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Consider Saxon Math for teaching home school math, algebra, calculus, geometry, physics, etc. CD rom lessons called Dive into math by Genesis Science

Read about the teacher.

Nobody works well without a hope for compensation, right?! Well, my son proves that to me daily! My 6 year old is still at it charting the number of pull ups he does. Yes they are true pull ups… We have an over the door pull up bar that he uses a bar stool to climb up to & does true pull ups. I can’t even do one & my 6 year old has done several thousand in a few months… Oh yes & we can’t forget the push ups, sit ups, & dips graphing either. Yesterday he cranked out the finishing touches another sheet of 1000 pull ups & one for the 1000 push ups/sit ups/dips. The reward: Chuckie Cheese for 2 hours+ … He is truly developing the physical muscles as much if not more than the mental! He LOVES it! He is much more reward driven than I remember being. Oh well, whatever works.

It also makes school work more enjoyable. To help him learn time I set up a circle cut into 12 pie shapes (hours) each divided with 6 inner circle bands (10 minute intervals). When he completes 1 full school lesson cheerfully he gets to fill in 10 minutes on our ‘clock’ with the goal of completing all 60 bands & earning another Chuckie Cheese visit. It has made school much easier and equally rewarding to the muscle building. It does costs a trip to Chuckie Cheese every 12-20 days depending on his attitude but it works & he’s learning well. $1 a day in tokens is acceptable to this home school mom!

For Reading to the Kiddos:

Suddenly by Colin McNaughton - A pig, unaware he is about to be attacked by a wolf, ’suddenly’ remembers places to go & things he was supposed to do, etc., just barely escaping being eaten by the wolf.

Olive’s Pirate Party by Roberta Baker - A Pirate Birthday Party

Can you do this, Old Badger? by Eve Bunting

For Mom’s Thoughts:

Language and Thinking for Young Children $8 by Ruth Beechick

Exploring Creation with General Science, 2 Volumes  $55
By: Dr. Jay Wile

(Grades 4-12) Ancient Civilizations & the Bible, Volume 1 Book A $11
by Diana Waring
(Grades 4-12) Romans, Reformers, Revolutionaries: A Digging Deeper Study Guide Book B (Paperback)$ 6.75
by Diana Waring

(Grades 4-12) World Empires, World Missions, World Wars: A Digging Deeper Study Guide Book C (Paperback) $21
by Diana Waring

Adam and His Kin (Grades 6-12) $9
by Ruth Beechick

Genesis Finding our Roots (Grades 4-12) $17.50
by Ruth Beechick - one review suggests 10 & up, another said her 8 year old son was reading it without her assigning it as school history.

World Made Simple (Grades 6-12) $13.95
by Ruth Beechick

Possibly

(Grades 4-12) Ancient History: Adam to Messiah $65? Heart of Wisdom Publications

Started the year with the My Father’s World 1st grade curriculum. The math is behind his abilities so we’ve adapted it and are including Math Blaster 1 & 2 CDs by Davidson and Hooked on Math’s Mighty Math Calculating Crew CDs (8-12 yr) since he loves computer time. We’ve developed our own workbook using spiral ring notebooks that incorporates the 1st grade math objectives from My Father’s World curriculum with games like Monopoly, Life, Chess strategies, Bulls-Eye math problems from Bob Jones I believe & multiple math workbooks for 1st & 2nd graders I’ve picked up on ebay & amazon.

Well, started the year with the My Father’s World 1st Grade Curriculum. They don’t use the unit study approach for 1st grade which disappointed me. Son read the whole Bible Reader 3 times in 2 months. Picked up Young Reader’s Bible, Iva Hoff’s Picture Bible & several others which he has devoured as well. Using multiple readers for reading to his younger brother prior to rest time like: The GigAntic Little Hero A Story About Perseverance & The Humble Bee A Story About Pride by Matt Whitlock, Mean Billy Joe Gill and the truth about respect by Joanna Weaver, Ella’s Games by David Bedford, The new puppy by Laurence Anholt, Hurry, Hurry, by Eve Bunting, Ducky by Eve Bunting, This is the ark that Noah built by Shirley Neitzel…

AWESOME BIBLE ADVEN 5 DBL DV    3    $8.99
459680    REAL SCIENCE KIT/ELECTRICITY    1    $12.95
40761    DRAW-WRITE-NOW BOOK 6    1    $10.99
949499    AWESOME STORIE OF/BIBLE 3 DV    1    $9.99
76130X    MAGIC RAIN COLOR MIXING BOOK    1    $5.99
826833    SCIENCE OF UNDERWATER LIFE    1    $4.99
77853    OUR WORLD /6 BK SET    1    $4.95
394228    WEBSTER VIDEO/HERM & FR BB    1    $2.99
827155    ANIMALS THAT LIVE/WATER HC    1    $2.99
95598    STUDENT’S BIBLE ATLAS    1    $2.95
962908    MY HEAVENLY HELPER GR K-2    1    $1.99
429075

Writing is a bit more difficult. He has all his letters down but is such a perfectionist that he hates to write for fear of misspelling words.  We used MY HEAVENLY HELPER GRADES PRE-K & Grades K-2 workbook for alphabetizing, dot to dot numbers & letters.  It has stories he can read & color.  The mazes are pretty far behind & work for his 4 year old brother.  I picked up Sequential Spelling (1-7) so he can gain confidence in the spelling but but after working through it a bit, I think we’ll use it at the end of 2nd or for 3rd grade.  I’m more concerned with his ability to read than spell right now.  The next morning, I write & have him illustrate the bedtime stories his father tells each night & that seems to work well.

Worked on practical writing this year: letters to family, friends, our 8 year old Compassion International girl, thank you notes, home made Christmas, Valentine, & Easter cards, etc.

Well, we started the home school experience with a Kindergarten year using a wonderful unit study curriculum put out by My Father’s World. I loved the weekly suggested readings, albeit some were not available in the Anchorage Alaska library system. Both my 2 & 5 year old learned quite a bit. We were already using Teach A Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons so we did not use the curriculum’s letter learning system but did use the workbook for the letters we were learning in Teach A Child to Read. The math was quite far behind the 5 year old’s abilities as he is unique in that he was already playing monopoly & had learned his numbers well past the kindergarten standard of counting to 100 but we used the numbers sheets to help him with his handwriting as he was still learning better form.

All in all, My Father’s World gave me the confidence that I was teaching him the kindergarten concepts & that he was not going to fall behind. We LOVED the Unit Study approach & will continue it for the next few years as it helps teach Nature, Science, History, Biblical Design & fits well in our lifestyle. We supplemented the book list with MANY more books & Discovery Channel VHS from the library for each unit. Wonderful Curriculum for a new home school family!

Thank you to My Father’s World for everything!

Cathy Law

Sundog Academy

Sundog Academy is an Alaska Home School currently teaching 2 students… 3 & 6. Ok well 3 is pretty young for home school but not when you have a 1st grader who needs to be in school learning life lessons & besides, what is school but an adventure in learning. Of all the people in the world, 3 year olds are some of the BEST learners!

Welcome to Sundog Academy!