Hello friends!!
I hope this finds you well – Today, I am bringing you a really fun and informative review by one of my childhood favorites – National Geographic!
You all probably know about National Geographic – They are a world leader in cartography, geography and exploration. They have an incredible team of scientists, journalists, photographers, editors, film makers, and so many more disciplines that work closely together to put out inspiring and educational content for all ages.
They have a new set of educational books for young children ages 2 and up that are focused on “Weird but True!” facts that are fun to learn!
Liyana is at the age where she is a bit young to remember and learn these facts…. but if you know national geographic, you know the visual imagery is just stunning! And there is a great amount of research that shows that pairing stories or knowledge with imagery is more effective in learning, than straight forward “learning” through words. So while, Liyana may not understand the Weird But True! “fact” per se, I found these books to be really great in the sense that she would find a picture she found interesting, and we would take the “Weird But True” fact and make an interesting story about it.
Now, you may be wondering… why create a story around it?
Here is why:
Stories are inherent in human nature – we latch on to good narratives. So if i told you the weird but true fact that “ring tailed lemurs live in groups called troops and troop members do everything together” and then I invented names for the lemurs in the picture and how they went on an expedition to get some groceries in the middle of the winter as a troop… by creating this story, I am adding in CONTEXT and association for my toddler to remember the leemurs. I am also teaching her new vocabulary (e.g. the word expedition) and the over all concept behind the word “troop” and other related concepts of adventure, grocery shopping etc..
I am all about educational learning, and through these books I found that because Liyana was so attracted to the photos, it was second nature to elaborate and create a story.
Each book is filled with 300-350 outrageous facts along with beautiful and colorful illustrations. There are fun books like the Weird But True! Canada book and Weird But True! Christmas and so on. They have 10 volumes full of 350 facts EACH! That is a lot of fun stories to tell your toddlers!
I would recommend you to think outside the box when trying to buy books and purchase informative books but also those that stimulate creativity AND knowledge. My whole PhD is in creativity and I forever looking to teach my little one information in a creative sense to keep her creativity alive!
I hope you found this review useful and will check out this great series of Weird But True! books by National Geographic. You can get yours hat independent book stores, Indigo, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Target, Walmart etc and they also make great gifts! The books generally retail for $7.99 in the US and $10.99 in Canada.
Also there is a fun contest happening – Share a weird fact about your hometown, province or country by January 31, 2010 at natgeokids.com/wbtcanada and you could win these Weird But True! books!
See you back on the blog soon!
Hugs,
Areeba
Disclaimer: I received this product for free from Moms Meet (momsmeet.com) to use and post my honest opinions.
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