Reviews

Observe, Collect, Draw

August 15, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Observe, Collect, Draw is a journal to help you learn more about yourself (by collecting data) in order that you may become more connected to who you are. Doing this will enable you to be the creative, talented person that you are. So if you are an artist, or writer, or sculptor, you can bring forth your talents more easily. 🙂 This is my review.

From the back cover:

A guided journal with a fresh approach to the trend of journal-as-tool-for-self-examination. The journal is delightfully illustrated in the authors’ trademark style-accessible, whimsical, detailed. Blending inspiring examples with engaging instruction, this journal asks: What do we learn about ourselves when we measure our gratitude, confidence, and distraction levels? What do our collections say about who we are: our books, music, the clothes we wear? Observe, Collect, Draw! functions as a mini-course in information design, as accessible to beginners as it is engaging to seasoned info designers.

The Nitty Gritty

Three main Sections to this journal

Part one: learning to see. This is where you overcome your fear of the blank page while learning more about using the data you have as material.

Part two: Observing, Collecting, Drawing. Immersing yourself in the world of data by following guided exercises to observe, acknowledge, count and draw.

Part three: Crafting your visual language. You’ll find open ended ideas for drawing with the data you have collected, following your own rules and using your own style. Your work, done your way, using your own style and rules.

Throughout the pages you will find whimsical drawings starting with learning what Data is. Data is simply getting the math about the things that are in your life: plants, people, food, events, interactions, it’s all just data. It tells us who we are and what we do. What’s important to us is shown to us in the data we collect about our lives.

You can then take that data and turn it into a useful form.

Like when a person enjoys a beautiful sunset and takes those colours and turns into a painting, necklace or rug.

The goal of this journal is to help you figure out what the data is in your life, so that you can in turn take that data and be the artist you are meant to be. To that end, guided exercises are given to help you collect data.

For instance, grab up your camera/phone. Take a look at the pictures that are on it. Now map out what’s on it, animals could be blue, people red, houses orange… Whatever. Just map it out. Colour code and use dots and shadings to show connections. This gives you data.

You not only look at the good things of your life, but you also get into the harder things in life, like figuring out what makes you complain. What you complain about? Who do you complain to? It’s all data.

The more you document your life, the more data you can mine, which gives you more information you can turn into artistic endeavors. Once you have worked your way through all 35 exercises, you are invited to then draw. First you analyze the data you have collected, find the stories of your life, then experiment with how those stories look using colour, lines, images, and before you know it you have a data image. Once you have that, you work your way through 12 additional exercises, or if you will, drawing prompts.

These drawing prompts include things like the animals you see, your holiday souvenir, your family, small talk, social media and more.

My Thoughts:

I wasn’t too sure about this book when I first got it. It’s like HUH? I’m supposed to examine my life so that it makes my art better? Who in the world has time for that?!?!?!? But as I went through it, it started to make sense. The more you know about yourself and the way you put things together, the more you can bring yourself out in the art that you produce. It’s not a bad thing that, is it?

Is it worth getting? I think so. It’s good to stop and think about the things you do sometimes, helps a body to become more aware of personal foibles, strengths, interests they perhaps weren’t aware of, and gives ideas to talk about.. for instance today I was thinking about how much I like mint tea… making MY OWN mint tea, and then wondered if I could inspire others to like mint tea. This I thought about because of a page in this book. Good yes? Indeed.

Observe, Collect, Draw! A Visual Journal.
Giorgia Lupi
Stefanie Posavec
Princeton Architectural Press
Softcover, 160 pages
Journal, Art, Self-discovery
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Other Giorgia Lupi books you might be interested in
Dear Data.
Dear Data Postcard kit.

Review: Branch Out World

August 13, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Paddington Bear…. doesn’t that bear just make you smile? Today, for my review, I have a unit study, from Branch Out World, that will help you dig deeper into the world of Paddington Bear and the places he has been. Fly with me from the deep, dark forests of Peru to the city lights of London. Along the way we’ll discover art, architecture, story-telling, language arts and more.

Who is Branch Out World?

Branch Out World is brain child of a homeschooling family located in the United Kingdom. Having a deep love of books, they wanted to share that love with others and to that end have created literature-based unit studies as well as lapbooks. They are geared to be used by the whole family. Their unit studies have a UK link, the lapbooks are more globally oriented.

What do you Get?

I received a 69 page PDF of Paddington Bear, a literature based unit study. It’s connected to the picture book of Paddington Bear.

You could, if you wanted get through all five days, it’s quite doable, or you could spread it over a longer period. 🙂 A weekly schedule is included, explaining the how and what of each day’s planned activities.

In this literature study you will find lapbook elements such as the one below, along with lists showing what supplies you’ll need every day.

A sample day (I’m choosing day three) has the following options to do with your students.

Learn about the artist
Picture study based on page 31 in the picture book
Learn about architectural features. We went to youtube and looked up specific examples online. Later we went for a walk and talked about the different features we learned about in the houses we saw. This was fun to do!
Principles of Design – overlapping… my son declined to do this project, but we did talk about how shadows would be different depending on where the fruit was placed and that helps show depth and placement.
Principles of Design – Emphasis. My son did this project using a huge spider in the foreground. I’ve a picture of it below.

As you can see, lots to do on any given day. Depending on your student this could take 1/2 an hour or a couple of hours. You could easily expand the projects or shorten them down to just the basics.

All the information and lapbook elements are found at the end of the study.

How We Used Paddington Bear:

I offered to get the book for my 13 year old to read and he turned me down flat. We had the option of watching the book being read, but mostly we just sat down and looked through the options for extended learning. He dove right into learning about the Spectacled bear… telling me all about what he learned about them, showing me one of the videos he watched, and showing me on our globe where they live.

He also grabbed onto the idea of learning some architectural terms, and even drew a picture showing emphasis. It was so interesting watching what elements he gravitated toward and knowing that this study would please so many students. You certainly don’t have to do everything in the lesson plan, you can pick what your students are most interested in (or what you deem most important) and learn about the world at large through a great picture book about Paddington. I have to admit to being a bit annoyed with myself, I had a couple of different elements put together and I can’t find them AND I failed to get a picture of them. I only have the picture of this one element….the drawing for emphasis.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit, my son is a bit beyond the Paddington years, so we picked up this review so that I could look at it for those that DO like Paddington. I was impressed. A good variety of activities and interesting topics to look at. Even my non-Paddington son found things of interest. If you are a lover of all things Paddington OR doing a larger unit study on bears and want to have a literary tie in, this book will provide a good way to do that. 🙂

I was browsing through the Picture Book Explorers series and saw the Mousehole Cat. That sounds like a fun book to read and then explore. What one would intrigue you?

Paddington Bear
Branch Out World
Picture Book Explorers series
69 pages, PDF, 5-10 years old.
lit-based unit studies, topic pack, home education resources, homeschool resources

65 members of the Homeschool Review Crew had a chance to utilize this study. Please read our reviews.

Social Media Links:

Facebook: @BranchOutWorld
Pinterest: @belzibow
Instagram: @belzibow
Twitter: @belzibow

Kid Normal

August 11, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

AH, this middle school read was TOTALLY ENJOYABLE! I loved it and immediately recommended that my lad and hubby read it, I enjoyed it so much. Murph Cooper is a lad who found himself in a new school that was FAR more than he bargained for, but he made do. Kid Normal is a book I recommend you reading. 🙂

A well-written story by Greg James and Chris Smith, Kid Normal walks us through a lad’s life as he adjusts to a new life situation after a series of hard decisions by his mom. Murph had moved more times then a lad should move in his short life and now he was a new town with no place to go to school. The homeschooler in me wanted to say “SO HOMESCHOOL HIM” but that’s not always an option. His Mom searched high and low, dragging Murph from one place to the next until an overheard conversation landed Murph at “The School”.

It didn’t take Murph long to realize his school was for superheroes in training. He was SO out of place, but stayed. He made friends. Before long a big bad guy threatened the life that Murph had made. Could he be stopped? How could Murph and his new friends stop him? Can they really become heroes?

What do you get?

Graphics

Black and white images scattered throughout the book. They don’t tell the story, but they do a good job of providing details. I would have loved to see the hive.

Interesting fonts

They did a good job of varying the size of the font, adding interesting and pizzazz to the reading. It’s a great way of keeping the reading interesting.

Interludes

Did you know a book can have an intermission? I KNOW weird eh? Anyways, we get to learn the story of Alan Rabbit. Such scintillating knowledge. 🙂

My Thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this read and regret that it took me so long to pick it up. I finished in less than 24 hours often laughing at the foolishness of the characters. I have to admit, I disliked the bullying of some of the teachers, but I liked how the students took care of each other despite the disdain shown to them. The sense of humour, the cut-outs, the intermission, it’s all part of a wonderful package. I expect that most middle schoolers will enjoy this book and take home good lessons under the wrappings of a decent story.

Kid Normal
Greg James and Chris Smith
Illustrator: Erica Salcedo
Bloomsbury
400 pages, softcover
Middle School, Superheroes,
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

The Accidental Guardian

August 9, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

I don’t read a lot of Christian romance anymore as I find it way too predictable. A couple of people recommended this one to me so when it came up as a review with Nuts about Books I thought I’d give it a whirl. A friend came over the other day after my son spent the day with hers, and I said “I have a book I think you’d like”….and so the circle of book recommenders continues. 🙂

So What do You get?

Mary Connealy has provided us with a faith-based romance covering the pioneering west and one of the threats that those traveling in wagon trains faced back in 1867. Into this backdrop, with a subtle humour and touch of faith, she weaves a story of hardship, determination and growth.

Trace, orphaned, finding himself in a place to call home, with a thirst for vengeance. Deborah, on her way, along with her sister, looking for place to call their own. A wagon train attack leaves Deborah, her sister and two toddlers in their care. Paths cross.

As the story unfolds we see Chase growing in his faith, learning to exchange vengeance for justice. Deborah matures as a young lady, learning that perhaps her dreams aren’t really her own. It was interesting watching their growth as people.

My Thoughts:

I can see what people like this story. The sense of humour, the growth in faith and understanding, it’s good you know? It’s good to see love flourish and to see bad guys brought to justice with just enough threads left open to provide fuel for another story. Trace is a man’s man, growing up in a world where women are few and far between. Deborah, growing up in a world where what men say goes, even if the work falls on her shoulders, wants things to be different. Her work, her gain. Watching their awkward steps toward each other, and the growth needed in both to allow a romance to flourish, is smile worthy. I admittedly struggled with the almost instantaneous romance, do people really fall in love within a day of knowing each other? Does marriage come with a week? I struggle with it. BUT I ignore it because the story itself was a decent one. And that’s good eh?

The Accidental Guardian
Mary Connealy
Series: High Sierra Sweethearts
Bethany House
296 pages, softcover,
romance, faith, wagon train
Reviewed for: Nuts about Books

We Inspire Me

August 8, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

You know how creative people like to have others around them? Well actually how most people like to have some type of support system? We Inspire Me: Cultivate your Creative Crew to Work, Play and Make by Andrea Pippins is all about reaching out to the people in your life now, or those that you cultivate, in order to help you work, play and make.

Although this book focuses on building your CREATIVE community, the lessons contained within the pages are for anyone who just wants to expand the number of people in their lives.
About the Author:

Andrea Pippins is a designer, illustrator, educator, and author currently residing in Stockholm, Sweden.

What Do You Get?

Andrea Poppins brings together stories, essays, illustrations, advice and tips related to the importance of building and nurturing one’s creative community. It is important to surround yourself with people that want to see you excel and thrive. This is not a how to book, this is a tips and suggestions books with stories to inspire you to make connections with those around you.

As you turn the pages you will notice the bright and colourful designs. You’ll find a mingling of pinks, browns, yellows, and blues. The title pages are clearly delineated with a write up telling you what’s important in this section.

Each individual who tells a story is enabled to do so with interesting fonts and important lessons.

Lessons span topics such as sharing stories about dealing with mental illness, to how to find people with common interests, different formats to bring people together, how to celebrate each other’s creativity and more.

I was talking with Lisa the other day and she was telling me about different groups that she is part of. Her accountability groups and mentoring groups and such like. Some she paid to be part of, and others she chose to start. And I have to admit, as an introvert, trying to figure out how to start a group and be able to chat with different people about ideas is difficult, even if it is on-line. It’s so easy to get lost in the conversation whether it’s in person or on-line. I don’t quite get how one does it. Books like these help.

I don’t think a tribe of one or two is what this book is calling for though eh? A tribe implies more than just one or two. I can see the advantage of having a variety of people with differing skills as part of your group, and how it is vital to inspiring one’s own creativity. We can inspire each other.

This book talks about that though, how an introvert who prefers stick to the quiet things, can push past that to attend events that lead to friendships. It’s good to do that eh? To take that risk and try it something new out.

Some of the ideas I ran into:

Wine Tasting, Team sports, paint night, go out for brunch with at least four people, throw an event that YOU would be interested in, bring a business card to a meeting (maybe 5-7) and make a goal of passing them out before the night is through and you can start a neighbourhood project… perhaps you need a new park or art centre? Who knows the people you will meet along the way. Might be your new best friend or just the person you need to inspire you to greater heights in your life. You just never know if you don’t take the chance.

We Inspire Me: Cultivate your Creative Crew to Work, Play and Make
Andrea Pippins
Chronicle Books
152 pages, hardcover
Creative, Teamwork
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Learning to Yearn

August 2, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

A homeschool friend of mine wrote this book Learning to Yearn, she’s written another book “Calling all moms“. ANYWAYS, I promised her a review back in April and then we bought the house and life got busy, I saw it sitting there and said “OH RIGHT!” 🙂 So that leads me to today eh?

Anyways, Laurie is a lady of a quiet faith, she longs to know the Lord better and wishes that for her readers as well. She’s had some trials in her life and has learned that the best way through them is the seek the Lord throughout. She raised seven children, losing one to cancer, she grew up in a non-believing home.

What do you get?

122 pages, divided into nine chapters. Each chapter is prefaced with a bible verse, and none of the chapters is particularly long, making it easy to read through. Each chapter is followed by a blank page if you want to take notes as you read.

Using real life examples, Laurie does an excellent job of connecting the spiritual with the everyday. Helping us to better see the Lord in the things around us. I could really see Laurie’s humbleness throughout her words. She doesn’t offer these words out of a sense of “I’ve been there done that”, but more from a “this is what I’ve learned as I continue to struggle with it myself” point of view. It’s refreshing to read a book that comes from a “me too” perspective you know? One that shows important lessons to learn about walking in faith, but shows while walking side by side eh?

One of the lines I liked was this one “It’s an act of faith to let our tight grip go. It is also an act of faith to go through life with hands open surrendering to His plan, instead of tense, white-knuckle gripping. Daily we need to ask for help give our concerns, fears, and hardships into His capable hands”.

My thoughts:

Good book, go out and get yourself a copy eh? Learn more about how to yearn for the Lord and how that will, over time, transform your life.

Learning to Yearn: Amidst the Storms of Life
Laurie Kenyon
Kenyonspage Publications
122 pages, softcover
Christian living, christianity

Home School in the Woods – WW2

July 31, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

My son wants to learn about the great wars in the coming year, therefore we were very excited to get a chance to review World War II from the selection of Time Travelers in U.S. History series offered by Home School in the Woods. For the past bit, between bouts of readying our guest room and learning other important keeping up a house skills, my son has been watching copious Youtube videos and diving deep into World War II. Come join us in our studies won’t you?

Who is Home School in the Woods?

The Pak family in essence. Taking a dislike of history and finding a way to teach it in a meaningful, delight-filled way. Their goal is to make history fun and interactive. I urge you to check out the entirety of their Time Travelers series, as well as newest release Ancient Rome which completes their Project Passport series.

What do you get?

A WHOLE lot of PDF’s! OH MY! I actually just ordered them printed off for me at my local Staples. For $35 printed, and delivered, I couldn’t beat the time saver, and personal printing costs to me in the middle of a busy season. Just look at the binder full of paper!

I found the materials come in two formats. If you unzip the folder you can open the entire file in HTML format which walks you through all the information start to finish. Or you can follow the same format I did and simply open all the files. Print off exactly what you need, put it all in a binder so it’s all set up and ready to go and then just work your way through it. You do not have to print off everything, some of the files are simply how to use, how to print off etc. I should mention that different colours of paper were called for in the printing instructions. I chose to ignore those colour changes as I didn’t need “Why this colour mom? Can’t we print it in this colour instead?” All white is simply easier in my household. 🙂

It is SO worth looking through the intro files, teacher keys etc. You’ll find a treasure trove of information. In fact one of the pages I really appreciated having was the additional resources page listed in the intro file. Books, movies, audios, music, and websites. Just a phenomenal well done list which will save me OODLES of time (as long as I can find the materials!) 🙂

When I put things in the binder I put the Lesson reading, followed by the project list, then the copy work (for most weeks), and the weekly project. I really appreciated that they build time into the unit study for catch up weeks. Some of the weekly projects are fairly large, so instead of putting them in a page protector I gave them their own files… like the timelime and a later couple of lessons.

This study follows the events from the Close of WW1 and beginnings of the Nazi party through to the end of the war and what happened afterwards. There are almost 100 figures to add to the ten-page timeline.

A Brief Look:

My son and I put together this brief overview for you.

How we used it:

We didn’t work through our WW2 study at a fast pace. Interspersed into our summer are several birthdays, I’ve had a few “under the weather days”, caring for a house that is our own now, and a major heat wave.. speed wasn’t in our purview. Taking our time working through lessons allowed us to more fully discuss ideas and watch videos that went along with the lessons. We’ve been inspired to take a few rabbit trails as well. I love rabbit trails don’t you? They are so much fun!

Taking time to set it all up properly in the beginning was the best thing I could have done. Having the binder ready to go actually made my boy grin. “Look Mom! Look how much I can learn about the war!” My son could work through it independently beyond checking in with me to see what his work load should be.

There are 25 lessons in all. We are looking forward to these upcoming lessons: Pearl Harbour, Hitler’s Fortress, VE day and Iwo Jima and the Atomic bomb. It is SO interesting listening to my boy. “I didn’t know that!” “Mom, did you know ________________”. The questions of “I don’t understand this part, can you help me?” “Can we look this up on youtube? I want to know more.” Those questions a homeschooling parent lives for eh?

I now know FAR MORE about Hitler, his youth, and how he rose to power from a variety of viewpoints then I ever thought I would. 🙂 And think…. come January I’ll get to learn it all over again. This Time Traveler unit study will become the spine of our World War II studies. We’ll diverge now again to pick up speeches and study them, to focus on Canadian men and women of the war, and to throw in a bit more geography, art projects and to follow rabbit trails.

My son’s opinion:

I like it. I am learning so much and I want to know even more. It makes me think of different things I can watch on youtube, and how everything connects. It’s good and I can do most of it on my own, sometimes mom helps though.

My thoughts:

My lad likes it, it’s well laid out. It provides ample opportunity for rabbit trails and discussion. It’s written at a language easily accessed by middle school and above students. It provides an easy spine for when we start our official studies of World War II in January. It will be very easy to adapt it, or perhaps adapt is not the right word, the way it is laid out it will be very easy to add additional materials or extend a lesson further. Together with The War to End all Wars Game, this history study will suit our needs nicely.

World War II
Time Travelers U.S. History Series
Home School in the Woods
PDF and HTML files received.

Also has a CD option. Pricing options here.
History, interactive, hands on
Hands-on history, history studies, best history studies, world history studies, american history studies, history timelines, history curriculum, notebooking pages

Some 90 of us on the crew took a look at a variety of products from Home School in the Woods. I invite you to go read the reviews. Perhaps the next one you come across will be just what you are looking for! I know this review is what we needed in our household.

Social Media Links:

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Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hsinthewoods/

Reviews

Observe, Collect, Draw

From the back cover:

The Nitty Gritty

My Thoughts:

Review: Branch Out World

Who is Branch Out World?

What do you Get?

How We Used Paddington Bear:

My Thoughts:

Social Media Links:

Kid Normal

What do you get?

Graphics

Interesting fonts

Interludes

My Thoughts:

The Accidental Guardian

So What do You get?

My Thoughts:

We Inspire Me

What Do You Get?

Some of the ideas I ran into:

Learning to Yearn

What do you get?

My thoughts:

Home School in the Woods – WW2

Who is Home School in the Woods?

What do you get?

A Brief Look:

How we used it:

My son’s opinion:

My thoughts:

Amazon Affiliate information

Tinker Crate Affiliate

Reviews

From the back cover:

The Nitty Gritty

My Thoughts:

Who is Branch Out World?

What do you Get?

How We Used Paddington Bear:

My Thoughts:

Social Media Links:

What do you get?

Graphics

Interesting fonts

Interludes

My Thoughts:

So What do You get?

My Thoughts:

What Do You Get?

Some of the ideas I ran into:

What do you get?

My thoughts:

Who is Home School in the Woods?

What do you get?

A Brief Look:

How we used it:

My son’s opinion:

My thoughts:

Want to Stay Informed?

Thank you!

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Amazon Affiliate information

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