One of my passions in life is studying geography and working with people from other countries. Because of this passion geography has always been a thread in our homeschooling. Some of it has been done formally via our history studies but much of it has also been done in co-op style classes or as family entertainment.

I have always meant to write about how my family has studied geography over the years but now I don't have to! Check out this ebook http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com/2009/08/world-geography-for-high-schoolers.html . I nearly fell out of my chair when I read through this. It is *almost* exactly like how my family learned geography only we did it without a formal plan over several years. We even used many of the same books and most of the same videos. We never tried the Trail Guides though. When studying a country we would read about it, map it, watch a video on it, discuss the main aspects of the culture and religion of that country, eat foods that originated in that country, and listen to music from that country. Sometimes we'd toss in some handicrafting or art appreciation and a field trip or two. 

I saw this article this morning and just had to share it. The girl featured in the article attended the same homeschool center as my kids and I have fond memories of having interesting conversations in the halls with her over the years. It just amazes me, and warms my heart, to see my kids' peers growing up and heading on to their life after homeschooling.

I've had the pleasure of watching Denna perform over the years and she truly is as wonderful as this article says. 

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2018321283_denna31.html

I saw this article this morning and just had to share it. The girl featured in the article attended the same homeschool center as my kids and I have fond memories of having interesting conversations in the halls with her over the years. It just amazes me, and warms my heart, to see my kids' peers growing up and heading on to their life after homeschooling.

I've had the pleasure of watching Denna perform over the years and she truly is as wonderful as this article says. 

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2018321283_denna31.html

As many of you know, Cori, helps out with this blog and we often toss ideas back and forth about how to secularize Charlotte Mason. I am now happy to announce that Cori's excellent blog has gone secular!  I absolutely love how she approaches educating and raising her children. So, esp. if you have preschoolers or primary grades, be sure to head on over to her blog and see what she and her family are up to. It's one of my favorites, and as far as we know, the only secularized CM blog. 

http://wonderinthewoods.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/bike-ride-and-giveaway/

Gina

Thanks to Christina for posting this one on Facebook. This is *exactly* what I need for my girls who are studying history via art history!!!  I'm posting it here so I don't lose it but also in case it is just the ticket for anyone else. 

http://picturingamerica.neh.gov/educators.php?subPage=edu_guide&lang=english

As much as I love CM, I am also a fan of John Taylor Gotto as is my husband. JTG's theories on life and education match up much better with my rightbrainer child than CM and better reflects the entrepreneural spirit I grew up around. One of my personal goals for my girls is to figure out a way of combining the two philosopies. 

This talk is long and somewhat rambly but there are such gems of thought it's well worth listening to all the way to the end. I do think Ms. Mason would agree with JTG about some things like having a relationship with your community and nature, relationships within what you are learning and experiencing and that well educated people are never bored.

I've noticed that whenever I listen to JTG within my kids' hearing my RB child usually starts looking through books or working on some project. I suspect that something he says strikes a subconcious cord within her. 

http://www.altruists.org/static/files/Mudsill%20Theory%20-%20Jamie%20Escalante%20and%20the%20Lancaster%20Amish%20(John%20Taylor%20Gatto).mp3

One of the fun things KodyGirl and I have tried is making our own worm bins and self watering bins. The self-watering bins work great. Unfortunately the worm bins were not nearly as successful and ended up in unhappy worms with very little compost. Very sad since we have a lot of kitchen waste that needs composting. Now for the good news. The multilayer Worm Facotry  that I really really want is currently being offered in a giveaway. You can read all about it here http://creativecarissa.blogspot.com/2011/04/worm-factory-review-and-giveaway.html?showComment=1302886268000#c8329098488075869592 .  

Winning or making your own worm bin is a great way to get your gardening season off to a good start!

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You can use WorldCat to look up books, CDs, DVDs, curriculum, etc.  and see which of your local libraries carry  the title you are looking for. Perfect for those who have access to multiple library systems. 

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I have been getting a lot of questions about timelines lately so I thought it quite timely to learn that the Classical Home Education online store has updated one of their timelines. I have the original version and I use it quite a bit when planning out our history units. They help me quickly see where civilizations overlap when trying to determine what historical sequencing I want to use with the kids. 

Looks like this new update is intended to line up with History Odyssey for those who use that history program. As far as I can tell CHE is no longer carrying any other timelines. 

I came across the following article via Facebook. javascript:mox(); . I found it to be quite interesting. The title is somewhat misleading as they aren't actually talking about multiple choice testing as done via No Child Left Behind. Nope, instead they are talking about the old fashioned essay tests of my youth which are really just narrations that are graded. So, when you read this article and they are talking about the essay test just substitute the word narration in your head. 

I find it particularly interesting that the researchers compared essay tests to concept mapping. Concept mapping is a technique that was taught in EVERY single one of my teaching methods classes and was used extensively by my children's public school teachers. I confess to using it extensively my first two years homeschooling---until I realized it wasn't really helping my kids learn. I will say that concept mapping was effective for my son since writing was such a struggle for him but it wasn't nearly as useful for my girls who love to write. 

Like Howard Gardner, I had to do some serious rethinking of my methods and their outcomes. I'll have to look around and see what else he has to say about this study but it has definitely motivated me to do narrations with my kids. 

Even though he is a reader, Drakon is finding that video based learning is working much better for him than textbook learning. Partly because it is faster to watch a video lecture than to read chapters in a textbook and partly because he is a visual learner. High Schoolers, I am finding, really do need to find ways to be more efficient with their time as they have so much more to do than they did in the earlier years. Thank goodness for technology at this educational level!

Drakon and I both love The Teaching Company lectures but they can be quite cost prohibitive.  That is where Learner.org comes in. This website has a wide variety of lectures and videos organized into courses. I discovered it while looking for a geography course via Haogiesgifted.com . Several of their courses link to Learner.org. Some of them are "talking heads" type lectures as my 10 yo calls them. Most are a bit flashier with videos and interactive slide shows and so on. Many of these videos look like they were originally made for PBS. Like anything, some courses are better than others. Drakon and I are currently comparing the Learner.org lecture on Gilgamesh to the Teaching Company lecture on Gilgamesh. So, far it does seem that the Learner.org course is a bit lighter than TTC course. In a nutshell we recommend TTC if you want an indepth and detail oriented course or your child has a high tolerance for lecture based learning.  We recommend Learner.org if you want something a bit lighter and faster to get through, your child does not like TTC "talking heads" or if you just plain old can't afford TTC.  I have decided that I will use TTC History of World Lit. course for Drakon since he prefers indepth learning but will use the Invitation to World Lit. course from Learners.org for my girls who prefer less indepth learning. 

Invitation to World Literature javascript:mox();

Learner.org homepage javascript:mox();

I came across this reading list and thought it would make a good  list for either personal or group reading. Unlike many great book lists this one seems manageable. Since it matches up fairly well with my kids' history/literature cycle I think I'm going to try to do Year 1 this coming year. Story of Art and Gilgamesh were already on our list for this year so that's two down. One of the girls has been wanting to do Lewis Carroll as an author study so that's three. Piece of cake, right?

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This came across my Facebook page last week. I no longer remember exactly who I got it from but I am putting it here so that *I* don't lose it.

I have been using some of the resources listed for years, others we just started using this year and most of them are yet unexplored by us. I will say that I absolutely love the Hoagie's website and some of you will recognize a site or two that belong to members of Becky's SecularCM yahoo group. 

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An interesting, thought provoking, blog article for banned books week.

I confess that both books mentioned are/have been on our reading lists (most banned books are). For our family, the solution is to be widely read with plenty of informal discussion about historical context and biases in books. Author studies really help with this since you learn about the society/context within which the author is writing their stories. I think the problem comes in when you read only the biased books and nothing to counterbalance them. This is one reason I include plenty of modern literature with our (more typical CM) classic readings. We sometimes read both the original and the revised versions and discuss the reasons for the changes. For every biased book you can usually find another book to counterbalance it. I rarely cut or ban my kids from reading biased books but I often add books to balance out their readings. As I've mentioned in past writings, when my daughter was interested in Little House and the Prairie (mentioned in this article's comments) we also read the Birchbark House books as a way of balancing the racial biases. 

Would love to hear your thoughts on the topic!

Here are the Visual Spatial Resources that I know about....if you have others, please share!  ~ Cori

http://wonderinthewoods.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/visual-spatial-resources/

Another GREAT article from Childlight about the use of technology in a Charlotte Mason school -- technology that adheres to her principles.  Some of these gadgets I knew about but not all of them!  Also useful for impressing skeptical family members.   ~Cori

http://childlightusa.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/the-21st-century-mason-school-by-jennifer-spencer/

I'd like to share this link to the NIH Office of Science Education that a friend recommended for supplementing our biology and psychology studies. I have not seen the materials myself (I just ordered mine) but they look good and, best of all, are free. It looks like there are also links at the site for doing online work (we are going to be checking out the time-lapse video of brain development). Overall, a worthwhile site to check out for supplementing K-12 science. 

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I realize that Lee Binz is not secular, but at least this month, she seems to be writing about many of the issues I usually end up addressing when mentoring other homeschoolers. This article sums up nicely my take on the DISADVANTAGES of having a teaching degree. I firmly believe that the key to great homeschooling is great PARENTING, not great teaching. Whenever I have academic issues with my kids it is almost always because of some parenting issue, not homeschooling or teaching issues. Most people do not realize that homeschooling your own kids is NOTHING like teaching other people's kids in a classroom!   (I've done both and there is a huge difference.) 

javascript:mox(); Read this brief article if you worry about whether you are qualified to teach your own kids. 

If you are in the throws of planning high school and trying to figure out how grades, transcripts and reading lists all fit into the picture you may want to check out The Home Scholar. The link below is for her free one hour webinar. I find her suggestions to be quite practical and she holds your hand as little or as much as you need/can afford. 

She is not secular in her beliefs but I have spoken with her in person and never had a problem as she doesn't seem to infuse her high school website/information with religion (it appears she does have some other blogs or websites that are Christian but those are easy to avoidl). She is also on Facebook if that is your preferred media. 

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PS Please let me know if the link doesn't work.

In the name of modernizing CM I really would like to include various podcast resources on the links and content pages. The only problem is that I do not use podcasts at this time.

Therefore, in order to include this information, I need SecularCM's members to email links of their favorite podcast programs or resources to Gina at javascript:mox(); .

Your help in this area would be greatly appreciated and could earn anyone who participates a free book! (Just include your name, children's ages/interests and mailing address when you send in the link and I will send you a free book.)