Yesterday’s Classic’s: TOS review

COMPANY/PRODUCT:  Yesterday’s Classic’s

Price:  $99 (For a limited time)

Wow, this is a lot of great books and you should buy them.  I really could stop there with this review. . . . . . . but I won’t.

I’m a reader.  I always have been.  By the time I was in the 6th grade, I had read all of the books in our elementary school library (at least the ones I wanted to).   One of the things I want for my children is that they love reading. 

This year there have been things that I wanted to review for the TOS crew and didn’t get.  I was bummed.  But, when I saw that Yesterday’s Classic’s was going to be offered, I knew that I HAD to have it.  Of course, there are no guarantees with the crew.  Fortunately, God, as always, knew what our family needed and he provided.  I was picked as one of the reviewers.  To say that I was pleased is a huge understatement.   

Would you love to have 225 books?  Are you thinking “Where would I keep them?”  Most families don’t have room for that many books with what they already have.  Homeschooling families definitely don’t have room because as everyone knows, homeschoolers LOVE books.  Most of us have a serious issue with keeping books. 

Well how about keeping those books  here

or here

or here

or even here

You can store all of the books on any of the above devices or more including the Ipad.  What could be better than having all of those great, wholesome literature books right at the touch of your finger? 

Do you love to read amazing literature with your children?  We have been using a Charlotte Mason learning style for the last year.  She encourages using literature to teach and to never use “twaddle”.  Textbooks usually contain “twaddle”.  Both of my children hate when they are reading a story and it isn’t there in it’s entirety.  Most textbooks just have a piece of a great story from literature.  Now, I know that they are hoping that you go and read the entire story after reading this piece. But seriously, when would school aged kids have time to do that?   With homework, athletics, school, friends and everything else there is very little time left over for pleasure reading. 

The website references Ambleside Online.  This is a great FREE homeschool curriculum.  It uses only great literature to teach science, reading, history, and art.  It has every year through high school and is really easy to follow.  A lot of the books that it recommends are included in the 225 books you receive when you purchase Yesterday’s classics.   They have searched for the best literature from 1880 to 1920 and now your children (and you) can enjoy them over and over.   You can view all of the books here.  All of the books can still be bought in paperback version but like I said, who has room for 225 books.  

 

 

Also, the cost for all of them would be over $2000.   

 

 

Some of the stories and a few of our favorites you will enjoy are:

• Alexander the Great
• American History Stories (Vol 1-4)
• The Burgess Animal book
• A Child’s book of Stories
• For the Children’s Hour
• Pinocchio
• Stream’s of History

Yesterday’s Classics offers 225 great classic literature stories for only $149.  But, right now and through the end of May, you can get all 225 books for only $99.   That is less than $0.50 per book.   This comes in two versions.  One is the Kindle version and the other is Epub.  I chose the Epub and downloaded them to my desktop. 

What I love about this is that I can print off the pages I want the kids to read or we can just read them on the computer.   I added one to my Ipod Touch and we read it on the go.  The kids are loving The Fairy Books (The Blue Fairy is the one we are reading now).  Griffin has amazed me because he is reading things that I thought he would never be interested in.  We read aloud a lot as a family and then do oral narration.  There are so many days when we are reading these classic stories that he asks to please keep reading them himself.   Our favorite one we have looked at so far is The stories Mother Nature told her Children.  We love nature study and this is a great book to read while outside enjoying God’s beautiful creation. 

After purchasing the books, you will get an e-mail with a link to download your books.  You can either choose to download titles separately (if you don’t want them all) or there are 13 zipped files that contain all 225 titles.  My desktop is several years old and is getting slow (kinda like me) so it took me a little over an hour to download all 13 files.  If you have a newer computer and fast internet service, it shouldn’t take quite that long.   If you have dial up, I would suggest going to the library or somewhere with a laptop so you don’t waste a lot of time downloading the files. 

It was really easy to get the files unzipped and start reading.  My computer required me to download a version of Adobe (the digital edition). 

Because we have used Ambleside, I know that a lot of classic literature is available for free on the internet.  So, I was thinking, why would I want to pay for something that is out there for free?  Well, trying to find the books alone takes a lot of time.  Time that I could be using to teach my children.  Also, usually the free versions do not include pictures and a lot of the time are just plain hard to read.   Yesterday’s Classics has done all of the work for you and included the original artwork of each title (if there was any included).  

Still not sure this is right for your family?  You can download The Dutch Twins for FREE by clicking here.  Scroll about half way down the page to see the offer.

I honestly believe that you could homeschool your children entirely (except math) by using these books.  Yes, I mean for the entire 12 years.  There is that much amazing literature here.

There are 22 genres covered and include:  world history, early civilization, children of the world, poetry, nature, middle ages, ancient Greece, legends, fables, Renaissance and Exploration, Ancient Rome, science,m Kindergarten, readers, fairy tales, American History, Britain, Christmas Stories Shakespeare, literature, faith and biography. 

If you are interested in classic literature that will teach your children to love learning, I highly suggest you check out Yesterday’s Classics. 

Our family gives Yesterday’s Classic’s

Yep, that’s one more than my best.  (I would really sell the family pet to get this one)

Smiley guide:

1 Smiley - Product not really for our family. Probably wouldn’t buy. This really should probably be a frown face but we hate to be negative.

2 Smileys - Would maybe buy this product if on sale. Not a great fit for our family.

3 Smileys - We really liked this product and would probably recommend this to friends and fellow homeschoolers.

4 – Smileys – Definitely would buy this if the budget would allow. We suggest you check this out to see if it is a fit for your family.

5 Smileys – Would sell the family pets to get this one (just kidding). A must have for our family and we think you should get it too.

To see what my fellow crew mates have to say about this this product, click here.

For giveaways,and other great stuff, please check out the TOS Homeschool Crew blog by clicking below.

Please note:  I received this product for free in exchange for my honest opinion in this review.  No other compensation was provided.  Thank you to Yesterday’s Classic’s and TOS for this opportunity.