Purebred Pups

Like our new pooches? They're cute, they're cuddly, and I guarantee they won't pee on the carpet. I found this craft on TLC's website and printed off the directions for E and I to tackle together. Pom poms do not like to be glued, particularly to pipe cleaners, so this was a bit of a frustrating activity for my 5 year old perfectionist. Still, we managed to create two adorable doggies - Princess the Poodle and Dinky the Dachshund - which, while too fragile to be played with, look awfully cute on our bookshelf.

(I would recommend if you decide to make the poodle, to make the legs a little longer than the directions suggestion, and bend them at the end to form the feet. Then just glue the ankle puff on top of the bend. This has got to be more successful than trying to glue three tiny fuzzy pieces together.)


The Perfect Puppy for Me by Jane O'Connor

I like books that squeeze a lot of non-fiction into a fictional story. The Perfect Puppy for Me teaches your children about several different breeds of dogs (including poodles and dachshunds): their unique temperaments, needs, and talents. It also incorporates general doggy knowledge, such as how to read a dog's mood based on the position of its tail, the scientific name for dogs, and what foods you should never feed a dog.

The underlying story is that of a boy whose parents have promised him a dog. In an attempt to find the right dog for him, he tells about all the different dogs he knows, what breed they are, and what they're like. This is an excellent book for kindergarteners and up to learn all about dog breeds in an informal and practical way. I love that the book is able to be so thorough without being dry or boring. It has one major flaw, however, and that is leaving out my dog's breed!

A face like that deserves a mention in any dog book! (He's a havanese, which really was the perfect dog for me.)


I'm linking up to:
- stART @ A  Mommy's Adventure

Summer Reading Programs

Read books to win books... sounds like my kind of summer fun! Stores and libraries start up their summer reading programs next month. With idle summer days (and bored restless children) stretching out in front of me, I'm not wasting a moment before signing up.

Barnes & Noble
Running May 25 through September 6, B&N's Passport to Summer Reading is open to kids grades 1-6. Your child simply needs to read 8 books, write about his/her favorite part, and bring a completed tear page to any participating Barnes & Noble store. They then get to choose a paperback of their choice from a list! I wish E was old enough to participate - 8 books? We'd be finished in a day!

Borders
Borders' Double Dog Dare program is open to all kids 12 and under (yay!). They require your child to read 10 books. Just fill out the form listing the books and bring it to a Borders store or Walden Books to receive a free book.

Lifeway Christian Stores
Lifeway's program isn't nearly as good of a deal, but if you shop there often this might be useful. Sign up for their Summer Reading Race and receive a punch card good for 15% off kid's books from June 5 through July 31. After you have bought and and your child reports as reading 5 books, you can bring in your completed punch card for a kid's surprise. The program kicks off with crafts, snacks, and storytimes on June 5 from 11am -1pm at participating stores.

Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge
No free books here, but some excellent book lists to help keep your readers engaged, as well as an online area older children can log their reads and win virtual rewards.

And of course, your community library is sure to have a summer reading program, so visit their website or drop by your local branch for more information.

Favorite Pre-K Crafts and Books

I spent this morning at E's pre-K graduation! My baby is all grown up and ready for Kindergarten. Seeing as I'm in a nostalgic frame of mind, I thought I'd share with you a few of E's recent school crafts and her book recommendations. (BTW, did you notice how I'm in the picture? I'm trying, ladies!)

Paper Bag Bumblebee

I thought this was such a clever use for a paper bag! The teachers pre-painted the bags yellow and then had the kids add the black stripes. The back of the bag is taped into a pointy stinger, and the kids added construction paper wings, sticker eyes, and pipe cleaner antennae.

Eric Carle Artwork

These turned out beautifully and were a wonderful lesson in cooperation. The children painted on large sheets of paper, filling the page with color. Once they were dry, the teacher spread the pages across the table and let each child choose two coordinating colors. They then traced a design on the pages and had the children cut out the shapes and glue them to a piece of paper. I wish I had taken pictures of the other kids' artwork as well - they were all different but equally impressive.

Butterfly Life-cycle in Pasta

I thought this was such a clever way of teaching kids the life-cycle of a butterfly. A lima bean symbolizes the egg... spiral pasta is the caterpillar... a small pasta shell represents the chrysalis... and bowtie pasta finishes the cycle as the butterfly. The kids painted each piece and even added glitter to jazz it up.

E's Book Recommendations:

I asked E for her three favorite books from pre-K and here are her recommendations in her own words.

Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse by Leo Lionni

The story is about a mouse (Alexander) that meets a wind-up mouse (Willy). The wind-up mouse heard of a magic lizard that could make Alexander a wind-up mouse like Willy. Then Alexander went into the blackberry bushes and there appeared a bright colored lizard. Alexander asked the lizard if he could make Alexander into a wind-up mouse. The lizard said "bring me a purple pebble." At last, tired and hungry, Alexander ran all the way home. There in a box was all the children's toys. Willy said that it was Annie's birthday. They decided to throw away the old toys. And then Alexander ran and then came back and there he saw right there a purple pebble right near the box. Then he rushed all the way to the blackberry bushes and gave the pebble to the lizard. The Lizard said "what is your wish?" Alexander stopped what he was in the middle of what he was going to say. Then he said "turn Willy into a mouse like me." And then a flash of light the purple pebble was gone. He rushed back to his hole and then he heard a squeak - Willy was turned into a mouse! And they lived happily ever after.

I liked it because they were friends at the end.

A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

The hermit crab saw that his shell was very small. He wanted a new shell. Then he found a new shell. He put things on his shell. Then it got smaller again one day. Then another crab that was a girl looked at the crab who was a boy. The crab said "would you like to live in my shell?" She said yes. The end.

I liked the pictures. It looked like Eric Carle.




Going to the Zoo by Tom Paxton

It was a very busy day and two children and a daddy was going to go to the zoo and watch all the animals all day. They looked at a bear too. And then they returned home at night. In the morning they rushed to their mommy. And they were going to the zoo with their mommy. The end.

I liked it because it had a song, a book, and a tape!





I'm linking up to:
- ABC & 123's Show and Tell

Mystery

I'm exhausted from staying up late to watch the series finale of Lost. Whether or not you loved the show - or the finale - you have to admit it was a unique cultural phenomenon. What made Lost so successful? Other than a wonderful cast and excellent writing, it was the mystery that infused every episode.  Mystery allows our imaginations to run free, to fill in the gaps, to wonder, to explore.

If you have a few minutes, listen to this TED talk about mystery by Lost creator J.J.Abrams:



Children are naturally curious and drawn to mysteries. Artist and author Chris Van Allsburg knows this and celebrates it in his extraordinary book:

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg

He had warned her about the book.

Now it was too late.

This unique book opens with a letter to the reader explaining that the following 14 illustrations and captions were sent to the publisher by Harris Burdick who was never heard from again. Children are encouraged to look through these incredible pictures, read the illustrations and dream of the stories they hide.

The fifth one ended up in France.

I found this book in high school, but over a decade later I am still intrigued and inspired by these pictures and captions. I was tempted to ask E to tell me the story behind one or two of these pictures, but I don't want to ruin the magic of the mystery with an assignment. Rather, I'm going to place this book on the shelf... for her to discover on her own.

It all began when someone left the window open...

What books do you love that inspire imagination?

A Book for Goodbyes

This is E's best friend O. They are two peas in a pod and have been since infancy.

In five weeks, O and his family will be moving away, and E will lose her apple-cheeked playmate.

Which is why I was thrilled to find such a wonderful book to help her prepare...

Half A World Away by Libby Gleeson

This darling book tells the story of best friends Amy and Louie.

 These kindred spirits do everything together and even have a special call when they need the other.

But when Amy's family moves halfway around the world, both children are saddened and think of the other every day and every night, every night and every day.

When Louie asks his grandmother if Amy will hear him if he calls her loudly enough, she tells him to try. "Coo-ee, Am-ee!" Across the globe Amy wakes up having dreamed of Louie... and Louie falls asleep dreaming of Amy.

It's a beautiful story on the enduring love of friendship that soothes my heart as I prepare to say goodbye to my best friend... O's mom.

I'm linking up to:
- Feed Me Books Friday @ The Adventure of Motherhood

Glow Stick Butterflies

Who doesn't love glow sticks? Along with fruit roll-ups and ordering from the grown-up menu, glow sticks were a rare treat growing up. So when I saw packs of glowsticks in Target's dollar spot, I didn't hesitate to toss them in the cart. Inspired by Martha's glow stick spiders, I helped the girls create glow stick butterflies (because one spider craft in a month is enough). To make your own butterflies, you'll need four glow sticks, two connectors, and several pipe cleaners.

1. Using a connector, attach two glow sticks.

2. Loop one end of the glow stick up to the connector and attach with a rubber band.

3. Loop the other end up and push through a couple strands of the rubber band to secure.

4. Repeat with two more glow sticks.

5. Hold the two sets of wings together and secure by wrapping a pipe cleaner around them both. You may need to use two pipe cleaners to fully secure.

6. Thread a shorter pipe cleaner through the body of the butterfly and twist off to create antennae.

7. Turn out the lights and let those butterflies flutter!

Be careful - in the wrong hands they become attack-butterflies!

I think these would be beautiful hanging from trees during a backyard party or dangling from the ceiling during a sleepover! Ours preferred to dance and fly around the room. They're now in the freezer hopefully to be resurrected tomorrow night.

The Listening Walk (Miss Spider) by David Kirk

While this craft could go along with a number of books - including the The Very Quiet Cricket (think "luna moth") - this was the book I chose. I'm not a huge Miss Spider fan, but I can't deny that the computer generated illustrations are amazing. In this story, Wiggle can't sleep from fear of all the scary noises he hears outside. His mom takes him on a nighttime listening walk to place a face to all the noises. As he learns what makes each of the sounds, his fears are soothed and his view of the nighttime forest is altered.

It's obviously a good one for kids who are entering the "scared of the dark" phase, but the charming rhymes and engaging illustrations should entertain any preschooler.

I'm linking up to:
- stART @ A Mommy's Adventure
- SOYS @ Fireflies & Jellybeans

Rainy Day Maze Activities

It rained all day... again. While my girls ran around the house screaming like banshees, I searched for a favorite quiet-time activity: mazes.

Mazescapes by Roxie Munro

I picked up this book from the library for E, thinking she would love it. It's a Where's Waldo type book with intricate bird's-eye drawings of the roads below. The book asks you to drive one of the punch-out cars through each of the pages to eventually arrive at the zoo. There are also other suggested games kids can play finding certain things in each picture or taking an alternate route on the "way home."

E wanted nothing to do with it. She's either too young still or else just too girly, but the book didn't interest her in the least. Still, I'm throwing it out there because I thought it was pretty cool, and judging by how beat-up the book is, there are lots of other kids out there who agreed with me.


Amazing Mazes (Kumon's Practice Books) 


E does love this Kumon workbook which features various mazes of increasing difficulty and complexity. We bought it for her last summer, and I was impressed by how well she did with the mazes. She's always been very slow with puzzles, but she rocked the mazes. My hubby made a huge deal over how well she did, and it was cute to see her confidence soar.






Free Maze Printables

If it's raining and you don't feel like rowing to the bookstore, there are tons of free online mazes.

Step-through Maze
Family Fun offers this template to cut out and turn one sheet of paper into a giant loop you can fit your whole family in.

Family Fun Mazes
The site offers 23 free mazes to download and print out. Many of these are seasonal and all of them revolve around some sort of theme.

Letter Mazes
Printactivities.com offers free printable mazes for nearly every letter of the alphabet.


Marble Maze Craft

Isn't this maze a-mazing? (Oh, c'mon, you knew I'd have to use the pun eventually.) Heather @ The Creative Homemaker posts a step-by-step tutorial on how to make your own marble maze. If I didn't need a boat to get to the hardware store today, I would have started on our own. The best part is that this could double as a geoboard, especially if you don't paint it in a grid pattern.

Rainy Day

It's raining, it's pouring, and everything's so boring! I did my best to beat the spring-rain-blues with a little twist on splatter painting yesterday. We dripped food coloring onto pages of cardstock.

Then I sent my cabin-feverish child out into the elements to watch it splatter. This took about 1.2 seconds. Seriously, if I do this again I'll wait until it's sprinkling. Our steady downpour turned the painting from perfect-splatters to a muddy mess in seconds.

After the painting dried it was begging for a little embellishment. I printed out this free printable from Sarah Jane Studios and cut out the pieces. Then E glued them onto her painting

I didn't have the paper doll the printable was designed for, so I printed out a picture of E and added her head to the picture.

Then I asked my little rhyme-time-lover to compose a poem for the occasion.

Not too shabby! Although in all fairness, my husband suggested "pet" as an appropriate rhyme. E had originally said something about "making you sweat". :)

Rainy Day Books

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema

I reviewed this book almost a year ago, and it's worth another mention. This was one of my favorites as a child and remains a popular one in our house. As a kid, I loved the language and repetition. As a mom, I love that it exposes my kids to places and people different from themselves. Check it out from the library and see if it isn't one you'd want to add to your home collection.



It's Mine! by Leo Lionni

This is a good one if your kids are starting to get cranky stuck inside together. Three quarrelsome frogs fight over everything, each claiming the earth, the water, the air for themselves. A large toad scolds them but with no effect until a huge rainstorm swallows up their little island. The three frogs cling to each other and a lone rock, surviving the storm. When the sky clears they realize the rock is actually that wise toad. Having learned their lesson, they enjoy the bounties of the pond together.




Raindrop, Plop! by Wendy Cheyette Lewison

And for the toddlers out there, here's a rainy day themed counting book just right for little ones. I'm not usually a fan of most counting books, but this one really is adorable. The rhymes are sweet and the illustrations are so cheery, they almost make you glad it's raining outside! A cheered at nearly every page, which is high praise from a toddler.

BTW - I dare you to read this book and not want to buy your daughter her own pair of little froggy boots!



So what favorite rainy day books have I missed?