Dinosaur Atlas -- Review and Craft & Activity Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This past week National Geographic Kids released a new all-encompassing book about dinosaurs. It is the final book in our Back to School with National Geographic Kids series. I am guessing that for the final week of September schools across America have opened now. The book is National Geographic Kids Dinosaur Atlas. It is recommended for kids ages 7 to 10. 

Books for Dinosaur Lovers with Craft Round-Up

 

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

Last week I shared a round-up of books for animal lovers. Today I am sharing books for dinosaur lovers and some of them are perfect for Spanish learners or bilingual kids. If you like to give a gift to read and have a dinosaur lover in your life this post is for you! We will start with the stand-alone book (the others are in a series together). It is A Dinosaur a Day by Miranda Smith. This book is recommended for ages 6 to 9.

Ultimate Discovery T. Rex -- a Board Book with Sliding Tabs Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in order to provide an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Calling all dinosaur lovers!! Young kids seem to go through a dinosaur phase. I know several who are in them. Their moms work at our school and during teacher workdays they often have a play date, and the hallway becomes what we lovingly call Jurassic Park. They can tell you all about the different dinosaurs! Today we are sharing a board book with sliding tabs to make the dinosaur move about the ever-popular T. rex. It is Ultimate Discovery: T. rex by Raphaële Glaux and illustrated by Amélie Falière. It is recommended for ages 0 to 3 but I would say probably through age 5 will enjoy it!

Cute, Fun & Informative Animal Picture Books

 

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

Who doesn't love a cute animal book? Little kids usually love animals and today I am sharing a round-up of new picture books focused on animals. And with the state of the world right now I think we all need some cuteness and fun to distract us. The books feature cute puppies, baby animals and dinosaurs and all three books are from National Geographic Kids, so they are full of photos and more. We will start with So Cute! Puppies by Crispin Boyer. It is recommended for ages 3 to 5.

Archibald and the Furry Dinosaurs

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you have a dinosaur lover in your life? Or perhaps are just looking for a fun and humorous picture book to read for story time? I have the perfect new book out this week! It is Archibald and the Furry Dinosaurs by Suzanne Lang and illustrated by Max Lang. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Imagination--Readathon Week 4

Sharing Saturday is still open through Wednesday!! Please stop by to share your child-oriented crafts and activities and to check out all the inspiration others have shared!

Also Happy Family Times is open! Please stop by and share your fun family activities this week! Help us to inspire each other to have more quality family time!


As you know, we are participating in several book clubs, readathons, etc. this summer. The Memetales Readathon 2012 has imagination for its theme this week! I love this theme!! For the people signed up, there are three free electronic books to read with this theme. (Plus for every child who signs up a meal is donated to FoodforEducation.org!)

The first is Night Boy by Anne Laurel Carter. I love this story. Night is the younger brother and Day is the older sister. Night cannot wait to play hide-and-seek with his sister, but he has to wait until it is dark. He pulls out his blanket to make it dark and she goes and hides (to the west of course), but he jumps in his spaceship and heads in the wrong direction and gets distracted creating constellations and the night sky. Day calls him back and it is his bed time, so she tucks him in for the daytime. The perfect activity is to study the night sky of course. Although Hazel's bedtime is well before the sun sets during the summer here, we did some exploring of constellations. We talked about how people saw images in the stars and named the constellations using their imaginations. Then we created some of the constellations using flashlights and black paper or tin foil as suggested in the links below.

Resources to help love nature

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

Have you been watching Shark Week? It ends tomorrow. Now I will admit to not watching it because I see enough about sharks in the news (just saw this on the news as I write this post) with all the sightings around Cape Cod and off the shore of Boston. However I love how this week gets people thinking about these amazing creatures and nature in general. To keep this going I am sharing some great resources about nature and helping you get your kids loving it. To begin we will start with a DVD for younger kids that includes a bit about sharks. It is Thomas Edison's Secret Lab: It Always Sharkest. 

Michaelmas

Hazel dressed at St. George ready to slay the dragon

September 29th is Michaelmas. If you haven't been following I posted some information about our preparations with dragons and harvest. Last year was the first time we celebrated this holiday, but it is a traditional holiday in the Waldorf education as well as the Catholic Church (though my Catholic husband didn't know about it).

To celebrate we dressed Hazel as St. George with her yellow cape, crown and sword. Traditionally it would be a wooden sword, but we have inflatable ones from a birthday party so we used one of those. I dressed up as the dragon using Hazel's dinosaur costume mask. It was definitely more dinosaur than dragon than I remembered so next year we will make a mask. I also held up the dragon I made her. Steve wanted nothing to do with our re-enactment, but I did get him to take a picture.

We also read the short story of St. George and the dragon from A Book of Dragons by Hosie and Leonard Baskin (Steve did listen to this). Then at bed time I read Sunflower Swords by Mark Sperring and Miriam Latimer and Dragon Tooth by Cathryn Falwell.

Our other big activity was making salt dough dragons and fall decorations. We made three colors of salt dough: green, red, and orange. Then we went outside to get some things to make texture on our ornaments. We used cookie cutters (leaves, acorn, Halloween, and dinosaurs--to be dragons and circle for the textured ornaments). Then in the circle ones we pressed leaves, branches, flowers, acorns, pine cones, etc. to leave texture. Hazel used her own rolling pin and really had a blast doing this. They are still in the oven or should I say the first two trays are, but will come out soon. Oh, and we poked holes in all of them with a straw.

Then we had a lovely dinner. We made huckabuck bread using the recipe from our Parent/Child Waldorf class last year. I shaped it into a dragon bread and sword rolls. This was our favorite part of dinner. We also had Harvest Apple Soup, but I changed the recipe slightly. Then for dessert we had a raspberry tarte from Trader Joe's. It should have been defrosted a bit more, but we enjoyed it. I will share more details about our family dinner on Tuesday for Happy Family Times!

As for today, I am thinking about what inner dragons I can slay. Enjoy!! Happy Michaelmas!

Children's Museum, Friends & Zoo

We had a very busy week last week. On Monday we met my friend in the town we grew up in for lunch and then the three of us went to the Children's Museum there. Now the friend we met and I have known each other since we were around six months old. Yes, we are lifetime friends. We both now live in different states and our hometown is about halfway between us. Her youngest is my goddaughter who is looking at colleges for next year. Well, we took Hazel by the houses we grew up in and went to the New Children's Museum. Of course anyone from around the area of West Hartford, knows the museum by the giant whale in front of it. See above. After we went through the museum we went into the whale. Remember the picture I asked where Hazel was? She was inside the whale.

Exploring Argentina - Global Learning for Kids

This month Global Learning for Kids is exploring Argentina. We always start our exploration with a search at the library network. We started learning about Argentina with two DVDs we found at the library.

DVDs are my favorite way to introduce a country to Hazel. They give a feeling of the culture and views of the country. In these DVDs we learned about La Recoleta Cemetery and all the cats that live there. I thought that would be something fun to investigate, but could not find any resources on it besides on line. La Recoleta is a large and beautiful cemetary and it has a large number of stray cats living in it. Workers and volunteers feed the cats and give them healthcare. We also learned about how tango started in Argentina. We are going to explore tango dancing this month! We found DVDs to teach the tango as well as some music. Stay tuned!!

Danny Can Read / Danny Sabe Leer -- Bilingual Picture Book Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Diana Paola Navarro Gómez. The review and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal views.

Children grow and develop at different rates. Skills and abilities develop in their own time even in twins. Today we get to share a fun bilingual, Spanish and English, that shares this concept and that we each have our own talents. The book is Danny Can Read / Danny Sabe Leer by Diana Paola Navarro Gómez and illustrated by Carmen Bianco. And there is a giveaway at the end of this post!

Spring Into Science DVD Review and Giveaway

Disclosure: NCircle Entertainment gave me a copy of the DVDs free of charge and is supplying the ones for the giveaway 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 DVD on Amazon for your convenience. You can also find their DVDs at local retailers!

 For spring, NCircle Entertainment invited me to review four DVDs with science themes and offer new copies of the DVDs to one lucky winner!! All four are popular shows!! These are a fun way to bring science into your home either as a homeschooler or just to reinforce the school lessons! All four DVDs have been or are being released in 2015!

Science Lessons Part 2 -- Back to School Series

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.

With September ending tomorrow, our back to school series is also coming to an end. I had originally planned today's post to be split in two, but due to lack of time I am making it a mega science lesson with nine resources!! I split them into two categories: Things that Live (Nature) and Space and then have the lone wolf--a puzzles and riddles book. Be sure to visit our first science lesson of this series.

We will start with that the lone wolf one. It is Professor Murphy's Brain-Busting Puzzles and Riddles. 

Making Summer Fun and Educational

 

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

We are in final exam week at our school. The stress levels are high everywhere. But it also means that school is almost done, and summer is almost here. Summer can be so much fun, but it can also be a time for kids to lose some of their learning. Today I am sharing some products to give you and your kids some fun activities as well as learning in fun ways! We will begin with some creative activity books. Today (May 30th) is National Creativity Day and these books are perfect to get your kids and you creating and having fun! The first  are two books by Alberto Lot. There is Crayon Racing which I reviewed a couple of years ago and Crayon Adventures. They are recommended for ages 4 to 8 or as the publisher states 4 to 104. I know my high school students have been having lots of fun with them!

Picture Book Round-Up

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

Today I am going to share some new picture books with you. These books are mostly aimed towards preschool and lower. Each is fun and have good lessons in them. I hope you will read my reviews and check them all out!!

Picture Book Extravaganza

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

Are you ready for the holidays? I know there is a saying that says one gift they can wear, one toy gift and one book gift. The next couple of weeks I am focusing on books and trying to clear off my recommendation shelves. Today I am starting with the picture books. There are books in this grouping for the very young to the older lovers of picture books. I am  going to share them by age group as best as I can, so if you are looking for picture books for older kids, scroll down. Are you ready for our picture book extravaganza? 

My Home Filled with Love -- a Love Letter to Parents in a Picture Book with Gift/Card Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Tabletop Teaching LLC as part of the Blog Tour. I will receive a small stipend for this review.

Today we are sharing a fun new book that reads as a love letter to parents. It is meant to show kids and parents what a nurturing home looks like, however to me it is a love letter to the girls parents. The book is My Home Filled with Love by Desiree Blanchard and illustrated by Hayley Moore. This post includes a giveaway as well as a round-up of gifts and cards kids can make for their parents!

Picture Books About School Emotions & Finding Your Place

 

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

School has been in session for a month or so now around here. The first day for everyone is full of emotions and jitters. It can be hard for anyone but especially for young children just starting school or someone changing school. Today I get to share two new picture books about the first day of school. The first is Scarecited on the First Day of School by Alliah L. Agostini and illustrated by Lala Watkins. It is recommended for ages three to six. 

Play Dough Day 2 And Mixing Colors with Ice

This morning when we got up, Hazel asked to play with her play dough again (click here to see yesterday or day one of our play dough pledge play). I had put most of it in the refrigerator since I knew the Jello play dough had to be kept in it. I had left the cloud dough out. The oatmeal play dough was hard to work with after being in the refrigerator. It may be because I made it a bit dry since I didn't want it to be so sticky. First we played with the cloud dough. (I think I could have used more oil in this recipe.)

Digging for Trouble -- a Fun Middle Grades Mystery

Disclosure: Penguin Random House sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Hazel LOVES mysteries!! She loves reading them. It is her favorite genre. However she a bit picky about them. We took the first Nancy Drew book out of the library and she didn't like it. She couldn't relate to Nancy because she could drive and do things Hazel cannot do. Ever since we have been looking for mysteries she will enjoy. She liked the Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew series for a bit but they are a bit young for her reading level. UGH!! She loves the American Girl Mysteries but there are not that many of them. I was very excited to find The Devlin Quick Mysteries. In the second book, Digging for Trouble by Linda Fairstein, Devlin and one of her best friends, Katie, are on an archaeological dig in Montana as part of their summer vacation to Katie's family's vacation home. It is a far cry from their New York City homes. But the mystery begins when some of the dinosaur bones Katie uncovers get switched.