Rod and Staff has a record keeping and accounting course that looks really good.

A friend and I are doing SOW together right now, for adult remedial self-study. It's a 6 year Unit Study on the Bible, for k-12. SOW Yahoo Group

Using Color in Your Art covers color theory. The book is written for paint but just about all the lessons can be adapted to crayons. http://www.amazon.com/Using-Color-Your-Art-Williamson/dp/0824967542 Teaching Art with Books Kids Love covers the elements and principals of art, using picture books that are easily available from the library. http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Books-Kids-Love-Award-Winning/dp/1555914063/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293683941&sr=1-1 I have 2 friends who are artists that were extremely impressed with these 2 books when I showed them to them. With nothing but a box of crayons, a library card and these 2 books you can cover the basics of art.

Will the 9 Note Recorder Method prepare a student for this book?

Which dictionary are you using?

I'd find a textbook with a really good overview of the scientific method and teach textbook reading skills for just a couple chapters focusing on the method and history of science. Then I would spend the rest of the year focusing on how to do a science fair project.

It can be interesting to compare the European/Asian Stone Age to the American, African and Australian Stone Ages and to the last few surviving Stone Age cultures still left today.

Kleine, I have to register to see samples. Is it worth giving them my e-mail? No one has taught their child or themselves the phonetic system in the dictionary they use most????

We mostly skipped them. We concentrated on scientific literacy and good math and writing skills as the best way to prepare for CC science courses...and it worked :-0 Neither son completed even 1/2 of a college prep high school level textbook.

How to take notes on the lecture http://education.exeter.ac.uk/dll/studyskills/note_taking_skills.htm Part 1: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=J9B9CMNU Part 2: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=D7L7ZPNX Part 3: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=D7LKLLNX Part 4: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=D7LKLWNX Part 5: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=D7LKD7NX Part 6: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=D7LK7LNX Part 7: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=J9BF9FNU Part 8: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=D7LK7GNX

I'd talk about how we know less than we want to know about this period of time, and why we know so little. Speculation is fun. This period of history is large and...well...fun. But...much is just speculation. And the people who claim to know the most, and are the loudest, are often the ones spreading the most speculation, not facts. Rather than TEACH this period, I think it is best to PLAY with it. I'm covering this period right now in my own self studies as week one in SOW. I got some great picture and science books from the library on creation and the big bang and God. The curriculum is creation based...but I'm just playing around and well...enjoying all of it. I'm supposed to be writing a persuasive paragraph proving creation, and a friend is tutoring me who is an atheist, and she finds the assignment to be a good one, and says its important to learn to defend whatever is assigned. I was emailed a links to an online lecture. I'll try and post it in the morning. Oh yeah it's been morning for over an hour now :-) Later in the morning I guess :-)

I really liked the Teaching Company Short Story Course on MP3. I listened to it while riding on the train.

I was recently gifted an older edition SOW (Student Of the Word not SOTW). Looking through the phonics and spelling sections I realized I have not mastered advanced phonics. I ordered Sound Spelling for just a couple dollars. I'm looking at The ABCs and all their tricks, but cannot afford it yet. My curriculum came with 2 conflicting pronunciation guides (maybe from different editions) that are close to 2 different major dictionaries, but neither matches exactly. Everyone is grouping the word types the same though, just the phonetic symbols are different. I'm figuring I first need to pick and purchase a dictionary, then adapt any phonics instruction to match the dictionary??? Which dictionary should I pick? I was looking at this one. http://www.amazon.com/Merriam-Websters-School-Dictionary-Merriam-Webster/dp/B0026IBY04/ref=pd_sim_b_4

I'd take some time to actually learn something, rather than to keep reading about how and what to learn. Dive into something, anything. What most excites you?

My oldest son graduated from AS about 7 1/2 years ago? I've lost track :-0 I was VERY, VERY pleased! My younger son completed about 3/4 of the program and I made a big mistake pulling him out to let someone else tutor him for a bit. Yes, he was gifted...but...he should have FINISHED what he started. AS is steady, traditional, and realistic. It gets the most important parts of the job DONE. Its not flashy or fun, but it only takes a couple hours a day, leaving enough time for students to pursue their passions or work. It's been 7 years, but I'll bet AS is still as good as it was.

I'm a self-educating adult too. I muddled through homeschooling my boys and learned alongside them as best I could, making sure first to meet their immediate needs and passions. Now I'm focusing on me. My younger son had great success with starting a Great Books study by reading the KJV Bible while listening to dramatized audio tapes. He developed an ear for 17th century writing and then effortlessly dived into Shakespeare and the English translations of the classics from the 1600s. I too have decided to start an intensive KJV study, now. I bought the Literary Study Bible for the notes, but not the ESV translation. I purchased the SOW (Student of the Word) curriculum and unfortunately lost it on the train, but was gifted another copy by a very kind member of the yahoo group. I suggest reading part 2 of Climbing Parnassus. That book combined with the emails I shared with the author of Latin Centered Cuuriculum as he was writing his book, have really taught me a lot. I like TWTM for the instructions on outlining in history at the logic stage, and for the art history suggestions. But in general I'm not much of a neoclassicist. I like Saxon for Math, but first want to master more memory work and speed methods before diving back into the series. I also like the Aufmann texts for the word problems. I love Science Matters for a spine for reading real books about science. I'm messing around with lots of other stuff right now, but don't have time to list it all. I'm still undecided what I want to restart my Greek studies with. I think I'm going to save up for the Open Texture curriculum. I hope you stick around! :-) I have a friend who just today decided to join my SOW and KJV studies. I enjoy talking to other adult learners :-)

Just eat small amounts of the high energy foods and large amounts of the low energy foods. non starchy vegetables are very low in calories. Serve both raw and cooked non starchy vegetables at every meal. Most clear broth soups are also very low in calories. Adding a small serving of soup as a first course is good for everyone. Then during the entree you could have more soup and just a little of the higher energy entree. Desserts need to be your own. If you have a nearby Whole Foods market, make sure to check out Irene's Biscotti and Spaans Meringues and serve with specialty tea or Coffee. Cut Skinny Cow Ice Cream sandwiches cut in half. Fancy sugar free jello and fruits.

One of my children was both very gifted, but also had some significant learning disabilities. He effortlessly did some things very early, and other other things just never fell into line academically, especially in late high school. And as I've stated before, my ability as teacher was strongly affected by the poverty and abuse we were living in and my resulting physical decline. But if I just focus on my son, and his abilities, he was perfectly capable of making steady progress through an Algebra 1 text in the 5th grade, but even if I had been the best teacher, I don't think he would have been able to have completed the writing required to do well on many AP exams. So same kid was "pushed" and "neglected". He was the only child in our town eligible to take the SATs as a middleschooler, but when it came time to take them for real, he didn't bother and decided to take the GED instead and start at the local CC.

Jyn, thanks for the offer, but I think I can swing a workbook from Mardel's. Jg, I am so thankful to learn about this online store! Thank you! They are selling the design a mugs for just $0.89. you can just trace the insert and draw anything. I dropped my old one and broke it. It was grounding to draw seasonal pictures for the mug, and have it to drink from. Jyn, good luck with your hubby. I think I saw a post from you about that, but was too busy that day to read it all and respond. When I get a chance, I'll try and find the thread and share some ideas. I used a LOT of adult remedial resources with my boys when they were homeschooling because they often found the children's books offensive, inaccurate, and brainwashing...or so they said :-0 and sometimes I used them because they were in the library and at yard sales and it was all I had available to me.

Where is the best place to purchase the workbooks? Amazon doesn't carry them :-( I'd like to maybe purchase the Remudia workbook on outlining from the same company if possible. I HATE shipping costs :-( Do I need the teacher manual? This is for myself. Its the only curriculum I've seen so far that doesn't teach slant. I prefer to write straight up and down. I figure after I get the spacing and basic strokes down, I can work on changing any letters that I'd like to write a little differently, but that getting a nice even flow in my writing is essential. As well as the fact that I was pressured into changing to the italic font years ago during a sad time in my life, and it feels healing to revert back to a loopier style. I'm very anxious to get the loops back in...with an intensity...that...I don't know. I'm just really anxious to tackle this now instead of later. I used the worksheet generator at the website and downloaded a couple instructional PDFs, so I do have something to start with.

Sometimes a lack of resources provides the wonderful opportunity for a child to slow down and get a chance to nontraditionally smell a particularly sweet smelling rose growing right in your own back yard. There is always something wonderfully worthy of our attention in our grasp, but often we are taught to think of it as inferior.

A lot of families cover this stuff accidentally, during morning devotions, geography and literature. Morning Devotions used to take us about 1 1/2 hours, and all sorts of current events, church history, martyr updates, Operation Prayer requests, etc ended out covering a lot of civics. And then my younger son got fascinated with communism after being introduced to the idea in Acts of the Apostles and we watched a lot of documentaries and read a lot of books till instead of me convincing him that communism was bad, he convinced me that bad people used communism to get what they want, but that communism itself is just another form of government with it's strengths and weaknesses. Almost anything that isn't fitting into the schedule can be squeezed in through a few documentaries, watched while having a couple snacks. Whole pages of state standards can be covered in the time it takes to consume a box of crackers :-) The fact that you are aware that you'd like to squeeze in some civics, will alert you to possibilities to cover it nontraditionally, as they appear.

I'd like to download the regular cursive workbooks, not supplemental worksheets for HWT. Are the workbooks available as ebooks?

I just called the library :-) World Book Encyclopedia subscriptions were cancelled due to budget cuts :-( At least I know now though :-0 and I took the first step in starting to TALK to the library :-) A few too emoticons...but I'm feeling emotional :-0 Ugh! Why cant we just do this totally with books and online? Its so much less emotional.

I only had one round of children, but...life was a challenge...when I was raising them. Looking back at the worst of the worst times, so much got accomplished in LONG morning devotions. Literature analysis and history of the Bible. Church history for modern history. Reading about and praying for modern day martyrs covered geography. Hymn singing covered music and poetry. We often talked about current events and even science as the the Bible reading brought things up. The house was often a mess. Often times I wasn't even showered yet. We were so cold that sometimes I was wearing my winter jacket in the dining room. In the back of my head, I'd be so worried about what we were going to have for lunch. But, morning devotions grounded us, and so much got accomplished. I knew that when finished, if I could just get the boys through math, and throw a book and a documentary at them later on, And send them on a walk, it was going to be okay.