Tag Archives: books

Book reviews, book lists and recommendations, and favorite bookshelf finds here at The Lowe Farm!

15 Great Non-Fiction and Classic Literature Graphic Novel Series for Grades 4-8

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Do you have a kiddo that loves comic books? Or a kiddo that hates chapter books? A reluctant or struggling reader–easily overwhelmed by page after page of text? I do. I have 2 actually. And I am SO GLAD we discovered a variety of clean, appropriate, quality graphic novels on the market today. Fiction, non-fiction, and even adaptations of classic literature that use Shakespeare’s original text! They’ve been a huge help in keeping our dyslexic and reluctant readers engaged in independent reading–when standard chapter books were failing in a flood … Continue Reading…

History, Adventure, and Treasure…The Ultimate Guide to Studying Pirates

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In the spring I mentioned that we would have two family unit studies this summer. One is our Astronomy unit study–which is continuing casually through the whole summer and has been very fun so far! (I’ll have an update on one of our projects soon.) The other topic I chose this year is Pirates. I had no idea they would overlap so much, but space pirates is totally a thing so it’s worked out great! The history of Pirates is an interesting topic because it can involve a lot of … Continue Reading…

The Quest for Truth Sci-Fi Series for Middle Grade Readers…A Review and GIVEAWAY!

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We’ve continued with our slow, steady, and FUN family Astronomy study this month. So far we’ve already seen and documented several moon phases including a full moon and a new moon; visible Jupiter; visible Mercury, and learned to recognize the Big and Little Dipper.  We’ve also watched several space and sci-fi movies as a family, including a special at-home family movie night presentation of Rogue One (which my kiddos hadn’t seen yet) and a splurge on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 in the theater. We’ve been keeping a list of … Continue Reading…

Space and Science-Fiction Adventure Books for 8-12 Year Olds

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When outlining our simple family unit studies, I mentioned that I like to use a fiction read-aloud on the topic as the backbone of our unit. Then I laid out our summer-long Astronomy unit study for you and there were no fiction books! I struggled with finding fiction books in the space and sci-fi genre because it’s not one that I’m very familiar with, personally. It took a lot of searching, chatting with our librarian, and reading reviews on Amazon to find a list of books to consider that meet … Continue Reading…

Summer Star-Gazing…A Simple Family Unit Study on Astronomy

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Have you gotten your FREE Summer Unit Study Planner? I’ve been hard at work with mine, laying out plans for an Astronomy unit study and a Pirates/Maritime History unit study for the family this summer. I’ve put quite a bit of time into gathering resources and planning activities because I enjoy it. We don’t get much for family vacations and holidays around here with the farm to keep an eye on. So we have to make up our own, local, staycation-type fun for the summer. I’m going to share my resource … Continue Reading…

John Deere, the American Inventor and the Man Behind the Tractor Company

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We tend to think of John Deere as tractors and green hats and forget that John Deere was an actual person. A person who never built, or even saw, a real tractor in his life. Speedracer had to do a famous American project one year so the whole family got a big dose of John-Deere-the-real-person for a few weeks. It turns out there’s a lot of biographical information available about John Deere, but it can be hard to get your hands on because it’s buried under all the tractor books! … Continue Reading…

Using Sermon Notes for Kids in Church…Busy Book of Sermon Notes for Young Ladies Review

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Our church recently had First Fruits Revival (hear the messages), which means we were in church several evenings in a row. It was a good chance for the crew to start using their new Sermon Notes books that we got them for Christmas. I posted about them on Facebook after the first night and got a lot of questions, so I thought I’d share some more detail here. It can be a challenge to get children to behave in “big church” as we call the congregational service–as opposed to “children’s church” … Continue Reading…

50+ Resources for Learning About War Dogs and K-9 Heroes

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Have you seen the movie Max, about a Marine Corps dog originally stationed in Afghanistan? As a boy momma, with an equally adventure and animal-loving girl, it was right up our alley for family movie night. We enjoyed it! A little predictable? Yes. But still a quality family movie. And it sparked a lot of interest from the crew about military working dogs. The boys are already crazy about anything military and the Ladybug loves everything dogs right now so this angle on their favorite topics was very fresh for them, … Continue Reading…

Kids Need More Than Book-Learning

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Ok, we’re not even a month into the school year and I’m already over the homework. Sheesh. I’m just the Momma, it’s not even my homework! And the more I read and think and pray, the more oppose to homework I am, except for two cases… The child is not being diligent and getting their classwork finished and has to bring it home to work on it. This would go hand-in-hand with a student with a specific learning challenge that needs extra work. (Um, we have one of those. Maybe two. … Continue Reading…

How To Make Relaxed Summer Learning Plans

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I already introduced you to why we make summer learning plans. Today I’m going to share simple steps for creating your own simple, relaxed summer learning plans. I did this for the first time in 2012 and it worked great–even though we were not strict about sticking to it. It’s an outline, not an itinerary. In 2013 I did less pre-planning and I feel like we got less out of it as well. So I’m going back to my first-year concept. I’m not done (obviously–since I pretty much just started last week!) … Continue Reading…

What ARE Relaxed Summer Learning Plans?

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I’ve gone back and forth for several years not knowing where I fit with homeschooling (since we don’t homeschool full-time) and finally embraced the fact that we do homeschool–just not full-time. But I am–we are–intentional, teaching parents and we create a constant learning environment at home. Well, we try, anyway. {smile} So this week I’ll be sharing some of my planning process and what our summer calendar looks like. But first I’d like to share some thoughts on why I go through the trouble of making summer learning plans, and how we … Continue Reading…

20 Adventure Series Chapter Books for Young Girls

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Last week I shared a list of 25 Adventure Series Chapter Books for Young Boys–books that really engage their minds and imaginations and make them want to keep reading. This week I’d like to add to that list (because my Ladybug loves all those “boy” books too!) a few series that have key female characters or have really captured my daughter’s interest. As you may know, she’s a reluctant independent reader, but will listen to me read aloud all day long. And again, these are not just for girls, our … Continue Reading…

25 Adventure Series Chapter Books For Young Boys

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Well, it’s been 70 degrees for a few days, so we’re starting to think about summer plans around here again–and part of that is summer learning plans. Summer is a great time to work on some fun family unit studies as well as some local field trips. I was also spurred on by finding 16 books in The Sowers Christian Biography series at our local thrift store for only $4.00!! What a treasure! The kiddos can’t wait until we dive into a few for read-aloud! I’ve started reviewing our little playroom … Continue Reading…

10 Books on Time Management for the Busy Momma

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{WOW–How ironic that I missed posting about time management yesterday because I ran out of time!! Life is crazy! Here’s what was supposed to be yesterday’s post..enjoy!} We got home from church last night and I took a look at my calendar and realize that I was double–no triple!–booked for this afternoon between two sports practices and an evening meeting for work. First I wanted to cry, but it was one of those cases where all I’d end up with was a headache and problem I still had to solve. … Continue Reading…

10 Books for RUBY…Valentine Surprises

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If you follow us on Facebook, you might have seen my post the other day about finding a book with Speedracer’s name in it. His real name, I mean. It’s a treasure, and a tough find! I love finding books with our kiddos names in them because it makes them really connect with the character–which also makes having good stories especially important! It’s something that’s going to stay on their shelves long past the age when they appreciate the story. It’s a love gift more than a literacy gift. Which is … Continue Reading…