Monday, July 30, 2007

Girl's Adventure Series: The Campfire Girls/Project Gutenberg

How Ethel Hollister Became a Campfire Girl (Benson)
Ethel Hollister's Second Summer as a Campfire Girl (Benson)
Campfire Girls at Twin Lakes; The Quest of a Summer Vacation (Francis)
Campfire Girls in the Allegheny Mountains; or, A Christmas Success against Odds (Francis)
The Camp Fire Girls at Camp Keewaydin; Or, Paddles Down (Frey)
The Camp Fire Girls at School; Or, The Wohelo Weavers (Frey)
The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit; Or, over the Top with the Winnebagos (Frey)
The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods; Or, The Winnebagos Go Camping (Frey)
The Camp Fire Girls Go Motoring Or, Along the Road That Leads the Way (Frey)
A Campfire Girl's First Council Fire; The Camp Fire Girls In the Woods (Stewart)
The Camp Fire Girls at Long Lake; Bessie King in Summer Camp (Stewart)
The Camp Fire Girls on the Farm; Or, Bessie King's New Chum (Stewart)
The Camp Fire Girls on the March Bessie King's Test of Friendship (Stewart)
The Camp Fire Girls at Sunrise Hill (Vandercook)

Boy's Adventure Series/Project Gutenberg

Bobby of the Labrador
Left on the Labrador A Tale of Adventure Down North
The Long Labrador Trail
The Lure of the Labrador Wild
The Story of Grenfell of the Labrador
Troop One of the Labrador
Ungava BobA Winter's Tale

The Lincoln Story Book/Project Gutenberg

A Judicious Collection of the Best Stories and Anecdotes of the Great President. Click here.

A Little Cook Book for a Little Girl

Click on title.

How to Teach Phonics/Project Gutenberg

Click on title.

Arthur Scott Bailey Bedtime Stories/Project Gutenberg


Click here for list.

Tom, Dot and Talking Mouse and Other Bedtime Stories/Project Gutenberg


Click Here.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales/Project Gutenberg

A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales by Jonathan Nield is featured on Project Gutenberg with a link list to free texts from Nield's suggested course of study. How neat! The list is geared toward adult and high school level study; however, there are two suggested courses of study for boys and girls.

Printing and Binding books

Printing can get very expensive, so I bought the Brother HL5150D(duplex printer, prints both sides) which is recommended by Robinson Homeschool . I got a good deal for a refurbished model online from Office Depot two years ago. Robinson Homeschool curriculum is vintage books all on cd's, and they require quite a bit of printing, so I thought they would have good recommendations for low cost copies.

The Brother HL5150D is a laser printer which runs less expensive copies than ink jets. It got excellent reviews across the net, especially at PriceGrabber.com. This site which sells the replacement laser toner cartridges reports that the printing cost per page is .011 cents! A very good price for copies, especially two sided copies which would run you half that amount per page, about .0055 cents per page.

You can always bind the books yourself. Here are some home book binding helps:

Book binding tutorial Skip to step 3 if you are making your own copies. This looks very labor intensive, but you might pick up a few helpful tips even if you don't make a book from scratch.

Homemade leather or book binding glue


Office Depot charges .08 cents a copy, so I won't be asking them to copy a book for me. They will do a nice comb binding for $2.39. You can punch holes in pages and use brads, but a comb binding makes turning pages so much easier. I plan to try this with a few books soon. I'll post when I do.

Another idea would be to punch holes in a book and place it into a ring binder. This would be especially good for books which you plan to just use for school, rather than reading books you plan to keep in your library.

Feel free to add ideas for binding books.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Thursday, July 26, 2007

A History of Painting/Project Gutenberg

A Text-Book of the History of Painting 110 black and white illustrations(some in color online), published in 1909.

FIG. 45.—SODOMA. ECSTASY OF ST. CATHERINE. SIENNA.








FIG. 46—CORREGGIO. MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE AND CHRIST. LOUVRE.

Rollo at Play & Rollo in the Woods by Jacob Abbott/Project Gutenberg

"Although this little book, and its fellow, "ROLLO AT WORK," are intended principally as a means of entertainment for their little readers, it is hoped by the writer that they may aid in accomplishing some of the following useful purposes:—
1. In cultivating the thinking powers; as frequent occasions occur, in which the incidents of the narrative, and the conversations arising from them, are intended to awaken and engage the reasoning and reflective faculties of the little readers.
2. In promoting the progress of children in reading and in knowledge of language; for the diction of the stories is intended to be often in advance of the natural language of the reader, and yet so used as to be explained by the connection.
3. In cultivating the amiable and gentle qualities of the heart. The scenes are laid in quiet and virtuous life, and the character and conduct described are generally—with the exception of some of the ordinary exhibitions of childish folly—character and conduct to be imitated; for it is generally better, in dealing with children, to allure them to what is right by agreeable pictures of it, than to attempt to drive them to it by repulsive delineations of what is wrong."

Rollo in the Woods
Rollo at PlaySafe Amusements

The Common People of Ancient Rome Studies of Roman Life & Literature/Project Gutenberg

Click on title.

Books by Jane Austen/Project Gutenberg

Emma , Emma audio book
Lady Susan
Love and Friendship
Mansfield Park
Northanger Abbey , audiobook Northanger Abbey
Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice , audiobook Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility


Memoir of Jane Austen by James Edward Austen-Leigh 1798-1874

About Jane Austin

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

The New Vertical Script Primer/19th Century Books

According to the Introduction, this primer is both a penmanship and beginning reader. For modern day purposes, all but the first few sections is advanced for first grade, and could easily be used a section at a time from grades one through three.

This is the seventh lesson:

Click here to view the book.

An improved grammar of the English language by Noah Webster/19th Century Books

An advanced grammar book, especially the Syntax sections. Click here.

Noah Webster's American Spelling Book/19th Century Books

The American spelling book : containing the rudiments of the English language : for the use of schools in the United States / by Noah Webster.
Very thorough multi-grade spelling book which looks as if it could be used in sections from elementary through early middle school. It would also be useful for review and remediation for older students.

The American drawing-book/19th Century Books

The American drawing-book : a manual for the amateur, and basis of study for the professional artist : especially adapted to the use of public and private schools, as well as home instruction / by J.G. Chapman.

I found this at 19th Century Books, part of University of Pittsburgh Digital Library System. It's quite a thorough and professional drawing course. The first section is just learning lines, and if you skip to the next section on rudimentary drawing, you'll see why you need to master this.

"Mary Louisa Molesworth typified late Victorian writing for girls. Aimed at girls too old for fairies and princesses but too young for Austen and the Brontës, books by Molesworth had their share of amusement, but they also had a good deal of moral instruction. The girls reading Molesworth would grow up to be mothers; thus, the books emphasized Victorian notions of duty and self-sacrifice."

The Cuckoo Clock

Grandmother Dear, A Book for Boys and Girls

The Rectory Children

Rosy

The Tapestry Room A Child's Romance

Us, An Old Fashioned Story

Monday, July 16, 2007

Saving Texts

Project Gutenberg's texts are very easy to save, just download the zip file, or go to the HTML or plain text. Once the text loads, right click, select all and save to your computer. This can take up a lot of space on your computer. As mentioned here, you can save it to a flash drive, or use Google Documents to store it online, and/or convert to another file type.

Google documents allows you to upload the Project Gutenberg text with just the url. Then you can amend it for personal use, like edit out extra print, and save it as a zipped HTML, RTF, pdf, Open Office, Word or plain text. You save the text to these different file type by clicking on "file" in the edit mode of your saved documents at Google Documents.

The only negative aspect of doing this is that the pictures do not load, so you'd have to add them back if you upload non-plain text. In this case, it would be easier to download the zip file text off Project Gutenberg, or just have a large file of the HTML stored.

Another helpful Google Documents function under "file" in edit mode is Word Count. This analyzes the documents word count and readability level. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it will give the grade level. You can analyze children's vintage texts with Word Count if you are curious about the reading level.

Here is another free place to turn documents into pdf files.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Alphabet Copywork for Preschool - Kindergarten



I'm having a bit of fun making copy work pages with vintage illustrations. These are free to share and print for personal use. Please give me a link back if you post these on the net. I'll do the entire alphabet as I find pictures.

Printing tips: I suggest that you click "print preview" on your computer before you print, and change the setting to "portrait" for best results. Also, you may have to change the print settings. Most are fine at 100% - lines at margins will be even upon printing.

Letter A

Letter B

Letter C

Letter D

Letter E

Letter F

Letter G

Letter H

Letter I

Letter J

Letter K

Letter L

Letter M

Letter N

Letter O

Letter P

Letter Q

Letter R

Letter S

Letter T

Letter U

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

The Nest in the Honeysuckles, and other Stories/Project Gutenberg


Click here.


Published in 1855 by the American Sunday School Union in Eastern Pennsylvania. Moral tales and character education. "No books are published by the American Sunday-School Union without the sanction of the Committee of Publication, consisting of fourteen members, from the following denominations of Christians, viz. Baptist, Methodist, Congregational, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Reformed Dutch. Not more than three of the members can be of the same denomination, and no book can be published to which any member of the Committee shall object."


This book reminds of the Pathway Mennonite readers. Good wholesome teaching stories; however this one also has discussions. There is one story for boys which discusses how to be a gentleman by following the example of George Washington. They just don't make books like this anymore.

The Summer Holidays/Project Gutenberg


Published in 1850, contains moral, science and nature teachings. I guess you could call it didactic children's fiction for early elementary. Click here.

Boys Adventure Series: The Outdoor Chums/Project Gutenberg


Saturday, July 7, 2007

Digital History, American history with a free online textbook.

Free Spelling Course, Grades 6-8

Click on title.

The History of Tom Thumb & Others Stories/Project Gutenberg

The History of Tom Thumb to which are added the stories of the Cat and the Mouse and Fire! Fire! Burn stick!

Aunt Mary's Primer(K-First)/Project Gutenberg

Click here.


"A FEW WORDS TO THE TEACHER.
When Little Mary (or any other little girl or boy) knows all the letters perfectly, let the teacher turn over a page and pronounce one of the mono-syllables. Do not say a, m, am—but say am at once, and point to the word. When the child knows that word, then point to the next, and say as, and be sure to follow the same plan throughout the book. Spelling lessons may be taught at a more advanced age; but it will be found that a young child will learn to read much more quickly if they be dispensed with in the Primer. In words of more than one syllable, it is best to pronounce each syllable separately, car, pet,—po, ker,—and so on. In the lesson on "Things in the Room," point out each thing as the child reads the word, and indeed, wherever you can, try to associate the word with its actual meaning. Show a child the word coach as a coach goes past, and she will recollect that word again for ever. In the "Lesson on the Senses," make the child understand how to feel cold and heat, by touching a piece of cold iron or marble, and by holding the hand to the fire,—how to smell, to hear, to see, and to taste. In the "Lesson on Colours," be sure to show each colour as it is read; and endeavour to make every Lesson as interesting as you can. Never weary a child with long lessons. The little poem at the end is intended to be read to the child frequently, that she may gradually learn it by heart. " ~ Aunt Mary's Primer, published in 1851.

Note: Don't hold child's hand to fire(which means near)! This is an old book(pre-electricity), and safety meant something different back then. I'm sure most people know this, but since it's quoted here I feel obliged to mention this.

Devotions: The Rosary

The Excellence of the Rosary, Conferences for Devotions in Honor of the Blessed Virgin by Frings, Math Josef, 1819-1895.

The Rosary by Barclay, Florence L. (Florence Louisa), 1862-1921
Audio Version here.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

The Absurd ABC By Walter Crane/Project Gutenberg


Click on picture or here.









More by Water Crane:

Alphabet Of Old Friends

Baby's Own Aesop by Walter Crane, Audiobook

The Song of Sixpence Picture Book

The Frog Prince and Other Stories: The Frog Prince, Princess Belle-Etoile, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm

Boy's Historical Adventure Series:Project Gutenberg


By Joseph A. Altsheler (Joseph Alexander), 1862-1919

The Forest of Swords
A Story of Paris and the Marne (English)
The Forest Runners
A Story of the Great War Trail in Early Kentucky (English)
The Free Rangers
A Story of the Early Days Along the Mississippi (English)
The Guns of Bull Run
A story of the civil war's eve (English)
The Guns of Shiloh
A Story of the Great Western Campaign (English)
The Hosts of the Air (English)
The Hunters of the Hills (English)
The Lords of the Wild
A Story of the Old New York Border (English)
The Masters of the Peaks
A Story of the Great North Woods (English)
The Rock of Chickamauga
A Story of the Western Crisis (English)
The Rulers of the Lakes
A Story of George and Champlain (English)
The Scouts of Stonewall
The Story of the Great Valley Campaign (English)
The Scouts of the Valley (English)
The Shades of the Wilderness
A Story of Lee's Great Stand (English)
The Shadow of the North
A Story of Old New York and a Lost Campaign (English)
The Star of Gettysburg
A Story of Southern High Tide (English)
The Sun Of Quebec
A Story of a Great Crisis (English)
The Sword of Antietam
A Story of the Nation's Crisis (English)
The Texan Scouts
A Story of the Alamo and Goliad (English)
The Texan Star
The Story of a Great Fight for Liberty (English)
The Tree of Appomattox (English)
The Young Trailers
A Story of Early Kentucky (English)

Under Joseph Alexander:
Before the Dawn
A Story of the Fall of Richmond (English)

David "Davie" Crockett: His Life and Adventures/Project Gutenberg

Click on title.

(Moral Instruction)The Child at Home/Project Gutenberg

Chapter I.
RESPONSIBILITY.--The Police Court. The widow and her daughter.
Effect of a child's conduct upon the happiness of its parents. The
young sailor. The condemned pirate visited by his parents. Consequences of disobedience. A mother's grave. The sick child. . .7

Chapter II.
DECEPTION.--George Washington and his hatchet.--Consequences of
deception. Temptations to deceive. Story of the child sent on an
errand. Detection. Anecdote. The dying child. Peace of a dying hour
disturbed by falsehood previously uttered. Various ways of
deceiving. Thoughts on death. Disclosures of the judgment day. . .28

Chapter III.
OBEDIENCE.--Firmness requisite in doing duty. The irresolute boy. The girl and the green apples. Temptations. Evening party. Important consequences resulting from slight disobedience. The state prison. History of a young convict. Ingratitude of disobedience. The soldier's widow and her son. Story of Casabianca. Cheerful obedience. Illustration. Parental kindness. . .46

Chapter IV.
OBEDIENCE, continued.--The moonlight game. Reasons why good parents
will not allow their children to play in the streets in the evening. The evening walk. The terrified girl, Instance of filial affection. Anecdote. Strength of a mother's love. The child's entire dependence. A child rescued from danger. Child lost in the prairie.. .71

Chapter V.
RELIGIOUS TRUTH.--Human character. The Northern Voyagers. Imaginary
scene in a court of justice. Love of God. Scene from Shakspeare.
Efforts to save us. The protection of angels. The evening party. The dissolute son. A child lost in the woods. The sufferings of the
Savior. The Holy Spirit. . .94

Chapter VI.
PIETY.--Penitence. Charles Bullard. His good character in school. In college. The pious boy. The orchard. The fishing-rod. The forgiving spirit. How children may do good. The English clergyman and the child who gave himself to the Savior. The happy sick boy. The Christian child in heaven. Uncertainty of life. The loaded gun. The boy in the stage-coach. . .119

Chapter VII.
TRAITS OF CHARACTER.--We cannot be happy without friends. Why scholars are unpopular in school. The way to gain friends. The warm fire. Playing ball. Recipe for children who would be loved. A bad temper. Amiable disposition to be cultivated. The angry man. Humility. The vain young lady. Vanity always ridiculous. The affected school girl. The unaffected schoolgirl. Story of the proud girl. Moral courage. The duellist. The three school-boys. George persuaded to throw the snow-ball. What would have been real moral courage. The boy leaving home, His mother's provisions for his comfort. The parting. His father's counsel. His reflections in the stage-coach. He consecrates himself to his Maker. . .347

by John S. C. Abbott(John Stevens Cabot), 1805-1877

Monday, July 2, 2007

Old Greek Stories/Project Gutenberg

Click on picture.

SHORT STORIES AND SELECTIONS/Project Gutenberg

FOR USE IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS. COMPILED AND ANNOTATED, WITH QUESTIONS FOR STUDY.

Bedtime Stories: Tell Me Another Story/Project Gutenberg

"The reward of the story-teller who has successfully met the child's story interest is the plea embodied in the title of this book: "Tell me another story." The book meets this child longing on a psychologic basis. It consists of groups of stories arranged so that their telling will result in definite mental growth for children, as well as satisfied story hunger."

Arthur Bailey's Sleepytime Tales/Project Gutenberg


Click here.

The Best Nonsense Verses/Project Gutenberg

Click on title.

Children's Play: The Rescue of the Princess Winsome/Project Gutenberg

Click on the picture.


"Appealing to children because of its association with their favorite heroine, and to their parents because of its high moral tone and the beauty of its lines, the play has found great favor among children's clubs for their private theatricals, in many cases rivalling the success of the "Little Colonel" and her friends in obtaining funds for charitable purposes. "

Beatrix Potter Books, some Audio/Project Gutenberg

Click on the picture.





A Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories
The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter
Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter
The Story of Miss Moppet
The Tailor of Gloucester
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny
The Tale of Ginger and Pickles
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck
The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher
The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle
The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle
The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse
The Tale of Mr. Tod
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers
The Roly-Poly Pudding
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies
The Tale of the Pie and the Patty Pan
The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes
The Tale of Tom Kitten