Home School Online

A site that many homeschool parents, who like web-based resources, has discovered as the best way to deal with spelling time is SpellingCity.com.   It’s free (mostly, there is a premium membership), full of useful activities and games, and has some great lists. I’ve been thinking of building a lot more literature based word lists.

I am continuing to try and build and maintain a list of literature or fiction which is either set in a homeschool family or which uses homeschooled characters.  I would appreciate suggestions.

I recently received and read a kids books written by Scott Stroud called Baby Kong. I thought it was great. He has a second one called Grumpy Mr. Grady which received awards but I haven’t seen it. If you are looking for gifts, give him a look. He has a great publishing-website name too: HomesCoolKids.

 Here is the current master list of homeschool literature or fiction that I have found:

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan. Kids literature. Fine.The Applewhites book starts with a traditionally-school adolescent who is having alot of problems. He is sent as a foster kid to a rural homeschooling  family full of some stereotypical characters. The cityboy comes of age through his experiences on the farm and with the family. For a review of the Applewhite .

Schooled by Gordan Korman. Kids literature. Bad. The homeschooled boy is a terrible representation of being a social misfit-homeschooler. The middle schoolers at public school are horridly behaving. The hippie homeschooled boy is basically tormented in school to the point where it would be impossible for the reader not to pity him. (excerpted from a review of Schooled by ChristineMM)

The Adventures of Lil’ Wolf, Twinkie, Toes, and Flower Girl in the Homeschool Forest by Jacqueline R. Campos. Editorial description from Amazon: Come and join in all the fun of the Wolf Family as they share their homeschooling adventures with you! It is never a dull day in the Homeschool Forest, with the gentle Flower Girl, lazy Toes, fun loving Lil’ Wolf, and the very clever Twinkie.
Does anybody have any first hand knowledge to review this literature?
I’ll check to see if they are on Amazon and if there are reviews there.

Homeschool Fiction Suggestions (from Worldcat):

Chicken Friend
by Nicola Morgan. 2005, 2004 1st US edition. Fiction: Elementary and junior high school. 148 pages.
Cambridge, Mass. Candlewick Press, ISBN: 0763627356. 9780763627355

When her parents decide to move their family to the English countryside, homeschool their children, and raise chickens, Becca tries to make friends with her new neighbors by hiding her diabetes and throwing a twelfth birthday party for herself.

 Kandoo Kangaroo hops into homeschool
by Susan Ratner; Bryan Miller. 2000. Fiction : Primary school.
Green Forest, AR : Master Books, ISBN: 0890512906. 9780890512906

A mother kangaroo realizes that her six-year-old is ready to start home schooling.

Ida B and her plans to maximize fun, avoid disaster, and (possibly) save the world
by Katherine Hannigan. 2004 1st ed.  Fiction : Elementary and junior high school 246 p.
New York, NY : Greenwillow Books,
In Wisconsin, fourth-grader Ida B spends happy hours being home-schooled and playing in her family’s apple orchard, until her mother begins treatment for breast cancer and her parents must sell part of the orchard and send her to public school.

Addie McCormick and the Computer Pirate
by Leanne Lucas. 1994. Fiction : Juvenile audience 138 pages. Eugene, Ore. : Harvest House.

While her school is being repaired following a tornado and she is attending a cooperative home school, Addie becomes involved in a mystery surrounding the schools computer software.
Mystery at Loch Ness
by Rebecca Price Janney. 1997. Fiction : Elementary and junior high school 135 p.
Sisters, Or. : Multnomah Fiction,
While visiting the virtual reality Loch Ness monster exhibit at a nauticus museum, a group of Christian home school students travels back in time to Scotland and to 1934.

Secret of the Lost Colony
by Rebecca Price Janney. 1997
Fiction : Elementary and junior high school 137 pages. Sisters, Or. : Multnomah Fiction.
Lindsey, Andrew, and Ben travel back in time with their home-school teacher to the English colony on Roanoke Island, where the people are struggling to survive an unfriendly environment and a problem of low supplies.

Search for Amelia Earhart
by Rebecca Price Janney. 1997.  Fiction : Elementary and junior high school.  133 pages.
Sisters: Multnomah Publishers.

While talking about Amelia Earhart during their flight to Hawaii, a group of Christian home school students and their tutor travel back to the time of this famous aviator.

The Home School Detectives is a mystery series from InterVarsity Press, and is recommended for children ages 8-12. Follow the fast-paced adventures of Billy, Rebecca, Carlos, Josh, Emily and the rest of the gang as they overcome false leads and follow clues to the exciting conclusion.
Other suggestions?

Time4Learning, an online homeschool & enrichment service, received this email awhile ago….

 “A homeschool acquaintance told me about your site so I had to try it. First, I have to say I was really looking forward to having my children do your program. So much so that I even signed up my two boys . They’ve been having a pretty good time with it ….

But that’s not why I’m writing and canceling our subscription. …. I must say, your interpretation of what homeschoolers want is light years away from reality….I say this after taking a look at what your 8th grade “lesson plans” had to offer. Dang folks! Do you really think I’m going to let my 8th grader read the kind of trash that you offer in your first language arts lesson? I mean really.

I looked up “Surviving the Applewhites” on Amazon (bold added by editor) and was appalled that you can even think that a book so disparaging of homeschoolers could even possibly be attractive. Was the intent to show us just what we were missing by not sending our children to public school?…..”

Here is how I answered…..

“I am very sorry to have upset you. Time4Learning takes its educational content seriously. We have licensed the CompassLearning system which is sold into schools around the country. We make it available to users at home with minimal adaptations and at as low a price as possible….

When I got your email earlier this weekend, I looked up the book. Since I had not personally read it, I acquired a copy and read it. I have not read the Amazon summary but generally I have found Amazon to be very accurate on questions of price but somewhat undependable on questions of content. Have you found differently?

Surviving the Applewhites is interesting and a fast read. Here is what I have found.

 The book was a Newbery Honory book in 2003 for literature and as such, it is on many recommended reading lists for students. As a homeschool enthusiast, I am pleased that a major children’s book uses homeschooling as its context instead of the usual stories where “John and Jane go to school every morning…”

The book tells the story of a difficult rebellious adolescent (Jake) who is taken in by a unschooling family in ahomeschooling in North Carolina made up of a set of colorful tempermental characters.

The story is a combination of coming of age and dealing with issues of adolescence, identity, self-worth, and family. Do I think the family is ideal or typical? No, this is literature. The family is more than a little dysfunctional although big-hearted and full of talented people. Their approach is unschooling which works extremely well for some of the children in the family, not so well for others. The family itself is portrayed a little cartoonishly.

I found that as literature it would have been more appropriate for a younger grade than 8th grade since it’s vocabulary and style were simple, it lacked subtlety, and was a little formulastic.

However, the book did support the content of the lessons that it was supposed to and it is very well written. I’m sorry that you found a review of the book which led you to believe that it was inappropriate.

Anybody care to comment? Anybody went to help build my list of homeschool fiction?