Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Grow Your own TREE HUGGER, a Book Review

A friend of mine discovered a free nookbook a couple of days ago that she thought might interest me.  She hadn't actually read the book, but the title and the synopsis caught her attention as something I might want to take a look at.

And she was right!

The book is How to grow your own TREE HUGGER: 101 Activities to Teach Your Child How to Live Green, and is written by Wendy Rosenoff. 


I have to admit that I was a wee bit put off by the title.  It brought to mind images of hippies gathered in a park weaving hemp bracelets to sell to tourists.  Not exactly my cup of tea.  Not that that there's anything wrong with that, but I'm one of those people that runs screaming when the words 'tie' and 'dye' are sitting beside each other in a sentence.  She does, by the way, have an activity dealing with tie dye, which I promptly skipped over. 

This book's primary purpose is to educate through activities.  It's centered around teaching children of various ages how to be environmentally responsible.  It teaches everything from what common foods can be boiled to make homemade dye to cooking projects, to alternative enrgy.

The structure is simple.  Readers are given a project to do.  Afterwards, there is a Chat Point section for older children followed by a Mini-Chat Point for the little ones.  After that, the reader is exposed to a link or two where they can find even more information on the subject. 

Aside frrom my discomfort with the title, this book was fabulous.  It's well structured, and it helps readers discover new websites and literature that will enable them to learn even more.  While Rosenoff's book was designed as a teaching tool for young children, I daresay it will fire up the imagination of any adult that pours through it, as well.  The possibilities this book opens up are endless, and even now I'm trying to decide which project I want to tackle with my daughter first.

Indeed, this may even be a great book for parents that are homeschooling their children.  This isn't just some silly book of crafts.  Sure, there are some projects listed that could only be considered for aesthetic reasons, but I'd argue that even those could be used.  Art, after all, is a very important part of education.

There are also a great deal of projects that are heavily based on scientific knowledge.  Solar ovens?  Geodesic domes? Chemical components within food and cleaning products?  These all offer amazing knowledge within the spheres of chemistry and physics, just to name a few.

How to Grow Your Own TREE HUGGER is well worth reading, and it's free at the moment, so there's no reason not to.  Don't have a Nook?  You can download the reader app for free.  It's also available on Kindle, and you can buy the book in print form, as well.  So many options!

Want to learn more about Wendy Rosenoff?  She has a great website that you can get to by clicking here.  Just be careful if you click on the kids page... I got a little addicted to the Save Our Slopes game!

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