What’s cooler than a geodesic tent? Igloos! (They have the same basic overall shape). Also cool: learning that the straight lines of their family tent’s triangles and an igloo’s square-ish blocks of snow are arranged to make surfaces that are rounded. What’s hot? Climbing sand dunes in summer. Mallory’s seven-year-old twin sister, Melody, enjoys the heat. Mallory? Not so much.
Mallory and his Dad head back down the dune while his Mom and sister 
continue their upward trek. In the shade of a small bush, Mallory discovers more than cooler sand as he settles into a little trench that his dog Rufus helped to dig. When Mallory and his father visit the local Indiana Dunes police station to turn in their find, they learn why some dunes are called “living.”
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:
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- The Core Discipline Values represent 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 Sand Sack, please click on the Buy Whoosh icon to go directly to Amazon’s Sand Sack page. Your purchase of Sand Sack 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 considerableSand Sack resources at this site, please read on.
Sand Sack Resources
The ten chapters in Sand Sack contain nearly a hundred practical mini-lessons and pop-up lessons woven throughout Sand Sack. 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 Sand Sackoffer 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 –> Sand Sack 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.
