MYO Awesome Spelling Train

You'll forgive me as I toot my own horn (aren't I witty?) but I think this spelling train I made E turned out absolutely adorable. Using some scrapbook paper, I created a shape train, leaving pockets in each of the cars.  To go in those pockets, I labeled 26 popsicle sticks with the letters of the alphabet, topping them off with animal alphabet graphics I found online.

Four letters slip into the box cars, allowing E to spell different words and play around with rhymes.

Holes I punched in each box reveal the letter there as well.

Let the literacy fun begin!

The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

You knew I'd be featuring this book at some point this week! Of course everyone has heard of the story, but have you ever read the full, original version? Because of its title - and its famous catchphrase "I think I can!" - I always thought this book was about the power of positive thinking. But the true title of the book should be The Little Engine that Would. It's basically the story of the Good Samaritan: Toys on a broken down train plead with a series of passersby to stop and help them deliver good things to the children on the other side of the mountain. Train after capable train refuse for one reason or another. Finally, the little engine, who wasn't sure if she even could climb the mountain, agrees.

E has always loved this book, and while I often created my own abridged version for her, I appreciate the moral of helping others against insurmountable odds. Sometimes, you just can't beat a classic.

I'm linking up to:
- Made by You Monday @ Skip to My Lou

Feelings: A Study in Cookie Dough

There's nothing you can't do with cookie dough! After seeing numerous amazing cookie projects on Almost Unschoolers, I decided to dust off my favorite sugar cookie recipe and create some of our own cookie play dough.

To make, just whip up a batch of cookie dough, divide into bowls, and knead in food coloring. The kids loved playing with the dough and agreed that it tasted much better than regular play dough. (When my sister asked how they knew what play dough tasted like, I told her - same way I know!)

I asked the kids to create faces for their cookies. E experimented with happy, sad, angry, and surprised.

My nephews strayed a bit from the assignment to create two scary Cyclops and one monster face with 15 eyes. Very original and all were oh-so-delicious!

Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

If I were a childrens writer, I think I'd want to be Amy Krouse Rosenthal. I have yet to meet a book of hers that I didn't like, and as a seasoned author she gets paired up with some pretty great illustrators. Cookies is the first in this series that defines important concepts for children in terms of cookies. Definition words include cooperate, content, regret, trustworthy, wise, courageous, and honest. For example, "HONEST means, I have to tell you something. The butterfly didn't really take the cookie - I took the cookie."

The gentle examples and sweet illustrations make this book a great platform to discuss the character-building qualities with your children. I think this book has generational appeal, and both of my girls (A is not yet 2) enjoyed it.

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

Compassion...

The point of our "week in Thailand" was to get the girls more excited and familiar with the homeland of Aom, the child we sponsor through Compassion. Today's activity was a simple one: draw a picture for Aom. According to the letters we receive from Aom's family, she loves art and is a pretty exceptional artist herself. I thought this was rather impressive for a 5 year old:

For comparison, here is the picture E drew for Aom:

In case you were wondering (and I certainly was) the big thing is a tree and the little thing is a flower. We'll be sending this picture, along with a letter and updated picture of ourselves to Aom and her family via Compassion.

If you've ever been to a Christian concert, event, or even just surfed the Internet, you have probably heard of Compassion International. According to their website, "Compassion International exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults."

There are many reasons why we chose to sponsor a child, but here are a few:

• Encourage Generosity. We chose our sponsored child during the Christmas season to help refocus E from getting to giving.
• Teach Multiculturalism. We want our children to respect and value diversity.
• Promote Prayer. We pray for Aom and her family almost every night, allowing E the opportunity to consistently pray for a child she has never met.
• Practice Our Faith. The Bible calls for us to care for "widows and orphans" (in other words, those who struggle to care for themselves). We like that Compassion works with local churches and faith-based organizations. Sponsoring a child is a simple but very practical way we can put scripture into practice.

If you're interested in sponsoring a child, visit Compassion's website or just click on the widget below. You can view available children directly online and even choose gender, age, and country if you'd like.





Sponsor a Child

Spiritual Sunday: God's Little Princess Devotional Bible

I am always on the lookout for books that will teach my girls to love the Lord and others. Let's face it: it's hard to find good spiritually-focused books for kids. I've become a reviewer for Thomas Nelson, and hope to occasionally bring you books I have found through them (and others) that make the cut.

God's Little Princess Devotional Bible by Sheila Walsh

Like most children's Bibles, this book paraphrases selected stories starting in Genesis and ending in the New Testament (in this case, 1 John). Unlike most kids' Bibles, a fun application activity or devotional follows each story. These application portions vary greatly, from skits to scenarios to beauty tips (that always focus on becoming beautiful inside and out). Clipart and illustrations of Walsh's Little Princess character decorate the pages throughout.

I like the variety of activities in this Bible, which allows me to pick and choose what I want to do with my daughter. The skits, for example, are fairly useless for early and pre-readers,  and some of the suggested activities - like having your child polish your silver - are laughable. Yet there are enough excellent ideas to make me excited about reading this with E. The writing is appropriate for young girls and avoids speaking down to them while encouraging them to love God unashamedly and follow Him without fear... exactly what God's word should do for us all.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Salute to Sendak - A Spooky Story

We finish up our week focusing on famed author/illustrator Maurice Sendak!

The Book - Outside Over There

This book horrified me. I borrowed it from the library months ago and read it to Little Page without perusing it first. She loved it, but I found it deeply disturbing and was worried it would cause my impressionable four year old to have nightmares. She didn't, thank goodness, and even conned her father into reading it to her again before I had a chance to return it to the library.

The story tells of Ida, a girl whose father is out to sea and mother is in the arbor leaving Ida to watch her baby sister. Ida ignores her sister who gets stolen by goblins to be their goblin bride. Realizing what happened, Ida goes after her sister, eventually tricking the goblins and rescuing the baby girl.


The writing is beautiful, simple and descriptive in true Sendak-fashion. Lines like these weave a picture in your mind and cast it like a net across your imagination:

Poor Ida, never knowing, hugged the changeling
and she murmured: "How I love you."
The ice thing only dripped and stared,
and Ida mad knew goblins had been there.
"They stole my sister away!" she cried,
"To be a nasty goblin's bride!"
Now Ida in a hurry
snatched her Mama's yellow rain cloak,
tucked her horn safe in pocket,
and made a serious mistake.
She climbed backwards out her window
into outside over there.

Instead of distracting from the rich language of the story, the illustrations enhance it. Just as Outside Over There is more somber than Wild Things, the pictures are more detailed and realistic. They are gorgeous, but also haunting and disturbing in their own way. The goblins are small hooded creatures with baby-fat arms and only darkness where the face should be. (They look to me like infant Ring Wraiths or Dementors.) Ida's baby sister is a cherublike little thing with rosy cheeks and a cry so real you want to reach through the page and rescue her yourself. The scenery is full of dark and light, flowers and stone.

Have I captured for you the complexity of this book? It is one of those stories which speaks to a child's primal fears and helps her overcome them with a brave protagonist and happy ending. As a mother, however, I want to protect my child from fear and found the story to be not only haunting but also very disquieting.

So what about you? Have you read this book yourself or to your children? What are your thoughts? Leave me a comment and let me know!

The Activity - Write a Letter to a Serviceman

One of the things that first caused me to pick up Outside Over There was the fact that Ida's father is out at sea. He writes to her at the end of the book, and you feel his father's love span the distance and embolden her spirit. Living in a navy town means that most of my friends are navy wives. They and their children routinely deal with six and seven month deployments.

You and your kids can encourage our heroes! Let your child write, dictate, and/or decorate a letter or card for a deployed member of the military. There are numerous ways to get involved. I'm going to talk with a few of my navy friends and ask what their favorite organization are, but in the meantime, here are a few sites I found through Google:

• A Million Thanks - organizing cards and letters for military men and women
• Soldiers Angels - join any number of teams to encourage and support servicemen
• United Through Reading - provides books for deployed parents to read via DVD to their kids. My friend's husband regularly sent home videos of himself reading bedtime stories for his kids to watch during his six month deployment. They LOVED it!

Updated: My friends recommended two other sites.

• Lets Say Thanks - allows you to send a free printed postcard to troops
• Fabric Postcards - make a fabric postcard to send to soldiers in Iraq! There are pictures of some made by children that might inspire you.
  

Social Graces - Be a Free Fish!

Our week of "how to make friends and influence people - preschool edition" concludes today, but not without one more plug for my giveaway! It's not too late, people. Go leave a comment and maybe win a free kid's book!

The Book - Simon's Hook; A Story About Teases and Put-downs by Karen Gedig Burnett

This book is fabulous! As the subtitle suggests, it teaches children constructive methods of dealing with those who tease and insult. The lesson focuses on the metaphor of not biting the hook. Instead, you should be a "free fish". How do you keep from biting? The book covers five ways, including swimming in another part of the sea, distracting others from the bait, and agreeing with the bait. It gives examples of each in a fun, fishy-themed way at a level children can understand.

Amazon lists this book as for children grades 1-4, and I have to agree. 3 and 4 year olds rarely insult each other. They prefer to throw things, hit, or refuse to share. And a 4 year old isn't going to be savvy enough to take an insult and turn it into a joke. Still, I love the idea of preemptively arming Little Page with the tools she'll need to respond to put-downs in a constructive way.

The Craft/Activity - Go Fish!

Practice the methods you learned with a simple role play. First you'll need a fishing pole. I took a dowel (Walmart had a package of 10 for just over a dollar) and cut a notch at one end. Using embroidery thread for the fishing line, I tied it around the dowel at the notch. Then I tied the other end of the thread around a large paper clip. Referring to the book for ideas, I wrote little put-downs and teases on strips of paper. Then it was time to play!

We used our puppet stage and two fish puppets (gotta love hand-me-downs!), but you could simply use a sock for a puppet. I had Little Page go fish with a put-down while I played the role of the fish. First, I showed how the fish would "bite" the hook. He screamed and cried and denied and then chomped onto that paper as hard as his little stuffed mouth would let him. Little Page burst into fits of giggles everytime I did this. Then we reviewed one of the methods and the fish acted it out, eventually swimming away from the hook as a free fish!

Thank you to my sister for this week's wonderful book selections! Come back on Monday to find out who won the giveaway, and to start a new themed week... books for the common cold!

Social Graces - Tattle Tale! Tattle Tale!

The Book - Tattlin' Madeline by Carol Cummings, Ph.D.

Before I dive into my review, I just have to say that the characters' lack of pupils freaked me out a little. My sister - who is a elementary school counselor and recommended this week's books - is probably rolling her own eyes at me right now. But, seriously, would drawing a little dot for a pupil hurt? Besides crazy all-whites eyeballs, the illustrations are nothing special. The story, however, is extremely useful in teaching the difference between Tattling and Reporting.

Little Page is a huge tattletale. She's not vindictive; she simply must see justice prevail at all times. I've tried to explain to her that no one likes a tattletale, but all my conversations with her were not nearly as productive as going through this little book.

Madeline is a tattletale and as a result doesn't have any friends. When her teacher sees her crying about it one day, she explains the difference between tattling and reporting. A tattletale tells on her friends to get others in trouble or to give herself attention. A reporter goes to an adult when someone could get hurt or property damaged.

One reading of the story and a short talk afterward, and Little Page seemed to get it!

The Craft/Game - Tattling or Reporting... which is it?


What you'll need...

1. 2 paper plates
2. paint
3. construction paper
4. glue
5. glue gun
6. un-sharpened pencil

For the game, we'll make an auction placard. Have your child decorate the back of the plates with paint or markers. Draw an R (for reporter) and a T (for tattler) on colored paper and let your child cut them out. Glue the letters on the plates and then hot glue the plates together. Insert a pencil as a handle before the glue dries.

For the game, present your child with different scenarios. For example, your child is playing with his friend when his friend refuses to share a toy. Your child runs and tells you that his friend isn't sharing. Is that tattling or reporting? Or... Your child sees his little brother pick up a knife. He runs to tell you. Is that tattling or reporting? To answer the question, have your kid flash his sign with the right letter.

Little Page loved this game, and I was impressed with how many times she got it right!

Social Graces - Talking Crayons... and the more silent kind

GIVEAWAY!!! Yes, I'm excited. Be sure to checkout and enter my very first giveaway!

I went to pick up Little Page from school on Friday and chatted with the other moms while we waited for The Doors to open. As we talked, we came to realize that each of us had asked our child who they played with at school and each of our children answered "by myself." We had all convinced ourselves that our kid was anti-social and friendless! While those fears turned out to be unfounded, school provides plenty of opportunities for sticky social situations. This week we'll look at books that deal with some of these issues.

The Book - The Crayon Box that Talked by Shane Derolf and Michael Letzig

This book isn't going to win any awards. The illustrations are average and the rhyming is horribly cheesy... but your kid is probably going to love it.

The story is simple. The crayons in a box can't get along with each other. Red doesn't like blue and blue doesn't like green. One day a little girl pours them all out where they can see each other and the sheet of paper she plans to draw on. They watch intrigued, as she picks up each in its turn and adds it to the drawing. In the end they see how beautiful the picture becomes because of its many colors.

It's a nice little story to use with your child to discuss diversity and appreciating the differences in others!

The Craft - Monogram Crayons

This activity is so simple, but you do need to have the right tools. I bought these trays for my sister's birthday and, of course, for myself! The letter molds let you bake or freeze anything into the shapes of capital letters. I used them to create these adorable letter crayons.


Wouldn't these make great party favors? I created these two as a special treat for Little Page and her best friend on their first day of school.

What you'll need...

1. 2 crayons per letter
2. letter molds
3. ribbon

Choose two crayons for each letter and strip off the paper. I used extra crayons we had from a local restaurant. Chop the crayons into small pieces and push into the mold. Bake at 200 degrees for as long as it takes to melt. Keep an eye on it, so the colors don't completely melt together. Allow to cool and then pop from the molds! Tie on a ribbon and you're done - darling crayons your kids will love.

I'm joining A Soft Place to Land's DIY Thursday! Come join the fun!