Genevieve, while looking after her sheep, encounters a sad rainbow who has lost its color. She attempts to cheer it up by telling him imaginative stories until he cries happy colorful tears that fall on Genevieve’s sheep, thus becoming the 'Rainbow Sheep.' Although purely fictional, this is a story with unique fiber-art illustrations and 4 pages of hands on felt crafts and activities centered around felting with wool. I was excited to read this because I have a bag of colored wool and needed a fun way to use it. We followed the instructions to make our very own bar of felted soap. While I did not particularly enjoy this story, I did like the felting information and project ideas. This 25 Page book is available as an eBook ($5.00), CD ($9.95 + $5.95 s/h), print book ($10.95 + $6.95 s/h), or DVD book video ($9.95 + $5.95 s/h).
Andy and Spirit Go to the Fair is a inspiring story of courage, confidence and overcoming obstacles. Andy rides Spirit, a former wild mustang, in the 4-H fair and together they overcome the challenges they face, including a physical disability and sneers from insensitive kids. Andy rises above it and wins in the end. A neat story for teaching kids to be over-comers. Information is also included on how wild horses are managed in the U.S. and information/links on adopting a wild horse, volunteering, 4-H and organizations devoted to wild horse awareness. This book is 24 pages and is available as an eBook ($5.00), CD ($9.95 + $5.95 s/h), print book ($10.95 + $6.95 s/h), or DVD book video ($9.95 + $5.95 s/h).
In Hamster Holidays, hamsters celebrate "a year of harebrained holidays in their unique hamster style." Activity pages include scrambled words, matchup, crossword puzzles and more. This is a silly way to approach nouns, adjectives and even opposites.
In Hill City, how do hamsters enjoy
Kite Dance Day?
Fast Jenni flies a high kite.
Slow Carlos flies a low kite.
(Nouns are in blue and adjectives are in red throughout the book)
26 Pages long, Hamster Holidays is available as an eBook ($5.00), CD ($9.95 + $5.95 s/h) or print book ($10.95 + $6.95 s/h).
Flora and Fernando are the wrong color for flamingos and wonder why they are white and not pink in Maybe We Are Flamingos. They learn that it can take a year to turn pink and that they stay pink because of the foods they eat. Relieved to know this, they draw funny pictures of how they might look if they ate broccoli or blueberries instead of a typical flamingo diet. This book teaches some basic facts about flamingos in a silly way ~ My 2, 4 and 9 year olds all thought it was funny to see a flamingo look like a pineapple. 30 pages and available as an eBook ($5.00), CD ($9.95 + $5.95 s/h), print book ($10.95 + $6.95 s/h), or DVD book video ($9.95 + $5.95 s/h).
The Sum of Our Parts: No Bones About it . . . seems to be a fun and clever way to learn about the bones of the body from head to toe. Each page of this e-book has a rhyme and interesting "Factoids" about the bones of the body. For example, this poem helps students to remember that our body has 206 bones:
"Without all your bones,
You'd be in a fix.
Let's face it. You need
All two-hundred and six."
Personally, I thought some of the graphics were gruesome. This book is 30 pages and is available as an eBook ($5.00), CD ($9.95 + $5.95 s/h) or print book ($10.95 + $6.95 s/h).
Earthquake is all about earthquakes and full of factoids, emergency preparedness lists and even a few experiments - one that is sure to be a hit with the kids, but please, no seiches in my bathroom! (A seiche is a tide-like rise and fall of water in an enclosed place like a lake, river, swimming pool or bathtub.) There are other great ideas though that I approve of (like the emergency bed pocket craft) and I think this would be a great addition to a preparedness lesson on earthquakes - lots of information in this colorfully illustrated book. 30 pages long, this is available as an eBook ($5.00), CD ($9.95 + $5.95 s/h) or print book ($11.95 + $6.95 s/h).
Guardian Angel Publishing offers a wide variety of books all geared toward children ages 0-12 years old. See a complete list of what they offer here.
I must admit, that while I enjoyed having the opportunity to review these, I would not buy them. I really love Charlotte Mason's philosophy on children's literature and I love how author Catherine Levison defines CM's philosophy on twaddle. She says, "If we were to review what Charlotte would recommend in children’s literature we’d look for interesting content and well constructed sentences clothed in literary language. She wanted the imagination to be warmed and the book to hold the interest of the child." Instead, we find silly, short sentences, written down to children. (Exceptions would be Andy and Spirit go to the Fair and Earthquake - two of which I enjoyed for how they were written and/or informational content.) Children are able to understand much more than we give them credit for and I much prefer classic literature written to children not down to them.
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As a member of TOS Homeschool Crew, I received these e-books free of charge in exchange for my review and no further compensation was recieved. In this review (and all of my reviews), I offer my honest opinion of the product.
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