Math Lesson: Geometric Origami

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing 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. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

I haven't done a math lesson post in awhile and here is a fun one! It goes along with the Geometric Origami Mini Kit by Richard L. Alexander and Michael G. LaFosse. 

This kit includes a booklet, a DVD and some mini origami paper. The booklet has instructions for six different origami items and the DVD demonstrates how to make all six. The nice part of having the DVD is sometimes origami instructions can be a bit confusing, so being able to actually see them is great. This is a fun kit that is very reasonable and each project lends itself to a math lesson. I made up a lesson for the first project for various ages and will give suggestions for the second one.

PBS Kids Halloween DVDs Review

Disclosure: PBS Kids gave me a copies of these DVDs 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.

Are you ready for Halloween? We are not. Nor are we excited for it. I really do not like the holiday and all the Halloween items seemed to be out extra early this year and they seem extremely gruesome. Has anyone else felt this way? Hazel has had bad dreams since seeing some of those bigger than life size lawn decorations at a store. I have realized it is better to not take her to most stores at this point or to avoid the ones with so many Halloween decorations. Hazel has not decided what she even wants to be yet, but she knows she has to choose from costumes she has or the Princess in Black. 

This year we are focusing on calmer and not so frightening parts of Halloween. PBS Kids has helped by sending us three DVDs to review from some of Hazel's favorite shows. 

Monstrous Fun: A Doodle & Activity Book -- Product Review

Disclosure: Penguin Kids 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.

Well, Hazel is often scared of things like monsters, but there are some she likes (Elmo, Cookie Monster, etc.). This year her fears seem worse than usual, but this monster activity book she is enjoying! Monstrous Fun: A Doodle & Activity Book by Travis Nichols comes with a warning. It is for monsters only. Hazel finds the warning amusing. Once you turn past the title page with the warning the book is divided up into sections of various monster holidays. Each holiday has different activities, coloring, find the differences, matching, mazes and more! It begins with All Hallow's Eve of course. After all Halloween is a monster's holiday lately. The next holiday is Fangsgiving. It is a feast to celebrate when the Noobs and Lil'Grims met. 

Celebrating Roald Dahl's Birthday Month with Crafts for Some of His Books

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of these books 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.

Roald Dahl was born on September 13, 1916. To honor him, Penguin Kids asked us to read a few of his books and come up with a craft or activity to go with each of them. Now I will admit that I sadly only really knew the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I know I read Charlie and the Glass Elevator when I was young and I have seen the movie version of Matilda, but that is about all of my knowledge of Roald Dahl's stories. I was given a list to choose three of his books from and I showed it to Steve. He didn't recognize any of them until I mentioned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and he said Willy Wonka. Needless to say we included Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to our list. 

Exploring Hajj with Books at Home

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing 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. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

This post is part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs' Hajj for Kids Blog Series. As we are Christian I did not know much about Hajj. I knew that Muslims try to make the hajj at least once in their lives and that it involved visiting Mecca. As a member of Multicultural Kid Blogs I learn new things about other cultures through the group and one thing I found out was there is actually a time in the year called Hajj when the trip is suppose to take place. This year Hajj falls between September 21-26. It of course changes each year since the Muslim calendar is different from our calendar. To explain Hajj to Hazel and myself, I turned to our library. I did not find much. However we did find Hajj Stories by Anita Ganeri.

Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #31

Please note this is not Sharing Saturday!! Sharing Saturday is available though!!

Welcome to the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop! The Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop is a place where bloggers can share multicultural activities, crafts, recipes, and musings for our creative kids. We can't wait to see what you share this time! Created by Frances of Discovering the World through My Son's Eyes, the blog hop has now found a new home at Multicultural Kid Blogs.

This month our co-hosts are:

Crafty Moms Share on Multicultural Kid Blogs 

 Crafty Moms Share 

Discovering the World Through My Son's Eyes  

Castle View Academy  

Crazy Little Family Adventure  

Wabi Zakka  

Russian Step by Step for Children 

Ketchup Moms 

Peakle Pie 

Hanna Cheda  

Creative World of Varya

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Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! We had so many fun posts shared!! Our features this week are Autumn Features, Halloween Features and some of my favorites. Have you noticed all the Halloween ideas floating around on-line. I personally do not really like Halloween and hate seeing everything this early, but I also know to make crafts for the holiday you have to start early, so enjoy these features!!  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired!

Finger Knitting Fun and Pom Pom Kits -- Product Reviews

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.

What can you do with a ball of yarn? Lots of things, but here are some fun crafts that you do not need much more than a ball of yarn to make. Both of these crafts were handwork Hazel would have done if she remained in the Waldorf school, but since she is no longer attending there, I got to do them with her. The handwork was one of the things I loved about the Waldorf school. Hazel and I started with two Pompom kits. The first is Make Pompom Animals.

The kit comes with a book, six balls of yarn, two pompom makers in different sizes and some googly eyes and paper clips. I started by making a blue bird similar to the one on the cover.

The Big Blue Thing on the HIll & See What Seals Can Do -- Book Reviews

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.

We have been having so much fun with animal books from Candlewick Press lately. We looked at insects, emus and hippos, Australian animals, bears and endangered animals and kangaroos. Today we are sharing two more animal books. The first is a fun book with many animals who are trying to figure out what the big blue thing on the hill is and how to get rid of it and the second is about seals.

Children's Book Reviews

Disclosure: Penguin Kids and Penguin Random House gave me a copy of these books 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.

Penguin Kids has some fun books recently or soon-to-be released that I want to share with you. The first is perfect for a preschooler and/or emerging reader. It teaches the concepts of in and out, over, under and around, and on and off in a very fun manner. The book is In! Over! and On! (the Farm) by Ethan Long. 

The Hunter's Promise and Whispers of the Wolf -- Native American Book Reviews

Disclosure: Wisdom Tales Press gave me a copy of this product 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.

For Multicultural Monday I thought I would share two new books with Native American stories. Wisdom Tales Press is one of my favorite sources for Native American books. This past week they released The Hunter's Promise: An Abenaki Tale by Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by Bill Farnsworth. 

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Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! With the long weekend in the United States we did not get as many posts as usual, but there were some great ideas shared! For features this week we have Play Features, Parenting Features, and Art and Educational Features.  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired!

Coastal Crafts -- Book Review

 Disclosure: Lark Crafts 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. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

We have been having a heat wave here in Massachusetts this week. It ended today with some much needed rain. However it made me not want to give up the feeling of summer. Hazel is back in school now and I actually took a part-time job to fill my days a bit while she is there, but I still want summer back. How about you? Well I found a wonderful way to preserve some beach memories and they are from Coastal Crafts by Cynthia Shaffer.  

I fell in love with many of the crafts in this book. I love the candle on the cover, but could not find the right jar for it. I'm still looking. We do not need anymore pillows, so I skipped those for now as well. We did however enjoy making some stationary. Some of the book stationary are pictured on the back cover.

Bake -- Book Review

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing 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. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Hazel loves to bake with me in the kitchen. It is something she has always enjoyed and we do not do it very often (mostly because I'm dieting and trying to avoid the sweets and carbs). However it is something I think every child should get to do and I really appreciated reviewing this book because it forced me to bake with her. 

 Now just looking through Bake by Alison Thompson and photography by Adrian Lander, and at the recipes and pictures made my mouth water. The book is divided into chapters of Basic Recipes, Breads, Pizzas, Cakes, Baked Desserts, Muffins and Scones, Cookies and Brownies, Pastries, Croissants, Brioches and Doughnuts, and Gluten-free Baking. I wish I had that last chapter when I tried going gluten-free. It includes sweet recipes as well as savory recipes. There are recipes for quiches, meat pies, fish tarts as well as all of your usual sweets and some combinations I had not heard of before. So far we have made three recipes and plan to make some more. We started with Apple and Cinnamon Buns.

Captain No Beard Series Review & Treasure Pouch Craft

Disclosure: I was sent the set of books with some hats, crafts and play doubloons and will receive a small compensation for writing this honest review. All opinions are my own. As always I am providing links for your convenience. I do not receive compensation if you purchase through them.

Today I have the pleasure of sharing a series of books with you. I will admit when I first was approached about these books, I was not completely sure they were our cup of tea, but I decided to try them anyway because I figured they might be one your child's things. After all Hazel is really not into pirates except Jake and the Neverland Pirates. However I was very pleasantly surprised by these books. Hazel and I LOVE them!! We were sent all nine Captain No Beard books by Carole P. Roman.

Learning Spanish in 10 Mintues a Day

*Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links where I will receive a small commission if you purchase through them at no cost to you. I was given access to Foreign Language for Kids by Kids programs for six months free of charge in exchange of writing honest reviews. All opinions in this post are my own. 

Do you want your child to learn Spanish? Is your child taught a foreign language at school currently or do you wish he or she was now? Hazel's school is a classical school and it teaches Latin to the students. Since it is such a small school, they do not offer any other languages. Since I took Spanish in school, I want to teach Hazel Spanish. I bought some books and CDs and won some as well as a DVD, but we have not gotten very far. Hazel can count to ten in Spanish, say hello and goodbye and knows most of her colors. The truth is even though I was in honors Spanish from seventh grade until eleventh I don't remember everything and do not know the best way to teach it by myself. Luckily along came Foreign Language for Kids by Kids. 

Learning about Rosh Hashanah - Jewish High Holidays for Kids

As a former teacher I always thought the new year should start in September with school. Next week it will be Rosh Hashanah or the Jewish New Year. Then ten day after it is Yom Kippur. Many of the local schools give the teachers and students the Jewish high holidays off. Hazel's does not since it is a private Christian school. However I like to teach Hazel about other cultures which includes other religions. This post is part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs Jewish High Holidays for Kids Blog Series. To learn about the Jewish high holidays we did what we do to learn about any new culture, we went to the library. The first find was this DVD on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It was a great introduction for Hazel to the holidays.

We also found many books on Rosh Hashanah and some on Jewish holidays. These are the ones we decided to focus on. (For a round-up of books about Rosh Hashanah, check out All Done Monkey's post in this series.)

Sharing Saturday 15-35

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! There were so many great ideas shared!! The features this week are for Fall Features, September Features and Educational Features. Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired!

Tigers and Bears, Oh, My! Book Reviews and Crafts

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.

Today I am going to share two great books with you. The first is a bit more serious and the second is a fun picture book. I am also providing some crafts and activities to go with the books. The first book is Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Vicky White. 

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!!

Teddy Bear Doctor -- Book Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Storey Publishing. 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.

Does your child watch Doc McStuffins? Or just like to play doctor with his or her stuffed animals? This book is perfect for him or her!! Hazel has two or three doctors kits (I think one is a veterinarian kit). She has always liked to play doctor and often dreams of being a toy doctor like Doc McStuffins. She really wanted the Doc McStuffins kit because she hoped when she pushed the stethoscope button Ducky would come alive. When we take our cats to the veterinarian, Hazel gets to listen to the cats and her own, and the veterinarian's and my and whomever will let her heart beat with our veterinarian's stethoscope. She loves going!! Needless to say when I saw Teddy Bear Doctor: A Let's Make and Play Book by Deanna F. Cook I knew Hazel would love it.

Fairy Tales that Teach Hygiene: Book Reviews

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.

I have not done one of my Fairy Tales in Different Cultures posts recently and these books are not really from a different culture as much as have a different twist than the traditional fairy tales. They are fun and have important lessons in them. There is actually a series of them called Fairytales Gone Wrong at Quarto Books. Each has an important lesson about hygiene or healthy habits. Since my focus has been on Cinderella and Rapunzel mostly, I asked to review those two. 

The Story of Queen Esther -- Exploring Iran/Persia

Do you know the story of Queen Esther? Many people do not even though Esther is a book in the Old Testament as well as one of the great female Bible heroes. She even has a Jewish holiday where they celebrate her and her courage to save the Jews of Persia. Her story is Hazel's favorite Bible story and Hazel was very excited when I explained that Esther was Queen of Persia which is now called Iran and the country we have been exploring with Global Learning for Kids this month. 

Queen Esther by Edwin Long 
[Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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Thank you to everyone who shared last week!!Once again your ideas blew me away!! I love seeing all the great things shared. The features this week are for our little ones, learning about the world and science. Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired!

Cody and the Fountain of Happiness Book Review

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.

Do you have a young reader who is ready to read or listen to a chapter book, but need to find one that does not have content that is too above their age level? I know I love reading chapter books to Hazel but since she is sensitive it is very hard to find good books to read and there are only so many Rainbow Magic Fairy books I can read in a row. Candlewick Press provides a wonderful alternative (well actually a few but I will post about more another time). Today we are sharing Cody and the Fountain of Happiness by Tricia Springstubb and illustrated by Eliza Wheeler. 

The Find It Book -- 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.

 We are sharing a book Hazel is really enjoying this month as part of the Parragon Book Buddies Program, The Find It Book by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Lisa Sheehan. This beautiful book is the latest by Margaret Wise Brown who also wrote Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, and All the Little Fathers. In this book the reader is asked to find various things from famous nursery rhymes in the beautiful illustrations. Lisa Sheehan is up for the AOI World Illustrations Award for her illustrations in this book. (Source)

Exploring Iran with Food

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of these cookbooks free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Last month we explored Lebanon and shared one of the great cookbooks that Tuttle Publishing sent us. This month as part of our exploration of Iran we tried a couple of the Iranian recipes in The Complete Middle East Cookbook by Tess Mallos (this is one of the prizes in the Middle Eastern and North African Heritage Month Giveaway). We also made Havij Polou or Rice with Carrots. Hazel loved the carrots and Steve and I liked the chicken.

Kid Friendly Look at the Stories of The Arabian Nights

Only 2 more days to enter to win the 2 Doozers Pod Squad DVDS. Take your preschoolers on STEM Adventures with these DVDS.

 For our last exploration this year of the Middle East, we decided to look at some of the stories of The Arabian Nights. While reading about Middle Eastern mathematicians and scientists I found a comment about how the Iraqi scholar Abu 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abdus al-Jashyari translated Persian, Indian, Iranian, Turkish and Chinese stories into Arabic. He changed the names to the exotic Arabic names we know today like Aladdin, Ali Baba, Scheherazade and Sinbad. He also changed the locations of some of the adventures. After al-Jashyari's death other Muslim scholars added to his collection until it contained the full 1001 stories that the title suggests. (Source: Steffens, Bradley, Ibn al-Haytham, Morgan Reynolds Publishing, Greensboro, NC 2007, page 17) This fascinated me. 

Boys and Girls: Labeling

There has been a lot of talk about gender labeling lately. The big move by Target to get rid of their signs labeling toys as boys or girls seems to really have upset some people. I do not understand why. I grew up a girly girl who also loved to play with her construction trucks. My father was a construction worker so I always wanted to play construction and pretend to be at work with him. But I also had many dolls and loved to play with them. As I became an adult I noticed there was definitely a shift in our society as to what is for boys and what is for girls. My sister did not want to find out the gender of her baby, but they did have the tech write it down and seal in an envelope. My mother drove her crazy until she looked. Why? Well she wanted to knit either blue or pink things for her first grandchild and because it is really hard to find gender neutral clothes and baby items these days. Our cousin did not find out and it was hard to buy gifts for the baby shower. Everything seems to be made pink or blue with a very few things in the neutral range. When did it matter what color a baby wears? Well with a little research I discovered that it was after World War II that pink became a girl color and blue a boy color. In the early 1900s it was actually the opposite. (Source) As a society we have bought into what retailers want us to believe. They are the ones who decided it was necessary for there to be boy colors and girl colors. 

Linked Thru Leonard

This summer we have gone to visit my parents several times for various reasons. In June we met Jill of Just Jill Today there. She is a photographer and sells some of her amazing photographs in various products. She also has a campaign with Leonard the Lobster, one of her photographed models. 

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Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! There were so many great ideas shared!! I was blown away. For features this week we have Lessons, Education, and Crafts and More. Please remember this is just a sampling of last week's ideas, so make sure you check all of them out!

Back to School Lunch Ideas and Clothes: Everyday Bento Book Review & More!

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing 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. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. I am a Little Passport and a Gymboree Affiliate. If you purchase from the Gymboree or Little Passports links provided I will earn a small commission.  

Are your kids back to school yet? Here in Massachusetts we have between one to two weeks more to go in general, but there is a lot of buzz about the start of school. I also know my Facebook news feed is full of those first day picture from friends across the country. Well I know as a mother there are two things on our minds besides those school supply lists we all get from the teachers--school lunch ideas and new school clothes. I remember as a child going back to school shopping. I always looked forward to it. Since Hazel wears a uniform to school we do not worry so much about back to school clothes as we do just new fall clothes. This summer she definitely grew in fact many people have commented on how much taller she seems as the summer winds down, so she has changed sizes again. This meant a few trips to Gymboree for new fall clothes. But first lets talk about those lunches. 

Themed Play Dates -- Oriental Trading Products Review

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

Perhaps it is my love of planning parties and such, but I love throwing themed play dates for Hazel and her friends and Hazel really enjoys them. This summer we have had or will have three different themed play dates and we used some products from Oriental Trading to make them even more fun. The themes are fairies, mermaids and Bible stories: Creation and Noah's Ark. 

Doozers Pod Squad DVDs 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 NCircle Entertainment's site for your convenience. You can also find their DVDs at local retailers!

Have you met the Doozers? They are created by the Jim Hensen Company for preschoolers. The Pod Squad are a group of friends who live in Doozer Creek. They work together to solve problems and to learn. The show focuses on teaching preschoolers about teamwork, eco-friendly behavior, STEM-based adventures and more! We got the opportunity to review the first two DVDs which are on sale now at Target and will be available everywhere in September.

She Takes a Stand Book Review

Disclosure: Chicago Review Press 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.

Now it may be the way my mother brought me up, but I love reading stories about strong women. I also love teaching Hazel about strong women. When I first saw the book, She Takes a Stand: 16 Fearless Activists Who Have Changed the World by Michael Elsohn Ross, I thought I might be able to read about each woman to Hazel. We tried this, but several of them were beyond her true understanding and she was always asking questions about what it meant. We decided we would have to save it for when she was older, but I got to enjoy reading it.