The Trivium is a rigorous and utterly delightful presentation of the three areas that form the basis for all learning: logic, grammar, and rhetoric. Sister Miriam Joseph Rauh, a professor of English at St. Mary's College for thirty years, helps you see the unity and harmony of these three areas as she gives you solid and easily-grasped explanations of even their most abstruse elements: not just general grammar, but also propositions, syllogisms, enthymemes, fallacies, poetics, figurative language, and metrical discourse! Attractively laid out to maximize clarity, this book is also packed with lively examples, exercises, and illustrations drawn from the works of Shakespeare, Milton, Plato, and others. The examples are so rich that they're a literary education in themselves. read more

There are plenty of guides to homeschooling available now, but it would be hard to find one as comprehensive as The Unofficial Guide to Homeschooling. It manages to cover virtually all the ground that other guides deal with piecemeal or not at all. And it gives you a refreshing new perspective on issues you may think you have completely covered — from a panel of experts including Maureen McCaffrey of Homeschooling Today magazine, Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, and others who know homeschooling issues inside and out. read more

Many parents believe they can't homeschool because they lack some quality or skill successful homeschoolers have. But believe it or not, you don't have to be a certified teacher, a former academic whiz, or even a particularly well-organized person to homeschool well. The truth is that homeschooling can be done, and done well, by most ordinary people. In Homeschooling: Take a Deep Breath -- You Can Do This!, Terrie Lynn Bittner takes you by the hand and shows you how.

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In this handy guide you’ll find all you need to know to make a scientific expedition to the beach (or to a rocky shore, a salt marsh, and more). The author, science professor Elizabeth Lawlor, is completely practical: along with guidelines about what to take along in order to perform mini-scientific experiments right at the beach, she includes advice about how to dress and other ways you can be prepared for anything that might arise. read more

Jam-packed with firsthand narratives, diary entries, personal letters, and patriotic songs and poems, the "Source-Readers in American History" series truly lives up to its ambitious title. Originally published at the turn of the century as a 4-volume set, here, back in print and available to Club members ONLY are volumes 3 & 4: How Our Grandfathers Lived and The Romance of the Civil War.

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When John Henry Newman delivered these lectures 150 years ago, it was the heart of the Victorian era. Times have changed, and Cardinal Newman's insights on the purposes and advantages of a university education are needed even more today. First spoken when Newman assumed the position of first rector of the newly founded Catholic University in Ireland, these messages form an orderly, logical treatment of what a true education entails. Some of the topics: read more

Public schools are such a fixture in American life that few parents think -- and even fewer politicians dare -- to question whether the State should be sponsoring education in the first place. Perhaps more of them would, if they understood just when, where and why the whole idea of government-sponsored education came about. In The Myth of the Common School, Boston University professor Charles L. Glenn traces the history of the idea that the State should sponsor popular education in order to mold common loyalties and values among its citizens -- and shows how this idea has led inevitably to conflict with parents and groups who do not accept the values and beliefs inculcated by the State and its educators. Some highlights:

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Good manners are about much more than selecting the proper fork and keeping one's elbows off the table. They are, writes Karen Santorum, "an outward expression of inner virtue" -- the everyday habits of conduct and speech by which we express our fundamental respect for others, whether parents, friends, colleagues, or strangers. And, like the virtues themselves, good manners are best learned through constant practice and examples. That's why Mrs. Santorum created Everyday Graces: A Child's Book of Good Manners -- a wonderfully rich and instructive anthology of stories, poems and literary excerpts that illustrate the connection between good manners and good character.

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All across America, young warriors for liberty are springing up, unwilling to fall into lockstep with the liberal ideology pervading campuses throughout our land. With “fire in their bellies and quills in their hands,” these passionate, truth-seeking students are forming independent campus publications that have become the most important voice of our times -- the conservative counterculture taking on the left-wing orthodoxy in the battle of ideas. They are the Sam Adams and Patrick Henrys of our era, as student Morgan N. Knull of the Wabash Commentary points out in one of the book’s many inspiring essays: “In the years before the Liberty Bell sounded a call to arms, patriots flooded newspapers and town squares with pleas for independence, sparking debate and influencing public opinion. They planted the philosophical roots for the United States...Independent papers serve as the conscience of schools, the guardian of traditions, and the voice of reason amidst the rot of higher education.” read more

Over the past 200 years, modern education has been gradually directed away from that which forms the "complete man," and toward that which primarily promotes man's material well-being – a.k.a. "the useful." This is in stark contrast with what has been called the Great Tradition, which, ever since antiquity, has defined education first and foremost as the hard work of rightly ordering the human soul, helping it to love what it ought to love, and helping it to know itself and its maker. The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to be an Educated Human Being is designed to help parents, students, and teachers reconnect with this noble legacy, to articulate a coherent defense of the liberal arts tradition, and to do battle with the modern utilitarians and vocationalists who dominate educational theory and practice. read more

The Confederate soldier was revered by Northerners and Southerners alike long after the war ended for what Philip A. Bruce calls “the high, the gallant, and the romantic aspects” of his character. Examples of character traits like these are rare in public life nowadays, but they abound on the pages of Brave Deeds of Confederate Soldiers. Bruce’s vivid account of numerous deeds of daring, bravado, cunning, and selfless courage by Confederate partisans during the great conflict will fire your children’s imaginations — and impress upon them the all-important lesson that some causes are worth risking everything to advance. read more

Dr. Laura Schlessinger said it best. Faced with a hostile crowd of day care supporters, she asked them: "OK, if you could come back as an infant, stand up if you would rather be raised by a day care worker, a nanny or a babysitter [rather than your own mother]. Stand up now." No one stood up. "Then why," she asked, "are you going to do this to your children?"

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Better teaching. Better curriculums. Better organization. And, of course, better funding. All these solutions and more have been offered as ways to "fix" our public schools. Yet in these continuing exhortations, little attention is paid to the responsibilities of the students themselves. Now, in Doomed to Fail: The Built-in Defects of American Education, Paul Zoch argues that what America most needs to improve our schools is not necessarily better teachers but a wholesale shift in the way we think about who or what creates academic success. In fact, he maintains, the tendency to look to teachers for students' achievement is the cause of low achievement.

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Here's the kind of book kids 12 and older pore over. Almost effortlessly, they learn the rudiments of the founding era -- and your job as their teacher gets oh-so-much easier. Historian Jonathan Hall covers both well-known and little-known incidents from the French and Indian War, American Revolution, and the War of 1812, including political, social, and military history. Organized chronologically, the question and answer format lets you test your knowledge before reading Hall's comprehensive answers. read more

This volume ranks as a publishing feat, with 3,677 famous lines and short selections covering the whole sweep of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, arranged by subject for easy reference. Shakespeare had something to say, invariably something fresh and unexpected, on just about everything. read more

Remember Ward Churchill, the Colorado professor who compared the victims of 9/11 to Nazis and said they deserved what they got? Well, he's just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, writes bestselling author and academic reformer David Horowitz, radical professors like Churchill aren't the exception at American colleges and universities -- they're legion.

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When Professor Frederic M. Wheelock's Latin textbook first appeared in 1956, one reviewer predicted it "might well become the standard text" for introducing students to elementary Latin. Now, five decades later, that prediction has proved accurate: Wheelock's Latin is the most widely used introductory Latin book used in American colleges and universities. And with good reason: Wheelock's exclusive emphasis on the details of Latin grammar squares with the general expectation that students acquire a rudimentary, independent reading ability in real Latin after only two semesters of study. In addition, Wheelock's emphasis on the philosophical and literary culture of the Roman world has made this text not only a primer of the Latin language, but also a fine introduction to classical humanism and a cornucopia of ancient authors.

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Understand what you read, better and faster ... do better on tests ... ENJOY reading (and read more). Now you can teach yourself all those things the best way possible - by practicing. Indeed, reading well is a skill primarily developed through practice. Simply work through the 77 sets of multiple-choice questions in this book at your own pace. read more

With these two volumes of At Home with Science, you can satisfy young kids’ curiosity about the way things work — and give them an inviting introduction to basic science in the process. Guided by Archie the elephant, Frank the flamingo, Marie the monkey and Dot the kangaroo, your children will learn how to perform twenty-four easy experiments using household objects — experiments which will give them answers to everyday science questions that they’re probably already asking you! read more

Have your children ever wondered how the early settlers of America lived? Now they can discover what life was like before modern cities. 10 early settlements are highlighted with an in-depth look the lives of settlers. Each profile includes color photos, maps, and historical facts. read more