FEATURE

2008Practical Homeschooling

Reader Awards

1 t's time once again to discoverwhich products your fellow home-schoolers have chosen as the verybest. But first, let's thank those ofyou who cast the thousands of

votes—whether online or using our print-ed ballot—which made this all possible.

As promised, we picked a ballot at ran-dom to win a copy of Master Books'splendid edition of Ussher's The Annals ofthe World. The prize winner is ChaleeGiles of Jerome, ID. Congratulations,Chalee!

As always, readers rated all the prod-ucts they voted for from one to ten on thebasis of product quality. So you'll belearning which products have the highestuser satisfaction ratings, not just whichproducts happen to have the most users.

We also thought you'd enjoy a peek"behind the scenes" at some of theaward-winning companies, so we've in-cluded interviews with the folks behindfour of them. Enjoy!

And now . . . the winners of the 2008Practical Homeschooling ReaderAwards, by category:

Grade LevelCurriculumKINDERGARTEN/

READINESS/PRESCHOOLFirst Place Ruth Beechick books

(Mott Media)Second Place My Father's World

Preschool/Kindergarten (My Father'sWorld)

Third Place TIE! Sonlight Kinder-garten (Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.), Fivein a Row & Before Five in a Row (Fivein a Row)

Honorable Mention Get Ready, GetSet, Go for the Code (Educators Publish-ing Service), Rod & StaffPreschool/Kindergarten (Rod & Staff),Sing, Spell, Read, & Write (PearsonLearning), KONOS Curriculum(KONOS, Inc.)

ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM

First Place The Three Rs by RuthBeechick (Mott Media)

Second Place TIE! My Father'sWorld, Sonlight Curriculum

Third Place TIE! Five in a Row &Beyond Five in a Row (Five in a Row),KONOS Curriculum (KONOS, Inc.)

Honorable Mention World of Adven-ture (Learning Adventures), Rod & Staffelementary curriculum (Rod & Staff),BJU elementary curriculum (BJU Press)

MIDDLE SCHOOL CURRICULUM

First Place Robinson Curriculum(Oregon Institute of Science & Medi-cine)

Second Place Sonlight CurriculumThird Place Veritas PressHonorable Mention BJU middle

school curriculum (BJU Press)

HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM

First Place Robinson Curriculum(Oregon Institute of Science & Medi-cine)

Second Place Sonlight CurriculumThird Place BJU high school cur-

riculum (BJU Press)Honorable Mention Heart of Wis-

dom, KONOS History of the World(KONOS, Inc.), Tapestry of Grace(Lampstand Press)

BibleBIBLE CURRICULUM

First Place Beginnings/Questions(Answers in Genesis)

Second Place TIE! AWANA (AwanaClubs International), Bible Study Fel-lowship

Third Place TIE! Doorposts materi-als, BJU Bible courses (BJU Press),Chronological Bible Cards (VeritasPress)

Honorable Mention The YoungPeacemaker (Peacemaker Ministries),Little Hearts for His Glory (Heart ofDakota), Discover 4 Yourself InductiveBible Studies (Harvest House)

Language ArtsGRAMMAR LANGUAGE ARTS

First Place TIE! ProfessorKlugimkopf's Old-Fashioned EnglishGrammar (Oregon Institute of Science &Medicine), Daily Grams (Easy GrammarSystems), Easy Grammar (Easy Gram-mar Systems)

Second Place Winston Grammar(Hewitt Homeschooling Resources)

Third Place Rod & Staff Grammar(Rod & Staff)

Honorable Mention Editor in Chief(Critical Thinking Company)

HANDWRITING

First Place TIE! Getty-Dubay Port-land Italic (Continuing Education Press),Reason for Writing (Concerned Com-munications), Handwriting WithoutTears (Handwriting Without Tears)

Second Place TIE! Draw•Write•Now(Barker Creek Publications), StartWrite(IdeaMaker)

Third Place TIE! BJU handwritingcourses (BJU Press), Classically Cursive(Veritas Press)

Honorable Mention A Beka hand-writing courses (A Beka Book),D'Nealian curriculum (Scott-Foresman& Company)

LITERATURE

First Place Robinson Curriculum(Oregon Institute of Science & Medi-cine)

Second Place TIE! Beautiful FeetBooks, Sonlight Curriculum

Third Place Vision ForumHonorable Mention Teaching the

Classics (Center for Literary Education),Mantle Ministries, Five in a Row series(Five in a Row), Progeny Press studyguides

PHONICS PROGRAM

First Place Explode the Code (Edu-cators Publishing Service)

Second Place The Three Rs by RuthBeechick (Mott Media)

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MARCH/APRIL 2008 PRACTICAL HOMESCHOOLING 13

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FEATURE

2008 Practical Homeschooling Reader Awards

Third Place A Beka reading curricu-lum (A Beka Book)

Honorable Mention Alpha-Phonics(Paradigm Company), Phonics Pathways(Jossey-Bass Publishers)

PRIMERS & READERS

First Place Sonlight ReadersSecond Place Pathway Readers

(Pathway Publishers)Third Place Bob Books (Scholastic)Honorable Mention McGuffy Read-

ers (Mott Media), Christian Liberty Acad-emy Readers (Christian Liberty Acade-

my), Rod & Staff Readers (Rod & StaffPublishers), Dr. Seuss books (RandomHouse), I Can Read series (HarperTrophy)

SPELLING

First Place Professor Klugimkopf'sSpelling Method (Oregon Institute ofScience & Medicine)

Second Place Spelling Power(Castlemoyle Books)

Third Place TIE! BJU spelling cur-riculum (BJU Press), Phonetic Zoo (In-stitute for Excellence in Writing)

Honorable Mention Rod & Staffspelling curriculum (Rod & Staff), AReason for Spelling (Concerned Com-munications)

VOCABULARY

First Place Robinson Curriculum Vo-cabulary Exercises (Oregon Institute ofScience & Medicine)

Second Place Vocabulary from Classi-cal Roots (Educators Publishing Service)

Third Place Wordly Wise (EducatorsPublishers Service)

Honorable Mention Word Roots(Critical Thinking Company)

WRITING COMPOSITION

First Place Andrew Pudewa WritingSeminars (Institute for Excellence inWriting)

Second Place Learn to Write theNovel Way (KONOS Connection)

Third Place TIE! WriteShop(writeshop.com), Wordsmith (CommonSense Press) Writing Strands (NationalWriting Institute)

Honorable Mention Write Source2000 (Great Source Education Group)

16 PRACTICAL HOMESCHOOLING MARCH/APRIL. 2008

WWWIIMIESCHOOL.COM

From left to right: Dr Arthur Robinson, Matthew (20), Noah (29), Bethany (26), Zachary (31),Atynne (28), and Joshua (26) with his wife, Fama

FEATURE 2008 Practical Horneschooling Reader Awards

Oregon Institute of Science S MedicineWinning the most

awards by far this year isthe Oregon Institute ofScience and Medicine(OISM). OISM has beenon our Reader Awardslist since 2005. TheirCD-ROM-based curricu-lum has also been on ourSoftware Awards (now i-Learn Awards) list since2000.

Those of you who havebeen PHS readers for along time are already fa-miliar with the founder ofOISM, Dr. Art Robinson.Famed among home-schoolers for his "Robinson Method,"which involves teaching children to learnindependently as early as possible, Artwas a PHS columnist some years ago.

Art's background is that of someonenaturally drawn to academic excellence.After earning the Ph.D. in Chemistry fromU.C. San Diego, he was immediately in-vited to join their faculty and taught therefor a number of years while also workingat Stanford. Nobel Prize winner LinusPauling and Art founded a biomedical re-search institute, later named the LinusPauling Institute. After falling out withPauling (when Art's attempts to verifysome of Pauling's wilder theories aboutthe proper dose of Vitamin C for humansactually ended up disproving them), Artmoved with his wife, Laurelee, to a farmin Oregon, to provide a better life for theirchildren. In 1980 they founded their ownsmall research institute, the Oregon Insti-tute of Science and Medicine. In 1988Laurelee died suddenly of a rare disease,acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis, leavingbehind a commitment to homeschool theirchildren but no full-time teacher to do so.At that time, the Robinson children were11/2, 6, 6, 8, 10, and 12.

The story has been often told of how,11 years ago, Art's children "decided toclone their study system" by scanningtheir books and study materials onto 22CD-ROMs. This became the famousRobinson Curriculum, which has nowbeen used by more than 70,000 students,

"an estimated 3 percent of all home-schooled students in the United States."(They also have since added CD-ROMsof out-of-print Henty books and newerproducts for teaching spelling and vo-cabulary.) What you might not know isthat Art launched the first serious blowto the "deadly man-made global warm-ing" crowd. In 1998, covering the firstKyoto meeting, the Wall Street Journalasked Art to write an editorial, which hedid with the help of his son, Zachary.The response from those with a vestedinterest in the global warming scenariowas vicious. "We realized their programhad only three elements," Art says."First, all scientists agreed with them.Second, they were trying to save theplanet. Third, anyone who disagreed wasjust trying to make money. So we decid-ed to show there wasn't a scientific con-sensus." First, Zach, two astrophysicsstudents from Harvard, and the famousphysicist Frederick Seitz wrote an article

reviewing all the relevantatmospheric literature.Then the Robinsons start-ed sending out petition re-quests, asking those in thescientific community whowere not convinced of theman-made global warmingscenario to stand up and becounted. (At www.oism. org/project you can see thereview article, petition,and list of over 30,000signers.)

In spite of the furor it hascreated, the petition projectwas only a sideline forRobinson, His major inter-

est is research into the biochemical"clocks" that are built into proteins, at-tempting to find the cause of aging. "Inthe last 7 or 8 years with Noah, Zachary,and the other children working on it,we've made a lot more progress," Artsays. His proudest moment: co-authoringa scientific paper with all six children thatwas published in the Journal of PeptideResearch.

Art also is the moving spirit behindAccess to Energy, a newsletter foundedby the late Czech refugee (and electricalengineering professor) Petr Beckmann.Originally intended for a scientific read-ership, in later years it also adopted an"explaining science to the layman" focus.Now about ? of the readership is scien-tists and 2/3 is laymen. Donations from ayearly appeal to the subscriber list allowOISM's work to continue without gov-ernment or "big business" support.

Now, the big question. How have theRobinson children turned out?

"I'm not trying to suggest we're per-fect," says Art, "but so far the six Robin-son children have managed to remainsolid Christian young people who areacademically successful." That is a real-ly big understatement. Consider this listof academic achievement:

• Zachary, age 31, holds a B.S. inChemistry from Oregon State Uni-versity and a M.S. in Chemistryand D.V.M. (doctorate in veteri-nary medicine) from Iowa State

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FEATURE 2008 Practical Homeschooling Reader Awards

University (ISU). He currentlyworks part-time on OISM researchas well as in veterinarian practice.

• Noah, age 29, holds a BS inChemistry from Southern OregonUniversity (SOU) and a Ph.D. inChemistry from Caltech. He isemployed full-time by OISM.

• Arynne, age 28, has a BS inChemistry from Bethel Collegeand is now in her third year ofwork towards a DVM at ISU.

• Joshua, age 26, and the only mar-ried Robinson so far, has a BS inMathematics from SOU and isnow in his second year of study to-ward a Ph.D. in nuclear engineer-ing at OSU. His wife, Fama, is ahomeschool graduate.

• Bethany, age 26, holds a BS inChemistry from SOU and is nowin her second year of study towarda Ph.D. in nuclear engineering atOSU.

• Matthew, age 20, is now complet-ing his second (and last) year ofstudy at SOU toward a BS inChemistry. He is currently consid-ering his graduate school options.

• Zachary, Noah, and Matthew allskipped two years of college, enter-ing as juniors and requiring only

MUSIC CURRICULUM

First Place Simply MusicSecond Place Music Ace Deluxe

(Harmonic Vision)Third Place Kindermusik (Kinder-

musik International, Inc.)Honorable Mention Bastien Piano

series (Neil Kjos Music Company),Homespun Videos (Homespun Tapes)

Audio and VideoEDUCATIONAL

AUDIO/CD SERIES

First Place TIE! "Little Bear"Wheeler history cassettes (Mantle Min-istries), Adventures in Odyssey (Focuson the Family)

Second Place TIE! Your Story Hour,Jim Weiss tapes (Greathall Productions)

Third Place Jonathan Park AudioAdventures (Vision Forum)

Honorable Mention Patch the Pirate

WWW.HOME-SCHOOL.COM

two years to complete their Bache-lors degrees. Noah completed hisPhD at Caltech in three years (itnormally takes five years or more).

Over the years, I've spoken to justabout every Robinson kid on the phone.They all speak fondly of their life on thefarm, with all its chores, animals, andoutdoors adventures. The 250-acrespread was a great place to grow up, withits sheep, cattle, horses, and dogs, not tomention the wild animals and birds. In-spired by the books of the late Jeff Coop-er, when they got old enough the Robin-son children all learned to "ride, shootstraight, and tell the truth" from Coop-er himself. Theirs was a genuine old-fashioned American childhood, with the"old" classic books you'll find in theRobinson curriculum, the old-fashionedfarm life, and the "can do" Americanspirit of innovation always handy in theirvery own on-site research center.

Art Robinson onCollege Education

"In a homeschool, one can obtain abetter education. The dilemma: how tohandle college. First, the dangers are notin most math and science courses.Physics, chemistry, math, and engineer-

series (Majesty Music), Audio Memorykits (Audio Memory)

EDUCATIONALVIDEO/DVD SERIES

First Place Answers in Genesisvideos

Second Place TIE! Moody Sciencevideos (Moody Institute of Science).

ing just teach truths about the physicalworld. America is desperately short ofpeople who are graduating in those sub-jects. Biology, however, has a lot morepropaganda.

"Second: spend as little time in collegeas possible. Two of my boys got theirChemistry degrees in two years. This canbe done through taking Advanced Place-ment exams. Prepare well, as if they areSATs. With good scores on AP exams, anordinary student should be able to skip atleast one year of college and possibly two.

"Third: do not live in the dorms anddunk yourself in the environment morethan necessary. Even Caltech, still one ofthe best places in the country, has de-graded greatly. When I took Matthew tothe dorms, I was repelled by the noisy,animalistic atmosphere. My childrenhave either lived at home or rented ahouse near the campus. Having a goodstudy environment is vital. Studentsshould not always be in the midst of thecraziness that will drag them down.

"I think what my children accom-plished illustrates a point: stay away fromthe subjects that mostly consist of brain-washing, don't stay in college longer thannecessary, and stay in a place where youcan control the environment. You're thereprimarily to study."

Creation Science seminar (Creation Sci-ence Evangelism)

Third Place TIE! Animated Storiesfrom the Bible & American Hero Clas-sics (Nest Family), Leap Frog Factoryseries (Leap Frog)

Honorable Mention DIVE IntoMath and Science series (DIVE IntoMath)