Spiders, Bees and Ladybugs

1/20/2014

One of the things we do in our homeschooling is to read books of interest.
My son loves all things buggy and creepy crawlie (oh...how I wish more of his focus was on furry critters...but it isn't, so I live with it). :)

Anyways, so one of our friends blessed us with a whole whack of books on this subject so I thought I'd take a moment to review our most recent reads.

Questions and Answers about Bees. This is a scholastic book written by Betty Polisar Reigot. Good book. My son thoroughly enjoyed listening to me read this book and would occasionally go, MOM... can I see the picture? He was surprised by the sheer number of different bees there are in the world and the different habits they have. Mom, I think I've caught solitary bees before. I don't those killer bees up here mom they don't sound nice at all. Why do they call them killers? Are they really trying to kill us? Mom... I didn't know a queen bee was called a gyne.

It's good to have a lad learn things. :)

I could totally see some children really enjoying this book, but my lad was hohum about it. The book is Usborne Lift the Flap Bugs by Judy Tatchell. It just wasn't the book for him and we didn't even finish it. Possibly because it's written for a lower level and didn't really tell him a whole lot of new information. He's eight now and I see this book primarily interesting to the 4 and 5 year olds.

Ladybugs by Melvin and Gilda Berger. My son enjoyed this book even though I had him help me read it. :) It's a fairly simple book but it has enough details to teach an emerging reader. His familiarity with the subject matter was a boon to his reading as well. :)

This Spider book my Michael Chinery was well done. My lad was quite interested and said MOM! I know that spider. We have them in the rabbitry in the summer. They live over the winter?!?!?! I am GOING to have to look for those mom. The indepth photos brought the spider eggs to life, and the fascinating facts at the end of the book intrigued the lad. Good book. :)