Shop now for next year’s textbooks.

 Our Co-op is determining next year’s courses.  Why?  We want to have plenty of time to select the textbooks and shop for decent prices.  I’m buying copies of Chemistry and Physics to teach Apologia’s Young Explorers course next year.  I like to have the textbooks on hand for the classes.  My target price is $10.  We’re planning three new middle school courses.  Right now, we’re buying a bunch of used textbooks for U.S.Government and American History.  We need time to determine the textbooks.  Think about your classes for next year.  You’ll have loads of time to shop for decent prices.  BTW ,y favorite sites for used textbooks are Thriftbooks, eBay, and Amazon.

Hillsdale Free College Courses

 Hillsdale College offers free college courses online.  The video courses are excellent.  Get a free account and try one!

Why I use Christian textbooks….

  I use Christian textbooks in science.  Why?  These textbooks have a Christian worldview.  We know God is the Creator.  His designs are imponderable.  Christian textbooks reflect our faith in every aspect of science.  I’m teaching Anatomy right now.  I tell the kids there is always more to learn.  Science is always trying to answer questions about how the human body works.  Our intricate bodies were designed by God.  Period.  We are in search of answers about systems mysteriously made.  I teach American Literature, too.  My friend, Jen, is teaching American History.  We had a friend, Jim, do a lecture on worldviews.  (Both of us use Stobaugh.)  Jim has loads of background in philosophy.  As he examined different worldviews I was struck by the fact that too many textbooks do not have a central worldview at all.  As a Christian, I want faith, hope, and charity to be part of our scope—regardless of the subject.  I want us to be guided by God.  What freedom it is to be able to say to the class that we are plumbing the depths of God’s infinite creation—in every subject.

VeggieTales!

 Are you a fan of VegggieTales? Our family is!  Did you know Good Will often has listings?  They do!  Take a look!  The prices on Good Will usually beat those at eBay.

Go on a dig or a hunt!

  For years, my family rented a cottage on the Chesapeake Bay, near Calvert Cliffs, which are loaded with  fossils.  You can visit Calvert Cliffs State Park.  All of the nearby beaches have shark’s teeth.  Here is a field guide to those fossils.  There are places all over the world country where you can dig, gather, hunt or mine: Crater Diamonds State Park, Fossil Parks, Pan for Gold, Dig for Gemstones, Find Silver, or Rock Hounding.  Whenever I’m at a beach along the coast of Florida, I hunt for shark’s teeth, too.  Here are four U.S. locations.  Warning!  Hunting, panning, or digging are addictive!  I cannot walk a beach without hunting for fossils.  What do you do with them?  We made clay casts.  You could make jewelry, too.  Fall is ideal for fun home-school fieldtrips.  Why not plan a hunt?

Good Will Finds

 I love Good Will—both online and offline.  One interesting listing is for a set of Seeing Stars.  Here is more information.  From what I can understand, it looks as though it’s part of an intervention program for dyslexia.  Students should take a Barton Screening, with this link.  In any case there are several interesting listings on the Good Will site, including several LEGO Mindstorm kits.

Make sub plans!

 Have you ever had a week which was one crisis or another?  Plan ahead and make sub lessons.  I used Chemmatters and their teacher guides with questions as emergency sub plans when I taught in private and public schools.  Look at Ötzi and the teacher guides with questions, as an example.  The guides have answers to the questions.  Print a few articles with question guides.  You can do the same for literature.  Put aside a book and have literature questions.  For example, here or here are reading questions for Sarah, Plain and Tall and Heidi.  Make up an art kit with a Dick Blick lesson. Yes, you can tell your kiddo to work ahead in math or history.  But, why not have  a bin of free choices ready before you’re puking in the bathroom?