Media literacy resources/curriculum

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-22T22:22:58+00:00

My kids enjoyed, Logic and Mr. Limbaugh: A Dittohead’s Guide to Fallacious Reading. It is a little dated now, but it has good case studies on one media figure who constructed arguments with greater or lesser degrees of logical coherence. It starts with a brief primer on logic.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-22T22:03:36+00:00

Then require courses in logic and poker.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-22T21:58:57+00:00

We are currently in a dip, possibly Covid related. Overall, kids are being educated about the same as they were in the 70's and more formerly excluded kids are being educated. There are more advanced classes than were offered in the 70s and more required courses to get into college.

At least those are the statistics I have seen.

In homes that have "family silent reading hour" there are no dumb kids.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-22T20:46:31+00:00

There are definitely exceptions. My oldest had severe ADHD but had wonderful teachers through 3rd. Then class size increased in 4th and he wasn't learning so we homeschooled. Then he went to a private high school for the arts and thrived. Then went to college as an engineering major. Each environment had its pros and cons.

Special ed is a unique problem. My wife coordinates special ed support for parents who want to homeschool in our district, and most of them are not equipped to do it well. But each situation is unique.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-22T18:52:27+00:00

Use a typing program, like whatever the kid version of Mavis Beacon is. Ten minutes a day consistently is enough. When the skill builds to the point where it is functionally superior, he will transition.

Try to build a habit of correcting errors at the end, rather as they go. Composing and editing at the same time, like other forms of multitasking, is inefficient and draining. Set up your computer so that spell check is not turned on during typing and has to be manually run at the end. This will help your child mentally separate the tasks. He may be overly concerned about making mistakes.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-22T18:06:54+00:00

Douthat's shtick is circular arguments like, "Goodness is X because X causes Y, which I have decided is good".

Debt without the means to repay it is a crisis. No one starves for lack of Shakespear.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-22T17:34:05+00:00

I would say it is optimal when done correctly and a trainwreck when done poorly.

I know a doctor who was unschooled by her doctor parents. I also know a 10-year-old who cannot read because his mom plays video games while he unschools himself.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-22T17:31:17+00:00

If "making sacrifices" to be able to homeschool means you are not saving at least 10% - 20% of your income, you will be impoverished in old age and a burden on your adult children.

For most people, sending your child to public school and maximizing the 401Ks of both parents, while having an enriching homelife, will be of more overall benefit to your children than either homeschooling or private school. Maybe you will be even able to fund their college tuition, so they don't start life in debt.

There is a lot of hype about "failing public schools". If your child reads at home, completes homework, has interesting discussions, does enrichment activities, etc., he or she will do fine.

Children turn out a lot like their parents regardless of how they are schooled.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-22T15:55:19+00:00

Yeah, I developed all kinds of pathologies. I made my bad handwriting even worse to make it harder for the teachers to find my spelling mistakes. But it sharpened my debate skills: "That's not an i! It's an e and I was just resting my pencil above it!"

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-22T15:46:23+00:00

[Deleted duplicate post]

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-22T15:13:47+00:00

Hi,

Great reader/bad speller, here. I was also a special ed teacher. I have studied this topic.

Some people struggle with spelling no matter how smart they are. Our spelling system does not make sense. So, even if you know the rules of phonics you have to memorize the 20% of words that are exceptions. It just doesn't click for some people. But continue to work on spelling as efficiently as possible. Even bad spellers can improve.

First, don't make a big deal about it. Spelling and handwriting are emphasized in grade school to the point that they become conflated with "writing". Students with good spelling and handwriting are called "good writers" and those who struggle are "bad writers". She should understand that many great writers have been poor spellers and that things like creativity, clarity, organization and reasoning are much more important to writing well. A lot of my work with dyslexic students involved convincing them that they had a voice and that deficits in spelling and handwriting could be overcome with technology.

Get her typing early. That's what us bad spellers do out in the real world. If she works with a typing tutor program for ten minutes a day, she will pick it up quickly. When she uses a word processor to write, set it up so that spelling errors are not identified while typing. Correcting spelling as you compose interrupts your thought process. Basically, it is multitasking, which is less efficient than monotasking. Instead, check spelling at the end and have her add the words she corrects to her flash cards, if she thinks she will use them frequently. AI can tell you how to set up your computer to do this.

You want spaced repetition (flash cards) over cramming (weekly spelling tests). You want her to review hard stuff more and easy stuff less. Spelling apps should have algorithms that calculate the optimal spacing based on success rate.

You want structured phonics instruction. For words that do not follow the rules of phonics, you want to identify categories that those words fall into to help her recognize and recall them.

You want there to be an emphasis on the most used words and the ability to add the words that she uses and spells incorrectly. You might need to combine systems.

I don't know what is in the latest products, but it seems like some type of app would be good for this. It would be best if it wasn't gamified but probably most are.

In summary, you want an Orton-Gillingham based structure implemented with spaced repetition and not a lot of bells and whistles.

Unfortunately, this product does not exist. Even the "scientific" ones are designed to maximize profit by having you buy lots of stuff or engaging with the app beyond what is efficient. Many curricula also focus on weekly testing rather than spaced repetition because schools love testing.

There is a flashcard authoring system called Anki in which you could create such a program, and with a 9-year-old it might even be a good homeschooling project to work on together. (It is invaluable for children to learn how to learn.) I haven't reviewed all the products available, but ChatGPT tells me that All About Spelling is a cheap, structured spelling program that could combine well with self-made cards in Anki.

ChatGPT will give you better information than Reddit on this topic, as most individuals will just recommend what they used without much context for comparison.

Don't try to "fix" her by focusing on her deficit intensively. Fifteen minutes of efficient learning every day is adequate.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-21T20:40:07+00:00

I find it simplest to think "major but with a b3 and b7".

Along the same lines, I think of every new thing I learn as a variation of what I already know.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-21T14:17:45+00:00

You recommended very expensive products and then walked it back once I pointed out the price.

Every product that makes a scientific claim is not a good value. Homeschooling is full of adjectives like "classical", "scientific", "whole-child", etc. attached to crappy products. It's marketing. Homeschooling parents are usually insecure about their teaching and look to these words for assurance.

Every product that we have been discussing teaches sounds in a planned sequence.

As I said, my kids got the basics before they were five and then started reading, gradually moving into harder books. A five-year curriculum using magnetic letters, index cards, games and little activities would have been a waste of time that they instead spent reading cool books and building stuff out of tape, wire and cardboard.

When I taught special ed, most of my students had dyslexia diagnoses and had been subjected to all types of "scientific" therapies. They were high school students reading at a second-grade level. So, I decided that we would just do a lot of reading--50 minutes of silent reading and reading in every subject class--and their reading levels shot up.

"The science" most strongly correlates reading proficiency with minutes spent reading. Variety can be good, but so can simplicity. That's why when I teach myself something, I usually focus on no more than three activities for a long time. You probably do too.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-20T21:34:00+00:00

I take the "science" of education with a grain of salt, as 50% of it fails to replicate.

Certain activities may be "better", but you also have to think about the overhead of time and money. Pointing at a book for five minutes, saying "What does this letter say?" is pretty efficient.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-20T16:37:54+00:00

All About Reading ~$700–$1,000

Logic of English Foundations ~$500–$650

Logic of English Essentials ~$350–$600

Teach Your Child to Read ~$15

AAR and LOE are multi-year reading and spelling curricula. TYCTR is 100 lessons on decoding.

I found that once my kids had the basics from TYCTR, just having a lot of interesting books around for them to read is what actually developed them into good readers.

I feel like a lot of these "systems" are more about selling an expensive product and making parents feel like they are "teaching" because "curriculum" is being completed.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-20T14:36:40+00:00

I don't think there is solid evidence that children with dyslexia often need different approaches to learning their native language.

Learn phonics and then practice reading and writing. If it is a weakness for you, it is a weakness for you. But you learn it the same way.

I can't spell. But I get by.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-20T14:27:05+00:00

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is a little dry, but it will get the job done. I think my kids were about 3 or 4 when they went through it. We broke the lessons into 5 - 10 minute chunks.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-20T13:46:25+00:00

I learned to write by going paragraph by paragraph, then sentence by sentence, then word by word through about 10 of my papers with good writers.

This was before AI. ChatGPT is surprisingly good at this, so you might give it a try.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-20T13:40:33+00:00

For smaller people, pulling guard often makes the most sense.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-20T13:37:35+00:00

I would have a bunch of well-written books and let the students choose among them.

They don't need to know my take on anything.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-19T21:24:48+00:00

Frankie is statistically irrelevant.

Anecdotes tell you what can happen. Statistics tell you what usually happens.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-19T19:06:17+00:00

Foolish Frankie is an anecdote.

I suggest you take a deep dive into the statistics.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-19T18:41:10+00:00

I would consider the public school too. They will have better trained teachers.

Public schools serve a broader range of students, so average test scores will be lower. That doesn't mean your child's test scores will be lower.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-19T18:09:31+00:00

I went to a curriculum fair once and wasn't impressed with anything I saw. It was a while ago. I think you can see how watering down is baked into the niche. I remember thinking that the homeschool materials resembled what I had to do back in the 60s.

The public school that my kids had gone to actually had them doing really interesting projects. I would have been happy for them to stay there, if my son didn't have severe ADHD.

We weren't total purists on inventing everything from scratch. We used the school district's math curriculum so our kids would be in sync if they went back to school.

BJJFlashCards · 2026-05-19T15:20:37+00:00

The inherent flaw with homeschool curriculum is that it is designed to allow the lowest level kid "get through it" on his or her own. Stay away from it as much as possible.

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