So, why should you buy Usborne books? I'll be the first to admit that we have shelves and shelves of books, not all of them Usborne, so what's so special about these books?
1. Physical Quality - Usborne books are made very well. Usborne wants your kids to love on the books. They know their books become favorites, so they make them well to stand up to all the 'love' they will get. Their board books are extra thick because those babies and toddlers like to chew, throw, stand, bend, and more! These books will stand up to some major abuse! And if they don't, see number 2. :)
2. Lifetime guarantee. Usborne knows your kids will love these books. They want you to let them love these books, not hide them reverently on a shelf for occasional viewing. They will replace a damaged book with no questions asked for free within the first 30 days of purchase. Oooops! The dog chewed up the book on day 31? Junior attempted to help his new favorite book swim in the toilet on day 57? No problem. Usborne will replace any book still in publication for half price. If they make it, you can get a replacement. So let those kids enjoy these books!
3. Literary Quality - Usborne has been doing this a long time. They don't make so-so books. The baby books are engaging, with textures, colors, pictures that will keep the most wiggly toddler engaged (at least for a few moments!). The Pre-K and early readers are fun and help build reading confidence. The older readers and non-fiction beginners help foster your child's natural curiosity. The reference books help build knowledge while keeping the boring factor to a minimum (lots of pictures, diagrams, cut-aways and small portions of text). And for those reluctant young teen readers, we have some fantastic suspense series that I love (and may have indulged in a few times myself!).
4. Content Quality - similar to the previous one, but a little more specific. There's no 'junk' in these books. You don't need to preview these books before your kids read them. Nothing questionable, no embarrassing questions are going to come up later. These are good books that I feel comfortable letting my kids read, carte blanche. (Note: some books deal with fantasy elements, some are suspense. You may not want your kids reading about some of the topics for more personal reasons, but there are no surprises in these books. The suspense books were a particular favorite of mine because they got the blood pumping without all of the gore and violence of adult books).
5. Price - A lot of times, Direct Sales products are more expensive than their in-store counterparts. Since Usborne sells some of their books in box stores, their prices are competitive, no overspending here!
6. Customer rewards - Buying from a consultant can earn you customer rewards, like half-price specials!
7. Earn free books - You know the pitch - You can host a party or sign up as a consultant to earn free books. And having looked into several Direct Sales companies, and being a former consultant of one, our rewards are fantastic. I signed up to build my library inexpensively, and I ended up falling in love with the books and doing, well, this! I love helping people find great books!
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Bilingual 7 year old
Can I get a recommendation on a book for a coworker's daughter. She will be 7 in September, in first grade and is bilingual.Usborne has a great selection of Spanish books! Our fiction book section by Kane Miller (a sub-company of Usborne), publishes the best fiction books in the world! What Usborne is for non-fiction and early reading, Kane Miller is for fiction. The Kane Miller authors are from literally all over the world. In fact, a page in the catalog is devoted to a list of the countries where the authors are from!
My personal recommendations are:
Both of these books are in Spanish and English and are suggested for age 7 and up.
Some Kane Miller recommendations:
Hope that helps!
**Disclaimer - The links on this page go to my personal UBAM consultant page. I receive a commission on any sales made on that site, but your price stays the same. Being an Usborne consultant is a small way I support my family. **
Friday, August 8, 2014
3 year old girl
What can you recommend for a 3yr old?
Now, I happen to know that this 3-year-old is a little girl, so I'm going to focus on that for right now, though some of the choices could be for either boy or girl.
My second favorite Usborne set (behind Farmyard Tales) is the Pipkin Poster Picture books. Oh, how we love Pip! Pipkin is a little penguin who asks BIG questions. And these are questions that your kids have probably asked too! These books have beautiful illustrations and tell the story of Pip finding the answer to his big question. At the end, there is a big fold-out poster to illustrate the answer!
The poster has a million stars! Probably our favorite poster!
The poster shows the sizes of different dinosaurs and also compares them to things of today!
Every preschooler asks! We got this one when we were expecting Baby #4. Very sweet, age-appropriate book.
We also love these Story books. They have beautiful illustrations and the pages have just the right amount of words for little attention spans. These are combined volumes, which means there are multiple stories in one book. A great bang for your buck!
And some other Picture Story Books:
These are adorable clothbound books with classic stories, rewritten for young listeners. I love the binding, it seems classic and special :)
And some other special books:
And since we're on the topic of fairy tales, what little girl doesn't love a good fairy tale?
These are both in the same style as Farmyard Tales, perfect for a Preschooler who will be learning to read!
And every little girl loves stickers! I love the Sticker Dolly Dressing series. The stickers are goo-free stickers, which means that when (not if, I have 4 kids, so I'm well-versed in sticker removal) they end up on furniture, windows, walls, floor, etc, they are easily removed and don't leave a residue! They have a SDD for whatever your little girl is into - Back to School, Ballerina, Bridesmaids, Fairies, Action, and lots more!
I hope this helps!
**Disclaimer - The links on this page go to my personal UBAM consultant page. I receive a commission on any sales made on that site, but your price stays the same. Being an Usborne consultant is a small way I support my family. **
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Readers, Fairy Tales, and American History
Can you recommend something for ages three to five who are learning to read? Also, I have had children requesting fairy tales (I would read them aloud) Our third grader could use some books on Native Americans, the Revolutionary War, or the Wild West to supplement school.
Another sweet friend sent this request in. I talked some about readers yesterday, but I'll add some more to that. We love the Ted and Friends Phonics collection. It's similar to the Very First Reading Set, but without the obvious parent-child collaboration. Instead of letting the child exclusively work on learned phenomes (letter sounds), the Ted and Friends only emphasizes certain letter sounds. The Combined Volume (CV notation) means there are several books in one, and you get a great deal since it's bound into one book!
Ted and Friends has 12 of the 16 Phonics Readers. This is the same illustrator as Farmyard Tales, so you know it's a favorite at our house :)
Now onto Fairy Tales. The Usborne Illustrated Stories are phenomenal. Beautiful illustrations and any collection of stories you can think of. These are great as read-alouds, but as you get more confident readers, they will enjoy curling up with these books. Here are the Fairy Tale specific books:
If Usborne has a fault, it is the lack of early American history material. Lots of modern history, lots of ancient history, not a lot of American history. This is one that I've used:
A little easy on the reading level, but the material is good. The Internet Links are also helpful - you know they're safe, so no worries about what 'interesting' things he may find while researching.
Hope that helps!
**Disclaimer - The links on this page go to my personal UBAM consultant page. I receive a commission from sales on that site, but your price remains the same. I am an Usborne consultant to help contribute to my family.**
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Elementary Reference
What are some good books to have on hand for the early years of homeschooling (pre-k through 6th or so)? Books with good general information, that can be used with a variety of curriculum and homeschooling styles?
Having a well-stocked library is the key to the love of reading and learning. Kids are naturally curious about the world around them, so having good reference materials makes learning fun!
The Children's Encyclopedia is a favorite in our house. We have used it as an integral part of 2 years of curriculum, but it's also been a good reference book just for fun. It is very well loved in our house! I recommend the large version. The smaller version is cheaper, but this book is used a LOT and I really like having the larger print version.
Every kid has trouble spots. But rather than make them do boring practice, make it fun! It's as simple as laminated cards and a wipe-off marker. We have Brain Puzzles, Logic Puzzles (both are good for improving concentration), Math Puzzles, Word Puzzles, French, Tricky Words to Spell, and Grammar and Punctuation
Another of my very favorite resources is the Learning Palette. The base is sturdy and you can buy card sets as your kids grow. (PS, This set is pricey, but it's a great reason to have a Book Party, the Usborne hostess rewards are awesome!). You can get cards for math and phonics, all different levels. These are self-grading, so kids can do them on their own!
There are also some great math facts practice with the Wrap-ups, also self grading! Great tools for extra math practice that aren't worksheets.
Now we have reading. Teaching or helping kids learn to read is a daunting task. Usborne makes it fun and easy. I'm going to give you a couple of different options, you can choose depending on your needs.
First option is a reading program, something to teach your kids to read. Usborne has two great Reading Programs. The Very First Reading Program comes with 15 books that progressively walk through the phenomes. The books start with a lot of parent reading, with just a few words that the child can confidently read. As you progress through, the child reads more and more. It also comes with a parent guide. These are great books that we use in our homeschool. Fun, engaging stories that help build reading confidence systematically.
There is also a Start to Read Pack with stickers, activity book and poster and 8 paperbacks from the Very First Reading Set. There's also a free website to practice the first stages of reading - teachyourmonstertoread.com
The First Reading Program is the next step with great stories that get progressively harder. Fun stories with great illustrations. It also comes with a Parent's Guide to help you through.
If you don't need help teaching phonics, but instead are just looking for great easy readers for young children, look no further. My absolute favorite early readers (we love them so much, it inspired my blog name!) are the Usborne Farmyard Tales. There are 6 different titles in the series. They are written especially for young readers (though my 4th grader still loves to read it). Three of the books come with CDs. This is an undervalued rescource, in my opinion! These stories are so good, your kids will want to listen to them all the time, but what mom has time for that? Pop the CD in and they can read along (Note: the CD does not have page-turn sounds, but if they are semi-familiar with the stories, they can kinda follow along without the sounds).
Here is a look inside. If you notice, the top lines are simple, the bottom lines are more complex. The top lines alone make a whole story. This is so a young reader can read the "whole" story all by himself! What a confidence booster! The bottom lines add detail to the story. He can read it with you and take turns, he reads the top line, you read the bottom lines. As he gains confidence, he can add the bottom lines and read the entire story by himself. The stories are cute, the characters lovable. And since we live on a farm, we have fallen in love the Farmyard Tales. Our favorite is The Complete Book of Farmyard Tales, but I'll list them all for you below.
I hope this helps! Usborne has lots of reference materials, Science, Math, History, but these are my favorites that tend to be classics.
**Disclaimer - The links on this page go to my personal UBAM consultant page. I receive a commission on any sales made on that site, but your price stays the same. Being an Usborne consultant is a small way I support my family. **
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
5th Grade History
I will have a 5th grader next year and we will be starting our second history cycle. I want to do three years instead of 4 so that 8th can be US history and civics/government. Anything I should start collecting?
My first assignment here on this little blog. A friend of mine sent this in. She's a fellow homeschooler, so I know education without boredom is priority. Usborne books are phenomenal in this area. The non-fiction books at higher levels have information broken up into lots of little word sections with big pictures (and lots of them). This keeps the information manageable. Does anyone else's eyes glaze over when reading long pages of boring text? It's not just me, right? We want kids to enjoy learning, homeschooled or not. There is TONS of cool stuff out there to learn about, let's encourage them to learn it!
This is, of course, your basic History Encyclopedia. This is a great reference tool. It has the chunks of text with lots of neat pictures, including cut-aways, diagrams, illustrations, pictures. Is it weird that my oldest likes to read it like a fiction book? ;)
Here's some books on Ancient History:
If you're doing Greek history, we love these Greek Myths books (link goes to more options for all ages):
If you are studying Shakespeare and his works in your World History tour:
If you are doing art history along with World/US history, some great resources that cover the classics:
One of our educational philosophies is to make history and geography come alive with stories, not just names, places, and dates, but real stories that kids will enjoy reading. The True Adventure Stories are a great place to get those. Especially this Second World War or War Stories.
Did you know that 2014 commemorates the 100th anniversary of World War I? Here are some great books to learn about both World Wars:
Another fun history book that is 100% true, but more fun than boring is The Story of Inventions
You do not have to get all of these! Some would be redundant, some may be too easy/hard. Some may not pertain to what you're studying. But this is a good place to start. Usborne also carries some easier versions of classic literature that you may want to use when studying a time period - like A Tale of Two Cities when studying the French Revolution or King Arthur when studying 5th and 6th century Europe.
I hope that helps give you some ideas!
** Disclaimer - The links in this post go to my personal UBAM consultant page. I make a commission off sales from my site. Your price does not change, but it buying books from my site helps to support my family.**
A new adventure!
This is my little attempt at a business blog. I have been an Usborne consultant for 4 years and love the company. I love that it is flexible. I love the products. I love the hostess rewards. I love the pay scale. I love the values that the company stands for.
Usborne is the leading children's book publishing company. The products are quality and designed to help children love to learn and read. I can attest that my family is an Usborne success family. My oldest has grown up reading Usborne books, my little ones can't read yet, but already have a love of books because of Usborne books. They know what they are doing.
My favorite part of being a consultant is being the personal shopper for my customers. I love answering the question, "What do you recommend?" I am an avid reader, and I have 3 kids that are avid "readers." I love giving my expertise and helping people find the 'perfect' book for the kids in their lives. Babies, toddlers, new readers, experienced readers, bored readers. Whatever the case - I can help you find a book your kids will love. Not just parents. Are you a grandparent? Aunt or uncle? Family friend? Are you looking for a great gift that will be treasured for years? I can help you do that.
Since I have 4 precious little ones, parties and book fairs are few and far between, but I thought a blog would offer me the same platform to give you my advice on books you want. Well, let's be honest. Books you need. ;)
So send me your questions and I will give you my best recommendations. I have turned the most reluctant readers into "Just-one-more-chapter-please-Mom?" kids.
Usborne is the leading children's book publishing company. The products are quality and designed to help children love to learn and read. I can attest that my family is an Usborne success family. My oldest has grown up reading Usborne books, my little ones can't read yet, but already have a love of books because of Usborne books. They know what they are doing.
My favorite part of being a consultant is being the personal shopper for my customers. I love answering the question, "What do you recommend?" I am an avid reader, and I have 3 kids that are avid "readers." I love giving my expertise and helping people find the 'perfect' book for the kids in their lives. Babies, toddlers, new readers, experienced readers, bored readers. Whatever the case - I can help you find a book your kids will love. Not just parents. Are you a grandparent? Aunt or uncle? Family friend? Are you looking for a great gift that will be treasured for years? I can help you do that.
Since I have 4 precious little ones, parties and book fairs are few and far between, but I thought a blog would offer me the same platform to give you my advice on books you want. Well, let's be honest. Books you need. ;)
So send me your questions and I will give you my best recommendations. I have turned the most reluctant readers into "Just-one-more-chapter-please-Mom?" kids.
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