KimberlyW Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 (edited) I'm on the hunt for resources that teach you, the parent both how and what to teach in various subjects. I'm getting a jump on my own educating education before I need to put it into practice so I can avoid feeling time crunched. Right now, I own BFSU and Kitchen Table Math which are exactly what I'm looking for in the elementary/ junior high science and math worlds but I'm drawing a blank on resources for language arts, social studies, art, and music. Also, you can never be over prepared on the math and science front so hopefully there are other things in those areas, as well. Any suggestions? Bonus points if it's free but I can work with low cost or keep an eye out for especially handy used materials. ETA: I also have TWTM (though, I hear tell that I might prefer an earlier edition) and a halfbaked awareness that Spalding is something I should look up more about. Edited February 18 by KimberlyW Forgot about owning TWTM here on TWTM's own forum. 😅 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Well, my bookcase has both general and detailed teaching books: The Charlotte Mason series The Well Trained Mind Teach With Magic / Teaching What Really Happened (both for history) Gattegno mathematics series/ Elementary Mathematics For Teachers (Singapore) / Knowing And Teaching Elementary Mathematics (Ma) / The Mortensen Method (e-book), also Math U See videos The First Whole Book of Diagrams (grammar) How To Teach So Kids Can Learn (great series of several similar titles) The Montessori Method for Elementary Yardsticks (Chip Wood) - based on the Louise Bates Ames series "Your ______ Year Old" that goes up to age 14 Deconstructing Penguins (beginning book analysis) Evaluating For Excellence (not so much a "how to" but a book with checklists of skills for each subject as well as ideas for teaching) The question you asked is difficult to answer, because while there are great resources for each subject, a parent's overall knowledge and confidence comes in to play. So many of the books I relied on had a more general approach to pedagogy and developing a sense of development + philosophy. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caffeineandbooks Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Hello, and good on you for working ahead like this! @HomeAgain has given you a great list to start with. This is also a great time to shore up your own education in literature. Deconstructing Penguins gives a really enticing view of what it can be like to discuss literature with your own kids. If you're then left wondering how to learn to do that, there are a couple of possibilities that come to mind. 1. Use a program like Teaching the Classics from Center for Lit to teach yourself how to read and discuss a book well. It's not too soon for you to do this, because you can apply their approach to even the picture books you're reading with your lap-sitter, and it's a huge advantage to have time for these ideas to sink in. 2. Use a book list - perhaps The Well Educated Mind, or perhaps select from a K-12 sequence like Reading Roadmaps (another Center for Lit product; I love their stuff) or The Classical Reader - to stretch your own reading. Maybe to start with you read mainly middle grade chapter books and slowly add in a couple of classics each year. Maybe you're already a reader and your list is mainly great books from the get-go. It doesn't matter where you start, your ability will build and when your kids are in high school you'll still be equipped to teach them. I highly recommend you also take brief notes on your reading, including what grade you think it might be appropriate for. It's amazing how they all blur together after a while and you can't remember if that series was perfect for your 9 year old or had some graphic scenes that you'd rather wait on! 3. Join a book club. Practice thinking and talking about books with other adults now. You could simply listen in on an online book club like Circe's Close Reads or join in live with (again) Center for Lit's Pelican book club, or maybe you have an in-person option available to you. This is enjoyable, lets you process what you're reading, and gives you practice discussing a book with like-minded people for fun. Best wishes for your self-educating and home-educating journey! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarita Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 I really like The Well Trained Mind, Why Don't Students Like School and Brave Learner for basic across the board. In an almost totally different perspective read How Children Learn by John Gatto, even if you are completely against unschooling. For subject specific: Language Arts: The Writing Revolution (this is for an anti-creative writing child), Karen Glass Know and Tell, borrow Phonics from A to Z by Wiley Blevins (don't buy this book it's for educators and administrators you'll likely just go and get a phonics/spelling/reading curriculum but it gives a great overview of what your future curriculum is doing). There is actually a few writing talks on The Well Trained Mind website you can get and those give really good overviews, plus insight as to what it really looks like when you are working with a child because often examples in the book assume super compliant children. Math: I highly suggest Knowing And Teaching Elementary Mathematics (Ma). Then when my kids struggle with particular math concepts especially in arithmetic I like to look up Montessori method for teaching ___, most of it you don't really have to buy the materials, the materials printed on paper is pretty much enough for most children. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirstenhill Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Uncovering the Logic of English by Denise Eide - to be better prepared for teaching reading and spelling 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 (edited) Great suggestions above. For literature, The Literary Life podcast and Read Aloud Revival. Also, Honey for a Child’s Heart. Excellent book. Edited February 19 by ScoutTN 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 The Writer's Jungle. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malam Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?full=on&ac=sl&st=sl&ref=bf_s2_a1_t1_1&qi=CVOsr68Ahq3bV9Ar.YjLHoih2xk_1708759859_1:1032:1418 https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Wish-Taught-Maths-conversations/dp/1911382497 Knowing and teaching elementary mathematics by liping ma 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostintheCosmos Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Why Our Children Can't Read and What We Can Do about It by Diane McGuinness Elementary Mathematics for Teachers is OOP but used copies still float around, and it's a good companion to the Liping Ma book, especially if you actually do the problem sets. Why Don't Students Like School by Dan Willingham 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 Hands On Equations Verbal Problems Book 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarita Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/18/2024 at 12:11 PM, HomeAgain said: Deconstructing Penguins (beginning book analysis) I'm reading a used version of this book. Really opening my eyes to the why of literary analysis. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 On 2/18/2024 at 1:32 PM, KimberlyW said: ETA: I also have TWTM (though, I hear tell that I might prefer an earlier edition) and a halfbaked awareness that Spalding is something I should look up more about. If you want to know more about Spalding, be sure to get one of the older editions, not the 5th or 6th. Those two leave out lots of the foundational information that Mrs. Spalding included in the first four (yes, the last two were edited/published after her death). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonelyhomeschooler Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 I found a lot of helpful information in the Eclectic Manual of Methods. The suggestion about painting a map of the US and "filling it in" with the timeline was really helpful. I want to try something similar with Europe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KimberlyW Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 On 2/18/2024 at 3:45 PM, caffeineandbooks said: Hello, and good on you for working ahead like this! @HomeAgain has given you a great list to start with. This is also a great time to shore up your own education in literature. Deconstructing Penguins gives a really enticing view of what it can be like to discuss literature with your own kids. If you're then left wondering how to learn to do that, there are a couple of possibilities that come to mind. 1. Use a program like Teaching the Classics from Center for Lit to teach yourself how to read and discuss a book well. It's not too soon for you to do this, because you can apply their approach to even the picture books you're reading with your lap-sitter, and it's a huge advantage to have time for these ideas to sink in. 2. Use a book list - perhaps The Well Educated Mind, or perhaps select from a K-12 sequence like Reading Roadmaps (another Center for Lit product; I love their stuff) or The Classical Reader - to stretch your own reading. Maybe to start with you read mainly middle grade chapter books and slowly add in a couple of classics each year. Maybe you're already a reader and your list is mainly great books from the get-go. It doesn't matter where you start, your ability will build and when your kids are in high school you'll still be equipped to teach them. I highly recommend you also take brief notes on your reading, including what grade you think it might be appropriate for. It's amazing how they all blur together after a while and you can't remember if that series was perfect for your 9 year old or had some graphic scenes that you'd rather wait on! 3. Join a book club. Practice thinking and talking about books with other adults now. You could simply listen in on an online book club like Circe's Close Reads or join in live with (again) Center for Lit's Pelican book club, or maybe you have an in-person option available to you. This is enjoyable, lets you process what you're reading, and gives you practice discussing a book with like-minded people for fun. Best wishes for your self-educating and home-educating journey! Yes! Literature has been the thing I've been most focused on. I had access to an objectively great literature education in high school but just did not care so it was the one area where I only did the minimum. Of course, I made sure that my minimum included college credit so it never even came up again in college. I'm a pretty voracious reader of nonfiction but I've recently been trying to read more fiction and have been surprised to find that I'm actually enjoying it. Thanks for the resources and also the good tip to take notes! I never would have thought of that on my own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KimberlyW Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 On 2/26/2024 at 7:52 AM, 8filltheheart said: Hands On Equations Verbal Problems Book This was a blast from the past. My mom actually used Hands On Equations with me after school. I totally forgot about that but always enjoyed my afternoon "Tea and Times Tables" times with her as they were called in my family. I think now it would just be called afterschooling which doesn't have quite the same ring. 😂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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