Why do you suppose that more parents (including yourself) are homeschooling? Do you think that the current public education crisis is part of the reason?

I found the following workbook to be quite useful. Ignore the product reviews because only one actually seems helpful: Repase y Escriba Workbook Here's another book. It's not a workbook per se, but it has amazing grammar explanations and a few exercises. You can get the hard copy from Amazon or from a library: REA's Handbook of Spanish Grammar, Style, and Writing These 2 recommendations deal mostly with grammar. If you'd like listening/vocabulary/intensive writing help, I recommend the following: http://www.ver-taal.com/ http://www.lang-8.com (you can meet native speakers on this site) http://www.wordreference.com This site has one of the best Spanish bilingual dictionaries around Lastly, there are tons of Spanish-language movies/documentaries on YouTube. Many of them have closed captions. Here's one below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4WvByQH2Ew

As some of you know, Google has vowed to digitize all the books and magazines ever written. As of 2014, there are over 130 million books, and Google has digitized roughly 25% of them. Google's aim is to make the "world's knowledge" more accessible to anyone in the world. Yet, I was wondering whether books really contain the bulk of the world's knowledge? As a whole, do they contain more information than other mediums--like journals, databases, magazines, or videos?

Does Esquith have children of his own?

Yes, he is very inspiring. I'd hope that more such teachers will be publicly recognized.

Why do you suppose that so many young people/students write poorly? Do you wonder if the dearth of teacher feedback on graded written work (essays, reports, etc) is partly responsible?

Rafe Esquith is an award-winning teacher, who works mainly with underprivileged youth. After listening to several YouTube videos of/about him, I was wondering if he follows his students through the grades? That is, does he works with his students for several years?

You all sound like my kind of people. :)

I'm in my mid-20s. In many respects, I feel as if I was shortchanged in my education. There are many things that I was never taught that I now realize I must know. I must learn these things so that I can be a more productive member of society, better appreciate the human condition, and so that--if I decide to have children--they too might know (because I could teach them). Therefore, in my spare time, I've decided to teach myself these things. In particular, I want to improve my knowledge of math & science (which is dismal), hone my writing/oratory skills, and sharpen my reasoning/logical thinking. I also want to read more philosophical texts. Is this forum suited for people like me? Or, is it more geared toward younger learners?