Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Crockpot Taco Soup
This is a quick, easy lunch that we enjoy. It's roughly based on the recipe on this site, but we don't have a "large family" so we've adapted it.
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 can some other kind of beans
1 can tomato sauce or diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp oregano
Mix in crockpot, cook on high, 2-3 hours.
Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, fresh cilanto and tortilla chips
Sunday, April 8, 2012
TOS Crew Review: TruthQuest History
We LOVE history around here! LOVE IT!!! And we love using living books to learn about history. I've been very happy with the curriculum I've been using, which, as I use it, is basically a list of books to get from the library, going through American history chronologically. We used it, as read alouds, when the girls were 5, and we're using it again this year as a combination of read alouds and independent reading.Providentially, when the opportunity to review TruthQuest History came up, complete with the option to choose from several products to review, we were just wrapping up the Revolutionary War, ready to start learning about the Louisiana Purchase. And one of the options to review from TruthQuest History was American History for Young Students II (1800-1865). For those who don't remember their American History dates, the Revolutionary War was late 1700s, and the Louisianna Purchase was 1803. What are the odds?!?! So, needless to say, I jumped at the chance to review a history product that was timed exactly perfectly for where we were. And I fell instantly in love!!!
Remember what I said we love to do for history? Read real books (Charlotte Mason calls them living books) in relatively chronological order. . . guess what TruthQuest is? A huge list of real books on topics of (in this case) American history, listed chronologically!!! BUT, they make a point of including books with a Christian point-of-view. AND they managed to have almost NO duplication with the list I was already using. I'm not sure how that's even possible when both had such awesome books, but it is.
The curriculum started, in 1800, with the building of the "Federal City" (better known as Washington DC) a topic that we would have completely skipped over if we hadn't gotten this review right when we did! I did find that our library doesn't have all the books listed. In most cases, the library has at least SOME of the books listed in each section, so we go with the ones they have. Sometimes, not so much (starting TOMORROW we're going to be reading a book about the Barbary Pirates (another topic we would have missed if we didn't get this curriculum), our library didn't have ANY of the ones listed, so I ordered the one that I thought would work best for us from a used book website), I think it's because this is such a thorough guide and the library just doesn't have that selection. The way I see it, if the library doesn't have any of a large list of resources about a topic, it's probably a good idea for us to own at least one or two resources on that topic anyway. I've also run into some books listed that I just can't bear to NOT use, so even though the library's had plenty of others on a given topic, I've ordered some new (to us) ones as well.Most topics include at least a brief summary that I read to the children before we dive into the books of that section. As I glance through the rest of the book, I see that some are longer, and some include a short "writing prompt" asking a question about the topic being discussed. So far there have been SO MANY great books recommended, and we love great books, so we're not moving through this very fast. I think how fast we move will vary greatly. We spent 3-4 weeks (granted we were traveling during that time) on the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark. We'll probably spend less time on some topics (hopefully, if not, we won't get to the Civil War until the girls are teenagers LOL).
I didn't ask the girls what I thought of this curriculum, because it fit so perfectly seamlessly into what we were already doing that I don't think they even realized we were reviewing something. I *can* say, with certainty, that we have already discovered some wonderful books thanks to this book and we've only made it through the first couple topics.
I am loving this! The only "teacher prep" that's required is to line up the books you need. I try to check the library about 3 weeks ahead of where we're working, I enter the books the library does have into my "list" on the library website, ready to request about a week before we need them (to give time for the library to collect them from around the county for me, I love my library!!!). But by checking a few weeks early it also gives me time to decide if I want to purchase any of the books the library doesn't have, and have time to order them and have them shipped media mail. And that's it. . . one of the books we used with Lewis and Clark included hands-on projects and we enjoyed a few of them (I was hoping we'd have pictures of the moccasins the girls are working on, but we've been too busy enjoying the lovely spring weather to get much sewing done, the girls are very excited about it though, so when the weather is less conducive to spending hours outside I'm sure they'll get them sewn up quickly), so if you were to choose this book you might choose to go through it ahead of time and choose projects and collect the supplies. I'm not that organized, so as we read through the book, if we came to a project that looked interesting, I mentioned it, if the girls wanted to do it, we added the needed supplies to our shopping list for that week, and went on. . .
I highly recommend this for history! Reading REAL books about history is such an awesome way to learn history! Sassy and MiniMe looked at me like I had 3 heads when I mentioned (I don't remember how it came up) that many people find history boring and I really think that's because they've never had to listen to a dry history lecture or read a dry history textbook, or ignore the fun anecdotes in order to make sure to have time to memorize the dry facts that the teacher thought were important. You can purchase a physical book for $24.95 or a .pdf ebook (like we are using) for $19.95, and you can use this for all your children!!!
Be sure to check out the website too. In addition to the volume we reviewed, there are 2 more volumes for American History (Grades 1-5), and several volumes for World History (Grades 5-12). There are also additional resources for maps, lapbooks, etc. available.
Be sure to check the TOS Crew blog for additional reviews of this and the rest of the TruthQuest History products.
Disclaimer: I received the above mentioned product in exchange for writing an honest review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are those of myself or my children, as stated.
Weekly Wrap-up - April 8
We had a busy week this past week, as evidenced by the fact that it took me half the week to post LAST WEEK's Wrap-up, sigh . . .
Sunday we went to a friend's house. E (5) was sooo excited to show off his new racetrack and other fun new toys (his birthday is in March too). Then when he discovered that MiniMe and Sassy knew how to blow up balloons, his mom gave them a bag of balloons and all the kids had great fun playing with, and popping balloons. Fun times!
Monday was a much-anticipated day!!! Miss Sara used to live with our neighbor, Miss Judy, but moved to Hawaii last summer. We LOOVE Miss Sara and she has been much missed. So, a month or so ago, Miss Judy told us that Sara would be in NY the first week of April, and was planning to come to Judy's house one of the days. At that time we thought Daddy would be in Pittsburgh the first week of April, but Sassy and MiniMe were instantly ready to give up a trip to Pittsburgh to be here to see Miss Sara. As it turned out, Daddy's trip was cancelled, so that was a non-issue. Monday we enjoyed a lovely lunch and afternoon at Miss Judy's visiting with Miss Sara and other friends. Little Bit didn't seem to remember Miss Sara when I talked about her, though she was also in a bad mood so may have just been saying "no" because she could . . . but once we were there she warmed up to her pretty quickly, and told me in no uncertain terms that she wanted Miss Sara to sit by her at lunch instead of me LOL.
Tuesday and Wednesday were just boring errands and cleaning and school and stuff.
Thursday I had slatted as my "clean for Passover" day, and had warned the girls of those plans. But that morning a friend called and asked if I could possibly watch her children. Her normal babysitter was sick and she couldn't take off work that day. So, we scrapped all plans for school and housecleaning and spent the day playing outside and building with Wedgits and otherwise having a fun time with friends. In the afternoon we did our Passover grocery shopping and came out from the store, set to make a quick run to the library before going home and throwing together something for supper, and the car battery was dead. URRGGGHHH!!! It was dead a week or so ago (at home) after a light got left on inside the car, and I commented to dh then, that I was pretty sure that meant the battery was going. That a single "map light" shouldn't have drained the battery in one night. But then I promptly forgot about it. When we got to the grocery store that afternoon, Little Bit had fallen asleep, so we sat and listened to Adventures in Odyssey while she slept. It was a pretty day and without thinking about the bad battery, I turned the engine off too save gas. So, listening to the tape without the engine running must have been what ran the battery down. Thankfully, dh was at the office, and not in Philadelphia or York or somewhere, so he came and jumped the car for me, then went and got a new battery that he installed for me the next day, woo-hoo!!!
Friday MiniMe learned how to install a car battery, and both she and Sassy helped me prep food for Passover.
Friday night was officially Passover, but we had decided to have our Seder on Sabbath afternoon/evening instead. We did have matzo instead of Challah bread for Friday night though. And decided to try our hand at Matzo ball soup too. In looking for vegetarian Passover recipes I had discovered a recipe for Moroccan style Vegan Matzo Ball Soup so we made it (minus the carrots since none of us are big on cooked carrots, and mushrooms because I don't like mushrooms, and the cook gets to decide things like that LOL), but just made regular Matzo balls instead of the vegan ones in the recipe. Matzo balls were a BIG hit, and the soup was declared acceptable too. So woo-hoo!!! a new Friday night soup option.
Sabbath we got home from church, ate a quick lunch, put Little Bit down for nap, and the big girls and I got busy working on our Passover meal.
After Little Bit woke up from her nap we began our Seder. I had combined 2 or 3 different Messianic Haggadahs (the booklet with who says and does what, when, during the Seder), to come up with a short, simple one that worked for us. It was nice. The girls really enjoyed it and it was a wonderful way of remembering Jesus' sacrifice. We included foot washing where we think Jesus might have washed the disciples' feet during their Seder/Last Supper, and also remembered Jesus' admonition to remember Him when drinking the wine and eating the bread, I think doing all of this as a part of a Passover Seder helped the girls, and me, see the symbolism of it better than our typical church communion, removed from the Seder context.
So that was our week, today we're enjoying Firstfruits, and the continuing week of Unleavened Bread.
In between all the above activity, we've been enjoying lots of history (there's a review coming in the next day or 2) and Science (that review is still a week or so away).
Sunday we went to a friend's house. E (5) was sooo excited to show off his new racetrack and other fun new toys (his birthday is in March too). Then when he discovered that MiniMe and Sassy knew how to blow up balloons, his mom gave them a bag of balloons and all the kids had great fun playing with, and popping balloons. Fun times!
Monday was a much-anticipated day!!! Miss Sara used to live with our neighbor, Miss Judy, but moved to Hawaii last summer. We LOOVE Miss Sara and she has been much missed. So, a month or so ago, Miss Judy told us that Sara would be in NY the first week of April, and was planning to come to Judy's house one of the days. At that time we thought Daddy would be in Pittsburgh the first week of April, but Sassy and MiniMe were instantly ready to give up a trip to Pittsburgh to be here to see Miss Sara. As it turned out, Daddy's trip was cancelled, so that was a non-issue. Monday we enjoyed a lovely lunch and afternoon at Miss Judy's visiting with Miss Sara and other friends. Little Bit didn't seem to remember Miss Sara when I talked about her, though she was also in a bad mood so may have just been saying "no" because she could . . . but once we were there she warmed up to her pretty quickly, and told me in no uncertain terms that she wanted Miss Sara to sit by her at lunch instead of me LOL.
Tuesday and Wednesday were just boring errands and cleaning and school and stuff.
Thursday I had slatted as my "clean for Passover" day, and had warned the girls of those plans. But that morning a friend called and asked if I could possibly watch her children. Her normal babysitter was sick and she couldn't take off work that day. So, we scrapped all plans for school and housecleaning and spent the day playing outside and building with Wedgits and otherwise having a fun time with friends. In the afternoon we did our Passover grocery shopping and came out from the store, set to make a quick run to the library before going home and throwing together something for supper, and the car battery was dead. URRGGGHHH!!! It was dead a week or so ago (at home) after a light got left on inside the car, and I commented to dh then, that I was pretty sure that meant the battery was going. That a single "map light" shouldn't have drained the battery in one night. But then I promptly forgot about it. When we got to the grocery store that afternoon, Little Bit had fallen asleep, so we sat and listened to Adventures in Odyssey while she slept. It was a pretty day and without thinking about the bad battery, I turned the engine off too save gas. So, listening to the tape without the engine running must have been what ran the battery down. Thankfully, dh was at the office, and not in Philadelphia or York or somewhere, so he came and jumped the car for me, then went and got a new battery that he installed for me the next day, woo-hoo!!!
Friday MiniMe learned how to install a car battery, and both she and Sassy helped me prep food for Passover.
Friday night was officially Passover, but we had decided to have our Seder on Sabbath afternoon/evening instead. We did have matzo instead of Challah bread for Friday night though. And decided to try our hand at Matzo ball soup too. In looking for vegetarian Passover recipes I had discovered a recipe for Moroccan style Vegan Matzo Ball Soup so we made it (minus the carrots since none of us are big on cooked carrots, and mushrooms because I don't like mushrooms, and the cook gets to decide things like that LOL), but just made regular Matzo balls instead of the vegan ones in the recipe. Matzo balls were a BIG hit, and the soup was declared acceptable too. So woo-hoo!!! a new Friday night soup option.
Sabbath we got home from church, ate a quick lunch, put Little Bit down for nap, and the big girls and I got busy working on our Passover meal.
After Little Bit woke up from her nap we began our Seder. I had combined 2 or 3 different Messianic Haggadahs (the booklet with who says and does what, when, during the Seder), to come up with a short, simple one that worked for us. It was nice. The girls really enjoyed it and it was a wonderful way of remembering Jesus' sacrifice. We included foot washing where we think Jesus might have washed the disciples' feet during their Seder/Last Supper, and also remembered Jesus' admonition to remember Him when drinking the wine and eating the bread, I think doing all of this as a part of a Passover Seder helped the girls, and me, see the symbolism of it better than our typical church communion, removed from the Seder context.
So that was our week, today we're enjoying Firstfruits, and the continuing week of Unleavened Bread.
In between all the above activity, we've been enjoying lots of history (there's a review coming in the next day or 2) and Science (that review is still a week or so away).
Friday, April 6, 2012
Book Review and Giveaway: The Five Love Languages of Children
As I mentioned in my review of A Perfect Pet for Peyton (have you entered the giveaway yet?), I also got to review The 5 Love Languages of Children.
I actually read this book (from the library) about 4 years ago, and loved it then, so I was thrilled to get to re-read it and have my own copy of it! It did NOT disappoint! I found it just as relevant now, with two 9 yr olds and a 3 yr old as I did 4 years ago with two 5 year olds! I don't know about you, but sometimes I get so busy focusing on helping my children learn all the things they need to learn, that I forget to focus on just LOVING them! Not that I don't love them, but I'm not always good about showing them that love, and definitely not always good about making sure I'm showing that love in ways that speak to each of them individually!
That's where this book comes in. In this book Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell, describe how each of the 5 love languages look in children, followed by a chapter telling how to determine your child(ren)'s primary love language(s). The last several chapters address specifics like single parenting, dealing with anger, etc.
Showing our children that we love them unconditionally, in ways that they "hear" us is sooo important! So this book is, in my opinion, is a "must read" for all parents!
And now I get to GIVEAWAY!!! a copy of this book to one of my readers!!!
So leave a comment on this post (mandatory first entry) for your chance to win!
The fine print: Giveaway open to U.S. addresses only. Only comments on this blog count, if you are reading this in a reader or on facebook, please click through to my actual blog. Giveaway ends at 10pm edt on Sunday, April 15. If you do not provide me with an, easy-to-determine method of contacting you, I will choose a different winner.If I don't hear back from the winner within 2 days, I will choose a new winner.
After you have done the mandatory first entry, you may earn additional entries by doing any or all of the following (leave a separate comment for each entry):
“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or
services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it
on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally
and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance
with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the
Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Review and Giveaway!!! A Perfect Pet for Peyton
CONGRATS to Monica!! Winner of our Giveaway!
I think I first learned about the 5 love languages three for four years ago, as I was searching for ways to help MiniMe adjust to our move. I got a book about love languages out of the library and gleaned some great tips. So, when I was given the chance to review, The Five Love Languages of Children (that review, and a GIVEAWAY is coming soon!) AND a children's book about the love languages, both by Gary Chapman, I jumped at the chance.
I have to admit, I didn't even read the description of A Perfect Pet for Peyton before I signed up for this review. I knew I wanted to review the Five Love Languages, and my kids love books, so sure, I'm always up for reviewing a good kids' book!
So I was THRILLED to see just what an AWESOME book this was when it came! This is not your typical picture book! The pictures aren't just PICTURES!!! Every page has something to look for, or something else fun to do, plus the story is great! Even my "we're too old for picture books" 9-year-olds loved it, and happily listened to it a second time!
The story is about twins who go to Mr. Chapman's "Perfect Pet Pal Emporium" for their birthday party. As they visit the petting zoo, aquarium, etc etc etc, and have their party, the book shows how each of the children at the party shows their love for their friends in different ways. At the end of the party Mr. Chapman presents each child at the party with a new pet that is perfectly matched to that child's love language.
MiniMe is completely enthralled with the concept of Love Languages, and HER primary love language(s). Sassy, not-so-much, but both enjoyed the story and figuring out each of the character's love language. The concept of love languages was, naturally, over Little Bit's head, but she loved the pictures and being able to find things in the pictures. So this book was an all-around hit!!!
It was a great way to open dialogue with the older girls about not only accepting love, but showing love to others in a variety of ways to meet everyone's needs. The back of the book includes some questions to help parents and children determine each child's love language.
GIVEAWAY!!!!
Not only did I get a copy of this great book, I get to give a copy of this book to one of you too!! Woo-hoo!! If you have children 3-10, you WANT this book!!
So leave a comment on this post (mandatory first entry) for your chance to win!
The fine print: Giveaway open to U.S. addresses only. Only comments on this blog count, if you are reading this in a reader or on facebook, please click through to my actual blog. Giveaway ends at 10pm edt next Thursday, April 12. If you do not provide me with an, easy-to-determine method of contacting you, I will choose a different winner.If I don't hear back from the winner within 2 days, I will choose a new winner.
After you have done the mandatory first entry, you may earn additional entries by doing any or all of the following (leave a separate comment for each entry):
- Follow my blog in Linky Followers (see sidebar) - 2 entries for this
- Follow my blog in Google Friend Connect (see sidebar)
- Like Gary Chapman on facebook.
- Like my blog on facebook.
- Follow Gary Chapman on Twitter
- Follow me on Twitter
“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Weekly Wrap Up - April 2
I started this post on Monday, it's been a busy week LOL, but, better late than never . . .
I've already blogged about most of our adventures last Monday.
Tues and Wed we were at Mama & Papa's house, working on the playhouse, visiting with friends, and, on Wed, celebrating birthdays. Little Bit insisted that birthdays require balloons so my mom found some and the girls had great fun blowing them all up and hung them around.
Papa hung a makeshift rope swing from the "catwalk" on their playhouse (that will eventually have swings hanging from it) and all 3 girls spent TONS of time swinging on it. Even Little Bit was able to stand in the loop of rope and keep her legs stiff enough to swing.
Our birthday dessert was a HIT!! The girls had decided they wanted "chocolate strawberry pie" so we started looking at recipes. What we finally decided on was this recipe for "Death by Chocolate" but with sliced strawberries added to each layer. It was SOOOO good!!! Definitely a keeper!
Thursday we headed home.
Sabbath was an eventful day for Sassy & MiniMe. They had decided several months ago that when they turned 9, they wanted to start helping in Cradle Roll (the class for children 0-4) instead of attending their own class. So, this was their first time helping in Cradle Roll. They were SOO excited, and did a great job! The timing was perfect too. Little Bit was NOT in a good mood. That is especially challenging when Mommy is leading the program. It's not like I can just take her out, if I do that, the whole program screeches to a halt. But since the older girls were there, it worked well. I took Little Bit out to the hall and left her there with MiniMe, who was probably better at comforting her and calming her down than I would be LOL. A couple songs later we were getting ready for her FAVORITE (the parachute!) so I stuck my head out and asked if she was ready to come back, and she was, whew! So much less stressful than if I'd had to hand the program over to another mom and worry about how long we were taking and such. And then Sassy and MiniMe told children story for church. They enjoy doing it, and it's fun to see how much more comfortable they are each time they do it. I wasn't sure how they'd do now that there's a large group of children (ranging from 5 to 12, roughly, though the oldest ones don't always go up for story) from a nearby neighborhood who come for church. That's abit more intimidating than telling a story to 3 or 4 toddler and preschoolers as has been the case in the past, but they did great.
So that was our week.
Oh, one more milestone! Two days before we left for my parents' house, Little Bit announced, at bedtime, that she was going to sleep in Sissies' room. She's said that before but never actually DONE it. She has her own bed in there and sleeps in there for naps, but had never slept there at night. The logistics are complicated since she stays up later than the big girls, and even when I thought about trying to decrease or eliminate nap to move her bedtime earlier, it still seemed challenging since they typically read quietly in bed for a little while, wasn't sure how that would work with her there. . . But when she said she wanted to, I decided to try it. I reminded her that I couldn't lay with her (her bed is right against MiniMe's (both are "featherbeds" on the floor), so for naps I can just lay on MiniMe's bed but that doesn't work when she's already sleeping there. But told her I'd sit at the foot of her bed. She was ok with that, so I sat and read a book while she went to sleep, and slept there all night! It was kind of fun to go in to wake up the big girls the next morning and "surprise" them with their baby sister asleep in their room LOL. She repeated all of it the next night. But then we were at my parents' house. She actually DID ask a few times to sleep with Sissies, but since they sleep on the floor in Mama & Papa's room, and Mama & Papa were still getting ready for bed and such. I wasn't sure what would happen when we got home. The first night she did start toward her bed in our room, but when I asked "are you sleeping in Mommy's room or Sissies?" She changed direction and went to the girls' room. And that apparently was the end of that. She's slept all night every night in the girls's room, and now refers to it as "my room too" instead of "Sissies' room"). It all seemed a little too easy . . . guess she was ready :)
I've already blogged about most of our adventures last Monday.
Tues and Wed we were at Mama & Papa's house, working on the playhouse, visiting with friends, and, on Wed, celebrating birthdays. Little Bit insisted that birthdays require balloons so my mom found some and the girls had great fun blowing them all up and hung them around.
Papa hung a makeshift rope swing from the "catwalk" on their playhouse (that will eventually have swings hanging from it) and all 3 girls spent TONS of time swinging on it. Even Little Bit was able to stand in the loop of rope and keep her legs stiff enough to swing.
Our birthday dessert was a HIT!! The girls had decided they wanted "chocolate strawberry pie" so we started looking at recipes. What we finally decided on was this recipe for "Death by Chocolate" but with sliced strawberries added to each layer. It was SOOOO good!!! Definitely a keeper!
Thursday we headed home.
Sabbath was an eventful day for Sassy & MiniMe. They had decided several months ago that when they turned 9, they wanted to start helping in Cradle Roll (the class for children 0-4) instead of attending their own class. So, this was their first time helping in Cradle Roll. They were SOO excited, and did a great job! The timing was perfect too. Little Bit was NOT in a good mood. That is especially challenging when Mommy is leading the program. It's not like I can just take her out, if I do that, the whole program screeches to a halt. But since the older girls were there, it worked well. I took Little Bit out to the hall and left her there with MiniMe, who was probably better at comforting her and calming her down than I would be LOL. A couple songs later we were getting ready for her FAVORITE (the parachute!) so I stuck my head out and asked if she was ready to come back, and she was, whew! So much less stressful than if I'd had to hand the program over to another mom and worry about how long we were taking and such. And then Sassy and MiniMe told children story for church. They enjoy doing it, and it's fun to see how much more comfortable they are each time they do it. I wasn't sure how they'd do now that there's a large group of children (ranging from 5 to 12, roughly, though the oldest ones don't always go up for story) from a nearby neighborhood who come for church. That's abit more intimidating than telling a story to 3 or 4 toddler and preschoolers as has been the case in the past, but they did great.
So that was our week.
Oh, one more milestone! Two days before we left for my parents' house, Little Bit announced, at bedtime, that she was going to sleep in Sissies' room. She's said that before but never actually DONE it. She has her own bed in there and sleeps in there for naps, but had never slept there at night. The logistics are complicated since she stays up later than the big girls, and even when I thought about trying to decrease or eliminate nap to move her bedtime earlier, it still seemed challenging since they typically read quietly in bed for a little while, wasn't sure how that would work with her there. . . But when she said she wanted to, I decided to try it. I reminded her that I couldn't lay with her (her bed is right against MiniMe's (both are "featherbeds" on the floor), so for naps I can just lay on MiniMe's bed but that doesn't work when she's already sleeping there. But told her I'd sit at the foot of her bed. She was ok with that, so I sat and read a book while she went to sleep, and slept there all night! It was kind of fun to go in to wake up the big girls the next morning and "surprise" them with their baby sister asleep in their room LOL. She repeated all of it the next night. But then we were at my parents' house. She actually DID ask a few times to sleep with Sissies, but since they sleep on the floor in Mama & Papa's room, and Mama & Papa were still getting ready for bed and such. I wasn't sure what would happen when we got home. The first night she did start toward her bed in our room, but when I asked "are you sleeping in Mommy's room or Sissies?" She changed direction and went to the girls' room. And that apparently was the end of that. She's slept all night every night in the girls's room, and now refers to it as "my room too" instead of "Sissies' room"). It all seemed a little too easy . . . guess she was ready :)
Monday, April 2, 2012
TOS Crew Review: Amazing Animals by Design
All three of my girls love animals, so when I had the chance to review Amazing Animals by Design by Debra Haagen, I was thrilled!!!This is SUCH a cute book. In the story, a family goes to the zoo and discovers all kinds of amazing animals, some "typical zoo animals" that my 3 year old easily recognized, some that even the 9 year olds and I hadn't heard of. The children in the story notice that each of these animals was designed especially for the place it lives, and at the end of the day, talk with their parents about how all of these amazing designs couldn't have happened by accident, animals, like the rests of our world, was designed perfectly by our amazing Creator!
Little Bit loved the pictures, the cover art, above gives you a good idea of what the illustrations are like and they're on every page which is essential for keeping my wiggly little one's attention. The book is also relatively short, 22 pages, half of which (roughly) are pictures), this is another key to keeping her attention! Sassy and MiniMe generally consider themselves "too old" for picture books, but once we got to the cat who can jump 12 feet in the air, backwards, I had their attention too!
We received the ebook version of this book, so we all snuggled close around my laptop to read it. The one downside I found with this, is the book layout is, in most cases, picture on one page, writing on the other. But even when I made the pages smaller so we could view 2 at once, it didn't let us see the right picture with what I was reading. I'm assuming this is because Adobe was considering the "cover" as a page. So it showed the cover & first page together as a "spread" and then the "spreads" were off for the rest of the book. Obviously this would be a non-issue with the physical book and as much as I love the cost savings (and storage space savings) of ebooks, for young children, I think "real" books are still the way to go. But you can choose whichever you prefer, this book is available as both a book ($8.99) and an ebook ($7.99) here.
While my older girls enjoyed listening along, I'd say this would be best for younger children. I'd recommend this book for anyone whose young children loves animals! If you're looking for a book that your children will love, that will reinforce for them that God created all the animals, not random chance, this is the book for you! Your little ones will love it, and I bet any older children will at least pause to hear, and might come over to check out some of these unusual animals mentioned.
While you're visiting Tate Publishing to look at this book, browse around abit, they offer a wide selection of books and music.
To hear what other people think of this great new book, stop by the Crew blog to read the rest of the reviews!
Disclaimer: I received the above mentioned product in exchange for writing an honest review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.
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