Curriculum!!!! Woo Hoo! ~ With note from Katie

Last Wednesday a Curriculum Round Table was put together by Pam. We joined forces and talked for at least an hour and a half about our favorite curriculum. The books we loved and the ones we didn't. It was nice to hear that others had to go through a searching period before they found their favorites. Check out what we found out. Hopefully we'll see you at the next round table!

Math and Science
    Acorn Naturalists Catalog: Some favorites include Growing up Wild for small children, nature guides, posters, and molds to identify tracks. Their curriculum books can only be ordered from them since they are the publisher and distributor. They participate in the BAEER Festival in Marin, where they have workshops and classes. They get involved in stream restoration projects as well.
     The Laurence Hall of Science has a wonderful collection of books to use for science and math curriculum. Their science book collection is called Gems: http://www.lhsgems.org/ They teamed up with UC Berkely to make their math in the garden book: http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/education/k12.shtml and go to the Curricula link. For Pathways Charter School vendors Real Science for Kids, http://www.gravitaspublications.com/, and Math U See, http://www.mathusee.com/, have worked well. You get DVD’s with the books. The instructor teaches vocabulary and concepts in 4 min segments with simple worksheets to be completed afterwards. The children that use this method love to do it. No tears!
     The Science Explorer, http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/, and Math Explorer, http://www.exploratorium.edu/education/publications/math-explorer, from the Exploratorium are fun books to learn from. The experiments are very home friendly. One family found it very easy to find everything needed for most of them at home.
     Janice VanCleave is well known for her science books and needs mentioning. I didn’t get much information on her, but the books look amazing! http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-103842.html
     Last but not least you could join the 4-H Madrone Club http://www.4-h.org/
   
Geography/History 
     Map Trek http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/MapTrek1.html has been a good resource for ancient geography. It’s a good companion for any study in the ancient world. A story was told of mummifying a chicken in salt and burying it in the backyard. They were studying Egypt. An alternate project was to substitute an apple instead!
     Liberty Kids is a great program on the Revolutionary War. http://www.libertyskids.com/ The If You… series was a favorite of one of the families as well. http://www.scholastic.com/tbw/quickSearch.do?N=0+$&fq=Series:%5EIf+You...%5E&Ntk=TBW_QuickSearch_SI&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial Pam’s family had Middle Age Simulation books. I did not get more information than that. So if you would like more information on this please let me know, or email her directly. Otherwise you can google it.

 Math 
    Teaching Textbooks, http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/, have proven to be interesting and stimulating for the student. The lectures on the DVD’s catch your attention, and teach the concepts and vocabulary very easily. The program tracks the students’ progress and allows the parent to have a separate login to check up on them. Life of Fred, http://www.lifeoffredmath.com/, and Beast Academy, http://www.beastacademy.com/, were not very well received since it was too wordy and the children focused more on the story than the math.

 LA 
   When we talked about handwriting we discovered that each child likes a different way of writing. Some don’t mind the straight lines and boxy letters. Others, however, like the flow of D'nealian style like in Charlotte Mason’s Delightful Handwriting. It’s good to look for the right handwriting book for your child.
    Explode the Code turned out to be a good self guided time for the children that used this book. They love going through it and doing the work pages by themselves. https://www.explodethecode.com/01_overview/ It helps the child learn to read, comprehension and spelling. A new one recently discovered is called Moving Beyond the Page. It comes with workbook options for certain literary works, for instance The Witch of Blackbird Pond. For this one there is a workbook for History and another for Science. The whole curriculum is quite expensive, but it was pointed out that it would last the normal person 3 years! So you can pick and choose what you want. In the description of the book it will tell you what other workbooks might work with it too. http://www.movingbeyondthepage.com/ Choose the curriculum age you want. Then click the one to look through. Below the total curriculum price you’ll find the list of separate workbooks, and novels beneath that. Good luck! It’s a lot to look through, but hopefully worth it.
    Michael Clay Thompson, http://www.rfwp.com/pages/michael-clay-thompson/, is good since it starts at the base of our language and works up from that.

 High School
    For those of you thinking of moving on to a 4 year institution or the JC you need to consider how you will document those classes you took in high school. If you are trying to get into a public high school you won’t need much to prove your I.Q. since you are admitted by age. If you want to enter a charter school you need proof of the high school classes you took at home. There are ways you can prepare for the switch, and it’s never too late to start thinking of what you will do. Blueprint education, http://www.blueprinteducation.org/home-schooling, provides online courses that provide you with the high school credits you need to keep on track. The classes are not rich in subject matter, but gets the job done and establishes a paper trail. BYU also offers high school online courses. One complaint one of our high schoolers had was the lack of personal contact. It was hard if not impossible to get the instructor to reply to emails requesting help. The Santa Rosa JC was a great place to start classes; They accept students as young as 14, the instructors are able to talk to you since the classes are small, and you’ll have a better chance at entering a university or 4 yr college. *To get into the JC you’ll need detailed descriptions of your home school classes and books studied. You can go to someone to write up a transcription, like West Beach, or you can find a transcript program for $50. Pam will have a link for us soon! Another thing to consider when applying to the JC is to think of what you child will like best. To succeed he/she will do much better just starting off with something he/she enjoys. Yeah for HOMESCHOOLING!

Note from Katie: I noticed this (*) in your post today which is not accurate. A student does not need transcripts to attend the JC as a concurrent enrollment student (which means they are still enrolled in high school). A high school student must apply for admission and submit a concurrent enrollment form, with signatures from their high school principal and counselor (can be a parent). Students over 18 don't need to submit transcripts, either. Wes (not West) Beach is a great person to help with transcripts if you want help at some point, and his book has good examples. He can be reached at beachhi@cruzio.com, and his book is here -- http://www.amazon.com/Forging-Paths-Beyond-Traditional-Schooling/dp/0615577849