Saturday, November 4, 2017
Friday, November 3, 2017
Antique Educational Journals
I like to look through these journals to help give me ideas of publications to search for. I also enjoy the tid bits of information provided in them. Some struggles never change.
The Public School Journal a.k.a School and Home Education Index
Volume 38, September 1918 - June 1919
Volume 39, September 1919 - June 1920
Free Spelling Books
Uncategorized
I am currently updating this post with antique books that can be obtained free as free domain books. I will add to this list. If you have any suggestions or categorizing of this list, please leave it in the comments.
Henderson's Test Words in Spelling by By Nathaniel P. Henderson, 1872 -
This amazing book of just over 100 pages word list with definitions and pronounciation.
A High School Spelling Book by Arthur Willis Leonard, Claude Moore Fuess
The Infant School Spelling-book and Pictorial Dictionary By F. Wilby, 1844
The Primary School Spelling-book: Designed for Primary and Intermediate Schools By William Draper Swan, 1858
Correct Spelling: For the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, School Years By Bert Norman Strong, 1917
Columbia graded spelling books for city schools By William Joseph Moran, Charles Henry Brelsford, 1901 -
This book has lessons in dictation and spelling word list. It is listed as 7th level. It has some fun product advertising at the end.
Common School Spelling Book By Frances Boardman Squire Potter, 1913 - over 400 hundresd lessons
Sixteen Spelling Scales, Standardized in Sentences for Secondary Schools By Columbia University. Teachers College, 1921 - This has list of sentences with the spelling words in italics. Word list are listed by most frequently misspelled.
The Union Spelling Book By American Sunday-School Union, 1838 -
This has a beautiful alphabet picture book introduction. The book can be used as a spelling or readig list. Stories are included with beautiful pictures that would lend this book for spelling, reading, dictation, and copy work.
The Grammar School Speller and Definer: Embracing Graded Lessons in Spelling By E. D. Farrell, 1877
Friday, January 1, 2016
Duplicating myself as a homeschool mom to many children.
This is the big family realites of homeschooling. There is just not enough of me. If you stumble on to this page from time to time, you are going to notice a lot of work going on that just might not make a lot of sense. So here is what is going on.
I am a bit divided. I love old books, but I do not have the ability to extend myself and manage the teaching of those lessons to each child based on where they are at. I know, I have heard of the one room schoolhouse.I just haven't found my groove to manage that type of homeschool.
So I toss about between Robinson Curriculum, Christian Light Education, and Old Fashioned Education. I have for years, flipped flopped between these. I mostly love the old books. A couple of years ago, I fell onto Easy Peasy Homeschooling.
I am a bit divided. I love old books, but I do not have the ability to extend myself and manage the teaching of those lessons to each child based on where they are at. I know, I have heard of the one room schoolhouse.I just haven't found my groove to manage that type of homeschool.
So I toss about between Robinson Curriculum, Christian Light Education, and Old Fashioned Education. I have for years, flipped flopped between these. I mostly love the old books. A couple of years ago, I fell onto Easy Peasy Homeschooling.
This is probably, 4 years ago. I did it for a month and then I felt like I couldn't keep track of what they are doing. Well a lot has changed in 4 years, and the printables and scope printables are a true treasure.
So deciding to use Easy Peasy as a change of pace for the the upcoming month, got my wheels spinning. If you haven't, go read up why Lee Giles started and created Easy Peasy. So if she made a website to direct her children and duplicate herself, then why can't the rest of us?
My typical issue is recreating the wheel. ALL THE TIME. I love old books. I told you that. I print lots of books, see I even do cost analysis on them. Sometimes, I just can't keep up and it feels like more stuff. So taking the example of Easy Peasy, I am working on making lesson pages for the books I love and have always wanted to use in our homeschool life.
I plan to store the work here publically and then reference these pages to a private blog that only my children have access to. I can link that blog post page to the desktop and it will have their list of work to do each day with the links needed, along with their user names and passwords.
If you find any use in these post that I make, feel free to use them. If you are doing something of the sorts, let me know. I honestly think Lee Giles is a genius! I feel a bit slow that it took me so long to realize that I can duplicate the model she has created to truly give my children a personalized education.
Thanks,
Trish
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Affording College when you are Homeschooling a Tribe
Now, I understand that college is not for everyone. I also know that a mere certificate or associates of Arts degree can really open doors. My husband and I both hold our Bachelor's Degree and Master's Degree in Engineering. The value of those degrees in our lives have been immeasurable. Yes, even for myself being just a stay at home mom. Trust me, the stay at home mom is not my definition it is just a description of my primary task in this season. So we have some expectations that our children will go to college for some level of education. Now do I expect that all of them will get Master's degrees, NO!
So, how am I going to send all my kids to college!
So, how am I going to send all my kids to college!
Well, with my oldest being 10 and then they go ages 8, 6, 4, 2, and a soon to be newborn, I have had a plan for the last year or so and I am seeing it through.
My Plan to Prepare Them!
- Build their skills! - This begins another reason why I love the Robinson Curriculum, RC. At this time, the SAT test critical reading, writing, and mathematics, making the basis of RC perfect for preparing for college. Although my children are still elementary age, this is the time to build the foundation for the academic foundation required to succeed at a University Pace. Right now, most first year students in college are submerged in remedial classes from lack of basic academic skills, sucking away time and money.
- Teach them to teach themselves! - Now this is a life saver for a mom of many homeschooling future scholars. the most dangerous habit in my opinion is spoon fed learning. I have experienced it first hand from the transition from Community College to the University and was almost removed from college. I have seen it first hand in the professional world with new hires unable to perform basic task within a couple of days on the job, including reading a regulation manual! Most of all, this simple hands off training prepares them the best for the University. The ability to receive help from teacher assistants is few and spread out among those that are spoon fed.
- Virtual School a Foreign Language! - A requirement for college is 2 years of accredited foreign language. As a homeschool parent, I need to take advantage of "Certified". So I have a few options, in Florida we can use virtual school for free, dual enroll at the community college, or take it once you are in college. At this time, I feel that the easiest and most convenient way to get this done is with the Virtual School.
- Prepare them now for Vocabulary! - I can't say this enough, Read, Read, Read, but read selectively. I love RC for the book list! Many of these books are brand new to me thanks to my un-literature self, I love read along. So I already have proof of the power of classic literature! My daughter entered 3rd grade testing a vocabulary at 4th grade level and finished the year at 7.2 grade level. All she did was read, no test, no list, no reports.
- Have them Study for the test: SAT, ACT, & CLEP! - I am not going to send my kids to the test blind, First, I test my children each year with CAT from 1970 through Christian Liberty Press. So I am constantly aware of their progress, thus, I will know when we are ready to prepare for college ready test. Next, when they are ready to proceed to take the college ready test, we will practice, study, and maybe even tutor for them. SAT & ACT are the assessments to enter college and being placed at the appropriate level. The CLEP is the test that you can earn college credit for what you already know - here my friends is the lets save time and money!
- Dual Enroll them! - Thanks to the way that Florida does things, as a homeschooler, my children can take college classes and have it paid for by the state. There are some hoops to jump through, but still easy enough to take advantage of it. Again, here we are saving time and money.
My Plan to Pay for College!
- Let them pay for part of it! - Now thanks to participating FPU with Dave Ramsey and reading the Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington, I have realized the value of letting the kids have ownership. So although they are not at the age to have an income, soon they will. As their parents, we are going to help them build self discipline by having the first portion of their income to go towards college. So if it is $500 a year, the first $500 of the year after tithing, goes toward college.
- Scholarship ready! - The best way to get scholarships, is to be scholarship ready. As my kids enter the middle school age, becomes the time to know what is available for scholarships and the requirements to obtain them. We are in practice by just being in 4H, to help us prepare portfolios of our work for the year. The biggest thing about winning scholarships is proving and showing that you are a worthy investment. A track record is important and having a plan to where you are going is the next.
- SAT Scores! - Score high enough, colleges will compete for you. Plus, as those scores go up, more scholarships are available.
- Testing for College Credit! - This is done with the CLEP test. It is not entirely free, it does cost around $180 per test, but anymore that could be a single textbook. Here we are again, saving time and money.
- Dual Enrolling! - Thanks to the education system, homeschool kids and Public School kids can qualify to take college courses as a high school course and earn college credit for it. All for free, I love that word. Now I do believe you still have to pay for the text books. My stand on community college is that I want my kids there as little as possible. So I will aim to have them test out and take as many online courses as possible, before setting foot on campus.
- Buy a House! - I have a large crew that in many cases can be at school all at the same time. so no dorms for my crew. I am purchasing a house just outside of the state university that I attended. My feelings are if I am paying for school, here you go, my money goes here and here is a house. If you want it any other way, than you pay for it. I have full intentions of crashing with them! They will greatly benefit, since several of my kids are in one spot, momma can go buy some groceries each month and completely pamper them through exam week.
- Get a job! - Again, helping them feel invested in their own education improves the quality of their education.
- Giving a time limit! - I have 6 kids to pay for, I am not a bottomless pit. So there are limits and I have expectations. So first, get all the school for free that you can get. Next get the rest done in 3 years going full time.
How I have come to this plan of affording college has a lot to do with doing things entirely wrong in college and doing a few right. One thing I have seen and experienced is college can be a money making business with spending too much time getting out. My own degree took me 5 years for a BS and almost 3 years for a Masters. not only did I accrue debt from just the cost of living, but I also had a huge loss of income from not working. So not only do I want to save myself and my children from college debt, I also want to save them time of loss income.
So I hope this gets you thinking about laying out a plan for college long before it is time to start applying. Let me know how your planning is going.
Best Regards,
Trish
Sunday, February 1, 2015
The Cost of Printing Free Domain Books
The core of our home school resources is amazing out of print books. We adhere to a bulk of the Robinson Curriculum (www.robinsoncurriculum.com) and recommend it to most anyone we run into that home schools.
So a lot of times in the circle of parents that adhere to this same value of out of print books is the discussion of is it cost effective to print or buy books. I personally print the books because it is cheaper and convenient. It does take a bit of time, but I love the instant gratification of having a book ready by morning. In the Robinson Curriculum Official Group on facebook, we had this discussion and a member of it, asked how I got the price so low. This is when I realized not everyone has the same tools and the cost changes according to what you use.
**Affiliate Links are for your convience.
TOOL!
1. I have the MFC 8710 DW. This is my second one, I ruined the first with generic toner. We will talk later on that. I purchased it from staples and it generally runs $400. My last one was on sale, so I got it for $300. In my house, this is a tax write off and is owned by my husband's business, so it has to come with all the bells and whistles.
**Brother Printer MFC8710DW Wireless Monochrome Printer with Scanner, Copier and Fax
Now I know this is not in everyone's perceived budget. Having this will make a difference in the long run. This machine uses the TN-750 cartridge that prints 8,000 pages at a cost of about $95.
Most fellow RC families are using the MONO Laser HL-L2360DW (duplexing is a must, wireless or network is a personal choice) running approximately $150. Here is the long term cost, toner is TH-450 that cost approximately $70 and prints 2,600 pages. << I am getting almost 3 times the toner capacity for $15 more.
2. I have 2 different staples, A long reach stapler and a heavy duty stapler.
The Heavy Duty stapler. Now this one retails about $50 and can staple 200 pages. AWESOME! I grabbed mine on clearance at wal-mart and it has a 100 page capacity for $15.
**Swingline Heavy Duty Stapler, 160 Sheets, Black/Gray (S7039005)
**Desert Song Steel Heavy Duty Stapler, 240 Sheets High Capacity (SH-50LA)
The Long Reach Stapler. I grabbed this one from Amazon, for $10 with Prime. I use this to staple smaller sets together and then glue them as one.
**Sparco Long Reach Stapler, 20 Sheet Capacity, Standard Staples, Putty/Black (SPR01316)
3. A Paper Cutter. Any scrapbook cutter will due. I use this, since I mostly print 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 size, I need to cut my cover in half. These run about $15. Hit a craft store up with a coupon and you can get one for under $10.
**Swingline Guillotine Paper Trimmer, ClassicCut Lite, 12" Cut Length, 10 Sheet Capacity (9312)
**Fiskars 12 Inch Titanium SureCut Paper Trimmer (01-005454)
Supplies
The majority of the supplies that create the bulk cost of your book is paper and toner. The rest are almost incidentals.
1. Toner - Having the MFC 8710 is where the true value of printing books comes in. (It has been collectively agreed upon the RC families that Brothers is the most economical machine to print with, I have not tested that theory, but I have been happy enough to buy a second one.)
TN-750 prints 8,000 pages and cost approximately $95.
1,000 pages printed (front and back of a single 500 page ream) is $12
2. Paper -I only buy paper when it is cheap. Cheap for me is $1.25 per ream. This is never out of pocket, out of pocket is $45, but thanks to staples, a month later I get a prepaid credit card with $35. so it is $10 for 8 reams. I buy in bulk and on sale only. If it convenient to my day, which it never is, I will purchase the rebate offers that can get me a ream for $1 at the store.
My big fancy calculations for the cost of Printing!
Without getting into details, I set a base price of 15 cents per cook for the card stock cover, the staples, the glue, modgepodge covering, and binding tape. I really need to update those numbers, it could be as much as 50 cents.
Next I calculate the cost per page. A ream of paper to print (both sides) is $12 in toner and $1.25 for paper. So each ream is 500 pages, each piece of is printed on front and back in booklet setting, meaning each piece is 4 printed book pages. A ream of paper yields 2,000 book pages for $13.50
My printing cost is less than 7/10 of a penny, but for simplicity we will call it a penny a page.
Now lets talk about a book I can print versus buy, in this simple argument, we will leave off time, taxes, shipping, and the cost of tools.
The book of Tale of Jolly Robin., I found 1 place to find it at www.thriftbooks.com for $10.61 .
This book is 119 pages, if you print every pdf page, I don't, I am a bit selective and print from the title page to the last printed page.
We will say, 120 pages. So $0.50 base cost + $1.20 printing = $1.70 for the book and my kids have it by morning. Not bad.
And this is for a book that I can find in print! There are those that you can't.
If you are interested in the basic book list that we use, you can find it here along with plenty of information from a user of Robinson Curriculum.
I hope this helps!
~trish
So a lot of times in the circle of parents that adhere to this same value of out of print books is the discussion of is it cost effective to print or buy books. I personally print the books because it is cheaper and convenient. It does take a bit of time, but I love the instant gratification of having a book ready by morning. In the Robinson Curriculum Official Group on facebook, we had this discussion and a member of it, asked how I got the price so low. This is when I realized not everyone has the same tools and the cost changes according to what you use.
**Affiliate Links are for your convience.
TOOL!
1. I have the MFC 8710 DW. This is my second one, I ruined the first with generic toner. We will talk later on that. I purchased it from staples and it generally runs $400. My last one was on sale, so I got it for $300. In my house, this is a tax write off and is owned by my husband's business, so it has to come with all the bells and whistles.
**Brother Printer MFC8710DW Wireless Monochrome Printer with Scanner, Copier and Fax
Now I know this is not in everyone's perceived budget. Having this will make a difference in the long run. This machine uses the TN-750 cartridge that prints 8,000 pages at a cost of about $95.
Most fellow RC families are using the MONO Laser HL-L2360DW (duplexing is a must, wireless or network is a personal choice) running approximately $150. Here is the long term cost, toner is TH-450 that cost approximately $70 and prints 2,600 pages. << I am getting almost 3 times the toner capacity for $15 more.
2. I have 2 different staples, A long reach stapler and a heavy duty stapler.
The Heavy Duty stapler. Now this one retails about $50 and can staple 200 pages. AWESOME! I grabbed mine on clearance at wal-mart and it has a 100 page capacity for $15.
**Swingline Heavy Duty Stapler, 160 Sheets, Black/Gray (S7039005)
**Desert Song Steel Heavy Duty Stapler, 240 Sheets High Capacity (SH-50LA)
The Long Reach Stapler. I grabbed this one from Amazon, for $10 with Prime. I use this to staple smaller sets together and then glue them as one.
**Sparco Long Reach Stapler, 20 Sheet Capacity, Standard Staples, Putty/Black (SPR01316)
3. A Paper Cutter. Any scrapbook cutter will due. I use this, since I mostly print 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 size, I need to cut my cover in half. These run about $15. Hit a craft store up with a coupon and you can get one for under $10.
**Swingline Guillotine Paper Trimmer, ClassicCut Lite, 12" Cut Length, 10 Sheet Capacity (9312)
**Fiskars 12 Inch Titanium SureCut Paper Trimmer (01-005454)
Supplies
The majority of the supplies that create the bulk cost of your book is paper and toner. The rest are almost incidentals.
1. Toner - Having the MFC 8710 is where the true value of printing books comes in. (It has been collectively agreed upon the RC families that Brothers is the most economical machine to print with, I have not tested that theory, but I have been happy enough to buy a second one.)
TN-750 prints 8,000 pages and cost approximately $95.
1,000 pages printed (front and back of a single 500 page ream) is $12
2. Paper -I only buy paper when it is cheap. Cheap for me is $1.25 per ream. This is never out of pocket, out of pocket is $45, but thanks to staples, a month later I get a prepaid credit card with $35. so it is $10 for 8 reams. I buy in bulk and on sale only. If it convenient to my day, which it never is, I will purchase the rebate offers that can get me a ream for $1 at the store.
My big fancy calculations for the cost of Printing!
Without getting into details, I set a base price of 15 cents per cook for the card stock cover, the staples, the glue, modgepodge covering, and binding tape. I really need to update those numbers, it could be as much as 50 cents.
Next I calculate the cost per page. A ream of paper to print (both sides) is $12 in toner and $1.25 for paper. So each ream is 500 pages, each piece of is printed on front and back in booklet setting, meaning each piece is 4 printed book pages. A ream of paper yields 2,000 book pages for $13.50
My printing cost is less than 7/10 of a penny, but for simplicity we will call it a penny a page.
Now lets talk about a book I can print versus buy, in this simple argument, we will leave off time, taxes, shipping, and the cost of tools.
The book of Tale of Jolly Robin., I found 1 place to find it at www.thriftbooks.com for $10.61 .
This book is 119 pages, if you print every pdf page, I don't, I am a bit selective and print from the title page to the last printed page.
We will say, 120 pages. So $0.50 base cost + $1.20 printing = $1.70 for the book and my kids have it by morning. Not bad.
And this is for a book that I can find in print! There are those that you can't.
If you are interested in the basic book list that we use, you can find it here along with plenty of information from a user of Robinson Curriculum.
I hope this helps!
~trish
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