Countdown to Thanksgiving by Amy Puetz {a review}

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Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Golden Prairie Press and receive a small commission on purchases made through my links. Thank you for your support. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and are in no way swayed by any compensation I may receive. 

I can't believe how fast this year has gone. The holiday season is right around the corner and I want to make sure we are focusing on the real reasons for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have specific traditions we keep for Christmas, but I am still trying to find ideas for Thanksgiving. Thankfully, I have had the wonderful opportunity to receive and review a new 88 page ebook written by Amy Puetz called Countdown to Thanksgiving. 

Amy Puetz is the owner of Golden Prairie Press. If this name sounds familiar to you, you may be remembering my review of Heroes and Heroines of the Past: American History Curriculum that I posted earlier this year.  I loved the hands on aspect of learning about history complete with crafts, recipes, and skits. Though we have put that aside until next year (due to doing American History in 2nd/3rd grade with our Core Curriculum), we still enjoyed it very much. So, when Amy contacted me recently about reviewing Countdown to Thanksgiving, I jumped at the chance.

It used to be that we used countdown charts a lot in our home. Unfortunately, this is something that has fallen to the wayside.  However, thanks to this new ebook, we are going to start counting down to Thanksgiving starting tomorrow. Countdown to Thanksgiving contains fun Thanksgiving themed stories for each of the 14 days leading up to and including Thanksgiving. These stories were written in the 1800's and 1900's. Along with the daily stories you will find activities, games, crafts, songs, recipes, and poems to share. There is even a Thanksgiving quiz to see how much you and your children know about Thanksgiving. The answers may surprise even the parents. 

There is a Table of Contents that tells you which story is read on each day, plus the extras for each day. Additionally, there is an Index that lists all of the contents in alphabetical order. Each day starts with a story and then there is usually one more activity to participate in together. For instance, tomorrow we are going to have a Harvest Hunt where the children will be searching for various produce. I am looking forward to sharing the 5 different Thanksgiving songs, during the next two weeks. Two of the songs will actually be new to me as well, so I am grateful that the music is included.  

The plan is to read these stories during our story time where we gather on the living room floor or couch before our lesson time. That way the stories will be fresh in their minds when we do the activities. I do have to admit I am a bit concerned about the length of some of the stories, seeing as the book is geared toward elementary and middle school students and my oldest is only 7. If we need to I will break the stories up and read some during rest time. 

It is no secret that we love hands-on projects in our home. So, I am definitely looking forward to making the crafts that are included in the ebook. I really do appreciate the step-by-step instrucation that are included, complete with pictures and patterns. There are several different recipes included which lends well to us having some Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen time each week. Of course, we may push the baking days to the week of Thanksgiving, so we can enjoy the results on Thanksgiving itself. I am still not quite sure how I want to schedule that. 

I am looking forward to being able to focus on Thanksgiving for the next two weeks with the help of Amy Puetz and Countdown to Thanksgiving. Would you care to join me? You can purchase the ebook for $17.99.

Disclosure: I received Countdown to Thanksgiving by Amy Puetz in exchange for my honest review. I received no further compensation. This did not in any way influence my review. I only recommend products I use personally and feel will be a good products for my readers.