Just back from homeschool curriculum sale

[clibbyjo]

My friend was selling some books today at a( Christian) homeschool curriculum sale so I dropped by to see if there was anything good and to see if there was anything to snark about.( Always thinking of you guys. :))

It is 100' today and there were only a couple of super fundies in floor length jeanskirts.The church was unairconditioned. It was mostly fundie lites,nothing too fabulous to snark on except the CURRICULUM.

There were 25 tables and almost everything I bought, I bought off my friend! I got a secular critial thinking skills book and chemisrty for my highschooler from other vendors, but almost everything else was YUCK. Bob Jones tables like crazy,tons of "The Christian Homeschool -------- Book", ( insert any subject). Lots of crap and anything secular was expensive!

My friend elbowed me when she saw the book "True Femininity" and I said "I should get that,my board would like a review",but I couldn;t spend money on it.

The best quote of the day was when we were talking about some enginnering type kits for sale and my friend said she already had something similar and her husband helps with those because he is an enginner. The woman selling them said" That's why God made us man's helper,honey." My friend didn't understand if that was supposed to mean she is too stupid to do the kit herself(she only has a masters degree in education and is co-founder to the co-op :) ) or if her husband should be helping because he is the big engineer. She just smiled and ran over to tell me. I may have converted her to fundie watching.

I had my youngest son with me and I told him and his 2 friends to go look at books for .25 if there were any they wanted. My son says in a super loud voice "These are all Christian, I don't want any of these boring things!" Sigh.Really though, how many ways can you retell bible stories? :think:

Also, the Christian boys there started messing with my friend's son as soon as she started setting up her table. They came right up to him(he was sitting under her table, reading a Manga) and started saying rude things. Her son(age 9) said "don;t make me hurt you!: and the 12 year old said "you can't hurt me". Her son said "I am a second degree blackbelt, you wanna bet?" ;) The kid goes "well, your going to hell anyway". MY friend's son said "I don't believe in your God anyway!" Nice, Christian love,perfect for a curriculum sale. My son said son other kid called them all "beeps"(swear word) because they wouldn't do what the other boys wanted. Again, classy and way to make the outsiders feel welcome. :roll:

No headcovers in the lot,and only 1 Winnie the Pooh jean frumper on a 40+year old :dance:

[CynicMom]

Clibby, would you mind posting the names of the secular materials you bought (or have bought in the past) that you would recommend? A critical thinking book (without religious apologetics) would be awesome.

[clibbyjo]

Sure,today I mostly bought stuff for my 15 year old who really needs a high school looking portfolio.

The Story of Mankind http://www.amazon.com/Story-Mankind-Hen ... 1604594128

Critical Thinking Book 1 Teachers manunal and workbook http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss? ... &x=14&y=14

Chemistry Lab Manual and teacher guide A Beka (only because I got both for $5 and its Chemistry I figured it would be ok)

Vocabulary Power Plus http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_ ... sat+book+2

For my 9 year old I bought Comic Strip Math http://www.amazon.com/Comic-Strip-Math- ... 436&sr=1-1

Other things I have are Teaching Textbooks for math and Writing Strands.

My friends bought Language Learning Through Literature, Easy Grammer, Daily Grams and just odds and ends.

Sometimes its worth it to get the Christian stuff if its very cheap or a subject like Chemistry or Math where you know the program is good.(Teaching Textbooks may be a Christian company,but its the only math my kids do so I will buy it)

[mnb357]

I was supposed to go to a homeschool curriculum sale at a local church...but forgot until it was too late. Based on my personal research of curricula, I don't think I would have purchased anything, though. I don't technically homeschool, but did start working with my pre-kindergartner in March. I used "Explode the Code" Book 1, and it was great. It worked well for him. By June he was able to read most short vowel words, and that was with only about an hour/day working with him. Because of this, the idea of homeschooling appeals to me. I doubt he would have had such rapid and easy success in school. Moreoer, I am becoming very discouraged with the caliber of the academics in our school. (Teach to the test attitude. In fact, I was told by my older son's teacher that the reason she hasn't pointed out that "a lot" is two words is because it hasn't come up in the curriculum.) Anyway, for anybody who wants a good workbook to help teach a child to read and write, I would suggest Explode the Code, supplemented with lots of trips to the library to let your child pick out his own beginning reader books!

[emmiedahl]

My homeschool faves:

Teaching Textbooks for higher math

Math U See for early elementary math

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons--my kids are all reading at a 2nd grade level at around age 4 thanks to this one. All of the lessons are super fast too!

Editor-in-Chief to learn to self edit. Couldn't our fundies use that one lmao

Sonlight for literature and history... but throw away or resell the religious stuff ESPECIALLY the xenophobic, dominionist Missionary stories AND make sure you give the kids books from a liberal slant of history or simply discuss it with them

For Science, I could not find comprehensive curriculum that was not anti-science except from Catholic Heritage Curricula and this only worked well for younger grades. For older kids, I bought a college science text and a chemistry/physics/biology/whatever you are studying that year set. I would coordinate experiments with whatever we were learning.

A Winnie the Pooh frumper? How I wish you had taken pictures.

edited because a former homeschooler should be able to spell homeschool

[demgirl]

I had my youngest son with me and I told him and his 2 friends to go look at books for .25 if there were any they wanted. My son says in a super loud voice "These are all Christian, I don't want any of these boring things!"

Clibby, your kids are awesome.

[CynicMom]

I haven't been thrilled with Math U See. Saxon Math and Singapore Math otoh are fantastic! Just expensive. : (

[emmiedahl]

It's funny how people can have such different experiences with curriculum. My kids hated Saxon. :)

[Mommy22alyns]

It's funny how people can have such different experiences with curriculum. My kids hated Saxon. :)

I hated Saxon. It makes me want to claw my eyes out.

My oldest did really well with Right Start. Now we'll be using TT and CLE.

[Olivia]

I hated Saxon - much of the time, anyway - but I learned, damn it. It wasn't like the boring science books that just didn't work for me at all.

Homeschool curriculum sounds so fun to me. It makes me want to homeschool my kids (but I'm going to give the evil heathen public schools a chance first).

[clibbyjo]

I haven't been thrilled with Math U See. Saxon Math and Singapore Math otoh are fantastic! Just expensive. : (

My oldest son HATED Math u see and I thought he would love it for the lego like manipulatives. Wrong! I even bought the fraction overlays, I need to find those and sell them.

[xDreamerx]

I really wish there were pictures. The frumper would have been hilarious. WWSACS? (What Would Stacey and Clinton Say?). Can I ask a slightly ignorant question, bieng a ebil public school child? How does one develop a hate or love for a Math textbook? I mean I get a social studies book being disputed or humanties or all of the obvious issues. But isn't math just math?

[clibbyjo]

I really wish there were pictures. The frumper would have been hilarious. WWSACS? (What Would Stacey and Clinton Say?). Can I ask a slightly ignorant question, bieng a ebil public school child? How does one develop a hate or love for a Math textbook? I mean I get a social studies book being disputed or humanties or all of the obvious issues. But isn't math just math?

No, depending on the company, its laid out very differently. Most people try to pick the curriculum that fits best with their kids learning styles or whatever they think is best.

MATH U SEE is kind of like legos. YOu watch a video of the guy teaching it and you do whatever with the blocks to figur out your problems.

Saxon is like a textbook

Life of Fred is a story based math curriculum

Teaching Textbooks(what I have) is computer based, so kids who like computers based things usually like it.

There are a million...

[ladypuglover]

Also, the Christian boys there started messing with my friend's son as soon as she started setting up her table. They came right up to him(he was sitting under her table, reading a Manga) and started saying rude things. Her son(age 9) said "don;t make me hurt you!: and the 12 year old said "you can't hurt me". Her son said "I am a second degree blackbelt, you wanna bet?" ;) The kid goes "well, your going to hell anyway". MY friend's son said "I don't believe in your God anyway!" Nice, Christian love,perfect for a curriculum sale. My son said son other kid called them all "beeps"(swear word) because they wouldn't do what the other boys wanted. Again, classy and way to make the outsiders feel welcome. :roll:

How nice. :roll: I bet if their mother's overheard that they were cheering their punks to victory. Soul victory. If my kid had acted that way, we would have had a nice loooong talk about minding your own business, but thankfully I don't think any of them ever would. :pray:

[Mommy22alyns]

But isn't math just math?

See, those would be fightin' words on my homeschool board. There are math brawls there. Seriously!