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So What Is eFantasmic?
As a homeschooling parent, you know the problem we all face. We homeschool all the time, at the store, at the library, on the sofa, over dinner, and anywhere we encounter an idea or a question.
We homeschool all the time, but where's the proof!?!
You understand that homeschooling is a life-philosophy. But, people in our society want proof. Where's the documentation?
That's where eFantasmic comes in. It produces LOTS and LOTS of proof. I mean documentation coming out of the wazoo. If you discuss something, you've got proof. If you go over some new vocabulary, you've got proof. If your child has to think about something, you've got proof.
It's exactly what WE homeschoolers need. Lots and Lots and Lots of proof.
How Does It Work?
It is actual curriculum. It's actually incredibly powerful curriculum based on library resources. Hey, we all pay taxes, and the library is full of some absolutely phenomenal resources, if you only knew which ones to pull off the shelf!
What we did is go through the library and hand-pick some of the best resources, then built the curriculum around each book.
So each curriculum is based on a library book or video. And each is stand-alone. So if you buy one, it's complete. There are lots of topics, as well as some fun things that kids love to read.
So this curriculum is designed to provide LOTS and LOTS of documentation about what your child did. As you look through this, or print it out, and wonder, “My! That’s a lot of paperwork.” That’s the point. Lots of documentation and paperwork. Not paperwork that you have to fill out in triplicate, but lots of worksheets, summaries and other paper that you can print, have your child do, and then you have proof.
Each curriculum includes two basic approaches: discussions and worksheets.
Each is your choice. If you choose discussion, there is a special sheet for your child to write their name and date on. Then, as you discuss a new word or idea, your child checks off that item. This is still dated documentation of a discussion you had.
So when you look down the list, and you see "Discussion Sheet". This is still something your child fills out. Think of it as a simplified worksheet. It's also documentation.
If you choose a worksheet because you want your child to have some writing practice, that's fine too. There are lots, and lots of worksheets as well.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This curriculum is designed to OVERWHELM. Not overwhelm you, but overwhelm anyone that asks you "what did you do?" Then when you show them, THEY should be overwhelmed. So PLEASE don't be shocked when you open one up.
Don't think you or your child has to do ALL OF IT. You don't! You can pick and choose. Do as little or as much as you like. You can even do some now, and some days later, or even weeks later.
If it's a topic you want your child to go deeper in, then there's lots of curriculum for that too.
Just remember, YOU are the PARENT, and your JUDGEMENT as to what's right for you and your child at the time is the RIGHT THING.
What I also want you to understand is that you can do an entire curriculum, just by sitting down with your child and having a discussion about the book. Plus, you still generate paper-work and documentation showing what you did.
What Do I Get?
Each Curriculum Packet includes at the bare minimum:
- Parents Guide
- New Vocabulary Discussion Sheet
- New Vocabulary Worksheets
- Advanced Vocabulary Worksheets
- Advanced Vocabulary Discussion Sheets
- New Concepts Discussion Sheets
- New Concepts Worksheets
- Advanced Concepts Discussion Sheet
- Advanced Concepts Worksheet
- Pre-Reading Parents Guide
- Pre-Reading Establish Purpose Discussion Sheets
- Pre-Reading Establish Purpose Worksheets
- Multiple Chart Of Retention Worksheets
- Pre-Reading Analysis Worksheets
- Power Reading Parent’s Guide
- Power Note Taking Worksheets
- Final Evaluation Worksheets
- 3 Crossword Puzzles
- 3 Decoder Challenge Puzzles
- 3 Word Searches
- Magic Square Challenge
- 3 Spelling Scrambles
- And much, much more!
*NOTE: All worksheets, puzzles and challenges includes parents guides/answer sheets.
Portfolio Documents
These are basically sheets that you fill out with your child’s name and date showing what your child did and accomplished. These are designed to be official looking, and serve as documentation. Of course we never recommend providing your state more information than is required. But whether your state requires them or not, you have them! That’s the point. You have documentation of what your child did, when, what they learned, what they covered, etc. It’s a self-documenting system. If the errant grandparent shows up and wonders what you’ve been doing, you can pull out a pile of papers, and say, “here!”.
Worksheets & Lessons
These range from sheets that your child actually fills out to answer questions, down to discussion questions that you can simply check off once you talked about the answers with your child. You are going to get A LOT. Don’t worry, you don’t have to use them all. You can use as little or as much as you and your child like. You can spread them out over time, put them all together into one lesson, or whatever you like. Hey, you are the parent, we trust your judgement over all else. Always. But whatever your choose, you have lots and lots to choose from. Just know that no one expects you to use all of it. It’s just available to you.
Basic & Challenging
Each curriculum is divided into two parts. Basic and challenging. But really they are "Core Concepts" and "InDepth Concepts".
What this means to you is that you really get two sets of curriculum. One is easier to make sure your child doesn't tire of the topic, and yet conveys the core "take-away" concepts. This way they learn the core concepts of the subject material.
Also, if you have smaller children, then the "Basic" would be for them, and older children can do both. It also depends on the interest level of your child. The idea is never to "sour" them on learning, and keep it fun.
Here's an example. One of my children loves anything to do with animals. So if the topic deals with animals, he happily will struggle with material beyond his reading level, and INSITS on doing the "Challenging" sections. He loves it, devours it, and wants more.
On the other hand, History is NOT his favorite topic. So I am happy to just let him do the "Basic" set, knowing that he is at least learning the core concepts of that historical passage, and allowing him to retain his love for learning.
As he gets older, I still have the "Challenging Section" for some point in the future. But when I present it to him in the future, he will already be familiar with the topic, understand the core concepts, and be more willing to learn a little more, and possibly expand his interests. But of course, YOU are the best judge of what's best for your child. Our goal was to give you as much flexibility as possible, so you can adapt it to YOUR needs and YOUR child's needs!
Does This Replace Your Existing Curriculum
The curriculum you find here does not cover every single topic, but they do have an obvious focus on reading and comprehension. So you can use this curriculum along with whatever you are normally using. If your curriculum is lacking, or light on a subject, you can also find items here to help out. If you want a little Ecology covered, we've got that. Want some living history on the Revolutionary War, we've got that too.
How do I know if my library carries that book?
First, we started with known, main-line publishers. This insures almost every library system carries those books. We worked with librarians to find out the best information to give them when requesting a book. You will see it like this:
Library Request Info:
Babe Ruth Saves Baseball
Murphy, Frank
Random House, 2005
The first line is the book title, followed by the author (last name first) then publisher. Since call numbers actually change from library to library, call numbers weren't reliable. That information is the best.
Your best tactic is to select several titles you want to do. Then give the list to your local librarian. Books they have on the shelf you will get. If not, ask your library to "Request The Book" for you. The request goes into the whole library system through your county, and sometimes State-wide. Then within a week or so, the book is brought to you and put on hold at your local library. Pretty cool huh. We do it ALL THE TIME.
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