Weird But True Facts About New York City & Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Have you been to New York City? I have several times and have taken Hazel a couple of times. I have a good childhood friend who lives outside of the city so she takes Hazel and me in when we want to go. My nephew just moved there. It has been his dream to live there. He is hoping to establish residency and attend City College at the resident rate. While he is exploring the city and finding his way, I jumped at the chance to review National Geographic Kids newest edition in their Weird But True! Series. This one is Weird But True! New York City. It is recommended for ages 8 to 10, however it will be in my 19-year-old nephew's stocking this year!

United We Stand Strong -- Remembering 9/11

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Can you believe next month it will be 20 years since 9/11? It was a time when we were all so scared. And it wasn't just the United States but this act of terrorism affected most of the world. The planes destroyed a building that had in it people from all over the world working. People of different races, religions, and ages. Airplanes were not flying after that for quite awhile. And just about everyone who was alive then knows where they were when they heard. Yet something else happened after the attack. We as a country and society came together. We united and supported one another. We showed how strong we are together. Today I'm going to share a book for young kids sharing one of the ways we came together. It shares a story I personally did not know but am glad to have learned about it. The book is 30,000 Stitches: The Inspiring Story of the National 9/11 Flag by Amanda Davis and illustrated by Sally Wern Comport. It is recommended for ages 5-8.

Books for the Young

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Today I am going to share books for your youngest kids. The ages of these books range from baby to kindergarten. They are a variety of board books and picture books. The topics range from travel, family, transportation and more!! I hope you will check them out for your little ones!!

Exploring New York and Its History with Books & More

Disclosure: Candlewick Press sent me these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Last week we explored the history of our home state, Massachusetts. This week we are sharing a bit about New York with some books and a couple of visits. We are lucky enough to have my best friend living in Westchester County. The past six months Hazel and I have visited her twice. Both times she was kind enough to take us into New York City for some sightseeing. To go with our visits we are sharing two books today. The first book is Lady Liberty A Biography by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by Matt Tavares. 

Exploring the States with a Personalized Book & More!

Disclosure: I See Me! Inc.  gave me a copy of this book 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.

This summer we are exploring the states of the United Sates. It was part of our homeschool curriculum this past school year, but I thought we should do more than what she had been doing in school. We have been enjoying some items we already reviewed, but want to extend our lessons all summer. In the past month we had a couple of birthday parties for younger girls. I asked Hazel what we should get and she immediately said a book from I See Me. Hazel loves the books we have gotten from there.  When we were shopping for the gift I saw the perfect book for our USA exploration. It is My U.S.A. Road Trip by Jennifer Dewing and illustrated by Barbara Bongini. This is a photo book so you can have the child's face put into the pictures!

Travel with Books at Home Product Reviews

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book 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.

Do you love to travel? Or do you dream of traveling without hassles? We love to explore the world from home with dreams of someday getting to see more of it. For now we like to explore with books and posters and such to see and learn about the world without leaving home. Candlewick Press has some products that makes this really fun and easy. The first three books are from a series called Panorama Pops. We got to explore The Louvre, Australia and Venice in this form. It was so much fun. These books are like pocket guides with pop-up pictures. The book is double sided since it folds out and has the pop-ups on both sides.

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Cinder-Elly

This week we are going to focus on an American Cinderella story since it is the week of July Fourth. I chose Cinder-Elly by Frances Minters. This is a modern version of the story with Cinder-elly living in New York City. I thought this would be the perfect time to explore the Statue of Liberty, after all we are celebrating America's birthday this week. First a bit about New York City.

Source

New York City is the most populous city in the United States. It is also the home to the United Nations Headquarters and is described as the cultural capital of the world. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York City making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. It consists of five boroughs which were consolidated into one city in 1898. It traces its roots to a Dutch trading post founded in 1624 and named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings were under British control in 1664 and was renamed New York after King Charles II granted the land to his brother the Duke of York. New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 to 1790. 

Times Square Source

New York has many different world renowned landmarks including the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Broadway and many more. Times Square is the site of the annual New Year's Eve ball drop. Since the New York City Subway runs 24/7 it is one of the most extensive rapid transit systems worldwide. (Source)

Fireworks over New York City (Source)

July Fourth is Independence Day for the United States of America. It commemorates the day in which the Second Continental Congress voted for the Declaration of Independence which happened July 4, 1776. It is often celebrated with parades, barbeques, picnics, concerts and fireworks. Some interesting New York City traditions for Independence Day are:

• Since 1916, Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City supposedly started as a way to settle a dispute among four immigrants as to who was the most patriotic.
• The famous Macy's fireworks display usually held over the East River in New York City has been televised nationwide on NBC since 1976. In 2009, the fireworks display was returned to the Hudson River for the first time since 2000 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's exploration of that river. (Source)

Source

It is the day that Americans show their patriotic colors with red, white and blue everywhere. So for a change I am going to share our crafts. We honored the Statue of Liberty as well as a few other New York City and State staples. The first thing I have to share that we found is from My Shae Noel. She has an amazing Statue of Liberty packet available for free including one of our crafts. (She also has a great lesson packet on fireworks.)

 

Since Lady Liberty represents democracy and freedom and of the United States, I thought it was the appropriate thing to honor from New York City this week. The first craft we did was a paper plate craft. The pattern and instructions are from My Shae Noel's packet.  Then we also made a torch and a paper crown for Hazel to dress up. Since we only had small green paper, I taped two together, and then added a third one to hide the middle seam.  The torch is just a piece of green paper rolled into a cone and a piece of yellow tissue paper stuck inside. I also had Hazel do some coloring pages.

We had a discussion of the color of a taxi. Hazel rode in her first taxi on the way home from the airport when we came back from Florida, but of course it was not a typical taxi. Oh, well. I guess we should have talked about color of the other things she colored, but all the buildings are apparently blue.

Now onto our story. The story is written in rhyme and has a cartoonish quality to it.

Cinder-Elly lives with her family in New York City. She is the youngest of three girls. Unlike her two sisters, she is kind and neat. She does all the cleaning and even gets her sisters drinks at their request. They however just sit and watch television and play video games and never let Cinder-Elly play. One day all three of them are given tickets to the basketball game. All three want to go, but the two sisters tell Cinder-Elly she cannot go since she is too young and doesn't have clothes to wear, and their mother agrees that she cannot go since there is not enough money to buy three new outfits and since she is the youngest, her sisters should go. 

The night of the game, the sisters go off to the game and Cinder-Elly stays home. While sweeping the steps, a woman comes and talks to Cinder-Elly. Cindy-Elly says she cannot talk to her since she is a stranger, but the woman says she is her godmother and asks if she remembers her from the last time she saw her when she was two or three. The godmother waves her cane and Cinder-Elly's clothes change. Then she gives her a pair of glass sneakers. Then she changes a garbage can into a bicycle for Cinder-Elly to ride to the game. She warns her that she must be home by ten since the magic will be gone then. 

Cinder-Elly goes to the game and has a great time watching Prince Charming play. At one point he misses the ball and Cinder-Elly catches it and gives it back to him. After winning the game, he asks if she will go out for pizza after the game. He says he will go shower and do his hair and meet her. She waits until 9:58, but then leaves walking home since the bike is a garbage game. She however loses one of her glass sneakers which Prince finds. He makes up flyers and hangs them all over the place with his number. The sisters see a flyer and call him. He comes over and they of course cannot fit into the sneaker, then Cinder-Elly comes out and tries it on and pulls out the other one. Then the godmother shows up and waves her cane so Cinder-Elly is dressed in her basketball game clothes. The sisters apologize and Cinder-Elly forgives and everyone lives happily ever after.