First Day of School

On Wednesday, Ryan went off to school, and Mark set about opening his box from Calvert School for 8th grade.  Holy Cow, when did my baby get to be that old?  Anyway...

Calvert School sends everything you need.  We're doing their rigorous 8th grade course this year, with Algebra I for extra fun.  And here we are, with Mark starting his Algebra on the first day of school.

These are all of the school books we got.  I ordered the grammar workbook separately, to avoid fights over making the child write out sentences from the textbook.  He's been quite good at grammar anyway, so as long as he can identify the parts of speech, correct punctuation, etc, etc, etc, why create extra busywork and hard feelings?  Ryan cheered vigorously on his brother's behalf because they revamped the reading curriculum, eliminating David Copperfield.  To be fair, while the bones of the story are good, since Dickens was paid by the word, he can have a tendency to ramble for 50 pages where 5 would have sufficed.  Sorry, Sue, I know you love Dickens, but to a 13 year old boy, those extra 45 pages of long-windedness several times in the book are really hard to stomach.  Some of these books can be switched in lieu of the classics (Johnny Tremain, Prince & the Pauper), and I may do so.  But I have at least a month to decide.

Not shown in the pictures is the "gold" of the Calvert Homeschool program: the Lesson Manuals.  That's how I can get through this.  They tell me what to cover every day, what to discuss, give me an introduction to each subject's daily lesson, and questions to ask for comprehension.  And I know that in the end, my little guy will know more than his peers starting high school, which is great comfort to me.

Ryan's Trigonometry teacher recognized his last name, and inquired as to whether he has 3 older sisters; we were all greatly amused that the teacher remembered them, especially since he had 2 of them in different classes in the same school year, and it took him until March to realize that they were sisters, and that they were both related to the one he'd had the year before.  Ryan was also amused to report that in the first day of Chemistry class, the teacher was explaining that in case of something going awry, there is an emergency shower located in the classroom.  However, there is no emergency loofah; Ryan did ask.

So, we're somewhat settled back into the school rhythm.  Hope you all have a great weekend!

Calvert School's State History Course

I bought the Calvert School PA State History course for my youngest son last year, and never did use it. I have been able to find time this year, and he's been enjoying it.

Tuesday's assignment was for the child to draw a map of the state. My boy decided this was boring, and made a 3D map.

He knows the mountains go farther north than this in Pennsylvania, but he put his mountains on the south central border, where they are the highest. He also made a tiny paper capital building for Harrisburg, and towers for the most important cities in the state: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Scranton and Erie. Allentown wasn't important enough to him to try to shoehorn it between Scranton and Philadelphia.

And I love that he made rivers, too. While it's certainly not complete geographically, the little guy had fun. And that counts for something in school, right?

And Happy Veteran's Day to all of our veterans and their families. You are always in my thoughts.

Our First 7th Grade Test

Thank you all for your dishwasher detergent comments. I'm doing more research, and will report when I have something intelligent to say.

So, today we've been working on Mark's first test for Calvert School's seventh grade. There are probably a bunch of you who wonder why on earth I would homeschool my kids instead of sending them to school. Well, in a word, it's a very deep curriculum for whatever age is being taught. Here are sample questions from his testing. Remember, this is the first test for seventh grade. These questions are typical, and I think there are adults who would be hard pressed to answer some of these. For example:

Reading: "The reader could view the story told in Around the World in 80 Days as two races - one involving Phileas Fogg, the other involving Fix. Write a paragraph discussing the two races and be sure to include what each character is racing, and for what reason."

Geography: "Half of earth's land is not useful to humans. Why do you think this is so?"

Art History: "List 3 characteristics of an Egyptian temple."

Science: "List and describe 3 characteristics of living things."

History: "Using complete sentences, identify and give the importance of: archaeology, Constantine, Justinian, Muhammad, Gupta India and Byzantine Empire."

Of course, there are spelling, grammar and composition requirements, multiple choice and fill in the blanks for all areas, and many more than just one question for each subject. I just took the first question from each area for you.

And we miss our school guidance counselor terribly. He was a great, soothing presence in the classroom for many years.

First Day of School

I ordered Mark's 7th grade course last spring, when Calvert School was having a big sale on their curriculum. I love their curriculum, which includes detailed teaching manuals (so I feel competent)! In any event, we don't open the box until the start of the school year. I want the books to be as fresh and exciting as possible. So, here's the student, inspecting his books.

He arranged his books on the table for me to take pictures. The Science course has 5 individual books, three of which concentrate on Biology. The first book deals with plants and animals, and they go on from there. Geography this year covers the Western world, which dovetails with the History course, covering the time frame from 150 AD to 1789, including the fall of the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, the rise of Christianity and Islam, and China and India. Grammar, Composition and Spelling are what they are, but I love the fact that the Reading course uses great novels instead of the stereotypical Reading books.
I'm not quite sure why Mark took up residence in the box, but he was hollering for me to UPS him to some place more "interesting" than home.

And we can't forget Ryan's first day of school. He hollered at me for taking a picture of him in front of the growth chart: "I'm too tall for this!" So it only goes to 72". So what?
Mark still fits on the chart at 5'4".

One funny note from Ryan's first day of school. The school handbook was modified this year to ban another dangerous thing from being brought to school. No, not guns. Not knives. They were already banned. (Barbecues are banned, too, after my oldest son's best friend brought a small grill to hold a cookout before school on the first day in 2000.) Nope. They have banned Hacky Sacks. Yes, the small beanbags that kids toss around. Can't have those pesky kids having fun between classes, now, can we?

Happy Grammar Day!

Yes, Happy Grammar Day. This is the only date which is a complete (imperative) sentence. How sad is it that I know that, and how much sadder yet that I celebrate it? Anyway...

I posted the recipe for pretzels, which we got from the Calvert School Kindergarten curriculum, a few years back. It's easy and fun, and well worth repeating. Heck, some of you might even want to make grammar day pretzels for you own celebrations. More likely not.
SOFT PRETZELS

1-1/2 cups warm water
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3 tsp yeast

Sprinkle the yeast into the water to soften. If using a bread machine, add the flour and salt and let it run for about 10 minutes, to combine the dough. To mix by hand, stir in the flour and salt, then knead on a floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth. Let it sit 15 minutes, then break off pieces and roll into 1/2" diameter tubes. Twist them any way you'd like - letters, numbers, even the traditional pretzel knot! Brush the tops of the pretzels with warm milk, then lightly sprinkle sea salt or kosher salt over the top of them. Let them rise until doubled in size, then put in the oven at 400F. Toss a handful of ice cubes in the bottom of the oven, turn it off, then back to 400F to force the temperature back up, and bake for about 15 minutes, until nicely browned.

Of course, be sure to leave the salt off a couple of pretzels, so the dog in your life can have some. Just look at Thor's face a year or 2 back; see how eager he is for his pretzel?
We won't be making our Grammar Day pretzels until after Ryan gets home from school. A traditional brother activity cannot be done solo.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Calvert School 8th Grade Review

My little Ryan starts High School tomorrow! *sob*

Don't tell me a 14 year old who's 6'3" isn't little. You'll make me cry. *sob*

Ryan finished eighth grade with Algebra I in June. There's no doubt that Algebra was the hardest thing to teach, made even harder by the fact that he really doesn't like math. Nonetheless, the parent can teach the child either by presenting him with the manual or reading the material from the manual to him and going through the steps to demonstrate the skill being taught. No prior Algebra experience is required. Calvert supplied the textbook, lesson manual and an answer key that shows the steps used for solving the problem, not just the answer, so you can figure out where the child made his error.

I bought the 2008-2009 8th grade curriculum, because I wanted the old reading books, including Johnny Tremain, Hounds of the Baskervilles, rThe Prince and The Pauper, and David Copperfield. Ryan enjoyed all of these EXCEPT Copperfield. He's learned that while Dickens may tell a good story, and it may make a good movie, paying authors by the word makes for dull reading. I believe all of these books have been replaced by more contemporary works, and I don't necessarily agree with that decision, but Calvert didn't consult me before doing it. Calvert also supplied a very big book of poetry, many of which were epic poems, to which Ryan had mixed reactions. Spelling is still the original Calvert course, about 20 words per day for the first 3 days of the week, with the last two days devoted to working on misspelled words. They also use a very interesting vocabulary book, with exercises that are interesting, and even your eighth grader would admit "might be" fun. Grammar and Composition are taught from the same book, Elements of Language, and sentence diagramming reinforces the structure of grammar. There are not too many compositions assigned, usually one every week or 2, but a great deal of time is spent developing each composition. There were also some fun exercises included; Ryan made travel brochures for "Once In a Lifetime" trips to Venus (bring coloring books and crayons to keep small children amused for the long ride) and the Jurassic period (stay with your tour group; we cannot be responsible for people carried off by dinosaurs).
The US History course was very detailed, and Geography was neatly intertwined with History. Science was taught through a series of 5 books, including Geology, Space, Electricity, and Environment. There were Calvert-created workbooks to help with the study of both of these subjects. Ryan's greatest regret was that Virgil Hillyer didn't have a fourth History of Art course for eighth grade.

I'm proud of how much my boy learned in Calvert School. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to cry because he's that much closer to flying the coop. *sob*

Calvert School 5th grade Review

Well, there's nothing like being poky, now is there? We finished school back in early June, of course, but I've been ignoring that. Now, with Ryan starting high school tomorrow, it's time to stop ignoring everything. And I received a question from a lady named Dee Dee regarding Calvert School's Fifth Grade, with no way to reply to her directly, so I'll try to address it here.

Mark's a year ahead in math, so he used Calvert's Sixth Grade math. One of the nice things about Calvert School is that you can choose math above or below your child's grade level, and the math book is not marked with a grade level, so it's just math! Calvert starts with a test to review what the child knows, and then provides 10 review lessons that can be used to refresh the child's memory if he/she is shaky on anything. So, Dee Dee, if your daughter is a little shaky in math, as indicated by the placement test, then use fourth grade math with her. It's still more advanced than public school's fifth grade math, and fouth grade math provides an excellent review of the 4 basic math functions, followed by more advanced concepts, including fractions, word problems, probability, etc.
Calvert's fifth grade included a number of good books. First up was Shiloh, about a boy who took in a beagle. This book presented an interesting moral dilemma for my little guy, who did not like the story because the dog, Shiloh, belonged to a local lout, who abused his dogs. While Mark knows it's wrong to mistreat animals, he also knows it's wrong to steal someone else's dog. He struggled, therefore, with this book, because he had a hard time finding a "good guy" in the book. I was proud that he saw the wrong on the part of both the parties involved with this poor beagle. The next book was The Sign of the Beaver, set in Maine in the late 1700s, about a white boy who's befriended by a tribe of Indians. This was Mark's favorite book of the year. American Tall Tales was a series of short stories about legends we all know, including Paul Bunyan. Call It Courage and Sing Down the Moon both dealt with native children dealing with the process of growing up, Number the Stars was about two girls in Denmark, one Jewish and one Christian, during World War II, and the Christian girl's family helping the Jewish girl's family escape the Nazis. The last book was The Secret Garden, traditionally read by girls, but both of my boys have reluctantly enjoyed it. Dee Dee, in the scholastic version of this course, two of the books are eliminated. Calvert's teacher manual is excellent, because it gives us an introduction to read to the child before he starts reading the assignment, and comprehension/discussion questions for after the reading is complete. Since your daughter is a reluctant reader, you can have her alternate reading aloud pages with you, which will improve her reading comprehension and speed. If you're willing to work at it, she can do this.

Grammar is covered in a Calvert School written workbook, and is a very thorough course. Critical Thinking and Reading Comprehension workbooks help enhance the reading and composition processes, and compositions are assigned, with them telling the parent how to teach the child to write better. Spelling is the Scott Foresman program, and is evidently well liked by others (although I still prefer Calvert's original 10 words per day spelling program). Science and History are nationally known programs, and Calvert goes through the entire book during the year - something schools don't do. History is a US History course, and my little guy enjoyed it. The Child's History of Art course covers the history of painting, starting with the Caves at Lascaux, continuing through Egyptian art and right up to Picasso and modern artists. It's great exposure for children to a subject many adults know only vaguely!

Dee Dee, I hope I've answered your questions. If not, please leave me your email address (I promise I'll delete it from public view as soon as I write it down), so I can correspond with you directly.

For anyone looking for a great homeschool curriculum, Calvert School delivers. It's not cheap, but it is very thorough, and a lot less than any private school tuition, even parochial schools.

Geology Dog

OK, so he wasn't really out there playing with rocks. But Ryan and Thor were learning about relative ages of rocks, using sections of sandwich to clarify the issue. (Calvert School has such great suggestions for fun in learning that even dogs want to join in!)

Mom made a triple decker sandwich with 2 fillings, and used a small biscuit cutter to make 3 cross sections of our "rock wall".
Thor didn't inspect his for long....

Before he just snagged it.
Happy Thorsday, everyone!

The Missing Teacher

In honor of Gaylen's present to me, I'm sharing with you this story which my youngest wrote last year, in the middle of fourth grade. They were assigned to write a story using several elements, but none of them struck my boy's fancy. Thus, you have, complete with his spelling and punctuation errors....
THE MISSING TEACHER

If someone asked George if he had something to do with it, he'd say no. But the truth was he did. In fact, he had a lot to do with it. But let's start at the beginning. Goerge had given his teacher an apple the previous day, and now she was missing. It was 8:45, the bell had just rung. "Where's the teacher?" Katie asked? "Dunno,"said Joe. "Let's have a party," he suggested.

"But wait," one cautious boy said, "What if she walks in two minutes from now?"
"Now, Sam, you well know she would not do a stupid thing like that," said Steven. Sam wasn't convinced. "Yes, she would," he'd say. "If she doesn't come in now, it's likly she won't come in."

"Yes, I know that, said Sam, but like you sayed, there is a slim chance she will." The others started taking sides. Some agreed with Steven, but most agreed with Sam. "Okay you guys can sit there and do Science like wimps," said Steven. He and his friends began to play games.

"You'll be sorry," said Sam. Andy began to be teacher. "Everybody must now begin to dance on their desks." The children had no choice but to obey. After school that day John, Tim, Tom, Joe and Sam met under the big oak tree in the yard. "I think someone kidnaped her," annonced Joe. All the others agreed. "I think we should try to rescue her." A rainstorm began. Steven walked up to them. "You honestly think she was kidnapped?" His voice was as angry as the storm. "You morons." He stomped away.

The sun cleared. The clouds rolled away. "Oh dear me," said Tim. "It's blue out. Cheer up you gloomy thing," said Tom. "Alright everyone," said Sam abruptly. "Our first course of action will be to find out anything that will give us any information about the capture."

The next day, they all reported to Sam. "All I found was a piece of apple skin," said Joe. They looked each other strangly. "GEORGE!" they bellowed. George came immedeetly. "Did you, by any chance eat an apple yesterday?"

"No." came the reply. George looked at them as if they had 3 heads. "I gave her an apple, but she did not eat it." Sam got excited. "We must find out who ate the teacher's apple. The we find out if he captured the teacher." They took a survey of the class, but no one had ate it. "I do enjoy apples," Brian had said. "But I most certainly did not eat the teachers apple."

"One of you is lying,"said Joe. "And when we find out who it is, you will be very, very, very sorry."

Suspect 1: Steven, because he is very opposing of us finding the teacher, he did not want to be caught.

Suspect 2: Brian. He likes apples so he might have ate it, then locked the teacher up.

That is what the suspect list looked like. The next morning in Science, the Science teacher explained about fingerprints. "There are loops, arches and whorls," she had said. "The apple piece looks like it has no fingerprints on it," commented Tom. as Joe and John walked home together discussing the day's happenings, they saw a trail of apple skin. They decided to follow it. At the end was the teacher's house. They walked through her house. There she was knitting a sock. "I could not go to school without a sock," she explained. She went back to school and everything went back to normal.

--------------------------------------------------

I was reminded of this story by Gaylen's thoughtful gift. I hope you all got a good chuckle out of it, too.

Calvert School: Guest Starring my Youngest

One of the things I really like about Calvert School is that it drills composition skills into children. Second grade starts with fill in the blanks compositions, and it gets successively harder every year thereafter. With that increase in difficulty come some more interesting assignments. One of the ones at the end of fourth grade was, "If you could have dinner with a famous person, who would it be, and what would you do?" Here is the answer from my youngest, written when he was 9-1/2 years old.

If I invited someone famous to my house, ti would be Thomas Jefferson because I think he's a good president.

When he came to the door I'd say improtant things like "Nice outfit," and "After you Mr. Jefferson."

When we went to the living room, he would say "This isn't as nice as Monticello." Then he'd see the picture of him signing the Declaration of Independence and say "NO NO NO, I WAS IN THE CHAIR NOT JOHN HANCOCK!!!" After a moment of silence I'd say "Pardon me."

At dinner, I'd have a 50 course buffet, and he'd say, "Where is the cornbread?" "Cornbread? I know nothing of this mythical cornbread." "THEN WHAT TYPE OF FOOD DO YOU EAT?!?!?!?" "Turkey," I'd say. "When I was a boy, I had to wrestle a grizzly bear for food." "We do it different nowadays," I'd say.

When it was time to leave, I'd say, "Well, I guess this is it." "Yeah," he'd say.

If you could meet a famous person, who would it be?

I typed all of his punctuation and spelling exactly as he wrote it. While his paragraphing of the dialogue was wrong, I did enjoy his conversation. And I was proud that my kid wouldn't want to meet an athlete, musician or movie star.

So, answer Mark's question: If you could meet a famous person, who would it be?

Calvert School 5th & 8th Grades

Well, school is started again. I've had the curriculums since late June, and never opened them until last weekend. Because Calvert School was changing their eighth grade reading selections, and I wanted to retain the classics, I ordered at the end of "last year".

My baby is doing Calvert fifth grade with 6th grade math. *sob* Where has the time gone? I want the tiny squalling pink creature back! That's not to say that my baby isn't brilliant and wonderful; of course he is (and I'm sure all of yours are, too). But the time passes too swiftly.

Included in Calvert's fifth grade course are several novels, including Shiloh (the first one we're reading), The Secret Garden, Sing Down the Moon, Sign of the Beaver and American Tall Tales. We're also studying US History and Geography. Science expands on what we've done in past years, Grammar and Composition are givens. Art History is a wonderful course. For fifth grade, it's the study of the history of painting. It's funny, but Ryan recognizes styles and many of the paintings he learned about in this course. I hope Mark enjoys it as much.

Eighth Grade will be intense. We're studying Algebra for Ryan's math course this year (I read through the tests, and am happily stunned at how much I remember). Science starts with the study of cells, and will progress through 5 books. Ryan, too, is studying US History and Geography. If we get sunshine early next week, I'm going to send the boys out to draw a US map in the driveway. If you can't have fun, what's the point of school? Grammar and composition will doubtless be increasingly intense, as is spelling. There is a separate vocabulary study course, and, of course, reading. The course starts with Johnny Tremain. Other novels include David Copperfield, the Hounds of the Baskervilles and The Prince and The Pauper. We're also reading "story" poetry this year, such as Casey at the Bat. Hopefully we'll enjoy that more than "sissified" poetry like Emily Dickenson.
Of course, the Lesson Manuals for Calvert School can't be beat. I don't have to think so much as read and talk to the kids. I couldn't do this without the manuals.
I may be crazy, but I also ordered a Civics in America course for the two boys, along with Discoveries in Art and Latin I. We've started the art course (and we'll see if I can stick with it), I want to start Civics next week, and I don't know if I'll fit Latin in this year. I've been known to take on more than is humanly possible, and this just might be such a case.

I hope you've all enjoyed your preview of my school year. Now, off to some sewing, and pie crust making (I'm trying, I'm trying!), and whatever else happens in my little corner of the world. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Calvert 7th Grade Review

Well, I'm only 5 or 6 weeks late in writing this. I'm sure none of you was holding your breath anyway, right? This is the Calvert 7th Grade Academic Curriculum; their Scholastic curriculum uses one or two fewer novels, and some number fewer compositions.

Ryan hates math. That being said, he did wonderfully with 7th Grade Calvert math. They write their own math curriculum, and it's very well organized and comprehensive. One of the things I like is that they have a test to be administered at the beginning of the course to see what the child remembers from previous years. They then offer 10 lessons for review of anything in which he's rusty. Ryan was so proud that he didn't need any of those reviews! This was a great pre-algebra course, introducing equalities and inequalities, variables and formulas. There was plenty of geography, including the Pythagorean Theorem, complementary and supplementary angles, polygons, parallel and perpendicular lines, etc. There was also some statistics, graphing, patterns and number theory, as well as the usual math and plenty of word problems. Right after we finished the course, Ryan took the Algebra I placement test, and aced it! He's excited.

Spelling was the Scott Foresman book. Ryan finds it rather tedious, and I would have preferred it if Calvert had continued using their original spelling course. I've sung this song before, and I'm sure everyone's bored with it.

Reading was an excellent course. Scattered through the course was poetry from the book Classic Poems to Read Aloud. Neither my student nor I was much excited about Poetry. That being said, I suppose it makes him a more well rounded person, and there's a lot of good to be said for exposure to many different literature forms. The first book we read was Kidnapped, followed by Around the World in 80 days. Both of these books are beyond exciting for a 12 year old, especially one whose mother does not allow TV to speak of, and whose computer use is severely limited, to the exclusion of all video games. These two factors give my children very vivid imaginations, a necessary factor in finding the excitement in books (in my opinion). After these two books, we read The Miracle Worker. Ryan expected to dislike this book based on two factors: (a) it is a play, and (b) it's about Helen Keller. He was very pleasantly surprised by the book indeed, and was cheering for Helen and Annie Sullivan at the end! Following that was Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, another book Ryan expected to dislike. He was surprised by this one as well. It's about a black family in the deep south prior to WWII, very well written and riveting. The last book was Anne Frank, and Ryan didn't like it at all. He found it very dull. Truthfully, I understand and don't disagree.

Composition and Grammar are somewhat intertwined, being taught from the same textbook. I found the publisher and ordered a workbook from them, so Ryan wouldn't have to write out the grammar exercises. This may somewhat defeat the purpose, but as parents we must choose our battles. I choose to have the child identify parts of speech by circling them in a workbook rather than copy the sentence and then circle the parts of speech. Another aspect of grammar is diagramming sentences. This is a somewhat tedious chore, but it's invaluable in teaching the child parts of speech. There is a review booklet included which can be used at any time during the course. It goes through everything taught in 6th grade sentence diagramming. We read through it several times, although Ryan declined to use it. Grammar included sentence and paragraph structure, including simple, compound and complex sentences. These lessons were interspersed with the Composition lessons. As a generality, the child wrote one composition every week or two, and had a large project due every 20 lessons (one month). Assignments included narrative and descriptive compositions, letters, book reports, interviewing and a research report. By and large, Ryan enjoyed the assignments - as much as a 12 year old will, at any rate.

Geography was a study of the climate, landforms, vegetation, minerals, demographics and economies of North and South America, Europe and Russia (following the same course covering Asia, Africa and Australia/Pacific Islands last year), along with map reading and an introduction to global issues. There was a lot of information in this course, and we enjoyed it.

History covered the time following the fall of the Roman Empire, and went through the American Revolution. It covered political, social (including religious) and economic changes in the world. There was even a unit on the history of the Muslim religion, an area about which most of us know painfully little. Ryan really likes history, and this course led to some great dinner time conversations with his father and big brothers, who really love the subject. Of course, as I stated in my review of 4th grade, this is a much more in depth course, and quite age appropriate.

Also included was an Art History course covering architecture. It includes everything from early architecture and pyramids to new modern buildings. They cover styles of columns, interior and exterior trim and embellishments, and styles of architecture. The is the third in the Child's History of Art series written by Calvert School, and it is a wonderful enrichment for any child's education (and some of us parental figures can learn something, too!). The course also includes art lessons based on this art history course.

Science used 5 books from the Science Explorer series: From Bacteria to Plants, Animals, Human Biology and Health (remember my rant about the food pyramid?), Motion, Force and Energy, and Sound and Light. As has happened in times past, the Science curriculum spirals into ever more detail. Ryan enjoyed every book except the Human Biology book. Oddly enough, he doesn't like Science about people, but finds it rather boring. Well, I guess we don't have a burgeoning doctor in our midst (for which the college fund is grateful). There were plenty of experiments, and, for the first time, the test service required that some experiment results be turned in with the tests. One thing that I appreciated is that when multiple books are used for a course, the child feels a sense of real accomplishment when he finishes a book and can put it away.

As with 4th grade, Calvert includes online technology lessons for 7th grade. They teach such things as word processing, desktop publishing, networks, use of the internet and hyperlinks.

The lesson manual for 7th grade is written to the student, but I kept it and read the material to my son, except when it was a very long introduction to a new topic or a new book. He didn't like reading the lesson information to himself, and I feel that doing the introductions, and acting as teacher, kept me more "in the loop." I'm sure there are people out there who are happy to hand the manual off to the child, and just ask the discussion questions, but I like to control my environment and my child's education. The lesson manual is a really invaluable tool. Even for someone not trained as a teacher, it gives me the confidence to believe I can teach every single thing in this curriculum to my son. His excellent grades, as given by the Calvert School Advisory Teacher (I pay extra for this service, very happily), prove that I am right. If you have any questions about this, or any Calvert course grades K through 7, leave your email address with your comment, and I'll try to respond. And Paula, I'd love to see you write what you thought of Calvert's 7th grade interactive program!

Calvert 4th Grade Review

Well, we finished school quite a while ago, but with the house being its usual circus, I never did my end of year school summary.

This is my second time through Calvert School's 4th grade homeschool curriculum, and I loved it must as much the second time around. I've been homeschooling this child since Kindergarten, always using Calvert's curriculum, and been nothing but pleased with it. My son is highly intelligent, and has always been considered "too young" for the grade that he's in by the school district. This is why I started teaching him in the first place: his birthday being only 5 days after mine, I knew he could start Kindergarten 2 months before his 5th birthday and do well, but the school district refused to even consider admitting a child who could already add and subtract, and was beginning to sound out words. "He's too young," they said, "He can't possibly do this work."

So here he is, finished with 4th grade 3 months before he "should" start it. Let me tell you about our year.

Mark used Calvert's 5th grade math (remember, he taught himself to add and subtract before he was 4). After reviews of place values, multi digit addition and subtraction, and other such concepts, he learned multiplying 3 digit numbers by 1, 2 and 3 digit numbers, longer division, areas, perimeters, graphing, and rudimentary statistics. It is a well organized program, and the separate math manual tells me, the parent, exactly how to explain each thing to the child. The answer keys do not show how to arrive at the answers; they simply give the correct answers. I don't feel that the steps are necessary. If Mark didn't understand something, we would work it out together on a white board (which is obviously more fun than paper) and get the right answer, then let him work similar problems until he had the process down. My biggest problem with this child is that he doesn't want to write down all of his steps, because he can do so much in his head. Well, September starts another year in which I can try to beat him into writing his steps down...

Other than Math, we used the 4th grade curriculum. I understand that Calvert is offering a somewhat simpler 4th grade curriculum next year, the Scholastic curriculum, in addition to the Academic Curriculum, which is what we used. This is a lot of work, but the kids do learn much more than one would think possible, and much more than I would have thought I could teach!

Spelling is the Scott-Foresman 4th grade book. I was not a fan when Calvert changed from their original spelling program to this a couple of years back, and haven't changed my mind, but there were a number of parents who were happy that their chlidren would no longer have to learn 40 words per week. This is a standard spelling book; nothing more needs be said.

Reading is a wonderful program. The kids read novels written for their age group. We started with Robinson Crusoe, then proceeded to Mighty Men and Famous Legends (both produced by Calvert School), and finished with Island of the Blue Dolphins. My son expected not to like Island of the Blue Dolphins (his brother had held the same expectation), and very much enjoyed it. The lesson manual presents discussion questions which query the child's memory of the events of the chapter, and also questions which cause the child to think about what he read, and conclude why something happened, or what might be in the future. There is also a phonics workbook (which is optional), which helps with both reading and spelling if the child has trouble in either area. Finally, a Critical Thinking workbook helps develop the child's analytic thinking process. A separate collection of poetry was assigned periodically, although there wasn't any formal analysis of it. We enjoyed the reading greatly.

Grammar is taught via a Calvert developed workbook. It introduces nouns, pronouns, verbs, including verbs of being, verb tense, regular and irregular verbs. The book also covers pronouns, including subject and object pronouns (no, you may not say "Ben and me are going to the beach," and you also may not say "Give the money to Ben and I.") Adverbs, adjectives and subject complements round out the course. Blech, I know. I love grammar. I'm nuts.

Composition is a biggie in Calvert. They teach the planning stages, as well as refining compositions. The assignments included compositions about self, factual compositions, fiction and letters. One assignment I vividly remember was where the child was supposed to write about a famous person he'd like to meet and what they'd do. My son invited Thomas Jefferson to dinner. Yes, the dead president. If I can remember, I'll find that and reproduce it for you one of these days; it was humorous. They also had to write letters to someone about a real thing; it could be something about their town, or even a suggestion to a toy company about something they'd like. My son griped about creating planners or outlines, because he likes to write out of his head, but he did enjoy most of the assignments.

History uses the book "A Child's History of the World". This is an excellent book. It presents the basics of history from cave men to present, in a story format, which children can read and enjoy. I've seen people on the Calvert School forum complain that there isn't enough detail to the course, but, let's face it, 4th graders are 9 years old. Are we really trying to give them all the details of everything that ever happened? They'd be overwhelmed. Give them a nice overview, and they'll find topics about which they want to read more. And they will certainly learn more in the next few years with Calvert. For me, this course is an excellent introduction to the history of the world. It also came with a workbook which contains an outline of each story, and the child has to fill in key words in the outline. This was a great refresher, and it also is a nice introduction to outlining.

Geography was an introduction to the art of map reading. Now, I know that map reading is rapidly becoming a lost art, with Mapquest and GPS units in most cars (but not mine), but I think it's important. This course taught latitude and longitude, continents, oceans, distances from a map scale, using a map key, and geographic regions. It's a little dull at times, but what isn't? And you really can't understand your world or history without an understanding of geography.

Science uses the McGraw Hill textbook, which has input from National Geographic. It's a nice, colorful text, well written. I find that each year of Science is pretty much the same as the previous, but more in depth. We start with plants, and this year learned about plant cells. We also learned about animal cells, vertebrates and invertebrates, and classifying living organisms. Simple machines, motion, magentism, rocks and fossils, and the human body were other units. While Ryan loves Science, my little guy really doesn't. Overall, however, this is a good course, and he learned a great deal, albeit reluctantly.

Calvert also includes an online technology course. It's really child friendly, and touches on everything from typing to internet to word processing.

If you have any questions, please ask them. If you leave your email address when you sign in, I'll give you a personal answer to any of your questions. I am looking forward to 5th grade with Mark, in a couple of months, when we've had time to enjoy our summer, of course. I'll post about 7th grade shortly.

Ice Cream in a Bag

I'm pretty sure I've done this a couple of years ago, but it bears repeating.

Looking for a way to entertain the kids for a while? A fun picnic dessert, perhaps? Ice cream in a bag will leave people wondering if you've gone off the deep end, and the kids will like it. You can even sneak a little bit of science education in there, while they aren't looking.

This idea came to me from Calvert School, although I've revised the recipe a bit from what they offered.

The first time I did this with my little boys, they were depressed because many of the big kids had just left for college. So when they got up that day, they found a big cardboard box labelled "Box Of Fun" on the kitchen table. Slicing it open, they found the necessary items and instructions for "Ice Cream in a Bag"! Entertaining, right? Well, OK, maybe not yet.

Here's what you need:

1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
1 quart sized Ziploc bag (with double zipper)
1 gallon sized ziploc bag
4 cups ice (minimum)
1/4 cup salt
cups and spoons

In the smaller Ziploc bag, carefully pour in the sugar, vanilla, cream and milk. Squeeze out as much of the air as possible, and zip it closed. Put half the ice in the bigger bag, along with the salt; put in the milk filled bag and add the rest of the ice. Shake it around. A lot. It will take 15 to 20 minutes. You may want to add more ice and salt as it melts. Wrap the bag in a towel for easy grasping, and/or pass it from person to person for shaking. When the ice cream has solidified (it will still be quite soft), scoop it into the cups. Serves 2 to 3.

The science behind this: Salt reduces the freezing point of water, so even though the ice melts, it's colder than 32F, and it will freeze the milk mixture. (See? Simple and painless, the kids will remember this. It's also why salt melts ice on driveways and streets, and here in the northeast we are cursed with body rot. I mean on our cars; on our persons, salt is not to blame.)

Variations to this recipe include adding 1/4 cup of diced frozen fruit, such as blueberries, strawberries or peaches, or 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, which can also be frozen, or replacing the vanilla with 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract, a couple of drops of green food coloring, and the chocolate chips. Add sprinkles and/or chocolate or strawberry sauce to the top for even more fun.

Have fun, and remember, let the kids have some!

Teaching "Health" to Children

Probably most of you know that I teach my two youngest boys using the Calvert School curriculum. They're in 4th and 7th grades, and it's a delight to teach using these well designed courses. All of the books they use, whether Calvert designed or published by other companies, are child friendly, colorful, in depth, and just plain nice. One of the things I like about these courses (aside from the fact that they give me manuals telling me how to teach the information, which I really need!) is the parent forum, in which parents ask questions and give each other ideas. Invariably, each summer, when the majority of people are ordering their courses for the next year, there is great discussion over "Why doesn't Calvert have a stand alone health course?" Well, well.

Personally, I've never thought schools were supposed to teach health to children, and I've held this opinion since I was in school. Once they taught me the "4 basic food groups", I was good to go. I understood that larger people need more food, and smaller people need less food. Gee, what a concept!

Anyway, Calvert teaches basic health and nutrition in Science. Each year, they teach a little more, in a bit more detail. But really, the child learns his health information at home. I'm not referring here to the function of muscles, for example, which this textbook covers very well, or the organ systems. I am referring to personal health and nutrition, and I think these belong in the home. I have always had a rule: dinner must include meat, complex carbohydrates and two veggies, one of which must be green. My children routinely recite, when asked to select two veggies, "One of which must be green!" And, other than on rainy days, I have always thrown them out in the yard for hours on end. Indeed, my little guys will go out after breakfast, come in to collect a picnic basket full of food for lunch (including some for Thor), and just spend the day outside if it's not absurdly cold. Balanced diet and exercise program which is just "having fun". What else is there to teach? Hygiene? Again, not the school's job.

I do overall like Calvert's approach. As the child gets older, the information in the Science book becomes more in depth. And I agree with Calvert's unstated position that they teach the basics, but it's really a parent's job to teach the child to live right.

I dislike the food pyramid. Really, that thing says "You have to eat stuff. We won't tell you how much." What's wrong with 3 servings daily of meat, fruits and veggies, starches and dairy products? If we remember that Daddy eats more than Mommy because he's a foot taller and weighs 90 pounds more, then everything is good. In my trusty old Reader's Digest cookbook, from a tag sale when I was 14, there are charts for how many calories males and females of various ages and heights should consume, and that's the best information anyone can have.

Well, I've ranted. What do you think?

4th and 7th Grade Calvert School

Tomorrow is the first day of school; today, the boys enjoy the end of summer.

Over the weekend, I unpacked our Calvert books. Ryan is very excited, because there are five Science books for 7th grade. The Calvert math program has recently been revised, and the book is, as I have come to expect, very well done. Reading is a nice selection of classic novels and poetry, and the geography and history courses are quite comprehensive. To go with the grammar and composition textbook, I ordered a companion workbook from the book's publisher. I don't see the reason to have the boy copying sentences in order to complete fill in the blank work, but that's my opinion only. Overall, I am quite pleased. As you can see from this photo, the Calvert School Seventh Grade course covers a lot of material.
Mark will be starting Calvert School Fourth Grade. Being a very bright child, he's using their fifth grade math curriculum. One of the things that I like about Calvert math is that they have a standard hard covered book, which explains everything well, but they also have a math workbook. While it is supposed to be for extra practice, my boys prefer to do the workbook pages wherever possible, so they don't have to write out all the problems. As long as they learn the material, I really don't care if they wish to economize their efforts.

One of the things I'm looking forward to with Calvert School 4th grade is the Child's History of the World. It is a very nice book, written in story form for children around 9 to 10 years of age. (And, yes, Paula, I'm certain your kids would like it if you bought it for them.) It is amazing how much of the information they're presented in that book which they retain. Fourth grade is the first year during which they use novels exclusively for the reading course; they have nice phonics, vocabulary and critical thinking workbooks. Also, the kids are introduced to grammar in 4th grade, and the composition requirements become more stringent. These are the books for Calvert Fourth Grade, with the fifth grade math book.
Last year, Ryan was disappointed that Calvert stopped sending their marvelous pencil/supply boxes for children above third grade. Many other children must have been disappointed also, given the uproar on the Calvert Parent Forum. Calvert School listened to us, and replaced the supply boxes with the zippered pencil kit in these pictures. While it's not as nice as the boxes, it is nice to know that they listened, and it's nice that they gave the children something new in which to put their pencils, protractors, compass, colored pencils, eraser and paints (all supplied by Calvert). My single disappointment was that they cut down the number of pads of paper and little notebooks they included with the curriculum. I really love the fact that they give me essentially scripted lesson manuals, so I know what to say in order to properly present the information, and they give me a list of questions to ask to check each child's comprehension. They also give me the answers to all of the discussion questions, as well as all of the questions in the book, in a separate answer key, in case I have forgotten something in the decades since I learned it (Thankfully, I've rarely used them, although in teaching the poetry lessons, I sometimes don't know the correct answers to questions about symbolism and such; I always thought symbolism was bunk).

I've never regretted a day of teaching my boys with Calvert School's homeschool curriculum. I know they've learned much more than their peers, and my only regret is that Calvert doesn't go through high school. Today, we set up the shelves; tomorrow, school begins! Onward to knowledge!

Thanks, Annette!

Last week, in the midst of the circus and sorrow which is delivering or sending children back to college, this ray of sunshine arrived in our midst:

Thank you, Annette, for sending these CDs to me. Ryan is jealous that Mark will get to use the Child's History of the World CD, and they are eagerly anticipating using the Ancient Greece CD together. Shockingly, no one seems excited about grammar. What's up with that?

Again, thanks, Annette. I ordered my Calvert boxes on Friday; school starts in about 2 weeks.

"The Code of the Hammy Guy!"

OK, so now everyone will officially know I'm a dork, or something like that. My husband recently was talking about Will Durant, author of The History of Civilization, and I decided to see if the book was available. Sadly, it was out of print. Further, it turned out to not be a book, but 11 volumes. Happily, there was a set in very nice condition available on Amazon.com for a mere $175! Oh, happy day!

So, after a while my books arrived, and I let them sit for a week or two; 11 volumes is by and large a decorative thing, right? Ryan flipped through the volume on Greece and Rome, and recognized some of the sculpture and temples, thanks to Calvert School's Child's History of Art. Then, being bored last Friday, I decided to crack open the first volume of the book. Now, I can't say I've made a lot of progress, 100 pages or so (not much of a dent on the oh, 12,000 or so in the set), but there was a great quote on page 5 of the book, right at the beginning of Chepater 2 on the economic elements of civilization:

"Three meals a dare are a highly advanced institution. Savages gorge themselves or fast."

But, funniest of all to me, when Ryan saw the cover of this book:
he exclaimed, "I know that guy! He's the Hammy guy! He gave us the first Code of laws!" He then raced upstairs for his Calvert 4th grade history book, brought it back down and announced that it was Hammurabi, who was the first "dude" to put the laws right out there in public so everyone could read them. When quizzed as to whether everyone could read, he admitted not, but then rushed to say that they all must have had friends who could help, so if they wanted to be criminals, they could know enough to stop before they got caught.

I was amazed that he remembered and recognized Hammurabi. I doubt he would have known of Hammurabi (and certainly not of the Greek and Roman sculpture and temples) at the end of 6th grade without Calvert School. Sometimes our kids just make us proud.

And, to our neighbors to the north, Happy Canada Day!

Calvert 3rd Grade Review

Well, the school year is finally over, all of the tests have been taken, sent off for grading, and returned to us. Onward, children! To the summer! Picnics, bike riding, chasing (or being chased by) your dog, climbing trees.....

Here's the summary of Calvert 3rd Grade.

We used 4th grade math. Mark has always been a whiz at math, so he completed 3rd grade math in 2nd grade (after completing 1st & 2nd grade math during 1st grade). The third grade math book was very colorful and kid-friendly, with great instruction in the 4 basic operations, word problems which are quite kid-specific, a little bit on fractions, etc. The textbook is a write-in book, and they supply another workbook for extra practice. All in all, a nice program.

Mark's favorite subject, without a doubt, was Mythology. The Calvert-published text was called Gods of Greece, and the stories were simplified and published with line drawings which the child was invited to color in (although my son didn't). Now, there are people who object to the study of mythology, perhaps feeling that it objectifies false idols. Truth be told, however, the subject is "Mythology", or the study of myths, which are stories which are not true. Many things in our culture have roots in mythology, for instance, Pandora's Box, and now my sons are pretty conversant in the subject.

His second favorite was History. Again, this was a Calvert-written book, containing 52 short biographies about various famous Americans, including a few presidents, Revolutionary-era figures (John Paul Jones, Patrick Henry, etc.), authors, poets, artists. It was a nice look at a wide variety of people in our history.

Mark also loved Smiling Hill Farm. This is also a Calvert-published book. It's a novel in 3 parts, which is the story of a family who leaves Virginia in approximately 1805 to move to Indiana. Some of the descriptions are awe-inspiring, such as the family's somewhat dazed reaction to bright sunlight after having spent days walking through the dense forest of Kentucky. Who knew that it was dark in the woods all day long? They also described flocks of brightly colored parakeets flying through the forest. I never heard of such a thing; turns out they were Carolina Parakeets, native from South Carolina north through Ohio. They are extinct, having been killed as nuisances by farmers. The book describes the building of the homestead, and how it changed over the next 125 years; where the descendants of the original settlers went, etc. I believe that the author must have been a descendant of the family, and must have written down stories that were passed to her by her parents and grandparents. This was the first "school" foray into novels, and Mark loved it. He found the classic reading anthology textbooks at the beginning of the year rather dull; while there were some stories he liked, in all cases, they were much too simple for him. Now, I am certain that he could do 5th grade work right now, but I don't feel Mark has the maturity level to do so. So, while the reading is easy for him, he can always read novels in his spare time.

The science textbook is very nice. It touches upon all aspects of science - plants, animals, physics, chemistry, rocks, etc. I know from experience that each year, the same topics are covered again, but in more depth each year. Mark's not a great fan of Science, but he's decided that next year we should do all of the experiments. I guess I should start ordering "stuff" now, eh?

Geography is taught for about 2/3 of the school year. It doesn't focus on specific locations, rather, the course introduces the "themes of geography" including landforms, human & environment interaction, location, latitude & longitude. Mark found it a bit dull, but this is the child who got a wooden US puzzle at age 2, and could name all the states and point them out by 3. He's challenging, to say the least.

Grammar is touched upon in the course; mostly it's nouns and verbs, complete sentences vs. fragments, using more interesting words (use strolled or raced instead of "I went outside."), etc. Mark is very well spoken, so he didn't even recognize this as a class. Composition is writing a paragraph or so about something, such as "My Favorite Day", "A Good Friend" or similar topics. The first composition is about the child's living environment, and is entitled "A City Child" (or country, suburban, or, I suppose, even "A Boat Child"). They also teach letter writing, business and personal. Calvert recently switched to a regular spelling curriculum, but I liked their original spelling better, and still use the CDs for the boys, in addition to being sure they know how to spell the assigned words. Frankly, I don't think 10 age-appropriate words per day, 4 days per week, is too many, but evidently, some people did.

In addition to all that, Calvert sends an unassigned book entitled "Tales from Far & Near/Tales of Long Ago" which retells many excellent stories, including Romulus & Remus, Napoleon, and King Canute holding back the tide.

The best thing about Calvert is that it comes with nearly-scripted lesson manuals. After the child reads his assignment, ask him these specific questions. I can usually think of others based upon the kid's answers, but I really need someone to tell me what to do. Additionally, for a fee, you can send 8 tests per year to a Calvert teacher to be graded, and Calvert will provide an actual transcript should you need it for any reason. As if this isn't enough, the course comes with all of the paper, pencils, crayons, colored pencils, ruler, etc. that the child needs. All of this was good enough for me. My feeling was that if I needed more material for the boys, at least this way I have a splendid basis for their educations through the eighth grade.

Calvert School 6th Grade Review

Calvert's 6th grade was a challenging curriculum!

Ryan hates math, but he did very well at it. The book is colorful and nicely done. With each concept, the book tells a little story, and tells how to work the solution (for perimeter, as an example, they might say that Mr. Jones needs to buy fencing to keep bunnies out of his garden.....) They then have several "Try These" problems which the child is supposed to work under parental supervision, and, finally, a page of problems. At the bottom of each page is a mixed review consisting of maybe 5 problems. This book was hardbound, but they also provide a practice workbook for the child to write in. Since Ryan doesn't care for math, I rarely have him copy problems out of the hardcovered book, preferring to let him write in the workbook (we must always choose our battles, after all!). At the beginning of the course, they have 10 or so review lessons, in which they advise the parent to have the child do a couple of problems on supplemental page so-and-so, and if he remembers the topic, go on. If not, review on these pages before beginning the course. I find that to be a very thoughtful addition to the curriculum.

Science is probably the favorite subject of this son of mine. This book was well written, containing the same subjects as he's covered in previous years, but in ever increasing detail. Topics included plants, simple machines and other physics topics, earth, astronomy, rocks, and biology including genetics. (At the time when Ryan was supposed to make a chart showing all the different hair, eye and skin tones in his family, he was only able to list one brunette and one blonde. Solid light eyes and skin tone. He bellowed at me that we were Boring!)

History this year covered Mesopotamia through the fall of Rome. He very much enjoyed it. I feel boring saying that this was another nicely done book, but in my experience, Calvert chooses excellent textbooks. Geography sort of followed History, focusing on Africa, the Middle and Far East and Australia (Poor Antarctica only got one lesson, but I guess it's pretty remarkable that a continent known only for penguins got any real coverage!) Because of this course, Ryan was able to make intelligent comments about the elections in Zimbabwe and the natural disasters in Myanmar and China. Primarily, his comments were common sense, such as "Why do those people in Myanmar not just tell their government to get out of town?" but at least he has a basis of knowledge on which to draw for such comments.

Grammar was a groaner. Sentence diagramming is not an 11 year old boy's idea of a good time. I do think it gave him a better picture of sentence structure, however, and that's a plus. Composition was also well done, giving several lessons for each comp., and expecting much more sophisticated work than in 5th grade. Both courses were taught using the Elements of Language book; I am pleased that Calvert continues using this series in 7th and 8th grades. Spelling is a workbook published by another company, and I feel that it's busywork. I have the original Calvert spelling CDs, which introduced 10 words the first 4 days, then a review the fifth day. I don't think that's too much for a child to learn to spell. Often, they are related words, such as money, dollar, cent, interest, finance, and I find the course to make sense. That is my single great disappointment with the Calvert curriculum - the change in their spelling course.

Art History focused on sculpture this year, and was a clear winner. As I mentioned on my posts about Wyoming, Ryan really took to the subject (during that trip, he pointed out that Ben Franklin wasn't wearing pants, and then proceeded to instruct us as to who was the first sculptor to successfully sculpt a subject in pants, as opposed to breeches or a toga). He learned a bit about everything from ancient Egyptian cups and scarabs to modern sculpture, which he dubbed mostly stupid. Can't say I disagree; no fascination with bent metal pieces resides in this Mom.

Reading is a perennial pastime hereabouts, and, accordingly, a favored subject. This year's reading course covered a number of classical novels and 3 poets: Emily Dickenson, who was pronounced old, stuffy and girly; Langston Hughes, who wrote pretty well, but not on subjects to which my boy could really relate, and Robert Frost, the absolute favorite, who wrote about nature in New England. Almost all fo the novels read were classics, with the exception being The Phantom Tollbooth, a relative newcomer from some time in the 1970s. Ryan has read that book before, but greatly enjoyed it nonetheless. The other novels included Anne of Green Gables ("Too girly!"), The Swiss Family Robinson, Theras and His Town, a 1924 Caldecott Medal winner which was pronounced excellent, and King Arthur and His Knights, which was adapted from The Once and Future King, which had been adapted from Sir Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D'Arthur. Ryan had read The Once and Future King, but enjoyed King Arthur nonetheless, and had read a children's version of Swiss Family, which dimmed his enthusiasm not one bit. I like the concept of children above 3rd grade reading from novels, instead of anthologies. Especially in this day and age of computer games and gaming stations (none of which reside in my house, and never have), I feel that novels help develop a child's attention span and imagination. My husband's late aunt, a teaching nun from 1928 until her death in 1985, told me on more than one occasion that she had noticed a marked disimprovement in children's attention spans after the advent of child-centric TV, starting with Sesame Street and continuing from there, but no great improvement in their bases of knowledge from generations earlier, when their mothers had simply read to them and taught them their ABCs in singsong fashion. This is the basis for my resistance to electronic entertainment, and I have never regretted it. Sure, a review of a reading course becomes a diatribe against a culture of electronic entertainment. Sorry!

Again, the Calvert course came with all the paper we needed, as well as various school supplies including ruler, protractor and compass. Stack the Lesson Manuals on top of that, and this curriculum was terrific! Of course, different people want to teach different things, foreign languages or art, for example, but with this course taking only about 4 to 5 hours per day, there's plenty of time for add-ons. No homework, and the child has plenty of time for just being a kid, too!

And now, summer-bound!