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200 Best Ice Pop Recipes is Packed with Ideas for Summer Refreshment

May 2, 2013 by Kathryn 9 Comments

200 best ice pops With the temperature finally warming, my boys and I are in the mood to enjoy all the pleasures of summer. Recently I received the new cookbook 200 Best Ice Pop Recipes from Robert Rose Inc. and whipping up one of the recipes promised to be the perfect way to enjoy the nice weather.

The recipes in this book range from the simple to the exotic and the best part is the recipes contain much healthier ingredients than any ice pop I could find in the store. I’m looking forward to trying some of the fancier recipes over the summer but since the boys were eager for a treat, I decided to whip up the incredibly simple Grape Lemonade Ice Pops first. With just three ingredients, water, lemon juice and grape jam, they were such an easy snack to make! [Read more...]

It’s Time to Organize for Good with Help from Secrets of an Organized Mom by Barbara Reich

April 17, 2013 by Kathryn Leave a Comment

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I’ve mentioned in the past just how much I love cleaning. To be terribly blunt, I don’t. I work hard at keeping our house in a reasonably organized state, but I struggle. Of course, the fact that I often get new products to review can make organization even more difficult and I find that I end up going through phases in which I spend days in a row cleaning and organizing the household only to find it descending into disorganization a month later.

secrets of an organized mom barbara reich I needed a plan. I needed a way to keep my house organized once I’d taken the first steps. But I had no idea how to make that goal a reality. Then Barbara Reich came to my rescue with her new book Secrets of an Organized Mom. Barbara shared her knowledge recently with a great guest post about spring-cleaning here on Mommy Kat and Kids and I couldn’t wait to see what kind of information her book might have for me.

The first thing that appealed to me about Secrets of an Organized Mom was the simplicity of Barbara’s organizing method. The road to organization, says Barbara, can be summed up in four words: purge, design, organize and maintain. Immediately I could see that a big part of the reason I was struggling with the fourth step, maintaining order, was because I had often ignored the first step and always ignored the second. Organization simply doesn’t last if a room has too much filling it and the design isn’t functional for a family! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Reviews, Reviews and Giveaways Tagged With: barbara, barbara reich, book, book reviews, cleaning, family, house, mom, organize, organized, organizing, reich, secrets, secrets of an organied mom

Welcome Spring with New Picture Books from Scholastic Canada

April 15, 2013 by Kathryn Leave a Comment

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Even though spring is officially here, the weather here in Saskatchewan hasn’t let my boys get outside as much as I would like. In fact, we woke up to a snowstorm this morning! With wintry weather keeping us indoors more than we might like, I’m very grateful to have all kinds of fun indoor puzzles, games and, my personal favourite, books! Recently Scholastic Canada sent us some of the newest titles for spring and the boys and I have had a great time reading them together on chilly days!

exclamation mark cover Exclamation Mark by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

This book is so clever and a lot of fun to read. As the name suggests, there’s the opportunity to yell a bit when reading! The fitting personalities of the punctuation marks in the book, from periods to question marks, make it a fun and witty story for adults and it’s a great introduction to punctuation for kids learning to read. We had a great time learning about the little Exclamation Mark discovering his purpose and both boys were shouting along by the end! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Reviews, Reviews and Giveaways Tagged With: book, book review, children's book, children's book reviews, children's books, highway rat, kids book, kids books, picture book, picture books, polar bear morning, scholastic, scholastic canada

Build Strong Literacy Skills with Books and Resources from Newmark Learning-Giveaway

March 11, 2013 by Kathryn 65 Comments

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I am a huge advocate for literacy and because of that, I’ve always looked for the best ways to help my boys develop strong reading skills. From alphabet flash cards to sight word activity sheets, I choose games and activities that combine fun and learning whenever I get the chance. So when I heard about Newmark Learning and its extensive line of books and other educational resources, I was excited to learn more about the company’s products.

I was given the chance to review an assortment of products, so I requested reading, math, science and social studies books at the Grade 1-2 level, Zackary’s current reading level at the time. The books were full colour and very appealing to both of my boys, but I really wanted to see how Zackary liked the content.

newmark learning books [Read more...]

Filed Under: Reviews, Reviews and Giveaways Tagged With: book, books, education, educational, interactive, learning, literacy, newmark, newmark books, newmark interactive, newmark learning, reading skills, resources, science, sight word

Insight Editions The Essential Supernatural is a Must-Have Book for Fans of the Series

January 22, 2013 by Kathryn 7 Comments

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I don’t watch very much television but there are one or two series that I absolutely love and one of my very favourites is Supernatural. Watching Sam and Dean Winchester battle ghosts, demons and monsters in their never-ending quest to save the world is my guilty pleasure and one I’ve been enjoying for over five years now. Recently I received a press release about a new book from Insight Editions called The Essential Supernatural: On the Road with Sam and Dean Winchester and I knew at a glance that I wanted that book.

Insight Editions very kindly sent me the book to review and I was so excited to flip through it and see what it was like. Within a few pages, I was captivated. This book is so much more than just a recounting of the last seven seasons of my favourite television show. With recaps of each season, character profiles and behind-the-scenes information about the making of the show, it has all kinds of little goodies that fans can recognize and appreciate.

While the gorgeous full colour pages of the book were appealing on their own, it was the multimedia layout of the book that was especially intriguing to me. From a hunter’s manual sewn into the center binding to documents tucked into an envelope at the back of the book to the classic pine tree air freshener that is always hanging from the mirror of the Winchester brothers’ beloved Impala, the fact that the book went beyond text made it all the more enjoyable to read. I found the section of the book dealing on the graphic art of the show to be especially interesting, so having little extras like stickers and postcards featuring some of the specially-created brands and settings from the series was so cool. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Reviews, Reviews and Giveaways Tagged With: book, books, coffee table book, collector's, cw series, dean winchester, edition, editions, essential supernatural, insight, insight editions, sam winchester, series, supernatural, supernatural series, television

Seek and Find Gets Personalized with Find Me If You Can Books from Bammco-Giveaway

January 10, 2013 by Kathryn

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My boys love seek and find books but while Zackary, at six years of age, is quite talented at finding tiny characters in a busy, jumbled picture, Benjamin, at three, often gets frustrated after a few minutes. Of course, he insists on searching anyways because if his big brother is doing something, then he wants to do it too!

find me if you can book bammco I really wanted to find a way for both of my boys to enjoy seek and find books so I was thrilled when I was given a chance to review a Find Me If You Can book from Bammco. These innovative 30-page books take the traditional idea of seek and find and turn it into something completely unique by using a picture of your child’s face in the images! My son was so excited to receive his very own “Where’s Benjamin” book and he couldn’t wait to look through it. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Reviews, Reviews and Giveaways Tagged With: bammco, book, books, child, children, find, find me, find me if you can, kids, kids books, personal, personalize, personalized, picture book, seek, seek and find

Entertain Your Kids with the Where’s Waldo: Santa Spectacular Activity Book-Giveaway

December 19, 2012 by Kathryn

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When winter break boredom strikes, it can be hard to find entertaining activities for my boys that don’t involve a screen. But neither one of my boys can say no to a good book and both of them love fun activities. So I was thrilled when I got the chance to review Where’s Waldo: Santa Spectacular, a fun activity book featuring everyone’s favourite hard-to-find friend, Waldo.

This book is not your typical Where’s Waldo book. Packed full of fun activities ranging from puzzles to word searches, there’s a lot more than seek and find adventure inside! I loved the fact that the book also contained hundreds of stickers so that kids could create their own Where’s Waldo scenes.

Zackary is a big fan of Where’s Waldo books so I knew he would love this book, that combined some of his favourite activities with one of his favourite book characters. At six-years-old, he was just the right age for this fun-filled book and like almost all kids, he always loves a book that includes stickers! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Holiday Gift Guide, Infants and Children, Reviews, Reviews and Giveaways Tagged With: activity, activity book, book, books, christmas, kids book, kids books, present, santa, santa spectacular, spectacular, waldo, waldo book, where's waldo, wheres

Give Your Kids a New Way to Learn the Alphabet with W is for Wapiti: An Alphabet Songbook-Giveaway

September 20, 2012 by Kathryn

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Almost every family has a colourful board book featuring the alphabet to help children learn that A is for Apple and B is for Bear. But what about a book that breaks out of that mould with an enchanting song for each letter? A book where M is for Marmot, I is for Imagine and W…is for Wapiti?

w is for wapiti cover art Having seen my fair share of alphabet books in my lifetime, I was delighted by the originality of W is for Wapiti: An Alphabet Songbook, the newest storybook and CD release from The Secret Mountain. With songs for each letter of the alphabet and bright, engaging pictures, it was the type of book designed to really engage a child instead of just being an endless repetition of letters and objects.

The songs had such a unique style and I especially liked some of the humour-based songs. In fact, the very first song, Aha Aha! Did You Do That? was one that kids and parents everywhere will be able to relate to. With a stern authority figure wondering who was being mischievous in the house and innocent-eyed children declaring that it certainly wasn’t them, it was like a song right out of our family’s home. (Though fortunately I’ve never had to deal with anyone putting a toad on my pie a la mode!) [Read more...]