Sunday, May 31, 2009

Sonlight 5 - Things we are adding

Original post:  1/08/09

I’m trying to put together a reasonable list of things I’ve added, or considered adding (see that list here), to the various Sonlight years that I have used.

We are currently using Sonlight 5, with 6th, 4th and 2nd graders.

The primary things I have added/changed this year:

I read the readers aloud, primarily to make SL5 more accessible for my 2nd grader (and the 4 year old)

We are adding a couple of Usborne books -- Stories from India, Introduction to Asia, and True Polar Adventures.  

We are using Voice of the Martyrs kids’ page 

We are adding the Heroes for Young Readers by Renee Meloche that go along with either people we are already reading about (Hudson Taylor, Eric Liddell, David Livingstone, Mary Slessor) or that ‘merely’ relate to the countries we are studying (Gladys Aylward, Jonathan Goforth, Lottie Moon, Adoniram Judson, Amy Carmichael, William Carey, Brother Andrew).  These books are short, and even for my older guys, it is nice for them to have a bit of an overview of the missionary before we read the whole story.

We are adding video.  I’ll make a separate post about that, one that I will update as we go.

We are adding music.  A couple weeks before we get to a country, I do a search at the library for “Australia music” or something similar, and see what I can find.

Updated 5/31/09 to add:

We added The Man Who Counted to our studies of the Middle East.

We added some computer games.  There is a fun 'match three' style game on Around the World in 80 Days.  There is a game called Herod's Lost Tomb that we added to the Middle East.  And the History Channel is doing Expedition Africa this summer, which my parents are recording for us, and they have a computer game available for free at their website.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Summer Reading Program time!

'Tis the season!  Time for all the summer reading programs!  My kids are participating in a couple, on various levels.

The best one, of course, is at our local library - Pikes Peak Library District.  Connor is volunteering, starting Wednesday, to help out at the bookmobile.  The other kids are really looking forward to collecting their prizes from their big brother.  It looks like William can participate in both the kids and teens program this year.  Prizes include free meals, free books, and a t-shirt for the teens.  They also do prize drawings -- Thomas won a spider thing last summer, and has high hopes of winning something this year too.  Our program runs June 1-July 31, so we haven't actually started yet... but soon!

Barnes & Noble does a summer reading program too... this year, the free book choices are listed online.  This program runs through September 7, so the kids are counting their reading right now, and will start counting things again after they finish the PPLD program.  This is good for 1st-6th graders.

The Old Schoolhouse is also doing a summer reading program.  I'm playing with stuff here, to see if I can't get an image put in here (I had just gotten things kind of figured out on my old blog!!!)  They do a variety of contests, and the kids are having fun with that.  One thing happening right now is for the kids to post their planned summer reading lists... so you will be seeing a blog post or two on here from my kids :)

If you know of other summer reading programs, I'd love to hear about them!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Hidden Mysteries: Civil War -- a review

This is a rewrite of an old post of mine, about a different hidden object game with a different coupon.  Since I'm moving things over slowly, I figured I'd update it instead of posting the old info.

I’m posting this specifically because Big Fish Games has a special on one of their hidden object games, Hidden Mysteries - Civil War, for Memorial Day.  $.99 for the game, available for either Mac or PC.  I have no idea how long the sale goes, so check it out quickly if you are interested.  They also have a time management game, Megaplex Madness, on sale for the same price.  Maybe I'll do a review of time management games too.  We'll see.

 

In general, I don’t think the hidden object genre of games is worth the $20 or so they say they sell for, but a buck, well, that’s another story.

So, first, the hidden object games.  The plot lines vary, but they all involve you going from place to place, room to room, or something.  You get a list of things to look for, and you need to click on those items.  There is generally some sort of hint function to help you find some of the harder to locate items.  There is usually a time limit. 

Most of the games have other mini-games that come in between some of the hidden object puzzles.  There will be a ripped up map, letter, picture, or something that you have to piece back together, or something of that sort.

Issues in these games:  a lot of the plots involve murders or other mysteries, or ghosts, or curses.  If you can’t tell what the plotline is, download it and try it.  Another possible issue is that many of the games have you looking for weapon items -- not something I mind, but some people might.

What I like about many of them is that the kids need to be reading in order to solve them.  Not necessarily a lot of reading -- and if that is likely to be an issue, I’d advise downloading the program and doing the hour free trial to see how reading intensive it is.  Some, like Count of Monte Cristo, require a fair amount of reading to set up the storyline, and after that, it is mostly reading the items to be found, and reading a few sentences here and there.  Games like these, I can take my sort-of readers, sit with them for the first few minutes, and let them go.

I have played the entire Civil War game, but it has been awhile.  There is a fair amount of reading involved, though a lot of it could be skipped (the little summaries of the various battles aren't necessary to the game, but I will make my kids read them for the educational value).  You are following the fortunes of a couple soldiers in the Civil War as you go and do hidden object searches at various battlefields.  The music sounds very Civil War-era, and the artist created some really great scenes for this.  This doesn't replace actually studying the Civil War, but for a child learning about this time period, it could be a really nice, fun bonus.  This is one of the best hidden object games I have looked at, I think.  This and the Herod one I mention below. 

 

Overall, my opinion of the Hidden Object games is that if you are cautious about the titles you select, these make a reasonably nice thing for the kiddos to play -- they do a little reading, there is even a little vocabulary study as they try to figure out what in the world a “hank” is, or other not necessarily familiar objects.  Many of the games feature some fairly accurate scenery.

I can’t imagine doing this type of game terribly often, but it can be a nice reward -- especially when it ties into something you are studying.   I plan to do National Geographic presents Herod’s Lost Tomb while we do the Middle East in a couple weeks.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Starting over with a new blog

I'm going to be playing with this for a few days, I think, but I had to start my blog all over.  We just can't justify the money to renew our Mobile Me account, which is where my blog was up until a couple days ago.  I'm going to gradually pull over most of the content from there, though, and that will include comments.  I'll probably find some new comments as I go.

So, welcome!  And hopefully I'll get the hang of blogging at Blogger... 

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Lightning Literature for High School

Okay, so Literature Part V took a bit longer than planned.  Better late than never, right?

Same disclaimer applies here as on my jr. high level review.  I haven’t used this, or even owned it, but it is one of the things I’ve looked over quite thoroughly, including, I think, every sample on the Hewitt webpage.

At the high school level, Lightning Literature consists of about a dozen courses meant to be completed in a semester each.  Currently, titles include 2 US Lit options, 6 British Lit options (including two Shakespeare, and a Christian British one), one on speeches that intrigues me, and 2 world literature.  Now, “world” literature means Africa, Asia and Latin America -- there is nothing for Europe, nor, technically, for Canada or Australia.

Now, there is a list of future course titles, which will probably address some of this... titles such as French Literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature, Classic World Literature, and Renaissance Literature.  There are also four more British Lit titles (I assume Victorian Adventures is Brit Lit), another US one, and Science Fiction.

Some of what I said about the Jr. High levels does still apply here.  They pick great books, the text is very readable, there isn’t an expectation that doing the reading for this course is the only thing the child will ever do, and some of the exercises are a bit ‘workbooky.’

On the other hand, there are some differences that I really like.  It looks like they do a far better job of spacing out the papers, and there just seems to be a better flow as far as consistency in the amount of work expected from week to week.  

They are to write 8-12 papers per semester, so not quite a paper per week in some, and about every other week in others.  I like that... it gives me room to assign other papers for history or science or whatever, and not feel like I’m totally overloading my kid.

When doing a particularly long work (Moby Dick, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Great Expectations), you do have periods of a couple weeks where you are only reading... but these were the only three books I saw like that in all ten of the high school level courses that have they have posted schedules for, and two of these are in the two American Lit courses, which are recommended for 9th grade.

With many of the other books, you would start reading it wile also revising last week’s paper, “just read” the second week, and finish reading and do workbook stuff the third.  I don’t have a problem with that.  Especially as you are reading far more than the 40 pages per week assigned in the 7th and 8th grade programs.

I do not plan to do Lightning Lit for either 7th or 8th grade, but I may look again when we get to high school.  I love the idea of being able to mix and match semesters, though if it gets up to a couple dozen choices, that is going to be overwhelming!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Teaching the Classics

Okay, part IV of my literature stuff.  This is the last company, but I will be doing more for Lightning Lit.  Hopefully later today.

Teaching the Classics - which you can also read about at IEW, is primarily meant to teach you how to teach literature.  Adam Andrews has a 4-DVD seminar, along with a syllabus, for $89.  He has also produced a Worldview Supplement, which includes 2 DVDs, and lots more questions in the syllabus.  This costs $49.  He also has created a number of literature analysis products for specific books.  You can get his guide for The Bronze Bow for free on his website.

Disclaimer:  I have taken a seminar for Teaching the Classics and own the syllabus, which I have used with my kids.  I have only read about the other products, though I have downloaded the free one and looked that over pretty thoroughly.  I will be using that with Connor when we get to the book in Sonlight this year.

What I am seriously considering for Connor, instead of a full-blown literature program in addition to what Sonlight does, is something like this:

6th/7th grade: we’d work through the Teaching the Classics material.  The seminar is meant for parents, but lots of parents do actually sit down and work through the DVDs with their kids.  We’d also use the TTC guides for The Hobbit and The Bronze Bow when we get to them in Sonlight..

8th grade: work through the Worldview Supplement, plus maybe a lit guide for a non-Sonlight book, like At the Back of the North Wind.  Use TTC questions for a book or two that we are already studying.  Use some of the SL writing assignments.

9th grade: use an Institute for Excellence in Writing product, Windows to the World, which is pretty much all literary criticism.  Also, go back to the main course and review the Tom Sawyer material when we do that in Sonlight.  Possibly use some of the SL writing assignments.

10th: Use some SL writing assignments, and use TTC questions on some of the books we are reading.  Probably get the Treasure Island lit guide.

11th and 12th: I’m not entirely sure.  If we are still using Sonlight, maybe we’d “just” use TTC questions and Sonlight writing assignments.  Maybe this would be the point to do one of the literature programs I’ve decided not to start now.  And there are certainly more Lit guides available to use:  Hamlet, Julius Caesar, The Great Divorce, A Tale of Two Cities, and The Yearling.  And I’m sure there will be more available by the time we get there!  

Excellence in Literature

Part III of my literature “series” and this time it is a fairly new program that I first heard about on the IEW website:  Excellence in Literature.


Disclaimer:  I have not used this program.  I have read a few online reviews, I have thoroughly gone over the author's website and the IEW website, I have thoroughly read every sample I could find.  This is my opinion based on all of that.  Someone who has actually used, or even owned, the materials would be more qualified to review it.  I would highly recommend that you look at both sites if this is something you are considering.



Excellence in Writing is planned to be a five year LA program.  Years 1, 3 and 4 exist, years 2 and 5 are due out this fall.  The levels are -- Intro to Lit, Lit & Composition, US, British, and World Lit.  


What I like:

Inexpensive -- under $30 per level, can use with everyone in the family.  If you get it as an ebook, each child could have their own copy even.

Each year includes 9 units of 4 weeks, with ONE "work" per unit (some of those would be a set of short stories), and the books include a lot of SL titles

Each unit includes some short assignments, and one analytical essay (or similar paper)

Each unit includes a lot of "context" works -- music, poetry, art, short biographical info, commentaries, videos, short historical accounts, etc.  This is one of the most appealing parts of the program to me.

Each level also has an honors track which gives an additional work per unit (another book by the same author, or a biography, or something similar) and an additional paper on that work.  Plus the honors track has a research paper at the end.

The book is meant to be done mostly independently, with the parent serving as a 'coach' or 'mentor' to the student.  This means, among other things, that how much to read each day or week isn't spelled out, but she does go through stuff about how to figure out how to split up your workload at the beginning

Her recommendations as to what to do before starting her program:  IEW and/or Latin Centered Curriculum


What I don't like:

There don't appear to be a ton of examples given... I really like For Such a Time as This for that.

It isn't complete;

Which also means, it hasn't been out long, so in another couple years, she will probably make a number of improvements.  I'd rather start a program after it has been out a bit longer... and I'd be looking at getting the first one in a year, and the second one less than two years after it comes out... the rest of it doesn't concern me, really, as it will have been out quite awhile before we get there

There is an assumption, it seems, that the child already understands the basics of how to write an essay and such.  Connor would be starting this with only a year of doing IEW, and only have a few weeks of essay writing experience under his belt.  But, I think I can adjust my expectations a bit and make this into an essay-writing course too


My "ideal" vision for high school would be to have them writing a reasonably significant paper of some sort most every week.  With EIL, we'd have 1-2 per month, and I could use SL's LA to create another 1-2, and most likely use scouts for another 0-1... which would give me about what I want...


One thing I am trying to figure out is how much the units build on each other.  Could I purchase the program, and jump around a bit? Do the units build on each other, or are they reasonably independent?  


That would make it a lot easier to try to work in alongside our Sonlight reading, and if I could adjust things as we go a bit... hmmm.... 

Friday, May 8, 2009

Lightning Literature for Junior High School

So, here is part II of my ramblings about what to do for literature next year.  This one is on Lightning Literature.


Lightning Lit has two “programs” sort of.  They have grade-level programs for 7th and 8th grade, which are meant to last a full year.  They also have a dozen or so one semester programs for high school.  While these programs have a few things in common, they are also quite different, and I think I am going to split up my review into “high school” and “junior high.”  This post is on Jr. High.


Disclaimer:  I have not used this program.  I have read a LOT of online reviews, I have thoroughly gone over Hewitt's website, I have thoroughly read a bunch of samples, but certainly not all of them.  This is my opinion based on all of that.  Someone who has actually used, or even owned, the materials would be more qualified to review it.

 

 

What I like:

Great books, and not all that many of them, including many SL titles 

Very readable

Includes units on poetry, and I've heard only good things about those

 

What I don't like:

Well, a lot of weeks (15 of 36 in the 7th grade program) "all" they are doing is reading about 40 pages of a book

On the other hand, when you complete a book, you spend a week doing workbookish exercises (some of which do truly appear to be valuable, but all at once???)

And then you spend a week writing one or two major papers

Only to start over by spending the next few weeks reading 40 pages per week

I read repeatedly that the "lit analysis" part is pretty light.  You spend a couple weeks on plot and climax and such in 7th grade, and really never have any additional discussion of plot again.  So, it's a mastery approach, LOL, only you move on awfully quickly

It seems like far too much money when half of the weekly assignments are to read the next 40 pages ($50 for 7th grade, $54 for 8th grade -- plus the cost of the books)

I'm looking for lit analysis.  I'm looking for more writing, with specific direction and examples.





My opinion?  This seems far too expensive for what you appear to get.  I really don’t like the fact that the workload is not spread out more evenly. 

On the other hand, I know a LOT of high school SL moms love Lightning Lit, so I keep thinking I'm missing something.  And, as will be clear in my post on the high school portion, my impressions there are a bit different.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

For Such a Time as This

This is going to be a multi-part post.  I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing for 7th grade for Connor, and when it comes to literature, that basically means looking to see where I want him to be for high school and working backwards.  Here are my rambling thoughts.



For Such a Time as This is a five year LA program, including Skills for Literary Analysis, Skills for Rhetoric, American Literature, British Literature, and World Literature.  


Disclaimer:  I have not used this program.  I have read a LOT of online reviews, I have thoroughly gone over the author's website, I have thoroughly read every sample I could find (and he has changed the samples in there somewhere).  This is my opinion based on all of that.  Someone who has actually used, or even owned, the materials would be more qualified to review it.


 

What I like: 

Solid Christian program

Great books

Written to the student

Teacher book includes a DVD with stuff from the author

Written by a man (keep in mind, I have four boys...)

One of the daily assignments throughout the entire program (I think) is to write in a prayer journal

There is fantastic instruction and examples of what he is looking for in any given assignment

Very little "workbookish" types of assignments

Things like the Brit Lit program have books with boy-appeal (Beowulf, MacBeth, Sir Gawain, Robinson Crusoe, Frankenstein, Lord of the Rings), not just the Pride & Prejudice type selections (actually, P&P is the only "primarily feminine" book on the list, I think... most BritLit things I've looked at are very heavy on Austen, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Pygmalion, etc.)

 

What I don't like, keeping in mind that this is to go *with* Sonlight, mostly with SL's high school cores:

 

There are LOTS of great books.  We're talking 15-23 titles per year (combining a short stories group as one, splitting the Lord of the Rings trilogy into 3)

There are LOTS of LONG books (uhhh, War and Peace, for instance)

They are writing, on average, two essay-type papers per week

There are a lot of additional "enrichment" suggestions, which add a LOT more reading, video, and field trips, and they look fantastic, and I'd want to add them, and would feel guilty if we skipped them all


My decision, after really truly looking this over is that if we continue with SL, doing this is major overkill.  Either I'd have to drop nearly all the SL reading and certainly all the writing assignments, or I'd be spreading this out so far it would be unrecognizable.

I *am* keeping this in mind, particularly if we end up doing something non-SL in high school (like a semester of government, plus a semester of psychology), as I would love for Connor to do one of the high school Lit ones.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Listening to Learn - a review

Okay, it’s been a couple days.  I started to review Listening to Learn by Amy Blevins the other day (here), and I am about to actually finish it.  

Amy was forced by life circumstances to learn a lot about audio schooling.  She is the perfect person to be writing up a book about incorporating listening into your school life, and I am really glad she put this e-book together.

What I liked about her book, for me, is that she reminded me of the benefits of utilizing audiobooks and other audio products in your schooling.  Periodically, I go through times of major self-doubt about whether or not listening to The Hobbit instead of me reading it aloud is “cheating.”  Amy provides ammunition against that doubt, and I know I’ll be pulling this ebook up to reread when that guilt hits.

There were a lot of great links to audio resources, including a couple I’ve never seen, and a few I had forgotten.  Amy includes some awesome little tips about some of the less usual ways to incorporate audio in your schooling, and I’m not going to give those away in this review!

Okay, so the nitty-gritty part.  The book is organized into seven chapters, and the organization is quite logical.  I’m not going to outline the whole thing, but a few highlights:

Chapter 3 gives technical info -- the nuts and bolts of what you need, what you might like, how to use an iPod in the car, how to burn a disc, what a playlist is, etc.  This chapter includes some nice illustrations for some of these topics, and is very user-friendly.  This section was not remotely useful for me, however for a non-power-audio-user, the chapter is really great.  Her explanations are solid, and I didn’t notice anything that I thought should be there that wasn’t.

There is content on how to schedule audio, with some nice little forms.

There is content about types of audio content and where to get them.  Both where to get FREE stuff, and where to go to buy things.  This is one of the largest sections of the book (about 1/4 of it), and I think most people would find this to be valuable.  Tons of links, great suggestions, but definitely skewed towards elementary ages.

Chapter 6 goes into recommendations by subject, and is also about 1/4 of the book.  This section is probably my favorite.  She goes through various subject areas and lists both some general suggestions and specific resources.  Scripture memory, general memory, different historical time periods, music history, holidays, etc.  And she has sections broken down by age groups.  The preschool and elementary sections are excellent.  Of course, one thing that makes me say these two sections are fantastic is that I have already used, loved, and recommended, a HUGE portion of the specific resources she suggests!  She must be brilliant if she is recommending things I already like, right?

The final chapter is short, but very important, and I was very glad to see it in here.  That has to do with resources for MOM.  Even with the fact that audiofiles are essential in our homeschooling, I do think that the best part about iTunes and my iPod is that I have the ability to pull up a homeschool speaker and listen to encouragement -- I try to get at least a few new things on mp3 every year. Listening to Dr. Wile tell me (okay, a bunch of people in a workshop) that I can teach high school science, or listening to Andrew Pudewa tell me (well, I *was* in that room when he spoke) about teaching writing to boys who would rather build forts, or going back to a Focus on the Family broadcast about the value of stay-at-home Moms -- there are days that these things are pretty close to the only thing that keeps me from grabbing my purse and making a run (alone!) for the border (the real one, not a fast food restaurant)... Other homeschool moms are probably better at all of this than I am, but I have moments where I *need* to hear some affirmation.


Okay, so overall, my opinion on Listening to Learn?

Amy did a fantastic job of putting together a solid basic resource on audioschooling, so for anyone who hasn’t done much already, I absolutely recommend this ebook.

Amy has also done a good job of creating a resource with a variety of links for sources of audio materials, and ideas as to where to look for more.  So for people who do already have iTunes loaded, and who do use a few things now and again, I absolutely recommend her ebook.

For people like me, though, who are already making extensive use of a huge variety of audio resources, and are generally confident about that, the book may -- or may not -- be worth the money, unless you have a husband, or other important party who is questioning your use of so many audiobooks, or any situation where a well thought-out rationale for their use would be helpful.  Still, I did find the ebook to be well worth the time to read, and I am very glad to own it.

And now... I need to get a list together for Amy to consider for more junior high level resources, and maybe those will show up in a future edition.  

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Listening to Learn

Isn't that just a great title?

Amy Blevins has written an e-book with that title, that is available at her website for just under $15.  A couple of weeks ago, she asked if I would be interested in reviewing a copy of the book, and I was thrilled to get that opportunity.  

I have to be totally honest and say up front that one of the reasons I was excited about the chance to do this is that I would not spend $15 for an e-book about integrating audio into your homeschool... but I was really interested in reading the book!

So, a paragraph or two about my audio-homeschool journey, then on to the e-book!

From the start, oh -- ten years ago or a bit more, I was checking out books on tape (yeah, tape!) from the library and using those to give my children  a chance to listen to some of those great little-kid books without me having to read them over and over.  And over.  And over.  When we started doing Sonlight K, I really made an effort to actually be the one reading the read-alouds, and I thought getting an audio version was “cheating.”  Somewhere in there, hmmm, about the time we were scheduled to read Winnie the Pooh, I realized that I was doing a really lousy job (that is a TOUGH book to read aloud, as the dialog keeps switching between characters, and you are a couple sentences into it before you know who is speaking!) and I broke down and got it on CD from the library (and I was *thrilled* to learn that they now had books on CD!)  We all enjoyed Pooh so much more when it was read by someone wonderful, and, well, that did it.  I was hooked on audio-schooling.

Especially for car trips, as we are a good 45 minutes from virtually anything.  Even driving to town once a week, as you can get a lot of books in during a year at 1.5 hours per week.

We had a cheapie mp3 player that I would use on long trips (16+ hour drive each way to visit the grandparents!), but that would hold at best a single book.  Still, it was easier than the boom box that sat in the passenger seat after the car CD player broke yet again.  It was a pain to put stuff on it, and I never really figured the thing out, but for long trips, it was great.

And then... an iPod.  Yep, we are still the proud owners of a 1st generation iPod shuffle.  Cute little thing, and it doesn’t hold a whole lot either.  But after a couple months, I got a first generation Nano.  Wow.... that device totally revolutionized our school life.  I started calling it iPod school (and yeah, I know, iPod is trademarked and all that... but I don’t know the ins and outs of putting little symbols in here.  Check out www.apple.com for seeing these awesome items for yourself.)

I could create playlists, so I had a drill list with songs, chants, Latin prayers, poetry, scripture, etc.  I had 4-5 books on there at any one time.  And, sometimes, it even held some music.

Then I discovered podcasts.  We’ve podcasted our way through the Bible in a year, I podcast Focus on the Family and Christian Worldview, we listen to two different word of the day broadcasts (Podictionary and Merriam-Webster), and many, many more.  We used to get the president’s weekly radio address as a podcast, but since Obama took office, that feed died and I haven’t gone looking for a new one.  I’ll get there eventually.  We also used to get a roughly weekly podcast from our senator, but he stepped down last year, so that’s gone too.

Meanwhile, Dale was given a Nano.  Then we got a free 2nd generation shuffle, which holds so much more than the first one.  And Dale got a regular iPod for a work bonus, and I recently got an iTouch from work too.  So, yeah, we’re a six iPod family... and since that now includes video, we are watching science podcasts, watching CNN Student News, and watching Boy Scout training videos too.

When Connor needed to watch the evening news five days in a row, I wondered if our television could even still be rigged to get a signal.  And then I thought... podcast!  So, he saw five nights of NBC Nightly News.  We could save it, so he could rewatch the segment about Obama’s education proposal (the national issue he chose to discuss from that week).

We usually have at least two books going on audio at any given time, we are using Jonathan Park audio for science at the moment, we are trying to listen through all the Adventures in Odyssey broadcasts, etc., etc., etc.  William can listen and read along, which is fantastic for him.  When studying Shakespeare, we can listen to it, and then use the book to do more analysis.  But Shakespeare is far easier to understand if you watch, or at least listen.

And since mostly switching to Macs about a year ago, we have started to record our own stuff too... things like the Boy Scout Oath and Law.. so that the kids can work on memorizing those without me having to be involved (and yes, I have memorized them too... though I get the Cub Scout oath and the Boy Scout one mixed up, and I always have to think a bit to remember which is the law and which is the oath.)

So... given all of that, why would I want to purchase a book about integrating audio into your homeschool? 

And, again to be honest, the fact that Amy’s children are younger than mine -- her crew ranges from a couple months old to age 9 -- wasn’t a selling point for me either.  I’m not that far ahead of her (ages 3-12), but I do feel like I know the elementary age stuff -- it’s the jr. high and high school level that I’m obsessing about.  

You know, I think I’m going to start a second page to actually review Listening to Learn.  So you need to stay tuned...