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Update for readers of The Home School Manual 
Q
- Mathematics and Critical Thinking
Part 1, Math Programs
Mathematics for Everyday Living Consumer Math Workbooks. Topics include: Buying, Saving, Borrowing, Investment, Insurance, Taxes, Statistics, Inflation & Depreciation, and Budgeting. Cost is $9.95 each or less when you buy a "bundle." Check their website where you can download sample pages. These are for high school or upper elementary. http://home.meridiancg.com. Phone is .
Part 5, Thinking Skills Critical Thinking Books & Software now has a "Home Education Catalog." This publisher has good materials although they seem to be a bit on the expensive side. http://www.criticalthinking.com. The Infinite
Mind "is a weekly radio show focusing
on the art and science of the human mind and spirit, behavior, and mental
health. Since its premiere in March, 1998, it has become one of the most
popular science and health shows on public radio, and is now aired in over
150 public radio markets in the U.S. and Canada."
Readers Speak Out A two-page periodical where teens pose questions and other teens respond. A couple questions in the issue I'm looking at (Aug. 2001) will give you an idea. "Should the Internet be censored" and "Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual person? What led you to your beliefs or absence of them?" I would want to discuss the questions with my teen. Younger teens may not be ready. I recommend beginning with the 10th or 11th grade. With guidance, the paper could help build firm convictions. Editor, Ron Richard son, 4003 50th Ave. SW, Seattle, WA 98116. Ask for guidelines for participation. Also see
Think Quest in Appendix Y below.
Part 1,
History
Part 2, Geography  Geo
Runner To
check your knowledge of the location of countries, you use your mouse to
fly an airplane to a named country. If you don't arrive right away you
get stopped for refueling. On arrival, you get a key to help let a little
character out of jail. The gate requires several keys. Once out, he soon
gets into trouble again and you need to go to other countries to find more
keys. Nothing indicates that the guy does any bad things to get into jail.
He just skates around a bit and crashes. Levels of difficulty provide or
require a little more information like capital cities. On leaving the program
you have an option to print a report. It tells basically what you did.
One line on my printout, for example, says "Difficulty 3 (Africa) : Fly
to Asmara, the capital of Eritrea."
As with most programs like this, the learning is fairly trivial. The software has room for improvement for the next edition. The airplane is hard to control. If you zip around long enough in the right area, it gets the signal from the right country. Graphics and sounds are nice. The CD does not automatically boot up the installation program. You need to run "d:/setup" for d as your CD drive for Windows 95 or 98. It also works on Macs. Ohio Distinctive Software has been in business for a long time. They sell simple programs for what most companies charge for shipping and handling. In fact they typically say the software is free and to send what they require for shipping. For two copies of this CD and two of a word-learning program, I paid $9.90 total. That's $2.475 each. I could have gotten one each for half of that, and if I had wanted three sets, too bad. The maximum is two. Now I'm invited to send $10 plus shipping of $2.50 for four more children's programs. The four CD set is priced at $20 on the website Others CDs are $10. They say that high volume keeps them going. So if the greed of big software companies has you depressed, just do a bit of business with Ohio Distinctive. Your kids will learn something, too. http://www.ohio-distinctive.com. PO Box 349900, Columbus OH 43235.
Go Travel: Africa A card game for learning about the countries of Africa. You can get an idea of the game's quality from the illustration. I believe your kids will enjoy it. $15 plus $2.50 shipping from Travel-by-Games, Box 1431, Clinton, IA http://www.travelbygames.com/; gotravel. . The publisher also offers a make-it-yourself game kit (great idea) for selected US cities and states. With the kit, your kids will learn more and exercise a bit of creativity. Part 3, Culture
Part 4, Government and Economics Bluestocking Press New website http://www.BluestockingPress.com. Owner Jane Williams (& husband) have been serving home schools for a long time. Here's the brief description of their operation which she included with the announcement. "We specialize in history (fiction, primary sources, documents, craft kit, music, games, and more) as well as a great math series. We are also the publisher of the 'Uncle Eric' books by Richard J. Maybury (Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?, Whatever Happened to Justice?, etc.) and the Laura Ingalls Wilder/Rose Wilder Lane Historical Timetable." The Uncle Eric series is good. The "penny candy" one is about economics. Part 5, Mixed Category Veritas
Press Materials published and distributed with an emphasis on what
is termed the classical approach. In my review, I mentioned my objections
to the approach and some of the pictures of naked children. I just got
a copy of their 2001-2002 catalog. It's quite large and offers many books
and other items from a variety of sources. It is conveniently organized
by grade level. It covers subjects other than social studies and levels
through high school. They have a new address: 1250 Belle Meade Dr., Lancaster,
PA 17601 and a new phone . http://www.veritaspress.com
- info.
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Boxer
Math Described as covering math fundamentals,
pre-algebra, algebra, and trigonometry. Interactive CDs. I reviewed the
Boxer Introductory Algebra CD. The program is carefully planned. It seems
to me that more exercises would be better and that minor changes would
improve the learner interface. I also believe there is value in actually
looking at questions in a book and writing out the equations and solving
them on paper. How good a substitute is point-and-click? It would be nice
to see some research. As a teacher, until I had had experience with the
computer version, I would want my students to have a good algebra textbook
nearby. The author mentions that people didn't use numbers 20,000 years
ago. This may not be a problem if it's handled right. And some would agree.
If some of you who read this have used the program, I would like to hear
your viewpoints. 
Mastering
Mathematics, Mastery Publications,
Covers
grades 1-6 and most of 7 and 8. Self taught (except for early grades).
Looks interesting but not examined. 90 Hillside Ln., Arden, NC 28704; (828)
684-0429. 
Grolier's
CornerStone Home Math I've begun to examine
the interactive CD for grades 3 and 4. So far I can't make it work. I get
"lesson not installed" errors. Maybe, since this first disk is free, it
isn't intended to work. I can see, however, how it operates. Several years
ago I reviewed Skills Bank and didn't recommend it, except for testing
– to see what concepts were understood. The program didn't actually teach.
It was a matter of guessing and then understanding that you had the right
answer. Apparently this is the same since Grolier adds the "Skills Bank"
name and logo. A cartoon interface has been added to access the "lessons."
You earn tokens to play in an arcade. The pictures are wild. In all, it
would not be the program I would choose for my children. Grolier has done
a nice job on their encyclopedia, by the way. 
Founding
Fathers & Mothers, A Field Trip to 18th Century America
I'm not sure it's fair for Stacey Marolf & Laurie Pessano to be paid
for the fun they much have had preparing this book and cassette. In the
book are "Historical Backgrounds," life sketches of eight early Colonists
and notes about schools, medicine, slavery, etc. The "Illustrations" might
have been better drawn but are okay. Kids can color them. Other sections
cover drama, script, music and dance, crafts, recipes, a book list, and
Internet sites. You can have your kids do a play. Five music selections
on the brief cassette add sparkle. 1999, 120 pp., Good Company Players,
; Fax ... -9494. 