• About Myths
• American Indian
• Animals
• Constellations & Stars
• Fables
• Folklore
• Myths
• Russian
• Story Collections

About Myths

In Search of Myths and Heros
Join intrepid historian Michael Wood as he goes in search of the world’s greatest myths, seeking the roots of four great legends — the Queen of Sheba, King Arthur, Shangri-La and Jason and the Golden Fleece.

American Indian

Miracle, The Sacred White Buffalo
It was thought with the demise of the great herds of buffalo that a white one would never be seen again. The birth of this one in 1994 has given Native Americans new hope.

Native American Indian Legends and Folklore
We have indexed these stories tribe by tribe to make them easier to locate; however, variants on the same legend are often told by American Indians from different tribes, especially if those tribes are kinfolk or neighbors to each other. See also Native Central and South American Indian Legends and Folklore

Animals

Animals, Myths and Legends
Tales from Oban the Knowledge Keeper, such as Coyote stories, Why Bat has No Friends, and What Happened to Unicorns.

Story of the Bat
The birds challenged the four-footed animals to a great ball play. It was agreed that all creatures which had teeth should be on one side and all those which had feathers should go on the other side with the birds. From the Tuggle collection.

The Constellations & Stars

Myths About the Sky, Stars and Constellations
Multicultural stories, each told 3 ways, depending on your maturity. Lovely illustrations.

Myths and Tales Associated with the Constellations
Combine history, literature and science while you gaze at the night sky and listen to these stories.

Windows to the Universe – Mythology
For thousands of years people have associated objects in the sky, the Earth, and aspects of their physical world with the gods and goddesses of their cultures.

Fables

Aesop’s Biography
It can cautiously be said that Aesop was a slave in the sixth century B.C., that he came from Phrygia and lived in Samos, and that he was known for his ability to craft “fables” (logoi).

Aesop’s Fables
Come listen to any of 655+ Fables, and learn about morals that have been handed down through the ages. RealAudio needed for listening.

Frankenstein
A fairly modern fable on the perils of medical research. Read Mary Shelley’s fable online. Here’s a Frankensein Study Guide

Folklore

American Folklore
American folktales, Native American myths and legends, tall tales, weather folklore and ghost stories from each and every one of the 50 United States. You can read about all sorts of famous characters like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Jesse James, Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and many more.

Campfire Stories
From spooky to silly, a well-told campfire story will entertain campers for hours. Eerie flashlight effects are optional.

Paul Bunyan, Giant Lumberjack
Paul and Babe were so large, the tracks they made galivanting around Minnesota filled up and made the 10,000 lakes. Lesson.

Myths

Bulfinch’s Mythology
A prize winning site about the Age of Fable.

Chinese Myths and Fantasies
Ancient Chinese myths were not recorded in a systematic way in any work, and, as a result, only fragments of them are extant today. From China Vista.

Creation Myths
Here are a large group of links to Creation Myths from a variety of cultures from around the world.

Creation Stories and Myths
As part of our study of ancient peoples, a Grade 6 class decided to make an investigation into some of the creation myths and legends from their own cultures which have been passed down from generation to generation.

The Encyclopedia Mythica
A epic effort on mythology, folklore and legend.

Jason and the Golden Fleece
Determined to reclaim his throne, Jason agrees to retrieve the Golden Fleece. Jason assembles a team of great heroes for his crew and they sail aboard the Argo.

MythWeb
This site is devoted to the heroes, gods and monsters of Greek mythology.

Norse Mythology
At the beginning of time there was nothing but a great void called Ginnungagap, a void filled with powerful magic forces.

Indonesian Myth
The mythology of Indonesia is influenced by Indian Mythology. The names of gods in our mythology are the same as in Indian. This is because the great Indian civilization influenced our Indonesian ancestors.

Star Wars: The Magic of Myth
How is this modern film like the myths of old? How is the plot similar. Lots of illustrations and sounds you’ll enjoy.

Russian

Russian Fairy Tales
An eBook with many classic Russian stories.

Russian Folk Tales
44 folk tales from Russia and the Ukraine such as those about Sister Fox, the Frog Princess, Baba Yaga and others.

The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird, and the Gray Wolf
Once upon a time in a far away land, there lived a mighty tsar. A Russian fairytale.

Story Collections

Story Telling
A fine collection of shaggy dog stories, ghosts stories, Indian legends, etc. from MacScouter.

Tales of Wonder
A huge collection of folk and fairy tales from around the world.

Zen Stories to Tell Your Neighbors
Fun to tell stories that have reflected human nature for hundreds of years.

The post Myths, Fables, Fairy Tales and Folklore appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.

About Teaching Handwriting
Fonts – Styles of writing
History of Handwriting
Left-handers
Problems & Solutions
Worksheets to Improve Handwriting

About Teaching Handwriting

How to Teach Handwriting
Oversee practice so children don’t fill a page with improper work simply to finish quickly. Praise letters and words written well and have the student erase and rewrite anything unacceptable. While this may seem time consuming, remember that it will actually take more time to undo bad habits. There are four components to handwriting, whether a child is learning to print the letters or write in cursive “joined up:”

1. correct letter formation
2. uniform letter size
3. uniform slant
4. spacing

Fonts – Styles of Writing

Dyslexie
A free font to help those who tend to reverse letters of just have a hard time telling letters apart for whatever reason. Though not designed for handwriting, you could print out worksheets in this font to help out a dyslexic child.

Educational Fontware, Inc.
EFI makes and sells D’Nealian ®-style, Zaner-Bloser ©-style, Handwriting Without Tears (TM)-style, Harcourt Brace ®-style, Peterson Directed Handwriting ©-style, McDougal, Littell ©-style, Getty-Dubay Italic (TM), SSD, and Palmer style handwriting fonts. Commercial site.

Jardotty
Windows true type font (.ttf) to download directly from this link. Jardotty is a dotted alphabet good for creating your own traceable handwriting worksheets. Created by Christopher Jarman.

Jarmon
Windows true type font (.ttf) to download directly from this website. Christopher Jarman cursive handwriting font. The solid line version of Jardotty.

Learning Cursive Handwriting
Commercial site: Fontmenu.com Cursive Handwriting typeface offers the possibility to create exercises that follow the guidelines of the D’Nealian ® approach to cursive handwriting.

Learning Curve BV / Learning Curve BV Dashed
Learning Curve BV contains two versions, one is plain and the other dashed. This font also contains a set of dingbats that helps with practicing elements of cursive writing.

Print Clearly
Solid and dashed. From Blue Vinyl Fonts, which has lots of nice, free fonts for writing and other uses as well.

School Fonts
Mac & Win. Commercial. Block Letters and Cursive Handwriting typefaces enable any computer user to create exercises that follow the guidelines of the D’Nealian ® or the Zaner-Bloser ® approach and letter forming teaching techniques.

History of Handwriting

Ancient Scripts
Designed to give an introduction to writing systems, which hopefully will tantalize the reader into searching for more information on the web or in books and publications.

Left-handers

Tip: When creating worksheets for lefties, put the samples across the top, not down the left side.

Anything Left-Handed – Are you left handed?
We are a group of left-handed people providing products and information to make life a bit easier for left-handers around the world and campaigning to promote awareness, acceptance and empathy for left-handers. The accident rate for left handed people is much higher than for right handed people. Also, did you know left slanted

DKL Cursive and DKR Cursive
These fonts are patterned after the handwriting methods in the workbooks “Cursive Writing Skills,” by Diana Hanbury King. Ms. King has produced both a Right-handed Edition and a Left-handed Edition.

Left-handed But Not Left Behind
Author Annie Thomassen was a homeschool Mom for 9 years. During her daughter’s education she was also completing her undergrad degree, and researching left-handedness. She realized that there was very little out there on teaching a lefty, so she developed a writing method to teach her daughter. This ebook is the result.

Problems & Solutions

Accommodations and Modifications for Students with Handwriting Problems and/or Dysgraphia
Many students struggle to produce neat, expressive written work, whether or not they have accompanying physical or cognitive difficulties. They may learn much less from an assignment because they must focus on writing mechanics instead of content.

Dysgraphia
Often, dysgraphia is misunderstood. Parents and teachers may think you are lazy or that you don’t care about neatness. This means you have to try even harder to show that you do care.

Handwriting Club
Using Sensory Integration Strategies to Improve Handwriting. Students with difficulties in sensory processing, sensory awareness, and/or perceptual skills usually have handwriting problems.

Pocket Full of Therapy
Sells writing paper and graph paper with raised lines so that sensory learners can “feel” their way along as the write.

Worksheets to Improve Handwriting

Addressing Envelopes Practice
Print out these envelopes and stamps to use to practice addressing and stamping envelopes correctly.

The Amazing – Incredible Handwriting Worksheet Maker
Allows you to formulate a worksheet with your child’s name or a short sentence in any of 5 fonts, manuscript or italic.

Build a Handwriting Activity
Create your own worksheet with this form from EdHelper. Supports printing, cursive and D’Nealian.

Callirobics
Commercial site. Handwriting exercises to music to improve small-muscle skills and eye-hand coordination. Good for aural learners young and old.

D’Nealian alphabet worksheets
Learn and practice manuscript handwriting featuring fun coloring page images. These are suitable for preschool, kindergarten and early elementary.

Donna Young’s Handwriting Paper
A series of graded lined paper .pdf files with a wide variety of uses for free writing practice. Some have space at the top for a picture.

Jan Brett’s Alphabet Line Bulletin Board Set
Jan has such a charming set of alphabet posters, you’ll want them to decorate your room. They are in traditional, cursive and modern manuscript.

Free Practice Paper
As adults, sometimes we forget that kids need lots of practice to learn how to write clearly! It’s helpful to have lined paper to learn proper letter height and more.

Handwriting For Kids
Each lesson is featured on its own page, and kids are shown in simple steps how to write the numbers, letters, and sentences. Kids can trace uppercase and lowercase letters, and even blank sheets are provided for kids to practice more before their next lessons.

Handwriting Practice Sheets
These sheets may be printed and reproduced by parents, guardians, and teachers for home or classroom use. Donna Young’s collection.

Handwriting Worksheets
Some pretty basic worksheets for beginning printers. One in Zaner Bloser font.

Manuscript Hand Writing
Letter introduction goes along with the book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. On Donna Young’s site.

Peterson Handwriting Lessons for Homeschools
Our workbooks and materials provide the tools needed to establish evidence based process for regular evaluation of specific qualities that relate to process skills.

The post Handwriting – Teaching Cursive and Manuscript Writing appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.