Our House in the Middle of Our Street

The contents of the Kith and Kin sun prints box* For some reason, I tend to have a lot of luck in the giveaway department. I literally spend a total of 5-10 minutes a day entering giveaways that I find on instagram, blogs, facebook, what have you, and I have won quite a few of them. I was excited to win the Kith and Kin sun print craft box, because I knew my kids would be in heaven creating with it.  It was around the time we'd be heading to Nebraska for a few weeks, so I had Kith & Kin ship it to my mom's house, so we could enjoy the contents there. Turns out we had relatively no free time outside of planned grandparent & friend activities, so I brought the box home with me to BC and we did it during the kids' school day as an art project.  I don't know about you, but I love receiving Happy Mail...that'd be anything aside from bills or ads. The Kith & Kin sun print box was definitely happy mail. As you can see above, they include all the ...

I have a giveaway to offer today! It's a year-long subscription to the digital magazine Home/School/Life , an up and coming resource for homeschoolers, afterschoolers, teachers, and parents. I know I'm personally looking forward to this, like a breath of homeschool conference air at my fingertips, and without the high cost.  This online magazine looks to inspire you and the children in your life by providing project ideas, field trip locales, book recommendations (my personal favorite), and along with great homeschooling resources like curriculum, grade level, and subject advice.  Anyone can enter by commenting on this post until Friday, February 21st. I'll use the random number generator and will contact you by email (please leave your email address in the comment box) to get you hooked up! 

We are in the midst of packing up, and moving. Not just any move, but The Move we've been trying to accomplish for years now. We're heading up to (Washington) Canada. In the last couple of months Stefan had been talking to a potential employer up in Richmond, British Columbia , and after a very swift interview process they offered him the job. Small and large details aside, he accepted and plans to start on February 25th. We leave one week earlier, on the 18th. That's literally just over 2 weeks from when you will read this. We told family and close friends first, and while we haven't been keeping it a huge secret, our church, as a whole, did not know until last night because it was then we could tell everyone at our seasonal congregational meeting what our plans were in person, and with many of them all at once. I didn't want to say anything online until that happened. We've been steadily spending heaps of time with friends and family, all while slowly p...

photocredit It's been a long time since my last Usborne giveaway, and post for that matter, so you can expect 2 in one week. Today I'm giving away a brand-new copy of the hardcover 1001 Things to Spot in the Sea and over the weekend I'll be doing a Saturday post on Usborne's awesome opportunities for July. Usborne Books & More are known for their awesome puzzle, spotting, and non-fiction books, and this one is similar to an 'I Spy', only with a lot of other useful aspects. There are a whole slew of these books, each with a different theme , but I'm partial to anything ocean related, and since Summer is a great time for family vacations, I thought I'd give away this book for someone who's looking for a great book for a child and the impending long car ride! 1001 Things to Spot in the Sea is a book that has 14 2-page spreads where kids are given an interesting picture (ex: Water Sports, Lost City, Grassy Seabed, and By the Seashore,...

photocredit One of the books I received in my kit when becoming an Usborne Books & More consultant was this novel by Kimberly Greene; My Sister's A Pop Star . This book is a little too advanced for my young children but I love doing giveaways and know a lot of friends who have older kids or know a young lady who might enjoy reading this. This story is part of the Pop Star series, and books 1-3 are charming middle elementary school girls state-side over. This is book 1 out of the series, where we meet the main character, Sam, who loves to blog, and her pop-star singing sensation sister, Danni. Series chapter books are excellent ways to get reading going, as children who fall in love with the character set will generally like the entire series. Remember the Box Car Children or the Babysitter's Club? There's a mystery to solve in this series, too. These books are all paper back books, and for $5.99 per title, it's a great deal for your voracious reader, who will no do...

photocredit Every month I will be doing an Usborne Bookshelf Giveaway , and this month is a great chance for those of you who love your children to learn about other cultures--namely the Spanish language. This is from my own library and it's a gently used edition of First Thousand Words in Spanish . I bought this book at the last library book sale because it's in such great condition and because I have a lot of friends who will be teaching (or are teaching currently) their children the Spanish language. These books are awesome . Our children are learning French at home and I own the First Hundred Words , and bought a new copy of First Thousand Words , both in French, for our personal library. At over 60 pages, these books are great 'first reference' books for young learners, and engage children between the ages of 2-10. I know that's a large range, but the way they are broken up can be easily captivating for the smallest audience (with the Usborne/Cartwright duck o...

photocredit My first giveaway from my Usborne bookshelf is the book called "How Big Is A Million?" by Anna Milbourne. It is part of the Pipkin series, called The Pipkin Complete Collection and includes the titles, "How High Is the Sky ", " How Deep Is The Sea ", and " How Big Was A Dinosaur ", for little curious fact-finders. Pipkin the penguin loves to ask all kinds of questions about the world to help him grasp how big our Earth is. This is a very sweet story about his journey to find out what exactly a million looks like. While finding out how penguins stay warm, and who they're likely to run into in the South Pole, the reader also is given an introductory to math; 10, 100, 1000, and eventually a million. Included in this story is a poster that is sealed for the future reader to find out what Pipkin saw. Here is a peek inside so you can see what the illustrations look like. This book is hard back and suitable for children up to 7 year...