Archive for February, 2008

Eclectic Homeschool Online Newsletter, February 15, 2008

BevK February 15th, 2008

This is the third and final update we will be emphasizing reading. Our reading focus this time is selecting books. We have articles that give terrific advice on reading aloud to your children and our own list of favorite read alouds. Tammy Cardwell also shares some good advice for those with children who are struggling academically.

Feature Articles

Reading Aloud
If reading aloud to your children sounds like a good idea to you, but you never seem to find the time for it, let Jean Hall tell you how reading aloud became a major part of their school day and how that changed everything for their family. She has a great how-to list to get you started on the right foot, too.

Favorite Read Alouds
We’ve compiled a list of favorite read aloud books from suggestions by our staff and readers. You’ll find them listed below and available in the Read Aloud section of the Eclectic Homeschool Online. For further advice, we close with a links to other reading lists found online from a variety of good sources.

Listen to the Children
We cruise the aisles, listening to sales reps and our fellow home school parents expound upon the benefits of this curriculum and that teaching style. We peruse catalogs and absorb magazines. We sit at rapt attention through seminar after seminar and high light our how-to books until they’re more colorful than circus tents. We listen to all the experts, both professional and non-, and pray we’ll make the right choices. But do we listen to the children?

Black History Month

Black History Resources
A variety of resources to enhance your American History, African-American History, or Black History Month studies.

Eclectic Kids Martin Luther King, Jr. Learning & Play Space
A place to learn and play.

African American History Resources

Resource Reviews

Focus: Selecting Books

Selecting the Perfect Picture Book for Your Child
You have the opportunity of selecting the perfect picture book for your child. You could head straight for the Disney books or get the latest mass marketed, movie themed picture book, but why go for the mediocre when you can get something truly terrific?

Selecting a Bible: How to Choose the Best Bible for Your Needs
With Bibles coming in so many shapes, sizes, translations and versions, it can be difficult to know which Bible offers the best fit for you. Whether you’re selecting a Bible for your beginning reader or one for your personal study, some guidelines will help you find the best Bible for your needs.

Finding Science Treasure in Picture Books
Did you say treasure? Yes. Treasure! Science picture books are an often-ignored treasure trove of science learning for children typically considered past the picture book stage. I’ll be providing you a list of some of my favorite science picture books, but first let’s look at what to do with these treasures.

Introducing Music Education with Picture Books
For those who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket or never learned to play a musical instrument or read music, the music education of their children seem to be a major challenge. Music lessons are one good solution, but learning to appreciate and understand music can begin even before you feel your child is ready to take on piano lessons.

Ebook Revolution
Back when electronic books (AKA ebooks, e-books, eBooks, and a few other variations) made their appearance, one had to invest in expensive readers and the ebook selection was lacking, to say the least. Failing to take into account the inevitably rapid progress of technology, I did not see how ebooks would ever become practical enough for the common person to take advantage of them on a regular basis. I was wrong.

Resources

The Read-Aloud Handbook, Sixth Edition
by Jim Trelease
For more than two decades, millions of parents and educators have turned to Jim Trelease’s beloved classic to help countless children become avid readers through awakening their imaginations and improving their language skills. Now this new edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook imparts the benefits, rewards, and importance of reading aloud to children of a new generation. Supported by delightful anecdotes as well as the latest research, The Read- Aloud Handbook offers proven techniques and strategies—and the reasoning behind them— for helping children discover the pleasures of reading and setting them on the road to becoming lifelong readers.

Reading Aloud and Beyond: Fostering the Intellectual Life with Older Readers
Reading aloud - that’s for primary school children, right?
No, say Frank Serafini and Cyndi Giorgis. They contend that reading aloud is just as important for older readers. And they provide the research to back their claim.

What Should I Read Aloud? A Guide to 200 Best-selling Picture Books
In the first two chapters, you will learn how best to share books with young children and how you can help them learn to read while doing so. Chapters 3-6 are organized by suggested age levels, featuring literature for children from birth through age 8. Within each of these chapters, books are further grouped by topic or theme. Chapter 7 will help you supplement the bestsellers with multicultural literature, nonfiction, magazines, and websites. In addition, the book features comprehensive indexes to locate subjects and to locate authors, illustrators, and titles, as well as a glossary for quick reference to essential terms.

Read Aloud Resources

Library Skills

Reading Resource Reviews

Science Department

Science Spot
The Grammy in Mathematics
Mathematician nominated for award for restoring the only known recording of a live Woody Guthrie performance.

New Reviews

  • A Family Program for Reading Aloud: 2nd Edition
  • The Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History
  • Latina Christiana I: Introduction to Christian Latin (3rd Edition) Pronunciation CD
  • Latina Christiana I: Introduction to Christian Latin (3rd Edition) Student Book
  • Latina Christiana I: Introduction to Christian Latin (3rd Edition) Teacher Manual
  • Morris and Buddy: The Story of the First Seeing Eye Dog
  • Nine Ducks Nine
  • Reading Aloud and Beyond: Fostering the Intellectual Life with Older Readers
  • Real Christianity
  • The Secret Garden
  • The Super Soy Bean
  • Under Your Skin: Your Amazing Body
  • What Should I Read Aloud?: A Guide to 200 Best-selling Picture Books
  • Woodshop for Kids: 52 Woodworking Projects Kids Can Build
  • You’ve Decided to Homeschool, Now What?

EHO Resource Center

Featured Resource February

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.

New Resources

The Monarch’s Progress
by Avis Harley
$11.53 – 32% Off
A masterful collection by the author of Fly With Poetry and Sea Stars. Why are butterflies so universally loved? Is it the dazzling colors within exquisite winged living art? Is it the miracle of change that fascinates us—that wonderful metamorphosis from tiny egg to brilliant insect? Avis Harley explores these questions and many others that have captivated humans throughout history. Eighteen structured poems—haiku, sonnets, cinquain, limerick, and other forms—examine how monarch butterflies taste with their feet, migrate 2,500 miles every year, and cover entire forest groves when they rest. A Small Matters section at the back explains the facts and science in the poems.

Meteorology Projects With a Weather Station You Can Build
by Robert Gardner
$31.93
Anyone who has an interest in the weather will be fascinated by Robert Gardner’s new addition to his Build-a-Lab! Science Experiments series. In this collection of earth science experiments, budding middle-school meteorologists learn how to build their own weather instruments, collect and analyze weather data, create weather forecasts, and more. Full-color illustrations, ideas for science fair projects, and information on global warming and climate change round out the book.

Tara’s Flight
by Ruth Eitzen, Allan Eitzen – Illustrator
$13.22 – 22% Off
A message of peace—the most welcome news of all. Tara is a dove. Before the flood, she brought messages back and forth between Noah and his family. Now she is confined to the small loft that Noah’s grandson has built under the roof of the ark. For forty days and nights, Tara sits patiently in her loft while, outside, thunder booms, and the rain pours down. One day Noah’s grandson comes to take Tara to the deck of the ark. It’s time for her to be a messenger bird again. If Tara returns to the ark, it will mean that Noah’s house is still under water. If Tara doesn’t come back, it means she is waiting at home for the return of Noah and his family. Ruth Eitzen’s gentle retelling of the story of Noah’s ark, with endearing illustrations by Allan Eitzen, is perfect for young children.

Ookpik: The Travels of a Snowy Owl
by Bruce Hiscock
$12.71 – 25% Off
One snowy owl’s first year and its struggle to survive. Fed by his parents, Ookpik, which means “snowy owl” in the Inuit language, grows quickly in the short Arctic summer. By autumn, he has learned to hunt on his own, but prey is scarce on the tundra that year. The owl’s instincts tell him that he must leave this land or starve. Ookpik flies south, over the great forests of Canada, and finally lands in the United States, always searching for food and a winter hunting ground. With vivid watercolor illustrations, Bruce Hiscock depicts the changing landscape, from the treeless Arctic of Baffin Island to the dairy country of eastern New York. There, Ookpik settles for the winter, much to the delight of bird watchers. An author’s note offers additional details on the life of the snowy owl.

The Puzzle of the Platypus: And Other Explorations of Science in Action
by Jack Myers, John Rice – Illustrator
$12.21 – 32% Off
Scientists probe eleven animal mysteries. Why do some parrots eat clay? Which elephants are the wisest? Is the platypus a bird, a mammal, or something else? In this collection of science articles from Highlights for Children magazine, teams of researchers travel the world to solve some of nature’s most intriguing puzzles. One team uses a high-tech camera to find polar bear dens under the snows of Alaska. Another group teaches dolphins how to play a game in order to study their sonar. Still other teams spend years studying elephants, crows, wild horses, rattlesnakes, cliff swallows, and other animals. Full-color illustrations bring these fascinating animals to life, and Jack Myers, in his warm, personal style, re-creates the scientists’ adventures in discovery. His stories are true cases of science in action—the challenging and often creative process of revealing nature’s secrets. He will start young readers thinking about the many secrets that still wait to be discovered . . . maybe by them.

Farmer George Plants a Nation
by Peggy Thomas, Layne Johnson – Illustrator
$14.00 – 22% Off
George Washington as he’s rarely seen. Besides being a general and the first president of the United States, George Washington was also a farmer. His efforts to create a self-sufficient farm at Mount Vernon, Virginia, mirrored his struggle to form a new nation. Excerpts from Washington’s writings are featured throughout the book, which also includes a timeline, resource section, as well as essays on Washington at Mount Vernon and his thoughts on slavery. Both illustrator and author worked closely with the staff of Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens to render an accurate portrait of Farmer George at work.

If you receive benefit from the articles and resources at the Eclectic Homeschool Online, we heartily request that you let us know by using our Eclectic Homeschool Resource Center to purchase books, videos, toys, games, crafts and more. We get a small percentage of the total sale price of the items you purchase, whether you clicked on them from an EHO Resource Center page or not. Just the decision to enter Amazon via EHO will allow us to receive earnings from your purchases. So, if you’ve ever wished you could donate money to EHO but never have the extra funds to do so (we understand tight budgets!), you can do so just by shopping and getting great deals on homeschool and other purchases through the Eclectic Homeschool Resource Center. We thank all those that have chosen to do so. During the first half of February, your purchases have garnered $70.23 for EHO. Thank you!

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

We’ve added 4 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 575 listings in 88 categories.
New Listings

If you’re interested in listing your business in the directory, please visit the following page to submit a commercial or non-commercial website.

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The Lord bless and keep you,
Beverly Krueger
Eclectic Homeschool Online
http://eclectichomeschool.org

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