Eclectic Homeschool Online Newsletter, January 15, 2008
BevK January 16th, 2008
Happy New Year! A little late, but still warmly wished. If you’ve taken a turn around EHO, you’ve probably wondered if we’d ever get the Christmas stuff down. Well, it’s down now (as is my Christmas tree finally), and we’re pressing on into the new year. We’d like to offer our readers an opportunity to tell us what they’d like to see at EHO in the coming year in the way of articles and resources. We’re here to serve you. Email Beverly at editor2@eho.org.
We’re getting back to basics with this update, at least one of the basics–Readin’. Whether you have a young one just ready to start learning, a reluctant reader, or a child who would live at the library if they could, we have resources and suggestions for you.
Feature Articles
http://eclectichomeschool.org/articles/default.asp
The Most Important Thing to Do to Help Your Child Become a Good Reader and Why It Works
Author Tammy Cardwell tells us how she made a big…huge…massive mistake while homeschooling her sons. Learn how you can avoid the mistake she made and how doing this one thing is the most successful thing you can do to help your children become good readers.
http://eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=563&resourceid=471
Homeschooling Your Preschooler
Many new parents are eager to begin homeschooling their children rather than send them off to preschool. Ready to plunge into home education, their question is which preschool curriculum should I buy.
http://eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=564&resourceid=190
Focus: The Road to Reading
Becoming a Reader — Helping Your Child Become a Reader
You could say that your baby starts on the road to becoming a reader on the day she is born and first hears the sounds of your voice. Every time you speak to her, sing to her, and respond to the sounds that she makes, you strengthen your child’s understanding of language. With you to guide her, she is well on her way to becoming a reader.
http://eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=78&resourceid=2
Learning to Read
One method for teaching your children to read.
http://eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=86&resourceid=2
Montessori and Beginning Reading
Learn more about how children learn to read using the Montessori Method of education. This article explains some of the basic tools used and lists resources for obtaining them or making them for yourself.
http://eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=456&resourceid=323
Practice Makes Perfect: Improving Reading Fluency
It’s just like riding a bike. When you are first learning to ride a bicycle, you’re wobbly and frustrated. Then one day, you take off, balanced as can be, enjoying the wind in your hair and the bugs in your teeth. Riding your own bike becomes effortless and second nature. But why is it that if you get a new bike or ride someone else’s bike, you don’t feel as balanced, and it takes a little while to become comfortable?
http://eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=355&resourceid=2
Listen to Someone Else for a Change!
How Audio Books Can Improve Fluency and Comprehension
I think that some people view audio books as material for the blind and the illiterate. But don’t you remember the listening center in your childhood classroom? Those tapes we inserted into the old Califone are, essentially, audio books. They had their places in classrooms of the 20th Century, and they need a position in your home of the 21st Century!
http://eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=341&resourceid=123
Patching in the “Glue” Words
C-a-t. M-e-ss. T-u-b. The? Hey, mom, how do you sound that one out? So it begins, the tricky explanation of why “sound it out” isn’t always a blanket suggestion. So many words in our English language are undecodable using the “sounding out” method. These words, called high-frequency or sight words, need to be memorized somehow.
http://eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=279&resourceid=2
Resources
The Book Tree: A Christian Reference for Children’s Literature
The Book Tree is a handy guide to use in gathering select children’s books from the library or the bookstore. It points to all the major classics and favorites, as well as many lesser-known stories. Its summaries are divided into preschool, elementary, middle school, and high school levels. Three indexes make for easy navigation.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1885767714/eclectichomescho/
Books Children Love: A Guide to the Best Children’s Literature
Elizabeth Wilson offers us a revised, comprehensive guide to the very best in children’s literature. Just as in the original volume, she comments on the tone and content of excellently written, captivating books in over two dozen subject areas. Hundreds of new titles have been added while retaining timeless classics and modern favorites—all of which respect traditional values. So that no matter what the children’s ages are or whether they love fact or fiction, you can trust these books to share things that you can believe in and kids will delight in.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1581341989/eclectichomescho/
Games for Reading
Peggy Kaye’s Games for Reading helps children read by doing just what kids like best: playing games.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394721497/eclectichomescho/
More Reading & Phonics Resources
http://eclectichomeschool.org/store/topic.asp?subcatid=70&catid=8&subsubid=356
Children’s Books
http://eclectichomeschool.org/store/category.asp?catid=25
If you would like to share your own family’s read-aloud favorites or read the suggestions of others, please join our EclecticHS discussion list and look for the post titled, Read-Aloud Book Suggestions.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EclecticHS/
Reviews
The Three R’s
In the Reading section, you’ll find information on the importance of reading to your children. Guiding children into reading by encouragement and practice is the more logical way to approach reading. Spelling, dictation, and comprehension combine to produce a fluent reader. This is the goal by about third grade. Some children are faster, others slower, but by about 10 most children should have the basic skills required to read grade level material.
http://eclectichomeschool.org/reviews/individual_review2.asp?revid=2592
More Reading Resource Reviews
http://eclectichomeschool.org/reviews/reviewsub.asp?catid=19&subcatid=16
Science Department
http://eclectichomeschool.org/department/department_manager.asp?deptid=7
Science Spot
Babies Prove Sound Learners
Scientists are gaining new insights into why babies are so good at learning languages.
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20080116/Feature1.asp
New Reviews
http://eclectichomeschool.org/reviews/newreviews.asp
* Affectionately Yours, Screwtape: The Devil and C.S. Lewis (DVD)
* The Apostles’ Creed (DVD)
* The Culture-Wise Family: Upholding Christian Values in a Mass Media World
* Don’t Throw Away Your Stick till You Cross the River: The Journey of an Ordinary Man
* Four Famous Americans (CD)
* Household Careers: Nannies, Butlers, Maids and More: The Complete Guide for Finding Household Employment or
* Money and Making Change (DVD)
* My Book of Numbers 1-30
* Our Island Story, Volume 1: Early History of Great Britain (audiobook)
* The Passionate Journey: Walking Into the Darkness Towards the Light of Easter
* Sadie’s Hero
* State: The Facts, A Guide to Studying Your State
* The Student from Zombie Island: Conquering the Rumor Monster
* This Country of Ours, Part 1: Stories of Explorers and Pioneers (audiobook)
* This Country of Ours, Part 2: Stories of Virginia (audiobook)
EHO Resource Center
http://eclectichomeschool.org/store/
Featured Resource December
The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading
Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington
$19.77 – 34% Off
Too many parents watch their children struggle with early reading skills—and don’t know how to help. Phonics programs are too often complicated, overpriced, gimmicky, and filled with obscure educationalese. The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading cuts through the confusion, giving parents a simple, direct, scripted guide to teaching reading—from short vowels through supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. This one book supplies parents with all the tools they need.
Over the years of her teaching career, Jessie Wise has seen good reading instruction fall prey to trendy philosophies and political infighting. Now she has teamed with dynamic co-author Sara Buffington to supply parents with a clear, direct phonics program—a program that gives them the know-how and confidence to take matters into their own hands.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0972860312/eclectichomescho/
New Resources
http://eclectichomeschool.org/store/newbooks.asp
The Homeschooling Option: How to Decide When It’s Right for Your Family
by Lisa Rivero
$10.17 – 32% Off
In this accessible and honest look at homeschooling, Lisa Rivero explores the diverse faces of homeschooled students and the ways in which it can help children with special learning needs. She corrects misconceptions through profiles of diverse families and addresses the changing and complex needs of children today. This book addresses the major questions parents are bound to have as they consider this option: socialization, curriculum, special needs arrangements, resources, and more.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0230600689/eclectichomescho/
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village
by Laura Amy Schlitz, Robert Byrd- Illustrator
$13.59 – 32% Off
Step back to an English village in 1255, where life plays out in dramatic vignettes illuminating twenty-two unforgettable characters.
Maidens, monks, and millers’ sons — in these pages, readers will meet them all. There’s Hugo, the lord’s nephew, forced to prove his manhood by hunting a wild boar; sharp-tongued Nelly, who supports her family by selling live eels; and the peasant’s daughter, Mogg, who gets a clever lesson in how to save a cow from a greedy landlord. There’s also mud-slinging Barbary (and her noble victim); Jack, the compassionate half-wit; Alice, the singing shepherdess; and many more. With a deep appreciation for the period and a grand affection for both characters and audience, Laura Amy Schlitz creates twenty-two riveting portraits and linguistic gems equally suited to silent reading or performance. Illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings by Robert Byrd — inspired by the Munich-Nuremberg manuscript, an illuminated poem from thirteenth-century Germany — this witty, historically accurate, and utterly human collection forms an exquisite bridge to the people and places of medieval England. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0763615781/eclectichomescho/
Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain
by Peter Sis
$12.24 – 32% Off
“I was born at the beginning of it all, on the Red side—the Communist side—of the Iron Curtain.” Through annotated illustrations, journals, maps, and dreamscapes, Peter Sís shows what life was like for a child who loved to draw, proudly wore the red scarf of a Young Pioneer, stood guard at the giant statue of Stalin, and believed whatever he was told to believe. But adolescence brought questions. Cracks began to appear in the Iron Curtain, and news from the West slowly filtered into the country. Sís learned about beat poetry, rock ’n’ roll, blue jeans, and Coca-Cola. He let his hair grow long, secretly read banned books, and joined a rock band. Then came the Prague Spring of 1968, and for a teenager who wanted to see the world and meet the Beatles, this was a magical time. It was short-lived, however, brought to a sudden and brutal end by the Soviet-led invasion. But this brief flowering had provided a glimpse of new possibilities—creativity could be discouraged but not easily killed. By joining memory and history, Sís takes us on his extraordinary journey: from infant with paintbrush in hand to young man borne aloft by the wings of his art.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374347018/eclectichomescho/
Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, Seventh Edition
by M. Neil Browne, Stuart M. Keeley
This most recent edition is available used.
This highly popular book helps readers bridge the gap between simply memorizing or blindly accepting information, and the greater challenge of critical analysis and synthesis. It teaches them to respond to alternative points of view and develop a solid foundation for making personal choices about what to accept and what to reject. KEY TOPICS Specific chapter topics include the benefit of asking the right questions, issues and conclusions, reasons, ambiguous words or phrases, value conflicts and assumptions, descriptive assumptions, fallacies in reasoning, measuring the validity the evidence, rival causes, deceptive statistics, omitted significant information, and possible reasonable conclusions. For individuals seeking to improve their critical thinking capabilities.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0131829939/eclectichomescho/
Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
by Maryanne Wolf
$17.13 – 34% Off
The act of reading is a miracle. Every new reader’s brain possesses the extraordinary capacity to rearrange itself beyond its original abilities in order to understand written symbols. But how does the brain learn to read? As world-renowned cognitive neuroscientist and scholar of reading Maryanne Wolf explains in this impassioned book, we taught our brain to read only a few thousand years ago, and in the process changed the intellectual evolution of our species. Wolf tells us that the brain that examined tiny clay tablets in the cuneiform script of the Sumerians is configured differently from the brain that reads alphabets or of one literate in today’s technology. There are critical implications to such an evolving brain. Just as writing reduced the need for memory, the proliferation of information and the particular requirements of digital culture may short-circuit some of written language’s unique contributions—with potentially profound consequences for our future. Turning her attention to the development of the individual reading brain, Wolf draws on her expertise in dyslexia to investigate what happens when the brain finds it difficult to read. Interweaving her vast knowledge of neuroscience, psychology, literature, and linguistics, Wolf takes the reader from the brains of a pre-literate Homer to a literacy-ambivalent Plato, from an infant listening to Goodnight Moon to an expert reader of Proust, and finally to an often misunderstood child with dyslexia whose gifts may be as real as the challenges he or she faces. As we come to appreciate how the evolution and development of reading have changed the very arrangement of our brain and our intellectual life, we begin to realize with ever greater comprehension that we truly are what we read. Ambitious, provocative, and rich with examples, Proust and the Squid celebrates reading, one of the single most remarkable inventions in history. Once embarked on this magnificent story of the reading brain, you will never again take for granted your ability to absorb the written word.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060186399/eclectichomescho/
Here’s A Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry
by Jane Yolen
$14.95 – 32% Off
Sit back and savor a superb collection of more than sixty poems by a wide range of talented writers, from Margaret Wise Brown to Gertrude Stein, Langston Hughes to A. A. Milne. Greeting the morning, enjoying the adventures of the day, cuddling up to a cozy bedtime — these poems highlight the moments of a toddler’s world from dawn to dusk. Carefully gathered by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters and delightfully illustrated by Polly Dunbar, HERE’S A LITTLE POEM offers a comprehensive introduction to some remarkable poets, even as it captures a very young child’s intense delight in the experiences and rituals of every new day.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0763631418/eclectichomescho/
Thank you for buying your homeschool resources, curriculum, and other purchases from Amazon.com through the Eclectic Homeschool Online Resource Center. The earnings we receive from the sales in our store go directly to paying the bills for hosting and web services we use. By entering Amazon through our store, you make sure that all your purchases, even those not specifically listed in our store, are credited to our account. So the next time you plan to buy something big, even though it’s not homeschool related, enter through our store using our search box or any of our store links, and you’ll be blessing us and the homeschool community. What could be better? Shopping as a good deed.
Look for our Shop Amazon - Fund EHO Link posted throughout the EHO website or visit the EHO Resource Center main page at http://eclectichomeschool.org/store/
Eclectic Homeschool Resource Directory
http://eclectichomeschool.org/directory/default.asp
We’ve added 6 new listings to the EHO Resource Directory. The Directory is a great place to find small companies that focus on the many aspects of homeschooling. If you’re looking for something new or a little different, try browsing our Directory. We currently have 566 listings in 88 categories.
New Listings
http://eclectichomeschool.org/directory/newlistings.asp
If you’re interested in listing your business in the directory, please visit the following page to submit a commercial or non-commercial website. http://eclectichomeschool.org/info/submit_listing.asp
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OnlineHome-School.net This informational site includes listings of online and correspondence schools as well as a custom search engine designed to find online homeschool programs.
http://onlinehome-school.net/
Stop by CJPress.net for the latest offerings from CJ Press. CJ Press specializes in books on homeschooling and Christian living. They also offer reprints of antique and vintage books, lovingly reproduced from the originals. Currently, CJ Press is featuring the eBook See, I Told Me So!: Homeschool Veterans Declare You Can Stop Worrying and the eWorkshop Cherry Pie: Recipe for a Successful Christian Homeschool. Visit CJ Press at http://cjpress.net
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The Lord bless and keep you,
Beverly Krueger
Eclectic Homeschool Online
http://eclectichomeschool.org
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