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The Classics Curriculum
Scope & Sequence
Pricing
FAQ's
Ordering Information
The Units:
1: The Witch of Blackbird Pond
2: Johnny Tremain
3: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
4: Ben and Me
5: Little House on the Prairie
6: Tom Sawyer
7: Across Five Aprils
8: Old Yeller
9: Charlotte's Web
10: Mama's Bank Account
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...BORED with textbooks?
...SICK of workbooks?
...TIRED of trying to develop teaching materials by yourself?
...THEN you need The Classics!!!
The Classics is a unit-study-based curriculum designed to fit the needs of the busy home schooling family. Since you need to spend your time actually teaching (rather than preparing lessons, gathering resources, creating projects, etc.), The Classics does most of the preparation for you. Cathy Duffy, a leading authority on home schooling says... "I am impressed with the wealth of material included, the thoroughness of topic coverage, and the ease of use." Please take a few minutes to review some of the key points and advantages of using The Classics.
Why was the unit-study approach chosen as the format for The Classics? First, research shows that the unit study approach allows you to teach more material in less time. Concepts are more clearly understood in the unit study format because the it tends to be more interesting to the student. And the more interested the student is in what he is learning, the more effort he will put into it. (If you are interested in more details on this research, drop us an e-mail. As part of her doctoral dissertation, Linda has lots of information on thematic curriculum and instruction).
Secondly, the approach was used first-hand by Linda in a public schooling situation and yielded dramatic results. If you'd like to know the details, just e-mail us.
Why do we believe The Classics is superior to most commercially published unit-study-based curricula?
The Classics was created by experienced teachers who understand the needs of the home schooling community as well as the intricacies of curriculum and instruction. As mentioned above, we have done most of the preparation for you. We provide you with complete lesson plans, answer keys, evaluations, and an extensive bibliography of supplemental materials. This is a challenging and creative curriculum that contains thousands of hands-on activities, with varying degrees of difficulty for both the younger student and the more advanced pupil. Because we are concerned that children learn to think more than "regurgitate", every effort has been made to give children opportunities to develop their critical thinking skills. We are strong believers in the basics--reading and writing. Therefore, all of our subject areas emphasize reading and writing activities in creative and challenging ways.
Lastly, we have not forgotten our main purpose--to help home schoolers be successful! We are available if you need help or advice. Just e-mail us with you questions and a consultant will contact you with helpful answers and suggestions. We believe in home schooling and really want you to be an effective teacher.
Lets take a few minutes to break down the curriculum... to look at each section and see how it works. Each unit is based on a classic children's novel and contains:
- A Student Activity Book, containing the various subject areas:
- Creative Writing
- English
- Vocabulary
- Reading
- Spelling
- Critical thinking
- History & Geography
- Science & Health
- Moral & Ethical Values
- A Teacher's Edition, containing:
- Lesson Plans
- Answer Keys
- Bibliography
- Unit Evaluations
The STUDENT ACTIVITY BOOK
The various subject areas center around themes contained in the novel. For example, the historical settings in the novel is used to teach about the history and geography of that particular time period. For example, in Johnny Tremain, we cover the period in America just prior to the American Revolution. There is always a science or health theme (in Johnny Tremain, Johnny burns his hand... we discuss fire, combustion, first aid, etc.). Objective activities are marked with a key symbol indicating that an answer key is provided in the Teacher's Edition.
- English
Research indicates that students gain a better understanding of English grammar through the processes of reading, writing and editing than they do by completing isolated grammar worksheets and redundant exercises. The Classics contains grammar lessons designed to provide your student with ample opportunities to read, write and edit. Two levels of difficulty, a lower level (appropriate for children in grades three through four) and an upper level (appropriate for children in grades five through six) are provided in this section of the Student Activity Book. Reading assignments are provided every day. Students who are too young to read comfortably by themselves can be read to by the teacher of by an older student. Additionally, writing exercises are provided each day. These writing exercises not only build writing skills, but also strengthen grammar skills, as well as improving penmanship. Students are encouraged to edit their own work, again improving their grammar skills and providing them with an opportunity to correct mistakes.
- Vocabulary
Vocabulary words are easy to learn using the Word-A-Day Vocabulary Calendar. The student learns one new word each day. Words for older students are provided; however, this method can be adapted for younger students, too. Additional activities, such as word searches, crossword puzzles, games, etc., are provided to help students gain ownership of these new, and often challenging, vocabulary words.
- Creative Writing
Because we believe students should be encouraged to write every day The Classics provides a multitude of activities that encourage creative writing, such as:
- Daily Writing Paragraphs - A calendar of writing topics provided to help the student "warm up". The student is asked to write for a period of not less than five minutes each day on the topic for the day. This is done for four days in a row. On the fifth day, "Editing Day" the student selects his or her favorite paragraph from the previous four days to edit. Teachers are encouraged to have students edit one skill at a time until this skill is mastered, thus building the student's confidence while helping the student grow into a proficient writer.
- Descriptive Paragraphs
- Song Writing
- Poetry Writing
- ...and much, much more!
- Reading
The Classics places high priority on developing a love for reading by encouraging children to read good books. The unit novel is considered "read-aloud" material for "Family Listening" time. An extensive bibliography of related titles is also included to help you select appropriate reading material for independent reading time. Supplemental reading activities are designed to emphasize areas that the student will encounter during standardized testing, i.e., main idea, cause & effect, sequencing and inferences. Two levels of difficulty, a lower level (appropriate for children in grades three through four) and an upper level (appropriate for children in grades five through six) are provided in this section of the Student Activity Book. In addition, comprehension questions designed to enhance discussion of the novel are included.
- Critical Thinking
This section contains a variety of activities designed to stimulate the student's logical thinking abilities including grid logic puzzles, analogies and other strategic exercises that require the student to follow written directions and use deductive reasoning skills.
- Spelling
Educators today propose that being a good speller is a natural gift. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, however, research does show that spelling is greatly improved through extensive reading and writing, rather than through the memorization of meaningless lists of words and rules. Each unit of The Classics incorporates spelling with writing and vocabulary activities to develop spelling skills in a natural and more meaningful way.
- History & Geography
Where ever possible, activities focus on the historical time period surrounding the novel. For example, in Johnny Tremain, we cover the period in America just prior to the beginning of the American Revolution. History notes are dispersed throughout the activities to give a capsule summary of important historical events and key geographical information. Map studies and research projects are united with written exercises and arts & crafts to create an interesting learning climate designed to foster a love for history. Since The Classics is not a textbook curriculum, the use of the home encyclopedia as a resource is encouraged. We highly recommend The World Book Encyclopedia. (NOTE: It is not necessary to have a NEW encyclopedia as history is still "history" regardless--an older edition, or even a CD-ROM version is fine!) If you don't have an encyclopedia at home--use your library, or check out the Internet for lots of wonderful resources (supervised, of course!).
- Science & Health
Activities in this section center around a theme from the novel whenever possible. An example would be in Johnny Tremain, where by accident Johnny burns his hand... we discuss fire, combustion, first aid, etc. Activities include simple experiments that reinforce important scientific principles. Materials required for all activities are usually common materials found around the home. Resource materials can be found at your library, on the Internet, or in your home encyclopedia.
- Moral & Ethical Values
Because this curriculum utilizes classic children's literature, each novel stresses a moral or ethical theme. This theme is presented in the curriculum using Biblical principles. Please note that careful attention has been taken not to center on any doctrinal matters, leaving these interpretations up to the teacher.
The TEACHER'S EDITION
Each Teacher's Edition contains Lesson Plans, Answer Keys, Unit Evaluations and an extensive Bibliography. Included is a Teacher Instruction Manual which contains helpful information on the program's use and how to get started.
- Bibliography
An extensive bibliography is provided to help you choose supplementary reading materials. Books are chosen based on the subject matter contained in the novel and the historical time period in which the novel is set. Books are listed in three categories... fiction, nonfiction and biographies. A short synopsis of the book's contents along with the reading level is included to assist you in choosing materials that interest the student and are on the student's functional reading level. Books with readability/interest levels from pre-school through grade nine are included. This is exceedingly helpful when using this curriculum with children of different ages and abilities.
- Answer Keys
The Answer Key provides you with solutions for all objective activities contained in the Student Activity Book.
- Unit Evaluations
A complete set of unit evaluations, including answer sheets is provided. Formats are designed to simulate the formats of standardized achievement tests. In addition to checking the student's knowledge of the subject material, test-taking skills are also strengthened (the student becomes "test wise", thereby better prepared to demonstrate his or her knowledge on a standardized test). Also provided, of course, are answer keys for each evaluation.
- Lesson Plans
Lesson plans are provided for all subjects. They offer both structure and flexibility. You may choose to follow the plans provided or construct a plan of your own (we tell you how). Where applicable, the lesson plans indicate the difficulty of each activity:
- B... Beginning
- I... Intermediate
- A... Advanced
Also included are objectives for each activity and complete list of required materials. Careful attention has been taken to choose inexpensive materials commonly available around the house.
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