I noticed that many of you seemed interested in my last Bargain Book post, at least according to all the copies of Saint Louis and the Last Crusade purchased through my link – thanks! Our copy already arrived! Originally published in 1958, it looks wonderful! The old re-published books are almost always my favorites… Anyways, I thought I’d share a couple more book deals I ran across this past week. I’m always watching for the extra great sales to stretch my homeschool book budget as far as possible! 😉
Alexander the Great by Demi is currently 75% off and is one of the recommended titles for our Ancient History Study next year!
Joan of Arc (also just $5 for the hardcover with prime!) is also on it’s way to our home and will eventually find a place on the shelf (after Chiquita’s birthday) with all of our other saint themed picture books.
We already own The Legend of St. Nicholas, Mother Teresa, Mary and The Empty Pot by Demi, and we all love the beautiful illustrations in these books, so I think these will make a nice addition to our collection! (Note: These are not currently discounted to 75% off.)
I know it’s Friday, but we are still Celebrating the Octave of Easter after all!
Have a great weekend!
Thanks for sharing these books. I just ordered the St. Joan of Arc one. Too bad the St. Nicholas one wasn't 75% off, too. I know you're only making a few cents off of it, but I hope it helps. I know I'm always excited when I see that someone purchased through my links. It helps a lot with expanding the kids' book collection.
I know! The St. Nicholas one is my favorite! I bought ours years ago from Book Closeouts (there's a link in the sidebar, but they don't seem to have it anymore). And yes, the affiliate links DO help and they add up quickly! Just your $5 purchase will end up being 35-40 cents off a book for my own children. Thank you!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU! LOVE your bargain book posts! PLEASE keep them coming!!!! I never seem to find the crazy good deals like you do! =o)
I'm just now exploring your post on RC History. Never heard of it before. How do you really like it? We've tried to do various history programs in the past, and eventually settled on the Time Travelers series, but I feel (as much fun as the kids are having) it's not enough and too much work for me. Looking over the RC History briefly, it really looks GOOD (like how I'd always imagined home schooling to go) but in terms of the amount of work for both myself and the children, how is it really? Since you've done it now for a couple for years, I need a REAL get down-in-the-mud view. I'm so burnt out and very close to throwing in the towel with homeschooling, yet I know what we are doing is WAY better than the public schools. HELP!!! Any guidance and insight that you can provide is GREATLY appreciated!! (I know you are a super-busy mom – so I understand!!!)
We LOVE RC History! I love that it's great books all in a list for me. But more than that, I love the flexibility. If we are on a roll and having a great "season" of school, we do projects, writing, vocabulary, maps, etc. If it's a particularly "off" time (baby, no sleep for mom, etc.), we just read great books aloud and on their own. Additionally, I'm excited for the framework it will provide for me when my kids are in high school.
I go through the book list in the spring for the next school year, making notes of what books are available at our library, which books I want/need to purchase, and the prices of those. Some years, we've bought all of the units at once (the ones not available at the library); last year, we bought each unit as we were about to do it because we just didn't have the budget for it at the beginning of the school year to do it all at once. It's very flexible. I would love to have the whole collection on my shelf, but that's just not financially possible for us. I will say, though, that the books we have bought have all been reread during free time because they are just fabulous books. Jessica also pointed out to me recently that many of the recommended books from Bethlehem Books are available for $4.95 on Kindle, so that is a great option for me going forward.
Hope that helps!
I'm very excited to return to RC History next year!!! As much as I have LOVED the Time Travelers series, I, too, am really ready for a break to focus on great books, writing assignments, and a little less crafting/lap books. 😉
This will be our families 2nd time through the first 3 volumes of the Connecting With History series. (I made our own American History Plans, incorporating the Time Travelers) The first time my absolute favorite part of the program was the EXCELLENT book lists. We worked our way through the books but many times that was about all I could manage – occasionally I did feel like somewhat of a failure with not using the curriculum to it's full potential, but that is the beauty of the program! You can pick and choose what you want to focus on, and what works best for your family! Looking back now, what we were doing was plenty for my young children at the time – and we have so much left to use as inspiration this time through!
This time I will have children in three different levels (which is challenging enough, even with them all studying the same time period – I really couldn't do it any other way!) but I really can't wait to get started! As a bonus, it has also been IMPROVED so much since back in 2008! I actually now have the updated Teacher's Manual and just purchased the weekly Lesson Plans for Volume 1 (click this link and then "Daily Lesson Plans" in the side bar and you should be able to view samples) – and I think it is going to be such a huge help!
I can totally relate to what you are saying, as I've been feeling a little burn out too, and I've been trying to make a few changes this coming year that will drastically cut down on the need to create my own plans, yet still have great/quality materials for the children! I'm sure I will be blogging more about RC History soon, along with the rest of my curriculum choices for next year…. hope that helps!
Oh, thanks Aimee! Just seeing your comment! I think we had more of those "off" time that you mentioned! lol But like I said above, with this program, even during those "off" times the children can learn so much!
I've collected our books in much of the same way – also utilizing sites like Paperback Swap and Book Closeouts as well! I always purchase all of the core materials and am slowly collecting many of the other books as we can. I also like to have all of the "highly recommended" books and then just purchase the rest if I can find them at a great price or pick them up at the library. I'm very excited that this coming year we have most of the books for Ancient History! 🙂
And thanks for mentioning the Kindle books! Someday I'd love to have one for the kids – one without the ads… wish they didn't charge extra for that!
I have been looking at RC History myself, thinking of starting it in 4th grade… in your experience, would that be a good age to begin? We did a world history timeline and related books for first grade, and are doing American history for 2nd/3rd…
We are enjoying meat for the Octave of Easter Friday, too! Funny, we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch (don't know if you have them out where you live, but you pretty much get chicken if you eat there, lol)… and the teen daughter of another homeschool family from our church and her younger sister walked in, and she immediately said to me, "So, you're taking advantage of it still being Easter this Friday, too?" It was funny; only hardcore Catholics would get it, ha ha.
I'm a sucker for a good book deal! Ordered a few of these too. I might have to stop reading your blog. 😉 I have also looked at RC but never quite settled on using it. I'll have to take another look.
Jessica,
You mentioned doing fewer lapbooks for the future – is that due to the older kids being older now? Will you incorporate that for all the kids?
What I like about the RC History is that it follows history chronologically alongside the Faith. I don't use their materials but love their use of literature and "living books" to create a history curriculum for my daughter (1st grade this year). We have been doing Ancient Civilizations this year – focusing on Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome alongside Old Testament and the life of Christ. We will continue through the early Church, the Roman Empire, working towards the early Middle Ages during 2nd Grade. I have her create maps, colorings, lapbooks, copy work, DVD's and of course read-aloud books. I like the "freedom" of not following lesson plans in this subject and I also incorporate the liturgical year into history as well – Advent, Lent and Easter are of course BIG! The lives of the saints and their feast days will work more into it as we move more and more into the "post-ancient" times. I enjoy creating the lapbooks – using some free ones online and augmenting with my own creations to create one nice lapbook. There are SO MANY GREAT BOOKS OUT THERE for learning history for kids!
These books are many years off for my kids, so I had to pass. Our budget barely allows for getting books that are age appropriate.
I did order my Christmas books and Easter books for my kids through your links. I keep telling my friends to do so too…and I know at least 2 of them do on a regular basis. Your recommendations are always a great choice for us since I know they have been pre screened and can trust that they are good!! Thanks!!!
Erin – I think that sounds like a great plan. My boys did do, and really enjoyed, their American History studies in 1st/2nd grade before we started RC History. Of course the girls "joined" in everything they were doing all along… and that will be the same for the rest of the children, just joining in where ever the rest of us are at once they "officially" begin school. For the most part on plan to keep everyone on the same rotation, except for a few modifications as necessary (TT will need State history next year to meet her grade level requirements here, etc)
We don't have Chick-fil-A out here, and I've never been to one. They sound great though! How fun!!
Krista – Yes, the boys will be in 7th and 6th grade next year and, as much as they have LOVED creating their State-by-State Pages and American History Lap Books (and will continue working on them until they are completed) they are ready for a break. There other school work (Math/Science/Writing/Latin – etc) has gotten more challenging for them this year and I need to cut back on the time consuming "fun" projects for them… They will still be doing writing assignments, illustrating entries for their timelines, and activities/projects, but I won't be having them create a Lap Book for EVERY history unit. By the end of this year they will have created eight each for American History, plus their Papal Lap Books. They are ready for a break from Lap Booking.
I do think I will still incorporate them as much as I can for the younger children, but I'd also really love to get back to the Alphabet Path with Snuggles… As much as I try to get to everything, there is just not enough time in the day with this many children to homeschool and babies/toddlers too. In your situation, with just one daughter, I think it is so much more doable! And who knows, we might just continue incorporating Lap Books into our history… We'll see!
What you are doing sounds very similar to the RC History/Connecting With History Program! And I've always been the same as you, creating our own plans as we go along, but next year I do think the added structure of lesson plans (which I'm sure I will still adapt as necessary) will be a blessing for our family at this point.
And YES – there are so many great books out there for History! Living Books are the best way to learn history! 🙂
I do try to pre-screen everything, but I always worry in cases like this post when I haven't actually seen the books yet! 🙂 I do try to make it clear though that these are new to us – like the books in the Easter Basket post – and there was one of those books that we did end up deciding to send back… (I went and updated the post with a note and removed the link.) We are extra picky in our home, but still some slip through that I wish I wouldn't have purchased. 🙂 I hope you are happy with the books that you ended up getting, and I hope you had a wonderful Easter!! Miss you!
Me too! I know one of these days my husband is going to take away my Amazon Visa! 😉
Jessica,
Yes, having many children to homeschool at all different levels makes organization that much more challenging! With me just having my daughter, we can "learn together", too! She is able to get the one-to-one teacher/student ratio! 🙂 Even in 1st Grade her work has increased from Kindergarten level, so I hope that 2nd Grade won't be that much more of a leap overall as well, since history is one of "our" favorite subjects! I also incorporate notebooking for many subjects (the non workbook subjects) which provides the opportunity for more writing, map work or "scrapbook" work. It's great for this age level!