Y is for YWAM

You may have noticed that I skipped last week. I just could not think of a great ‘X’ book to share. However, ‘Y’ was an easy choice. We absolutely love the books from Youth With a Mission or YWAM. They have two wonderful book series that we love to read: Christian Heroes Then and Now and Heroes of History. Both of these biography series are wonderful additions to your home library. They can be used as family read alouds, independent reading, audio books, or they even offer study guides to make them full unit studies.

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“Since it is likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage.” C.S. Lewis

Christian Heroes Then and Now is a biography series that features missionaries and other heroes of the faith. These books provide a great insight into the lives of these men and women who sacrificed so much to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are exciting and engaging narratives that give children positive role models and heroes to follow. These books feature great heroes of the faith such as George Mueller, Nate Saint, Corrie Ten Boom and C.S. Lewis.

Similarly, Heroes of History is a biography series but the people featured there are more historical figures who were Christians. Orville Wright, Daniel Boone, Alan Shepherd and Clara Barton are a few of the people featured in this series. They help students see how their contributions shaped history.

When I contemplate the C.S. Lewis quote above, I know that I want to have exposed my children to many good heroes. Some we see in our everyday lives but many of them they ‘meet’ though the pages of a good book. I think that these YWAM series are great ways for them to ‘meet’ a variety of heroes and help prepare them to face the battles they will surely face in this world. I highly encourage you to check out these series if you are not familiar with them.

Have you read any of these ‘Y’ books? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter ‘Y’.

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This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

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W is for Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows

I tried to choose just one but, there were several W books that just had to be mentioned. The Winnie the Pooh cartoons bring back fond memories of my own childhood; when I would go to my aunt’s house (we did not have satellite television at my home growing up) it was one of my very favorite television shows. Even though I did not read the books until I was an adult reading with my children. I just loved Pooh Bear and reading the books aloud to my children has been such a great experience. The characters are so much fun but also quietly teach such wonderful life lessons of love, friendship, loyalty, and selflessness. If you want to know more about how the stories got started you might also want to check out Finding Winnie, or if you want a family movie night A bear named Winnie.

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Wind in the Willows is another classic book that I had never read until I read it aloud to my children. It is a fun story that had them asking for more each time I read a few chapters. The stories of Rat and Mole will warm your heart and make you laugh and no one can forget the irascible Mr. Toad. I will note that as this book is a British book so there is a use of a word that we consider inappropriate in this house unless it is actually referring to the animal (a**). Depending on your children you can explain that it was considered acceptable there or you can skip it or mark it out as you see fit. Author Kenneth Grahame does a great job with descriptive language that paints a picture of the story in your mind.

Finally, I need to mention the Who Was Series (Among our Favorite Series). These short biographies are a great way for young readers to get more information on a variety of important people including historical figures, scientists, authors, and even a few famous athletes.

Have you read any of these W books? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter W.

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Deals and Freebies

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

V is for a Variety of Children’s Books

When I first started trying to think of books with “V” I was really struggling, but then I found four different ones in our collection that I felt were worth sharing. I decided to share all four of them so that you have a variety of “V” books to choose from this week.

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The first two books, staples in our children’s collection, are by Eric Carle. The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Quiet Cricket are wonderful children’s books that we have enjoyed reading many times over the years. The pictures are adorable and descriptions are fantastic. You can almost hear the insects with the descriptions in The Very Quiet Cricket as the sounds are described using terms such as, ” hummed a bumblebee” and “screeched a cicada.” It would be a great book to add to a study of insects. I love The Very Hungry Caterpillar so much that I plan to do a week long unit study on the book with my kindergartner this year. We can eat some of the yummy food that it talks about, get caterpillars to watch as they go through metamorphosis and turn into butterflies, and learn the days of the week.

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Velveteen Rabbit is one of those classic children’s stories that I think every child should hear at least once. While it has some really sad parts, it is a wonderful fairy tale about the power of love. If you are not familiar with this title, it is the story of a well loved stuffed rabbit that had to be thrown out after the child who loved him had been very sick. The magic of that love allowed him to become a real rabbit.

Victoria House is one that I had not read until recently. I found it in the clearance section on a recent bookstore visit and picked it up for $1. Written by Janice Shefelman, it is the story of a beautiful old house that had been abandoned and was going to be torn down. Fortunately, an architect saw it and fell in love with the home. They had the house moved into the city, moved into it, and turned it into a happy home once more. It was a cute story with lovely illustrations. I also felt that it was a great reminder of the value of older things in today’s ‘throw away’ culture.

Have you read any of these V books? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter V.

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Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Crafty Classroom Pattern Block Pack (Review)

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Pattern blocks are one of my favorite educational toys for young children because they have so many uses and are lots of fun. That made choosing to review Pattern Block Activity Bundle by Crafty Classroom an easy choice. I knew it was a great chance to ‘sneak’ a little learning in with my five-year-old son. He loves to play games and build things but is not yet ready for a lot of work book style learning.

I loved that my son was counting, matching shapes, practicing letters and numbers, and even improving his fine motor skills and he thought he was just playing a game. There are hundreds of different patterns included in this 731 page digital download and each one has several different levels. You can print one out in color where they just match the shapes onto the mat, a black and white version where they are finding the shapes to fit into the blocks, and blank ones that require them to decide which shapes would best fill in the space.

I mostly used the black and white ones because I felt like the colored ones were too easy for my son but he would have gotten frustrated with the blank ones. I love that as he works with them and gets better, I can switch over to the blank ones to keep him challenged.

For each pattern he would pick out the shapes he needed and put them in the right spots on the template. Then he would count how many of each shape were used and write that down at the bottom of the page. I let him write on the page but if you had multiple kids using them or wanted to reuse the same template multiple times you could put them in a page protector and use dry erase markers.

I brought these out several times a week over the last month or so and let him pick from a selection that I had printed out. The first day he did almost all of the numbers but most days he would simply do one or two of the pages and then move on to something else. I would also get them out whenever he asked for them and he enjoyed showing other people (grandparents, etc) his new ‘game’.

This set is very versatile and would be perfect for independent play, letter and number review, or as a scheduled part of your curriculum. Once we start our regular school days in September, I am looking forward to being able to use these a couple of times a week for an independent activity that he can do while I work with my older students. She also includes a variety of pages that can be used as extension activities with the patterns, having them draw and write about the pattern, do graphing, tally marks, or addition related to the patterns, and even a dice game with to use with the pattern blocks.

We really enjoyed this Pattern Block Activity Bundle from Crafty Classroom and look forward to continuing to use it throughout the year. In addition to this pattern block packet, Crew Members have reviewed a variety of other products and I highly encourage you to click on the Crew Review graphic below and check out their reviews.

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U is for the Under the Sea

When my five year-old son was about two he received a copy of the Usborne Lift and Look book, Under the Sea. He absolutely loved it and would have me read it over and over. On each page, you lift various flaps trying to find a small fish aptly called, “little fish.” He would lift the flaps and get quite excited and clap each time he found little fish. He had me read it and ‘read’ it himself over and over again until it fell apart. Thankfully, Usborne has a discount replacement system and I was able to get a new one that he continued reading. We are now enjoying sharing this book with his little brother who is 16 months old.

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Under the Sea is a fun book that is great for the toddler and preschool years, especially if you have a little one that loves fish and sea life. It encourages their observational skills, helps with fine motor (opening the flaps), and is enjoyable to read together. It is also a great book for young children to ‘read’ independently because they can enjoy looking at the pictures and finding little fish under the flaps even without being able to actually read the words.

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Have you read Under the Sea or any of the Usborne Lift the Flap books? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter U.

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Deals and Freebies

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Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

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T is for the Tuttle Twins and Trixie Belden

I was having a hard time deciding between these two sets of books so I decided to share both of them with you today. While not as common as some of the books I have shared before, I think they would be great additions to your reading list and personal libraries. The Trixie Belden books are a series my mom introduced me to as a child and now, I am excited to be passing them along to my own daughter. The Tuttle Twins are a much newer series that I purchased for my son for Christmas last year.

T is for Tuttle

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The Trixie Belden series was one of my favorites as a child. It was a series by Julie Campbell and Kathryn Kenny about a fun young lady named Trixie Belden who was always solving mysteries. This series written from 1948 to 1986 was full of good wholesome stories that made reading a pleasure. If you have a child that likes a good detective story or dreams of solving mysteries this is a great fit. They are similar to the older Nancy Drew books and a perfect fit for the 8-12 year old crowd.

The Tuttle Twins is a newer series that teaches children the principles of freedom. It is a great way to teach your elementary age children about economics and limited government. These books teach about entrepreneurship, free trade, the Golden Rule, banking and even the dangers of socialism. These books teach complex concepts in ways that make them easier for students to understand and without the liberal bias that is often found in books about these principles.

Instead of being taught in a textbook, these books are written in a story format with beautiful illustrations by Elijah Stanfield. Each book contains a glossary and discussion questions at the end as well information about a book for adults on a similar principle. You can purchase them as a set from the Tuttle Twins website (they are having a 35% off sale right now) and get a free set of PDF workbooks to accompany them. You can also check them out on Amazon if you would rather purchase the books individually. These can be used as a read aloud, independent reading, or with the workbooks as a civics curriculum.

Have you read any of the Trixie Belden or Tuttle Twins books? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter T

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Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

S is for the Secret Garden

C.S. Lewis once said, “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a delightful classic novel that stands up to CS Lewis’s test. It is a pleasant family read aloud (though it has some sad parts) or a great independent read for later elementary school and middle school. If you have a high school student who has not yet read it, I’d even recommend it for them. We personally have the paperback 100th anniversary edition by Harper Collins and my daughter really liked some of the bonus features, but our favorite way to enjoy the story was the radio theater version by Focus on the Family.

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“I like The Secret Garden because of the adventure Mary has and I also like how it tells the story of Mary and Colin and how Mary finds Colin by the crying she hears. I also like the bit of Yorkshire they use in it and how Mary teaches herself how to do things. i.e how to jump rope.” Elizabeth Age 11

The Secret Garden is the story of a young orphan girl named Mary Lennox who goes to live with her uncle in his large home, Misselthwaite Manor, and finds it to be full of secrets. At night, she hears the sound of someone crying. She loves the massive gardens around the estate and eventually discovers a young boy (her cousin) and a secret garden. She helps him to over come some emotional and physical obstacles and changes the their lives and the lives of those around them.

We are going to read this one (or listen as the case may be) again together as a family this summer and use this free book club guide from Sarah Mackenzie over at Read Aloud Revival to discuss the book.

Have you read The Secret Garden? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter S.

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Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

R is for Red Rock and Read Aloud Family

R is for Red Rock Mysteries! This fun series is written by Jerry B Jenkins and Chris Fabry. We were first introduced to the series through the online audio dramas but my son is collecting all of the paperback books and highly recommends them.

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The Red Rock Mysteries star a brother and a sister whose father died and later their mother remarried and they moved out to the desert of Colorado where they ride ATVs, have adventures and solve mysteries. Their mother is new to the Christian faith and they struggle with figuring out what they believe and learning to trust in God. It is a fun series that shares important lessons without feeling like a sermon. I would recommend these for ages 8-14. This series could also be used as a family read aloud, but know that there are a few scary parts as the teens run from bad guys and solve mysteries that might bother younger children.

For moms, I highly recommend the Read Aloud Family by Sarah Mackenzie. This book was such an inspiration to encourage me to get back into the habit of reading aloud with my children, including audio books into our days, and just encouraging a love for books in our home. The book is part inspirational and part practical suggestions to help you actually put into practice those ideals that you long to see in your home. You can find out more about the Read Aloud Family over at my Read-Aloud Family Book Study posts.

Have you read any of the Red Rock books or Read Aloud Family? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter R.

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Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Q is for Queen Esther

Q is for Queen Esther! It is not often that I write a post about a book I have not actually read. In fact, I think this may be the very first time. I was having a bit of a difficult time coming up with a book to share for the letter Q and I remembered this great series that we had reviewed last summer, Barbour Publishing Kingdom Files Biography Series . We reviewed the two books about Mary and Jonah but they have a book about Esther that looks great. I love the story of Queen Esther and how by stepping out in faith she allowed God to use her to save her people.

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This series of books, written by Matt Koceich, teaches children about Biblical people and each book is set up to contain three parts: Fact File, Action File and Power File. These parts take them through learning the basic facts about the person and timeline, telling the story of that person, and then walks them through how that all applies in their life today.

These are great for independent reading for roughly ages 8-12 and for family read alouds or devotional times. There are currently six books in this series which each focusing on a different person from the Bible.

Have you read any of the Kingdom Files books? Tell me what books come to mind when you think of the letter Q.

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Deals and Freebies

June 13th -15th 20% Sale at You Are An Artist!

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Enrichment Studies has a great free fine arts memory match game this month!

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Flag Day Resources

Flag Day is an often-overlooked holiday, but there are many great resources to help us celebrate and the history tie-ins are abundant! While it will probably never share the ‘fame’ of Independence Day on July 4th; Flag Day is a great day to learn more about our flag and our nation’s history. I know that summer is here for many of us and we may not want to have to make one more lesson plan, so I gathered some fun resources that you can easily use to celebrate Flag Day in your home with very little preparation. Some are more ‘school like’ but there are also some fun ideas, like a flag cake and art work that can feel more like a party than a history class. It’s flag day because, on June 14, 1777 the second continental congress decreed: “Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. * My children love to make a flag cake. We typically make one for Memorial Day (which often is the same weekend as my son’s birthday) and Independence Day but it would be a perfect treat for Flag Day. Simply make any rectangular cake that you would like (we use two yellow cake layers with strawberries in the middle) and then top with sweetened whipping cream. Once you have a nice white rectangle, they can use blueberries for stars and cut up strawberries to make the stripes. For something a bit more savory we have also made this yummy American Flag Dip.

There are a variety of great art projects and crafts ideas for Flag Day. We really liked this free chalk pastel flag tutorial or this video lesson. If you like those lessons, you should check out Nana’s US History Course. In addition to chalk pastels, there is a great list of crafts here including one for small children using paint and star shaped cookie cutters that I think will be fun with my five-year-old. Older children might enjoy these patriotic jar lanterns or these washi tape flags. If the history of the United States and her flags is interesting to you and your students, I have also added our fun ‘US History Through Flags’ packet to the free resource library. This will give you a fun and easy way to incorporate these topics in a few minutes a day throughout the year. You can also follow the US History Through Flags page on Facebook to get daily bits of history right to your news feed. I have included a variety of resources below to help you tailor your Flag Day celebration to your children. I would love to know what creative ideas and resources you use to celebrate Flag Day in your home.

Flag Day Resources

History of Flag Day US History Through Flags Smithsonian Star Spangled Banner Flag Day Poster Flag Day Worksheets 21 Ways to Celebrate Flag Day Flag Etiquette Flag Coloring Pages Patriotic Poems Why Are There Stripes on the American Flag? (Free on Kindle Unlimited) F is for Flag Story of the Star Spangled Banner Flag Day Resource List (Still Learning Something New)

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