Heritage History

Somehow I think I missed sharing one of the greatest history finds that I found while homeschooling.  How can that be?

Beautifully formatted in pdf form.  All good to go for your printing pleasure.

Heritage History has so many books.

So today -

HERITAGE HISTORY

A New Book all the Way from America

Today I had some happy mail.....

a new book all the way from America.

{ A History of England by Arnold - Forster }

It's on the AO reading list as an option / substitute if you don't want to do Churchill.

Up until this point I've been slowly printing out a pdf copy, but it would be a huge project to do that if I had to continue to the very end, so on that account, I am super excited to have it in a book - hard cover too.

The Rocks of Honey

Hannah has also finished Watership Down, and enjoyed it immensely, as the same for the other two girls.  So, I needed to find a new read for that space on the schedule.  Here's what I choose for Hannah.

The Rocks of Honey

Sorry guys, but we did dispense with the dust jacket, it was in the way...

Written by Patricia Wrightson and printed in 1960.  She is a distinguished writer for children.   Her books have won many prestigious awards all over the world.

I love the sketch work in it.

This is an Australian book.

It's about an Aboriginal legend, and a hidden stone axe which is believed to be cursed.  Basically it's a treasure hunt.  Barney and his Aboriginal friend with a third child are determined to find the axe.  But of course, there are a string of accidents along the way, which leads them to conclude that the legend is much more than they originally thought, but is it??

Descriptions of the local landscape do not escape the book and there is even a "shivering authentic encounter account of a close encounter of a local spider".

The Golden One

Since we're doing AO for Phebe at the moment, and she polished off Watership Down in a jiffy, I moved her into a new book.

The Golden One

by Katherine O'Brien

Inside at the first chapter. 

"If you like adventure stories, you'll like this one."

The story is based in New Zealand, a close geographical country to Australia.

"Three twelve year olds on holiday near Wellington find a treasure that has been lost for several generations - the Golden One of legend.  But that is only the beginning of their adventures, as thieves try to get hold of it.  And the antique shop owner's assistant is really nasty, the villian - he's a really good baddie."

At present Phebe is about to start chapter 3.

Australiana - A Couple of Classic Australian Poems

Sometimes you can find some awesome bargains being in the right place at the right time....

Here's a couple I got last week:

Published by Scholastic...

Essentially an illustrated walk through of the poem....

and...

for 50 cents a book, I might add.

Can't wait to share with the girls.

Beautiful, yes??

Yes.  :)

Christian Liberty Nature Readers

It only took me about 6 hours to locate these particular books in amongst the bookshelves today.  I started looking at about 6 am and then, when it occurred to me to continue looking, looking I did.

Page one of the contents, but it has 154 pages in its entirety.

I love the simplicity of the text and layout, nothing taxing or distracting.

I love that it also includes a review of each section.

I highly recommend this set of books if you can get them!

The Legend of Ulysses

Now, while it's true to some large extent that I haven't been one for much mythology in our homeschool journey, even when we were very devoted to doing Classical Education many years ago, I will still put some on the shelves occasionally.  It's more or less about ensuring that the children have a broader awareness of literature and vocabulary than anything else.  

At any rate, I wasn't particularly looking for anything in this particular department while out recently, so when I spied this little treasure, I snatched it up because of the quality of the book itself.  

Sometimes book collecting is more about availability and usefulness than getting my wish list fulfilled.

In it's cover there is a handy and helpful map which enables his travels to come more to life.

 Medium type, short chapters, and beautiful illustrations make it an excellent children's book.

An excellent addition to any Ancients year study.

The Nightingale

The story of the Nightingale is what I consider a " children's classic".  It has been around for donkeys years.  In fact, the original was written in 1843.  It's something that every child should hear in their childhood growing up, even if it's only once.  Coupled with amazing illustrations the child is swept in by curiosity and delight.

It was by sheer chance that I happened upon this gorgeously illustrated version.

Another book that I cannot wait to share with Charlotte!

Australian Bush Birds

An awesome little find at a second hand market morning.

The dust cover was a little torn and damaged, so I just removed it after I took this photo.  I prefer my books to look old, if they can - so if it's a hard cover, I will generally remove the covers if they're not doing much in the way of making the book look lovely, inviting, or beautiful.

Inside it has a simple contents page:

I LOVED that it had so much introductory and helpful information!

Perfect for beginner bird watchers.

It will lend itself to so many bird lessons.

Awesome!

And then when we get to the birds themselves, we find colour plates on the right hand side, with the text on the left.

The end part of the book has many more photographs - in black and white with other pertinent information.

If you can find a copy of this book, I highly recommend it.

Spurgeon

Still book collecting, and found these earlier this week.

Really looking forward to walking through his notes.

Barchester Towers

I could NOT resist.

Nope.

I know, I already had Barchester Towers on the shelf, but I did not have it in a Folio Society edition.

So I picked it up.

It cost me less than a $1.

Don't be jealous, be a collector.

The Travels of Marco Polo

It's not every day that you find a Folio edition of The Travels of Marco Polo.

Complete with maps and illustrated classical pictures.

And when you can pick up a copy for about $1 you get a very nice feeling of satisfaction.

Wondering what year they do Marco Polo in AO?

The Life of Samuel Johnson

At first I had no idea what I had here....

As it turns out this is an AO9 read.... which is awesome because Chloe is going to be in year 9 next year - so now I have this most beautiful edition just waiting for her grubby little hands to start trashing the pages.

A very fortunate find.  It looks brand new, ie.  someone bought it and never used it, and then I got it for under $1.

At this point in time I do believe that it is highly ambitious that it should be on the AO9 reading list.  Yep.  But I have it as an option.

And we can always use it in Year 10 if that suits us better.

Australian Insects

Ever since we started getting into Nature Study I have found that it has been slowly and a most steady winding road to new delightful discoveries.

When we took up AO for Chloe it suddenly went into massive overdrive, and has been producing an entire whole new world to us.

This week while out in the wild I found this particular little gem.  A general flick through the pages revealed a hidden nugget of wealth.

I've been living in Australia my whole life, and all this time I had no idea to the extent of our native insects, let a lone any other animal species.

It's like I was robbed for nearly 50 years and all of a sudden my inheritance is being sent back home.

How did I ever get through life without doing Nature Study??

I have so much to catch up on.

Anyway, back to the book:  it does have some colour plates, but it was the copious amounts of detailed lined drawings that really caught my eye. 

 Can't wait to include it in our schooling along the way.