Homeschooling with eReaders

I bought a Kindle just before Christmas, and Ds#1 received one as a gift. I planned to integrate them into our homeschooling and they have been very useful. To get the most use out of an eReader you need to understand the difference between a scanned book and a digital book.

Scanned book are just pictures of each page of a book; the actual words on the page have not been "digitized."  These are the books you get from Google Books and Open Library.  These two sources have the most books, and they can be used on eReaders that can read pdf, but they are a bit trickier to use.

Manybooks.net

First, do not convert them to an ebook format.  A program tries to "read" the picture and digitize the words but they are filled with spelling errors.

Another option I use is to put the scanned book on the Kindle, though the print is rather small in the portrait (upright) position.  Because it is a scanned book you can't enlarge the font; but you can change the display to landscape (sideways) and the scanned page enlarges enough to make it easily legible.  The pages are sluggish to turn, and to can't use the bookmarks, dictionary or highlighter, but you do have access to a large library of free books that you don't have to read on a computer screen.

Digital books are for what eReaders were made, and the number of free digital books is growing.  Project Gutenberg and Many Books are two great sources (Many Books gets all their digital books from Project Gutenberg and audio books from Librivox but it is easier to use, IMHO.)  You can download books in a variety of formats to read on whatever eReader you have.  Selections from Tappan, Eggleston, Marshall (check both H.E. and Henrietta Elizabeth), Fabre, Colum, Chesterton, Belloc, and several of the titles I discuss on A Private Eye Nature are available.  While not quite free, Heritage History offers their eBooks, many of which are not available elsewhere, for only $1.99 each.

If you have a Kindle you can also order free books directly from the Free eBooks Collection at the Amazon.com Kindle store.  (Interestingly, Amazon lists the same sources I mention here, though I used them long before Kindles hit the market.) Some of these are formatted so badly that it is distracting.  If you are thinking about buying an inexpensive older book that has been converted to the Kindle format, I suggest downloading a sample and check the formatting first.

As for eBooks for which I actually pay, I have had a mixed experience.  Kindle prices are far better than any hardcover price, especially new-releases.  I have purchased a number of Catholic titles that I have long wanted to read because of the cost savings, like the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament for only $9.99.  As for paperbacks, sometimes the Kindle price is only marginally less, or even more expensive, so used paperbacks are often cheaper.  This gives rise to the dilemma of buying cheaper, used paperbacks that don't really hold up well or an eBook that requires no storage and will not fall apart?

Buying eBooks for my pre-teen kids is even more limited.  Any picture book is out of the question unless they have black-and-white line drawings.  The vast majority of popular books are pure twaddle (I'll get them from the library I must) or worse if they are morally corrupting. Many of the small Catholic presses do not offer digital versions of their books.  This may change soon, though, as evidenced by Bethlehem Books releasing some of their offerings as eBooks. (Note that this link goes to an eBook search for Bethlehem Books; while all the books they publish are on the list, other books not from them will also appear as you scroll through the pages.)  Also Sophia Institute Press has some books available and plans to expand their Kindle offerings.

While a variety of eReaders are on the market, I prefer the e-ink technology (like a Kindle) to the backlit readers (color Nook or tabets.) Intensely reading and illuminated computer screen is hard on the eyes and the light can interfere with sleep patterns.  Having to find an external lighting source at night is fine with me, and I can read in bright sunlight easily.

Ultimately, my children are the ones that have made our Kindle experience a good one.  They definitely prefer digital books to scanned books, but they prefer the eReader to the computer screen (usually); they even prefer digital books to paper books, but would rather have paper than scanned.   The portability is excellent, especially if you are concurrently reading multiple books; and you always have your bible with you.  You can quickly check the meaning of words you don't know (so the kids may actually do this every now and again if asked).  You can add notes, too, using the somewhat cumbersome but functional keyboard; I often share annotated highlights on Facebook and Twitter right from my Kindle.  And I have saved a lot of money and time by not printing out books too long to read on the computer.

If you are really dedicated to your eReader, you can convert scanned images and then correct the spelling errors before converting it to an eReader format.  If ever I do that I'll be sure to post them.

The War of the Vendee

Navis Pictures is the genius behind St. Bernadette of Lourdes, the film with a cast of all children, most of them homeschooled.  Our family is very excited about the new film with a similar cast coming this fall: The War of the Vendee.



You can read the Wikipedia article, War in the Vendee, to get a general overview of the event depicted in the film.  This would make an outstanding suppliment to a study of the French Revolution, but why wait to enjoy something this good?

I have put together a reading schedule for studying some Founding Fathers and the Revolutionary War.  You can access the pdf schedule here on Google Documents.
Of course you can substitute your favorites on your bookshelves or available through your library for anything that I have listed.  That's the beauty of a Charlotte Mason education.

US History--the Revolutionary War

We finished the colonization of the United States and now we are moving into the Revolutionary War.  I am focusing more on personalities rather than events, along with some great character formation.  I have not planned out this unit as well as the last yet, but here is what I have put together.

I am reading American Hero Stories by Eva March Tappan to Ds#3.  Eleven chapters cover inspiring people and events of the Revolution.  We are also reading the shorter Jean Fritz biographies in my home library, while ds#2 is reading the longer titles, Why Not, Lafayette?, Early Thunder, and Traitor: the Case of Benedict Arnold We're also using another favorite author of ours, F. N. Monjo (5 short books for Ds#1 and one long one for Ds#2 and Ds#3.)

We are continuing to use An Elementary History of the United States (for ds#1 and #2) by Eva March Tappan, but only 4 chapters relate to the time period we're covering.  This book will give the boys the basics of the events of the Revolutionary War.

Along with those chapters they will also continue reading The Catholic Pioneers of America by John O'Kane Murray.  Seven biographies are relevent to our time period, from Casimir Pulaski to Lafayette.  Included is the longest survivor of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll. Other signers accused him of having less courage than they did because so many other Maryland citizens had his same name, and so he added to his signature, "of Carrollton," to be sure the king knew which one.  This book continues to enrich our US History studies from which Catholic accomplishments are typically excluded.

Ds#3 has started the Treegate Series by Leonard Wibberley from Bethlehem Books, starting with John Treegate's Musket  Each of the three books in the series are available as a Kindle edition for only 3.95 each.  The other two books are Peter Treegate's War followed by Sea Captain from Salem (Treegate)



We own and enjoy many of William Bennett's books and so I pulled Our Country's Founders: A Book of Advice for Young People.  We'll skip the second chapter, "Love and Courtship," unless we have time at the end since the boys will be far more interested in the other topics at this point in their lives.

I was looking at what they needed to read for this week and I noticed at the end of Israel Putnam at Bunker Hill is the note, "Adapted from Eva March Tappan, American Hero Stories."

PandaMania Warning

Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) is a wonderful Catholic publishing company that is widely respected.  This year they release a Totally Catholic Summer Program (what our Protestant friends refer to as VBS) called PandaMania.  This is a Catholic rendering of the highly popular VBS programs put out by the Protestant company, Group.  What I am about to write does not apply to their version of the program.

Our parish decided to use OSV's PandaMania, and we were very excited initially, that is, until we started looking into the details.  The two most objectionable portions are the People of Faith cards and Connecting Kids to Justice.

The first of the People of Faith cards is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.  Ever hear of him?  He's a Jesiut priest that has a lot of excellent scientific writings worth reading (the pope has said so); he is also in serious disagreement with the Church when it comes to his theology.  The Holy See has issued a Monitum regarding his work that includes the following:

"For this reason, the most eminent and most revered Fathers of the Holy Office exhort all Ordinaries as well as the superiors of Religious institutes, rectors of seminaries and presidents of universities, effectively to protect the minds, particularly of the youth, against the dangers presented by the works of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin and of his followers.” [Emphasis added]

Call me crazy, but an elementary summer school program does not seem like the place to introduce Teilhard.

As for Connecting Kids to Justice, it focuses on the Catholic Climate Covenant put together by the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change.  This coalition consists of 12 organizations affiliated with some of the most notorious Church dissenters.  Here is a sampling:

Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.  This organization has failed to concern itself with the moral decline of “Catholic” colleges.  See here and here.

Carmelite NGO.  While the Carmelite Order is wonderful, the Carmelite NGO supports UN initiatives to advance abortion and birth control services.  The Carmelite NGO fully supports the UN Millennium Goals and lists them on their web site.  If you click on #5 Improve Maternal Health it brings you UN Millennium Goals website.  Article 5.6 lists an unmet need for family planning.  The Carmelite NGO was a co-sponsor of the standing room only side event titled Consumption and the Rights of Mother Earth held at the UN on May 11, 2010.  The website mentions nothing about the rights of the unborn child.

Catholic Health Association of the United States.  The president of this organization is Sister Carol Keehan, who supported ObamaCare in defiance of the USCCB, and supported St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix after Bishop Olmstead sanctioned it for performing abortions.

Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).  This organization champions major dissidents of the Church, including Sr. Jeannine Gramick who spoke at their 2010 Leadership Conference.  This is the organization that led to several religious orders to ask for a different leadership organization be formed, The Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious and Conference of Major Superiors of Men (another coalition member) held a joint conference in 2004 in which the keynote speaker was abortion advocate Mary Robinson.

As part of the program, they won't recite the Creed but your children will take this evironmental pledge:

You can see the slides for all 5 days here (scroll to the bottom for the PowerPoints.)  There's a lot of coaching your kids to go home and tell you how to behave.  Could you imagine if we had a TCSP that told kids to go home at tell their parents that they are committing a mortal sin if they don't attend Mass on Sunday?  Well, I know that might seem like a good idea, but would it be received as charity the way this environmentalism push is?

It seems to me that these organizations worship at the altar of politics dressed in Catholic social teachings.  They take something that honest Catholics may be concerned about, like environmental stewardship, poverty, health care, or immigration and use it as a front to advance their political agenda that usually undermines Church teaching and authority.  If anyone is going to indoctrinate my kids, I will; that's why I homeschool.

This is not the only alternative. Cat. Chat VBS has three wonderful programs, one on the Sacraments, one on the Mass, and one on The Blessed Mother.  Catholic Heritage Curriculum offers 4 great Children's Retreats/VBS programs as well. 

Free Computer Resources

We homeschool together, all in one room.  When I am working with one son I shcedule something the other two can work on independently, which can be challenging with kids in 2nd, 4th, and 6th grades.  This time is split into 3 categories:  reading, writing, and computer time. While I have purchased some great computer-based learning programs, like ExploreLearning and Adaptive Curriculum, I found a couple of great free websites as well.

The first is The Head of the Class. This website has activities for grades K through 5th.  After I logged in I went to the control panel and clicked on "Customize Curricula" to set up the activities I wanted for Ds#2 and Ds#3.  I choose only the interactive activities and not the worksheets that have to be printed out, so this website has many more resources available than what I use.  They even have a book for each grade.

The second is Brain Nook. This one is more play than learning, but the kids really enjoy it.  They create basic characters and travel through different regions of the globe.  They can interact with other people but at the basic level they can only "say" what is on a list of responses (premium members can type whatever they want, which is one of many reason we are not premium members.)  Often my kids will call their friends and log on at the same time while talking together on the telephone.  To earn points they have to play math and language arts challenges.  Once a week you are emailed a progress report that tells you how many challenges they played, what level they played at, and the breakdown of math to language arts.

Enjoy!

UPDATE (6/14):  We dropped BrainNook because it turned out to be too much play and not enough skill building.

Year Round Homeschool

We have always followed, more or less, a traditional school year.  We take a break from our typical academics from Thanksgiving until New Year, though we do Advent studies.  We then plough through two terms from January until the beginning of June with only Holy Week off.  It's a long, hard stretch.

Now that I no longer work at the hospital, I now teach 3 more classes that I didn't before, for a total of 5, and 3 of them are online.  My time is consumed correcting assessments and assignments, and blogging has taken it on the chin.  At least I don't have to try to get to work in the midst of a bizzard; and I am no longer scheduled for nights, weekends, holidays, or summers!

The dilemma is that I am trying to cram in homeschooling during the same time that my demands are greatest teaching.  I've thought about year-round homeschooling for awhile but I didn't really know how to approach it.  If I didn't school in the winter would the boys be just running aroung the house bored anyway making it impossible for me to work?  Then it just so happened (that you, Lord) that a very brief discussion occurred on one of the Yahoo groups about this very subject.  Some people, I guess, school for 3 weeks and take one off while others school for 6 weeks and take 2 off.  I've decided to try the latter.  Those two weeks will be enough for me to get caught up and a little ahead in my teaching, as well as to plan the next section of homeschool, and maybe even to blog a little! It give my boys just enough time to relax before getting bored.

My biggest concern is if we will have the will and the discipline to sit down to school during those glorious summer days.  While math will run year round, our Religion and Language Arts are not a full 36 weeks, we can stop Rosetta Stone Italian in the summer, and we won't have co-op so Friday is always free.  I am dreaming of a relaxed and joyful time of learning.  I'll let you know what happens when reality sets in...