Here is the July update of what I have read to date for the Tim Challies 2016 Reading Challenge.

My reading:

A book someone tells you “changed my life”: (Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakeable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie)

A book by or about a pastor’s wife: (Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full by Gloria Furman)

A book more than 100 years old: (In Freedom’s Cause: A Story of Wallace and Bruce by G. A. Henty)

A book by a woman conference speaker: (The Question by Leigh Bortins)

A self-improvement book: Do More Better

Here is an update of what I have read to date for the Tim Challies 2016 Reading Challenge, and what my 5 year old daughter and I have read together for the CounterCultural School Reading Challenge.

We are a little late to the party, as we just discovered and started the Reading Challenge in late May. Notice I have chosen some titles that overlap my categories and hers, so I can kill two birds with one stone! If I am reading something to her or listening to it with her, it is great if it can count for my list, too. For example, my “book for children” was The Wizard of Oz, and it was her “movie tie-in” book. We did the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe together, which let us both check off a C.S. Lewis title.

After about 6 weeks of reading I am averaging a book a week, placing me solidly in the “obsessed reader” category! Sadly, once school starts back in a few weeks I will have to really curtail my reading and may only prove to be a “light reader” or at best an “avid reader”.

My reading for May/June:

A book your pastor recommends: (Fair Sunshine)

A book for children: (The Wizard of Oz)

A book by C.S. Lewis or J.R. R. Tolkien: (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)

A book written by Jane Austen: (Pride and Prejudice)

A memoir: Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: (The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson)

A novel longer than 400 pages: (Jane Eyre)

My daughter’s reading:

A book about God–theology for kids: (Everything a child should know about God)

A children’s classic: (My Father’s Dragon)

A chapter book: (Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle)—done as an audio book

A C. S. Lewis or George MacDonald title: (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)—audio book in the car

A movie or TV tie-in book: (The Wizard of Oz)—narrated on Audible by Anne Hathaway

I recently found Tim Challies’ 2016 Reading Challenge post. Since I am trying to make a conscious effort to do more reading, I decided to jump in with both feet, even though 2016 is half gone. In his challenge he lists 104 categories of books to choose from and the idea is to read one book from each category, from as many categories as you decide to (13 categories is considered a “light reader” while the full 104 makes you “obsessed”). Some of the categories include things like a biography, a classic novel, a book more than 100 years old, or a title recommended by a family member.

As I was working through the list it occurred to me that I would LOVE to have this type of goal for my kids, as well.

Often they focus their pleasure reading on one particular category (animal books, or books in a series, for example) and this seems like a great way to help them diversify a bit.

With that in mind, I made my own list of 50 categories for kids. Today is July 4th so we have about 25 weeks left until Christmas. My kids can work their way through the whole list reading just 2 books a week. If that seems too aggressive, maybe your goal would be one book a week and get half way through the list. It doesn’t matter, as YOU can tailor the goal for your own schedule and whatever you feel would work for your child. I am printing out a list for each of my kids–the younger ones may get through all 50 categories and the older ones might only get through 10 (since their books are much longer). I hope to post updates periodically about some of their selections (and mine!) and I would love to hear from you if you decide to take the Reading Challenge. Happy Reading!

CounterCultural School Kids 2016 Reading Challenge

My 10th grade son started the Classical Conversations Challenge program last year–in Challenge III. This is a pretty rigorous program for any student, and it was a bit daunting for him to start there, with no previous challenge background (we have a new challenge program on our campus). Also, he has dyslexia, dysgraphia, and slow processing speed. We knew we would need to have some plans in place to make Challenge III work for him.

In making modifications, it was important to us that he would not cut things that would negatively affect the class. In Challenge 3, students have a lot of responsibility for leading some of the classes, as well as presenting and debating in several classes throughout the year. I chose to shorten the length of some of his assignments (papers or recitations) or to make accommodations on classes that don’t affect anyone else (such as chemistry) so that he and his fellow students get the most possible out of their classroom experience. I would rather see him memorize 15 lines of Shakespeare (as opposed to the 30 assigned lines) than to just skip that assignment altogether. In this way, he was able to participate with the class and gain some of the benefit of the assignment while still taking off some of the pressure.

My son plays football for a local Christian school during the fall, so he has less time for lengthy homework assignments during those months. Also, he was a little on the young side for Challenge 3, being in 10th grade (this class is for 10th-12th graders). With that in mind, I made more accommodations in the fall, with the goal of increasing his workload during the spring when he had more time and experience.

Proactive accommodations

I sent his teacher a list of the accommodations I was planning to make at the beginning of each semester, and if  my son was able to do  more work than expected, he did–but I tried to set realistic goals up front. This took some of the pressure off, and it also helped him to know exactly what he was supposed to get done. I did not want to get into a situation where we were routinely shortening or removing assignments because he was behind or couldn’t meet the deadline. It was much better to accommodate PRO-actively rather than RE-actively.

Here is a list of the types of things we did last year:

• I gave shorter assignments at times instead of removing assignments altogether. It affects the class negatively when students do not bring something to the discussion. If I felt he could not complete a writing assignment in time, I would shorten the length of it. Some of these modifications varied from week to week, depending on how many things were due at one time. In the Challenge program there are weekly assignments due every week, as well as many larger assignments due where the student has to budget their time and do a little bit each week toward accomplishing a goal. Some weeks there were so many assignments converging at once that we chose the most important ones to prioritize and shortened the length on some of the others.
• I made more accommodation in subjects that were done at primarily home, rather than in class. For example, since the science portion is primarily labs rather than discussion, if he was going to fall behind in a subject we make sure it was science. Because of his slow processing speed, it was inevitable that he would need to fall behind somewhere, so he caught up on science over the Christmas break and again during the summer break. With that said, we were careful to make sure he did some science every week so that he didn’t fall more than 2 or 3 chapters behind. I didn’t want him to get into a situation where it was impossible to catch up, so this was a balancing act.
• We did some of the reading for first semester during the summer prior to starting Challenge, and some of the reading for 2nd semester during Christmas break. By getting a jump start on the reading, it was one less thing to do during the busy school year.
• Virtually all of the challenge literature for every level is available in audio format, through the public domain (check My Audio School, which is the website our family created for classical and Charlotte Mason educators who want access to audio books in an organized, child-friendly format. Click on the Curriculum tab, then click on the appropriate Challenge level. There are more titles when you subscribe but I have put a few unblocked titles in each category that are accessible to anyone so you can get a sense of how it works). We also use Audible for some titles. We found that several of the needed textbooks for challenge 3 were available on audible. I am finding the same to be true of the other challenge levels as I am currently gathering books for my sons who will be in Challenge 2 and Challenge 4 in the fall. My Audio School only has public domain titles (classic books as well as radio theater) whereas Audible has some of the newer titles (textbooks) that we needed–as well as the classics, if you prefer to spend more to get the professional narration. We use a mix of both in our homeschool.
• My son typically dictates his papers onto his phone and emails them to himself, then copies and pastes them into Word and does his editing on the computer, which is a big help because of his dysgraphia.
• Some assigned tasks were difficult for him, such as creating his own study guides, so we worked through it together side-by-side. He and I worked through Brightest Heaven of Invention together, starting with the review questions at the end of the chapter before reading and discussing the chapter, with a highlighter in hand. The book progresses in a very orderly fashion, answering most of the review and thought questions in order as you progress through the chapter. We would read the first question at the end of the chapter, then page back and read through the chapter to look for the answer.
• Instead of writing out notes by hand he learned how to take notes with a highlighter directly in the textbook. When he found the answer, it would be highlighted and a note was made beside that paragraph such as RQ1 (for Review Question 1), or the page number in the Shakespeare play where the answer could be located, in the case of the Thought Questions. In this way, he found all of the answers fairly easily and highlighted them in the book rather than writing them out on paper.
• For his history notebook and timeline, he used a timeline app, which would allow him to type or voice dictate the relevant dates and information into his phone, then the timeline could be displayed in a variety of ways. The history book for Challenge 3 has a timeline at the beginning of each chapter, and I allowed him to look at that timeline and select the dates he felt were most important after reading the chapter, rather than trying to extrapolate the dates from the chapter paragraphs. I wanted him to do the timeline exercise, but I didn’t want him to spend too much time on it. Selecting dates from the book’s timeline allowed him to do this fairly easily.
• Set a time budget for each strand, or for the work as a whole. CC suggests students spend about 1 hour per day per strand on the work. We decided to spend about 8 hours per day on school work this year (6 just felt like it wasn’t nearly enough to get most of the work done for my slow, methodical student). If he spent a little less time on one class that freed up some time for another class, and by sticking to our time budget he maintained a good work/life balance.
• Students took turns reading Meno aloud in class at the end of the year. My son is able to read aloud, but he can’t understand what he is reading while doing so–he has to either read out loud OR process the content, not both. If he is reading aloud, he is focusing on pronouncing the words and not losing his place, rather than on understanding what is being read. He has been open with his teacher and class about his learning disabilities, and that was (I believe) one key to his success. He has learned to own it and not be ashamed of it, and to advocate for himself. We simply explained the situation to his teacher and asked that he be allowed to follow along in the book in class but not be required to read out loud. Problem solved!

Here are some more specific ways we accommodated within each strand:

Latin: My son had already taken two years of high school Latin with another online program before he started CC. He did not get any accommodation for Latin, and got an A in it all 4 semesters. I remember worrying about how he could possibly tackle Latin when he began studying it in 8th grade, but he did just fine. I have since heard several other parents say that their dyslexic students did well with Latin!

If you choose to make accommodations in Latin, however, you could allow open book quizzes, not count off for spelling, or reduce the workload to only what could reasonably be accomplished in one hour per day, allowing your student to fall behind the class if more time is needed. The year my son took Latin 2 he was also taking an English grammar class, and that ended up being a LOT of homework for him. He didn’t get any accommodations in Latin but I ended up pulling him out of the grammar class 2nd semester, deciding to prioritize Latin and reduce his workload in that way. He had already had several years of English grammar and while it would have been great for him to finish the course, I decided he would do better to just focus on the Latin grammar and vocabulary. If Latin is a priority, you could cut the workload elsewhere to make more time for Latin, or you could set a time budget for Latin (CC suggests one hour per day, per strand) and adjust the workload until it fits within that time budget. 

Shakespeare and Poetry: Shakespeare actually took MORE time than required, not less, especially at the beginning of the year. This was mainly because we had to do a bit more to understand it well. First we read a children’s version of the play (CC sells the Charles and Mary Lamb children’s compilation and I also really like the Edith Nesbit book Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children).

Then we watched a DVD version, and then he listened to the original version on audio. Audible had the exact same Folger edition audios that his class was reading. After reading the play, students read Brightest Heaven of Invention and have many questions to “consider” each week. I read BHI aloud with him and we discussed the questions orally. Each question is answered directly and specifically, either in BHI or in the play itself. He highlighted the answer and marked it “RQ1” or “TQ3”, etc. for Review question 1 or Thought Question 3, as I explained above. In class he could go back to the text and find the highlighted answer if he needed to during the classroom discussion.

After the first couple of plays he no longer needed to listen to the children’s version, and we started saving the videos until the end, as he preferred to listen to the unabridged play first. It became much easier to understand once he got used to Shakespeare’s language and writing style, and the ability to get all the exact versions he needed through Audible was wonderful! We still had physical copies of the books, as well, so he could follow along, highlight them, and refer to them as needed in class and for the oral recitations.

Oral recitations: In the Shakespeare strand, students are asked to memorize 30 lines from each of the 5 plays they read. For the fall I shortened that assignment and he memorized 10 to 15 lines per play for the first two plays. This enabled him to participate in the assignment without the huge investment of time to memorize 30 lines. Our goal was for him to memorize longer portions as the year progressed. He thought this would be IMPOSSIBLE for him, but he surprised himself and did very well with it! We tried to find passages that were also available as You Tube videos (excerpts from movies) so he could watch those repeatedly as he worked to memorize the lines.

He also had to memorize a speech during spring semester (he chose Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech) and he did it! We did a google search of “Great speeches from history in audio” and found many audio and video links to choose from. I especially liked this list of great speeches for men from The Art of Manliness. I am so glad I encouraged (required) him to try to do the assignments, even when we had to shorten them from time to time. There were many assignments (like the memorizations) that he wanted me to remove altogether, as he didn’t think he could do it. He was stretched and he grew in confidence as he realized that he actually could do it, and although he occasionally stumbled over some of the words he recited his lines with a lot of drama and expression.

There was another student in his class who substituted some of the Shakespeare recitations with historical speeches or documents (I think one of them was the Declaration of Independence, for example). A friend of mine in another state said she would prefer her child to memorize a lengthy passage of scripture rather than a Shakespeare play. I thought there was value in memorizing the Shakespeare, but any kind of memory work has value so this would be another possible way to accommodate (by memorizing something different and presenting that instead). My son has rattled off many of the lines he memorized on various occasions in conversation where they were unexpected yet appropriate, so for him it provided a kind of cultural literacy that I am really glad he acquired.

Students are also asked to write a literary analysis paper about each play. I had my son keep the length of his first Lit paper about 5 paragraphs to keep this assignment from taking an inordinate amount of time. In the spring he was striving to write 1,000 words for each of his papers, but the 5 paragraphs seemed like a good place to start for a young 10th grader who works very slowly. Once again, I would rather have him write a short paper than no paper at all, and we worked to increase the length of the papers and their complexity as the year progressed.

There was also a poetry journal component in Challenge 3, where students wrote original poetry (sometimes following strict rhyming or metrical regulations). My son did not think he would be good at this and was resistant to trying it, but I made him do it anyway and he found out that he is pretty good at it! That was a pleasant surprise, and he was no longer resistant to writing the poems. I purchased a nice bound journal for him to write his poems in, so it would be a keepsake.

American History: I was able to get the (incredibly thick) Patriot’s History book on audio through Audible, so that was an important factor in even knowing that we could participate in CC. This book is 50 hours long in audio format, so it is a lot of reading each week. My son was capable of reading it, but the time required to do so may have become overwhelming pretty quick. A Challenge 3 director told me that some kids who aren’t ready for a book like this choose to substitute with another book covering similar topics, but I felt my son could handle it since it is available in audio, and that ended up being one of his favorite strands.

Students are to keep up a timeline and history facts notebook, choosing important dates and events from their text. It is virtually impossible for him to scan a text and pick out important names and dates while still grasping the sense of what he is reading, so he took the dates from the timeline that is conveniently placed near the beginning of each chapter, as I described above. He read the chapter first and then looked at the dates on the provided timeline and decided which ones were important enough to add to his timeline.

He made his timeline in the Beedocs app on his phone.  This app allowed him to add a lengthy note to any of the dates if he choose to, so he consolidated his timeline and history facts notebook on the app. After he decided what the significant dates were I helped him look through the text to find a few important sentences about the date and he dictated those into his phone right in the app. This was a very straightforward way for him to complete this assignment. The timeline and history facts notes are meant to help the student prepare for the end of semester Blue Book exams.

This app also allows you to put a photo with each date for a more visually pleasing timeline. He did that the first week but gave that part up as it takes a lot of time to find good images, and doesn’t add much to his understanding or memory of the actual events. It just looks nice.

He was assigned several research papers and some debates for this strand. The papers were meant to be 1,000 words and he had to abbreviate some of them, especially during the fall. For his first paper he aimed for 5 paragraphs to 2 pages, though by the end of the year (when football was over and he was a better writer) he was able to hit the 1,000 word target. For the debates he often had the accommodation of using note cards rather than memorizing his material. Once again, it just takes him so long to get his work done that I decided I wanted him to participate in the debates but not dedicate a lot of time to memorizing that part. Some of the other students in his class used notes for the debates,  so he was not alone in that.

Math:My son continued taking his math through a different local co op that I have used for many years with all my older kids. He does not receive accommodations for that. At CC the students can bring problems they are struggling with and discuss math and mathematical concepts together. Some students are at a lower (or higher) level than others but it works. Everyone can review or preview material, depending on what they are discussing. My son is great at math, but slow. His teacher does allow the class to solve problems using a graphing calculator. Without this accommodation I cannot imagine how long it would take him to do the work.

Logic: My son watched the  Logic (Memoria Press) material on DVD before looking at it in the book and answering the daily homework. One thing I am loving about CC Challenge is that a lot of the required resources are available on DVD or in audio book format. He was able to answer the logic questions in the book, using pencil.

He could, however, have used an app like One Note or Snap Type to take a photograph of the questions and then edit it on the computer to input his answers. He didn’t need to use this type of accommodation much last year, but I would like him to learn how to use some of the technology tools that are out there before he heads to college, so he has more options should the need arise. I love the Whiteboard feature on One Note and I use it a lot myself. It allows you to take a photo of a whiteboard, and it converts the photo so look just like a whiteboard, plus you can search within One Note and it will pull up words that are on the photos (whether they are white board photos or business cards!), as well as any notes you have typed in.

Philosophy: For Philosophy, the students read and discussed The Consequence of Ideas by R. C. Sproul. This book is also available in audio format from Audible, so my son was able to listen to it. We started the year by watching a video of R. C. Sproul by the same title, which covered some of the same material. The video was not identical to the book (they are designed to go together, as companions). The video is “extra” so it is not required. When we were able to get to it, I think it gave my son more thoughts to contribute to the discussions and a greater understanding of a very difficult subject, but eventually we let that go rather than add more work/time.

Sproul has a free study guide to accompany the Consequences of Ideas videos, so we discussed Sproul’s study guide as we worked together on creating a study guide he could take to class, including some questions he could contribute to keep the discussion going and help elucidate the material. I had originally thought he could USE Sproul’s study guide instead of creating his own, but the material on the videos is too different from the book for that to be useful. He could pull about 1/3 of the material from Sproul’s outline but had to add the rest directly from the reading.

LEARNING HOW TO STUDY:

The Challenge program is helping him learn HOW to study and prepare for a class, and the Philosophy study guide is one example. I wanted him to learn the Philosophy–but I also wanted him to learn HOW to make a study guide, how to prepare for a class discussion, how to outline a chapter, etc. This is a challenging skill area for him which took a lot of work. It was a balancing act, as I didn’t want him putting too much time into any one strand but this particular skill will serve him well in college if he can learn how to do it. So for most of the first semester, we worked through it together (preserving his time) with the goal of him learning how to eventually do it on his own (spending some extra time in order to gain a new skill). Also, the Philosophy material was some of the most challenging for him, so he listened to each chapter twice before working on the study guide with me.

Chemistry: Completing experiments together was the main focus on Community day, and kids could ask any questions they have about the text or assignments. For the daily work, my son used an audio book version of the Apologia Chemistry text (also from Audible) as well as the CD Rom version of the text (it is easier for my son to work on the computer than from a physical book, when possible). In some ways he wished he would have had the physical book, however, as he couldn’t take the CD Rom book to class since he didn’t have a laptop.

Another chemistry accommodation I made relates to the lab reports. Students are asked to turn in one formal lab report per module (16 modules altogether). I had my son write one formal lab report per semester (2 total). In addition, he wrote some informal lab reports, and for some labs he did not write a report at all. My son is not planning to go into a science field, and this was another area where we could accommodate to buy him some extra time without affecting the class.

Since community day was primarily for doing labs together, it did not affect anyone else if my son fell behind in his chemistry work. Therefore, this was the strand where I gave him the most leeway to fall behind if he had a busy week with a lot of deadlines. In return he had to sacrifice some of his Christmas/summer break to catch up again, but he took care not to fall too far behind so it wasn’t too burdensome for him.

Now we are starting to get ready for Challenge IV. I am planning to do many of the same kinds of things to enable him to succeed. He will be in 11th grade next year and we are beginning to look toward college. Therefore, as we plan accommodations we will be trying to prioritize two things: learning to use tech tools and learning to work in the way he is most likely to be able to work at college. We will be looking for a college that offers good accommodations to students with diagnosed learning disabilities, but we also recognize that some kinds of help may be hard to come by.

Do you have suggestions that have helped your child succeed in CC Challenge or another high school program? Can you suggest any tech tools we should investigate? If you have a child with learning disabilities in college I would love to hear what accommodations have been available and how your child has been able to survive and thrive in college!

After a year of Classical Conversations with my younger set we decided to take the plunge and enroll two of our older boys in the Challenge Program, which was new on our campus last fall. Our 10th grader was in Challenge III and our 8th grader was in Challenge A. Challenge A and B are for 7th-9th graders and there are 4 senior high levels (Challenge I-IV).

Why I was drawn to Classical Conversations for my older kids

I was drawn to Classical Conversations Challenge program because of the academic rigor and the opportunity for my children to interact with other teens and another adult (besides myself and my husband) on a weekly basis. In our busy home school (with 5 kids still at home) I haven’t had the time to discuss history and literature and worldview and philosophy with my teens as much as I did with their oldest brother (now in college).

Surviving–or thriving–in High School with learning disabilities?

I wasn’t sure how my older son would handle the Challenge Program in light of his learning disabilities. He has dyslexia, dysgraphia, and a slow processing speed, which means that completing all his schoolwork takes quite a bit of time. We have used some accommodations over the years, primarily audio books and various technical helps…but we struggled with other co-op style classes because I didn’t have any control over his workload and many times he felt completely under water trying to get everything done.

Last year (9th grade)  we were definitely in survival mode. He took two local co op classes and 3 online co op classes, plus two classes with me (6 credits). I ended up putting my two classes on hold and doing the majority of the work with him over the summer, after all his local and online co op classes ended. Even so, he was often the first one up during the school year, in order to hit the ground running, and frequently he was the last one in bed at night, just trying to get everything done. We didn’t have much in the way of Christmas, fall, spring, or summer break as he had to spend his breaks trying to catch up where he had fallen behind or doing the work for my two classes (Government and American Literature), which had been put on hold.

The Classical Conversations model keeps the parent as the primary teacher. On community day the kids go to class and their tutor leads them through their six strands (subjects), facilitating discussions and checking on their assigned work, helping with math and chemistry questions, listening to their speeches and debates and critiquing their recitations and papers. But the standards by which the student will be graded and the scope of the workload–as well as the final grade–rest with the parent. This gave me a lot of freedom to tweak my child’s workload and assignments to fit his needs. It was a huge relief to know that I am in control, yet he still has the benefit of the classroom environment and the great discussions and opportunity to learn from others. Even with the modifications we made this past year he benefitted from a rigorous, college-preparatory, stimulating course of study, and  even with some modifications it was no walk in the park–believe me. The Challenge courses are just that–extremely challenging, especially at the higher levels.

After 4 weeks in the program, I had not yet had to change any of the standards and he had done everything his classmates had done, yet the sense of panic was gone. He knew that I was in control and he was able to rest in that. We already had a sense of peace that things were not going to get crazy like last year. We put a plan in place and we committed to work the plan as needed.

As the year progressed, we did have to make some modifications, as we knew we would. I will write more about that in the next post. Although we modified some of the CC work, he ended up accomplishing an incredible amount of rigorous, college preparatory work, and he felt more in control of his schedule and his life. And that was so freeing.

Work/Life Balance

Classical Conversations suggests that kids in the Challenge program spend 1 hour per day on each of the 6 strands. My son had spent about 10 to 12 hours per day the previous year (in 9th grade) on homework (or about 2 hours per subject), because he works so slowly and his workload was quite heavy with a college preparatory classical curriculum. This past year in CC the curriculum was even more rigorous–yet we had some freedom to treat it like a buffet and glean from it as much as we could without feeling like we had to stuff ourselves with every dish.

We generally tried to use the “1 hour per strand per day” as a guideline and go from there. He still had to work more than 6 hours on some days–and sometimes he had to do some work on Saturdays–but he definitely did not work 12 hour days. Once the workload started creeping beyond the guideline, we had a plan in place to start making some accommodations. Our goal was not–and will never be–working just 6 hours per day. That is not realistic for him, sadly, if he wants to pursue this type of an academic load. And he does! But even an 8 hour day was so much better than what my son did the previous year, and he seemed to have more “work/life balance”.

*NOTE: I have seen it recommended (from CC) to offer as much accommodation as necessary to try and keep that “1 hour of work per day, per strand” model, so that is definitely a valid choice. We have chosen to use that as a guideline, while stretching it some to enable my son to get more of the assigned work done. This is a personal choice that he and I made together, and we felt it gave us the best of both worlds–he got the majority of the work completed but without the intense stress he felt his freshman year.

Accommodating for age as well as disability:

My son was a young student for Challenge 3. He was a sophomore, not a junior or senior as some of his classmates were. Some of the curriculum requirements would have been a jump for him even without a learning disability. So we modified some of the standards for the fall (shortened the required length of research papers and memorized recitations, for example) with the goal of being able to increase the length during the spring when he would have more experience.

In my next post I talk about the specific modifications we made last year for Classical Conversations Challenge III.

Ipod: I could write a whole post on the iPod and great apps for dyslexics (and I will try to do so soon!), but for the sake of brevity I will just say that my dyslexic son uses his iPod daily for school.  He can write emails using voice commands (eliminating the need for typing). We have a variety of educational apps installed (including the Bible app mentioned below).

Also, he downloads all his audio books to it.  This is the one tool he could scarcely live without, and school has become SO much easier and more enjoyable with the iPod.

Word for Windows/spell check: My son types most of his assignments now, rather than writing them, as it enables him to make use of the Word spell check feature.  Sometimes he gets an occasional homonym wrong, but for the most part it has had a dramatic effect on his ability to write fluidly and well. This is his preferred software for creative writing.

Dragon:  Dragon is a voice command software that learns the sound of a single user’s voice, thus becoming more accurate as time goes on.  It can be installed on a computer, and there is also a Dragon app for the iPod.  You can use it for writing emails, composing Word documents, or any application where you would normally be writing but prefer to speak.

Ginger:  Ginger is a software you can install on the computer to spell check.  It is similar to the spell check on Word but with a few added features.  You can highlight a sentence and click on it to hear what you have actually typed, enabling the user to recognize mistakes more easily.  It will also suggest substitutions for misspelled words.

Bible: My son uses the You Version Bible for his daily Bible study.  This Bible is an app that he has installed on his iPod, and it allows him to easily select what version he wants to use and what passage.  With the touch of a button, the passage is read aloud for him by a narrator, not a computerized voice.  This app is great, and has been a fantastic aid to his devotions.

How are you using technology in your home school?

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

I have always loved school. By 7 years of age I had already set my sights on an Ivy League education and on all the doors such an education would open for me.  I got my first “B” in 6^th grade, and feared—for a moment—that I had lost my chance to cross that hallowed threshold.

As it turns out, I graduated 2^nd in my high school class, having sacrificed the Valedictorian spot to spend my junior year abroad as an Exchange Student and my senior year pursuing dual enrollment at a prestigious private college.  By every modern definition I was well-educated.  Or was I?

Imagine my surprise when I began to teach my own children at home, and found out that I knew next to nothing about history, geography, and science.  My 10 year old is already more knowledgeable on those subjects than I was when I graduated from University.

Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines schooling as “instruction in school.”  Period.  I had that in spades, yet I was not well educated, at least according to Webster’s 1828 definition of that word.  According to Webster, education “comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth;”

The public school is enemy territory for the Christian student, and those who enter this war zone can expect to have their morality, worldview, and identity as a Christian challenged at every turn. It can hardly be said that this hostile environment enlightens the understanding, where Darwinism reigns and the standardized test score is king.

It is true that the school environment will shape a child’s temper and habits, but it is likely the child will pick up as many negative habits as positive ones.  I have spent my adult life trying to undo the habits I formed in my youth, and my innately sinful temper was not corrected in that environment; instead, it fed my pride and my desire to please man.

Webster goes on to say that education should “fit them for usefulness in their future stations.”  When I graduated from University I could read Chekhov in Russian and translate Faust from the German, but I could not cook a potato–much less a full meal.  In spite of all my schooling I lacked the basic knowledge of many necessary skills.

How much of our sons’ time is spent preparing them for their future stations as men of God, husbands and fathers who will one day represent Christ as the head of their families (Ephesians 5:23, ESV)?  Are we fitting our daughters sufficiently for their likely long term future station as a wife and mother?  I am not opposed to girls getting a college education, if that education will better prepare them to be a suitable helpmeet to their future husband.

My education gave me the confidence and the ability to write this article, and for that I am grateful.  Many of us, however, have accepted the cultural default position, which tells us that our daughters are no different than our sons, and that they should prepare to be independent breadwinners, rather than homemakers.

Webster goes on to say that “to give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable”. I am not suggesting we neglect to instruct our children in the arts and sciences.  On the contrary, our Christian children need and deserve the best education we can give them.  They are the arrows we will soon launch into a pagan world, and the ones who will bring the gospel to future generations.

But Webster rightly points out that although the arts and sciences are important, a religious education is indispensable.  It goes without saying that the public school is antagonistic toward a religious education.  Yet even we who home school have often taken the government schools’ educational system and replicated it at home.  Are we prioritizing math and grammar above the knowledge of God’s Word?  Is it more important to us to raise a scholar or a disciple of Christ? 

Graduating scholars from my home school  may validate me in the eyes of the world, proving that the sacrifice of my time and potential career was “worth it”.   But what does it profit a man—or a child—if he gains the whole world yet loses his soul (Mark 8:36 ESV)?

Webster concludes his definition of education by saying that “an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties.”  First, we must remember that it is “God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2: 13, ESV).  We cannot sanctify our children; that is the work of the Holy Spirit.  Nevertheless, we are responsible before God to educate them, in every sense of that word.

We dare not merely school them.

Economics for Everybody from Ligonier on Vimeo.

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).