Communication Arts

My teacher's guide.

LIFEPAC Christian curriculum comes with ten workbooks and a teacher's guide.  I think LIFEPACs are clearer and simpler than many of the other things we've tried.  It's also extremely easy to tell where you are in the school year by how many workbooks you still have left to do.

Don't let the workbook format fool you.  This isn't a drill-type of curriculum.  It's lively, thoughtful, and it doesn't talk down to the student.   Most questions are multiple choice or require only a short sentence.  Perfect for Emperor who struggles to write long passages coherently, but is ready to learn some key concepts of the English language.

A sample page for your perusal.

The single thing I dislike about LIFEPACs are the teacher's guides.  Ughh, I hate them.  I've somewhat solved the "dig through the whole book to find what you need" problem by using Post-It notes for tabs.  But the teacher guides could use some major revision. 

We moved away from LIFEPACs for a couple of years and I wish I had stuck with them.  I think if we continue homeschooling Emperor that that is exactly what we are going to do.  With LIFEPAC, Emperor enjoys his English studies.  He didn't with the last curriculum we used.

Science 2012 - 2013

D bought everything except the "activity manual" at a thrift store for less than $5 total.  I repaired the science book cover with some Hello Kitty duct tape, bought an activity book and we're in business for the year. 

BJU, Grade 6 Teacher's Manual

 I've noticed in looking at science curriculum that many of the same topics are covered in most texts written for this level.  Sixth grade books seem to push to cover absolutely everything:  plants/animals, earthquakes, volcanoes, erosion, the stars and solar system, electricity, atoms and molecules, machines and how they work... whew.

BJU Grade 6 Activity Book

We're using BJU Press Science this year.  I like the workbooks that go with the curriculum.  You can tell that someone put a lot of time and effort into making these colourful and inviting and easy-to-follow. I also appreciate that the curriculum is definitely written from a Christian point of view without being too "preachy."  For example, there is an "Earthquakes in the Bible" activity page.  It isn't really "science" per se, but it's at least related enough to the topic of earthquakes as to be an interesting aside. 

The textbooks are a good size without being overbearing and somewhere between hard and impossible to navigate (like ones they use in the local public middle school.  Homework is hell with those).  And as is usual with BJU stuff, you're going to LOVE the teacher's manual.  I think about the only criticism I would have is that  the teacher's manual is not all in one spiral book; there is also a "key" to the activity book that comes separately as well as a test booklet.  It would just be easier to have, say, everything dealing with Chapter One in the same area of the same book and reproducible tests instead of diving for this and that in a separate book here or there.  It's just one more thing to keep track of during the year.

Hello!

Had a root canal done on Monday, which has really thrown me for a bit of a loop. This week I've relied heavily on English worksheets, Snap Circuit sets and chesskid.com to teach Emperor. He's doing just fine, but I have just given him work that doesn't require a lot of hand-holding this week. It is a very good thing that if I give him a list of "things to do," he's motivated to finishing the list.

Every morning, Emperor does either the lecture and the first ten problems in his Algebra, or he finishes the lesson from the day before. He sharpens his pencils before going to bed. I stack the books he'll be using, and off he goes after breakfast to work.

He watches videos about chess, practices his tactics and plays online chess games for about two hours each day. He spends about an hour on mathematics. Science varies depending on how much stuff I assign him. He loves science. Latin? Not his favourite, but he can memorize prayers in Latin and recite 'em back. Don't know that he is getting any very deep instruction in the subject yet, but he's in an elementary-level course.

English is one of those funny subjects, though, that can take a very short time or practically forever depending on how fuzzily the work is worded. It's hard to explain, but I'll try. Emperor has trouble with relating why a character might feel a certain way or what might happen next in the story, but not much trouble finding the verb in a sentence or even diagramming sentences.

Emperor has been working through Critical Thinking's Reading Detective A1 workbook. It is very difficult for him, but he has been getting a bit better at getting this done. One thing I like about it is that it numbers or letters various paragraphs and sentences so that when the exercises are being completed, instead of writing a huuuuge essay about why Cindy doesn't want to go to the zoo, Emperor could just write the sentence number that shows why Cindy doesn't want to go to the zoo. He would have to find the specific sentence that would back up what he's saying. Often I've been able to show him a sentence that would be a better fit to a question.

I actually got the Reading Detective workbook from Andrea because she had a contest and I was the fabulous prize winner. I'm surprised what a great fit it's been for Emperor learning-wise this year. I would definitely consider buying other things from the Critical Thinking company after seeing how well it's worked for Emperor. And no... I don't get any kickbacks for recommending it or anything like that. Bummer. :)

The Most Important Subject

"Math is important, but it is secondary to language skills. In fact, math is dependent upon language skills. The math teacher teaches the concepts in words, and the mathematical symbols are used in place of words so they can be easily manipulated on paper. You can be pretty lousy at math but still be a truly educated person, because language skills are the measure of the educated person - one who can speak and write with clarity and has power over his native language, English." (Cheryl Lowe, "The Classical Teacher" magazine, Memoria Press. Summer 2011 p. 10)

Ummmkay. Suffice to say that I don't buy my math books from these people. Good grief, how bigoted of them. According to this logic, the most brilliant recently-arrived scientist from India is just some dopey boob because he can't "speak and write" English with clarity. And some very intelligent young men who can build complicated robotics equipment but not write beautiful prose... those people really aren't educated in the classical sense of the word (please sniff and put on your snooty voice whilst reading this line). I buy my Latin books from Memoria Press, and I really enjoy the textbooks and DVD that come with Prima Latina, but I don't agree with this logic. This same person goes on to imply that much of the ADHD "epidemic" is due to "our careless attitude toward written work" in an article about good handwriting (p. 33, same magazine). Which... of course... they sell kits for.

Know what? I have a child who does well in mathematics and chess. By no means am I ignoring the other subjects, but I **do** focus mostly on the subjects in which my son has shown aptitude. Other families may focus on areas of weakness in the hopes of helping their child become more well-rounded.

How about you? Your thoughts?

Homeschool Home Help?

Question: do you want your curriculum provider to give you advice on how to run your home?

I'm just wondering. I've noticed that quite a few curriculum providers either offer newsletters with advice on how to run the household, or forums on how to get it all done/how much they love the curriculum.

I was remarking the other day that it bothered me that so many of the conference topics at the latest local homeschool convention were about Godly lifestyles, Godly parenting, time management, and that sort of thing. It irked me because while I understand that homeschooling is a lifestyle CHOICE, it's also (mostly) about the education of my child. Which means I'd want to see more about "how to keep a plan book" or how to do a workbox system or even a chat from XYZ Curriculum about "How to Teach XYZ."

Alpha Omega has a very helpful little section in the beginning of the teacher manuals about how to structure a "school" day and what they recommend for a grading system and how to keep track of that. I know I've read some sample schedules from Bob Jones about how they recommend parents teach their curriculum. I appreciate that they don't tell me, specifically, how to make sure the laundry gets done.

Am I the only one who gets insulted by such advice from a business? It's one thing if I'm doodling on the blogs and talking about what a lax parent I am IRL and somebody gives a shout in the comments about "get up at 3 a.m. and you will have enough time for it all." But seriously. Do you think at the public school Teacher Inservice Days that they instruct the (mostly female) teachers on how to run their homes? They'd be mad, and likely the administration would receive many complaints about how that's a line that shouldn't be crossed.

But homeschoolers? It almost seems as though many of them WANT this advice from businesses in a "forum" section or even advice in a newsletter. I think I must be the only one who doesn't appreciate that. I'd like to hear what YOU think, though.

Testing, Testing...

In addition to some craziness that's been going on behind the scenes at the Mrs. C house, Woodjie must "test" in order to "qualify" for the local special-needs preschool. Um, non-verbal kid? Unable to follow directions? Unable to get a bedtime routine down, let alone start working on the letters of the alphabet and potty thing? That kiddo? We have to "test" him to see "if" he qualifies??

Bleh. We all know he qualifies. Whatever. So my schedule next week is a real bear with four appointments for "testing," six therapy sessions for other children and several doctor appointments for G (bloodwork and stuff. Nothing serious). Throw in a little homeschooling and a couple toddlers and you have...

Me, wondering why I get headaches every night. Why, just when everything is critical, I find the YoVille sweets factory calling me to check the ovens, make a little virtual money, and buy a big-screen TV for my virtual self. Not that I'm escaping or anything, but my place looks reallllly nice on YoVille. :P

We're about done with our Singapore Maths 4B book. We had our last "teaching" lesson yesterday. The rest is review. I'm stretching it out because I want to be sure the concepts we haven't covered in a while are reviewed and clear before we move onto fifth grade. It's hard to believe my just-turned-eight kid is going to go into fifth grade math soon. Well, we'll probably slow it down a bit and start Thanksgivingish. He doesn't need to go to college at twelve.

You know, Emperor is very bright. The odd thing that homeschooling does is develop talents in a child that might be a little uneven. Emperor cannot, for the very life of him, write perfectly neatly. If it became some sort of requirement... he'd fail. Sorry! I'm about ready to just ask him to print everything. If I drag out schoolwork from a few weeks ago, even he cannot read his own writing.

So, it's tough. I've been printing up some interesting little math tests, and they often ask you to show your work when you do the math. Emperor doesn't. There the answer is, almost always correct, written on the line with no work showing whatsoever. And some of these are multistep problems requiring remembering to add, then subtract, then add, then do this or that...

But there is the answer. In fact, it messes him up if he has to write and show his work. He's done before Elf, and there's no answer key to my knowledge. He knows math. Maybe I should start believing the AOL commenters who know kids at the age of nine months who could recite the entire Bible and do Calculus and stuff. Oh, and they coulda entered Yale at three, but there wasn't enough scholarship money so Mom held him back a year.

LOL... ok. I see all kinds of comments like that. And I have to admit I don't really buy 'em. Though I DO think we can have uneven talents and abilities. And I DO think homeschooling can help bring those out. Remember that someday when Woodjie can multiply plenty of things on paper if he still hasn't said "Mama" when he's nine. Maybe he will write me an equation for Mothers' Day or something. You never know.

I'm VERY happy with Singapore Math, though I think Teaching Textbooks might be something to seriously consider as the children get a bit older. (It IS worth your time to click this link and look at some of the Teaching Textbooks samples.) Every now and then, though, I think it's good to expose the children to other curriculum or tests, to get a feel for how other people ask for the same sorts of math from their students. It wouldn't do for my kids to grow up and ONLY understand the question when it's worded as it would be in Singapore Math.

But...

Sometimes the tests are a little problematic. I swore to myself that I would hand the tests over to my children without comment except for laying out the ground rules. No talking. You may use the bathroom without permission but otherwise, please stay in your seats. When you hand in your test, that's it. No corrections once it's in my hand.

Ok.

Here's a question for you: If Jeremy wrote down the numbers 3, 9, 15, 21, 27... what is the next number in the sequence?

"33" written on the answer line. Good job, Emperor. Next question: On the lines below, describe Jeremy's pattern.

"Jeremy's pattern is easy and not quite tricky." I had to laugh. He DID "describe" the pattern, didn't he? And in the next question, he correctly wrote another set of numbers using the same rule (obviously, "add six"). He knows the math. He knows how to "describe." But somehow I think that the NY State people would mark that one wrong. :]

The *Best* Curriculum For Reading.

Honest to goodness, as a public school mom I had no idea there was such a thing. I guess I never gave it much thought. I was way too concerned with who my kid was sitting next to and whether he got one of the "good" teachers that year.

Seriously. These things are very important if you send your child to school. Not that you have any control over them. That's just the way it is.

Once I got Elf home, I knew I had to teach him to read well. That's stuff we were doing before just in our daily practice. How hard could it be? I taught Patrick with some flash cards years ago. Really! You'd be surprised at how many stupid words are impossible to sound out. Memorize this stack of 100 words, and you can read most anything. There you go.

I brought out the Dick and Jane series for Elf. It was then that I discovered something: the schools like to teach "phonics." I like to teach "reading."

To me, "reading" entails looking at a word and knowing the word. It doesn't entail sounding the word out like poor constipated Cookie Monster on Sesame Street. That's just so... un-natural. I have difficulty sounding words out. So do my children.

Therefore, we learn to read by learning what the word looks like. Then we put bunches of those words together and maybe sound out some of the easier words like... um... There really are very few words you can read properly phonetically. Can we just admit that? Just learn the word.

Emperor learned to read the same way. Dick and Jane. Then, when we were done with Dick and Jane, we got the King James out. Ok, this was kind of a hard transition. But now, Elf and Emperor can read words like "whithersoever" in a flash but have trouble with words like "onion."

But I think they read well enough, and are steadily improving.

The point being, though, that I missed out on "reading curriculum" entirely. I'm starting to pick up our ABeka book collection. We began the first grade readers and are now in the third grade readers. I suppose they are carefully formulated to get a little harder with each passing textbook.

But I don't have the special workbook! Shame!

Another thing we've bought is Landmark's Freedom Baptist Church Literature 115. Technically, it's a third-grade curriculum, but it's keyed to the McGuffey Readers, so I don't think it's shoddily-written or childish. It just looked like "something the kids would like," especially as Elf seems to be insulted when parts of a text are left out. Ellipses are his enemy. He MUST find the missing part.

One thing Emperor loves about the more modern readers and math textbooks are the pictures. He will carefully study the covers, and see if it matches an inside picture or lesson title. He will studiously look for items in the printing, such as a bee inside the letter B. He has to talk for several minutes about all the things he's found on the cover and title pages, and how "clever" they are to do it that way. Note to curriculum publishers: this child notices your designs and appreciates them very much.

I guess whatever works for your child is the best curriculum. I don't see why people get so upset over whether someone uses phonics, whole language or a combination of the two.

I am positing a hypothesis that whole language works better for autistic children, and that phonics is more difficult. At least that has been the experience in *our* family. I still haven't explored all the curriculum options out there. I suppose I never will. Ever read Tristram Shandy? Yup, I imagine I will find that perfect curriculum when the last child has become a high school graduate. :]

YAY for National Standards!

"In today's mobile society, a kid that gets moved around ought to be able to expect consistency between the old school and new school in terms of course content and minimum standards. That doesn't happen today. Some kids are way behind when they transfer while others are bored silly because they're so far ahead of their new school." (From this article on national standards.)


Better not move the kid, then.

I have been moved about 11 times during my schooling, usually from one state to another and sometimes internationally, and I still read and write in English. (Moving to Australia instead of Spain kinda helped in this regard.)

My math is crummy, and I'll sure grant that jumps from one curriculum to another can leave gaps you can lose your van in, but how much do you think I'd know about Australia Day if I'd never... you know, been to Australia?

Think of it this way. Don't you think that the states on the East Coast should rightly have a longer unit focus on Irish immigration than, say, California? Don't you think the impact of Chinese immigration and the railroads would be discussed in more depth there?

American botany and animal life are totally different in the various areas of the country. Don't you think science classes on ecosystems could be a bit different in the Rocky Mountains than they would be on the Maine coast?

You'd hope so, anyway. So what if all third-graders don't learn about fraction addition in March?

And hellloooo, regardless of this wonderful proposed national curriculum, sometimes the students themselves are plain bum lazy. Or the schools want to make the parents de facto homeschool teachers. This way they get all the glory when the school does well on the test, but when it does poorly, well, you know how "those" parents are that won't do "their fair share" of the work. I'd sooner homeschool for five hours straight with no potty break than deal with a tired, crabby, gym-floor smelling kid and a stack of math flash cards any day. Thanks.

Anyway...

Yeah, I'm opposed to national standards mainly because I distrust the government and the whole issue of who controls what children learn. Once you get all the children learning from the same textbook, history is much more malleable. This is true no matter which political party is in control of our nation.

But as a practical matter, don't you think that there will be more loggers who receive their public schooling in Oregon than in New Mexico? Maybe we ought to let the people in Oregon and New Mexico use their brains and figure out what sort of education their local economy demands. It's just more useful that way, don't you think?

Juggling the entire national curriculum so that we can HAVE a standard we have to meet is just so backward. What do you want to teach? Then teach it. What a novel idea!

Homeschool Happenings

Here's a little post about what we've been up to of late:

Mathematics

YES! We have finally finished book 4A in our Singapore Math curriculum. We did a bit of review in this book before moving on to the B book. The beginning of the B book is relatively easy, and gets harder in the next few weeks.

Science

We finished a unit about heat, sources of heat and how to use energy wisely. D even took the children outside to do an experiment about the sun's rays using a magnifying glass and some paper! The boys loved that.

Art

Spiderman velvet posters and iron-together beads. Crayon drawings. Mostly art is a fun subject in our school at this point, though I probably ought to buy an actual curriculum. We find quite a bit to occupy ourselves in the "how to draw" books, though. You'd be surprised at how detailed those can get.

Heritage Studies

Trains and the Wild West. We learned about how the train operates using steam and coal. We learned some cavalry hand signals. We made our own "brand" that would discourage cattle rustlers. We listened to songs from the time period. We also examined maps from the time period and talked about the Coffeyville robbery. We're technically done with the academic part of this series of lessons, but I think we'll revisit some of our curriculum and read books about Jesse James and the West.

English

We're finished with BJU Grade 3 Unit 13, dealing with the difference between adverbs and adjectives and reviewing comma placement. Unit 14 entails writing a biography. Emperor wanted to write one about God. I was able to talk him down from that, to Satan, to Michael, to about John the Baptist. (*whew*) You'd be surprised at the number of resource materials available from the library about him! Certainly much more about him than George Westinghouse. That's Elf's choice, because the air brake is an exciting invention!

Yes, I found almost nothing at the "juvenile" level about Westinghouse, but plenty of technical books he probably won't understand. Bummer. Maybe there will be pictures, so we'll check these out anyway. It may be that we have to learn to REVISE our topic ideas when things don't work out. That's something I didn't learn until I went to college.

Reading

We finished Bram Stoker's Dracula!! Finally! Now, we're reading Boomtown. Elf is actually having more trouble understanding what is going on in the text than he did with Dracula. There are many idiomatic expressions in Boomtown. Things you and I would just pick up, that he needs help on. Dracula had more advanced vocabulary but was very literal. Boomtown is a funny book. Elf and Emperor keep imagining that it isn't real. Then I would show them the pictures, and they'd think it's real. They're not sure if it's a true story or not. It's one of those stories that is impossible to believe, but because it has a PICTURE in it... welll... "Is this true, Mom?" Of course not. But I get asked that question occasionally anyway when someone wants to be sure.

Emperor just finished an ABeka book titled, Growing Up Where Jesus Lived. It actually isn't a religious book at all, but the fictional story of Jacob going to Jerusalem to Passover and detailed explanations of what Jewish life was like when Jesus was alive. I would highly recommend it even to those who aren't believers, who just want a background text about life in Israel. I learned a lot from it myself.

Elf is still working through one of the ABeka third grade texts as well. His book has short stories about historical characters and legends and fables. Sniffle warning, because some of the ABeka stories make me cry. So does The Velveteen Rabbit.

Spanish

We just finished Unit 2 of our BJU Kit A. I can't believe the children did well on the test, but then again, the curriculum is geared toward younger children. I need to get more consistent with teaching Spanish, but I am one of those teachers who likes to do EVERY activity in every book... so much so that even though we homeschool all year, I fall behind! The children are learning and enjoying it, too.

We even went to lunch a bit ago and ordered real Mexican food! And Emperor tried something new! Elf... well, we love Elf. I think he had a burger or something. :]

Bible

I count most of our Bible hours toward reading, as we are working from the King James and reasoning in our workbooks about what we read. Sometimes we sing songs. We're doing BJU Grade 4, so the work is more challenging and we are going at a slower pace. So far, I have NOT liked BJU 4 as much as 3, because the Bible stories seem more "split," if that makes sense. I think we will take a whole book next unit and read it through rather than doing a chapter here and there and working on that. Sure, you get bored during the begets, but I think there is something to be said for taking a work as a whole and evaluating it that way. When that sort of thing is taken to extremes, you get "friends" who comfort you when a loved one dies with Bible verses that are aimed at Jewish people being dragged into captivity and have nothing at all to do with the fact that you've faced a loss.

No, BJU stuff doesn't go that far with the pat verse, but it is a curriculum that is meant to be done in one school year. We're not limited to that. We can take longer or skip lessons if we so choose. I'm choosing to stretch things out by reading a whole book every now and then. It took us *almost* forever to read through Acts as a group. I was continually explaining this or that, giving background and that sort of thing. There's nothing wrong with that, but it does slow down the reading.

Trains!

We're spending the next few days on trains in every subject. We spent a bit of time on the US National Parks website about railroads. There is so much to learn! Elf and Emperor expressed surprise that the scientific idea of water expanding into steam could be used to make inventions. The website shows how a train works and guides the children through a "mystery" to solve. Morse code exercises are on the website as well. I think it's geared to children about 7 and up. Our Bob Jones Heritage Studies grade 3 also has an entire unit on railroads and their effect on the West. No way we could finish that in one day, but by concentrating only on that and the website, we're almost halfway done. Map scale is also covered in this unit, so it was a nice "math" review. And the boys have learned so much in our studies today! Here, they're pictured singing the spiritual, "Get on Board" and helping Woodjie and Rose on the "gospel train." The Bob Jones Heritage Studies CD was set to "repeat" play and the children had a blast. We also saved some children's menus from Longhorn about railroads and the wild west, so the children had word searches and fun things to do. I'm hoping that the rains aren't too heavy tonight so that we can go out and ride on the train at Worlds of Fun while D stays home with the little kids.

Writing, Grade 3.

EASter

I like easter. My favarite thing about it is hunting eggs. The eggs represent Gods blood. The backround represents sin. East is great. Don't you think? The real reason of easter is God rising again. (by Emperor)

Eester

I like Eeaster for a lots of stuff. The main thing of Eeaster is Jesus rising again. It's fun to die eggs too. It has nice chocolate. Cute bunnys are there too. I like Eeaster is a nice holoday. There is also good books in Eeaster. (by Elf)

Some thoughts:

The words "Easter" and "favorite" are going to have to be added to next week's spelling list. Does that mean the children will spell them correctly next time they're writing on the subject? No. I keep doing these writing prompts and chatting a bit about grammar and whatnot afterward. We've gotten to the point where we can do one short paragraph as above. All the sentences at least vaguely relate to the topic, which is a big accomplishment.

How should I help the children incorporate better sentence structure? I'm concerned because they speak this way as well. It isn't as though I'm telling the children that I like Easter for a lots of stuff in my usual day-to-day speech. Yet, they get it from somewhere. I know we have autism in the family and it may express itself in language difficulties, but I don't want to just blame all of our language snags on that.

I have some of those exercise workbooks and I think that a short daily practice will be beneficial. We do our journaling once each week and learn grammar from Bob Jones. The strange thing is that these children can tell a noun from an adverb, a declarative sentence from a command, distinguish between linking and auxiliary verbs (they're called "helping" verbs right now, but still) and yet their sentences lack good structure.

I made it through college barely knowing a noun from a verb. I "just know" my spelling, and I can "just tell" when a sentence is wonky. I might correct a poor sentence without knowing that the thing I fixed was a subject-verb agreement problem. I'm learning the grammar along with my children so now I can tell them WHY they need the corrections.

Some of the worksheets are rather problematic, however. They may ask things like, why did Sara's mom think that Sara had "ants in her pants?" And I would get an answer about bugs.

Portfolio

I can't imagine that I'm the only one who doesn't want to keep every page from every workbook we've ever done. So I tear about 10 or 20 pages out for each subject, enough to get an idea that work was done that year in the subject, punch holes in the sheets, and string them through with yarn. One curriculum item I don't think I could ever do without would be Bob Jones homeschool Bible curriculum. There are books to read, heroes of the faith to learn about, and wonderfully illustrated Bible lessons. I learn from the curriculum just as the children do. One caveat: it's extraordinarily expensive. (click, click, click) Ok, just priced it new for you. For two children sharing the readers, it's $160.00 for this one subject. I buy the CD that goes to the curriculum, and I also buy an extra workbook. I buy the two books that should be read with the workbook. Of course, each child also needs his own King James. If you want the flip-charts that would go with this, it will be $50 extra. We've never bought these. I think the only product I've been disappointed in from them was their timeline. There *has* been history made since 1986, and Bill Clinton is NOT our current president. Ok. I wouldn't have expected up-to-the-minute stuff, but 1986 was 23 years ago!

Homeschool Preschool

Type those two words in and search. I got about 210,000 results and no, I didn't click on all of them.

Just about every big curriculum provider is now selling a preschool program of some kind or another. Some of them will even sell toy kits, so you can be sure you're playing with *just the right* kind of toy that will engage your preschooler's mind.

Really, I don't think there's anything wrong with the kits. One set I saw from My Father's World has a replacement part warranty that I thought was pretty astounding. If only I could start all over without our million and three halfway broken made-in-China toys and get all my stuff in one BIG box, carefully preselected from people who know what works and lasts (Hint: Not from Wal-Mart!). I think that's the premise of the Discovery Toys company... sure, you pay a LOT of money for their items, but they really stand behind them and want you to be happy with your purchase. Boy, you'd better be after looking at your husband's face when he sees the invoice.

But I have to think about the philosophy behind this marketing expansion. Maybe these companies are doing it because EVERYONE ELSE is, and the parents are going to plunk their money down on something anyway... and it might as well be their stuff. I mean, their stuff is good stuff, right? And some of these packages, if I didn't have this thing called a "library card" or a "book in my house," would certainly be worth the money.

Oh, boy, I look at some of this stuff and think it might be worth the money anyway.

But we're on kids #5 and 6, looking in a few years to college expenses. Can I really justify $600 in pop-up books and educational toys? Guess not. Siiigh. It's kind of like looking at fashion clothes, when you know they won't fit your giant size 29 body. I mean, it looks great in the catalog, though.

Why aren't these companies offering a "you're done with homeschooling/ young adulthood" pack? Why wouldn't that work? I'd submit to you it's because Mom and Dad have lived with the kid who USED to be that precious preschooler... the kid they USED to think was somewhat moldable... Well, now they realize that there is only so much you can do with the old tabula rasa idea there.

Well, I don't agree with the old tabula rasa idea. At all. Though I think nurture can accomplish much, I also think that children can and do come through all sorts of circumstances and are ok. Even if they don't get the super preschool pack and even if Mom and Dad never read to them at all. It's that "grace of God" idea that gets me through the day when I know that yet again, I've failed as a mom. I've said things I shouldn't have. Argued with my children. NOT argued when I should have.

Hey, there are circumstances out there a lot worse than ours! And most kids are ok. Nope, I'm not excusing your bad parenting (or mine! but you can't see mine!), but most of us are ok.

Back to topic.

The preschool kits: Are we trying to "educate" our children way too young? Are we working too hard to make play "work" or log it as "school?" Or maybe sometimes we homeschoolers even work too hard at making work into fun when every now and then, you just plain old have to do the math.

Or...

Maybe the kits are just a lot of fun. And they're packaged in cool boxes and bags. Some of them come with cuddly animals and mascots or movies that go with the books. Some of them, I'm just thinking would be fun to have, but it would help me justify my purchase if it were "educational."

Thoughts?

Difficulty With Science.

I tried and tried to do the "make static sparks in your hair" science experiment. Sure, I got my scalp all hot and probably burnt some hair in the process, but there were no crackly sparks like we were supposed to see. Bummer.

I tried and tried to do the "make the paper jump" experiment we were supposed to do with food wrap, paper and a box. We did it with two different boxes and wrappers, two different kinds of paper... nothing. Well, except for hurt hands and wasted time. Friction is supposed to make the paper jump... but... it didn't.

I really, really stink at the practical experiments. We were somewhat successful at the "put the lit candle under a jar and see what happens" experiment. It's supposed to make the candle go out, and then we're going to remove the jar and record how long it took to burn out in our notebooks. But upon removing the jar, WHOOOOOSH! the candle about burns down half the kitchen with its vehement spontaneous re-ignition. Um... ok, Mom stinks at science, but hopefully this teaches the children to make sure that candles are completely extinguished before leaving the room.

But wait! Emperor wants to see if putting water on a candle will still keep it lit.

Of course it won't, silly Emperor.

Yes, it will, Emperor counters. Didn't you tell me that water is made with oxygen? ANNNND, didn't the LIFEPAC explain that the flame needs oxygen? We have to try this experry-ment and see if it works. I suggest it will.

Well, of course it didn't but I can't explain why. He's disappointed but thinks the strange new wax formations are cool. Elf says that the experiment proves that the water has no oxygen. And besides, if it DID have oxygen, we would be able to breathe in it.

Ok, now what would you say to that? I told him that we could breathe just fine underwater if we had gills. Thankfully he did not ask me how gills worked. *whew that was close*

Elf thinks that if we devised our own experiments, they would work better than the ones in our workbook. LOOK! I see that "butane" and "oil" are fuels. Let's get a big bunch of them together in a tube, and light a match and see if it's electric!

???

Um... Well, there's a reason this eight-year-old doesn't write your science curriculum.

I've taken a picture of his "trying to convince Mom" frownie face and posted it to the blog. Would that picture convince you to try this at home? How getting butane, oil and matches together proves "electricity" is an interesting concept, though. Elf counters that Mom has not proven that coal makes electricity at the power plant, either.

Arg. It just *does,* ok? Don't ask Mom how. We will consult with "Wikipedia" on this issue later.

How to Attend a Convention

I'm posting a little advice on how to attend a convention (for what it's worth; this is my first!) and some ramblings about how things went once I got inside. I hope you enjoy it!

Weeks before

We became members of the homeschool group that hosted the convention, and therefore got in for free. Annual membership for our family was $35, as opposed to the $45 they'd collect to get me in the door if I just showed up. Oh! And that $45 wouldn't include the membership. So hey, might as well.

We got a list online of all the exhibitors at the convention. Most of these can be looked up online. I got familiar with the different prices of kits and things I was interested in, if I were to buy these things new and pay for shipping. I figured that if I wanted to buy something at the convention, I'd have to balance the fact that the exhibitors would collect nearly 8% in sales tax with the fact that often, I could just grab what I want and leave without shipping costs.

This can be pretty complicated, really, because added to the mix is the free shipping on large orders many providers will give you. Whoo... then, add in the fact that *at the convention,* there are sometimes special prices on this or that... and you'll confuse yourself crazy over a few bucks.

Well, it's not worth it once you start going crazy.

But I truly think that looking over each of the exhibitors' websites ahead of time and familiarizing myself with their prices and kit components was time very well spent. It cut down on some of the booths I knew better than to even bother visiting. I personally dislike the idea of lap-booking for every subject... or incorporating an infant in our fourth grade curriculum... or doing one of those "everybody studies the same things and we cycle round and round every four years" kind of things. One woman I met at convention put our educational philosophies out this way: We're very "textbook-oriented" in our homeschools. Yet, I know others who hate, loathe and despise textbooks and manage to turn out literate children.

Of course there is no way to forsee every fun thing you'll see once you're there, but if you know, say, that you want to seriously take a look at KONOS and All God's Children, you'll have some fair idea when something presented is really a big bargain or pretty much usual price.

Days Before

Days before the convention, get your directions printed. Bring a bag or something to hold your purchases. Even if you purchase nothing, you'd be surprised at how many papers and things will wind up needing to be carried about for sorting later. Several people brought rolling luggage or rolling crates.

The Big Day Arrives!

Ok, so it's not quite as exciting as the "big day" when you have a baby, or the "big day" you get married, but it's still a pretty big day. *The* day.

I very much appreciated having my husband roam about with me for the first couple of hours we looked around. He kept me focused on the BIG thing I was looking for, Singapore Maths textbooks. I am just the type that would go, "Oooh, Klutz kits! Castle posters...! Oh, and here's a book about ladybugs..." and wander off. D kept me on track to REMEMBER THE MATH. We were able to visit several places and find the lowest priced option with teachers' manuals at Rainbow Resource. They didn't have the entire set I was looking for, but I did that thing that sometimes gets great results: I asked for help. My polite inquiry got me the answer I was hoping for: they would order me what was missing from their stock and send it to my house with free shipping. Yay!

One thing we didn't do but wish we had was to drive separate vehicles to the conference. D had to go home after a while to do that taking care of children thing. I think if I went again, I'd drive, park, and leave lunch in the car with a good book. You wouldn't believe the prices they charge for a hot dog that smells funny and a diet pop. And they do NOT allow you to bring your own, though I saw several vendors who actually snuck food into the convention hall.

One told me a horrible story, that I can't help but think is true. A convention she attended/worked had bottled water for $3.50 each. She refused to pay that price, but the water fountain was all the way across the center and she wasn't able to get a drink at all that day. It was hot. That night, she was so dehydrated that she had to go to the hospital by ambulance.

Why am I telling you this story? I don't know. Just chatting, I guess. Perhaps I'd like to make the point that maybe it's time to break down and buy the $3.50 water before the $350 ambulance ride? Or perhaps I'm making the point that you should stash lunch in your car, where you'll have an upholstered place to sit away from other people's children? Hm. Both, I think. Man, that hot dog didn't sit well, either.

Spunky's advice for convention-goers is to wear comfy shoes and leave the checkbook at home. If you are prone to on the spot big money impulse buys, I would absolutely tell you to not only do that, but to bring your accountability partner with you so that you don't run back home to get every credit card plus the checkbook. There are many, many cool things at the convention that you've probably never seen before. You need them. Your homeschool will not be complete without them. You MUST buy them now!

Well, at least walk around the place twice before making those purchases. If the item isn't there when you get back, it wasn't meant to be. (So I'm sort of a Calvinist homeschool shopper, perhaps, in that I believe in the predestination of all that curriculum to a particular home at a particular time LOL.)

So... How Did It Go?

Thanks for asking! It was great!

The place was NOT well-marked. We were circling around the area when I advised D to just FOLLOW the 18-passenger van in front of us. No, D reasoned, they're probably going to the airport. I told him, just follow the van, would you?? Ok.

And guess where the van went? Yup, the convention. Of course! But contrary to stereotype, though, most of the ladies weren't dresses-only hair in a bun types. Maybe about a fifth. There were many different sorts of people. I almost wish that I could require every person who is "down" on homeschooling to attend one of these and chat with at least 20 people about why they homeschool.

That's what one of the secular businesswomen who had a booth at the convention was doing. (Of course, I don't know that SHE is secularly-minded or religious, just that she is running a secular business BOOTH. Hard to clarify that in just one sentence.) She is unhappy with her daughter's public education, not really sure what her next step would be. She's gathering information from all the booths and thinking about things. She's chatting with people who come by to find out about the business. I sure hope she doesn't get overwhelmed, but is able to just think about it later clearly. It is a *lot* of information to take in all at once, so I'm just going to pray that she makes the right choice for her family this coming year.

Which just might be public school, you know? I hope she gets a peace about what GOD wants her to do, and if that's public school, that things go much smoother for her next year than they did this.

(For that matter, I might advise people who say that public school should never be an option for a Christian family to go to a few local churches and chat with some of the good folks who send their children off on the yellow bus each day. They're not the enemy, folks!)

Ok... back to the convention...

I spent some time saying "hi" to the providers of my favourite curriculum. A lot of these people are real believers in their particular product and are very proud of the help they give homeschoolers. If you use their stuff, a simple, "We love this stuff!" is very encouraging. More encouraging still would be to tell them *why* you love it.

For example, I stopped by the BJU booth and spoke with a young lady who was homeschooled with BJU stuff and now sells it. She told me about how BJU stuff helped her travel around the country with her dad's business schedule, and now she travels to sell the curriculum. I told her about how BJU helps my sons to stay home, and about how our very most treasured subject is the Bible stuff they put out. I've looked at plenty of other places, and in *this subject,* nothing even comes close.

Now, mind you, nothing really comes close to the expense of that stuff price-wise, either, but we'd give up our English AND Reading curriculum material and just use the library to supplement our Bible curriculum before we cut that out of the budget. We just love it and won't change that. Nope. If you're a religious homeschooler and like the King James version of the Bible, you really ought to at least take a look at the BJU stuff for your child's grade level.

I think I've filled out about 10 drawing cards for various prizes. I never win that stuff, but then again, it can't hurt too badly to receive a few extra phone calls and emails from these folks. D, the ever-optimist about his fellow man, assures me that now my name will be sold, rented, resold, etc. etc. and before you know it, I'll probably get porno magazine ads. Well, it's possible.

I was surprised by the actual display items. Some of the stuff I would have sworn would be a *great* value after I looked at it online, I was very disappointed in when I actually got to thumb through. The Christian Liberty Press "teachers' manuals" that go with the Bob Jones English curriculum were I think the most blatant example of this. I was expecting at least a softback cover and some highly readable, clear text, but it's really just a few xeroxed sheets stapled together. Um, for $7, I can just wing it without the book. I'm sure glad I didn't order that stuff online without seeing it first. The tests, though, were less than half the cost of the BJU tests and were at least comparable, so it may be a good option if I were to need them.

I was disappointed in the Sonlight booth. Well, words can't tell how disappointed. I specifically went looking for math texts and they displayed... NO MATH. What kind of place would want you to buy zillions of bucks worth of stuff without a look-see at the math curriculum? One that didn't budget for a big enough booth. It makes me feel like they didn't think math was important or something. I would have liked to have seen ALL the things that come with each "core" for each grade clearly displayed together as other major providers like ABeka had done. And Sonlight was a big, big "to do" on my list. The woman there seeemed very, very knowledgeable about the company she represents and the stuff they sell... but without looking at ALL of it, all together in one big group, nope. I had fully expected to walk away with a big box from this place, too.

One thing the major curriculum providers seem to be moving toward are these leased DVD things. Guys, if you're a company rep that just googled over and want a suggestion: I'm not NOT not not NOT paying $1,000 for something that I just have to return at the end of the year. No way. And $1,000 is way overpriced for something I'm going to keep anyway. Go ahead and super-encrypt it or whatever you have to do to make it impossible to copy, and sell it for $400. You'll sell a lot more of them, and people will start to buy them used and get hooked on the ease with which they can use your product. If I pay $400, and can resell my stuff for $100, everyone's going to be a winner. Because I'm spending $0 on that stuff right now, which ironically enough is the amount of profit you're making from me on this program. That advice was free.

I think I made about three slow trips around the center, all told.

Another stop I made was at the Landmark Freedom Baptist booth. The guy there was a really personable fellow and had all the materials out lined up in such a way that they pretty well sold themselves. I'd looked at this online and put it into the "maybe sometime" pile. But... no shipping on orders placed at the convention, and seeing the actual stuff I'd be getting from front to back made my decision easy. I could tell that the fourth reader would be too hard to do at this point, so we got the third reader kit. Want to see a sample? I'll assure you the lessons get harder fast!

Another thing that I saw... well, I'm having a NOT buying remorse over. I probably should have picked up the Singapore Science stuff. I wasn't looking for a science curriculum particularly and didn't know this stuff existed! I was very impressed that it's laid out just like the math books, only more colourful and fun-looking. I will have to look into buying these in perhaps a year or so. I don't really need them now, but I found a distributor that is offering these for a good price.

Who knows? It's possible I'll find these used for an even better price.

Another aspect of attending a homeschool convention is meeting others and just general chit-chat. It's encouraging just to ask a couple of curriculum questions and not feel weird about discussing your childrens' social studies with strangers. Or learning about another child's learning style and how this or that worked for him. Or even discussing the education of autistic children outside the bathroom. Yes, I did.

Ideally, I'd advise bringing a friend who also homeschools. Maybe plan on attending a presentation together. The best part of the convention for me was seeing what my husband liked, didn't like and was interested in looking at in the book stacks.

Happy shopping! :]

More Convention Thoughts.

Doing some more thinking about the upcoming convention...

Perhaps I'm doing it all wrong.

Maybe I need to forget starting out from "what companies have to offer" (because my brain is about to explode with all the choices!) and focus on exactly what my biggest priorities are in a curriculum. Well, here goes:

I'm looking for something fifth-grade level to teach in a year or so. What we have NOW is working well, but I have several "extra" things lying about... history books, an almost complete set of fourth grade Social Studies LIFEPACs, a science textbook and half a set of third-grade science PACEs... a used Bob Jones Bible teacher's manual... well... I'm thinking that it would be a good idea to slow down and use what I have for a good long while in the humanities. The boys are only halfway through with third grade spelling, English and the like, and we have enough fourth grade stuff if we supplement with the 90,000 books available *free* at our library.

But we're ahead in math, almost halfway through fourth grade. And I'm not good at math. Maybe in math, we need to stick with what we have, which is working well enough so far. Which means I'll likely need fifth grade things by December. I've been buying the Singapore workbooks, texts and teachers' manuals from Company X. I've looked at the convention folks' MATH stuff, and so far, with Singapore Math, I'm not finding a good comparable deal if you want to teach two children and have an answer/ explanation book handy. Well, I shouldn't say that. I've found a cheaper place, but you have to pay a LOT more for shipping according to the books, and I know they collect taxes at the convention (7.9%, which may make the difference between my ordering THEN and "some other time") and it is a place I haven't done business with before.

You know, that means a lot to me. If I've done business with a company before and I've been happy with their service, you'd be surprised how much extra I'm willing to spend to keep that relationship going. I like knowing the books will arrive and the website isn't fake. Credit card info secure. American jobs. That sort of thing. So I'll almost certainly stick with Company X for math unless I get grabbed into buying a really, really amazing kit from somewhere else with math included. And it would have to be decent math. (The kind that keeps its clothes on LOL... my, I've been reading too many blogs today...)

So I guess if I had to advise curriculum companies on how to do business, I'd say this: Get to the customer as early in the homeschool process as possible. Your purchaser's autistic son (let's call him "Elf" for the purposes of this illustration) gets attached to the curriculum. He wants to know if it's from the "Company Y people" and uses only the "King James Bible." He gets upset enough that this year's workbook cover is a DIFFERENT COLOUR than the last one, and his mom is reluctant to switch because the next company won't have the little lamp logo on the back she can use to tell Elf that it's ok because all teaching and activities have been throroughly vetted by God/ Company Y.

She might switch anyway and shake up his world, because someday, this kid has to read information from various sources and sort the truth of it out for himself without Company Y's help. The child is getting older, and his dad would like him exposed to viewpoints that are not necessarily exactly what his parents believe.

So.

We want exposure, but not immersion in, opposing viewpoints. That pretty well either cuts out other providers besides Company X, or ensures that I will be supplementing with Company X at least in the science arena. But Company X wants you to learn about the "human body" in fifth grade! Eeek!

Now, I was able to avoid this "teaching my older children about their bodies" thing because they were in public school and we just opted them out. I figure they can learn all that after they get married or if necessary listen to Pat Robertson opine about how he figured "it" out on a farm. (Which I don't get because it *looks like* the animals are having a gay old time. Maybe it is best not to inquire...)

Anyway, ironically enough, "homeschooling" is going to force me into making sure that this subject area is covered because we know the children aren't learning the basics from the other kids on the bus. Sigh. :]

I even have the layout planned for the convention. D tells me to make a beeline for the back end of the place and work forward, because most people do the opposite thing. And ask for "vendor crap." Fancy word for "free stuff." I don't know that there will be free stuff there, but I'll see. He also recommends bringing a big bag for all my purchases and tripping the other prospective buyers so I can get the best deals. Kidding.

But you watch: I'll come home without having bought a blessed thing. I can't tell you how often I've done stuff like that. It's like my husband with house-hunting. He just doesn't find the *perfect* thing he always wanted, so he doesn't buy anything at all. I should correct myself and say he hasn't found the perfect thing in our PRICE RANGE that he always wanted. Big difference. I still can't wait to get there and get my grubby, grimy hands all over the different curriculum thingies. Sometimes sample pages just don't cut it. Then, I will say something like, this curriculum here is grubby and grimy. Can I have a discount?

Natural, Earthy Spelling.

Are you a naturally wonderful speller?

I'm jinxing myself to posting a ton of spelling errors by writing this, but I don't use spelling-check machines at all. I've looked into how they work a few times, and noticed that the spell-checker hates all proper names and the hyphens and intentional international spelling I enjoy using on occasion.

Other people are totally dependent on checkers, which is odd because it seems to me that it's much, much more trouble than it's worth. But I don't think that it follows that I'm some naturally wonderful speller. I brought home a good plenty of C's and D's as a small child and was well-known for my terrible handwriting. Thankfully my parents understood and were always kind-hearted about accepting my limitations, so long as I tried my hardest.

(NOT. I just wrote that to see if my mom were reading the blog LOL. I guess I would have very mixed feelings about being homeschooled myself. If I had to deal with "report card day" every day at home, maybe public school is a blessing. Then again, if my mom taught me and saw how genuinely hard some of these subjects were for me, maybe I'd have not run away from math and scholarly reading for... um, years after college. I've learned that you spit out exactly what the teacher wants on the test, and forget the rest. Come to think of it, maybe that's a good education. Mmm, you decide what you think and let me know in the comment box. Hm...)

Anyway, I was a "krapy" speller as a kid, ok? I think that the spelling work I did from the old Scott, Foresman readers didn't really do a bit of good. I think I just grew into spelling well.

No, really. I mean that.

I use spellers with Emperor and Elf, but really, Emperor could skip this subject entirely. Often on the pretests he'll get 100%. Elf does not instinctively spell strange words like "trachea" correctly like his brother. Then again, he's nowhere near as poor a speller as G. Bless him, G spells "Russia" with THREE R's and an -sh. Really.

What I find good about using spellers is that they help the child know the correct way to spell, even if he doesn't always use it. Now I can circle "because" in his writing and just tell him to correct that mistake. I think seeing something written correctly and practicing the correct spelling helps later in writing. I don't know that it's following X curriculum and not Y. I think it's the act of practice.

I've also heard that one should NEVER allow a child to see poor spelling as this will teach the child how to spell the word incorrectly. I am not sure if I agree with this, because Emperor sees plenty of his brothers' poor spelling and seems unaffected.

We use Bob Jones third grade spelling. There are 36 units, which for *us* translates into about a year and a couple months' work. We do a unit or so every two weeks because Elf reallly has trouble in this department. There are little crosswords or fill-ins to do each week, and a dictionary page to complete about every other week. Once a week, a journal-writing exercise is called for and the children read about the history of a word (just a couple brief paragraphs).

If you homeschool, what do you use for spelling, and do you think it makes a big difference?

Ben Franklin's Print Shop!

Well, we're learning about it in social studies and it made for a nice title... I've shown the boys how D's leatherworking letters are backward-looking, so that they can make "forward-looking" letters! Same with our stampers. We put ink on these, laid them on the desk face-up, put a paper on top and "printed" just like the old presses. Well, not really. The old presses were much bigger and you got to roll the ink on and get all messy. But they got the idea. They also worked "typing" messages with some backwards letters in the Bob Jones social studies curriculum.