Free Republic Homeschoolers' Forum 2006-2007

6-28-06 | Tired of Taxes

[Tired of Taxes]

Free Republic Homeschoolers’ Forum 2006-2007
A spot for homeschoolers on Free Republic to share information

First, a big, hearty CONGRATULATIONS to all those students who graduated this year! May you enjoy happiness and success in all of your endeavors.

For those of us still working toward that goal, this forum has been a wealth of information. News articles and legislative alerts keep us up-to-date here. Many thanks to Jim Robinson and Free Republic!

Last summer, we shared homeschooling advice with each other on this thread.

All of the books, curricula, and resources mentioned on that thread – as well as a few mentioned elsewhere on Free Republic - have been carried over to this one. (See the list in post #2).

Please feel free to post more information to help other homeschoolers and share more advice with each other right here on this new thread.

Best wishes for all of you and your families this year!

[Tired of Taxes]

When I was googling some items to find websites, right away some of the searches brought up our thread from last year. :-0

[Tired of Taxes]

HOMESCHOOL RESOURCES (in alphabetical order)

Please note: The website links below are provided only to give more information on each item. They are not intended as solicitations nor are they endorsements by Free Republic.



*** ART ***

Draw Write Now
(Art, penmanship, and storytelling)
http://www.barkercreek.com/dwn.htm



*** ARTS & CRAFTS ***

Sewing Made Easy
http://www.marthapullen.com/



*** BOOKS ***

Homeschool Your Child for Free (by Laura Maery Gold, Joan M. Zielinski)
http://www.writerspost.com/hs4free/

Homeschoolers’ Success Stories (by Linda Dobson)

Man’s Unconquerable Mind (by Gilbert Highet)

The Well-Trained Mind
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/



*** CATALOGUES FOR HOMESCHOOL PRODUCTS ***

Rainbow Resource
http://www.rainbowresource.com/index.php

R.O.C.K. Solid, Inc.
http://www.rocksolidinc.com/



*** COMPUTER & TECHNICAL SKILLS ***

e-Learning Center
http://www.e-learningcenter.com/



*** CURRICULUM PACKAGES ***

A Beka
http://www.abeka.org/

AlphaOmega Lifepac
http://www.aop.com/lifepac/

Sonlight
http://www.sonlight.com/



*** DIPLOMAS & TRANSCRIPTS ***

North Atlantic Regional High School (in Lewiston, Maine)
http://narsonline.com/



*** DUAL CREDIT ***

St. Petersburg College
http://www.spcollege.edu/ac/dc/



*** EDUCATIONAL BOOKS ***

Usborne books
http://www.usborne-books.com/

DK Eyewitness books
http://us.dk.com/static/cs/us/11/childrens/intro.html



*** ENGLISH - LANGUAGE ARTS / READING / SPELLING ***

Analytical Grammar
http://www.analyticalgrammar.com/

Easy Grammar Systems
http://www.easygrammar.com/index2.html

Educators Publishing Service
(Explode the Code, Ridgewood Grammar, and Wordly Wise can be found here)
http://www.epsbooks.com/

Explode the Code
(see second book on the list at this link)
http://www.epsbooks.com/dynamic/catalog/subject.asp?subject=02S

Institute for Excellence in Writing
http://www.writing-edu.com/

Phonics Pathways
http://www.dorbooks.com/phonics.html

Play ‘n’ Talk
http://www.homeschool.com/resources/playntalk/default.asp

Reader Rabbit (CD)
http://www.learningcompany.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=512

Ridgewood Grammar (see “Educators Publishing Service” above)

Saxon Phonics
http://saxonhomeschool.harcourtachieve.com/en-US/saxonhomeschool.htm

Scripts Howard website
(Option available only during certain months: Click on "Audio Paideia" for a word list along with the definitions)
http://www.spellingbee.com/

Spelling Power
http://www.castlemoyle.com/

Straight-Forward English (Garlic Press)
http://www.garlicpress.com/links/links.html

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
http://www.startreading.com/

Wordly Wise (see “Educators Publishing Service” above)



*** FREE, ONLINE - LESSON PLANS & STUDIES ***

Baltimore Curriculum Lesson Plans
http://www.cstone.net/~bcp/BCPIntro2.htm

Core Knowledge Lesson Plans
http://www.coreknowledge.org/CK/resrcs/lessons/Prek.htm

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Lesson Plans
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/lordoftheringstrilogy/lessons/

Ocean studies (Smithsonian)
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/ocean/main.html



*** HISTORY ***

1776, by David McCullough
http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?sid=33&pid=506476

Famous Men of Rome (Greenleaf Press)
http://www.greenleafpress.com/catalog/

TruthQuest History
Age of Revolution I, II, III
http://www.truthquesthistory.com/



*** HOMESCHOOL NEWSPAPERS / NEWSLETTERS / MAGAZINES ***

The Link
http://www.homeschoolnewslink.com/homeschool/index.html



*** LATIN ***

Latina Christiana
http://www.memoriapress.com/

Latin’s Not So Tough
http://www.greeknstuff.com/latin.html



*** LITERATURE ***

Books by Charles Dickens

Books by G.A. Henty
http://www.henty.com/

Eragon (by Christopher Paolini)

The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings (also see “Lesson Plans”)

The Homeschool Detectives series

Little Britches (book series) by Ralph Moody

McGuffey Readers
http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/view/rc/s31p430.htm

Narnia (book series) by C.S. Lewis

Redwall series
http://www.redwall.org/

The Spiderwick Chronicles
http://www.spiderwick.com/

Stobaugh’s American Literature

Williwaw (by Tom Bodett)



*** MATHEMATICS ***

Key-To Series
http://www.keypress.com/catalog/products/key_to/index.html

Saxon Math
http://saxonhomeschool.harcourtachieve.com/en-US/saxonhomeschool.htm

Saxon Math 54
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=793176&p=1008728

Singapore Math
http://www.singaporemath.com/

Straight-Forward Math (Garlic Press)
http://www.garlicpress.com/links/links.html



*** MUSIC ***

San Francisco Symphony for Kids
http://www.sfskids.org/templates/home.asp?pageid=1



*** RECORDKEEPING ***

Donna Young’s Free Printables
http://donnayoung.org/

The HomeSchool Mom
http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/gettingorganized/allplanners.php



*** SCIENCE ***

Bob Jones Chemistry
http://www.bjupress.com/

Jason Project
http://www.jasonproject.org/

Rainbow Science
http://www.beginningspublishing.com/products.html

Home Science Tools
http://www.hometrainingtools.com/



*** TELEVISION & VIDEO ***

PBS Mail List
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/previews/previews.shtm



*** THINKING SKILLS ***

The Bright Blue Thinking Book
http://educyberstor.com/store/ecs/catalog/parentresources/blue1.html



*** UNIT STUDIES ***

Baseball (free online unit lessons):

PBS Fantasy Baseball (PDF file)
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/mathline/lessonplans/pdf/msmp/fantasybaseball.pdf

The Batting Cage
http://library.thinkquest.org/11902/physics/batting.html

Fun with Baseball Stats:
http://www.teachersfirst.com/autoframe.htm?http://illuminations.nctm.org/index_d.aspx?id=257

Learning from Baseball
http://www.teachersfirst.com/baseball.htm

Physics in Sports connection (online video):
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/VideoTestbed/Projects/NewPhysics/newtons_3.html



*** WEBSITES ABOUT HOMESCHOOLERS & HOMESCHOOLING ***

Successful & Famous People (who were homeschooled)
http://www.sharebradenton.homestead.com/Famous.html



*** YOUTH GROUPS ***

American Heritage Girls
http://www.ahgonline.org/

Boy Scouts of America
http://www.scouting.org/

4-H
http://www.4husa.org/

[taxcontrol]

Question to the forum.

My kids go to private school but really need some math work / drills over the summer. Can anyone provide a good URL for drills on basic math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

[Tired of Taxes]

Ping!

Many of you will recognize the items on the list above because you recommended them last summer on our Home Education 2005-2006 thread right here. :-)

Please feel free to post more information, share advice, or make note of any corrections on this new thread.

P.S. (I'm not sure how much computer time I will have this year, so anyone who is interested in assuming control of this ping list, please freepmail me. First one to freepmail me is the winner.) :-)

[netmilsmom]

Ve don't tell our secrets. Bwahahahaha!

No, really. This is the best. My kids do drills every day from here.

http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/math/

[Tired of Taxes]

Ping!

If you’re considering homeschooling, this thread may be helpful.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

Can you add me to the ping list? :)

[Tired of Taxes]

The following colleges have been recommended as safe schools that encourage good behavior:


*** COLLEGES ***

Grove City College
http://www.gcc.edu/

Immaculata University
http://www.immaculata.edu/

Patrick Henry College
http://www.phc.edu/

[netmilsmom]

Can we just brag?

My eight year old moved into 5th grade SOS.
My six year old is almost through 3rd grade SOS.

Life is good!

[DoughtyOne]

Bumping for a great program and the future of the U.S.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Hi there. Just graduated this year. I delivered a speech as well; I might upload it later to share with you.

*is UAB-bound*

[Shimmer128]

Homeschool moms might want to check out theswap.com. They have many different forums, one even for political posts.
The Homeschool Adventure forum has MANY fantastic links.
Try it out and see.

[Shimmer128]

Oh yes, please add me to the homeschool ping list

[BRUMama]

My son will begin his senior year at Patrick Henry this fall, and I can attest it is a safe place for homeschoolers to go. They hold the students to high standards, and the students live up to them.

The kids who go there are wonderful. A great number of them attend our church. We have also had a great number of them in our home. (We live in the area.)

I can highly recommend it!

[spinestein]

We just made our final decision last night to leave the public school system and homeschool our 13 year old daughter.

This thread is a GOLDMINE. Thanks!

[TightyRighty]

Edhelper.com has some great worksheets.

[TightyRighty]

Is there anyone that homeschools in CA that can help explain to me how filing the homeschool affidavit works? I see where you fill it out but what happens afterwards?

[elder5]

I've been here at FR for awhile and have never seen a post for Home schoolers... Please add me to your ping list.

Thanks!

[RightField]

The "Key To" series are wonderful.

Key Curriculum Press

[RightField]

VegSource is an excellent source for discussions with other homeschoolers, as well as buying and selling used curriculum. Despite the liberal leaning of the vegetarian site, the homeschool pages lean conservative and provide tons of resources and practical advice from other homeschoolers.

[RightField]

I homeschooled for 10 years in California. We never filed an affidavit with the state, preferring to stay under the radar of state notice. We had heard some stories of families who encountered problems by filing. I don't know the current climate for homeschoolers in CA.

We found an excellent satellite program attached to a private school. We homeschooled under their "self-directed study program." It worked well for us all those years. For all the state knew, our children were enrolled in their site school. Never had a problem with the state interfering.

[freeandfreezing]

Can anyone provide a good URL for drills on basic math facts

Good plan! Practice is very important for beginning math students. I like to print out worksheets so the kids can do them at any time or place. There are lots of online sources, but having a program to make them on your own PC is handy. I like the free version of the Worksheet Factory.

Worksheet Factory

[HungarianGypsy]

First, my favorite homeschool store: http://lovetolearn.net .

Second, my oldest will be in 7th grade next year. Since the district I live within doesn't start high school until 10th grade, I decided I will have that long to decise if he will do distance learning, got to community college, or just continue on. I am wanting to start making a transcript. Partly for practice, partly so my husband doesn't worry about what he is learning. So, any good links on how to keep a good transcript?

[HungarianGypsy]

If they would like to do their drills online you can always check out http://www.aaamath.com

[Oliver Optic]

*is UAB-bound*

Congrats ... my oldest two (home-schooled) sons will be at UAB this fall ... one as a frosh, the other as a sophomore.

[mockingbyrd]

Thomas Aquinas College (Santa Paula, CA)
www.thomasaquinas.edu

Christemdom College (Front Royal, VA)
www.christendom.edu

Franciscan University of Steubenville (Stubenville, OH)
www.franciscan.edu

All of these Colleges are extremely home schooler friendly.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Nifty!

I'm a Math major. What are their majors?

[Tired of Taxes]

>>> "So, any good links on how to keep a good transcript?" <<<

The Donna Young website (under "Recordkeeping" above) has some forms for transcripts:

http://forms.donnayoung.org/planners/hischl.htm

But I don't know much about them. We haven't gotten to the point yet where we have to keep transcripts.

[Tired of Taxes]

I can't believe I forgot to put these next two on the list!


*** LEGAL ADVICE ***

HomeSchool Legal Defense Association
http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/default.asp



*** FREE, ONLINE - LESSON PLANS & STUDIES ***

Discoveryschool.com
http://school.discovery.com/parents/

[Sam's Army]

Bookmark

[T. P. Pole]

ping for later

[blu]

For advice about transcripts and pretty much anything else, try the vegsource.com link above. They have many boards, and very helpful posters.

A transcript is really just a list of the class taken and the grade earned. That's the easiest part of homeschooling!! DonnaYoung has great forms for it (link in an above post also).

[SuziQ]

Our daughter is finishing up her Senior Year work and will graduate from North Atlantic Regional High School. She has already been accepted to, and received a nice scholarship from Ave Maria University in Naples FL.

[blu]

I can't believe I'm not on the ping list! Please add me.

[SuziQ]

A curriculum that we like a lot is TRISMS . The kids can start in Middle School, and there are programs to follow all the way through high school. It is heavily reading and research based, and the kids gain terrific writing skills through assignments which use the Institute for Excellence in Writing program.

[Tired of Taxes]

More recommended on the older thread:



*** PHONICS & WORD STUDY ***

Word Journeys
http://www.wordjourneys.com/

Words Their Way
http://literacyconnections.com/WordsTheirWay.php




*** VIRTUAL SCHOOLS ***

Florida Virtual School
http://vsa.flvs.net/Default.aspx

Switched on Schoolhouse
http://www.aop.com/sos/

[SuziQ]

Congrats on your decision. The most important thing we've gained from homeschooling is just the time spent with the kids. You learn a lot about them, being with them all the time, and you get to enjoy each other's company.

[Tired of Taxes]

Congratulations! :-)

[metmom]

Believe it or not, I found some great books at Sam's that I used for homeschooling. They're somewhat along the line of the activity books my kids used to love to do as preschoolers and they are very inexpensive. They would be great for that kind of review. I actually really liked the science one for 1st to 6th grade. I have a degree in science and found them quite accurate and concise. They had good activities in them for experiments.

[blu]

I love the books from Sam's! I especially like the math ones for practice and for "catching up" work.

[metmom]

I especially liked the price of the Sam's stuff. My big mistake when we started homeschooling was overbuying, especially for the first couple of years. We wasted a lot of money that way.

We used Saxon Math starting at Math 54 and going all the way through Calculus. That's why we chose it, because by not skipping around to different curriculum, we would be pretty sure the kids didn't miss anything.

We used Rod & Staff, the Mennonite publishing company, for phonics and English. By 7th grade the English is pretty rigorous. When I checked out Abeka's high school English, it was the same level as Rod and Staff's 7th.

Rod & Staff also has a reading program I really liked for 1st through 4th grade. The readers were all based on different books of the Bible so the kids ended up with quite and extensive knowledge of the OT and some of the NT, but it was the workbooks that I really liked. The thing about R&S is that the books are pretty inexpensive and they are very basic; easy to read, clear, appropriate sized print, and not filled with lots of distracting inserts and stuff. Color pictures have their place but to much busyness on a page can be distracting. The lack of extraneous stuff, IMO, makes it easier for the kids to focus on just the reading.

After the Sam's stuff for the elementary grades, we ended up with Abeka for science, health, and social studies. I really liked their Health. For S.S. we tried Alpha Omega and my daughter really liked it. She said it presented history from a different perspective. It dealt more with the why of what happened insted of just the facts and dates. That was her opinion and she liked it better.

[Tired of Taxes]

Hi metmom, what was the name of the science book you found at Sam's? Would that be The Complete Book of Science series?

[metmom]

I don't recall. It's been a while but that seems right. All I remember is that it was supposed to be for 1st through 6th grade and last I checked a couple months ago, it seemed like they were still carrying the same one. It was about $6.

[rightthinkingwoman]

We use the curriculum package from Seton Home Study School. It is an accredited Catholic school which provides transcripts and a diploma.

www.setonhome.org

[Oliver Optic]

Both computer science ... maybe you'll run into Eric in Calculus or somewhere . :-)

[DaveLoneRanger]

[gobucks]

I'm deep in the middle of this topic right now; will post info soon.

[StarCMC]

WOW! Excellent list!!

[StarCMC]

HEY! My dad graduated from GCC!!