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Franklin's Philosophy of Life
in His Own Words

312 Pages $14.95

Enrich Your Homeschool Curriculum
And Give Your Children a Significant Advantage

Introducing "The Seven C's of Thinking Clearly"

The two volume set of "The Seven C's of Thinking Clearly" is a curriculum enrichment resource uniquely suited to homeschool curriculum. Each volume contains over 120 character based lessons designed to help children develop their emotional, social, and thinking skills.

Does Your Homeschool Curriculum
Give Your Childen This Advantage?

In 1729 Benjamin Franklin wrote an article for the Weekly Mercury in
which he commented on the MOST IMPORTANT things children need to know.

"It is said that the Persians, in their constitution, had public schools in which virtue was taught as a liberal art or science, and it is certainly of more consequence to a man that he has learnt to govern his passions in spite of temptation, to be just in his dealings, to be temperate in his pleasures, to support himself with fortitude under misfortune, to behave with prudence in all his affairs and every circumstance of life, I say, it is of much more real advantage to him to be thus qualified, than to be master of all the arts and sciences in the world besides."

Benjamin Franklin's The Art of Virtue
page 21

Most likely, one of the reasons you are homeschooling is precisely to give your children this important advantage. But most educational resources, whether we are talking about public, private or homeschool curriculum are unidimensional—that is, a math lesson is only a math lesson and a music lesson is just that. Every lesson you teach has the potential to be so much more. To go to the next level, it is important for children to understand that:

Ideas are the most powerful things in the world, and the most empowering thing
in the world is to be able to distinguish between good ideas and bad ideas.

Empower you children with character based learning!

What is Character Based Learning?
Character Based Learning is learning in which students gain useful knowledge, acquire essential virtues, and develop their mental and emotional faculties as part of the same learning experience. The three components in every lesson are:

	An Educational Component tied to core curriculum standards
	A Mental and Emotional Development Component designed to help students develop their emotional, social and thinking skills
	A Character Development Component designed to help students develop the virtues of responsibility, self-respect, respect for others and trustworthiness

The promise of Character Based Learning is that, by treating all three of these dimensions of learning as a unified educational objective, we create a highly synergistic relationship in which personal growth in all three is significantly enhanced.

Each dimension enriches the others, and in a marvelous manifestation of the economy of nature, it can be found that teaching the three together is easier, more efficient, and more effective than teaching them separately, or any one of them alone.

And the beauty is that character based learning strategies may be applied to any homeschool curriculum. The Seven C's of Thinking Clearly books not only provide a large store of lessons, they also teach you these strategies and help you to recognize how and where to employ them. Then you can use them with curriculum resources you have now or use in the future. Whether your home school curriculum is completely supplied and administered by a school, or you are piecing together your own curriculum, you will find these lessons and learning strategies a fun and beneficial way for your child to learn important life lessons.

Sample Home School Lessons

Following are sample lessons from "The Seven C's of Thinking Clearly" that illustrate some of the learning strategies utilized to create Character Based Learning experiences. When used in conjunction with the lesson finder, either online or in the download edition of each book you purchase, you have home school lessons that meet state core curriculum standards.

Grades 2-6

What illusion robbed both Snow White and her stepmother of good judgment? Why would a beautiful Queen turn herself into an ugly old hag? Why did Snow White fall victim to her ruse? The story of Snow White is much more than a children's fairy tale. It is a story that teaches important life lessons. The optical illusion coloring page accompanying the story illustrates these lessons. Enlist the help of The Stink'n Think'n Gang. Snow White Wants it All

This science lesson, of all the home school lessons you teach, may well be the most important. Once understood, it has application across all your homeschooling curriculum and daily experiences your children have. They will be able to recognize its operation in lessons you teach in history, literature and current events. More importantly, they will be better able to recognize its influence in choices they and others make. The ABC Sequence

The real life story of Michael Dowling is a powerful lesson in helping young people realize how they think about things greatly influences their ability to solve problems and overcome challenges in their lives. It illustrates the power of both internal and external communication. Michael's Speech

Do your children know who this villain is? Are they aware there's a band of thieves out to rob them of common sense and good judgment? Can you help them recognize the influence of these bandits in fiction, history, the daily news, and in their own lives? Learn who these bandits are and what they do.

Grades 5-9

Help your children discover who Abraham Lincoln's most cherished friend was—the one he relied on for comfort and encouragement in his darkest and most difficult hours. Help them recognize they have a friend just like Loncoln's who they can rely on for encouragement and comfort if they develop his friendship. The Friend Down Inside of Me

Read with your children "The Mighty Genghis Khan, a story of anger and remorse" and learn why "He vowed a vow while standing there, 'tis well to think upon, Never in anger will I strike again said Mighty Genghis Khan." The Mighty Genghis Khan

Are your students able to recognize the insidious influence of Polarizer in their lives? Whether your children attend homeschool only, or also attend public or private schools some of the time, they will have ample opportunity to meed Polarizer. Will they be prepared? Do they know he is a member of EPT, a clandenstine organization dedicated to overthrowing civilization by flooding the world with Error-Prone Thinking? About EPT

The Clear Thinking Team

By employing the Clear Thinking Team to your help children develop their thinking skills you also help them develop the emotional intelligence and social skills essential to living happy, fulfilling lives. Since both the acquisition and use of knowledge is determined by these Seven C Skills, they may well prove to be the most important thing you ever teach your children. The CT Team

The Ideal Supplement to any Homeschooling Curriculum
All lessons in The Seven C's of Thinking Clearly are an ideal supplement
to any homeschool curriculum because:

	Hindsight, Insight and Foresight questions increase student participation, comprehension and retention by causing students to reflect upon what they have just learned and its relevance to their lives. At the same time these questions help minimize your lesson preparation time. more information
	Most lessons also include a Discussion Opportunity Box offering suggestions on ways you may wish to lead the discussion, again minimizing the time required for lesson preparation and stimulating ideas on how to make the lesson most relevant to your students
	Most lessons are self-contained requiring no additional materials for the lesson. Those that do are identified by an Advance Preparation box indicating what is needed. Any additional items required are both inexpensive and easily obtainable requiring little out of pocket expense or running around to find.
	These are scalable lessons that are easily adjusted to fit the time you have as well as the interest and comprehension levels of your students.
	These are fun, high interest lessons in which your students response will make them both rewarding and enjoyable for you to teach. But they are not cotton candy. They deal with serious choices young people have to make on a daily basis.
	Most lessons are Multi-Dimensional meaning they address several aspects of personal and academic development and which facilitates presenting and discussing them on more than one occasion thus significantly increasing both comprehension and retention of the principles involved.
	Every lesson is a Character Based Lesson—each one meets one or more of the following state core curriculum standards while at the same time helping young people improve their thinking skills and develop emotional intelligence, social skills, virtue or character, whatever you wish to call it. Communication Standards Reasoning and Problem Solving Standards Personal Development Standards Civic and Social Responsibility Standards Arts, Language and Literature Standards History and Social Studies Standards Science, Mathmatics and Technology Standards
	The Online Lesson Finder (included with the eBook editions) is a valuable time saver, greatly simplifying the process of finding, selecting and planning lessons that meet your childs needs. In addition to the title and page of the lesson, you are provided with a complete lesson plan including a synopsis of the lesson, the primary focus of the lesson and core curriculum standards the lesson meets.
	The Seven C's of Thinking Clearly contain a rich literature base of particlular interest to homeschool parents consisting of: Familiar stories with a new twist designed to increase reading comprehension and retention and facilitate student discussion by enabling them to more clearly recognize the relevance of the story to their own lives. Original stories, again designed to stimulate interest and facilitate learning by their relevance to choices students have to make on a daily basis Autobigraphical and biographical sketches of famous and not so famous individuals designed to empower young people with the ablity to make responsible choices by helping them recognize: Choices some of these people made when they were still small children that affected the whole of their lives Choices some of them made which enabled them to overcome serious handicaps and difficulties in their lives Choices others have made that illlustrate the effort required for them to accomplish remarkable things and the rewards of having made the effort
	Although the lessons may be taught in any order at any time, and you may wish to address specific needs you are experiencing in homeschooling your children, the lessons in The Seven C's of Thinking Clearly are presented in sequential sections designed to build one on the other. Section One, Choosing to Avoid Faulty Thinking: These lessons are designed to help students recognize and avoid dysfunctional thinking habits that are so common and so awfully destructive of human happiness. Unfortunately these thinking habits seem to require no effort at all to acquire. Section Two, Choosing to Develop the Seven C Skills: These lessons focus on helping students develop seven thinking skills necessary for overcoming faulty thinking and are essential for accomplishing anything worth while in life. Unfortunately, these thinking skills seem to require a great deal of effort to acquire in any significant measure. Section Three, Choosing to Be Personally Responsible: This section focuses on individual accountability for individual choices and actions. Once students are able to recognize the thoughts and behaviors that limit their progress, and that no one else can control these thoughts and behaviors, they are ready to accept greater personal responsibility for their lives. Section Four, Choosing to Respect Myself: When students accept greater responsibility for their choices, they are able to take the next step in making choices they can feel good about. An important element of these lessons is helping them to recognize benefits of their own uniqueness and recognize perfection is not a pre-requisite for self-respect. Section Five, Choosing to Respect Others: When individuals do not respect themselves, it is more difficult for them to respect others. This section is designed to help students recognize how our individual differences add interest and variety to life and also how these differences make possible unique individual contributions to the benefit of all. Section Six, Choosing to Be Trustworthy: The lessons in this section focus on helping students understand that a free society is based on mutual trust and that individual and collective safety, progress and happiness is dependent on this trust.
	The Teaching Stragtegies in the Seven C's of Thinking Clearly contain mental hooks intended to create a cocklebur effect. For example: While The Seven C's of Thinking Clearly contains a rich literature base, there are also a wide variety of other activities designed to address varied learning styles. A number of lessons can be presented as Dynamid Duos in which the same idea is presented in both in a literature format and an activity format which improves both comprehension and retention. The iconic characters employed in The CT Team, The Stink'n Think'n Gang and EPT provide valuable discussion vehicles which are easily transferrable to any home school curriculum you use. These characters can significantly increase reading comprehension and retention by establishing the relevance of the ideas in the minds of your students. These characters not only enable students to connect the dots between the particular lesson and their lives, they are able to transfer this knowledge to other information and events they are experiencing in their lives. These teaching strategies are easily transferrable to other homeschool resources you are using as well.
	One of the great benefits of these lessons is their suitablity and ease of reproduction for both class room use and home assignments and for use in both public and homeschool curriculum.
	In addition to the Online Lesson Finder* available at this site, a Character Trait Cross Reference Index along with listings of most of the stories (Great Lessons from Great Lives and Great Lessons from Great Stories) can be found at the end of each book. Combined they provide you with an unparalleled ability to find lessons specifically suited to your needs at any particular time as well as a fully developed lesson plan including a synopsis of the lesson, the primary focus of the lesson, and the core curriculum requirements addressed by the lesson. *included with the eBook editions