THE FIRST BOOK OF TREES (PDF ebook)
Wonderful middle grades book all about the different trees native to America and how to identify them, with many lessons and studies on how trees grow, categories of trees, how to tell them apart, and much more. Hundreds of excellent illustrations make this one a real keeper!
To download this PDF ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save” to your computer. Mac users, press the Control key then click the link and save it to your mac.
The First Book of Water by Jo & Ernest Norling (PDF ebook)
Today’s resource is a GREAT science picture book for young readers all about water – what it is, what it does, why it is so important for all life, and much more. There’s biology, meteorology geology, physics and a whole lot more bundled up in this very informative and wonderfully illustrated text. Highly recommended for your homeschooling library!
To download this PDF ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE then “save” to your computer. Mac users, press the Control key, then “save” the link to your mac.
S.T.E.L. SCIENCE COMIC BOOKS
Here’s a fun manga comic book series about space and earth weather put out by the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory at Nagoya University in Japan. The downloadable PDF comic books in this collection contain a cartoon story featuring humorous characters explaining scientific themes in a friendly way. Also included are text background features and some beautiful photography and illustrations. These were overseen by Dr.Y. Kamide and the artwork and writing were done by the manga creator Hayanon. Really nice stuff – especially if your kids enjoy Japanese style cartooning!
Titles in the series include:
WHAT IS THE AURORA?
WHAT IS THE GEOMAGNETIC FIELD?
WHAT ARE THE POLAR REGIONS?
WHAT IS THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE?
…and six more! Check them out!
Click here to go to the download site!
Knees and feet sore, but spirits high. Meeting many new friends on the camino. Wonderful people and amazing places. 100 km down, 700 to go!
Learning how to debone fish from a friendly retired Aussie in Roncesvalles.
Jess running with the bulls in Pamplona.
Jess and friend Rose on top of Alto de Perdón (forgiveness). You’ll recognize this place if you’ve seen the movie “The Way”.
Far Above Rubies SAMPLER
“Far Above Rubies” by Lynda Coats is a classic unit study based curriculum for Jr. High and high school aged young ladies (ages 12-13 through high school) based on Proverbs 31: 10-31, designed to cover all subjects (except for math) for a complete high school education. It is a “self-directed” curriculum, which can be customized by both parent and student to best fit your girls’ interests, goals and learning style. (No canned curriculum, boring textbooks or lectures.) Instead, students “pick and choose” the assignments they wish to focus on to fulfill their course requirements.
Far Above Rubies has been used by thousands of families over the past 15 years as the core high school curriculum for their daughters’ high school education.
Today’s freebie is an extensive, 78 page PDF Sampler of the curriculum that includes:
Guidelines for parents and students
The philosophy behind the curriculum
How it can be used with students with different learning styles
Essential materials needed for the curriculum
A COMPLETE Sample unit study from the curriculum …and more!
To download this PDF sampler, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save” to your computer. Mac users, press the Control key, then click the link and save to your Mac.
SPECIAL OFFER through FRIDAY:
This week only, until Friday, May 10th, we are making the Complete “Far Above Rubies” curriculum in downloadable PDF format available at a HUGE discount – Regularly $69.95, THIS WEEK it is JUST $34, exclusively from HomeschoolFreebieOfTheDay. Click here for details!
Nadene is a homeschooler from South Africa who is passionate about homeschooling and has really enjoyed her homeschool journey with her two daughters. She has created a wonderful homeschooling resource site called “Practical Pages”. Today we want to point you to her amazing page of downloadable freebies, which include notebook pages, minibooks and BUNCHES of lapbook projects, handwriting charts and booklets, organizational tips and ideas, delightful historical paper dolls, a timeline of art history, studies on great musicians and artists, history, geography, and much more.
Click here to go to the site!
“Johnny Crow’s Garden” (PDF ebook) – Today we feature this absolutely delightful vintage children’s picture book illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke, featuring all kinds of animals cavorting in this classic nursery rhyme. Many color plates & black and white illustrations suitable for coloring by little hands. The separate audio reading of the book is by favorite Librivox audio reader, Kara Shallenberg.
To download this PDF ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save” to your PC. Mac users, press the “control” key then click the link and save to your mac!
To download the audio reading of this book by Kara Sallenberg, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save” to your PC. Mac users, press the “control” key then click the link and save to your mac!
RIP VAN WINKLE
If you enjoyed yesterday’s story, then you’ll also enjoy these two audio versions of another classic Washington Irving tale.
First, listen to Walter Houston narrating this delightful 15 minute abridged version of this classic American wonder story from an old children’s album. Just listen to it!
Click HERE to play online, or to download, RIGHT CLICK and “save as” to your computer!
Then, if you want to hear the unabridged original story (1 hour long), we’ve got that too. Just click HERE to play online, or download, RIGHT CLICK and “save as” to your computer!
This illustration is of Dutch people playing nine pins (kegelen), the same game played by the mountain men in the story. Painted 1650-1660 by Jan Steen.
The quiet Dutch community of Sleepy Hollow lay in the Adirondack mountains on the western shore of the mighty Hudson River in America’s colonial period. The solitude of the woods was breathtaking, and not even a schoolmaster was immune from the eerie miasma which everyone knew permeated the dense forest. Written in 1820, Washington Irving’s The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow has become a classic of American literature, and has been retold in many different ways. Today, we have two wonderful AUDIO versions of the story for you!
First, here’s a great old time radio dramatization of Washington Irving’s classic early American story of Ichabod Crane and the headless you know who. Oooo! Great fun! (28 minutes)
Legend of Sleepy Hollow Click the link to play online, or to download, RIGHT CLICK and “save as” to your computer!
Next, here’s a link to the unabridged audiobook version of Washington Irving’s story. (It’s only 1.5 hours in length, and the reader is great!) If you like the above dramatization, be sure to have your kids listen to this excellent reading of the original!
Hi friends, we’re taking a brief time out from posting to get caught up with some pressing matters here. We’ll be back on Wednesday. In the meantime, we thought we’d share with you this note from daughter Jess (“The Fumbletons”) about the journey she is setting out on. (And yes, for those who asked, this trek has our full support and approval.) We’d appreciate your prayers for her over the next few weeks whenever she comes to mind. Thanks so much! – The Erskine Family
“A journey of a thousand (or five hundred) miles begins with a single step.” -Lao Tzu
Hey everyone,
So as most of you know, I’m heading off to Spain. I leave Monday 4/29/13 and will be gone for six weeks, returning 6/17/13. I’m endeavoring to walk a five hundred mile trail called the Camino de Santiago “the Way of St. James”. Starting from the Pyrenees mountains in France and walking to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. I’ll be carrying all I need with me on my back, and will stay in hostels and rely on the kindness of others along the Way. I’ll be traveling through farmland, villages, forests, mountains, and along highways (I mean, it’s 500 miles so I should be seeing a lot of different landscapes, right?)
The Camino has well over a thousand years worth of pilgrim footprints ingrained in its path, all heading to the same place where the bones of the apostle James are said to be buried- Santiago. The Camino was originally a religious, deeply Catholic journey, but now people with all kinds of different beliefs and backgrounds do it for many different reasons.
The reason I’m writing this is because I’ve had so many people ask me why I’m doing this “crazy thing”. Some people are baffled by it, some people are unhappy about it, and some people just don’t “get” it.
Well, it all started last June when I watched a movie on Netflix called “The Way” with Martin Sheen (cheesy- I know, and not completely accurate). After the movie was over I thought “How cool would that be to do?” but I didn’t seriously consider it. Yet it set a tiny spark in my heart that just wouldn’t go away. For a few months the Camino was constantly crossing my mind and distracting me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was working at Penn Station and the Capitol Arts Center at the time and had no “big” future plans. In fact, I was flailing around wondering where my life was going and what I was doing (which I will likely still be doing for a long time).
One thing you have to realize- I’ve lived a pretty sheltered life. I grew up on a farm with my family and I didn’t start really “making friends” until I started theatre at age 16. I’ve never been out of the country, never been on a plane, never been away from home (Kentucky) for more than 3 weeks at a time. I’m not saying I had a “hard time” growing up- I had a wonderful childhood. But it was also very isolated and lonely…
So I made the decision to go.
I did a lot of research, got my equipment, purchased my tickets, broke in my shoes (I even learned a bit of Spanish!) and planned everything I could in the span of 5 months. I even talked my friend Rose into going with me for the first two weeks!
So, my “reason” for doing the Camino?
It’s just something I have to do… it’s difficult to explain. But it’s been tugging at my heart for quite awhile and I know if I don’t pursue it, I’ll never forget it and I will never be content. I need to take a huge step out of my comfort zone. I need to experience a different culture, different people, a new language.
They say the Camino breaks you first physically, then mentally, then spiritually. Though it’s going to be tough- I need all those things. I need to feel the joy and freedom of the Camino. I also need to feel the pain it brings. I need to grow as a person. I need to live. It’s been laid on my heart and it’s just something I have to do.
I know it sounds “hippie”, crazy and off the wall, and that’s okay. It probably is all those things! But the fact is- I need this more than I can explain.
So when I take my first step out the door, I will be taking the first step of my pilgrimage. I’m heading off into a completely different world.
“It’s a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
My heart is torn, one half for the Camino and the other for all the people I love here at home. I’m going to miss all of you more than you’ll know. It’s going to be a tough and amazing six weeks. Prayers are hugely welcome.
I love you all,
Love,
Jess peregrina (pilgrim)
~~~
“To laugh is to risk appearing a fool
To weep is to risk being called sentimental
to reach out to another is to risk involvement
to expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self
to place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss
to love is to risk not being loved in return
to live is to risk dying
to try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The people who risk nothing may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow or really live.
Chained by their servitude they are slaves who have forfeited all freedom.
Only a person who risks is truly free.”
And lastly one of my favorites:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.-Robert Frost
