Think fish are boring? Think again! We have a feast for your children’s eyes and minds in this Art & Nature-Science Unit on Ocean Fish, with over 80 pages in PDF format. Your kids will discover: giant fish, including the 8-foot long Goliath grouper the 10-foot ocean sunfish, and the 40-foot whale shark flying fish and colorful fish, including butterflyfish angelfish clownfish and more special fish, including pipefish seahorses leafy sea dragons sharks and rays. Your kids will love our photos of the shark tunnel surround-aquarium at Sea World, which our 17- and 20-year-old homeschool grads, Jonathan and Jennaya, and Joymarie, the editor, visited to take photographs for this nature unit, which includes 37 color photos. Your kids can read about our family on assignment and then discover our tips for taking photos in our Photography Workshop column. As always this Art & Nature-Science Unit is packed with art experiences for your children. In addition to our photography workshop, we have included 5 paintings in this issue by famous artists for your kids to learn from and try, using our detailed instructions. We have included 30 beautiful coloring pages, each with instructions and either a photo or a colored example or both to help them develop new art skills as they color. Please note that in addition to all of the other enjoyable, educational features you receive, each of our nature units gives you a quarter year or more of art instruction. This issue also includes: enjoyable poetry a fish quilt patch to color easy drawing lessons that any child can do, with many very different types of fish a fish kaleidoscope picture to color creatively instructions for setting up and caring for a real aquarium famous paintings by Claude Monet, including one with a line drawing of the painting for grades 6 and up to color or paint swimming safety rules a page comparing different sizes of sharks, and instructions for drawing silhouettes of hammerhead sharks. We also include Bible verses, a devotional page, and as always, we include word searches and a variety of word puzzles, dot-to-dots, and other activity pages as well. Plus, a treasure-hunt search throughout the magazine for tiny seahorses adds to the fun. This also comes in a version for 2nd-4th graders so you can include younger children in your unit study. Don’t miss the fun and learning in this packed 88-page nature unit! Download this book and get started on your Art & Nature-Science Unit on Ocean Fish today! And don’t forget to tell your friends that it costs so little for so much fun and educational value! This was originally published as issue #8 of the popular Artistic Nature Magazine (no longer a magazine). The editor, Joymarie Dunlap, was the leading writer for The Teaching Home magazine for 10 years.

Strengthen your children’s appreciation for family life, teach them why they should value it, and help them know how to make it richer with their own contributions. This book contains penmanship copywork about what it means to be a family, from A to Z, with one page for each letter of the alphabet. We share photos of our children growing up in our home and home school, to go with each family value, along with a few pages of photo collages of our family life. We also tell about our family life as an example, although not a perfect one, to make this book more personal. We hope that this will inspire your kids to give themselves wholeheartedly to your family life. We also share paintings by famous artists that illustrate family life. Below each painting we talk about the old-fashioned values that painting inspires, and we make observations about the paintings to help kids develop art sense. These are followed by outlines of the paintings for kids to paint or color, to help their art skills along and add to the enjoyment of this course. Coloring them is not mandatory, of course, but we include them for those artistic-minded kids who will really enjoy them. We try to make each of our books cover more than one school subject. This beautiful book provides inspiration to your children that just might change your family life. 57 usable pages The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s purchaser.

With everything from robins and cardinals to vireos and loons, this book graced with illustrations in color introduces your child to common North American birds through copy-work in manuscript printing with an average of about 50 words per page. This book makes great printing practice for late first through third grades. It is also great remedial handwriting practice for older kids (grades 4-6) who are computer spoiled and need to spruce up their printing ability. After all, adults fill out forms all the time in printing by hand. So if your older child is losing his printing skills, or could use work on neatness, this book is also great for your family. Buy this book once, and you can use it for any member of your immediate household indefinitely. That means you can use it for any of your children now or in the future. We give you a different bird for each letter of the alphabet with an illustration of each bird in color. Plus we give you a coloring page for your child to color for each and every bird in this book. These can be used as part of a notebook or simply as reward pages for a job well done. We also give your child fun puzzles pertaining to the birds found in this book. Your kids can even use this book as a beginning field guide to 26 North American birds. Please note: This book is also available in slantprint (transitional) writing: "Birds of North America" Slant Print Penmanship A-Z. The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s purchaser.

Experience what it was like to travel west in a wagon train. Practice all the cursive letters in the alphabet with this exciting unit study in a penmanship book. Copy-work pages tell about different aspects of life in a wagon train on the way to Oregon or California, exploring the hardships, meals, kids’ daily chores, challenges, recreation, and much more. We have pioneered a new concept in penmanship, our A-Z History Unit Study Penmanship Series, which includes well researched history content, along with ideas and activities to help make history come alive for your children. This book includes: 5 recipes for an authentic wagon train meal a map of the Oregon and California Trails a supplies word search puzzle 3 pioneer paper dolls and extra costumes pioneer crafts to make activity ideas for your family to enjoy, either as a family or with your homeschool support group (ideas for both contexts are provided) illustrations on every page that reflect the time period and show what life was like 8 paintings of life on the trail by artists of the period, one of which has an outline line drawing for your children to use in order to try their hand at copying the painting 8 additional coloring pages of scenes from the Trail, from beginning to end 54 usable pages of highly interesting penmanship and activities! Other titles in our A-Z History Unit Study Penmanship Series include: A-Z Family Life in Colonial Times Other titles coming soon! The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s purchaser.

Do you want to equip your children to be useful in God’s Kingdom? This book will help teach your children the importance of being useful to God (bearing fruit) as emphasized by Jesus Himself in His teachings. Our Artistic Bible Copywork series combines Bible verses, penmanship copywork, and art. Our goal with this series is to familiarize kids with the Scriptures in an enjoyable context. Through careful use of the books in this series, you can even help your children keep these Bible passages in their hearts, entrusted to their memory. “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.” (One way to do this is to have them do the same copy page several days in a row, while saying the verse together as a family to learn it by heart.) It is so vitally important for our children to know the Bible and its teachings. This book presents children with verses in the New American Standard Bible (NASB) version selected from all 4 Gospels that show how God requires those who repent and trust in Him to bear fruit in keeping with their repentance. Copying these verses, doing the activities and coloring the many pictures of fruit that adorn these pages makes Scripture copywork a beautiful experience. Some of the verses to copy come with a question or 2 to answer, helping your children focus on the meaning of what they have just copied. This book includes: 46 Gospel verses to copy on the topic of Bearing Fruit 12 mystery verses for kids to figure out by word clues and fill in (in cursive) 7 crossword puzzles for review 4 high-quality realistic coloring pages 3 decorated verse posters to color 2 word search puzzles including the Fruits of the Spirit and another mystery verse in word search form 14 extra lined pages in different line sizes (4 decorated with color pictures and 10 with pictures in grayscale) Make copying and learning Bible verses a delightful experience for your child! 63 usable pages The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s purchaser.

This multilevel penmanship book with its gorgeous paintings by 18 master artists portraying the harvest, majestic scenery, and children delighting in God’s creation, is a delightful way for kids to practice their handwriting while focusing on Thanksgiving. We created this book as a way to draw the family together during Thanksgiving week and throughout the month of November. Why not combine Thanksgiving celebration, music, art appreciation, Bible, and handwriting practice with singing, crafts, coloring pages, new recipes, table decorating ideas, and more? (The coloring pages will keep your kids’ hands busy while you fix Thanksgiving dinner, not to mention looking through this beautiful full-color picture-filled book.) For each of 10 Thanksgiving songs, we provide each verse of each hymn in manuscript print and cursive for kids to copy on the same page or on the 6 decorated lined pages, in 6 line sizes, at the back of the book. Each hymn includes the author and composer or source of the music. Each of the paintings includes notes about the artist and a brief discussion of art concepts related to that painting. Bonus photos of planting and harvest on our own one-acre orchard and gardens demonstrate making the land fruitful by vigorous work, which gives us abundant reason to be thankful. You are allowed to print out the pages for all family members in your same household year after year. We suggest putting the finished pages in a hymn notebook and using it to sing the Thanksgiving songs, either just as a family or with guests. Let this book be a jump off point to instill in your children a love for singing and a special place in your family schedule for singing hymns every year during Thanksgiving week. The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s owner.

Come back in time with us to the Colonial days and see what life was like for non-wealthy Colonial families. Discover a world without TV, radio, electricity, flush toilets, or central heating. Copy cursive text and do our suggested activities to experience a world that revolves around nature, growing things, hard work, rural living, and simple pleasures. We have pioneered a new concept in penmanship, with our A-Z History Unit Study Penmanship Series, which includes well-researched history content along with ideas and activities to help make history come alive for your children. 41 usable pages of highly interesting penmanship and Colonial activities, including: 5 recipes for an authentic Colonial meal, a Colonial paper doll with costumes, Colonial crafts to make, plus activity ideas for your family to enjoy, either as a family or with your homeschool support group. (Ideas for both contexts are provided.) The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s owner.

Occupy your kids with LOTS of activities including the Thanksgiving story, puzzles, poetry, decorated menus, thankfulness activities, paper dolls and props. Give your kids something fun** and meaningful to do for the entire week of Thanksgiving. This 70-page reproducible, printable Thanksgiving activity book can be used for any child in your household, including guests. It has 10 different kinds of art, based around the Pilgrims’ story: a Pilgrim coloring page Thanksgiving-themed bookmarks to color 6 pages of print-out, cut-and-paste pictures to make Thanksgiving greeting cards decorated menus in color for your kids to write on decorated menus in black-and-white for them to color and write on, a 4-page menu craft with colored leaves to cut and paste to create their own decorated menus, 4 different patchwork quilts to color creatively a drawing lesson showing how to draw a sailing ship like the Mayflower paper dolls and their outfits to color 28 play props to go with the paper dolls, both in color and to color. And if that wasn’t enough, we include The story of the Pilgrims as told by Joymarie Dunlap A section on what life was like in Colonial times A poem for your children to learn to encourage a giving heart Plus a thankfulness word search puzzle, and A word scramble of character traits that make for a better family life None of these activities requires anything more of you than to print them out and provide crayons or colored markers, a pencil, cardboard, scissors and a glue stick. Once you purchase this book, you are free to use it with anyone living in your same household (and we allow you to print out and share any of these activities with your Thanksgiving guests, as long as you are the one printing them out). Best of all, you can download this book immediately, so you don’t have to wait a single day to have it in your kids’ hands. And there are enough art activities in this book to keep your children occupied from now through Thanksgiving and beyond, with enough left over for next year and maybe even the year after that! You can also include these activities as Art in your homeschool during any study of the American Colonial Period. Where else can you get such a wide variety of Thanksgiving art projects for your kids to choose from, so cheaply and conveniently, and yet still be God-honoring and also educational? Don’t miss out on this bargain! Buy now and enjoy happily occupied kids and greater peace as you prepare the big meal. You can chalk up it up as stress relief for a low price. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s owner.

Having trouble getting your children even to think about creative writing? Experts say the best way to write is to stick with what you are familiar with. This advice holds true for beginning writers as well as adults. What does your child know more about than his own world? Here is a book that your child can write about his or her own life experience, with a slant toward thankfulness rather than pride. Writing prompts and old-fashioned illustrations throughout. WRITING TOPICS INCLUDE: Family, friends, pets, home, crafts, neighborhood, church fellowship, talents, homeschool, field trips, favorite places, music, play, birthdays, celebrations, favorite books and stories, and the Bible.

Inspire your kids during copywork time to enjoy a family walk. Through the years as we homeschooled, Joymarie took photos of our kids enjoying family walks and park time for PE. The color photos in this penmanship book span our kids’ ages from toddler to graduating teen, so kids get to see our homeschooled kids at different ages as they copy sentences about the many and varied fun things we did on family walks. This book is both an inspiration to kids to encourage them to enjoy family walks and also an inspiration and guide to parents on how to make family walks and exercise at the park (and in many other settings) enjoyable for the whole family, tots to teens. At the back of the copywork pages is a complete guide covering everything from how to avoid family quarrels and helping kids learn how to treat one another to how to photograph your own kids on family walks. Joymarie covers both the practical aspects, such as bringing along snacks, drinks and jackets, and the spiritual and inspirational side of being close to God, the Creator, on a walk. This beautiful book is an experience in joyfulness that just might change your family life. This is the third book in a series of outdoors penmanship books that also includes A Walk in the Woods, about the beauty of wildlife in a forest setting, and A Backpacker’s Alphabet, about the basics of backpacking for camping enthusiasts and anyone who loves the outdoors. The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s purchaser.

This copy book of beautiful, picturesque writing set amidst illustrations of natural beauty will delight kids from 4th grade through 12th. Full of word-picture scenes of the beautiful and interesting things a forest holds. Written by a homeschooling mother and daughter with the goal of giving students ample cursive practice of each letter in the alphabet. On its page each letter is repeated up to 42 times, but in sentences that are sensible yet charming enough kids will gladly do any page twice. Delightful text worth reading aloud as examples of alliteration, with breathtakingly beautiful coloring pages and a special section at the end of illustrated nature craft ideas to try. Here is a sampling of a sentence or 2 from over half of the delightful stories kids get to copy in this book: A - Acorns scattered across the forest floor are destined to become great oak trees… B - Birds bless the forest with their ballads, bringing the beautiful gift of song… C - The chipmunk scampers away, scattering leaves, and cheats the hawk of an afternoon snack… D - …They dine until satisfied. Then the deer detect danger. Suddenly, with a soft drum of hooves, they disappear into the woods… F - A shaft of light filters onto the forest floor through the firs. I find a frilly fern and finger its feathery leaf… L - Lacy leaves seem to laugh as they fall lightly to the forest floor… M At midnight, the mice are awake, meandering amid the many leaves and mosses… N - Blind birdlings rest contentedly in a round nest in a branch high above the ground… O - Old oak trees spread their strong boughs across the forest canopy, groping for light… P - Picture-perfect pines among the peaks line the peaceful pathway… R - The brush by the path rustles, and several rascally raccoons burst forth from amidst the branches… S - In the sunlight glistens a sparkling forest stream… V - Vivid violets quivering in the breeze thrive in their quiet place… W - Wildflowers waving in the wind, whisper in the wilderness. Wisps of yellow petals break off and wander away in the wind… This is the second book in a series of outdoors penmanship books that also includes A Backpacker’s Alphabet, about the basics of backpacking for camping enthusiasts and anyone who loves the outdoors, and Have a Wonderful Walk!, telling how to make family walks exciting and varied. The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s purchaser.

Children learn to focus on loving and helping each other when they copy what the Bible says about love and answer questions about what the Bible verses mean. A Treasury of Bible Verses on Love is part of our Artistic Bible Copywork series, which combines Bible verses, penmanship copywork, and art. Our goal with this series is to familiarize kids with the Scriptures in an enjoyable context. Through careful use of the books in this series, you can even help your children keep these Bible passages in their hearts, entrusted to their memory, helping to fulfill Psalm 119:11: “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.” (One way to do this is to have them do the same copy page several days in a row, while saying the verse together as a family to learn it by heart.) It is so vitally important for our children to know the Bible and the love that it inspires in us. In this book we have chosen 78 verses from the King James Version (KJV) of the Holy Scriptures about what love is and the importance of Christian love, put them in a true cursive font, and added stained glass designs to color, so that each page feels like the making of a masterpiece your child (or teen) can feel proud of creating. This makes Scripture copywork a beautiful experience. Each Bible passage to copy comes with a question or two to help your children focus on the meaning of the verse(s) they have just copied. In addition, this book includes 12 beautiful Scripture posters to color and put up on your bulletin board or your child’s bedroom wall. Make copying Bible verses a delightful experience for your child! 65 usable pages The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s purchaser. Please note: The verses in this book are taken from the King James (Authorized) Version (KJV) of the Bible. This book is also available with the same verses taken from the New American Standard Bible (NASB).

Children learn to focus on loving and helping each other when they copy what the Bible says about love and answer questions about what the Bible verses mean. A Treasury of Bible Verses on Love is part of our Artistic Bible Copywork series, which combines Bible verses, penmanship copywork, and art. Our goal with this series is to familiarize kids with the Scriptures in an enjoyable context. Through careful use of the books in this series, you can even help your children keep these Bible passages in their hearts, entrusted to their memory, helping to fulfill Psalm 119:11: “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.” (One way to do this is to have them do the same copy page several days in a row, while saying the verse together as a family to learn it by heart.) It is so vitally important for our children to know the Bible and the love that it inspires in us. In this book we have chosen 78 verses from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) version of the Holy Scriptures about what love is and the importance of Christian love, put them in a true cursive font, and added stained glass designs to color, so that each page feels like the making of a masterpiece your child (or teen) can feel proud of creating. This makes Scripture copywork a beautiful experience. Each Bible passage to copy comes with a question or two to help your children focus on the meaning of the verse(s) they have just copied. In addition, this book includes 12 beautiful Scripture posters to color and put up on your bulletin board or your child’s bedroom wall. Make copying Bible verses a delightful experience for your child! 68 usable pages The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s purchaser. Please note: The verses in this book are taken from the New American Standard Bible (NASB). This book is also available with the same verses taken from the King James (Authorized) Version (KJV).

A Treasury of Bible Verses for Little Ones is part of our Artistic Bible Copywork series, which combines Bible verses, penmanship copywork, and art. It is so vitally important for our children to know the Holy Scriptures. This book includes 39 Bible verses for small children (grades K-3) to trace and then copy in a manuscript (hand-printing) font, with delightful childhood illustrations, including 14 beautiful paintings in the Pre-Raphaelite style, depicting small children and their world. This makes Scripture copywork a beautiful experience. In addition, this book includes 4 notebooking pages for extra copywork and 4 coloring pages for your young child to color and put up on your bulletin board or your child’s bedroom wall. Make copying Bible verses a delightful experience for your child! 47 usable pages The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s purchaser.

Most boys are enthralled with things that crawl along the ground. Here is a whole cursive penmanship book chock full of these creatures to motivate your kids to learn and practice their cursive handwriting every day! (Most girls are more motivated by our cursive penmanship book full of flowers and butterflies: An Elegant Floral Alphabet!) This beautifully illustrated, kid-friendly reproducible workbook is designed to be your child’s first cursive writing course, with letters to trace in order of difficulty, then 26 pages (A to Z) of animals kids in grades 2-4 love, one page per animal, with sentences to trace and copy (both traceable letters and lines on which to copy are provided on each page). All practice pages are beautifully illustrated, plus more than half of the animals include an additional coloring page, so you can combine handwriting with art. The animals represented are familiar to and loved by children of North America (and highly interesting to those of other continents). Fifty (50) usable pages of beginning cursive practice that will interest and motivate your children to do their best handwriting. The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s owner.

We have made handwriting practice delightful by creating beautifully illustrated pages in color with gorgeous flowers and fancy letters on each page, one for each letter of the alphabet. When your daughter (or son—many boys like this book, too!) traces or copies each sentence about yet another girl name and flower, she is taking part in completing a work of art, not just doing copy work. That makes handwriting pure delight. We start by teaching the cursive letters with dotted lines to trace, introduced in order of difficulty (the easy ones first). Throughout the book, each exercise appears in dotted letters to trace as well as in solid letters with blank lines to copy on. We also give you beautiful coloring pages to go with more than half of the exercises. You can use these as reward pages, or simply as art to go with handwriting. Plus we give you Bible verse posters, extra copy-work pages in color to use as you choose, and a flower word search puzzle at the end. Each page has a word scramble or other word game to add to the fun. Your daughter will love this book! (Many boys will be more motivated by our cursive penmanship book full of creatures that move along the ground, “Crawly Critters” Cursive Penmanship A-Z.) Sixty-three (63) usable pages of beginning cursive practice that will interest and motivate your children to do their best handwriting. The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s owner.

Kids are fascinated to learn about the unique and unusual animals of Australia, like the kangaroo, koala, platypus and wombat! This highly motivating penmanship copy book has all of these animals and much more, including many you have probably never heard of before - 26 Australian animals in all (marsupials, 2 different egg-laying mammals, flying mammals, flightless birds and more), all of them highly interesting! This book contains the following features: 3 pages of cursive letter practice (tracing and copying) 26 copy-work pages, one for each letter of the alphabet, with each one featuring a different Australian animal Low-saturation colored pictures of most animals (requires less color toner, or you can print in black and white) 4 extra lined pages, each with a different line size A coloring page each for most of the animals (19 total) PLUS you get 10 additional reward pages: 2 word search puzzles 6 additional word game pages A picture hunt challenge A maze for younger children 64 usable pages. This book, which is part of our Animals of the Continents Penmanship Series, can be used with our Australian Animals Nature Unit if desired, or it can be used alone. The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s purchaser.

Children Love A Trip to the Zoo! Your child will love copying text about favorite zoo animals and other zoo features in this Slant Print copy-work book, with an average of about 30 words per page. Here’s what you get in this book: 4 zoo-animal mazes to help your young child develop writing readiness 3 alphabet practice pages to help your child learn and practice the individual lower-case and upper-case letters 26 illustrated copy-work pages, A to Z, with a different zoo animal or feature for each letter of the alphabet to give your child practice in writing all of the letters in a sentence context, with special emphasis on that letter of the alphabet in the text 27 simple, good-quality zoo-animal coloring pages to use as Art and/or as reward pages for a job well done and/or as part of a notebook for a unit study on animals or zoos This book makes great transitional handwriting practice for late first through third grades before going on to cursive handwriting. It is also a great fancy handwriting practice for older kids (grades 4-6) who can perfect this simple style of fancy lettering to use on anything that requires it. Buy this book once, and you can use it for any member of your immediate household indefinitely. That means you can use it for both a younger child who has already learned to print but has not yet learned cursive and for an older child who wants to learn and practice this fancy handwriting style. 60 usable pages. Please note: This book is also available in manuscript print writing: “A Trip to the Zoo” Manuscript Penmanship. The professional handwriting font set used in our penmanship books is used by public schools across the U.S. This book is reproducible for all students living in the same home as the book’s purchaser. (Slant Print is a writing format that transitions from manuscript to cursive. It is quite beautiful and can be used for fancy writing on cards or gift labels, as well as for helping your child to make the transition from manuscript to cursive handwriting.)

These 2 sheets define the numbering system we use when we provide lines for copy-work and dotted letters to trace in our penmanship publications. You can download it for free and print it out to see what sizes your child is comfortable with at any given time.

The perfect starting point for parents who suddenly find themselves homeschooling due to COVID-19 related school closures. Are you new to homeschooling and not sure how to go about teaching your children successfully? Or have you been homeschooling already but need help making sure your children learn the material you cover? In this informative article, veteran home educator and author Joymarie Dunlap shares the secrets that make your teaching job simple, effective and easy. After reading this article, you will find homeschooling easily doable, even as a complete beginner. Filled with first-hand examples from the author’s own experience. First published in The Teaching Home magazine.