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Let's Put A Fun Spin On Learning!

Seven Books, Each With Five Star Reviews

The American Mathematical Society has reviewed "Crush Math Anxiety With Drones" (April 2023 issue) and it has earned a five-star seal from Readers' Favorite!

Big ideas in a fun format for ages 14-18+. For younger students who need a math challenge, enjoy an overview of key math topics. For older students not fond of math, see math unfold from a different perspective. All students benefit from rich discussions. Ideal for class explorations, clubs, homeschooling, or family conversations.

Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart and other on-line stores.

Crush Math Anxiety With Drones

I think Rocky hears a drone!

Learn, rejuvenate and be inspired!

For many students, mathematics can be a challenging subject. Anxiety, gaps in learning, and lack of retention limit progress and can cause overwhelming frustration. "Crush Math Anxiety With Drones" addresses these concerns and more. The good news: Cutting-edge research proves that everyone can learn math. This book gets that inspiring message into the minds and hands of teens and parents. Growth mindset strategies are put into action. A dash of fun is added by imagining the reader as the owner of a drone racing warehouse. Numerous real life examples that relate to one theme, your drone racing business, span the entire book. A short read packed with information, inspiration, and drone whimsy. This book will help the reader see the connections and the importance of mathematics.

“The real purpose of books is to inspire the mind to do its own thinking!”     Christopher Morley 

Highlights from Editorial Reviews

“Armed with statistics and creativity, Jeanne Holmberg authored Crush Math Anxiety With Drones. This book shares math creatively and in an interesting way. Drones are a significant rage today. Jeanne uses drones and imagination to assuage the anxiety that surrounds math.” – Readers’ Favorite, Philip Van Heusen, 5-stars

“Crush Math Anxiety With Drones is an outstanding book because it invites students to practice and delve into what they have learned. Anyone who reads this book will no longer be able to say that math is not for them.” Readers’ Favorite, Astrid Iustulin, 5-stars

“This is an informative and highly researched book that 7th to 10th-grade students will find not only helpful and educational but also very motivational and inspiring to read. Highly recommended.” Readers’ Favorite, Pikasho Deka, 5-stars

A charming story and fun activities that blend
art, science and whimsy.

Another 5-star educational book by Jeanne Holmberg that puts a fun spin on learning!

Opt-in to receive free bonus activities:
Engineer A Model Of A Cell
Four Number Puzzles
Four Word Puzzles
Model A Sea Star

Get ready to join Isabella on her quest to solve a puzzling challenge with art and science. Isabella’s story sparks a love of learning.  Her inspirational story and related activities prompt readers to delve into areas that interest them most or to explore new options. Because each child is unique, finding what interests them is often the key to learning. Immerse yourself in Isabella’s story and let her help you find your path. There are so many ways to enjoy this book! Learning opportunities include Art, Science, Engineering, Memory And Recall, Vocabulary Building, Attention To Detail, Listening Skills, Storytelling, Poetry and more.

5-Star Review From Readers' Favorite

Curious Isabella: Embracing A Challenge With Art And Science by Jeanne Holmberg is an educational children’s book that makes learning easy for children. Ten-year-old Isabella loves to take pictures of everything, like her mom, her brother, flowers in the garden, her dog Nibbles, and her neighbor’s cat Loki. While sharing her photos in class, her teacher, Miss Lucy, encourages her to add something new and different to her collection. Thinking about her teacher’s challenge, she takes a picture of the blotches in a tree. “Curious about the blotches, she tries to find out what they are and learns that they are lichens. She earns a ribbon from Miss Lucy as a photographer and scientist by sharing her photos in school and explaining about lichens. The book’s second part is about educational activities that children should find enjoyable and exciting.

Jeanne Holmberg’s Curious Isabella: Embracing A Challenge With Art And Science is a beautifully laid out and cheerful book. It reminds readers that learning about new things is fun. The book’s first part should catch your child’s attention because Isabella is an interesting and relatable character. The words and visual activities that follow are equally motivating. Children can increase their vocabulary by having fun with the activities. For parents with children of any reading level, this book should inspire curiosity and a love of learning in children. Highly recommended!”

Readers’ Favorite, Maria Victoria Beltran, 5-stars

“Curious Isabella: Embracing A Challenge With Art And Science by Jeanne Holmberg is engaging, relatable, and a perfect mix of art and science. Children of any age will be inspired to get outside, explore nature, and learn new things, even if it might be challenging at first. The activities that follow have engaging ideas to further your child’s thinking, incorporating both the art and science world, allowing children to experience how the two connect. This book will have both adults and young learners wanting to get out and explore something new!”

Jodi Goncalves, District Elementary Science ILS, Springfield Public Schools, Springfield, MA

“Curious Isabella” Answer Key

Select Answers To Enhance Discussion And Learning

Page 14 – Living organisms on front cover (11): butterfly, hummingbird, white wildflowers, bee, grass, ladybug, lichen, frog, yellow wildflowers, soil contains millions of living organisms many of which are too small to see with the naked eye (pictured near rock), air contains tiny living organisms called bioaerosols that are also too small to see with the naked eye

Living organisms on back cover (8): fly, grasshopper, grass, dragonfly, purple wildflowers, worm, ant, mushrooms, air contains tiny living organisms called bioaerosols that are also too small to see with the naked eye

Non-living things on front cover (1): rock
Non-living things on back cover (3): plastic bottle, aluminum can, rock. The plastic bottle and the aluminum can should be recycled!

Pages 14/15 – A bicyclist is not a scientist. A bicyclist is one who rides on a bicycle.

Page 16 – a) tree b) kitten c) nest d) dog e) kids f) curious g) cells h) beach

Page 22 – People, lichen, and mushrooms are all 1) living organisms 2) made up of cells 3) sensitive to the environment around them. Many other answers are also possible such as the need for fresh air, food and water.

People and lichen or mushrooms are different in many ways. For example, people have arms, legs, fingers and toes but lichen and mushrooms do not.

Author’s Note

The benefits of being read to are abundant. Cherishing special time together, listening to the story or poem unfold, admiring related artwork together, stimulating imagination and delighting in the conversations that follow are all beautiful moments in a young child’s life. And the benefits of reading aloud to children also extend beyond these beautiful moments. Experts generally agree that reading aloud to children is the best preparation for children learning to read. “To learn to read is to light a fire” is a famous quote by Victor Hugo, who is considered to be one of the greatest French writers of all time. But learning to read is not a simple skill.

“Shared reading” is an interactive experience between the reader and the child. In shared reading, the child (or children) join in to read parts of the text or story. Shared reading is an effective way to model the delight and intricacies of reading. Even after a child learns to read independently, reading aloud to them and shared reading continue to celebrate the joy of reading together. As a mother of three children, I fondly remember these special moments. Helping my own children learn to read are cherished memories.

Learning to read is not a skill that is achieved spontaneously. Somewhere in-between the beautiful moments of reading aloud to a child and the interactive moments of shared reading, there are many learn-to-read skills that need to be developed such as letter recognition, letter sounds, and sight words recognition. This book offers activities to develop these learn-to-read skills.

Let your child be your guide. Some children will approach this book methodically, concentrating on the activities in alphabetical order and completing all pages for each letter. Other children may look for the letters in their name and only complete the pages they like best. Or, perhaps they will be drawn to the pages with the colorful creatures they prefer. Some children may even create their own whimsical creatures holding capital and lowercase letters in each of the drawing spaces. If they do, let them create a name for their creature that starts with that letter. Celebrate your child’s unique interests in the moment and let them explore and learn in their own way.

Lastly, this book was designed to be a take-along-with-me book. Even when life is hectic, you can find “special time with me” moments. While sitting in a car or bus, waiting for an appointment or anxious for dinner, a child can practice uttering the sound or sounds each letter makes, finger tracing the alphabet, or describing the picture they drew.

I hope you enjoy many beautiful learn-to-read moments,

Jeanne

 

Five-Star Review From Readers’ Favorite! Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford 

“Drawing the Alphabet by Jeanne Holmberg reminds us that reading is a window to a world of adventure and imagination, knowledge and fun. Before young children can read, they must first nurture a desire to understand the symbols on a page. Learning to read begins at home, with adults or older children reading aloud to younger children, or reading along with them. Teaching begins with recognizing the shapes and sounds of the letters of the alphabet. The learning process doesn’t have to be a chore. It can be a lot of fun if one includes coloring, playful rhymes, silly, whimsical creatures, and a whole lot of laughter and imagination.

Jeanne Holmberg’s children’s activity book Drawing the Alphabet is a great tool to inspire young readers (and writers, too). The author, a mother herself, has created an informative and fun book that will have learners giggling as they work through the pages, drawing their images that start with a given letter and unscrambling words that are mixed up with equally mixed-up imagery. Take the time to work with a child, or allow them to fill in some time before supper, in the car, or on a bus, and let the learning develop. The book is presented alphabetically, but the reader can pick and choose which pages to work on first. The important thing is that young children foster a growing interest in the written language and strengthen their reading skills. This is a great way to inspire beginners to read and to use their imaginative skills in creating imagery and stories.”