We are frequently asked if there's anything you all can do to help. Well, I'm here to cash in. Our poor Simple Joy art site has been sadly neglected for far too long because I just have not had time to tend to it. I have a list of over 700 artists I have to search through and find relevant art to add to the site. It is incredibly time-consuming. So as my mom always said of chores, "Either one person can spend 10 hours cleaning, or 10 people can spend one hour cleaning." I won't tell you how many times it just ended up being the one person....please don't make me do that...

All it takes is simple knowledge of Excel spreadsheets (you just have to know how to enter information in a field and insert a new line...very easy to learn if you don't know how already) and the ability to search Wikimedia Commons and copy/paste website links. I've provided here a link to an editable Google spreadsheet. Pick an artist name, look them up, and add relevant images! Easy peasy! Plus, you get to spend time just looking at fine art! It's very soothing to the soul.

A couple rules:

1. Stick to Wikimedia Commons. It's much easier for us to determine if the image is in public domain. Even if the art itself is in public domain, sometimes the person/company who took a picture of the art retain rights to that picture. Wikimedia Commons typically spells out the rights of each image, which is why we use it.
2. Stick to art that was published before 1926. If you have reason to believe something printed after that is in public domain, go ahead and include it. I'll check everything out.
3. Stick to art that coincides with the art style found in the website. You know the type, and if not, check out the website. You won't find a lot of portraits or abstract art. We want art of people living their everyday lives. And nature and animals in all their glory.
4. When in doubt, include it. When I put them in the website, I'll check to make sure everything is kosher.
5. You are not confined to the list of artists. If you know another artist you would like to see included in the website, please add it!
6. If you have art that you love and find particularly relevant, but that is not in the public domain, you can add that on the second page. I'll add it to our non-public domain Pinterest pages.

So grab your favorite artist and have at it! And let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you for all your help!

Google Doc Link

We have added two titles to the library that will be sold together. I'm always on the lookout for good books, and in the last couple of years, added some selections to the Mother's Learning Library.

For those of you who have an earlier set, you would be missing these parts, so we have created a Supplement if you'd like to add them to your MLL. Or you can read them online, as always.

Here are the new selections. You can check your books to see if you have them or not:

Volume 1:
Mother's Influence: When Queens Ride By, Overview of MOI, Excerpts from Delphian Handbook
Music: What Music Can Do For You by Henriette Seymour
Poetry: Prose and Poetry for Children, Art of Writing and Speaking English Language, Poets' Corner, a look at the home life of several famous poets.

Volume 2:
Imagination: The Imagination and Dramatic Instinct
History: We added a world chronology chart
Language Arts: Stories that Words Tell Us--a fascinating look at the history of the words we use.

The books sell together for $15.00. They are in the store with the other MLL books.

Also, just an FYI for those of you with older versions of MLL. We've redone Joy so that it's the same size as the rest of the books. For those of you who may have been bothered by the disparity (like me!). 

The new Month 7 books are in the store! Here is what we have for you:

My America Story Book 7 has stories of brave men and women who settled new land as they pushed westward as well as stories of the Native Americans. You can't help but feel sadness when you hear their stories. I wish we could have come up with a better solution. That could spark an interesting discussion in your homes.

Our Little Cousins visit Pioneer and Eskimo homes.

This month's Sunshine Series is the first of 5 Gene Porter-Stratton books we are reprinting. There is so much of WEH in them. If you are a subscriber to the series, you will get a free copy of a brief but wonderful biography we reprinted of her. Or you can buy it in the store for $5.00. Or read it online for free.

Finally, in our World Freedom Series, we are visiting the Story of Scotland--you know--William Wallace's FREEDOM!! When my youngest daughter was serving a mission in Scotland, I sent her a chapter from this book every week and she really enjoyed it.

They are all in the store!

At the end of MASB 05, I added a bonus audio story that wasn't originally included in the text. It was one of those nagging feelings that there was something missing...and when I found the story, I knew that was what I had left out.

We read of daring feats on the battle field and courageous acts in the face of the enemy. But we cannot forget the quiet faith and prayers of the patriot mother at home caring for her children in our story of our fight for independence and freedom.

This story is in the process of being added to the digital text where you can print it out, if you'd like. And will be in future editions of the hard copy.

Art credit: A Prayer for Those at Sea by Frederick Daniel Hardy

I've been working on a little project that goes along with this month's topic of the Holy Land as well as Storytelling.

Not long ago, I was in a thrift store and I found an old book tucked away on a random shelf all by itself just waiting for me to pick it up. It was an illustrated New Testament story book. I immediately recognized the illustrator--Milo Winter--and I loved the beautiful illustrations inside. The introduction was written by another familiar name--Katherine Lee Bates who wrote America the Beautiful. And then as I started to read, I knew this had to be a mother who was a master storyteller. She understood the minds of little children and engaged their imaginations and their senses and explained things that might be difficult for them to understand in simple, relatable ways. She chose the stories for little minds to grasp. And most importantly, she presented a loving and kind Friend.

I knew I wanted to share the book with you. I looked on Internet Archive, but you can only borrow the book and that version only contained about half of the 41 stories.

So I checked copyright--the book was written in 1925 which means it has recently entered the public domain. While we hope to get the text in print in the future, for now I did what I could.

We have extracted all the illustrations and put them in a printable PDF file for you to print out and I have recorded the stories for you to listen to.

These are perfect for your littles. The stories are only about 5 minutes each. And while they are listening, you can help them cut the pictures out and glue them into their own Bible story book--just like you are doing with My America Story Book. So I called it My Bible Story Book. You can just use blank sheets of paper and put them in a simple report cover. (I can't think of the name of them for some reason! You know---when you used to do reports in school and you would put them in a cover with brads inside?)

Only it will probably just be pictures. And now you have a child's first Bible story book of their very own from which they can begin to retell the story from the pictures. "Who wants to tell daddy the story tonight?" I have a feeling they will be able to do it. Bible stories are the most wonderful stories ever told and a perfect place for children to begin to learn the art of storytelling 'by heart'.

The audio story has been placed in mybelmonde.com under Holy Land Great Lives. http://www.mybelmonde.com/holy-land-great-lives.html You will find a link to the pdf pictures right there with the story. There are 45 pages. Or you can buy a packet of professionally printed images from us for $10, which includes shipping. ***NOTE--to get the free shipping, pay attention to the code you will need to enter when you order.

I acquired the Old Testament book...but that will wait for another day.

I never get tired of hearing the stories of Jesus. I hope this can be a blessing in your lives.