Bunnies and Eggs...Spring is Springing Up on Me!

Found this robin's egg soap at Pottery Barn this weekend and thought it would go perfectly with this little bunny soap dish. Reminds me of The Golden Egg Book!

Felt Story Fun

This is one I grew up with, so when I had to decide which books I wanted to make into felt story sets for our 3-year-old, Caps for Sale was a definite choice.

 A peddler, who carries his wares on his head, goes for a walk in the country and naps under a nice, big tree. When he wakes up, his caps are missing - all but his own checked cap! He soon discovers the culprits: a tree full of monkeys, all wearing his caps! How will he get his caps back?

Another favorite:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

These felt sets, along with the gilt-framed felt board, were our little bookworm's big Christmas gift from Mommy and Daddy. A rainbow stack of felt from Michael's, some wiggly-jiggly eyes, and a hot glue gun were all I needed to create these pieces.

KID 2 loves her storyboard! I'm working on adding more stories and poems for her to play with. Do you use a felt board at home?

Our Listening Station is "Ripped!"

Can you believe I still have most of my books on tape from my own childhood? Our kids love having a box full of books on tape to sit and "read" all by themselves. Granted, some are quite dated (remember the "Wuzzles"...or how about the "Little People" series by Fisher Price?), while others are classic. Goldilocks, the Wild Things, the Gingerbread Boy, and Little Red are all in the box.

Finding a cd player with a tape deck wasn't easy, but we have a good one that will hopefully last a long time. I've instructed the kids on how to use it properly, so they can listen to their books independently (KID 2 struggles with getting the tapes into the deck, but she's getting better).

We've been slowly adding to our listening library as the kids' birthdays roll around, and sometimes new books come with a "bonus" CD recording. Our large board book copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar came with a CD recording of the book read by Eric Carle himself. That one is pretty cool! Gwyneth Paltrow did the recording of Brown Bear, Brown Bear; and James Earl Jones recorded the most recent addition to our library, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.

But with the advent of the CD, books on tape are not as easy to find. Most are on CD, which is great for listening in the car, but when you let your kids handle their own audio books, CD's get damaged VERY easily. So, I don't know how legal it is, but I've just finished ripping our entire CD audio book collection onto the computer. This way we can burn a new copy if (WHEN) their CDs get scratched and won't play anymore. I feel much better about letting them handle their own books on CD now that we have a way to replace them without having to repurchase the recordings.

The listening library in no way replaces our reading time together, but in a house with no TV, it's nice to have things they can fill their time with independently and still have the benefit of reading!

Books We "Fall" For!

Bring in the pumpkins

The Best Nest!

We got this nest idea from montessori mama's post today and decided to get right to work building our own nests. We just read The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman, so we found materials similar to the ones Mr. and Mrs. Bird used to build their nest:

stocking string (yarn)

soda straws

hay (paper confetti and basket filler)

horse hair (pink Easter grass)

We started with the rolled-down brown paper bag (I helped with this step), and they painted glue inside their nests and up the sides. Then they went to town adding gobs of nest-building decor! We'll put Easter eggs in when they are dry (they also used gobs of glue!).

This was a fun and easy project!

Celebrating Easter with Preschoolers

Easter is hopping up on us, so this week we thought we'd share some of the ways we celebrate this season and holiday with our little chicks.

Easter Decor

Speaking of chicks, our little barnyard babies (stuffed lambs, chicks, ducks, and bunnies) adorn the house to remind us of the new life of Christ.

Check out this cute Nest O' Fluffy Chicks craft over at Family Fun. We'll try this one this week!

And the Bunny Chair Covers look so easy! I'll make these myself this week and surprise the kids when they come out for breakfast one morning...they'll love it!

Eggs - Once a pagan symbol, the egg became a Christian symbol of the empty tomb left behind when Christ rose from the dead. At MOPS last week, we decoupaged eggs using Mod Podge and decorative paper napkin cut-outs. They were pretty cute! The detailed project how-to is over at Martha Stewart's site.

Glittered eggs are always fun and easy for preschoolers. Just let them paint the entire egg with thinned-out glue and then roll it in a bowl of glitter. Dazzling!

Books, books, books - Several weeks before Easter, we pull out all our Spring and Easter books. We have quite a stack, but a few rank among our favorites:

Three Ducks Went Wandering

by Ron Roy, pictures by Paul Galdone

We love the illustrations. Directional phrases like "RIGHT IN FRONT OF..." and "RIGHT UNDER..." are educational and fun, letting the kids guess what's coming next. Paul Galdone is a gifted illustrator.

Seven Little Rabbits

by John Becker, Illustrated by Barbara Cooney

Fun, repetitive story of seven silly little rabbits who never make it to Toad's house. Barbara Cooney's illustrations are so lovely!

The Golden Egg Book

by Margaret Wise Brown

The author of Goodnight Moon writes a cute tale of a bunny who finds an egg and wonders what could be inside. He falls asleep after his great efforts to crack open the egg (unsuccessfully), at which point the baby duck emerges from his egg and wonders what this furry little brown sleeping thing could be.

Home For A Bunny

by Margaret Wise Brown

A Time to Keep:

The Tasha Tudor Book of Holidays

A lovely illustrated book of holidays

and traditions of old...very nostalgic and sweet!

We also have a couple of children's bibles and bible storybooks that tell the Easter story. We read this during devotional time before we make our resurrection crosses. I'll post more details about the playdough resurrection cross tomorrow!

Do you have any favorite Easter books or traditions?

A Book, a Boy, and a Body

Kids never cease to amaze me with their natural curiosity and limitless enthusiasm for things that inspire them! Our son, age 5, recently amazed us with his artistic (and scientific) rendition of the human body. As is often the case around here, the jumping off point was a book he read before bed with his daddy, The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body, by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. (We love this series of science discovery books. They're well-illustrated by the talented Bruce Degen, and offer lots of detailed information about each topic in a very kid-friendly format.)


Upon waking the next morning, KID 1 informed us, "I'm going to make the human body today!"


"Oh. Okaaaaay...how do you plan to do that?" I inquired, my curiosity piqued.


I offered clay, but he declined. He said he needed paper, markers, and paint.


"Great!" I responded enthusiastically, relieved that we had all those supplies on hand.



He proceded to set his easel area, completely unassisted, with every paint pot we own, each with its own paintbrush standing at the ready.

I noticed he had found the Magic School Bus book from the previous evening's bedtime reading, along with a larger lift-the-flap book of the human body. Both were propped at his feet, ready for close inspection.



I taped up his paper and he set to work immediately, starting with an outline of a body. Then he was flipping through his books feverishly, stopping on pages that intrigued him to add an organ here, a blood vessel there, a representative bone or an important muscle. The end result is amazing (and funny: note the green blob of brain!).



When he finished his painting, I asked him about each part he included in his body and he matter-of-factly named each one for me so I could label it. Kidneys. Esophagus. Windpipe. Large intestine. Small intestine. The villi inside the small intestine. All the while, I'm thinking "Is this normal? He's only five! How does he remember all this, yet can't identify letter "Gg" correctly?"



Thank God for good books that feed my child what I didn't know he craved. Amazing.

Where the Wild Things Were

The Wild Things were out in full force last night for our son's 5th birthday party, lakeside. We built a bonfire on the beach and gave each kid a pair of binoculars so they could spy wild things. They were invited to take a boat ride around the edge of the lake to observe local wildlife, enjoying the amazing sunset on the ride back to the beach.

KID 2 and KID 1 enjoy the sunset from the bow of Uncle Mark's boat

If you're not familiar with the classic story Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak, read my post from last week. The Birthday Boy's Max suit was just a pair of thermal longjohns and a furry tail. I made the tail removable with these clips and the hood was a separate piece. He pretty much just looked like he was running around in his underwear after about 20 minutes of the party! Oh, well!

I also sewed lots of wild animal print tails for our wild guests to wear. They were a hit, but I didn't get any pictures. It was totally dark by the time we got back from the boat ride and got our tails situated! I first saw them here, but decided I could make them easily for a lot less. Plus I could choose any wild print I wanted! We ended up with zebra tails with hot pink feathers at the end, cow tails, leopards, lizards, and more. I used one clip per tail and they stayed on just fine.

Each goody bag also included a mask for them to color and wear...there just wasn't enough time before it got really dark (which was fine with everyone, since it was really all about the bonfire!).

I decided while I was shopping for the wild dinner that we really needed to serve wild punch. I found some green Tampico kiwi, strawberry, guava juice and paired it with ginger ale. These were poured over a punchbowl full of gummy worms and craisins (to look like bugs). The Craisins floated, but the gummyworms lurked on the bottom for anyone unfortunate enough to scoop their punch from the bottom of the bowl...it was great!

After a quick meal of hotdogs and chips (ahem...not the most nutritious meal, but there were supposed to be small ears of corn...we just completely forgot them)...I prepped them before storytime so their terrible roars, terrible claws, gnashing teeth, and rolling eyes were ready for their cue. What fun to read Where the Wild Things Are by the fireside with a bunch of enthusiastic wild things!

When we got to the wild rumpus part of the story, we did the hokey pokey and sang wild songs around the fire. Then we passed around a sackful of hand instruments: drums, shakers, rattles, sticks, tambourine, you name it. What a wonderful racket we made marching around that bonfire, each child so proud of his and her individual contribution to the din!

It's hard to stop a wild rumpus cold turkey, so we roasted marshmallows after that, each kid turning in his or her instrument to gain a roasting stick and marshmallow. We enjoyed the wild thing cupcakes while Birthday Boy opened his gifts by the fire. It was a spectacular night. The stars were bright, the wind off the lake kept us cool, and the bonfire kept us entertained! I think it was the best birthday party I've ever been to...but I'm such a kid at heart! I'm very easy to please!

Where the Wild Things Are: A Scary Bit of Children's Lit.

I love the imaginative element of this classic storybook by Maurice Sendak. Max is sent to his room without supper after acting like a "wild thing" and threatening to eat up his mother. Once in his room, though, his punishment becomes a foray into a young child's imagination. The walls become the world all around and vines hang down from the ceiling. Max steps into a private boat and sails off over days, weeks and years to the place where the wild things are.

Faced with these wild creatures with terrible claws and terrible roars, Max tames them by staring into their yellow eyes without blinking once. The wild things crown him King of All Wild Things and the wild rumpus begins. (This is where my children jump up from the couch and start dancing and marching around the room like wild things.)

Many times this year I have suggested we read this book, but our four-year-old consistently declined, "No...I don't like that book." And I'd think what's not to like?! I LOVE this book! Then I figured it out: It's too scary for him.

I tend to be a bit dramatic when I read, using voices and facial expressions to make stories come alive for the kids. [Back in B.C. times (Before Children), I was very involved in theater...I love to act and sing. Now my only outlet is storytime!] They usually love it, but it was probably a bit much for this story. I don't think they liked seeing Mommy become a wild thing! Now when I read this story, I leave the acting to the kids, and they like it a whole lot more when I just read it straight.

Our son turns five this week, and he is having his first birthday party with friends. And you know how I love a theme party (especially book themes!). I just finished his Max suit, complete with long, furry tail. His party starts at dusk with a boat ride across the lake to look for wild things. Then we'll have a wild rumpus around a bonfire on the beach. The kids will be invited to wear some wild things like animal print tails and scarves and decorate wild masks. Hopefully we won't traumatize any small children...I'll let you know how it goes!

The Very Hungry Party...Finally!

KID 2 turned 2 a couple of weeks ago, and after postponing this party TWICE due to illness, we finally celebrated her birthday in Very Hungry Caterpillar Style!

Some Party Prep:

I made mini cherry tarts the night before the party

Nectar-Sipping Cups...made from foam circles

(I had way too much time to plan after cancelling this party TWICE!)

These little bookmark pals turned out so cute! These were our party favors.

They actually fit through the holes in the book!

Party Day!

Birthday Girl is Looking for Some Fun!

Making Our Very Hairy Caterpillars

 

Hunting for Caterpillars

Found One!

The Dramatic Reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar...With the Puppet

The Very Hungry Table Spread...we made apple-cheese muffins instead of cupcakes

Our Very Hungry Birthday Girl!

KID 1 in his salami disguise

Grammy's setting a good example...

Sipping Nectar Like a Butterfly!

Free-Play in the Backyard



Happy Birthday To You, Little One!

Served with a cherry on top, just like the story!

Some activities not shown here:

Feeding the hungry caterpillar (a beanbag toss game)

Decorating butterfly crowns (it was too windy to wear them and I slacked on the photo op)

The party was so much fun! The kids were great and the adults even enjoyed "eating what the caterpillar ate!" Now I need to start planning for KID 1's "Wild Rumpus" (his birthday is right after Christmas, so if I don't plan now, it might not happen!)

Favorite Storybook Characters

We love Frog and Toad around here! In fact, the minute I heard that a local shop was selling miniature plush Frogs and Toads, I went right out and got one of each. We love these little guys.

The kids each get to hold one as we read, and when their character has a line, they hold him up high and bobble him around to make him "talk."

I'm always on the lookout for recreations of our favorite story characters. I find puppets, stuffed/plush dolls, and even china dolls (I have Anne of Green Gables, thanks to my mom's eBay addiction!). My kids love it! It really makes storytime come to life!

I do whatever works to make reading fun around here! For more great ideas and tips, check out Works-For-Me-Wednesday!