Ted Felix
Our homeschool curriculum started out textbook-based to give a gentle transition for me and the kids. As I gain more experience with homeschooling, we are branching out from this. However, since college is textbook-based, we probably won't be wandering too far.
Computer Science for Kids - My own site covering some ways to teach computer science.
My understanding from reading books on homeschooling is that textbooks aren't a very popular option. After working with them, I can see why this might be the case. The main advantage to a textbook is that all the information needed for a year in school is collected into one convenient place. The main disadvantage is that the learning isn't child-driven, which is the most effective.
Another disadvantage we've run into is that History and Science textbooks tend to have rather obtuse comprehension questions that are difficult to answer. Many times, it seems as if the text in a section has been edited or updated, and the questions were never updated to match. We've solved this problem by making our own question sets that allow the children to focus on the material, not comprehension question answering skills. Generating these question sets is pretty easy, so it isn't as big of a problem as it might seem. This is what's nice about homeschooling. If something isn't working, you can try something else. At school, this is rarely an option.
I was originally concerned that the reviewer in our county would expect some sort of rate of progress through the textbooks. I shouldn't have worried at all. Once they got rolling, the kids were able to finish their textbooks in only six months. Too much progress became an issue. I had to make sure they had things to do for the rest of the year. The easiest solution was to move on to the textbooks for the next year.
If you want textbooks, it's hard to do better than buying direct from the publisher. There are three main advantages to buying direct:
Selection. Publishers offer a wide selection of textbooks, teacher's guides, textbooks on CD-ROM, lab manuals, tests, workbooks, etc... In fact, the selection can be overwhelming. I've found that publisher's websites may be poorly organized and it's more helpful to order a copy of their printed catalog. With the publisher, you can get exactly what you want. Textbook stores tend to only stock a few offerings from each publisher. Stores that offer curriculum packages are a gamble at best. You certainly won't get what you really want.
Latest Editions. You can always get the latest version of a textbook direct from the publisher. Textbook stores don't always tell you what the copyright date is on a textbook, so you won't know until you get it. Sometimes, textbook stores that offer curriculum packages won't even tell you the titles. Avoid these places at all costs.
Price. This one surprised me. Amazon and other stores actually sell many textbooks at higher prices than the publisher. It's a really good idea to compare prices before buying. You can save a bundle by ordering direct from the publisher.
I tried a quick curriculum shopping spree for my two kids (7th and 8th grade) at Prentice Hall and Saxon, and came up with spending a total of $459 + shipping for a complete set of textbooks (Writing/Grammar, Spelling, Math, Latin, Science and World History) for both kids with some shared between the two (Latin and History). Some of the online textbook stores would charge that much per student, and you wouldn't get exactly what you wanted. I doubt any of them would include Latin. This worked out to $230 per student which is about the price of some of the low-end curriculum packages.
Prentice Hall - Extensive selection of texts in all subject areas. CD-ROM versions of some textbooks (less weight to carry around!). Online ordering. Site is a little confusing to navigate, but persistence will pay off. The main site is primarily geared toward college texts. Middle School and High School texts are at the PHSchool.com site. Catalog is at phcatalog.pearson.com. Note that those links might change without notice, so always try the main site if those don't work. Request a set of catalogs if the website is too confusing. The catalogs are much easier to understand, and they arrive very quickly. Interestingly, prices here are MUCH lower (around 33%) than Amazon (and other textbook stores) for the same items.
Update 3/3/2005: The kids' math teacher took away their math books, so I decided to try and order Prentice Hall Mathematics Course 2 and 3. Ordering was no problem. The books cost 33% less than Amazon lists them. Now we'll have to see how the order goes.
Update 3/10/2005: Books arrived, no problems. Free shipping (no matter how small your order is!). The online receipt still shows the order as being "In Process", so there's no way to track your order online.
Update 6/17/2005: Big book order placed 6/13 just arrived. That's fast. A few items were backordered, but nothing too important. The textbooks on CD are old, that's probably why they are getting rid of them at $6 with the textbook. It's too bad because a CD is a lot easier to carry around than a textbook.
Update 10/4/2005: More mini reviews.
The American Nation is a decent history book, but our kids had trouble dealing with the comprehension questions. To solve this, we develop our own set of questions for each section. Now, they are enjoying the book.
With Life Science and Physical Science, we had the same problem. Again, custom-made question sets solved it. Fortunately, the book has its key points in bold-face so that question sets can be generated quickly based on the key points. Then, you can gently work in more interesting questions to let them practice comprehension question skills.
Overall, our textbook experience has been quite positive once we learned that you have to be prepared to make up your own question sets.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston - Middle school health books. Maryland's bylaw mentions health, and Frederick County's curriculum includes a Health/PE class. Holt's health books fit the bill. Plenty to choose from in all the other subjects as well. Ordered health books 6/23/2005, arrived 6/29/2005. I also ordered their Physical Science book as it is a general 9th grade high school science book I can use to keep them busy until we start high school biology.
Saxon Homeschool - Saxon math. Prices seem very reasonable. Saxon Math 87 is slightly less at LearningThings.com, so it might pay to shop around.
Houghton Mifflin - Lots to choose from in all subjects. Online ordering.
Harcourt - K-6.
Heartland Curriculum Resources - More links to investigate
Disclaimer: I have a degree in Mathematics, so I'm the wrong person to ask how to teach it (just ask my kids). For me, the answer is, "with a pad of paper and a pencil." Obviously, that won't work for everyone. We do use textbooks to set boundaries on our math courses, and I supplement them with daily worksheets to enhance retention of difficult topics.
Prentice Hall Mathematics 2004 (courses 2 and 3 for middle school) mini-review: Prentice Hall Mathematics 2004 is quite different from Saxon. The book is organized into chapters, and each lesson has 60+ problems related to the lesson as opposed to Saxon's 10 or so lesson related problems plus 25 review problems from previous lessons.
Overall, these were pretty good books, and the kids learned a lot more than they ever learned in school. By focusing on the "Check Understanding" questions, "Practice By Example" when they were having trouble, and the "Mixed Review" to keep things fresh in their minds, they were able to finish the entire book in a bit over half a year. We found the "Problem Solving" sections to be a bit uneven. It's hard to create a "gently progressive" set of questions like these, so it isn't surprising. As a result, we didn't work too hard on those sections, which numbered about one per chapter. The sections on percent were a bit confusing as they used proportions. We had to review these numerous times. The rest of the book was no problem.
Prentice Hall Mathematics is a little distracting with its "high interest" features to keep kids interested in math (aka "Rainforest Algebra"). I'm sorry, but all kids need is a good teacher to be interested in math (but I guess they have to make up for a lack of good teachers). It would be nice if someone would make math textbooks that combined Saxon's lack of distractions with Prentice Hall's focus on lesson related problems. I'd buy it.
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AcademicSuperstore - Where I found the latest Casio graphing calculators at great prices. I purchased two CFX9850GC-PLUS calculators from them. I like the Casio calculators better than the TI's primarily because they are easier to use. Unfortunately, Casio's calculators do suffer from a bug. The workaround is fortunately simple. Always use the × symbol when doing multiplication. Try this: 36÷9(4) you'll get 1 which is wrong. The answer should be 16. Do this to get the correct answer: 36÷9×4 |
Saxon Math mini-review: I liked Saxon Math when I first saw it because at the time our kids were working in one of those useless "rainforest algebra" type books (most likely Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics circa 2002). Saxon Math was a big improvement. After using it for a while, I'm not sure it's the best choice for my style of teaching and their style of learning. The question sets are a mixed up jumble from the current lesson and previous lessons for review. In some ways, this is a great idea. It keeps things interesting, and the constant review makes sure you don't forget the material. However, it makes it difficult to adjust the question sets to reduce the amount of time spent on a lesson. See my mini-review of Prentice Hall Mathematics 2004 for more.
Our kids are voracious readers, so we
spend a lot of time at used bookstores buying everything
in sight. We also buy plenty of new and used books from
Amazon
The American Library Association (ALA) is a wonderful source for book lists, if you can figure out their site. The various divisions of the ALA have book lists for the age range they serve. RUSA is for adults. The YALSA for young adults features the Michael L. Printz Award and the Best Books for Young Adults (BBYA) lists. The ALSC for children features the Newbery Award and the ALA Notable Children's Book Lists. While the site is a bit tough to navigate, it is worth the time to figure out. The book lists are pure gold. This is how teachers generate those "Summer Reading" lists.
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500 Great Books for Teens (Anita Silvey 2006) is the best booklist book I've seen. It gives multi-paragraph reviews of each book's plot and is organized into useful categories. If you have to purchase just one booklist book for teens, this is your best bet of the three I have. We go through this and have the kids gauge their interest level on a scale from 1 to 5 and then purchase based on interest. |
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Great Books for High School Kids (Ayers/Crawford 2004) contains a list of around 300 books along with brief reviews of each. This one is written from an academic angle. The reviews are sometimes too short to make a decision, but you can always just pull the book up on Amazon and read through the editorial reviews there. |
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Book Crush (Nancy Pearl 2007) covers over 1000 books. The reviews are brief, the categories are a bit strange at times, however this is still a great resource. It is divided into three age groups: 7 and under, 8-12, and 13-18. If you have kids that range in age, this is the booklist book for you. |
Also check out the New York Times Bestseller Lists to find out what's hot.
SparkNotes are like the ubiquitous CliffsNotes, but are published by Barnes and Noble. You can read them online for free, or order them from Barnes and Noble. They are very reasonably priced. SparkNotes 101: Shakespeare and SparkNotes 101: Literature are very good collections to have.
SparkNotes 101: Literature covers 150 of the books that college professors assign the most. We use the one-sentence summaries to find classic books that might be of interest. From using SparkNotes Literature 101, we've discovered that as you go back in time, sometime around 1850, books become much harder to read. (I suspect this is related to the introduction of the rotary printing press around this time.) This has allowed us to estimate reading difficulty before trying to tackle a classic book.
We work Shakespeare into homeschool by going to the library and borrowing the BBC's Shakespeare DVDs. Start with the comedies as they are great fun (especially The Merry Wives of Windsor). You can also buy the DVDs at Documentary Video. They are pretty pricey, but I've only been able to find a better price at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. We've been amassing a collection of our favorites.
SparkNotes Shakespeare is a great place to read about each of the plays. SparkNotes 101: Shakespeare is a great collection of notes on all of Shakespeare's plays and selected sonnets. We read this after watching each play to make sure we didn't miss anything. SparkNotes also has "No Fear Shakespeare" which is Shakespeare translated into modern english. However, after you've seen all 37 of the BBC DVDs like we have, Shakespeare's English isn't really all that hard.
You can read the plays for free on the internet at Project Gutenberg. Go for the World Library versions as they are the best edited. There's also a Shakespeare Glossary to help you understand the many words whose meaning has changed over the past 400 years.
However, if you really want to study Shakespeare in-depth, there's no substitute for the individual Arden Shakespeare editions of the plays.
In the immortal words of the bard himself: "EXIT pursued by a bear."
The Prentice Hall Writing and Grammar textbook has surprised me. The grammar section is the usual fare. You might want the teacher's version to survive it. And even then, keep it low stress, as grammar is most useful as a way to communicate about writing quality. However, the writing section has inspired my kids to new levels of writing. This I did not expect. I expected them to become sick of it very quickly. Instead, the opposite has been true.
However, after they went through the writing section once, we discovered that they needed more help than the book offered. So, I've bought more books on writing. These give them the additional support they need on what I've found to be the two most important types of writing to learn.
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Strategies for Successful Writing (Reinking/von der Osten) is an excellent college-level English composition text. It is written in a style easily accessible to High School students. We are going to try this for the 2008-2009 school year for our Sophomore and Junior and see how it goes. I've been reading it and it seems perfect. It answers all the questions I've been having as we've been struggling with other English books. It provides many examples of good writing to use as inspiration. Many of the examples are analyzed in-depth to show why they are great. As with all textbooks, check the publisher's direct price before buying from Amazon, or just buy it used. |
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Current Issues and Enduring Questions (Barnet/Bedau) covers critical thinking and persuasive writing in extensive detail with many examples. This is a college level text, so it might be a little tough for a student to work with directly, and the issues covered might require a mature personality. However, if you as a homeschool teacher need to get up to speed on what is expected on the SAT essay, this is a great book to get. I haven't decided how we are going to use this one. I plan to use Strategies for Successful Writing first. |
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Immediate Fiction (Jerry Cleaver 2004) - If you don't mind your kids being exposed to profanity and sex, this looks like a good book. By my standards, it's for ages 14 and up, or mature 12-13 year olds (in other words: girls). We haven't started using this yet. Looks like it should be perfect to use after going through the writing section of Prentice Hall's Writing and Grammar. Writing fiction is important because it is fun, so kids will want to do it. (A little profanity and sex might even serve as a motivator.) |
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Teen Ink - A non-profit website, print magazine, and book series featuring writing by teens. Great for the budding writer. They publish teen writing both to showcase talent and to help those who need encouragement. You can read the entire magazine online at their website, but subscribing would help them out. |
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Research Paper Handbook (James D. Lester 2005) - This is a great handbook to jog your memory on how research papers are done, but like Prentice Hall's Writing and Grammar, it isn't comprehensive enough to learn from. Strategies for Successful Writing is much more complete. |
eNasco - For drosophila supplies, these guys have everything at very reasonable prices, including handy drosophila culture sets. They also have an edible optics kit that looks quite cool. Only problem with these guys is that their website isn't very good. I had some trouble with the shopping cart and ended up having to be a bit creative to place my order (hint: use the "Quick Order Form"). Still, I picked out a complete set of drosophila supplies (vials, plugs, caps, screens, media, petri dishes (for cold anesthetizing with ice), funnels, brushes, magnifiers) for $50 + $14 shipping. Nice.
Care, maintenance and manipulation of Drosophila - Lots of sites like this out there.
Ward's Natural Science - Drosophila supplies and cultures. Not as complete a selection as eNasco.
BlueSpruce Scientific Supply - Bought a solar oven here. Prices are typically lower than Edmund.
Carolina Biological Supply - Extensive selection, school oriented. We've purchased many things here.
Edmund Scientifics - Lots of products, general public oriented. Prices tend to be a little high, but the selection is excellent. We've ordered here many times.
Home Science Tools - Homeschool Science supplies. Get your cow eyes here! These guys also sell all the chemicals you can't usually buy if you aren't a school or business.
HomeschoolingSupply.com - All the electronic kits at good prices, like Snap Circuits and the MX-909 (mother of all kits). Based in Canada, but items arrive quickly. Ordered the Elenco Snap Circuits Pro (SC-500) from here and it arrived in a couple of days, apparently drop-shipped from Elenco. Then I noticed the Snap Circuits Extreme (SC-750) just appeared! Where's my credit card?! Mini-review: Snap Circuits is great, but don't get the Snap Circuits Junior (SC-100) as it is very limited and somewhat boring. For the best bang for the buck, get Snap Circuits 300-in-1 (SC-300) at a minimum. It teaches real electronics (transistors/resistors/capacitors instead of annoying music ICs) and includes all projects from the 100 version. Note that Ocean State Electronics also carries these with many more options, like upgrade kits, storage kits, and student guides. Too cool.
Optics Planet - Microscopes at good prices with free shipping.
Adorama - Great prices on telescopes.
NeoSci - School oriented. Carries things mentioned in science textbooks like lipid/fat test strips.
VEX Robotics - Robotics kits available at Radio Shack 4/2005.
I'm not a fan of standardized testing as there is no such thing as a "standard child". However, it's a necessary evil... Test taking is an important skill considering the GEDs, SATs, ACTs, etc. in your children's future.
Bayside School Services - These guys appear to have more modern tests available such as the CAT/5 (1991 norms?), TCS, CTBS, etc... Probably a better bet than Seton below. We used them in 2007 and 2008 and they were great. Be sure to order tests early to save money.
The McGraw-Hill Spectrum Test Prep books and Steck-Vaughn Core Skills Test Preparation (grades 1-8) look like they would be good for getting kids used to standardized testing.
CTB/McGraw-Hill - Makers of standardized tests for K-12 schools. You can search on the name of a test and "homeschool" and usually find a place that will send the test to you.
Seton Testing Services - Offers the same K-12 CAT-E tests public school kids across the country were tortured with in 1986. This is a fairly outdated test, although Math and English really don't change all that much in 20 years. The latest from CTB/McGraw-Hill (as of 2006) is the CAT/6. You'll need to search around to see if you can get access to that.
For High School, there are many PSAT, GED, SAT, and ACT test prep books that are excellent. Go for the books from the creators of the test first. They have the best practice tests. Then go for books from other publishers if you want to learn some potentially useful tricks.
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The Official SAT Study Guide (2004) - This is the first book you should have for the SAT. Includes 8 practice tests from the test maker, so they are just like the real thing. The skills review is also excellent, giving you an idea of exactly what you need to know to take the test successfully. We plan to use these practice tests through High School to prepare. The College Board's website has a free practice test, a question of the day, and lots of other SAT prep resources. We also stumbled on a free SAT test while searching for a PDF version of the answer sheet to print so we wouldn't have to take a razor blade to the book (google search: sat practice answer sheet pdf). The only weak part of this book is that it doesn't provide much in the way of "tricks" or vocab lists. Books from other publishers like Kaplan, Princeton Review, and Barron's are better for this. |
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Marino Mission - Young adult fiction with SAT words embedded. Painless way to strengthen vocab for the SAT. Aimed more at girls, but still readable for boys. Although I'm not sure that one can learn all the vocab by reading the book, it does serve as a good source for making vocabulary lists and flashcards. |
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Mayan Mission - Like the Marino Mission above. Second in the series. |
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Kaplan PSAT 2007 Edition (2006) - Since Kaplan doesn't make the PSAT, the practice tests aren't as good as in the official College Board book. However, Kaplan's book is strong on tricks and vocabulary lists. It's a good supplement to the official College Board book. |
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McGraw-Hill's GED with CD-ROM (Patricia Mulcrone 2005) - Most popular and highest rated GED prep book on Amazon (as of 4/2006). |
No need to buy forms, there are plenty out there for free, or you can design your own.
CHASE SC Forms page - Many forms like transcripts, journals, etc... that will be useful. Also check their main page for lots more info including instructions for filling out the forms. Site design is a bit difficult to navigate, but it's worth the trouble.
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The Homeschooler's Guide to Portfolios and Transcripts (Loretta Heuer) - This is a great book. See my books page for more info. |
These are some books we use to help prepare the kids for college. My books page has college planning books.
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How to Win at College (Cal Newport) - Our kids loved this book. 75 tips on how to succeed in college. No one can implement them all, but just picking out a few and following through on them should give great results. Great for getting kids ready for that big leap. |
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How to Study in College (8th ed) (Pauk and Owens) - We've not yet had a chance to go through this one yet. This along with a good book on research papers (see the English Writing section above) should cover it all. |
The Presto 04212 Timer is perfect for keeping track of homeschool time, and helping the kids manage their time. Four count down timers and one count up timer provide plenty of flexibility. Minor Issues: The magnet does fall off eventually (we don't use it, so we don't care), and the small metal piece in the back that holds the stand out will eventually push through the plastic (we just remove it and use a rubber eraser instead). Timer 1 will reset if you stop it, then go to clock mode (this doesn't bother us as we've gotten used to it). We did have one that became almost too quiet to hear. However, it just happened to be perfect for working at the library. Despite all these minor issues, this is a great little timer for $10. |
Academic Book Services - Might be a good place to find books that publishers claim they "won't sell" to individuals. I noticed the high school intro to business books are this way, but some of them can be found here. I haven't pursued this yet. It is possible that if you call the publishers, they'll sell you anything. That's probably the first thing to try. Then if that fails, go with a place like this. The nice thing about this site is they are specific about the ISBNs and years for each book. I wish every textbook reseller was this good.
The Textbook League - Interesting reviews of textbooks. Brings to light the lack of care with which textbooks for young children are produced.
LearningThings.com - Christian oriented textbook store in Georgia. I bought Saxon math here. Good prices and service.
Home and School Connection - Christian homeschool store near us in Frederick Maryland. Handy if you need something fast.
Originally, I wanted to find a textbook store and buy a secular curriculum package. However, after looking at the textbook publisher sites (see above), I discovered that this was the wrong approach. Textbook publishers offer many more choices, later editions, and lower prices than textbook resellers. It pays to shop around. The following sites are for reference only. I've never bought anything from any of them.
Classical Home Education - Curriculum packages based on a classical style of education. Appears to be secular. Lots of interesting items you don't normally see.
MyEducationAtHome.com - Secular curriculum packages.
Homeschool Supercenter - Secular curriculum packages, textbooks, etc... Dissecting kits.
TheBackPack.com - Used texts, curriculum packages. No online ordering, have to call them.
Curriculum Links on DMOZ - Lots and lots of places to investigate.
Curriculum links on Yahoo! - Lots more...
<- Back to my homeschool page.
Copyright ©2006, Ted Felix. Disclaimer
On Course (5th ed)
(Skip Downing) -
One of the most popular college prep books. Its focus is on
having the right attitudes toward life and yourself, and making
the right decisions. "Wise Choices in College" sections talk
directly to how to succeed in college.
The exercises are primarily journal entries.
The kids liked it a lot and worked through it.
It's up to its 5th edition now.
Check it out on