Homeschooling

Build your own Science Museum

June 29, 2022 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Build your own Science Museum) 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 children that love to learn while doing? Have a love of activity books and science? Well, build your own science museum combines those two loves. Learn what science is, build some exhibits and explore different fields of science. Let me tell you more about Build Your Own Science Museum.

A basic glimpse of what I’m reviewing!

Lonely Planet Kids has done it again, creating another build your own book, this one about Science! 24 pages in an oversized book, complete with activity pages and cut-outs.

The Chapters are

what is science
the age of science
the information age
flight
planet earth
exploring space
electricity and forces
the human body
robotics
science quiz
future science

With these pages you’ll discover 5 pop-ups to make and display on the pages. Can you imagine making a steam engine? Sounds fun doesn’t it?

Looking closer at Build your own Science Museum

At the beginning of Build Your Own Science Museum, you will find a pocket entitled Fragile Scientific Objects. Within this pocket, you’ll find all the punchouts needed to create the various pop-ups.

But never fear! Instructions are included!

Are you as intrigued as Lizzy is about what all you and/or your child can make?

You’ll note those white lines on this page? Those are for inserting the punchouts so you build your pop-up! A good amount of informative text surrounds each pop-up.

Just as in any museum you’ll discover placards of information scattered throughout.

Not all the elements are large builds. Some are simple punch-outs to fill a single spot.

Should you pick this up?

You may recall, though honestly it’s been a while, that I reviewed Build your own History Museum as well as Build your own Dinosaur Museum. I love these books and jumped at the opportunity to review Build your own Science Museum. Just as the first two books were filled with hands-on learning, so is this third one. The reader is given the opportunity to put together 5 amazing pop-ups illustrating different aspects of science. Smaller cut-outs that illuminate smaller points.

So YES, go pick it up! I’ve given you a good insight but have purposefully NOT shown you any of the builds. You want to be able to enjoy it completely yourself, don’t you? Go pick up your copy of Build your own Science Museum today!

Becoming Beatrix

June 15, 2022 By Annette1 4 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Becoming Beatrix Potter) through Independent Publishers 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. 🙂

Don’t you just love the works of Beatrix Potter? Her rabbits, mice, and squirrels along with all their antics? If you would like to learn more about her life, hobbies and success, Becoming Beatrix is sure to delight you. I invite you to come and learn more!

The highlights of Becoming Beatrix

Becoming Beatrix: the life of Beatrix Potter and the World of Peter Rabbit was researched by Amy M O’Quinn. Nine chapters round out this 176-page hardcover book with dust cover. Without the dustcover it has a plain white cover. Black and white photos are scattered throughout. Published by Chicago Review Press with children in grade 3-8 being the target audience.

Looking Deeper

Easy-to-read text, along with illustrations and black and white photos, make this a good read for youth in grades 3-8. This children’s biography focuses more on Ms. Potter’s life and hobbies, than on her actual ability to write. Mr. O’Quinn focuses on helping her readers understand Potter’s life in light of the historical period she lived in. For instance, she points out how an almost 40-year-old woman still needed her parent’s permission to be married. But that is how it was done at the time.

The images used were not all strictly of Potter’s life, but also of the history of the day. You’ll see photos of sheep, an illustration of a victorian nature study drawing, as other images. Most images could be directly correlated with Beatrix.

Each chapter starts with a Potter quote and is illustrated in her style. Most of these quotes came from letters she wrote.

Should you get this?

Who doesn’t love the world of Peter Rabbit? Seriously, it’s such a good series to read with little children (am sometimes biggers as well!). If you are doing a unit study on Beatrix Potter you will find “Becoming Beatrix” to be a well-researched book. It is full of images and interesting tidbits about her life.

So yes, I will encourage you to read Ms. O’Quinn’s biography on Beatrix Potter. Her tone is quietly informative showcasing not only Ms. Potter’s written skills but other life endeavors as well.

Other Beatrix Potter Books

Over my reviewing and homeschooling years I’ve used beatrix potter books.

The Art of Beatrix Potter is a beautiful book. You will not want to miss this one and would be a perfect companion to “becoming Beatrix”. Amazon Link.

Beatrix Potter and her Paint Box. a fun book to read with your children. Amazon Link.

Decrypting Cryptocurrency

June 8, 2022 By Annette1 4 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Decrypting Cryptocurrency) through Jenkins Group, Inc. Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂

So my hubby has been learning about cryptocurrency from one of his co-workers. This fellow has been kind enough to gift him with some crypto. He’s been having fun learning and so has encouraged me to learn a bit as well. So when Ascot Media asked if I’d like to review Decrypting CryptoCurrency I said sure! I find it difficult to learn about blockchains, tokens and such, it’s a whole new language and I’m not as young as I used to be. Magnus Carter takes his time helping new people understand the terminology and it is good!

Magnus Carter's Decrypting CryptoCurrency

Discovering more about Decrypting CryptoCurrency

Decrypting CryptoCurrency: Riding the data path to financial freedom was put together by Magnus Carter. Magnus Carter started to work when he was 12 years old. As he matured, he discovered that not only do you need to work for money, you need to have your money work for you. And so he shares with us, some of what he has learned about working with Cryptocurrency.

Running at 177 pages, you won’t find it a long hard read. Legendary Products & Services, LLC in publisher provides lots of white space and clear headings to make the reading easier. Nine chapters round out the pages, along with a big bibliography (149 entries). This enables the reader to continue researching this fascinating field of currency.

Don’t you just love when an author breaks down educational text into smaller segments? Each chapter has many smaller sections often closing with a “fact” section. This section brings clarity to specific concepts presented.

Mr. Carter makes a point of telling us frequently to not invest money we aren’t willing to lose. You need to carefully consider not only the possibilities but also the risks. Crypto could completely take off and you could get a fair amount of money out of it. BUT, just as with stocks and bonds, you need to consider, what happens if I lose my money? Crypto really is just another way to make money.

Magnus Carter takes his time helping new investors learn the lingo of cryptocurrency. There really is a lot to learn about how blockchains work, what a token is, and what the different styles of crypto are etc. Crypto is all digital and the different types are developed to solve problems or do specific tasks. Take your time reading, go over it again until you have it straight, and then consider if you want to invest.

I use Wealthsimple and Coinbase. One of the things I love about Coinbase is that you can earn crypto simply by doing their learn-to-earn activities. But for ease of use, I like Wealthsimple better. 🙂 I have risked very little! 🙂

Add it to your shelves?

As I’ve only done a wee bit of research into cryptocurrency I can’t tell you if Decrypting CryptoCurrency is a fantastic book or not. I can tell you that Mr. Carter has helped me gain a broader understanding of this new financial tool. He walks the reader through everything he can think of and has therefore given me more peace of mind. That’s worth something yes?

Just as with any method to making money, only risk what you can afford to risk. Just as you’d take your time buying a house, investing in a business, or finding stocks and bonds. Take your time. There are a fair number of scams out there, so research, study, and then make a wise investment.

I will most likely have my lad read this book for grade 12 just so he has a firmer understanding of this new market. Part of preparing him for adulthood eh?

Books read in May 2022

May 31, 2022 By Annette1 1 Comment

Continuing my progress from April, I thought I’d talk about the books read in May 2022. A good variety I think this month. Some are better than others for sure!

So I’ll be doing a number of links in this post. Some will be to reviews, others to amazon affiliate links. Just trying to make it easy to you to find your next read. 🙂

Physical Books

The Dragon Prince – I like Melanie Rawn, and this book, I’m really hoping I can find another! I love the world and the viewpoint of the main protagonist. Dragons, kings, deserts, division in society, people making their own way occasionally against the grain. Well written.

Skander and the Unicorn Thief. I got stuck at Costco waiting forever for a prescription to be filled so I did what I always do when waiting… started to read. I got hooked and ended up buying it! 🙂 It’s a middle school read and says it’s about unicorns… but these aren’t any unicorns I’ve heard of before. A Facebook acquaintance pointed out they are actually alicorns… which explains why they didn’t seem like typical unicorns! But good characters, lots of action, and an interesting twist. A middle school read.

Gentle and Lowly – still slowly making my way through this step into the heart of Christ. Absolutely recommend.

More than My Scars – a good book that I reviewed that left me feeling like there’s got to be more to the story. About a young lady who got badly burned, and how she developed her faith throughout her healing process.

Along the Rio Grande – a romance set back in 1899 in San Marcial, New Mexico. A family needing to learn a new way of living. Life is a bit of a challenge, and it was great to see growth and the love of the Lord blossom. The first in a series of two.

An Encounter: Easter – this is the third in the series and the first one of the series in which I came across a roadblock in recommending. I have a hard time when people force an idea into a scripture passage that doesn’t belong there. This happened once too often.

The graphic novel Lowriders to the rescue, has a decent environmental theme, but the style wasn’t my cup of tea.

On Kindle

Dream of Empty Crowns – GAH… I felt compelled to get the second book just to learn more of the story. The first book ended in such an odd spot… usually a series will stop a book in a logical spot. This book didn’t do that! I suspect they’ll force me to buy a third book too.. which I might depending on how much it costs. 🙂

And the second book The Trials of Boy Kings, which surprisingly I enjoyed more than the first book. This series is definitely growing on me. I happen to like middle school/young adult literature though. Such an interesting concept of electing a 13 year to be your leader with good advisors in the background. And seeing how other systems operate (evils of communism, how kings can be bad rulers as well as good, and letting people govern themselves however they want).

OH! I should probably mention where I find some of my kindle books. I’m part of a list called book bubs. This is a list (and you can choose what books you’d like sent to you) where they send you books for free or cheap. I’ve never seen a book over $4.99 and some of the books are pretty good. Others.. well you know, not all books are great!

I’ve just started one called Bond of a Dragon: Zahara’s gift, which overall is pretty good, but some characterization is poorly done. It is the first in a series of four books so I may be making additional purchases….. It’s so far about a young man whose uncle was killed in front of him and he’s running away to rescue people taken captive (including his cousins). Along the way, he befriends a young dragon, Zahara. And that’s about as far as I’ve gotten.

On Audible

High Noon – an interesting look at the life of a hostage negotiator. The problems with being a woman in a man’s world and how that impacts life. A Nora Roberts book, so you know there’s going to be a romance involved, and you may want to fast forward through the love-making parts. I listened to this one as part of the Audible App.

I continue to work my way through Women in White Coats. It’s a drier read, more of a history, so I do not listen to it all the time. But it is fascinating to hear the history and grasp the dedication of those early women doctors.

Redemptor is part of the Raybearer series. It’s an interesting blend of African drums, mythology and fantasy. This would not be a read for everyone I think. I just found the world and culture building so very interesting and figuring out the connections between the different parties.

How About You?

Have you read any interesting books lately? What type of books draw your interest? Share with me your books read in May 2022.

Love is for Roaring

May 18, 2022 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Love is for Roaring) 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. 🙂

Want a cute picture book that speaks to the power of good friends in your life? Check out Love is for Roaring! Because you know what? Not everyone expresses love in exactly the same way! Sometimes we need some help to figure out how each person (or even yourself) expresses love.

The Basic Facts

Bloomsbury Children’s books together with Raincoast books sent me this wonderful picture book entitled Love is for Roaring. This hardcover book with dustcover is written with children 4-8 years old in mind. At 32 pages it’s a bit shorter than some of the picture books I’ve reviewed lately.

Written by Mike Kerr and illustrated by Renata Liwska. These Canadian people also put together Crafty Llama which looks like one I’d like to read as well! 🙂 Renata is an award-winning illustrator of many books. Mike is an instructor of illustration at the Alberta University of the Arts.

Learning more about Love is For Roaring

Imagine a scenario where, when you think of love you just think of foofy things. Flowers, rainbows, chocolate, or hearts. Imagine you are asked to complete a project that focuses on love. You are supposed to show your love. This is an impossible task! However will you complete it???

This is where the beauty of friendships (and this book) come into play.

But you have a brave friend. A friend willing to risk your wrath by asking questions. I LOVE just love how Lion’s friend mouse chose to ask questions instead of making assumptions. These are questions based on how mouse understands his friend. But they lead to Lion better understanding himself and what LOVE means to him. Such an excellent win!

The illustrations fit the mood and story perfectly. You see all the emotions from disgust and anger to laughter and fun. (and yes, here I’m claiming that fun is an emotion!). 🙂

The use of colour and memory is just spot on. A truly lovely little picture book.

Should you get it?

Oh yes! Have fun with your littles and learn how people can be so different in how they express love. And even better yet, how we can all be the same.

Love is for Roaring is by no means a complicated picture book, but it is a fun one that I think children and their caregivers will like equally well.

This would be a fun book to use for teaching the letter R or working with a valentine’s day unit study, or just for reading with your children.

Mostly Fiction Books

May 17, 2022 By Annette1 2 Comments

So I tend to pick up books like bees make honey… it’s just something I do. 🙂 This post will list my mostly fiction books. Some aren’t. Some are great books to learn from… either because they introduce history in story form, or teach us more about ourselves, or whatever. Books are good. Some make you think deeply, and others are just fun. Even fun books teach us something eh? 🙂

Picture books

I don’t know about you but I enjoy a good picture book.

Some picture books are meaty and contain SO much information.

Other picture books aren’t as good but contain so many talking points in them, it makes them fantastic.

Mind you, others are just a fun simple read.

I mostly priced books based on how much liked them, OR thought they could be useful additions to most any household.

Adult fiction

Some of these books are basically new, others have been well-loved either solely in this household, or have been shared from other homes. Some are faith-based like Miriam’s song, lady in attendance, night fall, mind games, and unknown threat.

I happen to have a love of fantasy and murder mysteries… so you’ll see those book types in abundance.

Occasionally I’ll try a new genre like Beach House. Sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised, and other times I’ll go back to my normal fare. 🙂

Prices reflect my enjoyment of the read as well as my age/style etc of book at hand.

Upper Elementary – Middle Schoolish reads

I have to admit, some of these books were fantastic!

I would happily read more of the unleashed series, Willowdeen was such a sweet story (and would make a great gift with the box it comes in), Shelby Homes and The Callers would round out my absolute favourites in this group.

Art Books

Can you believe I only have four art books available right now? I might come up with more as I’ve had LOADS of them pass through. It is hard for me to send art books along though since I have dreams of doing art classes with kids. I just can’t figure out the insurance end of it to run them out of my house. (which would be my preference). I may have to break down though and do art through the library…

Faith Matters!!! Devotionals, Bibles and the like

You’ll find something here for both genders, a variety of ages, and so forth.

Picture books about missions, help for your marriage and child-rearing, learning about the songs we sing and so much more. Devotionals, bibles, and more. the Bible Picture Bible Story book is the BEST bible story book I have run across. Eventually I’ll find just the right home to pass it along to.

Videos

I’ve actually sold a couple of these and will need to look through what I still have but it’s late and I”m trying to get this done before the morning. All are in good, playable condition.

Science and history books I think I missed

I may have missed these in my other list, or may have included them. I’m getting fair on tired here after a very long day and don’t feel like double-checking right now.

I am pretty sure I have more World War books…. but we are keeping quite the stack as well.

Elementary level books

These kids books are well-loved and should find themselves into new homes. They are good books despite their age. I’m very flexible on pricing, best suited to elementary youth.

I think that has it all. I will undoubtedly find more books that I really don’t need to keep any more. I’ll try to keep this updated.

Available Curricula

May 15, 2022 By Annette1 2 Comments

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.

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. 🙂