Leonardo da Vinci – great lives in graphics book

I recently saw a press release about a book called “Leonardo Da Vinci – great lives in graphics” and although the book is a bit young for my kids I was interested in the idea of this series. My first thought was it might be a way of encouraging kids who are not eager readers to pick up a book and learn about a famous and fascinating person. So I decided to get a review copy to see for myself if it could be an option of primary ages kids (the book does have an 8+ age recommendation).

First thoughts when the book arrived – there are LOTS of graphics and the text is formatted into small blocks on information. It is NOT a graphic novel but there is something about the format that gave me that vibe of graphic novel – I think it is because the pages are colourful, fill of pictures and small blocks of text.

I feel like it would be appealing to those who are a bit intimidated or put-off by normal reading books. So yes my first instinct is if you kids are not avid readers then this format might be more appealing and less intimidating for them.

Content wise I was impressed. I thought they included lots of interesting facts, some of which I expected but quite a bit of it was new to me. And I loved the fact that although they do talk about his art (of course how could you write a book about Leonardo Da Vinci without mentioning the Mona Lisa or the Last Supper) they also talk a lot about his other interests and his personality. I found learning that he had a habit of not finishing his projects and that he was a vegetarian (because of his love of animals) fascinating.

I also loved how they included his Scientific side and the way he studied the body.

And yes the pages on the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper were expected but even so they were filled with interesting facts.

Although this book is now a bit young for my kids it is one that I would have happily included in our home education when they were younger.

And yes I do think this format may be appealing to lots of young readers.

Our local library does not have this range of books and I have not spotted them in our local book stores (but that may just be the town where I live). I did check and they are on Amazon – Great Lives in Graphics Leonardo Da Vinci (affiliate link)

Admin – As I mentioned we were given a few copy of this book but I was not paid for the post. I just spotted this series and thought it may be a interesting book for other home educators and parents.

I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we recommend.

KS2 Books

I have written lots and I do mean LOTS of posts about the books that we used in our primary (KS2) home education. But no matter how many posts I may have written everyone is always interested in more recommendations and I totally get that because books were a huge part of how we educated. So after some questions about the type of books that my kids enjoyed here is a post on what book categories were big hits when the kids were younger (But first I want to clarify something – all kids are different. The age that the start reading, the level that they read at, which books they find fascinating and even how often the read. It is always going to be unique to your kiddo. This is what we liked and what we found useful.)

Okay so for primary ages I found 3 types of books that worked for my kids – animal books, historical fiction stories and humorous stories. Those three categories were real winners for us.

Books on animals are a great starting point. Both my kids were naturally interested in learning about animals so we always knew animal books would be a winner. But if your kiddo is not as interested I would like to suggest something that combines learning about animals with a cute story. We found a series of books called Animal Diaries did this, and I have to say these books were read cover to cover and they inspired my kids to create their own animal diaries (where they pretended to be animals writing in their own diaries).

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And my kids actually enjoyed non-fiction animal books too. In fact non-fiction animal books were very popular in our house, and in all honesty a LOT of our KS2 Science revolved around animals (animal adaptations, their homes, even things like animal skeletons. We loved animal science in our house and I must confess we ended up with a large number of animal books but two that stand out for me are – our Life Cycle book and this animal knowledge encyclopedia. .

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Historical Fiction always ticked a lot of boxes for us. We found the stories fascinating and they would often lead to interesting discussing about life “way back when”. We really did read a lot of historical fiction in their primary years. Ours tended to focus on the Anglo-Saxon / Viking period, although we also found some good Victorian England and World War stories that suited the primary ages, but I always like to link our historical fiction to the History that we are covering so we really did loose ourselves in Old England.

And speaking of History – the Horrible History series is brilliant. It had my son laughing out loud and reading me the most disgusting bits that he could find. He really enjoyed the series.

And the third category was humor. With my son I quickly discovered that if he thought a book was funny he would read it and not put it down. He loved the Bee Boy series and of course the brilliant How to Train your Dragon series – ahh we spent ages reading this series together and we would ended up laughing out loud at some of the antics.

Okay I really should include a fourth category – Dinosaur books. Although I realize dinosaurs are not everyones cup of tea my son was (still is) obsessed with them so I did use the dinosaur theme to get him to read quite a lot when he was in his primary years.

We have always had a book-based home education style. When the kids were younger we would often use a good book as a spring board for learning. I tried to expose the kids to a wide range of different books, some were massive hits and some were ignored but I did always find that if it was an animal based story, a interesting historical fiction or a laugh out loud funny book my kids would read it cover to cover and they would read it multiple times.

How to Become a Grade Riser booklet

How to Become a Grade Riser was included in our recent bundle from Oaka Books and I must admit as soon as I opened the bundle my daughter zoomed in on this and immediately took it away to read. It did surprise me that she immediately wanted to read this (and then sat and read it from cover to cover) but then that is why I think we have become such big fans of the Oaka products, they are just presented in such a visually pleasing manner that no matter what the subject is, it is always easy to read and interesting.

I will start by saying that when I first sat down to read this I did feel like it is more suited to schooled kids than to home educated kids. They do speak about lessons and how to organize yourself by reading the revising what you did in the last lesson before you attend the next one etc etc. But then I did also think about it and a lot of home educated kids opt to go to College for their A Levels, some do a form a online lessons and lots attend university. So these sections about lessons etc will apply to them at those stages even if they do not apply at the moment. What I am trying to say is at a first read it may seem a bit school orientated but I think it will apply to all kids at some stage in their life.

And for those wondering my daughter (who has never attended a day of school) did say she found it interesting to read and did say it gave her some ideas about the studying that she is busy doing. (And I will be giving it to my son at some stage to read too).

Okay so what exactly is included?

They stick with Oaka format and start with a glossary of words. This glossary of words is actually vital – they have taken the key words used in exam instructions and explained what exactly they mean (ie how does discuss, explore, identify differ). And I have to say I loved that they started the booklet with these words and I have actually asked my daughter to re-read this section a few times to make sure she understands the differences.

After the key word glossary they start by talking about your mindset and success behaviours. I loved that they included this because to me it is saying – “it is okay if you don’t get something the first or second time but you need to have the mindset that you are not going to give up and that you are going to keep trying.”

Then there are a few pages about what you should do before and after lessons. Again I know this may not apply to everyone at this stage but it is always a good thing to bear in mind for possible changes in the future. They also go on to talk about assignments and the forgetting curve (I thought the forgetting curve was interesting).

Then it focuses on preparing for the exam and revision techniques. I actually liked these pages because as a home educator there were a few things that I needed to be reminded about and I thought they included some good ideas under their revision methods.

Then it goes onto 8 pages of exam technique, which I think we all need to read at some stage. A lot of it was for me “of course this makes sense but I am not sure if I ever mentioned this to my daughter” – which made me really glad that she had the opportunity to read it for herself.

And the last few pages are a timetable and a copy of the Oaka Essay Planner template.

Okay so it is vital to read? No it is not vital.

Did it remind me of a few things that I had forgotten to tell me kid who is about to write some exams? Yes it did.

Was it a good thing for my home educated kid to read at least once? Yes.

The thing is I know that kids in school learn about revision techniques and exam techniques, and a lot of that may seem self explanatory so I possibly ignored it, but for a home educated kid who has never been to school she actually needed to read something like this so that she is aware of these things.

Both my daughter and I thought it was an interesting read and I feel like she did gain a few things by reading it and I am actually going to suggest she reads it again.

Admin – This booklet was given to use by Oaka Books. My kids and I have long been fans of the Oaka Books topic packs and games so from time to time they do kindly send us some of their goodies to review. It is always up to us to decide if we like their resources and if we choose to write reviews on them. We are not paid for these posts.

Doing some IGCSE Biology revision with our Oaka Packs

We are doing our Biology revision for our upcoming IGCSE exam. And to help us keep it a bit interesting we are using a few different resources (yes yes, before everyone jumps up and down we are doing LOTS of past papers and yes I have discovered the amazing stash of questions on the Physics and Maths Tutor website – but honestly all of that can get a bit monotonous). So I was thrilled when Oaka Books recently sent us a few of their IGCSE Science packs (we have already used 2 of their GCSE Biology packs – Osmosis and Cell Biology and we really enjoyed them so as soon as I saw their Cardiovascular and Respiratory System Pack I knew we would use it for some targeted revision).

Oaka’s GCSE Science packs follow their tried and tested format of their typical Topic Packs. There is a Topic booklet (your notes), a write your own Notes booklet (where the kids fill in key words) and some question cards (so instead of the board game which is included in the KS3 packs the GCSE packs come with question cards). And yes the format in the Topic Booklets and Write Your Own Booklets is exactly the same. If you liked the KS3 Science packs you will like their GCSE Science packs.

There are three reasons why we think these packs are perfect for IGCSE/GCSE revision. Firstly the notes are summarized. They are easy to read and the fact that they format them into small blocks with attractive diagrams makes it easy to remember the key information.

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Second, having a go at the Write Your Own Notes (without using the key word sheet) is a great way to see if you remember all the key facts and it highlights any sections that you may need to focus on.

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And lastly, the question cards which they include are perfect for testing yourself.

Really these topic packs are prefect for kids learning about the topic but also perfect as a revision tool. They are well written, and the format keeps it interesting but at the same time the pages are not in “your face overwhelming”. I really do think the people who write these are brilliant at summarizing the key points and they manage to write them in a short, sharp, concise manner. We have long been fans of the KS3 Science packs and now we are also fans of their GCSE Science packs.

Included in the Topic packs that Oaka sent us was this little gem – How to Become a Grade Rise. As soon as it arrived my daughter read it cover to cover and said it was interesting so I am going to write a proper post on it later this week, but I just wanted to mention it quickly and share a link in case any of you may want to have a look.

Oh and just quickly of you kiddo is doing IGCSE or GCSE Biology you may also want to look at their Kidney Pack.

Admin – As I mentioned above this pack was given to use by Oaka Books. My kids and I have long been fans of the Oaka Books topic packs and games so from time to time they do kindly send us some of their goodies to review. It is always up to us to decide if we like their resources and if we choose to write reviews on them. We are not paid for these posts.

Edexcel International GCSE Physics

One of our International GCSE subjects is Physics and we have been using the Collins Edexcel International GCSE Physics Student book so I thought it was about time that I shared some pictures and thoughts on the student book for those of you who are looking for Physics resources. First of all let me start the post by saying this was a Free book that we were given and we are not using it in isolation. In fact Physics is the one subject where we are using outside help and that outside help has been the brilliant lessons given by Theatre of Science. But as much as I have been incredibly grateful that I discovered the Theatre of Science lessons I do think you still need to have a student book for your kiddo to refer back to and this is the one we are using.

First things first. In terms of the specification and what you need to cover for Physics, all the topics are here. So this would be the only student book that you would be required to buy (the contents of this book match the Edexcel spec, there is no issue with this at all).

Format wise I actually really like this book. We (my daughter and myself) find the pages VERY easy to read and digest. The information is broken down into smaller bite size pieces of information which prevents it from becoming overwhelming (because lets be honest Physics is one of those subjects that can be a bit overwhelming at times, well we think it can be).

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And they have included lots of worked examples throughout all of the chapters (loved that these are scattered in chapters as the points are discussed and are not just at the end of the chapter).

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Questions and Answers – okay this is where I think this book falls a bit short. They have small questions scattered throughout the chapters (which I like) and for these they have included the answers at the back of the book. But the “End of Topic Questions” i.e the ones at the end of each chapter they have chosen not to include the answers for these. The answers for these are included in their teachers pack (at a costs of £115, which I personally think is very expensive for home educators). And really at this level you cannot expect the student to work through questions without having access to the answers. So if you do use this book then you will need to give your kiddo extra questions (where they can check their answers against sample answers). For those of you wondering, we are using the CGP Edexcel International GCSE Physics Workbook as well and also the Physics and Maths Tutor website for our questions.

They have also included a chapter called – The International GCSE examination. This chapter although only a few pages long may be quite useful to those of you who are new to helping your kids with IGCSE exams. I really liked the few pages where they highlight words that are often used in questions and then explain what is required.

Another interesting chapter is Developing Experimental Skills. Again this is a chapter which home educated kids might find incredibly useful.

Okay so all in all do I recommend this book? I personally think your kid needs a student book, one that explains the topics and has good worked examples in it. Which this one does. I also think your kids needs questions to practice with but I actually like using the questions out of the CGP workbook and from the Physics and Maths Tutors website, so although I was irritated that the publishers did not include all the answers (this is always something that grates me) it would not put me off buying this book as I would end up buying the workbook and using the website regardless of whether they had included the answers or not.

Also some of you may be wondering how this book compares to the CGP Edexcel Internal GCSE Physics Revision Book (I know this book is very popular). The Collins book is a LOT more detailed and includes lots of worked examples. It explains the concepts in more detail. The CGP book is a summary, it truly is a Revision book as it does not have the detailed explanations or examples. Personally I would go for the detailed student book and if you want a summary book then get the CGP.

The student book that I have mentioned in this post can be bought directly from the Collins website or you can go to Amazon – Collins Edexcel International GCSE Physics Student Book (this is an affiliate link).

Admin – I was given a copy of this book for free, this does not affect my opinions expressed in this post. I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.