Books about Animals & More

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Tonight I am going to share some books having to do with animals. This group of books has things for different ages from board books to posters and more. Are you ready for some animal fun? We will start with Animalium Poster Book by Susanna Davidson and illustrated by Katie Scott and Jenny Broom. 

MindWare Gifts -- Perfect Gifts to Get Them Thinking!!

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from MindWare. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

I have been sharing some of our favorite places to get gifts and tonight I am sharing a new one. MindWare has many educational and fun gifts. They are connected now with Oriental Trading. You can get your party supplies and gifts in one stop!! The first thing I knew I wanted to check out was Qwirkle. I had heard of it but never played. 

Trivia and Design & Doodle -- Product Reviews

Disclosure: Parragon Books sent me these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

 I have been off finishing my quilt for the boy at the homeless shelter for Hazel's class donation. It was due at school today, and I'm happy to say I finished!!

Christmas Trees, Personalized & Classic Stories & More!

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. Some of the links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!


Now that Thanksgiving is over we are focusing on Christmas. I love the time of Advent. It is the time I take to enjoy the season and remember the amazing gift that Jesus truly is. The first thing we always do is put up our tree. Hazel wanted to do it on Thanksgiving this year since her grandmother was here. (My mother-in-law hardly ever comes to our house, so Hazel was really excited.) The tree went up.

US History & State Information -- Reviews

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Ever since Hazel tied for third in the school Geography Bee last year, she has been even more interested in learning about the world and especially the other states. I also want her to know about her own country just like we look at different countries and cultures. Luckily her class is studying the states this year, but I also found some great resources to supplement her class lessons. I also have to include a bit of history and other fun.

Sticker Fun! -- Review of Sticker Activity Books

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

One of the things that keeps Hazel busy are sticker activity books. She gets so excited for them. Today I am going to share with you four new sticker activity books for different ages!! I am going to start with the older kids. The first is Sticker Shape Create by Thereza Rowe. 

Bringing God and the Bible into Your Life for All Ages

 Disclosure: Kregel Publications sent me copies of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Do you want to bring God and the Bible into your life more or perhaps into your child's life? Today I am sharing some books and a printable game for kids to do just this. Going by age we will start with the book for the younger child, The Bible and Me: Stories with a Message to Live By retold by Lois Rock and illustrated by Alida Massari.  

Animal Fun -- Summer Fun!

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Hazel counted the days and realized she has eleven days of summer vacation left. We are trying to enjoy all of them!! So today we are going to share some animal fun with great activity books and kits!! Let's start with Disney Zootopia Collector's Tin.

Get Mapmaking -- Map Fun for Summertime Fun!

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Quarto Books USA. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Do your kids know how to read a map? Perhaps you have gone on a treasure hunt with a map? A great way to inspire creativity and to learn about maps is to create their own and today's book let's them do just that. The book is Get Mapmaking: How to Get Creative with Maps by Rian Hughes.

Ocean Life Fun -- Summertime Fun

Disclosure: I was sent these books free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Have you seen Disney Pixar's Finding Dory yet? Hazel and I went to see it this weekend. We loved it. It has of course put us in the mood for ocean life!! Today we are sharing three different under the sea activity books/kits. But first a quick fun and easy craft that we did at Lakeshore Learning on Saturday before going to the movie. We made talking fish or fish clips. They had the fish shapes cut in two pieces to decorate and then glue to a clothespin. Hazel made the rainbow fish!!

Learning with Lego Fun -- Summertime Fun

Disclosure: I was sent a digital version of this book free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience. LEGO^® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site.

Are you trying to have some learning going on this summer? Do you want to make it fun? Then The Unofficial Guide to Learning with LEGO^®  by Danielle Buckley, Dayna Abraham, Laura Marschel, Nicolette Roux, Samantha Sopher-Caetano and Sarah McClelland is perfect for you. This amazing book has over 100 different activities to make learning and playing fun. They use LEGO building blocks in many different ways.

Sharing Saturday 16-27

Reminder: This link party is for child-oriented crafts and activities and parenting/teaching posts!! 

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts,crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop. 

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have butterfly and bird features and activities, books and snack features.  Enjoy!! Now I will admit I have been a bit on vacation from here. I spent the long weekend with my parents and have had a bit of a crazy week. However here are some fun pictures from the fireworks we saw last weekend!!

Bible Fun -- Summertime Fun!

Disclosure: I was given copies of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Yesterday I shared a book about the importance of adding fun to our lives and the start of my new series--Summertime Fun. For our first Summertime Fun I thought I would share some fun resources for fun with the Bible. Since Hazel goes to a Christian school, I know during the summer there will be less church and Bible time for her, so I wanted to make sure to give her some resources to keep up with her Bible time. To start we are sharing two of Marcia Goldlist's The Bible in Rhyme. Marcia emailed me e-copies of Enjoying the Book of Esther and Enjoying the Book of Ruth. 

100 Fun & Easy Learning Games for Kids -- Book Review with one full lesson

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them. This activity has been reprinted with permission from the publisher from book 100 FUN & EASY LEARNING GAMES FOR KIDS.

Today I get to share an amazing book with you which is being released today!! It is from fellow Kid Blogger Network bloggers, Amanda Boyarshinov and Kim Vij. They are the creators of The Educators' Spin on It.  The book is 100 Fun & Easy Learning Games for Kids. 

The Berenstain Bears' Easter Blessings -- A First Look Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Worthy Ideals. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

What is Easter about for your kids? Is it about the candy, the egg hunt and the Easter basket? Or do they get the amazing blessing Easter really is for us? Do we really get that? 

Madagascar's Lemurs -- Global Learning for Kids

This month Global Learning for Kids is exploring the African country of Madagascar. Madagascar is an island just east of Africa (the green island in the map below). Being separated from the mainland it has some unique wildlife that exists in the wild only there. This is what I decided to focus on with Hazel since she loves animals and has seen several of the Wild Kratts episodes where they were in Madagascar. In many ways she was teaching me this month!

By Shosholoza (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

My Giant Fairy Tale Activity Book -- Parragon Book Buddies Review

Disclosure: Parragon Books sent me a copy of this book free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

This month's Parragon Book Buddies book is My Giant Fairy Tale Activity Book. I was really excited to see this book since we love fairy tales. 

This activity book tells the tales of The Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, The Princess and the Pea and Little Red Riding Hood. Throughout the story there are various activities to go with it. Things like coloring, mazes, find hidden pictures as well as counting, pattern finding and more. 

Merry Chrsitmas, Hello Kitty! Activity Book & All I Want for Christmas Is You -- Book Reviews

Disclosure: Penguin Random House Books gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Are you getting ready for Christmas? Here are two fun books to help your little ones get ready. The first is a wonderful activity book, Merry Christmas, Hello Kitty by Leigh Olsen. 

This sticker activity book is packed full of activities, crafts, games, recipes and more! It comes with a poster as well as postcards.

Exploring Arizona with Books: Arizona Way Out West & Wacky and Addie Slaughter -- Book Reviews

Disclosure: Little Five Star sent me copies of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am really excited to share with you our adventure in exploring Arizona. Now I have been to Arizona a few times in my life. The first was when I was almost eight. My family packed up our pop-up camper and car and traveled across the United States for an entire summer. Reading these books got me to help my mother search for our old photo albums and I'll share some old pictures with you. First we will start with Addie Slaughter: The Girl Who Met Geronimo by Susan L. Krueger, Ed.D. with Reba Wells Grandrud, Ph.D.

Ishtar's Odyssey and the Christmas Journey Storybook -- Advent and Christmas Book Reviews

 Disclosure: Kregel Publications sent me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

As someone who likes to focus on one holiday before the next, I try not to share Christmas too early. However I am seeing it everywhere and this year I have some great books and DVDs to share with you. I decided to start with a great Advent book and a fun Christmas story book. I am always trying to bring our focus to the story of Jesus and not the commercialism that Christmas has become. These books are two great ones for doing this.