Blogging From A to Z Challenge: R is for Reading

Morning! Welcome to Day 2 of the Third Week of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. What a mouthful, huh? My theme this year is 26 Super Fun Learning Activities You Can Do From Home. That's right, I'm conjuring up 26 "educational" ideas to keep you busy while you're safe at home. But don't get too hung up on the word "educational"—so far, they've all been fun activities. Don't believe me? Check out the link to my past posts below.

I kicked off the challenge with Art for the letter A. Next up was B was for Baking. My sister and I did some chemistry for the letter "C," and I rounded off the first week with a family dance off. "E" was for exercise (which was way more fun than you think) and "F" was all about family. We got our hands dirty with some gardening for "G," celebrated Poetry Month and the letter "H" by writing haikus. And of course, "I" was for Invention. Week two ended with juggling. We started week three of the challenge with knitting, on Tuesday we talked about learning a new language, and on Wednesday we did some fun math. It was fun, right? For "N" I linked to some nature activities and on Friday, we talked about Origami. On Saturday, I shared my grandma's famous "play dough" recipe—and some ways you can create with it.

Yesterday, I shared a tricky "Q" activity—did you make it? Did you have fun? Got any pictures? Today...well, you probably already know what today's activity is....

R is for Reading

Did you know that there are 16 books in the Superman Duffy series of educational graphic novels? And, did you know that seven of those were translated to French. (You may have heard me mention them in my "L" post about learning a new language.)

If you think about it, that's a whole lot of adventures you can read about—for free. Yup. If you don't already own copies of the books, you can order them from the Alberta Canola Producers' Commission, or download them from this website.

Sure, they look like comics, but they're jam packed with educational information. Like in the first book, Fields of Home, where cartoon me meets Mr. Slovonuk, the first farmer to bring "rapeseed" to Canada—a crop we now know as canola. (And if you have any farmers in your life, you know that now is the time crops start getting planted.)

In Gotta Jet, you can learn about canola biodiesel, which the fuel Kevin Therres uses to race his Jet Engine Funny Cars. They go fast! In It's a Blast!, you'll learn all about Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk, who took 250,000 canola seeds into space to see the effects of anti gravity on plant growth.

I talked about baking in my B post, and in Tasting my Story, Chase's quest to find a recipe for Monster Cookies (they're delicious) takes you on a fun mystery—plus, the book includes other kid-friendly recipes you're going to want to try. I also wrote about AMELIA in my gardening post, which is where Chase, his sister, and their friend Sophie are faced with bugs of unusual size. *shudder* But there's also a great lesson about good pests and bad pests—and what farmers can do about them.

Writing is a key lesson in Cut! To the Chase... Chase has to write a school play. It's a retelling of Aesop's famous fable, The Tortoise and Hare (and it also shares some excellent nutrition tips!) In 5-7-5 Errand Boy, Chase is given a list of errands to run—but his instructions are written in the form of a haiku. I talked about those in my H post. That book includes some very interesting facts about canola biotechnology.

Beneath the SOIL is the spookiest book in the series—Chase gets sucked under by quicksand (which you know if you read yesterday's post), but there's also lots of fun facts about soil. If you're gearing up for gardening in the next few weeks, this is an important resource. Plus, it's a spooktacular story.

I won't go through all 16 books, but you can read about them and download them here. Not only will you get in some good reading, but you'll learn about climate change, the importance of water, fun facts about Canada, and so much more.

Which book will you start with?

Gotta jet! I'm off to a late start today and need to get in some reading before I head outside for more nature activities. It's already starting to get warm!

See you tomorrow for the letter "S."

~ Chase Superman Duffy