A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Colouring Pages

Art Series: Darth Vadar and Family, coloring book

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Most of the colouring books I do on this blog are for adults, but today I have a book geared at the younger set…. particularly those youngsters who like Darth Vadar and the different characters from Star Wars.    Jeffrey Brown has put together a colouring book called Darth Vadar and Family.

Do you like Star Wars?   Are you children lovers of this long-running series?
I have to admit, I like watching the movies though I am not a die-hard fanatic.  🙂

Both my son and husband have a firm fondness for this series and frequently rewatch the movies.   I am just delighted they have a movie interest to share in common.

In this colouring book, Jeffrey Brown combines normal family life with the characters and life of the Star Wars movies.

What do you think?    Would it be fun to go sledding with Star Wars Characters, or share a hot cocoa with Darth Vadar himself?

Or go
engage in a spot of friendly fishing…who knows who will catch the
biggest one…as long as they don’t use the light saber on the poor
fish.

Each page is one sided, which prevents bleed through, and if carefully done, would tear out to make for great refrigerator art.  (if the pages were perforated it would make tear out easier).

I appreciate that this book has simpler drawings that children can colour in, they can imagine (and laugh about) the idea of Darth Vadar playing the role of dad.  Or Chewbacca being one of the kids or heading up into a tree fort with one the Ewoks.

It’s a fun, fanciful approach to using Star Wars Characters.   It will appeal to some or … if they are like my lad .. “BUT MOM!!!   Chewbacca would never do anything with Darth Vadar!!!!!”   So depending on what your child(ren) are like, this may or may not be the colouring book for you.

One of the small gems of this book is on the inside front cover when Mr. Brown gives the reader a “Darth Vadar drawing lesson”.

Darth Vadar and Family, a coloring book.
Author/cartoonist: Jeffrey Brown
Pages: 96
Age range – 5 and up

Reviewed for: Raincoast books

Amazon.com: Darth Vader and Family Coloring Book

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Art Series: Fantastic Planets

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I so much enjoy my colouring book Fantastic Collections so when I saw I could review Fantastic Planet I was delighted!  This book is part of a series produced by Chronicle books.    This review is part of an Art series is part of an on-going series of Art books reviewed for your pleasure and resource.    You can find more books here and here.

 Book Synopsis:
Bestselling author Steve McDonald uses his unique photo-based
illustration style to celebrate the fantastic places, flora, and fauna
of the natural world around us. Here are inspiring, fun-to-color images
of lush jungles, teeming reefs, desert landscapes, fruitful orchards,
sun-dappled forests, spectacular waterfalls, majestic trees, tulip
fields, animal migrations, and much more.

My thoughts:

This is a GREAT colouring book.. seriously.
Fantastic images to fill in, that take the whole page, not just part of it.
High quality paper and images…wow… the images. 

I found myself hard pressed to pick which images I wanted to share with you.

 Back to back pictures that fill the page so you have no wasted space.   In the crease of the book one can find a description of what the image is about.

For instance, these alligators are from The Florida Everglades.   Can you see how an image like this might be fun to add to a study on Florida or Alligators?

These books are meant for adults, but I’ve known young teens who have done a stellar job with them.   Just a simply delightful colouring book.   The detail and imagery is simply a delight to fill in, knowing that by the end I will have a picture of a real thing.  

My son loves the tangle of snakes he discovered, my hubby the wolves and the landscape scences, I have a friend I’d love to send the elephants to, if I could figure out how to get it to her undamaged.  🙂   Some of these images, I see them and think, wouldn’t that be nice to add to a study someone is doing on Africa, Indonesia, China and more?  A nice add on for science and geography eh?

So if you like colouring books, my advice is to get this book, You’ll enjoy it.  Draw nature, explore this planet that we live on, and take some time…just for you.  🙂

 
Fantastic Planet: A Coloring Book of Places Real and Imagined
 Steve McDonald
 Chronicle Books
11.48 x 11.87
60 pages

 Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Art Series: Bright Ideas Pencils

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Imagine my delight when I received some pencil crayons in the mail.  🙂  YES!!   What fun eh?   I get to indulge my colouring delight with some new pencils…fun indeed! 

The first time I used these pencils I was waiting for my son at karate.   I was joined by a young girl, asking if she could colour with me.   I told her sure, I’d be happy to have her help me with this review.  This led to a conversation about what a review was and how she was helping me.   She’s a sweet young lass that I often talk with while we wait.

This little six year old girl said:
“I like these pencils, they make nice colours”. 
“The colour is so pretty, I like how the brown ones look nice together.”
“Do you like how I did this?”
“Can I keep helping you colour?”
“These pencils are nice, look mom, see my picture?”

Bright Ideas has put together a box of 10 metallic coloured pencils. They are a nice fit in the hand and colour nicely.  They work equally well for a six year old as they do for a more mature person.  🙂

I found they went on the page smoothly and filled in the coloured area nicely.  They blend well.   I’ve done a couple of pages with them and haven’t needed to sharpen them.

They come in a nice sturdy box which holds up well to children opening and shutting it repeatedly.  I found them to be softly metallic, with a slight sheen.They are a lovely addition to the other coloured pencils that I have and I am delighted to have them.  🙂

Chronicle Books
Box size: 8.78 x 7.89

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

Random stuff

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Okay, this is just a bunch of random stuff pulled from the Friday Freebies that This Old Schoolhouse sends out.

Kid Genius. It has games, worksheets and a variety of other things. I have not checked it all out yet.

Shiller Math. Has diagnostic sheets to help see where you are missing in your math program.

How to make a Patriotic AirPlane. Not being stateside, the only real use I see for this is sharing it with my American friends, or using it as a template to make a Canadian one! 🙂 It’s a PDF file.

Colouring Pages of all sorts, flags, alphabet, basically whatever

Scratch your own Fireworks. A way to make firework picture, an art thing. I’m thinking the Kinder art page might be good over all for crafts.