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Meet the Masters

Years ago, a friend who teaches university-level art classes, told me that the best way for me to teach my children art was to combine how-to instruction with art appreciation. She suggested learning about the life of a particular artist by reading biographies and then learn how to imitate his or her technique. This made perfect sense to me, but I did not feel knowledgeable enough in the subject matter to put together my own curriculum and I did not know of any such art program that could be used in the home.

Language of God for Little Folks (Level D)

Book cover: 'Language of God for Little Folks (Level D )'
Author(s): 
Nancy Nicholson

Designed for 4th or 5th grade, this level of the popular Catholic grammar curriculum is another winner! The book has been improved from the earliest editions of the lower levels by using a high-quality, bright-white, erasable paper with a lay-flat spiral binding. The 120 exercises in the worktext provide four short lessons per week for thirty weeks, including regular review of concepts already taught on lessons titled "Practice". There are no tests, although the "Practice" pages could be used as tests.

Saxon Math

A Saxon Math book
Author(s): 
John Saxon
Stephen Hake

I have friends who have used Saxon for years and are very, very happy with it. Saxon's circular pattern and constant review is exactly what they love about it. However, it was this circular pattern that caused problems for us. The way Saxon works (someone please correct me if I'm off base here) is that it introduces a new concept in increments, the child works a set of problems that teach a new concept, then spends the rest of the lesson reviewing previously learned concepts.

Saxon Math 2

Author(s): 
Nancy Larson

Saxon 2 covers the arithmetic topics of addition and subtraction of one and two digit numbers and simple multiplication and division as well as the related topics of patterns, graphing, time, measurement, money, geometry and estimating. Although it uses manipulatives it is not a "manipulatives-based" program.

Singapore Math

Singapore Math Home Instructor's Set - Grade 5

Singapore students are scoring the highest in the world in math and science. The web page for these texts in the US is http://www.singaporemath.com

Singapore Math seems to solve the "conceptual/drill...Saxon jumping around problem". Here's an example from a problem in the first half of the fifth grade book:

<< Mr Li paid $36 for 3 singlets and 2 T-shirts. A T-shirt cost 3 times as much as a singlet. How much did Mr Li pay for the 2 T-shirts? >>

Faith and Life Religion Series

Book cover: 'Faith and Life Religion Series, Book 1'

This is a very popular religion series for Catholic homeschoolers. There are probably many reasons for this: they're reasonably priced, they're filled with beautiful selections of fine religious art, and they're unquestionably orthodox. The series incorporates questions from The Baltimore Catechism for memorization. Some homeschoolers don't like the brief content (the text contains approximately one lesson per week - although there is also a work book, teacher's manual and extensive resource guide available for each grade).

The Old World and America

Book cover: 'The Old World and America'
Author(s): 
Rev. Philip Furlong
The Old World and America is a superb history book that is decidely homeschool-friendly! The book begins briefly with a mention of Genesis, which is unusual in a history text. It is a thorough guide to the history of the world, from the time of primitive man to the mid-1500's. The approach is decidedly Catholic, and reference to Catholic saints are scattered throughout.

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