usborne books

I was able to help two women earn over $350 in free books this last week! The fun thing about being an Usborne Books and More Consultant is the happy faces my customers give me when they see how many free books they get to pick out from our selection of nearly 1500 books.

I am going to spotlight some of our favorite books this week, so you can see what makes Usborne books such a big hit in our home.

The Complete Book of Farmyard Tales was Keziah’s favorite book for a long time. In fact, she slept with it every night for over a year from around the ages of 3-4. She knew every story by heart and still loved for me to read it to her over and over. She loved this book till she was about 8 and even now continues to read stories to her younger siblings. Now, it is in Fisher’s top five. He insists it is “his” even though we have had it for years. This book has 20 stories about Poppy and Sam and their parents tending to Appletree Farm. The children are delightfully helpful and the animals are quite mischievous. Each page has things to find, count, or talk about and every single page has a little yellow duck that is hiding and is perfect for 1-5 year olds to find. It keeps the little ones’ attention so you can keep reading it to your older child. This wonderful book comes with a CD recording of all the stories in the book, has dual-reading levels for beginning and more advanced readers, and is bound with a ribbon so you can keep track of where you left off on your last reading adventure.

Telling the Time is another Farmyard Tales book, but this one has a little clock built right into the book. Poppy and Sam go through their day of farm chores and learn all about what time different jobs need to be done. The reader can move the built-in clock to keep up with the story. All times are in hour increments to start out and then half-hours are introduced at the end. The little hiding duck is an ever present character along with Curly, Wooley, Rusty and the rest of the farm animals.

The Beginners Series is a collection of books on a “newly independent reader level.” There are books on over 40 subjects, like Bugs, Planes, Ships, Caterpillars, Knights, Horses, and Sharks. These are slim, hardcover books that are perfect for carrying around in your purse. Children that can read love the bite-size chunks of information and children that aren’t reading yet learn a lot from the beautiful pictures that make up every page.

The Discovery Series is the next step up from the Beginners and have more information on each page along with amazing, real-life, up-close photography to really get a sense of the subject. You will find growling lions, waddling ducks, galivanting knights, and diving dolphins. Books are offered on a wide variety of subjects like Big Cats, Birds, Snakes, Space, Mummies & Pyramids, and Trains. These 48 page books are internet-linked which means that each page has an usborne-quicklinks.com link to take you to an assortment of adult-chosen/kid-approved websites on the specific topic of that page where you can learn more.

The Encyclopedia of World Geography is a book we use all the time in our homeschool. This book teaches about cultures and countries all over the world. There are maps, land descriptions, information about food, customs, dress, beliefs, education, and so much more. This is a gem of a book and is internet-linked so you can go to hand-picked websites to learn more at the drop of a hat (or is that a finger, on to the keyboard?)

One of Blythe’s all-time favorite books from about the ages of 8 – 11 was How to Draw Princesses and Ballerinas. She carried this book everywhere she went and drew and drew and drew. Each page has step-by-step instructions for how to draw the scene on the page. She would follow the directions and voila, a beautiful princess would appear. Then she got creative and drew her own masterpieces with the techniques she learned. I daresay she has drawn thousands (millions?) of princesses and much of her skill she got from this book.

The Art Treasury is a must have. I love, love, love this book! A painting from a famous artist is shown on a two color spread, along with information about the artist and his/her style of artwork. Then the next two pages teach you, step-by-step, how to do an art project in the same style as the artist. The projects are totally do-able, even for a person like me who cannot even draw a decent stick figure. This book is perfect for a busy homeschooler who wants to include a great art curriculum, but isn’t an artist and has no time to think about art on top of math, reading, history, geography, handwriting, science, music lessons, and DISHES!

For a more in-depth study of art history, check out the Usborne Introduction to Art. This 144 page book goes into great detail about all the major periods of art and has oodles of examples so you can really get a sense of the differences from the different style eras.

The That’s Not My series is a definite favorite around here. Fisher loved these books when he was younger and is just now starting to grow out of them. Each book has a rhythmic pattern to it and says “That’s not my lion, his paws are too scratchy” or “That’s not my lion, his tail is too fluffy.” At the end of the book, it says “That’s my lion, his mane is so soft.” Children quickly learn the story and love to finish each sentence and rub the touchy-feely textures on each page.

That’s all for now – I will spotlight more of our favorite Usborne books in the coming weeks. In the mean time, if you would like to have a home show and earn loads of free books or if you would like to become a consultant and start earning money AND books, just contact me and I will give you all the information. If you would like to buy Usborne books instead of having a party, click here to enter my Usborne store.

Happy Reading!

gethsemane

Keziah sang a beautiful song in Sacrament meeting today. It is one of our favorites and she did a fantastic job! She sang strong and clear and looked right out at the audience. I am so proud of her! I had a lot of people ask about the song afterwards so I am posting it here so you can all have the words.

Jesus climbed the hill
to the garden still.
His steps were heavy and slow.
Love and a prayer
took Him there
to the place only He could go.

Gethsemane,
Jesus loves me.
So He went willingly
to Gethsemane.

He felt all that was sad,
wicked or bad,
all the pain we would ever know.
While His friends were asleep
He fought to keep
His promise made long ago.

Gethsemane,
Jesus loves me.
So He went willingly
to Gethsemane.

The hardest thing that ever was done,
the greatest pain that ever was known,
the biggest battle that ever was won,
this was done by Jesus!
The fight was won by Jesus.

Gethsemane,
Jesus loves me.
So gave his gift to me
in Gethsemane

Gethsemane,
Jesus loves me.
So He gives His gift to me
from Gethsemane.

“Gethsemane” written by Roger and Melanie Hoffman

The song is on the album Stories of Jesus, which you can buy at www.hoffmanhouse.com or at Deseret Book . I cannot express to you how much I LOVE this album. It has 15 amazing songs on it that teach the entire life of Jesus from birth to resurrection. Fisher received this CD for his birthday last year and listened to it each night as he went to bed for at least 6 months.

You can get a download of the album’s instrumental tracks for $6.99, or you can buy the download on iTunes for $9.99. You can get the CD from Hoffman House for 15.98 or if you must have it tomorrow morning, it is at Deseret Book for $16.98 (remember to use a 25% off coupon!)

We also have Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy, Joy and Sunday, Sunday, Day of Joy! by the same people at Hoffman House. Both of these albums are downloadable for only $6.99! We sing these songs all the time and I can’t imagine our family life without them. There is a song on Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy, Joy called “I Know Jesus Lives” that I am currently in love with. It is a little child singing how he knows that 2 + 2 is 4 and he knows the colors in his crayon box, but the most important thing he knows is “I know Jesus lives, I know He’s my friend, He gave His life for me and His love never ends.” Isn’t that lovely! It gives me a renewed effort as a homeschooling mom to reinforce that even though I know lots of things about food, space, books, countries, math, languages, birth, friendship, public speaking, the Constitution, my ancestors, poetry, music, and the scriptures, that the MOST important thing I know is that Jesus lives and that He loves me enough to die for me and provide a way back to my Father.

These CDs are produced by the same people who gave us Scripture Scouts, which I see as indispensable! If you do not own Scripture Scouts figure out a way to get them! There are 5 albums: Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Articles of Faith, and the Proclamation on the Family. Our family has listened to them for about 10 years now and even though we have heard them hundreds of times, we STILL love them. I can think of no better, easier or more fun way for children to learn AND remember all the stories of the scriptures than by listening and singing along with Scripture Scouts. Trust me, you will fall in love with Boo, Baby, Skyler, and Sue.

product spotlight: nutrimills

I am a retailer with Pleasant Hill Grain and there is a special right now on Nutrimills. They are $239.99 until July 4th! They are normally $269.99, so this is a great savings. You can grind wheat (both hard and soft), whole oat groats, rice, triticale, kamut, spelt, dried pinto beans, popcorn, split peas, buckwheat, barley, rye, millet, sorghum, dried mung beans and soybeans. (The Nutrimill isn’t suitable for herbs, spices, tapioca pearls, oilseeds like flax or sesame, nuts, coffee or anything excessively oil, wet or stringy.) Here is some information about the mill:

* Super fine OR coarse flour, your choice! The Nutrimill uses a high speed impact chamber to create flour from grains and beans, a well-proven milling method. But the Nutrimill has raised the bar for grain mills with new features and abilities users have asked for — a combination of features found in no other mill. The first of these is the ability to grind super fine flour (much finer than any other impact mill) and also adjust to produce the coarser flour grind you need for perfect corn breads. Its impact grain milling heads mean you’ll have no stone glazing. Nutrimill has a 400% range of adjustment from fine to coarse, ten times greater than other mills! This grain mill turns out terrific flour, quickly and easily.

* Great Capacity: The award for largest-capacity modern grain mill belongs to the Nutrimill, which allows you to grind up to 20 cups of flour at one time! The Nutrimill’s grain hopper and flour bin are perfectly matched: Fill with grain once, and get 20 cups of flour (or you can do any smaller amount.)

* Convenient, Powerful & Fast: Just pour grain in the hopper, turn the Nutrimill on, and its powerful 12 amp, 1-3/4 hp motor does the rest, quickly producing your choice of fine, medium or coarse flour. Nutrimill’s impact grinding mechanism is self cleaning, and Nutrimill operates dust-free — so making flour won’t mean extra housecleaning later! Easy-grip handles and light weight make the Nutrimill very easy to handle.

* Multi Grain & Bean Milling: The versatile Nutrimill grinds wheat (both hard and soft), oat groats (dehulled oats), rice, triticale, kamut, spelt, dried pinto beans, popcorn, dried sweet corn, split peas, buckwheat, barley, rye, millet, teff, quinoa, amaranth, sorghum, dried mung beans, chopped chestnuts and soybeans. (The Nutrimill isn’t suitable for herbs, spices, oilseeds like flax, or fibrous materials. Grains and beans that have already been milled cannot be milled again in any impact mill, including the Nutrimill. Also note that when set for coarser “meal” texture, the Nutrimill’s output remains too fine for making “cereal grinds.”) The Nutrimill is an outstanding machine for making a full range of flour and meal textures.

* Trouble-Free: The new design of the Nutrimill’s impact chamber allows you to put grain into the hopper before you turn it on with no risk of plugging the mill (something which happens with other grain mills.) Even if you stop it while it’s milling, the Nutrimill will restart again with no trouble… a big advantage!

* Protects Nutrients: Nutrimill keeps your flour at temperatures (typically about 118° in our testing) that protect the nutrients in your grains. Its new airflow design make the Nutrimill the world’s coolest-running impact mill.

* Quiet: The Nutrimill’s maker (Kitchen Resource of SLC, Utah) calls the Nutrimill the world’s quietest impact mill, based on measurement with a decibel meter. The Whisper Mill was a popular mill when the Nutrimill first came out, and some people considered the Whisper Mill to be quieter. When we ran them side by side and asked several people what they thought, opinions varied. We think that’s because everyone’s ears perceive various sound pitches differently, and the two mills do have slightly different pitches. Our opinion is that there isn’t enough difference to shake a stick at. Both sound like vacuum cleaners and are far quieter than the earlier “first generation” impact mills.

* Easy to Store: Nutrimill’s trim design fits into your kitchen easily. Keep it on your countertop for instant access, or store it — either way, with an 11.5″ storage height and 11″ x 13″ footprint, the Nutrimill stores compactly.

* Lifetime Manufacturer’s Warranty: This great warranty includes the Nutrimill’s stainless steel milling heads!
The Nutrimill is made in Korea by Kitchen Resource of Salt Lake City, Utah.

If you would like one, or anything else Pleasant Hill Grain sells, email me at tracy@wetoatmealkisses.com and I will get it ordered for you! Shipment is usually pretty fast, so you could be grinding in about a week.