Homeschooling in Quebec: Starting Out

I've recently been contacted by a few parents who are very eager to begin homeschooling, but who understandably are concerned about fulfilling their legal obligations and making the best choices for their children. It is with these families in mind that I decided to lay down some thoughts about beginning the homeschool process in Quebec. Please keep in mind that I am not a lawyer, and I am very near the beginning of my own homeschool experience. There are bound to be others who will be able to give you more competent legal and practical advice. There are also bound to be those who have done things differently than I, or who would disagree with certain aspects of what I have written. Keep in mind that we all have different needs and approaches. Not to sound too corny, but homeschoolers are as different as the colours of the rainbow! What follows is simply something to think about, and hopefully some signposts for you to follow to more help. If you are in any doubt about your rights or responsibilities, please consult competent legal counsel. If you have concerns about how to meet your child's educational needs, try to get help from your school or school board. Failing that, there are educational consultants much better qualified than I to help you choose or adapt curricula.

The Legalities

The Quebec Education Act says that all children ages 6-16 living in Quebec must go to public school, then in Section 15 lays out a small number of exceptions (e.g. private school, certain disabilities, expulsion, etc.) The exception for homeschooling says a child is exempt from school attendance if he:

"receives home schooling and benefits from an educational experience which, according to an evaluation made by or for the school board, are equivalent to what is provided at school."
Quebec Education Act, Section 15(4)

As you can see for yourself, the law is pretty vague. It doesn't specify a curriculum to be used, nor does it lay down any specific guidelines for how the school boards are to proceed with evaluating the quality of the homeschool educational experience. This is something the provincial groups are trying to negotiate with the ministry of education (the MELS.) You can look around a bit and see some discussion of how others have interpreted the text of the law. ACPEQ has some information in this area, which you can read in either English or French. (Hint: If you are bilingual it sometimes helps to read texts like these in both languages, as certain sections will be more clear in one language than in the other!)

AQED used to have some really good information on their site, but in French only and in the members area. (Membership to AQED, like ACPEQ, is inexpensive - less than the cost of a couple books! Once you have your membership card you can access the members area, but there is a public section of the forum poen to non-members and members alike.) AQED recently revamped their site, and the last time I looked I couldn't find the older materials. However I'm sure if you contacted them with any questions you have, they would be able to assist you.

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To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool?

In general, most homeschoolers do not rush into home-based education. In fact, many homelearners I know have begun the process when their children are pre-schoolers. This allows time to do ample research, and also to establish a strong support network in the homeschooling community & with family or friends who may act as resource people for your homeschool. Even when both the parent & child are very eager to begin I would be giving you poor advice indeed, to tell you to start educating your child at home without doing your own homework. Parents need to look at both the pros and cons (yes, there are cons even to homeschooling!) of this decision, and to plan for the job of becoming not only mother or father, but teacher and principal and educational advocate and counselor. It is not something you can do overnight.

At the very least you must think of the reasons why you want to homeschool & whether you could meet your family's needs by making some other change (e.g. selecting different courses, a transfer to another school, supplementing the curriculum at home.) You'll also want to narrow down the possible choices of homeschool approach (classical, unschooling, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Waldorf, etc.) and then look at what curricula are available to you. I highly recommend beginning with the Homeschool Diner's Click-O-Matic Quiz for narrowing down the choices to a more manageable group.

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The Educational Program

Something else you may want to consider is the Quebec Education Program (QEP.) Although it is not required by law to follow the program in our homeschools, it will most certainly give you an idea of the subject areas you will want to cover, and what specific skills or topics the government considers appropriate for your child's grade level. A good reading of the QEP can help you feel more confident about reassuring the school board that your homeschool experience is equivalent to that offered in public school. The QEP is available in several versions. Choose the link for the version which applies to your family:

Preschool/Primary Education (pre-K through grade 6)
| English | French |

Secondary Education, Cycle One (Sec I-II, or grades 7-8)
| English | French |
Secondary Education, Cycle Two (Sec III-V, or grades 9-11)
| English | French |

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Your Homework

Now read! Anything. Everything you can get your hands on. And get in touch with other homeschoolers. Join mailing lists, go out to parent meetings, take advantage of ped days and school vacations to bring your child to homeschool activities to meet with other homeschooled children. (Hint: These are also good times to do a homeschooling "dry run". Get together some of the resources you are thinking of using, plan out a few activities to try & give them a whirl!)

In the Montreal area we have some mailing lists where you can find out what other families are doing. Try these, and always keep your eyes open for others that address your specific interests:
1) HomeSchool in Quebec
2) Home Based Education
3) Montreal Homelearners has a forum on-site, and also sends out some mailings
4) The Homeschooling Horizons events list can give you an idea of what activities are open to your family for socialization & physical activity, the arts, science & math, learning languages, etc.

You need to think of how homeschooling will affect your family situation. This is a decision that can alter work schedules, take up space in your home that was formerly reserved for other purposes, introduce new expenses, and alter your family dynamic. Again from Homeschool Diner, there is a collection of links to articles you may find helpful in this stage of your planning. You will also want to read articles that are geared towards the teaching approaches that you are considering.

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Preparing Your Curriculum

In Quebec there are few, if any, approved English language materials for teaching most subjects - even for the schools. There is also not much in the way of assistance for homeschooling families who want to know what or how to teach their children (although some boards may offer you teaching materials, they are not obliged to do so.) Since this is the case, you're pretty much on your own to select your curriculum. The best thing I can suggest to you is go into this phase of planning already knowing what approach you want to take, and what subjects you are teaching.

There are two complete curricula available free of charge online. This may be a good beginning point for you, as it allows you to get started without making a large investment in texts and other materials. I also found that it gave me the flexibility to add in or adapt subjects according to our needs. Packaged curricula are available as well, some with an entire year's materials for all the core courses from languages arts and social studies, to math and sciences. It is best to ask around if you think you might be interested in this option, or go to a curriculum fair (hint: there's one hosted by AQED coming up in the spring!) You can also look online. Check out Homeschooling on a Shoestring for a good collection of links. The final option is to create your own curriculum. Donna Young has a set of step by step directions for doing this. Look also at Design Your Homeschool.

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Withdrawing a Child from Public School

Under current Quebec law, if you have never registered your child in public school you do not officially have to deal with school boards. Some families may choose to register with the school board for a variety of reasons, though many simply begin homeschooling without notification. If your child has been registered in public school it is in your best interest to write a letter of intent as a courtesy to the school or the board. If you do not report that you are availing yourself of your right under section 15(4) it is actually the responsibility of your child's school to report you to the Youth Protection for truancy. Section 18 of the Education Act reads:

The principal shall ascertain, in the manner determined by the school board, that students attend school regularly.

Where a student is repeatedly absent without a valid excuse, the principal or the person designated by him shall intervene with the student and his parents to come to an agreement with them and with the persons providing the school social services with respect to the most appropriate measures to remedy the situation.

When the intervention does not allow the situation to be remedied, the principal, after notifying the parents of the student in writing, shall report it to the director of youth protection.

Does this mean that you must seek permission to homeschool? No. Does it mean you must register your child with the school board, or sign a contract that gives the board complete discretion over such things as when and how testing will be done, or whether your child should be returned to school? No. There is also no reason you should submit to home visits or inspections of your school room by school board staff. Essentially, their involvement with your homeschool should end with you notifying them of your intent. They will offer you contracts and such, and may follow up later by attempting to schedule testing. If this happens just politely decline, and say you will update them once your school year is over. At this point you will need to write a new letter for the following year, and should be prepared to submit any evaluations you had promised.

The law may change, but for now all you are required to do is to offer that "equivalent to school" experience. And equivalent does not mean the same, so don't worry about doing things differently. School boards may try to tell you other things are required, but this is a requirement of their internal policy rather than of the law. There is a difference, and you are obliged to follow the law but not board policy.

All it means is that you are notifying the school or the board that your child is not absent without excuse. Take the opportunity to reassure the board that you are providing an equivalent to school experience. You may want to tell them what curriculum you have chosen, or perhaps to list some of the readings and resources you plan to use in the coming year. You may also want to tell them what you intend to do about evaluating your child's progress. Often, parents say they will assemble a learning portfolio. Another option is standardized testing (e.g. the CAT-3) or evaluation by an educational consultant, or MELS certified teacher if you know one willing to help.

Send your letter registered mail, and keep both a copy and your proof of receipt handy in case you ever need it. (You can print this from the Post Canada web site.) There are sample letters of intent available in the files sections of mailing lists, and through groups such as AQED and ACPEQ. Adapt them to your own needs, or use them as a rough idea of what information most people include and just compose your own letter containing that information.

This work was created by Ruby of The Freehold, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

This post was originally published at Freehold 2 and has been re-posted here as part of a series of homeschooling resources.

Free Complete Curricula

I would like to share with you some resources for those who would like to begin home-schooling but are nervous about choosing curricula, as well as for those who are interested in switching over to a Charlotte Mason or classical approach. All three of these sites offer a free program of study for grades 1-12. The approach is slightly different at each site, and for this reason you may find that one calls to you much more than the other two.

First, a quick introduction to Charlotte Mason. Ms Mason was a British educator who lived from 1842-1923. While Ms Mason was teaching she came to feel that a liberal arts education should be accessible to all children, not just the privileged ones. She believed that parents would be more effective if they understood some basic principles of child rearing. The lectures she gave were later published as Home Education, the first volume in a collection now available as The Original Homeschooling Series ( Canada | US ) or read online here free of charge.

Ms Mason's best known contribution to education, particularly home-schooling, is her belief that children learn best from what she called living books. She felt that dry, boring textbooks were no more the answer than books that were written in a way that condescended to children or watered down the content ("twaddle".) Those of us who have found something in the Charlotte Mason (CM) approach are perhaps most interested in these living books - vibrant, well-written biographies and histories that draw children into the subject in a way that textbooks cannot. Other featured aspects of a CM education are studying a well-rounded list of subjects, learning a foreign language, and including such areas as nature study and appreciation of art & music. Miss Mason advocated spending time in the outdoors, and also doing something useful with one's hands (handicraft.)

Please keep in mind that the above is a very brief introduction to CM. There are numerous sites that go into far more depth, and those who are interested can also read the CM Series or one of a number of books on the subject. The intent here is simply to give you a very general idea of what you might find in a CM program.

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Ambleside Online offers a complete program of study for grades 1-11 (grade 12 is in development), plus some reading suggestions for pre-schoolers. The site is run by an advisory committee of experienced CM parents. The site offers an extensive collection of articles (historical and contemporary) plus book lists and 36-week schedules for each year. Programs are reviewed and updated as needed. In addition to the grade by grade studies, Ambleside Online (AO) offers a schedule for the study of Plutarch's Lives, Shakespeare, and artists and composers grouped according to historical time frame.

Many of the materials used as AO texts are in the public domain, and can be downloaded from such places as Project Gutenberg or the Baldwin Project. Some have been recorded by Librivox, and are available as free sound files. Where the materials chosen are not public domain, the AO advisory generally attempts to choose low-cost texts or to suggest less expensive alternatives.

AO texts from years 1-6 cover poetry & literature, social studies, and science. Some suggestions are made for Bible study (which you can replace with an appropriate alternative if you are not Christian,) phonics & grammar, math, and foreign language. A list of suggested free readings accompanies each year. These are books that the advisory believes no child should miss, but which are not considered official texts. Students are not required, therefore, to "narrate" (tell back in their own words) what they read in these books. In years 7 & 8 more subject areas are added (e.g. government & economics, citizenship, current events.) Beginning in grade 9 the program includes a variety of options (referred to as the "salad bar" approach) for subjects like history or poetry.

There is a leaning towards texts that deal with American figures and legends, especially when it comes to history and biographies. Some AO users, however, are Canadian. Some of their suggestions for adapting the program are posted on the site.

The Ambleside Online site does ask that users abide by a user agreement. This may look a little daunting, but essentially it works the same as a Creative Commons "By-No-No" license. One of the reasons they cite for needing such an agreement is that they want to prevent people from altering the program and then re-distributing it. They want to protect the reputation of AO, which could be damaged if users were to do this.

One of the best things about AO is that, beyond just using the site, there are a ton of mailing lists that users can join, that provide a link to other users. It can be helpful to ask questions of a more experienced user, to share text excerpts used for copywork, or to find public domain texts formatted for inexpensive printing. Another plus is that the book list for each year is broken down into a 36-week reading list that suggests one way in which the readings could be spread over one school year. This is ideal for a family just beginning to home-school, and is a big time-saver for those who need to present a complete program of study to a school board or other officials.

Drawbacks to using the AO program of study will, of course, be individual. Some families are drawn to the highly structured fashion in which the readings are organized, while others will find just looking at one year's book list is overwhelming. A common difficulty is trying to find time to incorporate all the many subject areas Miss Mason advocated children study. Often areas such as handicraft, folk songs, nature study, or picture & composer study are left by the wayside while families adapt. Some will also find that the schedules suggested on AO spread the reading out too much. Children will either be upset because the schedule asks them to put down a book when they were very much absorbed in its plot, or alternately they forget what is happening in the narrative because the readings are too spread out.

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By comparison with AO, the Mater Amabilis program tends to have many more books that must be purchased, though the book lists are still available free of charge under their license agreement. Because this is a Catholic CM program, the religious education suggestions are more specific and extensive. Again, for those who are not Catholic it would seem possible to adapt this part of the program to suit your family's needs.

The nomenclature for the various grade levels is given in British & American equivalents, and the history readings similarly offer options for users in both countries. For some years there is also an Australian option. What I specifically like about this program is that it splits world history off from national history and also includes geography readings about specific world regions in the early grades, so that students are exposed to a greater variety of cultures and time frames, sooner than with AO.

The science program includes much more experimentation than AO (whose hands-on work seems to be limited to a series of books that are very difficulty to locate & quite expensive,) however the Mater Amabilis (MA) program relies heavily on purchased kits for this. Even for the nature notebooks, MA supplies a commercial link whereas AO is more likely to link to articles explaining the rationale behind a certain element, or assisting families in putting CM's ideals into practice today. To be fair, though, the site states that profits made from referrals (e.g. Amazon) are invested in the site.

MA does recommend specific books for foreign languages (French and Spanish initially, then German and Italian are added as options in later years) and Latin (in later years) as well as for grammar. There are reading schedules, as AO offers, however MA also gives lesson plans for subjects such as geography & earth science. These offer descriptions of practical activities, and not just a list of pages the student should read for the week.

The main caveat for the MA site is that it is incomplete. Lesson plans stop at the end of level two (5th grade) and there is no book list beyond level four (9th grade.) Additionally, there are a few broken links and at least one graphic that is missing. In some places the material is present on the site, but the links don't point to it. For example, all the notes on Shakespeare's plays are present but incorrectly linked. On the other hand, some very interesting notes are offered about the historical accuracy of Our Island Story - a popular book which is on the AO program of study too ....

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An Old-Fashioned Education was created by Miss Maggie, former owner and creator of the Hillbilly Housewife. Its first premise is that home education should be affordable, thus like AO Miss Maggie relies more on public domain materials than copyrighted ones. You can use this site as simply a book referral list, or as a more classical home education program with a CM flavour. The navigation menu lists a whole range of subject areas, from arithmetic to creationism, and from penmanship to world history. Miss Maggie has added in categories such as fiction for boys or girls, science fiction and ghost stories, and women's studies. She also has resources for emergency preparedness, medicine & nursing.

The full curriculum occupies a page of its own, from which the book lists can be located for each grade. There are also a number of extras, including blank forms and resources for pre-schoolers. The user's group operates on the principle of "pay it forward," thus those who would like to pass on a printed copy of one of the texts may do so but must not ask for money to cover shipping.

For those of us who live in Canada, Miss Maggie offers some suggestions for Canadian readings to replace or supplement those in her reading lists. An Old-Fashioned Education (OFE) is also the only one of the three sites to offer specific mathematics resources, including a full program from the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching (to unlock password-protected pages join the OFE users' group - they are authorized to give you the password.)

The reading schedules at OFE are spread out over 40 weeks, which might work better for some than the 36-week schedules elsewhere. The book list for grade 12 is posted, but the 40-week schedule is still in the works. OFE includes a proper plan for a year of kindergarten - not just a list of suggested books. Additionally, Miss Maggie offers a fairly wide age range for each year of study. Following her suggested ages a student could begin kindergarten as early as age 4, and complete grade 12 as late as age 19. (This is similar to the age ranges listed at MA.)

OFE uses some very interesting texts, and because her site indexes a huge collection of available resources by subject it is possible to exchange one text for another with fairly little fuss. Because she began this endeavour when she started home-schooling three boys she often chooses texts that appeal more to them. Feminine alternatives are offered wherever possible.

Miss Maggie tends to focus on literature and historical readings (including biography) in her program. She does, however, add in suggestions for library skills (anything from using dictionaries to learning how to consult a card catalogue.) In addition to a complete Bible study and Devotional curriculum, there are also readings on Character. Subjects like home economics or emergency preparedness are not incorporated into the program, but resources for these are available. And OFE pretty much has a free resource for every subject it recommends - including Latin, math, music appreciation and more.

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The three programs of study deal with various CM concepts in different ways. For example, how and when to use narration, copywork and dictation varies in each program. They also deal with teaching history sequentially in three unique ways. Some texts are listed on all three sites, though they may be read at different times or may not be specifically recommended as core text books. It will help to compare readings for a given year side by side, and consider your family's specific needs.

Good luck with your explorations of these three sites. Next time perhaps I'll discuss some other resources, including those for secular CM and the use of living books to teach math and science.

Update 20 January 2008:
A printable pamphlet is now available from Ambleside Online. If you are curious about AO & CM's methods, or if you would like to use the pamphlet for school records or to help out other homeschoolers, it's free for you to download. Read more here.

This work was created by Ruby of The Freehold, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

This post was originally published at Freehold 2 and has been re-posted here as part of a series of homeschooling resources.

Children's Audio at Storynory

This is another link courtesy of Southpaugh Homeschool - thanks Heidi! The site is called Storynory, and it is a site offering free audio versions of children's literature. The site offers over 100 stories (many of them full-length books) read by Natasha Gostwick, a British born actress with a lovely voice that both engages and soothes at the same time.

This site is very colourful and user friendly. If you have older kids who find navigating a site like Project Gutenberg or Librivox a bit too difficult, they may just find they can manage at Storynory. Each audio file is accompanied by a colour illustration, and by the full text so kids or parents can follow along while the audio plays. For purposes of lesson planning, the length of each recording is specified, along with a brief summary.

Those who are very tech-savvy will appreciate the option to subscribe to a podcast for longer books like Alice in Wonderland, which has 12 chapters. Lower tech folk can download individual files in MP3 format & burn them to a disc or play them on a portable device. Or, just gather the family around the computer & play the files one at a time!

Storynory's offerings are mostly classics and fairy tales. Look for works by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Charles Perrault. There are also a small number of poems, novels by authors such as Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling and Charles Dickens, and a very few Aesop's fables, Bible stories and Greek myths. At the time of writing, there were a number of recordings offered up as Christmas/New Years stories. Finally, Storynory offers its own stories about a frog named Bertie. Keep up to date by reading their blog, if the rest isn't enough for you....

Storynory is a delightful site, whether you are a home educator or a parent who just wants to share classical children's literature with the family. I expect that we'll see a much expanded archive of stories by this time next year.

This work was created by Ruby of The Freehold, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

This post was originally published at Freehold 2 and has been re-posted here as part of a series of homeschooling resources.

Free Children's Literature Online - Part 3: Librivox

Like Project Gutenberg, Librivox is a project driven by a community of volunteers. At this site will be found human-read audio versions of public domain books. Its page header is sub-titled "Acoustical Liberation of Books in the Public Domain," and the site declares the project's objective is "To make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet."

A relative newcomer on the internet scene, Librivox was inspired by other community-oriented projects such as Wikipedia, Creative Commons & the Free Software movement. The project was founded in 2005 by Montreal writer and web developer Hugh McGuire. Amazingly, the annual budget of Librivox is $0 - hosting is donated by SharkSpace and uses a WordPress weblog platform. Texts read are all public domain, mainly from Project Gutenberg or similar sources, and are read by unpaid volunteers. I wasn't able to find a tally of available texts, but suffice it to say this is an ongoing effort that has produced quite a volume of free, quality audiobooks for your listening pleasure. Books are available, as well, in several languages other than English.

As books must be published texts that are in the public domain, what you will find at Librivox are mostly older texts, those we fondly regard as classics. This is wonderful for young readers, who may be ready to listen to and understand texts that are still a tad difficult for them to read unaided. It's also a boon to the visually impaired, who have traditionally had to pay a premium for the "luxury" of listening to books rather than reading them from print.

If you are a homeschooler you may find that using audiobooks is a very handy thing. Burning files to a disc is much less costly than printing and binding a hard copy, and especially if you have several young homeschoolers, supplementing your "hard copy" texts with a few audiobooks will save you a good deal of strain on your vocal cords! Use the books to allow younger children to explore literature independently while you accomplish other tasks, or make a cup of tea and snuggle up with the kids so you can listen together.

Librivox files are generally available as MP3's and OGG files. Free players are available for both formats, and the books are easily transferred to a portable device or burned onto disc. No DRM! This allows you to "read" a book in the car or on the public transit, while sunning yourself in the backyard or the park, or pretty much anywhere you can listen to a CD or MP3's.

Homeschoolers who are on the go can burn several books to a single disc, or transfer a block of files to a portable MP3 player. Voilà! Readings are now portable for a whole day (or week, or whatever.....) This beats lugging books for several kids when you know you'll be visiting Nanny for a few days! And kids may just be better behaved on the trip over if they know they'll have to listen so they can narrate or write a summary! OK, maybe this last one is wishful thinking.... :)

Will you be able to find all the texts you need at Librivox? Our experience is that a good number of the Ambleside Online selections are already available, and some others are in progress. We were able to find perhaps 25% of the books we needed, with our favourites probably being H.E. Marshall's Our Island Story, and Kipling's Just So Stories. Many of the individual tales of Aesop's Fables were available, as are Peter Pan and Little Women. There are a number of books by celebrated children's authors such as Frances Hodgson Burnett, Lucy Maud Montgomery and Lewis Carroll. For somewhat older students look for Twain, Dickens, Thoreau and Shakespeare among the many authors whose works are offered.

Search the Librivox catalog by author or title. If you don't find what you're looking for, you can volunteer to set up a project to record it! Or look in the links section for other audiolit projects.

If your family can help out, consider volunteering to read or "proof listen" on one of the many open projects. It could certainly be an educational experience!

Another good site for free children's audio-books:

Storynory

This work was created by Ruby of The Freehold, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

This post was originally published at Freehold 2 and has been re-posted here as part of a series of homeschooling resources.

Free Children’s Literature Online - Part 2: The Baldwin Project

A site well known among some homeschoolers, but perhaps hidden from the rest of the population, the Baldwin Project is a fantastic site that offers a whole wealth of free literature. The focus is on children's literature - but the books are well worth reading by adults too! You will find history, descriptive science, biography, and a very large collection of fairy tales, mythology and fiction. Browse by genre, by author or by title. If you are following a Waldorf or Ambleside curriculum, you will find a list of books for years 1-6 that are available on the site. There are also a number of articles and lists that will assist you in selecting books for unit studies. This is a site that offers some books that cannot be found elsewhere - for example a good selection of H.E. Marshall's histories that are not even at Project Gutenberg at the moment.

Books are displayed one chapter at a time, with the original front matter and illustrations included. Visitors can customize displays (font & font size, background colours, etc.) Some folks have had great success printing texts straight from the site, while others prefer to read them on-screen. I often like to follow along while we listen to audio provided by Librivox.

The Baldwin Project is named for James Baldwin, an American teacher and school administrator who later went on to publish a large number of school texts and books on history, folk tale and mythology. Among his better known offerings is Fifty Famous Stories Retold, which many home-schoolers use to introduce their children to history in the earlier years.

Site owner Lisa Ripperton also publishes hard copies of the texts available online. Her publishing house is Yesterday's Classics. You will see her offerings at Amazon (in Canada and the US) as well as through Barnes & Noble. Those who wish may purchase books directly through the site. The volumes are both affordable, and attractive. If you prefer a print copy, especially of a larger book, it doesn't hurt to support an endeavour that gives so much to the world free of charge!

The final review in this series features Librivox, a site offering free audio versions of public domain texts for adults and children.

This work was created by Ruby of The Freehold, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

This post was originally published at Freehold 2 and has been re-posted here as part of a series of homeschooling resources.

Free Children's Literature Online - Part 1: Project Gutenberg

Named for the same Gutenberg who invented the printing press, Project Gutenberg is making literature accessible in much the same way that books produced on a press became affordable to a much larger range of the 15th century public. Johannes Gutenberg's invention revolutionized the making of books and contributed significantly to human literacy. The folks at Project Gutenberg (PG) are using computer technology to make literacy accessible to the 21st century public. We are living in the new Renaissance!

Project Gutenberg was launched in 1971 by founder Michael Hart, who started by typing out the US Declaration of Independence so that anyone who had a computer could access it. Over 20,000 free books are now available through the Project Gutenberg catalogue, and a total of more than 100,000 are accessible through their affiliates and partners (plus a whole lot more folks have computers!!!) You can expect to find mostly e-texts on the site, though some books are available in human-read or computer generated audio versions. For the musicians out there, some PG volunteers have begun to work on making sheet music available as well.

Texts generally come in a zipped or non-zipped *.txt format (the so-called "plain vanilla text".) There are also some in HTML format that can be read in your favourite browser. This is nice when a book contains illustrations. Some texts are released in Plucker format, so the books can be read on a handheld device. Gutenberg texts are often the source for materials produced by other wonderful sites, like those at Librivox.

Most books are in English, but books are available in other languages as well. There are presently 11 languages other than English in which PG has at least 50 books, however availability depends mainly on volunteers. PG projects begin with somebody finding a public domain text they want to produce, and on a small team of folks being competent enough in the language to proofread the scans. So, if you want foreign language texts from PG the best thing to do is help out!

PG is a 501(c)(3) charity registered in the state of Mississippi. (If you would like to donate to PG your contribution is tax deductible in the United States.) Although donations help to keep the site online, it is volunteers who are the backbone of the project. Distributed Proofreaders supplies most of the PG texts. Volunteers scan, proofread and format texts for distribution. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer just head over to the site. No experience necessary! They'll teach you what you need to know :)

Gutenberg texts are available in a full range of subjects, both fiction and non-fiction. To locate literature for kids at Project Gutenberg begin by searching the catalogue for the Library of Congress (LoCC) heading "PZ Language and Literatures: Juvenile et belles lettres" in the drop-down list. You can also find a wealth of turn-of-the-century readers, grammar and spelling texts, math, history & geography books for home-schooling purposes among the PG offerings. If you have a specific subject in mind use the keyword search. Another good place to look for these texts in An Old-Fashioned Education, which as I mentioned in a previous review, lists books by school subject.

Reviews of the Baldwin Project and Librivox complete this survey of
free children's literature online

This work was created by Ruby of The Freehold, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

This post was originally published at Freehold 2 and has been re-posted here as part of a series of homeschooling resources.

Free Children's Literature Online - Introduction

Those of us who teach at home are always pleased when we can find resources that help keep the costs down. Books are probably the first item you think about when asked to name the tools used for teaching, and their cost represents a major part of the budget if you are buying books new from a store. Because most of us don’t have unlimited funds, a reliable and inexpensive source for good quality reading materials is a godsend.

Over the next few days I’d like to tell you about three of my favourite sites for free books. There are others, and I promise I will discuss them in other posts. For now I want to discuss my "big 3": Project Gutenberg, the Baldwin Project and Librivox.

The texts you will find at all three locations are public domain resources in a variety of formats. These are not pirated copies! Mostly, they are books written prior to 1923, whose copyright protections have expired in the United States, and in many other jurisdictions. They are both free of charge and legal for people in those places to view, print, copy and share. In fact, you can generally even re-format the files you save to your computer and distribute the resulting product. Check each text you save, to see what uses are permitted.

If you have any doubts about the need for free texts let me share this: As of 2005 UNESCO figures showed that 774,218,139 adults and 35,769,284 youth between 15-24 were illiterate worldwide. Of these, a significant number were women and girls. Think that’s “just” a third world problem? In the same table UNESCO states that 16,459,138 adults (and 2,564,757 youth) in North America are illiterate. That’s over 19,000,000 of your neighbours who cannot order from a restaurant menu, read a newspaper or their child’s report card, or follow the safety instructions on a bottle of prescription medicine without assistance. Nineteen million people in North America alone. More than the combined populations of the mega-cities of Montreal, Toronto and New York.

While access to free texts will not by itself solve the problem of illiteracy, it’s sure tough to raise literate children without quality literature. There are some good places to buy books (perhaps the subject of another post) but even those merchants can’t give books away. Then if you live in Canada you have to pay GST on new books - don’t even get me started on the government taxing literacy!

If you are fortunate enough to be able to read this and you have some spare time, please consider helping out one of the sites I am reviewing - or join a local group that teaches reading skills and promotes lifelong learning. If you can’t help now please enjoy the books with your kids, and raise some readers :)

Read on to learn about Project Gutenberg, the Baldwin Project and Librivox.

This work was created by Ruby of The Freehold, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

This post was originally published at Freehold 2 and has been re-posted here as part of a series of homeschooling resources.

Math 2: Free Curricula

The Center for Innovation in Teaching Mathematics offers a free math teaching program for grades K/1-12. The program was developed for public schools in the UK, however there are a significant number of home-based educators using this system in North America. The program is called Mathematics Enhancement Programme (MEP) and all the necessary materials are available in PDF version online. The files can be downloaded free of charge, however you will need a password to unlock some of them. Please go to the MEP homeschool users group for both the password, and additional support in adapting this school curriculum for home use.

MEP is the only complete math curriculum I am aware of that is offered in its entirety, free of charge online. Its goal is to raise children who are thinkers. The approach taken is to make math fun, so these lessons are intended to be easy for both student and instructor. This system is a good option for those who want a hands-on approach - say, for a visual or kinesthetic learner - or for the parent who disliked math as a student and wants to offer a non-traditional program to their own children.

Very little preparation is required of the parent, as the lessons are all laid out in the teacher’s materials. If you are fond of math you will appreciate that the program teaches your kids the concepts behind their addition facts and multiplication tables. If you are not terribly sure of your own math skills you will feel more secure in teaching the MEP math, because it shows you how to teach.

To find the teaching materials, scroll down to the School Curriculum Materials section on the web site. For each primary grade level you will find a student practice book, copy masters and lesson plans. There are also colourful posters for hanging on the wall, and these are incorporated into lessons. Sometimes a textbook will be mentioned in the lesson plans, but parents who have used the system say it is absolutely not necessary to have one.

At the secondary level you’ll find the practice book and a fairly broad range of teacher support material, including lesson plans. For some grades, online interactive worksheets are available. This can be a good break, if you have kids who aren’t fond of writing or who dislike worksheets. It is also an option if you are looking for ways to incorporate ICT (information and communication technologies) into your homeschooling.

My experience with MEP thus far is rather limited, but from what I understand it doesn’t cover skills in the usual ways or sequence. Not to worry, the lesson plans look very helpful! A split page describes the activity on the left, with notes including materials you will need on the right (any manipulatives needed are usually in the teacher support materials or in the copy masters.) Skills taught for each lesson are listed, and there are diagrams and illustrations where these are needed. High school lesson plans are slightly less visual, but give the parent-educator a good bit of background to help with the teaching. If you need to prove progress I’ve been told that one lesson on so many is set up to be a test, and there are also exams available at the site.

Because the program is intended for use in British schools and begins with Kindergarten, you may not find the grade levels correspond exactly to those we use in North America. If you aren’t sure where to place your child from looking at the course content, don’t hesitate to ask the kind folks on the users group for their advice. They are a friendly lot! Canadian and American users may find they need a little help with problems that involve either measurement or currency. Again if you aren’t able to find solutions for yourself, seek out the users group.

***

Ray’s Arithmetic is actually a whole series of textbooks written by Dr. Joseph Ray in the 1830’s. You may find these in different editions, but the core books of the series are: Primary Arithmetic, Intellectual Arithmetic, Practical Arithmetic, Higher Arithmetic, Elementary Algebra, and Higher Algebra. These will take you from first grade through most or all of high school.

Ray’s Arithmetic books were the most popular American math texts of the 19th century, and are still being used by homeschoolers today. If you want to use Ray’s Arithmetic you have the option to purchase the books in hard copy or on CD (see links at the bottom of this page) but because the original texts are in the public domain, they can also be downloaded free of charge from Google Books (servers located in the US only.) Some of the texts are also available free from sources that allow free downloads, regardless of the location.

Dr. Ray’s approach will be familiar to any parent who learned math in a more traditional, textbook and drill methodology. There is an early emphasis on word problems, and with added focus on mental (or intellectual) math, for which the second book is named. These skills tend to be weak areas of many more contemporary math programs, but with the epidemic of students who rely on calculators for even the simplest math problems this back to basics style of approach is regaining popularity. The so-called Singapore Math (not free but reasonably priced) follows a similar approach. It is a program recommended by a large number of homeschoolers and other educators, and the famed academic success of students taught following a Singapore styled mathematics program hints at the effectiveness of this dual focus.

Does the very idea of such an old fashioned methodology turn you off? Don’t turn away from Ray’s just yet! While you may think the 19th century math was about memorizing tables through mindless repetitive drills, I find it striking that in the earlier books so many of the problems are followed with the challenge for the student to answer, “Why?”

Other programs use diagrams and blocks to help students visualize how adding is just quick counting, multiplication quick adding of same numbered groups, and so on. If you really look at it, Ray’s is teaching the same way - minus the manipulatives. As the titles of some versions hint, it works through induction and analysis. The process involves building one skill upon another, and leading the student to draw conclusions from information he already knows. No concept is ever introduced until the proper foundation has been laid, and the whole process teaches the student to think logically.

The Ray’s Arithmetic user group says that this approach to teaching math helps to increase verbal comprehension skills, and to eliminate the phenomenon of the dreaded word problem. From the very beginning each problem is phrased as a word problem, so children using Ray’s never know there is any other kind of problem until they are well beyond thinking to fear word problems.

Especially in the lower grades, Ray’s is a good choice for a student who is an aural learner. It has few illustrations, and I believe the earlier texts were meant to be read aloud by the teacher who would ask the questions in a drill format, calling upon students for the answers to the questions posed. This means you don’t even need to print out the texts: simply read the lessons aloud with your children directly from your computer if you are on a tight printing budget.

Before you cringe at the thought of doing lessons orally, give some of the simpler lessons a try. There are benefits to oral lessons! You may find that your children, like mine, are keen on being quizzed orally. I suspect they enjoy both the competition of trying to answer first, and the fact that they never know how many more questions are coming (it can’t be overwhelming if they don’t see how many more are coming!) Oral lessons increase interaction between you and your kids, and they give you a chance to deal with any errors or difficulties immediately, before your child has made a whole series of errors of the same type. (If you’ve ever had a child misunderstand the directions on a worksheet & do the entire thing wrong because of it, you’ll appreciate the ability to nip things in the bud!)

Ray’s Primary Arithmetic is sometimes recommended as a text for grades 1 & 2. It introduces the four basic arithmetic operations (+, - , x, ÷) and takes an extensive look at both American and British currency, as well as measurements. Ray’s Intellectual Arithmetic (roughly grades 3 & 4) reviews the arithmetic operations and introduces fractions - speaking of them first as “parts of numbers.”

By the time you reach Ray’s Practical Arithmetic (grades 5 & 6) you will be teaching a much broader range of concepts including place value, Roman numerals, factoring, the metric system and progressions. Extra examples can be had through Dubbs’ Arithmetical Problems, of which Dr. Ray was a co-author, and Test Problems for Practical Arithmetic. Higher Arithmetic is recommended for grades 7 & 8, and possibly 9 depending on the student. Follow up with algebra when ready. There are later books for geometry, trigonometry, and even calculus if you wish to continue using the Ray’s series through the later years of high school.

Ray’s books place a certain emphasis on business-related concepts (interest, discount, taxes, insurance - even bankruptcy.) The word problems in the first two books focus on farming and commerce for the most part, and the later books teach the more specific skills that would be needed to run a farm or shop. Measurements introduced are far more detailed than anything studied today, including the difference between Troy, Avoirdupois and Apothecaries weight, dry and liquid measure, long measure, square measure and circular measure.

Currencies and measurements are taught as tables of equivalences (so many pennies to a nickel, so many nickels to a dime, so many dimes to a dollar, etc.) that include a great number of terms not commonly used today. You may wish to study these more from a historical perspective, teaching your children why it was important for people in Dr. Ray’s time to know these conversions. Some practical experience (e.g. through reading recipes or perhaps canning fruits or jam) might be helpful when it comes to teaching dry and liquid measures, and weights.

Time is introduced in Ray’s, but not telling time per se. As with the measurements and currencies, the approach is to memorize a table of equivalences. You may find you need to supplement with clock worksheets or some similarly visual method for telling time.

Since I have seen some folks asking on forums whether the keys or teacher’s editions are necessary, I should say that a few of the answers are stated or worked out in the actual texts for those who need them. Although not really needed for the primary book, there is a solution manual for the mental and practical arithmetic. It is called Key to Ray’s Arithmetic.

Teachers editions for the four core books are available on the aforementioned CD. Ruth Beechick’s Parent-Teacher Guide (one book, covers four core books) is also used by some parents for scope & sequence, scheduling, games, and other ideas on how to use the original books. There is also a set of workbooks written by Dr. Rudy Moore, which are keyed to the series but provide much more visual interest. They also include quizzes, for those who want to use them. Four workbooks are available per grade, for grades one through four.

Where to Download Ray’s Arithmetic Free of Charge
I’ve listed several versions of the books, in case of download problems and for those trying to match a key to a text. Bold links can be used anywhere in the world. Non-bold links are for US downloads, though you may be able to view the items from other locations without the download option. Most texts are in PDF format, though other versions may also be available. If you need a PDF reader there is a list at Wikipedia. If you have links to other internationally available versions, or to books you don’t find in this list such as the geometry, trigonometry or calculus books, please feel free to post them in a comment. I’ll add them to the list!

Ray’s New Primary Arithmetic for Young Learners (1877)

Ray’s Arithmetic, Second Book : Intellectual Arithmetic, by Induction and Analysis (1860)

Ray’s New Intellectual Arithmetic (1877) or Ray’s New Intellectual Arithmetic (1877)

The Principles of Arithmetic : Analyzed and Practically Applied : For Advanced Students (circa 1856) or

Practical Arithmetic, by Induction and Analysis (circa 1857) or Ray’s New Practical Arithmetic (circa 1877) or

Ray’s New Practical Arithmetic (1877) or Ray’s Arithmetic, by Induction and Analysis (1885)

Ray’s New Test Examples in Arithmetic (circa 1883) or Ray’s New Test Examples in Arithmetic (1883)

Dubbs’ Arithmetical Problems : To Supplement Ray’s New Practical Arithmetic (1893)

Ray’s New Higher Arithmetic (circa 1880)

Key to Ray’s New Higher Arithmetic (1881)

Ray’s Algebra, Part First : On the Analytic and Inductive Methods of Instruction (1848)

Ray’s Algebra, Part Second : An Analytical Treatise (circa 1852) or Ray’s Algebra, Part Second : An Analytical Treatise (1857)

A Key to the New Higher Algebra, by Benjamin Greenleaf (1865)

***

Resources:

Ray’s Arithmetic on CD - $59 USD for 26 books, including all the core books plus teachers editions

Complete 8-Book Set - $84.99 at ChristianBook.com

Beechick’s Parent-Teacher Guide - $10.99 USD at McGuffey Readers World, or $99.99 USD for the complete 8-book set

Workbooks - $9.95 USD each at McGuffey Readers World

Printables for Ray’s Arithmetic - includes flash cards, math fact sheets, etc.

This work was created by Ruby of The Freehold, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.



Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!



This post was originally published at Freehold 2 and has been re-posted here as part of a series of homeschooling resources.

Math 1: Commercial Curricula

If you are using an Old Fashioned Education (OFE) or Ambleside Online (AO) curriculum you will need to select a math program. Here are some ideas for you. I’ve grouped them under three main rubrics: 1) commercially available math curricula, 2) free math curricula and textbooks, 3) interactive math games and helpful printables. Except for the first category items, all the math resources on these pages are available free of charge. This may be helpful to you if you are starting out, even if not on a tight budget. Sometimes it may take a couple tries to find a curriculum that is a good fit for both you and your children!

As far as manipulatives are concerned, I suggest you look around your home and get creative! You can buy fancy sets of manipulatives but may find they are not much better than what you have already at home - or what you could have made or purchased at a garage sale or dollar store. Ideas for manipulatives include: bottle caps, bingo markers, poker chips, Lego, wooden blocks, coins, drinking straws, etc. These can all be turned into counters, but with a little imagination you can use them to teach operations, fractions, place value, etc. Or try virtual manipulatives! National Library of Virtual Manipulatives has a full range of interactive manipulatives for grades K-9. You can also find printable charts, graph paper, counters, and much more online at any of a hundred web sites. Just use your favourite search engine!

We do like our Cuisenaire™ rods (free printable version), and they are quite helpful if you are going to being using Miquon Math. At roughly $10-$15 for a starter set this is one manipulative that is worth investing in. If you are using a program that leans more on base-10 blocks look into these instead. Both the rods and the blocks are quite flexible in terms of what you can teach with them. Homeschool suppliers and teacher’s stores should be able to offer you a good selection of both.

Popular Homeschool Math Programs

Living Math

Living Math is completely non-traditional, and uses living books to teach rather than textbooks or worksheets. The book lists can all be downloaded free, but Ms Brennan asks that parents consider purchasing books through her Amazon affiliate account if they use the lists without the pay lesson plans. Subscriptions that allow access to the lesson plans are very affordable, but do keep in mind that the books must then be obtained. If you are able to find them from the library, so much the better. But if you have to buy a lot of the books it will add to the cost of using this program.

Living Math is designed by a homeschooling parent, to be used with multi-age groups. Lesson plans & book lists are available for three levels: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced/High School. Each level goes through the same subjects during the same time frame. There are 32 lessons, grouped into four historical periods from ancient to modern times (C1). A second set of 32 lessons examines math through the biographies of mathematicians (C2). While a complete list of books for C1 is available, the C2 books don’t appear to be on the site. There are also a great many books listed by subject, as well as books specifically recommended for beginning to use living books in math teaching. A great many other resources are also available on the site, so check it out!

Subscription rates for the lesson plans are $20 USD per quarter for one level, or $40 USD per quarter for access to all three levels. The program is self-paced and can be used as a complete curriculum or a supplement. If you have questions about how to teach math without the drills and memorizing and worksheets, articles are provided to help you learn more. There is a restricted access forum, and there are quizzes offered for those who feel they need these.

Making Math Meaningful

Developed by a (CM) homeschooling family, this math program is intended to make math preparation & teaching easier for homeschool parents. It is reasonably priced (around $40 - $45 USD per year) and works from the concrete to the abstract. Grades 1-4 include a parent guide, and after that the program seems to be self-teaching. They offer 1-6, plus a year of algebra. Geometry is covered in a new document, intended to tie algebra and geometry together as a foundation for trigonometry & calculus. A free PDF download of the draft version is currently available, so take advantage now if you are interested!

The parent guides cut down on planning time, by giving step-by-step instructions for demonstrating certain concepts. Mental computation and word problems seem to be a focus early in the program, although most of the pages in the earlier student books have very little writing. This makes them good for ESL students or children who are not yet reading. It seems the preparation for algebra begins very early in these books, and I wonder if perhaps it might be a little too much, too soon. Other than that concern, this looks like a good system. It’s affordable and doesn’t rely overly much on expensive manipulatives (moderately priced manipulatives packages can be purchased, but the items are all listed & you may already have what you need.) If you go on to use the earlier books with younger siblings you can get the student books separately, at under $20 US.

Math-U-See

This is an extraordinarily popular program among homeschoolers. It uses videos to teach, and so it is a boon to parents who feel unsure of their own abilities to teach math. The web site is really well laid out and informative. At a glance (or a few quick clicks) you can figure out placement, manipulatives required, scope and sequence, etc. for any given level. The lessons begin at Primer level (children beginning to count and quantify) and proceed through levels Alpha to Zeta, then continue on up through pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, and pre-calculus. There is also Stewardship, a Christian approach to personal finance.

I had understood this to be a very expensive system to use, but was pleasantly surprised to find the Primer level materials cost $42 CDN without manipulatives. Levels Alpha through Zeta cost $57 per year. The $31 starter blocks set is re-used throughout the program, so you won’t be buying expensive manipulatives each and every year. High school levels can be almost $100 per year, but if you have a large family you will only need to buy teachers packs once per level. The student packs are fairly reasonably priced ($21 per year) and I think they may actually be reusable. You might want to consider getting a couple families together to reduce the cost, if yours is a small family or you only have some of your children homeschooling at the moment.

One neat feature of the program is a song book and CD that teaches skip counting and addition facts through music. I like the idea of including music with instruction (especially in math, as they are closely related skills!) This is an optional part of the program, but might be worth purchasing especially if you can get a few families together for a sing-along! There are two sets of songs on the CD: one with a Christian theme incorporated into the teaching, and the other drawing upon science for its lyrics.

Math-U-See offers a great deal of material through the web site, including blogs and FAQs, and a placement chart. There is also a Math-U-See users group that you can join to get support from folks who are using the curriculum. Further, if you are ever stuck on anything you can book an appointment for a support phone call from one of their helpers, or you might be able to ask your local representative’s advice.

If you are considering the Math-U-See method you can order a free DVD sample, which I did & immensely enjoyed! The demo package arrived quickly, and it was pleasant viewing. It answered my questions about kids getting dependent on the video. Actually, it’s not that much of an issue because a) the videos are intended for parent-teachers to view in preparation for teaching a lesson (although kids can watch too) and b) if the teaching videos are like the sample DVD, it’s not a passive experience to watch them. There is colour and movement and even humour, and the learning process is multi-sensory (a three step process involving building, labelling & then talking about a model.)

Math-U-See is a method that simplifies math as much as possible. It also has a highly visual approach to representing math problems. Steve Demme, who developed the program, is a former math teacher who taught at both the primary and secondary levels. The demo shows that he has a solid grasp not only of how to do math, but when and why. He also knows kids and teaching, and how to present things so kids will understand. One example he gives in the demo is how you can teach kids in primary school to factor a trinomial if you use a good visual to explain it. (Not that he’s suggesting we all go out & do that, it’s just to demonstrate that math isn’t so big & scary when you know how to put it into terms kids will understand!)

There are 30 lessons per level of Math-U-See, and each lesson is on the DVD or video. Viewing the videos takes about 10 minutes, roughly once a week. Then the student does practice with the blocks, and can do the worksheets. Each lesson includes a few sheets of practice and a few of systematic review that covers material already learned plus the new material. There is a test book, which gives one test per lesson plus four unit tests and a final exam. Tests are viewed mainly as diagnostic (so you can be sure your child has mastered the skill.) You can use them as extra exercise sheets, or give your kids practice writing tests.

Keep in mind that this system can be used starting at a very young age (as soon as your child is starting to count and quantify objects - some kids begin at age 4 or 5.) The lessons progress through four stages: 1) counting, 2) adding/subtracting, 3) multiplying/dividing, 4) exponents/roots. Preparation for algebra begins very early (in the add/subtract phase, I believe) but it is done very gently. Some skills are taught in a non-traditional sequence, for example the primer level introduces skip counting by 5’s and 10’s and even telling time! Other skills may be demonstrated first in a non-traditional fashion (e.g. regrouping, which most of us learned to call carrying & borrowing, is used to teach kids to do quick computations.)

Although slightly more expensive than some of the popular homeschool math curricula, Math-U-See is well thought out & provides a level of support that you won’t find in other programs. Unlike some others, it will carry you from pre-school right up to college level. It is creative, but its emphasis is definitely on teaching mastery. It is suitable for all types of learners due to its multi-sensory approach, and offers opportunities for both enrichment and remediation or review. It definitely deserves a look!

Miquon Math

This is another program that is very popular among homeschoolers because of its non-traditional approach and cost. It is intended for grades 1-3, though it can be a good review for older students who need to strengthen their math skills. The program was created in collaboration with children, and teaches by presenting the student with problems that will lead them to discover patterns and draw their own conclusions. In other words, there is no lecturing or memorizing. Children learn at their own pace, and do not have to do all the worksheets in order to progress through the program. There is no busy work, and it is not even required to do the sheets in a particular sequence (students don’t even have to do all the work on a given sheet.) Some parents offer their children a selection of appropriate sheets to work on, and allow the children to choose.

It is a good idea to get the teacher’s book (Lab Sheet Annotations) in order to become more familiar with the teaching philosophy behind Miquon. Even if you are good at math, you may find that you learn a thing or two in reading it! All the “why’s” are explained for you, and Ms Rasmussen underlines that to be good teachers we have to be our own first students. It is possible to do Miquon without this book (skip the first few work sheets, though!) so if you are on a budget get it later. You can also download it as a PDF at a lower cost than buying the hard copy. The student workbooks can also be purchased as e-books, for a slightly lower price (advantageous for Canadian homeschoolers while the dollar is strong!) This is good for larger families, as it will likely cost less to print only the sheets you need than to order several hard copies of each book.

If your children do the full six books of Miquon (2 per year) they will learn math in a non-traditional sequence, but at a very gentle pace. All four basic arithmetic operations (+, -, x, ÷) are introduced by the end of grade one, and students learn a few other things by the end of grade 3 that are not normally covered until later. This non-traditional sequence was developed to respond to what average children in Ms Rasmussen’s math classes were able to do, and other programs similarly adopt a non-traditional sequence (e.g. the free Défi-Math program, which will be included on the Math 2 page.)

Educators who offer these programs sometimes say that traditional learning sequences actually hold children back. From my personal experience, this would seem to be true. Both my older girls were able to intuitively understand (and put into practice) concepts such as multiplication, division, fractions, etc. well before they were “supposed to.” With a traditional approach I was afraid to encourage these discoveries, lest they get confused attempting material that was too far beyond their level of instruction. With Miquon I have learned to respond to their discoveries without fear. We give them work that gently challenges them to go further, trusting that they will know where their own limits are.

Miquon uses the Cuisenaire™ rods. If you can’t get them right away, you can print up the free version from the link above. Other manipulatives may be helpful, but are not required. There is no text book at all for this program. The student workbooks are consumable, and cost $6.50 USD each in e-book format, or about $8 USD in hard copy. Begin with the Orange Book. For folks who would like to transition to Singapore Math, or to use the two programs concurrently, this comparison chart may be helpful.

Right Start

This program is very non-traditional, and was designed to prevent children from becoming dependent on counting in order to do computations. NB: It is intended to be started at age 4 or 5, so don’t wait till grade 1 if you are wanting to use it! The system uses an abacus as one of its main teaching tools, and is very visual. The idea seems to be to teach children to visually recognize groupings of 5 and 10 so they won’t have to count. It makes use of tallies, as well as the abacus. Draw-backs are that the program relies on very expensive manipulatives and that it leaves off after fourth grade (there is a geometry program as well, but no directions about when it should be taught.)

You may find it very helpful that an evaluation grid is at the front of the teachers’ guides, with all the years skills listed and check boxes for mid- and end of year. The geometry lessons looked really beautifully done too. This looks like a well thought-out program but may not be the best option for those on a budget. Additionally, it may not be the best choice unless you can start it at the preschool level (there is a placement quiz for older children, if you want to give it a try.) You might be able to get the manipulatives together yourself at a lower cost. There is a virtual abacus that could substitute for the more expensive one, if you need it. The books themselves are $45 - $65 US for teaching guides, and $10 - $18 US for workbooks. Alternatively, the worksheets for the whole program can be had on CD for $100 US.

Saxon Math

Saxon Math is reputed for being a rigorous program. There is a special homeschool edition that is quite popular (just follow the link, it will take you directly there.) The site will give you all the placement and scope & sequence information you need. There are even online activities to supplement the texts. Supplies for each year include the student workbook, the teaching guide and what is called a meeting book, which the student uses for practice. The books run about $80 - $100 USD a year, depending on the level (slightly discounted if you buy a package.)

The program covers K-12, with books being grouped by level: Primary (K-3,) Intermediate (4-8) and Upper (9-12.) The Upper Levels include algebra, geometry & trigonometry, and high school pre-calculus. The Primary Level of Saxon Math places emphasis both on hands-on work and mental computation. It uses a multisensory approach (hence the heavy reliance on manipulatives) and intended to build confidence through success. Course numbering in the Intermediate and Upper Levels may be a bit confusing, but essentially the first number is for the average student and the second is for the more advanced student. So Math 5/4 is for the average 5th grader or a more advanced 4th grader.

Keep in mind that Saxon is often more advanced than other programs, so if you are switching over use the placement tests. As far as the Upper Levels are concerned, the progression is from Algebra 1 to Algebra 2, then Advanced Mathematics. Afterwards the student is ready for Saxon Calculus or can enroll in a college calculus class.

One of the negatives with Saxon is that it requires an expensive manipulatives kit. The kit, however, contains all materials needed from K-3. The kit description lists all the items and tells when they will be needed. You might be able to get just some components and improvise others, or you could try to get a second-hand kit. If you are pretty sure you will do well with Saxon, though, it is not especially expensive when the cost is spread over just the four years one child would use it (under $10 USD per years.) It’s just a matter of the initial outlay.

Homeschoolers who enjoy a lot of structure may find Saxon reassuring, though others will find it restrictive and struggle with it. I have heard quite a few say their children absolutely bloomed using Saxon Math, but an equal number have said their children came to hate and dread their math lessons while using Saxon. This is one of those curricula you will either love or hate!

Singapore Math

Singapore is so called because it was developed following the instructional model used in Singapore, where students are known for their outstanding math skills. If you get Singapore for your younger ones, the books are actually called Primary Mathematics. The high school books are called New Elementary Math or New Syllabus Math (both grades 7-10) or New Math Counts (less challenging, grades 7-10) and College Math (grades 11-12.) Singapore schools have a different structure, so try not to get confused by the titles! A two-year (age 4 & 5) kindergarten math program is also available.

Singapore math is known for being rigorous, and some students do not much care for it. If you have a very keen math learner it may be for you - or you may want to do as a lot of homeschool families do, and transition into Singapore from the Miquon math. Singapore places emphasis on mental math and word problems. If either of these is difficult for your child, Singapore might be too much for them without a very slow and relaxed transition.

There are placement tests available on the site, if you need them. The kindergarten and 1-6 programs are split into two: an “A” book for the first half of each year, and a “B” for the second half (kindergarten consists of 1A & 1B for 4-yr-olds, and 2A & 2B for 5-yr-olds.) Some of the high school books are similarly split, but most are full-year texts and workbooks.

The program is taught using a text, a workbook, a teaching guide and a solutions manual (these last cover several years, whereas there is one guide per student text.) A homeschool version of the teaching guides is available, and is less expensive than the school version. You do not have to buy the answer books, as answers are supplied in either the student books or the teacher/homeschool instructor books.

Singapore books are reasonably priced, and some suppliers will offer them in packages at a slight discount. Texts at the elementary level are $8 USD each and workbooks are just under $4 USD each. The homeschool manuals are $12 each. The high school materials vary a bit more in price, but you should be able to get a year’s worth of texts for about $16 - $25 USD.

Workbooks run about $8 - $13 USD per year and are not consumables. They are intended for students wanting extra work and are completely optional. They come with answer keys. The question of teaching guides is a bit complex, but essentially they are not needed with the Math Counts books. If you are going to use Singapore be sure to do your research to avoid buying the wrong or unnecessary materials. Also check out the customer forum, which has areas both for prospective users & those who have purchased one of the books.

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Due to the sheer bulk of information to be shared in this subject, I am splitting it into three pages. Please look for Math 2: Free Curricula and Math 3: Interactives & Printables.

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If you have any feedback, especially if you’ve used one of these resources, please feel free to share. And if I’ve left off a resource that you think is valuable, please let me know!

This work was created by Ruby of The Freehold, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks! Graphic courtesy Clipsahoy - it’s much appreciated!

This post was originally published at Freehold 2 and has been re-posted here as part of a series of homeschooling resources.

Curriculum

This page contains link to various resources you may find helpful in researching, selecting or designing curricula. Some of the resources here are for full, 36- or 40-week programs that you can use free. If you are just starting out or homeschooling on a budget these are worth looking at. You can pretty much homeschool at no cost if you do a little mixing & matching.

Homeschooling in Quebec

The Quebec Education Act requires homeschoolers to offer an educational experience that is equivalent to public school. While your school board may or may not accept the curricula mentioned here at face value, they do pretty much cover all the same subjects studied in school. You can probably argue for their equivalence, but if you are negotiating with a board they may ask you to make some changes. Some of the curricula will ask you to add certain subjects such as phonics or grammar, foreign language, and math. These can all be found free of charge. The only thing you may have to cover on your own is physical education. If your kids are doing at least 2 hours of physical activity a week, they are getting the equivalent (timewise) of public school gym classes in Quebec. It is a good idea to be familiar with the Quebec Education Program (QEP.) Though law does not require you to duplicate it at home, it will help you to evaluate curricula in terms of being age-appropriate for your children, especially if they have come out of a Quebec public school recently. Here are the links you’ll want. The QEP is a free PDF format download.

Preschool/Primary Education (pre-K through grade 6)*

| English | French |

* Keep in mind children in Quebec are not legally required to begin school until age 6

Secondary Education, Cycle One (Sec I-II, or grades 7-8)

| English | French |

Secondary Education, Cycle Two (Sec III-V, or grades 9-11)*

| English | French |

*Quebec students are required to finish out the school year in which they turn 16;
After completion of grade 11 most students go to CEGEP for two years then university for 3-4 years (or CEGEP for 3 years then into the work force)

As of 2007-2008 subjects studied in Quebec (English speaking) elementary schools are grouped as follows:

1) Languages:

• English Language Arts (ELA) - including phonics, reading & comprehension, grammar, literature, penmanship, spelling, creative writing, oral expression, etc.
• French as a second language - basically, a matter of introducing French culture & texts, and of helping the student to begin to express himself in French (oral & written work)
• Spanish - rarely offered in elementary schools & not addressed at this level in the QEP; not a required course

2) Mathematics, Science & Technology:

• Mathematics - follows a fairly standard skills sequence
• Science & Technology - not introduced as a separate subject until Cycle 2 (grade 3,) but it is assumed that students will be taught some science through other areas of the curriculum (e.g. animals, plants, weather, the water cycle, rocks, etc.)

3) Social Sciences

• Geography, History & Citizenship Education - not introduced as a separate subject until Cycle 2, but students are expected to develop a sense of time, place and society in Cycle 1

4) Arts Education*
* Ideally, public schools offer students their choice of the four arts. Students must take two arts each year, and are encouraged to continue with the same two over a period of years so they can enjoy a deeper learning experience.

• Drama
• Visual Arts
• Music
• Dance

5) Personal Development

• Physical Education & Health
• Moral Education OR Moral and Religious Education (MRE - Protestant or Catholic)

Some of the curricula listed here have subjects such as “historical biography,” “nature study,” or “natural history.” Use your best judgement in translating these into QEP terms. Especially in cycle 1 (grades 1 & 2,) there is little need to do so: simply include these extra readings and activities under a rubric such as ELA (literature.)

Complete Curricula Free of Charge

There are two excellent curricula available online, completely free of charge. I am only listing two here because the others I have seen rely in good part on books that must be purchased. The two I am recommending rely very little on purchased books, but instead favour public domain literature that can be found free online. If you are aware of any others like them, please drop me a note to tell me about them. I’d love to add to my list!

Old Fashioned Education
This is my preferred curriculum of the two. It relies much more on free materials, even including free options for math and phonics. It is loosely based on a blending of classical and Charlotte Mason approaches, and so is heavy on the literature. Unlike the Ambleside curriculum, however, it uses such things as graded readers, and it offers links to two free math resources. It also offers texts for phonics, spelling, grammar, etc.

Choose between a 40-week schedule (for those who want it all mapped out for them) and a curriculum page which lists readings for the grade(s) you need according to subject. Miss Maggie has added a few little extras like library skills, character education, and civics. The book lists direct families to select as many or as few of the readings for each subject as suits them. If other resources are needed, Miss Maggie has also got quite a list of books by subject area. There must be hundreds of excellent resources on her pages! Every year from Kindergarten through grade 12 has a detailed reading list, and years K-11 have a 40-week schedule. Year 12 is coming!

Ambleside Online
This site aims to be more true to the methods of Charlotte Mason, and so here you will find all her original homeschool writings and many of the articles from the Parents Review journals too. In keeping with Ms Mason’s methods, the site offers both artist and composer study (one individual or group for each of the three terms in a year.) There is a pretty well developed section on nature study, as Ms Mason was an advocate not only of observing nature but also of long periods of physical activity outside. Most families who follow this curriculum find it difficult to schedule these in, but do try to do nature walks and to be outside as often as they can. Similarly, most try to do handicrafts. Plutarch & Shakespeare are scheduled at one biography or play per term, for students in the fourth and subsequent years.

Ambleside Online (AO) offers booklists and 36-week schedules for years 1-12, with a special pre-4 year and a pre-7 book list for those who are beginning later. There are more books on the AO curriculum that have to be purchased, but they do try hard to keep to the best texts available at low cost. For those on a budget, each year’s booklist is also available in a bare-bones format containing the books that really should not be missed for that year. AO does not offer a schedule for Kindergarten, but does have instead a list of books to read with pre-schoolers (Year 0.) There is no schedule associated with this list.

Both these curricula are Christian in nature, and so offer such subjects as Bible Study, church history or devotions. If your family is not Christian it is pretty easy to replace these books with those you feel reflect your spiritual or ethical background.

A few things that you will want to be aware of when using either of these curricula are:

1) Charlotte Mason (CM) recommended short learning periods - as short as 5-10 minutes for the younger kids, up to a maximum of 40 minutes for older students. She also recommended to alternate between more active and more passive activities.

2) CM placed value on learning foreign languages. She thought it was important to hear a native speaker of the language in natural conversation every day, and to learn about 6 new words each day. CM recommended beginning foreign language instruction by 4th grade.

3) The CM approach steers away from workbooks and dry textbooks, in favour of what Ms Mason called living books. Students narrate a reading, or tell back in their own words what they think was important about it. Later this evolves into writing about the books, but in the first years it is important to focus on the ability to express oneself orally.

4) There is also copywork, memory work and dictation used in CM - to improve penmanship, spelling, grammar and listening skills, among other things. As with living books, it is also a matter of giving students a rich, inspiring example of English literature after which they can model their own future writings.

This work was created by Ruby of The Freehold, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

This post was originally published at Freehold 2 and has been re-posted here as part of a series of homeschooling resources.