Lately I have been studying patriarchal vs matriarchal societies. The great books lists, even when they include books written by women for women...are still patriarchal. For my cultural literacy type reading right now, I am focusing on short stories instead of novels. The truth is...I'm not so impressed by a lot of the stuff that white men have decided is so important. As well being shorter, so easier to just plough through, the short story canon is far more influenced by women than the novel canons. My main reason for reading right now is to learn to write. I'm finding that concentrating on the short story canon is a more efficient way to reach my goals. And more gender balanced.

I think there is an art curriculum that uses the Sister Wendy book??

I was able to order an older edition Sister Wendy book for just $6.00 and free shipping, so I'm feeling pretty pleased about that :-)

I too am interested to hear any suggestions. I've been looking at lots of books and lecture series, but have yet to have one grab me.

Has anyone used this book or any other speed math curriculum?

Freewriting as described in The Artist's way is a good start. I just bought The Awe-manac and really like it for daily writing prompts. Real Writing a remedial CC text is available very cheaply in the older editions. I actually like the older editions better. The newer editions are written to facilitate rushing a student through the book in a short period of time, rather than the book being an organized resource book on all the most important types of writing, spoon fed, with junior high type checklists. Reading Write Like Hemingway and Writing Tools helped me narrow down on what are priorities in learning to write and what is fluff. I would never LIMIT a child to minimalism writing, but it's a nice set of rules to set as MUST COVER.

Rod and Staff has a really interesting looking new accounting textbook, in which the first half focuses on just family finances. Julie that is a good idea to build a consumer math course from several different books. Maybe videos and other non textbook resources too?

Teaching Company offered me the audio download version of this course for just 14.95. I'm pretty impressed with it so far. The professor is speaking to a different audience than the professor in Masterpieces of Short Fiction. This course feels a bit forcibly dumbed down, to almost be insulting. In lecture one he uses the work "jerk" at least twice :-0 But it's easy listening on the train and doesn't seem to require any supplementing. Has anyone completed this course? Unlike How to Read a Book this course only covers fiction. I'm finding it much easier to digest than HTRB.

There are several junior college basic math texts. The one I am most familiar with is by Aufmann and I'm quite impressed with it. Older editions are dirt cheap. Sometimes you can find all sorts of supplements like software and videos. The strength of the aufmann series is the excellent word problems and. The software that generates unlimited problems, even for the word problems.

My youngest started college 5 years ago. I really think this is all new, because when everyone was talking about this, right here at this board, there wasn't anyone who knew of even a single case of an underage student using FAFSA funds to attend a CC, without a GED or accredited diploma. I'm glad to hear things are changing. I'll be sure to stop spreading outdated information. I'm starting to feel old, now :-)

Alyce, you are the very first person I have heard this from. This is very good news. At least up till now, I have heard that ALL CCs were impenetrable to underage students wanting to start working towards a diploma using federal funds, unless they had an accredited diploma or GED. At the CC my children used, they were the only underage students listed as working towards a diploma. All the other underage students were listed as dual enrolled in high school, and when they reached majority, parents were often able to fight to have the credits applied to a diploma, but none were able to use federal funds until reaching majority. And this is all I have heard around the country, until this post from you. This is very good news, but i'm thinking rare still.

If you want an UNDERAGE student to start earning a DIPLOMA at a CC, using Federal funds, they will need an accredited diploma or GED. Wealthier parents have more options. Low income students, planning on starting at a CC, especially while underage, need official paperwork.

Lori, thank you for your excellent description of WW. I was thinking I needed to squeeze it in sooner rather than later, and now am happy to realize I am quite content to wait a bit, before needing to come up with the cash to purchase it.

Different courses use different resources. I'm using the audio version of Masterpieces of Short Fiction and then ordered the suggested textbook listed in the bibliography. While I'm waiting for it to come in, I've been having good luck finding the 1st few stories online.

I just installed oplayer to be able to watch the Structure of Man figure drawing videos I just downloaded in wmv format. I was very thankful to be able to get these working on the iPad.

I believe the biggest part of SELF-education is finding and developing your SELF. At the time I left my marriage 4 years ago, I had become nothing more than an appendage and had no sense of self at all. Sometimes my family didn't even treat me like an appendage that needed to be preserved, but more like a disposable battery they were free to drain whenever they needed more resources, and untimely would discard if it ceased to put out enough juice. Yes in self-education we want to gain skills and cultural literacy, but first and foremost, we want to develop our sense of SELF. The Artist's Way is an excellent book, that states that we were created in the image of a creator and therefore it is out purpose to be creative. It is not bad or selfish to take the time to create and nurture our inner child artist, but expected of us, and maybe even required. The book is applicable to all creativity, not just the visual art and writing. There is quite a lot of online support for this book at yahoo groups and now even Facebook I think. I am stunned at the efficiency of learning that I am experiencing with Masterpieces of Short Fiction from the Teaching Company and Write Like Hemingway and Movies as Literatureas the spines for my literature and writing learning right now. But...it is feeding the direction that I am moving in and might not be correct curriculum for someone moving in another direction. I have joined an online challenge to fill a sketchbook in a month, and am doing a lot of figure drawing right now. I'm still debating spending the $45.00 on The Structure of Man figure drawing DVDs, and have repurchased Drawing as a Sacred Activity. I've been dabbling in all sorts of other stuff, but when life starts getting crazy, it just seems to fade to the background and end out in a pile :-0 bird watching, astronomy, botany and herbs, math, languages, etc. And maybe I shouldn't say it here...but...I always end out back playing around with and studying my Rabbit Tarot deck. The little watercolor bunnies are so cute. Sometimes I just play solitaire with the deck. Sometimes I use the cards as writing prompts or journaling prompts. Sometimes I use them for problem solving and creativity, with methods developed by Mark McElroy to be used in business corporations. Other times I do study the history of using tarot for fortunes telling, and personal discovery. Most importantly, though, I am developing my sense of self, while I'm in this process of educating, and my curriculum choices are chosen with that first in mind.

Thanks!!! :-)

Put a bowl of skittles on the table. Sit and race the child, one problem at a time. Whoever gets the right answer first gets a piece of candy. Now they can see how quickly and accurately math can be done. Get them to do 5 problems at a time and then check their work. They get a piece of candy if all 5 are right. If too many problems are wrong, make them repeat old lessons. Most students want to move forward, not repeat lessons, and this will be enough incentive to be less careless. My youngest was 5 years excellerated in math, and still such a little person, I used the candy route, rather than repeating lessons, when he was young, so as not to crush his spirit. Saxon problems were so long and tedius, and so ripe for a careless mistake. With my oldest, doing much shorter problems and lessons, I usually just made him repeat lessons, till he knocked it off.

The author of LCC and I were on the same email list when he was writing his book and I was just finishing up homeschooling my youngest child, and we were both coming to the same conclusions, at the same time. I didn't really embrace a classical education until I was able to make it more skills centered, rather than knowledge centered. I believe an education must be skills centered. Gaps in knowledge are inevitable and a student must be taught how to fill in gaps themselves as needed, rather than trying to prevent them. Literature is an art, not a core/skill. To be human is to be an artist/creator. To be a whole and healthy human we need the arts. So literature is very important, but not more than the visual arts, music etc. Skills are critical to becoming productive. Arts are critical to mental health. Being culturally literate requires a certain knowledge base. So I guess when reality hits and push comes to shove, it's skills first, then claiming our birthright to embrace our creativity, and lastly concentrating on cultural literacy/knowledge.

Write Like Hemingway says that Hemingway was inspired by Cezanne in particular and also Van Gogh, Picasso and Matisse. That the paintings assisted him in learning his minimalist style of writing. I'm wondering if there is information about which artists the famous writers were drawn to. I'm interested to include this in my short story survey course, as I think it will be enlightening to compare the art style preferred to the writer's writing style.

Buried deep in the guidebook of Masterpieces of Fiction it says that all the major stories are included in The Story and it's Writer. The course bibliography listed at the website is quite extensive though, and led me to believe otherwise:-0 I still have Teach 50.... on my wish list, but am trying very hard to pick and choose the absolutely best of what I'll be using immediately, and to have the most variety of media, activities, learning style, etc. I picked the audio course over the video because of the immediate download and the ease of putting it on an iPod and having it handy during "hurry up and wait" moments, which my life is full of. Most short story collection books are cheap. I intend to rip the books up and just carry the story I'm working on with me. It's cheaper than printing out even "free" stories. I always retain the books I rip up the best, because once they are ripped I really feel free to scribble on the pages. I fully interact with the text. I'm going to look for free audio of the stories in the course. And get back into Movies as Literature which I'm completing with a friend. The movie curriculum makes a point of comparing movies with short stories. She got busy and we got stalled, though. I think I'm going to get Analytical Grammar's literature essay curriculum, but the shipping threw me off. It was over 1/3 the price of the curriculum. And I'm more interested in copying short story techniques and the writing style of the authors than learning to write about them. I'm still saving my money and hoping to find a curriculum focused on style and writing in general. I just adore Write Like Hemingway and am hoping for more of that type of writing instruction.

Thank you :-) This link http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showpost.php?p=39274&postcount=9 is VERY helpful as the stories are listed by what they are a good example of. I'm wanting a systematic and comprehensive survey of short stories, as much as possible.

I had the older version of this book before my divorce and it's on my list to rebuy. It is an EXCELLENT summary of science. Whenever I didn't understand something, I used a child's book or Bill Nye video to fill in the missing pieces. I want to study some classical astronomy and botany first though. Today my friend and I started watching National Geographic's Amazing Planet 3 DVD series. The word choices and writing are poetic, which I wasn't expecting in a science DVD. I downloaded Teaching Company's Masterpieces of Short Fiction last night and I printed out the guidebook today. I've got the audios all loaded on my iPad and iPod and purchased a Dover thrift book with the first story today. I'm really quite excited about this course. And I'm still finishing up Write Like Hemingway which I like more and more and more, as I get closer to the end of it. It might be fun for those of us who are seriously self educating to check in and give updates on what we are working on. Especially what we stick with to the end and actually finish.

I downloaded the audio version of a short story survey at Teaching Company last night and put it on my iPad. It seems really good. Ever since I bought The Complete Short Stories of Hemengway to go along with Write Like Hemingway I've been enamored with the classics of short fiction. We hear so much about lists of great BOOKS, but so far I haven't seen the same attention paid to list of STORIES. With the stories I have more time to learn about the author and his/her writing style, and more ideas, than a long book that is sometimes so overwhelming, that I lose track of what I am most interested in, which is learning to write and to being introduced to new ideas...and gaining some cultural literacy. I bought 50 Great Short Stories and hope to buy the lesson plans for it soon. A local bookstore has quite a few of the really cheap Dover volumes of short stories. I'm going to go back today and buy the Poe volume to go along with the first Teaching Company lecture. I think it was only $1.50. I'm interested in any and all info about short fiction surveys and collections. Maybe next month I can afford Windows to the World There are two curriculums focusing on teaching students to write their own novel, but what about something comparable for writing short stories?

Has anyone used The Story and its Writer or used another text for an introduction to Short Fiction course? Used copies of older editions are dirt cheap at Amazon. Are there any free online courses in short fiction analysis? Or DVD series?