UPDATE: This resource list has become so long over the years that I have decided to break it up by subject as a series of posts.  The posts in this resource series are linked below.

Homeschooling the Dyslexic Child: Phonics and Early Readers

Homeschooling the Dyslexic Child: Spelling

Homeschooling the Dyslexic Child: Handwriting and Copywork

Homeschooling the Dyslexic Child: Grammar and Latin

Homeschooling the Dyslexic Child: History, Literature and Science

Homeschooling the Dyslexic Child: Math

Homeschooling the Dyslexic Child: Resources for Mom and Dad

Homeschooling the Dyslexic Child: Technology

Handiwork

Joyous Home is offering a free “Beginning Stitches” hand embroidery tutorial on their blog. It is a PDF with accompanying audio to help you follow the stitches. I was surprised to learn that girls used to learn these skills as young as 3 years old!  I don’t know how to embroider, so I am filing this away for when my little girls gets old enough to give it a try.

Latin Classes

School is starting to gain momentum.  I really appreciate the availability of online classes, particularly for my older kids.  It is great for them to learn to be accountable to another adult, and it frees me up more for my little ones.  Our oldest son recently completed his fifth year with Latin in the Christian Trivium.  These courses have been such a blessing for us both!

All the courses are accredited for high school credit by the University of California.  After completing Latin I-IV and AP Latin, he went on to take the AP course, and was recently very excited and pleased to learn he got a solid, respectable score on the AP exam.

I believe that Latin is very important foundationally.  My son did extremely well on the SAT after his years of Latin, and found the vocabulary section much easier than we expected.  He also sailed through his first year of Spanish last year, in large part due to his solid Latin background.  He has an incredibly solid foundation in grammar, as well.

LITCT is a Christian program, and I was happy that my son was regularly translating Scripture passages throughout his years in the course.  And best of all for me, everything is taught in an online classroom by wonderful teachers.  I didn’t have to do a thing!  The teachers instruct the students in all the material, assign homework, quizzes, and tests, and do all grading.  It was a win-win for us.  At this time, the classes cost $195 per semester….a steal in my book for the quality of instruction and the peace of mind, knowing our bases were covered in this vital subject.

Government

This fall he will be taking Government online from ACH Study Groups.  I have heard excellent reviews of this course, which is taught from a Christian perspective.  I think it will be exciting to take Government during an election year.  We’re looking forward to it!

Outdoor Challenge Hour

I used to teach according to the Charlotte Mason method when my oldest son was young.  For the past several years we have been following the Classical method, but I wanted my younger kids to experience some of the things we have missed about CM.  One of those things is Nature Study.  So for the younger boys’ science this year we will be following the suggestions on the  Outdoor Challenge Hour blog.  Tomorrow should be our first day of Nature Study.  I can’t wait to get started with it again!  We had so many fun and happy memories of nature study, and I am sad that we let that go for…well, for far too long.

Audio Books

As many of you know, our family runs the website My Audio School.  We just started back to school with our study of the Ancients, and some of the books on our listening list this month include: Peeps at Many Lands–Ancient Egypt by James Bakie; The Cat of Bubastes by G. A. Henty, and The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (high school son).

We’re finally getting back in the swing of school after the holidays. Time to start posting again!

I love writing, and I am the happy beneficiary of several excellent writing courses taken in high school and college. Unfortunately, this has not translated very well when it comes to teaching my own children to write well, especially for my oldest, whose writing skills are advanced.

About 18 months ago we found Write Guide, an online course which pairs students with experienced, highly qualified writing teachers. It has been a fantastic fit for our family, and my son’s writing has improved by leaps and bounds through Write Guide.

You can read my complete review of Write Guide on The Curriculum Choice.

Our oldest son is in his 6th year of Latin this year. He began with Prima Latina in 3rd grade, followed by Latina Christiana 1 and 2. These programs were great for a young Latin student, but it was hard to find a good option that would take him to the next level.

Enter Latin in the Christian Trivium. I can’t remember how we found this program, but I am so thankful that we did. It is systematic and thorough, rigorous but not overwhelming.

To read about the strengths of this excellent program, and information about the online class option, please see my review at The Curriculum Choice.

Copywork is an important part of our school day.  My 2nd grade son is showing real improvement in his handwriting through the regular use of this tried and true method.  He is also starting to feel more comfortable writing sentences on his own.

 

This year we are using Susan Wise Bauer’s wonderful new program, The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease. This curriculum teaches the elementary-aged writer (or struggling older child) how to express themselves on paper.

I find this program simple to implement and enjoyable to teach. My children look forward to their daily copywork lesson, and they are thriving on the step by step approach. Easily accomplished in just 10 minutes a day, Writing with Ease lives up to its name!

Want to know more? You can read the rest of my review at The Curriculum Choice.

Since then, we have enjoyed several of the books in the Apologia Young Explorers series. Mrs. Fulbright manages to teach a lot of great science in an interesting, engaging way. The pictures and text are captivating and understandable even for my 4 year old, and the experiments were simple enough that my 10 year old could do many of them by himself when necessary. Apologia takes an immersion approach to science, focusing on one topic for an entire year. Through immersion, kids can really learn a lot about a particular area of science, as well as the scientific method.

The Young Explorers series is appropriate for Kindergarten through 6th grade science. It incorporates several excellent components. In addition to the great photos and clear information, there are opportunities for the child to narrate back what they have learned. We retain what we can explain, and this element helps solidify the information in the child’s mind.

We have also really enjoyed using Nature Notebooks. Each book in the series gives very clear instructions for making and keeping a notebook of pictures, drawings, poems, original writing, and other “findings” that relate to the material studied. The notebook is very personal to each child, enjoyable to make and a great keepsake for years to come.

My oldest son has moved on to Jay Wile’s Apologia science for older kids. This curriculum is available as a textbook, but he prefers the full-course CD Roms, which interface like a website. He enjoys doing all his reading online, clicking here and there for video demonstrations and audio pronunciation of terms.

No matter which series you choose, a list of everything that will be needed for the experiments is conveniently included in the beginning of each book. I appreciated that most items were easily gathered from around the house. Science experiments added greatly to our understanding in each book, and none of them seemed like the “busy work” we had experienced in other science curriculum.

Other highlights include the incorporation of Latin scientific terms, answers in the back of the book for all questions, and a reproducible sheet where experiments can be described (procedure, hypothesis, results, etc). Dr. Wile and Mrs. Fulbright both write from a Christian, creationist, young-earth perspective. Young Explorers books each have internet helps provided, with links to tons of sites that provide more information.  My dyslexic child also appreciates that the jr. high and high school level courses are available with an audio recording, so he can listen to the text while he reads.

Apologia Academy  has launched online courses, and Apologia also offers pre-recorded lectures (in an on your own online class option) for all science classes, 7th grade and up.

I can’t imagine a better science curriculum for my children.

Apologia website.

Several months ago, when I started this Home Library Builders series, I promised to write a post about finding books and organizing your library. This is a topic near and dear to my heart…I am always on the lookout for a treasure!

I use Tapestry of Grace, a curriculum centered around living books. Some weeks I might use as many as 20 different books for my students. My children are getting a rich and broad education, but it can be a strain on the budget and difficult to stay organized.

So what is my strategy?

Planning ahead

First, I take a look at my book lists, week by week. Tapestry gives me a breakdown of all the books I need every week, for a total of 36 book lists in all. I put each week’s list in a page protector, so I can mark on it with a Sharpie marker, without defacing the reading list. Tapestry is a classical program, which means that four years from now, I’ll be repeating this material again, albeit at a more advanced level for each child. My current 3rd grader will be reading books that his 7th grade brother read this year, and my preschooler will need the books my 3rd grader is reading. It helps to keep a record of what we have and what we need and what we liked so that I can refer to it in future years. By marking on a page protector, I can make notes that will help me now and in the future. Four years from now, I can slip off the old protector and replace it with a fresh one, making notes for a new trip through the material.

Decisions, decisions!

Tapestry gives me lots of choices. If I don’t have a given book, there are several alternates listed. As a general rule, I try very hard to get all the literature books that are recommended, as there is only one Huckleberry Finn. I often am able to substitute history titles with something that is already on my shelves. If I don’t have a certain geography book about Japan, but another similar title is already on my shelf, I make a note of the title I’ll be substituting on the page protector. By staying flexible and being willing to substitute equivalent titles I can save my budget for those must-have books.

Keeping my Options Open

Next, I open several windows on the computer. One is for my local library system, a window for Amazon, a window for Better World Books, a window for My Audio School, a window for Audible, and a window for Baldwin Project.

I look at each book on the list, checking how many weeks it will be used. Anything that will only be used for one week is typically at the top of my library list. I do a quick search and if the book is available through Inter-library Loan, I mark an L on the page protector by that title. When the time comes, I’ll order it through the library. My library can be slow, so I don’t use it for critical or time-sensitive titles. Often, I’ll order the suggested resource as well as all the alternates, and use whichever one comes in on time.

The library is a great place to get those hardback picture books for my young children. Those are expensive to buy, and typically will be read a couple of times and then put away. They are often readily available through the Inter-library Loan system.

Once I’ve gone through the titles, choosing which ones will be substituted and which ones will come from the library, I take a look at how to get what is left. Anything that is going to be used for multiple weeks, or which is critically important to our study, or which cannot be substituted (such as literature titles) is a good candidate for purchase. I have several children, and I know I’ll be using most of these books again.

Getting Books for Free

First, I check the free sites. Many of the old, classic literature titles are available in the public domain. Baldwin Project has lots of these titles available for free. There are also many available through Gutenberg Project, but I prefer the easy-to-navigate format at Baldwin Project. I don’t like sitting in front of a computer screen to read aloud, but my children don’t seem to mind silent reading from the screen. This is a good choice for us for those books.

Of course, I always check My Audio School, too! I say “check” even though this is my own website.  We have over 500 resources on the site now and I can’t even remember all the titles myself, LOL.

I can’t tell you how much money we’ve saved this year by listening to our books in audio format from public domain sources! It has been such a blessing to our dyslexic son and our emerging reader, and has saved my voice, too! I still read daily to them, but this gives them extra audio content while I am busy. My oldest son loves it as he can multi-task, listening to books in audio format while cleaning his room or building models. We stream the books from the computer, burn them to CD or download them to Mp3.

It does take a lot of time searching out these free resources. Now that I’ve done the work for you, you might want to take advantage of what My Audio School has to offer. Lots of free books are on the site, and for the cost of purchasing just one audio book you get links to hundreds of resources. Every single book on the site is available to download to Mp3, or individual chapters can be streamed from the site. I’ve also included links where you can read the books for free online.

Paperback Swap is another site I use for getting free titles. You post books that you no longer want online. In exchange for offering up 10 titles, you get two credits for free. Each credit allows you to request one book. Anytime someone requests one of your books and you send it to them, you get another credit. I’ve gotten a few of the books I need for next year for free through PBS. They make it very easy to mail the books, as you can print shipping labels and even postage from home if you have a paypal account.

Buy Used and Save the Difference

Next, I check Better World Books. This gem is my favorite place to get books. The used books are all donated by libraries, and used titles typically cost around $4 apiece. Profit from all sales goes to support literacy efforts around the world, and shipping is virtually free within the continental U.S. (and very cheap to other countries). Better World uses carbon offsets for shipping, and I typically pay about 10 cents shipping on $10 worth of books. I also like Thrift Books for used titles. I like to refer to amazon to read their reviews, and occasionally I’ll buy a book from them, as well. Their shipping is so high now for used books that sometimes you can get the title brand new with free shipping for little more than the used title would have cost.

Books on MP3

Although we use our website My Audio School for public domain books, Audible is another good source for audio books that aren’t in the public domain. My curriculum makes suggestions for each child’s literature. Several times a year I choose one selection from my oldest child’s list and we read it aloud as a family or listen to it on MP3. We all enjoy these family read-alouds. They are not at a level that my young children could read them alone, but they are perfectly able to enjoy and understand them as a read-aloud. Rather than purchasing three separate books for that week, I can get one excellent audio book that we can all enjoy together.

Other sites

I also check Tapestry’s Bookshelf Central, as they have competitive pricing on many of the books that are recommended as primary resources. Book Closeouts is another favorite site for classics and biographies purchased inexpensively. One more site that I regularly check is Library and Ed, a wholesaler that only sells to libraries, educators and homeschoolers.

Book Sales

Usually, anything I haven’t found online goes on a list which I keep in my purse. When I head out to spring books sales, my list goes with me. I’ve been known to drill this list into my 12 year old’s head, so he can be on the lookout, too! Last week I bought an R.M. Ballantyne book for 50 cents at a book sale…the seller must not have known what she had! I came home a happy girl, indeed.

Of course, I watch “for sale” boards on my yahoo groups, and borrow books from friends, as well. Once a book has been downloaded or purchased or borrowed, a notation on the page protector reminds me that it is taken care of.

Organizing books…don’t knock it ’till you try it

I have a system for organizing my history and literature books. Since the classical cycle lasts four years, I label my books accordingly. All books for Ancient Times get a red dot on the spine of the book. I use the little dots purchased for tagging garage sale items, and secure them with a small piece of scotch tape to the spine of the book (as the sticky back doesn’t adhere well to the spines without a little help).

Before taping the label on, I write a number on the spine to show which week it will be used. Number 1 for our first week of school, or 2-5 if the book will be used weeks two through five. Then all the books are arranged in order on a particular shelf…one shelf for my oldest child’s books, another shelf for my younger children’s books. This helps me to see at a glance exactly what we have, and to find it easily throughout the year.

Since we are literally using hundreds of books a year, spread out over different grade levels, this system of organization is a lifesaver for me.

Books for Renaissance and Reformation get a yellow dot. Green dots are for the time period from Napoleon to Teddy Roosevelt, and a blue dot adorns the spine of all books about modern times. I have a couple of shelves for each color. Next year, we’ll be studying Renaissance and Reformation…but if I find a great book that I’ll need for Modern Times at a book sale this spring, I’ll go ahead and buy it. Purchasing books in advance, when the price is right, is another way to save money.

I won’t need to purchase many titles at all for next year, because I’ve been collecting the books I need little by little for the past few years. And thanks to my system of organization, all of my Modern Times books are labeled and together. If I find something new, I know right where to put it, and I can feel confident that it will be there in three years when I need it.

The next post in this Home Library Builders series will be Whatever is Excellent: My favorite books for the Classical history cycle

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

Latin

By his third year of Latin study, I could no longer keep up with him. It had gotten to the point that I would check his work with the teacher manual, but I couldn’t tell him why he missed anything. I would have to give him the teacher manual and ask him to figure it out! With three younger children to teach, this homeschool mama had no time to ‘learn Latin in a snap’. What a blessing it was the find Latin in the Christian Trivium!

The students and teacher meet once a week in a chat room to go over the new material and to cover any questions. Some parts of the class are done through text messaging on Windows Live Messenger, and other parts are done with a microphone.

This class is challenging: each of the four year-long courses are worth one year of High School language credit. But it is one of his favorite subjects, and I’m glad that my limitations did not need to become his.

Writing

Another online course we are enjoying is Write Guide. I feel perfectly capable to teach my son writing skills, and I have a great curriculum in Tapestry of Grace. My problem here is that many times, I didn’t find time to grade my son’s written work in a timely fashion. He would be left with nothing to work on because I hadn’t gotten to it.

Again, for me this is logistical. I have several young children who can’t do much, if any, of their schoolwork alone. I wanted the precious hours which I have set aside to teach my oldest son to be spent on discussion, worldview, Bible, philosophy and history. If things got too busy, writing was often one of the first things to go. Practically speaking, he wrote several first or even second drafts, but didn’t always get his papers to final draft stage.

The great thing about Write Guide is that I can still use my own curriculum and choose my son’s topics, but someone else will implement it! I sat down at the beginning of the semester and wrote out what kinds of assignments I wanted him to have and possible topics to choose from. This semester he focused on learning to write a 5 paragraph essay, a compare/contrast paper, writing newspaper articles and completing a long research paper. All topics, aside from the newspaper writing, were taken from our studies.

Each week I sent a note to the teacher, letting her know what my son was to focus on that week, and then she gave him the assignments. She checked all his work and kept him on task. He developed practical skills like formatting bibliography pages as well as stylistic skills in crafting his words. Best of all, because I was paying for this course, I was highly motivated to make sure that he wrote every single day.

Electronics

A couple years ago my son took an excellent online electronics class from Quick Study Labs. The students purchase an electronic snap kit from Radio Shack, and the teacher assigns them 5 days worth of homework and a quiz or test to complete at their leisure over the course of the week. The teacher is available to answer questions via phone call or email, if necessary. There are two levels of classes available for children ages 8 to 12 or 12 and up.

My younger boys loved watching their brother do the fun electronic experiments and they can hardly wait until they are old enough to take this class, as well. I know my oldest hopes to take another class in the future.

Apologia Science

All these online courses have been enjoyable for him. He has become so comfortable with them that he chose to do his Apologia General Science class this year on the computer. The entire course is available on CD-Rom and interfaces like a website. He can click a button to hear a word pronounced or to see a video clip. He steps away from the computer to conduct experiments, then returns to the computer to keep a log of what he used, what he did, what he saw, and what he learned.

There is a separate CD-Rom for the teacher with study guides, tests and answer keys. This course is also written directly to the student, so he is able to do the course on his own, without needing mom…as long as he has all his science supplies at hand (see my post on Gathering Supplies in Advance for help in that area!)

*Since this post was originally written, our son has also taken Apologia online classes through the Virtual Homeschool Group, as well as history and literature classes with Dr. Jim Stobaugh at For Such a Time As This.  We recommend both heartily!

I’m so grateful for my son’s online classes. He is able to continue growing and learning, even in areas where I am not strong. We have accountability in courses where we need it. He has enjoyed interacting with other kids in a virtual classroom, and it has been beneficial him to turn in work to an impartial adult for a letter grade. I know his teachers have pushed him to excel beyond what he thought he was capable of. I am freed up to teach my younger children much of the day, and the time I spend with my oldest son can be focused on those areas where interaction with me is most vital.

Have you used any online courses which you found beneficial? I’d love to hear about them!

When and how much to teach about other religions is a sensitive subject. Each parent will need to make their own decision, taking into account the age of their children and the child’s own spiritual maturity.

We live in a culture that is bombarding us–and our children–with the lie that every belief is equally valid, and that each person can have their own Truth. Yet just because someone else believes their religion is true, doesn’t make it so. On the judgment day, those who rejected Christ will find that they were deceived.

In our pluralistic culture I believe it is important to teach children what others believe. I would rather have my children learn this from me than see them encounter it for the first time outside our home.

Helping our kids understand what we believe…

There is another reason to teach children about other religions. We can use these conversations as an opportunity to help our children understand their own beliefs more thoroughly.

I take a spiral approach, teaching in more depth as the children get older and more mature. I have always felt that it is not beneficial to teach children too much about other religions when they don’t yet have a firm grasp of the foundational teachings of Christianity.

With the younger ones, we focus only on a few key concepts. It is vitally important that other religions are not taught in a vacuum. Every word that is taught about another religion should be contrasted with what we, as Christians, believe on the topic.

For example, when we studied India we learned about Hinduism, their major religion. One key point is the idea of reincarnation. I taught the children that Hindus believe people may be reborn as a priest if they are good in this life or they may come back as a weed or a bug if their bad deeds outweigh the good ones. At this point, we paused our discussion of Hinduism to talk about what Christians believe.

Does the Christian believe he is saved because of his good works? Can we stand before a holy God on the basis of our own merit? What does the Christian believe happens to a person’s body and spirit upon death? I suggest asking the children to answer these kinds of questions, and then sum up what the Christian believes with a Bible verse or two on the topic.

Learning about reincarnation was an opportunity to remind the children that all our good works are as filthy rags, and that we are saved through faith in Christ alone. Twenty percent of the conversation was about what the Hindu believes, 80% about what the Christian believes.

As we talk about other religions, it provides an object lesson that can help children understand the freedom we possess in Christ. I asked them to think about how stressful it would be if they carried the weight of their salvation on their own shoulders. As it is, they often feel frustrated with themselves when they struggle with pattern sins. How much worse would they feel if they believed their sins were gaining for them an undesirable next life?

The pressure to perform has been lifted from their little shoulders. Jesus wants us to be obedient, but he knows we aren’t perfect. They are covered in his blood and their sins are paid for. I want my children to see this contrast between the futility of man’s teachings and the loving grace of the one true God.

With my oldest son, I go more in depth. Our curriculum, Tapestry of Grace, takes an approach that I have found helpful for years. We make T-charts comparing Christian beliefs on key issues with that of the religion we are studying. For example, we write Hinduism and Christianity in the two columns across the top of the paper. Down the left side are words such as “authority of scripture”, “salvation”, “afterlife”, and “the nature of God”. I draw heavily on the book Bruce and Stan’s Guide to Cults, Religions and Spiritual Beliefs during these discussions. A sixth or seventh grader could easily read this book on their own in preparation for this discussion. Tapestry also makes it easy for me, including relevant scriptures and key points in my teacher’s notes.

I frequently have my 7th grader take these discussions a step further and write a compare and contrast paper highlighting the differences between Christianity and the religion in question on key beliefs. This helps me to really know whether he understands these key points, and forces him to grapple with the issues.

This is also a wonderful time for him to learn how to use a concordance to begin searching out scripture for himself. I found in his last paper that he chose a scripture verse which did not prove the point he was making. We were able to discuss what the scripture he chose was about, what he was trying to say in his paper, and what scriptures would be more to the point. I want him to learn to use the sword of the Word effectively, and writing a paper with scriptural proofs is excellent training.

Model compassion 

In all of this teaching, we should be compassionate toward the lost. Jack’s paper had a disrespectful tone which conveyed that he thought Hinduism was ridiculous. I want him to recognize that unbelievers are intelligent, thoughtful people who have been deceived. Our children need to learn how to communicate passionate conviction in a winsome way that shows love and respect for the unbeliever.

Last week my children learned that the Buddha taught his followers that freeing oneself from all desire is the key to spiritual enlightenment. Six year old Colin must have pondered that discussion all day. That evening, he asked me: “Mom, if the Buddha could have had three wishes, what do you think he would have wished for?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “He probably would have had to give his wishes to someone else, since he was not supposed to have any desires.”

Colin’s insight amazed me. He said, “Well, mom, he could have used one of his wishes to ask for enlightenment, but then he wouldn’t get it, because he would have desired it. See why it’s crazy, mom? He wants enlightenment, but he can’t get it unless he stops wanting it.”

“…by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4: 2-6