Enjoy your Christmas and New Year’s! We’ll be back with plenty more goodies for you on January 7th!
(Cartoons courtesy of daughter Jess @ CrunchyBunny.com)
A Christmas Carol (the best animated version ever!)
A Christmas Carol (streaming video)
Here is one of the spookiest, most faithful adaptations of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” ever. Richard Williams’ beautifully-executed animated version of Charles Dickens’ timeless seasonal parable won the 1972 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, but to this day has yet to receive a DVD release anywhere. And that is such a shame! This is an amazing adaptation of Dickens’ story, an animation tour-de-force based on the original book illustrations from early editions of Dickens’ book. It is beautifully done, and captures aspects of the original that other dramatizations of this classic story have missed. 25 minutes long, and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Parents, be warned this is genuinely spooky in some spots (as is the original story), so some of this might be frightening to very young children. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
Walt Scott’s Christmas Stories
WALT SCOTT’S CHRISTMAS STORIES (PDF comic books)
Here are two great issues of these classic Christmas comic books by cartoonist Walt Scott. These are filled with great stories of woodland creatures & elves celebrating Christmas, and also have several true accounts of how some classic Christmas carols were written. Very different, very well illustrated, and great light holiday reading material for little ones! Enjoy!
To download Issue #1, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save” to your computer.
To download Issue #2, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save” to your computer.
The Christmas of 1776
The Christmas of 1776: A Young Maiden’s Story by Anne Hollingsworth Wharton (PDF ebook)
Today’s resource is this delightful short story of a young girl’s Christmas experiences during the tumultuous time of the American Revolution, taken from the book “A Last Century Maiden” by Anne Hollingsworth Wharton. Lots of fascinating history and details of old-time holiday celebrations make this story a great read-aloud for the whole family! Check it out!
To download this PDF ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save” to your computer. Mac users, press the “control” key then click the link and save to your mac.
Christmas with Mother Goose #2
Christmas with Mother Goose (PDF e-comic book)
This year we found yet another delightful vintage collection of Christmas comic book stories for young at heart readers of all ages, by the incomparable Walt Kelly! These feature Mother Goose characters and of course good ol’ Santa in some truly classic children’s comics and poems – very funny and well written, with some of the best artwork ever done for young children’s comics. This is “just for fun” stuff your kids will adore. And if you want some educational value from it, check out the “months of the year” story for little ones learning just that. Don’t miss it!
RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save” to your computer. Mac users, press the “control” key and click the link, and save to your mac!
Christmas with Mother Goose #1
Here’s a delightful vintage collection of Christmas comic book stories for young at heart readers of all ages, by the incomparable Walt Kelly! It features the classic Mother Goose characters in some truly classic children’s comics and poems – very funny and well written, with some of the best artwork ever done for young children’s comics. Don’t miss it!
To download this PDF comic book, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save as” to your computer.
(It’s a big file… 22 megs, so allow a little time for it to download.)
Crunchy Bunny: Dear Santa…
See more at Jess Erskine’s delightful website CrunchyBunny.com!
The First New England Christmas
“The First New England Christmas: A Story of Life in the Colonies” by Stone & Frickett (PDF ebook)
Today’s resource is this excellent short story of the first Christmas in New England, in the year 1620. If you’ve been curious as to how the early Pilgrims celebrated Christmas, read this – you may be surprised at what you discover!
To download this PDF ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save” to your computer. Mac users, press the “control” key then click the link and save to your mac.
The Art Zone
The National Gallery of Art has a great interactive art site called THE ART ZONE – an amazing array of art project activities for kids to create their own works of art online. Create portraits, animated scenes and landscape paintings in the style of American primitive artists… and much, much more! Loads of mind-boggling computer art fun here.
Download the Art Zone or NGAkids App applications to your Macintosh or Windows-based computer, or order the free CDs. There is also an iOS version of the NGAkids App for iPad. These interactives are not available for online play.
Click here to go to the site!
The Canadian Elocutionist
THE CANADIAN ELOCUTIONIST by Anna K. Howard (PDF ebook)
This is one of the all-time classic guides to the principles, rules, illustrations and exercises to make good readers and easy, graceful and correct speakers, written in 1885, but with much value and application in teaching speech & elocution even today.
From the introduction:
There is no question of the importance of the study of Elocution as part of a good education. Almost everyone is liable to be called upon, perhaps at a few minutes notice, to explain his views and give his opinions on subjects of various degrees of importance, and to do so with effect ease in speaking is most requisite. Ease implies knowledge, and address in speaking is highly ornamental as well as useful even in private life.
To download this PDF ebook, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save link” to your computer. Mac users, press the “control” key and click to save to your mac.