Fantasy books are a huge part of our personal library – becomes my husband loves them. And he’s passed that love down to the olders – K and J. 

K, now at 13 almost 14, really doesn’t want to read or listen to much anymore unless it’s historical fiction or fantasy. She’s a voracious reader, and when she’s not reading or doing schoolwork, she’s listening to audio books. It’s gotten to the point that now she and her dad trade books back and forth.

So for literature this year, K is doing the Fantasy Literature course from CTT. Reading through all the great works of Fantasy – ranging from Winnie the Pooh and Aesop’s Fables to Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and Beowolf.

So in March, when she was offered the opportunity to read and review a new children’s fantasy book - Save Magic City by Rocsanne Shield - she jumped at the chance

Save Magic City is written for tweens and teens maybe up to age 14. So Kate is at the upper end of that range. 

Now I had planned on also reading Save Magic City and giving you my opinion as well. But as soon as K finished it, her brother absconded with it, spending the next three days devouring it, and then promptly misplaced it.

So, instead I have for you Kate’s summary and review of Save Magic City, and the knowledge that it appealed to J (age 11) enough to consume him for three days.

Here’s K’s description of what the book is about:

Save Magic City by Rocsanne Shield starts when Sir Edmund from the 13th century is thrown into U.S.A in 2007 A.D. by a banishing spell done by Lord Sloanne. Sir Edmund is a evil wizard cursed to obey for good and only good whoever first to ask him to do something him after he arrived in 2007. He is found by Leona (the first ask him to do something) and her adopted son Leo.

At first he awed by the new world he was thrown into, especially by all the technology. But it comes to his attention that the dying town that he was thrown into is being sucked dry by its mayor. He decides to help with his magic powers but Leona doesn’t want to use them until something deadly horrible happens.   ~Kate, age 13

The author, Rocsanne Shield, had this to say about what she feels the messages in the book are:

“The town is any town in USA in which the corporations have left, leaving behind destruction of lives, breaking of families, loss of home and property.

Though I treat this as solvable through magic, a concerted effort of all inhabitants could bring good results even without magic.

Children are more aware of the environment then they were in other times. They live all these changes themselves and may recognize parts of the story as it applies to their own lives.

…being independent and helping one’s neighbours is more important in times of struggle than having a job for which one trembles every day in fear of losing it.”

~Rocsanne Shield of her Children’s fantasy book Save Magic City

While I have a hard time with the idea of evil corporations, I felt the discussion points and overall theme of helping each other through struggles was enough to allow the kids to read this book. 

So I told you, J absconded with the book and enjoyed it. Here’s what K, at 13, has to say about Save Magic City:

I’ve read and listened to a lot of books but I don’t think I’ve ever come across a book this unique  before. It flows together nicely and it has wonderful grammar.

I think it’s a great story. I’d recommend it to tweens and families who don’t mind their kids reading about magic.

The only thing I wondered about is that they disappear, literally at the very end of the book, where did they go? But it does make a very good dramatic ending.  ~Kate, age 13

So if you have a fantasy loving tween, this book is kid-approved by my household.

Kate did comment to me that the book is not really suited for older teens, but it is enjoyable for tweens and young teens who have enough reading ability to enjoy a 300 page book. Hence, why it’s a children’s fantasy book

You can find Save Magic City on Amazon.com and at other booksellers world wide. For a complete list and more information about the book, please see Roscanne Shield’s website.

…Shannon

In my Smashing Rocks for Science post, I mentioned that we are using Connect the Thought’s Geology curriculum as a framework for our geology study, specifically because it gives me high school geology for K and allows me to adjust for the rest of the kids. 

Since then, Michael asked:

First of all, thank you for providing the link to the Geology curriculum you’re using with your kids. I’m very interested in trying it with my own homeschool high school aged son. Can you tell me what it consists of? Is it a textbook? Are there lesson plans or tests? And finally, about how much time are you planning on devoting to the course? I’m trying to find out if it would count as a full credit or half on his high school transcript.
I appreciate any help you can provide. Sort of new to the whole homeschooling thing, and a bit overwhelmed.

First, Thank you Michael for the question.  I’ll try to explain things in writing below, but if you have the ability to watch it, here’s a video review I did today for you, answering the questions and showing you exactly what Connect the Thoughts Geology is, and what you need for it. 

What does it consist of?

Connect the Thoughts Geology is a complete secular high school (ages 11 and up) geology curriculum written for the student, and designed for indepedent study.  It consists of 78 lessons, about 90-100 hours of study. Each lesson follows the Connect the Thoughts study methodology, which is a little bit different than most curriculums.

For each lesson, there’s

• vocabulary for the reading
• geography for the reading, if needed
• hands-on exercises and experiments to help concrete the concepts
• 25-50 word writing prompts or questions to further concrete the concepts (I use these as discussion questions)

Overall, this is a thorough exploration of geology, originally written to give the students the education they needed to be well-educated without going on further to college. So it uses and covers materials that would be covered in more advanced geology classes, but with a study methodology that works well for students as young as 11 to do indepentently. (I’m adpating it for students age 7, 9, 11, and 13)

Topics wise it covers:

• What is Geology
• Plate tectonics
• How Earth was made (conventional view point, including Panagea)
• Minerals
• Rocks
• The interior of our planet
• Earthquakes and how they’re measured
• Volcanoes
• Weathering and Erosion
• Geology and history  (conventional viewpoint)
• Geology in our everyday lives

I do need emphasize that this is a secular geology curriculum. It covers conventional explanations of how the earth was created and developed. It does *not* include a creationist view of how the earth was formed; that’s up the parents to provide and compare and contrast with their students. For me, I’m good with this, but if you aren’t, then you will either need to skip these section of the course  or look for a geology course that covers it from a creationist view point.

Is it a textbook? Are there lesson plans or tests?

Many of the Connect the Thoughts courses including the textbook reading, but not Geology. It does require the additional purchase of a relatively inexpensive book called Geology: A Self-Teaching Guide  I got my copy off of Amazon for about $13 and you can find it used on Amazon for less. There’s also a Kindle version.

You also need access to The Amazing Earth video and the Journey to the Center of the Earth video. I ordered The Amazing Earth used from Amazon for less than $10, and am getting Journey to the Center of the Earth via Netflix.  So in all, with the curriculum (purchased on sale), plus the added book, video, and clay I needed for the plate tectonics section, I spent about $45 total.

Basically what you get with Connect the Thoughts Geology is a complete independent study guide for the student to go through on their own (though I’m using it with a group of students). It explicitly tells the student what to do.  And the end of each major section, there is a test. But tests in Connect the Thoughts are not-graded, instead they are used to verify mastery and understanding.

For more on how a connect the thoughts studyis laid out, I recommend downloading the free “how to do Connect the Thoughts” course. And of course you can see the actually Geology course in the video above.

If you go with this curriculum, your student will need access to the outdoors to do some of the investigative exerices and experiments (like smashing rocks ) 

Also, there’s a few miscellaneous materials needed (like clay or magnets) for some of the experiments, so it’s a good idea to have the students give you a list of what they need for the coming week, or to read ahead yourself to make sure you have everything on hand. To my knowledge there is no materials list available just for this purpose of making sure you have everything you need (a pet peeve, but workable still)

About how much time are you planning on devoting to the course?

The geology course is designed specifically to be a semester course, but is actually longer than the normal 60-70 hours. It is part of the Connect the Thoughts 3 part Earth Sciences series, which in all covers 1.5 credits.  I’ll be awarding a .5 credit (semester) to K when we complete the Geology course. 

We’re doing the course about 3 hours a week, so we should be done with it in 20-25 weeks. But this also lends it self well to intensively working through the Geology curriculum as well, in which case you can complete the course easily within a month.

A few more key points

This is not our first connect the thoughts course, we’ve done several. and I go into on the video a little more about what I like and don’t like about the curriculum and how I’m adapting the Geology course to suit my needs.  But overall, if you are looking for a secular high school geology course, this is a good one to consider.

I will emphasize also that this curriculum as well as all of the Connect the Thoughts courses we’ve tried are designed for the kids to think for themselves. It introduces a variety of information, but doesn’t want the students to regurgitate it back, but rather to own their own education and their own thoughts and opinions. If this is your goal, like it is ours, this is a wonderful benefit to the curriculum. If you aren’t ready for that…well, might want to look else where.

To give you a further idea of how the Connect the Thoughts science curriculum is structured, I recommend watching the videos that Steven has on the Connect the Thoughts site and reading through some of the articles. It’ll give you more of an idea of the man behind the curriculum and his thoughts and style.

(A side benefit to using Connect the Thoughts is the access to it’s author. Steven is really good at personally answering quesstions and is active in the Connect the Thoughts Yahoo Group.)

If Connect the Thoughts Geology sounds like something you’d like to try with your student, you can download your copy from CurrClick. And be sure to agree to get the email updates, because Steven does a great job of doing sales for those of us on a budget, and the sales are announced through those email updates.

So there you go…  If you have more questions about our experiences with Connect the Thoughts or the Geology course in particular, feel free to ask.

…Shannon

P.S. Looks like Steven is running a 20% off sale on all Connect the Thoughts courses this week too, The geology course is coming up on sale for $16 until Sunday, February 20th.

On my Learning to Read: Celebrating Success post, Bobbie  asked about the Bob Books, a series of books for beginning readers that we use. So I thought I’d do a quick review.

Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers

The Bob Books are these short little books, that come in sets of 12, that incrementally build on each other. The very first book, covers just four sounds (M, A, S, T) and on sight word (on), and each book builds from there.

The stories are so short and so doable for a beginning reader that they instantly give the child a sense of success. They’ve read an entire book!

It’s an incredible thing to be able celebrate, and the beauty of the Bob Books is that they give that opportunity to succeed early and often. 

The books themselves are not a reading program and should not be used on their own. Every child needs help learning the phonemic sounds, phonological sound combinations, and sight words of the English language. What the Bob Books give are an opportunity to practice reading in a book format very quickly, building on that sense of success.

Personally I’ve looked at and tested a LOT of different reading materials and tools over the last 10 years, as I’ve sought materials to help my own children learn to read, and I have to say that the Bob Books are crucial element to our reading program, especially at that early reader stage.

Even Z feels success with these books (he’s able to read the first few, and that knowledge that he can read at least some books, helps build his confidence and motivation for further reading).

Here’s an example of what you’ll find in a Bob Book. I grabbed the third book from the first set off our shelf. It’s title is “Dot”. 

As you’d expect the book is about Dot. The whole book uses 9 words total to tell the story of Dot, her dog and cat, and a hat.  So there’s a lot of repetition of common words, using sounds the child already knows.

At the beginning of each book is a list of the sounds that are covered in the book, which is helpful for determining if your child knows the sounds they need for that particular book.

Each page in the first set usually only has one sentence, but I have noticed that towards the end of each book, there might be a page that has one or more. So the child is feeling confident on each page, and has read the words in the book a few times before they get to a page with more words, like this:

As you can see the pictures in the book are simple, and not overwhelming, which for my kids is very important. When they are learning a new skill, they do much better on pages that are simple and in black and white, so this works perfectly for us.

I borrowed my first set for K, when she was just beginning her learning to read journey, as I always like to test something before buying it. Since then I of course have purchased my own copies (and have lent them out a few times too) of all three sets. J used these in early in his learning to read journey, as has Little E.  

Z of course is still working through the first few books, but that’s Z and with his dsylexia these books play an important role in his feeling successful in his efforts.

Again, these are not a complete program, but rather one (essential) tool in your learning to read tool box. I do use other readers as well, but these are the first that my children use in their journey.

If you don’t already have access to the Bob Books, I recommend either borrowing a copy from a friend or fellow homeschooler, looking for a used copy (if you can find them), or grabbing a set on sale. (Today as I write this I see Amazon has a great price on them, so you might check there as well)

Hope this helps!

…Shannon

P.S. Thanks Bobbie (Clumsy Crafter) for asking the question!

P.S. S. Here are a few more of the resources we use for Learning to Read:

On my desk and around my office are little gifts that my mother has given me over the years – a “Dare to Dream” poem, a couple of her photos of fog among the Redwood trees, and the latest addition, a collectible Mother & Daughter porcelain plaque with a quote on it.

Every day when I look up I see a bit of my mom through these items, and feel her love and support. Yet I talk with her, over our video phones, only maybe four to six times a year. We both live busy lives and are both working and raising families; my younger sister is just a year older than my oldest daughter. 

But when I think of my mom, I smile. And that’s how I would love for my daughters to think of me when they are grown. But how does this come about?

Mother-Daughter Duet by mother-daughter team, Cheri Fuller and Ali Plum, promises to show  you (and I) the path.  

Combining stories from their own relationship struggles and successes, their journey of letting go of the mother-daughter dynamic and become friends, with the stories from many other mothers and daughters they interviewed while researching this book, Fuller and Plum provide practical insights  into how we can develop healthy relationships with our daughters and with our own mothers.

At 201 pages, the book is broken into thirteen chapters, plus an introduction and epilogue. You’ll be taken on a journey of engaging with your daughter through early adulthood through marriage, motherhoods, and beyond.

Each chapter is themed for specific hotpoint or issue, like validation, communication, making wedding plans, when your daughter becomes a wife and then a parent, and,  of course, forgiveness.

Both a mother’s point of view and a daughter’s point of view is given for each topic, with a coming together for what is called “two part harmony”.  Discussion questions for each chapter are provided at the end of the book.

One of the things I really like about this book is that Cheri Fuller and Ali Plum do not pretend that they are perfect or have the perfect mother-daughter relationship. They’ve struggled, just like many others and have through trial and error, communication, and counselling have found a better harmony. They are transparent in that in writing the book, they ran into issues within their relationship and found ways to work through them. This, I believe, adds the the credibility and integrity of the insights they share.

As I watch my own daughter grow into a teen, and know that around the corner she will be off on her own, I am heartened to learn that moms who learn to cherish their daughter’s growth and independence have an easier time making the transition. While my daughters are not yet adults, I found many of the tips and insights from Mother-Daughter Duet worth storing in the back of mind, preparing for the day my daughters’ set sail.

Mother-Daughter Duet also has me thinking about my relationship with my mother, things I could have done better as a daughter, and things that she did so well, that I should emulate with my own daughters.

If you have a struggling relationship with your mom and would like to set it on a healthier path, you will find Mother-Daughter Duet thought provoking. And if you have daughters who are nearing adulthood or are adults, this is definitely worth reading and culling insights from.

 You can learn more about Mother-Daughter Duet on the Random House website or at your favorite bookseller.

Disclosure: This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

Have you ever struggled with joy? About three years ago, I realized that I was just doing the work, going through the motions of life, doing what my father taught me – work hard, do what’s necessary without complaint, and just get it done. But I wasn’t really embracing Joy. 

It’s been a long ten years of trials ups and downs, and it is so easy to get caught up in the day to day struggles of life, in doing what needs to be done, that it is easy to miss the opportunity for joy often masked by our focus on the work or the struggle.

If you can relate, then I recommend you check out Dancing with My Father by Sally Clarkson. I’ve been using this book for my personal daily devotional time for the last couple weeks, and it speaks directly to this struggle to find that Joy that God wants us to experience.

Through personal stories and real-life examples, Sally Clarkson shares her own journey to finding the joy, purpose, and passion that God wants us to experience in amongst our daily lives.

A story of a friend finding joy in friendship and testimony during the last days of life, reflections from relationships with friends and her daughter are all tools in Dancing with My Father to bring you closer to your heavenly father, and learn to find that joy in life, despite the daily struggles.

With 200 pages broken into 10 chapters, Dancing with My Father works great for a two week daily bible study. The stories and examples speak to the heart, especially if you have felt similar struggles. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter lend themselves well for journalling and personal bible study, or would make a great launching point for using the book for a ten-week group bible study.

I found myself jotting down notes, quotes, and thinking about that day’s chapter when I was out and about. Because of Sally Clarkson’s stories, I find myself stopping more to reflect on what is beautiful at work or on display in my life, with my kids, and with the world around me.

I still have a ways to go before I’m fully experiencing joy in my world, but reading Dancing with My Father has definitely brought more joy into my world, and given me insights into how to delve deeper in Christ and experience the joy He wants for each of us.

Dancing with My Father is headed to my reference shelf for another run through later when I need it again, and hopefully to share with my daughter when she is an adult and is ready to find the joy in what is often overwhelming day-to-day life.

You can find out more about Dancing with My Father by Sally Clarkson on the Random House website or by visiting your favorite bookseller.

Enjoy!

Disclosure: This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.