Reading her columns again has been a walk down memory lane as I have checked to see if the books I’ve listed are still in print. I’ve listed some of them below along with links to her original column and some occasional snippets from her reviews. I hope your family enjoys each of her recommended books as much as we did!

I distinctly recall borrowing and reading Steven Kellog’s I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago after reading Joan’s review in her July-August 1997 column. She wrote:

No one retells a tall tale with more panache than Steven Kellogg. In this one, which was adapted from a nineteenth-century American folk song, multiple narrators boldly take credit for some of the most outrageous claims in history. One by one, they brag about having seen King Pharoah’s daughter fish Moses out of the water, of seeing Adam and Eve being banished from the Garden of Eden, of showing Columbus the way to the New World, of secretly marrying Queen Elizabeth in Milwaukee, even of playing hopscotch with spacemen on the moon (with plans to visit Saturn). All of these outlandish boasts are embellished with Kellogg’s own verse and typically exuberant illustrations.

In that same column she reviewed A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipplle, the first book in the Dear America Series, A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder, by Walter Wick and Lives of the Athletes: Thrills, Spills (and What the Neighbors Thought.)

In her January-February 1998 So Many Books column, Joan Torkildson reviewed:

• Cracked Corn and Snow Ice Cream A Family Almanac, by Nancy Willard
  Joan writes this about the book: Perfect for browsing during long, wintery afternoons (even if you don’t happen to live in the Midwest), the almanac is both an engrossing read and a poignant reminder of a quieter, less complicated time not so very long ago.
  
• I Wonder Why Trees Have Leaves and Other Questions About Plants (Kingfisher books by various authors)
  The books are an eclectic mix of bold, easy-to-read type, beautifully realistic illustrations, and humorous cartoon-like drawings. Questions range from the sensible (“Why do leaves change color in the fall?”) to the quirky (“Which bird sniffs all night?”).
  
• The Kingfisher Young People’s Atlas of the World
  Extensively indexed, the book also includes detailed charts of facts and figures for each continent.
  
• I Saw a Purple Cow by Ann Cole, Carolyn Haas, Faith Bushnell, and Betty Weinberger
  The emphasis here is on the simple and homemade, a feature that will no doubt be appreciated by budget-minded homeschooling families. Most of the activities in the book use recycled or common household items, such as cardboard boxes and tubes, egg cartons, newspapers and magazines, cans and jar lids, old clothes and jewelry, crayons, and watercolors. Have plenty of white glue and tape on hand.
  
• The Best of Shakespeare: Retellings of 10 Classic Plays E. Nesbit

In the So Many Books March-April 1997 Column, Joan wrote this about

• With Needle and Thread: A Book About Quilts , by Raymond Bial, With Needle and Thread would make a nice addition to a unit study on quiltmaking, or could simply add depth and background to a family quiltmaking project. Ambitious types might try researching a few of the hundreds of colorful names (Broken Dishes, Chinese Coins, Drunkard’s Path, Trip Around the World) to uncover more of the history of this gentle “art within.

In this column she also reviewed

• The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding Our Families
• Mapping a Changing World
• My Brother Sam Is Dead

Here is a list of other books that she recommended via her column:

• Pass the Peas Please
• Crinkleroot’s Nature Almanac
• Grandfather’s Christmas Tree
• Amelia Erhart, Young Air Pioneer

I’ve linked many of the books to sites where you can purchase them, whether brand-new or well-used, but don’t forget to see if you can borrow them from your local public library first!

Time Travel with a Teaspoon Archaeology For Kids by Rebecca Rupp was featured in the September-October 1998 issue of Home Education Magazine. Rebecca opened the column by writing:

Caleb, our youngest son, wants (just now) to be an archaeologist when he grows up. Accordingly, he reads everything he can find on archaeological topics, surfs the Internet in search of the ancient, and subscribes to the magazine Archaeology, published bimonthly by the Archaeological Institute of America. Archaeology, which is aimed at adults, has a fairly sophisticated text, but the pictures – all in color – are great for persons of all ages. Each issue includes several feature articles about archaeological discoveries worldwide.

In this one paragraph, Rebecca explains the beauty of learning and that children do not have to be limited to age appropriate material when exploring their passions in the real world! The column was written over ten years ago, but as always, much of what she shared remains available today. Here are some of the Archaeology resources she shares:

Society for American Archaeology (SAA) http://www.saa.org. This first one offers many great resources, but I was delighted find Frequently Asked Questions About A Career In Archaeology In The U.S.

Next she offered these recommendations:

• Calliope http://www.cobblestonepub.com/magazine/CAL/
• Faces http://www.cobblestonepub.com/magazine/FAC/

I was able to find the following book suggestions at my local library:

• Dig This! How Archaeologists Uncover Our Past (Michael Avi-Yonah; Runestone Press, 1993) Also in this series; Scrawl! Writing in Ancient Times; Fired Up! Making Pottery in Ancient Times; Piece by Piece: Mosaics of the Ancient World; and Sunk! Exploring Underwater Archaeology
• The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells: A Book About Archaeology (Jackie Posner; Scholastic, 1997
• The Young Oxford Book of Archaeology by Norah Moloney (Oxford University Press, 1997)
• Gods, Graves, and Scholars by C.W. Ceram (Bantam, 1976

I could not find these at my local or statewide library, but as Becky writes, many can be found in libraries or used bookstores.

• All About Archaeology by Anne Terry White (Random House, 1959)
• Archaeology by Dennis Fradin (Children’s Press, 1983)
• The Practical Archaeologist by Jane McIntosh (Facts On File, 1986
• Archaeology: A Brief Introduction by Brian Fagan (Addison Wesley, 1996)

As always, Rebecca offers some interesting hands on resources as well.

• Prehistoric Cave Painting Kit and Rock Art Painting. Both kits are available from Ancient Graffiti, 52 Seymour St., 888) 725-6632 fax (802) 388-7104; e-mail: ancientg @ sovernet.com. (I could not find the company on line, so I’m not sure if they remain in business or not.



• Archaeological Fieldwork Opportunities Bulletin (AFOB)
• PIT (Passport in Time) Traveler
• The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training

In this column Rebecca also reviews some other great resources. was able to find: Reading Through the Ages By Linda Thornhill and Sally Barnard, The Game of Shakespeare, Beaver Tooth and Days of Knights and Damsels

HEM columnist Rebecca Rupp has a Ph.D. in cell biology, has written for many magazines, and has published several books. She lives in Vermont with her husband and three sons.

Not only is Cafi the author of several homeschool books, she was also a columnist for Home Education Magazine for a few years and many of her excellent articles can be accessed online.

One great sample of her Older Kids column was featured in the July-August 1997 issue of Home Education Magazine. In this column Cohen wrote about Less being More. Although the column is over ten years old, the information remains relevant today. She writes this about the vendors’ area of a homeschool conference she had attended:

Hundreds of exhibitors lined the aisles at the last homeschooling conference I attended. There were educational games; nifty self- instructional computer math programs; complete lab science kits; history and art and music videos; all the “basics” of K-12 education on CD-ROM; even some wonderful books.

It all beckoned, promising to make my life easier by selling me the tools for The Perfect Homeschool Program. With unlimited funds, I would have had no trouble spending thousands of dollars. Good thing, with both kids in college, we are no longer in the homeschool shopping mode.

She also writes:

With adulthood around the corner, those parents want to do the right thing, the right thing often defined by the statement: “I don’t want to do anything that will wreck his chances of…..” You fill in the blank: getting into college, finding employment, joining the military, living on his own, etc. It is easy to be scared into trading big bucks for the assurance that you are doing the right thing.

What I learned from homeschooling in the old days, when large conferences, indeed any conferences, were unheard-of and when finding resources was like pulling teeth, is that you really don’t need the glitzy stuff to succeed. In fact, avoiding glitz may be the key to more productive home education.

How is it that Less Is More? Could refusing to spend $500 to $1,000 on new instructional materials not only save you money but also result in a better homeschooling experience for your family? The short answer is “Yes.”

Cohen suggests looking to community models to find great resources for your children. Here are some of the models and resources she suggests. Please note that some of the resources might be gone, but I’ve updated some and added a few of my own.

Public Library

Reference librarians, Books (including any text) not on the shelves I can order inter-library loan and generally have within two weeks, tapes, instructional videos, (dvds) for everything from algebra to zoology, historical documentary films, Internet access, science project idea books, announcements about cultural events in town, reading groups for all ages, magazines

Other Homeschooling Families

Generally you will find these individuals through support groups. You can explore Home Education Magazine’s Support Group Listings to find a group near you.

Community Groups

It seems there are special interest groups for everything. Some my teenagers liked were church sports teams (basketball and volleyball and softball), skiing clubs, ballooning groups in Albuquerque, drama groups, special interest groups for environmental and other political causes.

Catalogs

And resource number four is catalogs from homeschooling suppliers. Some catalogs are full of information for beginners, most notably the catalog from The Elijah Company . It describes various homeschooling approaches and coordinates them to resources. It also has outstanding age-appropriate reading list recommendations.

Other catalogs I like for their reading list and alternative learning materials recommendations are Holt Associates (617 864-3100), The Drinking Gourd (800 TDG 5487), and Grace Llewellyn’s Genius Tribe (541-686-2315).

What to do with all the money you save from using the library, talking to experienced homeschooling parents, joining community groups, and reading catalogs? Here it is, the exception that proves the rule, Less Is More: buy a computer and join us online! The computer is the key to information access, and information can save you frustration, money, and time.

Here are a few more resources I’d like to add:

Community Groups

I did a google search with “my town + community groups” and found a few organizations, but I found many more by visiting my city’s chamber of commerce and again by visiting my local library. These days, the Internet allows us to find almost anything instantaneously, but I think when it comes to taking my kids to meet a group of people, I proceed with caution and appreciate a face to face meeting with the adults first.
In addition to support group listings, HEM offers some online community opportunities at HEM NEWS and Commentary and their Editorial Blog.

They also offer several discussion groups:

• HEM New Homeschoolers
• HEM Unschooling
• HEM Writers
• HEM Recipes
• HEM Networking

Catalogs

I love the catalogs that Cafi shared, but some of them are no longer available. John Holt’s site still exists , but the bookstore is now a part of Fun Books. By doing a simple, “curriculum +homeschool ” search you will find more resource companies now than were available when Cohen first wrote Less is More. Additionally, there are many sites where you can buy gently used resources as well.

Does this mean you should not use a curriculum, nor find as many resources that you can? Of course not, but what it does mean is that you must make sure that any resource you might find serves your child and that you or your child do not become a slave to a program that you paid a lot of money for, but might not be a good fit.

I picked this particular column for Closer Look because I believe the additional pressure to buy, buy, buy to make sure your child excels causes more stress to our homeschool community than it helps. Mark Hegener, HEM Publisher and homeschool Dad once said that all you need to homeschool is love and a library card. That continues to remain true as well and I hope you will read and take to heart Cafi Cohen’s sage advice in Less is More.

I thought I’d show you just what I mean by looking at one of the earliest Good Stuff columns that HEM shares online, All Aboard! The article was published in 1997, but I was still able to find many of the resources she listed today that I’m sharing below. I hope you see how you could easily do the same.

In this March-April 1997Good Stuff Column she wets our whistle by writing:

Almost everybody loves a train, from small-sized admirers of television’s Thomas the Tank Engine to teen-aged students of American history, who want to know what happened to the much-talked-about Golden Spike that completed the Transcontinental Railroad. (For those who have rosy visions of driving to Promontory Point and extracting it, forget it: it’s in the Smithsonian.) Our kids were first introduced to the appealing train through Watty Piper’s classic The Little Engine That Could (Platt & Munk, 1930), now available in any number of editions, but all starring the determined little pale-blue train who finally (“I think I can; I think I can…”) made it over the mountain with a load of toys. It’s supposed to instill the virtues of courage and persistence in the very small; parents can quote bits of it comfortingly to frustrated five-year-olds, who have thrown a failed project on the floor and are stomping upon it.

So beginning with the Transcontinental Railroad’s Golden Spike and the beloved Little Engine that could, she begins to share resource after resource and I always feel as if I’m in a candy store and don’t know which one to pick first. Let’s look at these she refers to in the first paragraph:

This is America, Charlie Brown,Volume 3: The Building of the Transcontinental Railroad. I found a copy of it at the Railroad Bookstore and was also able to reserve it at my local library, along with Watty Piper’s Little Engine that Could.

Next she reviews the following books, all of which I was able to find at my local library. I’ve also added a few resources that I discovered as well to illustrate what great jumping off points Becky provides:

• Kate Shelley and the Midnight Express (Margaret K. Wetterer; Carolrhoda, 1991
  1. Hero Book from Crayola
  2. Reading Rainbow

• The Boxcar Children (Gertrude Warner; Albert Whitman & Co., 1989)
  1. Boxcar Children Website
  2. About Gertrude Warner

• The Death of the Iron Horse (Paul Goble, Bradbury, 1987)
  1. Other books by Paul Goble

• The Transcontinental Railroad by Peter Anderson (Childrens Press, 1996)
  1. Other books by Peter Anderson
• Great Trains to Cut Out and Assemble, Bellerophon Books (I didn’t find this one at my library, but is still available for purchase here
• Jackdaw Publications, “James Watt and Steam Power” portfolio which is still available, but the price has gone up.
  1. Steam Engine History
  2. James Watt

Then she offers up some games. (Again, some of the prices have gone up, but the resources still look like interesting finds.)

• Uncle Happy’s Train Game - I couldn’t find this game for sale at Mayfair, Inc. any longer, but
  I did find several new railroad games that you can look at here.
• The Game of Railroads and Robber Barons (If anyone has a copy of this game, it was going for a mighty high price on Ebay. The link that I share is a free download, but I can’t vouch for the site that offers it.)
  

• Music for Little People offered a train whistle which they didn’t seem to have any longer, but I found one at Windy City Novelties, Inc. along with more whistles than I’ve ever seen.

In this column Becky goes on to review ElementO, Gumshoe Geography, PBS Home Video/The West, Dino Math Tracks, My Best Math Puzzles. This certainly seems as if it would be more than enough, but she shares more that you can explore at Home Education Magazine Content Archives here.

HEM columnist Rebecca has a Ph.D. in cell biology, has written for many magazines, and has published several books. She lives in Vermont with her husband and three sons.

Where can you find the best resources for your child without breaking your budget? Many times instead of purchasing resources, they can be found for free, or almost free. After all, many home educators are living on one income and their choices are sometimes limited to a budget. Many find free resources at the public library, community learning opportunities via local museums, parks and other interesting places. The Internet has opened up a whole new world of free resources and Wikipedia and MIT’s OpenCourseware are two excellent examples. Many resources can be found at a fraction of a cost at flea markets, thrift shops, swaps and online auctions. Just do a web search for any of these and you will be amazed at what you find.

Who doesn’t want to stretch their dollar? Here are a few articles and resources that may help you to do just that.

Articles

Free the Curriculum – Helen Hegener

One of the more fascinating websites and blogs I’ve come across recently is Lawrence Lessig’s; Lessig is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society. Professor Lessig is the author of Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001) and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999). He chairs the Creative Commons project, and serves on the boards of several foundations related to electronic frontiers and public knowledge. Here’s a link to his entire impressive bio.

Big Hairy Audacious Goals - Julie Bogart

Because we have five kids and a small budget, I’ve discovered that B-HAGs can also be pursued on the cheap. As I mentioned before, instead of purchasing season tickets to the Shakespeare performances, we usher the shows we want to see and take the seats that are left.

I couldn’t afford to pay for both kids to take the Vintage Dance lessons, but suddenly they both wanted to. The director allowed us to distribute flyers to pay for the lessons. I drove through neighborhoods and the kids ran up and down sidewalks tucking yellow advertisements into mailboxes. Not only did I save money on the lessons, but the kids owned the activity so much more. Their commitment to “earning their way” revealed their commitment to the classes.

Learning to Fish – Cafi Cohen

In person, and via the web, telephone and snail mail, I probably talk to 50-100 homeschooling families each month. During these discussions, I repeatedly hear the same query:

Where can I find ____________ ? Fill in:

* An independent-study school for high-achieving teens
* Flying lessons
* Book with hands-on math units
* Driver’s training
* Mentor for a future veterinarian
* Other teenagers
* Inexpensive microscopes
* Free, on-line Spanish course
* Grace Llewellyn’s Homeschooling Camp for Teenagers
* Remedial Spelling Program

As a military family, we moved a lot when we were homeschooling. As a result, we all learned to find resources fast. I am also an information junkie and enjoy networking for other homeschoolers. But I can only do so much. My choice, often, is to give you a fish or teach you to fish. This article is an attempt to teach you to fish.

Homeschoolers, Is Our Good Name For Sale? – Larry and Susan Kaseman

We can show parents that it is not only possible but highly desirable and rewarding to homeschool without assistance or resources from public schools or the government, that you don’t have to be connected to or regulated by the government to learn, and, in fact, for many families it is much better not to be. We can share ways we have discovered to homeschool inexpensively. We can communicate such information through magazines like this, inclusive grassroots state organizations, local support groups, homeschooling conferences, and meetings to inform the general public about homeschooling.

From Boring To Board Games: Math Really Can Be Fun!

Pretending is a marvelous way for children to practice math skills, and even older children can have fun with these family activities:

Set up a grocery department in one corner of your home. Shelves can be simple and small. Arrange empty food boxes on the shelves, mark prices on them, and open the store for your toddler’s enjoyment. You’ll need an inexpensive package of play money, and a play purse or wallet. Take turns acting as store keeper and clerk. When your child hands you his selection and money, count out his change the way the cashier would do. Encourage him to do the same when you finish shopping (of course, he isn’t going to be able to count change accurately, but pretending to helps him understand the concepts).

Less is More – Cafi Cohen

First consider that your community often provides better outlets for your kids’ explorations than any program you could buy. For example, our daughter Tamara completed 4-H’s Public Speaking Project two years in a row. This project required her to deliver a prepared speech, memorize and present a poem to an audience, speak extemporaneously on a topic, and compile a record of the experience, including an essay. Great “hands-on” Language Arts. Membership in 4-H was a fraction of the cost of many language arts programs; and 4-H yielded many other opportunities for education, socialization, and entertainment.

Second, looking first to the community for resources encourages autonomy and creative problem solving. A young homeschooler I know trades housework for pottery and Spanish lessons. Another teenage homeschooler attends her church’s adult comparative religions class because she has a consuming interest in the topic and nothing is offered for her age group. A third has taught herself to sew, using a neighbor’s machine and occasional help. Yet another has found algebra help through an online web site. And so on.

Resources

As the internet evolves, free resources can be found in many places, but here are just a few:

• Free Services From Home Education Magazine
• HEM Guide to Resources
• Ambleside Online
• HOAGIE
• Great Website for Kids from the ALA
• Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE)
• National Gallery of Art
• Library of Congress
  
• A selection of MATHEMATICS WEB SITES
• Freecycle
• HEM NEWS