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Saxon is a tried and true mathematics choice for many homeschoolers, but one complaint about the high school level texts Algebra I and Algebra II is that geometry is included piecemeal in the algebra courses rather than being taught separately in a systematic fashion. Jacobs' Geometry is one alternative for those who find this to be a problem. It is a friendly, thorough approach to high school geometry that starts with an introduction to deductive reasoning and takes the student through to non-Euclidean and coordinate geometry.

The format is very appealing, at least to my high-school age son and myself. The book is divided into chapters covering broad topics like Rays and Angles, Congruent Triangles, and Quadrilaterals. These are subdivided into lessons. Each lesson opens with a cartoon or thought puzzle which draws the student into the topic being discussed. There are three sets of problems in each lesson: the first one usually checks comprehension of concepts and knowledge of theorems, the second set is an application of the lesson to proofs, and the third set, usually a single question, presents a brain-teaser which allows the student to think and ponder creatively.

A Letter to the Student at the beginning tells the story of Pythagoras, the Greek geometer, who taught a reluctant student by paying him for each theorem he learned. By the end of the course, the student was paying Pythagoras. The anecdote sets the tone for the whole book, the assumption being that geometry is a noble, worthwhile endeavor and that a student will realize this and be willing to apply himself to mastery.

Though I haven't used the Jacobs' Algebra, the format looks similar to Geometry. My high-schooler is using it now in short sections as a review. With my next high schooler, I am planning to go from Saxon Algebra ½ to Jacobs' Algebra. There is no book in the Jacobs' series after Geometry; the author Harold Jacobs recommends Algebra II and Trigonometry by Paul A Foerster as the next step before Calculus.

There are a wealth of good and interesting books about the two World Wars: The Winged Watchman by Hilda Van Stockum, Enemy Brothers by Constance Savery, Flying Aces of World War I by Gene Gurney and many others. After reading a number of these, I began to wish for a book with pictures of the various types of airplanes in order to understand and appreciate the stories better.

I searched for such a guide unsuccessfully for a year or more before I happened to visit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. where I came upon this little gem in the gift shop.

This 5" x 7 1/2" guidebook has a friendly size and tough binding for little hands. (We've had ours for over two years and it has held up very nicely.) It organizes the aircraft into five categories: World War I, Inter-War, World War II, Postwar and Helicopters. The categories are easy to find with color bars alongside each left-hand page. The book was written in the U.K. and thus does not focus on various smaller wars since World War II, but the "Postwar" and "Helicopter" segments do include some information about the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Also keep in mind that this is a guidebook for "Historic" Aircraft and thus does not include aircraft that is in use by military today.

Each two page spread includes a fact page on the lefthand side and a full-color photo of a restored or replica airplane that is in flying condition. The fact page includes a paragraph explaining the aircraft's history and features along with detailed specifications: name, type, accomodation, dimensions, weight, speed, range, first flight date, etc.

The book is a little expensive (around $25) and not an absolutely essential ingredient in the study of history, but we've found it to be a really nice supplement. It might make a great Christmas or Birthday present for your young World War II buff.

Jesus and I remains a delightful catechism used to prepare both older and younger children for their First Confession and First Holy Communion. In use for decades, the content is solid yet presented in a manner that is clear and usable with young students. Gentle black and white drawings appeal to more sensitive and/or younger children who shy away from more graphic pictures in modern texts.

Jesus and I is organized into very short lessons that lend themselves to direct, oral teaching and discussion. It is designed to be used BY the teacher WITH the student, not by handing the book to the student to read and fill in answers by himself. The book begins with several pages of prayers that we should know by heart. The lesson titles are phrases from these prayers, and the lesson content explains that particular phrase. For example, the lesson titled "Angel of God, my guardian dear" explains Catholic teachings on angels. The lesson titled "And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus" explains the Incarnation. As the children memorize their prayers, they are also being taught what the prayers mean.

Each lesson begins with a narrative written in simple, short sentences. This is followed by the "How Many Can You Answer?" section of questions for the youngest students. Next are the "Can You Also Answer These?" questions for older students, which come from the First Communion Catechism in use when the book was originally written. The book ends with sections on "When I Go to Confession" and "When I Go to Holy Communion" followed by a summary of all of the First Communion Catechism questions.

It's rather lovely, I think that the Pope uses in his own book a phrase (which he applies to the parables of Jesus) which aptly describes this fascinating book: "...it not only or even primarily adds to what we know, but it changes our lives."

In Jesus of Nazareth, Our Holy Father presents a vision of primary events of the Gospels (this volume covers significant stories chronologically from the Baptism of Our Lord through the Transfiguration - a second volume is expected in the future). He delves into these Gospel stories (many of which are commonly taken for granted - both because we've heard these stories since we were young and because we're missing some of the background details that add depth and additional significance to these stories) to help bring Our Lord to life for modern readers.

Here are the basic Gospel stories that are covered in the text:

The Baptism of Jesus
The Temptations of Jesus
The Kingdom of God
The Sermon on the Mount
The Lord's Prayer
The Disciples
The Parables (with an emphasis on The Good Samaritan, The Prodigal Sun and the Rich Man and Lazarus)
Images from St. John's Gospel (Water, Vine and Wine, Bread, and the Shepherd)
Peter's Confession
The Transfiguration
Jesus Declares His Identity (The Son of Man, The Son, "I Am")

Here's a sampling of the style and content of the book, taken from the chapter on the Our Father in which the Pope discusses what we mean by "Hallowed be Thy Name".

God establishes a relationship between himself and us. He puts himself within reach of our invocation. He enters into relationship with us and enables us to be in relationship with him. Yet this means that in some sense he hands himself over to our human world. He has made himself accessible and, therefore, vulnerable as well. He assumes the risk of relationship, of communion, with us.

The process that was brought to completion in the Incarnation had begun with the giving of the divine name.... God has now truly made himself accessible in his incarnate Son. He has become a part of our world: he has, as it were, put himself into our hands.

This enables us to understand what the petition for the sanctification of the divine name means. The name of God can now be misused and so God himself can be sullied. The name of God can be co-opted for our purposes and so the image of God can also be distorted. The more he gives himself into our hands, the more we can obscure his light; the closer he is, the more our misuse can disfigure him. Martin Buber once said that when we consider all the ways in which God's name has been so shamefully misused, we almost despair of uttering it ourselves. But to keep it silent would be an outright refusal of the love with which God comes to us. Buber says that our only recourse is to try as reverently as possible to pick up and purify the polluted fragments of the divine name. But there is no way we can do that alone. All we can do is plead with him not to allow the light of his name to be destroyed in the world.

He elucidates the various Gospel stories from many angles, though certain patterns emerge. In many places, he discusses and refutes modern theories about the Life of Christ (many of which have the common thread of doubting the historical validity of the Gospels). These are usually the most difficult portions of the book to follow. I found it helpful to underline principal portions in order to keep a particular thread fresh in my memory. Brief notes on the various threads might also be helpful.

He also references Eastern imagery from traditional icons and what we have learned from Tradition (from the teachings of the Church Fathers) about the various Gospel passages.

This is a life-changing book. There are many stories, like the Transfiguration, that I had little understanding of to begin with and will never hear or think about in the same way again. I studied this over the course of a school year with a group of high school students. We studied approximately 10 to 15 pages at a time and discussed everything in depth. I don't think it's a book that most high schoolers could read on their own. Reading it in chunks together allowed us to delve into it more deeply (I'm certain that I got more out of it than I would have if I had read it on my own.) The discussions provided an opportunity to clarify confusing parts of the text (many times I was able to provide some helpful background info such as an explanation of a philosophical idea). The students really enjoyed the book and got a lot out of it. Besides the obvious benefits of the content of the book itself, they're now less intimidated by an "intellectual" book and understand that it's okay to just make a beginning in reading such a book and that it's perfectly normal to get more out of such a book every time they read it.

For those who might be interested, I wrote a number of blog posts on this book while I was studying it. You can read them here.