Dinah Zike began teaching as a child, playing school with her sisters and cousins in a playhouse behind her home. She tutored in high school and while studying special education, she worked with children as a volunteer. Dinah taught in the public school system for over 10 years. She has also worked for an academic development service to help teachers organize open-concept learning centers. In 1983, Dinah formed her own educational publishing company, Dinah-might Adventures, LP. She has written many wonderful books and curricula that incorporates her original educational manipulatives, also called graphic organizers. Dinah conducts seminars and workshops throughout the U.S. for public, private, and homeschool teachers. Use of her graphic organizers in your homeschool will make your children's learning more hands-on and fun! What are graphic organizers and how do you use them? Read on.

Big Book of Books and Activities is where you need to start your own Dinah-might adventure! Here you will learn how a mountain, a valley, a hamburger, a hotdog, a burrito, and a taco can change the way your children view their school work. While it does sound delicious, these are actually names for different paper folds. With these basic folds, you can make many wonderful graphic organizers for your children to use to display their work. Learn to make question and answer books, vocabulary books, pocket books, miniature books, layered books, and many, many more! This book also includes how to make colored glue and how to use macaroni and cornmeal to make manipulatives, as well as a recipe for sidewalk chalk. My children have made two types of books, the vocabulary book and layered-look book, to record information from our current unit study. My daughter has also started her own collection of mini books with their own miniature bookcase! Why just write down information on plain, flat paper? Use the ideas in this book to make your own collection of fun projects that your kids will love!

Now that you know how a taco can help your children with their schoolwork, Big Book of Projects will show you how to take those paper folds and use them to make projects from kindergarten through college. Any subject can be covered using this hands-on, fun method. Includes easy-to-follow directions with pictures, as well as many useful reproducible pages, such as timelines, geography cards, maps, and charts. This book only briefly describes the basic paper folds, so start with Big Book of Books if you're new to Dinah Zike.

Dinah Zike uses her wonderful methods to teach your children, grades Kindergarten through eighth, about the world of insects and arachnids in Great Science Adventures - The World of Insects and Arachnids. Each of these 24 lessons includes concepts, vocabulary words, how to use the graphic organizers, and various activities. Also included are all the reproducibles, including mini books, that you need to teach each lesson. You can also get The World of Plants and The World of the Human Body, with many more titles yet to be published. This curriculum does include directions for the basic paper folds and projects. Let the teaching of science "come alive" in your home with Dinah Zike!



-- Product Review by: Debra Cogburn, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine