Sunday, February 15, 2009

That Stings!

I just completed (I hope!) my annual tax-refund-curriculum-buying-spree. Sersiously, I have never spent this much. I didn't buy anything that wasn't a good buy, the lowest price available (and many items were available from my employer at a discount to me, and everything I ordered from all three companies was free shipping) and a boon to Nate's education, so I don't think I did anything wrong, per se, it's just that as he's gotten older and more advanced, his educational needs have gotten more expensive, and while I could hodge-podge stuff much cheaper, I simply don't have the time while working, so the trade-off is worth it to me.

Like the past year, we will be using Teaching Textbooks for math. Nate will begin both Algebra and Geometry next month. It was his choice to do them simultaneously and I guess we will see how that works out.

I have decided to use Jump In! because of his resistance to writing of any kind.

We are going to try Mystery of History after we are done with our current Rome unit. I think we need a bit more orderly approach, and I think MOH will be a good fit, despite being a tad put off at the fact that two volumes are not yet released.

We will be using Getting Started In Latin because Nate doesn't know if he wants to learn Latin, and so I didn't want to dive into a more involved curriculum. We will also be using English From The Roots Up.

Then there are some long-drawn-out type of things--Balancing The Sword, Blessed is the Man, Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers, etc. Also, a science kit, a couple of reference works, that sort of thing.

Nate chose Computer Science Pure and Simple as his computer science program, and I think it will do him good, at least as a beginning course.

Thank goodness for tax refunds, huh?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see that Boris Johnson, the new London Mayor wants Latin and Greek to be taught in all London schools. However I would prefer Esperanto on the basis that it helps all language learning.

Pope Benedict also used this language this year in his Urbi et Orbi address from the Vatican, at Christmas.

If you have time can I ask you to visit http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU or http://www.lernu.net Professor Piron was a translator for the United Nations in Geneva.

Jenny-Fair said...

Your link is broken, Brian.

I don't think required teaching of Esperanto would be of much help. For starters, it is a made-up language. One of my kids has tried to learn Klingon, and it can be fun if someone else you know speaks it, but Greek and Latin have affected the English language to such a great extent that learning them improves ones English skills. Esperanto, while it might jump-start second-language learning, does not also improve your first language, and does not prove useful since there are such a limited number of speakers.

Nate's foreign language choice a the moment is German. I am debating whether to fork out the dolars for Rosetta Stone.

Anonymous said...

Hey Jen, You have to do, what you have to do! I hear ya! I have spent so much more as my kids have aged (those old kids!) We used ERTRU and one used ERTRU 2. I loved the sound of "Mystery of History" but felt overwhelmed when I looked at it. Coughed up the bucks for Video Text Algebra and my student is still struggling! Mine are 11th and first year of community college. I do think the higher math and writing are the hardest to teach/facilitate. Oh the reason I am writing (I forgot there for a moment! As you age your brain cells leak out -fyi - I am older than you, don't worry!)I wanted to share a yahoo group with you. They had quite a discussion on hs kids learning/trying to learn a foreign language. Conservative hs to college:

conservativehs2c-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Sounds like Nate will have a good year! :)

Jenny-Fair said...

Starbrite, thanks for the yahoo group recommendation. What is ERTRU?

Anonymous said...

Ha! More cells leaking from my brain! No, it is a typo, it should read EFTRU, English From The Roots Up. :)

Jenny-Fair said...

It is 4:30 a.m. at the moment. I sympathize with brain leakage.

Anonymous said...

Yes, thank God for tax refunds! We've already saved part of ours out for Noah and Hannah's DVD curriculum for next year. Yes, I said Hannah's. And I couldn't do it without DVD right now...

Jenny-Fair said...

HANNAH?!

Sigh.