Review: Its NOT the Stork #biology

I am so glad that I heard about this book from another mom. A lot of children have questions about pregnancy and every thing that goes along with it, and I'm a big fan of giving as much information as is reasonably possible. I'm also a big fan of utilizing a book like this to help me, especially with a topic like this one.

When it comes to sex and all that, I feel like we parents can be too anxious about what to tell our children when. I thought, where do I start?

Start here!

Its NOT the Stork by Robie H. Harris.

My almost-seven-year-old read it and enjoyed it. You can see right on the cover that it is intended for four-years-old and up.

If your child is older, take a look at Its So Amazing by Robie H. Harris, which is the same topic but for seven and up.

And while we're on the topic, Its Perfectly Normal by Robie H. Harris talks about puberty, so I assume that's for older children.

Have toddlers? Check out Who Has What? by Robie H. Harris.

Visit Robie H. Harris' website to learn more about what she writes.

Review: The Tuttle Twins and the Food Truck Disaster by @CBoyack

My review of The Tuttle Twins and the Food Truck Fiasco by Connor Boyack is live on Learning Tangent Magazine!

This is more than a book review for me because back in Feburary, Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, tackled these same issues.

Last year, the town decided to allow food trucks. Not long after, a few businesses raised concerns about the food trucks hurting their own bottom line. At the same time, many other businesses, such as Fainting Goat Brewing, The Mill, and Draft Line Brewery, saw how food trucks benefited the town and its citizens. Unfortunately, the new regulations were passed.

The regulations limit food trucks to operating only two days a week, as well as ban them from commercial areas. Wow, really? Really.

If you're a local, you can follow The Mill, Draft Line Brewing, and the Fainting Goat Brewing Company on facebook to see when they're having special events with musicians and food trucks. You can also follow Flattz Signature Flatbreads, one of the food trucks that helped bring awareness to remove the regulations.

Seeing a book that explains these issues on a level that my gradeschooler can understand is wonderful. I don't often get political on my social media, but when it comes to educating our children, sometimes politics play a part and we are big believers in small government and deregulation. From that perspective, this book was perfect for my 1st grader, and my rising kindergartner now wants to run a lemonade stand.

Make sure you check out my review here!

Buy The Tuttle Twins and the Food Truck Fiasco by Connor Boyack, or any of the other Tuttle Twins books, directly from [ TuttleTwins.com ]

Read more reviews and find out about their teen books here.

Fun with Fractions! #Math #Homeschool

My son has been interested in fractions, so I printed out this fraction bar freebie on Teacher's Notebook and TPT, broke out fun manipulatives and our calculator.

Once it came time for review, we enjoyed:

Match It! Fractions Puzzle Cards

and Pizza Fraction Bingo. He really loves Bingo and other board games, so we have several bingo games by this company. Learning Resources also has a number of other matching fraction manipulates (see below), but if you prefer solid wood, especially for little hands, get something like Grimm's Wooden Fraction Circles:

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or this Lift and Learn Puzzle which also has the words and numbers on it. I love the nice colors, solid feel, and the food-neutral aspect of these alternatives.

There is also plenty of organic learning that you can do with fractions. I started describing their food in fractions long before we with printables and manipulatives. Cooking is a great way to learn and review fractions over and over again. You can have lots of fun baking or pouring water from one measuring cup into another.

More Learning Resources fraction manipulatives:

Pizza Fraction Fun - Pizza Fraction Magnets

Rainbow Fraction Circles - Fraction Tiles (Rectangles)

Have something cool to add? Comment below!

Review: Boy Were We Wrong About the Human Body by Kathleen V Kudlinski

We found an awesome series of science history picture books, Boy, Were We Wrong by Kathleen V. Kudlinski. This series presents a nicely summarized history of scientific discovery centered around different themes, all with the purpose of showing readers that our knowledge of science is based on educated guesses. The best part about these books is that they tell your child that THEY might be the next scientist who makes a big discovery that changes science.

The books we read are:

[Boy, Were We Wrong About the Human Body!]

[Boy, Were We Wrong About the Solar System!]

[Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs!]

There's one more:

[Boy, Were We Wrong About the Weather!]

I particularly liked that the Dinosaur book explained that many textbooks, films, and other books feature already out-dated information about Dinosaurs. There have been several discoveries in the last few years that negate what I learned as a kid. Did you know that triceratops and torosaurus are the same dinosaur?

Or that they thought Brontosaurus did not really exist, and now they've changed their mind again?

And, of course, the Solar System book talks about Pluto being a dwarf planet. My four-year-old loves to tell me that Pluto is indeed a planet, just a dwarf one. Poor Pluto!

You can also check out [Kudvinski's website]. She has written many children's books about science and history.

Review: Snap Circuits Jr.

Today we broke out our Snap Circuits Jr. kit. I'm so thrilled with it, and I noticed that it appears to be on sale at [ Amazon ] right now!

The projects in the book have great explanations and illustrations, and follow a very logical progression and start simple, so it is like a 100 science lessons in one kit. I love how the board holds everything together so that it's easier for little hands that are still developing fine motor control.

Having just spent the day checking out different brick-and-mortar stores trying to find 1.5V bulbs and 1.5V motors for what I thought was a simple electronics project, I'm relieved to start with this instead. My 6.5-year-old will still want to build a simple robot one day, but maybe after we've both learned more of the principals behind the crazy DIY projects that require you to buy a 10 pack of flashlight bulbs on Amazon, and a five pack of this and that, until suddenly your cart totals far more than the $20 that this set costs right now! 

Review: Nellie Nova Takes Flight at Learning Tangent Magazine

My review for Nellie Nova Takes Flight went live today at Learning Tangent: The Common Sense Homeschool Magazine!

Learning Tangent is an interfaith quarterly magazine that has been running since early 2014. Editor-in-Chief Gail Nelsen started this inspiring publication as a bridge between homeschoolers' various beliefs and faiths. Because in the end, we are all homeschoolers!

I'm excited to share Nellie Nova Takes Flight with both my readers and with the readers of Learning Tangent. Like Learning Tangent, Nellie Nova is something that all homeschoolers can get excited about: a book about and for homeschoolers, written by a homeschooler! And did I mention time travel and famous women scientists?

Hop on over and read the review here.

Nellie Nova Takes Flight

Review: Rattlesnake Board Game #Magnetism #Homeschool #Science

My four and six-year-old love this Rattlesnake board game that their aunt got them for Christmas. The idea is to place a magnet on the board without causing them to clash together.

We like the simple rules, and who doesn't love magnets? This is a game of fine motor skills that's perfect for their age.

When your board starts to look like this, watch out!

Since we love magnets so much and they also got magnetic building tiles for Christmas, we've had a lot of questions about magnets around here. I think that's funny since we've always had magnets of all sorts, including wooden trains. The rattlesnake "eggs" intrigued them!

To explore magnets more, we found facts about magnetism (and video) at Easy Science for Kids, and for something more in-depth, an introduction to magnets video on Khan Academy (my 6yo has an account there. It's free!) and also NASA's explanation of Earth's Magnetosphere.

To round off, here are Elementary Science Experiments for Magnets. My kids have done the first one at Marbles Kids Museum near us, exploring properties and the magnetic field.

Enjoy!

PS. My family also got them buzzing earth magnets as extras for the game, but they're a little bigger than the game magnets. They also buzz better and I think they'd be fun for an extra challenge!

PPS. How are your kids exploring magnets? Share in the comments below!