TOS Review - Picaboo Yearbooks

I loved yearbook time at school...well, at least through Junior High (we didn't call it Middle School back in the day.)  You'd pick your yearbook up and then, for the next few days, you'd be signing everyone's  in the hall between classes or even during class if you were savvy - which I was.  In High School, though, our yearbooks were delivered in the summer.  How dumb was that?  Maybe that's how all schools do it in order to add all the end of the year activities.  When the new school year started, you brought your yearbook in for everyone to sign.

This is the cover of my 3rd grade yearbook.

 Where am I?  

So, being the yearbook nut that I am, you know that when I was given the opportunity to make one to celebrate our schooling endeavors, I was all over it!

Picaboo Yearbooks allows you to digitally create a yearbook, soft cover or hard cover, for a low price (starting at $8.95), with no minimum number of books that need to be ordered and a quick turnaround shipping time (within three weeks!)  We were able to create a 20 page, soft cover yearbook to use for this review.

My musings:

I have never made a digital scrapbook or picture book, so I went into the creating phase a total novice.  The Picaboo site has several video tutorials that walk you through the process and I watched many of them!  After getting into the swing of it, it wasn't difficult at all.  It was really more about learning where the tools were that you needed to complete each section. You have the option to use freeform or portfolio pages (the traditional classroom portrait pages) and then add your information and pictures.  One of the best features is the ability to customize layout templates.  You can change things up (text or picture boxes) by moving or deleting them or keeping them as they are.  You then choose from tons and tons of backgrounds, as well as stickers, that can be used on the pages as embellishments.  You can also edit the pictures you upload and the text font.  There is also the option of creating group members that can add information to the book.  Turn the creating process into a learning experience and have your older students design their own pages for the yearbook.  Fun!  You never know.  You might have a budding graphic designer on your hands.  

After getting into the flow of working with the layouts, the hardest part for me was choosing the pictures and designing the sections of the book.  That was all on me though, it didn't have anything to do with the site.  :-)  Best advice:  plan, plan, plan.  Think about the pictures you want to use and what you want each page section to look like. Study the layouts available and play with the design.   This isn't something that can be done overnight...well, maybe you could if you had completed digital books previously and didn't need the learning curve that I did.  

Our yearbook covered our homeschool journey from the past few years.  I was pleased with how it turned out.  The cover has a gloss finish and each page is full color.  Here is a glimpse of what we did:

 

 

 

Some of my sections included pages for specific subjects (history, science, math), first day of school activities, promotions, birthdays, field trips, miscellaneous pictures of Julianna over the years, as well as a few more.  The only thing I wasn't gaga over was the way the cover turned out, but that was because of my design and picture choice, not the program.

I really enjoyed doing this yearbook and I'm thankful that I had the opportunity.  Michael even said that we should plan on doing one every year now, so next school year, I will be taking more pictures with that goal in mind...and some more with me in the pictures.  I have a shockingly low number with Julianna and me.  I'm not photogenic, so I'm much more comfortable taking the pictures.  Typical mom.  

If you'd like to create a memory book for your school year, check out Picaboo Yearbooks.  It was fun to do and since they've done a lot of the work for you, they're easy to put together.  And affordable.  They also have a sister site, Picaboo, that does photo books, cards, calendars and more. 

Details:

Picaboo Yearbooks

Soft cover, 20 pages, starting $8.49

Hard Cover, 20 pages, starting $18.99

Additional pages are available starting at .22 per page

Shipping is $8.99 (ground shipping rates) for your first book and .99 per additional book - express delivery is also available  

I'm not the only one who got to try our this nifty product.  See what my crew mates thought at Schoolhouse Review Crew.

Baby birdies

Checked on the Robin's nest in my butterfly bush and found this:

A walk on the wild side

Let's go on a little nature walk in my yard...that's about as far as I venture into nature.

Teeny baby praying mantis

Butterfly bush bloom

 And while I was admiring the blooms on said butterfly bush, a Mama Robin flew out of the middle of it and scared the bejeebies out of me!  I then found these:

 I have a bush (Let me know if you have any idea what kind it is.) that lines my front sidewalk that tends to be a nuisance  but it blooms tons of these lovely yellow flowers, so I let it stay.  

My hydrangeas.  I love them.

My garden, which is totally overtaken with crab grass.  It's sad when you have to mow the between the rows of your veggies, but it is what it is.  You live and learn.  I'll figure something else out for next year.  It's growing nicely and I can see harvest time coming soon.  We've gotten a couple cucumbers and a lot of herbs.  My zucchini and tomatoes are very close.  

FREE Little House on the Prairie Lapbooks

We haven't read any of the Little House on the Prairie books yet.  They are on our to read list...there are so many on the list!  Marine Corp Nomads has free...FREE, People!...lapbooks that go with each book.

 

Go grab them!  :-)

TOS Review - Baker Publishing Group

I love all things Amish.

I think I've read every fiction book series based on the Amish lifestyle that's out there!  (Well, maybe not every one...it's quite a popular subject in the Christian Fiction genre, but I've read many of them.)  I was pleased as punch when we were asked to review two children's books from The Adventures of Lily Lapp series (for ages 8-12) from the Baker Publishing Group :  

$12.99

$12.99

These are the first two books in The Adventures of Lily Lapp series that follow the life of six year old Lily and the changes and challenges that come to all of us:  new siblings, new teachers, moving to a new state and home, and new friends.  Two more books in the series will be released soon: A Big Year for Lily (July 2013) and A Surprise for Lily (September 2013).

The authors both have backgrounds within the Amish community.  Mary Ann Kinsinger was raised Old Order Amish (she no longer lives the strict Amish lifestyle) and Lily's stories are based on her life.  Suzanne Woods Fisher's grandfather was raised Plain and had a huge influence on her life.

My musings:

 My hope for this review was that Julianna would be able to read these books along with me since they are recommended for ages 8-12.  While the chapters are fairly short, the font is a smaller typeset than the books she is currently reading, so it made them much more intimidating and difficult for her.  After a few frustrating attempts, we went to using it as a bedtime read aloud and then she lost interest completely, so I finished them.  :-)  

I liked the books well enough...I'm far from the recommended age range, so maybe I my expectations were a little higher than they should have been.  My two main issues with the books are first, the smaller font that was used (It does have short chapters, but with the smaller font it actually means more words in each chapter - clear as mud?  ;-) Of course, I don't know what the recommended word count is for the 3rd-6th grade level.  It's probably completely appropriate.  I'm looking at it from the younger 8 year old level.) and second, the chapters are written more like independent mini-tales than a cohesive story.  I asked Julianna why she wasn't interested in the stories.  She couldn't give a specific answer other than "I just didn't like them."  I thought she would have been nutso over them since they were about a little girl her age, but they just didn't click with her.  (I think she wanted some more illustrations, as well.) I guess we've never read anything about the Amish lifestyle.  I probably should have directed her thinking towards more of the similarities of she and the character when we started to read them.  They have far more in common than she realizes!  Regardless, I'm hoping that she will enjoy this series in the future.  We're planning a weekend trip to Lancaster, PA soon, so maybe she'll be more interested after that.  I am going to share them with the 11year old daughter of a friend of mine.  It'll be interesting to see what her thoughts are. (Duh!  Should have done that before the review. Lol)

Details:  

The Adventures of Lily Lapp books are available in printed and ebook formats through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and christianbook.com.  You can also buy them directly through the Baker Publishing Group.  The book's website has a lot of fun information:  games, recipes, information about the books/authors and much more.  You can even read excerpts from the first two books.

Famous Face Biography Project - Helen Keller

Julianna learned about Helen Keller at a class in the Fall and has been obsessed, I mean, interested in learning more about her life ever since.  (Julianna has always been one to go all in when it comes to something she is interested in.  I hope she doesn't lose that passion...I only wish she was interested in reading and such!  When she was young, you would even have to call her by whichever character name she "was" at the time.)
We have read books, done many (many) reenactments of Helen's life events and watched movies and documentaries about her life.  We have also learned about Braille and have even gotten a couple books written in Braille from the library.   We tried to write her name, but because she tends to be very literal, we couldn't make the raised dots, so it didn't interest her.  I found this idea on Pinterest about Famous Faces Biography Projects and thought it would be a perfect thing to do at the end of our school year.  
Julianna made a poster with details of Helen's life and then did an oral presentation.  She did so good!  I filmed it, but for some reason YouTube won't upload it.  I'll try again.  It's a must see!
Until then, here are some pictures.

Here is the poster.  You are supposed to cut head/arms out for the student and then they give the presentation as the person.  I didn't measure well for the arms and we had to make adjustments.  :-)

"Helen Keller  Born in 1880, Death 1968"

"The College Years"

In this picture, Helen is knocking off the lamp and her nanny is running to stop her.

"This was how Helen learned how to communicate." (Helen and Anne Sullivan)

I'm not exactly sure how the carriage fits into the story.  Maybe it was bringing Annie Sullivan from the train.  Lol

I loved this project.  It combined her artistic abilities with the learning process.  We will definitely revisit this project in the future.

TOS Review - Birdcage Press

Since we've gotten our dog, I've spent quite a lot of time in our backyard during his potty training.  I don't think I really paid much attention to what birds were singing before then.  After my many (many, many) trips outside, I can now pick out the songs of Cardinals, Robins, Crows and Blackbirds (Which, by the way, has one of the strangest calls out there.)  

Seeing that I am now becoming one with my neighborhood birds, I was excited to get to review Wild Cards:  Backyard Birds (Age 6+, $10.95) by Birdcage Press.

Dr. Wenda O'Reilly starting making games using art, combined with familiar card games, for her children when they were little.   The company began publishing these games in 2000 and now they offer the products which still include art, but also have expanded to history, wildlife and nature, and air and space.  The Birdcage Press team consists of five women who all use their unique skills to help create their educational products, which include games and books.

My Musings: 

The Wild Card: Backyard Birds set includes 36 cards printed on a glossy cardstock and a fact book.  Each card has a full color picture and fun fact about the bird it represents.  Each bird in the set is divided into one of six categories:  Tricksters, Songbirds, Woodpeckers, Hummers, Waterbirds and Little Chirpers.  This distinction is color coordinated on both the cards and throughout the fact book.  The fact book includes information about habitat, food, nesting and behavior.  It also gives a map of where the birds are located in North America and clues to look for to identify the birds.  

We loved this game!  We have played it over and over... and over and over again.  Primarily, we played it as Memory and "Go Fish" (or "Go Bird" as Julianna re-named it).  The only thing negative I can say is about the size of the cards.  Since they are a little larger than a standard deck of cards (and they are very slick), they are kind of difficult to shuffle.  Julianna couldn't do it at all.  

I was highly impressed with the quality of this card game.  I have no reservations recommending it to you, friends,  and would not hesitate purchasing more of their products in the future.  Speaking of which, you can buy their books and games on the Birdcage Press website. They are also sold at museums throughout the world, as well as, select book, gift and toy stores.