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Resources

Here are a wealth of resources for tracking ancestors, stars, and everything else!

Those marked with an * to get right away (or soonish in some cases).

Some of these are amazon affiliate links, which means I receive a very small portion of the purchase price (at no extra cost to you). This helps toward covering the costs of all the materials I purchase to make sure you know which are the best!

DNA Testing & Family Tree Building

AncestryDNA.com *
(the four grandparents only).
They’re on sale right now!

LivingDNA.com *
(the four grandparents to start, others in family as we go)

Ancestry.com World Explorer Subscription
(for building family trees and finding records online, use the same account as you do for activating the dna tests as you’ll want to link them to your tree)
Mostly Elena to start, working with Li, but we’ll share records found with the kids as part of our studies.

Books

In the Dark Places of Wisdom – Peter Kingsley * for Elena

A Story Waiting to Pierce You – Peter Kingsley

Secrets of the Talking Jaguar – Martin Prechtel * for Elena

Long Life, Honey in the Heart – Martin Prechtel

Stealing Benefacio’s Roses (or The Toe Bone and the Tooth) – Martin Prechtel

The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun – Martin Prechtel

The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho * for reading to/with the kids

The Tracker – Tom Brown Jr * for reading to/with the kids

STARGAZING

Find the Constellations – H.A. Rey * (who wrote the Curious George books)

The Stars in Our Heaven: Myths and Fables – Peter Lum *
A very old, out of print, book. But, you can still find used library copies online.

Get the books from the series below while you can, some are hard to find now. I found links for each of them, but in several different places. We’ll work with different of these each season.

Skylore from Planet Earth (stories from around the world): Orion *

Skylore from Planet Earth (stories from around the world): Pleiades *

Skylore from Planet Earth (stories from around the world): Moon

Skylore from Planet Earth (stories from around the world): Venus

Skylore from Planet Earth (stories from around the world): Comets & Meteors

Skylore from Planet Earth (stories from around the world): Milky Way

Reference & Tools

Dictionaries for Kids (good to have more than one!)

Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary *
more American in focus

Oxford Junior Dictionary *
(get the regular hardcover, not the illustrated paperback)
contains word origins

Dictionary app on their iPads * (free)

Online Etymology Dictionary (free website, good to bookmark)

Historical Atlases for Kids

When On Earth? History As You’ve Never Seen it Before *

Where on Earth? Atlas: The World As You’ve Never Seen it Before *

History Year By Year *

Smithsonian Children’s Illustrated Atlas

A Child Through Time: The Book of Children’s History

Worlds Myths and Legends: 25 Projects You Can Build Yourself
Might be worth checking out

Raised Relief Illuminated Globe *
(shows both topography and political boundaries)

Star Wheels / Planispheres (choose the best one for your latitude)
Bright Star Planisphere * (for beginners or light polluted skies)
Planisphere, 40º North (for Northern CA, and other approx 40º latitude places)

Micro Red Flashlight * (for reading your star wheel/map in the dark)

Canon Image Stabilizing 10×30 Binoculars
(but likely too heavy for use by the kids is point)

maybe get some and a tripod
(but still might be too far apart for their eyes at this age)
8 x 25s might be better for them sooner

Orion 10015 StarBlast 4.5 Astro Reflector Telescope
(could be good for kids! this is a tabletop model, but they could put it on the ground and kneel to look through, also might be light enough that they could move it around themselves) only about $200
GET the Moon Filter and Shorty Barlow lens with it

Digital Voice Recorder
H4 Zoom is excellent quality, plus a couple of memory cards
or any of the lower end Olympus Digital Voice Recorders could work

Videocamera
This Canon Video Camcorder might be worth a try. Basic yet complete and good reviews

Portable Microscope
(perhaps this one is worth a try)

L square
Clear Ruler
Compass/Dividers

Tarot Deck and Book

The Ultimate Guide to the Rider Waite Tarot – book

The Rider Tarot Deck

Materials & Supplies

Word Hoard Notebooks *
Junior Sized Notebook
Blank pre-punched junior sized paper
College Ruled (can be double lines for kids) pre-punched junior sized paper

Full sized Notebooks *
Leather 3-ring *
Blank, 24lb Letter sized, pre-punched Paper Reams *
Wide ruled School style 3-ring pre-punched paper *

Pencils, Sharpeners, Pens, Markers

Tracing Paper

Scrolls Kraft Brown Paper Jumbo Rolls

Postits (many sizes, for our scrolls, super sticky is best)

Events

Northern California Women’s Herbal Symposium
May & September
Fall Gathering – new September event by same producers,
welcoming men and boys too

Spirit Weavers Gathering
June

Acorn Gathering (Registration opens Jan 5th, 8am)
Late March

Buckeye Primitive Skills Gathering
Early-Mid May

Courses

20 Questions Tarot – Briana Saussy

Outschool (friends who have home schooled kids rave about this) *
Here’s an example one session course, but they also have multi-session courses
Celtic Lore: Exploring the Myth & Magic of the Ancient Celtic People

GuitarZoom – Check out great videos in YouTube. Also has online courses.