Category: Homeschool

I write the Switched-On Schoolhouse Series twice a month to share our family’s experience using this software based curriculum in our home.

One of the things we have really come to enjoy in regards to the Switched-On Schoolhouse software is the Tiny Tutor, which are the embedded video clips that are peppered throughout the lessons.  These tiny video boxes (hence their name “Tiny Tutor”), further explain or expound upon the information that the student is learning, where text just isn’t quite enough.

I write the Switched-On Schoolhouse Series twice a month to share our family’s experience using this software based curriculum in our home.

It’s hard to believe 2010 is over, and tomorrow brings in 2011.  And regardless of your calendar of homeschooling, a new year usually has homeschoolers pouring over their options of curriculum for the next grade level.

Guest Post by Amber Litke

‘The End of the World Club‘ is the second book in the Jaguar Stones trilogy written by Jon and Pamela Voelkel.  Following the events of the first book, Max Murphy has unwisely made a deal with the twelve death lords of the Mayan Underworld to free his parents.  All is well back in Boston…until collection day rolls around for Max.

Arcadia Publishing, the leading local history publisher in the United States, has launched a fun new series about U.S. cities, Cool Stuff Every Kid Should Know.  Children learn best when learning is fun, and the colorful photographs, dynamic graphics, and kid-friendly facts in these easy-to-read books add up to an irresistible package.

Celebrate the joy of reading this holiday season, with wonderfully charming picture books by Abrams for young readers — and those young at heart.

La Noche Buena, A Christmas Story
Written by Antonio Sacre
Illustrated by Angela Dominguez

Who doesn’t love the winter holidays?  They are a time for special get-togethers with family and friends — and great food.  But when a person comes from a multicultural family, the holidays become even more important because it’s a melting pot of experiences, languages, new family traditions, and faith-based rituals passed on to new generations from the previous.  And in the new pictur

Gift Guide Pick

Brown Bag it in Style

 Lunch Bags! features today’s hottest designers sharing their sewing savvy with 25 projects, from a simple sandwich wrap to a sophisticated shoulder bag. Why shouldn’t your lunch bag match your personal wardrobe and eco-conscious lifestyle?

I write the Switched-On Schoolhouse Series twice a month to share our family’s experience using this software based curriculum in our home.

Most students will have to complete a half credit of American Literature sometime during their four years of high school.

In the first lesson of the Switched-On Schoolhouse American Literature course the student begins with an introduction to the course. 

Regular Three Different Directions readers, know that I love books.  I read all kinds of genres, and enjoy them all for different reasons.  Last week a most charming book arrived on my doorstep, one that would make a fabulous gift, National Geographic’s ‘The Classic Treasury of Childhood Wonders: Favorite adventures, stories, poems, and songs for making lasting memories’ by Susan H. Magsamen.

Words. Words. Words. We spend the day with words flying at, around and past us.  Today, if you don’t have lots of words, you simply cannot navigate the world. Or at least some of cyberspace.

I love word games, and I was recently sent copies of some Bananagrams products, including 10-Minute Bananagrams (Workman publishing, December 2010), Bananagrams! for Kids, More Bananagrams! and the first in the series, Bananagrams! The Official Book, all based on the best selling game Bananagrams.  These books will entertain you

Gift Guide Pick

I love the material MoMA puts out for kids.  Among their books is one in particular I’d like to share with you, Make Art Make Mistakes: A Creativity Sketchbook ($16.99, Chronicle Books).

Each page has an activity of a simple, but fundamental art theme.  Lines, colors, patterns, etc.  There are also pages with visual inspirational quotes from artists like Georgia O’Keefe and Pablo Picasso.