Doggy-themed care package (with thumbprint doggy card)

My sister's sweet keeshond died recently, and the family has been grieving the loss of their furriest member. Her two boys have taken it especially hard. To help cheer them up - and to celebrate their getting a new puppy soon - I put together this little care package.

Inside is a stuffed dog, our favorite puppy book, a dog-themed coloring book, and a homemade card. The dog is from Target - a great place to find good-quality stuffed animals for cheap. The book is one of our favorites. I love the McDuff series! They are well-written, beautifully illustrated, and just the right length for preschoolers. Plus, at only $10 a book, they're affordable enough to own.

The card was inspired by an image I found on Google, and was super-simple to make.

Simply have your child press two fingerprints on top of each other for two of the doggies: one vertical and the other horizontal. Use your thumbprint (or an older child's thumbprint) for the center dog and add a horizontal fingerprint on top for the snout. Then add your embellishments with a fine-tipped pen.

So what are your favorite dog-themed books? The Carl series? Pepper? Spot? Clifford? Biscuit? (Wow - dogs are a really popular subject with children's authors!)

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