A Meme!

My Australian friend Sue at Stories of an Unschooling Family tagged me for a homeschooling meme.  I think it's the first meme I've done for a long time! 

One Homeschool Book You've Enjoyed

 Recently the only homeschooling book I've read has been A Little Way of Homeschooling: Thirteen Families Discover Catholic Unschooling.  But I'll add another one that I almost memorized earlier in my homeschooling years:  A Patchwork of Days:  Share a Day with 30 Homeschooling Families

There was no internet back then and I didn't really know any homeschoolers so it meant a lot to "see" how some others went about it.

I actually don't have that book anymore.  In fact, when I look at my shelves I don't have a whole lot of homeschooling books besides Elizabeth Foss's Real Learning:  Education in the Heart of the Home and the books of the aforementioned Suzie Andres.  .  

One Resource You Wouldn't Be Without
 
The internet, I suppose!   It's an all-purpose resource.  Asked to name one thing about the internet besides the social and support network, I would have to say:  Public Domain Books.  Boy did I get a thrill when I first found Gutenberg, about 12 years ago.   And now it's Google Books and so much more.

I used to print out the good ones and bind them, but now I can download them to my Kindle or Iphone. 

One Resource You Wish You'd Never Bought

That sounds sinister, as my boys would say, as if the resource is still following me around with a dark and angry face.    I have lots of resources I never really used.  In fact, generally speaking, I've learned that when I lay out money on a specific curriculum material, it's usually wasted money.   Real books, on the other hand, get used around here.

For this reason, I haven't really bought any homeschool materials for about the last three years.    I usually look for freebies online or trade at Paperback Swap, so when I don't use them, I don't feel guilty about it at least.   The last expensive thing I remember buying and not using was High School of Your Dreams, but it turned out fine since I had a friend who could use it.   I think it's probably a fine book, just not the sort I can use.  

One Resource You Liked Last Year

My Kindle!  With  it around, not only do I have reading material in my purse, but I don't have to use the printer as much, and I don't lose the books I'm reading to the kids quite so much. 


 Homeschool Connections -- we subscribed to the recorded lectures and it was nice.  1. Flexible 2. Auditory 3. Informed with our Faith 4. Diverse.   Kieron especially liked the two Logic classes, one by Robert Gotcher and one by Jean Rioux.  

One Resource You'll Be Using Next Year

Personally I'm finding the Iphone really useful for planning and keeping records, much more useful than the computer ever was, or my various systems of binders.  I can even scan in things I want to keep track of, so I'll probably be making copies of old papers and stories so they are backed up in "The Cloud".   I'll probably be using it a lot for various things. 

But this probably is about the kids, so I'll mention that I just ordered Secrets of Mental Math from The Teaching Company at a discount, and am planning to watch it with Kieron for a start into tenth grade math.  He is doing fairly well in math but doesn't like it and doesn't feel that confident about it so I thought we might find a math DVD sort of interesting and inspiring for a change.   If we like watching DVDs for our schooling, our library has quite a few more Teaching Company DVDs. 


One Resource You'd Like To Buy

Three actually:

• A piano.
• Karate or fencing lessons for the boys. 
• An I-Pad  (but I'm not telling my husband, because he probably would get me one, and I'm not sure it's good for me, especially since I just got the IPhone and like it almost TOO much). 

One Resource You Wish Existed


A local homeschool resource center where you could go and take whatever classes you wanted and meet with other homeschoolers and people who are excited about homeschoolers.   While I'm dreaming, it should be CM/Classical.

Or even better, a church within driving distance where we could go to daily Mass.   
 
One Homeschooling Catalogue You Enjoy Reading
 
I only read Memoria Press's The Classical Teacher.  A few years ago when we were on a tight budget and I already had a lot of stuff on my shelves I didn't use,  I simply stopped buying homeschool stuff, and that meant no more poring through catalogs.   But I still like MP because of the interesting articles. 

One Homeschool Site You Visit Regularly


Ambleside Online.


Tagged!

Now I'm supposed to tag six other people.

I think I've seen this circulating for a while already so I don't know who's already done it or had the chance.


I'll tag the last six homeschooling types who commented on here, who to my knowledge didn't already participate in the meme.  Only if you want to, of course.  

Steph at Confessions of an Erratic Homeschooler (so glad to see you blogging again Steph!)

Silvia at Homeschooling in a Bilingual Home

Tracey at Less Distractions

Faith at Strewing:  Unschooling Resources

Sandy at Falling Like Rain

and Chari at Our Heart's Haven, you are so tagged, even though you haven't commented here in a while and probably don't have time to do this right now ;-).  But you should anyway.