Upcoming Holiday Book Round-Up with Easy Christmas Ornaments

 

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

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was quiet and relaxing, but the day before we spent at least five hours in the emergency department of Boston Children's Hospital. It has been a long two weeks. First Covid and then pneumonia and an asthma flare up (both caused by Covid). Luckily, she seems to be on the mend, and I can focus again on my blog and life. That means getting ready for Christmas and the other upcoming holidays. Today I am sharing a collection of holiday books that I have been waiting to share as well as some easy Christmas ornaments made from things like cupcake liners and pipe cleaners. My round-up of books include three board books and three picture books. The first book we will share is the board book about Kwanzaa. It is called Kwanzaa and is by Hannah Eliot and illustrated by Andrea Pippins. It is part of the Celebrate the World Series and is recommended for ages 2 to 4.

Resources to Teach Kids Personal Finance

 

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

Did you know that on June 29, 2024, California became the 26th state to require a personal finance class for all high school students? Half of our states now require personal finance to be taught in public schools. There are advocacy groups working on the other 26 states. Now as a child I remember my father teaching me about things like checking accounts, credit cards, and investments. Courses really were not offered in schools. In my first teaching job back in the 1990s I did however teach a consumer math class. I was teaching a vocational school and both consumer math and business math were offered. It taught things like banking, taking out loans, purchasing a car, taxes, etc. I remember one of the math teachers giving spelling tests for writing out checks. She made sure the kids knew how to spell the numbers out when they wrote them on checks. I didn't think much about consumer math after I left that school in 1997 until last year. My current job has me teaching consumer math again. I was given an old book back from the late 90's or early 2000's. The numbers are so outdated and really the content is rather boring. I got to come up with my own curriculum or find it. This summer I am taking several of Next Gen Personal Finance's (NGPF) teacher certification courses to help me get better at it. I have used their free curriculum for about a year and a half so far. Next year I plan to mix it in with other curriculum I have found and/or written. Today however I get to share a new book with you for younger kids, though I will be adding it to my classroom library, about financial terms. It is Financial Fun from A-Z by Brooke Lapides. It is recommended for baby through 9 but I see it as a great reference book for older students as well.

The ABCs of Black History--Upcoming book to teach young children about Black History!

 

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

Last week I did our last Black Lives Matter Series post and said I was going to focus on Native Americans but this book passed my way and I have to share it with you. This book is coming out in December 8, 2020. The book is The ABCs of Black History by Rio Cortez and illustrated by Lauren Semmer. 

Spring Board Books Round-Up

Disclosure: We were sent these books in exchange for honest reviews. All opinions are our own.

So I decided to share with you some board books today that have been sitting on my shelf. Since one of them is about spring I figured I better hurry up. Although it is just feeling like spring here, we are half way through it on the calendar. These books range in ages from baby to 3.

Back to School Picture Books

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

Are your kids back at school yet? Many of the schools around me start this week or next. Hazel goes back next Wednesday. Our summer is coming to an end and it feels like it just began. Such is the way of life. Today I am going to share three books for kids starting school or about school (and its lessons). Each child has his or her own difficulties and anxieties about school and these books seem to help kids with different ones. The first is for kids with allergies or who will be in a class/school with kids with allergies. It is Eppie the Elephant (Who Was Allergic to Peanuts) by Livingstone Crouse and illustrated by Steve Brown. 

Mother's Day Crafts & Activities -- a Crafty Weekends Link Party

Today is Mother's Day here in the United States. We have had a bit crazy of a week, but it did involve some fun crafts that are great crafts for Mother's Day and can be adapted for other gifts like teacher gifts, Father's Day and birthday gifts! 

Board Books, Lift Flaps, Pop-Ups and More

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

Yesterday I did a mega review of picture books!! There is one there for everyone, so be sure to check it out. Today I am going to share new board books, pop-ups, lift flaps and more!! These are some fun books, so be sure to check them all out. We will start with a simple board book for Halloween. It is Peep and Egg: I'm Not Trick-or-Treating  by Laura Gehl and pictures by Joyce Wan. 

Art Lesson -- Back to School Series

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

My favorite class in school was art. I think it was because it was the place I got to create and my elementary school art teacher was amazing!! He taught the sixth grade to wood carve every year. He bought wood for the students with his own money because it was his passion. In fifth grade there was a quiz and project that had to get done to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts. It was an amazing trip and it really made sure I knew a bit about the famous artists and art history!! I have discovered others did not have such a great art experience. One time my sister and I were walking down Newbury Street in Boston and overheard some women talking about the artist who cut off his ear and they didn't know his name (Vincent van Gogh). My sister commented to me about how strange that seemed. Of course we both had that great art teacher, so to us it was common knowledge. Well today I am providing you with some resources to teach your little ones about art. The first is An Artist's Alphabet by Norman Messinger. 

ABC Monsters & Houdini DVD Reviews and Giveaway!!

Disclosure: NCircle Entertainment gave me a copy of the DVDs free of charge and is supplying the ones for the giveaway free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the DVD on NCircle Entertainment's site for your convenience. You can also find their DVDs at local retailers!

Today we are sharing two DVDs from NCircle Entertainment and NCircle is offering a copy of each of them to one of my lucky readers. The giveaway is below. The first DVD is ABC Monsters Starring ABCD. 

Super Why: Cinderella and Other Fairytale Adventures

Disclosure: PBS Kids gave me a copy of this DVDs 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 we are excited to share this new Super Why DVD with you. It is being released next week and you can pre-order it now.

Super Why: Cinderella and other fairytale adventures has five fun fairytale adventures on  it. The first and last are both from Cinderella. In the first the Super Readers use their special powers to help Prince Charming find Cinderella and in the last they help Cinderella stay after midnight and dance more comfortably. They also help Snow White, the Prince and the Pauper, and the Boy who Cried Wolf. For those that have not watched Super Why, their special powers are Alphabet Power, Spelling Power and Word Power. In each story one of the Super Readers has a problem and they are brought into a story where a character has a similar problem. They help the characters by finding letters, spelling words and changing words in their stories.

Virtual Book Club for Kids: K Is for Kissing a Cool Kangaroo by Giles Andreae

It is time for the Virtual Book Club for Kids and this month the author is Giles Andreae. We have been having so much fun with his books. Hazel picked her favorite to feature this month and it is K Is for Kissing a Cool Kangaroo. We actually got this book out of the library on Friday. I was all set to do some giraffe crafts to go with Giraffes Can't Dance, but she changed her mind once we read K Is for Kissing a Cool Kangaroo. Well my idea changed. Instead of doing a craft we changed to an activity or game. Actually this book is perfect for one of the things Hazel's school wanted the students to work on over the summer. They want us to practice with the beginning letters of words. 

Letter Fun Brainteasters

Hazel: "Mom, I have a brownie for you." 

Me: "You do, oh, good."

Hazel: "Here it is."

So our children's librarian did this joke to Hazel and me. Since Hazel was the one interested in the brownie, she went over to get it and she got a construction paper letter E. Of course then there was no stopping her. She wanted to do the joke to everyone (and to me about 100 times). She brought the brown E with her to school and did it to everyone she saw. She took it to church...well you get the picture. Luckily she thought the joke was really funny and was not upset about not getting an actual brownie.

Hazel's Sparkly H

We were at the library for the Thursday craft. The craft that week was to make the first letter of your name with some meaning. The example they gave was a C out of clouds or an H out of hearts (which one of the librarians made). Hazel wanted to make a sparkly H, so she did. Then she decorated the sheet and added her name. Next she wanted to make an A out of hearts.

Hazel's Heart A

Since I was just sitting there, I decided to make one. I made a colorful C first.

Then the children's librarians and I were talking about all the different things you could do, and I came up with this one. Can you figure it out?

We kept joking and talking and next I came up with:

Then I drilled the librarians. One was very good at getting them all.

One librarian is named Paige and we talked about making her a P made out of book pages or at least paper cut to look like pages. I don't know if they ever did though. This was all part of their Brain Building Week. They had some math activities and engineering activities on other days. Plus they gave the kids stickers and/or hats.

For some more letter fun we found Kathy Ross Crafts: Letter Shapes book. I haven't shown it to Hazel yet, but am guessing we may be trying to make some.

You can also check out some of the puzzles over at Math Is Fun like The Letter H Puzzle.

Now for our answers: I see and the letter L. Do you have any good letter puzzles or ideas to make these letters?