I'VE BEEN TAGGED

Ruthanne has tagged me with this meme. What's a meme? Well, it's just a questionnaire that you answer on your blog and then pass it on. This one is interesting and makes for good discussion~

1. What is one homeschooling book you have enjoyed?
I will break the rules and give two answers. I really enjoyed A Mom Just Like You by Vickie Farris. I like reading about how other homeschooling moms really get everything done and what their convictions are. I especially liked her very honest chapters that discussed their decisions to not use birth control, their struggles with miscarriages and the joy of having so many children. I also liked A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola. My introduction to homeschooling was through The Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. However, the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling has always had more appeal to me and Karen's book is so homey and describes homeschooling in such an organic, everyday life way.

2. One resource you wouldn't be without.
Other than the Bible, I'd have to say the Internet. It is simply amazing all the stuff you can access - and a lot of it without cost! Just yesterday I was studying the Bible and used the Internet to 1)Read some online sermons by John Piper, 2)Read the commentary of Matthew Henry, and 3)Read parallel translations of several verses. Twenty years ago, or even ten, you couldn't have done that. And with DSL, it takes you no time at all.

3. One resource you wish you'd never bought.
Well, even though I really like Veritas Press, I wish I had never bought their comprehension books that went along with the early reader books like Corduroy and Blueberries for Sal, etc. I just thought of them as too much busy work. They didn't work for us.

4. One resource you enjoyed last year.
I have to say the library. We go every Friday and check out at least 30-40 books a week. Along with that, the books we read aloud last year were great. That is, hands down, my favorite thing about homeschooling. We started the Anne of Green Gables series and are now on book 4. We also discovered the Hank the Cowdog series thanks to Cumberland Books and Rick Saenz. Those books are hilarious.

5. One resource you will be using next year.
We just started "next year". We'll be using Saxon for the first time. I had used Singapore for my oldest son but I needed something more comprehensive and since I bought it used I got the Dive CD for my oldest son who's doing Saxon 6/5. He's watching the lessons on CD-Rom while I'm teaching Saxon 1 to the younger two. So far, one week into it, it's going great.

And like Ruthanne, I do hope to be using my sewing machine more this year. I'm realizing as my daughter gets older (she's 5), the options for modest clothing are slowly disappearing, unless I want to pay an arm and a leg. I think there's a couple easy patterns out there that I could do. We'll see.

6. One resource you would like to buy.
It's not a resource - it's a piece of furniture. I'd like a big bookcase and an unlimited budget for Henty books and good hardback copies of the Little House series, the Anne series, and others.

7. One resource you wish existed.
It's probably out there, but I haven't found it. I wish there was a curriculum out there that taught art and music, possibly together, in a way that I could do it with different age groups and not spend too much on materials.

8. One homeschooling catalog you like to read.
I have several. I like Cumberland Books, Rainbow Resource, Veritas Press and Visionforum catalogs. Better yet, I like to go to my local homeschool bookstores and just look, touch, read, and dream.

9. One homeschooling website you use regularly.
I probably use the homeschool curriculum review websites regularly but really, I like to visit my online friends who homeschool especially Ruthanne, Ann V., the ladies at Choosing Home, Cindy, Karen, Karen from NY, Roberta, and others. If I go to too many homeschooling websites I can get easily stressed out.

10. Tag five people with this meme.
Ok, it might not be five, but I'm sure these people haven't answered this meme:
Lauren
Denise
(These people might not even read this but I'll remind them when I see them in person!)