Homeschool Haul: Usborne | Spring 2022 New Titles

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Waldock Way. I'm Jessica. Today's video is going to be an Usborne haul. Usborne recently released some new titles, which meant that we, of course, had to place an order. And so that's what I'm going to share with you today. Our recent Usborne order. Now, the first few things that I have to show you are not for our homeschool. They're not even for our family. And I just really wanted to share them because, well, number one, they were things that I purchased. And number two, I was not doing a YouTube channel at the time of Emily being in preschool. And so let me tell you the story of why I purchased these. A really great friend of mine messaged me and she was just really curious about starting preschool with her kiddo, which, of course, I told her she didn't need anything. But the more I thought about it, the more I just kind of wanted to give her like a get started gift package, if you will. I just kind of wanted to give her some fun things that they could do so she could check the boxes, feel like she was doing preschool with her kid, but make sure that it was like fun and not boring and schooly. So the first thing that I did was print off my alphabet and number fun pack for her. So if that's something that you don't know about, I will leave a link in the description box if you have a preschooler or you have an upcoming preschooler so you can check that out. And then I did get a few things from Usborne for her because I think they have fantastic things for that age group. So the first thing I got was the Usborne Wipe Clean Alphabet Cards, and then I also got the Usborne Wipe Clean Number Cards. In addition to the number cards, I went ahead and also picked up the Usborne Big Book of ABCs. I just really like, number one, how big it is. And it's pretty indestructible. I mean, it's got, you know, nice thick pages so we don't have to worry about you know, it being ruined. And then the Usborne Big Book of Numbers. Again, really big, really colorful. Those really sturdy pages for little hands. And then I love games. You guys know I love games. So these were no brainers. The Alphabet Matching Game. It comes with this cute little book and then it's kind of like a little bingo. There's multiple different ways to play, though, in that book. And then I also got the Number Matching Game. Same thing. It comes with an adorable little book and little cards, multiple ways to play. And the Alphabet Book and Jigsaw Puzzle. I love these sites, you guys. They come with a book and a jigsaw puzzle. They're like $15. They're such great quality. I get them for everybody for birthdays and Christmases and holidays. And then the Number Book and Jigsaw Puzzle as well. Now, these puzzles are 25 pieces, so perfect for, you know, three to five year olds. So that is what I got her for starting preschool. So like I said, I really wanted to share it mainly because I wasn't sharing stuff on the YouTube channel back when Emily was in preschool. So if you have a preschooler and you're wondering, what can I order from Usborne? Those would be some of my top recommendations. Now, I love all of the matching games. Now, I didn't get this for her. I actually got this one for my niece and my nephew. But these matching games are amazing. They come with a book. They come on multiple different ways how to play four boards, 36 cards and so educational. And they're $13. They make a perfect gift. This is actually going to be my niece and nephew's Valentine's Day gift for me. I have gotten them the Under the Sea, the dinosaur and the bug one. And they absolutely love them. So when Usborne released the animal one, I knew I had to have it. So I grabbed that one for them very quickly. And then I was super excited to see that they released one that Emily could finally play. And it was Times Tables. So again, it comes with a little book, the four boards, the 36 cards, multiple ways to play. So I'm very, very excited that we can have a little game to review multiplication facts with her. All right, I'm just going to jump into the rest of this. So everything else is for our homeschool. Fairy Unicorns is a series Emily absolutely loved. There were six books in the series. They recently released a seventh. So I picked the seventh one up for her because it looked really amazing. It's the Kingdom Under the Sea. What I love about the Fairy Unicorn books is there are pictures and colors, but the colors coordinate to the cover. So you can see that this book is blue. So all of the pictures inside are that same blue color. That's my visual learner coming out. But that is about, let's see, let me find a really good page. This is the reading level of these books, in case you're curious. They have approximately 110 pages. I actually read the first six aloud to Emily when she was like five or six, and then she reread them when she was probably seven or eight. And she loves them. So she's going to be super excited to read that seventh one. And then I knew that I had to get these books for Emily, too. This is Marie Curious Girl Genius. So far, there are three in the series. There are approximately 250 pages in each of them. And this is what the reading level looks like. The first one is Marie Curious Girl Genius Saves the World. The second one is Marie Curious Girl Genius Undercover Gamer. And the third one is Marie Curious Girl Genius Rescues a Rockstar. Another set of books that screamed Emily to me, the covers look a little scary, but they didn't sound super scary. I think she's going to love them because she loves everything unicorn. And that was these two new releases. So let's see, they have approximately 350 to 360 pages. This is about what the reading level looks like in them. The first one is the Midnight Unicorn, and the second one is the Darkest Unicorn. They also released a new illustrated stories book, and I love these illustrated stories are absolutely gorgeous. So we grabbed the illustrated stories of mermaids. So it's, you know, all of the all of the mermaids you can think of from like the Little Mermaid to ones from places you've probably never heard of. I just really like that. It's kind of like mermaids from around the world. Just in case you're curious, this is the table of contents. And that one, I thought it would be a really fun one to read this summer. Okay, let's see what else 100 things to know. We have all of the books in this series. So I had to add this one. So 100 things to know about food. I like that these just have like random facts, but are super educational. They're little like tidbits of information. They're colorful, they're fun. They're perfect additions to your morning basket because you can read like one each day. And then same thing with this, the Usborne Understanding series. We have all of them. So we had to get the new one, which is physics. And I think this one might be my favorite, you guys. I mean, I love them all, but this one is exceptionally bright. Tons of information. I mean, it's going to be so much fun. Perfect addition to a homeschool. And the Write Your Own Story Wordbook. So we have like the poetry one and the first story and the story and the comic book and all of the other ones similar to this in this series. So I thought this would be a really great addition. I love having these on hand for language arts so that we can just kind of have fun. She can enjoy her stories. Here is the table of contents for this particular one. So you will set the scene and choose words and create characters and pick different words for stories. I just think it's less intimidating for kids than a blank page. So it's, you know, more fun, kind of guided. I don't know. I just really like it. We haven't done any of these that we haven't enjoyed. And then magic painting books are some favorites around here. And so I grabbed a few new ones for spring. So we have bugs and Greek myths. These weren't new releases. They were just some that Emily asked me to grab for her. She loves the magic painting books. So we added those in. All right. Back to some of the other new releases. This series is probably one that Kevin was most excited about. I mean, I'm super excited, but he was really, really excited. And it's the Kid Engineer series. You can buy each of these books individually or you can buy them in a set. There are six of them in total. And they're just really cool because you go through and it has all of the different like information. And then at the back, there's a glossary. But then there's also like here you are the engineer. And so you get to do something like a project. So this one is working with buildings and structures. Then we have a working with computers and robots, working with energy, working with machines, working with materials. And the sixth one is working with transport. So I just want to show you inside one more time, because like I said, I think it's really cool. So like here's automotive engineering and then it talks to you all about different things. But like here's one where you get to be the engineer after you've learned about automotive engineering and you're going to build a balloon car. Now, yes, you could totally research this and do Pinterest and you wouldn't even need any of this stuff. But I think it's just really cool to have all in one book. Like the next page is railway engineer. And then after you're the railway engineer, you get to engineer your own. So it's like you're reading about it and then you're making it. I just really like that. It's all in one book. It's super easy. So Kevin will be adding those to his science section for them to do on STEM days. These fold out ones are some of our absolute favorite because they are super big and to see the timeline is really cool. This new release is a planet Earth timeline, because I know people are probably going to ask me. It does have the Big Bang on it. So let's see if I can show you this way so that you can make an informed decision. And it is double sided. So that was one side. And then here's the other side. Oh, I just think these fold out ones are really, really cool. So there's that one. Plus, we have all the other ones. They released a new puzzle. This go round. So I went ahead and grabbed it, too, because like I said, I love these books and puzzles. It's the cities of the world. So you get a 24 page cities of the world book. And then you have the 300 piece puzzle. And we are down to our last stack. I was probably the most excited about these two. So there's already a USA activity book that they have. And we already own it. These are kind of along the same lines. You have animals of the USA activity book and spirit of the USA activity book. And these are going to make such great additions to traveling the states. I'm so excited about that. They're just tons of fun. I mean, it's like 50 fun activity puzzles and quizzes. I just think it's going to be a great way to do even more with traveling the states. I also think these would make great additions to car schooling. If you were traveling, like if you were driving across the USA, I think that would be really fun. So this one is 50 fun puzzles and activities as well. And I love the quality of them. Like the pages are really high quality and they're not going to rip when they're trying to write on them, even in the car and lots of fun and super educational. Usborne lift the flap trees. So all the lifts, the flaps are absolutely beautiful. And I don't think there could be a more fun one than trees. I mean, it's tropical trees, cold trees, watery trees, extraordinary trees. So super fun way to learn more about trees, especially if you have a learner who needs to be hands on, like kind of kinesthetic because they can lift those flaps and be interactive with it. This is another Usborne lift the flap. It's their question and answer series. And it was how does it work? And I know Emily is going to love this because it is just tons of things. So here's a table of contents for all of the different how it works. And it's I mean, what happens when you flush the toilet? Why is traffic so noisy? What is the Internet? How do keys unlock doors? Why do birds lay eggs? How does medicine make you better? So they ask the question and then to get the answer, you lift the flap and the answer is underneath. So again, kind of helps really cement that learning because they're being interactive with it. And I also got the lift the flap question answer music. I did not realize until we placed this order that we already have this one. So we have a duplicate. I'll probably give this to my niece and nephew for Valentine's Day along with the game. But again, it just asks those questions like, will my pet enjoy this tune? Do my sing? Can people make music on the spot? And then once they've asked the question, lift the flap and the answer is underneath. So super interactive. The last two things were just picture books that were new releases that looked super adorable that I couldn't walk away from. This one is how to make a book. All books begin with a brilliant idea. I liked the premises behind it. I love anything that encourages Emily to be creative in her own writing. So I thought that would be really fun to kind of go through how a book is made. I mean, because it talks about how the author even does a happy dance. And then here's the illustrator drawing for the book and their process. And it goes through publishing. I just thought it would be really, really fun to add to our homeschool library. And then the last one was just way too fun because Emily is not the biggest fan of math. So anything I can do that's going to make math fun, I'm all about it. And so this is never, ever teach a stegosaurus to do sums. And she's obsessed with dinosaurs. So it is dinosaurs and math. What could go wrong? And it's just cute and colorful. And I don't think you're ever too old for picture books. So so that's it. That is our Usborne Hall or at least our most recent Usborne Hall. But I did want to leave you with some really, really exciting news. If you saw all these titles and you were like, oh, my gosh, I would love to add this to our homeschool library. But I just don't have the funds to do that right now. The exciting thing is that currently, if you're watching this when it's released, I am hosting a book in a game giveaway with Abby from Rooted in Rest. And we are giving away a two hundred and fifty dollar Usborne gift card as well as a two hundred and fifty dollar Amazon gift card. So if you saw tons of titles that you want to add to your homeschool library, we want to help you do that. All of the details on how you can enter to win will be in the description box. And good luck.