If you want some great deals this holiday season on Usborne Books, stop on by and shop our Black Friday specials. Save 20% - 50% on the Books Kids Love to Read. Give the gift that keeps on opening to the little ones on your list this year. Sale begins at midnight on Friday Nov. 28th and runs until 10:00 pm Monday, Dec. 1.
Happy Shopping!
My daughter had a rough time grasping the concept of rhyming words. I had a friend tell me yesterday that her daughter was having a problem with rhyming words. So I explained to her what helped my daughter catch on - and she caught on quick!
Usborne Books carries Learning Palettes. These are great, self-correcting learning tools. Kids have fun with them and work independently at their own pace. I didn't realize how great these were until a friend of mine, who is a teacher, bought the Kindergarten Reading Center Kit from me. She raved and raved about them it. So as a home school mom, I decided that maybe the Rhyming Words Set would help my daughter grasp the rhyming concept. It worked! Soon I had just about every set. My kids love to use these. It's not hard to get them to learn while using the Learning Palette because the kids have so much fun with it.
The way the Learning Palette works is you remove the colored discs (shown on the picture above). Then place the card, question side up on the base. The kids answer the questions by placing the corresponding color disk in the slot with the correct answer. After completing all 12 questions, turn the card over and check the answers. If done correctly the colors on the card will match.
Math sets are also available.
Books make such wonderful gifts, especially for children. Instead of that plastic toy that's inevitably going to break, why not give the gift of reading to the little ones on your Christmas list this year. I have compiled my top 10 favorite Usborne Books that I know will delight any kids who receives it under their tree.
1. Illustrated Stories for Girls and Illustrated Stories for Boys - These are beautiful story books. Each book contains many beautifully illustrated stories that boys and girls will love to read on their own or will love to have mom or dad read to them.
2. Dinosaur Excavation Kid Kit - Winner of the 2007 Mom's Choice Award for Children's Educational Product Category, this kit will excite any dinosaur enthusiast. Kit includes Usborne's Beginners Dinosaur book and an excavation kit where kids actually get to play paleontologist by digging out the dinosaur's bones and putting the dinosaur together. All tools are included. Recommended for ages 6 and up.
3. Fairy Tales - This beautiful combined volume showcases six of the classic fairy tales including Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Illustrated by Steven Cartwright, there is the little Usborne duck to find on each page. This is a sure hit for any child on your gift list.
4. Animal Stencil Cards - These cards are great! They are nice and thick so kids of all ages have no problem tracing the stencil. Kids will enjoy making all sorts of scenes and drawings with these stencil cards. Do up a gift box or bag of the Animal Stencil Cards, colored pencils, crayons, and some paper, and you will have a wonderful gift to give - a gift that will help any child's imagination grow.
5. That's Not My Penguin - This is one of my favorites of the more than 20 Touchy Feely books that Usborne publishes. Recommended for ages 9 months and up, this book will delight little ones who are just discovering the world of books. They will keep busy feeling all the textures that the penguins have while trying to find His or Her penguin. This makes a great introduction to books for this age group.
6. World Wars - This is a fantastic book for the older kids on your list. It's Usborne's combined volume of the First and Second World Wars. What makes this book so great, is that it's hard to find anything on the First World War, especially for kids. And it's internet-linked so kids can go to www.usborne-quicklinks.com and learn a whole bunch of more stuff about each topic - all on kid approved sites. My dad's buddy was a fighter pilot in WWII and he said Usborne's Second World War book was one of the best he's ever seen.
7. Book of Bible Stories - What a delightful book for those just beginning to read. It's even wonderful for those much too young to read yet. The Usborne Book of Bible Stories is a compilation of Bible stories from the Old Testament and stories about Jesus from the New Testament. Something I love about this book is that contains Bible stories that you usually do not find for kids such as Danial In the Lions Den and Jesus' story of Loaves and Fishes. It also includes a CD so kids can have the story read to them. My daughter loves to pop the CD in after I've read her all her stories and listen to it as she falls asleep.
8. 1001 Things to Spot in Fairyland and 1001 Pirate Things to Spot - Kids love search books. They get so excited when they find the pictures they are supposed to locate. These are great search books for the younger ones on your list. These books help develop eye/hand coordination, teaches number recognition, and helps teach words as well. Any girl who loves fairies and any boy who loves pirates will eat these books up!
9. 50 Science Things to Make and Do - If you have a budding scientist on your Christmas list, 50 Science Things to Make and Do will be the perfect gift. This set contains 50 cards that shows a picture of the science activity on the front and step--by-step instructions on the back. This will provide hours upon hours of fun and learning. My son loves these cards. He flips through the cards, finds a few he wants to do and has at it. Most items needed are stuff you already have in your home. There are some things you may need to go out and buy, but that is the norm with doing any science activities.
10. Wind Up Tractor Book - I saved one of the best for last. This book is a huge hit with little boys and girls. The book contains three stories about a tractor and then each story includes the characters that you can pop out to act out the scenes of the story. It gets better. Each story has it's own track that the tractor rides around on. The kids just love it! This makes a wonderful gift - especially for those kids who love tractors. Another nice thing is the tractor winds up, so you don't have to worry about replacing batteries all the time for it.
Usborne has more than 1,400 titles for you to chose from for the kids on your gift list. If the titles I mentioned above don't spark your fancy for a particular child, do look on my site and take a look around. I'm sure you'll be able to find something for the little ones on your list.
Merry Christmas!
I am so excited about this month's Free Book Give Away. I LOVE Christmas, and I have been waiting a looong time to give away 50 Christmas Things to Make and Do for our monthly Free Book Give Away.
For those of you who love to do arts and crafts with your kids, or for those of you with kids like mine who constantly like to create and make stuff, this is a wonderful book to have. As the title states, it has 50 different Christmas arts and crafts and activities that you can do with your child or that your children can do on their own simply by following the step by step directions.
This book will provide hours upon hours of activity for your kids to do - especially once they are home for "winter" break. It will also provide tons of Christmas decorations for your house and tons of gifts that you can give instead of spending your money out at the big box stores. My kids favorite things to make or do from this book are: the foil decorations, printed snowmen, dangling trees, and mosaic snowflakes.
If you would like to win 50 Christmas Things to Make and Do simply leave a comment about your favorite childhood Christmas memory. Contest open to US residents only. Winner will be announced at 12:00 PM EST Nov. 20th. Make sure you leave your email - without it I won't be able to let you know that you are the winner.
