Language Arts, Bible/Character, and Elective Books For Sale - January 2019...

Below you will find our latest list of Language Arts, Bible/Character, Elective, and misc. teaching resources for sale. A few of the books are ex-library, but most are from a private collection. Workbooks are clean, new, and unused unless noted. There is a variety of curricula and supplemental resources for language arts teaching.

The prices do not reflect shipping. We are a smoke and pet free home. I accept PayPal and ship media mail within the U.S. Please use the contact form on the right side bar to send inquires and desired list.

Thanks so much for your consideration,
Melissa

Writing & Grammar Books

Language Lesson for the High School Student 2 by Sandi Queen – student book & key $10

Many Luscious Lollipops – A Book about Adjectives by Ruth Heller $4

Up, Up and Away – A Book about Adverbs by Ruth Heller $4 each (x2)

A Cache of Jewels and Other Collective Nouns by Ruth Heller $4 each (x2)

Little Kids Can Write! by Karen Sevaly ages 3-6 student workbook $3

The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. & E. B. White (hardcover) SL AO 9 $4 each (x2)

Scholastic Success with Writing Grade 5 $3

Evan-Moor Daily Language Review Grade 2 $4

Evan-Moor Daily Language Review Grade 5 $4

Evan-Moor Daily Language Review Grade 6 $4

No Frill Grammar Drill grade 4 $2

Scholastic Narrative Writing by Tara McCarthy grades 4-8 $3

Spectrum Writing – grade 2 $3

Spectrum Writing – grade 3 $3

Spectrum Writing – grade 7 $3

Spectrum Language Arts – grade 6 $3

Teacher Created Resources Daily Warm – Ups Language Skill Grade 5 $3

The Student Editor by Virginia Allison – middle school $4

Critical Thinking Co. Editor in Chief Book A-1 $4

ETA Daily Writing Reinforcers (spiral bound with answers and teacher notes) grade 2 $3

ETA Daily Writing Reinforcers (spiral bound with answers and teacher notes) grade 4 $3

Jensen’s Grammar by Frode Jensen AO $8

Easy Grammar Ultimate by Wanda Phillips Teacher Edition Reproducible for Student use Grade 8 $10

Easy Grammar Ultimate by Wanda Phillips Teacher Edition Reproducible for Student use Grade 12 $10

Writer’s INC, A Guide to Writing, Thinking, & Learning MFW $5 each (x2)

Reading, Phonics, Vocabulary & Spelling Books

Spectrum Word Study and Phonics Grade 5 $4

Claims to Fame – Fourteen Short Biographies – Book 2 w/key by Carol Einstein $5

Bob Books – Levels 1, 2, & 3 $3 each level

Wordly Wise 3000 8 Test Booklet & Answer Key $3

Vocabulary in Action by Loyola Press Level E (student workbook) $3

Building a Strong Vocabulary by Carl B. Smith, Ph.D. $3

Vocabulary from Classical Roots Level A $8 set

-       Student book (some writing)

-       Test Book

-       Teachers Guide & Answer Key

Vocabulary from Classical Roots Level B $8 set

-       Student book (some writing)

-       Answer Key

-       Teachers Guide & Answer Key

The Writing Road to Reading by Romalda Bishop-Spalding 4^th edition $3

Spelling Workout Level G Student Workbook NEW! $3

Spellwell Levels A-D w/answer keys $30 set

Art, Music, Foreign Language, & Home Economics

Art & the Bible for Children by Barry Stebbing (NEW hardcover) $20

Rich & Sharon Jeffus Preschool & Early Elementary Art Basics $5

Adventures in Art Kindergarten Teacher’s Guide $5

Discover Art by Laura Chapman $30 set

-       Kindergarten Teacher’s Edition (by Cynthia Colbert & Martha Taunton)

-       Art Print Guide grades 1-3

-       Grade 1 student book (hardcover)

-       Grade 1 teacher’s edition

-       Grade 3 student book (hardcover)

-       Grade 3 teacher’s edition

-       Art Print Guide grades 4-6

-       Grade 4 student book (hardcover)

-       Grade 4 teacher’s edition

-       Grade 5 student book (hardcover)

-       Grade 5 teacher’s edition

-       Grade 6 teacher’s edition

Discover Art Teacher’s Edition by Laura Chapman grade 3 $4

Discover Art Teacher’s Edition by Laura Chapman grade 4 $4

The Gift of Music, Great Composers and Their Influence by Jane Stuart Smith & Betty Carlson $5

Art in Action by Guy Hubbard Grades 1-5 hardcover $10 set

Come Look With Me – American Indian Art by Stephanie Salomon (hardcover) $4

Kids Colorpix My Favorite Masterpieces Assorted Cards & Envelopes $3

Start with Art – Animals by Sue Lacey (hardcover) $4

Sue Patrick’s Workbox System Starter Kit for 2 Children & A User Guide book $10

Hand – Print Animal Art by Carolyn Carreiro (Williamson Publishing) $3

Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists Faith Ringgold by Mike Venezia $3

The Story of Painting by H. W. Janson (hardcover w/jacket – excellent!) AO $10

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards $6

Linnea in Monet’s Garden by Christina Bjork and Lena Anderson (hardcover w/jacket, ex-library) $4

Bible, Character, & Misc. Resource Books

Bible Quest: God’s People, God’s Land – Home School Teacher’s Edition $5

3 in 1 (A Picture of God) by Joanne Marxhausen $3

Little Visits with God by Allan Hart Jahsmann & Martin P. Simon $3

Egermeier’s Bible Story Book by Elsie Egermeier (hardcover) SL K $5

Egermeier’s Bible Story Book by Elsie Egermeier SL K $5

Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible for Young and Old (original 1932/1947 hardcover) $5 each (x3)

NIV Women’s Devotional Bible (Zondervan – hardcover) $5

Little Ladies series by Sandi Queen (new) $10 set

-       Dressing for God

-       Speaking to Please God

-       Keeping Myself Pure for God

The Sling and the Swallow by Eleanor Means Hall (hardcover) $3

Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook (hardcover w/jacket) $4

Early Education at Home – A Curriculum Guide for Parents of Preschoolers and Kindergarteners by M. Jean Soyke $8

Art Adventures at Home – Level 1 (grades K-2) by Pattye Carlson and M. Jean Soyke $7

Learning at Home – Preschool and Kindergarten by Ann Ward $15

Home-Spun Schools by Raymond and Dorothy Moore (hardcover w/jacket) $5

What Your First Grader Needs to Know by E. D. Hirsch $4

What Your Second Grader Needs to Know by E. D. Hirsch $4

What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know by E. D. Hirsch (hardcover) $4

Why Johnny Can’t Read and What You Can Do About It by Rudolf Flesch $3

Enrichment - Charlotte Mason Style Electives: Composer Study...

Composer study is part of the art of music studied in Charlotte's schools along with learning folk songs and hymns. It was called Musical Appreciation, in which, one particular composer was set for each term.  In an article written in The Parents' Review, Marjorie F. Ransom, ex-student of the House of Education, states:

About six works by some great composer are chosen for study each term. These compositions are played or sung to the children constantly and studied carefully. The children are taught something about the form, harmonic structure, thematic development of the composition and some information is given about the life of the composer. An article appears every term in the Parents' Review on the composer and his works, which is a great help to the teacher or parent who is giving the musical appreciation lessons.

Although we don't have the gift of the Parents' Review composer articles, in this day and age, we are blessed with many other resources to draw from.  One of which is Ambleside Online.  They offer a free "Composer Schedule" with biographical information, music downloads, and book suggestions/links on various composers. 

I've decided to incorporate composer study into our schedule this year.  We are studying Johannes Brahms the first term using "The Young Brahms" by Sybil Deucher.  I've scheduled composer study on Mondays in our Circle Time.  I intend to read a section from Deucher's book each Monday, as well as play Brahms music whenever possible over the next twelve weeks.  Ambleside Online has a list of suggested pieces that I'll draw from.  I plan to use Youtube and other online sources to listen to Brahms music.  Today we're listening to Variations on a Theme of Haydn. 

For further conviction on incorporating composer study/music appreciation into your homeschool, check out Delight in Music Appreciation by Tina Fillmer.

Enrichment - Charlotte Mason Style Electives: Hymn Study...

As I'm planning for our upcoming year, I thought I'd write a few posts on what some may call electives, however, Charlotte Mason considered these subjects necessary...

The Habit of Music. - As for a musical training, it would be hard to say how much that passes for inherited musical taste and ability is the result of the constant hearing and producing of musical sounds, the habit of music, that the child of musical people grows up with.  Mr. Hullah maintained that the art of singing is entirely a habit - that every child may be, and should be, trained to sing.  Of course, transmitted habit must be taken into account.  It is a pity that the musical training most children get is of a random character; that they are not trained, for instance, by carefully graduated ear and voice exercises, to produce and distinguish musical tones and intervals. (Vol 1, Home Education, p. 133-134)

Last year, I decided to incorporate hymn study into our day.  Our school age kids were 4th and 5th grade.  I have an old hymnal that I used to choose one hymn and one folk/patriotic song for each of our three terms.  One to two days per week, we would sing the chosen songs for a twelve week period.   This worked for the first and second term.  However, our kids entered a formal homeschool choir program in the third term so we did not continue hymn study at home for that term.  Here are the songs we learned last year:

Term 1

Star Spangled Banner

Come Thou Fount

Term 2

America the Beautiful - Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Term 3

Homeschool choir

Continued practice/review with Term 1 and 2 songs

The kids were also singing in church this whole time, including singing to the congregation once a month throughout the school year with children's choir.  Last December, RileyAnn was Mary in the Christmas play and had to sing a solo.  This was quite an experience for her at 11 years old!

This year, I intend to continue hymn study.  I haven't chose the songs yet, but I know I will weave it into our morning time.  A couple days ago, I downloaded a Thanksgiving Hymn Study by Kim Sorgius through Homeschool Giveaways...hurry, it's only FREE until 08-03-2015!  More than likely, I won't use the hymn study as suggested, primarily, because of the rapid suggested pace.  However, I really like the way it's laid out with copywork and a short biography on the author of the hymn.  I also like the idea of learning hymns of thanksgiving and tracking daily blessings.  I'm thinking of incorporating one of the hymns from the study for our first 12 week term, along with a folk song.  

Here are some other websites with hymn study suggestions and tips:

Jimmie's Collage - Beginning Hymn Study

Ambleside Online - Hymn Rotation Schedule

Charlotte Mason in Community - Studying Hymns and Songs

Do you do hymn study?  If so, what is your method?  Please feel free to comment below...

"Children Should Have Their Artistic Powers Cultivated"...Charlotte Mason

Riley and Ruben took an art class this spring through our local homeschool group.  It was not so much an appreciation class as Charlotte Mason would have suggested, but a chance to experience creating art with a variety of mediums.  

One day a week, we traveled to the city for class.  On the same day, they also participated in homeschool choir, along with over 200 other homeschool students, as well as piano lessons at the local university.  It was our cultural arts day.  

RileyAnn enjoyed the above project so much that she created more of them at home.  Each student was given a three inch square to which they cut out two triangles, then reassembled in the shape of a bird.  Next, starting in the corner of a blank page, they laid the bird at different angles, tracing it as they went along.  Each student was then encouraged to color a bird or all if they chose.  

I love the way Ruben blended pastels below to form soft lines following his silhouette bird.  The kids also worked with a variety of paints and markers.  They tooled on metal foil and created pop art.  

While they were in class, I had the opportunity to visit with other like minded moms.  The kids visited with friends in and between class.  They both LOVED it, as did I!

How Can It Be by Lauren Daigle...My New Favorite here on Drywood Creek

Art, Music, and Mathematics with Charlotte Mason....

Art

There are few subjects regarded with more respect and less confidence in our schools than this of 'Art'.  Of course, we say, children should have their artistic powers cultivated, especially those who have such powers, but how is the question.  The neat solution offered by South Kensington in the sixties, - freehand, drawing, perspective, drawing from the round, has long been rejected; but nothing definite has taken its place and we still see models of cones, cubes and so on, disposed so that the eye may take them in freely and that the hand may perhaps produce what the eye has seen. But we begin now to understand that art is not to be approached by such a macadamised road.  It is of the spirit, and in ways of the spirit must we make our attempt.  We recognise that the power of appreciating art and of producing to some extent an interpretation of what one sees is as universal as intelligence, imagination, nay, speech, the power of producing words.  But there must be knowledge and, in the first place, not the technical knowledge of how to produce, but some reverent knowledge of what has been produced; that is, children should learn pictures, line by line, group by group, by reading, not books, but pictures themselves.  A friendly picture-dealer supplies us with half a dozen beautiful little reproductions of the work of some single artist, term by term.  After a short story of the artist's life and a few sympathetic words about his trees or his skies, his river-paths or his figures, the little pictures are studied one at a time; that is, children learn, not merely to see a picture but to look at it, taking in every detail.  Then the picture is turned over and the children tell what they have seen, - a dog driving a flock of sheep along a road but nobody with the dog.  Ah, there is a boy lying down by the stream drinking.  It is morning as you can see by the light so the sheep are being driven to pasture, and so on; nothing is left out, the discarded plough, the crooked birch, the clouds beautiful in form and threatening rain, there is enough for half an hour's talk and memory in this little reproduction of a great picture and the children will know it wherever they see it, whether a signed proof, a copy in oils, or the original itself in one of our galleries. - Charlotte Mason (Vol 6, A Philosophy of Education, p 213-214)

In Charlotte's schools, students studied art for both expression and appreciation.  She describes her method of appreciation above, using picture study to get to know an artist.  The children then drew on this appreciation of art, as well as the beauty of their natural surroundings, to create their own masterpieces through painting, drawing, clay modeling, etc.  Charlotte also encouraged handicrafts as part of expression.  Whereby, the children would create useful items through knitting, sewing, carving, leathercraft, sculpting, etc.

The points to be borne in mind in children’s handicrafts are: (a.) that they should not be employed in making futilities such as pea and stick work, paper mats, and the like; (b.) that they should be taught slowly and carefully what they are to do; (c.) that slipshod work should not be allowed; (d.) and that therefore, the children’s work should be kept well within their compass. – Charlotte Mason (Vol. 1 Home Education, p. 315)

We love Simply Charlotte Mason's Handicrafts Made Simple DVD series!  Riley is working through Hand Sewing.  

Music

Music, the Great Joy we owe to Hearing. - Hearing should tell us a great many interesting things, but the great and perfect joy which we owe to him is Music.  Many great men have put their beautiful thoughts, not into books, or pictures, or buildings, but into musical score, to be sung with the voice or played on instruments, as so full are these musical compositions of the minds of their makers, that people who care for music can always tell who has composed the music, they hear, even if they have never heard the particular movement before. Thus, in a manner, the composer speaks to them, and they are perfectly happy in listening to what he has to say.  Quite little children can sometimes get a good deal of this power; indeed, I knew a boy of three yeas old who knew when his mother was playing 'Wagner,' for example.  She played to him a great deal, and he listened.  Some people have more power in this way than others, but we might all have far more than we possess if we listened.  

How to get the Hearing Ear. - Use every chance you get of hearing music (I do not mean only tunes, though these are very nice), and ask whose music has been played, and, by degrees, you will find out that one composer has one sort of thing to say to you, and another speaks other things; these messages of the musicians cannot be put into words, so there is no way of hearing them if we do not train our ear to listen. - Charlotte Mason (Vol. 4, Ourselves, p 30-31) 

Again Charlotte taught music through appreciation and expression.  The children studied various composers much in the same way as studying artists, by reading a brief biography about the composer and listening to some of their works.  The children also sang and learned to play piano as part of their music study.  

In Music their knowledge of theory and their ear-training should keep pace with their powers of execution. - Charlotte Mason (Vol 3, School Education, p. 302) 

In an effort to use Charlotte's methods in our homeschool, this year, I've incorporated singing and artist study.  The children and I are leaning to sing one hymn and one folksong per term.  The first term we are singing The Star Spangled Banner and Come Thou Fount.  We will also be reading about misc. artists and composers including Francis Scott Key, Benjamin West, and John James Audubon.  The children draw as part of their nature study and narration.  In addition, they produce handicrafts as noted above. 

Mathematics

The practical value of arithmetic to persons in every class of life goes without remark.  But the use of the study in practical life is the least of its uses.  The chief value of arithmetic, like that of the higher mathematics, lies in the training it affords to the reasoning powers, and in the habits of insight, readiness, accuracy, intellectual truthfulness it engenders.  There is no one subject in which good teaching effects more, as there is none in which slovenly teaching has more mischievous results.  Multiplication does not produce the 'right answer,' so the boy tries division; that again fails, but subtraction may get him out of the bog.  There is no must be to him; he does not see that one process, and one process only, can give the required result.  Now, a child who does not know what rule to apply to a simple problem within his grasp, has been ill taught from the first, although he may produce slatefuls of quite right sums in multiplication or long division.  - Charlotte Mason (Vol 1, Home Education, p 254) 

Let his arithmetic lesson be to the child a daily exercise in clear thinking and rapid, careful execution, and his mental growth will be as obvious as the sprouting seedling in the spring. - Charlotte Mason (Vol 1,
Home Education, p 261) 

Though Charlotte references mathematics many times in her six-volume series, there is not a lot of practical application.  I find her writing on this subject to be more philosophical.  This frustrates me since my black and white brain likes clear instruction, particularly in mathematics.  This is one subject, and may be the only subject, where I want Charlotte to tell me exactly how to teach x, y, and z.  

Some things I have come to learn over the years about Mason's teaching of mathematics are...

1. Charlotte used textbooks for math teaching.  She did not use living books for math.
2. Mathematics was used to train both mental and moral habits in Charlotte's schools.   
3. Children must learn the why behind the how.  Charlotte believed in starting mathematics teaching with manipulatives so children could see and physically manipulate the numbers. 
4. Charlotte believed the study of mathematics necessary, but she commented multiple times on being careful not to give math undue importance at the expense of a full and generous curriculum.  

But education should be a science of proportion, and any one subject that assumes undue importance does so at the expense of other subjects which a child's mind should deal with.....In a word our point is that Mathematics are to be studied for their own sake and not as they make for general intelligence and grasp of the mind...To sum up, Mathematics are a necessary part of every man's education; they must be taught by those who know; but they may not engross the time and attention of the scholar in such wise as to shut out any of the score of 'subjects,' a knowledge of which is his natural right.  - Charlotte Mason (Vol 6, A Philosophy of Education, p 231-233)

Simply Charlotte Mason published an invaluable book written by Richele Baburina titled Mathematics: An Instrument for Living Teaching.  Baburina studied Charlotte's writings as well as several sources used by Charlotte's teachers and parents and then compiled the book as a means to practically apply Charlotte's methods to the teaching of mathematics.  I own the book, but shamefully have not given it the habit of full attention.  I'm adding this to my to-do-list ;-)