Products

You asked, so here you go.
People ask me all the time. . .
How do you know what to teach?
How do you find the right books to teach from?
How do you know if you are doing enough?
What products can't you live with out?
Etc. etc. etc.

So I have posted several posts with my favorite products.
Enjoy.

Now if someone were to ask, What one book couldn't you teach without? (please don't ask me to only have one book though please!!!) I would have to say this one:

*Soap Box Moment*
There are so many reasons why we homeschool our kids and the reason I am about to post isn't a reason we do homeschool, but it is something we get to include as a great portion of our homeschool. Now think back, when you were in school, especially elementary school, did you know that what you were learning was going to make you an adult. That the end result was you as an adult? An adult with knowledge, right? Well then, isn't it important to teach our kids how to be adults? Let's face it. Values are slipping in our society. (Okay, that just about took me a different tangent, but I caught myself)

*Be Still My Heart*
Ron Clark's The Essential 55, is one amazing book. His story is amazing. His insight to children, society and how they go together is a gift to all educators, parents and teachers alike.
His 55 rules, some silly - but most dastardly important, such as Responding to adults with respect or the value of completing assignments and turning them in on time, are all important life skills. Skills that if learned as a child will make better adults.
Of course I want my kiddos to be successful - but am I or the world hindering that by not teaching them life skills now? I don't want that.
I can't live without this book - when I lost it for a couple weeks, I just about bought two so that I could have one on hand just in case I lost it again.

As I post about products you will find
*Be Still My Heart* which denotes a product that I love
And *Soap Box Moments* for my pet peeves and tangents

Random

For the Love of Everything in Between


*Soap Box Moment*
Have you ever noticed how little our young ones are encouraged to think? TV, video games, computers that know what you are trying to do so they do it for you. I am afraid we are raising a generation of non-thinkers, cars that park themselves, etc. But that just won't do. Thankfully, my dear sweetheart is all about logic. One of our favorite products helps us here: The Critical Thinking Company and all their wonderful products. Borrow them from me sometimes. See if you can figure their mind benders out.
Here is their website.

Seymour Simon.
Beautiful pictures on all the subjects young ones need to learn sooner or later. GREAT for my visual learner.

I know that I have mentioned my quick spurt information lovin' kid. This is his book. Too much information and he checks out of the lesson, but give him a list to memorize or random facts like state abbreviations or the colors of countries flags - and he is all over it.

Art can be tricky to teach but it is also a lot of fun.
I like this book because it uses kids books to teach the basics, such as line and contrast.

I also really like, but didn't take a picture of, Discovering Great Artists, hands on art for Children in the styles of the Great Masters. It lists around 100 artists and what they were best known for - and then has activities to teach that concept.

History

For the Love of History


*Be Still My Heart*
I don't even know how to put into words our family's thoughts on "The Story of the World." We love it. Love it. We really like it a lot. We all, parents included, love history. Susan Wise Bauer has done a wonderful job and telling the story (History) of the world in story form. Easy to listen to, easy to read, easy to remember. We listen to the audio books in the car. She has broken the history down into four parts to tell her story. The first part, book one, Ancient Times, we covered last year. I bought the second book this school year - but we listened to it all over the summer! I try and listen/read the book four times through to make sure the stories sink in, but my kids are already asking for the third one.

*Soap Box Moment*
I try and introduce American Heroes every chance that I get. I feel like they are important to our history, but I also look around at the heroes of today and question if they are who I want my kids looking up to. Who is it that our media gives the most attention to? Athletes that make millions of dollars? (okay, that's a pet peeve can you tell?) So I nonchalantly place books like these in front of my kids, leave them laying around in the car or bathroom or where ever and low-and-behold they read them, they like them, they remember them.

My random fact child, loves information in short spurts.
Fandex Field Guides makes a whole selection of these "fans" of information. Detailed enough that I feel like he's learning. Not so in depth that he gets bored with them. Great-have-around-the-house-trick-them-into-learning books.

Core Knowedge

Love Core Knowledge

If you are asking, What is Core Knowledge? Allow me to try and explain.
A concept that students need solid, specific and shared knowledge grade by grade. That what is taught in first grade in one school should also be taught in all other first grades around the country. From there, it builds year by year, you can easily track what they have already been taught in previous years and what they will learn on coming years in all subjects.
Here is a link to the Core Knowledge Website




You've probably seen these. They are pretty common and I see them everywhere. If you just want a good base of what your kid should know by what grade - this is where you should start. I have them from Preschool on up to our highest year, which is Fourth Grade this year. I started using them when my kids were in public school. They cover language, mathematics, history, science, art, music, etc. etc.

This book maps out K-8 at a glance. It is much more concise than the books above and below, but it is a fast way for me to see what is being covered when.

It took me a couple years to give-in and buy these books, so this is our first year with them. Well, I should say, my first year. They are expensive BUT well worth it. They come with Master Copies of handouts. Each section starts with "What they will learn" moves to "What they already know" (from previous grades) and then to "What they will learn next" (in future grades). They also cross reference subjects, so that if a poem (language arts) they need to learn applies to the American Revolution (US History) you know you should teach them together. Enough information that I feel prepared to teach, not too much that I am left sorting what to teach and what to leave out.

Reading

For the Love of Reading


These are the books that I used to help Liam learn to read last year. Each set has 10 smaller books inside that build on reading patterns and sounds. Each set has a parent/teacher book that comes with it to instruct on the principles of each book and stickers to give out once they pass off the book.

*Be Still My Heart*
I took this picture very carefully, as you can't see the hundreds, yes hundreds, of tabs that I have on the right margin of the book. I can't say enough good about this book. One important note, the first oh, ten times that I picked it up, it did not appeal to me at ALL! And then one magical day I read it and whattyaknow I was in love. Esme has superb ideas to capture children's interest in reading. She lists lists and lists of books by theme and category. She tells us why some books are good and why others are better. I use this book every week.

Use this book. If you are teaching anyone to read. Use it. We are using it to help my reluctant reader gain some confidence in his skills as a reader and really wish that someone would have handed it to me when he was four!

*Be Still My Heart*
Where would I be as a Homeschool parent or even as a Mother without Jim Thelease? I own three editions of this book. Three! And if he publishes a new one, I will get that one too! His thoughts on reading and our culture - everything from Oprah to Harry Potter are just the beginning of the goodness this book can bring to any parent or teacher looking to inspire a child with literature. He also gives hundreds of books that make great read alouds for every age, grade, gender and reading preference. Everyone that I loan this book to end up buying one for themselves. Take my word for it... you need one.

Language

For the Love of Learning Language


These are two of our most loved and used books of Poetry. Kids of all ages like to be silly and these poems are silly. They strike a certain cord with kids, they make me roll my eyes sometimes, but the boys love them.

These clever books are great for teaching parts of language. Like the one on top; I and You and Don't Forget Who What is a Pronoun? Throughout the book each pronoun is bold in text so that it stands out. They rhyme much of the time and are easy reads. The corny cartoons keep kids attention too.

This is our first year using this book so I can't say too much about it other than it's reproducible and each lesson has different activities, not that same activities repeated over and over with each set of new words. It holds my interest. And Noble's, which is most important.

Yeah, we start on SAT prep early around here. :) Each word has a cartoon and "sounds" like to help you remember it. Catchy and my kids do use words that surprise people from time to time.