Tuesday 7 June 2016

Get Into Art Animals {Tuesday's Treasures}

One of the things I enjoy about our library visits is discovering new books to bring home and explore. Upon a recent visit to our local library I discovered a new book with plenty of hands on step by step projects. Get into Art Animals is not a typical art projects book. 

This book is two fold in it's approach.  Firstly it introduces the reader to a famous art piece and the artist who created it, then it gives a step by step hands on project for you to create your own version of the art work you have just learned about.

Susie encourages us to know that art is not only something we observe but rather something that we can all do, she does a wonderful job encouraging the reader to try new mediums to create their own masterpieces of art.


The Details
  • Title: Get into Art Animals
  • Format: Hardback
  • Number of Pages:31 
  • Publisher: Pan MacMillan  
  • Publication Date:20 Aug 2013 
  • ISBN 10: 0753470586 
  • ISBN 13:9780753470589 
  • Author  Susie Brooks 
  • Illustrator
There are 12 art pieces and artists:
  1. The Snail - Henri matisse
  2. Suspense - Sir Edwin Landseer
  3. Crinkly Giraffe - Alexander Calder
  4. The Bird - Georges Braque
  5. Peacock and Magpie - Edward Bawden
  6. Fish - MC Escher
  7. Carnival of Harlequin - Joan Miro
  8. Totem Poles - Wayne Alfred, Beau Dick and Ellen Neel
  9. Yellow Cow - Franz Marc
  10. Dragon Dish - Chinese Artist
  11. Portrait of Maurice - Andy Warhol
  12. Jockeys in the Rain - Edgar Dagas
Other Books in the Series

Blessings
Chareen
Connect with me
 Facebook Google+ Pinterest Instagram YouTube RSS Feed

Tuesday 31 May 2016

Reflections - More Beautiful Bible Verses for Colouring {Review}

One of the most popular trends to happen in the last six months has been the adult colouring craze.  I used to enjoy colouring as a child and wondered if I'd enjoy this new craze ? I began looking for a resource and was overwhelmed by what was available.  So my quest continued until I saw a friends beautifully illustrated scripture page she had just completed.  After a little more research I discovered the artist behind the beautiful illustration was Lorien Atwood. I found her website and emailed Lorien to find out more about her latest publication titled Reflections. She blessed me with a copy of Reflections - More Beautiful Bible Verses for Colouring.



About the Book

  • Title: Reflections - More Beautiful Bible Verses for Colouring
  • ISBN: 9780994497536
  • Cover: Card stock
  • Pages: Each picture is printed on heavy duty paper to prevent bleed through.  The pages are also perforated to make it easier to remove from the book to gift to someone.
  • Illustrations: There are 18 illustrations/scripture meditation pages
  • Group Licensing is available over at Firewheel Press.


  • Page 1 starts with a welcome note from Lorien and an encouragement on how to proceed with the book.
  • Page 2 - Four tips on how to get more from meditating on God's word and how not to sink into mindless colouring but rather focusing on God.
  • Page 3 - 18 different scriptures. Each one has been uniquely illustrated.
  • Last page - A beautiful easy step by step tutorial on how to design and make your own scriptural colouring pages
  • Back page - Each of Lorien's books come with a link to a FREE copy of the illustrations to download and print.  This is so that you can print more pages to colour and gift to someone.

Purchasing Information
Lorien has designed postcards, books marks and published two colouring books for purchase.
Connect with Lorien on Social Media
  • Follow Lorien on Facebook: Lorien Illustrations
  • To see more of Lorien's beautiful illustrations visit her blog.
  •  Lorien has some FREE pages for you to download and print in the File section of her group page.  Be sure to see who the author of each picture is as Lorien encourages us to draw our own pictures and share them with the group.
  • For colouring inspiration take a look at the Photo's of completed works on Facebook.
  • Join the Colouring In Truth group on Facebook.
  • Follow Lorien on Instagram @lorien_illustrations
  • Share your completed works using the hashtags:#colouringintruth and #lorienillustrations, plus #meditations or #reflections depending on the book you are colouring from.
Reflections - More Beautiful Bible Verses for Colouring is a beautiful book. I am impressed with the quality of the paper and I've really enjoyed colouring each design.  Lorien has thoughtfully designed each picture to reflect the truth of each scripture.  I love that each page is a unique design and reflects the truth of each scripture illustrated.
"I have loved using art to reflect on Gods word for ages, and I really like how scripture colouring pages take all the anxiety out of producing something ‘beautiful’ from scratch – that terrifying blank page moment and frees up people’s brain space to actually meditate on the scripture. As people occupy their hands and engage their senses with the colours and the repetitive movement of colouring, they can find a small stillness that is quite hard to come by in everyday life. In this quiet space, they can listen more intently to God and hear what he has to say to them through the words of the Bible... " - Lorien Atwood Read more about the back story of how the books were birthed.
If you are looking for a beautiful scriptural colouring experience I highly recommend the books and cards from Lorien Illustrations.

Blessings
Chareen 

Share this post on Social Media:

Thursday 26 May 2016

Sunya - The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Multiplying & Dividing {Sunya Publishing Review}

In the last few weeks I've shifted our focus in our homeschool to memory work.  When I first started home educating in New Zealand my mentor consistently encouraged us all to start our morning off with chanting the times tables lists. So for the last few weeks Nathaniel has been practicing his math facts before settling in to do his written work.  I really wanted to do something different in testing his math fact knowledge.  To help Nathaniel evaluate where he is at in his memory work we have been playing Sunya - The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Multiplying & Dividing from Sunya Publishing.



What we received
  • Sunya - The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Adding & Subtracting
    • Teacher / Parent hand book (25 pages) - Introduction to the numeral system, Basic game instructions, Game II instructions, Game III instructions, Math activities for young students, Facts and Riddles.
    • Number line tool
    • 30 Math and Science Riddle Cards*
    • 60 Sunya playing cards*
  • Sunya - The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Multiplying & Dividing
    • Teacher / Parent hand book (25 pages) - Instructions for playing the basic game, Game number II, Solitaire, Team Sunya, Sunya 400, a brief history of Sunya and math, math quotes.
    • Number line tool
    • 30 Math and Science Riddle Cards*
    • 60 Sunya playing cards*
*The cards are printed on card stock with a plastic coating. The size of each card is 57 mm by 89 mm. The numerical cards have each number printed in the center with the corresponding number of dots representing the numerical value below the number.  The riddle cards have the answer to each riddle printed on the same card.

How we used it
The very first thing I wanted to know is what does Sunya mean and how do I say it ? Sunya® (the "u" pronounced as the "oo" in the word "book") is a word from Sanskrit, the ancient and classical language of India. It means being empty or without quantity.   You win a round when you run out of cards to play in your hand and declare out loud Sunya meaning "I am out of cards."

I chose to focus on the multiplying and dividing game as this is the fact set we are currently working on.  I read the instructions a couple of times to figure out the basic game.



  • In the basic game each player receives four cards to begin. 
  • Your job is to make a true number sentence. 
  • The times and equal sign is placed on the table. 
  • There are a number of rules on how to make subsequent plays and when to draw cards and what to do with the cards which are already on the table.

The winner of a round gets to read a riddle card.
 We have not progressed to the more complex variations of the game as Nathaniel is still learning his multiplication facts.

The division game, addition and subtraction basic game works on the same principle.

Recommended Age Range
  • Sunya - The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Adding & Subtracting is recommended for ages 7 to Adult (1-5 Players) In the game addition goes up to 9+9=18 and subtraction goes up to 18-9=9.
  • Sunya - The Magic and Wonder of Math and Science Multiplying & Dividing is recommended for ages 9 to Adult (1-5 Players) In the game multiplication goes up to 9x9=81 and division goes up to 81/9=9.

Over All I thought ...
One of the things I've enjoyed about the game is the recommendation to begin with all the players cards on the table and to help one another.  Success builds success and enjoyment. It's been fun for me to play as it's helping me brush up on my logic and math facts ...


Blessings
Chareen

Please note:

Sunya Publishing is a brand new company and this product is newly on the market. The website is currently under construction and purchasing options will be available within the next week. I will update this post with links to the individual product pages when they become available. 

Click to read Crew Reviews