Homeschooling: Vintage Nature Stories for Kindergarten - Second Grade

The Baldwin Project now has over 500 free vintage children's ebooks, all are educational either as classic fiction or non-fiction. They are not downloadable, but can be cross referenced at either Google Books, Project Gutenberg, or with a Google search. Both Google Books and Project Gutenberg allow for free downloads. The Baldwin Project ebooks can be copied, pasted, and printed for personal use only. See Terms of Use.

The Baldwin Project has reprinted many of these classic texts under Yesterday's Classics publishers. I've purchased a few via Amazonand Barnes & Noble with gift cards. Take advantage of the holiday promotional discounts if you use a credit card or Paypal. I read that Paypal is offering a 30% off coupon beginning 12/1/08. Barnes & Noble has got some good ones as well.

I noticed that they have a really nice set of nature story books by Clara Dillingham Pierson:

"If you have been looking for nature stories to read to your kindergarten age child, look no further! Clara Dillingham Pierson, a Froebel kindergarten teacher in Michigan at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, has written a lovely series of nature stories ideally suited for children ages 4 to 7. Each chapter offers the story of one animal interacting with other animals in its community."

Among the Forest People
Among the Meadow People
Among the Night People
Among the Pond People

These are so cute; I wish I had known about them when my son was younger, but I'll use them with my daughter's science curriculum.

Here are the free etexts at The Baldwin Project for the above books.

They do need volunteers for editing new texts. Click here if you can lend your time to these free resources.

Elementary School Beginning Book Report Helps Using Free Online Resources

My ten year old son is developing writing skills. Today his lesson in Climbing to Good English by Schoolaid(an inexpensive Amish/Conservative Mennonite publisher) required him to choose a topic, find information, and follow the steps to writing notes. We use Rod & Staff for our primary English lessons, but Climbing to Good English rounds out his English curriculum with added writing practice and review.

We don't have encyclopedias at home because they clutter up the place, and it is just as easy to find information online. Today we used our online homeschooling library and found two short stories about our topic which were perfect! I used the search engine at my Google Books library link, and browsed the science topic area at my online library blog, Happy Hearts Homeschooling Library. Ds chose polar bears for his topic with two simple questions on which to take notes: what do they look like and what do they eat. We only used one text, but I'll pass on the other in case anyone needs it.

Here are the two vintage texts:

Appleton's The Third Grade Reader, 1910: The White Bear(used for today's lesson). Not on grade level, but concise enough to learn the point of the lesson.

Primary Education, 1914, The Silver King of the New York Zoo.

How to print pages: right click on image of the page, view image, print preview, adjust to desired size and print. Links have been defaulted by me to HTML for printing and saving. Pages will not save or print in standard mode. The page mode change is to the right on the sidebar at links.

Free Thanksgiving ebook: Mary of Plymouth by James Otis

Free and in public domain via Google Books, ages 8-12. Fully downloadable, switch to HTML on sidebar at link in order to print specific pages or save images of pages. Click here.



Summary from The Lost Classics:

"Little Mary and the Pilgrims come to an America today’s children would not recognize. Desolate and cold, there are no homes, no churches, no stores, no crops, no livestock. How did the Pilgrims build homes in the bitter cold of a New England winter? What did they eat? How did they construct a fireplace with no bricks? What did they use to make candles and eating utensils? What about elections…church services…Indians…table manners…cooking…new foods? It’s all here in fascinating detail.

Mary of Plymouth is a story as instructive as it is appealing. A story sure to awaken your children’s curiosity about their country’s history."

HT to Pawpaw Holler Home.