CHRISTEPHI

I am so excited to go through Exploring Countries and Cultures again. The last time my kids were so little -- 3rd grade and Kindergarten. And now they are in 5th and 8th grades! They have grown so much over the past five years. As I began to think about our plan for this year, I realized two things: 1) my gifted eldest child remembers just about everything we covered in ECC the first time, and 2) my younger one hasn't had many of the basics that ECC covers. So I was faced with a dilemma -- how do I adjust ECC to suit the very different needs of both children? How do I shift the focus for my 8th grader to aspects of ECC that she hadn't spent time on before (such as types of governments, imports and exports, etc.) while also taking my younger child through the more foundational information that he missed when he was just a kindergartener?  ECC is designed to be parent-led, family learning, with a supplement for 7th and 8th grade. But I came to the conclusion that I need to deco...

I love languages! In college, I majored in Linguistics, which I found completely fascinating.  I took courses in several languages including Spanish, Russian and Mandarin Chinese.  Sadly, I've never become fluent -- or even conversational -- in any language other than my native English.  There are so many advantages to being ability to speak a foreign language both personally and professionally.  I want that for my children.  But it can be intimidating!  How do I teach what I myself haven't mastered?  The right curriculum can remove much of that intimidation. www.spanish-for-you.net When I first opened the  Spanish for You!  book, I was impressed!  Here was an affordable year-long Spanish language program that can be used for a range of ages at the same time.  It presents material to students in a spiraling fashion so that regardless of a student's prior experience with Spanish they'll ...