Review: The Young Chef's French Cookbook (I'm the Chef)

The Young Chef's French Cookbook

We've been studying geography and my seven-year-old also expressed an interest in cooking. So, while we were learning about France, I stumbled across this great cookbook. He has always been a selective eater, so we were excited to see recipes that he would be willing to eat as well as able to cook. Our favorites were:

Toasted Cheese and Ham Sandwich
Quiche Lorraine
Butter, Lemon, and Parsley Sole

There are also recipes that would be great for children a year or two older, like the kids shown on the cover. The lay-out is great, making it easy for young cooks to follow themselves. This book is real cooking for beginners.

Bees!!!

There is a beehive in my front yard.

Bees!

Guys! There is a beehive in my yard!

You can bet that we've already gotten a lot of homeschool mileage out of the bees. When our extra supplies arrived for expanding the hive, my husband sat down with the kids and showed them (and me!) what everything was and why the bees need this and that. I didn't even ask him to do this. He just did. Clearly I married the right guy.

Wax-coated black plastic foundation

And then of course there is the experience of watching the bees in our garden and watching them fly in and out of the hive.

The bees love our cucumber and squash plants

Do you know what is so funny? While we were waiting for the bees to arrive, we got a lot of questions, and I worried, too. Kids and bees -- I must be crazy, right? And yet, here I am standing a foot away from the hive to take these photos, and the bees don't care.

They're Russian bees! Don't be afraid to get Russian bees because they are "more aggressive." As long as we don't knock the hive over or wear imitation banana perfume, the kids will be safe.

Ahhh! They're so amazing!

P.S. The NC Zoo has a neat bee exhibit including a giant fake hive that you can walk into. The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences also has a beehive that you can see into in their Discovery Room.

Review: The Book with No Pictures

The Book with No Pictures by B. J. Novak is hilarious and perfect for young children with a twisted sense of humor. Be aware that this book requires singing and funny voices!

This book was a gift and when I first saw the cover, I wasn't sure what to think. Now my kids love this book so much that they insisted on reading it at our homeschool book club and they had all the other children in uproarious laughter.

Who knew that a picture book without pictures could be so interesting?

Review: Hamster Princess Of Mice and Magic by Ursula Vernon

(New to this series? See my review of the first book, Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible)

Hamster Princess: Of Mice and Magic by Ursula Vernon, the second book in the Hamster Princess series, is based on the classic fairy tale "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", except that in Harriet's world, the princesses are mice named after the twelve months of the year. In the original fairy tale, the soldier who discovers the princesses' secret marries the eldest daughter - as you can imagine, Harriet finds her own way to make things right. Of Mice and Magic makes for a great sequel that continues with the feminist themes of the first book, by which I mean that Harriet is female, saves the day, and doesn't believe in forcing princesses to marry.

Ursula is the creator of Hugo-Award winning graphic novel Digger, which is for more mature audiences, as well as many other graphic novels and otherworks which you can find out about at
UrsulaVernon.com

Oh, and did I mention that the third book is out? I can't wait to get my hands on Hamster Princess: Ratpunzel.

Photography in the Park in Living Education

My article "Photography in the Park" is out in Living Education Spring 2016: Go Wild!

"Photography in the Park" was inspired by our trips photographing mushrooms. I'll admit that this photo was all me:

Review: Hamster Princess Harriet the Invincible by Ursula Vernon

I'd like to take a break from educational ideas and books to share something just for fun:

Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible by Ursula Vernon is a hilarious graphic novel that reinvents the classic fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty (Little Briar Rose), except that the princess is a hamster who fights ogres and cliff dives. You see, when Harriet learns about the curse placed on her, she realizes that she is temporarily invincible because the spell must keep her alive until her birthday in order for her to prick her finger and fall into a deep sleep. Harriet easily subverts fairy tale tropes with her no-nonsense attitude, because if she doesn't want to marry a prince, then why should she?

Harriet the Invincible is an engaging mix of traditional text story-telling and graphic novel illustrations that help deliver comedic punchlines. Because of the reading level, this series is listed as Middle Grade (8-12). My son is younger than that but enjoyed the book very much and read it multiple times in a day. I think some of the jokes may have gone over his head and that an older child will get even more out of the book.

One of the reasons I love this series is because I see a number of fairy tale mash-ups for adults, but not many (any?) for this age group, and certainly none so clever. Harriet is quite inspiring as a strong female character who happens to be a hamster.

One of the amazing things about this series is that Ursula Vernon is both author and illustrator of Hamster Princess and many other of her works. That's like writing the book twice!

Ursula is also the creator of Hugo-Award winning graphic novel Digger, which is for more mature audiences, as well as many other graphic novels and otherworks which you can find out about at
UrsulaVernon.com

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.