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Monday, August 30, 2010

Learning About the World Around Us (giveaway)

Science with kids can be an awfully fun experience. (It can also be a messy subject, but I'm not going to focus on that.)

DK Publishing just recently re-released I'm a Scientist: Kitchen full of "Fun experiments for budding scientists." This book was put together by Lisa Burke who introduces children as being "detectives" out to observe and discover the world around them. In this book we find fold out spreads of full color illustrations and directions for experiments that young ones can do in the kitchen. As she explains:

"Apart from being passionate about science I am also a mother. I realize how little time we have in our busy lives to play with our children. Therefore, none of the 'games' (or experiments!) should require more than one hour to complete."


I don't know that I don't have the time, but I like projects that are contained and easy to determine both the time frame and mess factor! There are experiments in there to learn about density, magnets, differentiating between solids and liquids and a happy egg's ability to float due to salt content in the water. All of the materials necessary to complete the experiments are fairly straight forward. Each project contains a list of items you'll need to have on-hand and I didn't see anything out of the ordinary on the list. (For example, you'll need things like: balloons, a plastic comb, salt, orange juice, water, ice, etc.)

This is a fun and exciting book for children to explore the world through - while standing in the kitchen with mom or dad.

Up We Grow!: A Year in the Life of a Small, Local Farm is a new release from Kids Can Press. If you and your family like to eat local - then this is a book that will be of incredible interest to you!

Up We Grow! takes you through Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter on a small farm not too far outside of city limits. This is a rather lengthy picture book that offers a great deal of detailed explanation as to what you can expect to find on a farm during the various seasons. We meet the group of farmers who tend this farm and see how they tend to the land the animals together. As their various jobs are explained, the children are asked questions such as, "Which job would you like best?"

As I read this book I couldn't help feeling like it was the PERFECT book to read before a field trip to a farm. I love the full-color photographs which illustrate this book and help bring the farm to life. Up We Grow! is a celebration of the local farm and, I think, an impressive and amazing book. I have a feeling we'll be revisiting this book several times over throughout the years, as we have so many local farms and do our best to eat local whenever possible. Excellent resource, this one!

Now for the good news -- I have a copy of I'm a Scientist: Kitchen and Up We Grow! to give away to one of you, courtesy of DK Publishing and Kids Can Press.

To win? Simply leave a comment below. This contest will remain open through Thursday, September 9th.


Enjoy!

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED

47 comments:

Alison said...

Oh, goody! I get to be first to enter.

Annette W. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Annette W. said...

These both sound excellent! We visit a farm when we see my husband's grandparents-several times a year. That combined with our recent amazing volcano would make this a fun win!

Stephanie Kay said...

Both of these books look like a lot of fun!

Hull.Margaret said...

I have a 3yr old granddaughter going on 36 (according to her) that would love this book.
Penny

Jen @ Happy Little Homemaker said...

I would love to have these for my daughter!

Latter-day Saint Mom said...

Would like to be entered. thanks for the giveaway!
cparkins14 AT teancum.net

Anonymous said...

I love science and I hope my boys find it as fascinating as I do. :-) Thanks for hosting this giveaway!

~ Carrie ~

Heather VanTimmeren said...

These would be great additions to our homeschooling library! Happy early birthday to you!

Serena said...

My girls and I would greatly enjoy these books! Thank you!

Annette W. said...

I blogged!

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Terrific looking books!

Laura at Library of Clean Reads said...

My kids love these types of books! Thanks for the opportunity to enter.
laura at laurafabiani dot com

Bluerose said...

I would love to be entered. I plan on homeschooling, so I'm getting a head start on books that would be useful.
bluerosesheart at yahoo dot com

Chelsea said...

Both of these books look fabulous!
Thanks so much.
Chelsea

MAMA BRANDI said...

We would love to win this book!

Krista said...

Sweet! Science nerds we are in this house, this would be really cool to get our son(s) started young! ;)

Krista said...

Extra comment #1

Krista said...

Extra comment #2!

Alicia said...

Both of these books sound great!

apple blossom said...

both books look wonderful thanks for the chance to win.

ABreading4fun [at] gmail [dot] com

Megan said...

we posted about your giveaway at Winning Readings.

inspiredbyfiction[at]gmail[dot]com

Linda Kish said...

Please include me.

lkish77123 at gmail dot com

Anonymous said...

I would love to win this. thanks
trishbazin(@)yahoo.com

Holly (2 Kids and Tired) said...

My boys would absolutely love this book. I'd love to be entered in the giveaway!

je2kids(at)yahoo(dot)com

Mikaila said...

This looks so cool! We love kitchen science and I know Jordan would be all over this.

I also published a post tonight where I mentioned your giveaway week (it's at the end of the post if you want to go look, and it's a post with lots of pictures) so I'm excited for extra comment counts! :D

Bakersdozen said...

I would love to share these with my kids. vidomich(at)yahoo(dot)com

Andrew Wiggins said...

Sound like great homeschooling resources to me!

Amy @ Hope Is the Word said...

These look great, Carrie! Sign me up!

Amy @ Hope Is the Word said...

Blogged #2!

Catherine said...

Both of those books sound like they would be great for my preschoolers. We get our milk from a local farm and I'd love for them to have more of an idea of what really goes on there.

Anonymous said...

My kiddos would love these books.

Anne said...

We love to play in the kitchen! Sounds like a ton of fun!

Heather VanTimmeren said...

I blogged about your birthday! (extra entry #1)

sheisreading said...

All these giveaways at once?? You rock!
Heather

Mary Elizabeth said...

What an incredible giveaway!! Thank you for the chance to win these books!
mclaingreen (at) yahoo (dot) com

Anonymous said...

My nephew would really enjoy these books because he loves science and getting his hands dirty.

sonflower277(at)gmail(dot)com

Kristie said...

I would love to share these books with my kiddos! Thanks for the chance to win! :-)

khmorgan_00 [at] yahoo [dot] com

Unknown said...

Again another outstanding couple of books. My kids love experiments and anything hands on. Getting their hands dirty is the best thing in the world to them.

danellejohns at gmail dot com

Anonymous said...

I would love to win these books for my school! Line - clariline98 at yahoo dot com

Lisa said...

These look fantastic. :)

Amanda said...

I would love to read both of these books!

amanda.corley@ymail.com

wmmahaney said...

I have a little boy who would love this.
wmmahaney(at)att(dot)net

Mozi Esme said...

OK - this is my absolute favorite of all your gives, and you've got some good ones! I can so easily put these to use in our home"school" this year!

janemaritz at yahoo dot com

Serena said...

I love how visually exciting DK books are, and I love the look of the small farm book. Both books look wonderful and fun!

Brimful Curiosities said...

I'm especially interested in the I'm a Scientist: Kitchen book. We've just recently started participating in Science Sunday, a science for kids weekly meme and I'm sure this book would come in handy.

Amy DM said...

This would be fantastic for our kids and little school.

laiah1773ATgmailDOT.com

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