A Net in Time

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Review: Mission to Pluto

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I have to tell you this.. I have not read this book, my lad did. Boy did he ever talk about this first visit an ice dwarf and the kuiper belt, as found in Mary Kay Carson’s book “Mission to Pluto”. 

AND.. wonders upon wonders.. he actually told me what he thought about it.   So this review is based solely on what he told me about it.

HE LIKED IT!

OH,… he was full of information.  He researched additional ideas on youtube and just filled two weeks with reading and watching.  🙂   Here’s one video he told me about: 

It’s a good thing that you know?

What he liked:
LOTS of pictures.    Not just pictures and colour graphics to fill space, but ones that actually had to do with what he was reading about.

It had interesting cut-outs…you know when they bring up interesting facts not directly related to what they are talking about.  Like when they talked about the girl who named Pluto or when they talked about the colours of the spectrum and what not.   My lad was going on and on about how that led to him learning about Red  S____ .  He’s told me and explained it to me but it keeps disappearing into the nether on me!   (how red isn’t really red cause it disappears ???)   Anyways, it has him all fascinated and talking.

He loved it when they had all the pictures on the page in one spot OR taking up the entire page.   He didn’t have to wonder where he should start reading.

If the picture was at the top of slightly off center he didn’t know if he should start reading under the picture or beside the picture, so “tell them mom that if they are writing this for me to read they should put the pictures either at the top or at the bottom so it isn’t confusing”. 

It has lots of information in it but “I found it really easy to read.  It didn’t take me very long”.

When I asked if he thought other boys might be interested the answer was “yes”.   He admittedly wasn’t sure if girls would like it… but honestly.. I think they would if they are into the things of outer space and seeing how a scientist realized a dream.

When my son realized there were several others in the series he wanted me to rush out and get more of them.. so expect a review or two to come along yet from others in the series.  🙂

Title: Mission to Pluto
Author: Mary Kay Carson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pages: 80
Age Range:  10-12 years
Series: Scientists in the Field
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Book Synopsis:  In July of 2015 a robotic spacecraft reached Pluto after a nine-and-half-year journey. New Horizons
is the first spacecraft mission to Pluto and revealed its five moons
as never before seen. Images from the mission show a reddish surface
covered in ice-water mountains, moving glaciers, and hints of possible
ice volcanoes and an underground ocean. Pluto is geologically alive and
changing!…….Follow along
with the team of scientists as they build New Horizons, fly it across the solar system, and make new discoveries about a world three billion miles away.

Where to find this book: 
 Amazon.ca – Mission to Pluto: The First Visit to an Ice Dwarf and the Kuiper Belt

 Amazon.com – Mission to Pluto: The First Visit to an Ice Dwarf and the Kuiper Belt (Scientists in the Field Series)

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: ArtAchieve

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Imagine taking an art class in the comfort and freedom of your own home… professional lessons, art lessons for children, provided by ArtAchieve.  I don’t know if you remember that the lad and I reviewed this last year, and were delighted to review for ArtAchieve again, this year broaching the Entire Level III.  Boy.. has it been fun.  🙂

One of the things I love, after various conversations with John, is how he holds true to his statements.
He believes anyone can learn to draw, that it is not a skill only for the talented but for anyone.  It’s a necessary skill that improves one’s abilities in many other subjects. He structures his lessons in such a way that if you want to learn to draw a cat, your cat will LOOK like a cat.  🙂  At the same time, he leaves plenty of room for creative self-expression, so the cat you draw will be YOUR cat, not his, not your neighbours, but all yours.   Learning to draw means paying attention to what you are observing, it means thinking creatively which spills over to other subjects.  Doing art helps you cover history, geography, literature and more.   I know it has helped us in our Canadian Studies!  🙂

Come.. explore ArtAchieve with us, won’t you?

Once you have logged into ArtAchieve you will be brought to a page with all your lessons.

Each lesson, if you click on the (+) sign opens into usually four sections.

The way you approach the lesson influences which version you use.  My son wasn’t keen on the video as he needed to stop and start it all the time.   He would rather not do that.  He quickly learned that the powerpoint version worked best for him.   One slide at a time with little dots below that he could shift between.  He could quickly skip ahead to see the final result or he could jump a few buttons back to review that he did a step properly.

The son was busy.. ever so busy with having fun about the armadillo as a turtle rabbit.  I raise rabbits so he was bugging me about how many some of them might want to become turtles so I better watch out for turtle rabbits. AND DON’T get him started on the German.. oh my!!!!    11 year olds and their sense of humour eh?  We could just see those little armoured turtle rabbits running around.  It just made us laugh together. 🙂  Each lesson John adds these “curriculum connectors” as I call them, where he gives some of the history of the animal used, or the art form involved.  He throws in history, geography, science and what not.  Art is such a cross-curricular subject and it just neat to see the Cross Curricular Connections he makes.

Each lesson starts off the same (except for the stop action lesson at the end of level three).  A line drawing to complete (so you can practice drawing the parts of the subject matter) and a supplies list.  You can also find a supply list for all the lessons under supplies when you login, though I found it wasn’t as complete as the in-lesson supply list.

We ran into one lesson where we didn’t have the acrylic paints needed so I emailed John to find out how necessary they were or if we could make do with oil or tempura paints, or if pencil crayons might work as well.   He said “Go ahead all those will work”.  🙂  So we did.   I just love art programs that are accommodating as that’s how I approach art! I figure what is important.. the medium or the learning the style taught?   Granted, if a lesson is about HOW to do work with pastels.. well..then you want to use pastels.  But this lesson was about how to do form lines and plain lines so the materials used didn’t matter quite as much.

Each lesson contains a different art lessons, whether about form lines, working in 3rds, or working with different mediums like glue and aluminum foil.    The art lessons are short and illustrated well.  

The lad and I finished two projects.  We worked through them slowly as that helps my perfectionist son take the time that needs to do a job well.

For this project we were supposed to draw an armadillo.
But the lad wanted to do a pokemon character and I thought
I’d try a cat.   The lad helped with the cat feet as I was struggling with them,
I helped the lad with curving the leaves of his Oddish.
The lad thoroughly enjoyed this project once he saw it finished!
This totem project was a time-taker.  
We did one section at a time to draw, doing the black form lines went quickly.
The lad was hesitant about doing the colour, until he started
and then he figured out how he wanted it to go.

One of the things I really appreciated was how John showed us different options for how a finished project might look.  Sometimes they were quite different from each other but it drove home how different people do can do the same art project and have it turn out completely differently.  It gave the lad the freedom he needed to do his OWN art. We talked alot doing each art piece, discussing methods, colour, types of pencils, marker yes or not, how to make easy lines within a colour (use white crayon!) and so much more.  We learned alot about the Pacific coast people.  Here’s a bit we learned while doing our totem poles.
In fact we actually have a problem… we don’t agree on which project we should do next… should it be the frog (the lad) or the Canada geese (me)?   We can put a Canadian spin on both you know?  🙂

I have to admit, I’m looking forward to when we do the Canada Goose lesson, check out some of the Cross Curricular Connections we’ll be able to do.   We’ll be able to visit websites to learn facts about geese, do a character study via youtube, read good books about geese, and more.  I can see us looking up Canada Geese migrating and perhaps finding out why some geese stick around all winter!  You find this under the art lessons tab.

If you are intrigued by ArtAchieve I strongly urge you to try out the free lesson!  See for yourself if John’s way of teaching works well for you.  🙂  Really.. you won’t regret it!

Vendor: ArtAchieve
Product Name and Links: Entire Level III

Cost For Level Three: Individual Lesson $6 each, bundles of three for $16, or the entire course for $58.50
Received: One Year of Level III.

100 of us are reviewing John’s great art program.  Click here to read more (or the image below).     The other levels are: Entire Level I , Entire Level II and Entire Level IV

http://schoolhousereviewcrew.com/art-lessons-inspired-from-around-the-world-artachieve-reviews/

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Artachieve   @ArtAchieve
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnahofland   @johnahofland
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArtAchieve   @ArtAchieve
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/artachieve   artachieve
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+JohnHoflandartachieve   ArtAchieve

Hashtags: #hsreviews  #artachieve, #artlessonsforkids, #homeschool #artclassesforkids, #drawinglessonsforkids

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 April

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This month has seemed very busy, so I’m trying to recall what all we read this month.   Not as much as some months.  🙂

Oh.. before I begin I have to tell you this funny story.

I told my mom-in-law how much we enjoyed the book Irish Chain… and suggested she read it.  She’s about 78 years old and she liked this book so much she stayed up all night.  Oh my…she looked so tired and frail but wow.. she was full of her enjoyment of it.  🙂   Gave her and the lad much to talk about. 

It took her four days to recover from her reading adventure.  🙂

So what else did we read this month?
We’re continuing our natural world adventures with Natural world.   We’re in the midst of learning about a variety of birds. It was rather interesting today, we had recently learned about swallows, and today we saw some swallows in real life.  My lad was fascinated!

The lad is continuing to read through Shepherd, Potter, Spy and Star-Namer.  Tells me he likes it.   His bed-time reading is all about the Warrior Cat series by Erin Hunter.

At breakfast we are reading the Golden Goblet.
So far this book has us very intrigued.  Has the lad asking lots of questions about why the boy’s brother has to be so mean.  

I’m glad my lad doesn’t really understand such cruelty.. he hasn’t experienced it.  I’m also pleased that it bothers him as much as it does me.

We are also reading a book about animals in urban life (very interesting), a book about Canada (a bit young but the lad asks questions so good), and a book about muskoxen (more fascinating than you might think).  OH… And we are also reading a second book in the Rip and Red series (review coming soon).   I don’t have pics as the books are upstairs in my sleeping sons room.


I have just started a new book: A Train in Winter. I picked it up at the hospital’s rummage sale.  I was hoping it would be written as a novel, but it wasn’t.   Still interesting, but won’t be as fun a read.  Well..I phrased that poorly.. as reading about women in the French resistance who were shipped to a death camp from the Nazi’s wouldn’t ever be a “FUN” read, but more clinical I guess this will be.

So far it’s been a good explanation as to why the French started to resist so much against German occupation.

Oh Remember Fledgling from last month?   I have the boys hooked, so we’re listening to it on MP3’s in the car!   They like it so much we’re into book two!  AND they are mad that I want to listen ahead to book three so my listening fun has been curtailed a bit.  🙁

Avian is not a book for young listeners though as there is a fairly NASTY fellow in the book who likes hurting people.   But Javed holds true to who he is learning he really is, even if others warn him not to be.   A compelling story that the lad says “NO drive around the block, drive longer!!  PLEASE!!!!”

I also read a Valdemar compendium.. thoroughly enjoyed it.  🙂
Tempest.  It’s fun to read fan fiction.. to see what people come up with that’s in the light of the whole series.

Some of the stories are really well done, others just leave you wondering “what were they thinking!!!” cause it seems so off.

This one was quite well done.

And that’s all I have in my brain for now.   NOTE!  A linky is up at the end of the post so… join in!

Books read for reviews:

Curious Constructions.  Engineering marvels from around the world.
Fish Girl.  A well done graphic novel.
Quick tips for busy families.  Parenting hacks
Your Next 24 Hours.   A book to teach us how to be kind.
John Deere, that’s Who.   I liked this meaty picture book.
Once Upon a Time Storybook.   I had mixed feelings about this bible story book
God’s Easter Miracles.  Picture book for Easter for children.

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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: Curious Constructions

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Do you think a building could be designed like a basket, or that a secret base could be built into a snow bank?   How about going to the bathroom over the ocean?   What if you wanted to explore natural architecture like the Great Barrier Reef?   Man-made, or found in creation, Curious Constructions can be found all over the world. 

So why would you have a building built to look like a huge basket?
What is the reasoning for a giant steel door sticking out of the snow?
How long can it take to build one church?
Questions about the pyramids?
Want to know more about Desert Breath?

All these questions and more are answered in this marvellous book.  50 interesting constuctions from places like Puerto Rico, Egypt, the USA, England and France and even up to outer space.

Each construction is discussed over a two page spread with a large picture on one side and a good deal of information on the other side. 

 This was a dry academic read, humour was readily apparent throughout.  Good bite-sized facts to delight and intrigue…. in fact I’d love to walk around that basket building!  

Honestly.. this a neat book that Michael Hearst has put together.   Matt Johnstone’s illustrations bring it all to life.   I learned about different types of bridges, the world’s biggest skate ramp, science machines, underwater restaurants, and lego constructions.  There is so much information in here to delight not only your 8-12 year olds, but to delight you as well.  🙂

 

Title: Curious Constructions: A Peculiar Portfolio of Fifty Fascinating Structures 
Author: Michael Hearst
Illustrator: Matt Johnstone
Series: Uncommon Compendiums
Pages: 104
Age Range: 8 a-12
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Reviewed for Raincoast Books

Where can you find it?
 Amazon.ca: Curious Constructions

Amazon.com: Curious Constructions: A Peculiar Portfolio of Fifty Fascinating Structures  

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: Planet 316

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 Love the Lord?   Like to do puzzles?   Planet 316 has a Daily Bible Jigsaw puzzle that will challenge you and remind you of the truths of the Lord.   

I admittedly have tried out a few different puzzle apps on my tablet, and this one… what can I say, it’s quick and fun.  There are many aspects to daily bible jigsaw that I like.

What do you get?
A free app for making jigsaw puzzles that when completed have a bible verse show up with an option to share it with your facebook feed.  11 bonus puzzles which are harder than most puzzles, all but one of these bonus puzzles is free. Each puzzle comes with options to make it easier to complete like rotate, edges, sweep, magnet and guide.  

You get one free jigsaw puzzle daily with options, if you have the puzzle coins, to do more.

There are a number of achievement levels which enable you to win more puzzle coins. Some of these achievements are: playing five Monday games, completing puzzles by a certain time, playing 100 games and so on. 

I played the game on my android tablet.

The helps
Rotate -turns all the pieces into the correct orientation.
Guide: for two coins it will give you a peek at the completed puzzle
Sweep – puts all the pieces in the margins leaving the playing field open
Magnet: automatically joins two pieces together.
Edges – removes all piece from the playing field until you put all the edge pieces together.

What I liked:

  • Having a daily puzzle to do.   Every day a new puzzle and a small YAY when you finish it.   It’s enough to keep me coming back for more.
  • Scriptural encouragement.   Each picture, upon completion pops up with a bible verse to inspire for the day.
  • Options to share favourite puzzles easily to facebook.   I’ve had comments of “nice picture” given to me, sparking additional conversation.  Good that eh?
  • Challenges against friends.  Seriously… its fun to know that you can beat people that you know and shocking when occasionally they beat you!  🙂
  • Options to make the puzzle making easier: rotate, sweep, edges etc.
  • Puzzles can be completed usually in less than five minutes making them ideal to hand to a boy child and say “think you can make the ______”?  He loves the “make it easier” options AND if he can beat my time all the better!  🙂
  • The pictures are pretty, with excellent colour. Some I could guess what the image was almost right away and others I wasn’t sure what they were until half way completed.    
  • Excellent customer service.  If you have any questions or issues, they answer immediately and work with you to resolve the problem. 

What I would love to see:

  • More of the harder puzzles. They do have 11 bonus puzzles which I think are awesome!   Trying to do the one that was mostly white was a joy to work on!  And the one with many colours…ah.. I LOVE IT!  It’s good to have a challenge. Whilst the daily puzzles have a challenge of can you make a mystery puzzle and do it more quickly than friends.. I KNOW I can complete them generally under 2 1/2 minutes.  It’s nice to have a puzzle that makes you think a bit harder, I want more of them. 🙂  
  • As fun as the challenges against friends are… it’s hard to know if you are beating them OR if you are beating them using the helps.  I like beating the puzzle on my own, not using helps, and sometimes the allure of competition has me using the helps and… I rather not do that, I want to win on my own merits.  I wish the competition had some way to differentiate between those using helps and those not using helps.  … increase the challenge level a bit eh?  🙂

End result of my review:

I LIKE IT.  Seriously.  It’s a fun free app that inspires me to think beyond the YAY I finished a puzzle, and turns my heart toward God.  A good thing that. So go on, get it.  Be inspired, be challenged and HAVE FUN!

Vendor: Planet 316
Product: Daily Bible Jigsaw
Received: Game plus 500 Puzzle Coins bundle so I could try out all the features. A $39.99 value.
Price: Free, with a price for additional puzzle coins.

Here are the current options for playing Daily Jigsaw:

  To see what all 90 reviewers thought, click here or on the image below.

 Social Media Links:
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/planet_316  @planet_316
Hashtags: #hsreviews #dailybiblejigsaw

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: Fish Girl

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A graphic novel by David Wiesner and Danno Jo Napoli, where a young mermaid learns there is more to life than where she is living, finding friendship, learning her true history, seeing the depth of love in others.  This is a real coming to age story that should delight and amuse: Fish Girl. 

About the Authors: 
David Wiesner is internationally renowned for his visual storytelling and has won the Caldecott Medal three times-for Tuesday, The Three Pigs, and Flotsam -the second person in history to do so. He is also the recipient of three Caldecott Honors, for Free Fall, Sector 7, and Mr. Wuffles . He lives near Philadelphia with his family.
Donna
Jo Napoli is a distinguished academic in the field of linguistics and
teaches at Swarthmore College. She is also the author of more than
eighty books for young readers. 

Book Synopsis: 
Fish Girl lives in an aquarium where she is the main attraction.  The owner claims to be Neptune and says he controls her, the last of her kind.  Life isn’t all bad but Fish Girl is seeing there is more to the world. She’s learned to be fearful of humans until she meets a girl who is nice to her.  Life changes, and this book is the story of that change. 

My Thoughts: 
Great story.   Seriously.  I liked it.   Seeing Fish Girl blossoming.  It was so nice.  

The graphics are nicely done.  Not all dark and graphic novelish…but clean, clear images, with nice colour.   Some of the images were full page which made a nice contrast to all the boxes.

The writing wasn’t hard to read, but nicely sized lettering that you didn’t need to squint to read well. 🙂

Fish Girl
Authors: David Wiesner and Danno Jo Napoli
Illustrator: David Wiesner
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pages: 192
Ages 10-12 years
Style: Graphic Novel, softcover
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books.

Where to find:
 Amazon.ca: Fish Girl

Amazon.com: Fish Girl

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: Quick Tips for Busy Families

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 Okay… I have rather neat parenting book for you.  It’s not a “normal” parenting book with do this, do that, this is how you parent effectively, but like a “try this neat idea to add some fun”, or “try this idea to make your children think” or “how about this thing to create a smile or some lasting memories.”.   So let me tell you about “Quick Tips for Busy Families: Sneaky Strategies for Raising Great Kids”.

All kinds of ideas are waiting for you in the pages of this Busy Families Tips book.  144 of them to be precise.  

 

Each parenting hack is only 1-2 pages long and is written with a touch of humour, a good deal of humility and drop of seriousness depending on the topic at hand.   I appreciated the real life situations given, and the light touch.   I never felt like I was being talked down, rather like I was being encouraged to think outside the box in regards to how to parent.   I quickly came to the conclusion that he was used to parents with multiple children as I didn’t come across many situations dealing with a singleton child. 

All 144 chapters are listed.   I found topics listed that normally you don’t find in parenting books, like how to deal with difficult teachers, setting a high bar for your children, the benefits of adding art to your family and more.

God was frequently brought into the conversation, not in every hack, but frequently enough to know that faith is part of the equation.

Is it worth getting?
 I don’t know honestly.  It was a fun quick read but I don’t know that I would refer back to it or tell people they had to get it, but it wasn’t a waste of my time either. 

Some of the tips sent me into a “I have to ponder that a while” mood…and that’s not a bad thing eh?

I would definitely say that if you find it in a library, or or able to do a quick read at Chapters (or another book store), avail yourself of the opportunity. 
 

Quick Tips for Busy Families: Sneaky Strategies for Raising Great Kids
Author: Jay Payleitner
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
237 Pages
Type: Parenting   

Reviewed for: Nutsaboutbooks. 

Where to find:
Amazon.ca: Quick Tips for Busy Families: Sneaky Strategies for Raising GreatKids

Amazon.com: Quick Tips for Busy Families: Sneaky Strategies for Raising Great Kids

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/