Category: DK Canada

Calm Mindfulness for Kids Book Review

DK Canada

Calm: Mindfulness for Kids shows that supporting a child’s positive mental health doesn’t need to be expensive, time-consuming, or difficult. Activities help children to de-stress, focus, and get moving while having fun.

About Calm Mindfulness for Kids

Teach your kids how to focus their thoughts and notice the world around them with this fun mindfulness kids activity book.

Mindfulness activities are a great way to teach children about their thoughts and feelings and how to understand them–while having fun at the same time.

This book is packed with activities–make a mindfulness jar, learn how to appreciate food with mindful eating, and get out into nature and explore the outside world. An illustrated journal section at the back of the book encourages children to make notes about their own thoughts and feelings.

Calm: Mindfulness for Kids has everything you need to know about focusing your child’s mind to help them enjoy and appreciate things that they take for granted every day, while boosting their confidence and self-esteem. Children are guided through each activity, to make sure they achieve maximum enjoyment and awareness. All children will learn and react to each activity in a different way and parent’s notes give advice on how to encourage children to embrace mindfulness in the modern world. Each specially designed activity is flexible for each child’s needs and inspires them to seek calmness and tranquility in all situations.

Our Thoughts

Mindfulness is something we hear a lot about in the news, media and research. It is an important to tool in the busy times we live in. It helps us to focus, pay attention and remain present in the moment.

Sometimes, children can be overlooked and brushed off as being too emotional or acting out. Children feel a lot of emotions but many don’t have the tools to help them understand their feelings and how to process them. We need to teach our kids these skills in order to be successful later in life.

What I really liked is this book is geared towards children. She writes to the child first – you as a parent can read a long and help but the child is the most important part in this book. She speaks to the child in a mature, open and caring manner that encourages your child to open up, read more and try each activity presented.

She presents six chapters and encourages your child to move through them in any order they need – the choice is up to them. The chapters include: focus, calm, move, change, care and reflect. Each chapter has activities, crafts and exercises that they can do alone or with a parent or a friend. Each section has helpful tools to encourage your child to reflect on the activity, exercise or craft – this helps to reinforce the learning process. We started with rainbow breath and unwind stress – these were also amazing for Mom too! Our next craft to try is energy slime!

This is an extremely thoughtful book for children of all ages to help them get in touch with their emotions, feelings and body and encourage a positive outlet for them.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Indigo.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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Celebrate Earth Day All Year with Did You Know? Earth

DK Canada

Learn all about our beautiful planet with this fun and exciting book guaranteed to answer your child’s biggest questions.

About Did You Know? Earth

This Earth encyclopedia answers all the probing questions children ask about our planet, in a fun question and answer format.

Can you freeze in a desert? How do living things become fossils? What is a biome?

Earth explains volcanoes, earthquakes, oceans, space, and much more! It focuses on the subjects that kids really want to know about and the questions they ask, helping them learn new information.

Get your children learning with this amazing book, which is packed with fantastic facts for curious minds.

Our Thoughts

This beautiful hardcover book geared towards children is a great way to get children interested in the world around them and why it is so important we do everything we can to protect it.

The book covers our planet basics (how did the Earth form, why don’t things float) to the Earth’s surface (sinkhole, fossil, soil) to the Blue planet (waterfalls, icebergs) to the air (seasons, lightning, tornadoes) to living on Earth and why we need to protect it.

The pictures are bright and bold with good movement around the pages. It really helps you to follow the content and to keep younger children entertained. The content is perfect for young children, it gives them just enough to spark their curiosity but not too much to overwhelm them. I loved how each section had a true and false block! Some of these really stumped me but we had a lot of fun learning the answers and new facts (like did you know it didn’t rain for 14 years in Arica, Chile between 11903 and 1918!).

What is so important about this book is not only the learning around how precious our planet is (and how vital this is to animals and humans) but how we are harming it. One part that stuck out to me the most, was the quote that ‘some scientists think there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish by 2050’. If that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will. Seeing that on paper, really helps to motivate you to do more.

This book provides you with not only an excellent learning opportunity for your child but to also start talking about the little ways that you can make a difference at home. Maybe you can recycle more, walk to school or work, participate in clean up days or even reduce the amount of water you use, start a garden. The possibilities are endless!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Indigo.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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Journey Through Time with DK Canada The History Book

DK Canada

The History Book makes 4,000 years of history accessible and provides enlightenment on the forces that shaped the world as we know it today.

About The History Book

The History Book is a journey through the most significant events in history and the big ideas behind each one, from the dawn of civilization to the lightning-paced culture of today. One hundred crystal-clear articles explore the Law Code of Hammurabi, the Renaissance, the American Revolution, World War II, and more, bringing the events and people of history to life.

As part of DK’s award-winning Big Ideas Simply Explained series, The History Book uses infographics and images to explain key ideas and themes. Biographies of key leaders, thinkers, and warriors, from Julius Caesar to Barack Obama, offer insight into their lives and further historical insight into these world-changing episodes. Perfect for a student or armchair historian, the clear explanations of ideologies behind events that have shaped our world into what it is today.

My Thoughts

One of the reasons I love history so much is that I love to see what makes people think, why and how we have evolved in our cultures and how we have come to where we are today. Each step through history gives us insight and is fascinating.

This incredible hard cover book covers 4000 years of history in a creative, interesting and engaging manner. While packed full of information, timelines and some photos, it in no manner leaves you feeling overwhelmed or wanting to give up. The book follows a natural progression that encourages you to dig deeper and helps to bring these civilizations to life.

The book is organized into different sections that includes: Human Origins, Ancient Civilizations, Medieval World, Early Modern Era, Changing Societies and The Modern World. You can read the book in order or skip ahead to your favourite time period (I am a personal fan of the Medieval time period!).

What I found really unique and that I enjoyed, is this book contains many well known and less well known quotes (George Washington, William Sherman, Thomas Fowell Buxton and many more). It also utilizes page flow, boxes and arrows to explain how certain actions affected the land and people.

This is great read for young adults and adults alike who love to learn about the world and people around them and those who came before us. It is an excellent stepping stone to further their education and broaden their knowledge around events that changed society.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Indigo.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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Explore the Wild Animal Kingdom with DKfindout! – Small Books with Big Ideas

DK Canada

Do you have a young child who loves the animal world? Who loves to explore and learn new facts?

Then DKfindout! is the perfect series for you! These soft cover books are a great resource to children, introducing them a range of topics in a fun and engaging manner.

About DKfindout! Big Cats

This children’s animal book has everything you’ll need to know about big cats, including lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards, and cheetahs.

Find out how big cats hunt, learn about cat myths and legends, discover where they live, and how they move. Packed with information, photographs, and colorful illustrations, DK findout! Big Cats is the ultimate kids cat book.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Indigo.

About DKfindout! Reptiles and Amphibians

Discover wriggling reptiles, colorful chameleons, slithering snakes, and extreme environments with this exciting book full of amazing images, fun quizzes, and incredible information.

Did you know that Komodo dragons can spit venom at their enemies? Can you spot the difference between crocodile and iguana scales? In DK findout! Reptiles and Amphibians, amazing photos show these cold-blooded animals in incredible detail, while fun, kid-friendly text makes it easy to absorb key facts about life cycles, habitats, and what they eat.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Indigo.

Our Thoughts

There is no better gift to give your child then learning. I love supporting them to dive deeper into subject areas that they love. Animals are one of the most popular topics in our house. We love learning about their habits, special traits and facts.

The DKfindout! books dive into these topics in a fun and age appropriate manner. We are given just the right amount of information on each page to keep both child and adult engaged and learning. The visual cues and graphics on each page help guide you through the topics. We loved the bold, bright images that helped to bring the animals and their stories to life.

One of the best features (and I love this part as it reinforces all of the learning we are doing) is the accompanying website with a wealth of resources, quizzes, videos and more! Not only can you find additional resources on the books you have been reading but also a wide range of additional topics (body, math, science, language, etc..) It is a one stop shop for parents and children!

We enjoyed our daily reading with these books over the March Break and can’t wait to discover more in this exciting series!

Disclosure: I received copies of these books in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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The Children’s Illustrated Bible

DK Canada

Written in conjunction with educators, scholars, and religious advisors, this retelling of favorite Old and New Testament stories retains the original feel and poetry of the Bible while appealing to contemporary young readers.

About The Children’s Illustrated Bible

Written in conjunction with educators, scholars, and religious advisors, this retelling of favorite Old and New Testament stories retains the original feel and poetry of the Bible while appealing to contemporary young readers. DK’sChildren’s Illustrated Bible features some of the best-known Bible tales, including, the Birth of Jesus, Jacob’s Ladder, Noah’s Ark, and the Resurrection, written especially for children in a clear, easy-to-understand tone. A “Who’s Who in the Bible Stories” section and quotations from the King James Bible, listed by chapter and verse, add even more value to this unique resource.

My Thoughts

A Bible is a truly special gift that you can give to someone important in your life. I have the Bible given to me at my Baptism in a keepsake box along with another Bible given to me at my Confirmation. It is an important part of my faith and learning about our faith.

For children, it is so important for them to understand and relate to their faith in a way that makes sense to them while still staying true to the original stories. They need to be able to see pictures and have the stories told to them in a manner that they understand.

The Children’s Illustrated Bible does this perfectly. It is hardcover and roughly letter sized. There is around 310 pages of stories, pictures and facts that help to bring the stories to life. It contains many of the most loved stories from the Old and New Testament, including Noah’s Ark, The Sacrifice of Isaac, The Prophet Isaiah, The Birth of Jesus, John Baptizes Jesus and so many more.

The stories are beautifully told with illustrations that are respectful and appropriate for the content. It is easy to read out loud if you are reading to a young child as well as being easy for an older child to read on their own.

As we head into the season where many children will be receiving their First Communion, this is definitely a book to keep in mind to gift them. It is definitely a special keepsake, that they will be able to cherish for years as they learn more about their faith and the community that they belong to.

You can purchase a copy of this Bible on Amazon and Indigo.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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