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A complete home education requires mental tools alongside physical care. Parents cannot easily curate a balanced collection without expert guidance across seventeen distinct domains of child development. Playtime and spontaneous activity build physical, mental, social, and moral character more effectively than formal schooling alone.
BOYS AND GIRLS BOOKSHELF
Experts across literature, science, music, and art must assemble the child's home library to cover every developmental need. Spontaneous play provides the foundation for physical, mental, social, and moral growth. Providing mental tools early ensures a child learns past foundations and present real-world developments.
INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME I
Infants discover their first playthings in their own hands through guided rhymes like Ta-ra-chese and Pat-a-Cake. Rhythmic finger plays act out social roles like friars, pages, and ladies through small movements. Counting toes and mimicking animals teaches nursery rhymes while sharpening coordination and bonding with caregivers.
COUNTING THE FINGERS → THE GREAT WALL
Classic verse reimagines familiar characters like Humpty Dumpty delivering speeches on the safety of low seats. The Queen of Hearts punishes a thieving knave with forced overeating to warn against gluttony. Clever cats defend their quiet lounging as deep reflection rather than laziness.
There Was an Old Woman → THE WAKE-UP STORYG
Six newly hatched chicks explore a rainy world before sheltering safely beneath Mother Biddy's wing. A lost kitten tries imitating cows, sheep, and horses until a mother cat re-teaches her how to mew. A young girl visiting her grandmother's farm discovers how welcoming animals ease the transition into rural life.
ABOUT SIX LITTLE CHICKENS → THERE IS THE KEY OF THE KINGDOM
Tommy overloads his new pony-cart with too many friends, causing the ride to collapse instantly. Mischievous animals learn that avoiding obvious temptations requires discipline after an automated trap springs shut. Children construct a grand snowman only to see warmer winds melt their work away overnight.
TOMMY AND HIS SISTER AND THEIR NEW PONY-CART → THE SNOWMAN
Tiny Hare rejects his parents' advice to stay near home and chases a drifting wind ball into the woods. Escaping men, dogs, and hawks leaves the young rabbit bruised and eager for shelter. A wet adventure into a human house ends with an affectionate cat washing the lost hare before he scurries home.
TINY HARE AND THE WIND BALL → EARLY AND LATE
A red squirrel works feverishly to gnaw a trapped rabbit out of a heavy wooden box. When a hunter and his son catch all three animals in a net, the father recognizes their extraordinary cooperation. Moved by the mother rabbit's devotion, the young boy convinces his father to set every captive free.
THE LITTLE GRAY KITTEN → THE THREE BEARSM
An orphaned bear cub captured in the Sierras adjusts to city life and photographer studios while longing for the mountains. Meanwhile, a clever hedgehog challenges a haughty hare to a field race and uses wits to outsmart the faster runner. Wit and preparation allow smaller creatures to overcome arrogant competitors.
THE LITTLE BEAR’S STORY → THE SPIDER AND THE FLY
Helping a mother pick up dropped items teaches young boys chivalry rewarded by affection. Storing toys, returning umbrellas, and sharing pennies instills self-discipline before dinner bells ring. Rhymes detailing days of the week turn domestic chores like washing and mending into structured habits.
A LITTLE GENTLEMAN → BUCKLE MY SHOE
Clarabel receives fancy kid-leather gloves and proudly boasts, creating a bitter rift with her friend Josephine. The excitement of showing off sours into isolation during classroom lessons and recess play. When Clarabel stays late to solve hard arithmetic problems, Josephine returns to help her, replacing pride with reconciliation.
A PAIR OF GLOVES → A DUTCH TREAT
Visiting a Dutch village, young Katharine slips down a dike during a thick fog and gets soaked in a pool. A kindly Dutch woman shelters her, dressing the American girl in traditional wooden shoes and local garments. Elsewhere, a poor shoemaker and his wife sew tiny clothes for helpful nocturnal elves who leave them rich.
THE SEVENTH BIRTHDAY OF THE LITTLE COUSIN FROM CONSTANTINOPLE →…
A freshly baked gingerbread boy leaps from an oven and runs away from an elderly couple. He taunts threshers, mowers, cows, and pigs, outrunning each pursuer with boastful rhymes. His reckless escape ends at the riverbank when a sly fox offers a ride and eats him piece by piece.
THE GINGERBREAD BOYN
A puppy named Mischief packs up his coat, milk dish, and mittens before traveling to a new owner in Milwaukee. A boy named Willie rescues a drowning puppy named Diver from a mill-pond with a long pole. Years later, when Willie falls into deep water while picking hazelnuts, Diver leaps in to carry him safely ashore.
MISCHIEF → THE HOLE IN THE CANNA-BED
Mothers love children through bad behavior, discipline, and daily hand-sewn clothes. Simple home comforts outperform exotic far-off destinations like Constantinople or the Pyrenees when night falls. Nostalgic grandmothers look back on spinning wheels and farm fields, cherishing lifelong memories of maternal warmth.
A BOY’S MOTHERO → HERE’S A, B, C, D
Interactive nursery rhymes, moral fables, and nature tales cultivate early character development and empathy in young children.