Reviews

Chickenology

July 17, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Chickenology) through Raincoast Books.

Did you know that I love chickens? I think chickens are such neat birds and they come in so many colours, sizes, feather styles, and temperaments. You’ll get egg layers, meat birds, and dual purpose. Chickens that lay eggs of many colours, and chickens known for their parenting abilities. Chickenology introduces us to those birds and so much more. Come! Let’s delve into the ultimate encyclopedia of chickens!

What do you get and who produced Chickenology?

Chickenology: The ultimate encyclopedia was produced by Princeton Architectural Press. It has a completely different look and style than the other Chicken book I’ve reviewed called Backyard Chickens. The aim of Chickenology is to touch on a number of different areas with chickens from all around the world, that live for a variety of purposes. Wild and domestic chickens are featured. Written with children 5-9 years old in mind.

Five sections

Discovering the World of Chickens (11 subsections)
What’s a Chicken made of (11 subsections)
The Egg Up Close (5 subsections)
Chickens and Humans (8 subsections)
A world of Chicken Breeds (5 subsections)

73 pages that are well coloured with a good sized font for reading. This book one in the farm animals series. A wonderful hardcover that is oversized but comfortable to hold. Chickenology is written by Barabara Sandri and Francesco Giubbilini and cheerfully illustrated by Camilla Pintonato. My review copy comes from Raincoast Books.

Getting More Specific

Check out the colours and the variety in these chickens! Small chickens, large chickens, all kinds of chickens!

As you browse through the pages you’ll see the development of a chick into an adult, see how big (or small) chickens are, explore their feathers, discover different comb shapes, poultry diseases, and the many ways to cook eggs up!

Chickenology provides lots of room on their pages for illustrations, lines, and text. Nothing feels crowded and lots of colour will draw your attention. I love the details provided on most pages about different features, such as this one about a chicken feather.

What do I think of Chickenology?

Would I call Chickenology the ultimate encyclopedia of Chickens? Not really, I didn’t find all the information accurate. BUT it is a fun read, an interesting read, and I learned a few things new about chickens! AND it is a very good start!

If you are doing a project about chickens, this lovely tome by Sandri, Giubbilini and Pintonato will come in handy. Or if you just want to have fun and learn some interesting facts about chickens, you’ll enjoy it.

Did you know that chickens have played an important role throughout history being featured in stories, being used as symbols, and feeding large portions of the world’s population. I’d be curious to know more, aren’t you?

Rescue at Lake Wild

July 14, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Rescue at Lake Wild) through Raincoast Books. Affiliate links will be used in this review to help support my time in bringing good books to you.

Even though this is an upper elementary/lower middle school, Rescue at Lake Wild was a fun mystery to solve that involved the cutest of rescues… baby beavers!

I even found this video that talks a bit about rescuing beavers.

Madison, Jack and Aaron, three intrepid friends, who like to solve mysteries and take care of critters needing help have a mystery to solve after they discover two baby beavers needing help. Will they be able to keep those baby beavers safe while they figure out who killed their parents? You’ll have to read the book to find out as I don’t give away secrets! 🙂

Rescue at Lake Wild, the basic Facts

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are the publishers of this hardcover book I received from Raincoast Books in exchange for my review. At 208 pages it, for me is an easy read couple hours read, but upper elementary students could well take longer to finish. But want to finish it they shall as the action is quick-paced and draws you further into the story. Written to youth 1-12 years old. Chapter introductions feature one of two beaver scenes.

There is very little in the way of illustrations in the rest of this chapter book, you will find some side of page decoration but for the most part, the story holds it’s own.

The three youth are an interesting mix of youngsters and they each bring their own skill set to their adventures. Madison with her knowledge of taking care of critters, Aaron with his intelligence and ability to physically get in get things done, and Jack with his tracking dog and people connections. They’ll need all these skills to not only help the baby beavers, but all the beavers in their county. Will they be able to get the adults to listen? Will they be able to find out who’s been hurting the beavers?

Rescue at Lake Wild involves family squabbles, and both parents and children learning important ways to improve themselves. They all pull together to make everything work out in the end. Both boys and girls should enjoy this book, and following Madi and her friends in their adventures. The dog Lid provides humour with some of his antics.

Other Terry Lynn Johnston Books

I have reviewed a number of books by Terry Lynn Johnston. I find her books have true-to-life characters, and always have a good resolution in the end.

Should you Get Rescue at Lake Wild?

YES! If you like a mystery, seeing baby animals rescued, and good friends working together! Mom and Dad play an important role as well, and the family connections play a vital role in helping things turn out well in the end.

With it’s focus on caring for the environment, and the silliness of the dog Lid, younger middleschoolers will find this a fun, easy read. Larger font, easier word choice, and the thrill of a mystery, combinded with animals make it an excellent read. I would not hesitate to give as a birthday gift to any 8-10 year old boy or girl.

A good add-on to a study on environmentalism, beavers, caring for wildlife, and community activism.

Night Fall

July 10, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Night Fall) through Nuts about Books. Affiliate links will be used in this review to help support my time in bringing good books to you. 🙂

Night Fall is a riveting book by Nancy Mehl which I already know won’t appeal to all my readers. But I love a good murder mystery! Having to figure out who “done it” just thrills my readers’ heart. Throw in a touch of faith, where people ask hard questions and don’t get blithe easy answers.. all the better!

The Basic Facts

Nancy Mehl is the author of Night Fall, the first in a series called The Quantico Files. Published by Bethany House, this 329 page book was provided for me by Mind Games. Can Alex as part of the Behavioural Analysis Unit figure out who is killing people? Can she get past the pain of the past to solve this heinous crime?

Author Nancy Mehl also wrote Mind Games that I reviewed last year. She is the author of more than 40 books and has won a Christy Award and has been nominated for the Carol Award. You’ll often find her on facebook communicating with fans and sharing book information.

Looking Deeper into Night Fall

Sometimes ones past can help you solve the problems of the present and give clues to future issues. This is the case for Alex, profiler with the BHA unit of the FBI. Her history provides a direct connection with a series of murders. Can Alex face her past?

Is Night Fall one to Get?

Nancy Mehl introduces us to Alex and Logan, and she takes the time developing their characters so that as the story progresses you can anticipate what is going to happen. The development of the secondary characters were also well done. It’s actually the one fault I have with this read. I enjoyed getting to know the characters, but before I reached the concluding chapters I knew what the end result was going to be. So it was a bit of a let down to know that I was right in my suppositions.

You’ll find the text a nice size for reading, and the story rolls along nicely making it an easy read. I got it finished in about four hours or so? I put a bit of a review up on Instagram.

If you like like suspense, this book will definitely fill that quotient for you. I found it a bit dark, but not scary. It is darker than most faith-based romantic suspense, which may be why I liked it! Most I find to be way to predictable or the romance aspect gets in the way of the story.

In Night Fall, the story came first, the romance came second and felt like an extension of who the characters were. The questions about God and how faith is lived out and what the future holds were natural without trite responses, kinda like the questions you’d get from real people, and real Christians trying to give an answer.

An enjoyable read, if you like suspense, and like a romance or a faith element mixed in, get Nancy Mehl’s latest book.

Highschool Math with CTCMath

July 8, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

You know what CTCMath does? It provides bite sized chunks of learning so that even an “approaching her senior years” mama can brush up on her highschool math. It even allows a high school lad to do his math, but to do it how HE wants to do it. For instance, he’s been playing around with Pre-Calculus some days, and other days he reminds himself of his Algrebra II skills. I set no expectations for him as he is a rather busy lad and this is a “fit it in if you can” bit of curriculum for him. I’ll let you know what he thinks later on in this review. Suffice it to say though, one can do highschool math with CTCMath and excell at it!

The Basic Facts of CTCMath

CTC covers all your math needs from kindergarten all the way up to grade twelve. You get all the math, for all grades in one package. Stop and think about that for a moment. If you aren’t sure what level of math your children are at, you can test out each level until you find one that is a good fit. AND since it is self-paced, your children can move as fast as they want (or as slowly as they want — or you allow) through the curriculum. Pricing is reasonable since you get all the math and can take as many math courses as you’d like.

Diagnostic Tests accompany every grade and chapter helping you pinpoint areas of difficulty, or areas that you already know well. Because face it, not all math programs are created exactly the same. Concepts are taught differently depending on which program you are using. This online math program helps homeschoolers learn all they need to know with bite-sized lessons that flow logically from one step to the next.

What courses are included you ask?

Elementary math for Kindergarten to grade Five.
Middle school math for grades six through eight. This includes 6^th grade math, elementary measurement, elementary geometry, along with basic math and pre-algebra.
High school math contains Algebra 1 and 2, Pre-Calculus (including trigonometry), Geometry and Calculus.

How Does CTCMath Work?

Each Student gets their own login information and the lesson opens to where you last stopped.

As you work through a lesson you have two options. Video (starts to play automatically) or a lesson summary available as a PDF. These can be printed off or viewed online.

As you view each lesson, if you understood the material well you can go directly to the questions. If you did not, there are worksheets provided so you can practice before taking the test. Worksheets are graded as well, you just need to follow the instructions for doing that.

Once you go onto the test for the unit, answers are immediately graded, and in the case of an incorrect answer, the correct answer is shown.

Neither my son or I have gotten far enough in to say if there is a test for the entire unit, or even if there is a final test before closing out each section or course.

How did we use CTCMath?

How did we use CTCMath? My son immediately dove into PreCalculus. He’s not moving fast as he fits a lesson in here and there. I occasionally ask him what he’s doing and he keeps me well-informed. As a parent/teacher I could also look this information up online as well. I just prefer to get the information directly from him. 🙂

I thought it would be good to get back into math as I have time so I’ve been working on Algebra 1, PreCalculus and Geometry. Geometry I’m finding at this point really easy. I have a personal goal of pulling off 90% in Geometry, I’ll be happy with 80% in Algebra and anything better than 60 in precalculus and later calculus will mean I’ll have beat my highschool scores! 🙂 So far, I’m finding it much easier doing my highschool math with CTCMath.

I love that I can take diagnostic tests. WHY? Because it gives me a taste of what is to come and if I do well, then I know I don’t have to do that section of questions. Why work through something you’ve scored a 90% in?

Can you do highschool math with CTCMath?

My Thoughts as Adult User:

I love math programs that are flexible in your approach to them. The fact that you have both video and print options, diagnostic tests, ease at choosing what math program to work through, and automatic grading. All of this makes CTCMath a winner.

Do I get frustrated at the small bites of information at time? YES.. in geometry. When it comes to algebra and precalculus though…small steps are a huge boon! 🙂

It has been wonderful to see the changes made since I last reviewed CTC Math. The user friendly nature of this online homeschool math program makes it ideal for most families. Using it now has made me see how easy highschool math with CTCMath can be. It has been a blue ribbon winner with the crew for a while now.

My Son’s Thoughts:

“I like using CTCMath, I like that it states things very clearly, and I love how the videos are done. It is easy to use and I like being able to look at the lesson summary as I watch the video.

One of the things I most liked was that as you took tests it would show you the percent mark as you completed it. Sometimes the questions were too easy and I hope they get harder as I go through my course. But I found the questions and worksheets very easy to find and it’s a well made course. “

CTCMath on Social Media

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ctcmath
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ctcmathofficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ctcmath
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/ctcmath/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWn5e6974bpIEAe46VnovZw

Read the Reviews

43 members of the Homeschool Review Crew have been looking at CTCMath for the past bit. Everyone will have their own experiences so I urge you to check them out, get a well-rounded view of this online homeschool-friendly math program. You won’t regret it.

Creation to Christ, flexible timeline

July 6, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

Home School in the Woods creates these fantastic timelines I want to take a moment to tell you about. Timelines that are NOT only good for your history and social studies lessons, but also good if you want to do character studies, or study people who exemplify certain traits you want your children to focus in on. Characters from the bible are included, so using this set as you do biblical studies is an added bonus. Today we’ll learn about the Timeline Set: Creation to Christ (Beginning – 100 AD).

The Basic Facts about this Timeline Collection

It has been my privilege to review one of Home School in the Woods (HSitW) timelines before. My son used the Historical Figures timeline. Today I am happy to review the Timeline Set: Creation to Christ (Beginning – 100 AD). This set encompasses history from when the world began through to 100 AD. You will see such historical figures as Enoch, King Solomon, Pythagora, and Hannibal. Both biblical and non-biblical figures are featured in this set.

This set retails for $22.95 and as a digital product you will find yourself using it throughout your studies in the bible, history, character and more. You will discover 250+ figures in black and white, in four formats. Two are in wall size one with text description, and the other with just name and date. You’ll find those same two formats in notebook size as well. The wall size varies from 2.5 to 4 inches, with the notebook size ranging from1.5-2.75 inches. BUT one of the things I love about digital products is once I cut and paste, I can make the size anything I want it to be. 🙂

This set is geared for students in grades K through 12. The Timeline series contains four sets: Creation to Christ, Resurrection to Revolution, Napoleon to Now,and America’s History. There is also the timeline collection and various add-ons you can do. This page will help you check out all those details.

Home School in the Woods was started by Amy Pack as she searched for better ways to present history to her children. Timelines seemed the perfect way to do that, and from then on the company has expanded their options.

How does it work?

Once you download your timeline set it will look like this in your file once you unzip it. Reading through the intro will give you a good idea how to use each of the file formats.

History runs throughout the ages, timelines can done in a book format or on a wall, or as a notebook. And Home School in the Woods has made it as easy for you to approach history how ever you want. 🙂 Size them to your needs, and teach history!

You’ll find the images come in two styles. Titles and dates, or Titles and dates with a blurb.

Home school in the woods Creation to Christ

Two sizes, small (wallet sized) or large (notebook size). Use them at the size given, or copy and paste them and expand to whatever size you need them. You might choose to do full page images and write on the back of them, in doing so you allow your students to see the name and the image and test their recall. Over time you’ll have a full binder with interesting people from history, with facts that your students find important.

I like how Home School in the Woods organizes their materials, making it easy for teachers and students to use. The variation allows for so much flexibility it is fantastic. Over the years I have reviewed a number of their products.

Find Home School in the Woods on Social Media

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/homeschoolinthewoods/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HSintheWoods
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeschoolinthewoods/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hsinthewoods/_saved/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrKq6iLty2fpB6R6ZpcUb8A/videos

Should you get it?

YES! I know, you’d expect me to say that eh? But honestly, if you’ve ever followed my blog you should know that I don’t just blithely say “get this”. I’m aware that everyone has different needs and different styles of homeschooling. Some of us our faith based and others not. One of the things I like about HSitW is that it is geared to all sorts of homeschoolers. It includes historical figures from the bible and outside the bible. While faith is behind the makers of this marvellous resource it isn’t the only thing going for it (if you know what I mean).

These timelines can be used in so many different formats.

Imagine a co-op that says “we’re going to study different figures of history”, and uses the depictions as colouring pages, notebook focal points, and/or a timeline on the wall. Faith based or not, these depictions will work!

Or a mom who says, I want my children to have some heros (and maybe anti-heroes) so they can see what true character is like. People of honour, honesty, faith, shrewdness in battle, or whatever you want to focus on.

Imagine that you are doing a study on how the world began, use the images to help stimulate discussion and to set your explorations up better. Or you are looking for truths of gospel revelation throughout history, studying the ancient peoples more indepth, you have the timeline pictures to act as a guide. There are so many ways to use timeline sets from Home School in the Woods, I urge you to pick up the set that will serve you best today.

Read the Reviews

You will need to check out the reviews of 47 members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew. Home School in the Woods asked us to review the following products:

Individual Timeline Sets (Grades K-12)

Creation to Christ (Beginning – 100 AD)
Resurrection to Revolution (0 -1799 AD)
Napoleon to Now (1750 AD – Modern Day)
America’s History (Explorers to 21st Century)

Project Passport World History Studies (Grades 3-8)

Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
The Middle Ages
Ancient Rome
Renaissance & Reformation

Time Travelers U.S. History Studies (Grades 3- 8 )

New World Explorers
Colonial Life
The American Revolution
The Early 19th Century
The Civil War
The Industrial Revolution through the Great Depression
World War II

Maps Combo-Pak (US & World Maps)

Lap-Pak: Wonders of the World

Activity-Pak: The Old Testament

Activity-Pak: The New Testament

Hands On History with Homeschool in the Woods

Armor & Animals

July 3, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Armor & Animals) through Raincoast Books.

When my lad was but a lad (he’s almost a man now!) he was FASCINATED by armor, weapons, warcraft and the like. He’s still interested, but less in the armor and weaponry and more on the planning behind the scenes which fascinates him. Anyways, one of the more interesting aspects of his fascination was learning how where people live influences how their weaponry is built. For instance, we learned of a people whose primary weapon was a club. The top of this club was shaped like a pineapple. Guess what grew around them? Pineapples. We saw this in other places of the world as well. The influence that nature and natural formations had on the design of their weapons. So when Amor & Animals arrived on my door from Raincoast Books, I was immediately intrigued.

All around us animals roam the earth. Some of these animals have obviously seen protective armour. These animals include such beasties as turtles, rhinos, snails and porcupines. Could their armour influence the armour that people make for protection and/or warfare?

You bet! Armor & Animals by Liz Yohlin Baill walks youth 5-8 year olds through 9 different animals whose protective gear influenced our own.

Learning more about Armor & Animals

Armor & Animals is a short, hard-covered book designed to answer the question, how do animals help us protect ourselves with better armor? Through 9 different animals, spanning the range from insects to mammals, children are introduced to this influence.

The book design is to lay out the question “A knight can lift the visor to look out of a helmet, just like a turtle peeks out from it’s shell”. Then it goes on to explain how that animal help to influence the design of the piece of armor.

More information about the animals and how their armor protects would have been great, as well as showing animals from the regions where the armor was designed. This is very much an introductory work, having more “meat” in it would make it even better.

Now, do I know if everything the author says is true, or if Liz Yohlin Baill is just looking for ideas to support her thesis? I don’t know? I haven’t done enough research on these specific things, but I do know that animals can influence our designs. AND I do know that a book like this would have sparked lots of questions from my lad.

The armor featured comes from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The pieces featured range from full suits of armor to a shield, staff, helmet and gear for horses, and also some chain link mail. All the armor was of European origin.

Font and Colour

The font is a great size for sharing with a group of children, or facilitating children reading on their own. I would not expect 5 year olds to read it on their own, but 8-9 year olds should be able to. The language used is quite child-friendly.

The colour palette is fairly basic using blue, yellow and red predominately (varying shades). But what they did was feature each animal and the armor in their own colour. This makes it easy to discern when a new topic begins.

Should You Get it?

Armor & Animals is definitely worth taking a look it, it’s a great book to get the conversation started. Can we be influenced by the animals around us? How might that influence look? Can we use animals to help us without hurting them? Could a turtle really provide some answers for us?

The amazement on my son’s face when doing our research on weapons and learning how where people lived affected their weapons design. You can’t know where you might get inspiration from, and if animals can help us, why not let them?

Unknown Threat

June 30, 2021 By Annette1 2 Comments

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (Unknown Threat) through Nuts About Books.

I have long been a fan of Lynn H. Blackburn’s books. Even though over time, I have developed a distaste for romance, particularly Christian romance, I like her books as generally they focus less on the romance and more on the events of the story. I finished this particular story overnight. YES! I wanted to know what happened and if they could find the person responsible for killing so many Secret Service agents. Unknown Threat is a fast-paced read that keeps you interested until the end.

Affiliate links will be used in this review. Supporting my blog offers me encouragement and costs you nothing. 🙂

The Bare Facts

Author is Lynn H. Blackburn of Unknown Threat, the first in the Defend and Protect series. The genre is Christian romance and romantic suspense. The storyline involves Faith Malone, FBI agent, tasked with discovering who is killing Secret Service Agents from the Raleigh office. Three down and the rest attacked, who could be behind such a devastating attack? Luke Powell, SSA, helps her with the investigation. Romantic interests flare as an investigation ensues. Will either situation be resolved well? Published by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, an adult fictional read running at 354 pages.

The Details of Unknown Threat

The very first thing that caught my attention with Unknown Threat is the cover. That intense gaze by the woman on the cover, caught in the crosshairs? When you enjoy a good mystery, such a cover will draw you in. I have to admit that the blue is deeper colour, and feels more intense, in real life but my photo-sharpening skills couldn’t bring that out. (sorry)

This is an easy-read. Granted I do tend to read fiction books speedily, but it took me about five hours from start to finish. The pace moves it along well as the action is fast-moving, with a deep need to resolve the situation before anyone else gets hurt.

The text is a nice size to read. Consider this, I need glasses for everything, yet I could lie in bed and enjoy a cozy read without needing to wear my glasses. Don’t of course, ask me how late I stayed up reading! 🙂

You’ll find the characters decently developed with enough questions left for a follow-up read. Hints were provided for who might be the next romantic interest in future volumes.

The action takes place over about a week. Honest dismay felt in that the romantic interest progressed as quickly as it did. In this regard, unrealistic. I wasn’t convinced that either party were truly believers, though prayer was occasionally thrown into the mix. if they are, they do need a better understanding of who God is.

Should you get Unknown Threat?

Sure! Honestly, it was a fun quick read. A bit of romance, a bit of suspense, a good bit of mystery. Everything came out good in the end, which is exactly what you want in a lightly suspenseful read. Unknown Threat is a perfect read for a lazy Sunday afternoon, or a take-along for camping. The characters are mostly likeable, solid people that it would be good to know in real life. Occasionally they come across as too good… but real-life flaws are apparent which makes for believable characters.