To wrap up my discussion of online books, I’ll give you a bit of what I’ve come up with in our past 2+ weeks of lessons. Here is a list of the resources we are using and whether the texts are available online or not. I believe I am getting better results than may be normal, because of the topic we are studying, but perhaps not.
Of course, there are other books online that you could use instead of my choices that aren’t online, but I base my choices on the ideas presented in the books, not just the topic of the book. (Same reason why I don’t just trek down to the public library and pick up, for free, any ol’ book on the topic we are studying.)
Spine books:
- Building the Nation by Charles Coffins – available online (not available through us, out of print)
- Sketches from Church History – NOT available online, and I haven’t found a preferable substitute online. If you know of a REALLY good one, written at an introductory or child’s level that is online, please let me know.
- Another Spine option was From Sea to Shining Sea and From Sea to Shining Sea for Children – (but we aren’t using it this time around) – NOT available online
Missionary Biographies:
- The ones we chose are NOT available online, but suitable substitutes may be, perhaps even autobiographies of better quality, but perhaps not at the children’s individual levels.
History/Literature:
- The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone – available online
- Of Courage Undaunted – NOT available online, however you can find Lewis and Clark’s Journals online. Our choice was made as literature for children.
- The Story of Inventions – available online as Great Inventors and Their Inventions
Youth – History and Government:
- Universal History in Perspective – NOT available online (out of print), her Abridged History of the United States is available online, if you don’t want the perspective of Universal History in this study.
- A Basic History of the United States – NOT available online (or from us, but is in print, available through the publisher)
- Democracy in America – available online part 1 – part 2
I’ll just briefly mention some of our other areas of study tied in, such as the arts. Our Music studies are mainly from The Gift of Music (classical) (and a lot of CD’s) and the Mr. Pipes series (hymns) (and a lot of playing and singing). We have added some internet resources in. I mentioned some of the hymn sites we use in a past post – here. There are many sites with Classical music info, but I haven’t researched them out well enough to know what would be most helpful in studies based on biblical principles.
Our Art studies are mainly from StoneBridge Art Guide, God and the History of Art. I’ve also added in some selections (biographical sketches) from The Christian History of the American Revolution, and a few websites. The internet is super for finding pictures of art pieces.
Our Poetry studies for this study are mainly from American History in Verse. We also use Favorite Poems: Old and New, and various book by individual poets (mainly Dover publications). But I have also found some things online
So… enough for today. There’s a brief synopsis of our “current standings” as to whether our family’s home education could be done for “free” with online resources. To some degree, Yes. But I am very thankful that (except for a few obscure resources) I don’t have to rely on doing that.
