Movies that used to be books...

"Who would have known that some of these movies used to be books?" This is a question my friend at Three Giggly Girls Blog asked, and I loved the premise. I thought it would be fun to use her post as a springboard to list books we have enjoyed in our homeschool that are also now movies or television shows. This list is in no particular order, but as I mentioned I am using my friend's list to jog my memory. I am only listing books we have read, though, so my list is different.

1. Peter Rabbit;
2. The Little Engine that Could;
3. Curious George;
4. Charlotte's Webb;
5. Peter Pan;
6. Pinocchio;
7. The Velveteen Rabbit;
8. Little House on the Prairie;
9. Winnie the Pooh (The House at Pooh Corner);
10. Heidi;
11. Black Beauty;
12. Mary Poppins;
13. The Story of Dr. Doolittle;
14. Five Children and It;
15. The Wind in the Willow ("Frog and Toad" stories);
16. Pilgrim's Progress;
17. Joan of Arc;
18. A Little Princess;
19. Alice's Adventure in Wonderland;
20. Through the Looking Glass;
21. Caddie Woodlawn;
22. King of the Wind;
23. Misty of Chincoteague;
24. The Jungle Book;
25. Robinson Cruso;
26. Gulliver's Travels;
27. Johnny Tremaine;
28. Pollyanna;
29. Secret Garden;
30. The Railroad Children;
31. Bambi;
32. Chronicles of Narnia;
33. Lassie ("Lassie Come Home");
34. Gentle Ben;
35. Kidnapped;
36. The Incredible Journey;
37. Robin Hood;
38. King Arthur;
39. Little Women;
40. A Christmas Carol;
41. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer;
42. Treasure Island;
43. Anne of Green Gables;
44. Oliver Twist;
45. Rikki Tikki Tavi;
46. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy;
47. Mr. Poppin's Penguins;
48. A Series of Unfortunate Events;
49. The BFG;
50. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory;
51. James and the Giant Peach;
52. Charlotte's Web;
53. The Lorax;
54. The Cat in the Hat;
55. How the Grinch Stole Christmas;
56. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn;
57. Little Men;
58. Jack and Jill;
59. Watership Down;
60. When the Tripods Came series;
61. A Tale of Two Cities;
62. Seven Alone;
63. Harry Potter books

Well, there are probably more, but that's my list. What books have YOU read that have also been made into movies or television shows?

AO Rotations - January 2016

Ambleside Online Rotation for January, 2016

This is a summary of the AO studies that come up for study in the presented AO rotations for the month of January, 2016.

Hymn Study:

January's hymn is "He Who Would Valiant Be" (to the tune of St. Dunstan's Tune).

Folk Song:

Term 2: Jan My Grandfather's Clock *
 

Nature Study:

winter: Brook, river, ocean

We aren't focusing on nature study this year because my high school son is focusing on Chemistry.

Shakespeare:

** Othello the Moor of Venice 

I don't think we're going to get this one done. Next term is Much Ado, and I think I want to try to get to that one.

Artist Studies:

Term 2 

2015-2016 TERM 2 Jacques-Louis David (ZHOCK lu-WEE dah-VEED; 1748-1825; French. Self Portrait) (This term's composer: Schubert)
  

 1. Belisarius begging for alms, 1781 Information about the painting

   2. Oath of the Horatii, 1784 Information about the painting

   

3. Death of Socrates, 1787 Information about the painting

  

 4. Portrait of Levoisier and His Wife, 1788 Explanation of the picture

 

 5. Napoleon Crossing the Alps at the St. Bernard Pass, 1800

   

6. The Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine in Notre Dame, 1807; "NGA Kids" activity can supplement this painting.

     

Composer Studies:

2015-2016 TERM 2 Franz Schubert (1797-1828; late Classical/early Romantic) (This term's artist: Jacques-Louis David)

   1. Trout quintet

   2. Symphony no. 8 ("Unfinished")

   Selection 3 & 4. Symphony no. 9 ("The Great") (4 weeks)

   5. Impromptus op. 90 (D. 899)

   6. Die schone Mullerin (a song cycle)

Considering Home Schooling

I found an email in my inbox today from a prospective home schooler. It had so much fodder for a blog entry that I decided to turn it into one! So I present to you the letter from the possible future home school mom, followed by my answer:

I'm considering homeschooling my 11 year old daughter starting this fall when she begins middle school. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and don't know where to start.  I've done Google searches and have found this group [a local home school Yahoo group] plus a few blogs and websites (Hip Homeschool Moms, homeschool.com, home-school.com) and have ordered a few books from Amazon.

I'd love some advice.  How did you all get started?  How did you decide your family's "style" of homeschooling (unschooling, classical, etc.)?  Where/how do you get teaching resources and ideas?  What kinds of groups exist in/near Montgomery county to provide socialization for my daughter?  How can I meet other local homeschooling moms?  (Can you tell I have a lot of questions?)   :-)

 So, I replied with the following:

I started homeschooling when my oldest was five (now 28). My second (now 25) only attended outside the home senior year, but wished she had stayed home. My youngest (now 15) has only been home schooled and doesn't want public school.

My style has evolved over the years. Each family's choices will be different. Many of my "choices" are just required efforts to comply with HSLDA | Home School Laws. They basically say register with the County or an "umbrella" at least 14 days before you start; home school at least 180 days in the year; home school regularly and diligently throughout the year in Science, Math, English, Social Studies, Art, Music, Physical Education and Health.

After that your choices will be affected by religious vs. non-religious choices.

Then you need to think about your daughter's learning style and any special needs.

How much money can you afford to spend on materials?

======================================

I homeschool from a Christian perspective. I love to plan. I fail to follow my plan regularly. I love to start our days by reading to my son from the Bible, and then we launch from there. We are currently doing World Literature, World History, Algebra I, Biology, Spanish and Videography (and Bible). What we are doing (9th grade) will look different from what you do because we are now studying to meet graduation requirements and college admissions expectations.

=========================================

Before I continue, why are you home schooling? Are you religious? Do you know her learning style? What does she love and what subject(s) does she do well in/poor in? How much have you budgeted? Do you know about "MACHE" (Maryland, not Michigan( curriculum sale in Frederick? (I think it is 4/25 and 4/26)

So, I thought I would wait for her reply before I continued to spend time in answering. But there is still so much I could tell her, depending on what she is looking for.

I could tell her about the four-year history cycles of Tapestry of Grace [Year 1: Ancient Cultures; Year 2: Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation and Early America; Year 3: The 1800's, Year 4: The 1900's to Present], with History, Literature, Writing and Geography all woven around the theme of the week, focusing on a classical Christian education.

I could steer her towards a gentle Charlotte Mason style Ambleside Online Education for the next two years, while she deprograms her daughter's school as she leads up to high school. I could share with her my love of First Form Latin by Memoria Press, or Art by ARTistic Pursuits, foreign languages by Mango Languages and writing programs by Institute for Excellence in Writing. And let's not forget Science by Apologia!

And I'd love to tell her about the Successful Homeschooling Made Easy Course I am currently reviewing.

If she were writing to you, what would you highlight?

Heritage History: Greece - A TOS Review

Have you heard of Heritage History? I think I had heard of them, like something on the bare edge of awareness, like something off in the periphery that had buzzed at the edges of my vision, but something I had never turned my head to focus on. Well, they've got my attention now! I mean, they get a "Wow!" from me! 

You are inundated all day long with emails, blogs, websites, and reading, so let me remind you about who I am and how we homeschool so that you will understand why I am suddently so excited about this product. FlyMama Di and little JD (not so little any more) are the members of our 22-year-old homeschool. The first two attendees are now graduates.


[Oh, a little patting on the back and kudos here, my second born graduated college three days ago! WTG, B - I love you!]


So, JD and I have been homeschooling using a curriculum called Ambleside Online. The plan itself is free online, but then you have to scurry to find the books to use to follow the plan. So, I've been using Ambleside Online 7 years now. (Before that I used Tapestry of Grace, another book-intensive program -- my house is buried in books!)


So, this spring I was selected to be among the blessed TOS Crew members who were given the opportunity to review products by Heritage History.  Available for us to choose from were the following CDs: Young Readers; Ancient Greece; Ancient Rome; British Middle Ages; and British Empire.



 

 

Being unfamiliar with the company and the product, I took a quick look at their website, and asked for Ancient Greece. 

When I opened the CD and popped it into my computer, I was amazed! The Heritage History library is a collection of materials organized into collections, cross-organized by genre, reading level, author, and topic. It is amazing. (Wait.... I already said that, didn't I?) Heritage History not only has its own curriculum plan, but has crossed over any boundaries to make it easy to use their materials if you are using other curriculum plans as well.

I feel inadequate to describe to you how wonderful the selection is on the Ancient Greece  disk is, and how wonderfully the titles link up with the titles called for in the Ambleside Online curriculum. Turns out that the folks who produce the Heritage History CDs are aware of Ambleside Online. They even created a link showing what books on their CDs are books required by Ambleside here: Ambleside --  they actually even missed a few AO titles. Their disk also contains: Aesop for Children by Milo Winter and Stories from Shakespeare    by    E. Nesbit, plus many other titles able to be used as substitutions and potential supplementation, if one wants or needs to.

There is a picture above of the printed Study Guide. I did not receive a paper copy of this as a reviewer, however, Heritage History provides pre-printed Study Guides to accompany each of its Classical Curriculum CD's. Each Study Guide includes historical maps, outline maps, timelines, era summaries, character lists, battle dictionaries, recommending reading lists and other study aids. The Study Guides were designed to provide reference materials that complement the reading program and to assure instructors that their students remember the basic facts associated with each historical era. . The Curriculum User Guide gives helpful guidance and information throughout. Every document, every link, everywhere I turn on this disk is interlinked with more links, more information -- there is just so much here! The CD and the website combined are like an onion; every time I think I've gotten deeper, I find there are more layers!


Heritage History's complete book texts and illustrations of over 400 classical narrative histories are available to view online (amazing!).  Their books can also be downloaded to any e-Reader or Tablet, for one low price.



I had already known some of the titles are available in the public domain. But the format on the Heritage History CD is much nicer. Also, sometimes books from the public domain have typos and sections that are skipped. And the titles on the Heritage History CDs are in PDF format and are able to be transferred to your Kindle or other e-reader. This is so cool!

When you are a user of living books, and a user of book-intensive curricula, sometimes when it is time to use a certain book, you go get your book, and it is lost, buried among all your other books. Using the Heritage History CD, it will always be easy to locate the digital copy. And any PDF document can be downloaded to a jump drive and taken to a printing shop to get a copy printed out and bound, if that's what you prefer.

They actually have a free PDF book you can download to see what a sample book looks like. Go HERE to download a copy of Sir Francis Drake, by Mrs. O. Elton.
Here's where I try to touch on specifics. Some of it I already covered:

• Heritage History's Ancient Greece library CD is available for $24.95. It contains Includes 46 books, 50+ maps, teaching aids, and a Study Guide. 
•  Format: CD, with printed Study Guide.
• Purpose of the product: to enable students to study History and Literature; to make rich, quality material easily available to the parent and the student.
• Topics covered: History, Literature, geography.
• What do I like? Everything! I'm amazed!
• What could be improved? I haven't found anything.
• Would I recommend the product? Absolutely! To whom? Anyone studying Ancient Greece. Anyone using Ambleside Online, Tapestry of Grace, and many other living-book-based curricula.
•  Have I been surprised by anything in the material? I've been surprised since I first opened the case.

 

Disclaimer:

I received a Heritage History: Greece CD in exchange for my honest opinion in my review; I did not receive any pay.
This has been a TOS Homeschool Review. To see more reviews of this product, go to the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog Entry for Heritage History. I love comments! Tell me what you think!