The Mighty Knights & Sapphire's Castle

Disclosure: Peter J. Clark sent me copies of these books in exchange fro my honest review and help promoting Sapphire's Castle Relaunch. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am going to share with you two wonderful children's books by Peter J. Clark and illustrated by Kory Fluckinger. His first book is The Mighty Knights. 

The Mighty Knights is about two young boys who are brave knights. They sleep with their swords and are always ready. They awaken to a growling sound in the middle of the night and fight the dragon they find under the kitchen sink. Working together they are able to defeat the dragon and then the boys go back to sleep with their swords ready in case another unknown comes their way. It is a wonderful tale about courage in young children. It is well written and a fun book. The illustrations are fun.

Exploring Argentina with the Tango

This month Global Learning for Kids has been exploring Argentina. In the beginning of the month we shared some of the resources we have looked at and ideas to explore. We decided to look at the National Dance of Argentina, the tango. Tango is a partner dance that started in the 1890's along the River Plate, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. It originated with lower classes in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. (Source) From the DVDs Hazel and I watched claimed it originated in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.

It is a very seductive dance and has become popular throughout the world. To explore the tango, Hazel and I checked some DVDs and a book out of the library. We began to watch one of the DVDs during breakfast. Hazel enjoyed seeing the couple dance in the beginning and then it gave lessons to dance the tango. I got to be the male in our couple and lead, but we didn't really have enough room in the kitchen and never got back to it with the busy September we have had.

The Nonsense Book by Eric Carle -- Book Review

Disclosure: Penguin Kids sent me an advance copy of this book free of charge for this review in return for an honest review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Now everyone knows Eric Carle and probably loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar along with many others of his popular books. We have posted ideas for a birthday party and a story time to kick of a food drive to go with the theme of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Well Eric Carle is coming out with a new book and it is being released on October 13, 2015. It is called The Nonsense Show. You can pre-order it now.

The Nonsense Show is full of a lot of nonsense!! It is fun and silly and it is a great way to introduce young children to surrealism.  Carle's last two books, The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse and Friends, introduced expressionism and abstract art. This sort of trilogy is perfect for introducing young children to the different areas of art. 

Rigoberta Menchu

Back in August I had the pleasure of sharing She Takes a Stand: 16 Fearless Activists Who Have Changed the World by Michael Elsohn Ross. One of the amazing 16 women I read about was Rigoberta Menchú. I decided then to focus on Rigoberta for Hispanic Heritage Month (there is a giveaway below). I wanted to share her story with Hazel (though she got bored--I guess I'll have to wait a few more years) and you.  Rigoberta is an indigenous woman from Guatemala. She has dedicated her life to promoting indigenous rights in Guatemala. She received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1992.

Rigoberta with other Human Rights Activists in 1992 By Moya110 (Own work) 
[GFDL or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Sharing Saturday 15-38

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! We had less than usual, but what was shared was amazing!! Our feature themes this week are Autumn Leaves, Art and Educational Play.  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired!

Let the Celebrations Begin! -- Book Review

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of these books free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

As fall arrives and school starts my attention tends to be on a few things, getting Hazel ready for school, getting clothes for the cooler weather and then I start to think about the upcoming events and holidays. Being Christians and having Hazel attend a private Christian school we do not pay much attention to the Jewish holidays, but there is Columbus Day and Halloween in October and Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving in November. This year I have Veteran's Day on my radar. The parent group at Hazel's school is planning a collection service project for the troops, so perhaps that is why. Last year I had the pleasure of reviewing Once a Shepherd by Glenda Millard and published by Candlewick Press as well. This book helped explain the sacrifices of the soldiers and their families. This year I am going to share with you Let the Celebrations Begin!: A Story of Hope for the Liberation by Margaret Wild and illustrated by Julie Vivas. 

Math Lesson: Geometric Origami

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

I haven't done a math lesson post in awhile and here is a fun one! It goes along with the Geometric Origami Mini Kit by Richard L. Alexander and Michael G. LaFosse. 

This kit includes a booklet, a DVD and some mini origami paper. The booklet has instructions for six different origami items and the DVD demonstrates how to make all six. The nice part of having the DVD is sometimes origami instructions can be a bit confusing, so being able to actually see them is great. This is a fun kit that is very reasonable and each project lends itself to a math lesson. I made up a lesson for the first project for various ages and will give suggestions for the second one.

PBS Kids Halloween DVDs Review

Disclosure: PBS Kids gave me a copies of these DVDs free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Are you ready for Halloween? We are not. Nor are we excited for it. I really do not like the holiday and all the Halloween items seemed to be out extra early this year and they seem extremely gruesome. Has anyone else felt this way? Hazel has had bad dreams since seeing some of those bigger than life size lawn decorations at a store. I have realized it is better to not take her to most stores at this point or to avoid the ones with so many Halloween decorations. Hazel has not decided what she even wants to be yet, but she knows she has to choose from costumes she has or the Princess in Black. 

This year we are focusing on calmer and not so frightening parts of Halloween. PBS Kids has helped by sending us three DVDs to review from some of Hazel's favorite shows. 

Monstrous Fun: A Doodle & Activity Book -- Product Review

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review in return for an honest review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Well, Hazel is often scared of things like monsters, but there are some she likes (Elmo, Cookie Monster, etc.). This year her fears seem worse than usual, but this monster activity book she is enjoying! Monstrous Fun: A Doodle & Activity Book by Travis Nichols comes with a warning. It is for monsters only. Hazel finds the warning amusing. Once you turn past the title page with the warning the book is divided up into sections of various monster holidays. Each holiday has different activities, coloring, find the differences, matching, mazes and more! It begins with All Hallow's Eve of course. After all Halloween is a monster's holiday lately. The next holiday is Fangsgiving. It is a feast to celebrate when the Noobs and Lil'Grims met. 

Celebrating Roald Dahl's Birthday Month with Crafts for Some of His Books

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review in return for an honest review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Roald Dahl was born on September 13, 1916. To honor him, Penguin Kids asked us to read a few of his books and come up with a craft or activity to go with each of them. Now I will admit that I sadly only really knew the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I know I read Charlie and the Glass Elevator when I was young and I have seen the movie version of Matilda, but that is about all of my knowledge of Roald Dahl's stories. I was given a list to choose three of his books from and I showed it to Steve. He didn't recognize any of them until I mentioned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and he said Willy Wonka. Needless to say we included Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to our list. 

Exploring Hajj with Books at Home

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

This post is part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs' Hajj for Kids Blog Series. As we are Christian I did not know much about Hajj. I knew that Muslims try to make the hajj at least once in their lives and that it involved visiting Mecca. As a member of Multicultural Kid Blogs I learn new things about other cultures through the group and one thing I found out was there is actually a time in the year called Hajj when the trip is suppose to take place. This year Hajj falls between September 21-26. It of course changes each year since the Muslim calendar is different from our calendar. To explain Hajj to Hazel and myself, I turned to our library. I did not find much. However we did find Hajj Stories by Anita Ganeri.

Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #31

Please note this is not Sharing Saturday!! Sharing Saturday is available though!!

Welcome to the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop! The Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop is a place where bloggers can share multicultural activities, crafts, recipes, and musings for our creative kids. We can't wait to see what you share this time! Created by Frances of Discovering the World through My Son's Eyes, the blog hop has now found a new home at Multicultural Kid Blogs.

This month our co-hosts are:

Crafty Moms Share on Multicultural Kid Blogs 

 Crafty Moms Share 

Discovering the World Through My Son's Eyes  

Castle View Academy  

Crazy Little Family Adventure  

Wabi Zakka  

Russian Step by Step for Children 

Ketchup Moms 

Peakle Pie 

Hanna Cheda  

Creative World of Varya

Sharing Saturday 15-37

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! We had so many fun posts shared!! Our features this week are Autumn Features, Halloween Features and some of my favorites. Have you noticed all the Halloween ideas floating around on-line. I personally do not really like Halloween and hate seeing everything this early, but I also know to make crafts for the holiday you have to start early, so enjoy these features!!  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired!

Finger Knitting Fun and Pom Pom Kits -- Product Reviews

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Quarto Books USA. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

What can you do with a ball of yarn? Lots of things, but here are some fun crafts that you do not need much more than a ball of yarn to make. Both of these crafts were handwork Hazel would have done if she remained in the Waldorf school, but since she is no longer attending there, I got to do them with her. The handwork was one of the things I loved about the Waldorf school. Hazel and I started with two Pompom kits. The first is Make Pompom Animals.

The kit comes with a book, six balls of yarn, two pompom makers in different sizes and some googly eyes and paper clips. I started by making a blue bird similar to the one on the cover.

The Big Blue Thing on the HIll & See What Seals Can Do -- Book Reviews

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of these books free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

We have been having so much fun with animal books from Candlewick Press lately. We looked at insects, emus and hippos, Australian animals, bears and endangered animals and kangaroos. Today we are sharing two more animal books. The first is a fun book with many animals who are trying to figure out what the big blue thing on the hill is and how to get rid of it and the second is about seals.

Children's Book Reviews

Disclosure: Penguin Kids and Penguin Random House gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review in return for an honest review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Penguin Kids has some fun books recently or soon-to-be released that I want to share with you. The first is perfect for a preschooler and/or emerging reader. It teaches the concepts of in and out, over, under and around, and on and off in a very fun manner. The book is In! Over! and On! (the Farm) by Ethan Long. 

The Hunter's Promise and Whispers of the Wolf -- Native American Book Reviews

Disclosure: Wisdom Tales Press gave me a copy of this product free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

For Multicultural Monday I thought I would share two new books with Native American stories. Wisdom Tales Press is one of my favorite sources for Native American books. This past week they released The Hunter's Promise: An Abenaki Tale by Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by Bill Farnsworth. 

Sharing Saturday 15-36

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! With the long weekend in the United States we did not get as many posts as usual, but there were some great ideas shared! For features this week we have Play Features, Parenting Features, and Art and Educational Features.  Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired!

Coastal Crafts -- Book Review

 Disclosure: Lark Crafts gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

We have been having a heat wave here in Massachusetts this week. It ended today with some much needed rain. However it made me not want to give up the feeling of summer. Hazel is back in school now and I actually took a part-time job to fill my days a bit while she is there, but I still want summer back. How about you? Well I found a wonderful way to preserve some beach memories and they are from Coastal Crafts by Cynthia Shaffer.  

I fell in love with many of the crafts in this book. I love the candle on the cover, but could not find the right jar for it. I'm still looking. We do not need anymore pillows, so I skipped those for now as well. We did however enjoy making some stationary. Some of the book stationary are pictured on the back cover.

Bake -- Book Review

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Hazel loves to bake with me in the kitchen. It is something she has always enjoyed and we do not do it very often (mostly because I'm dieting and trying to avoid the sweets and carbs). However it is something I think every child should get to do and I really appreciated reviewing this book because it forced me to bake with her. 

 Now just looking through Bake by Alison Thompson and photography by Adrian Lander, and at the recipes and pictures made my mouth water. The book is divided into chapters of Basic Recipes, Breads, Pizzas, Cakes, Baked Desserts, Muffins and Scones, Cookies and Brownies, Pastries, Croissants, Brioches and Doughnuts, and Gluten-free Baking. I wish I had that last chapter when I tried going gluten-free. It includes sweet recipes as well as savory recipes. There are recipes for quiches, meat pies, fish tarts as well as all of your usual sweets and some combinations I had not heard of before. So far we have made three recipes and plan to make some more. We started with Apple and Cinnamon Buns.

Captain No Beard Series Review & Treasure Pouch Craft

Disclosure: I was sent the set of books with some hats, crafts and play doubloons and will receive a small compensation for writing this honest review. All opinions are my own. As always I am providing links for your convenience. I do not receive compensation if you purchase through them.

Today I have the pleasure of sharing a series of books with you. I will admit when I first was approached about these books, I was not completely sure they were our cup of tea, but I decided to try them anyway because I figured they might be one your child's things. After all Hazel is really not into pirates except Jake and the Neverland Pirates. However I was very pleasantly surprised by these books. Hazel and I LOVE them!! We were sent all nine Captain No Beard books by Carole P. Roman.

Learning Spanish in 10 Mintues a Day

*Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links where I will receive a small commission if you purchase through them at no cost to you. I was given access to Foreign Language for Kids by Kids programs for six months free of charge in exchange of writing honest reviews. All opinions in this post are my own. 

Do you want your child to learn Spanish? Is your child taught a foreign language at school currently or do you wish he or she was now? Hazel's school is a classical school and it teaches Latin to the students. Since it is such a small school, they do not offer any other languages. Since I took Spanish in school, I want to teach Hazel Spanish. I bought some books and CDs and won some as well as a DVD, but we have not gotten very far. Hazel can count to ten in Spanish, say hello and goodbye and knows most of her colors. The truth is even though I was in honors Spanish from seventh grade until eleventh I don't remember everything and do not know the best way to teach it by myself. Luckily along came Foreign Language for Kids by Kids. 

Learning about Rosh Hashanah - Jewish High Holidays for Kids

As a former teacher I always thought the new year should start in September with school. Next week it will be Rosh Hashanah or the Jewish New Year. Then ten day after it is Yom Kippur. Many of the local schools give the teachers and students the Jewish high holidays off. Hazel's does not since it is a private Christian school. However I like to teach Hazel about other cultures which includes other religions. This post is part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs Jewish High Holidays for Kids Blog Series. To learn about the Jewish high holidays we did what we do to learn about any new culture, we went to the library. The first find was this DVD on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It was a great introduction for Hazel to the holidays.

We also found many books on Rosh Hashanah and some on Jewish holidays. These are the ones we decided to focus on. (For a round-up of books about Rosh Hashanah, check out All Done Monkey's post in this series.)

Sharing Saturday 15-35

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! There were so many great ideas shared!! The features this week are for Fall Features, September Features and Educational Features. Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired!

Tigers and Bears, Oh, My! Book Reviews and Crafts

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of these books free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am going to share two great books with you. The first is a bit more serious and the second is a fun picture book. I am also providing some crafts and activities to go with the books. The first book is Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Vicky White. 

Exploring Argentina - Global Learning for Kids

This month Global Learning for Kids is exploring Argentina. We always start our exploration with a search at the library network. We started learning about Argentina with two DVDs we found at the library.

DVDs are my favorite way to introduce a country to Hazel. They give a feeling of the culture and views of the country. In these DVDs we learned about La Recoleta Cemetery and all the cats that live there. I thought that would be something fun to investigate, but could not find any resources on it besides on line. La Recoleta is a large and beautiful cemetary and it has a large number of stray cats living in it. Workers and volunteers feed the cats and give them healthcare. We also learned about how tango started in Argentina. We are going to explore tango dancing this month! We found DVDs to teach the tango as well as some music. Stay tuned!!