Curious Critters Review

Are you looking for a new book about animals to help with homeschooling?  Or just looking for a book with stunning pictures of animals?  If so you should check out Curious Critters by David FitzSimmons.

First let me tell you a little about David FitzSimmons…

He is a free-lance photographer and writer as well as a university professor. David photographs and writes for various magazines, including Outdoor Photographer, Popular Photography, and Shutterbug, newspapers, and online publications. His 100+ calendar credits include numerous titles by BrownTrout and Barnes & Noble. Dave currently is at work on a handful of books. His most recent books include Animals of Ohio’s Ponds and Vernal Pools (Kent State University Press) and Curious Critters (Wild Iris, October 2011).

One of five Sigma Pro photographers in North America, David presents seminars and workshops to a wide variety of audiences, from public school groups and college classes to nature centers and civic organizations. His works have been exhibited at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, the National Center for Nature Photography, and the Telluride Photo Festival, among other venues.

David, a former high school English teacher, has been teaching for 20 years. He is a professor at Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio. He holds a Ph.D. in English from Ohio State University, with a specialty in narrative theory—investigating the components of storytelling—something that influences his photography and writing.

Dave was inspired to photograph and write about nature by his parents, Mick and Judy FitzSimmons, active environmentalists and life-long teachers, and he is assisted in his natural history endeavors by his wife, Olivia, a naturalist, and his two daughters, Sarah and Phoebe.

To see more of Dave’s work and to know more about seminars and photo workshops, visit www.fitzsimmonsphotography.com.

Curious Critters came out in November of 2011.  This hardcover book is recommended for ages 4 to 8 but I believe it can be for any age.  My 1 and 2 year old love looking at the pictures of animals.  My 2 year old likes to name the animals on each page.  My 5 and 8 year old of course love to learn about the animals.

Being any age you will enjoy the stunning photos of the animals.  I love how you can see every detail in each animal.  You can also imagine yourself reaching out and touching the animals and feeling the texture of their bodies.  At the same time I kind of get the creepy crawly feeling looking at some of the bugs.

So if you are looking for a book to add to your collection then this is one I recommend.  Curious Critters can be purchased for $19.95 here.  The book will also be signed and you can request it have a personalized dedication in it when you send an email when it is purchased.

You can also sample pages from the book here.

* Note this is my honest opinion of this book.  I did not get paid for my review but I did receive a complimentary copy for review purposes.

Dr. Seuss’s The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories App Review

Are you looking for a good app to help your children learn to read?  I know I am always on the search for different ways to help my children improve on reading.  Dr. Seuss’s The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories app is a great way to let your kids have fun and at the same time learn to read.

This app is available for Apple and Android devices for $6.99.  This digital book by Oceanhouse Media features seven short stories written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss.  The stories that are included in this app are…

• The Bippolo Seed, a mischievous, greedy cat leads an innocent duck astray.
• The Bear, the Rabbit, and the Zinniga-Zanniga, a single eyelash saves a rabbit from an insecure bear.
• Gustav the Goldfish, a boy overfeeds his pet fish, causing it to outgrow its surroundings.
• Tadd and Todd, identical twins in search of their individuality.
• Steak for Supper, Seussian creatures follow a boy home hoping for a steak dinner.
• The Strange Shirt Spot, a boy who can’t seem to get dirt off of his shirt and everything else around him.
• The Great Henry McBride, a day-dreaming boy fantasizes about his career choices.

This app is really great for my family because I homeschool my children.  My five year old can now sit down with this app and let it read to him.  The words change to blue when the story is read to you, so it is easy to follow along.  The words also turn blue when your child taps a word that they don’t know.  So you can choose to have the story read to you or you can read the story yourself.  In the picture below you can see towards the end the word “grow” is in blue.

Another cool feature in this app is when you touch an object on the screen it will tell you what it is.  It will also show you the word.  So in the picture below you can see that the duck was touched and the word duck appears.  This is another great way to help your children learn words.

So if you love Dr. Seuss like my family then you should check out this app.  It is pretty awesome to have seven books in the palm of your hand.  Books that help you learn to read while having fun!

*Note I received this app for review purposes.  I was not paid for my review and this is my honest opinion of the app.

The Magic School Bus in the Haunted House

Have you ever seen The Magic School Bus?  It is a pretty cute show about an elementary school teacher and her kids.  They go on amazing field trips in their magic school bus.  They always have a lesson to learn.  I had the chance to review The Magic School Bus and the Haunted House.

Mrs. Frizzle’s class is rehearsing for a concert for inventive instruments.  Carloss has an amazing looking instrument but the sound is awful!  Ms Frizzle decides to take the kids on a field trip.  The bus ends up getting overheated and they are trapped in the woods.  Carloss continues to work on his instrument while the other kids push the bus. The kids heard a pretty awesome sound and think that it is Carloss.  Carloss tells them that it was not him.  They then see a spooky house on the hill and Mrs. Frizzle suggests they see if there is a phone inside.

The kids ring the bell and hear another spooky noise.  Some of the kids run but Carloss needs to know what the sound is.  So they go in to try to find the sound.  Mrs. Frizzle sees that there are enough beds in the spooky house to sleep there but of course none of the kids really want to be there.  Especially with all the spooky noises.

The kids learn while exploring through the house looking for the sounds that the house is a Sound Museum. The children explore different rooms, hearing sounds from jungle, mountain, sea, and city environments. In another room, the kids feel vibrations when they play giant musical instruments. They put on special glasses and see sound waves.

Carloss finds out that sound is made from vibration.  High sounds made from vibrating fast and low from things vibrating slow.  Will Carloss be able to find out what he needs to make his instrument work for the concert?

Of course I don’t want to spoil it for you!  So check out The Magic School Bus on qubo.  You can find a schedule here.  Also if you need to know what station you can find the show, qubo.com has a channel locator on the left side of their page.

You can also find extra fun things to do on Scholastic.com.  There are games and activities and also a section for teachers and parents that can help with lesson plans.  This is a big plus for me because I homeschool.

*I want to add a little warning though that this episode was kind of scary for my 2 year old.  Make sure you have a lot of family in the room with your younger children when watching it.

A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

 

LeapFrog Tag Reading System

LeapFrog has always been one of our family’s favorite educational toy company. We have so many of their products from the Shapes & Sharing Picnic Basket to Leapster Explorer to Fridge Phonics Alphabet Magnets . . . and almost everything in between.

We recently had the opportunity to review the newly designed LeapFrog Tag Reading System and all I can say is . . . talk about amazing technology! I have no idea how the Tag Reading System works behind the scenes but it just blows my mind!

Learn to read. Love to read! The #1 best-selling Tagâ„¢ Reading System brings stories to life with each touch to the pages of specially printed storybooks. Words talk, pictures sing and stories live out loud, engaging children’s senses to make reading a rich, fulfilling experience. Now re-sized to better fit little hands, the Tag Reader holds audio for up to 10 titles at a time from our library of 40+ books and games! And parents can see details of their child’s play and learning with the LeapFrog® Learning Path.

OUR REVIEW

LeapFrog TAG Reading System ($39.99)

The Tag Reading System comes with the Tag Reader, Let’s Play Tag! activity book, USB cable, & user guide.

The Tag Reader is shaped like a chubby pencil or stylus and has buttons for power on/off, volume control, audio books, as well as a headphone jack (YAY!) and a USB port. It runs on 2 AAA batteries (not included) and has a really smooth finish that comes in either green, blue, orange, purple, or pink. If you’re familiar with the older model of The Tag Reader you’ll notice that all the buttons are in the same place but the newly re-designed shape fits better in small hands.

To set it up, you would first need to install LeapFrog connect to your computer. If you’ve used other LeapFrog products before and have already installed this program you will not need to install again. I like that I can see all of our devices on one page. It keeps everything organized and makes it easier to switch out users.  You’ll then need to connect your Tag Reader to your computer using the USB cord (included) and personalize your device for the child that will be using it.

With LeapFrog Connect, you can purchase more books and apps for your device, see what’s already installed on your device along with how much space is being used, download e-books, play games, and earn rewards. However, what I like best about LeapFrog Connect is that every time you connect your device to your computer, all the progress your child has made is automatically downloaded and analyzed. This way you’ll be able to see which areas they’re excelling in and which ones they need help with.

To use the Tag Reader, turn it on and you’re ready to go. In the Let’s Play Tag! activity book there are short stories, comics, games, and activities. There’s also a chart with all the icons and functions just in case your child forgets what to do.

For books, you can either touch the “book” icon and have the Reader read the page in it’s entirety or your child can move the Reader over each word one by one. This is good for words that they don’t recognize and would like to hear the pronunciation again. You can also touch various images in the book to hear sound effect or dialog. For comic strips, just touch the thought bubble and the Reader will narrate the entire bubble.

We’ve used other type of readers before where you have to touch an icon at the beginning of every page so that the reader knows where you are. I really like that we don’t have to do that here since Kiana gets so excited to get to the next page that she usually forgets. You do need to touch the “book” icon to read each page but you don’t need to touch anything if you just want to hear random words or sounds associated with that page.

There are also games like I Spy where you have to find hidden objects, Where Am I where you need to point to various areas on a map, Learn to Read with extra large font for beginners, Tinker Tunes which helps your child identify sounds, and many more.

LeapFrog Tag Learn To Write And Draw ($19.99)

The Learn to Write and Draw with Mr. Pencil comes with a Tag Reader Book, 4 workbooks, and 3 sheets of stickers. It does not come with it’s own Tag Reader device so make sure you already have one.

This book teaches handwriting, upper and lower case letters, and the alphabet by having kids trace letters and lines going in different directions. Your child will know where to begin tracing each letter because each start point is marked with a red x. Then they just follow the dotted arrow until the get to the end. While they are tracing a letter, the Tag Reader announces which letter it is like “uppercase v” or “lowercase v”.  And like the other books you child can have the story read to them, hear the way each words sounds, as well as touch various character or objects and hear their voice or the sound they make.

This set also comes with 4 books that your child can use with a real pencil:

• Drawing With Shapes – This workbook teaches kids the basic pencil strokes by having them draw lines and shapes.
• Upper-Case Letters – This workbook is like the worksheets that your child does at school. First they trace the upper-case letters and then write them on their own.
• Lower-Case Letters – The same as the Upper-case workbook but with lower-case letters.
• Create Your Own – This workbook teaches imagination and creativity. There are pages that ask a basic question or makes a statement and your child has to draw their interpretation.

It also came with 3 sheet of stickers which . . . get this . . . make sounds when you touch them with the Reader! How in the world does it do that? Now we can place these stickers anywhere . . . on the fridge, in the kids’ drawings, on books . . . and they’ll come to life by making their own special sounds. Super cool!

I could go on and on about the LeapFrog Tag Reading System because we absolutely LOVE it! And if you’re on our Christmas gift list and have a child between the ages of 4-8, chances are this is what I’m getting for your family! I will guaranteed be your child’s favorite Aunt on Christmas morning.

This post was written for LeapFrog who provided the complimentary product in exchange for my honest review.

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