I have NO idea what it's going to be. I'm letting a nine-year-old decide. Yes. A nine-year-old will be perusing your booths at the curriculum fair, O fair sellers of goods. And here are some of the things that would make your stuff stand out:
1. Emperor wants to study Ancient Rome and of course most specifically, Augustus Caesar. If your stuff is about Iceland, he doesn't want to read about that again. Aside from the volcano thing, he thought Iceland to be odd and sort of boring when we studied it. Ok. Except for the Journey to the Center of the Earth part. Was that a true story? He wants to know.
2. I don't know if you can swing this, but another biggie on his agenda is that he would like the books not to feel SOFT. He hates soft things. I don't go into this a lot on the blog, but often he must get a towel (NOT SOFT COTTON! AAarg!) or pull his sleeves over his hands to hold a book open. The softness drives him crazy. The kid screams about the softness of the books so badly that I wish there were a book-holder-opener. Even though it would be a space-hogging piece of junk, I'd probably buy one if you had one for sale. But barring that, glossy pages would help deter the horrid scratchy SOFT feeling he hates. Yeah. I know I'll be out some money on that. But scream-free days are worth it. So no newsprint-y type books. Please.
3. He wants pictures. There is no stinkin' point to studying about other cultures if there aren't good pictures. As in, photographs. Some of the artwork in certain books is "inrealistic."
4. It probably (siiigh) has to be expensive. He doesn't think the $20 fill-in-the-oval workbook Mom thought would be easier to get through will do. But thank you for asking.
5. He would like an entire truckload of books in a package-y deal. His mom has discussed the concept of, "but that would be more work for you to get through in a year," but he doesn't seem to care. He seems to think that more time spent in a "not-boring way is better than just getting it done and over with."
6. Even the box of workbooks - you know the ones, ten to a school year, same cover on all - even those didn't appeal to him. Each of the books must be DIFFERENT. Have a different cover and maybe even a different size.
7. And no writing. Writing is no fun. Please don't make him write anything, ever again. (Hmm... been awhile since the homeschoolers' blogs have been updated...)
Is there a National Geographic type magazine for history students, especially homeschoolers?
ReplyDeleteGlossy and photographic.
(Marshall Cavendish is good for truckloads of books).
Love point 5!
I know when I read material which is heavily adbridged or repetitive...
Good luck with finding acceptable books. Not a lot of text books come with glossy pages.
ReplyDelete...you should absolutely swing by this one company's booth. There may not have non-"soft" books, but there are some with great photos. [smile]
ReplyDelete~Luke
I'm not familiar with the "pages are too soft" situation. On the other hand, I hate the feel of newsprint, too.
ReplyDeleteBut! I have some suggestions for you:
Book Hug, book holder opener thingamabob: http://bookhug.com/
Or Book Gem, same thing: http://www.bookgem.com/home.htm
My sister uses a weighted leather bookmark: http://www.starcrest.com/product/family+fun/books/weightedbookmark.do
and I'll bet D could make one for him.
Have fun at the Curriculum Fair, Emperor!
I agree about the pictures! When I go to a restaurant, I always order what I see in the picture. I hate just reading about a meal. I like to see how it actually looks when it's all finished before I order it.
ReplyDeleteThat's TOO funny! The girly is odd about page texture, too! She was worse when she was smaller, so it is improving, but what I did to help was have her put the book flat on the table and take one of the plastic page guards out of my Taste of Home cookbooks and lay it over the opened book. She'll touch the thicker plastic no problem.
ReplyDeleteHehe. Can I just say that the 'not-wanting-the-softness-of-books' is so cute? It's kinda funny. Well, I get it that kids just like books with huge pictures all over the pages. . . I also kind of have that too-soft fetish sometimes, especially when my hands get sweaty and I end up tearing the pages. Eeeeh. =] And oh, history is really cool. When I was a kid, I loved reading history books. Greeks and Romans. =]
ReplyDelete