Hazel has decided her birthday party will be a Frozen theme this year. I saw in a few places making easy Olaf mugs and t-shirts. While pulling out some supplies for our mermaid play date, I found some white mugs I had bought for Hazel's Tea for 2 Birthday Party. We had left out paints for the older kids to decorate them. We only had one taker so I have six left over. Although painting and drawing are not my strong points, I thought I would give it a try. Olaf's face is rather easy. I pulled out my paint markers: black, white, brown, orange and blue.
I started with his mouth outline and then drew the spot for the teeth (which I later enlarged with the white marker). Then I drew the eyes and hairs and finally the carrot for a nose.
Then on the back I wrote: "I like warm hugs."
The first one I did I thought the mouth was too big, but I actually liked that one better in the end. Our plan is to have a hot chocolate bar with the mugs and then have the kids take the mug home as the favor.
Disclosure:NCircle Entertainment gave me a copy of the DVD free of charge and is supplying
the one for the giveaway free of charge. All opinions in my review are
my own and I did not receive any other compensation.
Today I get to review a wonderful Octonauts DVD. The Octonauts is among one of Hazel's favorite shows. She recently told me she wants to be a scientist who studies animals when she grows up. (Of course her idea of what she wants to be changes all the time at this age.) She loves any show that helps her learn about animals. The Octonauts is one of them. It amazes me the information she retains from the show. Every once in awhile she will come out with one of the animal facts. I love it!
The DVD we are reviewing today is The Octonauts: Deep Sea Mission. Its official release date is September 2nd, however there was an early release on August 5th through Walmart and Sam's Club. If you follow the link you will be taken there. Of course you can pre-order the DVD and find all the other Octonauts DVDs and other great DVDs at NCircle Entertainment's website. Now as I mentioned Octonauts are one of Hazel's favorites. She loves learning about the animals and the six episodes on this DVD are wonderful. They explore the Midnight Zone and the creatures that live in the deepest part of the water. I love the fact that Hazel knows about the Midnight Zone and knows some animals. I'll admit every once in awhile I google one of the creatures just to make sure they are actual creatures and not just made up, because I have not heard of them. (I recently googled spookfish from one of the episodes on this DVD. The images on Google are great, but none that I can legally use here, so you will have to Google it yourself.)
Disney Junior has some of the creatures from Octonauts available as color sheets and creature information cards. They have not kept up with all of their seasons though. Above is the one of the spookfish. Hazel had fun coloring it. Another part of watching all the Octonauts episodes and DVDs that I love is that Hazel wants to explore more sea creatures. Our public library recently had a program with The Whale Mobile. This is a group of people who come to a location with a life size model of a real humpback whale that has been seen off the coast of Massachusetts and you can go inside the model and see the size of things like the heart, lungs, stomach and ribs. It is so neat. They teach a bit about whales. It was really interesting. To give you an idea of the whale here is a picture of Hazel next to its head.
I love this DVD and all the Octonauts DVDs for the lessons they teach Hazel and how they get her so curious about the sea. Yes, our dinner conversations are sometimes about which is the largest creature in the sea. And yes, Steve and I are learning from watching them with her. And we actually enjoy the shows unlike some children's shows.
Now I get to offer you a chance to win this amazing DVD. Follow the Rafflecopter and enter to win! Winners must live in the USA or Canada and be 18 and over and follow the rest of my Giveaway Rules. Good luck!!
Disclosure:Tuttle Publishing
gave me a copy of these products free of charge. All opinions in my review
are
my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my
reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.
As I explained last Monday, we have begun to explore Japan with some fun books from Tuttle Publishing. They sent us some beautiful books and a set of flashcards. Today we are going to look at the ones that help teach a little of the Japanese language. Last week I reviewedMy First Book of Japanese Words: An ABC Rhyming Book by Michelle Haney Brown. This book starts to introduce a small amount about the language and really helps teach something about the culture in Japan.
In this box of flash cards, you get 64 double-sided flash cards, an audio CD, a wall chart and a learning guide. Each flash card has the Japanese word written in Japanese and then the pronunciation of the Japanese word (called Komaji) and a picture of what the word means on one side. On the other side is a table with the Japanese, Komaji and English then two sentences in all three as well as a black and white copy of the picture. The 64 cards are separated into word groups: Family, Colors, Numbers, Clothes, Animals, Food, Body Parts, and My Day. The learning guide suggests working with only one group at a time to make it more manageable.
The audio CD begins with sixteen basic words and sayings that do not lend to pictures (for examples: yes, no, hello, goodbye) which are spoken slowly in Japanese and then at a regular speed and then in English and then has four songs in Japanese. Then it goes through each flash card saying the word in Japanese slowly, then at regular speed, then in English, then reading the sentences on the back side of the card in Japanese and English. I love that Hazel gets to hear the word how it is suppose to be pronounced and not just my interpretation of it. The learning guide also has games and activities to try in Japanese to help learn some of the words in a different way and the words to the four songs in Japanese and English. We decided to focus on numbers for awhile because the next book started with numbers as well.
Did you know there are three different writing systems in Japanese? There is Kanji which is the writing system that came to Japan from China in the 6th century; Hiragana is a script women in Japan developed 1,000 years ago; and Katakana is the set of characters to represent foreign words and names. Kanji has 2,500 different characters to know. Japanese children learn these starting in elementary school and continue through high school. Hiragana has 46 different characters and sounds. Japanese children learn all of the Hiragana characters in first grade. Katakana has 46 characters to match the 46 sounds of spoken Japanese and all are learned in first grade. Japanese children also learn Romaji which is the 26 letters of the English alphabet. (Source: All About Japan: Stories, Songs, Crafts and More by Williamare Moore--a review of this one coming soon!)
Our second book for today is My First Japanese Kanji Book: Learning Kanji the fun and easy way! by Anna Sato and Eriko Sato. This book helps children learn how to write Kanji. Usually Kanji is learned after Hiragana and Katakana are already mastered. We however began with it. This book has 36 lessons. Each lesson includes a poem in Japanese and English and then lessons on some of the words from the poem. The first lesson teaches you to write the words for one, two and three.
Each character has a certain order to how it is to be written and it is said that teachers can tell when you do not do it in the correct order. Hazel and I began trying some out first with just regular colored pencils and I realized we were not getting the thickness of the lines correctly so I pulled out some calligraphy pens. Hazel loved this activity!! She wanted to do some more while I started making dinner.
Hazel's Kanji Trials
This book comes with an MP3 Audio CD. Each lesson is on the CD with the poem read in Japanese and English. Again I love that Hazel gets to hear the correct pronunciation. (Spoken languages have never been my strong point even if I was in Honors Spanish classes throughout middle and high schools.) I also showed her how to listen to the poems on her own if she wants to try some while I am busy. This really excited her. She actually asked if we could try some lessons every day.
My Kanji Trials
The book provides a place to practice each character, but we decided to do them on separate paper. I often donate the books eventually to our public library or Hazel's school library, so I didn't want to mess them up and it gave us both a place to work without being in the others way. I have to say all three of these products are a wonderful introduction to the Japanese language. Each provides a different way of learning a bit about the culture and all are of the highest quality and are beautiful. For more books and activities to learn about Japan check out:
