St. Michael's Orthodox School

Welcome to The School Store

We are working on putting various parts of our curricula into a format usable by home schooling parents and other teachers.

Payment can be made through Paypal, VISA, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express. If you have any difficulty ordering or have questions about the items, please call us at 707-545-0861, or e-mail us at store@stmichaelschool.us.

A Note About Shipping Costs: Our intention is to keep shipping charges as close to actual costs as possible. We have had to slightly increase our rates because of the recent increase in postal shipping rates. Our rate schedule is as follows.

    1.00 - 24.99    $ 5.00
25.00 - 59.99 10.00
60.00 - 99.99 13.00
100.00 - 199.99    14.00
Over 200.00    16.00

The shopping cart can only approximate the actual cost, since distance, materials purchased and the weight of the materials affect postage. This is especially true of the math manipulatives which weigh 2 lbs. and 4 lbs. Fortunately we can fit one of each of the manipulatives into the Post Office’s Flat Rate Boxes.

We generally ship Priority Mail and use the Flat Rate Envelopes and Boxes. If the actual cost to ship your purchases is more than $3.00 less than what you paid for shipping, we will reimburse the difference.

God bless you.

The Days of Creation Art Book

The Days of Creation art book provides a way for children (ages 9 and up) to learn about the days of creation through painting representations of each of the days and making their own book about God's glorious work. The book includes twelve (12) lovely watercolor paintings, depicting God's work during the six days of creation, as well as detailed instructions for reproducing each painting.

Even novice painters have produced some very acceptable paintings using this book. Your children will treasure the book they produce for many years.

Beside the painting instructions, the book provides religious instruction by including, for each day, commendaries from the early Church Fathers, thus revealing the traditional Orthodox teaching concerning the Genesis text.

The book is spiral bound, 8 1/2" x 11", 50 pages $19.50
For pictures of some of the paintings, click here.

The Sentence Family

This curriculum was developed many years ago with the inspiration of a fourth grade class. What started as a class on the four kinds of sentences, blossomed into an engaging approach to the parts of speech and basic diagraming. Former students, now in high school, say that they still think in terms of The Sentence Family.

For testimonials and sample pages, click here.

Coilbound, 81/2 x 11 format, 45 pgs pages plus 13 full-color illustrations. $19.50

Sanctity through the Centuries

Sanctity through the Centuries is a chronological listing of saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The saints are listed, divided into centuries, in order of the year of their death. The saints' feast dates, general geographical information and sources for their lives are also included.

The listing is based on the calendar published by St. Herman of Alaska Press, with much additional material from other Orthodox sources. All "western" saints listed are those before the Great Schism in 1054 A.D.

The inspiration for these books is to provide a way for Orthodox teachers to integrate the lives of the saints with the teaching of secular history.

These books are not printed, but will be sent in PDF format to the e-mail address provided during purchase.

You may obviously purchase them individually but given the way the shopping cart works you pay only $11.50 if you purchase all three.

Sanctity through the Centuries, Volume I, Creation through 499AD
This volume lists over 1200 Orthodox saints, 8 1/2 x 11 format
80 pages
The total for this volume is $7.25, including the shipping charge automatically generated by the Paypal shopping cart.

Sanctity through the Centuries, Volume II, 500AD to 1499AD
This volume lists over 1700 Orthodox saints, 8 1/2 x 11 format
97 pages
The total for this volume is $7.50, including the shipping charge automatically generated by the Paypal shopping cart.

Sanctity through the Centuries, Volume III

Sanctity through the Centuries, Vol. III, 1500A.D. to Present
This volume lists over 900 Orthodox Saints, 81/2 x 11 format,
57 pages.
This total for this volume is $6.75, including the shipping charge automatically generated by the Paypal shopping cart.

High Quality Watercolor Concentrates

These are the paints we use for our Days of Creation book and all other paintings. We have used these concentrates for over twenty years and have found nothing better. The paints are brilliant and completely non-toxic. We actually water our plants with the water used for rinsing the brushes.

The set includes six - 20 ml plastic jars of concentrate - carmine red, vermillion (orange), lemon yellow, gold, Prussian blue, and ultramarine blue. These concentrates make enough paint for scores of paintings.

Set of six jars of concentrate $34.00

A good, but inexpensive brush

A good brush is an important tool for painting, but most families, or schools, will not want to spent a lot of money on a brush. We have tried several brushes and have found an inexpensive one that works well. This brush closely resembles the one we use for watercolor painting in school.

Watercolor paint brush $5.25

Multiplication String Board

The common multiplication tables make beautiful patterns on this specially designed string board. Making the board is a very enjoyable and easy math/woodworking project.

We are offering a kit which includes 1) an 8 inch square piece of pine, 2) a piece of 100 grit sandpaper, 3) a circle used to mark the ten - 36 degree sections, 4) a dozen finish nails, 5) a 6 ft. piece of colored yarn, and 6) complete instructions for assembly.

This kit provides a simple craft to integrate with a child's arithmentic lessons and shows one of the hidden beauties of God's creation.

The instructions may be seen in the Curriculum Ideas section under The Patterns of the Times Tables.

The String Board kits are available in four different colors of yarn. $5.95

String Board with red yarn

String Board with blue yarn

String Board with green yarn

String Board with orange yarn

When teaching children the principles and facts of arithmetic, it is very important to be as concrete as possible. Many children have trouble with arithmetic simply because the emphasis is placed on the mechanics and worksheets and not on the physical manipulation of objects. Mathematics is a language, in a very similar way that English is a language. Math is a language which describes the relationships of physical objects, just as English is a language which describes ideas.

Worksheets are fine for practice, but they are useless for giving understanding. You can read more of our approach to math in the article "Teaching Math in the Early Grades".

The following two items in our store are sets of manipulatives we use extensively with our students. We are starting to get feedback from other teachers who have used the manipulatives. Click here for a sample.

Since we make them ourselves, sometimes we are out of stock for a while. If you would like to order an item that is noted as being "out of stock" please let us know (store@stmichaelschool.us) and we will do what we can to make additional sets as soon as possible.

From the very beginning of formally teaching arithmetic, we make the lessons very concrete and multi-sensory. This set of wooden manipulatives are called “The Number Family” manipulatives, because we use them to introduce “number families” to the children.

Each of the numbers from 1 through 10 is represented by specially dyed hardwood blocks of appropriate lengths. The set includes a total of 120 pieces.

These manipulatives have many uses. You may see the instruction booklet by clicking here. The pages are set up for printing as a booklet, so please use the page numbers to read it in the correct sequence.

Number Family Manipulatives $32.00

These are the “Up the Hill” manipulatives, a name taken from the students’ favorite math game. They provide a concrete way to teach 1) carrying and borrowing (re-grouping), 2) the times tables, as well as 3) two-place multiplication.

Each set includes 1 Thousand-Block, 10 Hundred-Flats, 30 Ten-Bars, and 50 Units.

We often use them in conjunction with the “Number Family” manipulatives. For a more complete description of their use, click here. The pages are set up for printing as a booklet, so you will have to use the page numbers to read it in the correct sequence.

Up the Hill Manipulatives $42.00