Learning to Draw in Nature: A Review of The Nature Explorers Drawing Guide for Kids

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this product from the Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review or be compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page for more information. Thank you.

Would your children like to learn about drawing? Do you want to include nature journals in your homeschool routine? The Nature Explorers Drawing Guide for Kids is a great tool to help your children learn to draw most of the animals they will see during nature walks, and it presents fun and interesting facts about the animals, too. This paperback book is part of the 2024 Third-Grade Curriculum Kit from Timberdoodle. 

About the Book 

The Nature Explorers Drawing Guide for Kids presents step-by-step instructions for each animal presented to help your children get started. It provides: 

• An introduction to nature exploration 
• 40 step-by-step drawing instructions 
• Drawing techniques and tips
• 15 2-page nature journal pages 

This 128-page paperback book includes such animals and plants as: 

• Fox
• Moose
• Robin
• Seagull
• Maple leaf
• Saguaro Cactus
• Bumble bee 

Each animal and plant featured has a one-page drawing instruction page and one page dedicated to a critter profile, observations you can make, and a tip.

What Do We Think? 

I love the fact that the book does not start with two or three simple steps and then jumps to finishing up with a very complicated final drawing. The artist presents realistic expectations for the children (and parents who are drawing along with their children). 

I found the steps very simple to follow as did our 11-year-old son. Our 9-year-old daughter was a bit more picky because her drawings did not turn out the way she wanted them to. But the more nature walks we take, the better her drawings will be with practice. 

It is a great size! You can easily stow it away in a backpack or bag to take with you on your nature walks. We even took it with us on vacation.

I would highly recommend The Nature Explorers Drawing Guide for Kids to parents of children ages 6+ whether you homeschool or not!

Note to Christian Parents: There is a brief introduction to Charles Darwin as a naturalist. Nothing is mentioned about evolution in this description. 

Looking To Study More Art? 

Please check out my review of another great art-themed product from Timberdoodle: 

• Art History for All Ages: A Review of Have I Got a Story For You! Downloadable Art History Video Series (Renaissance)

Crafts: Praying for our Leaders

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Loving, Learning, Living, and Leading are all important things to teach our children in a Biblical Worldview. How can we do these things in our own lives? How can we be purposeful in the way we love as God taught us? How can we focus on learning about God and His world? How do we live our lives according to the Bible? And how can we lead others as God would want us to?  Over the course of four days, The Canadian Schoolhouse's Virtual Family Retreat: A Purposeful Life has touched upon these four areas. The whole family has a place in this virtual retreat. There are special speakers addressing both homeschooling moms and dads, crafts for your children, devotions, giveaways, and more. 

I want to start with several questions... Who are our leaders? Who has come before us in the Bible? Where can we look for leadership? How can we be leaders? 

We may not answer all these questions in this post, but I would encourage you to think about them as you create your craft, as you pray for our leaders, and as you read your Bible. 

Today's craft is inspired by a quote from Hebrews. 

"Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith." Hebrews 13:7

Remember those who serve as your leaders – those who lead your family, your church, your town, your province, and your nation. This verse in the New Testament helps us to remember the leaders of our church. And we can also remember the leaders of today.

Materials 

Today, we are going to make a simple craft that will help us to pray for our specific leaders. So, let's gather our materials! You will need two paper plates – the cheaper ones are perfect for this craft. You will need a pencil and markers (or you can use crayons or colored pencils). 

• Two paper plates
• Paper fastener 
• Pencil 
• Scissors
• Markers
• Notebook paper to list names 

Steps 

1. After you get your materials together, write down the names of the leaders who you want to include. Depending on where you live, you will be writing down the names of different people or even different titles. 

2. After you have your list of leaders, split your paper plate into three equal sections.

3. You will cut away one section for the top paper plate. Make sure when you cut away, you leave enough space around your paper fastener hole so it will not tear. 

4. Then, you will use your marker to make lines for each section. 

5. After the sections are divided, write the names of the leaders in the sections. You can add as much or as little decoration to your prayer plate as you want. Decorations can be complicated or just squiggly lines. 

6. Add on the top plate, "Today we pray for our church leaders and our ____________."

7. As you spin the prayer plate, you see the names you have written of your different leaders. Find a specific time during the day to pray for them.

What are the names of your leaders? Who can you pray for today?

Crafts: Wisdom Keepsake

 

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Are you looking to be more purposeful in your life? The Canadian Schoolhouse is hosting its second Virtual Family Retreat: A Purposeful Life. This virtual retreat is perfect for homeschoolers. Each day focuses upon a different aspect of living a purposeful life and features speakers, a devotion, crafts, and more. I was fortunate enough to design and create several different crafts for the retreat, including ones based upon learning. 

Where does wisdom come from? Do you consider yourself wise? One of the most important places to find wisdom is in the pages of the Bible. 

Each day of the retreat focuses upon a different quote from the Bible. The quote associated with "Purposeful Learning" is: 

"Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance." Proverbs 1:5

Let's remember to look in the Bible for wisdom. We can also seek help when we need it from our grandparents and parents. They can guide us using the wisdom they have gained over their years as well as the wisdom they have gained from reading the Bible. 

Today, we will learn how to create a keepsake where we can keep the Bible verses from this week and others that will help us grow in wisdom. 

Let's gather our materials! 

This project will allow you to be really creative. You can use an old DVD or CD case, or you will create your own small book with the quotes you write down. If you are going to create the same keepsake as me, gather a piece of construction paper for the cover, a pencil, markers (or other supplies to help you decorate your cover), and notebook paper.

Materials 

• Construction paper 
• Empty DVD or CD case 
• Pencil
• Markers
• Notebook paper 

Steps 

1. Use the original cover of the DVD or CD to help you trace a piece from the construction paper for the case. Write on the 'binding' (or spine) your title. 

2. Write a title on the front and draw a picture on the front. What images or pictures come to mind when you think about wisdom? You and your children can draw your own picture or use clip art from online or cut out pictures from magazines. 

3. Don't forget to add artwork to the back. I drew a book and included at least two of the books from the Bible where I plan to pick my quotes from my book. I drew first in pencil and then added color with my markers. If you are creating a book from paper, you don't need to write on the spine. 

4. Take your notebook paper, and write out your quote. You may have to trim the notebook paper beforehand to make sure it fits in your case or the mini-book that you are creating. 

5. If you are using a DVD case, you can tuck the paper under the flaps.

6. Add to your quotes...I asked my children to each pick quotes from their homeschool curriculum to add underneath the one I have already written. You can keep adding quotes and pages all year long as you complete homeschool lessons or Bible studies. 

Including Art in Your Homeschool: A Review of Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this activity from the Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Our children love art – especially our seven-year-old daughter. She is always asking me if we can make a craft, paint, or sew. She loves expressing herself in art and music. But I don't always like the prep work and cleanup required. So, I love art kits like Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh because everything we need is in one package with minimal clean-up needed. 

Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh is part of the 2022 Sixth-Grade Curriculum Kit. The package states ages 5-99 which seems just about right. A young child may not create as intricate designs but they will still enjoy recreating Van Gogh's famous artwork. 

What is Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh? 

This is an art kit with four scratchboards produced by Djeco. It comes with a booklet and a wooden stylus for scratching away the top layer of the cards.

The four paintings that inspire the scratchboards that are included in the kit are (although my interpretation may be mistaken): 

1. The Starry Night 
2. Sunflowers 
3. Fishing Boats at Sea
4. The Large Plane Trees 

The Inspired by kit by Djeco is designed in France, so you will find the information and instructions printed in French, English, German, Spanish, and six other languages. I've found most Djeco products are self-explanatory, though. You can figure them out without too much written instruction. 

Ideas for Using Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh in Your Homeschool 

Read about Vincent Van Gogh prior to starting your artwork. Look at the four paintings used for inspiration and others to look for themes, favorite subjects, and colors. Just keep in mind that Van Gogh led a troubled life where money problems plagued him, and he ultimately committed suicide. You will want to preview any materials regarding his life before you share them with your children. 

After recreating the paintings using the scratch cards and stylus, ask your children if they recreate these paintings or others by Van Gogh with other mediums. Take out your paints, watercolor pencils, or even crayons to get creative. 

Finally, go on a field trip. There are many museums that have Van Gogh paintings on display. If you do not live near one of them, visit the website for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam to view his works of art and learn more about the artist. (They even have a spot labeled for children, but I would still preview it before sharing it with your own children.)

Our Thoughts 

I really like that there is no wrong way to produce the art on the scratch cards. You can leave as little or as much blue as you wish. Or you can reveal lots of the colors underneath as you create your own work of art. 

It all fits neatly in the envelope. It is easy to put away in between working on the pictures. As a family that has a lot of homeschool materials and resources, I value resources that are neat and tidy to put away for storage. 

It would be great if there was more than one stylus as both my children would like to work on their pictures at the same time. But having one leads to our practicing our patience. 

Our nine-year-old son stays it "helps you make art" and is a "guideline for making art." He noted that you can add things. He added his own boat to his boat picture and a letter M on the sail. Our seven-year-old daughter enjoyed working on the trees card together with me. She said Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh is "good for kids." She liked that they showed you examples so you could draw similar pictures yourself. 

I would recommend Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh to families who wish to include art in their homeschool days in a unique way. The lessons about Van Gogh and the completion of the scratch cards can take as long or as short as you wish. This provides you with great flexibility and is a good fit for the 2022 Sixth-Grade Timberdoodle Curriculum Kit.

Looking for more Unique Products from Timberdoodle? 

Read my review of Tenzi here: Dice, Decks, and Boards: Tenzi Game and Tenzi Card Deck. 

Read my review of a fun crystal art kit here: Art in Our Homeschool: A Review of Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit. 

Art in Our Homeschool: A Review of Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit

 

I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of this Card Kit from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Do you have one of those subjects in your homeschool that sometimes gets neglected? For us, it is often art. While our children love arts and crafts, I often save those projects for another day because we run out of time, need to gather materials, etc. Knowing how important the arts are to developing various skills, I was very pleased to review the Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit from Timberdoodle with our two children. The Kit is included in the 2022 Fourth-Grade Curriculum Kit from Timberdoodle which I think is a perfect fit. 

What is the Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit? 

This self-contained art kit includes all the components one needs to create a beautiful work of art. In our case, the card kit depicted a tiger. The company does have other kits available including a lion, kittens, owl, horse, and others. 

In the kit we found: 

• 1 Card 
• 1 Envelope 
• Bags of Crystals 
• Empty Plastic Resealable Bags 
• 1 Crystal Pick-Up Pen 
• Jelly Wax
• Tray 

The card is covered with a plastic piece as the card itself is sticky so you can place the crystals. The instructions are located on the inside of the kit package and written in English, German, French, and Dutch. So, in addition to incorporating art into your homeschool, you can try out your language skills by comparing the instructions. 

How Did We Use the Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit? 

When it first arrived, our daughter was very excited to get started. She loves arts and crafts so this was perfect for her. After opening it, I was apprehensive that she would be able to complete it as she only turned seven and it is included in the Fourth-Grade Curriculum Kit. It looked like it would take great concentration to complete this kit. Would our daughter and our son have the patience to work on it? 

The first day I set aside time to work on the Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit, I let our children pick which color we would complete first. We opened the appropriate bag of crystals, poured them into the tray, put the Jelly Wax near the tray, and started working. I began the process to show our children how to use the Pick Up Pen (or stylus). Our daughter quickly wanted to try it on her own. I held the plastic piece up off the card so she could apply the crystals. 

Between the three of us, we completed that first color over the course of the day. I would work on it for a little bit and then go back to work or homeschool one of our children. Our daughter would work on it for a time while her brother and I were working on spelling or language arts. Our son would then work on it after he completed his other homeschool assignments. We continued this process for several days. I even left it out so they could work on it throughout the whole day and evening. And there were quite a few nights I worked on the Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit on my own as I found it relaxing. 

How Do You Complete the Picture? 

Choose which area of the card you want to work on and then look at the letter on the card. Find the bag of crystals labelled with that letter and pour them into your tray. Use the Pick Up Pen, after dabbing it into the Jelly Wax, to pick up the crystals. The crystals are attached to the dots labelled with the letter you chose. Don't remove the entire plastic piece until you are completed to protect the sticky parts of the card. 

When you are done with a specific letter, put that in a small plastic resealable bag and label it. You may notice you missed a few spots like we did and need to go back and fill them in later. 

What Did We Think? 

At first, I was very concerned that our children would not be able to complete the project. It seemed to require great patience and hand-eye coordination. Would this work? I really thought that I would have to complete the entire card on my own but thankfully I was wrong. Our children enjoyed the process and seeing the card transform into a sparkly picture with the crystals. This simple card kit really brought art in our homeschool to life! 

What about the process? Was it easy to transfer the tiny crystals to the sticky card? Yes and no. If the crystals were the right side up, one could easily use the Pick Up Pen to transfer them if you had enough Jelly Wax on the Pen. Sometimes the crystals would fall off during the transfer but that wasn't that often. And we did have to gently shake the tray to flip the crystals over so we could pick them up the right way.  Once you get into a rhythm, it is quite easy to fill the entire card with the color you are working on at that time. 

We did notice that we had some duplicate bags of colors and one letter had two different bags of crystals. This wasn't too confusing and it did not impact our picture at all. 

I really enjoyed working on the Tiger Crystal Art Card Kit. I found it relaxing and enjoyable. While our soon-to-be fourth grade son enjoyed this homeschool art project, our daughter really liked it. So I would definitely recommend it for your daughters who love arts and crafts. If they have good dexterity and patience, then a child as young as seven might be able to complete this with a little help. 

Our daughter shared, "Though hard at first, it was actually easy once you got used to using the pen to grab the crystals and putting them on the card." She said it was a lot of fun. Our son said it was an "epic experience." 

This kit really brought art in our homeschool to life! Both our son and our daughter recommend it for your homeschool. 

Creativity in Your Homeschool: A Review of Mixed by Me Glow Thinking Putty® Kit

I received a FREE copy of this product from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Our homeschooled children are very creative. They love arts and crafts, writing stories, and creating new games. When presented with the opportunity to review the Mixed by Me Glow Thinking Putty® Kit from Timberdoodle, I was very excited to see what creative colors they would design. We had already purchased our daughter a container of Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty previously, so I knew that when she saw this kit, she would be SO thrilled!

The Mixed by Me Glow Thinking Putty® Kit is rated for ages 3+, which makes it perfect for many homeschooling families. It can be used as a separate activity or included as part of your science homeschool lessons.

What Do You Get?

In the colorful box, you will receive everything you need to make at least 5 different Thinking Putty® concoctions. (You can make more color and special effect combinations if your children subdivide the small tins of clear putty into smaller parts as our own did.)

• 5 tins of clear putty 
• 3 color concentrates - red, yellow, blue 
• 3 special effects - sparkle-izer, glow-ifier, shimmer-izer 

• 6 colored pencils 
• 5 customizable tin labels (we had labels on our tins and a set of 5 stickers) 

• 1 mixing mat with ideas for color formulas 

How Did We Use Mixed by Me Glow Thinking Putty® in Our Homeschool?

One evening, shortly after the arrival of the Mixed by Me Thinking Putty® Kit, our children had exhausted their imaginations and toys. So, I took out the box and we started looking at the mixing mat. As our children had already played with a tin of Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty® previously, they knew to a small extent what to expect. We looked at the bags of three colors and the three special effects options and talked about what colors they might like to make. We took a look at the sample formulas to decide whether or not we wanted to use any of the suggestions.

In the beginning, we rolled out the Thinking Putty® using the Measuring Bar, but by the time we had been creating our own creations for a bit, we just grabbed out how much we thought we would want or need of each color or special effect to add to the clear putty.

Because our children wanted to mix small amounts, we ended up storing some of the creations in sandwich bags inside of the tins. I think perhaps because they did not use large quantities of the colors and the special effects, the impact of them was not as pronounced as it would have been if they used 'a glob,' 'a blob,' or 'a heap' as indicated in the Measuring Bar. For example, the glow-in-the-dark special effect putty did not really glow but in the end, we were not really disappointed.

We have about five bags of small amounts of different colored Thinking Putty®

Our second grader is not a fan of other products of a similar nature. In fact, he does not even like to be the same room when his sister plays with those products but he has not had any sensory issues with the Thinking Putty® at all. I am very happy that he was able to join in the creation process to design a really stunning orange-colored tin of Thinking Putty®.

You can just see the sparkles in this orange-colored putty. When it settles, it will often stick to the lid.

I like that the more you play with the putty, the more it mixes and your color combination and special effect choices become more clear. In the beginning, our daughter did not want to really mix her combinations but the more she did, the more you could see the teal-blue of one of her creations.

The top is the clear putty, the middle is our daughter's teal-blue creation, and the bottom is the orange tin. 

How Can You Use This in Your Homeschool? 

I think there are a variety of ways you can use the Mixed by Me Glow Thinking Putty® Kit in your homeschool. You will be able to discuss the mixing of colors (and special effects), the need to measure (or not measure) when creating something, as well as cooperate if you have more than one homeschooled child using the kit. The putty also gives the child something they can play with during read-alouds or while they work on difficult assignments or projects. (Do be careful though because it can stick to things.)

While the children were picking their colors and special effects options, I thought about how perfect this would be for a children's birthday party. It would be the perfect activity for our children and their cousins to do together where every child would get to take home their own small tin of Thinking Putty®.

I would recommend Mixed by Me Glow Thinking Putty® Kit. The putty itself is fun to play with, and the idea of creating your own colors and designs is a lot of fun. While some may find the tins too small, I think they are a perfect size. I also love the fact that Thinking Putty® is produced in the United States.

If you want to read more reviews of products from Timberdoodle, please check out my reviews of the Tenzi Game and the Zig Zag Puzzler.

Virtual Refrigerator Weekly Art Link Up: Sewing Kit

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We would like to extend an invitation to you and your children to share their artwork created while homeschooling. Each month, we will host a link-up for you to share your posts about you or your children's art creation.

After you link up, please visit the other blogs and admire what they have shared from their fridges.

Learning to Sew

During the last week of August, we took a trip to the bookstore. In addition to buying several books for the kids, we also picked up a Minecraft workbook and a sewing kit. Our daughter was so excited to start working on the sewing kit.

My Simple Sewing 

This book and craft kit is from Klutz Jr and features three crafts that a child ages 4 and up can make with just a little bit of help from a parent. There are also two practice crafts included to help your child learn how to sew. Our daughter created a donut and a peanut butter & jelly sandwich to start. 

Pizza 

The first real sewing craft is the pizza pocket. It allows for lots of creativity and individualization as part of the materials include felt toppings of pepperoni, green pepper slices, mushrooms, and olives to accompany the eyes, mouth, and cheeks. 

Other Projects 

We have been working on one project every other day or so (depending on our schedule) so we still have two projects left: a cookie key chain and plush cupcake. Both of these crafts allow our daughter to be creative as she places the chocolate chips on the cookie and the sprinkles for the cupcake.

There are even some additional ideas listed at the end of the book for kids to create a dinosaur, a ladybug, and a watermelon from paper plates. These projects also include sewing so you can reuse the plastic needle that is included with the kit. 

My Thoughts 

All the materials (with a few exceptions) that children will need to complete the projects are included in the kit. This is fantastic for getting kids started right away! It would be a good kit to take on a long weekend or vacation for those rainy days when sightseeing or going to the pool isn't possible. 

We have been on the lookout for a simple sewing project for our children after we found one for $1 at the craft store. I love that our daughter can learn the basic skills necessary to sew with a safer plastic needle. Then we can move onto other sewing implements as she gets older. Now I just need to find a different kit for our son because he wants to join in, too. 

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Virtual Refrigerator Art Link Up

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Who loves stickers? Who loves sticker books? Stickers and sticker books seem to be a favorite among children of all ages and since there is such a great variety out there it is easy to find something they might just fall in love with.

Sticker Albums 

I can fondly remember my two sticker albums from when I was a kid. My mom gave me two photo books in which to keep my stickers (And I also had movie ticket stubs in them as well as a few postcards from my early vacations. I guess you could say this was the start of my scrapbooking hobby.) I think my favorite stickers from my childhood were the "My Little Pony" stickers that came with each pony. Those had a special place reserved on my Fischer Price record player.

Our younger children have two composition notebooks in which they can put stickers. Our younger son is also allowed to put his stickers in a 3-ring binder that has plastic sleeves in it with schooling papers. They put the stickers they receive from the local library or their doctors' office in their notebooks or the ones they receive for holidays or birthdays.

Sticker Books 

Our son recently received The Lego Batman Movie Ultimate Sticker Collection book for his birthday. The book has about 30 pages on which you use specific stickers to examine the heroes, villains, vehicles, and places in Gotham. There are also tons of extra stickers so your child can create their own scenes with Batman saving the day. He has been reading or playing with it every day since he received it.

You can also pick up sticker activity books at the dollar store like we have for our daughter. She has one that focuses on animals but there are number-themed and alphabet-themed ones, too.

And don't forget the sticker books that let you place and replace the stickers over and over to create fun scenes. Both of our younger children have had several of those over the years.

According to our son, all the villains but the Penguin were captured.

The Penguin was captured later. He escaped from the police car and Batman and Batgirl had to re-capture him.

Using Stickers to Create Art 

I love that stickers let children tell complicated stories that they might not be able to illustrate on their own, depending upon their skill. So, even though our six-year-old can not draw elaborate pictures with Batman fighting the Joker, he can use stickers to help tell his story.

And using miscellaneous stories lets our children make up fun and unique tales.

Do have art to share this week? 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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