New Teaching Tools

I'm determined to make this blog a good resource for other homeschoolers, not just a place where I dump a few random thoughts each day. So...here are a few of my favorite discoveries so far this school year:

Carol's Affordable Curriculum - an awesome Christian preschool curriculum for kids as young as 18 months. It costs about $12 per month per child and is SO worth it. She puts all of the supplies you'll need for all of the crafts in the box for you, which means that those of us who are incapable of planning lessons more than an hour in advance can still feel super prepared and organized. And if you just can't handle the teaching portion of it, you can simply throw a few of the worksheets at your child and tell her to color within the lines and she'll be happy.

Math Wrap-Ups - I can't explain this very well, so you'll have to click the link to see the photo. You wrap the string around the plastic key to match up the numbers that correctly complete the math problem. WAY WAY WAY better for Isaac than flash cards, which everyone in my house hates.

Spelling Power - I absolutely despised this at first because it seemed so complicated, but I think my kids are actually learning to spell, which wasn't happening with the traditional spelling method. Our book is pretty old (because the old ones are cheap!), but it's pretty timeless too. Kids learn a 10-step study process that really seems to work, and they keep testing on each word until they spell it correctly. I like that this focuses on the words your kid can't spell, rather than treating all words the same. I think it's less frustrating. For everyone.

Tales of the Kingdom Trilogy - These are allegorical; they're a metaphor for the story of God, Jesus, and salvation. We LOVE them. We being Isaac and me. I think they're a little bit over the other kids' heads, but they'll still sit quietly and listen and look at the pictures. They're very well-written, and each chapter can stand alone somewhat with it's own storyline and message. I could see us re-reading these for several years to come.

Character Sketches - I don't own this one, but a mom in my homeschool group used it to teach a lesson to our kids a couple of weeks ago and it was very cool. It's actually a three-volume series that uses different animals to illustrate different character traits, so kids learn about animals and biblical virtues at the same time. We learned about some kind of bird, which demonstrated loyalty; and bees, which demonstrated responsibility. I'd say this is a middle-school-aged book, but again, it has awesome illustrations that littler kids would enjoy.