Does anyone know about these? I cannot seem to find info anywhere. I know Holt Traditions grammar is Warriner's. I'm looking for a great secular literature program that has a challenging, diverse, and interesting selection. For good 10- and 8-year-olds. Pei

Anyone?

Is there such a thing as a free updated Paideia Mortimer Adler list for kids? If so, where can I get it? I can see the original Adler list in his Paideia Program appendix in its entirety on Amazon, but I also read online that there's an updated list that includes more racial and gender diversity. Thanks in advance, Pei

Hi, Nan, I immigrated from Taiwan. I think I just had a generally intellectually-poor childhood. Taiwan was a police-state when I was there, so it was just a massively depressed society, from what I gathered as a child. Our family got some of the first library cards to the first library in Taiwan. It was an expensive private one. You could only read there. It was weird. My parents were sort of clueless when it came to my education. We spoke Taiwanese at home, but Taiwanese was not allowed in public buildings. So, obviously, when I started pre-school, everyone spoke Mandarin. Unfortunately, no one had explained this to me, so I spent a year or two ostracized (I went to an expensive non-Taiwanese school where the students didn't even know Taiwanese existed, I don't think), while I quickly learned this new language, with no help from anyone. At 3, I didn't know what a language was. I was just trying to figure out whether a piece of clothing was a shirt or pants! And then later, I taught myself to read by using subtitles on TV programs. But it was really hard 'cause there was only children's programming once a day for an hour. And even then, my parents didn't like us watching. So I just pretty much thought I was a complete moron 'cause everyone else knew the names of things, and here I was, with gaps in language everywhere. We didn't talk to one another at home, so I had to fend for myself when it came to a lot of stuff. I had very few toys, I had no paper or pencils (until school), and no books. NO BOOKS! I was a great detective, though, and I read newspapers, I read calendars, I read recipe books, I read my Dad's library of Ancient Chinese classics and college science textbooks. My Mom bought us markers once but was unimpressed at how messy they were and how quickly we used them up. So she wasn't into buying more. Whenever I went to my grandparents', though, my grandma would save her daily calendar pages for me to use. I used to hoard them, folding them carefully to treasure. But then someone would inevitably find them and throw them away.... 'cause they were old calendar pages! It was crazy. When I talked to my Mom about it a few years ago, she said that she had no idea what was going on with me. I never mentioned it to her. Like I said, my parents were really clueless. When we moved to the States, it was even worse. Not only was there intellectual-poverty, I had no time and resources to "supplement" my education. Because of the language barrier, I had no access to literature. I don't think it was until senior year in high school when my language ability allowed me to read something interesting to me. It was Crime and Punishment for AP English. Of course, to overcompensate, my kids are totally overly pampered when it comes to available resources and my kind attention. You know how that goes.... Pei

Yikes! Zoiks! What did you do or say? My kids are enjoying such a different childhood than my husband's and mine that I get sad sometimes that they can't ever relate to me. While this is totally intentionally-implemented on my part, I still wish we had more ways to relate to one another, in terms of our childhoods. Star Trek would be amazing. I spent almost all my time before having kids watching TV and playing computer games. My education was largely based on TV. Mr. Rogers taught me ethics, along with Family Ties and The Cosby Show. Kate and Allie allowed me a glimpse into motherhood with untraditional values. Charlie's Angels, Bewitched, The Greatest American Hero, Wonder Woman, Remington Steele, the Bionic Woman all taught me that I could be more than I imagined myself to be. I could give an account of my entire childhood based on what I learned from TV. I immigrated to America when I was in elementary school, and I went from reading Jane Eyre unabridged in translation to reading Lucy's Lucky 7 (she loses a tooth - gasp!) in a stupid elementary textbook. My ability to befriend books took decades to re-establish. Gosh, there's so much in the Star Trek series, I bet it would be enough for all four years of a high school education! Pei

Thanks, everybody! I am doing The Well-Educated Mind. It's kind of a cheat since I did lit for college and grad school, but honestly, I've always wanted to read this stuff better or again or something. So I have Don Quixote (first on the list) and started it today. I have been in love with the text since I first read it 20 years ago. It's about time for a second reading. Otherwise, I'm just learning with the kids. I had a professor tell me once that whenever someone asks me to teach a course, in any discipline, I should automatically say "YES!" Then I only need to stay 6 weeks ahead of the students. I'm taking that advice with homeschooling. 6 weeks ahead is enough to prepare, design, and visualize. I hope. Pei

Thanks for all the great advice from everyone! I have found it challenging to keep perspective. I have followed the advice of keeping it simple. I can't believe how time-consuming it's been even with just the bare minimal schooling. And I keep researching and reading. And I am growing more and more excited about our journey. The most incredible recent find is from KarenAnne, Bring History Alive. My copies came in the mail today. Though I cannot use them to teach for quite a while, I am so excited to read them and envision what is to come. I am so grateful for you all. This forum is such an amazing resource! My husband is grateful, too. He is no longer in trouble for feigning interest and comprehension when I talk to him about my latest homeschooling find, thought, or realization. Thanks! Pei

This is amazing. I bookmarked your (Jackie's) Amazon wishlist. I discourage media usage, but I will have to make an exception some time for all the Star Trek series. The cast of Next Generation are really intelligent and articulate and interesting. It'd be cool to see if kids would be willing to explore some of these actors' other works (like Captain Picard's Shakespeare). Wow. This thread really made my heart beat with excitement. Thanks! Pei

What an incredible thread. I read every post. I needed more than a glass of wine. I was a cloud child who forced herself to disguise it. Junior year in high school, I slept only 2 to 3 hours a night in order to get straight A's (I was always more a B student). In spite of gaining acceptance into the best university and graduate programs in the country, I still considered myself a faker and a retard (sorry for the un-pc word choice). It took me having kids and defending their right to be who they were that I began to embrace the way I am. And it wasn't until the last two or three years that I finally started dismantling more of the deeply-set framework of my identity. I no longer mind that I'm stupid, nor am I impressed that I'm brilliant. I hope to set an example for my kids to be tolerant of who they are, however they might be. And I hope to teach them to view education as love, passion, and a great convenience. Off of to keep reading the other threads.... Pei

Wowsers! I know what I'll be doing this weekend starting Right Now! Thank you!!! Pei

I am determined to put myself through some "homeschooling" too. I want to do Life of Fred (at least a few books ahead), Well-Educated Mind, and her History of the Ancient (and Medieval) World. And I want to learn Spanish and Latin along with the kids. Plus, I'm really excited to learn vocabulary and review grammar. The only ones I feel confident doing are reviewing grammar and learning Spanish. Everything else seems terrifyingly difficult. Is anyone else doing this? Has anyone else done this? Please tell me it's possible, and that it's really rewarding. I'm scared to start. Thanks, Pei

Thank you all for this interesting thread. I've been thinking about all this a lot lately. My kids have never gone to school, and my main community is a group of radical unschoolers. It's been a really grueling journey for me to arrive here (on the Classical Method wagon), as if at the start of my real homeschooling journey. I just starting schooling the kids the last couple of months, and they are loving it. In fact, it was a year-long journey trying to figure out whether it was the right choice. Now, looking back, my kids SOOOOOOOOOO needed more intellectual stimulation. My kids are 10 and 8, and they simply weren't given tools to progress fast enough for what they wanted to do. And that there were gaps in learning everywhere became frustrating for them. One thing that really propelled my abandoning our no-curriculum, no-textbook approach was coming upon Life of Fred. My dd10 loved it but didn't know enough arithmetic (to do the fractions book). I had to get real with myself and insist that she was not allowed to progress in Life of Fred unless she were able to complete the exercises with perfect accuracy or understanding. I felt so bad that I had not prepared my daughter for what she wanted to do (learn fractions) and I thought about how that feeling would be multiplied a hundred, a thousand, a million times should she find herself ill-prepared to embark on an academic journey in college. The kids still determine how much school work they do. But now, I encourage and talk straight with them about what's up. I let them know that I cannot feel okay as a parent if I were to send them off on their adulthoods culturally- and intellectually-illiterate. Thankfully for me, my kids are motivated and dedicated (as much as kids can be) and enjoy academic learning immensely. From what I've seen of unschoolers, most are amazing doers. A few are shameful in their neglect (a friend calls it "unparenting" instead of "unschooling"). And some (like me before) are in-between trying to figure things out the best they can. Pei

Thanks, Rosie, Very sound advice! I am greatly entertained watching how I flip flop from one extreme (no schooling) to the other (academics all day and night). I hope we find the balance very soon, before we all face academic burn out. Thanks, Pei

Thanks for the replies! Evaluating curricula based on my goals is great advice. Right away I can guess that Saxon is based on my fears rather than my goals. And with any curriculum I might choose, spending more time with the kids in order to nudge them (or gently push them) a little past their comfort zone is something I should do (for my homeschooling goals). As for evaluating learning styles, I might have to give it a little more time to see. Now that I think about their learning styles, the trick seems to be to work on academics in short spurts throughout the day. Could it be that simple? I keep looking for the magic curricula instead of really getting into teaching the stuff we've got already. Very interesting. Thanks for the ear, and the advice. Homeschooling can be so surprisingly agonizing! Who would've thunk?! Pei

Hi, Though my kids have never gone to school, I'm pretty new to the whole curriculum thing. Last year, we (kids are 10 and 8) used Math-U-See and some workbooks from The Critical Thinking Company. For the whole year, they each did maybe 30 worksheets total for all subjects, not counting Mind Benders. Those they went through right away. This year, just this past couple of months, I decided to get them more academic curriculum. We do "schooling" sort of sporadically, though somewhat consistently the last month or so. So my question is, how do you choose what to use? I have an awesome lineup of workbooks and other texts. But there are only so many hours of academics the kids want to engage in. They play and read all day. We do academics about an hour a day on average, maybe two (no weekends off). But I've got so much curriculum, each stellar in its own way. For math, dd10 is doing LOF with MUS Delta reviews. We're getting Saxon 6/7 in the mail Monday. My dd8 is working through Singapore 2A, Saxon 3, and Miquon Math. For language arts, we've got FLL, WWE, and then also Writing Strands, MCT, Hake Grammar and Writing, Spelling Workout, ZB Handwriting, and Dynamic Literacy. Not a single program that isn't excellent in my book. What do I do? Skip around each curriculum? Pick just one? Scrap the whole thing in favor of a living books approach? I keep asking the kids what they would prefer, and they just tell me that any approach would be fine. Should I even worry or try so hard? Would they just naturally learn everything if I just put some parent-approved products infront of them? How should I approach thinking about homeschooling? Pei

I looked at the samples just now, and I'm purchasing from DL right away. I have yet to see a program that breaks down words in such a non-intimidating yet challenging way. I only looked at the one sample chapter on "re" (in the Foundations series) and was impressed with "re" being defined not only as "again" (like all other books do) but also "against" ("react") and "back" (recall). Where in the heck else can you find that sophisticated an analysis for little kids? In such a pleasant and approachable (and hopefully fun) format. We're sold. In fact, I can't wait to work through Foundations myself in order to get over being a word-root-challenged person. Pei

How silly of me! I only needed to look at the various Cliff's Notes type stuff online to find synopses of texts. It never even occurred to me before my post. I was a career literature snob (grad student in literature) before and never thought much of these "book notes" type of series. But I think I'll change my mind now! Does anyone know of really great Cliff's Notes-ish book notes that are well-written and accessible to younger kids? I.e. shorter. I want to focus mainly on the exercepts and not on the plot summaries. Thanks!

Hello, you very knowledgeable homeschoolers, I just very recently started the WTM journey. We follow an unschooling philosophy where I avail myself as a tutor and facilitator. In the last year or so, I've noticed our oldest starting to feel unchallenged and uninspired, so I've taken a huge leap and begun to fill their lives with math operations and grammar vocabulary and historical dates. Quite surprising to myself, we are all loving this journey and having a blast! I think, through tedious study of the WTM text and the great many informative posts on this forum, I have put together a dream learning setup (over $3000 later, of course). I am delighted with and in awe of all these curricula and their creators. One last subject to tackle will literature. Though the kids read all the time, I would really like to include a more formal study of challenging literature. Is there anything out there that has synopses of great texts, like short and approachable for elementary-age kids who read well? I would like to use that to have them study exercepts (looking up vocabulary words, working through grammar) and read them out loud at the end of their study. I imagine something akin to translating a foreign language passage. For instance, maybe they could read a synopsis of *Jane Eyre*, then I pick out a passage (that doesn't contain objectionable locking up of crazy women - just girls) that they could study at greater length. Or *Madame Bovary* - without the affair part. You get the idea. How do I implement this with the least amount of effort? Thanks! Pei