A lovely ramble with a fascinating old gentleman, quaint, charming, sunny and a true picture of one aspect of a bygone age and of the way our great-great grandfathers talked and lived. The fishing lore and natural history are hopelessly out of date but who cares? Has been in print for centuries and deservedly so.

Talk about complete! The author wasn't kidding when he titled it "The Complete Block Book". This book is an interesting look at the use and popularity of blocks over the past 200 years. You will learn everything you ever wanted to know about blocks including their use in educational settings, the different types of blocks available, the benefits to children, why blocks are considered educational toys, how best to set up a block corner, and which educators and philosophers influenced the popularity of blocks. Also, this book gives a very good historical overview of the emergence of "play as work" as a concept in children's education.

One of the most valuable resources you can have if you are a teacher, daycare worker, or just like to have a lot of fun with young children, "The Complete Book of Activities, Games, Stories, Props, Recipes, and Dances for Young Children is a delightful read. Within the text Jackie Silberg and Pam Schiller have compiled a wonderful collection of over 600 ways to have fun with young children.

Divided into various sections, the first one consists of activities. In it you will find lots of useful ideas for every day objects from empty soda bottles, to boxes and rubber bands. From pattern matching to tactile activities, imagination activities, tops, folding a paper hat, and a great number of other activities, it's all here and you are sure to find something that suits your needs.

Following this is a section on games. Again, they don't require any special or hard to find props but simple, fun games that young children would enjoy. Cat and Mouse, Drop the Clothespin, Flashlight Tag (one of my favorites as a child), Freeze Tag, Grass Tug of War, Spider Walk, and Walk a Crooked Line are just a few from the large collection.

The next section contains Action Stories. Each story has a set of actions that goes along with it. From the currently very popular Going on a Bear Hunt and Hey, My Name is Joe, to lesser known ones like A Spring Walk young children are sure to enjoy them all.

Other sections include Stories for Flannel Boards and Magnetic Boards, Listening Stories, Prop Stories, Puppet Stories, Rebus Stories, Arts and Crafts Recipes, Food Recipes, and Dances. The book is easily worth the price just for the craft recipes section that includes such favorites as Salt Paste, Gak, Fingerpaints, Playdough, Scratch and Sniff Paint, and Soap Crayons. And what child hasn't squealed with delight while dancing something like the Bunny Hop, Chicken Dance, Go In and Out the Windows, the Hokey Pokey, the Macarena, The Mulberry Bush, or Skip to My Lou.

The book finishes off with a very large appendix (slightly over half the book). The appendix contains patterns to copy and use for the activities, flannel board stories, props, puppet stories, rebus stories and all the other things mentioned in the book. Finally there are two indexes. One is an alphabetical listing and one is a listing by theme so you can lookup appropriate activities for a particular focus. "The Complete Book of Activities, Games, Stories, Props, Recipes, and Dances for Young Children" is very highly recommended and the ultimate reference for anyone dealing with young children on a regular basis.

This is a great book for anyone who works with children! It is full of great ideas for activities, snacks, floorplans, assessing development, songs & fingerplays, etc. I highly recommend it! In fact, I borrowed it from the library and was so impressed that I came to Amazon.com to purchase my own copy!

Defoe wrote this in the late 1700s, and it was revised in the early 1800s, with comical footnotes about how those antiquated business practices had now been modernized! Defoe was involved in various mercantile ventures, and wrote from hard earned experience, providing a bona fide textbook of business strategy and negotiating practices that is still very cogent today. I'd highly recommend this book to young people entering the business world, but alas it's out of print, and thus impractical to obtain.

Great gift to those who constantly talk about wanting to retire early, but don't have a clue on how to start an early retirment plan. This book will definitely get them on track to retiring early.

For those who have some plans in place for early retirment, this book will help them examine their past and present decisions to see if they are on track. Also, it will help them with future decisions to ensure that early retirement becomes a reality.

Loved those "From the Hammock" comments - quick and easy to read!

The Earl of Rochester lived a life worthy of Tom Jones. He was indeed a deabauched libertine, slightly less worthy of censure than the Marquis de Sade. Yet he was something that De Sade was not, a great wit. Though nowhere near the range or genius of Pope or Swift, he nevertheless compiled a great body of satirical poetry in the Juvenalian tradition. His "Satyre Against Mankind," Like Swift's Houyhnhnms chapters, present human beings in their true place in nature, despite all the panegyrics and biblical references placing us at the top of the chain. If you are lover of satire, as I am, and don't mind observations that place us amongst the lower orders rather than atop some Parnassian peak, give this volume a try.

This is a clear and accurate textual study of the notion of inter-causality or "pratityasamutpada" (Pali: patticcasammupada). This idea comes to underly most of Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy, but this book locates its origins in the earlier, Theravada texts. It is thorough and scholarly, and though was not written recently, remains state of the art even today. Excellent for teachers and scholars, but even for interested students of all kinds.

This work is a translated version of Calvin's response to Albert Pighius regarding the issue of the eternal predestination of God. Calvin deals with the historical proof (i.e. other theologians/writers prior to Calvin) of the doctrine of predestination as well as the biblical proof. The last section of the book is simply Calvin responding to the claims/arguments of Pighius regarding the issue at hand. This book is crucial to the overall debate between the Calvinist and the Arminian. Therefore, if you are researching the issues and miss this book then you have missed one of the best primary sources from Calvin himself. Another good reason to purchase and read this book is to find out what Calvin really espoused. All too often people assume Calvin espoused certain things which he in fact never espoused because they read secondary sources written ABOUT Calvin's view. Thus, it is crucial to read the primary sources. Another book that works well with this text is titled "The Bondage and Liberation of the Will" by John Calvin (ISBN - 0-85364-718-6) which is also available for a good price here at Amazon. However, don't miss this one in your research!

I must admit that John Cassian is one of my favourite spiritual writers so I wasn't surprised to find that I enjoyed this collection of his conversations as well. The main reason I rate it so high is that it is better value than any of the other editions which are available. I do recommend any of John Cassians writings that you can get hold of, and at the price this is probably the best edition at the moment of this particular work.