Total Sports

Total Sports – Know the Score
Published at DK Canada

About the book

From the best known to the most obscure, and covering all 33 of the Olympic sports beginning with the early Greek games and going to present day, this is the ultimate guide to the world's many sports.

Dynamic photography brings the subject to life, and works together with clear explanations and artwork to describe fields of play, equipment and clothing, teams and players, rules and tactics, key techniques and common terms, while outlining the geographical range, history, and major competitions for each sport. Fact boxes highlight key information including star profiles, record breakers, and top tens, as well as the weirdest facts, most bizarre moments, and sports' most colorful characters.

My Thoughts

Do you have a child who eat, dream, and enjoy sports?   Well this book is definitively for him or her! 

Clearly presented with stunning photos, graphics and detailed information, each sport will give you the basics to understand it.   I find this book perfect for the Olympics as my kids and I enjoy watching it on television every two years.    This book will provide much needed information on understanding how to sport is played and the goals behind it.

The book will cover a variety of sports included in the following categories:

• Team sports – Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Volleybal and Netball, Football, Rugby Union, Australian rules, Ice Hockey and Field Hockey, Cricket and more.
• Racket sports – Tennis, Table Tennis and Badminton, Squash, and more.
• Track & Field and Gymnastics – Sprinting, Distance events, Jumping, Throwing, Weightlifting, Gymnastics, On the Floor.
• Target Sports – Golf, Curling and Bowls, Ten-Pin, Snooker and Pool, Archery and more.
• Water Sports – Swimming, Diving, Rowing and Kayaking, Sailing, Windsurfing, and more.
• Combat Sports – Boxing, Wrestling, Judo and Ju itsu, Karate and Taekwondo, Fencing and more.
• Winter Sports – Skiing, Snowboarding, Bobsled and Luge and Skeleton, Speed Skating and Ice Skating and more.
• Horse Sports – Horse racing and Polo, Snow Jumping and Eventing
• Wheels and Motors – Formula 1 and Indycar, Rallying, Motorcycles, Drag Racing, Cycling, Mountain Biking and BMX, Skateboarding and more.
• Extreme Sports – Free Diving and Cliff Diving, Skydiving, freeride Mountain Bibking and Ultra-Running and more.
• Olympic Games – Olympic history, Summer Olympics, Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games.

It was interesting to discover sports that I haven’t heard from like the Netball for example.   This game is based on the Basketball but seems to have a ball similar to Soccer or Volleyball.    This book is packed with information on various sports.  All you have to do it turn the pages to discover them!

Total Sports if available at your favorite bookstore, even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: Thanks to DK Canada for sending this book for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver
By John Perry
Published by Thomas Nelson

About the book

A generation of 20th-century Americans knew him as a gentle, stoop-shouldered old black man who loved plants and discovered more than a hundred uses for the humble peanut. George Washington Carver goes beyond the public image to chronicle the adventures of one of history's most inspiring and remarkable men.

George Washington Carver was born a slave. After his mother was kidnapped during the Civil War, his former owners raised him as their own child. He was the first black graduate of Iowa State, and turned down a salary from Thomas Edison higher than the U.S. President to stay at the struggling Tuskegee Institute, where he taught and encouraged poor black students for nearly half a century.

Carver was an award-winning painter and acclaimed botanist who saw God the Creator in all of nature. The more he learned about the world, the more convinced he was that everything in it was a gift from the Almighty, that all people were equal in His sight, and that the way to gain respect from his fellow man was not to demand it, but to earn it.

My thoughts

I was intrigued and very interested in learning more about George Washington Carver after I read and reviewed The Boy Who Changed the World and Butterfly Effect.    I came across the name a few time in the homeschool communities also.   So my curiosity was picked… to the point that I jumped on the e-pub version of the book when it was available through the blogger’s program at Thomas Nelson.

I love biographies and I am definitively not disappointed with this one.   Through adversity and though times, the one known as George Washington Carver stepped in faith and became a painter and botanist.   He was a devoted believer in God and saw Him all around creation.  I find it interesting that even though he was offered a better salary to dedicate himself in teaching and encouraging black students.    He knew the importance of an education and didn’t think twice about what his calling was.

George Washington Carver is also the one behind all the different  uses for the peanut and learning more about his life gave me another perspective on how former slaves were hardworking and dedicate in what they did.    Reading about this humble man is a delight for my eyes!   I strongly recommend this book to anybody who like biographies.

George Washington Carver is available at your favorite bookstore, even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: Thanks to Thomas Nelson for sending me the above mentioned product in the e-pub edition for review purposes . I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

Multiplication Made Fun

Multiplication made Fun
Published at DK Canada

About the book

Multiplication Made Fun offers a fresh, fun look at mastering multiplication!

Using up to the minute teaching techniques as well as traditional teaching methods to make sure those times tables stay in the brain, children will love the fast paced games, surprising tricks, puzzles, and the innovative times table wonder wheel.

My Thoughts

Starting with basic information about number, this book will introduce the multiplication to your child. 

The first exercise that involves multiplication in this book is the counting of socks.   Quickly the child will understand that you can multiply to calculate how many you have of something in a faster way than if you would use addition.

Our curriculum for Math is phenomenal but I am pleased to have this book in my hands for my kids.   If one of the three youngest ones has trouble to understand the concept of multiplication, I can quickly take this book out and explain in a different way for them.   The way this book is presented, it demonstrates and explains the easier multiplications tables (1, 2, 10 and 5) before getting into the more complicated ones (3, 4, 9, 6, 7, 8, 11 and 12).  In each page you will see the owl helping with the teaching.  For example, in the page of 5x the owl says “Numbers in the 5 times table end with either a 5 or a 0.”    Each page also has a little exercise to deepen the understanding.  At the end of the book, you have two pages of small activities to see if your child has understood the concept of multiplication (don’t worry the answers are at the end of the book!).

The cover of the book illustrates an owl whose eyes are a times table wonder wheel.   It is quite ingenious to present it like this.

Though at this point in time, my oldest son doesn’t need this book (he masters his times tables), I know that my other kids might learn differently and might need other incentives to learn them.   This book is original and can be of help if needed be.

Multiplication Made Fun is available at your favorite bookstore, even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: Thanks to DK Canada for sending this book for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.