Weird But True! USA -- Fun trivia to awe your friends and family on the 4th of July

Disclosure: We were sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are our own. 

Which had more viewers the walk on the moon in 1969 or the 2018 Super Bowl?  What state has the most people who walk or bike to work? What state's trees helped the colonists during the Revolutionary War? What is the only state name that is one syllable? What building (in the USA) contains rocks from the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Giza, Abraham Lincoln's tomb, the Alamo, and the Colosseum in Rome? Which state produces the majority of the toothpicks used in the USA? Can you answer these questions? You can if you read the book we are sharing tonight. It is National Geographic Kids Weird but True! USA. 

Travel Across America Color By Number -- a Relaxing Friday Review

Disclosure: C&T Publishing sent me this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own! I will receive a small stipend for purchases made through the links in this post. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

It has been a very long time since I have shared a Relaxing Friday Review or for that matter a coloring book. Today I am sharing with you a fun one!! I was interested in this book especially when we were trying to put together the post card exchange, but since we did not get enough participants we get to just enjoy this fun book. It is Travel Across America Color By Number by Debra Gabel. 

A Look at Massachusetts and Its History

Disclosure: I was sent these books free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This year and last year Hazel's social studies unit is on the history of Massachusetts. As a result I have been gathering all the books I can find with a connection to our home state. (The truth be told I'm gathering books about all the states so I can expand our knowledge on each of them, but more on that below.) We also spent time doing some of the historical things in our area and looking at some of our past adventures. So today I am going to share two books about famous Massachusetts residents and share some of our adventures. The first book is Imagine That! by Judy Sierra and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes.

Resources for US Social Studies as well as Back to School

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Are your kids getting ready for back to school? Or perhaps you are looking for some resources for your homeschool? Today's products are just for you. Hazel loves National Geographic Kids and is so excited whenever one of their books arrives, so I always jump at the chance to review them. Today I get to share four amazing books with you. Three are about United States history and geography and the fourth is a planner for kids!! I have to say Hazel LOVES these books. She is constantly reading them. The first book is National Geographic Kids Weird But True Daily Planner. 

Exploring the States with a Personalized Book & More!

Disclosure: I See Me! Inc.  gave 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 in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

This summer we are exploring the states of the United Sates. It was part of our homeschool curriculum this past school year, but I thought we should do more than what she had been doing in school. We have been enjoying some items we already reviewed, but want to extend our lessons all summer. In the past month we had a couple of birthday parties for younger girls. I asked Hazel what we should get and she immediately said a book from I See Me. Hazel loves the books we have gotten from there.  When we were shopping for the gift I saw the perfect book for our USA exploration. It is My U.S.A. Road Trip by Jennifer Dewing and illustrated by Barbara Bongini. This is a photo book so you can have the child's face put into the pictures!

Making Learning Fun for Homeschool or the Summer Slide

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. Note: Many of these products are no longer available. I am providing links for the ones that are or something similar. 

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 ongoing 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. Loose Change is no longer available. Amazon has some money counting games.


In this game the players take turns to add a card to get it to equal $1. If you can get it exactly to $1 you will get a point but if you have to go over you will lose a point. Once $1 is reached (or passed) you start again. Throughout the game the players are announcing the total in play.

The cards have nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollar coins as well as special cards that have multiple coin amounts. This game reinforces the coins as well as practice in adding money and finding ways to equal $1. The game could easily be changed to use subtracting or even going to higher amounts. And the best part is Hazel and I like playing it!!




To keep up with her addition I got her Double Addition Decoders: Addition by Evelyn B. Christensen. (This is no longer available.) There are three types of decoder puzzles. Each has double digit addition problems to do and then there is an activity to do with your answers. Each activity allows for learning or practicing more math skills as well. The first helps learn about directions. With the answers there are instructions to move the spaces that correspond to the letters above the tens place and ones place (N, S, E, or W).


There are also ones with pictures. The user does the problems and then finds the square that corresponds with the answer and colors the square the color written above the problem. This is a good pre-Cartesian plane activity.


The third type is to follow the row or column until you find your new answer.


Hazel likes this last one a lot. She liked that you could check your answers by finding it in your row or column.




Our final math item is Grid Perplexors: Level A. (They have some Perplexors still available here.) These are beginning logic puzzles. I LOVE logic puzzles and thought Hazel might like them as well. This book is written for ages 8 to 9 which is perfect for Hazel. She loves them as well and has done quite a few on her own. I did the first one with her, but she has done seven more by herself and often just does them without being asked. She just likes them like I do. And personally, I think it is great to start kids learning about deductive reasoning at a young age. It will get them far to understand it.


Now we will look at some of the fun activities to learn more about the states. The first thing to share is actually a bit of math (counting) as well as learning about the states. It is Extreme Dot-to-Dot: Around the USA.

Hazel former second grade teacher gave the kids these puzzles all the time. Hazel asked for this one. She loves doing them and of course counting over 1000 for some of the puzzles helps her learn her higher numbers. Since we just went to the Statue of Liberty during her April vacation we started with that dot-to-dot.


I had her start on the USS Constitution since it is part of the Freedom Trail in Boston which we started visiting recently, but haven't gotten to the USS Constitution (which is drydocked until 2018). She unfortunately hasn't finished it yet, so I took a picture of some of the solutions so you could see the completed puzzles.


You can see there are puzzles from all over the country. This is perfect for studying the states and the special places in them. Plus it helps them with their visual skills and counting skills.

To learn about the states, it is also important to learn where the states are. To help with this geography lesson we got Color Chart: United States. (Note: This product is no longer available, but you can see similar ones here.) It is a large map (40" by 28") of the United States to color in. It comes with markers and a picture hunt.


Hazel colored in a few of her favorite states as well as the ones we have been focusing on. Each state has pictures to show different things about the state from animals, nature and more! Once we are done coloring them in she is going to hang it in her bedroom!




Another fun way to learn about where the states are and something special in each state is DestiNation USA. (This amazing game is no longer available.) This gameboard is a map of the United States. The players have car game pieces and start on different states. The goal is to get to the special destination which is picked by a card and to visit the most states. To travel one has to be next to the state and have the right cards. We really LOVE this game and played it with one of my co-workers who also really liked it.



I had trouble getting a picture since we got so involved in the game. There are little disks for each state and before playing they have to be put on the board in the correct place. There are different driving cards to move around the board and then the destination cards which tells where the specified destination is. The game instructions say to play for five destination cards or when the 48 state disks have been collected. We often play more than five destination cards because we do not want to stop. We have never gotten all the state disks off. This is a new favorite game here and we will continue to play it. I love how it helps Hazel learn the location of the states as well as the special points of interest in each one (the destination cards). Talk about learning that is fun!! Some other great resources we have for the studying the states are these books.



 

Our final item is Extreme Mazes: Book 5. (Note: Extreme Mazes are no longer available. Amazon has these extreme maze books.) I will admit I got this one because Hazel really wanted it. She wanted this book the last time we got things from MindWare and I had gotten a different one instead. Oops!! Of course, these mazes teach problem solving, fine motor control, and visual motor skills. These are pretty extreme mazes. She however seems to love doing them!!




She has done quite a few of them but I will just share one. The details in the pictures and mazes are quite amazing. I think my eyes would go a bit batty doing them!!


This week we will be sharing many of the resources I have gotten to help with our homeschooling month and that help bring some learning to home and summertime. One project I hope to do is put together a United States postcard exchange. Would you be interested in sending 49 postcards from your state and getting one from each of the other 49 states? If you are, drop me a note and tell me what state you can do. I have Massachusetts covered!! It will be first come first served for states!!

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.

Post Card Swap Map

So remember a few weeks ago, I mentioned we are participating in the USA Post Card Swap that Beth at Living Life Intentionally is running. I showed you the post card we picked and a map of the USA and promised a project to tie it all together. Well today is the day. Since Hazel is not quite ready to really get all she can from these great post cards I want to make them usable for when she is older. Well I took our map (I got it at AAA for free as a member) and Mod Podged it onto two pieces of poster board (I think I would use cardboard or foam board next time). I also put a layer of Mod Podge over the map to seal it. I bought a package of very small Velcro dots that had 56 of them. I started putting one side around the map and the other part of the Velcro on the post cards so we could see all the post cards around the map and then take them off to read all the wonderful things people wrote about their states.

Once we have all fifty post cards we will hang this up in our craft room. When Hazel is a bit older we can use it to learn about where the states are and a little bit about each one. I have to say I love this post card swap idea!! I may have to try something like this. Would you be interested?