More Homeschool Splurge Fun

Yet another big-time Rainbow splurge.  I love these folks!  They ship quickly, for reasonable rates, and because they mark the boxes as educational and/or books, not one of their shipments has been stopped at the border or COD’d for customs charges.

So… this was definitely a splurge!

You might say at least I’m buying BOOKS for my KIDS… not crack cocaine.  But, as everybody knows, books – used correctly – are far more dangerous than anything else anyone has ever come up with.  (Up with which anyone else has come?)

Here’s part 2 of my Aliyah Education Plan, by the way:  though it may sound cruel and diabolical, I’ll taking advantage of the fact that we have so few vacations to “do school” year-round. 

We’ll take off for Pesach and Sukkos and maybe lay low in late December and the hottest bits of summertime, when nobody feels like learning, but as it is, I anticipate formally starting Grade 1 in June or July and finishing a few months before the “school year” officially ends. 

If we keep that up, we could very well have completed the first three years (or more) of a Charlotte Mason/Classical education by the time Naomi starts school (iy”h!) in Israel.  Not that I’m in a hurry, but if it’s all going to be crashing to a halt, I would like to give her a good basic grounding before that happens.

At that point, while it’s true that she will technically be ahead of her classmates, I figure the language barrier and general upheaval will even things out a bit… and if she has extra confidence academically as a result of what she’s learned, well, all the better!

Anyway, here are the pretty pictures of what I bought – book descriptions are below.

 

So here’s what we’re getting…

Arts/Other:

Draw Write Now, Book 1 – a combination handwriting copywork and drawing program I thought we’d try.
Great Composers Coloring Book – I simply have not been impressed with the quality of colouring pictures I can find online.
Bible Lands Activity Maps – Laminated – we’ve been doing a lot of map studies for parsha.  Hopefully, this will be something we can use over and over.
Pillars of History - Hebrew Nation Part I – this one could end up being a mistake.  Though put out by a Christian publisher, it looks like a dynamic and highly interactive introduction to “Bible stories,” with an emphasis on the Jewish (“Hebrew Nation”) side of things.  Having looked through a long sample (samples available here and here), I really think this could be adapted well to a Jewish homeschool.  We shall see.  (it was on sale – I didn’t pay full price anyway!)

Language / Literature:

Spelling Workout 2001 Level A Student Edition – as recommended by The Well-Trained Mind (because they wrote it); but now that I’ve ordered this, I’m worried that this will be too easy once she’s finished the first Explode the Code book we’re currently working through… and redundant if we use it with the second Explode the Code.  Eek!

History / Geography:

Geography Songs Kit w/ CD – a little pricey, but it looks like fun…
Story of the World Vol. 1 Activity Book – bought the first reader and was pretty impressed.  I’m really looking forward to Grade 1 history!
D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths – apparently, one of the truly great myth books.  We have one myth book already, but it wasn’t that expensive.
History Pockets - Ancient Civilizations – interactive activities to go along with the SOTW curriculum (preview here).  Also available online via CurrClick, but I don’t like the idea of doing it electronically and don’t enjoy printing stuff myself, so I bought the printed version.