Share a Love of Nature with Kids This Holiday Season with National Geographic Books

Note: I received this product for free from the sponsor of the Moms Meet? program, May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a MomsMeet? blogger, I agreed to use this product and post my opinion on my blog. My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of May Media Group LLC. or the manufacturer of the product.

Husband has been getting National Geographic magazine longer than I’ve known him, and though we haven’t really introduced the girl to it yet she does look through them every now and then. I think it’s important for her to know about the world around her and the creatures in it — it’s important for us grown ups, too — so I plan to have her watching nature programs and reading books about animals and the natural world once she’s old enough to do so.

National Geographic Kids Books are a great way to introduce kids to animals, nature and science concepts. They are created by award-winning authors, illustrators, photographers, explorers and researchers in the field and designed in a way that’s attractive to kids, making sure they learn without feeling like they’re reading a textbook.

There are books that are appropriate for all ages, and I got the chance — thanks to MomsMeet — to take a look at a few with the girl recently.

A Look at the Books

We got a really great selection to sample, including:

• Ultimate Weird But True 2: A big book of fun facts you didn’t know you wanted to know. Random example: a blue whale’s tongue is about as heavy as two Volkswagen Beetles or 14 male African lions. Another: the youngest person ever to climb to the top of Mount Everest was 13, and the highest wind speed on the summit is 165 miles an hour, which is stronger than a category 5 hurricane. This is a great one for trivia buffs of all ages.
• Meerkats: This level one reading book has fun facts and pictures about these adorable animals. The girl loves meerkats (or maybe I’m just projecting my love of them onto her) so I’m sure this will be a favorite.
• Best Friends Forever: A chapter book full of stories about interesting animal friendships, such as Koko the gorilla’s love for cats or a greyhound who lived at an animal sanctuary and befriended foxes and badgers.
• Everything Pets: A fun overview of the different animals we consider pets, as well as fun facts about them. Also talks about why some animals aren’t good pets, how animals can help people and how to pick a good pet for your home. Might be a good one if your kid is begging for a pet and you don’t yet have any.
• Mother’s Love: This pretty little book has lots of pictures of animal moms and their kids, as well as quotes about motherhood, facts about mothers in the animal kingdom and stories about the strength of animal moms that will resonate with human moms. This one would actually be a great gift for a mom for Christmas or Mother’s Day.
• Devoted: The perfect book for the dog lover in your life, it’s full of stories about how dogs save people as often as it is the other way around. (These two are not really for kids, but still lovely books.)
• Kids First Big Book of Why: This is a fun one that’s full of those questions kids always ask (why do balloons float? Why do animals hang upside down?) and some even they might not have thought of (why is the beach made of sand?). A great one to have on hand when kids ask why.
• Kids Almanac 2014: This one says it includes everything you always wanted to know about everything, and it does cover lots of ground, from extreme sports to the constitution, camouflaged animals to eco-friendly houses. This would be a great one for the older kid who is always asking why or wanting to know more about things.
• Funny Fill-In: Think Mad Libs that are all about animals. These actually connect to make a full story through the book, but you can also just do one or two at random.
• Just Joking 4: The perfect book for the corny kid in your life, it has 300 jokes including riddles, tongue-twisters, knock-knock jokes and more. There are some fun animal facts thrown in, too.

The Girl’s Favorites

When the package arrived I let the girl open it and decide what she wanted to look at first. She picked the Mad Libs, which is really hard to do with someone who doesn’t know the parts of speech, but we still had fun with the silly stories.

She also really liked the Book of Why because she is starting to ask those questions. She liked flipping through it and learning interesting things about whatever pictures caught her eye.

I’m sure we’ll keep coming back to this collection through the years and she’ll find more to enjoy and learn from as she gets older.

A Great Deal for You

Thanks for sticking around this long! If you want to buy some of these or other National Geographic Kids Books for your little explorer this holiday season, they’re available anywhere books are sold, but from now through the end of the year (Dec. 31, 2013, that is) you can order these books and many others through the Holiday Book Boutique for 30 percent off. Remember to order by Dec. 6 for Christmas delivery.

And a Giveaway, Too

Now that you’ve read this super-long post, you deserve a treat, right? I’m giving away two of these books: Just Joking 4 and Almanac 2014 to one of my readers! To enter to win, leave a comment on this post. You can also like me and/or National Geographic books on Facebook and/or Twitter for extra entries.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This contest runs through next Friday, Dec. 6, and Rafflecopter will pick a winner for me. American addresses only, please, so I can make sure these will get to you in time for Christmas!

Thanks for reading this far and for visiting and participating! Good luck.