Monday, December 5, 2011

One Thousand Gifts–week 26

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261. cleaning done by someone else because hubby got a deal via a group buy

262. new swimming session that is starting with a lower price

263. great food + wonderful people = Marvelous Christmas party at our church

264. finishing a book discussion with my husband’s brother and wife

265. planning another book to read and discuss with them (their turn to pick the book)

266. a child who can babysit + errands to do = possibility of spending more one on one time with each other kids

267. baking a recipe that my mom used to do

268. adapting said recipe for our needs because the original way of doing it was too long…

269. my oldest wanting to make a batch of the recipe by himself

270. delicious Heavenly Mushrooms like my brother-in-law would say…   (he did mentioned that it tasted like heaven! *grin*)

 

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Friday, December 2, 2011

The World of Animals

world-of-animalsThe World of Animals
Published at MasterBooks

About the book

The World of Animals investigates and describes the anatomy, behavior, and habitats of over 1,000 animals. From microscopic worms and insects to reptiles, birds, and mammals, this book will provide children with an insight into the incredible range of life in God’s wonderful world. This comprehensive but easy-to-use book boasts a wide range of features to help bring its readers face-to-face with the science and beauty of the living world.

  • Up-to date information on endangered species and environments
  • Obscure facts and animal records
  • Amazing comparisons

My Thoughts

Our family loves animals – big or small.   One of our favorite outings when we are travelling with the RV is to visit a zoo or an aquarium.  

This book will give your plenty of information of all living creatures in the animal kingdom.   To give you an idea of the animals covered in it here’s the main chapters.

Simple animals – protists, moss animals, water bears, sponges, jellyfish, hydroids, see anemones and much more.

Worms, Snails & Starfish – Earthworms, leeches, numerous kind of worms, mollusks, slugs, snails, seashells, octopuses and more.

Insects & Other Arthropods – beetles, butterflies, bees, wasps, ants, dragonflies, crickets, other insects, crabs, lobsters, other crustaceans, scorpions, spiders and more.

Fish – sharks, rays, eels, slamon, pike, carp, seahorses, and other kind of fish.

Amphibians & Reptiles – salamanders, tortoises, turtles, crocodiles, alligators, geckos, chameleons, boas, pythos, and much more.

Birds – seabirds, shorebirds, gamebirds, cuckoos, owls, woodpeckers, sparrows, finches, and more.

Mammals -  marsupial, anteaters, rats, armadillos, rabbits, chipmunks, camels, sheeps, horses, rhinos, elephanst, cats, dogs and more.

There is definitively something for any kind of creature you might be interested in.  The pages contains photographs, images, diagrams, and other kind of information that might help  you in producing a  report on an animal.   Every now and then you will get more detailed information on a specific subject.  For example in the Eels and Herrings pages, you could get a map where you can see the journey of an eel and it’s different stages as it grows. 

See the images below to discover how the pages look like.

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This reference book will give you much detailed information about various animals from around the world.  My favorite part of it is toe see the inside of different animals with the parts identified on the image.   The bird one is simply amazing with the bird flying and you can identify all its parts easily.  

What I particularly like about this book is that I don’t have to worry much if my kids pick it up to read a few pages.  I know that they won’t stumble on evolution information that I need to explain to them.  It is perfect for reference or fun reading on animals!

This book is also included in the My Father’s World Exploration to 1850 curriculum which is geared for grades 4 to 8.

The World of Animals is available at your favorite bookstore, even amazon.ca.

Disclaimer: Book has been provided 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.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

It is finished…

Today – Dec 1st – I have uploaded my last assignment to complete my Applied Social Media in Business course.

This was the last one to complete the Social Media certificate I was working on since the beginning of the year.

Now I have more time to teach the kids as my afternoons were spent mostly to work on assignments.

Having two courses on top of homeschool is quite challenging.

But I persevered and finished it today.

I’m a bit tired though and might take a couple of days of much deserved rest.

Now I wait for the grades and my certificate.

I learned quite a bit during these five courses.   I hope to apply my knowledge to something productive in the months/years to come!