Travel with Books at Home Product Reviews

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 love to travel? Or do you dream of traveling without hassles? We love to explore the world from home with dreams of someday getting to see more of it. For now we like to explore with books and posters and such to see and learn about the world without leaving home. Candlewick Press has some products that makes this really fun and easy. The first three books are from a series called Panorama Pops. We got to explore The Louvre, Australia and Venice in this form. It was so much fun. These books are like pocket guides with pop-up pictures. The book is double sided since it folds out and has the pop-ups on both sides.

Meerkats & Hullabalu!

Reminder Sharing Saturday is still open!! Please stop by and share your child-oriented craft or activity and check out the other wonderful ones already shared!

Source of Pictures: Hullabalu

So I awhile ago I received a wonderful e-mail offering to send me and Hazel a stuffed animal of our choice from the website Hullabalu. Hullabalu is an invitation only site for now that sells adorable, first rate stuffed animals. They will be having their hard launch later this summer, but also want to be able to do exclusives with their site. All I need to do for this adorable stuffed animal is blog about it. Since Hazel and I both LOVE stuffed animals, this seemed like a no brainer. So, I open my private invitation to view their site and it is wonderful. They had so many (26 right now) to choose from, I was glad I was not the one picking. As I flipped through the choices, I was pretty sure Hazel would pick the unicorn or dragon since she has been into them lately. Or maybe the pink hippo since she likes the pink hippo ride at the zoo, but she once again surprised me.

Source of Pictures: Hullabalu

So the next morning I showed the website to Hazel. Needless to say she loved it! Of course it starts with the fact that I allowed her to do something on the computer. We are trying to be media free with her. Then she gets to pick one of these adorable animals. You can actually name the animal when you purchase it or you can keep the adorable names they have already given them. (If you would like an invitation to Hullabalu, stay tuned. I have 25 to giveaway! Or you can go to their site and request one.) The choices change monthly, so you have to keep going back to see what they have. To my surprise, Hazel picked Meerkat Moe!

Now we have seen meerkats at our local zoo (see below), so we have seen them in real life. And I did comment on how cute he was when we were looking at them, but she decided she wanted this one. I went with it because I saw it as a great opportunity to learn more about meerkats.

Sorry for the picture quality, the meerkat was sitting in the only spot in the cage where the sun was shining and wouldn't move. Plus the cage was indoors. Ugh!!

Well, I have to say when the package came from Hullabalu, it was like Christmas or her birthday. It came in a beautiful blue box with Hullabalu written on it. Then inside Meerkat Moe was wrapped in tissue paper.

 She loved opening it and loved him right away. In fact there have been a few trips where Ducky has not come with us and Meerkat has. Yes, she named him Meerkat.

I have to say, I find him adorable and he is so soft and huggable. When she doesn't have him in her bed, I often cuddle with him in front of the television. Though she has been taking him with her to bed most nights. How could she not, he is just so sweet and soft!!

 Meerkat Moe is made by Wild Republic. Here is the tag that came on him.

He is definitely high quality and Hullabalu has hand chosen the companies and products they work with to be the highest quality. I have to say this has been a wonderful experience and I definitely will be going back to them if/when I want another animal.


Now, I know you are wondering what my experience with Hullabalu has to do with Multicultural Monday. Well as I mentioned above, I took the meerkat as a learning experience. Meerkats live in the Southern tip of Africa, so we are traveling back there. The first thing I find most interesting about meerkats is that they live in burrows with 20 to 50 family members!! They have also been seen hugging. It is strange to see a meerkat alone--in fact they tend to stay together. When gathering food they have a couple of them standing guard (on their hind legs using their tails to help balance) for predators. Oh, and their favorite food is scorpions!

I found some great sources for information on meerkats on-line. National Geographic being the first. National Geographic Kids also has a page on them including a printable card with a picture and information on the meerkat. We did print out the card and glued it onto an index card. I may put contact paper over both sides as well to keep it better. Another good source is Animal Fact Guide. I also found some coloring pages. Here is a good collection of them. Laughing Zebra has a great link of Meerkat Mania Week and it has information as well as some projects. From this link I took several of the projects and did them with Hazel as well as expanding one to make shadow puppets. I took this mural page and enlarged the two meerkats to 150%. Then cut them out of brown construction paper. I then drew on the lines and coloring that the page had. We glued them on to tongue depressors. Hazel loves them!! We also printed the other meerkat front and back. She colored it so you cannot see the picture very well. We cut it out and glued it on to a tongue depressor as well. 

 We have not cut out the pictures to make a mural with it yet, but Hazel did color them as you can see. I did the enlarging of the meerkats before she colored them.

We also found some great library books about meerkats including story books with meerkats in them. The first two are Meerkats by Katherine Walden and Meet the Meerkat by Darrin Lunde. Both of these provide factual information about the meerkat and where they live. Thus we learn about another part of the world--the desert!

Then two great story books. First Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett. This book is about a meerkat who decides it is too hot in the desert and goes to visit his distance relatives. His family is very scared for him since the meerkat rule is to stick together. However he goes off and visits his various types of mongoose relatives (meerkats are a type of mongoose). He sends a postcard each day to his family to tell them where he is and what it is like. He discovers that the best place for him is with his family in the desert.


The second story book is Millicent and Meer by Richard Byrne. This is a great story about a young girl who is playing outside when a crate falls into her yard. She looks into the crate and sees a meerkat. The meerkat does not remember who he is or what he is, so she looks on the label and reads it (by sounding out the word) and decides he must be a cat named Meer. She has always wanted a cat so she keeps him. However her father gets quite upset with Meer's meerkat habits and kicks him out of the house. Well Meer meets a cat and the cat shows him how to be a cat and then they see a poster advertising meerkats at a show and realize that is what Meer is. They take the poster to Millicent and her father calls the owner of the safari show and he comes to pick up Meer, but Millicent does get her cat in the end. It has a very happy ending.


Ok, that is it for meerkats for now. However I still have 25 invitations to Hullabalu to give away. So if you are interested in being able to shop at this amazing site for wonderful stuffed animals, please do the rafflecopter thing.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is where I share... 

Virtual Book Club for Kids & Giveaway--Room on the Broom

As I mentioned in my introduction post, the March Author for the Virtual Book Club for Kids is Julia Donaldson. Now before she was picked, I had not heard of Julia Donaldson. Now I am so glad I have. We love so many of her books. I will be posting multiple books throughout the three weeks. This week I am sharing one of Hazel's favorites, Room on the Broom.

For those that do not know what the Virtual Book Club for Kids is, I have joined a group of amazing bloggers who pick an author each month and each blog picks a book (or more) by this author and posts a craft or activity to go with the book. Then we all host a blog hop so you can share a craft or activity to go with a book by this author. The wonderful bloggers are:

Toddler Approved - Rainy Day Mum - Adventures in Reading with Kids - 3 Dinosaurs - Royal Baloo - The Educators' Spin On It - Inspiration Laboratories - Pleasantest Thing - Edventures with Kids - Two Big Two Little - Playing With Words 365 - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Outlaw Mom - Mommy and Me Book Club - Crafty Moms Share - No Twiddle Twaddle - The Good Long Road - Ready. Set. Read 2 Me - Reading Confetti - Mama Smiles - Juggling with Kids- Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Creekside Learning - Creative Family Fun - The Usual Mayhem - Teach Preschool - PlayDrMom - CraftoArt - Here Come the Girls - Being a Conscious Parent - Smiling like Sunshine - Crayon Freckles - Train Up a Child - Smile Play Learn - Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Coffee Cups and Crayons - Having Fun at Chelle's House- Love, Play, Learn - Juggling With Kids - Motherhood on a Dime - Growing Book By Book

- This Reading Mama - Fantastic Fun and Learning

This month is extra special because The Gruffalo Brand has offered two of her most loved books,  The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child. Both of these books have been adapted into two award winning animated films. You can purchase the films at this link. And you can see the trailers for both here. To enter the giveaway for the books, you must be a resident of the United States and over 18. Then you can simply enter by following the Rafflecopter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For more Gruffalo Giveaways make sure you visit the following blogs:

• Royal Baloo is giving away a copy of The Gruffalo Book and Movie! 
• Toddler Approved! is giving away 2 Gruffalo Prize packs! 
• Playing with Words 365 is giving away a copy of The Gruffalo Book and Movie!

Now onto our book. First I will say Hazel often goes around with her little broom between her legs telling me she is flying. Needless to say why we love this book! This story is about a witch and her cat going out for a ride on the witch's broom. However she keeps losing things in the wind: her hat, her hair bow, her wand. Each time she loses something, they land and look for it and each time a new animal comes out with it and asks if there is room on the broom for them. Then she ends up with herself, her cat, a dog, a green bird and a frog.

Our first broom is a piece of pine tree branch we found in our yard. It got rather full with just the witch and cat but you can only imagine with all four animals.

Well the weight of all the creatures on the broom split the broom in half and the witch's half flies off into the clouds while the other half falls. The witch ends up meeting a dragon who loves to eat witches with fries.

I borrowed our dragon from our Irish Cinderella we posted the other day.

The dragon says this once he will have witch with no fries and is about to eat her when out of the lagoon comes a black covered creature with four heads. The dragon has never seen such a scary creature before and the creature claims the witch as its. The dragon apologizes and leaves as fast as he can. Then the bird flies off the creature and the frog jumps down and the cat finally gets off the dog. The witch is so happy to have been saved by her friends. She needs to make a new broom and tells them all to find something to add to the brew. They end up with a designer broom with a proper space for each of them.

We did not make the designer broom, but we did make a sample broom with a stick and some yarn. I made her some peg dolls for the animals and the witch.

Now the exciting news is there is a film coming out soon for Room on the Broom. You can check out the Facebook page for this film and the Pinterest Board. Plus The Gruffalo Brand has a Room on the Broom page with a trailer to the film, all the different versions of the book, and an activities section including finger puppets to make out of paper and word activities!

Now it is your turn to share a Julia Donaldson book or if you do not know her books, check out some of these other posts so you can decide which one to read first!

A Squirrel's Story and The Ship Captain's Tale -- 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 sharing two fun books from Little Five Star. The first is a true story about a mother squirrel who will do anything for her babies. A Squirrel's Story by Jana Bommersbach and illustrated by Jeff Yesh is a story about a mother's love. The narrator is the mother squirrel. 

Cat in the Hat: Let's Go on an Adventure DVD Review and Giveaway

Disclosure: NCircle Entertainment gave me a copy of the DVD free of charge and is supplying the one for the giveaway free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always, links are provided for your convenience and are not for compensation.

Don't you love Dr. Seuss and The Cat and the Hat? I know we do!! When NCircle Entertainment offered us a review copy of The Cat in the Hat: Let's Go on an Adventure! DVD plus one to giveaway, we jumped at the chance. 

This DVD includes five episodes as well as some Bonus Features like the various short parts they put in before or after the show on television. What I like most about The Cat in the Hat show is there is always a lesson in each show. In the episodes on this DVD includes following a treasure map, joining a salmon running upstream, following seeds, learning about skunks and about snails.

One of the episodes on the DVD is on map reading. Now Steve loves maps so I have many pictures of Hazel pretending to read a map. She also keeps any map we get from any place we go (Plimouth Plantation, Sea World, etc.). The maps may be falling apart, but she wants to keep them and I see her play with them. 

Hazel consults her "map"  to be like Daddy

So I thought it would be fun to make Hazel a map of the way we go to Cape Cod. Since she cannot read yet, I used the landmarks we usually see and look for on the trip. I figured she could cross them off when she sees them and make it a game.

Now it is your turn to win a copy of this wonderful DVD. Make learning a bit more fun with this one. Follow my Giveaway Rules though the winner can reside in Canada and do as the Rafflecopter instructs!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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!

Books for Black History Month

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. 

Books to help kids train their pets -- National Dog Day is tomorrow!

 

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

Did you know tomorrow (August 26th) is National Dog Day? National Cat Day is October 29th and January is National Train Your Dog Month. In honor of these "holidays" I am going to share two books from National Geographic Kids about training dogs and cats. Since tomorrow is National Dog Day we will start with Fetch! A How to Speak Dog Training Guide by Aubre Andrus and Gary Weitzman, D.V.M. 

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!

Losing a Beloved Pet -- RIP Pumpkin Girl

 

Today my heart is heavy and my home is a bit emptier. Last night Steve and I had to make the difficult decision to put our sweet Pumpkin girl down. We noticed she was losing weight and not eating or drinking water like she usually did. She also had changed her spot to spend most of the day. She wasn't being her normal self. I moved her vet appointment up a week because we were growing increasingly worried. She was due for a well visit next week. When our vet saw her she knew something was wrong. After a quick examination she told us she needed to get an x-ray, bloodwork and some liquids into her. She was very dehydrated. She asked us to give her about 20 minutes. We sat on the porch of the vet clinic and waited. When she got all the results she called us in and brought Pumpkin to us. She was fighting tears as she told us that Pumpkin definitely had cancer. She had liquid in her chest and abdomen. We had two options. Take her to a vet hospital ER and let them try to remove the liquid and start chemotherapy or put her down. We couldn't imagine having our sweet Pumpkin girl spend nights in a cage away from us while the poked and examined her, so our decision was clear. It broke our hearts to say goodbye. 

Travel the World & Through Time with Books -- Summer Reading

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.

Do you remember how the world opened up to you when you began to read? Books seem magical. They can transport you to different lands and different times all while you are sitting in your comfortable reading nook. The books I ma sharing today do this. They take you to different times and places and three of them are historical books. 

Painted Rocks & a Super Bowl Craft -- Crafty Weekends Link Party

This week we have done a few crafts. The first to share is our Super Bowl craft. It was Patriots Spirit Day at Hazel's school on Friday. I checked out Patriots t-shirts and refused to spend the $20 on them, so I bought some printable iron-on transfers and made her one. This way she could participate and not wear her uniform and we didn't spend too much on a shirt she will wear once. (I already had the grey t-shirt.) My father now wants one since he is the huge Patriots fan in the family.

Jingle Bells, Christmas Miracles & More! -- Book Reviews

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.

Christmas is fast approaching us. Are you ready this year? If you are looking for some last minute holiday spirit gifts check out these books. There is something for everyone!! Did you know in Iceland books are exchanged on Christmas Eve and they spend the rest of the evening reading? I saw it on Facebook and the picture is credited to Arizona Penny Dreadfuls. The books I share today with you would be perfect for children's gifts as well as some adult gifts. The first book is Jingle Bells: A Magical Cut-Paper Edition by James Lord Pierpont and illustrated by Niroot Puttapipat. 

Hard to Say Goodbye and Some Other Links I've Been Trying

Simba playing in his younger years

Yesterday, we buried the ashes of our beloved Simba. I first got Simba as a kitten in 1994. He is the first cat I can say was truly just mine. Steve of course adopted him and they loved each other right away, but I had from 1994-2006 alone with him. Yesterday we finally got around to buying a plant in his memory and burying his ashes underneath it. We are also making a stepping stone to honor him to place next to it. It is still curing and then I'll paint it and seal it, so pictures will come at another time. We had to put Simba down at the end of July. He was in too much discomfort to keep him alive anymore.

Simba "helping" sew a quilt

Simba was the best cat I had ever known. He loved to be with people and loved to play. He would greet me when I came home and follow me around and sleep with me every night. When Steve and I decided to start a family we adopted a kitten, so Simba would learn to share our attention before a baby arrived. He accepted Pumpkin pretty quickly. At first he followed her around and would meow at her whenever she did something against my rules. It was rather cute.

Simba and Pumpkin (as a kitten)

Simba and Pumpkin getting some fresh air

Simba at Dawn

Simba was at first afraid of Hazel and kept his distance, but in the end he would let her pet him and would come to cuddle even if she was with us. I think some of it may have been he was too slow to get away anymore and just wanted some love.

When I was beginning to quilt I took a class on watercolor quilts and made this wallhanging depicting my favorite cat doing one of his favorite activities, looking out the window. It hangs over our bed now, so we know Simba is always with us.

Okay, enough of the sad stuff. On a positive note I won a blog contest. Sew Happy Geek had a wonderful contest for her third blog-iversary, and amazingly I won. I am getting one of her patterns and all the fabric to make the quilt top. Now to figure out who to make it for. I can't wait to get the package.

Here are some other blogs/ideas I have been playing with:
1)  From The Enchanted Tree -- Bendy Dolls
2) From Living, Loving, Learning Naturally -- Ice Cream for Breakfast! I tried this recipe this morning using frozen mixed berries instead of the banana. I really liked it. Hazel didn't seem to eat it and Steve did not give me his opinion. We had it over waffles. I personally thought it was a fun way to jazz up the waffles instead of syrup. I used skim milk and couldn't tell.
3) From Poet in the Pantry -- Brownies to Heal the Soul. Haven't tried these yet, but trust Carrie's (and her family's) opinions. She also has a PB Fudge recipe that looks delicious.

How about you--any good ideas to share?

Zeus the Mighty -- a fun twist on Greek Mythology for Middle Grades

 

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

Do you kids know anything about the Greek myths? Have you ever thought it important to study them and why? There are several fun ways to learn about them without actually reading the myths these days. There are books like the series from Rick Riordan, The Treasury of Glorious Goddesses, and even fun versions like Thundercluck. Today I am going to introduce you to another series with a fun take on the myths. This series comes from National Geographic Kids and is the Zeus the Mighty series. Today I get to share the third book from the series, Zeus the Mighty: The Trials of Hairy-Clees by Crispin Boyer. It is suggested for ages 8 to 12. 

Origami Spectacular! -- Fun origami kit review

 

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

Friday and Monday I was substituting at Hazel's school in one of the high school math and science rooms. The geometry class has an origami project due this week, so we were having some fun with origami. I came home ready to play with origami at home so I pulled out Origami Spectacular! Kit: Our Biggest and Best Origami Collection Ever! by Michael G. LaFosse and Richard L. Alexander. 

All in Just One Cookie Book & Fun Activity

So while browsing at the library we found a wonderful book that we have to share: All in Just One Cookie by Susan E. Goodman. Now the premise of this book is a grandmother is preparing for a visit from her grandchildren, so she is making their favorite cookies--chocolate chip. Her cat and dog get excited to have her cooking. The cat uses the internet, library and encyclopedias to find where each ingredient comes from and the dog just cannot wait to be able to eat.

After the beginning/introduction each page is about an ingredient. It says what and how much the grandmother used and what the cat found out. Now the recipe is the same as the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, except she did not put in nuts (nor did we since we were sharing them with Hazel's best friend who is severely allergic to nuts).

In the story we find out from where the ingredients that grandma used came. The butter is from Vermont, the eggs are from New Hampshire, the flour is from Kansas, the salt is from California (the Pacific Ocean to be exact), the baking soda is from Wyoming and the sugar is from Hawaii. The chocolate comes from Dominican Republic, Ecuador, West Africa and Indonesia and the vanilla from Madagascar. At the end of the book there is a map of the world with arrows saying what came from each location.

Now of course our fun activity to go with this book is to make the recipe that the book provides. Hazel of course pulled out our aprons and her chef hat. Then we got going. She helped measure things out and add things to the mixer as well as crack the eggs, scrape the sides and more.

Of course that required some help from Mom, so we did not get many pictures. Then we started scooping out the dough.

My mother got her this great cookie scoop for part of her Christmas gift. We finally got around to making scoopable cookies to try it out. My other big aha moment was putting some of the dough in a smaller/shorter bowl for her. These two things made this process much easier than the last time. Plus she loved her new scoop.

Then we baked them. The book talks about the baking process and what is happening to the ingredients in the oven as well. Hazel is sleeping at Nonni's so she took some to share there and also brought some to her best friend (since he is always baking and sharing with us). I should add that we only had mini chocolate chips, so that is what we used.

Now isn't that a fun book and yummy activity!