Don’t throw it away—use it for play! Turn items headed for the trash into fun, educational, and safe toys and activities for young children. Find one hundred creative and clever ideas repurposing common household objects—including shoeboxes, fabric scraps, plastic lids, and buttons—into entertaining playthings. The toys benefit children’s early learning by promoting sensory perception and development in physical; social and emotional; cognitive; and language and communication areas. Organized by age group, Learn and Play the Green Way has sections for working with infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and schoolagers. Each activity includes: A description of the ways children might use the toy Suggestions for extending the learning A list of materials needed and step-by-step instructions A green idea for additional ways to be eco-friendly Learn and Play the Green Way: Fun Activities with Reusable Materials is a revision of the bestselling, award-winning Learn and Play the Recycle Way: Homemade Toys that Teach.

A dramatic and nostalgic saga of two sisters coming of age in 1960s Essex. Angie Smith lives in Greenway, Chelmsford, with her elder sister Doreen, their struggling mother and their drunk, violent father. Bored of her job, and of her dull, ordinary boyfriend, Angie dreams of bigger and better things. But then she meets boutique owner Gene Battini. He is older, handsome, charming - and married. She is completely swept off her feet. But little does she know that Doreen is falling for Gene, too, and that their affair will have disastrous consequences. As things at home go from bad to worse, Angie and Doreen must struggle to fight for what they want. Can the girls from Greenway ever achieve their dreams? '[A] beautifully written saga which brims with the spirit of youth and is rich in period detail.' Lancashire Evening Post Praise for Elizabeth Woodcraft 'A book to read in great gulps' Sheila Newberry 'Beautifully written . . . she has a real talent' Mary Gibson

"In the greenconscious world we live in today, parents realize the importance of teaching the lessons of green living, early on. With this book, parents can encourage their children to be ecologically friendly with fun lessons such as: The three Rs: reducing waste, reusing materials, and recycling Why we should keep the air, oceans, and forests pollutionfree Why organic food is tastier—and better—for you How to protect plants and animals Earth Day celebrations Complete with tips for every day of the year—and activities for home, school, and during playtime—this book reveals how easy it is to be an ecofriendly family—and prepare for a better future together."

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.

"Fairfax Or The Master Of Greenway Court: A Chronicle Of The Valley Of The Shenandoah is a historical novel by American author John Esten Cooke. Set in the late 18th century, the book tells the story of Thomas Fairfax, the sixth Lord Fairfax of Cameron, who inherits a vast estate in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The novel follows Fairfax's struggles to maintain his land and his way of life in the face of encroaching settlers and the looming threat of the American Revolution. Along the way, Fairfax encounters a cast of colorful characters, including Native Americans, frontiersmen, and British soldiers. The book is notable for its vivid descriptions of life in colonial Virginia and its portrayal of the conflicts between different cultures and classes in the region. Written in a style that blends historical accuracy with fictional storytelling, Fairfax Or The Master Of Greenway Court is a compelling and insightful look at a pivotal moment in American history."--Amazon.com.

Popular musicians acquire some or all of their skills and knowledge informally, outside school or university, and with little help from trained instrumental teachers. How do they go about this process? Despite the fact that popular music has recently entered formal music education, we have as yet a limited understanding of the learning practices adopted by its musicians. Nor do we know why so many popular musicians in the past turned away from music education, or how young popular musicians today are responding to it. Drawing on a series of interviews with musicians aged between fifteen and fifty, Lucy Green explores the nature of pop musicians' informal learning practices, attitudes and values, the extent to which these altered over the last forty years, and the experiences of the musicians in formal music education. Through a comparison of the characteristics of informal pop music learning with those of more formal music education, the book offers insights into how we might re-invigorate the musical involvement of the population. Could the creation of a teaching culture that recognizes and rewards aural imitation, improvisation and experimentation, as well as commitment and passion, encourage more people to make music? Since the hardback publication of this book in 2001, the author has explored many of its themes through practical work in school classrooms. Her follow-up book, Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy (2008) appears in the same Ashgate series.