Kids Crafts.

I don't often find kids craft books that I really like. I recently discovered a new book, Crafting With Kids: Creative Fun for Children Aged 3-10, which has many fun projects as well as nice photography! It has end to end projects using a variety of materials for a good age range.


There are many fun projects in the book -- potato printing, rock painting, felt finger puppets, yarn pompoms, lavender filled felt pockets/sachets, tie-dye shirts, paper pinwheels, paper mache dinosaur, little wood sailboat, wooden spoon puppets, doll house furniture, and much more.

Definitely many good ideas using everything from paper to fabric to wood to paint.





Crafting With Kids: Creative Fun for Children Aged 3-10 by Catherine Woram










I have also been enjoying my new subscription to Living Crafts Magazine...the spring issue just arrived! Many wonderful craft projects for both mom and kids!

Nature's Playground.

Nature's Playground: Activities, Crafts, and Games to Encourage Children to Get Outdoors by Fiona Danks.

It arrived. I brought it home from the library today--and just kept looking through it and reading it and looking at the projects. It is a great book for ideas of seasonal nature crafts, outdoor games, and outdoor exploring for kids of all ages. It is a book about getting outside, getting dirty, and letting kids roam and explore and finding those "wild places".

It is nicely divided into seasons, with ideas and projects for each section. The photos make me want to just live in the woods (as usual) and I cannot wait to try some fun projects like the forest mobiles, treetop spying, ice mobiles, wind flags, and colorful crowns. The end of the book adds ideas for things such as outdoor parties, beaches, and "after dark." Very cool!

Halloween.

Halloween
by Harry Behn
Illustrated by Greg Couch

I have loved every single book illustrated by Greg Couch. This book is just as beautifully illustrated - rich colors, tiny details, fantastical elements, textured, light and dark intertwining, the intensity of color on the dark. The boys just stare at the images, and want to read and re-read. They even touch the pages, as if to see if they can feel something of that texture coming off of the page. Very cool book!

A few fun books - hurricanes, recycling & garbage.

With all the rain we have had more time to read, and we have a few books that quickly became favorites. It was hard to choose just one, so I have listed a few. A is a facts and information bug, as you can tell by his selections (although he loves his more relaxing bedtime stories too!).

A had heard about the hurricane on the weather channel during our big storms last week and was interested in finding out more about them. We tracked the hurricane for several days, researched a bit about the Hurricane Hunter aircraft and the science behind their readings - but he wanted more!!! The library had a book about them titled "Hurricane Hunters!: Riders on the Storm" and it seems that we have read it at least 30 times in the past few days. The artwork is nice, the story and information is thorough but simple, and the story ties it all together. Definitely a great book to tie in with any other weather books.



A has been asking questions lately about garbage, landfills, recycling. He has been asking questions about why we recycle, why we buy recycled goods, why we take our own bags to the grocery store, and what happens with our trash when it leaves here. All good questions. We found several books at the library about recycling and garbage - but the favorite this week is "Garbage and Recycling". The book not only has facts and great accompanying graphics, but also includes "Do It Yourself" experiments for kids, and simple side bars titled "How Can We Help?". He was thrilled to find we do most of the things listed, and is excited about some experiments, such as building a decomposer. He also inspects any packaging before throwing it away to see if it needs to go in the recycling bin!


Along with the garbage questions have come the questions about everything else - the inner workings of the home. Where does the water come from, where does it go after it goes down the drain, what happens to what we flush, how does electricity get to our house? More good questions! We have spent the last 3 weeks reading (and re-reading) "Switched On, Flushed Down, Tossed Out : Investigating the Hidden Workings of Your Home". It is written with easy to follow descriptions (although not much in the way of alternative energy, but realistic in its portrayal of the standard energy sources) and is illustrated and bright. It is organized to have clues, and investigators who crack the case at each step, and he loved that element of the book. It is a bit longer than many books for this age group, but the information is organized enough that even the preschoolers can follow it easily - we just broke it out into sections. Some of the info, such as televisions and telephones are overly simplistic, but you won't get the science of that in one page anyway...definitely helps to answer those questions and explain how it works in a very visual way.

Life on Earth - Another interesting book.

We picked up a big stack of books at the library which relate to caves, fossils, and prehistoric creatures. The visit to the cave has created many new fun conversations with A, who wants to repeatedly discuss how a living thing becomes a fossil. During our cave tour, the guide shone her flashlight to the ceiling of the cave, and jutting out was a large clear 2-3 foot long fossil of a squid like creature. I think that is what got him going. But the ideas of time, extinction, and just the history of life is a big subject.

One book we found was "Life On Earth: The Story of Evolution" by Steve Jenkins. It addresses in a pretty quick and fundamental way things like biodiversity, natural selection, and speciation. It has enough detail to interest my fact loving 4 year old, but not so much that he wanders off. The artwork is VERY cool too. The author creates amazing paper collages to illustrate his books. I think A could look at the one page of beetles for HOURS. We have read other books by Steve Jenkins - I am always inspired by his artwork.


We found a few other fun books - another favorite over the weekend was "Bugs Before Time: Prehistoric Insects and their Relatives". Very interesting!

Pete's a Pizza & Pizza Night

Last night we had a pizza night. We picked up our books at the library, which included the book "Pete's a Pizza". I read the book to the boys in the car as we drove to the local Italian deli. The boys helped us select sauce, pizza crusts, mozzarella cheese, and everything else we needed for dinner. When we got home the boys made their own pizzas (which they always love to do). As the pizzas baked, dad "acted out" the book on the boys, which included kneading their bellies, smearing "sauce" on them, and sprinkling on the cheese. They shrieked and laughed and giggled and wanted to do it again and again...until the oven beeped. They then sat down and wolfed down their pizzas, and asked if we could have pizza night every night!

Being "kneaded".
It's done!
Mine too!

Another fun book.

Don't Touch My Hat by James Rumford

A goes to a "Donuts with Dad" storytime at the library once a month. They have a morning snack, several stories, and a craft related to the theme. Last week they read several western books, and made spurs. A loved one book in particular, so we checked it out and have re-read it many MANY times this week.

The artwork is nice, and the story a bit funny. A cowboy/sheriff thinks his big 10-gallon hat makes him who he is, but in the middle of the night he is called out by his deputy. There are cattle rustlers, brawls, and disputes all going on at once in town. In the dark and in his haste, the cowboy accidentally puts on his wife's big flowery hat. He catches the rustlers, stops the brawl, and settles the dispute. When he gets home he realizes what happened, and that "It's the heart, not the hat." Cute.

A has worn his spurs, boots and a cowboy hat much of the week now (see him when we picked flowers for pressing).

Old books.

One of my favorite things is collecting old books. Nothing like a first edition Henry Miller to make my day. I also love children's books. I have collected many great oldies over the years in my travels, but I also have a nice big bin of books from my own childhood. I keep many of them in plastic, to give to my kids when they are older (as we check them out from the library if we want to read them), but every once in awhile I get a craving to dig around and refresh my memory.

One book I dragged upstairs this week is "The Ice-Cream Cone Coot and Other Rare Birds" by Arnold Lobel.

I always loved the artwork and rhyme, and it has become A's favorite book this week. We have read it 100 times at the least, and he pores over every detail of each image over and over, to impress it into his memory. Although it is out of print, most libraries probably carry it - and it is worth looking for - the artwork is spectacular.

The Frog Prince.

The Frog Prince

The Brothers Grimm story re-told by Kathy-Jo Wargin, illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert

This is another book that I got for "me", but that the boys both enjoy. The artwork is absolutely gorgeous. Lush, rich, detailed, flowing, intense - just the costume detail alone is - wow. The story follows a fairly traditional version of the story, and is detailed enough for the elementary age kids, but also quick enough for the younger set.

Just a note: It is the more traditional telling where she throws the frog at the wall which is when he turns into the prince ... but it is easy to work around that for those that are not comfortable with frog-thwacking in a story, as it is just 1 sentence of the book. :)

How I Became a Pirate

We reserved this book at the library...so many friends have kids into pirates. Mine, not so interested. I thought the artwork looked amazing, so I got it for myself!! After sitting down and relaxing, A really enjoyed the book. So much that I had to read it many times a day. He wanted me to get out the pirate "hook" and bandana for him to wear, and even put on a play silk sash. G, who is only 2 and not usually interested in anything but CLOSING any book we are reading, enjoyed the pictures too. He even put on the costume several times and ran around the house screaming ARRRRRRRRRRRRRR. And "hoydare" (ahoy there!).

Luscious artwork - "Tree Ring Circus"

Tree Ring Circus, by Adam Rex.

I got this book for my 4 year old from the library this week and while yes, he loves the story, wow...I just love the artwork.

"2 tigers, 3 chipmunks, 5 poodles with capes, 1 lion, 3 squirrels, 2 key-stealing apes, 2 blue jays, 1 ostrich, 1 raven, a clown. A cat who climbed up and would love to get down. 2 sparrows, 1 chicken, a whopping big bee. 5 mice and a bear ...and a very full tree."

The paintings are gorgeous, the style includes vintage three ring circus signage/text and it is so interesting to look at. Definitely a great story and picture book for kids of all ages. I visited his website (illustration, blog, books) and found another book, titled "The Dirty Cowboy" - I put that one on hold and will hopefully have that from the library in a few days. Can't wait!

I Saw an Ant on the Railroad Track by Joshua Prince

I have been looking for books about peaceful interactions with animals and insects (my four year old is very interested in the food chain, and upset by it, so...a balance). This week we found "I Saw an Ant on the Railroad Track" and A LOVES it. The rhymes are pretty complex compared to most child-fare, so it is interesting to read and interesting to hear. Perhaps like the clickity clack of a railroad track... The artwork is spectacular, and the story is quick to the point and has a great ending. And, for a four year old, having a train in the book, even as a side bar to the main story, is a bonus. My four year old loves it, my two year old is a bit antsy, but he only likes cupcake books now anyway, so that is probably not the best barometer!!!!!!

The Children's Party Book, by Ane & Peter Thomas

The Children's Party Book, Anne & Peter Thomas

I have been searching through books from the library for ideas for my sons 4th birthday. We are trying to focus on more meaningful rituals and celebrations, reduce our plastics and character toys, and incorporate more natural elements into our home and play. SO. When looking for birthday party ideas, everything is bright, plastic, not made from renewable or recyclable materials. The icing is colored with who knows what. The refined sugar is crazy. Now, I am not going to serve granola cake on brown paper bags - I want it to be fun, important, and festive - but I don't want a pre-packaged party kind of theme thing.

My almost four year old wants John Deere (he, as every other 3 year old boy, loves construction and farm equipment). I thought I could incorporate that into a fun party "theme" without going matching store bought day glo stuff.

In my search, I came across a great book from the library. It has party games, themes, decor and costumes, and more which are are closer to the natural play ideology. There are many great ideas. Some are for school aged children, but there are plenty of ideas that can be incorporated for younger kids.