NEW WEBSITE

We now have a new website/blog and will no longer be posting on this blog.

Please visit the new website/blog: www.hillsideeducation.com for news about Hillside projects. We will have 6 books coming out in 2016 -- so excited about that!!

Thank you for your continued support!
I will possibly maintain this blog as a place to post reviews of books and materials as well as reprint articles from the now defunct mater et magistra magazine.

Hillside Ed Website Closing

The Hillside Education website will be closing soon. You can still purchase PDFs and ebooks there for now, but that will also be discontinued in the next few weeks. I will be posting on this blog, a list of all of our titles and a description of each one. Then I will list at what Catholic retailers you can find them. Unfortunately, I don't have time for that until November probably. If you have a question or need a title in the meantime, please contact me directly. (You can leave a comment on this post if you like.) We will list the study guides and ebooks here as well and give you a way to purchase them.

We are closing our retail website, but Hillside is not going out of business!! We are simply going to let other people sell at the retail level. We will continue to publish new titles as they are finished (we have a few special things in the works), and advertise them through this blog.

 Here is our most recent release in case you haven't seen it: God and the General's Daughter: The Story of Fanny Allen.

Francis Allen was the daughter of Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen. Her conversion story is beautifully told in this book for grade 7 and up. 

The World's Story

We have a new book coming out! We had hoped to have it available at the start of the school year, but . . . God's timing prevailed. It is at the printer now and we are accepting
pre-orders. It will ship after Christmas. The pre-order offer includes free media mail shipping.

You can read all about it on our website.

It's a history text from the early 1900s which we found to be quite readable and interesting for children in grades 5 - 8. Since it's from that time, it doesn't include the world wars of the 20th century. However it provides a balanced look at the Renaissance and Reformation and can serve as a springboard to further study on any of the historical time periods.

An ancient Byzantine picture of Theodoric’s Palace at Ravenna (A mosaic in a Byzantine church at Ravenna).

We updated many of the images and have reprinted it in a full color  hardcover edition. Hope you like it!

Homeschool Moms' Day Out in Northeast PA

If you live in eastern PA (sort of north section) or southern tier NY or western NJ, please consider attending our second annual Homeschool Moms' Day Out.

The Day starts with Mass (Traditional Latin Low Mass), Confessions, and a talk by our assistant Pastor. Then there is time for quite prayer in the church and/or socializing in the basement. We will have some books on display as well as coordinate a used book swap. (You can bring used books to sell or give away.)

Over lunch, Rachel Watkins, creator of the Little Flowers Girls' Club program will be speaking on Joy and then Michele Quigley, creator of Catholic Woman's Planner, will be speaking on Beauty.

For more information and to register, please visit the Hillside website.

Light snacks available after Mass and full lunch provided.

Hope to see you there!!

St Michael's Church
1703 Jackson Street
Scranton, PA 18501

Website currently unavailable

Our website is temporarily unavailable due to a computer server problem. We'll be back up and running soon. If there is anything you need to order in the meantime, please EMAIL ME.
Margot

The King's Gambit - at long last!!

We are proud to announce that this long-awaited title is finally ready for ordering!!
http://hillsideeducation.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=456

It's a pretty cool sci-fi adventure for tweens with a chess-playing theme written by John McNichol (Young Chesterton Chronicles) and illustrated by Sean Fitzpatrick (Fenestrae Fidei: A Coloring Book Companion for Catholic Mosaic). It's sure to delight your adventure-loving reader.

It's on sale now for the introductory price of $12.95, but the price will go up to $14.95 as of January 1.

New Book on Kateri

Now that Kateri has been canonized, we are seeing a lot of books about her being promoted. Here is a new one we're carrying on our website:

http://hillsideeducation.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_30&products_id=455

Brenda Nippert did a beautiful job with the illustrations and the text is co-written by homeschool student Bernadette Nippert.

Twenty-Six Letters to Heaven a Hit!!

We've received lots of positive feedback about the preschool curriculum by Sarah V. Park with coloring pages drawn by the author's brother, Cliff Vasko.

Wanted to share this one with you:
http://carrotsformichaelmas.com/2012/10/25/catholic-preschool-curriculum-review-twenty-six-letters-to-heaven/

Having Trouble ordering Natural Science Through the Seasons?

I've been getting a lot of comments about having trouble trying to preorder Natural Science Through the Seasons. We are aware of the problem . . . but we are not sure what is causing it, so we don't know how to fix it.

Here is what to try if you are having trouble (These are things that have worked for some people):
Option A
1. Clear your cache (recent Internet memory under Tools tab of the browser)
2. Enter the website directly, not from a link you got from someone else

Option B
Try a different Internet browser (use IE if using Firefox, etc)

Option C
If you just can't stand it anymore . . . please email me and I will send you a paypal invoice for the book. Please indicate if you want media or priority shipping in your message.

Sorry for the hassle. I sure wish we figure out why it's happening on this book only and nothing else on the website.

Thanks for you interest in the book!

Natural Science Through the Seasons: 100 Teaching Units

We are so excited about publishing this book, we can hardly sit still and wait for the last few production steps. But, I am pleased to announce that we are sending it to the printer at the end of the week and will be able to ship by the end of the following week.

So what did we do in our edition of the book?? We left most everything intact from the first edition, but some of the images needed replacing--and we found some wonderful nature images to include. I think you will love the visual part of the book. We also added new resource listings for each unit. Most of those listed in the 1950 edition are impossible to find. We thought it was important to leave those in, but we added some new books for each unit and when appropriate a few Internet sources.

We will be offering a purchase incentive in the next two weeks - so please check our website to learn about what we're offering.

New Titles for 2012

Well, we have two of our new books for 2012 ready to go . . . sort of. We have a beta version of the Hillside edition of Mondays with Mary by Meredith Henning now available. This is an 8.5 x 11 book with coil binding. The final version will be 8 x 10 and perfect bound. But we think you'll like this current version!! For those of you who are not familiar with this book, it's a series of "tea times" to share with children focused on growing in devotion to Our Blessed Mother. Each tea time includes some thoughts for discussion, activity suggestions, and recipes.

Here is what we added for the second edition of Meredith's beautiful book: child-sized coloring pages at the beginning of each section (these can photocopied and used in your activity sessions); an appendix with the recipes so you can clip them out or reference them easily; and an appendix with the activities listed in chronological order. In the main part of the text, the activities are organized by the Litany of Loreto, so activities for Holy Mary, pray for us come first in the book even though the feast day Meredith chose for that one is the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary on September 12. This could be confusing as you try to use the ideas, so we made a handy list of the activities in order by the calendar year.


 So while this book is available, we are still tweaking it for the final version.


The second book we have ready is Simon Brute and Western Adventure by Elizabeth Bartelme. We have long wanted to bring this title back in print and so excited to finally have it available. Read all about it on the website.

The other two for 2012-- The King's Gambit by John McNichol and Natural Science Through the Seasons by James A Partridge-- are still in the works. We know you'll find them worth the wait!!

Available now for preorder!

You can now preorder a copy of Sarah Park's Twenty-Six Letters to Heaven: A Catholic Preschool Curriculum! Introductory price of $22.99 is available until April 19th. Retail price after April 19th is 29.99.

We've included supplemental coloring pages--a saint for each letter of the alphabet.










Click here to read all about it and place your order!

New Titles this Spring

We have three new titles due out this spring and one scheduled for the summer.

 

First, we are pleased to announce a new Catholic preschool program by Sarah V. Park. Sarah has integrated alphabet awareness activities with arts and crafts projects, poetry, picture books, and saint and virtues study. It's an easy-to-use program for busy moms that can involve the older kids as well. We will be accepting preorders in about a week. Please check the website!

Secondly, we will be bringing Meredith Hennings' Monday with Mary into the Hillside list. This is a revised second edition and will be available at the end of April.

And lastly, we've got a brand new title from John McNichol, the author of the Young Chesterton Chronicles. 

 

It's an action packed science fiction/fantasy story for 10-12 year-olds with a chess-playing theme. Look for this title in early May.

For summer release, we are still working on Natural Science Through the Seasons: 100 Teaching Units by J.A. Partridge. Thanks to all of you have expressed your interest in this title. We will definitely have it out before the start of the school year in the fall.

Winter Issue e-mailed!

Dear Readers,
I apologize for the delay in getting this issue out. It ought to be easier now that we are digital, right? Well, we are still homeschooling families trying to pull this off amid our schooling schedules, sick kids, and stressed out husbands, etc etc etc. So, we are late.

But it was finally e-mailed last week! Unfortunately, I had 69 bounce back to me with bad email addresses. If you didn't receive an email with a link to download the issue, please contact me so I can get your correct email. Also, I have about another 60 subscribers for whom I have never had an email on file. I'll be contacting those people by mail over this coming week to get a good delivery address. 

Thanks to all of you who are sticking with us in this new era! We will be offering the coming issues in various e-reader compatible files, but this one is a straight pdf, which I think you can still read on your personal devices.

Hope you enjoy the issue!!
God bless,
Margot

Editor

Book Giveaway Winners

This week during Nancy Carpentier Brown's talk on Chestertonian humor at the MidWinter Refresh Virtual Conference, we sponsored a book giveaway of Nancy's books.

55 people entered the drawing and here are the 3 winners: Maria Nielsen, Kris Ward, and Colleen Arsenault.

Thanks to all who attended Nancy's talk and all who entered the giveaway!

Check out the conference to see the other presentations in which you can participate!

Great New Title for kids- new Mass translation

The Mass Illustrated for Children

 by Susan Bateman

!!!  NEW   !!!

This is an incredible coloring book/illustrated storybook of the Mass. It contains the text of the Mass (Ordinary - new translation) as well as some explanatory text. Perfect for First Communion prep or any study of the Mass. Children can take it to Mass and follow along as well.

I really like it because it fits with the way I teach First Communion prep classes. For example, on the Confiteor page, the text is accompanied by illustrations (to color) of the story of the Prodigal Son. The cover image features the Good Shepherd carrying the lamb on his shoulders. (I have placed on this page the image of the previous cover of this coloring book but will load up the revised cover as soon as I can scan it.) The back cover text says "Jesus is inviting you to share in his life through the Mass. Let the Good Shepherd carry you on his shoulders into the mystery of his love."

5.5 X 8.5 softcover
published by Second Spring and Thomas More College

You can purchase it HERE!

We're having a big sale!!

I mean a REALLY BIG sale!! Please pass the word along.

We've never had a sale this BIG! Everything in our online store is on sale with savings from 20-50%. Please visit our website soon as some quantities are limited. Check out some of the specials below. 

 

ALL NOVELS 50% OFF

CROSS AMONG THE TOMAHAWKS AND SHIPS BOY WITH MAGELLAN BY MILTON LOMASK 

SWORD OF CLONTARF AND THE KING'S THANE BY CHARLES BRADY

WORD TO CAESAR BY GEOFFREY TREASE

CITY OF THE GOLDEN HOUSE,

CHILDREN OF THE RED KING,

 AND CHUIRAQUIMBA AND THE BLACK ROBES

ALL HOMESCHOOL CULTURE RESOURCES 40% OFF

    HAYSTACKS FULL OF NEEDLES: A CATHOLIC HOME EDUCATOR'S
    GUIDE TO SOCIALIZATION BY ALICE GUNTHER
   

    IN HIS IMAGE: NURTURING CREATIVITY IN THE HEART OF YOUR
    HOME  BY MARY GILDERSLEEVE

   

    A LITTLE WAY OF HOMESCHOOLING: THIRTEEN FAMILIES
   DISCOVER CATHOLIC UNSCHOOLING BY SUZIE ANDRES

  Much more!! All on sale now!!

Our newest title!!

Children of the Red King

by Madeleine Polland

Now available!!

This was Mrs. Polland's first novel for children, and it is excellent! In her usual beautiful storytelling style (City of the Golden House, Beorn the Proud, Chuiraquimba and the Black Robes), she tells the story of the last Irish chieftain to hold out against King John and the English conquest of Ireland. While his children are held captive by a Norman knight, Cormac of Connacht battles to keep the land free and retain his kingship against conspirators.

Exciting historical fiction set in early 13th century Ireland.

 
Cover art by Sean Fitzpatrick; cover design by Ted Schluenderfritz.

Website Down

I'm sorry, but our website has been down for a day or two as the cart server owner migrates to a new server. It will be another day, I think, and all will be up and running again.

Thanks for your patience!
I am not able to access it to see what orders were placed over the weekend, but I will get the orders out as soon as possible once the servers are back up.
God bless
Margot

End of Summer

Wow- my last post was in May! I didn't realize that I hadn't posted something in so long. But that's probably a good thing since one goal I had for the summer was to spend less time on the computer and more time looking in my children's faces.

And now . . .  summer is at an end (almost)!

I wanted to post a long and rambling tract about my impressions after the Catholic Marketing Network trade show, but I just haven't had time. I will say, however, that the show never ceases to inspire me and make me feel part of something great and glorious.

Here are a few new things I saw that I think homeschoolers will find interesting:

Lisa Hendey's new book is due out this fall.

This new DVD series will also be ready this fall:

I saw a little clip of it, and it is a beautifully filmed wide overview of the Church photographed all over the world. I will be doing a more indepth review of it for the magazine and love2learn.net after I have had a chance to view the whole thing.

Lastly the Didache religion course series has now come out with semester courses which focus on particular aspects of the catechism. Some of them are condensed versions of the full year courses and some have new information. There is one just on the Sacraments and one on the Blessed Trinity. I think having the option for a smaller book will be great for homeschoolers, both for the pocketbook and for the schedule.

Hillside news in the next post!!