The 5 minute homeschool Bookshelf for harried mums and harrassed children

[canadian gardener]

here is the blurb off their site (I see it's now integrated language, not whole language).

Learning Language Arts Through Literature is a fully integrated language arts program that teaches grammar, reading, spelling, vocabulary, writing mechanics, creative writing, thinking skills and more.

For example, a basal program may teach adjectives separately from other skills. The student may be asked to fill in blanks with adjectives and circle them in a paragraph. This may give your student a clue about adjectives, but does not translate into his practical use of adjectives in his writing.

In LLATL, your student may read literature passages that use adjectives. He may be asked to read the passage without the adjectives and decide how important they are to the understanding of a story. Another activity may include writing a descriptive sentence/paragraph about a picture using adjectives or rewriting the passage using different adjectives. These activities not only teach language arts skills in addition to adjectives, but your student will incorporate the skills into his everyday writing.

The goal of any language arts program should be to equip the student for a lifetime of communication through the written and spoken word. With LLATL, your student will acquire a deeper understanding and a greater interest in the language arts subjects.

Real books are used in the reading lessons, complete with vocabulary words, discussion questions and a variety of activities. Reading real books instead of basal stories makes reading a joy and the beginning of a lifelong adventure for your student.

All levels are written for a 36 week school year. Grades 1- 9 include a Teacher’s Book written in a conversational format making it easy to use with little or no preparation time for the teacher. Student Activity Books are available for the 1st - 8th grade. All levels include review activities and assessments.

http://www.cspress.com/scope/scope2.htm should have their scope and sequence.

I used the old edition where the teachers stuff was a page in the front or back, and some answer pages in the back, and the kids stuff in the middle. Spiral bound, cheap and easy to use.

[canadian gardener]

And while we are on the common sense press stuff they have a few other --5 minutes gives you great results stuff-- that I used and loved.

One of which was Janie Cheaney's Wordsmith series (don't confuse it with another grammar series called wordsmith by Jenson-- I tried that one and it's deadly, they advertise it as the Saxon method for grammar which is a terrible comparison with a terrific math program)

Janie Cheaney's jr and sr high level writing course on the Wordsmith series here at common sense press is wonderful stuff and helped my non writer son immensely.

I used Great Editing Adventures vol I and II and liked them very much. Wonderful. You put a sentence on the white board and by the end of the day your little grammar detectives must detect the errors.

Wonderful way to teach editing skills and make your child feel like a million bucks, picking someone ELSE's work apart.

I did NOT like Great Explorations in Editing, it's the high school level and found it didn't have the excitement and fun of the Great Editing Adventures vol I and II.

[canadian gardener]

I loved and used Valerie Bendt's How to Create Your Own Unit Study and some others she wrote.

Apparently now she has re written it all and it's in a single volume, called Unit Studies Made Easy.

I hope it's as good as the first editions.

In a nutshell she showed you how to make your own units so that you can use the above language arts method (after one or two of the LLATL books, or reading and doing Ruth Beechick's instructions for that type of language arts, you get the hang of it, and can go off and create your own)

and tie in whatever you are using in language arts, to science, history, and geography (not always all in the same unit).

You can save a lot of time and effort by teaching most of your grade levels at the same time and she shows how that is accomplished.

I found it a lot easier than sticking to preplanned unit studies which always seemed to want me to get books that the library didn't have or couldn't get in time.

I found it cheaper too. One library card, and you've collected most of what you need.

She explains how to document it all so you are covering the stuff you need to satisfy the authorities if you are in a med to high control state or province.

[canadian gardener]

I moved into a more relaxed homeschooling method over that first very trying year of homeschool. One of the answers to prayer came from this article.
http://www.home-school.com/Articles/ChildrenTeach.html

What I took away from it, was the essay a day, and a Saxon math lesson a day.

We did units in a loose way, and I did work thru LLATL and the Janie Cheaney stuff, but once we worked thru them, they were DONE and this was how our homeschool looked.

I disagreed with Dr R. on the subject of computers as I used mine to help my kids learn things like typing, drills of various sorts and some foreign language. I loosened up and allowed them to type their writing assignments, and use a word processor in later years.

I disagreed with Dr R about TV, because we got a lot of good out of some of the educational programs and movies out there. They brought a lot of spice and interest into our homeschool and affected my kids for the better. But it was carefully thought out and carefully monitored.

I also was very much influenced by Dr John Holt's unschooling methods so I always say my homeschool method is a blend of the Robinson method, crossed with Unit Studies, and really closest to Unschooling.

Oh btw that site is Mary Pride's Homeschool World where you can find some absolutely terrific homeschooling articles taken from the pages of Practical Homeschooling which was my hs journal of choice for my own homeschool teacher professional development days.

Edited to add this link for a VERY good article expressing why unschooling is not non schooling or why it's important to both model a learning attitude and provide the materials and the structure for the unschooler to learn well. http://www.home-school.com/Articles/...annturner.html will take you to Mary Ann Turners article entitled "Education Just Happens . . . Does it really?"

She puts it into words better than I can! Exactly what I feel. The final paragragh sums it up "Unschooling doesn't necessarily mean never using textbooks or never teaching your child anything. Unschooling is a phrase that originally meant "doing it differently than the schools do it." In a Christian unschooling home, the unschooling approach fits right into the Christian structure and framework you have already set up. You simply give your child space to grow and mature into the person God made him to be. Surround your children with learning opportunities and learning tools, share in the joy of learning and model a lifetime learning attitude for your children to mirror . . . then education just happens!"

[canadian gardener]

Greenleaf Press helped me putting together history and geography units. I liked their approach which again is based on a lot of the same ideas I found and liked in Ruth Beechick and also in the whole unit study movement within homeschooling.

Here is a link to a great article on --why stories and timelines? http://www.home-school.com/Articles/StoryInHistory.html

and another on why teach ancient history http://www.home-school.com/Articles/...ntHistory.html

another source of help for history was Diana Warings two volume tape sets called What In the World is Going On or some such title. Wonderful, I covered them in the above post on homeschooling in the car.

Beautiful Feet press have some good history resource/unit study material which I liked for the reading list and some of the ideas.

I really enjoyed using things like the Usborne history books or the Kingfisher History of the World which is a marvellous illustrated time line in a book. Wonderful resources.

Also in there were the Facts on File set of books covering various areas of geography and history. I ended up with nearly a complete set.

We subscribed to National Geographic and while I don't agree with everything they write, it was always a marvellous resource for maps, geography and talking about current events or how other people see history and science and why the popular view isn't always accurate.

[guest2]

I just typed out and posted a reply to this thread and it got lost in cyber space!!!!

I'll try it again:

First of all Margery for all you hard work on this thread! You are truely have a great wealth of knowledge that we can all glean from.

Next: We too have used Valerie Bendt's Unit study guides and love them. I have since passed them onto a young homeschooling family so that they can reap the benefits of them also.

Math: We have used Saxon Math since 3rd grade and love it!!!! One of the wonderful attributes of this program is that it goes back and reviews previously learned concepts. it's made a huge difference for Jaysn who is now prepping for his SATs.

Science: We used Bob Jones for years until I discovered Apologia Science. We are doing this program on CDrom and the kids and I all love it. They have the best video clips that show you cell mutations and things like that. Excellent program written by a Science Professor. Another resource that I would never want to be without is "Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation". It's a wonderful book that shows how science actually supports the Bible and some of the false claims about evolution, dating mathods, etc. and how science has proven them wrong. This book has caused us to research things on a deeper level.

[canadian gardener]

LOL Debbie, I was going to cover those in science. I used BJUP as a resource text for mine to springboard from, LOVED AND USED UNLOCKING THE MYSTERIES OF CREATION as well as In The Beginning by Walt Brown. ALSO used Saxon math, AND Saxon Physics which ds loved and dd hated. I love Saxon!

I wanted to try Apologia but it came out the last year that dd was doing HS and we just didn't have time. I saw the materials for it and LOVED the look of it.

Another science resource to consider for the younger grades is Considering God's Creation by Eagle's Wings Mortimer and Smith. A fine unit study resource, able to be used by several grades at once.

Janice Van Cleave wrote a TREMENDOUS set of experiments you can do at home within all the different disciplines in science. One I liked to have on hand was a compendium, I think it was 101 gooey slippery slimey experiments or some such title and it had a chapter each for physics experiments, astronomy, earth sciences, chem, biology and much much more.

She even wrote books for math fun enrichment for elementary grades. Ditto a geography fun book.

Her stuff is usually found in any library. We also had her A+ series for Biology and Chem. Upper jr high, adaptable to sr high.

Easy to use in the home environment for experiments which often scares home schoolers off doing high school science or any science at home.

We never used a textbook at least not the way they were intended, unless handing them a science text, and Janice Van Cleave and saying, "here sweetie, design your own course" was considered normal

and it hasn't killed my two in their scientific endeavors. Both of them love science. Dd's degree will be a BSc in Biology with an emphasis on genetics. She is either going to teach high school science or go on in research in neurophysiology or genetics. Ds's degree is technically a science degree but it's in computing with a double major, in business.

[canadian gardener]

I've popped a few more things in my previous posts on history and unschooling, I ended up with company before I was quite done with them earlier.

[canadian gardener]

Carolyn reminded me in the spring fling of something to do with dishpans that I used to help keep my homeschool organized.

dishpans are marvellous for storing school stuff.

A single unit study will usually fit in one or two, thus keeping all the books and mags and videos together ready to use.

They make a wonderful library book bin storage, plus you can flip thru the titles easily for younger people who need to see pictures and the fronts of books in order to be drawn into reading them.

They store an individual learner's work for the day. All subjects, notebooks, textbooks, pencils etc. Take to kitchen table, start school, lunch comes, slap it all back in your personal dishpan and same again at the end of the day. Slide onto shelf and school is tidy and ready again for tomorrow.

They make a good toilet tank bookshelf for the bathroom unit study. Fill with appropriate easy to read, quick to grasp stuff, staple maps and charts onto the walls and you are set.

Dishpans go to the lake with a bunch of science stuff, ready for field trips or just taking school to the lake or park.

[canadian gardener]

bump