A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

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Available Curricula

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Over the years I have collected a variety of homeschool materials and I’ve decided it’s time to let go of a great deal of it.   Ergo, I’m listing my available curricula. 

available curricula

Science

Junk Drawer books are fantastic for doing science at home that you can learn from.  Stuff can generally be found right at home. Depending of course, on what kinds of things you have at home. 🙂 

Most books are in fairly new or good condition as we are careful with our books.  

Some items we got from others free or second hand and prices reflect that. 

God’s design has a cd containing all paperwork for printing off or for using as a verbal “Do you know this” information.  Good to use for a variety of ages. 

History, Geography, Social Studies

Most of these books have been well-loved by more than my home.  They are still very useful.   

The For kids series is in brand new condition and I really waffled about letting them go.  I just really really like this series and wish I owned every single one of them!  But I cannot keep everything, I just can’t.   So I’m making the sacrifice so that you can benefit.  🙂 

Canadian history was used by my household only.  The lad and I had some great conversations with this book and he did some great projects with it. 

Language Arts

Mostly well-loved books from more than one home.  

Some are new like Fix-it Grammar (comes with a code), Kwame’s poetry, and writing and grammar 9. 

Foreign Languages

I am very willing to work a deal with the spanish books if you want the lot. Learn not only how to speak Spanish but how to put it all together. 

The mandarin is brand new.  We never got around to using it. 

Math

I don’t have a whole lot of math at this point.  I keep thinking I have some somewhere, but where they got to, I’m not really sure right now. 

Social Activism

Miscellaneous

Just random stuff that I couldn’t really categorize.  I actually have two blow-up globes.  A small one $5, and a large one $10.  Both hold air well.  

History of people, story style

Well, we’re coming to the end of what I am going to list today.     These stories are all about people in history.  Just because a book is older, doesn’t mean it doesn’t still tell the story well.  🙂    Anyways, I hope you find something you are interested in.

Negotiation is welcome eh?  It’s part of the fun of sending books on to a new place. 🙂 

The Science Spell Book

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (The Science Spell Book) 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. 🙂 

I LOVE science.  I find it absolutely fascinating looking at how God put the world together.  The intricacies of animals, the movement in plants, the wonder of chemistry.   It is so incredible it delights the mind and shows me the heart of God.   So when I saw The Science Spell Book I thought, cool!  A science book to explore!!!  How neat.  But I have to caution you… turning science into magic… it rubs me the wrong way.

There is much that I like in this book. I love the science contained within.  But I am hesitant about how it combines science with oracles, spells, portals, and lodestones.

The Science Spell Book

The Basic Details

The Science Spell book: Magical Experiments for kids was put together by Cara Florance.  Published by Sourcebooks, this is a 224-page tome will with science experiments for children 7 and up.  

I am reviewing a softcover ARC for Raincoast books.   Part of this ARC was in full colour, it will be a gorgeous book when it’s completely done. Most of it was in greyscale so you need to be aware of that with images. 

Looking Deeper in the Science Spell Book

The Science Spell Book is divided into seven sections.  Each of the five main sections contains six experiments.

  • Introduction with includes a foreword to caregivers, how to use this book, and what you need overall.
  • Infusions:  Elixir of Englightenment, Masked Message, Spectral Breath, Color Inversion Spell, Sanguine Energy, and Transfigured Fare.
  • Illumination:  Glowing Gauntlets, Extinguishing Effervescence, Magic Wand, Spellbound Circuits, Fluorescent Feast, and Astal Invocation.
  • Sorcery:  The Oracle, Rune Stones, Planet Portal, Chaotic Calling, North Divination, and Magnetic Manisfestation. 
  • Alchemy:  Starch Transmogrification, Forge of the Microbes, Aquafaba Ascension, Primal Pigments, Magical Manna, and Sorcerer’s Stone.
  • Alchemy: Arachnid Revivification, Forest Nymph Conjuring, Dance of the Druids, Biomineralization, Mercurial Larva, and Bewitching Blossoms. 
  • Glossary

You’ll find lots of colour.  This page below is part of the stuff to have section in the introduction.  This type of illustration is found throughout. 

I love the use of full colour for the title page with each experiment.  It’s so attractive don’t you find? It certainly draws me into wanting to do the experiment!   🙂 

Each section is introduced with a full-colour page and a bit of a write-up.  You’ll have to excuse the greyscale version here, I did want to provide some variety for you.   The write-ups introduce you to the field of study. Most of the information in these write-ups is purely factual.  Occasionally bits of magic creeps in, but overall it’s pretty innocuous. 

Each experiment lists supplies and instructions very clearly. Illustrations accompany to help stave off any difficulties you may encounter. 

I absolutely love that each experiment contains a section on how you can connect this to real life and explains the importance of what you have learned. 

A glossary at the close of the book helps you understand any words that might mystify you.  🙂  These definitions are very factual. 

Should you Get it?

Honestly, the science in these experiments is just science.  You can find many of these experiments without the hocus-pocus about them in a lot of different science books. You’ll find yourself working with batteries, red cabbage juice, cornstarch, needles, leaves and water.  Nothing too alarming anywhere in any of these experiments. 

The Science Spell Book is just creative marketing.   That said, I’m not keen on encouraging kids into the sorcery/witchcraft/magic end of things, particularly within faith households.  It’s one thing if it’s totally just a pretend world in fiction books but it’s completely different when you are linking it with the tangible world of science. 

So if you want a science experiment book this will work just fine.  If you use it as an educator, just for the experiments, it will work nicely for you.  It would be easy enough to avoid the hocus-pocus.  🙂  Just don’t get caught up in it! 

Be My Vision

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These words immediately jumped to mind, when I saw Miss Kate’s word prompt.  Be Thou My Vision is a lovely old hymn with the words being attributed to Dallan Forgaill.  Eleanor Hull translated them.
Vision. What does it mean?  How does one import the significance of vision?   So my thoughts turn to how God can be my vision.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
naught be all else to me, save that thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be My Vision

Be my vision.
Bring to me clarity of heart
helping me to see
the positives in the world around me
not just the negatives.

Be my vision.
Just as glasses help me to see
far objects clearly,
help me to look forward to
the future, knowing what’s to come.

Be my vision.
Opening my mind to new
thoughts and new ways of
doing things so I’m not
stuck in a loop of just doing.

Be my vision.
Let me see the world
around me anew.
Marveling at the beauty
and intricacies of nature.

Be my vision.
Looking for ways to
meet the needs of people
in my life.
Pushing past my “stuff”
to help others with their “stuff”.

Be my vision.
Fill my mind and thoughts
with who you are so
that which is not of
you loses it’s appeal.

be my vision

God Speaks to Us

Jeremiah 29:11

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Psalm 5:3

3 In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.

Ephesians 3:16-19

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

lowriders to the rescue

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (lowriders to the rescue) 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. 🙂 

Tie in a group of friends, with a stranger needing help, and discovering a threat to their community.  What do you expect the Lowriders in Space to do?  And thus, we get the inception of Lowriders to the Rescue!   Exhibiting a depth of concern for each other and the people around them, we also see them discovering a deep concern for the world itself. 

lowriders to the rescue

The Facts about Lowriders to the Rescue

I received a hardcover with a dustcover copy of Lowriders to the Rescue for my review from Raincoast Books.   You will find this graphic novel to be written with youth 9-12 years old in mind.  It runs at 140 pages and has been published by Chronicle Books.   It will be available at the end of May 2022. 
Throughout you will find spanish/latino words as well as the odd arabic phrase.  Lowriders to the rescue is I think that fourth in the Lowriders series. 

Cathy Camper, the author of the Lowriders series, is not only an author but libarian and artist.  Illustrations are completed by Raul the Third, an award winning artist.

Looking More Closely

As I mentioned earlier, you will discover spanish/latino phrases throughout.  The first time they are used they will be asterisked and you’ll find the definition at the bottom of the page. Each additional word on the same page will have a growing number of asterisk’s following them.   If you can’t remember what a word means you can always go to the dictionary at the close of this graphic novel. 

You will find, for the most part, very likeable characters.  They cover the gambit of personalities from funny, to serious, thoughtful to impulsive.  But you will always find them wanting to help each other, and to improve the world we all live in, human and animal alike. Sometimes their motives for doing so are a bit selfish, but overall, they want to do what’s right for everyone. 

You’ll discover easy to text that is surrounded by cartoon art.  I have to admit, I found the art work to be too busy for my liking, but it did fit the story well.   Raul the Third made good use of colour and action to fill out this graphic novel.

Add it to your shelves?

The busyness of the artwork would probably stop me from picking Lowriders to the Rescue up to purchase it, but I wouldn’t be opposed to my lad reading it (or any other child for that matter).   The story itself is worth reading.

Themes include: taking care of the earth, being mindful of pollutants, caring for others, learning a new language, the history of languages, and community activism. 

I was introduced to a new animal, the Flapjack Octopus, who to me, doesn’t really look like the character in the book, but one can expect creative license! 🙂 

Don’t you just love books that teach you something as well as being enjoyable to read? And when a book finishes with a happy ending, all the better eh?

Good Night to your Fantastic Elastic Brain

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Good Night to Your Fantastic Elastic Brain) 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. 🙂 

Our brains run our entire bodies did you know that?   Without our brains, life for us, in particular, simply wouldn’t exist. So isn’t it a good idea to learn more about your fantastic brain?   Good Night to your fantastic Elastic Brain is an attempt by JoAnn and Terrence Deak to help children understand how our brains work.  Let me introduce you to this educational picturebook. 

Good night to your fantastic Elastic Brain

Basic Details

Neely Daggett is the illustrator for Good Night to Your Fantastic Elastic Brain, and she does an excellent job showcasing an educational brain cartoon helping us to better understand her.   I received an ARC version from Raincoast Books for my review. The hardcover version was released April 2022. 

Brain experts (both have their PhD’s) JoAnn Deak and Terrence Deak want to help children understand the importance sleep has on the brain’s ability to function.  Therefore they put this growth mindset book together for children to encourage them to let their brain rest regularly. 

They do this through 40 pages of illustrations and text.  While writing in an engaging manner to clear explain to children 4-8 years old how the brain works. 

Looking deeper into Good Night to Your Fantastic Elastic Brain

You will find the main character to be “The Brain”.  A pink, eye-glass wearing teacher brain. 

Brain will help young children understand it’s general makeup, what the brain does during night and day, and even how the brain develops!  Throughout we are reminded of just how busy the brain is and how important it is to the brain to just sleep/rest. The brain helps us to remember, and how to forget.  And did you know that the brain needs a bath every night?   Amazing isn’t it?   Reviewing this book for you makes me want to read it all over again!

Don’t you just love wordy, educational picture books?  It makes them for more than just 4-8 year olds.  You use them to engage older students, and to introduce new topics to children with a wider age range.  Just reading this makes me want to go out and research a topic just to learn more.  It would be so easy to use this picture book with highschool students and say, so what do you want to learn more about?  Write me a paper on it.  🙂  An easy way to engage a reluctant readers interest to pursue further study hmm???

The movement and bright colours of the illustrations draw in the eye don’t they?  Combining the actions of our bodies with the actions the brain puts into motion.  Well done I thought. 

Now, do I like the cartoony brain?  Not really, but at the same time, I do cause I understand the need for it.  🙂  It’s an easy way to indicate to children that we’re all learning from the brain.  It also fits the style of the book.  It does!

Discovering more information throughout, regularly it’s summed up for us.  A great way to test our knowledge hmm?   The brain’s different activities also spur on the ability to remember don’t you think?

Is it the easiest book to read, particularly with young children in mind?   Not really.  Specific terminology may be difficult for some readers to pronounce.  And for the youngest, a lot of it might go over their head.  But older readers will get a better understanding of how the brain works, and not worry that the brain will just stop working while you are asleep. 

Add to your cupboards?

I would have no issues adding Good Night to Your Fantastic Elastic Brain to my book shelves.  I am, in fact, wondering if I can put together a small group study for my local homeschooling group.  Figuring out how to combine nature with how the brain works. I need to give it a bit more thought though. 

As I said earlier, wordy picture books like this are fantastic for using with older students to simply introduce a topic and get brain cells moving.  It’s an easy way to introduce new terminology in an engaging way without the stress.  Great for an elementary science unit on the human body too!

 

How does one combine?

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Miss kate’s word of the day Both challenged my heart and mind with what to write.  I ended up with thinking about the juxtapositions of life I guess.  The things that people often struggle with.  How does one combine or should one even try?  It’s sometimes hard to live in the world and yet, not be of the world we are so much a part of. 

How Does One Combine?

How Does one Combine?

how does one
combine the picture
of Jesus gentle and lowly
with the Jesus
in wrath driving
out the sellers in the temple
using a whip and harsh tones?

how does one
combine the heart knowledge
of being a child
fully and completely loved
and yet
knowing the sin within
is hated fervently?

how does one
combine the awareness
of God the father
exhibiting all the patience
and tenderness of a mom
gently coaching and encouraging
their child?

how does one
see God in the world
around us when
everywhere is the bleating
of people proclaiming
evolutionary thoughts
into every sphere of life
whenever where I look I see
God in beauty and action?

how does one
feeling the breathe of God
have to constantly remind
oneself of his
history throughout
time, trying to grasp the
very scope of God’s eternalness
when we are so limited
by time and space?

how does one
combine the notion that
we are to live in this world
and yet,
and yet,
not be of the world?
this balancing act is
one that is hard to master.

Both war within
Both challenge thought
and heart and
drive one deeper into
God’s word.
Seeking out his very
heart, seeking to make
our own so much closer to it.

How Does One Combine

God’s word speaks

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Colossians 1:16

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

It’s Just a Bunnypalooza

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Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (It’s Just a Bunnypalooza) through Ascot Media Group.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂 

It's Just a bunnypalooza

The Basic Details

From the Press Release:

When the contagiously enthusiastic Lizzy tells her classmates that she’s learning jump-jivin’ moves from bunnies, the children giggle at her over-active imagination. Feeling embarrassed and self-conscious, Lizzy decides she no longer wants to be laughed at.

Lizzy becomes an avid “non-believer” and ceases any further communication with animals. Naturally, the bunnies organize an intervention. These furry little creatures will not allow Lizzy’s fandango to falter, and they sure don’t want to lose a good friend.

You will find this a delightful 40-page book written for children 4-8 years old.   I received a hardcover book with a dust cover of It’s Just a Bunnypalooza through Ascot Media Group.  This is book three in the “it’s just a….” series, written by Brenda Faatz along with Peter Trimarco.   Peter Trimarco doubles as the illustrator.

Learning more about It’s Just a Bunnypalooza

What’s not to love in a book with full colour images and a delightful young lady exploring her love of animals?  She wants a talent to make her own and calls upon her animal friends for help.  Chirpy Bird, Moose, Owl, hummingbird, squirrel, and opossums too.  Everything was a bust, until… bunnies!  Bunnies and their love of dance ignite a spark in Miss Lizzy’s heart! 

Bunnies, just so you know, in THIS girls heart (me), always make everything right!  🙂 

Throughout the lyrical text, you’ll discover all kinds of highlighted words.  The rhyming, large print text makes it easy to read and share with a group of children.   This book is so easy to read, and I love the heart shown.  It’s a fun read, really!

Those highlighted words are explained in the bunny dance glossary.  These terms come from all over the world, all related to the world of dance!  It’s made me want to look up the Bharathanatyam dance of India.  I’m trying to imagine a dance that looks like fire….

Using this picture book could be a fun introduction to learning about dance from around the world.  What a great way to explore the cultures of other lands through the love of dance! 

The colourful illustrations by Peter Trimarco bring the poignancy of this moment into full clarity.  Such a sad young girl, but trust me…  the bunnies find a way to work it out!  How you might ask? You’ll have to read the story to find out!  🙂 

Add it to your shelves?

It’s Just a Bunnypalooza is a fun book for children.  A young lass having fun with bunnies, learning to dance, as the reader learns dance terms from around the world.  The world around her seeks to change her outlook on life, and kinda succeeds, until.. the bunnies take action!  Seeing those bunnies in action made my heart smile, and I can well imagine children smiling as well.   In fact, I wish I had a child that I could share this heart-warming story with!  🙂  

Other bunny related picture books

Others in the series are: