Children's Living History Book Review: Queen Victoria, English Empress

We just finished reading Queen Victoria; English Empress by Sally Glendinning, 1970. My son is ten and easily read this to me, a few chapters a day. As are many books written for this age range of about 10 - 12, the book is written in dialogue between the characters, grasping interest right away. I've read many biographies about Queen Victoria's, and this book hit all the important high points, and low points. There were illustrations and photographs of Victoria and the royal family throughout. A well written book which is recommended for learning about this popular long reigning queen whose throne is linked to many of European monarchies by the marriages of her nine children. We found this book at our public library.

An excerpt:

Such lovely phrases! Queen Victoria cherished every pronouncement from Disraeli. He never argued with her, as others had done in the past. He charmed her, entertained her, and frequently through persuasion brought her around to his point of view.

Disraeli's goal was to enrich the power and prestige of the British Empire. Yet he managed each accomplishment as if it were intended solely for the glory of Queen Victoria.

In 1875 he arranged the financing for the purchase of controlling shares in the Suez Chanel, the great man-made waterway linking Europe and the Orient. It would be impossible to estimate the value of such an investment for the British Isles, always dependent on the commerce of the seas.

I also found two recommended books on Queen Victoria over at Mater Amabilis, Catholic Charlote Mason:

Queen Victoria (Noel Streatfeild) [World Landmark series] – excellent, but out of print
Victoria, May Blossom of Britannia, England 1829 (Anna Kirwan) [Royal Diaries series]

Interestingly enough, it was the American Quakers(my relatives) who gave significant help to the Irish during the famine. As well as Irish, I also have Philadelphia Quaker blood from my father's side. See the Irish Famine Memorial in County Clare. There is still a Quaker meeting house there. Makes me wonder if there is a connection there since both my Catholic and Quaker relatives are from Philadelphia. Even more ironic, my Catholic side of the family is originally from County Clare!


Older children's books have a traditional story based approach without modern analytical analysis. See more here.

Living History Children's Book Review: Where Valor Lies by Adele and Cateau De Leeuw

Where Valor Lies by Adele and Cateau De Leeuw, 1959 is living history at it's best! I picked this book up some time ago at a library sale. It was an older book club edition, but I've since learned that Lepanto Press has republished this book.

I've been reading this book aloud to ds at bedtime. I thought it might be a dry historical book beyond his interest level, therefore making it a good fall-asleep book(giggle). It wasn't, and isn't. This book is very well written and peaks your interest in the first few paragraphs as we witness the dialogue of a young man who has a thankless and low paying job as an apprentice carpenter to a cruel taskmaster. Work is hard to come by, and many are starving in 13th century Paris.

Elizabeth Yank reviews the book at the Love2Learn Blog:

"Where Valor Lies includes a colorful cast of characters including Aimar, a father like figure who watches over him, Pierre a dear and close friend, Friar Bernard, whose example of unfailing help to those in need inspires those around him, and the rascal Vincent, an enigma whose generosity ultimately triumphs over his greed.

Where Valor Lies opens with a whirlwind of activity and does not stop until the last page, keeping the reader’s attention riveted throughout. It is a story of personal growth as much as it is an adventure story of an impetuous young man on a quest for great fortune and glory during the Seventh Crusade[Saint Louis the IX]. What is a man’s true valor? In the end, Richard finds out it is not great victories in battles, but the moral victory over oneself."

See the complete review here.

It was a very good book, but I think the ending was a little emotionally flat. Especially considering how exciting it was throughout. Maybe I was depressed by their losses, and wanted to be lifted up with more coverage or discussion regarding their moral victory.

I plan to look for more books by Adele De Leeuw at our public library. What a wonderful way to make history come alive. I'm guessing that the reading level would be appropriate for at least fifth grade, but I enjoyed it as well.

Free Homeschool Printables/ebooks/Curricula

I enjoy researching vintage children's books and making free homeschool printables from public domain resources. We use many of the resources that I've listed, but frankly, I just plain enjoy helping others enrich their homeschool experiences and save money.

If you have any subject area suggestions or requests, please feel free to comment below. I'll do the research and see if I can fill the need. Keep this in mind, I'll only be searching public domain vintage resources. All requests will be posted generally here and on my homeschool library blog. Because of primary obligations to my family, time constraints won't allow me to respond to individual requests.

Free Homeschool Printables: Stories of the Saints

I've reformatted and Americanized some the spellings for these stories which I have excerpted from Stories of the Saints by Candle-Light Vera C. Barclay, 1922, The Faith Press, LTD. London(public domain). They are free to print, but please link back if you repost these. These stories are geared toward elementary school students.

The Story of St. Martin

The Story of St. Antony

The Story of St. Francis, Part I


More to come....and I'm still editing these a bit as I go along. Let me know if you see anything really weird. I've copied and pasted, but I still have had to replace paragraphs, indentations and clean up stuff that came over on the sidebar.

Free Vintage Preschool Printable: This Little Piggy

I've made this into a printable page here. These images are from an Edwardian era nursery rhyme book which is in public domain. When printing, set page to portrait and 150% in order to fill page.

Free Preschool Simple Scissor Practice

I believe this is free through the end of the week from CurrClick. Click here

HT to Just Some Stuff.

Resource for Free Printable Children's Stories: Vintage Graded Readers(ebooks)

I've added new categories to my Happy Hearts Homeschooling Library which makes it much easier to search for children's academic readers by grade level. To search by grade, see the quick lists in my contents for Google books and Project Gutenberg books.

These vintage readers are a super resource for accessing quality printable fiction and non-fiction children's short stories. Each book is linked to the table of contents for easy scanning. The books(and then some) are listed in my Google library which can be searched with key words. The search engine is not the best, but if you keep adding words and fiddling with it, you'll hit on some resources.

Free Curriculum: Teaching Table Manners

From The School Kitchen Textbook, by Mary Johnson Lincoln, published in 1915:

There is no place where it is more essential, or where there
is a better opportunity to observe the golden rule, than at the
daily home table. "

If you please," and " No, I thank you," are in far better
taste than " Yes, thanks," and " No, thanks." Accept what
is offered or placed before you ; but should your preference
be asked, and you have any, it is allowable to name it at once.
When a plate has been filled for you, keep it, and do not from
mistaken courtesy pass it to the next person. Make some
sign of acknowledgment for what is served you, either by an
inclination of the head or a quiet " thank you," whether it be
offered by those presiding at the table or by the waitress.
Courtesy to all, and especially to a child or a servant, should
be the daily habit.

In family serving, wait until all are helped before you begin
to eat, and be on the alert to assist in the serving as much as
possible. But where there are trained waiters and several
courses, begin as soon as you are helped that there may be no
delay.

Keep the spoon in the saucer, because if left in the cup,
both may be overturned.

Do not talk or drink while food is in the mouth.

Take your soup quietly, from the side of the spoon, lest
in bending your arm to put the end of the spoon in your
mouth you interfere with your next neighbor. Dip it into
the plate from instead of toward you, and thus avoid dripping
the soup. Read more here.

And from The Goops, published in 1900: Table Manners, Parts I and II.

The Goops character training books have been republished in color.

Canning Jar Labels: Free Printables

Click on title.

Homeschooling, Old Fashioned Education: Speyer School Curriculum Guide for Grades Kindergarten Through Eight

By Columbia University Teachers College and published in 1913. There are some nice graded book lists. Click here. Many of the books mentioned are available at the library, online in the form of free ebooks(downloadable), and in reprint at stores like Amazon. com or Barnes & Noble.

Free Printable Grocery Store Price Log

Click on title.

Free Children's Ebook: A Wonder-book for Girls and Boys(Classical Mythology) By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Beautifully illustrated, published in 1892, free and in public domain. Readable online, downloaded, and printable in HTML mode(right click on image of pages). Click here.

Vintage Scouting for Girls: Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts

Published in 1920 and in public domain. Click here. Read online or download. To print, right click on image of the page. Make sure it is in HTML mode in order to save image or print, see sidebar on bottom.

Excerpt:

1. THE HOME MAKER
By SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD
Formerly Dean of Simmons College

The Keeper of the House. Every Girl Scout knows
that good homes make a country great and good; so
every woman wants to understand home-making Of
course that means "keeping" a house; and of course that
means that Girl Scouts should try for the Housekeeper
Merit Badge, the "Home Maker."
Now "making a home" doesn't mean just having it,
owning it and holding its key. It means making it a
good place to live in, or helping to make it so. This
sounds like the House that Jack built ; but all this belongs
to the making of a home.

CONTENTS
Foreword by Sir Robert Baden-Powell.
Preface by Josephine Daskam Bacon, Editor.
SECTION :
I. HISTORY OF THE GIRL SCOUTS 1
II. PRINCIPLES OF THE GIRL SCOUTS 3
III. ORGANIZATION OF THE GIRL SCOUTS 13
IV. WHO ARE THE SCOUTS? 17
V. THE OUT OF DOOR SCOUT 35
VI. FORMS FOR GIRL SCOUT CEREMONIES 44
VII. GIRL SCOUT CLASS REQUIREMENTS. 60
VIII. WHAT A GIRL SCOUT SHOULD KNOW
ABOUT THE FLAG 67
IX. GIRL SCOUT DRILL 84
X. SIGNALLING FOR GIRL SCOUTS 97
XI. THE SCOUT AIDE 105
Part 1. The Home Maker 106
Part 2. The Child Nurse 157
Part 3. The First Aide 164
Part 4. The Home Nurse 217
Part 5. The Health Guardian 254
Part 6. The Health Winner 257
XII. SETTING-UP EXERCISES 273
XIII. WOODCRAFT 280
XIV. CAMPING FOR GIRL SCOUTS 313
XV. NATURE STUDY FOR GIRL SCOUTS 373
XVI. THE GIRL SCOUTS' OWN GARDEN 456
XVII. MEASUREMENTS, MAP-MAKING AND KNOTS 466
XVIII. PROFICIENCY TESTS AND SPECIAL MEDALS 497
XIX. REFERENCE READING FOR GIRL SCOUTS . . . 540

Make Your Own Crayon Organizer Using Recycled Boxes

Click on title.

HILDEBRAND AND HELLELIL

Beautiful painting, tragic story.

They stood at the door with spear and shield:
‘Up Lord Hildebrand! out and yield!’
He kissed me then mine eyes above:-
‘Say never my name, thou darling love’
Out of the door Lord Hildebrand sprang;
Around his head the sword he swang.

HILDEBRAND AND HELLELIL, TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH.

Painting: "The Meeting on The Turret Stairs" by Frederick William Burton, Pre-Raphaelite.

Light Blocking Drapery Liners Which Actually Work

We've gotten heavily lined drapes and blinds which were labeled "light blocking", but they never truly blocked the light. I wanted heavy drapes like the kind you find in hotel rooms, super heavy duty light blocking drapes, the reason being that the children's bedrooms faces west, and it gets really hot in their rooms in the late afternoon and into the evening. The sun shoots right through two layers, the lined drapes and closed blinds, especially in my daughter's room. I planted a Japanese Cherry tree in front of their windows, but it is not quite tall enough yet.

So today while I was searching for a tension rod at Walmart, I found some Roc-lon drapery liners The package stated that they were made of the same fabric used in hotels worldwide, so I tried them, and they work really well! You can hang them behind your curtains or drapes on a pocket rod, or attach them with drapery pins to the back of your existing drapes. I spent about $24.00 for a two panel package which included the drapery pins.

These liners will definitely save us on air conditioning costs. They advertise that they cut down on noise as well. We've got traverse rods in both the children's bedrooms, so these were very easy to loop onto the existing pins behind the drapes.

Read Walmart reviews here.

One small issue is that each package fits a window width of up to only 50 inches. The larger size would need a patio panel(drapes that open only on one side). Our window width was a bit wider, but the liner still blocked out enough light to make the room almost pitch black. For complete coverage I'd have to double up the liners - one pack for each drapery panel, but that's for an absolute black out which is a little creepy for the kids. Another way to make it darker would be to hang the liners on a tension rod in the window where you'd normally hang your blinds, or if you have room, in front of your blinds. This blocks out the light/heat from above the drapes and from the sides. The only downside is that you can't move them on the rod during the day; the fabric is very thick.

Tips for Slicing Homemade Bread

Click on title.