Yesterday I told you I’d like for life to be a slow-paced walk along a stream, but since God has placed me here and now, I am bound and determined to use technology to my advantage. However, one piece of technology I doubt I’ll ever own is a Kindle because you have to touch books, thumb through pages, and run your fingers along the covers to truly appreciate the content within. But there is a way to combine technology and books that I can live with. A few years ago I discovered a group of books that combines both real-live-in-your-hands books and the internet in a way that is perfect for homeschoolers!
They are the Usborne series of Internet-linked books! I love, love, love these! Did I mention I love these?!
We own several and have had so much fun working through the links. Usborne has done a bang-up job of finding the best of the best on the internet for each topic covered. And the great thing about it is that the links are located in a “safe” environment. We can do lots of internet searches ourselves, but there is a good chance we will come across unseemly content or just absolutely irrelevant links. Usborne has taken the work (and smut) out of it all!
A few of our favorites are (click on the book cover for more info):
(this has Ancient World in it too)
I also saw a couple that I don’t own that caught my eye:
There is so much information packed into these books that I could never find on my own. They are at the top of my list of great supplemental resources for homeschooling! (Might make for some great Christmas presents as well!)
*****
Disclosure: When you click on the covers of the books, they take you to my friend Betty’s site. I receive no compensation for suggesting these materials.
Clara says
Arrrrghhh! I’m really weak when it comes to books, especially educational books like this – these look like they probably have a lot of colour pictures in them. How much text is in them? Do they have big writing or small?
Amy says
If you’ve ever had your hands on an educational Usborne book, these are typical Usborne style. There is A LOT of information on a page with tons of inserts and pictures. Often, I don’t read every single thing on the page when I’m reading aloud to the kids, but my older kids like to read everything and search out all the little boxes of information. The links are listed by page on the website. The book has the code you need to access the links. One of our favorites was learning how to build a Roman aquaduct via a game-type link Usborne offered. The wealth of information is just endless. I have heard people say there is too much info on each page, but I’ve not found it to be too much of a problem, especially with the internet links to sort of “seal” the information in the child’s head. 🙂
Amy says
I also love, love, love these internet linked books as well! I loved them so much, I became a consultant last year. I couldn’t school without them!
To answer part of Clara’s question, Peter Usborne intentionally designed the pages to be in a column, magazine-type format so that the reader could digest a lot of information in small pieces. The company stays true to that design still. You won’t regret buying them.
Fruitful Harvest says
I used to sell Usborne books!
They are great! I have many of the ones pictured.
I also have a shark and bird books!
So totally fun!
Peace and Joy,
Georgiann
PS We have snow here!
The roads are shut down, so the package you mailed will take longer to arrive. I will let you know as soon as it arrives! 🙂
Amy says
Another favorite here are the “That’s Not My…” series! And snow!?! Wow! Can’t wait for it to hit here! 🙂
Carrie says
I have a couple of these but have never used the links. I make so sense, I guess. I think this is an interesting series, and I am a girl who likes to make my own preserves and longs for quiet, yet can’t imagine living without my computer.