Cornerstone Curriculum Review

Yesterday, I intended to finish the review of the curriculum that Marissa and I used this year by writing about Year I of World Views of the Western World. As I typed, my fingers and thoughts went in a completely different direction. I type my thoughts in Microsoft ® Word. (I need the spelling and grammar checker to keep me from editing my post several times a day. I have found that I cannot seem to live with a typographical error on my blog!) Anyway, I realized that I was moving on to page two and I hadn’t written anything about my curriculum choice.

Sometimes behavior speaks louder than words. In this case, I think the best thing I can say about David Quine’s product is that I am a return customer. Marissa and I used Starting Points (Starting Points Part 1 and Starting Points Part 2) last year and I will be ordering Year II of World Views of the Western World for next year.

World Views is a syllabus-based program that Marissa has used to take her on an intellectual journey of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and the beginning of Christianity. This is not a textbook based program. Instead, Marissa has learned about the history, literature and worldview of the ancient world by reading its literature. Marissa has read The Iliad, The Odyssey. She is currently reading The Aeneid. She has listened to audiotapes that described the life and thoughts of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. She read Plato’s Republic. Marissa has also learned how to read with express purpose of analyzing the worldview of the author.

As I did last year, I have not strictly followed the syllabus. The course recommends several writing assignments. We have done a little more than half of them. Marissa thinks in bullet statements. It is very difficult for her to change her thoughts into paragraphs that are meaningfully connected to form an essay. A five-paragraph essay can take Marissa 3-4 days to compose. I have replaced some of the paragraphs with concept maps.

I have had some people (mostly non-homeschooling moms) question whether a worldview education is an adequate preparation for college. First, I find it odd that I am asked if Marissa’s education prepares her for college rather than life, but that doesn’t really answer the argument. I believe that a worldview education is the most important preparation for college. Research has shown that 75-80% of children raised in Christian homes will leave the faith by the end of their first year in college. This alone is enough to keep my focus on eternity.

I look to my own experience in public school. I never read Plato. I don’t remember reading the Iliad and the Odyssey, but I must have read at least short passages that were included in my English text. I did learn the names of the gods and understood why your Achilles’ Tendon was called, well, your Achilles’ Tendon. I did not learn how fickle the gods of Rome and Greece were. I didn’t know that men were seen as being controlled by the gods and that human fate was at the hands of these fickle, competing gods. I didn’t know how great and unique the God of Israel is in comparison to this pantheon of powerful, emotion-driven, and too human to be taken seriously yet “eternal” gods. Instead, I memorized, spat out and immediately forgot dates, people and events.

Christian homeschoolers have different concerns. Why would I want to spend so much time reading pagan literature? The answer is simple. The Greek culture is the foundation for the humanistic culture we live in today. Greek thinking has infected not only our culture, but many church doctrines too. I believe by carefully looking at the world view of the Hebrews and the Greeks, I can teach my daughter to be discerning about what ideas and thoughts she allows to influence her thinking and behavior. I choose to introduce my daughter to humanism, more specifically what is wrong with humanism, while she is at home.

This program is written from a Christian worldview. I would highly recommend it to Christian parents who want to use a classical program for their high school age student.

VideoText Algebra

The VideoText program combines pre-Algebra, Algebra I and Algebra II in 6-modules. The first five modules cover what is typically covered in pre-Algebra and Algebra I. It has been my goal to complete Algebra I with Marissa and then move to a Consumer Math program.

I liked the contents of the program. The lessons present only a single idea. I liked that VideoText explained the rationale behind even basic computations. I wish the videos included closed captioning. Marissa doesn’t process information that comes to her through her ears very well. Even when we are watching a movie for fun, she turns the subtitles on. Still, the videos are not talking head videos. The program uses a lot of visuals to teach concepts. Marissa was able to stop the video to do a problem, rewinds, relisten… Both of us like this product much better than Saxon.

Still, I am struggling to provide a fair evaluation of this curriculum. First, I should tell my readers that I am a math geek. Yes, I was on the math team in high school. I stayed after school and did math for fun! My best friends in school would have been labeled nerds by most of my classmates. Let’s face it; I was labeled a nerd by most of my classmates. I enjoy number and logic puzzles. When I took my GRE, I did best on the part that looked at analytic reasoning. And I love this program. In fact, if I were independently wealthy, I would buy this program just for me! As I helped Marissa, I relearned concepts I had forgotten I knew. I found the program brain food.

Marissa, on the other hand, has an absolute weakness in math. Difficulty understanding numbers and number sequences is quite typical of a person with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Recent research indicates that children with FASD typically score in the bottom 15 percentile in tests designed to evaluate memory for numbers and sequences. Additionally, Marissa has been a non-due course math student. Because she was immature, she was moved out of a first grade class and back into kindergarten. When she got to first grade the second time, she was 8. Her verbal skills are phenomenal so she was way ahead of her classmates in language arts. She was still struggling with the social and behavioral requirements of being in first grade.

I entered the wonderful world of staffing meetings to discuss with a “panel of experts” the learning needs of my special student. The first expert suggested since Marissa had done so well, we should just leave her in kindergarten another year. At the time I thought she was nuts. I have changed my mind about what it means to be educated; I may have been more inclined to agree with her. Marissa’s PE teacher described Marissa as defiant, stubborn, lazy and disruptive. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with her ability to learn. We should push her academically. That was the decision of the team. So, half way through first grade, with Marissa already struggling, Marissa was moved into an age-appropriate second grade class.

In hindsight, Marissa adjusted amazingly well… in language and social studies. Science at the time consisted of observing the weather and coloring pictures of bears in an appropriate outfit for the weather so that wasn’t really a problem either. Math? Terrible! She could count, but she didn’t understand the concept of numbers. She didn’t really understand that “one” had a conceptual meaning even when there wasn’t a candy, cookie, or whatever to count. She had missed the second half of first grade math and the first half of second grade math. She was expected to add 2-digit numbers. She didn’t really understand adding 1-digit numbers.

Marissa has plodded along in math. She memorizes the steps in the equations she is supposed to use. She has her math facts down pat. Computations that do not include a negative number are generally done correctly; however, she has no idea what she is doing and why she is doing it. She has struggled with math in general and the VideoText program is no different. She will understand how to do a problem one day, and the next day she has no idea how to even start a problem. We are still on the second of six modules.

I have decided to stick with VideoText for next year. I don’t believe I am going to find a perfect program that makes math really easy for Marissa. I had thought about switching now to a Consumer math program, but I think not. First, if computation is difficult, application is an insurmountable hurdle. Consumer math applies the concept of Algebra to real life. In order to be able to do math in real life, Marissa will need to understand how to solve a math problem with one unknown. You don’t need to do math if you don’t have any unknown numbers.

Besides, Marissa doesn’t learn math like normal people. When we were struggling with fractions… for years and years, I never thought she would get them. Then all of a sudden one day while cooking and measuring, “Mom, is a fraction less than one?”

“If it is a proper fraction it is.”

And she got fractions. I am not talking she understood that a fraction was less than one. She all of a sudden could add and subtract them. She understood how to decided greater than and less than… she owned fractions. So, we plug away and await another light bulb moment in decimals, negative numbers… you never know. Maybe one day!

I wanted to add that Marissa thought the best part of the VideoText Algebra program was the instructor. “Good thing he is cute. It gives me a reason to watch the tapes.”

Rainbow Science

When I went on Sabbatical, I promised to come back with a series of reviews for the curriculum Marissa and I used this year. I haven’t forgotten that promise; today’s blog entry will begin “My Year in Review.”

Marissa went to public school through the 7th grade. During her last year in “regular school” (her term not mine), she failed science. Last year, we didn’t do formal science. We broke the year roughly into trimesters. First, we studied science by learning about food storage. We were starting to concentrate on independent living skills and food storage tied in nicely to the rest of our day. I found experiments on the Internet. Then, we learned about fetal alcohol syndrome and the scientific process. Finally, we studied different ways of learning and discussed, “The Ways I Am Smart.” Even if Marissa would normally be in ninth grade, I decided to start back at 7th grade for science. She is working on her transcript for graduation in history, literature, theology and art/music. In math and science, we are still working at a more basic level, the beauty of homeschooling. 

The Rainbow is an introductory Science program written by Dr. Durrell Dobbins. Both Marissa and I enjoyed this program. The entire program is actually a two-year program that covers physics, chemistry, biology and earth science. This year we did just physics and chemistry.

The text that is included in the program is very well written. The lessons are short and cover only a single topic or idea. Questions at the end of the lesson allow you to evaluate whether or not your child understood the lesson. There are a ton of pictures for those of you with children who are primarily visual learners. For each two lessons, there is a laboratory experience that reinforces the idea.

The photo on the left is a picture of a molecule of carbon dioxide, a molecule of water, a molecule of methane and a diatomic molecule of oxygen that Marissa constructed recently during a chemistry lab. She used these molecules the next week in chemical equations. The lab kit is sold separately and includes everything needed to complete all of the labs.

While I wandered the exhibitor’s hall at last year’s homeschool convention pondering the cost of The Rainbow, I almost looked at a different program. In hindsight, I realize that I wouldn’t have been able to do labs in the home for less money. This lab came with colored styrofoam balls and dowels. I would have had to buy the balls, the dowels, plus three different colors of paint. In one lab we needed about an inch of candle wick. No one is going to sell me an inch and I don’t have any of that around the house already. As I collected material, I would have ended up spending throughout the year and, in the end, I would have spent more money.

I first heard of this program through Classical Christian Homeschooling. The review on that site discusses the possiblity of completing the text in one year while skippng the labs. That may work for some children; however, I found that the labs were essential for Marissa. She is a kinesthetic learner and needed the hands-on to really understand a topic. We generally read two lessons on Tuesday and followed up with a lab on Thursday. That left Monday, Wednesday and Friday for algebra.  

The author is a Christian. Since the program covers the scientific process (that which is observable, measurable, testable and repeatable), worldview is not the main thrust of the program. Worldviews, both Christian and secular, are accepted on faith and not science. Still, the author’s worldview is apparent throughout the text and someone with a humanistic worldview may take offense. I would highly recommend this program for a Christian homeschoolers.

Finally, I would caution, in the chemistry section, your child will need to be able to balance standard chemistry equations. Marissa doesn’t understand the concept of balanced equations when we are doing them in algebra and so Marissa really struggled with this learning objective. Marissa is 15; I don’t think we could have put learning basic science off any longer. But, if I lived in a perfect world, I would have liked to wait until Marissa was more grounded in her math skills before starting this course.

Inspiration Software and Structured Writing

This will be a fun entry, because I will be able to evaluate a product that is really helping Marissa and show off some of her work. Beginning last year, Marissa has been using Inspiration ® Software to help her plan, organize and successfully complete complex writing projects. We have also used it to create concept maps to help Marissa visualize the “big picture.” 

This software has been really helpful in teaching Marissa writing. Last year, I used Structured Writing I to help teach Marissa to write paragraphs. This year, we are using Structured Writing II to teach Marissa how to take a group of paragraphs and turn them into an essay. Both Structured Writing I and Structured Writing II are designed to work with Inspiration ® Software.

Let me show you what this software does:

Inspiration® software allows Marissa to create a diagram of her plan. She sees how each piece of information is connected and checks to make sure her ideas flow in a logical way. Then with the click of the mouse, her diagram is transformed into an outline that can be imported into Microsoft Word. The outline looks like this:

Introductory Paragraph

I.   Attention-Getter:Achilles weakness//pride or heel?

II.  Second Comment Idea:weakness pride

III. Third Comment Idea:almost cost the Greeks the war

     A.  Thesis/Focus Sentence:pride goes before a fall

           1. Plan/Sequence of Main Points:pride, effects of pride, Christian “pride of life”

At this point, Marissa replaces her bulleted thoughts with sentences and does formatting to make the writing look like a paragraph. She then reads the paragraph out loud to see if she like the way it sounds and edits the paragraph as needed. Her results are great. There are some drawbacks to this system. Primarily since all the work is done on computer, the computer automatically identifies and, in some cases, corrects spelling and grammar errors. So, if your child needs help with spelling and grammar, these subjects will need to be taught separately. It is also time consuming. But, I believe good writing takes time anyway.

I do recommend this program for children that have difficulty writing. Marissa has an absolute deficit in identifying the “big picture” or “main point.” She tends to focus on minor details. By organizing the details on one page as a visual, Inspiration® Software has helped Marissa think critically too. Below you will see the introductory paragraph for an essay Marissa wrote about The Iliad.

Achilles’ Weakness Was Pride Not His Tendon

I had never read The Iliad by Homer before. Everything I knew about mythology was from a story my teacher read to me in like the third grade. I always thought that Achilles’ weakness was his heel. You know like Achilles’ Tendon, but his heel wasn’t what got him into trouble. Achilles biggest weakness was his pride. The book The Iliad is about how Achilles’ pride caused a lot of deaths and almost cost the Greek army the war. The Bible tells us in Proverbs that “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18, KJV) The story of Achilles is a very long story that proves what this verse says in just one sentence. In this essay I will show you examples of Achilles’ pride, show how his pride affected the Greek army and discuss how human pride results from man’s fallen nature.

So, I gave her an A+… Can you believe, her PS English teacher thought she would never learn to write? Can you believe he wrote on a report that her behavior was not appropriate in class or anywhere? He gets an…. F!

Give Me a Glass of Water

Another parenting/gardening analogy a la Diana Waring.

After reading Diana’s post yesterday morning, I was pre-conditioned to view my own “garden” as a lesson in spirituality. What I saw when I went outside was what has become a dear friend: my parsley plant. It was a gift from my mother-in-law. Few people see beauty in a parsley plant. I admit, when it was presented to me, I said a kind of half-hearted, “Thanks!”

Now, I have learned the truth. Oh, she may never admit it but I believe my mother-in-law gave me that plant because she knew I needed help in the garden. Parsley is a hardy plant and can be revived from just about any state. But it doesn’t tolerate being dry at all.

When my parsley looks like this I know that it needs water. More than that, I know that the rest of my plants need water too. Although appearing “hardier” and looking good despite being dry, these plants are in a crisis. Without my “moisture dipstick,” I would likely kill off everything I try to grow. A watered garden is green and productive.

God knew that some of us would need conceptual pictures to learn and He graciously provided rich word pictures throughout scripture. Water is a basic requirement for physical life. Without water there is dehydration, withering and ultimately death. Spiritually, water is a basic requirement too. Without it, you experience a period of spiritual dryness. You begin to wither. Your life bears no Spiritual Fruit.

Ephesians 5:25, 26 teaches us “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” The word of God is our spiritual water. We are cleansed and purified by spending time in studying the word. It is what the Bible identifies as a basic spiritual need. Without it, we will experience spiritual dryness. Our life will not produce fruit.

I am always amazed at the number of professing Christians who have never read the book upon which they claim to place their faith. Paul described Timothy as having an undisguised faith. (2 Timothy 1:3-5) He “caught” it from his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. What was the vector that carried this faith from one generation to the next?

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:14-15)

The Bible ~ the most important book in your curriculum!