Book 5: A Stone’s Throw

Flames from Fish Boil OverboilTo most people, Wisconsin’s Door County doesn’t go beyond the peninsula. Did you know, though, that the Door in Door County comes from the narrow water passage called Death’s Door? Grandpa Mike explains how the open waters of Lake Michigan to the east and Green Bay to the west crash into each other here. Stormy weather makes this stretch of water particularly dangerous. Seven-year-old Mallory searches in vain for a floating door in the water as the ferry makes its way to Washington Island. His twin sister Melody is more interested in islands. 

 

Our main focus of all BioFables children’s books is on illuminating Sciences (STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) principles through fun stories. As you probably know from experience, though, applying Sciences  in the real world requires a balancing perspective of Humanities studies and one’s internal Values/Behaviors. These are the three main Core Disciplines of learning that are an important part of the BioFables books.

We’ve been asked, “Why are you including Behaviors in the Values category and not in the two others?” Here are some reasons:

      1.  The Core Discipline Values represent BioFables characters’ personal, internal attributes, which are usually reflected in their Behavior and are therefore closely related;
      2. We believe that important lessons may be learned from one’s own behavior, or from observing the behavior of others;
      3. The Sciences and Humanities Core Disciplines, on the other hand, are behavior-neutral.

If you’d like to purchase A Stone’s Throw, please click on the Buy A Stone’s Throw icon to go directly to Amazon’s A Stone’s Throw page. Your purchase of A Stone’s Throw helps support our ongoing efforts to continue expanding the wealth of this site’s free resources for  homeschooling and all parents who are dedicated to the intellectual growth of their children.


If you’d like to learn more about using the considerable A Stone’s Throw resources at this site, please read on.

A Stone’s Throw Resources

The ten chapters in A Stone’s Throw contain nearly a hundred practical mini-lessons and pop-up lessons woven throughout A Stone’s Throw. We call these practical lessons Knowledge Nuggets. These Knowledge Nuggets contain specific information that readers can apply to their everyday lives. They may be in the form of a mini-lesson, with simple explanations of a specific concept, or as a quick, unplanned pop-up lesson.

You will find that many of these Knowledge Nugget lessons are in stealth mode. This is true especially in the  Humanities and ValuesBehaviors Core Disciplines, where common family experiences in A Stone’s Throw offer lessons that might easily be missed.

Homeschooling parents often want to know where the specific Knowledge Nugget lessons fit into more general learning classifications. To address that need, we’ve designed a 5-tier structure for all BioFable books, ranging from the most general (Core Disciplines) to the most specific (Knowledge Nuggets) catgories:

    • 1. Core Disciplines: Sciences, Humanities, Values/Behaviors
      • 2. Knowledge Gateways (Color-coded examples: Earth/Space Science, History, Ethics/Morals)
        • 3.  Discovery Paths (Example: Geology, a Discovery Path of Earth/Space Science)
          • 4. Discovery Path Branches (Example: Geysers, a Discovery Path Branch of Geology)
            • 5. Knowledge Nuggets: Specific mini- or pop-up lessons (Example: Geyser ingredients)

So, starting from the “Geyser ingredients” Knowledge Nugget mini-lesson, you can follow its order back to its Core Discipline (Science):

    • Geyser ingredients (Knowledge Nugget)
      • Geysers (Discovery Path Branch)
        • Geology (Discovery Path)
          • Earth/Space Science (Knowledge Gateway)
            • Sciences (Core Discipline)

Click –> A Stone’s Throw Knowledge Gateways <– to access four sets of tables and lists that help you to place a given Knowledge Nugget within the greater realm of learning. As shown in both two 5-tier structures above, the three Core Disciplines and their associated Knowledge Gateways share the same Red, Blue and Purple color. We’ve not added colors to the terms in the more detailed tiers because these terms can be applied in different Core Cisciplines or Knowledge Gateways. An example: Geysers may appear in the context of a History lesson (Humanities), rather than in a Geology (Sciences) lesson.