As I mentioned in this post, I am now selling Usborne books to help my family make ends meet. In order to help pay for my kit, I am going to hold an e-show book party at this link for 10 days. All you have to do is click on this link, and order. As a special surprise to those who order from me from this special link, between August 17th-27th, will have their name put into a hat for some free books! How many free books? It depends on how many people order. If enough people participate, I will have three drawings! This is a great time to stock up for Christmas or as a special gift to your homeschool shelves for the year. If you have ANY questions, please feel free to email me from my site at the email address you see on the top of the page. And to top it off…the leading purchaser will win free shipping from me.
I use many of these books in my homeschool. My sons especially, eat these for breakfast and it is hard to get them to read what we would consider a regular course book. What we decided to do with them this year is so very different. We are working from the Usborne books as a springboard to further study. My one ds(7) is very interested in Sharks and Ocean Life(among other things). We will be watching movies about sharks, doing activities involving sharks, visiting an aquarium and notebooking/lapbooking many of our AMAZING discoveries!
My older ds(almost 11) is interested in so many areas of Science that we are using the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of Science and exploring many new topics this year, resting on those subjects he is most fascinated in and doing experiments and throwing in as many living books on each subject as he wishes. He is so motivated that he started already. When he is engaged in something, there is no stopping him. I have given him the reigns on this project and he is doing 
waaay more than I ever would have assigned to him in the first place…..see? I AM learning….a bit slow…but I am catchin on….HE is educating ME…BIG TIME. This same child used to tell me…"Stop teaching me Mom, I am trying to learn something." Now don’t think this is any miracle child, if he isn’t engaged he is harder to motivate than a beached whale! It is just that when he has more of a say in what he does he somehow thrives…if only he felt this way about the dishes!
The older children are FINALLY going to be compiling a Timeline of the Centuries Notebook this year. We are using many of our studies against the Usborne Book of the Ancient World (INTERNET LINKED) and the Usborne Encyclopedia of World history Internet linked.
For our World Studies projects, we are using the Internet Linked World Geography book with Atlas, The Children’s Picture Atlas , World History Sticker Atlas and the Children’s Internet linked Atlas…some of the sites they link up to are awesome for teaching geography! Each new topic will have entries in our Geography notebooks….I have so many ideas and I am excited about sharing them!
I just got my kit last week, and I hid the box under the bed in my room….wouldn’t you know it? The kids have been in there with the door closed sneaking into that box learning behind my back! What do you think of them?!
These books are great conversation starters. One such book that we are eager to look at is the book of WWII There is so much to explore in there…I NEVER learned about that era in school. What I do know came from old John Wayne movies and a few other living books that we read last year. So this book will add another level to the knowledge we already have.
I love all of the Internet Linked books. There are so many wonderful sites that they link up to! Nothing like putting some fun into the day…Who said school had to be booooring?? We are proving them wrong! Challenging yes! Boring?….nah! not here! How natural it is to re-tell something that you have encountered that you actually enjoy….aaand in the retelling it seems to come alive in you again! After all, we are lighting fires here…not filling buckets!
I am planning on a big rabbit trail history year. One place we will linger is with Knights, Castles and Armor! We are saving cardboard and duct tape as I type! We have books put aside for the little guys and meatier ones for the big guys…and truth be told…dh couldn’t be happier with the subject matter! I can share those titles too, if you wish!
So this is why I decided to start with this company. I have never felt like I could do anything else with my dc about me as easily as I can do this at home. Even if you can’t purchase something now, you can get on my mailing list of specials and have your name put into a free book drawing.
I will be sharing future rabbit trail ideas as we go along! I want to build up some special notebooking pages for those trails too…after all…notebooking is a great learning tool and re-telling tool…the kind of cement that makes learning STICK! ;o)
Please spread the word! If you would like to have your own e-show, please email me because as hostess you can earn double free books during my 12 week incentive period.
Our children also eat Usborne books! Our copy of the Encyclopedia of World History is well worn among many others. I believe my fourteen yrs old has memorized a good fraction of the book and he loves to share with his brothers. Oftentimes a little one tells me some bits of knowledge as he draws historical tableaus and when I ask where he learned it, he’ll invariably answer, “Raphael told me”!
Linked here from By Sun and Candlelight! I seems to spend more money on reading to my children than feeding my children. Some of those titles looks irresistable.
Many of these books ARE irresistable! I only have SOME of them…some I had already and some that came in my kit and I am still not satisfied. I am starting my OWN wishlist at my site. I just *LOVE* how the kids use them to teach each other. I can’t have enough of THAT…lol!