Edexcel IGCSE History Russia and the Soviet Union 1905-24 Question Cards, with Answers

Posted on August 8, 2024 by ofamily

While preparing for my daughter’s IGCSE History exam I discovered that there are just not as many question revision resources for History as there are for the Science subjects. And I am not talking about exam practice questions I am taking about resources where the kids can just test if they have all the facts (because lets be honest it does not help practicing exam questions if you don’t know your facts yet).

So I started creating some revision cards for my daughter. Nothing fancy, a simple printout where you cut out the cards.

The idea is you cut the strips and then fold them and glue the two halves together so you end up with the question on the one side and the answer on the back.

There are no cute pictures or fancy colours. To be honest it took me quite a while to create this so I really was not going to spend even more time trying to make it pretty, plus at this stage I think we don’t need to worry about all of that and I did not want to wast money on printing 25 pages of colourful cards.

In total there are 103 questions and I included a few extra blank card templates so if you kid wants to add a few of their own questions they can.

I tried focused on the key points and made sure I have included facts about all of the past exam questions that I have seen.

I have saved it as a pdf so if anyone wants to download and use the cards with your kids you are welcome to do that. However I must state this is something that I created so it is not for anyone to post on their website (you are welcome to include a link back to this post) and you may NOT try and sell them as your own cards.

Here is the download

Lenin CardsDownload

Hope some of you find it useful.

For those of you wondering what resources we used for our Lenin topic – our main student book was this one – Edexcel International GCSE History Russia and the Soviet Union 1905-24

If you want similar cards to these for the Germany: Conflict, Crisis and Change topic you can find them here – Germany Cards

And a set for the China: Conflict, Crisis and Change 1800-89 topic can be found here – China question cards

Admin – I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner – another Twilight book

Posted on July 25, 2024 by ofamily

A few months ago my daughter discover the Twilight books and fell into the world of the Cullen Vampires (she is now a huge fan of this series of Books). One of the interesting things about the Twilight series is that there are actually more books than most people realize. There are the four main books which everyone seems to know about, the ones that the movies were based on (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn) but there are also three lesser know books – Life and Death, Midnight Sun and The Short Second life of Bree Tanner.

After reading and rereading the main 4 books we were still wanting more of this Vampire world that Stephenie Meyer created so we tried Life and Death and loved it and then we tried this one – The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner. Now this one was a bit different than all the others but still very interesting. There is a small character in the main books – a young newborn who does not want to fight and is the one that the Cullen’s offer sanctuary to (unfortunately she ends up being killed), that is Bree Tanner and this book is the story of her life after she is turned into a vampire. It is very different to the other books in the series because it goes more into the imagined life of a vampire, and a vampire that is not living the Cullen’s way of life (ie still hunting humans for blood).

Okay honest thoughts – it is not as good as the main books and Life and Death but that is because it is not about the main characters that we have grown to love (we love the Cullen family and honestly would love some books about the other members of the Cullen family). The end does link in to the main series but it is really written about Bree Tanner, her struggle to survive while living in a cruel vampire coven. It is not the happy, good vampires of the Cullen family this is vampires that have been turned with the intention of creating an army, so they are blood thirsty and they do not consider human life. I did miss the sweet Cullen vampires but I also found this an interesting read, because that young vampire the one who did not want to fight and who managed to win over the Cullen’s has always intrigued me so I did enjoy reading her story. I also thought that by giving a backstory to the newborn army you got to understand that they were just young vampires without guidance and really they were the tools of Victoria. So in that way I actually liked the fact that the author choose to add this side story because it does flesh out that part of the story.

Personally I thought the author did a brilliant job of bringing the world of these newborns to life the way she did. I think it is well written and it adds something extra to the main story. I liked the fact that within the newborn army she touches on the fact that there are different characters, some are just mean but some are actually just trying to figure this all out and are scared. As with all her books the author does manage to make her vampires human (well the nice ones do end up feeling human to the readers). It is a well written story, you get to sympathize and understand Bree and feel sad when she dies.

If your kids have discover and loved the main Twilight books then I would suggest giving this one a go. It is a great “add-on” to the main series. Both my daughter and I recommend this for all other Twilight readers.

Admin – I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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You Can Draw in 30 Days – a useful drawing book

Posted on July 19, 2024 by ofamily

My son really enjoys drawing but he is not that keen on me teaching him how to draw so I have actually mostly left him to do some drawing videos online and given him a few tips and suggestions. But about a month ago I suggested that he starts working through this book – How to Draw in 30 Days – which he did and I have to admit that both my son and I have been impressed with the progress he has made in his drawings.

I liked this book because it breaks down drawing into small easy to practice tasks, so my son could just do one task a day and it would just take him a few minutes. This meant he was not getting bored or frustrated and it meant he stuck with it (if the tasks had been too long and time consuming to do I am not sure if he would have stuck with and completed all of them as quickly as he did).

The book does start with some very basic steps like how to draw and shade in spheres and cubes (which although they are basics are the building blocks that you need for more complex drawings), but it does build on these basics and the kids are soon using the basic concepts in more challenging ideas.

Okay each drawing activity is broken down into steps. They explain the steps and illustrate what you should be drawing for each step.

And as you progress through the book so the drawing activities do become more challenging and more interesting. But I must say that I never felt like they included a drawing activity too early or that they included something for which they had not already explained the basics. So in other words the way that the drawing activities progress makes sense as long as you do each activity in order (this is not one of those books where you should jump around, here you really do need to stick to the order and do each and every activity so that you can progress).

Both my son and I have been impressed with this book. We like the way the break the drawings down into the easy steps and we like they way it builds on the basics and gets more and more challenging as you progress. This has been a very worthwhile drawing book and it has definitely helped my son cement some basic drawing knowledge. We highly recommend this book.

You can buy this book directly from Amazon – How To Draw in 30 Days.

Admin – This is a book that I bought. I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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Factology Vikings – Book Review

Posted on July 16, 2024 by ofamily

When my kids were younger we spent ages going through a Viking phase in our home education. It was actually really fun, we read all sorts of books and did a bunch of fun activities, so when I spotted this new Viking book (Factology Vikings) I was immediately curious and I wanted to see what it contained and if it would have been something that we would have utilized and enjoyed in our Viking craze.

First impressions – I was actually really impressed with how much they have included in this book. They have divided the book into 3 main chapters – Meet the Vikings, Viking Mythology and then Viking World. And wow within those 3 chapters they have really included lots of interesting information.

The page format is also great, lots of pictures and diagrams with small blocks on information, really great for younger kids (8-12 ages) and visual learners.

Okay after reading it – what I really liked about this book was that it contained all the information that I expected from a Viking book (who were the Vikings, their weaponry, boats, lifestyle, runes a bit on mythology etc etc) but it also includes a lot more than that. I loved that they included information on the clan structure – so explaining who the Jarls vs Karls were. They went into more detail about the forts and buildings (which I have not seen before) and I liked they way they explained about their beliefs, this is something that was important to the Viking way of life yet lots of kids books do not really explain much about it.

I also liked that they dealt with some of the famous Vikings and their invasions/ battles, because this is really how it ties into our History.

And the fact that they talk about the Vikings going East (the Rus) and going to Newfoundland.

I really feel like they included a lot more than I expected or have seen in other Viking books.

I would have loved to have had this book when we went through our Viking learning phase so yes I definitely recommend it for other home educators.

I have not seen this in my local book store but you can buy it directly from Amazon here is my link – Factology Vikings.

Admin – I was given a copy of this book. This is NOT a paid for post.

I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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GCSE English Language Descriptive Writing Model Answers in a book

Posted on July 10, 2024 by ofamily

We are busy preparing for our IGCSE English Language exam and I have to admit that even though my daughter loves writing, the writing component of the exams are quite specific in that the exam boards are looking for very specific answers that tick the right boxes (it really is not creative writing anymore it is more writing in a format that the exam board requires). So I was getting a bit nervous about what was really required and how it should look. I have read the specification, I have read student books and I have looked at the exam board mark schemes but I still felt like what I really wanted was a set of good examples that I could read. I felt like I needed to read a number of good examples and I also felt like my daughter needed to read some good examples so that we both truly understood the writing style that they wanted. And that was when we discovered this gem – Revise GCSE English Language Descriptive Writing Model Answers and Practice.

Now before I go any further I want to stress this is just Descriptive Writing. In the IGCSE English Language exam the kids get to choose between writing a descriptive piece and a narrative piece. We have already decided that we are going with the descriptive piece so we are focusing on that. But if you have not decided that and want to keep options open then I want to stress this book only covers descriptive writing, narrative writing is in this book – Revise GCSE English Language Creative Story Writing.

So what exactly does this book contain? This is a book which contains 12 examples of descriptive writing questions along with 12 potential model answers. The idea is that by reading a number of different pieces of GOOD descriptive writing you and your kiddo will have a better idea of what is expected.

They have also included a really useful checklist of things to try and include in your descriptive writing piece (we really like this little checklist).

This is NOT a student book with activities to complete. These are examples of the type of writing that your kiddo is aiming for.

Have we found this book useful? Yes. Both my daughter and I think it was worth the money that we paid for it and we both feel that reading these examples have helped us better understand what we are aiming for.

Do we recommend this book – Yes!

But please I want to stress this is ONLY descriptive writing and it is 12 sample questions with 12 potential answers (this is NOT an activity book or a student book).

Admin – I do include Affiliate links. If you follow an affiliate link and go on to purchase that product, I will be paid a very small commission, however your cost will remain the same. I only include affiliate links for products that we use and recommend.

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