Last month, I was delighted to discover a new bilingual book featuring one-minute science mysteries in my mailbox.
When I was a kid, I LOVED reading mysteries. My grandfather had a giant book of works by Dashiell Hammett that I discovered and read when I was only ten or eleven. From that point on, I loved mysteries. For my birthday or Christmas, my mom would buy me 5-minute mysteries because she knew how much I loved them.
Now, I've passed on my love of mysteries to my own daughter. A few years ago, I introduced my own girl to mysteries with Bella's Mystery Deck and then more recently, I bought my daughter her first 5-minute mysteries book and she LOVED it.
So you can only imagine my extreme joy when I received a copy of the book, One-Minute Mysteries: More Short Mysteries You Solve with Science!/¡Más misterios cortos que resuelves con ciencias.
This book contains 45 different brainteasers whose solutions require your science knowledge. And the best part is that all of them are in English and Spanish. On the left page, you'll read an English one-page mystery, and on the right page, the same mystery is available in Spanish. Once you think you've solved the brainteaser, just turn the page to read the answer and see if you were right!
The mysteries were written by a father-daughter team, Eric and Natalie Yoder, and the book covers earth, space, life, physical, chemical and general sciences. Your son or daughter might try to figure out why cucumbers won't grow or how to use magnets to determine if something is made of pure silver.
And here's the part that will excite many MommyMaestra readers: I don't know who translated the text into Spanish (it doesn't say anywhere), but whoever did it, did an excellent job.
With 52.6 million native or bilingual speakers living here in the states, it's critical for us to see more bilingual education materials on the market. Because there is such a lack of bilingual materials in areas like science, this book is a treasure for homeschooling parents who are looking for ways to make learning fun, while nurturing their child's bilingualism. Dual language teachers will enjoy using this book as a fun time filler with their classes.
It is best suited for children ages 8 - 12.
So if you are looking for a fun way to keep your kids' science skills sharp, this book is for you! Visit the publisher - Science Naturally - website to learn more about it, read some sample mysteries from the book, and place your order.
Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.