A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Books for Middle School

Art Book: Splash of Color

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 Ah… I need to apologize to you all.. being away last week totally wrecked up my routine for getting posts ready for the blog.  TOTALLY!!!    I need to figure out a way to get caught back up!  

Anyways, I have a neat book here for you today… it’s not a little book by any means, rather long… think the size of those big sketch books you can buy for art … NOT the HUGE ones, but those middle sized ones.   It’s called Splash of Color.  It’s a painting and colouring book.

I know I know.. SAY WHAT?  

It’s a painting and colouring book, it’s made on watercolour paper so you can colour the pages with watercolour brushes or pens, or use paints OR use pencil crayons. 

The point is to colour.  🙂

 Isn’t that welcome lovely?   Makes me think of the pleasure it brings to share art with each other doesn’t it with you too?   And this book calls you to make art, to share that art on the easy tear off sheets. 

I have GOT to show you my favourite design in the whole book.  I have this major thing for chickens.  🙂  So guess what!   I found a chicken!!!!!

Though admittedly I also like this one: 

Lest you think they only have animals in this book, let me show you some of the variety.

The paper is a very sturdy watercolour paper, able to be pulled out easily to be displayed.  They are designed so they will fit in 9 x 12 frame.  The pages, as you can see pull up from the top.

The opening cover fits smoothly behind each page to provide additional support in your painting & colouring endeavors. 

I definitely recommend this book you and if you do get it, you might want to consider trying out their watercolor pencils as well!

 Splash of Color: Painting & Coloring Book
Author:  Liz Libre of Linda & Harriett 
Pages: 50
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Where can you find it?
Amazon.com – Splash of Color Painting & Coloring Book

Amazon.ca – Splash of Color Painting & Coloring Book

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Review: Beekeeper’s Lab

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Do you know what we discovered the other day?   A BEE’s Nest!!!!   In our own backyard!   It wasn’t a honeybee, just a normal bumblebee… doesn’t matter though, the lad and I were so excited, and we carefully covered up the nest again (and reinforced it with other wood). When Gramma stopped in the afternoon, she was delighted as well and had the lad show her where the bee lived.   We like having easy going bees flitting about the house, so imagine our delight when the “Beekeeper’s Lab” showed up in the mail!  🙂

Kim Lehman is an author who knows bees well, having been a hobby beekeeper for 20 years and a contributing author to various bee publications and coordinating the Kids and Bees program.  She writes with a desire not only to teach, but help people really learn and see the beauty that can be found in all aspects of care-taking bees.

Her book has 8 chapters, covering everything you can think of in the world of keeping bees.  Each section is called a lab and can be everything from information to an experiment or art project that you can do. From providing the bees a safe home to working with beeswax and honey. It closes with a whole section on how to be helpful to bees.  This is a very informative and fun book about beekeeping.

Each page is filled with tons of images to delight and inform.  The images further explain the well written text enabling you to complete each project well.

Help bees find a home
How to make fire starters

On almost every page you will find a supply list, bee buzz (Tidbits of information about bees), Fun with Kids, how to take it further, and a safety note (only if required). 

All these helpful features make the Beekeeper’s Lab a very helpful and informative book.  I am actually looking at sourcing out some of these materials to do a co-op class since alas.. I have no bees from which to take honey or wax.  🙂  I think it would be fun to make honey sticks and beeswax art.  To help youth make smoker bundles and bee bread.  Learning about bees, their importance, their usefulness to mankind and how to protect them is vitally important to our food chain.  Keep the bees, keep the food, sustain life.   A good thing that!

I wonder if anyone will join me in making a wax candle holder?

 
Or perhaps make a whole host of the other crafts and projects found within the pages of this marvellous book all about bees?   52 different ideas.  Pick and choose or do one activity a week for a whole year!  🙂  You will find activities that will challenge your teens or delight the littles and everyone in between.  Science, art, bee care, 52 different labs to entertain, delight, educate and inspire everyone in your family.
The Beekeeper’s Lab: 52 Family Friendly Activities and Experiments Exploring the Life of the Hive.
Author: Kim Lehman.
Publisher: Quarry
144 pages
250 photos
8.5 x 8.5 inches
Reviewed for: The Quarto Group

Where can you find this treasure trove?
 Amazon.ca – Beekeeper’s Lab: 52 Family-Friendly Activities and Experiments Exploring the Life of the Hive
 Amazon.com – Beekeeper’s Lab: 52 Family-Friendly Activities and Experiments Exploring the Life of the Hive

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Review: Voyage to Magical North

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I have to admit to eagerness with Voyage to Magical North.  I thoroughly enjoyed the sequelin  Journey to Dragon Island and now I had a chance to find out how the whole thing began.   AND the book did not disappoint.  

What can I say… if you have youth who like fantasy… these books will not disappoint.  🙂   Cleverly written with humour… it works!

Enter a girl (Brine), add a boy (Peter), an evil magician, a bunch of pirates (with their own set of rules) and a girl who isn’t plus..throw in an unusual quest.. perhaps an impossible one.  Can they do it?  Will they survive?  Is it a hoax?   Will evil triumph?  NOW THAT is the question.

I absolutely refuse to tell you too much about the story.  I want you to dive right in and enjoy it from start to finish.  Use your brain, try to see where the story is going, quotes at the beginning of the chapter lend a clue.  BUT Brine is trying to find her place in the world, Peter is trying to be a decent magician, Pirates well.. they want to be the best pirates they can be, and well .. evil will be what evil is right… even clothed in an odd ball figure!

Know this.. the characters are real, their struggles seeming insurmountable.. but through it all they build their friendships, their loyalties are tested, their characters developed and life is lived.  This is not a humdrum book, but one full of life and wit. 

Watch out for the penguins… seriously….

Book Synopsis:
A swashbuckling story of a girl and a boy, an evil magician, a merry band of pirates, and an unthinkable quest.

Twelve-year-old
Brine Seaborne is a girl with a past – if only she could remember what
it is. Found alone in a rowboat as a child, clutching a shard of the
rare starshell needed for spell-casting, she’s spent the past years
keeping house for an irritable magician and his obnoxious apprentice,
Peter.
……

Title: Voyage to Magical North
Author: Claire Fayers
Publisher: Square Face
 336 pages
Ages 8-12 years
Series: Accidental Pirates

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

What are you waiting for?  Get this book!   Not just for your middle schooler…but for yourself!
  Amazon.ca – The Voyage to Magical North

Amazon.com – The Voyage to Magical North (The Accidental Pirates)

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Books read in the Month of May

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 May…the time for spring flowers and rolling back on the schooling expectations, business in the outdoors planting gardens, going to for walks, and cleaning out rabbitries.   Not a time for a whole lot of reading, but still.. I DID!  YES!  I read some books!!!

Wow. Guilty Wives by James Patterson…
Wow… I have to admit, that the beginning of the book had me NOT wanting to read the book, so I read part of the ending which… was just enough to intrigue me to want to know how the bad guy did it.

Wow.. this was good read.  I was so glad I stuck it out.  The horror of French prisons though… NASTY.  Are they like that in real-life?   I don’t know, but I do know I don’t want to go to France and break the law and get stuck in jail there. 

The determination of Abbie, the main character, was impressive.  Her ability to focus and work on proving her innocence amazes me despite all the hardship she was put through.   Perseverance and commitment, being the type of person she needed to be for her children’s long term care.   It was such an interesting read…definitely a book for ADULTS!

Urban Wildlife Habitats was a neat read about how different animals have adapted to living with people in urban areas.

Everything from storks to monkeys, to sheep and lizards, to snails and kangeroos.   So many animals have learned to co-exist with people.  Throughout the book are a copious amount of pictures, and tons of information to help us co-exist with them and even help them.  

So tell me….would you want to see a moose in your take-out window?

We’ve learned about muskoxen and ostriches recently.

Fascinating critters.
Did you know that male ostrich lay on the eggs at night because their black feathers are the perfect camoflage. 

 Rip and Red and the Tournament of Champions.

Two boys learning and growing together… finding it’s hard … Red with his autism (high-functioning) and Rip with his Dad returning… hard things for boys to deal with.  But they manage to pull it together around the world of a basketball championship.

 Secrets and Sequences of the Secret Coders series.

You’ll find my review here.   

Using a graphic novel to teach some of the basics of coding. 

 Mission to Pluto is a book my son thoroughly enjoyed.  He used it to further his learning with his apologia studies.  

It’s part of the scientist series. And it is a really well done series.  if you have a chance to read some with your children (or even just for yourself do so.)  Elephants and Dolphins are the next on my hit list!

Books I am working through.

My mom-in-law asked me what I thought of this book and I said “this man writes my hubby preaches!”

I am so far loving this book and looking forward to digging into it all the more.  It’s not a quick fiction read, but a let’s grow a discipling people read.

Good book … My review is coming!

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This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Review: Secrets and Sequences

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Do you want a painless way to interest your students or children in coding?   Secret Coders has come out with a series of graphic novels to intrigue and entertain.   Mystery mixed with coding.  It’s a good thing eh?   Last year I reviewed another Secret Coders book, and today I have Secrets and Sequences to share with you.   Learn coding through reading a graphic novel!   Neat Idea eh? 

Hopper and the gang have a mystery to solve.  What’s going on with Professor Bee, who is one-zero and still.. where is Hopper’s Dad?   Will they get closer to figuring this out?
As the gang works through the mystery they make new friends (who would have thought!) but danger does make for strange bed fellows.  🙂   They learn how to code better (even Josh) and before you know it, they have worked out more of the mystery’s answers!  WOOT WOOT!!!

They learn to work together all the better, though sometimes it’s not so easy.

I love how the graphics are simple and not hard on the eyes like the graphic novels of old.   These are clearly legible, with simple colours that don’t detract from the storyline.

This graphic novel does what many do well… leave you hanging so you want to get the next book so you can solve the mystery.   Will they be able to see it through?   Will the gang solve the code?

Do I recommend it?
For sure.  It’s an easy read that introduces coding to your students AND if they decide they are interested, they can visit the secret coders website and learn more!  Pretty cool that!  🙂

Title: Secrets and Sequences
Author: Gene Luen Yan
Illustrator: Mike Holmes
Series: Secret Coders
Publisher: First Second Books
Pages: 112
Age: 8-12 years
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

 Where can you find it?
 Amazon.ca – Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences

 Amazon.com – Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Review: Tournament of Champions

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Rip and Red are at it again, basketball is the name of the game and these two boys, one autistic and the other from a single parent home, are full into the spirit of the game.   Oh the joy of it!   They are going to part of a basketball Tournament of Champions.   My son and I were eager to read this newest book in the Rip and Red series since we enjoyed A Whole New Ballgame so much.

Challenge one: Can Rip get Red to be part of the tournament?
Challenge two: How will Rip handle the person from the past?
Challenge three: Can they win the tournament?

Team Motto: We will rise to the occasion which is life. 

The tournament they are to be part of is called the Jack Twyman Spring Showdown.   I thought I would see if Twyman was an actual player and learned that he was.  According to Wikipedia, he took guardianship of a fellow basketball player who became paralyzed and cared for him until his death. 

16 teams are invited, Clifton United is one of them and they have only two weeks to prepare. The tournament will be played single elimination style.   The boys are totally stocked with bams, booyahs and high fives all around.

The chapters are short and laced with a lot of communication.   I actually found all the communication with little scenery, or setting made for a less interesting read.  It seemed to me that every other work was “bam” or “balling” or “booyah”.  I used it as a read aloud with my 11 year old and he commented on it as well saying “it’s not as good as the first book mom”.

That said though, it was interesting enough to keep us reading it, we wanted to know if Red would actually play in the game, or if Clifton United would do well, and later on, to see how Rip would do with a situation that popped up in his life.

The chapters are short, short enough that we frequently had time to read two or three chapters  instead of just one. Those short chapters are what help to carry the book along.

Illustrator Tim Probert adds to the story with his great illustrations.

My Recommendation:
 If you have a sports minded child living in your house, this is a book well worth getting.
Short chapters.  Oodles of dialogue, real players discussed, and two active boys in the midst of a big tournament.  It makes for interesting reading.  The side stories add intrigue and what ifs which make the book all the better.

Title: Tournament of Champions
Author: Phil Bildner
Illustrator: Tim Probert
Pages: 235
Age: 8-12 years
Series: Rip and Red
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux 

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Where can you find it?
Amazon.ca – Tournament of Champions

Amazon.com – Tournament of Champions (Rip and Red)

 This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Art Series: A Boy Named Giotto.

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 I want to thank Kirsten for coming to my rescue this week with another guest post with an art book.  I am SO pleased to have learned about this neat book.   Won’t you join me in learning about it?

This is a wonderful treasure of a book that tells the
life of Giotto and explains his drive to create art that led him to
become one of the greatest painters of all time.

This is a book that tells most in its pictures and has
little text, although the reading level is beyond the reach of little
ones. It is a perfect book to give to older school-aged children and even
teens. But I used it as a read aloud book so my children could listen,
look at the glorious pictures, and discuss ideas that came up along the
way.

You can pair this book with a number of other activities
like painting with egg (as Giotto did), reading a short biography of
his life, and perusing a book by Madeline L’Engle that is filled with
his pictures telling the story of the life of Jesus.

So pick up “A Boy Named Giotto” at a bookstore or library today and open up a window to the past for your children.

Additional resources:



Egg painting activity – just like Giotto

The Glorious Impossible by Madeline L’Engle:A retelling of the 25 important events in the life of Jesus in a beautiful picture book.

Title: A Boy Named Giotto
Author: Paolo Guarnieri

Where can you find it?
Amazon.ca: A Boy Named Giotto

Amazon.com: A Boy Named Giotto

Kirsten West is a Christian Homeschooling Mom who blogs at DoodleMom’s Homeschooling Life.  Isn’t she a delight?   She found time in the midst of a crazy busy week to share this lovely find with us.  THANK YOU Kirsten!  🙂

Learn more about Giotto, through Amazon.com:

This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/