Home-School Teaching Aids: How to Make & Use Them

Ray Covell was a librarian in Kelowna, British Columbia.

Nelson’s Home-School Teaching Aids is a reprint of his Instructional Aids, first published in 1958. It consists of instructions for making over 150 gadgets for teaching all grade levels in a wide variety of subjects. The book is divided into six chapters, each covering one subject area (e.g., mathematics, social studies, science). Within the chapters are instructions for making such disparate items as a wall shelf, a lei, blueprints, and ozalid prints. In an age of computers, photocopiers, and video cassette recorders, it is unusual to find a book telling how to make a crystal radio, a sundial, rhythm instruments, and a model volcano.

Unfortunately, the book has no index, and the page numbers for subdivisions of each chapter are not given in the table of contents. Also, the book appears to have been photocopied from the original, so the black-and-white photos are very blurred.

However, teachers will probably find something useful in the book, and many parents, especially any who educate their children at home, will find many useful tools in Home-School Teaching Aids.