2000 Additions
December
Election 2000
I have begin a new archive of the news events since Election Day. Find out about the Electoral College, Vote Fraud, the Florida Court Circus, and more, as well as how to make a difference.
October
“Why We Homeschool” Site of the Month:
Homeschoolers for Bush 2000
This excellent website, newly posted, contains lesson plans and unit study ideas for teaching our children of all grades about the election process, and Governor Bush has promised to send a signed letter to each child that participates in the Homeschoolers for Bush 2000 Unit Study. By homeschooling, we can ensure that our children learn the nature of the political process and participate in that process, under our guidance.
September
Election 2000
I have a growing list of links to news articles, personal letters, and other funds of eye-witness testimony dealing with several prominent and not so prominent issues at stake on Election Day, November 7, 2000. I have decided to post them here. You can also find out why I am voting for George W. Bush.
Classical Curriculum & Online Catalog: Grammar
The Grammar section of the Online Catalog has been completely updated and changed to the new site design, and the curriculum suggestions have been explained in more detail, with some helps, such as the phonic spelling rules, added.
“Why We Homeschool” Site of the Month:
Educational Revelation
By Michael Farris, president of the HSLDA. In this article, Mr. Farris responds to the Democratic National Committee position on homeschooling. We won’t be debating why we homeschool if the government makes it extremely difficult for parents to homeschool their children at all. The DNC gets its position on homeschooling from the National Education Association, which advocates teacher certification for homeschool parents and compliance with state-approved curriculum. So much for choice in education. The ramifications for homeschooling families, if Democratic candidates adhere to their party’s position and are elected, will be enormous.
Late News: The DNC has taken down its position on homeschooling from its website as of October 5, 2000, so after this date the above link will not work. What is it that the DNC does not want you to know? Fortunately, the exact text of that page has been saved, and you can access it here from the Homeschoolers for Bush 2000 webpage, the October Why We Homeschool Site of the Month.
August
Classical Curriculum & Online Catalog: Bible
The Bible section of the Online Catalog has been completely updated and changed to the new site design. Not only are the Grammar Stage and Dialectic Stage sections complete, as they have been, but now the Rhetoric Stage section is up also.
“Why We Homeschool” Site of the Month:
The War Against Boys
Subtitled: How Misguided Feminism is Harming our Young Men. Christina Hoff Sommers
addresses the “girl crisis” that has been seized upon by feminists and promoted
by leading academic experts. Sommers examines the work of some of the “experts”
and finds that it is girls who are outperforming boys academically. Under the guise of
helping girls, many schools have adopted policies that penalize boys, often for simply
being masculine. Sommers says that boys need help, but not the sort they’ve been
getting. While they need help catching up with girls academically, they do not need to be
rescued from masculinity.
July
The
Story of the Middle Ages
This new addition to the popular series of H. A. Guerber histories is more than just a
reprint. Since Guerber never wrote a history of the Middle Ages, but told its story
piecemeal throughout the course of several other of her histories, Christine Miller has
taken Guerber’s piecemeal accounts and woven them together into a single, harmonious
narrative in Guerber’s own style. Find out more, and read several chapters from the
book besides. Also check into the other H. A. Guerber histories
from the Nothing New Press page; this section of the website
has been recently enhanced and added to.
June
“Why
We Homeschool” Site of the Month:
The Devil’s in the
Details
This column is from Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle
Forum, long a conservative watchdog on education reform: “Congress is about to
pass legislation that will federalize every local school district and spell the end of
local and state control of America’s public school classrooms. Mindful of Ronald
Reagan’s words, ‘You can’t control the economy without controlling the
people,’ Bill and Hillary Clinton have found the way to control the economy by
controlling America’s schoolchildren.” The article summarizes the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act currently before Congress. As of this writing, the Act has passed
the House, and admendments to the Act are being considered in the Senate.
May
Classical
Curriculum & Online Catalog: Literature
The Literature section of the Online Catalog has been updated, with the dialectic stage suggestions added. The
rhetoric stage suggestions will be added later in the summer.
Classical
Curriculum & Online Catalog: History
The 5th and 6th
grade history units for the grammar stage, and CCH’s 9th grade history unit for the dialectic stage have
now been uploaded. This completes the grammar and dialectic stage history sections of the
catalog.
What’s Coming:
The Online Catalog: The grammar stage Literature sections are being updated next, with the
dialectic stage Literature suggestions added. Following that, the Bible and Science
sections will be updated. Also look for the additions of articles for the dialectic and
rhetoric stages by several guest authors this summer.
April
Classical Curriculum and Online Catalog: History
I am continuing to work on the history section of the catalog. Many new features have been
uploaded, along with the 3rd and 4th grade history units, and CCH’s 8th grade history unit. The rest of the grammar
section is being updated, as is the final unit in the dialectic section, and the rhetoric
stage history suggestions.
"Why
We Homeschool" Site of the Month:
The Necks and Minds of the People
This little jewel of an essay is from the pen of Richard Mitchell, professor of classics
at Glassboro State College and the Underground Grammarian. Those of you that have been
around long know that a treat in reasoned thought and clear expression, along with a bit
of wit and wisdom, is in store for you; those that have not read Richard Mitchell before:
enjoy, then weep, then thank God that we can homeschool in this country.
March
Classical Curriculum and Online Catalog: History
I am updating the history section of the catalog. The 1st
and 2nd grade history units are finished. The
dialectic stage history suggestions have been added, with the 7th grade unit finished. The rhetoric stage history
suggestions are still pending, but they are also scheduled to be finished after the
grammar stage and dialectic stage sections are completed.
"Why We Homeschool" Site of the Month:
UTCH Why Home School
This well-written page from the Utah Christian
Home School Association’s Home School
Handbook explores the spiritual, emotional, academic, intellectual, and rational
benefits of homeschooling, using sound reasoning and Biblical principles.
February
Classical
Curriculum & Online Catalog: Art
The art section of the catalog has been updated, with the dialectic and rhetoric stages
added.
What’s Coming: The History and Bible sections of the Online Catalog are being updated, with the dialectic and rhetoric additions. History in the Dialectic Stage is also under construction. :-)
Classical
Christian Curriculum Reviews
As part of my ongoing renovation of the curriculum section, the Curriculum Reviews pages
have been converted to the new design scheme, and greatly expanded. You will find reviews
of the most popular Logic and Classical Languages curricula currently available,
and reviews also arranged by stage: the grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric.
Classical
Curriculum Scope and Sequence
As part of my ongoing renovation of the curriculum section, the Scope and Sequence page
has been divided into Kindergarten, Grammar, Dialectic,
and Rhetoric stages for faster loading.
Classical
Christian Education Support Loop
The CE Loop website has also now been streamlined as to text, html, and images, and I have
repaired most of the broken links with one or two exceptions which I am still tracking
down. This means that the 1000 Good Books page, especially,
will load much faster now, as will all of the CE Loop website. I have also updated some
information on the various pages here and there. I realize that the same thing needs to
happen with the History on the Internet website, but that
is going to have to wait until after the online catalog is finished, as that project is a
big one.
Seven Feasts of
the Lord
I have had so many requests for more information on the Leviticus 23 study of Jewish feast
days and their relationship to Christian theology mentioned in Bible in the Grammar Stage, that I decided to post the
information we use in teaching the meaning of the feasts to our children. I should say
from the outset that we are not working from the advantage of a Jewish heritage, and we
are still learning about this topic. The information presented is not meant to be
dogmatic, and is subject to change as we continue to learn.
Classical
Christian Homeschooling
What’s new about CCH is not only the new design of the website, introduced in
November, but the streamlining of all the individual pages, text, html, images, and
directories that make up the CCH website, in order to cut the memory required to store the
website on the server, and the downloading time of the individual pages. As of this
posting, almost all the sections of the website have now been updated. The notable
exception is the Curriculum section and Online Catalog, which is my next project. Over the next
four months, I expect to spend the majority of my website maintainance time not only
completing the dialectic and rhetoric portions of the Online Catalog, but converting the
Curriculum section to the new design and streamlined code, ultimately making this section
*much* faster to load than it is now. Thank you for your patience.
“Why We Homeschool” Site
of the Month:
Render Them NOT Unto Caesar
Are children to be rendered unto Caesar? This article is a highly compelling answer using
sound Biblical argument to that question. By Lynn and Sarah Leslie, publishers of The Christian Conscience, and
active members of the Iowa homeschooling community for many years.
January
CCE
Links: Games that Develop Logical Thinking
Many classic board games with a long history develop logical thinking, such as Chess,
Checkers, Go, and Mancala. There are also numerous recent games that do the same: Clue,
Mastermind, Othello, and Quarto are only a few examples. Even newer computer games, such
as Joshua and Minesweeper, do as well. This page has links to game sites that help you
learn the rules and strategies involved, as well as columns and articles that discuss the
logic of various games, and even sites to help find logic games to purchase.
CCE
Links: Logic in a Classical Education
Links to other internet sites with specific helps and teacher and student resources for
studying formal logic according to the classical model. Besides the general logic links,
there are links to logic theory, puzzle, and game sites as well.
CCE
Links: Grammar in a Classical Education
Links to other internet sites with specific helps and teacher and student resources for
studying English grammar according to the classical model. Besides the general grammar
links, there are links to great orthography, etymology, syntax, spelling, and grammar
theory sites as well.
CCE
Links: Classical Subjects
The subject links gateway page is up, with only the Grammar links available right now. As
the rest of the subject links pages are uploaded, their link will be activated from this
page.
CCE
Links: Support for Classical Educators
Part of the Classical Christian Education Links section, this
page contains links to e-mail lists, message boards and chat rooms, and newsletters for
classical educators and homeschoolers to discuss and learn about classical education.
“Why We Homeschool” Site of the
Month:
The October Sky Study Guide
We loved the movie October Sky, and bought it for our children when it came to video. We
have been constructing model rockets together as a family for several years, and that
increased our appreciation of the movie. A recent visit to the October Sky website (which has some great model rocketry links) turned up this study
guide, written for junior and senior high school teachers to use with their students.
Excited at the prospect of finding lots of relevant information about rocket propulsion,
Werner von Braun (a creation scientist) and the history of rocket science, trigonometry
links, etc., what I actually found was the cold water bucket of the reality of public
education: conflict resolution with unreasonable parents, finding your identity, and
comparing the TV and music of the 50’s and the 90’s. Who knows how many junior
and senior high students actually wasted school time on these activities? It reminded me
why we homeschool.
What’s New
at CCH 1999 Additions
The turn of the new year sees this page added to the family of What’s New pages, and
contains the annotated links to the additions made to the website in 1999.
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