The Unicorn Rescue Society ~ REVIEW

 

All this talk about unicorns lately had me stoked to start a Brand New Book Series called The Unicorn Rescue Society!  We love this new series and know it would be the perfect addition to your kiddo's Summer Must Read List!

As soon as we opened our package and seen the beautifully illustrated covers we knew these books were going to be packed with adventure.  And an adventure it was, Kaden and I grabbed some leftover Valentine's Day candy and binge read the first two books.  The excitement begins just a few pages in and pretty much is an even flow from start to finish.  The main character Elliot is the new boy in school and on his first day, his class is going on a field trip to the Pines.  He ends up learning about The Unicorn Rescue Society and that the Jersey Devil enjoys eating homemade snack bars. Kaden said he liked that the book focused on only a few main characters and wasn't too overly wordy.  We of course talked a lot about mythical creatures throughout reading this book and we decided if we could be one we would want to be a Flying Dragon and a Mermaid. 

Kaden would be: A Flying Dragon

What would You do every day?  I would fly around and look for precious gems in the mountains

What is your Favorite thing to Eat?  Roasted pig from my own flames

What do You do for Fun?  I would read book in the high tree tops where nobody would see me

Mom would be:  A Mermaid

What would You do every day?  I would collect treasures from the bottom of the sea

What is your Favorite thing to Eat?  "Sand"wiches :) 

What do You do for Fun?  I would swim with the dolphins and watch every single sunrise and sunset.

UNICORN RESCUE SOCIETY: THE CREATURE OF THE PINES

Ages 8-12 Grades 3-7

Description:

A fully illustrated, globe-trotting new middle grade fantasy-adventure series about mythical creatures and their cultures of origin, from the Newbery Honor-winning author of The Inquisitor's Tale.

Elliot Eisner isn't exactly excited about starting at a brand-new school in a brand-new town; he'd much rather stay at home and read a book. But things take an unexpected turn when he finds out his weird new teacher, Professor Fauna, has planned a field trip for Elliot's very first day. Along with a new friend--brave, outspoken Uchenna Devereaux--Elliot gets caught up in a secret group of adventurers, The Unicorn Rescue Society, whose goal is to protect and defend the world's mythical creatures. Together with Professor Fauna, Elliot and Uchenna must help rescue a Jersey Devil from a duo of conniving, greedy billionaires, the Schmoke Brothers.

Unicorn Rescue Society is an exciting and hilarious new series about friendship, adventure, and mythical creatures from around the world by Newbery Honor-winning author Adam Gidwitz teamed up with Mixtape Club founders Jesse Casey and Chris Smith, and Hatem Aly, illustrator of The Inquisitor's Tale.

 

 

AUTHORS

Adam Gidwitz is the author of the critically acclaimed, New York Timesbestselling Grimm trilogy. He spent six years researching and writing his Newbery Honor-winning The Inquisitor's Tale, including a year living in Europe. Adam lives with his family in Brooklyn, NY. Find Adam online at adamgidwitz.com or @AdamGidwitz. Chris Lenox Smith is the Creative Director and cofounder of Mixtape Club, an award-winning audiovisual creative studio. Mixtape works with a range of brands and artists, including Google, HBO, ESPN, Spotify, Primus, and They Might Be Giants, to create memorable, narrative-driven films. Chris is a two-time winner of the ADC Young Guns Award for animation and music composition, his work spans across media, from short films and commercial work to musical scores that marry influences from the precomputer era with modern techniques. Jesse Casey is the Managing Director and cofounder of Mixtape Club, an award-winning audiovisual creative studio. Mixtape works with a range of brands and artists, including Google, HBO, ESPN, Spotify, Primus, and They Might Be Giants, to create memorable, narrative-driven films. Drawing from his twin backgrounds in computer programming and printmaking, Jesse's work embraces contemporary technology as a means to recreate the craft and artistry of classic film and animation.

 

ILLUSTRATOR

Hatem Aly is an Egyptian-born illustrator whose work has been featured on television and in multiple publications worldwide. He currently lives in New Brunswick, Canada, with his wife, son, and more pets than people. Find him online at metahatem.com or @metahatem.

WEEK ONE

4/2 – Four Violet Reviews – What Mythical Creature you would be (wear, eat, activities)

4/3 – Liv The Book Nerd – Favorite Mythological Creatures

4/4 – Live.Laugh.Love.Library – Favorite Mythological Creature and place to travel

4/5 – Books4yourkids – Mythical Creatures and Places

 

WEEK TWO

4/10 – Pirates and Pixie Dust – Which Mythical Creature you would want to meet

4/11 – The Pages In-Between – 10 Mythological Creatures you would and wouldn’t want to meet

4/12 – Librariel Book Reviews – Review + Type of Mythical Creature you would like

Carole P. Roman books and collections ~ REVIEW

I can't wait to share 3 more books written by Carole P.Roman today.  She has definitely become a favorite Author in our house.  Recently we were given 3 books to review from the Carole P. Roman books and collections.  We were given the If You Were Me and Lived in... Germany, If You Were Me and Lived in... China and If You Were Me and Lived in... Italy.  All of them are apart of the A Child's Introduction to Culture Around the World Series.  I have many of her other books and have loved every single one of them.  You can check those out on a previous blog posts Here and Here. 
I just have to say real quick that one of the main reasons I love this specific series so much is because as a homeschooling Mom with Kiddos of all ages, it's nice that these books are truly fit for any age child to read or be read to.  My older kids enjoy reading just as much as my youngest.  The facts are a mix of simple everyday facts to Historic places and moments in time.  The kids and I always have fun sounding out the new words used throughout the books in the language used in the country we are reading about.  And the kids always point out how the pictures in all of the books use real photos along with drawn illustrations and it's very appealing to them.  Learning about the culture and daily life of people in another country with these books always pulls my kids deeper into our Geography lessons. 

I have to talk about If You Were Me and Lived in... Germany first, because we are learning to speak German and are planning to go visit there in a few years.  So, you can bet we opened this book first.  Right away we learn some Geography and History regarding Germany as a country and their capital, Berlin.  You are taken on a little day trip with "your family" that includes a bike ride, visiting with other family and watching Germany's most popular sport.  Our family favorite was being introduced to German words which included phonetic pronunciation, this is so helpful.  We learned about the German mark and some beautiful and famous tourist locations as well as fun festivals.  The little descriptions of these places along with the photos give a great sneak peak into what you would do if you lived in Germany.  But, wait...what is there to eat?  Well, schnitzels, oversized pretzels and apfelstrudel!  And if all that wasn't enough to wet your whistle there are even more fun and interesting facts towards the back of the book along with a glossary filled with new to you words found throughout the book.

If You Were Me and Lived in... China follows the same nature of the previous book.  It's nice this way because children can know what to expect.  We already know a lot about China, but we still learned a few new things.  Like how the name China came to be.  And that in the Capital of China, which is Beijing there is a palace in the Forbidden City.  This palace from the early 1400's has over 4,000 rooms and some are so hidden and secret that they haven't been found yet.  We are taken on a family outing and was able to see some impressive sights of China.  After seeing the Terracotta soldiers we get to learn about regional foods....did you know that the Chinese eat fried ice cream?  Before we end our trip to China we get to learn about their favorite sports and experience a few of their traditions and holidays.  Once again at the back of the book is a pronunciation guide of words found throughout the book along with their meaning.

The last book I have to share with you is called If You Were Me and Lived in... Italy.  This book takes us to the boot shaped country of Italy where we briefly go back into ancient times.  We are told all about Rome before we spend the day with family and visit the famous Coliseum.  Along the way we enjoy some sweet treats and a typical lunch.  Speaking of food, when we visit our grandparents we get a little lesson in classic cuisine.....yummy!  You can tell family is important here as you read about how they celebrate the women in their lives and how the town closes down so everyone can enjoy the start of summer each year.  Don't worry, you don't need to already know Italian before reading, there is a pronunciation guide conveniently at the back of the book to help you out.

It's no question that we adore these books.  We read them together and independently.  And over the years we have continued to flip through them and reread.  I usually keep them on the book table for a few weeks before housing them in the book shelf according to whichever unit study the particular country goes well with.  Both Mahala a senior this year and Kaden who is 11 has enjoyed having these in our home library.  If you are looking for last minute Easter basket ideas.....here you go, a few of these would be perfect.  Also for birthday party favors, children's gifts, even if you were having friends over for a themed dinner this would be perfect to have for the kids to learn about the country that night's meal originated from. 

Make sure you head over and Connect with Carole P.Roman on Social Media today and check out the many books she has to offer your family.

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Orphan Monster Spy ~ REVIEW

 

Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen was given to me from the Publisher in exchange for my honest Review.

Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen
Pages: 432
Published by Viking Books for Young Readers on March 20th 2018
Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Teen & Adult Mystery & Suspense

BOOK DESCRIPTION 

 

Her name is Sarah. She's blonde, blue-eyed, and Jewish in 1939 Germany. And her act of resistance is about to change the world.

After her mother is shot at a checkpoint, fifteen-year-old Sarah meets a mysterious man with an ambiguous accent, a suspiciously bare apartment, and a lockbox full of weapons. He's part of the secret resistance against the Third Reich, and he needs Sarah to hide in plain sight at a school for the daughters of top Nazi brass, posing as one of them. If she can befriend the daughter of a key scientist and get invited to her house, she might be able to steal the blueprints to a bomb that could destroy the cities of Western Europe. Nothing could prepare Sarah for her cutthroat schoolmates, and soon she finds herself in a battle for survival unlike any she'd ever imagined. But anyone who underestimates this innocent-seeming girl does so at their peril. She may look sweet, but she's the Nazis' worst nightmare.

Zirrly Super Beads ~ REVIEW

This next Review was loads of fun.  If you have been here long you know Kaden loves creating projects with beads and has a pretty huge collection for his little hobby.  Recently we were given a Mega Pack of Non-Toxic Super Beads from Zirrly.  The kids were supper excited to give these babies a try. 

When our box arrived we were blown away with the huge bag filled with over 4500 Super Beads.  It also came with clear trays and cards with a design layout on it for up to 4 people.  There was 4 of each design, sixteen cards in all... so if your kiddos wanted to work on the same one at the same time they could.  Also included was two spray bottles, a plastic design tool and instructions.  The bag of colored beads was all mixed up, except for 2 small bags of black and orange beads.  You can probably guess that Kaden had to take care of that real quick.

Kaden made one of the pre-designs, but had many other ideas to try instead.  Honestly he has a mission to make figures and sell them to raise money for Autism.  Here is the thing, with the typical beads he uses he has to wait for me to iron them and most of the time I am not readily available with a hot iron.  Which means sometimes the awaiting project gets messed up or the iron doesn't melt it properly causing the piece to be uneven.  This frustrates both of us.  So, Kaden was really thrilled that with water he could complete his projects on his own.

Even Mahala got involved which was fun.  So, let me tell you what we thought.  One of the positives is that it takes only water to fuse the beads together into your finished project.  This allows the project to be completely independent.  But, we have found that for Kaden he gets a little too into the water spraying and makes a huge mess.  Both with me supervising the water spraying and him doing it independently the projects dried after several hours but were still flexible.  For Kaden and what he wants to produce he doesn't like the flexibility so much.  I would say the biggest drawback to these beads is that the drying process does take a long time.

So, would we use these beads again?  Yes I would, I think these would be great for our RV trips to add some fun to a rainy day trapped inside.  I think for groups of children at church, scouts or family gatherings this would be terrific.  I think for our needs we will have to keep both as an option.  We do agree that we think the overall outcome of these as a finished project come out more beautiful and both sides are the same.  This project bellow will be a beautiful sun-catcher for our kitchen that Mahala made.  If she would have used beads that require an iron it wouldn't have the same appearance.

Make sure you Connect with Zirrly on Social Media today.  They offer so many fun kits to keep your crafters busy for hours!


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Home School In The Woods ~ REVIEW

I'm so happy how this next Review went for us.  I'll be honest most of the time it is hard to get Kaden to work consistently every single day.  Forget about just having good days, most often then not we only have a few good hours here and there.  What I have found is that short lessons and unit studies work best for him.  Gone are the days with my older kiddos where we could plow through days and days on the same subject with positive results.  With Kaden small bites are easier to swallow.  And with Home School In The Woods that is made possible.  We have used many things from them over the years, but the past few weeks we have tried something different from them. 

We were able to download and use 2 products from their Á La Carte section.  Everything is easily to navigate and well organized.  They offer all kinds of extras to supplement your kiddos learning experience.  They have timelines, folder games and projects, newspapers, lapbooks and even cool 3D projects. 

Browsing through everything it was like dropping off a kid at a candy store.  But, based on what we have been studying recently I settled on the New Figures of the 20th and 21st Century and the Art Gallery File Folder Game.  Both of these were a lot of fun.  They came to us in a convenient PDF file.  It was all easy to print and use.  First we printed everything and my printer was made just after the wheel was invented so it's not the best quality, but that's ok.  We first worked on the New Figures.  Kaden enjoyed reading every single one. 


Many of them he was not aware of like when the Chilean Miners were rescued and the World’s First Space Tourist to name a few.  I thought it was awesome that there were two sizes included in the download, notebook size and wall.  These are great for lapbooking, unit studies, times lines, games...tons of possibilities.  We decided to use it as a time line.  Normally I could see us using this for notebooking.  And I did double print them for that reason.  Many of the figures I plan to do a more in depth study this summer.  So, we will include them there with all we learn.

The next item we received was the Art Gallery File Folder Game.  This was wonderful, I wished like crazy that I had a color printer for this.  The photos were so gorgeous I do plan on having them done in color this summer to further our Art notebooking unit we have been working on all year.  This took minimal supplies, just scissors, glue and 2 file folders.  Instructions were easy to follow and I think it turned out lovely!!!!  There are a few different ways to play, I like that it can be customized per your student's ability. 

We decided to use one set as a memory game, so we really made it into two games.  The Artists were Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet and many others.  Each piece tells you the Artist, the official name, year created and the type of art.  We have played a few times and it's convenient that everything closes right up in the folder.  I plan to purchase more of these and keep them in a cubby by Kaden's desk to get out whenever we need a break from lessons.  I'm looking to add the Mercenary Madness! File Folder Game, Pirate Panoply Game and the Merchant Marauder File Folder Game.

I think it's pretty obvious that all Home School In The Woods products work very well with our family.  There are so many products to choose from and from what we have personally used over the years they offer high quality products at an affordable price.  I urge you to Connect with them today on Social Media.

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Our Little Blue Mess

 

 

It usually starts with a sigh, pacing back and forth and punching his legs or clawing his arms.  That's when I determine if it's going to blow over quickly if I just ignore and redirect.  Or if this is going to escalate to the point where he needs to be restrained.  Luckily this particular day I ignored, he found a fidget toy and was able to use his words. 

After he calmed down we talked about what set him off and what we can do to keep moving forward to a peaceful afternoon.  Come to find out it really boiled down to Hubby didn't make is home for lunch, so for him there was this huge shift in what was expected to happen and didn't. 

 

He said his hands ached and needed to do something.  So, we decided to make slime.  And what that really means is that Kaden is going to mix a bunch of powders, flours and liquids into a huge mess and of course he will add his favorite color, blue to it all. 

And you better believe he had a great time and the mess honestly does not bother me one bit.  This house is lived in and I'm ok with that, especially when we can turn his day around!

 

NatureGlo's eScience ~ REVIEW

If you have been here for awhile you know if I was a Superhero Math would be my Nemesis.  So it may surprise you that this next Review of a Math course was actually very interesting and fun to me.  Math and fun in the same sentence is a little hard to type out for me, but honestly these past few weeks I have learned a lot and really enjoyed the process.  The product I'm talking about is the MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle from NatureGlo's eScience.  Ok, I know what your thinking there is Art involved of course you would like it.  But, it is so much more....I promise.  Actually it offers your student a Real World Learning experience that combines Math with Art, Music, History, Science and Language Arts.  There are 4 courses in this bundle, each of them are 6 weeks long....

Math Connections with the Real World 

MathArt in Ancient Cultures

Mathematics in the Arts & Sciences 

MathArt - Patterns in Nature

With this Bundle you will be given a year of access for the whole family.  And not only can you use it on your computer at home, but it can easily be accessed with your Android or iOS.  I started out with doing this with Kaden and to my surprise it was a little difficult for him and I can see that 6 weeks for him is going to be more like 14.  But, that's ok...this is why we homeschool.  The reason I thought it would be perfect is because he learned a long time ago about Fibonacci and the Golden Ratio.  But, just like all things on the Autism Spectrum no two days, weeks or years are the same.  For him to successfully use this program it is important for him to use all the many resources that are provided in these courses and time in between to digest them.  I will explain more about the resources in a moment.  So, who did the course work then?  Well actually I'm going through the classes myself.  And I have been talking so much about it that Mahala just started last week.  I figured it's a good idea for me to be ahead of Kaden, so I can help him out.


Ok, Math Connections with the Real World....This was the main one we worked on.  I really enjoyed her videos.  You could participate in the live class or listen to the recording.  We decided we like self paced and without hearing other students talking or highlighting on the screen.  Once you watch the main lesson video you can work on the Activities and Projects.  This really gets your hands on student involved.  What we found the most helpful and what has also taken us a good amount of time to go through are all of the online resources. 

Gloria has taken the time to do all the hard work for us by providing links to more information, videos, lectures and activities.  I seriously have so many things I want to do, like making a Golden section ruler so I can draw things within Golden Proportions.  The nature videos were wild to see also.  The Math and design that is in nature is amazing.

And then there is the Quizlet.....we have all taken turns doing this bad boy!  I love it, as you progress with the lessons more blocks appear and it will test your knowledge.  Kaden has learned from his mistakes and usually next time around picks the right one.  Me on the other hand I am a slow moving clicker!  HAHAHAHA


The MathArt in Ancient Cultures course we briefly looked into because right now Kaden is deep into Ancient History.  Here is the same concept, 6 weeks, you have videos, downloadable study guides and several references along with Activities and Projects.  Kaden enjoyed the interactive portions we've done so far with were about Babylon and Ancient Greece.  I can't wait to learn about Mayan Art, Mandalas, Tessellations and make some Zellige Moroccan Tiles.

That's just the first 2 courses we are still yet to discover all the goodies in the Mathematics in the Arts and Sciences and the MathArt - Patterns in Nature.  So far as a family we are impressed with everything included in these courses.  Gloria has put so much time and care in preparing each of these and we feel the love and passion she has for the beautiful side of Mathematics.  I also have been perusing her Blog and other courses she has to offer from Marine Biology, Rocks and Minerals, Botany and many others.  I was thrilled to see she even has some free courses like Whales and Dolfins, Sea Turtles of the world and Glass Frogs.  Just wanted to point out that the courses we used were very well organized and easy to use.  This would be perfect for an older student who can work independently.  Even though I did work alongside Kaden there was very minimal prep for me to do before hand.  And most of the activities and projects only required things we already had around the house. 

Would I use other courses from NatureGlo's eScience?  Absolutely, and I would say that if your kiddo is struggling to crack open the books or just needs a fresh break these last few months of the school year or summer time get them started on one of these courses.  It was refreshing to see Math in a different light.  I personally feel like a window has been opened inside of my boarded up room in my mind that Math lives in.  Sounds crazy, but that's the only way I know how to describe this new outlook I have....my nature walks will definitely never be the same. 

Make sure you catch up with NatureGlo's eScience on Social Media today!

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