Yeah, my first answer would have been “nothing,” too, but now, if you “like” Rosetta Stone Homeschool on Facebook, The Old Schoolhouse magazine will be happy to send you free creationist e-books to befuddle, mislead, and indoctrinate your children into the glorious world of creation non-science. All you have to do is email gena@tosmag.com and you’ll be sent a list of The Curiosity Files e-books from which to choose*.

Personally, I’m having a hard time choosing. Which burning scientific inquiry do I most need answered?

Does the dung beetle really “bring glory to God?”
What does the Bible tell us about MRSA?
Were blue diamonds sent as a special gift to us?
Is the blue-footed booby an “evolution stumper” that “defies the theory of natural selection?”
Can these handy curricula can help hammer home the important fundamentalist idea that “male and female roles [are] very different?”

So hard to choose! *sigh*

Seriously, folks. Pseudo-science like this is insidious. It’s dressed up in fun little packages, but the stuff inside is designed to lead children away from real, evidence-based science. I genuinely pity children who are taught to blindly accept creationism, rather than developing a truly scientific mind and learning to discern fact from fancy, evidence from belief, and science from religion. Let faith be faith and science be science.

*A friend told me about this giveaway, with no info as to the name of the curricula that would be given away, just that it was science. Yes, I suspected that any science e-books given away by TOS would be creationist. However, I was under the impression that Rosetta Stone was a secular curricula, so I’m curious why the “reward” for liking their company’s homeschool curricula branch is a decidedly religious curricula.

I emailed the company that night, asking if we could get a replacement pin. The next morning, I received an email from a Mr. Ford telling me that he was getting approval to send us a pin. A short period of time later, he emailed me back, letting me know the replacement had been shipped. A notification from UPS arrived within 30 minutes after that.

Today, just two days after speaking with Mr. Ford, a box arrived from Innovation First via UPS. It did not contain a replacement pin. Instead, it contained this:

A replacement bug, a set of replacement batteries for the bug, and two Hexbug stickers! I am more than surprised — I am overwhelmed and flabbergasted. It might seem like a relatively small thing (the bugs aren’t very expensive), but for a business to go so far beyond the call of customer service in this day and age of customer non-service was such a pleasant shock. I was willing to pay for a replacement pin. I was grateful to be sent a replacement pin for free. I never expected a business to not only replace our broken item completely for free, but send us additional pieces as well.

If you’re still looking for a gift for your 8+ year old this holiday season, I cannot recommend Hexbugs strongly enough. Not only are these toys SUPER COOL for any kid who likes bugs, robots, or both, but this is a company that stands by its products and then some. We should reward good businesses. I plan to get more Hexbugs (Tank has been asking for a “robot crab” and they make one!) and I’ll continue to recommend them to others.

Innovation First also makes the VEX Robotics system for those of you with teens or adults who are into robotics. They make classroom bundles of VEX robotics systems and sell robotics curricula if you’re thinking of starting a homeschool robotics club, team, or class. The Autodesk VEX Robotics Curriculum is included for free if you buy 4 or 8 pack classroom robotics bundles. I am seriously considering getting this for Captain Science in a few years!

I believe in supporting good businesses that provide excellent service and great products. I think Hexbugs/Innovation First has demonstrated it provides both of these. We <3 Hexbugs! Thank you for lifting our spirits today and showing us that some companies remember that people are the driving force behind any business.

PLATO Science has been passable, but it’s not rigorous enough for middle school and beyond. I’m strongly considering the Duke TIP Independent Learning class Foundations of Modern Biology: Genetics, Evolution, and Ethics for Captain Science’s science next year. It’s geared for grades 7-10, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for him by next school year. I think it will give him a tremendous foundation for understanding evolutionary science from multiple angles/perspectives. I love that it presents evolutionary science within a sociocultural context (TIP lists it as both a science and a social studies) and that it includes a literary element, through The Time Machine. I don’t totally love that the course is $55, the text book is $26, and the reader is $62, but that’s probably a small price to pay for a thorough introduction to biology. I’d probably pick up What Darwin Saw: The Journey That Changed the World as a read-aloud to include Tank (and Babypie, if she’s interested) and Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith for Captain Science. I was going to save this one until we got to that period of history, but I think the added contextual benefit of including this w/ his biology course makes it a well-timed choice.

I’m quite happy continuing with the Michael Clay Thompson language arts courses, but I’d like to integrate some literary criticism, some comparative literary analysis, and so forth. I think I’ll have to home-brew that one, just like I’ve done with history so far. I have an ever-growing list of things he needs to read. I’d also like to incorporate more creative writing into his language arts.

History…I have no idea! I really want something more thorough than we’re doing now. The History: The Definitive Visual Guide has been a nice spine, but we need something more thorough as we move forward in history. We’ll be covering the 1600s and onward, and I’d like our first pass of US history to be a strong one, providing a sound foundation for his later AP US History coursework. I think the only way to do that is through a lot, a lot, a lot of primary sources and well-written secondary sources. I have a feeling we’ll be relying on a “spine” text less and less as we move forward.

We love Life of Fred and I imagine we’ll continue with Life of Fred: Advanced Algrebra and Fred’s Home Companion: Advanced Algrebra. I do think that this Math and the Cosmos unit looks really neat, however. It might overlap nicely w/ the algebra skills he’s learning or give us something to work on as he wraps up Advanced Algebra.
Again, I think TIP does a great job of integrating multiple disciplines into one course.

Foreign language — definitely starting by next school year. Patchfire pointed me in the direction of Instant Immersion. At $50, compared to Rosetta Stone’s $200ish, I think it’ll be doable to have Captain Science take the Japanese course and for us to be able to afford a tutor at least once a week. I might see if there’s anyway we could go through my former high school’s Japanese language program for a teen tutor. Alternately, I’ll see who I can find either at the local university or through our network of Japanese speaking locals.

I’d love for Captain Science to be able to afford to take the online critical thinking course offered through Online G3, but I think that w/ the other stuff I want us to buy, the cost is prohibitive, especially since this is one elective of many we’d like to do. I will probably snag him the Critical Thinking textbook and develop a lesson plan for it.

I think we’ll continue with computer programming, but I don’t know where we’ll go once we’ve wrapped up KidCoder. Maybe check out the TeenCoder series? Maybe he’ll be ready for something much more robust by then.

It’s hard to project exactly what we’ll be ready to work on by then. As for Tank, he’ll have to have his own post, outlining K-garten plans, though I can’t really do those until I know where he’ll be in terms of reading and math readiness. Yikes. So much uncertainty, but so many fun options!

The short answer is that boxed curricula are definitely not for us, because my children’s needs don’t fix all that neatly into a box.

The long answer begins with what boxed curricula can offer:

• A complete curricula in a box can make lesson planning much easier, as the scope, sequence, and individual lesson plans are already there for your use. You don’t have to choose texts and then develop lesson plans for them.
• Packaged curricula typically includes assessments, which can be especially valuable if you’re uncertain about how well your child is processing and retaining information or if you live in an area that requires more meticulous record-keeping.
• Literature, history, and geography are all nicely synced up for content.
• It can lower costs, since putting together your own curriculum for a subject can sometimes get pretty expensive, especially when you start buying multiple supplemental books.
• Some boxed curricula do place a greater emphasis on the important role of technology (Calvert’s 5th grade package includes a technology overview, typing skills, a primer in how to use the Internet for research, and even an introduction to using HTML), which is too-often (in my opinion) underplayed in classical education.
• You can expect a reasonable degree of consistency in format, methodology, and philosophy across a company’s prepackaged curricula line, so if you find something that works well for your child(ren) and your personal beliefs, you won’t have to expect sudden changes at the next level.

Here are some areas where a prepackaged curricula doesn’t meet our needs:

• Lack of flexibility of scheduling. When everything is so carefully synced to a pre-established timeline, your entire schedule can be thrown out of whack if your child needs additional time with a certain material. One of the reasons we chose to homeschool was to have more flexibility with our schedule, not less. I like to be able to tailor our day to meet our needs and tailor the workload to fit our day.
• Difficult to integrate off-grade-level work. Boxed curricula works on the assumption that a child is working at the same “grade level” in each subject. However, if your child is working at different levels in different subjects, the boxed-grade approach is likely going to present a problem. Though Captain Science is technically in “fifth grade,” he’s working quire far ahead of what both Calvert and Oak Meadow offer in grammar/language arts and mathematics. We’d have to do some serious restructuring in order to make any boxed curricula work for us and at that point, we’d have lost the benefits of prepackaging.
• Not progressive/Has obvious historical bias. For example, Oak Meadow’s 5th grade curriculum seems very Columbus-centric. Overall, the history programs in these two boxed curricula appear very Euro-centric and in line with a more traditional, less progressive, understanding of history. We’re trying to teach history more objectively and without presenting Europe/US as the center of the world. This is why we spent additional time on ancient history, to allow adequate focus on Eastern and New World history.
• Under-emphasizing and under-teaching science. Boxed curricula don’t meet my standards for adequately teaching science. The teaching of science tends to be basic and shallow, as though science were either not incredibly important or too touchy a subject to delve into in depth. It’s much better to get a science curriculum from a publisher that specializes in science, IMO.
• That’s not where we’re at in history. Pretty simple explanation right there. We aren’t doing US history in 5th grade. We finished ancient history and are now working on the middle ages. We’d have to jump into history at a completely different point.
• Condescending language and low expectations. I expect a lot more from my fifth grader than putting his vocabulary words in alphabetical order. One reason we’ve enjoyed Michael Clay Thompson’s language arts curriculum is that he doesn’t speak down to the student, but rather, models the kind of writing excellence I expect from my child.

That’s what the [Smrt] Homeschooler prefers to mix and match curricula, rather than rely on a prepackaged set. In homeschooling, as in life, your mileage may very. Obviously, many families feel their children receive a rigorous and thorough education from these boxed curricula. Others don’t find it difficult or bothersome to tweak the curricula to meet their needs. For us, however, the the benefits of prepackaged curricula are outweighed by the things it doesn’t offer us.

Do you have a question for the [Smrt] Homeschooler? Email them to
smrtmama@smrtlernins.com

He also got started with his KidCoder computer programming curriculum today. It was mostly vocabulary and background information on hardware, software, languages, systems, etc., but he was so excited to get going! We got it as a last-minute buy through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op and seems to have been worth the money. Officer Daddyman is helping him with this one.

Captain Science is also using some great computer program Daddyman downloaded to make the cards for his Pantheon Project, which didn’t really get worked on much over the summer, despite our best intentions. Captain S and Daddyman have developed a neat system for the game, a sort of rummy-style 2-4 player game. Anyone interested in playtesting it once it’s finished?

Yes, I’ve read the many lists on the Internet. I don’t want those lists. Don’t link me to those lists. I want what’s on your lists.

What are your must-reads for a 5th grader? Captain Science is an avid reader, he’s fairly well-read for his age, and his reading ability is probably on a high school level or so. We’ve missed out on a lot of those classics, though, and I want him to have those before the year is over.

Here are some I can think of off the top of my head:
Where the Red Fern Grows
My Side of the Mountain
Hatchet
A Secret Garden
Bridge to Terabithia
Indian in the Cupboard
Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Westing Game
Shiloh (he likes books about dogs)

Now we’re home, however, and the frenzy of school year prep and buying has begun. Shortly before we left for our trip, we ordered a subscription to the PLATO Life Science and Earth/Space Science courses for Captain Science. I’m glad to have science taken care of, as that is the one area where I worry about finding comprehensive materials that are secular/scientific enough for our needs. I ordered these courses at Patchfire’s recommendations, so Captain Science and Eclectic Girl will still be right about apace with their science, which means we could still get together to do a little work occasionally.

Another area I’ve stressed over is that of extracurricular activities, especially art. Daddyman really wanted to start doing some computer programming with Captain Science this year, too. We really lucked out by making it home just in time to take advantage of the last minute deal on the KidCoder computer programming curriculum through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op. We’re also picking up the Meet the Masters series for both boys. We’re probably getting bundle 4, which includes Tracks A, B, and C for ages 5-7. Even though Captain Science is well above that age level, he has had almost no formal art instruction, so I think he’d be best served by starting with something very simple. If he enjoys it and needs a higher level, we’ll pick up the bundle for his age group, too. We’ll have access to the course for three full years, since each track is supposed to take about a school year.

We still have to place our order for Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra and Fred’s Home Companion, as well as Captain Science’s Michael Clay Thompson materials for the year and Tank’s Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading materials. We’re also starting a new organization system to help us stay on top of our materials, using a folder system similar to the one Daddyman uses for organizing his own paperwork.

I’m starting to get so excited about the next school year! How’s your planning/prep going?

Many homeschoolers rely on public libraries for part or all of their materials. Public libraries can provide a perfectly valid way of cutting monetary cost while homeschooling. Depending on the size of your library system, the speed at which books can be ordered from other locations in the system, and your ability/willingness to travel frequently to the library to order, check out, and/or renew books (some systems allow online ordering and renewal), the library may be a useful part of your homeschool year…or it might be more trouble than it’s worth.

Adrienne Furness even wrote a book for librarians whose libraries see a high volume of homeschoolers, Helping Homeschoolers in the Library. Adrienne also has a website called Homeschooling and Libraries with great resources for both homeschoolers using the library and librarians assisting homeschoolers. Denise G. Masters also has some suggestions for ways library systems can become more accommodating to homeschoolers. If your library system doesn’t currently have any of these systems or protocols in place, find out if there’s someone you can speak with to start implementing some of these changes.

If your budget is significantly constrained, you have free and easy access to a great public library system, and your homeschooling philosophies/methods don’t call for a lot of consumable materials, the library may be just the ticket for you. My personal experiences have not made me into a huge library-for-homeschool enthusiast, however. I’m of the opinion that buying your own copies of materials is almost always worth it. Libraries aren’t my first choice for homeschool materials for many reasons, such as:

1. Time is money, especially with multiple children. Using the library as a source for all or most of your homeschool materials can greatly decrease the monetary cost of homeschooling, but the trade off is a potentially huge increase in the time cost of homeschooling. Every minute spent driving to and from the library is a minute that can’t be spent elsewhere. Every minute spent trying to locate the books on a library shelf (sometimes being thwarted when the book isn’t actually there) is a minute that isn’t going to actually reading the books in question. Can this time be well spent on these endeavors? Well, sure, if you can carefully plan your week around your library time. As each of my children begins homeschooling, however, I suspect our time is going to become an increasingly valuable resource, one that I can’t see spending on a lot of library back-’n-forth. I can order books online at night, during snack/lunch time, or when the kids are at outside lessons or playdates,  which makes that the more time-efficient one.

2. Library books are not meant to be consumable. If you’d like to keep checking books out from that system, you can’t mark in/on, tear pages from, or in other way “consume” a library book. Yes, I’m looking at you, Tank.  I enjoy making notes in my books. I like to be able to dog ear a page if I need to. While I discourage margin doodling (Captain Science is a notorious doodler), I want my children to be able to take a note, underline a word or passage, or work through a problem on the page if they need to. We do have some books, like Life of Fred, that I don’t allow marking-up, but most of our curricula is of the consumable variety — meant to be written in. The benefit of a writable/markable curriculum is that it cuts down on the number of binder and folder filled with looseleaf paper, which, incidentally, never actually stays in those darn binders.

3. You’re really not supposed to photocopy that copyrighted material. While I’m not the Queen of all Ethics (I’m sure some of the software on my computer isn’t entirely on the up-and-up), I do feel that one should purchase consumable materials for home use, rather than photocopy the pages that aren’t expressly marked “for reproduction” and use the photocopies. When you do that, you’re reducing the number of sales for that particular publisher/writer, and guess what? If they don’t have enough sales, there won’t be another volume or companion book or edition of that material!

4. My library doesn’t have it. “It” being pretty much anything that I want to use for homeschooling. Sure, I could rearrange my academic plans based on what’s in the library (or available free online), but that seriously limits what materials we can cover. While my public library system has multiple copies of The Well-Trained Mind (various editions) to help a homeschooler get started, it doesn’t have a single book in the Life of Fred series, anything by Michael Clay Thompson, or any of the beautifully-illustrated DK Publishing history books. I can find supplemental books there, but nothing that makes a thorough enough curriculum for my gifted child, who really does need the challenge and creativity of the curricula we have chosen. We went through quite a few options to find what worked for us and not a one of those options was available in our public library system.

5. It only saves you money if you don’t rack up fees. We…um…yeah, kind of misplace library books sometimes. We have a kinda-sorta system on making sure those books don’t get lost, but someone always snags one from the “library books go here” spot and carries it off, then it doesn’t get turned in with the other, or somebody forgets the date the books are due, or somebody assumes somebody else renewed those books whilst s/he was at the library last time, and before you know it, we’ve got $20 in fees on all of our library cards and have to start checking things out under pseudonyms (which takes us right back to that ethics thing, people).  We already do this with our pleasure reading books to the extent that it’s usually cheaper for me to just buy the damn book outright.

6. I’m a book junkie. For those homeschoolers among us who are book junkies, it’s not enough to just read the book. We have to own the book. A big fat bookshelf is ever so much more satisfying than a big fat wallet, don’t you think? I love the smell of books, the feel of books, the lovely weight and size of a trade paperback (as opposed to library-bound hardbacks or thumbed-apart cheap paperbacks).  Books are my dear friends and my precious treasures, but a loaner book from a library can never be more than a passing acquaintance or another man’s rhubarb. I get something of a high from opening a FedEx/UPS box with a new book inside. I derive great pleasure from my shelf of curricula (and even have great dreams of one day arranging it all by topic, like Patchfire’s shelves).

7. Friends make great lending libraries. Patchfire has loaned or gifted me with a great deal of curricula. I, in turn, am prepared to pass along the stuff that didn’t work for us (or is just too young for us) to other homeschoolers.  Patchfire loaned me all of her Greek/Roman materials, and when I give it back to her, it will be accompanied by all the Greek/Roman materials I purchased. Reciprocity amongst a homeschooling community can be one way to cut costs without completely giving up that library. In this way, any book has the potential to help many families. Plus, it makes for a great excuse to get together with other homeschoolers. We’re planning a “Curriculattes” meeting for homeschooling parents to drink coffee and show off or swap curricula. Free or cheap stuff AND a night out? You can’t tell me that isn’t better than a library.

8. Libraries want you to be quiet. Tank, people. I have Tank. I really don’t think I need to explain it any better than that, do I?

9. Sometimes I get a bad case of the gonnas. As in, I’m really gonna make it out to the library this time…if I get around to it. I procrastinate. I put things off.  I drag my feet.  I know this about myself. If I rely on sources outside my home as my primary educational tools, my poor kids are going to be making do with crackers and magazines some weeks, because as much as I think I’m gonna make it to the library each and every week, I know it’s not actually gonna happen. I was also gonna do a lot of art projects and a ton of field trips this year, but without careful pre-planning, that didn’t happen, either. If I were to use the library with great frequency, I’d have to stick very rigidly to that color-coded schedule! I could do it if I had to, but I’d have to overcome a whole passel of gonnas to get there.

10. Have I mentioned I have three kids? I know, I know. Plenty of moms with way more kids than I have pile them into their white conversion van once a week and trot them meekly and quietly into the library to make excellent use of the facilities and resources. I am not those moms, however. Coordinating Captain Science’s need for certain books with Tank’s hands-on curiosity with Babypie’s “you’ve set me down and now I’m going to run off” isn’t my idea of a great time. It’s enough of a pain when we go for pleasure reading.  If I’m trying to locate specific books on the shelves for Captain S., it’s harder to corral Babypie, and Tank is piling up picture books on the reading table, and…ACK! Smrt Mama starts approaching a Smrt Meltdown of her own. Daddyman is usually the one who ends up taking Captain Science (and sometimes Tank) to the library for free reading books, and that works just fine for us.

The long (very long) and short of it is that we haven’t had the need or inclination to rely primarily on the library for our curricula, but that certainly doesn’t mean it couldn’t work for you or anyone else. Learn what your public library system has available to you and develop a schedule and system that allows for regular visits and timely returns of materials…and when you do, please let me know!

That’s what the [Smrt] Homeschooler thinks about using the library. What do you think? How do you and your family use the library as a part of homeschooling?

Do you have a question for the [Smrt] Homeschooler? Email them to
smrtmama@smrtlernins.com

With each book Captain Science completed, I experience a deep sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. It’s not just about another check-marked box on a list (though it’s a little bit about that, as well), but about knowing that we’ve done a subject from beginning to end, that we’ve truly completed the first year of homeschooling (rather than just futzing around until we hit day 180). Making it to the end of the year with something still unfinished, unless it was specifically scheduled to be unfinished, would feel–perhaps unreasonably–like a small failure. I set goals and I want them completed.

Every day is a race. Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents, we manage to put to bed a couple of months ago, pulling it out for review and working on math concepts independently of curricula in the interim. Captain Science finally finished Paragraph Town last week, though he has gone back and redone a couple of lessons in that. Our brain class with Patchfire is completely. The only thing left in the writing class is making corrections to the drafts and mailing them off for submission. Game class has become more of a game club, without a need for an end-date.

Now, we’re chugging along with Building Poems, trying to wrap that up. Ideally, the only book that we will carry with us through the summer is Caesar’s English I, which I never intended us to finish by the end of the year. Far too many lessons for that, no matter how fast Captain Science seems to be zooming through it. This will keep the vocabulary fresh in his head for starting Latin (and Caesar’s English II) in the fall.

Ten days, five of which will not be managed by me, as I leave the boys in the capable hands of Officer Daddyman and the Nana, whilst I jet off to Chicago to doula for my best friend’s first birth. Five more academic days in which to wrap it all up and put it to bed for the school year. I don’t feel ready for this! This year has been such an adventure and a challenge.

Surely I’m not the only one with a deep seated need to have everything neatly wrapped up by the end of the year. How does it work for y’all? Do you leave curricula hanging to next school year? Not finish the school year until everything is finished? Do tell, do tell!