New Releases by Rebecca Rupp

A comprehensive guide to designing homeschool curriculum, from one of the country’s foremost homeschooling experts—now revised and updated! Homeschooling can be a tremendous gift to your children—a personalized educational experience tailored to each kid’s interests, abilities, and learning styles. But what to teach, and when, and how? Especially for first-time homeschoolers, the prospect of tackling an annual curriculum can be daunting. In Home Learning Year by Year, Rebecca Rupp presents comprehensive plans from preschool through high school, covering integral subjects for each grade, with lists of topics commonly presented at each level, recommended resource and reading lists, and suggestions for creative alternative options and approaches. Included, along with all the educational basics, are techniques and resources for teaching everything from philosophy to engineering, as well as suggestions for dealing with such sensitive topics as sex education. Now revised throughout with all-new updates featuring the most effective and up-to-date methods and reading guides to homeschool your child at all ages, Home Learning Year by Year continues to be the definitive book for the homeschooling parent.

In the tradition of epic fantasy fiction comes a breathtaking adventure peopled by unforgettable characters - in a mythical world threatened by an unspeakable secret. The world is drying. Twelve-year-old Tad - who is only a few inches tall - doesn’t even notice it at first. Busy practicing with his new spear, arguing with his sister, Birdie, and living the normal life of a youngling of the Fisher Tribe, he thinks little of a stream slowed to a trickle here, a pond suddenly dwindling there. But Tad begins to have strange flashbacks - glimpses of the past that he knows can’t possibly be his own. With these "rememberings" haunting him, he and Birdie begin an adventure marked by great sorrows, fierce battles, and unbreakable friendships. In this remarkable rite of passage, Tad grows to know who he really is and what his destiny holds. For only he can restore the water and save the forests and animals and Tribes. Only he can retrieve the Waterstone.

Family changes bring plenty to dislike — and a chance to grow into acceptance — as a spirited girl speaks her mind with honesty and wit. Sarah Simpson’s Rules for Living: 1. Don’t lie. 2. Don’t trust anybody but cats. 3. Don’t expect happy endings. 4. Drink skim milk. 5. Avoid blondes. Sarah Simpson loves to make lists. She has lists of the things she doesn’t like about her father’s new wife and her mother’s new boyfriend, and reasons why life is just plain unfair. But through new friendships, a school play, and adjusted relationships, Sarah begins to realize that change might not be such a horrible thing — and that families come in all shapes and sizes. Is it time for Sarah Simpson’s REVISED Rules for Living?

When Daniel’s brother Eli is killed at war, Daniel considers the history of unusual fatalities to determine what makes a death — or a life — matter. Some people die heroically, others accidentally. When Daniel Anderson’s older brother dies, he wonders which category Eli’s death falls into. In an attempt to understand, Danny creates a Book of the Dead — an old binder that he fills with details about dead people, how they died, and, most important, for what purpose. Time passes, and eventually Daniel is prompted to look up from his notebook of death and questions to make new friends and be swept into their imaginings. With gentle humor and genuine emotion, Rebecca Rupp examines the questions that arise following a profound loss and the moments that start life rolling again.

After her parents find clashing answers to life’s big questions, it’s time for Octavia to make some choices of her own in this poignant, funny, thought-provoking novel. (Ages 9-12) Octavia’s best friend, Andrew, wants to know why time runs forward instead of backward, or if it’s possible to talk to an alien jellyfish. Octavia has much bigger questions on her mind: Why do bad things happen, like Hurricane Katrina and 9/11? What is the meaning of life? Is there a God? Octavia’s artist father, Boone, is convinced that Henry David Thoreau holds the key. Meanwhile, her mother, Ray, has always been seeking the larger meaning of life--until now. Not only have Octavia’s parents come up with different answers to the big questions, but their answers are threatening to tear her family apart. Could it be that some questions are too big to have just one answer? Could it be that the universe is far wider than Octavia’s--or perhaps anyone’s--views of it?

Discover why Roman gladiators were massaged with onion juice before battle, how celery contributed to Casanova''s conquests, how peas almost poisoned General Washington, and why some seventeenth-century turnips were considered degenerate. Rebecca Rupp tells the strange and fascinating history of 23 of the world''s most popular vegetables. Gardeners, foodies, history buffs, and anyone who wants to know the secret stories concealed in a salad are sure to enjoy this delightful and informative collection.

Finally, homeschoolers have a comprehensive guide to designing a homeschool curriculum, from one of the country''s foremost homeschooling experts. , Rebecca Rupp presents a structured plan to ensure that your children will learn what they need to know when they need to know it, from preschool through high school. Based on the traditional pre-K through 12th-grade structure, Home Learning Year by Year features: The integral subjects to be covered within each grade Standards for knowledge that should be acquired by your child at each level Recommended books to use as texts for every subject Guidelines for the importance of each topic: which knowledge is essential and which is best for more expansive study based on your child''s personal interests Suggestions for how to sensitively approach less academic subjects, such as sex education and physical fitness

After a gang of talking rats transports a young boy to the moon, he embarks on a series of adventures and gains a new perspective on the concept of time.

Three children spend the summer with their mother on a secluded island where they discover a three-headed dragon living in a cave and learn what it means to be a Dragon Friend.

Hannah, Zachary, and Sarah Emily return to Lonely Island to save their friend, Fafnyr, a three-headed dragon, from being captured by a rich man who wants to put the creature on display. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

In Getting Started on Home Learning, homeschooling expert Rebecca Rupp provides much needed advice and information to all parents who''ve ever considering teaching their children at home. She dispels myths, helps readers navigate tricky laws, and provides guidance on how and where to find the resources necessary to put together a well-rounded curriculum. This guide, the indispensable companion volume to the popular The Complete Home Learning Sourcebook (Three Rivers Press, 1998), provides all the information needed to make an informed decision. Topics include: Why Homeschool? Homeschooling and the Law The S Question: What About Socialization? The Bottom Line: How Much Does It All Cost? Homeschooled Teenagers: On to College?-- Tools of the Trade

Lists all the resources needed to create a balanced curriculum for homeschooling--from preschool to high school level.

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED . . . Why you can remember your first date but not what you had for lunch last Tuesday? What slugs, bugs, and squirrels have to tell us about human memory? How the smell of pine trees or buttered popcorn can help you remember? Why dieting may make you forget? Why practice makes perfect? How a spell of the moody blues can affect your memory? In this extraordinary book, scientist Rebecca Rupp sheds light on one of the most mysterious and fascinating aspects of the brain: our memory. What are the chemical processes that occur in the brain when we remember? Why does memory change as we grow older? How We Remember and Why We Forget also features useful memory-improving techniques and tricks to remember essential information. Learn to defeat that common bugbear of memory, the forgetting of proper names; pick up a quick trick for remembering telephone numbers; and find out how to enrich your mind (and impress your friends and colleagues) by memorizing lengthy poems. Tips like these lend a practical edge to this illuminating exploration of a largely uncharted realm..

A compendium of facts about birds, with projects to do. Col. illus., index. U.S. bias. 9-14 yrs.

A former research biologist tells the little-known life stories of 20 common garden vegetables.