Aliesha, Author at Feathers in Our Nest

NEW Book Day! Usborne Books & More Fall 2018 New Releases

June 22, 2018 by Aliesha

We love new book day at our house!! When my latest box of free and discounted Usborne Books & More Fall 2018 new releases arrived, we spent an hour and a half reading together and ooo-ing and ahhh-ing over the beautiful new titles! (Want to learn more about how I earn so many free books? Email me!)

Here we are enjoying some of our new favorites…

We get new titles in our catalog FOUR times a year, and this was one of our best batches of new releases yet! It’s hard for me to choose a favorite title.

Here are some closer looks!

Learn Something New

I don’t know about you, but I think that states and capitals book is pretty neat!!

New Picture Books

I love Build Me a Home! But Also an Animal is super sweet too (and would make a great baby gift).

New Baby Books

You KNOW I was excited about That’s Not My Bee!!

New Books for Toddlers & Preschoolers

Theodore especially enjoys the 199 Things series! They’re his go-to church books! Perfect for looking at quietly when you need to sit still.

Read with Usborne – New Titles

Jude and Cordelia really enjoy the books in our Read with Usborne series!

New Nature Books

The Woodland Book is amazing!! I can’t wait to use it next year in our homeschool!

New Activity Books

How COOL are those Academy books?? What a fun way to learn about different careers!

Which title caught your eye? We have SO many favorites! If you’d like to browse, you can do so at my Online Bookstore here!

Aliesha Caldwell is an Independent Consultant with Usborne Books & More.

Summer Diffuser Blend

June 11, 2018 by Aliesha

Do you love when your home smells fresh and clean? Me too! I’ve been enjoying this lovely summer diffuser blend in the mornings the past week! Such a lovely way to start the day.

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try! Feel free to adjust the ratios to your liking.

Summer Diffuser Blend

3 drops pink grapefruit
2 drops rosemary
2 drops lavender
3 drops lemon

Have you been diffusing anything nice lately? Please share!

This post contains affiliate links to the essential oil company I use and love.

Why Do We Need Bees? Playdate!

June 1, 2018 by Aliesha

Yesterday we hosted a bee themed playdate for a whole bunch of our little friends! I called it Why Do We Need Bees? because of this book with the same title!

I started off the playdate with a little education about bees. We talked about their life cycle, how they build hives, and how they make honey. We smelled beeswax and looked a a model of a cell from a beehive. We discussed the importance of bees in pollinating MUCH of the food we eat, and we did a little honeybee dance (to demonstrate how honey bees tell the other bees where to find flowers)!

I divided our large group into smaller groups so we could work through all the stations! The first station had TONS of awesome books to read (linked at the bottom of this post), some of which we own, and some of which I checked out from the library!

At station two, kids could look at the parts of a bee and label their own diagram, and study the model bee life cycle and label those stages on their paper too!

At station three, kids could do a fingerprint beehive painting, and paint a bee on blank paper as well! This station was super popular with our budding artists!

I loved decorating with some GORGEOUS bee printables from one of my favorite Etsy shops… linked at the bottom of the post!

At station four, we planted wildflower seeds! Kids took these home to plant in their own yard so the bees would have new flowers to visit!

Station five might have been the most popular… honey tasting!! We had three varieties to sample… clover honey, lime honey, and raspberry honey! The kids loved trying them all and making notes about them!