A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Blog

What Kind of soon

By 15 Comments

Miss Kate has given us the word prompt of soon, isn’t that a great word to ponder during a morning of work? Immediately the song “soon and very soon” popped into my head so I had that running in the back of my mind all morning.  🙂 Funny isn’t it?  How often words will bring music into one’s head and heart?  But I don’t think I’ll write on that song, tempting though it be.   “What kind of soon” is the poem that jumped into my lap this early evening after work was done. 

What kind of soon, text over image of red radishes

What kind of soon?

so as much as i want to
i’m not going to do it
nope nope i won’t base a
poem around “soon and very soon”

even though, perhaps before i die
i will see the king and then
boy oh boy won’t that
change so many things?

but take a walk with me
won’t you? and see some things
that will come soon.

in a garden plot next to
the rabbitry are some wee green
things growing
Soon i’ll have radishes,
and spinach, and
something new, spinach berries!

pondering trying something new
this year which would happen
soon after ripe radishes. is
following a pickled radish recipe.

just as you enter my rabbitry
you’ll see a girl named zesty
and soon, well, soonish,
she’s going to have some babies.

soon, well, a bit longer than
zesty will take to kindle,
i’ll have fridays off work
and i’ll be able to garden more freely.

soon, before the month runs out,
i plan to visit a friend, on the
other side of the border, taking my boy
with me for a mom’s weekend away.

soon, i’m hoping to be sneaky
and book a weekend away for my
sweetheart of a man, and the boy
of my dreams, so they can just be.

won’t that be grand
if all those soons happen?
if they can all be fulfilled in
the way i hope?

but in the end,
even if all those soons happen not,
i know that God is in control,
and it will be fine regardless.

what kind of ‘soon’ do
you carry within?

what kind of soon, text over image of seedling

God Speaks to us

1 Thess. 5:1-6

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 

Luke 21:25-28

25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

The Bee Without Wings

By Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product for The Bee Without Wings through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

Imagine you are a handicapped bee with no way of getting around.  You are lost and alone until a friend comes along.  Can you see what joy that will bring to your heart?  The Bee Without Wings brings together Sasha, Molly and Bea into a delightful and fun friendship that will warm your heart.  Learn about bees and discover how to recover from loss. 

The Bee without wings, amberlea williams

The Basic Details for The Bee Without Wings

Title: The Bee Without Wings
Author: Amberlea Williams
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Pages: 40
Intended Audience: 4-8 year olds
Available Formats: Kindle, Hardcover
Type: Picture Book
Genre: Bees, Insects, Friendship, Death/Dying, Helping Bees, Bugs
Received: Hardcover
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

About the Author

Amberlea Williams lives in Ottawa with her husband, son and cat.  She loves to illustrate, do freelance design and teach yoga.    Her parents encouraged her to go to art school when she was young.

About The Bee Without Wings

Finding a bumble bee without wings in her garden, Sasha is determined to help it survive.  This unexpected friendship leads to a summer of fun between Sasha, Molly the cat, and Bea the bee.  Bea evens learns you don’t need wings to fly! Bees don’t live long though, so Sasha discovers a meaningful way to honour her friend.   Beautifully illustrated, the tale includes an activity for creating a bee pollinator garden, along with information on how to care for early spring bees.

Looking Deeper

Tales of friendship between unlikely allies intrigue all sorts of people, and finding a bee without wings that a young girl doesn’t want to immediately just squash is fantastic. Sasha is a sweet, soft-hearted young girl who takes excellent care of her young bee friend.  

You’ll find the text easy to read as you follow along the adventures of these three young friends.  From learning how to care for this weak young bee, to finally helping her find her final resting place.  

Sasha needed to develop her problem-solving skills.  She takes time to observe and then figures out how to help.  

I just love the illustrations.  They are clear, easy to follow, with a brightness to them that encourages the reader to stay involved.   

And before you can blink an eye she had Bea up and flying!  Even if it was only a short time before Bea started to fail.   The proportions aren’t exactly to scale, but if one kept them true to size it would have been difficult to show Bea’s emotions. 

At the close of the book you’ll learn how to care for spring bees, even as we watch Sasha and Molly plant a bee garden.  Don’t you just love it when a picture book not only tells a good story, but teaches as well?

Recommendation?

Sasha is a lovely, soft-hearted girl, with excellent problem-solving skills.  Can she keep Bea alive and give her a good quality of life?  For sure?  Can she find a good way to honour her little friend?  Definitely.

What do we observe: Sasha has empathy for the bee, Sasha observes her little bee and then uses problem-solving skills to help Bea, accommodates Bea’s failing health, and then figures out how to help other bees. 

Can we learn how to help the bees through this story?  For sure!  This is an great primer for learning how to care for early spring bees.   Building a bee garden, providing safe places to get a drink, creating living quarters and much more.  An excellent start.  I only wish she had provided links or building instructions for making a bee house.   

This would be a nice companion book to actually learning about bees as this one focuses more on how we can help our bee companions. 

Shall I Persist?

By 15 Comments

So… I saw the word persist and immediately I started thinking but… I couldn’t figure out which tack to take until one just kinda did it’s thing.  Let me take you on my journey through Shall I Persist?   I personally found it fascinating watching how my brain worked it’s way through this word.  🙂 

Shall I persist?

Trial One: Shall I Persist?

Shall I persist
the question I ask
persistence in this
what is now my task?

Can I go the distance as
I run the race set before me
knowing that temptations will
strive to keep me off my knees?

Trial Two

it’s hard to know sometimes
if a task you are doing and
struggling to complete is one
worth persisting in.
by what measure do we judge
a difficult task worth
the agony of continued pursuit?

shall I persist or instead give way
never minding my thoughts of
it will be today

Trial Three

Stick to your guns, see it through,
continue until the task is complete!
Persevere my friend, you’ll finish that race,
strive hard for what you want!
Insist that it can be done!
If you keep at it you will
obtain the sweet reward of satisfaction,
of knowing you plugged away to
the bitter (at times) end.

Shall I persist?

Trial Four: Shall I Persist?

As one persists in the difficult things of
life you learn within your being
the meaning of the phrase “soldier on”.
the depth of commitment it takes to
simply keeping moving forward even
when it is mind-numblingly difficult to do so.

Like soldiers struggling through a hard
fought battle field, determined to hold their ground,
to have their side win the day.
So carry on, persist in your activities.
Not giving up, even for a moment as you
realize, pressing on, that this
is a thing you can do!

Build your confidence as you hang in there,
pegging away at all those little
things standing in the way of your success.
Communicate well as you stick it out.

Know that your success is partially
guaranteed by how determined you are to
stick it out. Holding on to the fundamentals
of what you know to be true.

For the one who is hanging in there with you
is the very one who determined your days,
knowing that you have the strength to
grind away at the path placed in front of you.

So stay that course, as you hang on
persistently hammering away
at whatever tries to stand in your way
knowing that your path
is already predetermined
and the one who made you, minds
your steps your entire journey.

 

Tap! Tap! Tap!: Dance! Dance! Dance! 

By Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product for Tap! Tap! Tap!: Dance! Dance! Dance!  through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

Do you have a need to keep your body moving?  Do your fingers like to move to a beat? Perhaps your children are the same?   Then you MUST take a look at Tap! Tap! Tap!: Dance! Dance! Dance!  A dance for your hands and fingers that just might get your whole body moving too! 

Tap! Tap! Tap! Dance! Dance! Dance!

The Basic Details

Title: Tap! Tap! Tap! Dance! Dance! Dance!
Author: Herve Tullet
Publisher: Chronicle Kids
Pages: 64
Intended Audience: Preschool – Kindergarten, 3-5 years
Formats Available: Hardcover
Received: Hardcover
Reviewed For: Raincoast Books

About the Author

Herve Tullet is a New York Times bestselling author.  He has written a fair number of books in both English and French.  Running creative workshops worldwide, this artist/creator/performer lived in New York for a couple of years.   As an artist, he aims to « encourage audiences to become cultural producers of their own » and to bring communities together.

About Tap! Tap! Tap!

Harnessing his love of dance, the passion of his illustrations, and the great big format of this book, Herve invites you to a very special dance: your hand becoming the dancer and the book the dance floor.  Take your time sweeping, swirling, and tapping your way through this bright, engaging dance! 

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Looking Deeper into Tap! Tap! Tap!

Start with a slow beat.  A simple tap tap tap.  Follow the colours.  Feel the rhythm… tap tap tap. 

As you work through the pages, you’ll find the colours will become more vibrant and busy. 

And before you know it your hands will be in a full crescendo of colour and motion! 

Throughout you’ll see the text is a good size for easy reading, which is important when your hands are in motion following colour, lines, and splash!  It’s like a musician starting a slow lyrical piece and over time blazing into a wave of emotion and sound.   You’ll find dips and pauses just like in any piece of music.  Follow the instructions and learn the rhythm of it all. 

Do I recommend?

Okay, when I first got this book I thought meh.  🙂   

But since then I’ve had cause to relook my “meh” response and go you know what?  It’s a neat idea.  Follow form and colour, and read text to see the sway and jibe of musical form.  And suddenly, this book becomes fun.  Can you image having a class of young music students learning the music isn’t just noise, but it’s motion, and colour, and variance of speed, and…. MORE!  Music engages us, even if we just start with our hands. 

Can’t you just see your children having fun learning to dance with their hands? 

So gather your littles around you and Tap! Tap! Tap! Dance! Dance! Dance!  Follow the easy instructions and watch your  (or your children’s) hands come alive! 

Thor and Loki: Midgard Family Mayhem

By Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product for Thor and Loki: Midgard Family Mayhem through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

Do you love the world of Loki and Thor of Midgard?  Do you enjoy the corny humour these two characters sometimes engage in?   If so, imagine if you would, Thor and Loki as children.  Now add into that a unique sense of humour and you’ll find yourself with a short book that just might make you and your family laugh.  These two boys get themselves into situations and use humour and action to see themselves through.  Come along and learn more! 

Basic Details for Thor and Loki: Midgard Family Mayhem

Title: Thor and Loki: Midgard Family Mayhem
Author: Jeffrey Brown
Publisher: Chronicle books
Copyright: Marvel
Pages: 64
Intended Audience: Elementary
Formats Available: hardcover
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books
Received: Hardcover

The Author

Jeffrey Brown is a best selling author and illustrator of the Jedi Academy series of middle school books.  He’s also written the Darth Vadar and son series.  In fact you might remember me reviewing the Darth Vadar and Family Colouring book.  Mr. Brown is living his childhood dream of drawing comics and making books for a living. 

About the Book

Young Thor and Loki have traveled with their parents Odin and Frigga across the ten realms to their favorite world, and Midgard (aka Earth) may never be the same. Ts sweetly funny comic collection finds the kid gods of thunder and mischief suffering helmet hair (Thor), trying to ride the school bus as an alligator (Loki), and many more unique scenes.  If you are a Marvel’s fan you will enjoy Mr. Brown’s humour, inventive colourful artwork, and playful approach to the characters.

Looking Deeper

I’ve been searching for the right word to describe the conversation between Loki and Thor throughout this tome.  I finally figured it!  Banter!  They engage in sometimes ridiculous, funny, or just daily stuff banter. 

Some of the pages just encompass the silly things children will do with each other… teasing each other, playing games, and just being children (albeit with additional abilities). 

You’ll find the text clear and easy to read, the illustrations bring the quips, jokes, and banter to life. 

My Thoughts

If you and your family love the world of Midgard, your elementary through early middle school children should enjoy the conversation between siblings.  Watching their antics in Thor and Loki: Midgard Family Mayhem as they poke at each other in (hopefully) good humoured fun.    

To have something different

By 8 Comments

Oh, I have it, I thought at work, I know what to write for Five Minute Friday.  Miss Kate gave us the prompt Have.   By the time I got home though… what I thought I had I didn’t. So I had to start my pondering again.  But perhaps there’s something in that, which I can use.   Let’s see where the words flow eh?

Well okay, that went in a completely different direction than what I had thought it would!   Wow… okay.  Um, yeah.  God being God typing letters on my keyboard. 

To have something different

To Have Something Different

I considered it you know, 
To do a poem based on
I have decided to follow Jesus,
because I love the story behind that
rather simple song.

Off and on I ponder
the world we will be
leaving behind to my most
beloved son (we’ve only one
lad so he can be my most beloved).

A world where men can call
themselves women and do and say
a variety of things that
actually belittle what they say
they want to be.

Men, who are still fully men,
saying they have their periods,
and that they are expecting,
one day, to get pregnant.

And I wonder… what sort of world
will my son have to navigate?
A world where people, wanting to change
genders, belittle the very gender
they profess to be and insist that
we must respect their mental illness.

And a t-shirt add I saw today reminded
me of something important.
For these people too,
did Jesus die.

Can I, see the deepest needs
of even such confused people,
such poorly informed people,
of their need for what
Jesus brings to the table?

Can I take their desire to
have something different, and
perhaps point them to Christ?

I will freely admit,
I haven’t a clue!
How do I reach people
that are so deluded?

See my own delusions?

Perhaps, maybe, by seeing
my own delusions? Because
just like everyone alive,
I can’t see the full ramifications
of sin upon my life.

And I don’t know sometimes
where my individuality as a person
ends and where the effects of sin
begins in my life.

Or maybe it’s all just
a shadow of sin regardless?

And so, if all are so deeply, and
profoundly affected by sin,
perhaps in that I can find
a connecting point?

And if I can find a connecting point
and others can find a connecting point
perhaps, just perhaps, this world
that my maturing son is facing,
won’t seem as scary?

We have to find it!

We have to find it you know?
A connecting point between us
and those who do not yet know
the truth of God.

And so by finding those points,
we might help those lost,
to hear God’s call
upon their lives.

But I have learned
that I have something different.
Something that is not sin-based, and
so I need to remember this.

Let not fear rule us.
God minds us full well.
and we can make that choice, that
come what may.
We will join in the story of
I have decided to follow Jesus.

And we will, I will,
make choices to encourage
the deluded around me to
consider their deeper need,
that need to connect with Christ.

To have something different

Faith Connection

As I consider how my faith influenced this poem I am brought to mind of Paul saying he’d become all things to all people so that he might reach them for Christ. 

These verses are just one small section of chapter 9 in 1 Corinthians.  Go read the whole chapter eh?

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

How do we form those connections so that others might share in the blessings of Christ? 

The many assassinations of Samir, The Seller of Dreams

By Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product for The Many Assassinations of Samir, The Seller of Dreams through Raincoast Books. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

The title in this middle school read had me curious, why would someone want to assassinate Samir?   By page 37 I TOTALLY knew why people wanted Samir to die and so I stayed to see how it all played out.  What a rollicking ride!  Oh my, the various assassinations…. their creativity, and well… lack of success… This book by Daniel Nayeri was a very fun read.   Let’s talk! 

the many assassinations of Samir the seller of dreams

The Basic Details

Title: The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams
Author: Daniel Nayeri
Illustrator: Daniel Miyares
Publisher: Levine Querido
Pages: 224
Intended Audience: 8-12 years, Grade 3-7
Genre: Folk Tales & Myths, Action & Adventure, Middle School Literature,
Formats Available: Kindle, Audio, Hardcover
Received: Hardcover
Reviewed For: Raincoast Books

About the Author and The Book

Daniel Nayeri hails from Iran and now lives in Oklahoma with his wife and son.  He has written nine other books for children and youth.  His middle Eastern background is evident through this most recent one. 

The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams introduces us to Monkey and Samir’s larger “family” of travelers.  We are brought along the Silk Road, through a dangerous section filled with battles against weather and other, not always natural, disasters.  Samir is a man who likes to talk and spin his words to suit his purposes, leaving him with a rather large number of enemies.  Will he be able to fight them off?  Can Monkey help him?   Stay tuned! 

The many assassinations of Samir the seller of dreams

Looking Deeper into The many assassinations of Samir the seller of dreams

You need to check out the illustrations by Daniel Miyares. A new one for every chapter, in full colour.  They really help bring the story to life in the midst of many assassinations and danger. 

The text is a nice size and easy to read.  

Every chapter opens with an interesting piece of artwork that leads into the chapter before us. Chapters filled with excitement, challenge, choices, and knowledge.  History woven into words and adventures

My Thoughts

The first line draws you in immediately “The first time I was stoned to death by an angry mob, I was not even a criminal.”.   Doesn’t that make you curious? 

How many times was this young man stoned?  Did he become a criminal in the end?  Why was the mob angry? And what do you mean… the first time you were stoned to death?  How can someone be stoned to death twice? 

Wouldn’t YOU want to know more?   I know I did!   So many emotions throughout!  Anger at Samir, frustration with the brothers, along with curiousity about how this would all play out, humour, incredulity and more.  I found this a fun read and I think you will too.  This is not just for middle schoolers! It’s for anyone looking for a fun read that might surprise you in the end. 

Check out The Many Assassinations of Samir, The Seller of Dreams.  Learn a bit about The Silk Road and the dangers of travelling it (and the rewards) and follow Monkey!