Andrea Chen

The Institute for Excellence in Writing, owned by a Catholic convert and home school father, teaches the "structure and style of writing" through live and video workshops. This program is used throughout Canada. As do other programs IEW teaches structure (organizing material for writing) so that the final written piece will be logical, but unlike most programs children are trained to do this by using the writings of good authors. The structure of writing is taught by having children read literature, outline the literature, narrate from their outline, then write their own piece.

This review of Spelling Power includes a comparison with Phonetic Zoo and My Catholic Speller.

Spelling Power is a single volume, non-consumable resource for teaching spelling to children (and adults) of all ages. It includes over 5,000 spelling words organized by rule and difficulty level, dozens of activities to help the child remember the correct spelling, extensive notes explaining how and why the program was designed and a clear explanation of how the program is to be used.

The Phonetic Zoo is an auditory (CD) based spelling program that includes at each level 5 Audio CD's (540 rule-based spelling words), 47 5 ½"x 8 ½" flashcards teaching the most important spelling rules and similar set of 2 �" x 3 5/8" (illustrated) zoo cards, an introductory DVD, and a pamphlet that explains the basics of the program.

The ad for this book does not do it justice. It is far more than just a reading comprehension workbook and although the ad does list the activities involved, it doesn't express their depth or breadth. This book could be used as a unit study! I plan to have my 12 year old select a saint each quarter to prayerfully study and to immerse himself in the saints life and spirituality. Although Isaiah enjoys reading the lives of the saints, when he's done with a book (usually in a few days) his devotion to the saint usually doesn't last long.

This lovely story is reprint of the 1905 book The Transplanting of Tessie. Little Tessie spent six years at a convent boarding school before becoming ill. She finds herself at her uncle's country estate where she recovers and, through many adventures, brings her relatives to the Catholic faith. All of our children enjoyed this touching story. The author writes vividly and with just enough suspense to keep the reader wanting more.

This 525 page hardcover is Book 1 in the once popular Catholic high school series "A Course For Secondary Schools." Fortunately, for those who want to continue educating their children along the lines of Voyages in English series, Lepanto press has reprinted this 1952 gem.

If you're looking for a way to liven up your math program or to bring in some painless math review you have to pick up this book. Catholic Math Activities provides dozens of math games that children actually enjoy playing and almost all of them only require dice and simple home-made material. The author makes use of children's interests by revolving the games around things such as baseball cards and animals. What really pleased me about this program is the clever way our Catholic faith was brought into these games.

Singapore students are scoring the highest in the world in math and science. The web page for these texts in the US is http://www.singaporemath.com

Singapore Math seems to solve the "conceptual/drill...Saxon jumping around problem". Here's an example from a problem in the first half of fifth grade book

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