Tag Archives: books

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

Homesteading Books List…Books You NEED on the Homestead

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This week I’ll be part of a 5 Days of Summer Series and I’m talking about 5 Days of Summer Reading. Each post comes with recommendations for how to choose good books, tips to encourage a love of books, and ideas for how to enjoy reading as a whole family–as well as a book list, so be sure to check them all out! MONDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Homestead} TUESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Boys} WEDNESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Girls} THURSDAY: … Continue Reading…

Snakes, Bluebirds, and Dirt Bikes…the Daily Farm Adventures {129}

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The farm is busy with Spring, spring, spring these days! We’ve been working in the yard, starting the garden, and cleaning up the winter compost piles in the weekend sunshine lately. The tractor blew a hydraulic hose and was stuck in the field for a few days. The worst part was that Coal was right there at the fence line with me, opening the gates, and got sprayed too. He wasn’t hurt, but I don’t like using dish soap to wash the dogs that was the only way I knew … Continue Reading…

Farm Reads Book List for February 2021

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I’ve always been a bookworm. Really, from childhood. Those Pizza Hut Book It! challenges were my bread and butter growing up. (BTW, did you know Book It! is still around and runs a great summer reading program?!) I go through phases now where I have a lot of time to read, and then less time (or motivation). But I always have a book list to be read and usually stacked up on my night stand. I go through spurts where I’m reading a lot of young adult fiction to preview … Continue Reading…

20 Picture Books of Amazing Women in History and Science

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As you might have seen, The Engineer’s Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood was on my recent Farm Reads list from February. Great book! I’ve also been working on some picture book manuscripts of my own and reading a lot of current picture books as research. So it was really cool to come across the Secret Engineer: How Emily Roebling Built the Brooklyn Bridge. This lead me to a wonderful rabbit trail of new picture books about amazing women in history! So many of them I wasn’t even familiar with before … Continue Reading…

10 Book Series About Library Adventures for Middle-Grade Readers

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Are you a book lover, or have a book lover in your home? Or are you hoping to make a bookworm out of a more reluctant reader? I’ve stepped out of my historic fiction box lately and found a couple of new middle-grade series that are all about BOOKS. Library adventures, book characters coming to life, the hunt for a famous author, falling into the book’s world…fun fiction adventures to give the kids a mental break between assigned reading. The Book Scavenger Series. By Jennifer Chambliss Bertman The 12-year-old female … 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…

Reading Log Book Selfies Printable for Summer Reading

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Do you have a daily reading requirement for the kiddos over the summer? Or even during the school year? We do. So after reviewing a ton of book lists and reading log options on Pinterest, I came up with these fun printable Reading Log Book Selfies for our kiddos to use. Based on Instagram and good old-fashion Polaroids (which are all the rage, again!) they are snapshots with either book spines to be completed or blank to insert an “actual” selfie or draw a picture. Then they can be posted … 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…

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…

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…

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…

Real Life Homeschooling — Teaching Through Everyday Conversation

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Real Life Homeschooling is a monthly blog hop with 20 other blogging mommas that I’m part of. It’s all about the non-traditional face of homeschooling. What it looks like when it doesn’t look like “school-at-home.” Previously I posted about our love of all things Nature Study, and then some of the ways we packed our family camping trip with learning. Today I’d like to share what some of the learning has looked like around here over the last couple weeks…conversation. If you’re paying attention, there are a million learning moments in … 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…

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…

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…