Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Do you like fairy tales? They are a favorite in my house. Hazel LOVES them. Today I am going to share some new versions that have come out this past year, and one even includes some math lessons!! We will start with two Hello Kitty books. The first is Hello Kitty Presents the Storybook Collection Thumbelina.
Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me this products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Are your kids back at school yet? My Facebook feed is filled with first day pictures and it isn't quite time for the Northeast where the majority of my Facebook friends live. Hazel does not start until after Labor Day, but I know plenty who start earlier. To help those who are starting or who homeschool I thought I would use my teaching skills and review some mathematics resources for you today. Did you know that Oriental Trading has a whole curriculum section? Yes, Oriental Trading, my go-to for party and craft supplies has school curriculum! I figured I might as well use my math teaching experience to check some of this out. I focused on three areas--geometry, fractions and multiplication. Hazel is just learning her multiplication facts so I figured something to help her with that would be good. I found Learning Resources tri-FACT-a Multiplication and Division Game. (There is an addition and subtraction version as well.)
Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books free of charge to 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.
It seems everywhere you look people are talking about STEM. The products at Lakeshore Learning seem to be labeled STEM or STEAM. This is the latest educational craze and it is about time. As a former math teacher I know the importance of math and science for our kids. I also know that it is important for them to be taught at a young age so they can really enjoy learning them. And for the most part kids love learning science!! It is one of the few places that hands-on learning is not made up it just is. The experiments and discoveries are natural and normal. They lead to real life math problems as well. However this is often where the elementary teachers have a shortfall. Since our elementary teachers teach all the subjects: reading, math, science, social studies, phonics, handwriting and grammar; they often focus on their favorites or what they feel are easiest for them to teach. It makes sense. Unfortunately it is often not math or science and sometimes the teacher's own insecurities of these subjects can be passed on (as well as the parents') by how it is taught and approached. It seems that the publishers and educational toy makers have finally realized they needed to bring products to parents and teachers to make teaching these subjects easier. After all in this high tech world science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are the careers of the future. So today I am going to share with you some great resources to bring a little STEM into your house this summer as well as a few of the lessons we did for our science units as I homeschooled Hazel the last six weeks of second grade.
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. I promised to share some of the resources for homeschooling. Today I am going to focus a bit on math. Some of these resources are for younger children than Hazel, but there is a lot you can still do with them. Before we get into the books, we are still looking for participants in our USA state postcard exchange. Let me know if you want to join in this fun and educational activity!
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. Now I have mentioned that I have not been posting since so much of my time has been going to homeschooling Hazel for the last six weeks of school. Her school year officially ends this Friday (at least at her old school). However the items I am sharing today we will continue to use all summer because they make learning fun!! Now we needed to continue with her spelling which we had from her school, her math workbook (which is really boring) to do money and fractions plus keep her addition and subtraction facts fresh, then in science plants and space and in social studies continue with the states which has been an on going activity and finish up Massachusetts history. Well MindWare came to my rescue to do some of these things and make them fun!! In fact Hazel wants to continue using these resources during the summer as well!! To start with learning about money we got the game Loose Change.
Disclosure:Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to 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. Now I am sure you have heard of Sir Isaac Newton. He is considered the father of physics. You have probably heard the story of the apple falling from the tree and he discovers gravity. Well today's book tells the true story or at least as true as we currently know. The book is Isaac The Alchemist: Secrets of Isaac Newton Reveal'd by Mary Losure.
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.
After spending a fun snow day at home with Hazel, I think it is appropriate to share some fun books about homes. We will start with The Road Home by Katie Cotton and illustrated by Sarah Jacoby.
Disclosure:Candlewick Press
gave me a copy of these books free of charge to 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.
One of Hazel's favorite things is to learn about history and people. This month we have been enjoying four books from Candlewick Press that are perfect for Black History Month. They have also donated some of the amazing prizes for the Black History Month Series & Giveaway. (Have you entered yet?) One of the books in the prize pack includes Voice of Freedom illustrated by Ekua Holmes. Ekua illustrated a poetry book, Out of Wonder, by Kwame Alexander coming out in March. The books I am reviewing today I will in order of time for the history timeline. We will start with The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom by Bettye Stroud and illustrated by Erin Susanne Bennett.
Disclosure: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!
Have you seen Hidden Figures yet? Now as a family we hardly ever go to the movies. We really do not like supporting the Hollywood scene or spending the huge amounts that it costs to go out and get a popcorn. However on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day our family went to the movie theater to see Hidden Figures. Between my love of multicultural stories and math, my engineering husband's love of space, and Hazel's love of history and learning, we all loved this movie. We felt it was worth the money spent and found it to be a great activity for the day. Now I was especially excited for the movie since my post last year for the Black History Month Blog Hop was about Katherine Johnson. The movie made me want to learn even more and teach Hazel more about these amazing women.
Disclosure:Monika Schroder gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review in return for an honest 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. Can you believe Multicultural Children's Book Day is on Friday? I cannot wait to see all the great books reviewed in the link up on Friday. I am a co-host so you can see them here!!
Disclosure:Mina Javaherbin gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review in return for an honest 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 sharing with you a wonderful multicultural book that gives an inside look at life as a child in Brazil. It is Soccer Star by Mina Javaherbin and illustrated by Renato Alarcao. This tale follows Paulo Marcelo Feliciano through his day. His hope is to have time to practice soccer, but first he and his teammates must do their work.
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.
Disclosure:I was sent these books 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.
Are you looking for new ways to make math more exciting? Or do you want to supplement your kids math lessons with something different? Then these books are for you. They are a series of Math Quest books by David Glover and illustrated by Tim Hutchinson. Each book focuses on different mathematical skills and requires the reader to flip back and forth through the book depending on the answers to various questions and problems. The books are written for kids between the ages of 8-12. Hazel was a bit young and struggled with some of the problems, but loved trying them and just asked for help if she couldn't figure it out yet.
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.
Today we are going to look at some books that make science (and math/computers) interesting. These books are perfect for the younger grades and teach a bit of history, science and more. The first is Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts.
Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing
gave 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 sharing two books about paper airplanes. I have been meaning to share these as part of my Summertime Fun Series, but have not gotten around to it. So I decided to share it here before our summer actually ends. I mean paper airplanes are definitely a great summertime fun activity and these two books help make even more fun!! The first book is Michael LaFosse's Origami Airplanes. It comes with a DVD to follow the steps as well.
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.
Disclosure: Penguin Random House Books gave 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.
Are you looking for some new fresh books to spark your child's imagination? Today I am going to share two new books from Penguin Young Readers that do just this. The first is for the younger kids who like the humor in There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. The book is Me and Annie McPhee by Olivier Dunrea and illustrated by Will Hillenbrand.
Disclosure:Candlewick Press
gave me a copies of these book free of charge to 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 we enter our summer I think about family. Summer to me is a time for family. It is when our family reunions happen or have happened and when I had more time to spend with my siblings. It is also when we took our family trips. Today I am going to share three books with you. The first is about a baby (gorilla) and the other two are about siblings and their relationships with a bit of a twist. First we will start with Who Woke the Baby? by Jane Clarke and illustrated by Charles Fuge.
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.
This month Global Learning for Kids is exploring Switzerland. Since we explored Switzerland last year before Global Learning for Kids officially started, I thought we would focus on a Swiss mathematician. Hazel did remember some of the books and wants cheese fondue again. We did read a few of the same books and watched two DVDs (one of which we watched last year as well).
