Elementary

The Wooden Rosary Holder Kit creates a lovely wooden plaque to hang your child’s rosary on. One of the few wooden projects, this kit includes a wood plaque and knob (to hold the rosary), stickers, an attractive picture to color, glitter glue, brush, and sealant. There are several pictures to choose from: Our Lady of Fatima, St. Joseph, Immaculate Heart of Mary, and Sacred Heart of Jesus. Illustrated step-by-step instructions are included to ensure success. As with most products, this is more than just a fun kit. There is a short synopsis of the saint or apparition chosen.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Cut ‘n Color is actually a 3-dimensional story book about Our Lady of Guadalupe. Once completed, this cut, color, and assemble kit creates a lovely storybook attached to an attractive diorama that children can use with the paper dolls to act out the story. A few parts will need some adult supervision. On the bottom of the “book” are pages of the story that you turn while the diorama remains in view. Each kit includes the book, scenery, church, and paper dolls of Juan Diego, the Bishop, and Our Lady of Guadalupe all on card stock with easy to follow instructions.

Sometimes a book comes along that is truly outstanding! The acknowledgments page alone of this new book by Dianna Hutts is truly impressive! The text is captivating, telling stories that fascinate young and old readers about all sorts of seeds. I bet many an amateur botanist will have never heard about some of these! The illustrations--just gorgeous--complement this high quality picture book. Our children are learning Botany this semester at Homeschool Co-op and this volume is an excellent enrichment. We have the authors' other one as well--An Egg Is Quiet--also excellent!

This kit is a nice hands-on addition to a study of Roman history, architecture, or engineering. The kit provides all the materials need to build a Roman arch bridge, a suspension bridge, and a truss bridge.

When a Spanish galleon carrying live ponies as cargo to be sold for labor in the mines of Peru is wrecked in a storm off the coast of Assateague Island, Virginia one stallion and fourteen mares swim ashore. There, they adapt to the island's climate and populate its beaches. Over time, the Spanish galleon becomes a remote memory to residents of nearby Chincoteague Island-- almost a legend.

Akimbo is a young African boy whose father is a head ranger of a game park. When his father announces that he is going to one of the farms in the south because of reports of a lion attacking cattle, Akimbo convinces his father to let him tag along with the promise that he will be good and help.

Printed on heavy paper in an approximately 9x12 format, this booklet is an explanation of the Creation account of Genesis 1. With thirteen inviting full-page line drawings to color, this slim volume packs a surprising punch.

Basing herself on the work of Fr. Stanley Jaki, Mrs. Daly explains the first creation account of Genesis in terms of its message about the Sabbath observance as an outward sign of the covenant between God and His people. Or, in her own words:

I noticed pretty early on that my boys did not have the same facility with writing as I myself had had as a child. All of them have learned to read long before they could write anything legible. And even when they learned to write, their handwriting left much to be desired. I tried various programs, and even made extra worksheets on the computer, but nothing really seemed to help much. Friends advised me – some said to make them practice more; others said to just wait for them get older. But as they got older, their writing got faster – but worse.

The premise of this simple volume revolves around the Rosary and only around the Rosary. Designed to be used during prayer, it provides for a very directed praying experience. Introductory pages explain how to use the book and how to pray the Rosary, and final pages offer references and extras such the story of the Rosary. Each double page displays one mystery, with written reflections and five illustrations. I found it interesting to find a clever mirror image sketch of Swiss painter Antonio Ciseri's famous Ecce Homo painting among the Sorrowful mysteries!