Books for Tween and Teen Girls -- Mindfulness and Puberty

Disclosure: Running Press sent me copies of these books in exchange for honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

As the start of school is approaching I am seeing Hazel's anxiety level rising. Socializing with other kids can be tough on her and school is probably the toughest place for her since she is with kids all day long. Add on top of it that she is hitting puberty a bit earlier than most of her classmates and she is a bit of a pile of nerves and moods. I have been trying to add relaxing and calming things to our routine although this summer routine has kind of gone out the window. Today I am going to share two amazing resources for kids like Hazel and in particular girls. The first is a book that is really for any child -- girl or boy. It is Just Breathe: Meditation, Mindfulness, Movement and More by Mallika Chopra and illustrated by Breanna Vaughan.

Sew in Style Make Your Own Doll Clothes -- a Crafty Weekends Review and Link Party

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!

Tonight I am excited to share with you a fun book that is perfect for your doll lovers to learn how to sew. It is Sew in Style: Make Your Own Doll Clothes by Erin Hentzel.

Books for the Young

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

Today I am going to share books for your youngest kids. The ages of these books range from baby to kindergarten. They are a variety of board books and picture books. The topics range from travel, family, transportation and more!! I hope you will check them out for your little ones!!

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!!

Language Fun -- Summertime Fun

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.

Today I am sharing some books and products to have fun with new languages this summer (or any time). Two of these are books that use words from a different language in the stories and the third are a flash card and more set. I always find that these type of books and products help us continue to learn about different countries and cultures. We will start with Asha Loves Science Over in the Meadow by Dr. Najla Ahmed. I am reviewing this book as part of Multicultural Kids Product Promotional Services. 

In Real Life -- Young Adult Book Review -- Multicultural Monday & Math

I am hosting a giveaway to win ABC Monsters & Houdini DVDs ! Have you entered yet?

 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. 

Today I am sharing a young adult book. It is about a high school boy, Seth, who is very good at math as well as video games. He wants to compete against the top Starfare players in the world and those are the professionals in Korea. What interested me was the idea of a multicultural math story. The book is In Real Life by Lawrence Tabak.

Asian Book Reviews -- Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy 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. 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 Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway. More details about all of this below including the giveaway!!

Since May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, I contacted my friends at Tuttle Publishing. It was a logical choice since this is their specialty. They publish books on Asian cultures, languages, and history. They have books for children and adults. It is a wonderful publishing company that puts out high quality and beautiful books. They also have provided five of the books for the giveaway below! The first book we will review is one of the prizes.

The History of Zero--Asian Pacific American Heritage Blog Series and Giveaway Post

This post is part of the Asian-Pacific American Heritage Blog Series and Giveaway on Multicultural Kid Blogs. You can enter the giveaway at the end of the post. There is a link party for all Asian-Pacific American Heritage posts on Multicultural Kid Blogs. We also have a link party for Japan posts in our Global Learning for Kids this month. Next month will be India.

History of Zero:

Can you imagine a world without zero? Or perhaps you wonder why we need to represent nothing at all? For centuries there was no mark or symbol of zero. The history of the number zero begins in Asia. It is believed that the first people to have a symbol for zero were the Babylonians. The Babylonians had inherited the counting system of the Sumerians which was the first to have a symbol instead of hash marks for each number.

Around 1450 B.C. By Свифт/Svift (my work) 
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Sharing Saturday 15-16

Thank  you to everyone who shared last week!! Once again I am blown away by all the great ideas! This week our features consist of  Earth Day & Mother's Day Features, Art Features, Toddler Features, and Other Features. 

Anna and Her Rainbow Colored Yoga Mats and Sophia's Jungle Adventure Yoga Book Reviews

Make sure you enter the Earth Day Giveaway we are co-hosting!! You have until midnight Tuesday EDT.

 Disclosure: Kid Yoga Stories gave me a 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.

Have you tried yoga with your children yet? Hazel loves it--though we do not do it often. We have had the pleasure of reviewing three of Giselle Shardlow's books and Hazel loves them all. Thus far we have reviewed The ABC's of Australian Animals, Luke's Beach Day, and Hello Bali! Today we are sharing two more. It was a beautiful day here finally so we tried some yoga outside! The first book is Anna and her Rainbow-Colored Yoga Mats by Giselle Shardlow and illustrated by Paul Wrangles. (Please note that the photos are of Hazel attempting to copy the pose in the books. They are not all correct, but she is on her way to getting them.)

Earth Day Book Reviews and Giveaway

Disclosure: Wisdom Tales Press gave me a copies of these 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. They are also providing copies for the giveaway.


Today I am joining with a group of bloggers to do an Earth Day Giveaway. There are three prize packs and the information for the giveaway is below. Today I am lucky enough to review two of the books that are in the third prize pack. Hazel loves both of these books! The first book is Just Like Me, Climbing a Tree by Durga Yael Benhard. This book was released to celebrate Arbor Day which is April 24.

Our New Morning Routine: Imaginations 2 Book Review

Disclosure: Bambino Yoga sent 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.

So for the last couple of weeks Hazel and I have a new morning routine thanks to Bambino Yoga. Carolyn Clarke sent us a copy of her newest book, Imaginations 2: Relaxation Stories & Guided Imagery for Kids. 

Picture Books Review

With the start of December and Advent, I thought I would share each post where our Mouse and the Miracle Mouse (Holy) has been up to. (He now has an elf friend named Elfie who often is hidden with him.)

Holy on Window with Angels and Elfie Hanging on Tree

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.

Today I am going to share with you five wonderful picture books that help grow imaginations and wonder. These books will help the reader learn about the world and use their imaginations. We had so much fun exploring this five books and highly recommend them. I also shared some round-ups of crafts to go with three of the books. First I am going to start with a wordless book.

Sharing Saturday 14-34

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week and a special thank you to everyone who took the time to visit what others shared! We did not have a most clicked, so I picked three categories of features. With schools starting up across the country, Back to School seemed appropriate (though I'm still in denial and can stay this way for another week and a half even if her new school uniforms arrived today), Lessons, and finally Pumpkin Bread (I guess fall is really coming soon with several pumpkin bread recipes shared).

Back to School

1) From Juggling Act Mama: Back To School Teacher Gift

2) From Rubber Boots and Elf Shoes: Back To School Book and Poem

3) From Krafts and Kiddos: First Day of School Printables

4) From There's Just One Mommy: Back To School "I Spy" Craft

5) From Stella123: Kid Activity: DIY Back To School Pencil Sharpeners

6) From Sunshine and Hurricanes: Why I'm Not Excited School Is Starting

Lessons

1) From Munchkin and Bean: Colonial Small World {Safari Ltd. Review}

2) From Wugs and Dooey: Exploring Patterns, Colour and Symmetry with Tiles

3) From Five Painted Lane: Make a Treasure Map

4) From My Catch A Star Classroom: Introducing Children to Herbs

Pumpkin Breads

1) From Yesterfood: Pumpkin Bread (with nuts)

2) From Life with Garnish: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

Featured Button Code:

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From Your Hostess: This week I am sharing our posts for the week as well as three pictures from our week that I will not be posting about. Those pictures were seeing Rapunzel and Olaf at our local McDonald's and seeing a life size model of a humpback whale which we even got to go inside! For posts we shared making doll panties from newborn onesies (this goes with a post from last week about using the onesies for t-shirts for the dolls), the start of our exploration of Japan with some beautiful books from Tuttle Publishing, a review of Hello, Bali a great kids yoga book, our change from shed to clubhouse with some old party decorations and a few other things and DIY canopy for a bed to make a princess bed.

Now for This Week's Party 


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Book Review: Hello Bali! by Giselle Shardlow

Disclosure: Kids Yoga Stories 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.

Multicultural Kids Blog has started a new Multicultural Kids Product Promotional Services. I signed up to help promote an wonderful kids yoga book by Giselle Shardlow. We have already enjoyed two of her books previously and Hazel loves doing yoga along with the book. This book is called Hello, Bali and is about a girl from India visiting Bali with her family. Since Bali is in Indonesia, it ties in perfectly with All About Indonesia that we reviewed last month.

Hello, Sun

Going through this book introduces you to a bit of the Bali culture. The book starts with saying hello to the sun in Bali. Then it goes through some of the sights in Bali from the beach (sailboat, dolphin, sunbathers) to the mountains.

Sailboat

Dolphin

Surfing

Sunbathing

Then you get a bit of the culture with dancing Ganesha.

The book talks about the mountains and the market as well as the waterfalls. The beautiful illustrations help the reader to picture what Bali is like and also models the yoga poses for the child. It goes on with poses for the priests in the temples and the farmers in the fields. As well as the monkeys in the trees.

Farmers Planting in the Muddy Rice Fields

Going through this book gives the reader a wonderful picture of Bali and the yoga motions help the images stick as well as being perfect for the child who has trouble sitting still during a book. 

Excerpts from the Hello, Bali

As with all of Giselle's books, it is available in English or Spanish! The book ends with a list a picture of all the yoga positions as well as a bit of Indonesian language and a map of Bali. We have once again enjoyed this yoga book and loved learning more about Bali. The book and movements gave each of us an image of what it would be like to be on vacation in Bali and what we would see. We highly recommend the book!

For more on yoga for kids and Indonesia, check out:

• Luke's Day at the Beach
• The ABC's of Australian Animals
• All About Indonesia
• The Gift of the Crocodile: An Indonesian Cinderella Tale

Virtual Book Club for Kids: Quiet in the Garden by Aliki

It is time for the Virtual Book Club for Kids and this month's author is Aliki. Now Aliki has wonderful children's books. Some are about historical people, some about things like the five senses and others about experiences. We have read several and Hazel decided her favorite is Quiet in the Garden.

Virtual Book Club for Kids: K Is for Kissing a Cool Kangaroo by Giles Andreae

It is time for the Virtual Book Club for Kids and this month the author is Giles Andreae. We have been having so much fun with his books. Hazel picked her favorite to feature this month and it is K Is for Kissing a Cool Kangaroo. We actually got this book out of the library on Friday. I was all set to do some giraffe crafts to go with Giraffes Can't Dance, but she changed her mind once we read K Is for Kissing a Cool Kangaroo. Well my idea changed. Instead of doing a craft we changed to an activity or game. Actually this book is perfect for one of the things Hazel's school wanted the students to work on over the summer. They want us to practice with the beginning letters of words. 

Virtual Book Club for Kids: Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle

 Disclosure: I was sent the seahorse craft kit 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 added links to the particular products for your convenience, but not for any compensation. 

Virtual Book Club for Kids: Yoo-Hoo Ladybug! by Mem Fox

The author this month for Virtual Book Club for Kids is Mem Fox. Now Mem Fox has many wonderful books, so it was hard to choose one, but since this year we hatched ladybugs and have been focusing a bit on them, I thought Yoo-Hoo Ladybug! was the perfect one to share. Plus the bonus that Hazel LOVES reading it. Of course she also LOVES looking for the hidden ladybug on the pages.

Mother's Day: Taking Time to Reflect on Being a Mother

Lately I have been reading a couple of parenting books recommended by fellow bloggers and it has made me really evaluate what kind of mom do I want to be. It has also made me really think about my goals and dreams for Hazel. So for Mother's Day I thought I would share this with you as well as some of the things Hazel has made for me this year. First the books. The first book was recommended by Giselle from Kids Yoga Stories and it is Raising Your Spirited Child: A Guide for Parents Whose Child Is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent, and Energetic by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka.