table of Contents SOTW Vol. 1

2010-02-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

Oh, how I love you if I typed all this out for you! This list is straight out of Susan Wise Bauer's Table of Contents for Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times so that you can see what topics are covered and better decide which biographies or extra books to buy for this time period.

Introduction: How Do We Know What Happened? What is History? What is Archeology?

Ch 1: The Earliest People; The First Nomads, The First Nomads Become Farmers

Ch 2: Egyptians Lived on the Nile River; Two Kingdoms Become One, Gods of Ancient Egypt

Ch 3: The First Writing

Ch 4: The Old Kingdom of Egypt; Making Mummies, Egyptian Pyramids

Ch 5: The First Sumerian Dictator

Ch 6: The Jewish People; God Speaks to Abraham, Joseph Goes to Egypt

Ch 7: Hammurabi and the Babylonians

Ch 8: The Assyrians; Shamshi-Adad, King of the Whole World, The Story of Gilgamesh

Ch 9: The First Cities of India; The River-Road, The Mystery of Mohenjo-Daro

Ch 10: The Far East- Ancient China; Lei Zu and the Silkworm, The Pictograms of Ancient China, Farming in Ancient China

Ch 11: Ancient Africa; Ancient Peoples of West Africa, Anansi and the Turtle, Anansi and the Make-Believe Food

Ch 12: The Middle Kingdom of Egypt; Egypt Invades Nubia, The Hyksos Invade Egypt

Ch 13: The New Kingdom of Egypt; The General and the Woman Pharoah, Amenhotep and King Tut

Ch 14: The Israelites Leave Egypt; The Baby Moses, The Exodus from Egypt

Ch 15: The Phoenicians; The Phoenician Traders, The Founding of Carthage

Ch 16: The Return of Assyria; Ashurbanipal's Attack, The Library of Nineveh

Ch 17: Babylon Takes Over Again!; Nebuchadnezzar's Madness, The Hanging Gardens of

Babylon

Ch 18: Life in Early Crete; Bull-Jumpers and Sailors, King Minos and the Minotaur, The

Mysterious End of the Minoans

Ch 19: The Early Greeks; The Mycenaeans, The Greek Dark Ages

Ch 20: Greece Gets Civilized Again; Greece Gets and Alphabet, The Stories of Homer, The First Olympic Games

Ch 21: The Medes and the Persians; A New Empire, Cyrus the Great

Ch 22: Sparta and Athens; Life in Sparta, Life in Athens

Ch 23: The Greek Gods

Ch 24: The Wars of the Greeks; Greece's War with Persia, The Greeks Fight Each Other

Ch 25: Alexander the Great; Phillip and his Son, Alexander's Invasions, The Death of Alexander

Ch 26: The People of the Americas; The Nazca Drawings, The Heads of the Olmecs, Rabbit Shoots the Sun

Ch 27: The Rise of Rome; Romulus and Remus, The powerr of Rome

Ch 28: The Roman Empire; The Roman Gods, The Roman Builders, The Roman Gladiators, The Gladiator School

Ch 29: Rome's War with Carthage

Ch 30: The Aryans of India; Life on the Ganges River, The Casts of Ancient India, Siddhartha

Ch 31: The Mauryan Empire of India; The Empire United, The Jarkata Tales

Ch 32: China- Writing and the Qin; Calligraphy in China, Warring States, The First Emperor and the Great Wall, The First Emperor's Grave

Ch 33: Confucius

Ch 34: The Rise of Julius Caesar; Caesar is Kidnapped, The Consuls of Rome, Caesar and the Senate

Ch 35: Caesar the Hero; Caesar Fights the Celts, Caesar Crosses the Rubicon, Caesar and Cleopatra, The Death of Caesar

Ch 36: The First Roman Prince

Ch 37: The Beginning of Christianity; The Birth of Jesus, Jesus Crucified and Resurrected

Ch 38: The End of the Ancient Jewish Nation

Ch 39: Rome and the Christians; Nero, the Evil Emperor, Christians in the Catacombs, The Emperor Is a Christian!

Ch 40: Rome Begins to Weaken; The British Rebellion, Rome Divided in Two

Ch 41: The Attacking Barbarians; Attila the Hun, Stilicho, Roman and Barbarian, The Coming of the Visigoths

Ch 42: The End of Rome; The Last Roman Emperor, The Gifts of Rome

Amazon.com Widgets

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

How I Choose Curriculum

2010-01-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

I have tweaked the curriculum suggestions from Susan Wise Bauer's The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home a good bit with the following things in mind:

1.) Although the author seems to have a Christian worldview, she believes the choice to take a religious slant with a child's education to be the choice of each parent. Therefore, her suggestions tend to be on the secular side. I have supplemented my children's education with materials portraying a Christian worldview. So the choices you will find here on Classical Curriculum will reflect that.

2.) I have four children, so my curriculum choices will reflect this- selections I make will tend to have little teacher preparation time. Selections will prefer student independence, instead of hand-in-hand instruction in the older grades. There will be a few DVDs! We have to do what we have to do to keep the toddler busy and the preschooler happy and the younger ones intrigued and the older ones learning!

3.) Although I dearly love WTM and am grateful for the time and effort put into its creation, I know a lot of us can become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work involved. I want to have children who love learning. I want to avoid burnout- no, I want to enjoy homeschooling. Pick and choose the best parts of WTM for your family. No guilt. Do the best you can!

4.) My husband has a full time job, and I stay home to educate the kids... so we are a one-income family. We will not be purchasing extravagant science kits. That being said, I think quality materials are important. I don't know about your family, but my kids, minivan, and I can really work over the cover of a book! I will always be on the prowl for a used book, a sale, or free shipping. We make one purchase in the spring with $300 of our tax refund. My parents generously give the kids a $300 "scholarship" each year for school materials. And we scrape together $300 a year (sometimes I do childcare for a week for a friend, or sell something on E-bay) for another $300 order each year.

It has been about $1000 a year for us so far. If you think about it, some people spend $500 a month on private school (for one child). Some people spend over $100 a month on designer clothes, shoes, accessories and accoutrements to fund the public school lifestyle. I think that less than $100 a month to educate four kids is pretty good. I confess that I like to own books and not check them out of the library. You may prefer to hunt them down at the library after finding a title here on Classical Curriculum. I just don't want to do that every other year though.

A few things to keep in mind when you analyze the cost of homeschooling:

- how many children will use these materials?
- do you plan on reselling them when your family is through with them?
- will your children take care of them (to be able to resell them)?
- is this book consumable or re-usable?
- are grandparents willing to give scholarships of any amount?
- what do your public schooled parents spend each month?
- what does private school cost in your area?

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Writing With Ease

2009-12-30T19:40:00.000-08:00

Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education, is a professor of writing and literature at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. She says:

"I read through scores of incoherent, fragmented, unpunctuated papers, written by students who graduated from well-funded high schools with small classrooms and qualified teachers."

The full title is The Complete Writer: Writing With Ease: Strong Fundamentals and it's a four-year, non-consumable writing guide for the elementary writer. I say "writer" instead of "student" because the material can be used for anyone learning to write. Bauer is so sure that this book will be an assest to older students and other poor writers that she labeled the courses "Year One" instead of "First Grade" (and so on). Since she has college students who would benefit from this kind of instruction! Older kids don't want to think they are 'as dumb as a first grader' and I'm sure they appreciate her choice of titles.

It starts with 27 pages of Bauer's calm, confidence-inspiring way of talking to you about "Understanding the Process." She starts with 3 pages of "Why Writing Programs Fail" (writing a lot instead of learning to write); then spends 11 pages breaking down her methods for each of the three classical stages (1-4th grades = grammar stage; 5-8th grades = logic stage; 9-12th grades = rhetoric stage). Especially helpful in this section are the parts entitled "what you're not doing" and "what you're still not doing." Here she comforts and reassures those who were impacted by the recent/current methods of 'learning' writing: write, revise, repeat. She says there is definitely a time and a place for both original work and research papers, just not when most students are doing them. She doesn't want us to put the cart before the horse, as they are doing in most school settings. Here, the cart is producing written work and the horse is learning to write.

The last section of "Understanding the Process" is four page-long layouts describing how each year of instruction is going to pan out. At the bottom of each layout you are directed to the page for that year's "Mastery Evaluation," so parents can determine if their student should start in that year of lessons, or the next. It was really easy to run my oldest through the evaluation and see where she stood.

Let me quote to you from Rainbow Resource's review of the next part of Writing With Ease:

"The bulk of the text provides the weekly lessons for each level (year). Each year is divided into segments with a varying number of weeks. Each of these segments starts with a detailed lesson plan for the first week; then “tweaked” plans for the rest of the segment’s weeks (i.e. use slightly longer sentences for copywork; look for sentences that contain the proper names of days of the week and months of the year). Each year concludes with a mastery evaluation. Copywork sentences and narration excerpts are provided for each of these “first weeks” but not for the remaining weeks."

So, I didn't mention yet that along with this non-consumable text goes consumable yearly workbooks. At over $20 each, though, and four children of my own to educate, I would buy one each of the workbooks and make them copy the work on their own paper. Buying one copy and sharing it is a bargain- it's better yet than either of the other options:

-buying each student their own ($100 each kid over 4 years)

-only buying the text and finding all those passages and creating your own questions and choosing a copy sentence, etc. I'm sure for me at least that I would let it slide and end up doing a lot less than I would want to.

When I considered purchasing this book, I diligently looked at each of the pages from the table of contents that the Rainbow Resource staff put online. I was really confused how week one takes up 4 pages but weeks two and three only took up 1 page. Having the book now, I see that week one is fully scripted with a chosen passage, content questions, copywork sentences, and dicatation passages. Then, you are instructed to follow that pattern for the next few weeks on your own. To complete the full course with only the text you would have to find passages yourself, a task complicated by Bauer's suggestion to find passages that have certain requirements, such as months, capitals, abbreviations, etc.

After going through the scripted, fully prepared lessons in The Complete Writer: Writing With Ease: Strong FundamentalsI am convinced that I would rather spend the money on the workbooks than look for the passages myself. How does the saying go? "You have time and money. If you have more time than money, make it. If you have more money than time, buy it."

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Reading Classics- UPDATED!

2009-11-21T20:57:00.000-08:00

Our homeschool follows the guidelines of The Well Trained Mind, which has students cycling three times through the same material on increasingly more difficult levels. Each of the three cycles corresponds with a phase of growth that young people go through, known in Classical circles as the Grammar stage, Logic stage, and Rhetoric stage.

Keeping this in mind, know that I buy a fifth-grade book to read aloud to my first grader. Then she reads it on her own in fifth grade, and then she reads a more difficult version of it in ninth grade. This happens for each grade level. For instance, in second grade it would be a sixth-grade book and then a tougher version in tenth grade.

Geraldine McCaughrean's scintillating way of retelling legend is why Susan Wise Bauer selects her renditions for us to read. We don't want these books to be presented as a dry lesson with a worksheet to follow, but as an amazing adventure! McCaughrean can do it! We've enjoyed her versions of at least four or five books (see below).

One more comment about the reading cycle: For all of McCaughrean's books, because they are written to a higher age group, when I read them to my elementary kids out loud, I do some fast editing. In Hercules, I left out that he was assigned the 12 tasks because he killed his wife, 6 kids, in-laws, and servants in a drunken rage. In her Gilgamesh the Hero, I left out that a naked woman's sweet kisses tamed the wild Enkidu. Let them learn all that when they're older.

Her books usually have no illustrations other than the front cover. However, many times when I was reading, my kids would suddenly jump up and run over to me, demanding to see the pictures because of the vivid descriptions. The chapters were a good length to read in one session to freshly bathed and pyjamaed kids. My younger daughter (2 then) came in and out of the room and looked at other picture books, but she was quiet because she saw that the older kids were enthralled.

Geraldine McCaughrean's talent is what makes these classics come to life- and coming back to them in a few years will be a joy and not something for my kids to be intimidated by.

Whenever I am able to pass something just excellent on to you, my dear readers, I will. I was thumbing through a catalog recently and found an AMAZING article on How to Choose Children's Literature. I was floored, and re-read it right away.

I can't tell you how it has helped me focus on what to think of when I am trying to determine if a book is good enough to be bought or borrowed. What we read really, really affects our worldview. The way people and attitudes are presented mean so much. Our children really internalize what they read.

I was even thinking about printing this off to give to the grandparents! Maybe I'll just keep coming back to it. When you go to the link, scroll down a few inches- go grab a cup of coffee, it's long!

HERE's a post on my blog comparing classical literature to modern books aimed at children, such as "Junie B. Jones."

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Writing

2009-09-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education, is a professor of writing and literature at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. She says:

"I read through scores of incoherent, fragmented, unpunctuated papers, written by students who graduated from well-funded high schools with small classrooms and qualified teachers."

The full title of her suggestions for the best way to teach writing is The Complete Writer: Writing With Ease: Strong Fundamentals. It's a four-year, non-consumable writing guide for the elementary writer.

(I say "writer" instead of "student" because the material can be used for anyone learning to write. Bauer is so sure that this book will be an assest to older students and other poor writers that she labeled the courses "Year One" instead of "First Grade" (and so on). Since she has college students who would benefit from this kind of instruction! Older kids don't want to think they are 'as dumb as a first grader' and I'm sure they appreciate her choice of titles.)

It starts with 27 pages of Bauer's calm, confidence-inspiring way of talking to you about "Understanding the Process." This starts with 3 pages of "Why Writing Programs Fail" (writing a lot instead of learning to write); then she spends 11 pages breaking down her methods for each of the three classical stages.

Especially helpful in this section are the parts entitled "what you're not doing" and "what you're still not doing." Here she comforts and reassures those who were impacted by the recent/current methods of 'learning' writing: write, revise, repeat. She says there is definitely a time and a place for both original work and research papers, just not when most students are doing them. She doesn't want us to put the cart before the horse, as they are doing in most school settings. Here, the cart is producing written work and the horse is learning to write.

Let me quote to you from Rainbow Resource's review of the next part of Writing With Ease :

-buying each student their own ($100 each kid over 4 years)

After going through the scripted, fully prepared lessons in Writing With Ease, I am convinced that I would rather spend the money on the workbooks than look for the passages myself. How does the saying go? "You have time and money. If you have more time than money, make it. If you have more money than time, buy it."

Later, after thinking some more, I had concerns that what Susan instructs in WTM seemed to contradict her instructions in WWE. Here are my thoughts:

I remember from The Well-Trained Mind this instruction (found in her "Words, Words, Words: Spelling, Grammar, Reading, and Writing" chapter, under the section "Reading"):

"We strongly feel that "reading texts" (books with snippets of stories and poems followed by comprehension exercises) turn reading into a chore. Books, even in the early grades, ought to be sources of delight and information, not exercises to be mastered. A good classical education instills a passion for books in the student. "Reading texts" mutilate real books by pulling sections out of context and presenting them as "assignments."" (p57)

Now, when I was reading about "Writing With Ease" and the accompanying workbooks, I kept reading things like:

"Copywork and narration excerpts for each lesson are included with background information provided and comprehension questions (with possible answers) that lead the child comfortably into narration.." (from Rainbow Resource)

When I purchased the book, I saw that, as described, and against her own instruction, she has taken "snippets of stories ... followed by comprehension exercises." How do I reconcile these seemingly conflicting instructions? I have a 'brand loyalty' to Susan Wise Bauer, so it bothered me that she seemed to have created a curriculum empire that contradicted how she instructs us to teach our kids.

So these thoughts stewed for a while and here is my conclusion:

The passage from Well-Trained Mind is referring to READING.

The instruction from Writing With Ease is referring to WRITING.

Ok, stick with me. The purpose of the reading passages in a book about writing is to get the kids to narrate the summaries to the parent aloud. Why? Let me quote again, this time from WWE:

"As the young student narrates out loud, he is practicing the first part of the writing process: putting an idea into his own words. He is practicing a new and difficult skill without having to come up with original ideas first; because his narrations are always rooted in content he's just read or heard, he can concentrate on the task of expressing himself with words."(p8)

Susan thinks most teachers get the cart before the horse- they have students write and write and revise and revise. Actually, she says, the value of narration is "He is also practicing this new skill without having to worry about the second part of the writing process: putting those words down on paper."(p8)

So the questions about the passages are to help the kids be able to take information and express it in their own words. This is why she doesn't endorse kids writing essays and research papers before they can WRITE. They need to master *pre*writing skills first:

-put idea into his own words (narration)

-putting words on paper (copywork)

-visualize a written sentence in his mind (dictation)

-putting it all together

So, whew! she's not contradicting herself. Glad I don't have to stay up late nights worrying about it anymore.

Find the Writing With Ease Workbooks, Levels 1-4

EEEK! I wrote about this on my homeschooling blog... and you'll never guess...

but Susan Wise Bauer herself commented on it!! Here's the link, share my joy!

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Scheduling Tool

2009-09-29T19:28:00.000-07:00

Managers of Their Homes, or MOTH, as it's sometimes referred to, is a spiral-bound, 180 page manual on the why and how-to of scheduling a large (or small) Christian homeschooling family. Many books are written from a Christian worldview that can be read, enjoyed and used by non-Christians. MOTH, however, is not. After convincing you why scheduling is important (but you already knew that, if you're already searching for a scheduling system), the Maxwells give you "The Key to Successful Scheduling" (drum roll): it is for mom to have daily quiet time with the Lord.

Teri and Steve Maxwell are homeschool veterans, and they understand that homeschoolers have different needs than may be adequately covered by other scheduling methods. With this in mind, they have 5 chapters that address topics like interruptions and challenges to a schedule; they account for how a homeschool family's schedule can change from school year to summer-time; and they have a unique view on how to schedule in "Priorities." What qualifies as a "priority," you wonder... it is sewing, reading to your preschoolers, painting, scrapbooking. This is one thing I had never considered, that I am grateful for the Maxwells for pointing out. Their philosophy is this: If you always wait for a four-hour, child-free block of time to do what you think is fun, or a task you must do (such as taxes), then you may never get around to it. But if each day you schedule a half-hour dedicated to that task, you will do it much sooner. Such time is well-spent if it helps a housebound (sorry, homeschooling) mother do things that rejuvinate her spirit.

Another thing that the Maxwells thought of is scheduling time for everyone who is involved in an activity. If Jackson has swimming at 5 p.m., what am I doing? What are the other kids doing? This system makes you account for everyone, each hour. It helps you consciously decide to do math with your fourth-grader while the baby naps.

One thing that was a totally new idea was having older siblings watch the younger siblings while you work one-on-one with a school-age child. It fosters sibling relationships, independence, care-taking, and responsibility!

Features that I found to be helpful included a Q & A section at the back, in which Teri Maxwell gives advice based on her family's successful use of the system. Also encouraging were letters at the front of each chapter from one of the 24 families that "tested" MOTH before it was published.

On the down side, this book has 40 pages of sample schedules of the "test families." I found these to be of very little value when I made my own schedule. In addition, on every page of instruction, there are two-inch sidebars which are filled up with comments from the families who did the "testing" of the scheduling system. I found them to be distracting unless I focused on them at the end of each chapter, so they didn't break up my train of thought as much.

Also, there is a lot of focus on the final presentation of the schedule: cutting up different colors of paper for each child or parent, using sticky-tac to adhere the squares to the final paper. I think it's a lot less work and mess to just write each person in a different color pen.

Well, after using the scheduling system for about a month, all I have to say (ha!) is one word: discipline. Let me rephrase that: DISCIPLINE!!

Like any other scheduling system, it falls onto the shoulders of one person: the discipline of the mother to follow it. If you slack off, the kids wander off to the t.v. and the work doesn't get done. I felt at times exhausted just thinking of following my schedule for another 10 hours. It can be overwhelming to see all you have to do and are responsible for in one place! It is important to leave time to transition from activity to activity, to schedule free time. It makes it so much sweeter after you've had a day of productivity!

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Lesson Plans for Science

2009-09-29T14:03:00.000-07:00

If you really like WTM and believe Susan Wise Bauer's plan for education is the best thing for your children, you could still be pretty frustrated at the amount of freedom she gives. If WTM tells me to get Adventures With Atoms and Molecules and do the experiments, I get the book and start on the first experiment go through them until the end. I create worksheets and have Claire draw an atom and write the definitions in her science notebook.

However, some parents want less freedom to create their own curriculum plan, and more instruction on what, specifically, to do each day. Some homeschool parents would like that all worked out for them, and this course would be a perfect fit for that kind of homeschool.

The homeschool mother behind this course has written, and continues to write, science courses for Classically educating homeschool families who use The Well-Trained Mind. She has done all the work for you, incorporating everything WTM suggests and fitting it all together in a comprehensive 36 week course. These courses are inexpensive and use a trusted education plan (WTM) to walk you through each year of science instruction.

Her website is www.elementalscience.com and you should go and check it out! She compiled a "Great Scientists of" resource that corresponds to the 4 time periods of WTM, and has a lot of projects in the works for upper grades. Tell her mama4x sent you!

I think all of the courses are set up in a similar manner, but I wanted to tell you about the book I have worked in with my third-grader. I received two PDF's: a student workbook and a parent book. The parent's book is 44 pages and starts out with a weekly experiment supply list: you could just glance at it before you do your regular shopping and add anything that you don't already have around the house to your list. Then it walks you through the experiments and corresponding worksheets each week. Each week has its own page, listing which books are needed, incl. pages and another equipment list.

The student workbook can be printed as needed. It includes

- Ongoing Projects
- Biography Questionnaire
- 49 Definitions
- Summary Pages- each family from the Periodic table
- 19 Experiment Pages (specific)
- Experiment forms (blank)
- 50 Pictures

Your student will cut out the pictures and glue them to the corresponding pages, and write definitions and summaries. There is an ongoing put-elements-into-the-periodic-table project, in which your student glues down families of elements onto a chart, and she recommends a particular on-line Periodic Table of the Elements that she likes. I am reading The Mystery of the Periodic Table with Claire, and as we proceed through it she is gluing the elemental families onto the chart.

All of her courses are available as an e-book, or in a bound paper book; a set, or separately.

Look for links under each science subject for her recommended book lists, so you'll be prepared.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Materials for Adventures with Atoms and Molecules Book I

2009-09-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

Adventures With Atoms and Molecules uses the most basic of supplies (no special chemicals) to perform the experiments. I found everything on the list in two stores. The item I had a little trouble with was Certs. In addition, the materials call for 4 kinds of balls, which I wished I had been on the lookout for beforehand (tennis, rubber, raquet, and golf). I ended up spending about $40. Part of that is because I:

-bought a bin to store it all in
-specifically bought household things (like salt, ziplock bags, chalk, vinegar, etc) that I didn't already have doubles of because I wanted to ensure that I didn't (Murphy's Law) run out of something on experiment day.
-I saved some money by using glass jam jars instead of buying something similar

*note: keep the mints elsewhere or else your entire bin will be infused with the smell, even my glass jars.

Household: (You may already have these things)

almond extract
vanilla extract
aluminum foil
baking soda
bottle opener
bowl
cinnamon
ziplock-style bags
coins
cooking oil
dishwashing liquid soap
drinking glasses
flour
food coloring
grape juice
grapefruit juice
grocery bags
ice cubes
jars with lids
kitchen sink
knife
measuring cups and spoons
metal cookie sheet
oven
pans
paper clips
paper cups
paper towels
pennies
plastic ballpoint pen
pepper
plastic comb
plastic pail
pliers
pot holders
freezer
rubber bands
salt
scissors
shoe box with lid
bubbles with bubble ring
soft drink bottle
spoon
sugar
string
tape
tea
tennis balls
toothpicks
vanilla extract
water
yeast

Specialty:

balloons
Certs brand mint
chalk
epsom salts
permanent marker
golf balls
gumdrops
hard candies
insulated wire
Ivory Soap (specifically)
meter stick
racquetballs
Rolaids
rubber balls
sand
6-volt lantern battery
wax paper
Wint-O-Green Lifesavers
wire
yardstick

Food:

apple cider vinegar
beets (canned)
chili powder
Coke
corn syrup
distilled white vinegar
lemon extract
lime juice
marshmallows
oregano leaves
parsley
peaches
7-Up

Perishable, to be purchased as needed:

apple
avocado
bananas
onions
red cabbage leaves
strawberries
tomatoes

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Grammar Stage Chemistry: UPDATED!!

2009-08-25T19:18:00.001-07:00

I have to tell you, I really like Christian Kids Explore Chemistry. The next time we come to third grade Chemistry I would start out with Unit 1 of CKEC. It has 5 lessons covering:

Intro to Chemistry
Chemistry Tools
Matter
Elements (11 common)
Mixtures and Compounds

Then I would do Unit 4 of CKEC, which has 5 lessons covering:

Solids and Liquids
Gases
Gas Laws
State Change
Solutions

Then I would spend the rest of the year doing the experiments from Well-Trained Mind's suggested text, Adventures With Atoms and Molecules: Chemistry Experiments for Young People.

This is the main Chemistry text for third grade science. WTM encourages purchasing book 1 and 2 in this series for third grade. But in Bauer's own words, "Even if she only completes the 30 experiments in Book I, she'll know more chemistry than 98 percent of American third graders." (WTM, p 173) This is a VERY EASY book to use, parent and child-friendly and not intimidating for those who don't love or know Chemistry themselves.

It is used in conjunction with one of these science encyclopedias. The The Usborne Internet-Linked First Encyclopedia of Science
is a more elementary book suitable for this age group. The internet-linking information is really excellent for today's students. As a mom, I appreciate being able to let them continue their interest in a topic without leaving the house for the library. With the internet linking included in most of Usborne's encyclopedia, your student can research further while you continue school with a sibling. However, you are going to need the The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia anyway as your student gets older, so my thinking is go ahead and get it now.

In my left sidebar is a link call "Lesson Plans for Science." It will introduce you to a woman who has written an entire year's lesson plan for each year of WTM-based science! If you are overwhelmed by doing your own Chemistry this year, check it out! Here are the recommended texts that are used in conjunction with Chemistry in the Grammar Stage by Elemental Science:

Amazon.com Widgets

The history of chemistry...

When our homeschool materials order arrived in the mail, I planned on looking through things to see if I wanted to return anything. Well, I ended up reading through "The Mystery of the Periodic Table" by Benjamin D. Wiker and going to bed at one am!

Chemistry was something I 'got through' in high school. But this book was so engaging and interesting, and so clearly laid out the development of modern Chemistry, that I was unwilling to put it down. It is written in a conversational tone, and speaks directly to the reader. It makes the early alchemists and the later chemists into real people with real investigative passions.

There were two things that I really appreciated from this book which sort of surprised me: First, it was made evident that an intelligence was behind the elements. The book points out many ways that Chemistry is orderly, exact and not accidental. He doesn't say, "God invented the elements and their properties" but he has at least three paragraphs full of exclamation points and sentences which express wonder at the perfection that the chemists were astounded to find.

Second, the author repeatedly describes how the chemist had the wrong idea but experimented the right way; or he had just the right idea, but made the wrong conclusion. I found these instances very encouraging, especially for the young scientist, because it explains that trial and error is a crucial part of finding out facts of science. I don't want my kids to research a question, make a hypothesis, do an experiment, get an unexpected result, and count it a total failure.

The author also goes into some effort to show how the chemists of days past stumbled in a group effort spanning centuries to come to what is presently known as the Periodic Table. Until I read The Mystery of the Periodic Table, I thought that it was just a reference guide, and now I know it is a historical, methodical, even beautiful and interesting diagram.

I plan on reading this book to my third grader at the beginning of her first study of Chemistry. Then, when we cycle back to Chemistry in seventh grade, she can read it on her own. I think it is an excellent value. I know of no other product like it that includes all the chemists and their experiments, sketches of their apparati, and how they worked off each other's contributions and change each others outlooks. It includes updates up to almost present day. It is an excellent explanation of many basic chemical elements; a few experiments; entirely comprised of biographies; easily God-glorifying; written in an exciting manner which carries the reader along.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Table of Contents SOTW Vol. 3

2009-08-23T15:39:00.001-07:00

Oh, how I love you that I would type all this out for you! This is the table of contents straight out of Susan Wise Bauer's The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 3: Early Modern Times. This way, you can know every topic she covers and start thinking about what biographies or extra materials you want to get that correspond with this time period.

Ch 1: A World of Empires; Holy Roman Empire, Riches of Spain

Ch 2: Protestant Rebellions; Dutch Revolt, Queen without a Country

Ch 3: James, King of 2 Countries; James and His Enemies, Kings James's Town

Ch 4: Searching for the NW Passage; French and the New World, Henry Hudsons' Quest

Ch 5: Warlords of Japan; Hideyoshi, Japan's Great Leader, 1st Tokugawa Ruler

Ch 6: New Colonies in the New World; Strangers and Saints in Plymouth, Dutch and the New World

Ch 7: Spread of Slavery; Tobacco- & Unwilling Colonists, Queen Nzinga of Angola

Ch 8: Middle of the East; Persian Puzzle, Ottoman Turks

Ch 9: Western War; 30 Years' War, 1618-1648

Ch 10: Far East of Europe; Japan's Isolation, Rise of Manchu

Ch 11: Moghul Emperors of India; World Seizer, King of the World, Conqueror of the World, Aurangzeb's 3 Decisions

Ch 12: Battle, Fire & Plague in England; Charles loses his Head, Cromwell's Protectorate, Plague and Fire

Ch 13: Sun King; Sun king of France

Ch 14: Rise of Prussia; Frederick, 1st Prussian King

Ch 15: New World in Conflict; King Phillip's War, War vs the Colonies: Louis XIV Saves France, William Penn's Holy Experiment

Ch 16: The West: Universal Laws of Newton and Locke, Scientific Farming

Ch 17: Russia looks West; Peter the Great, Peter's Port to the West

Ch 18: East and West Collide; Ottomans look West- Twice

Ch 19: English in India; Indian Empire Falls Apart, Shopkeeper's Invasion

Ch 20: Imperial East; Emperor Chi'en-lung's Library, Land of the Dragon

Ch 21: Fighting over N America; 3 Pointless Wars, the 7-yr War

Ch 22: Revolution!; Discontent in British Colonies, American Revolution

Ch 23: New Country; American Constitution, 1st American President

Ch 24: Sailing South; Cpt. Cook Reaches Botany Bay, Convict Settlement

Ch 25: Revolution Gone Sour; Storming of the Bastille, Reign of Terror

Ch 26: Catherine the Great; Princess Catherine come to Russia, Catherine the Great

Ch 27: A Changing World; Steam and Coal in Britain, Cotton and Guns in America

Ch 28: China and the Rest of the World; The Kingdom at the Center of the World, The Rise of the Opium Trade

Ch 29: The Rise of Bonaparte; Napoleon Comes to Power, The Emperor Napoleon

Ch 30: Freedom in the Caribbean; The Haitian Revolt

Ch 31: A Different Kind of Rebellion; The World of the Factories, The Luddites

Ch 32: The Opened West; Lewis and Clark Map the West, Tecumseh's Resistance

Ch 33: The End of Napoleon; Napoleon's Wars (and 1812 too), Waterloo!

Ch 34: Freedom for South America; SImon Bolivar: The Liberator, Freedom, But Not Unity

Ch 35: Mexican Independence; The Cry of Dolores, The Republic of Mexico

Ch 36: The Slave Trade Ends; The Work of the Abolitionists

Ch 37: Troubled Africa; The Zulu Kingdom, The Boers and the British

Ch 38: American Tragedies; The Trail of Tears, Nat Turner's Revolt

Ch 39: China Adrift; The First Opium War

Ch 40: Mexico and her Neighbor; Remember the Alamo, The Mexican-American War

Ch 41: New Zealand and Her Rulers; The Treaty of Waitangi, The New Zealand Wars

Ch 42: The World of Forty-Nine; The Gold Rush, A World of Unrest

Amazon.com Widgets

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Third Grade

2009-08-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

See the Spanish resources in the right sidebar.

See full reviews of books in this list in the left sidebar.

(I'm so sorry, but I can't get this Amazon widget to be the right size, so you'll have to click through the four little screens to see the full list of books.)

Scholastic Encyclopedia Of The Presidents And Their Times This is a useful book which gives a short bio on each president and the events occurring during his time in office. Gives a good "feel" for the time period, with copies of newspaper headlines and pop culture images and quotes.

Declaration Of Independence

It's merely the Declaration written out, a phrase or so on each page, with illustrations.

Words That Built a Nation: A Young Person's Collection of Historic American Documents (can I just say dirt cheap on Amazon) A great collection of diary entries, ticket stubs and newspaper images, signs, and such from throughout history, from the point of view of a child such as your student!

Exploring Planet Earth

This isn't a book about the physical planet, such as geography, but a study on the discoveries made by the explorers throughout history.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Manipulatives

2009-08-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

So, manipulatives are a crucial part of early math education. They are a "hands-on" kind of learning. I have seen that my kids can make mental leaps when they actually SEE or MOVE the numbers.

So, here is the primer I wish I had when I started Saxon, when all the books, catalogs, and moms were throwing around these vocabulary words I didn't know.

I start out with the most important one of all, "Counting Bears." These bears can stand in for numbers when kids are learning counting and skip counting and all sorts of maneuvers. Indispensable. I got the weighted ones which are counting bears AND weighted for the balance scale (below).

Dad = 12 grams, Mom = 8 grams, Baby = 4 grams.

1 Dad = 1 Mom + 2 Babies etc. Also workcards are available for younger kids to practice patterns and such. Lots of products that use these.

Fake money because we all don't have tons of bucks lying around to be practiced with! (maybe I have a little sense. Ha! Ha! sorry.) This way the practice money doesn't disappear when we want to go to the dollar theatre.

"Pattern blocks." Definitely spring the extra few bucks for the wooden ones. The kids use these in math but also they are just plain fun to make patterns with (think stained-glass window). Used a lot with Saxon 1-3. Lots of workbooks and idea books are out there that use pattern blocks. If your kids loves them they can surely find things to do with them.

Did I buy this for my kids, really? I don't know. I know I wanted to turn the gears myself. I think I remember the big Judy clock from grade school, and not being able to manipulate it for as long as I wanted to. So when I saw this, child-sized geared clock I immediately ordered it. (My kids like it too.) And as the teacher this time around, I like that it has the 5, 10, 15... labels on it, and that the gear-shaped individual minutes are marked.

These are leftovers from my months with Miquon. They're called "Cuisinaire Rods."They are good for visually explaining 'one-more' or showing the relationship between 2+3=5, 3+2=5, 5-3=2, 5-2=3 etc. I keep thinking that I'll label all the red ones as "2" and so on to make it simpler to just pick one up and know what it represented, opposed to comparing to another. Hey... I paid for them, they're mine... I can!

These are also used a lot in Saxon 1-3. They are called "linking cubes." They lock together and are useful for showing numbers when you don't want to slide 7 bears across the table and recount them... they are good for many things.

These are called "Tangrams." They are a favorite of my Lego-loving son. You try to see how the shapes fit together to make the dark shape, then you can flip the card over and see if you are right. Very inexpensive. I definitely prefer the hard plastic ones. These are one manipulative that has a cottage market of additional products that build on it. Lots of options that are based on using these, primarily various images to figure out.

This is a simple thing to make yourself, but sometimes you get free or hand-me-down cardstock shapes like these. When you are illustrating the properties of a certain shape, its good to let the kids handle one or trace it or press it into playdoh while you talk, instead of staring at a sketched shape on scratch paper.

Same thing here- these are just flashcards. They are included in the Saxon workbook pack. They're just numbers on cards. Good to see if your kid can identify each number, put them in order or reverse order or whatever. Also makes younger kids feel "big" if they mess around with them just like the bigger sister or brother.

There are so many "Base 10" sets out there- transparent ones for overhead projectors, colored ones, foam ones... all sorts. I make do with these stiff cardstock ones my MIL handed down to me. They are useful for showing the kids how ones roll into tens, and how tens are a standard grouping. You can easily laminate a mat with "100" printed on the left, "10" printed in the middle, and "1" on the right, and show how whatever number you pull out of the air fits into their "place value."

A balance scale. Reading about pan scales vs balance scales vs this and that can be confusing. This is not a scale, but a balancing tool that is able to determine if given items or collections of items weigh more or less (or the same) as each other. For comparing and estimating. Then, of course, if you have an item of a know weight, such as the bears (above), you would be able to determine their weight. This one can hold water too.

A "geoboard." Lots of fun. Its meant to be used to show congruent shapes. You use rubber bands of varying color and size to make patterns or shapes by looping them around the pegs. You choose a geoboard based on the amount of pegs. Some offer pegs that show a pie shape (ie, slices). Also a huge amount of fun for smaller kids to feel busy and important while the big kids work.

Not really a math manipulative, but an early learning math-prep/ fine motor skills "toy," "lacing beads" are great for little kids to practice using both hands in tandem and pushing the shoelace through the hole in the bead. I tied a knot on the end the first day, and let 'em at it. The beads can make patterns by color or by shape, so they can do a little venn diagramming later.

"A Hundred Number Chart" is absolutely indispensible. I send my kids to the wall to walk their fingers from one number to another. Ours is color shaded- all the 5's are pale green, all the 10's are pale blue, and the rest are yellow. Great for showing patterns. There is a 8 1/2 by 11 inch number chart in the back of each "Morning Meeting" book that comes with the Saxon homeschool packages. I have another one in a plastic sleeve that we use at the table.

What I want but don't need are 3x3 post-it style 100 number charts!

These are some inexpensive dice to toss around instead of flashcards. You have to have tricks like this up your sleeve-

"No, Mom, I don't waaa-na do flashcards!"
"Ok, then I guess we can throw dice instead..."
"Can we? Oh, Thank you Mom! You're the best!"

These are some counting discs that I inherited from my MIL last year. We haven't used them alot for math, but they're in all the catalogs, so some people must love them. We do use them for bingo as chips. Here's some mom math for you:

old play-doh can + discs = baby busy for 5 minutes.

mama4x MANIPULATIVE WANT LIST
not needed, but wanted

A nice set of gram weights. How luxurious. Delta Math and Science has a huge variety of weight sets.

A beautiful, accurate, expensive scale. Maybe in High School?

We'll get this later, I'm sure. Its only a few dollars. Mirror to show symmetry. Cool.

Geo-solids. Very neat. Of course, I just hand them an orange or point to the globe for sphere; a can of olives for cylinder; remind them of the pyramids for... what's it called? Oh! Pyramid.

This is the three-dimensional base ten set. Exactly the same as my flat cardstock ones but you can hold them and stand them up.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Grammar

2009-08-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

First and Second Grade

I have mixed feelings about First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise, the mother of Susan Wise Bauer (author of our Classical Education 'manual,' The Well-Trained Mind).

There is a lot to like about it, such as:

1. a non-consumable text
2. one book covers first and second grade grammar
3. scripted lessons (the parent just reads the instructions, child's correct response listed)
4. no other materials are strictly necessary (besides paper, pencil, etc)
5. lists tasks by 3 levels of difficulty for parent to assign after each lesson
6. teaches all parts of speech on lower elementary level
7. includes memory work, such as "30 days hath September" and other poetry
8. practices narration skills

However, it is stunningly repetitive for most of first grade. We did nouns and pronouns so long that I was about to throw the book out. I think we did them for about 3/4 of first grade. What is up with that? Then, when the kids hit second grade, slam bam one part of speech after another.

When I do this with my next child, I'm going to skip a great majority of the noun/pronoun repetition in first grade and pull from second. What is the point of choosing the best curriculum and being in charge of educational decisions if we can't skip lessons here, pull from this unit, and add to that? It was hard for me to leave the lesson plan initially, but I see the value of tailoring the lessons to our needs, not dragging our feet through the book to say "we did it."

It's a thorough book with good lessons, I just break up the lessons differently than the author does. From what I understand, she has since broken this book up into two volumes, but I don't know if she has changed the format.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Kingfisher Encyclopedia of World History

2009-08-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia Of World History is a crucial resource to have. Written at a 3rd- 5th grade reading level, it is your supplement text for Story of the World for all four years. It's full of gorgeous pictures and diagrams, maps and drawings. After your child reads about an event in world history, he can go on-line and check the resources there, including videos and lessons. It includes all the major civilizations and events from the dawn of creation to the year 2000. (We skimmed the first hundred pages or so that explain as fact the Big Bang up to the end of the last ice age.)
It's a durable, useful resource at a good price that will last through many years of frequent use.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Second Grade

2009-08-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

Spanish and Map reviews in right column.

see individual reviews in left column

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!

Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Map Skills

2009-08-03T17:25:00.000-07:00

Map Skills by Renee Cummings is actually a map skills book, not a geography course, so it focuses on attributes of all maps in general and is an excellent start before they learn geography, to learn how a map works and the function of symbols on a map.

I love this reproducible map skills series-- I can copy it for each kid if I like. It is available in levels 1-6. They are supposed to correspond to those grade levels. My daughter enjoys it so much, she wants to do maps every day. We do maps two days a week, and start the next level workbook in the spring. On a schedule like this your child should go through all 6 workbooks in less than 4 years.

Some pages of the first workbook REQUIRE copies to be able to do the lesson, because the student colors and then cuts out images and then is supposed to paste them to the other (now cut up) side! Other than that, this requires no parent prep whatsoever. The lessons are quick and varied. Most worksheets from other classes are just pencil work, so she appreciates the occasion to color, cut and paste. (If you do your copying at a copy center, it's pgs 8, 10, 13, 31 & 36)

After a basic knowledge of how maps work is established, your child should be in the fourth grade, and learning modern history. This is when we begin an extra emphasis on modern geography, the locations of the countries of today's world. For this I like Geographic Literacy: Maps for Memorization. Each continent (or partial continent) is shown in six different ways: a labeled political map with capital cities and a labeled physical features map, and then each of those left blank, and then each of those matched to a multiple-choice test.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

First Grade

2009-08-03T16:45:00.000-07:00

A COMPLETE LIST OF ALL MATERIALS
see individual reviews in right column

SCIENCE MATERIALS

File under "totally unnecessary in budget crunch, but really great." I purchased this uncut, to save 5 or 10 dollars, which I would not do again. It was a huge hassle to cut out.

This set is cool because it has the large torso/head figure (right). On top of that you place the organs. In addition, there are cutaway diagrams of skin, tooth/gum, the heart, the eye, the ear, and a hand. There are also different kinds of cells, such as a few types of germs, red and white blood cells, and a cancer tumor. There is a diagram of the female reproductive organs and a cutaway of a fetus in the womb, as well as a growing embryo series. My set had a pack of cigarettes, a wine bottle, and a cola (to teach...?). The set available now has the male reproductive diagram.

Not only is this interesting for you student who is learning the parts and systems of the body, it is excellent for keeping the younger kids busy.

I love this reproducible map skills series (not a geography course)-- Read complete review under "Electives" on the left sidebar.

Goes up to 6th grade. Some pages of the first workbook REQUIRE copies if you do your copying at a copy center, it's pgs 8, 10, 13, 31 & 36.

Available through Rainbow Resource.

"Use ser for being
and not for doing-
use it for the cow is fat,
not the cow is mooing."

The author gives permission to reproduce and even edit the workbook pages and has a website to further assist you. For those in a co-op, he sells additional CDs in a 15-pack for $5 each and no shipping.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Spelling

2009-07-28T19:34:00.000-07:00

The first year that I followed Susan Wise Bauer's advice as found in The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, I bought all the necessary books (she lists crucial texts and then extras). She listed Spelling Workout as the way to go with spelling instruction. So, it went in my cart and my daughter and I went through it in first grade. Then I started looking ahead to our future with that workbook series and got nervous. When I had four kids using 2 workbooks a year (one each semester) my annual total for Spelling alone would be $92, even if the price never rose. What!

Then I began to look at nonconsumable spelling texts. I bought some school textbooks for spelling (5 of them) for .25 each at the library. There seemed to be a gap, though, from where we left Spelling Workout and where the texts began. Finally, after lots of comparison shopping at Rainbow Resource I settled on Natural Speller. I used it for all of second grade and have been pleased with it. It lists words in groupings by sound or sight pattern. The lists are broken down into grade levels. There is parent instruction for the first 3 pages on how to go about teaching spelling. There are four pages of activities to use when practicing spelling. In addition, there are sections on grammar skills, spelling rules, homophones etc., foreign words, and word roots. Its really a great resource for the price, and is an excellent choice for families with more than one child.

Some things to think about: When considering curriculum for your homeschool, remember that because something is the same as what a public school uses, doesn't mean it is good. Spelling Workout is very much like what you find in schools, utilizing fill-in-the-blanks, word puzzles, and other methods that lend themselves to worksheets.

On the other hand, and equally true, remember that being different than what a public school offers doesn't ensure it is better. Natural Speller is a method that requires discipline, self-control, and creativity. You need to ensure the words are being learned. You can't just see that your child has filled in the blanks of their workbook and then move on to the next lesson. Their education rests in our hands. It's a big responsibility to ensure that they are getting a good one!

I compared Natural Speller to at least 3 other curriculums when I decided to move from Spelling Workout. It's a lot of work to invest the time. Unlike teachers at a big school, we have a vested interest in the success of our students. We don't want to use a method without some thought being put into it, to ensure it matches our philosphy, our kids, and our pocketbook.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

History

2009-07-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition

The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 2: The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance, Revised Edition

The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 3: Early Modern Times

The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 4: The Modern Age: From Victoria's Empire to the End of the USSR

Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home also wrote these history texts. Following classical education's 4-year repeating cycle, there are four texts, one each for 1st through 4th grades. They contain over 40 lessons written out in a friendly, conversational, and interesting manner. The Story of the World covers all of world history in story format. Each chapter in the book is meant to be used as a jumping-off point for the rest of the history lesson. There are also activity books and student tests to supplement the core text. We haven't used the tests but I plan to for 5th-8th grades. The activity books include:

- blackline maps
- coloring sheets
- paper dolls
- games
- craft projects
- recipes
- more

In addition, the books are available in CD sets if you or your child would prefer to hear it rather than read it. They have between 7 and 9 CDs per set. They are read with clarity and emotion by a male voice, and as he changes character or whatever he changes his voice to great effect. They come in 2 cardstock sleeves and I put mine in a dollar-store CD storage folder so my kids are less likely to scratch them.

This is the homeschooled, homeschooling author of the Well Trained Mind and the Story of the World series. Susan Wise Bauer is pictured(R) with Jim Weiss(L), the man behind the voice on the CD set.

The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia Of World History is a crucial resource to have. Written at a 3rd- 5th grade reading level, it is your supplement text for Story of the World for all four years. It's full of gorgeous pictures and diagrams, maps and drawings. After your child reads about an event in world history, he can go on-line and check the resources there, including videos and lessons. It includes all the major civilizations and events from the dawn of creation to the year 2000. (We skimmed the first hundred pages or so that explain as fact the Big Bang up to the end of the last ice age.)

A DAY WITH "STORY OF THE WORLD"

We have really enjoyed this method of learning history. In a story format, it's much more interesting and likely to be remembered. When we were talking about my son starting history this fall, my older daughter got so excited and started just gushing the praises of Tarak, a fictional nomad girl from the very first history lesson in book 1. She was thrilled that her brother was going to 'meet' Tarak soon, and listed off everything she knew about Tarak's nomad lifestyle... and she learned about it almost 2 full years ago! So, what would a classical history lesson look like? Bauer suggests doing history one day a week with a long chunk of time dedicated to it, or doing one shorter session twice a week. These are the tasks to accomplish for each chapter from the text:

First, Bauer suggests reading (or listening) to a chapter from the Story of the World. Your child can color the corresponding coloring sheet while he listens.

Next, your child dictates to you or writes his own summary of the chapter. I tell my kids its like changing a movie into a preview, and that really helps them focus on what is most important about the chapter.

Then, find whatever place was the location or focus for the chapter on the globe and the map, and do the mapwork outlined in the activity book. We use colored pencils because they can get such a fine point (unlike crayons) and they don't bleed through or soak the paper. Also, they can be erased, to a point.

Next, you open the The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia Of World History and turn to the pages that correspond to the lesson. One of the time-savers that I love from SOTW is in the teacher's lesson plan, they list the pages in the encyclopedia for that lesson. Just peruse the double page spread with your child and note anything awesome to investigate further.

Last, you can go to the library and get books out on whatever caught their eye from the lesson, even if it is a book about how medieval women dressed. Or, you can do one of the projects in the end of each lesson plan, which range widely in variety. In the early ages we are just trying to excite their little brains with images and ideas, not necessarily focusing on what we would think is the most crucial for college entrance exams.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Spanish

2009-07-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

Mi Libro Grande De Las Palabras

This is a really colorful, child-friendly book. It is completely in Spanish but still easy for a non-speaker to understand. No plot, just a label for each simple photo.

First Thousand Words in Spanish
This is a good curl-up-on-the-couch together and peruse book. Also, it is good to send a kid to, such as "go look at the first thousand words book, and choose a good word to learn this week." In this way, your child is in charge of his lesson, and he'll be more likely to remember the word if it is one he's chosen. If you choose a word each time he does, you double the number of words being learned (but still only two a week), and the chances of your child learning some verbs increases! Comes in a huge variety of languages.

This CD is really upbeat and the songs DO stick in your head. I think with a few of the songs the music is a little overwhelming to the lyrics, but as a whole they are excellent. In a song about helping verbs, the lyrics say: "Use ser for being/ and not for doing/ use it for the cow is fat/ not the cow is mooing." I thought this set was a good value for the money, and that was when I had only listened to the CD. Then later I investigated the book and thought it was a really! good deal. We listened to "The Question Song" and then used the question words we learned to practice our vocab in the 1st 100 words picture dictionary. My younger children dance to the beat while my older children and I refer to the written-out lyrics (written out in Spanish, with the English translation a shade lighter underneath). There is a (inspirational?) poem for the student discouraged by pronunciation and a list of "English" words that are actually Spanish. The author gives permission to reproduce and even edit the workbook pages and has a website to further assist you. For those in a co-op, he sells additional CDs in a 15-pack for $5 each and no shipping.

Although I have studied 5 languages and know 2 fluently, when I began to plan actually teaching my own children a foreign language, I was a little intimidated. However, Adventures With Nicholasby Berlitz Kids made beginning a foreign language extremely easy and fun, for my kids and myself. My kindergartener and second grader went through these books together so they could practice speaking with each other. It was really easy to use it with both of the kids, and it was really helpful that they were learning the same material.

All the experts say that when learning a new language, it should be for at least “15 minutes a day” and this series gave us an easy way to accomplish that. The book begins with an encouraging note to parents. It’s easy enough to read it cuddled together on the couch, because of the translation at the bottom of each page. But this series also comes with a CD on which the story is read in engaging, yet comfortably slow voices. There is intonation and excitement in the voices of the actors, with male and female voices. There is plenty of time during the reading for the kids to inspect the color pictures and get clues about the story line. The story is repetitive but not boring.

When I drew their attention to it, my kids were able to see that the “boy and girl nouns” have different sounds at the end, and that they have to match the endings of the “boy and girl adjectives.” It was like any other matching game to them! We would listen to one chapter one or two times in a row (usually while I made sandwiches), and then I would read them the translation. Then we’d listen to it another time or two. If the kids didn’t want to sit still that day, instead of trying to get them to pay attention to the chapter, I would let them dance around to the songs at the end of the CD. We’d try to pick out words we recognized from the story.

For our homeschool, I made a bingo game that was based on the Nicholas storybook. It was a lot easier than you may suspect, because one benefit of that series is a picture dictionary at the end, in addition to a regular, alphabetized word list. I drew a bingo chart with a Sharpie and a ruler. Then, I made black and white copies of the picture dictionary, colored them with my kids, cut them apart, and glued the pictures in the boxes. Voila! It’s your own bingo. The pictures give a visual memory from the book, and now you have a game that builds on the vocab they learned in the story. We laminated the game for durability and just use pennies or counting chips for pieces. (You have to make an extra copy of the pictures to make one set of flashcards to draw from, instead of the rolling number ball) I think they are an excellent value, and I think if the time comes to resell them, my Bingo games will be a great bonus!

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Saxon Math

2009-07-13T20:57:00.000-07:00

Saxon Math is the homeschool golden standard (Cathy Duffy recommends it, everyone seems to use it) In the early years, (K-3) it is a heavily manipulative-based approach to math. It studies math in what is called a spiral, where learning builds new skills while practicing the older skills.

The early years the text is fully scripted, where what the parent/teacher says is actually written out. For example, it will say "ask your child how many bears are on the table. (four) Encourage your child to slide count them from one side of the table to the other, saying the number as she moves it..." This is really helpful if you are overwhelmed or timid about teaching math.

We assembled our manipulatives instead of purchasing a kit, which is probably much easier. We regularly use:

-counting bears
-geoboards and rubber bands
-linking cubes
-geometric shape blocks (wooden)
-ruler
-judy clock
-hundred chart

We sometimes use:

-balance scale
-clear colored counting disks
-tangrams
-base 10 set (cardstock)

(See Manipulatives on the left sidebar)

They recently published Saxon Geometry for highschoolers. They also have CD-ROMsvideo training (teacher instruction) for students doing 5/4 through HS level. So this helps audio learners, or anyone who wants assistance teaching the 'higher maths.' Isn't it great to know you aren't alone out there? Now that they have Geometry, this is a consistent method to teach math in your homeschool from Kindergarten through graduation.

Homeschool kits are available for all the grade levels. Each kit contains a textbook (spiral bound to lay flat on the table), flashcards, and workbooks (practice sheets, drills, tests, quizzes). Early years' textbook is the teacher-oriented scripted text; older grades have a more traditional student-oriented text. I purchase the kit when my oldest begins that year, then I just replace the consumable workbooks for my younger children when they reach that grade.

I have to say after a few years of Saxon, I was tired of the repetition and wanted to do something that made math time more exciting and involved. I tried Miquon Math. I discarded it the next semester and went running back to Saxon. Any drawback to Saxon's repetitiveness is felt more on the part of the parent, and not the student who is doing the material for the first time.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Art Software

2009-07-13T20:49:00.000-07:00

One thing that tends to be put on a back burner in homeschooling is art and music. I took Art History in my senior year of high school, and most people never take it and do not lack in any way. I didn't take art classes after 8th grade-- in private school before that I think we had it once or twice a week. My kids do crafts which I think is quite different than art. When I think crafts, words like glue, popsicle sticks, markers, fingerpaint, oj lids, beads, macaroni, pipe cleaners, paper towel tubes, etc. come to mind. When I think art, I think skills: linoleum carving to make prints, pointillism, watercolor brush techniques, collage, clay; perspective, realism, lighting, etc.

We have a bin full of craft supplies. I let the kids have at it periodically. I don't have the knowledge to teach skills beyond my 8th-grade-level attempts. (I can draw a cube. It occurs to me that people don't have to be drawn from the front. I know that in real life, everything doesn't have a black outline. I can cross-hatch. I know that it is possible to watercolor without dripping. That's about the extent of my skills.)

For our family, for this season, what works for us is art software for our computer. I purchased a program for $26. Now, my kids are learning about appreciation, history, and skills on their own. I don't let them watch tv in the early mornings, so I'll frequently come out in the morning to get my coffee and they're already learning. Later, I'll be in the kitchen and be overhearing their lessons and learning something myself! They use it whenever I say "No tv" but they don't want to go outside. For us this works.

For your family, you may want to take a different approach. The software I chose has 16 lessons with 2 subtopics for each lesson, and additional skill-builders on the side, and a decent library of works of art with artist bios and dates. What's 16 X 2 if not an entire year of weekly lessons? Maybe you'd like a more structured approach to the same software, such as assigning each lesson and limiting when to use the software. Or, you could use the software as an intensive summer course. Use the vacation time to focus on 'extra' subjects like this. This kind of subject lends itself easily to a unit study.

The last point I'd like to make is that like so many other things, homeschooling has its seasons. Our family is in the elementary age season, I shouldn't worry about the development of painting in the history of the world. Let them use tissue paper and paper towel rolls! However, when everyone has mastered reading and writing and math, then there will be time for the more intensive (and fun) courses.

To read all my thoughts on art instruction click HERE to go straight to the art tab on my blog, Higher Education.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Grammar Stage Earth & Space

2009-07-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

Christian Kids Explore Earth and Spaceby Stephanie L. Redmond is a dichotomy of a course! I enjoyed teaching from this text for a number of reasons including: little to no teacher prep time; enjoyable to work through; God-honoring; and written in a conversational tone that is easy to read aloud and appeals to the younger audience.

Altogether, I found this course to be a good core text for my second-grader that was easily supplemented in a few areas. I will be using it again with my younger kids when they hit second grade. And although my second-grader and I completed the entire course, we definitely amended and expanded it to be more in-depth.

One example of this was finding all nine planets covered in one short chapter! I thought this was neglecting an opportunity to excite kids about outer space, so we expanded on that section with outside materials. There is no chapter at all about biomes, which I found startling, as there is so much to intrigue children about the variety of habitats and temperature zones on this planet we call home. Again, we supplemented the study of Earth with outside materials.

In a few of the chapters it seemed as though the bulk of the reading is about the author’s own opinions, although this contributes to the ‘talking to a young child’ tone. One of the main things I noticed about this book was the lack of consistency in material from chapter to chapter. It is a curious mix of technical definitions and conversational banter.

It's always great to find a science course that gives glory to God for his creation. The first lesson was about Creation, but neglected the “on the first day, on the second day…” so we supplemented that with some reading from Genesis. In Lesson three she goes over the theory of Pangea and the worldwide flood, how some scientists and theologians have conflicting ideas. She presents it flawlessly and intelligently.

Although the coloring sheets are beautiful, they have a lot of black space that can’t be colored. In addition, there is one sheet for the entire unit, not individual sheets to work on while mom reads each chapter.

The benefits in this book for the upper elementary students include lots of definitions in the margins and timelines listing scientists and scientific discoveries. We took Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space to our local copy center and had them cut off the binding. Then we separated the reproducibles and had the text with all the glossaries, appendices, and supplemental materials spiral-bound.

If you are enjoying Elemental Science's lesson plans, here is Paige's book list for her course. Each of them can also be enjoyed with the the book described above.

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Pre-K: UPDATED!

2009-07-11T20:43:00.000-07:00

I think very strongly that kids should not be doing flashcards and taking voice lessons as soon as they can sit up on their own. So our Pre-K plan is laid back. The kids hear alot of schooling as they play on the floor under the school table, so I have been quite surprised at what they have picked up by just overhearing.

That said, we tend to have a pedantic house anyway. Every question is given an educational answer. I let my oldest play school with the younger ones, and she has a blast teaching them their colors and shapes. They trace the letters of their name. They watercolor. We count and add. As I write this, my 18-month old can count to at least 7 just by listening to the rest of them chatter all day.

We have a lot of manipulatives, so the kids spend time lacing beads, stacking blocks, working on puzzles. I do not buy battery-operated toys or replacement batteries for the toys we are given, so I find that they spend their time coloring and building instead of bee-beeping.

Girl Sailing, by Sylvie Daigneault

At first glance, Big Thoughts for Little People by Kenneth N. Taylor looks like every other ABC story book. However, it isn't. Now, I used to be in favor of a fun-filled preschool where the little kids learn their ABC's by absorbtion and observation until you finish up with some fine-tuning in Kindergarden. But, this book has altered that idea for me! I think it would be a great 26-week ABC, Bible, and character study.

Big Thoughts for Little People uses the alphabet as a baseline for starting discussions with your child ages 3-7. I think it is too in-depth for reading in one setting- like the title suggests, there are some pretty big thoughts in here! When we got it in the mail, we sat down and started to read the entire thing, and my kids were zoning out by the time we got to the letter "Dd." It's just too much to think about all together. It's better to read it a page at a time, so they can really focus on each idea and give some thought to its teachings.

This book is just ideal as a jump-off for a focus for the week. This was my idea: Teach one letter a week until you've gone through the entire book/ alphabet. Start with Big Thoughts and read the 2 pages for the letter of the week. Curl up on the couch and peruse the detailed illustrations looking for ways that demonstrate or fail to demonstrate the trait. Then, for the rest of the week, focus on that letter of the alphabet and the corresponding quality. Bam! Preschool curriculum in one book. Just throw in some counting and call it a success.

For instance, my three-year-old is learning to trace the letters. I always start them on the letters of their name because they have a vested interest in those letters. So, Lily and I would start at "Ll." It says in a colorful block at the top of the left page:

"L is for lying

A thing not to do.

No matter what happens,

Only say what is true."

Then the paragraph below goes over a few events from the illustration on the right page. It asks the child to interact with the story the drawing tells- to make guesses and judgments about the picture. This is an important skill for kids to learn in the early years. It has 3 questions for the child and parent to talk about, one of which was "Can you think of a time when you wanted to tell a lie, but you told the truth instead?" and is summed up with a scripture at the bottom (You must not lie. Exodus 20:16). In addition, the illustration has a lot of items in it that begin with the letter. On the "Ll" page there is a Lemonade stand, a lollipop, a lamb, a llama, some laundry, a lily, and a ladybug.

This is a review for Mama Buzz, you can see their button in my left sidebar. I received a free copy of this book, valued at $14.99, by Tyndale Publishing in exchange for writing this review. I hope you found it informative!

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear

Kindergarden

2009-07-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

In our homeschool, kindergarten is a time to have fun playing, being a kid, learning how the world works, and taking naps.

That being said, our objectives are:

1.) to learn the sounds for all the letters
2.) how to form letters on paper with a pencil
3.) how to form numbers on paper with a pencil
4.) learn the sounds of letter combinations (phonics)
5.) brush up on the casual goals of pre-k: shapes, colors, names of letters, counting to 25.

Let me tell you, there is an entire industry built upon teaching phonics. There is a huge number of programs out there, each touting its accolades and expansive materials list. They can include workbooks, CDs, texts, readers, flashcards... Really an array of things to choose from. If you want to be overwhelmed, check out the selection. 468 items to wade through, from 353 programs!

The entire point of phonics is to help you read and spell. I don't think kids need to memorize words like "quadrigraph" to be able to read. We use a very simple, complete phonics reader set to learn to read, called Bob Books, Sets 1-5 (42 books). I have been really pleased with it.

Your kids will not be sad like Sam or Mat if they learn to read from the Bob Books. However, if you are interested in a materials-rich super set, look at the K-2 set by Saxon, called Phonics 1: Homeschool Kit (Homeschool Phonics & Spelling).

I'm so pleased you are utilizing Classical Curriculum!
Teresa (Tracy) Dear