America’s Future Blog

Research in Increments - A Step by Step Guide to Writing Research Papers From a Christian Perspective

 This is a great curriculum outline for use as a student workbook or instructor reference.  It has all of the elements necessary to compile your research and see it through to a completed paper.  Step-by-step, you will find yourself writing the most organized and complete research paper of your life! 

I highly recommend this book not only for homeschooling families, but parents who would like to help their high school children learn to organize their required research papers.  As a public school student (many moons ago!), I would have been ecstatic to find this manual, as the instructions given to me at the time were limited at best.  What I learned through trial and error is clearly spelled out in this manual - you just have to follow the steps!

The manual is laid out into the following chapters, each reflecting as aspect of in-depth research and how to organize the writing once the research is complete:

• Choosing a topic
• Presentation of research
• Determining your audience
• Using index cards to organize
• Creating the bibliography
• How to ’skim’ through books and magazines
• Sources of information
• Conducting interviews
• Pictures in research as visuals
• Should you add scripture?
• Creating the outline
• Finding the ’hook’ to keep people’s interest
• Introductions
• Summary
• End notes
• Writing the paper
• Finishing touches 

Comprehensive Composition by Design A Study

Starting with preschool aged children, we should be encouraging creativity in writing stories, poems, letters, invitations, etc.  Divided by age groups, this book shows the kinds of compositions each grade level should be attempting, along with tips on how to help your students improve their writing skills.

The topics covered are:

• How to organize the composition to tackle the project step-by-step
• Construction of paragraphs, topic sentences and concluding sentences
• The Essay
• Choosing topics
• Taking notes
• Writing outlines
• Using references to improve writing, like the dictionary and thesaurus
• Improving sentences
• Emphasizing organization
• Proper grammar and punctuation

Types of writing covered:

• Descriptive
• Persuasive
• Narrative
• Business Letters
• Short Story
• Expository
• Biography
• Friendly Letters
• News Story
• Research
• Reports

Included are instructions for the educator on evaluating essays, sample lessons, checklists for project completion, and skill attainment.  In all a very comprehensive manual on developing and writing all types of compositions. 

Homeschool families will find this a valuable reference.  I would recommend it to instructors that have a good background in language arts, as it provides an excellent source of information to ‘refresh’ your skills. 

Type It - The Linguistically Oriented Typing Manual 

Tried and true from 1974, Type it utilizes the basics and teaches touch typing - originally with typewriters.  Useful in teaching students of varying skill levels at the same time, it is also economical for homeschool families with multiple students of different ages, because you only need to purchase the manual once.

Organized phonetically to reinforce reading and spelling patterns, this can be a tools for challenged readers as well as a useful tool to improve your students keyboarding skills.  The lessons start with home row keys and quickly progress to short words.  The progress chart will help keep track of your students progression as well as provide documentation for records.

Sometimes the old ways are best, and I think this curriculum still fits the bill.  It’s simple and easy to understand, and after a few lessons, the student can work independently.  If you need a keyboarding course for your middle or high school student and prefer old-school solutions - this is the perfect book for you!

In just a few short days, America’s Future will be adding hundreds of new products from our newest publisher, American Educational Products.  This will allow us to offer you many new and exciting products for hands-on learning, including the very popular Teaching Tanks.

We have been typing as fast as possible in order to get their product line added to our catalog, and you will start to see the items trickling in starting tomorrow morning.  First in line, Teaching Tanks, one of the most popular science aids on the homeschool market! 

You will also be glad to see Clever Catch, Tumble and Teach, Morphun, Bingo Bus, Pattern Blocks, Microslide Viewers and Lesson Plans, Gonge, Yellowtail, and so much more!  Science kits - Biology, Earth, Physical, Astronomy, Anatomy, Physics….. science, science, and more science!  Did I mention outdoor games?  Indoor games?  Family games?  Learning games?  I think you get the idea!

Come visit us and take a look at what’s new at America’s Future.  I’m sure you’ll find something you like!