Hello! Looking for an American History that was written before 1900 or in the early 1900's. If you know of any, I'd appreciate any info. Also - Any general recommendations for American History. We are looking at using Sonlight American History 100 (I think it's High School or upper Middle). We have a 6th and 8th grader. Thanks! Janet M.

Sorry - the 2 letters wouldn't fit on one post. Here's the other letter from the authors. Janet, Thank you for allowing me to respond to this. Let me start by saying that the Teaching Textbooks series covers all of the major topics required by state standards. It's true that there are some differences between publishers as to which books contain which topics. For instance, Saxon Math doesn't have a separate Geometry book, so they mix Geometry with their Algebra and Advanced Math (Pre-Calculus) books. That means you won't get all of their Geometry lessons until you've finished Pre-Calculus. But generally, most publishers cover the same topics when you go through their complete series. TT does this as well. What's unique about TT, I think, is that our books are written in a clear style that's easily understandable to a young student (a rarity in math texts!). Also, we introduce topics when we think the student is best able to truly comprehend the material. This gives students a chance to consolidate their understanding of basic concepts before moving on to more advanced material. In short, the TT series is designed to help students really learn math conceptually. Equally important is that the TT books give a full explanation of every technique covered. There's nothing more frustrating for a math student than to be introduced to a new technique, but not receive any explanation of what that technique means, why it's important, what it's used for, and how it relates to what the student has already learned. It gives them the impression that math is just a bunch of meaningless techniques to be memorized but not understood. The public school textbooks are notorious for introducing techniques but leaving out the explanation. And it turns most students off of math long before they ever get through high school. By the way, the reason public school textbooks cram so many topics in their books so early has nothing to do with sound teaching methods. It has to do with the publishers' commercial interests. Public school publishers want to sell one book nationally. But to do that they need to be approved by the textbook committees in all states. So they stuff their books with every topic that's required by all these state committees. If one state requires the topic of probability in 4th grade and another requires it in 5th grade, the publisher just puts probability in both its 4th grade and 5th grade books. The end result is a book that weighs a ton, is stuffed full of repetitive topics, but has no room for explanation. In my view, the real issue that we face with math education is not what topics are being covered at what age. The real issue is that our students aren't learning the major math concepts that they need to know, ever! That's why 50% of college freshmen are required to take remedial arithmetic and algebra courses before being admitted to the college-level curriculum. Keep in mind that these are students who, for the most part, have used public school texts that cover lots of topics at early ages. And, even after their remedial courses, most of these students never gain mastery over basic math concepts. That's one of the reasons why we have so few Americans majoring in math, science, and engineering. One interesting thing about the public schools, though, is that even they are starting to see the light on this issue. A recent Math Advisory Panel of U.S. experts, appointed by President Bush, concluded that the range of topics in U.S. math texts should be narrowed in order to improve test scores. They specifically called for shorter textbooks that concentrate on basic conceptual understanding. Math experts are realizing that there's not enough explanation in the books and that force-feeding hundreds of topics with no supporting instruction doesn't work. I believe that this is one of the main reasons why U.S. students rank so low in math internationally. By contrast, Asian countries have more narrowly-focused books, and are at the top of the international rankings. Finally, I would ask those who are unsure about TT to have a little faith in us. We have years of experience teaching homeschoolers, and we designed all of our products from the ground up just for you. Rather than slavishly following every detail of the often misguided standards of the public school system, we created products that work. The TT series will teach your students what they need to know to be fully prepared for college and beyond. We are a relatively new curriculum, but because of our popularity there are already thousands of students who have used TT and are now succeeding in colleges and universities at all levels, from community college to the Ivy League. Thanks again for allowing me to comment. Greg Sabouri Teaching Textbooks 866-867-6284

We've had great experience with this course and were reading some nay-sayers on this board, so I wrote to the authors and asked some questions. Here's their responses. It's long, but worth the read. ************************************************************************ It may help to give you a little background on the TT series. We first developed the curriculum while running a school for academically-gifted students. We used the same techniques with them that are now used in the TT books. The academic performance of our students was outstanding. Their test scores were extremely high and a large percentage ended up attending very prestigious colleges. For instance, one student went to Dartmouth where he made the highest score in history on their math placement exam. Four years later, he graduated first in his class in math, and he s now getting his Ph.D. in math. With this background, it should be obvious that we would never produce materials that are not college prep. As for our personal backgrounds, I have two degrees from Harvard and tutored graduate students in statistics, probability, and game theory while I was a student there. My brother attended Swarthmore College in Philadelphia, which is one of the very best colleges in the country. We both have 12 or 13 years experience teaching math, and several of those years were spent teaching homeschoolers exclusively. So we are very familiar with homeschoolers unique needs. A few people asked whether TT would prepare a student for college algebra. The series will not only prepare a student for college algebra, but he/she may be able to test out of that course, because there is a lot of overlap between high school Algebra 1 and 2 and college algebra. You asked why our Algebra 1 does not include quadratic equations. It absolutely DOES include quadratic equations. A quadratic equation is just a second-degree equation. We have an entire chapter on that subject in Algebra 1 and all the subsequent chapters of the book review quadratic equations (in the problem sets). Quadratic equations are covered even earlier in our Algebra 2 book. It is true that we don t cover logs. But that’ s only because the TT series is not finished yet. The same is true of the 2 or 3 other topics that were mentioned. Our Pre-Calculus is coming out next year and that book will cover all those topics extensively, along with many others. The TT series, once it s finished, will cover ALL of the topics that a student needs, no matter what his/her future career plans (including science, engineering, medicine, etc.). Why is it that we put some topics in Algebra 2 instead of Algebra 1 or vice versa (or wait to do logs until Pre-Calculus)? We introduce topics in the order that we think will help the student learn the most. And we ve had quite a lot of experience teaching math, as I ve discussed. I don t think the goal should be to race through the most number of topics in the shortest time. What s more important is to really learn what you cover. Our approach is to help students gain mastery over foundational areas before moving on to new things. More generally, there are always differences in the sequencing of topics when you compare publishers. For example, to get through all of Saxon s geometry lessons you would have to take Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Advanced Mathematics. And even then, you wouldn’t get a complete high school geometry course. Videotext covers Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 in only 180 lessons, whereas most books take about 260 lessons to cover the same material. But I’ m not saying that Saxon or Videotext is bad because of their sequencing or the small number of lessons. When choosing a curriculum I think it makes more sense to focus on how well the book EXPLAINS the concepts, rather than just count up the topics. If topics covered were so important then public school students would have high test scores. That s because the public school books are full of topics. In reality, of course, many public school graduates can t multiply or divide or solve even the simplest algebra equation. And the U.S. is near the bottom of the international math rankings. The biggest problem we have in math education is not that topics aren’t introduced early enough. It s that the books don t give enough explanation and the instruction they do contain is usually very poor (maybe because mathematicians are often bad communicators.) Inadequate explanation is an especially big problem for homeschoolers, who are often studying independently once they reach middle school age. The TT series is designed to deal with this problem. We cover all the major topics and we do so in depth, with full explanation so much explanation, in fact, that the student can pretty much teach himself! I am convinced that a student who uses the TT series will be BETTER PREPARED for the SAT and ACT and for college than if he/she uses any other series on the market. And the reason is the quality and quantity of our instruction. It doesn’t hurt that we make math enjoyable either. Everybody knows that the more interested a student is in a book, the more he s likely to learn. As for the Jay Wile e-mail, I already told you that we will cover every one of the extra topics he mentioned in our Pre-Calculus product. And for those students who don t want to go all the way through our Pre-Calculus, we’ll post certain topics (like logs) on our website for all users to access. The physics lesson that was mentioned was not on imaginary numbers. It was on complex numbers. A complex number can be viewed as a vector in 2 dimensions (and in the lesson we used a two-dimensional example). Also, the addition and subtraction of complex numbers and vectors are the same. This gave us a rare opportunity to show, in a way that a high school student can understand, how complex numbers (a very abstract and difficult concept) could actually be used in a real-world context. Other math authors have taken a similar approach. Greg Sabouri ************************************************************************

Wow - didn't mean to cause an uproar. Yes, I did talk to him specifically about some public school texts that friends of mine were comparing to TT, that's why he responded as he did. I just thought some might be interested in what these authors had to say, but if you're not interested, please don't worry about it. Thanks for checking the post :) Janet M.

Hello Ladies! My son has used TT for Pre-Alg. and Alg. 1 and we love it! He is very mathy (I am not, however). We did Singapore for Pre-k thru 6th and on to Pre-Alg. He's in 7th and finishing Alg. 1. I was becoming disturbed by some of the comments on the board and from friends looking at Public School Texts - so I wrote TT and asked some questions. Here's Greg Sabouri's response (author). By the way, he responded within a couple of hours. I am sticking with TT and will defend it all the way! Janet M. ********************************************************************** Thank you for allowing me to respond to this. Let me start by saying that the Teaching Textbooks series covers all of the major topics required by state standards. It's true that there are some differences between publishers as to which books contain which topics. For instance, Saxon Math doesn't have a separate Geometry book, so they mix Geometry with their Algebra and Advanced Math (Pre-Calculus) books. That means you won't get all of their Geometry lessons until you've finished Pre-Calculus. But generally, most publishers cover the same topics when you go through their complete series. TT does this as well. What's unique about TT, I think, is that our books are written in a clear style that's easily understandable to a young student (a rarity in math texts!). Also, we introduce topics when we think the student is best able to truly comprehend the material. This gives students a chance to consolidate their understanding of basic concepts before moving on to more advanced material. In short, the TT series is designed to help students really learn math conceptually. Equally important is that the TT books give a full explanation of every technique covered. There's nothing more frustrating for a math student than to be introduced to a new technique, but not receive any explanation of what that technique means, why it's important, what it's used for, and how it relates to what the student has already learned. It gives them the impression that math is just a bunch of meaningless techniques to be memorized but not understood. The public school textbooks are notorious for introducing techniques but leaving out the explanation. And it turns most students off of math long before they ever get through high school. By the way, the reason public school textbooks cram so many topics in their books so early has nothing to do with sound teaching methods. It has to do with the publishers' commercial interests. Public school publishers want to sell one book nationally. But to do that they need to be approved by the textbook committees in all states. So they stuff their books with every topic that's required by all these state committees. If one state requires the topic of probability in 4th grade and another requires it in 5th grade, the publisher just puts probability in both its 4th grade and 5th grade books. The end result is a book that weighs a ton, is stuffed full of repetitive topics, but has no room for explanation. In my view, the real issue that we face with math education is not what topics are being covered at what age. The real issue is that our students aren't learning the major math concepts that they need to know, ever! That's why 50% of college freshmen are required to take remedial arithmetic and algebra courses before being admitted to the college-level curriculum. Keep in mind that these are students who, for the most part, have used public school texts that cover lots of topics at early ages. And, even after their remedial courses, most of these students never gain mastery over basic math concepts. That's one of the reasons why we have so few Americans majoring in math, science, and engineering. One interesting thing about the public schools, though, is that even they are starting to see the light on this issue. A recent Math Advisory Panel of U.S. experts, appointed by President Bush, concluded that the range of topics in U.S. math texts should be narrowed in order to improve test scores. They specifically called for shorter textbooks that concentrate on basic conceptual understanding. Math experts are realizing that there's not enough explanation in the books and that force-feeding hundreds of topics with no supporting instruction doesn't work. I believe that this is one of the main reasons why U.S. students rank so low in math internationally. By contrast, Asian countries have more narrowly-focused books, and are at the top of the international rankings. Finally, I would ask those who are unsure about TT to have a little faith in us. We have years of experience teaching homeschoolers, and we designed all of our products from the ground up just for you. Rather than slavishly following every detail of the often misguided standards of the public school system, we created products that work. The TT series will teach your students what they need to know to be fully prepared for college and beyond. We are a relatively new curriculum, but because of our popularity there are already thousands of students who have used TT and are now succeeding in colleges and universities at all levels, from community college to the Ivy League. Thanks again for allowing me to comment. Greg Sabouri Teaching Textbooks 866-867-6284

Hello Ladies! My son has used TT for Pre-Alg. and Alg. 1 and we love it! He is very mathy (I am not, however). We did Singapore for Pre-k thru 6th and on to Pre-Alg. He's in 7th and finishing Alg. 1. I was becoming disturbed by some of the comments on the board and from friends looking at Public School Texts - so I wrote TT and asked some questions. Here's Greg Sabouri's response (author). By the way, he responded within a couple of hours. I am sticking with TT and will defend it all the way! Janet M. ********************************************************************** Thank you for allowing me to respond to this. Let me start by saying that the Teaching Textbooks series covers all of the major topics required by state standards. It's true that there are some differences between publishers as to which books contain which topics. For instance, Saxon Math doesn't have a separate Geometry book, so they mix Geometry with their Algebra and Advanced Math (Pre-Calculus) books. That means you won't get all of their Geometry lessons until you've finished Pre-Calculus. But generally, most publishers cover the same topics when you go through their complete series. TT does this as well. What's unique about TT, I think, is that our books are written in a clear style that's easily understandable to a young student (a rarity in math texts!). Also, we introduce topics when we think the student is best able to truly comprehend the material. This gives students a chance to consolidate their understanding of basic concepts before moving on to more advanced material. In short, the TT series is designed to help students really learn math conceptually. Equally important is that the TT books give a full explanation of every technique covered. There's nothing more frustrating for a math student than to be introduced to a new technique, but not receive any explanation of what that technique means, why it's important, what it's used for, and how it relates to what the student has already learned. It gives them the impression that math is just a bunch of meaningless techniques to be memorized but not understood. The public school textbooks are notorious for introducing techniques but leaving out the explanation. And it turns most students off of math long before they ever get through high school. By the way, the reason public school textbooks cram so many topics in their books so early has nothing to do with sound teaching methods. It has to do with the publishers' commercial interests. Public school publishers want to sell one book nationally. But to do that they need to be approved by the textbook committees in all states. So they stuff their books with every topic that's required by all these state committees. If one state requires the topic of probability in 4th grade and another requires it in 5th grade, the publisher just puts probability in both its 4th grade and 5th grade books. The end result is a book that weighs a ton, is stuffed full of repetitive topics, but has no room for explanation. In my view, the real issue that we face with math education is not what topics are being covered at what age. The real issue is that our students aren't learning the major math concepts that they need to know, ever! That's why 50% of college freshmen are required to take remedial arithmetic and algebra courses before being admitted to the college-level curriculum. Keep in mind that these are students who, for the most part, have used public school texts that cover lots of topics at early ages. And, even after their remedial courses, most of these students never gain mastery over basic math concepts. That's one of the reasons why we have so few Americans majoring in math, science, and engineering. One interesting thing about the public schools, though, is that even they are starting to see the light on this issue. A recent Math Advisory Panel of U.S. experts, appointed by President Bush, concluded that the range of topics in U.S. math texts should be narrowed in order to improve test scores. They specifically called for shorter textbooks that concentrate on basic conceptual understanding. Math experts are realizing that there's not enough explanation in the books and that force-feeding hundreds of topics with no supporting instruction doesn't work. I believe that this is one of the main reasons why U.S. students rank so low in math internationally. By contrast, Asian countries have more narrowly-focused books, and are at the top of the international rankings. Finally, I would ask those who are unsure about TT to have a little faith in us. We have years of experience teaching homeschoolers, and we designed all of our products from the ground up just for you. Rather than slavishly following every detail of the often misguided standards of the public school system, we created products that work. The TT series will teach your students what they need to know to be fully prepared for college and beyond. We are a relatively new curriculum, but because of our popularity there are already thousands of students who have used TT and are now succeeding in colleges and universities at all levels, from community college to the Ivy League. Thanks again for allowing me to comment. Greg Sabouri Teaching Textbooks 866-867-6284

Hello! My friend just told me about a curriculum called "Word Within The Word" vocab. program and "Magic Lens" Grammar Program. There's also a Poetry program and they all inter-connect. These look great, but I'd love to hear from someone who's used them. Here's the link if anyone wants to check it out: http://www.rfwp.com/series4.htm. Check out what the author - Michael Clay Thompson says. I was considering Analytical Grammar and was a little lost at where to go with my 6th and 8th grader on Language Arts, but this looks very good and very Classical! What do you think?

I am in desperate search of a book that drills punctuation and capitalization only. We've done grammar programs that have these included, but we need to focus in on the rules and of these two subjects alone with drill. Thank you, thank you for any suggestions. Janet M.:)

I've just been reading "The Well-Trained Mind" for the first time (sadly, I wish I had read it earlier) and it recommended "Spelling Workout". The copy of the book was from 1999 and I wondered if there were new recommendations or if this is still the best way to go for reinforcing spelling rules. Thank you for any opinions. Janet M.

I've heard the question -"why are people doing well on this program that didn't do well on others?". I think that could be answered by their format. I've got a very mathy son. He's doing Alg. 1 in 7th. Some of it he finds simple to do and some not. The instruction is so complete and the answer CD's are invaluable for following up on concepts he didn't quite get the first time. I haven't found anything comparable. I believe that's the reason people are doing well on it - not because it's not difficult enough. I do agree that any college bound child should be working ahead of schedule. That's hard to do unless you jump levels early. Don't know if this helps - just our experience. :)

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I've got an 8th grade boy and 6th grade girl coming up next year. Just checking out what you have done for those grades this year. Math is covered - we're doing Teaching Textbooks, and I think we're sticking with Apologia for Science. They're fairly advanced and self-motivated. Very interested in History/Geo and Language Arts and any other ideas. Recommended reading lists are good. Do you know if Well Trained Mind has a reading list for these grades? I found the High School list. Any comments on Analytical Grammar? Thanks! Janet M. :)

Hello! I once had a homeschool curriculum catalog that had homesteading type items along with do it yourself - bread machines, etc. and survival items in the back. I can't remember what company it was and can't find the catalog. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Thanks for your help!