A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Nature

Reviewing our week: Dec 9

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 This week

We managed to keep ourselves busy.  I had big plans for the week since I’m feeling much better than I have been.. .but learned that I still peter out of energy quickly and therefore lose focus and will to push onwards.

Independent learning

The Eastern Chipmunk:

Why we can’t ship Nuclear Waste to the Sun.

Monday:

  • Daily smarts, Veritas History and Bible, and Teaching Textbooks.
  • Weekly visit with Gramma
  • 1/2 hour reading 
  • continued our reading of Cat of Bubastes.

 Tuesday: 

  • Daily smarts, Veritas History and Bible, and Teaching Textbooks.
  • 1/2 hour reading 
  • Out to buy two shelves, and then to find room for them in his room.
  • Organized lego
  • Made decision to sell his meccano and lego action figures as well as a few other toys
  • Look what we made today! (recipe coming next week)
  •  

 Wednesday

  • Foodbank
  •  Daily smarts.
  • 1/2 hour reading 
  • Cleaning and organizing the lad’s room (did all on his own)

Thursday

  •  Daily smarts, Veritas History and Bible, and Teaching Textbooks.
  • 1/2 hour reading 
  • Working on his story.   
  • Deciding there was more things in his room that needed cleaning and removing.

Friday

  • Plans were to have an art class…but snow hit.
  • So we started putting up my Christmas village.  We didn’t get finished, but we got it started at least.  🙂
  • And we had fun watching the birds.
  •   

Word Prompt Posts.

Peace.
List.
White. 
Joy.  

Reviews:

Santa Based Christmas Books.
The Art of Beatrix Potter.
The Storybook Knight.
Art Series: Designing with Pixar.

Life and Faith:

Sunday Sermon: John: A Call to Repent
Hymn Study: Thou Didst Leave thy Throne
Do Not forget the Lord God. Continued study in Ezekiel 23
Recipe: My Pineapple Ham.   A family favourite
Ezekiel is a sign.  Continue study in Ezekiel 24
The Lad’s delight in tidyness.  My lad requested I put up this post. 🙂
Field Trip: Kitchener Symphony. 

Linking up the following places:

 

Homeschool Coffee Break
Weird unsocialized homeschoolers
homeschool show and tell

Review: Let’s Explore Series

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You know how sometimes you get a book to review and you think to yourself…man, I wish I had these when my (insert child’s name) was into these types of books?

Well that was my response when I received the Let’s Explore books from Lonely Planet Kids.   The books are Let’s Explore Safari, Let’s Explore Ocean and Let’s Explore Jungle.

I love these books.
Seriously.
I wish I could do them but.. I’m too old AND I’d rather save them for younger hands than mine to work through.

They are NOT cookie cutter books.  You know, when you get a series and you can pretty much say what’s going to happen from page to page?   Not so with this series… different puzzles, different facts, different ways of presenting the information, it makes them interesting.

Each book open with Marco and Amelia about to head out on a new adventure.

Then through a series of sticker pages, puzzles and activities the reader is led to learn a variety of information about the safari, jungle or ocean.

The pages are bright and colourful, drawing the eye in.

There are over 250 stickers in each book with plenty of pages to put them.   Where the stickers are put is not dictated, leaving the user free to place them wherever desired.  In the back of the book there is an answer sheet which is great if one gets stuck on one of the puzzles or activities.

The stickers are, for the most part, great for smaller hands, but also interesting enough for older hands.

Let’s Explore… Jungle (Lonely Planet Kids) by Lonely Planet Kids (2016-02-16)
takes us into the jungles of South America learning about the flora and fauna.

 Let’s Explore… Ocean (Lonely Planet Kids) by Lonely Planet Kids (2016-02-16)
learning about sharks and other oceanic life, drawing a seahorse and more.

 Let’s Explore… Safari (Lonely Planet Kids) by Lonely Planet Kids (2016-02-16)  takes us to the plains of Africa where we can explore the big five, visit Victoria Falls and more.

 Geared for ages 5-8, Lonely Planet Kids has done a lovely job of helping children learn more about the ocean, jungle and safari.  They have done up a number of other books as well, be sure to check them out.   Rainforest Books graciously sent me these three books so that I could give you my honest review.

Just in case you missed it, I think these books would be a lovely addition to any house with younger children.. sticker, puzzle, learn as you work the activities.   So much colour and fun to be had.

He picked it up on his own, The Deadliest Creature in the World

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My lad can read, and read fairly well, but pick up a book just because?   He generally doesn’t just pick up books to read unless something about them intrigues him mightily.

This morning a breakfast my lad saw this book “The Deadliest Creature in the World” sitting on top of my review pile and picked it up and was reading it over breakfast.    Now I don’t know about you.. .but that’s a win in my book.

Book Synopsis:
A heart-stopping touch, a powerful punch, a killer kick….WHICH creature is the deadliest?  
YOU Decide.

My thoughts:

Other than the obvious.. MY BOY IS PICKING UP A BOOK AND CHOOSING TO READ IT INSTEAD OF messing around on his tablet!!!!!!!!!!!!!   WOOT WOOT!!!!!!!

It’s draws a child in and I LOVE IT for that.

It also provoked discussion.
“Mom, they shouldn’t have included this one.  This frog doesn’t attack people.  If they get poisoned it’s because they are trying to it.  So he’s not so deadly, he’s just being protective”.

“An ostrich!!?!?!?!   MOM!!!   They have an ostrich in here!!!!!”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.  Mom, did you know there’s a fish that has really poisonous spines?”

Filled with colourful pictures that depict the animals well and an easy to read large font this book is sure to be a hit with your children as well.   They will be equally as fascinated as we were by the Cone Snail that can change it’s venom according to the prey it has caught.   I tell you, this book is interesting.  🙂

I like that at the closing of the book the author says this
“But what about creatures that are fragile or teensy or slow?   What about the ones with no arms or legs?   They have been surviving for …. years with the help of toxins and poisons.”   It leaves the door open for children to research for other deadly animals of the world, and consider some they might not even have thought of.

To get you started in your search for dangerous or deadly animals, check out these top 25.

Raincoast Books generously provided me with a readers copy of this great picture book.   It’s a soft cover book of about 30 pages, written by Brenda Z. Guiberson, and delightfully illustrated by Gennady Spirin.  See also my review of another Guiberson book, The Most Amazing Creature of the Sea.

You can follow Raincoast books at these links.

https://twitter.com/raincoastbooks
https://www.facebook.com/raincoastbooks
https://instagram.com/raincoastbooks/
https://www.pinterest.com/raincoastbooks/
http://raincoastbooks.tumblr.com/
https://plus.google.com/+raincoastbooks/

 To download a worksheet based on this book CLICK HERE.

Imperial Crown A Gorgeous Flower

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This gorgeous plant has had me mystified for a couple years.   Last year it grew a stalk but that was it.  Not enough of anything for me to post a pic saying what is this?

Now that it has flowered I posted a pic to a gardening group I am part of and learned that it is an Imperial Crown.

The Latin name is Fritillaria imperialis.

It is part of the Lily family. I think it is so pretty.   It came in a bag of mystery bulbs a couple years back from a nursery outside of Kitchener.   Cheap bag with a whack of bulbs in it.. most of which looked like tulips, some were grape hyacinths and a few others that I can’t recall the names of.. but they were small bulbs with interesting flowers.. ah…ranuculus (or something like that).

They grow up to three feet tall.
They come in three colour variations: yellow, orange and red.  (and variations between that).
They come from Asia.   Native to a wide stretch from Anatolia, across the plateau of Iran to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Himalayan foothills. 

I remember the instructions said to plant it on it’s side…I’ve learned this is due to their propensity to rot quickly.  A friend on facebook said they were an expensive bulb to buy so I feel doubly blessed right now. 🙂   A beautiful flower to grace my spring garden and purchased inexpensively.  🙂

As I researched this bulb a bit I learned the smell of the flower is supposed to deter squirrels.  Hubby quickly said “oh.. we need more of them then!”.  🙂   They do unfortunately, only bloom in the spring so it wouldn’t work year round anyways.  I also mentioned to him I didn’t find it really had a smell to it anyways, at least not noticeable enough for my poor nose.

Anyways, she’s a beauty and I hope we can propagate more of them.  Wouldn’t they be fun to share with others?

Should tell you this, if you want to visit other gardening links, check out the Garden Party.

Spring has Come!

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I have to admit.. I LOVE spring flowers.. Don’t you?
I think my favourite are what I call my grass peepers. 🙂 Small tiny flowers the peep up through the growing grass.
Every year they cause my son to ask “Mom, why didn’t you put them in a proper garden?”
And every year I answer… “because when they peep out of the grass they make me smile lad”.

Then my lad just shakes his head at me.
He is SO like his father.
His father shook his head at me when I planted them in the lawn.

Ah my fellows… they just don’t understand my pleasure at my little grass peepers… and that’s okay. 🙂

Last fall I moved dirt and some plants around and somehow (I know not how) one of my grass peepers ended up in one of my raised beds. I discovered that it brings me almost as much pleasure to see them come up in my gardens as well. 🙂

Another one of my joys in my daffodil/tulip garden.    When my mom moved off the family farm she dug up all her bulbs and moved them with her into town, and when my father moved into a nursing home, mom went to visit him so often that he gave up her big flower bed, leaving her with lots of daffodil bulbs to rehome.   I got a bunch of them.   So seeing them come up has that added bonus of a smile of history remembered.  🙂    Some of these bulbs I purchased myself, but a good 2/3’s are history bulbs.

Should we ever move from this place it’ll be a job and a half.. but I’ll be digging up all my bulbs.. except for my spring peepers… those I’ll leave to hopefully bring a smile to the next people to live here (hopefully, unless they be head shakers like my boys). 

Helping a friend, learning with friends

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Yesterday the lad and I went over to visit a friend. We spend most of the day there. Life has been a challenge for this friend lately so it was good to spend some time to assist in bringing some sanity to life again. 🙂 
I had told her that I needed to do some schooling with the lad, and I’ve be enlisting the aid of her children.
We did a drawing from “imagine a day” and then we put some daises into coloured water.   The pics don’t show the results well, but I hope you can see some of the tinges that were occurring by the time we had to go home.
After we finished our schooling time the children played and my friend and I were able to chat a bit.
She lives on a farm so I was able to pick some grass for my rabbits and on the way home a ladybug found it’s way out of the grasses I had picked much to my son’s delight.  it was captured and is currently munching on aphids in a bug jar.

It was a good schooling and living day.  🙂

Black Holes and Gardening and whatever

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Today we started off our homeschooling day by looking up black holes.  This site was sent to us by clickschooling.
This is the write up sent to us by diane flynn keith

Age Range: 9 and up (approximately, with parental supervision; non-readers will need assistance)

The Space Telescope Science Institute offers this terrific website that allows you to engage
in a multi-media, in-depth inquiry into the astronomy and physics of
black holes through animations and interactive experiments. Explore light, gravity, and the scale of our universe.

When
you get to the site, watch a brief, narrated animation that provides
information on how black holes are formed. Then, begin your virtual
journey to a black hole through three interactive modules that include:

*Finding the Invisible
— Loc
ate and identify various objects in the universe such as a binary star,
the Cygnus galaxy, the Andromeda spiral galaxy, the sun, the moon, the
Milky Way, a quasar, a red giant, Saturn, the crab nebula and more. As
each object comes into view, read more about it on the sidebar and by
clicking on the “Learn More” button.   

*The Voyage
— Learn about scales and distances by taking a virtual trip to a black
hole. Find out about the objects you pass on your trip through space.
Measure your speed and distance traveled. Get explanations of the
concepts of lightspeed and lightyear. When you reach your destination,
mouse over the black hole to learn about its features.

*Up Close and Personal
— Orbit a black hole and learn all about it. Try some interactive
experiments and answer related questions. Get the latest scoop from
notable scientists.

You can also explore the “Black Hole Encyclopedia” and “Glossary” to learn even more.

We found it be quite interesting.  I can’t say my six year old understood everything, but he was able to pull information out of this site to go with other things he’s learned about black holes.  It was quite interesting and answered some of his questions.   We did not read through the whole site but I imagine it will be one that we come back to.
We then went out to finish the gardening that we started yesterday.
The lad wants to have his own garden this year so He’s going to share daddy’s “pepper” garden.  Daddy likes hot peppers and I like bell peppers and having them in their own “bed” means they don’t get crowded out by other plants so it should work well for the lad to have his carrots, lettuce and corn in the same bed (at least we hope so).  🙂