| Books, Used Books & Curriculum |
Introducing Barb’s People Builders – Your One-Stop Internet Shop for Instructional Materials Website: http://www.barbsbooks.com Ever wished you could go to one web site where you could find everything you really need at discounted prices, detailed information on content, several payment options, and personal service? Check out Barb’s People Builders at www.barbsbooks.com. You will find Barb carries books from a multitude of publishers. Whether you are a teacher in a school or a home, or a concerned parent wanting to supplement what your child is learning in school, you will find something to help you. Barb has books for every subject taught in grades Preschool – 12, and for every core and elective subject. She also has a wide selection of the literature and picture books most useful in education, and guides for teaching them.. Whether you want workbooks or hands-on activities, Barb has something to meet your needs. She has taught almost every grade level in public, private, or home school, so she understands the kinds of materials you want. Her special interests are history, biography, picture books, and instructional materials for reading, language arts, and math. She accepts many forms of payment and is willing to ship to countries outside the United States. Best of all, Barb is offering you a free gift with your first order of $25.00 (excluding shipping and tax) or more if you place it by June 15, 2007 and mention that you found her site from this article in Autonomous Parenting.* Barb realizes that all children do not learn at the same rate or in the same way. So she has things for those who are gifted and those who have learning disabilities and those who are right at grade level and need hands-on or supplemental materials. Barb doesn’t carry any normal textbooks except Saxon math books and a few Steck-Vaughn social studies texts for high school and junior high students. But she has plenty of instructional materials to help children learn to read, spell, write, review and drill math operations and apply math in everyday life. She has many approaches to teaching grammar, usage, and diagramming of sentences. She has materials for older students who have trouble reading but still need instruction in core subjects. . She has books that will help when your children need to do projects for social studies or a science fair. She has books to teach logic, analogies, and critical thinking, and books for teachers, including lesson plan and record books for any situation or level. (For all subjects, see catalog.) Barb considers history one of the most important subjects one can teach. She thinks every individual needs to see his or her own place in history and to commit him or herself to making a difference while alive. For this reason she promotes the use of primary sources and the biographies of those who made history happen as it did. Another primary source not often thought of is the folk music of a nation. Voices of American History provides four audio CD / poster sets, each covering a period of American history. Each set features three posters, a book, and two audio CDs with music and narrative readings that tie into the period it covers. Lessons in each book contain thought-provoking questions that encourage students to connect the past to their own lives. Sets are designed for middle school age students and are available for Colonial America, The American Revolution, Westward Expansion, and the Civil War. The music quality is excellent. One CD includes the words to the songs, and the other has just the musical accompaniment. Barb also encourages using family travel as a teaching experience for history and geography. And don’t forget play. Barb explains, “As we spent time traveling, we noticed that the historic places we visited and and even the mode of travel itself were later incorporated into the children’s play times. After a camping trip, out came the Playmobil camping set we’d given our son for Christmas and a western fort and stage coach set. After a trip to Mesa Verde National Park we spent a week in a lakeside cabin. My daughter, with no prompting from us, used the nearby mud to make a replica of the cliff dwellings we had just walked through.” Barb’s children had the advantage of actually visiting historic places and living history museums, so they were able to board a replica of the Mayflower, stroll through Salem and Plymouth Plantation (as they have been restored,”)and ask the docents questions. Many children do not have this opportunity. So reading historical fiction and biographies can bring history to life for them. Reading aloud as a class or family is a unifying experience, and students can pursue special interests with individual reading. To really see how people used to live, check out the books in the Historic Communities Series, many of which were photographed in living history museums such as Williamsburg. The Colonial People series goes back even earlier. Life in the Old West features the same colorful style as the other two series and shows elementary readers life in a wagon train, in a mine, in a boom town, on the cattle-driving trail, and on a ranch, and also offers a look at the early railroads which connected the West to the rest of the country. The maker of these gorgeously illustrated books even has a series on The Medieval World that features not just the usual books on castle life and chivalry, but also books on what life was like for women and children, feasts, places of worship, the arts, and science and technology. Barb was fond of using the unit study approach in history, and used textbooks only as a framework to connect the dots between primary sources, historical fiction, biographies such as those written by Genevieve Foster, and other excellent nonfiction books which add more details to periods of interest than any textbook. She usually incorporated geography into the units with outline maps. And she always included plenty of related hands-on and writing activities. You can find excellent ideas for these in Barb’s on-line catalog. History is the main heading you want on the catalog page, and it is divided into several sections by part of the world, time period, and series name. So a page on pioneer books for children includes books to read and books of hands-on activities and possibly links to related resources. Other helpful resources for unit study ideas in history include these: The history resources mentioned above are just a small sampling of those you will find on Barb’s site. And history is just one of many subjects available in her online catalog. When you first enter Barb’s web site, you will probably want to see if what you are looking for has a link right from the home page. But if you need something different, go immediately to the catalog, where you will find the main subject headings listed in alphabetical order with more specialized links in every main category listing. The catalog is designed for browsing if you don’t know yet exactly what you want. And if you don’t know what to choose from the huge selection, you can drop Barb an email anytime or call her between 10 AM and 4 PM, M-F, for suggestions. She is often there on Saturday, as well, and occasionally she might be away from her desk during the stated hours. She doesn’t have voice mail menus to hassle you. If she’s not at her desk you can leave a message on her answering machine. Be sure to speak slowly to give her your name and number and best time to call back. And it’s helpful to explain what you are interested in so she can pull items from the warehouse to have in front of her when she calls you back. She is usually better able to help you on the phone if you email her first with the items you are interested in so she can check stock or gather materials to suggest from her many unlisted items before she talks to you. It’s helpful to include your telephone number and time zone if you want a call back rather than an email answer. Barb regrets that her only catalog is online – she has no paper catalog to send. If you do know exactly what you want, you can use the search link near the top of every page to search by exact phrase or key word. If you prefer to complete your shopping on line, you can buy many of Barb’s best-selling titles at www.barbsteachinghelp.com, hosted by www.tomfolio.com, the cooperative of independent booksellers who sell used and out of print books. When you are ready to place an order, you can contact Barb by phone or email stating the titles you need and your zip code or country, and she will send your shipping options and payment methods. She accepts checks drawn on American banks, PayPal, school purchase orders, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. She tries to ship within a day or two of receiving payment. It’s best not to send payment until availability has been confirmed by email. Barb hopes you will visit soon, explore the site, and, of course, place an order so you can get your free gift* *To get your free gift, you need to make an order of $25.00 or more (excluding shipping and tax) from either www.barbsbooks.com or www.barbsteachinghelp.com and you must mention Autonomous Parenting. The gift will not come unless you do, since it’s only for readers of this article. You may choose any title from the Hands-on Heritage series Activity books or Photo Fun Activities – a $7.99 value. It’s best to mention two titles in case we are out of one. If you do not teach history, you may choose a different gift – any title from our Flip Chart references (a $3.99 value.) There is bound to be something there you can use no matter which grade or subject you teach. Offer good while supplies last or until June 15, 2007.
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