A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

delight-directed learning

Review: The Superhero Handbook

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 I have to admit, this is a cute book. Written in bold, easy to read font with quick easy instructions to get children on the road to making their own Superhero gear.   The Superhero Handbook is just that, a handbook made just for your average superhero, reminding him/her of all things important to superheroes.

Clear Text.   Easy to understand. Easily read by most children in the 7-11 years old bracket. 

Materials lists.  I like how they added the images to add clarity.   As face it, not all children read at the same level.

Clear instructions.   Again with illustrations to keep it straight-forward. Stickers as well to help you embellish your creations.

Some of the ideas are downright clever!   Giant hands! Hoverboards.  Blasters and Electro-magnets.  Let’s make them all!   What perfect fun for a child during summer holidays!

With it comes certificates needed. Oaths to make to protect and serve.   To help each other.  To have a great sidekick.

 My Thoughts:
This is a fantastic book that will be a great boon and idea maker for all the young superheroes among us.   It would be easy to extend the ideas in this book into learning opportunities (should you as parent/teacher desire to do so).  But frankly, I’d had this to my young superhero and say “here’s an idea book for you… run with it!”
 

The Superhero Handbook.
Janet Doyle and Jason Ford
Laurence King Publishing
144 pages
ages: 7-11
Approximate size: 6 x 8

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Where can you find it?
 Amazon.ca: The Superhero Handbook: 20 Super Activities to Help You Save the World!

Amazon.com:  The Superhero Handbook: 20 Super Activities to Help You Save the World!

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©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 . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Art Book: Miniscapes – Create Your Own Terrarium

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I recently contacted my “person” at Raincoast and mentioned that my lad was into making terrariums lately so she very kindly sent me a book that she thought might be a boon to him… and it was!   Let me tell you about Miniscapes: Create your own Terrarium.  I know I know..not your typical art book, but making a terrarium is a form of art you know?   Can you put different mediums together in a way that will balance and create something beautiful?   Miniscapes helps you to gain the know-how to do this yourself.

 
 I love the logical step up in Miniscapes.  Walking the reader through what a terrarium was and how it worked.  Being walked through all the parts of a terrarium, learning why you need the different layers, the types of plants you can use and more.  The Close of Miniscapes leaves you with several projects you can complete to get your feet wet, or to at least give you ideas for creating your own.   It’s a rather neat book.

The first half of Miniscapes is devoted to teaching the reader about the various plants, and parts of a terrarium.  The different styles of glass bowls, types of rocks, plants, substrate, tools, and accessories . 

I found the text easy to read and understand.  The author was very good at explaining how everything works, making this an ideal book for a novice to terrariums, while including lots of projects to intrigue the more seasoned.

 
The Projects, more than 15 projects, each with an ingredients list, with step by step instructions for completing them.

My Thoughts:
This is a helpful little book, full of ideas and images and creations.   It’s great to look through to garner ideas for different types of terrariums, or to actually create one of them as written.  My son liked it and didn’t want me to add it our “let’s rehome it” pile so it will sticking around for a while.  🙂  (not many books make it to that status which tells you something eh?)  🙂

But it’s a great book to teach you how to make your own garden art form. 

Oh!   And check it out!   My lad made his own terrariums!!!

Miniscapes – Create your own Terrarium
Clea Cregan
Hardie Grant Books
Pages: 160
Approximately 8 x 8 inch square 
Type: Hardcover

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Where to find it: 
Amazon.ca: Miniscapes: Create Your Own Terrarium

Amazon.com: Miniscapes: Create Your Own Terrarium

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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 . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Field Trip: Penn’s Cave

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Penn’s Cave in Pennsylvania was a huge amount of fun for all of us to attend.  I want to tell you all about it.  🙂    I don’t know if my images are any good at all… but you’ll cope right?

Penn’s Cave is known as America’s only all water cave!   You view it by boat!   They made an exit out onto a pond and it’s stocked with fish.  🙂

The history of Penn’s Cave:  The legend of Penn’s cave has a trapper named Malachi Boyer falling in love with an Indian princess Nita-nee.   The indians would not allow them to marry so one night they ran away together.  The Nita-nee’s father was furious and ordered Boyer thrown into the water cave and guarded so he couldn’t escape.  Boyer searched in vain for an alternative exit but failed to find one, so he crawled into the farthest area of the cave from the entrance where he died.   His body was weighted with rocks and thrown into the deepest part of the cavern.

It was a fascinating trip through the cave.  I hope this slideshow lends it justice. 🙂

After we came out of the cave we needed to walk ALL the way up again.  I took my time and the boys raced on ahead.   They went exploring to where the old entrance used to be.  I walked over to where part of the wildlife park was. 

 
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©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 .

Field Trip: Harsco Science Center

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At the end of May the family took a trip down to Pennsylvania.   One of the places we stopped at was the Harsco Science Center in Harrisburg.

 While I won’t say that visiting the science was worth the dollars spent, we did manage to have fun here.   Many of the exhibits were old, well worn or even broken, some things worked well.  The tornado exhibit was a hoot for both of us.


We had fun making cars, even if the method of making them was fairly set.  

We then moved on to the shaker (for lack of a better word).  Build a mountain, put up your house and see how well it stands up.

 

We had fun racing against each other on a paired biking thing to see who could wear off their dinner quicker.  We did this several times, with the lad consistently beating his mother (except once when I cheated!)  (freely admitting that).  🙂  Sorry for the blurry pic, it’s hard to take a good pic while peddling a small bike.

We lifted our own body weight, which for two of the lifts was easy, but for one.. well… let’s just say we both need to work on our upper arm strength.   

Our greatest amount of time though was spent on the fan.  We changed blades, rotated spinners and just had fun playing around with it.

 If we’re in Harrisburg again we won’t go to the Harsco Science Center again, but the activities we found entertained the lad quite nicely.
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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 .