Seven-year-old Mallory learns that taking a nine-pound rock from a public park is a lot different from collecting a few pebbles or stones. His twin sister, Melody, doesn’t think it’s such a big deal, but apparently everyone else does. Mallory and his Dad travel back to the Indiana Dunes both to follow up with the local police sergeant on the lost item that Mallory found and also to fulfill Mallory’s hour of public service to settle his debt for removing the rock from the park.
Checking out a bat cave isn’t such a good idea if your dog is along. Humans may not hear the bats squealing, but dogs sure do. Rufus takes off in the opposite direction. Mallory is off to the rescue, except that Mallory himself needs rescuing as he tumbles into a sinkhole.
The Palisades trail gets steeper and steeper. Suddenly, there it is. The great Mississippi River. “How wide is the 
river?” Melody wants to know, reluctant to leave the magnificent view. She and her brother get a lesson on estimating distances, based on comparing it with things you already know, such as car lengths and soccer fields.
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:
- The Core Discipline Self represents BioFables characters’ personal, internal attributes, which are usually reflected in their Behavior and are therefore closely related;
- We believe that important lessons may be learned from one’s own behavior, or from observing the behavior of others;
- The Sciences and Humanities Core Disciplines, on the other hand, are behavior-neutral.
If you’d like to purchase Palisades Escapades, please click on the Buy Palisades Escapades icon to go directly to Barnes and Nobles’ Palisades Escapades page. Your purchase of Palisades Escapades helps support our ongoing efforts to contniue 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 Palisades Escapades resources at this site, please read on.
Palisades Escapades Resources
The ten chapters in Palisades Escapades contain nearly a hundred practical mini-lessons and pop-up lessons woven throughout Palisades Escapades. 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 Values/Behaviors Core Disciplines, where common family experiences in Palisades Escapades 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:
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- 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)
- 4. Discovery Path Branches (Example: Geysers, a Discovery Path Branch of Geology)
- 3. Discovery Paths (Example: Geology, a Discovery Path of Earth/Space Science)
- 2. Knowledge Gateways (Color-coded examples: Earth/Space Science, History, Ethics/Morals)
- 1. Core Disciplines: Sciences, Humanities, Values/Behaviors
So, starting from the “Geyser ingredients” Knowledge Nugget mini-lesson, you can follow its order back to its Core Discipline (Sciences):
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- Geyser ingredients (Knowledge Nugget)
- Geysers (Discovery Path Branch)
- Geology (Discovery Path)
- Earth/Space Science (Knowledge Gateway)
- Sciences (Core Discipline)
- Earth/Space Science (Knowledge Gateway)
- Geology (Discovery Path)
- Geysers (Discovery Path Branch)
- Geyser ingredients (Knowledge Nugget)
Click –> Palisades Escapades 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.