 Hey everybody, welcome to The Waldoch Way. I'm Jessica. Today's video is going to be our May Amazon haul. The majority of what I bought this month, actually almost all of what I bought this month was for like our summer homeschool. If you would like to see our basic summer homeschool plans, I will link them up here. I just filmed a video on them so you can kind of see what we're going to be doing. And then other than that, there's a few things that I got from Mother's Day that Kevin bought on Amazon. So I wanted to share those too. So that's the majority of what this haul is going to be. So I'm going to go ahead and start with books first. I bought a set of books for Emily. I normally give her some sort of book series at the end of our homeschool year, kind of as our end of year, beginning of summer celebration. We normally do one and I like to give her a gift. So these are the books that I'm going to be giving her in hopes that she'll read them throughout the summer. I don't force her to read them. I just try to find a book series. I think she'll like and gift them to her at the end of the school year with a few other educational items and hope for the best. So the series that I picked up is Zoe's Zoo Rescue. The set that I got has 10 in them. It didn't say they had to be read in any particular order, but they looked really cute. We have the puzzled penguin, the lonely lion cub, the playful panda, the silky, yeah, silky seal pup. Sorry, you guys, that was a tongue twister. The eager elephant, the lucky snow leopard, which I guarantee you is gonna be the first one Emily reads. The pesky polar bear, the cuddly koala, the wild wolf pup, and the happy hippo. Now, just so you can kind of see, I will open these up in case your kiddo is about the same age and you wanna know what the reading level is in these. There are about 120 pages, looks like eight chapters and an occasional picture, maybe every eight to 10 pages. So, if you have a kiddo who loves zoo animals, that might be a series for you. Okay, I also picked up two more books that were made into movies for our summer plans. Now, I actually forgot to mention that in our summer plan video. We've done it every summer, so it's just such a habit that I forgot to mention it. We try to read anywhere between, I guess, three to six books that were made into movies. It's just something we love doing, so we read the books together as a family. Then we have like a big viewing party. I even have some free printables on a blog to propose to go with that, so I will link the blog posts in the description box in case you want to do the same thing. The two that I picked up, though, are because of Wendixie and then since we live in Florida, I thought hoot would be well a hoot. Sorry for the bad joke there, but I thought that one would be a really cool one because it has a lot to do with like the Everglades area. So, those are going to be what I am going to read aloud to Emily along with these three books. I'm not sure if she will want to read them independently, if I'll read them aloud, or if we'll do them for shared reading, but I signed her up for an out-school class with my girl, Mary, from Celebrated Book and Mary Hannah-Wilson, and Emily is absolutely love the book clubs that she's taken with her, so they're really fun, and this one is a summer fantasy, so the books were fantasy-based. So, one of the books is Magic Misfits, which we've already read, so that one was perfect. Another one is Tristan Punches a Hole in the Sky, so I'm going to go ahead and pick that one up. The third one is The Wizard of Wants, so I picked that one up too, and then the last, actually, this is the last one I have to show you, but it's the first one they're reading, and we've already started it, and it is Amari and the Night Brothers. So, we are really excited for that. She also offered a fiction, a graphic novel, and then the fantasy one we signed up for, so if you're interested in doing a summer book club, but you either can't do it because of whatever restrictions or you just don't want to do it yourself, they are some great options on out school because then they're just virtual, so it's a great way for Emily to be able to read the book and discuss it with other kids or other people, other than just me and Kevin. So, that's why we are doing that this summer. Okay, the other things that I have are things that we'll be using with our survival unit study, so in case you want to look inside that, and you want more details, I'll link that up here for you guys, but we are going to be doing that for the majority of the summer, and these are some of the suggested extras or suggested additional resources in the unit that I picked up. One of them was the Lonely Planet Kids Survival Guide. Then the Will You Survive? Foraging with Kids, which is 52 wild and free edibles to enjoy with your children. This just looked like fun. It just has all these different edibles that you can enjoy. You can, you know, where to find it, what its different names are, what you can do with it, serving suggestions, I just thought it would be a really fun one. And then another survival handbook as well. Now, of these two survival handbooks, actually of all of the survival handbooks that I found, this one is probably the most relevant for survival unit, so if you have the survival unit, the Lonely Planet Kids Practical Skills for Dangerous Situations, and I say that because in the table of contents, you are doing desert survival, mountain survival, forest survival, island survival, and tundra survival, which is a lot of the different things that you are experiencing in the survival unit, and then there's also some essential basic tips in the beginning. So if you are joining us and you're doing a survival unit study with us, based off of all of the handbooks I have seen so far with the exception of the Bear Girls ones because those are awesome, but if you're just looking for a general one, this would be my pick. And then the last thing I got, I actually bought this used because it's out of print, and I haven't even really looked in it yet to, I mean, I don't know all the pieces are there, but I don't know if it was even worth it yet, but I just really wanted it. And it is the worst case survival game. So it's, from what I can tell, it's just kind of like one of those player boards where you move around on the board and then it has what I think are like trivia questions. Let's see here, how to cross rapids. And so then it's like take off your pants and underpants, tie them to your pack and you strong pulls at least seven foot long, plant it upstream from you. If you think you can walk across, weigh yourself down with as many heavy stones as can fit in your pockets, et cetera. So it's just kind of basic survival, but there are a ton of different cards in here, like a ton. So I just thought it would be kind of fun to play as a family, but that being said, we are a trivia loving family. So if your family does not like trivia, then this is obviously not even worth looking for used. But if your family loves trivia and you like the survival technique, I think it's probably worth looking for used on like Amazon or eBay. But like I said, it's out of print, so you have to get it used. Okay, the next few things that I got are for our summer learning and you guys probably saw me mention this one in our summer plans video, which is the brain quest summer between grades three and four. I bought this one from Amazon. Then I found one, if you will recall, at Ollie's that was by Carson DeLosa and it's called the Summer Bridge. Then like the next day after I talked about both of those in the YouTube channel or the YouTube video here for summer plans, somebody messaged me and asked me if I had seen the Evan Moore's version of the summer between grades, which is this one, the daily summer activities. So I now have three different, these two I purchased from Amazon this month, the Evan Moore summer daily activities and the brain quest summer brain quest. And then I also have the bridge one. So I am going to be doing a flip through and my first opinions and impressions on all three of them. So stay tuned for that. I just kind of wanted to see all of the different ones and maybe be able to tell you guys which ones I thought were maybe the easier ones versus which ones were harder because the idea for me buying one of these one size fits all books was just kind of like, well this, I mean, because honestly in my opinion, all three are very different levels. So if that's a video that interests you, make sure you hit subscribe and that bell notification because it will be coming very soon, a look through all three of them because they are just different enough that hopefully me showing you guys will help you provide the intel that you need to pick the right one. All right, so then the last thing I got for the summer is for me for the summer and it is what your fourth grader needs to know. I love using these to help me plan our goals for the year. I use this along with the home learning year by year book which you guys have seen over and over and over on my channel but I didn't have fourth grade yet. So I went ahead and picked up fourth grade so that I could start planning our math and language arts goals for the upcoming school year. And then I also picked up the next two holidays that will be added to Holiday Fun around the world very soon and I wanted the books to go with them and so I have celebrations in my world Juneteenth and celebrations in my world Independence Day. So actually both of these along with hopefully the rest of the year will be added soon but I already have all of the books that I would need for the rest like for Halloween and Thanksgiving I already own all of those. So I just needed Juneteenth and Independence Day to finish off the rest of the year. Okay, and then the last few things I have are really for my mother's day gifts. So these were three books that I had in the cart that Kevin gave me on actual Mother's Day. That is The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda. Now in case you guys are new here this is the first time you are watching my channel I have recently discovered that I absolutely love psychological thrillers and so that is mostly what I am reading. Now Kevin did also give me an early Mother's Day gift. He picked me up those three books because he wanted to give me something on Mother's Day but we were on vacation a week or two before Mother's Day and he bought me a Kindle paper white with this case. I'm gonna go ahead and give you guys a review because a few of you know that I have it because I've posted on social media and you've asked. First and foremost, I never thought I would be somebody who owned an e-reader. It's not, I don't, something about the feel of a book about holding the book, about being able to see where you're at, flip the pages, dog ear the pages, I don't know what it is about it but it brings me so much joy, like sniffing the book, just everything about it, I love it. So I never thought I would like an e-reader but I asked you guys if you preferred hardback or paperback on Instagram and Facebook in a survey and so, so many of you told me in a message that it was the third secret option that I didn't offer and it was an e-reader. So of course that started a lot of discussion in my messages and my direct messages and many of you ended up selling me on it. You know, it's bright, you can read it in the sun, you can, this particular model is waterproof. There was just so many things that you guys kept telling me and I'm like, well, I mean there is bonuses to it, maybe, and I kept him hauling around and I just didn't want to spend the money and so Kevin Felling was like, well just, you know, there's never anything you want, let me get that for you from other states. So he did and so I have had it now for I think about two to three weeks. I read with it at the beach, I've read with it here at the house and here is my initial reaction to it. I really did not expect to like it, but I love it. I love it because it's a really, really lightweight. I have literally only charged it once and it's still holding a charge. It is bright enough that I can read it in super bright Florida sun without even wearing sunglasses. I can dim it and read it in bed without bothering anybody without having to have like the book light hanging off my book. It's just been phenomenal. I will also link this case if you end up getting one and wanting one because a lot of people also told me I wanted a case that had the elastic hand grip in the middle because if you happen to look, a lot of them will be on one side. So it's made for like you to hold it with your right hand and it doesn't hold the same in the other hand. So I did a hunt until I found just a cheap, I think it was maybe $15, case that had the elastic band on the center. So it's the same, whether I'm holding it with my left hand or holding it with my right hand. Some of them don't even have those elastic bands. If you don't think you're gonna hold it like that, then don't worry about it. But I find it just convenient to make sure that it's not gonna like shift off your lap. So that's it. That is everything that I bought or that we, our family bought from Amazon in the month of May. I would love to know first, if you're a mama who has an e-reader, do you love it? Do you like die hard? There's no way. I absolutely have to hold the book in my hand. Let me know in the comments down below because I would love to have that discussion continue there. And then let me know what else you guys purchased from Amazon in the month of May. I always like reading the comments and seeing what some of the things you guys are buying is.