A Homeschool Meme

Andie, over at "Life on the Yellow Brick Road" (listed wrongly in my sidebar as "Life in the Two Acre Wood") tagged me for this fun little exercise. I don't often do memes, but this one calls for only minimal embarrassing personal disclosure, so here goes:
*And, for the record, I'm terrible at making decisions of any sort, so I have no intention of agonizing over trying to choose just one of any resource for a meme on my very own blog!

One Homeschool Book You Have Enjoyed:
I love The Well Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. I don't follow it exactly, but generally follow the authors' suggestions. I'm currently reading Climbing Parnassus, by Tracy Lee Simmons, and it is also pretty inspiring (although I doubt that I'll really try to teach Greek, or make Classical Studies the central part of our school).

One Resource You Wouldn't Be Without:
If I had to pick one thing, it would be the computer. There are so many wonderful sites for history, space, geography, etc., and they can present material in an exciting, graphical way that really grabs the kids' interest (and this enthusiasm for electronic education is one of the things that SWB, in The Well Trained Mind, strongly advises against. Oh well.) Best of all, the computer gives me access to other homeschoolers who are using methods and materials at least somewhat similar to mine, on various boards and blogs. I wouldn't be without the library, either.

One Resource You Wish You Had Never Bought:
This is the embarrassing confession part, but I'm going to hedge. I have bought two expensive programs that I haven't gotten much use out of, but I still think that I may use them in the future. Tapestry of Grace is a really neat program that combines history, literature, philosophy, etc., etc., etc., but it was too much for me to use with one history-hating child in second grade. I think I will be able to use at least part of it when the kids are older and are both doing school. Spell to Write and Read looked great, but turned out to have a steep learning curve for the teacher. I had meant it as a spelling program for T., but he is a pretty good natural speller, so I never got around to learning how to use it. Maybe for K., though. Considering God's Creation is my admitted dud, a science program I bought at the big homeschool convention in Orlando. A science program was on my shopping list, and I was determined to buy one, even after failing to find anything inspiring. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, but I never used it.

One Resource You Enjoyed Last Year:
Last year was rough. I was working a lot of hours, we had the house up for sale half the year, and, did I mention, I was working a lot. My favorite resource was Edu-Track. I printed out weekly schedules of what we needed to do, and, as I squeezed things in between jobs, I got to check off boxes for each subject. When stressed, I find checking off boxes to be very soothing.

One Resource You Will Be Using Next Year:
Next year I plan to be continuing with the same programs we are using this year. We'll be starting Latin Christiana I, and using Singapore's Primary Math, Lingua Angelica I, Rod and Staff's Grammar, Classical Writing's Aesop and Poetry, and Story of the World. I'm thinking about using Memoria Press's Christian Studies program for Bible study, instead of Explorer's Bible Study (if anyone has any experience with this, please speak up!). Sister Wendy Beckett's The Story of Painting is wonderful, and we will be using that next year too, along with plenty of good books for reading and Something for science.

One Resource You Would Like to Buy:
United Streaming. This is currently all the rage on my favorite homeschooling board. It is a service that gives you computer access to various educational videos, and it sounds wonderful. It also costs $150 a year. Yikes!

One Resource You Wish Existed:
An Apologia Elementary Science series without the "Young Earth Creationist" bits. From the samples I've seen online, these look like really good science textbooks, and I think that I would actually get around to teaching science with them. I will probably buy one and use it anyway, explaining about the parts that we don't agree with as we go.

One Homeschooling Catalog You Enjoy:
I get a kick out of the Vision Forum catalog. Their glowing descriptions of books about masterful, manly men and submissive women are just so over-the-top that they make me laugh. I'm all in favor of modesty (in both sexes) and manliness (in men), but the people at Vison Forum are just obsessed. I did once buy a really great popgun from them at a convention, though. I also enjoy the Veritas Press catalog, although they seem a little obsessive too (in a different way), and kind of show-offy. No one puts out a catalog like A Common Reader anymore, which is a shame.

One Website You Use Regularly:
The Well Trained Mind curriculum and general boards. I get links to good sites, book recommendations, insights into the outlooks of people who see things differently than I do, and reassurance that my kids are not uniquely goofy. What more could one ask?