Fun Fiction Friday - August 31st, 2018

Fun Fiction Friday
August 24th, 2018

Welcome back to Fun Fiction Friday.

In my Fun Fiction Friday I share the books the older girls and I are reading, and a short review of a Young Adult or Juvenile book I have finished, if applicable. I will also ask the girls to tell me something they would like to share about at least one of the books they are currently reading.

Tabitha is currently reading the following books.

The Land of Stories: A Grimm Warning by Chris Colfer. This is the third book in The Land of Stories series.

The Bungalow Mystery by Carolyn Keene is another Nancy Drew mystery.

The Keeper of the Lost Cities: Everblaze by Shannon Messenger is the third book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. I did just finish this book, but I want to read it again before writing my review, as I was having trouble keeping details straight in my mind seeing as I read some other books since then.

Amelia is still reading the following three books.

She decided all those books sounded interested, so is attempting them all. We'll see how this goes. She is a little ways into all three books, but she is really focusing on Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter.

Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

The Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger

As a family, we are still reading A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond  as it goes along with our review of the literature study of Paddington from Branch Out World. I actually posted that review last week.

We are also on the third book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series titled, The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan.

The girls and I will also be taking turns reading the following books for review. I don't think I will do these are read-alouds, mainly because we already have two going on as it is.

We are also reading this new review book.

Rescue Me! What Superheroes Can Teach Us About the Power of Faith by Bryce Morgan.

I set aside House of Dark Shadows by Robert Liparulo, but I plan on getting back to it soon. I finished the third book of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series titled Everblaze. I will share my review next week, as I mentioned above.

I actually decided to focus on the following books these past two weeks.

I finished Demigods & Magicians: Percy and Annabeth Meet the Kanes by Rick Riordan last week. I will be sharing my review below. And I actually finished The Land of Stories: the Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer today and started the second book: The Enchantress Returns, finally. I had it out from the library last summer, but got interested obsessed with the I am Number Four series, so I didn't get back to them til recently.

The following book was a quick read for me. Demigods & Magicians: Percy and Annabeth Meet the Kanes by Rick Riordan, is a compilation of three novellas featuring the main characters from the Percy Jackson books and the Kane Chronicles books. 

Fun Fiction Friday

Book Review

The first story, "The Son of Sobek," features Carter Kane and Percy Jackson who meet as Carter is in the process of being eaten by a giant crocodile. At first they aren't sure what to think of each other, and even end up in a fight, until they call a "truce" to take care of the monster. The second story, "The Staff of Serapis," takes place a few weeks later, and Annabeth meets up with Sadie Kane. They join up to stop a combination Egyptian/Greek god from gaining power. And in the third story, "The Crown of Ptolemy," all four of the teens join forces to battle the one who was behind it all, in an attempt to gain godhood. 

I will not say who the ultimate "baddy" ends up being, but it is someone who you will be familiar with if you have read one of the series. I'm not even going to give away if this person is from the Greek or Egyptian series. Just know, this person found a way to attempt to become powerful by combining Greek and Egyptian power. I love the way it actually brought some closure to one aspect of the one series that was left a bit up in the air. And I love the way the Kane siblings got to meet Percy and Annabeth. I mean, with all this godly power taking place in Brooklyn and Manhattan, you'd think they would have noticed each other sooner. But they do realize it is imperative that those powers don't mix. 

This was definitely a quick read, both for myself and Tabitha. We both enjoyed it very much. I will say, you really should read both series to understand what is going on. And I would recommend the second Percy Jackson series, only if you have every intention of ever reading it. It isn't necessary for understanding the book, but it does give some detail away about what happens in the second series. 

Definitely an enjoyable read. 

Throwback Thursday Blog-Style #219: August 30, 2018

Welcome back to... 

I know, I know, Throwback Thursday seems to be all about sharing pictures from the past, great memories that mean something to you, that you would like to share with others. At least that is how it appears to me. Throwback Thursday wasn't something I was participating in, and then I came up with an idea.

I thought it would be great fun and a help to my blog to share old content, but not just any old content. Each week I will share an old blog post from a previous year, any year, BUT it has to be from the current week (for example, something I've posted around August 30th, from any previous year)  I will go in, edit the post if needed, add a pinnable image if I don't already have one, and share it on Facebook.

Would you like to join in? You do not need to edit your past post in any way, you don't need to create a pinnable image, though it couldn't hurt, in fact it will help your blog traffic to add quality pinnable images to your posts.

Just go into your archives, choose a favorite post from this current week from any previous year, and link it up below. (If you don't have anything from this current week, it is still okay to link up with a post from a previous year around this time. And if you haven't been blogging for a full year, feel free to share any earlier post.)

Please make sure to share from the past as instructed above. Most weeks I find that there is a wonderful post, but I can't feature it because it is a current post, not from the past. Sadly, I am going to have to say, I will be deleting posts that do not follow the rules. The spirit of Throwback Thursday Blog-Style is to share posts from the past. Please follow the guidelines.
Thank you

I will be pinning posts to my appropriate Pinterest boards and will be randomly selecting a Featured Throwback Thursday post to share next week. Just a note, I will be sharing a picture from your post if you are selected as the featured post, but I will link back to your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. By linking up you are giving me permission to use your picture in the post. 

Here is my Throwback Thursday post:

Originally posted September 1, 2015
Leafy Ogres with the Poppins Book Nook

Here is this week's randomly selected

Featured Throwback Thursday:

Gale from Imaginative Homeschool shared 

Resources Combining History and Science

To participate, link up below. It would be great if you could visit several of the other posts that have linked up. Stop by, comment, and pin images so we can help each other.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Throwback Thursday Blog-Style permalink please.

Happy Throwback Thursday!

An InLinkz Link-up

Wordless Wednesday: August 29, 2018 (w/linky) - We Got to See One of the Granddaughters

Had a visit from my son, his wife, and little Annika today. We went to the park for a cookout, but unfortunately it started to rain so we had to eat inside after all. But the children got to play for a while at least. Here are some pictures from before, during, and after the park.

Looking forward to seeing your Wordless (or not so wordless) Wednesday posts this week.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button on your Wordless Wednesday post or in a list of Wordless Wednesday linkies. Just link it to my Wordless Wednesday permalink please.

An InLinkz Link-up

Littles Learning Link Up: Happy NOT First Day of School

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

This is our last week of break before starting our new school year. Our first day of school is next Monday. We don't really do anything for Labor Day anyway, so I figured we might as well make it special with First-Day-of-School traditions. We have quite the line-up of traditions, such as breakfast with daddy, homeschool elf, "About Me" pages, and school pictures. This year we started a new tradition which the children really seemed to enjoy. On the day when the local school goes back, which was August 22nd, we had a "Happy NOT First Day of School" day. I'd love to share this new tradition with you.

Here is the sign that welcomed them downstairs.

Plus our traditional banner in the archway between the living room and the dining room.

I had breakfast all set up, except for the special surprise.

Here is a look at our schedule.

They were thrilled to learn they all got to play a video game. Usually they each have a day where they play 30 minutes, and they have a day they share with a sibling where they both get to play 20 minutes (unless they play together then they get 25 total). On this special day, they all got to play for 20 minutes.

Yes, they were excited. But first they had to eat and do chores.

Boy were they excited to see the special treat daddy had bought them. Little did they know there were also donuts for dessert after lunch.

Yummy apple fritters. And yes, I know they were yummy. Hubby bought me donuts too, so I went off plan. Pretty badly.

After playing their video games, it was time for "Don't Pin the Child on the Bus!." This is a fun twist on "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" that I came up with that morning.

I printed out a school bus and glued it to a couple of sheets of paper I taped together. The school bus took up quite a bit of one sheet of paper.

I cut out oval pieces of card stock and had the children draw their own child on theirs.

The goal of the game is to be the one who tapes their child furthest away from the school bus, but still mostly on the paper. If the child is on the school bus, they are automatically out. If they are completely off the paper, they are also out (unless all the children are off the paper, then we would measure). The winner got to be the first one to pick a show to watch.

We actually played four times, once before each show watched. Usually one child gets to pick a show. On this special day, they all got to pick a show.

See the funny results of each round:

The children loved this game!

And then after lunch they played board games for a while, then they did whatever they wanted to, within reason of course. And we had a movie after dinner.

Our "Happy NOT First Day of School" day was quite the hit. I think we have found another annual tradition.

Let's take a look at that review schedule real quick:

A couple of weeks ago I shared my review for the Paddington Lit Study from Branch Out World. Next week you will find my review for GrammarPlanet and Reading Eggs/MathSeeds. Later in September I will share my review of PictaDicta from Roman Roads Media, two Kingdom Files books from Barbour Publishing, the Captain Sun book, and the math website called I Know It.

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there was 1 wonderful post linked up. I'm wondering if there was some confusion due to the two linkies last week. If so, I am sorry for any confusion. I thought it was a good idea to do my Littles Learning Link Up with the 5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement blog hop. Anyhow, I will be featuring the one post that was linked up last week.

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's featured post is:

Brandy from The Barefoot Mom shared How to Teach Science Without a Curriculum.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

I am sharing over at

An InLinkz Link-up