Book 6: Catch of the Day

 

An end-of-summer weekend at a friend’s “swimming hole” in the middle of farmland doesn’t sound particularly exciting. Except for a mysterious splashing in the night, that is. Swimming doesn’t bring to mind exciting lessons in physics, either. Except when you factor into the equation a water trampoline and a dog. 

What secret does an eleven-pound largemouth bass reveal as it’s cleaned for grilling? For that matter, what fun surprises await in the family garden when they return home?


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/Behaviorsrepresents 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 Catch of the Day, please click on the Buy Catch of the Day icon to go directly to Barnes and Nobles’ Catch of the Day page. Your purchase of Catch of the Day 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 Catch of the Day resources at this site, please read on.

Catch of the Day Resources

The ten chapters in Whoosh contain nearly a hundred practical mini-lessons and pop-up lessons woven throughout Whoosh. 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 Whoosh 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 (Sciences):

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

Click –>  Catch of the Day 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.