If You Were Me Culture Box Books from Carole P. Roman {TOS Review}

When we were asked if we would like to review this set of books, I jumped at the chance!  We received the four books you see in the photo.  These are the first four in a series of books by Carole P Roman entitled 'If You Were Me and Live In...'  The four titles are for France, South Korea, Norway, and Mexico.

The layout of these books is really sweet. There is a young boy and girl in each book that introduce you to their country.  After showing you the country outline and telling you what continent it is on, we get a few fun facts about each of the countries, a long with a colorful illustration.

Here we are eating in Mexico.

Sightseeing in France :).  I normally wouldn't post a sideways photo, but it is upright on my computer and won't load right.  But, it was the favorite part of the books for 2 of my children and I hate to leave it out.  

Checking out the Northern Lights in Norway.

Celebrating a new year in South Korea.

Each book gives us a little peek into traditional culture, food, language, special holidays, and everyday life.  It is the same information given in each book just about a different country, so they are excellent for comparing and contrasting between the countries.

I intend to put each of these books in the correct continent box, but for this review we read all four books at one time.  Afterwards, I asked my children to draw a picture of their favorite country and why.

Here they are all around the world :).

Mustang is flying her flag at the Eiffel Tower.

Mini Cooper is staying at the snow motel and watching the Northern Lights.  I don't think she realizes how cold it is there, lol!

Charger is at the Eiffel Tower...that looks a lot like a ski lift, lol!!  He said it's a specialized elevator (always over thinking the mechanical side, that's his calling).

We REALLY enjoyed the If You Were Me books.  They are not too long, each has about 28 pages, and they are just the right size for little hands.  The illustrations are bright, colorful, and keep the children's attention.  There is just enough information to be interesting without being overwhelming.  But, overall, we actually learned something!

If You Were Me Books are written and illustrated by Carole P Roman with Away With Me Media.  They sell for $8.99 paperback and $.99 Kindle edition.  The Norway books are $11.99 paperback and $1.99 Kindle Edition.  I believe that Ms. Roman intends to publish more and we are eagerly awaiting them!

These books are PERFECT for Montessori Culture studies and I would highly recommend them for that. The publisher recommends ages pre-K through age 8, and I can certainly say that all my children ages 2-8 liked them.  I probably wouldn't have purchased them for my 8 year old, but she did enjoy reading them as part of the group. You can see what others had to say by checking out the crew blog.

North America Continent Box: Mexico

We are currently on a trip through North America.  Last month, we stopped in Canada.  This week, we are heading through Mexico.  Yes, we skipped the US-we will be back!

Here are all the new items that I added to the North America Continent Box.

We will start off with a Sombrero that I found in the party section of Hobby Lobby.  Yes, it's a little small, but it fits in the box!

This dress was a gift a friend brought back from Mexico for me when I was 5 years old!  It's still such a beautiful dress.  Fits Mini Cooper pretty well, too!

The little Pinata was also from the Hobby Lobby party section.

The silver and tuquoise bracelet was a gift from my sister when she when on a mission's trip years ago.  It was hand-made by Mexican women.  The chili pepper is an old salt shaker from my kitchen.  The Temple of Inscriptions is part of the World Landmark's Toob (Hobby Lobby).  And, the mustaches were also from the Hobby Lobby party isle.  Lots of fun with those!!

The donkey Pinata transporting a chili pepper, Temple of Inscriptions, and the Canadian Cowboy, LOL!!

Checking out all the stairs on the Temple of Inscriptions.

No clue what was going on here, but it was funny.

One evening, I played a bunch of Mexican music including Viva Mexico, the national anthem.

We had a ton of fun dancing around to the music!

However, the mustaches have been the favorite by far!  We've also been reading a ton of books, which will get their own post.

So glad you stopped by!  Gracias and God Bless!

We're linking up!

North America Continent Box: First Stop Canada

We are finally taking off on our around the world tour.  We started with North America.  For the most part, we will be just touching on each of the countries, but since I used to live in Canada I wanted to spend a little extra time visiting.

Here are the few items so far in the continent box.  For now, we've just got one box.  I'm leaning towards making bags like Mariann on Counting Coconuts, and then just putting them in one box.  But, for now we only have North America so I don't need to worry just yet.

Our small offerings include some photos pulled from a National Geographic (really just fillers until I have more objects), a mug from my childhood home, a cowboy that reminds me of the Calgary Stampede, and my birth coins.

The really nice thing about the coins of Canada, is that (like many countries) they have pictures of important Canadian things.  There is a picture of the Queen, a picture of a beaver, a caribou, the Canadian coat of arms, the maple leaf, etc, so we were able to talk about the symbols of Canada without having one of every single item.  As I find more things to put in the box, I will add them.  I lived there before loonies and toonies so I don't have any of those :).

I found out our library had a very SAD selection of books on Canada.  I have ordered more, but we just got our card and I didn't realize that it takes at least 4-6 weeks to get a book.  One thing I do miss about big city living :(.  These were the best I could find given the criteria I was working with.

Paddle to the Sea has been our night time read aloud.  It is a GREAT book!  Absolutely love following Paddle's trip down the river and to the sea.  We are about 1/2 way through and we are all enjoying it.  Recommend this one!!

Z is for Zamboni was a fun way to talk about the favorite sport of hockey.  My children have not really watched any hockey, so it was interesting to talk about how you play the sport.

Ulaq and the Northern Lights was cute.  Not terribly moving, but a nice way to introduce the legends of the Northern Lights.  Afterwards we watched this National Geographic video of the lights.

Canada Lynx was okay, but the pictures were great!  The kids really enjoyed thinking of what a huge cat would look like.  They wanted one for a pet.  After reading the story, we checked out the Canadian Kid's National Geographic page and explored the many animals in Canada.

And, how can we study Canada without hearing the national anthem?

I hope you enjoyed your first stop on our tour. Thanks for stopping by!!

God Bless,

We're linking up:

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Montessori Science: All About Horses

Hi!  It has been a little while since I posted.  I've been busy planning the new school year and decluttering the house.  Hopefully your summer is going well!  We school through the summer but still took a week off for the 4th.  It was nice!  

A few weeks ago we learned about horses.  It worked out nicely that the Just Montessori  culture curriculum we loosely follow, and Mustang's interest both came to horses at the same time.  She had her name before her love of horses, but it seems to fit her well!

What started Mustang's interest was a movie called Horse Crazy.   It's an adorable film about three little kids who go in search of wild Mustangs.  Highly recommend it! 

We read The Little Fellow by Marguerite Henry.  Excellent living book about a young horse in the pasture.   We also read about the Assateague Island Wild Ponies in the Creation Magazine that we were reviewing.  

I purchased the horse definition set from Montessori Print Shop.  It includes three part cards, booklets, and definition book.  

Charger did a great job with the 3 part cards.

Making a parts of a horse book.  I had him glue the labels on since his writing isn't that advanced yet.

Mustang wrote her labels.

I also had her read and match definitions.

We enjoyed exploring the parts of a horse puzzle and the control chart.

Exploring the horse Toob.

Matching and gluing horses.

Clipping legs on the horse.  I found this idea from Just Montessori.

Mustang spent a lot of time exploring the Usborne book of Riding and Pony care that I found at a yard sale.  She loves to read about what she is interested in.  

It was a fun unit and I think that we all enjoyed it!  Thanks for stopping by to read about it.

God Bless!

We're linked up at:

Montessori Monday: Geography and Landforms

First off, I hope you all had a great Easter week!  Mustang spent the last week in an art camp and I carted her 1/2 each way back and forth all week.  Then Mini Cooper got sick, and we ended the week with our yearly gymnastics night with our Homeschool Co-op, so I'm sorry for not doing much blogging lately! 

Our Montessori road has been going pretty well, IMO.  I'm still working on trying to figure out how much is too much to expect in a day, and which works to present to whom when, but I think those are good problems to have. 

Here's what we have been up to in our group lessons over the last couple weeks:

Sandpaper globe.  Supposed to teach how the land is water (smooth blue) and land (sandpaper).  They were mostly interested in how it spins around...  BTW, I purchased this globe from an eBay seller.  The quality is crummy.  I would recommend going through Allison's.

Landforms have been SO MUCH FUN!!!

 

We did them together at our kitchen table.  I still am not okay with much water in the school room, maybe someday.  

I poured in our blue water, and then they looked at them.

But of course, swimming is much more fun!

We did a set a day for 7 different days.

One warm day, we took the landforms outside.

They took turns with the sets, and I game them each a small pitcher of water.  I started out letting them add the blue food coloring, until Mini Cooper decided to color her hair when I ran inside for more water.  Then I just added it myself.

They really like to flood their landforms.

Pouring the water back into his jug.

We also explored waterscapes and properties of water thanks to our recent review book What On Earth?.  You can read about it here.

Mustang worked on the three part cards and definitions.

Charger worked on just the 3-part cards.  

The cards really helped in trying to remember what the landforms are actually called.

And then we went on to the continents globe (a good one from Allison's).  But, that's for another day!

Thanks for stopping by!!  God Bless!!

We're linked up!