Dover Coloring Books

I just can't say enough good things about Dover Publishing. Their products are very affordable, the highest quality and they are made in the USA. I highly recommend them. They have a very extensive line of educational products that range from coloring and activity books to paper dolls, stickers and removable tattoos.


My current favorite is their Audubon Birds coloring book. The price is only $3.95 for a full-sized coloring book. Plus, if you order from Amazon, they are eligible for free Super Saver shipping. We aren't talking about cheap brown newsprint pages, either. Each coloring book features heavyweight white paper with good grain and clear, dark black print.


We purchased the Audubon Birds coloring book mostly for the beautiful images, but it also contains informational text under each image that describes the species of bird. There is also a guide inside the cover of the coloring book that shows all of the original paintings in full color so that you can use the true colors if you like. These are excellent for both older and younger children ranging in age from about two to adult. Even I can't seem to keep my hands off of them!

Tide Pools

This series is from a trip our homeschool group took to some local tidepools. The kids took a bucket and some fish nets and used them to collect any type of sea life they could find.

Holding a live sea urchin

There were sea urchins, sea cucumbers, hermit crabs, a worm and a coneshell. The coneshell was an excellent lesson in beach safety as they are venemous and can be deadly. The children learned how to identify and recognize several marine species using identification guides.

Handling marine invertebrates

The kids also had a lot of fun handling the non-venemous animals. Sea cucumbers are slimy and will expel their guts when threatened. Unfortunately for the poor sea slug (who was not harmed) the kids got a first-hand look at how this happens and why.


A couple of the older boys made drawings of the animals that we found and wrote down key information about identifying them as well as their habitat and lifestyle. Printout sheets are a great way for the kids to keep records of what they learn.

Of course, once the lesson was finished, the animals were returned to the tidepools where they were found.

A Lesson in Civil Disobedience

I love this article that my sister-in-law shared with me entitled Father: Why I Didn't Let My Son Take Standardized Tests.

The writer discusses his experiences with taking his son out of school and embarking on a test of self-teaching and real-life lessons.