Resources

Canada Book: Women Who Dared

November 14, 2017 By Annette1 2 Comments

I have to admit, I’m cheating a bit, I’m putting this book (a review) in on my Canada Book day. Why? Because at least one Canadian is included!!!! Women Who Dared. Admittedly, most come from the States, but I’m betting the author comes from there as well… so it’s a natural thing to focus on your own land don’t you know? 🙂 A smattering of other countries are included as well such as France, Japan, Mexico etc.

Anyway, this is a NEAT book about women who dared… daredevils, adventurers, rebels…women who dared to be different…and that’s a most excellent thing, don’t you think? To look at a job and say “I can do that” and not let traditional gender roles stop you on your path.

What kind of women are in this book?
Aviators, swimmers, trick riders, cosmonauts, rescuers, detectives, marines, martial artists, miners, climbers and so much more. Women can do amazing things!

The book is divided into three categories: Daredevils, Adventurers, and Rebels. A handy index is included in the book to help quickly find a person you are interested in learning more about. Each biography includes where they are from, lifespan, a glimpse into their lives.

Each person is given a two page spread, one side showing an illustration of the woman, and other giving a brief biography.

One person who interested me was “Keiko Fukuda”. She was a woman interested in Judo, she comes from Japan and started learning Judo when there was a separation in the sport. Men could achieve 10 levels, women allowed only five. She didn’t let that stop her. She learned her sport well, so well in fact that in time she was allowed to achieve the highest level for both men and women in her sport…the red belt, the 10th dan. She is the ONLY woman to have done so. Imagine the grit it would have taken for her to stick it through! Good to be inspired eh?

My Thoughts:
This would be an interesting one per week study do with any child, but particularly any girl who isn’t sure what to do with her life. This book would be sure to give her all sorts of inspiration as she looks down her life path. Just might shake out some new ideas for her eh?

Women who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, & Rebels
Author: Linda Skeers
Illustrator: Livi Gosling
Ages: 8 and up.
Non-fiction, women, softcover, resource
128 pages.

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

Where can you find it?
Amazon.ca: Women Who Dared.
Amazon.com: Women Who Dared.

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

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Art Book: Fine Art Adventures

November 8, 2017 By Annette1 6 Comments

What would you do if I told you that you could explore 18 different masterpieces with your student, using those 18 masterpieces as inspiration for doing 3 different art projects with students 6 years old and up? Wouldn’t that just peak your interest? It certainly did mine. Today I would like to introduce Fine Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw.

First let me tell you about the authors. Maja has written several art books and has over 20 years experience teaching art to children. Jill has used her art history degree as she’s been writing and editing books since 1990.

Fine Art Adventures was written with the novice art teacher in mind. Just assemble the needed supplies and open the book and teach your art class.

The book is divided into sections: Colour, Black & White, Shape, Animals, Portraits, Landscape, Myths & Legends and Light & Black. In the landscape section we look at three different paintings: Winter Landscape, Mone Sanite-Victorie and Nocturne in Blue and Silver. Each of the 18 paintings comes with two art lessons.

Before you start the lesson you are given a history on the artist and his painting.

Next comes a picture of the project along with pictorial steps (with text underneath) of the project along with a materials list.

Each of the projects is simple enough to do. They could, most likely, fit into an hour long co-op class…guess what I am thinking of doing??? Having a fun art class!

Most of the projects use materials easily attained in most basic art stories, others might take a bit of sussing out on amazon (like shrink plastic), but not that difficult. Then it’s just a matter of sitting down with a group of children and having fun doing some art. (and learning some history at the same time).

My thoughts:
I like this book and how it is laid out into sections. It would so easy to teach art to your children/students as the lessons are well laid, with hints about when to use speed, how to mix up your paints, or whatever else you need. The instructions are easy to read and having the pictorial alongside makes it super easy to follow. I love how each of the lessons grabs a hold of ONE idea from the painting studied and then finds a way to work with the idea presented. Some of the ways are SO COOL! 🙂 I want to do this book so bad with some students, I think it would be so much fun.

In showing it to an art teacher, her response was “wow…that would be so interesting to do”, and “did you see this lesson?…what would be good to show the colours..oh, I like this”. (she said she’ll be looking for it!)

Fine Art Adventures: 36 creative, hands-on projects inspired by classic masterpieces
Maja Pitamic & Jilll Laidlaw
Chicago Review Press
144 pages
Softcover, art, resource, children’s art
Age: 6 and up

Where can you find it?
Amazon.ca: Fine Art Adventures.
Amazon.com: Fine Art Adventures: 36 Creative, Hands-On Projects Inspired by Classic Masterpieces

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

Review: The Animal Book

November 4, 2017 By Annette1 2 Comments

When I was young I loved looking at pictures of animals, and I devoured books that told me about them. Today I have a book that my son devoured that I wanted to share with you called “The Animal Book”.

This is a a really neat book, just packed full with information about animals, telling us where they live, what they eat, endangered status (or not), more. We learn about a variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and invertebrates. Some of the animals we are very familiar with (like the horse), others are common (like the lion) and yet others are new like the indian pangolin, cat flea and the desert locust.

Most pages are single pages, but the some animals are given a two page spread. There is always an artistic drawing of the animals, combined with images of actual animals, and various facts about them.

Each animal has a key facts section. As you can see we learn pertinent facts, diet, name, and their status from a conservation aspect.

The facts in the Animal book at so interesting, did you know the brown bears can eat 40,000 moths for dinner, or that rattle snakes are born live, that pigeons can be trained to find cancer cells, or that scorpions glow under ultraviolet light? Astounding isn’t it?

What else can I tell you about The Animal Book. It covers 118 animals and contains a clearly laid out table of contents where the animals are divided into areas of the world.

Each section opens with a map, giving a brief geography lesson. A small map shows where in the world each area is found, and we learn such things as natural landmarks, general land qualities and such like. It’s a brief look.

The book closes with the question “what happens next?” Asking questions about the animals learned about and helping the reader ponder, what do we do now? Included are some steps we can take to help take care of these animals that share the world with us.

The Animal Book
Author: Ruth Martin
Illustrator: Dawn Cooper
Lonely Planet Kids
164 pages
hardcover
Ages 8-12 years
Type: Geography, science, nature

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

My thoughts:
I like this book. 🙂 It is a fascinating look at a good selection of animals from all over the world, covering all the different animal groups (other than the microscopic). Toss in some geography lessons, and some social studies. This book could easily be start of a unit study on animals from around the world, added to a continent study or part of a presentation on taking care of the animals on this planet.

Where can you find it?
Amazon.ca: The Animal Book.
Amazon.com: The Animal Book.

Raincoast is on facebook, twitter, and instagram.

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

Review: Flashes of Genius Series

October 28, 2017 By Annette1 2 Comments

Today I have for you four books in the Flashes of Genius Series by Luca Novelli. They are Darwin and the True Story of Dinosaurs, Einstein and the Time Machine, Leonardo da Vinci and the Pen that Drew the Future, and Newton and the Antigravity Formula.

Quirky, that’s what I want to call these four little books. None of them are very long, between 112-128 pages, making for a quick read, especially since most pages have at least one drawing on them.

Each book follows the life of one famous person from the past, telling their story in the first person, told in a very expressive fashion. In Darwin’s case, he explains that he was accused of saying man comes from monkeys “even though I never said that”.

There are numerous pages of facts, delineated by a grey outline around the page. The print on these pages was smaller than in the rest of the book, making them very easy to discern. These pages gave facts not otherwise talked about in the rest of the book. For instance, I learned the Newton “one time, he fixed one ee on the sun until he nearly ruined his eyesight“, and in Einstein’s book “small amounts of matter can be turned into large amounts of energy“. The facts all differed, but where very interesting.

I have to admit, I am not really sure what I think of these books. I’m put off by the story in the first person, I find myself wanting to dismiss what it says, and I’m not entirely sure why. Each book closes with a glossary on the scientist involved, explaining some terms relevant to the topic. This section also included black and white photos.

I thoroughly appreciated that Darwin’s theory of evolution was indeed presented at a theory, though at other points the book pointed to it being a fact. Which I don’t believe. Evolution hasn’t been completely proven, and should be seen as a theory not a fact.

Do I think these four books are worth looking at?
Yes. You can be amused at the line drawings as you learn real facts about the scientists life and the work they engaged in. There is some solid material in these books and that should not be discarded.

With Leonardo we learn about how he was the greatest thinker of the Renaissance, he had his hand in so many pies and he kept thinking and learning.
Einstein and how he learned about light and put together his Theory of Relativity.
Newton with his laws of motion, developing calculus and laws about gravity.
Darwin and his theory of evolution and his journey around the world.

All fascinating topics that every student should learn about.

Four different books (titles below)
Flashes of Genius Series
Luca Novelli
Softcover
Middle School
112-128 pages each.
Reviewed for: Chicago Review Press

Where can you find them:
Amazon.ca:
Darwin and the True Story of Dinosaurs
Einstein and the Time Machine
Leonardo da Vinci and the Pen that Drew the Future
Newton and the Antigravity Formula.

Amazon.com:
Darwin and the True Story of Dinosaurs
Einstein and the Time Machine
Leonardo da Vinci and the Pen that Drew the Future
Newton and the Antigravity Formula.

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

Review: Canadian History-Based Writing Lessons

October 25, 2017 By Annette1 2 Comments

Here I am today showing you an outstanding language arts curriculum produced by the great IEW people with Canadian History Content!!!!! How wonderful is that eh? It is called the Canadian History-based Writing Lessons.

Okay, so I’ve heard it said that you can’t use IEW writing lessons unless you have a good grounding in how their system works. In fact their website will tell you this: These lessons are designed to be used by an instructor who has been through the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style seminar. In practice I have learned this fundamental fact, if you take your time and you follow the lesson plan, your students will learn. That said, will they learn as much as if you took the time to do the lessons and fully understand their system? I don’t know. I do know that my son is learning and I sorta took the seminar but haven’t really retained the information. I find the IEW people have been nothing less than helpful whenever I’ve called upon them for help as well.. so don’t let the instructor training part freak you out…really, don’t let it.

Trust your instincts and your ability to follow instructions and you will do just fine.

Now that that, is out of the way, let’s talk about what you get. For this review I received the teacher’s manual…wow…ever so helpful, and the student book…. lots of space to write even for my space hungry boy.

The particulars.
The student book sets out the scope and sequence of the course nicely. Letting you know the history topic to be covered as well as the writing lessons: style, vocabulary and structure. Very clearly laid out so you know what you are working towards.

The teacher’s manual contains copies of each of the pages, so that you know you and your student are working off the same page and lesson.

Instructions are very clearly laid out for your use. You don’t have to guess what you are to do next. Answers are provided. Allowing you to guide your children if necessary and to check their work easily.

As I mentioned earlier, there is lots of space for the student to write (you’ll need one for each student). My space hungry boy doesn’t complain about needing more room. I’m not showing you pages of completed work as my lad is (the older he becomes) less inclined to let anyone potentially see his less than perfect handwriting or work!

My son, even though he tends NOT to be a fan of writing curriculum, has been delighted to learn about Canadian history while improving his ability to write well. It solves the “but why do I have to learn THIS” struggle as all I have to say is “good to learn more about Canada eh?” He automatically agrees. 🙂 Win win eh?

Now along with these two books you get downloads from IEW.
The Student Resource Packet and Lesson Checklists. The Student Resource Packet is an invaluable part of the program and shouldn’t be neglected. Don’t forget to download it! Printing it off and getting it bound would be a great way to keep it all together easily.

The checklist is helpful to make sure you’ve covered everything you are supposed to in a given lesson. If you are inclined to grade the work, a grading system is included.

What do we think?
It’s a great curriculum to use, we’ll be putting it aside to use as our language arts program next year. It’s a lovely middle school program that will serve our needs well after we finish the writing program we are currently using.

Canadian History Based Writing Lessons
IEW
Lisa Marie Fletcher
Lori Verstegen
two books plus online resources
History, writing, curriculum.

Can be purchased these Canadian Resellers.

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

Review: This Way Watson!

October 21, 2017 By Annette1 2 Comments

Are you wanting to teach your children how to read a map and follow directions? This way, Watson is a delightful book to amuse and help your children learn some map reading skills. (and have fun while doing so).

Written on a heavier paper but not the type you find in a board book, this oversized story book should stand up to lots of handling. The larger print is easy to read and hold up for reading,marking it so easy to share with a group of children as well as delighting an individual child. Let me tell you all about it.

Watson is a young dog who has a friend named Scout and they can hardly wait to run around town together. They have a handy dandy map that clearly spells out all their favourite places.

Simple rhyme lets us follow Watson and Scout around town.

I liked how the main word was in bigger letters, helping children to hone in on the vocabulary. We get to follow Watson and Scout up, down, left, right, in and out and all over town. Fun in the park and so much more.

By the end of the book we get to help Watson and Scout find their way home!

It’s a great little book that does a great job of introducing younger children to the basics of map reading and directions.

I loved the bright colourful pages and the way the words just flowed off the pages, and oh…those cakes and treats… I could almost smell them, they looked so good. 🙂

This Way, Watson! A map and directions primer.
Author/Illustrator: Claudia Pearson
Gibbs Smith
32 pages
Type: Children’s primer
ages 2-5 years

Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Where can you find it?

Amazon.ca. or 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!

Art Book: Art Up Close

October 18, 2017 By Annette1 2 Comments

Wow! I really like this art book. It’s called Art Up Close. Despite the fact that it has no art to draw or to inspire, my lad even likes it!

I have to tell you all the details about this marvellous book, and truly it is a GOOD book.

First off, there are over 20 different masterpieces featured, from ancient to modern times.

Each two page spread looks like this one. A piece of art work surrounded by up to 12 circles which are parts of the painting blown up. Your challenge is to find each of those circles.

Each circle is designed to help you dig deeper into the art work, perhaps discovering things you weren’t aware of before.

When you find it, it’s always a good thing you know?

And don’t worry, if you can’t find it, you can always turn to the back of the book. Where first you learn a bit more about the art work.

Then as you scroll pass this section you discover the answer (provided under a lift the flap). It’s not good to cheat BUT it is good to be able to find the answer if you are truly stuck, don’t you think?

I appreciated the sheer variety in these pieces, from early Egyptian art through Arabic manuscripts, to the Aztecs and on to the early 19th century and ending with Jackson Pollock of 1952. I can’t say that I liked all the art work, but I definitely learned more about it! It was good to have details to pick out as it helped me to pick out other details as well as I searched the painting.

Claire d’Harcourt achieved her purpose in helping students of art history learn more about these paintings and to pay attention to the details.

I think this book would be a great add-on to any student of art history, from homeschoolers adding an art credit, to older students wanting to understand more about our past. Art is a good way to look back at where we are, and understand our fellow man all the more.

Art Up Close: From Ancient to Modern
Claire d’Harcourt
64 pages
ages 10+
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Type: Hardcover art book, oversized.

Reviewed for Raincoast books.

Where can you find it?

Amazon.ca: Art Up Close: from Ancient to Modern.
Amazon.com: Art Up Close: From Ancient to Modern.

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

Resources

Canada Book: Women Who Dared

Art Book: Fine Art Adventures

Review: The Animal Book

Review: Flashes of Genius Series

Review: Canadian History-Based Writing Lessons

Review: This Way Watson!

Art Book: Art Up Close

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