Books of the Week – April 30, 2011

M has recently discovered Syd Hoff’s wonderful stories, and I’m rediscovering how much I loved them as a child.  We own Danny and the Dinosaur, which is a favorite, but M ran across the Syd Hoff collection at our library.  Interestingly, he knew they were somehow connected to Danny and the Dinosaur, because the illustrations are so similar.  (LOVE the illustrations!)

So, on to our new top four Syd Hoff books…

Sammy the Seal, written in 1959 :This is the story of a seal who lives in the zoo, but is allowed to have a day off because of good behavior. :)  What I love about Syd Hoff is his ability to really know the imagination of a child, and to make this kind of idea seem perfectly reasonable! 

Thunderhoof, written in 1971:This is the story of a wild horse who doesn’t want to be tamed, but eventually realizes that being loved isn’t so bad after all.  M likes to say “Good old feller” a lot after reading this book. :) 

Oliver, written in 1960:Oliver is an elephant who had hoped to be in the circus, but the circus doesn’t need him.  He spends time with some children (who adore him; who wouldn’t want an elephant to play with?), and eventually the circus realizes just how talented Oliver really is.

Julius, written in 1959: Julius is a gorilla and leaves the jungle to work at the circus.  He is the epitome of politeness – a real gentleman, and I really crack up at how he goes out of his way to be polite (this is a great model for kids!).  He ends up being pestered by a fly and scares a few people as he tries to shoo the fly away, but he is simply misunderstood.  Julius has such a big heart, and I think this was M’s favorite – he has asked for it daily and it’s one of his “in bed” books at night.

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns and Feed Me Books Friday.

Have a beautiful day! :)

Giveaway Winner

Thank you to everyone who entered for the $50 CSN gift card!

The winner is…

comment #3 -  Lindsay

Congratulations!  I will be emailing you with your gift card code and instructions. :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

Montessori Homeschooling

I love the idea of Montessori, but have often wished for something that was geared more for homeschooling a child in the Montessori method, as everything seems to be for the classroom.  The idea that children should start Montessori schooling before age 3, which means sending them to a school is the one area that makes me uncomfortable with the method. 

I think a child of that age should be with Mama if at all possible!

So I was very happy to hear about a new Montessori homeschool program for ages 3 to 6.  If you are interested you can check it out at NAMC!  This program includes curriculum and materials, and looks great!

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

Books of the Week – Feb. 19, 2011

Library Mouse, A Friend’s Tale, by Daniel Kirk is a sequel to Library Mouse.  These are both cute stories about a mouse who lives in a library and writes books at night, leaving them out for children to read.  In this particular book, a little boy named Tom finds out that the mysterious writer is really a mouse and writes a story about his new friend.  Both of these books are great for encouraging children to make up their own stories, and even create and illustrate their own books.  We love almost any book by Daniel Kirk, by the way.

 Three Cheers for Tacky, by Helen Lester.  I’m not a huge fan of Tacky the Penguin, but in this story he’s much less irritating than he is in some of the others.  M loves him and his interesting personality.  Tacky is an odd bird, but he knows how to be himself and not worry about what anyone else thinks.

 Mattland, by Hazel Hutchins.  I first heard about this book when Natalie wrote about it here.  M definitely loves this book – it tells the story of a boy’s imagination in a really captivating way (honestly, Daddy and I love it too).  I love how the main character, through his creativity, resolves some not-so-happy feelings and also opens the door to new friendships.  

Fine Feathered Friends, by Tish Rabe is in the Cat in the Hat Learning Library series (I also got this one from Natalie’s post).  It was, hands down, the hit of the week.  This book does a great job with the rhyming, which makes it so much fun to read.  And there’s a really neat flying machine in it, which M wants. ;)  It also has a lot of great information about birds!

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Have a beautiful day! :)

Books of the Week – Feb. 12, 2011

Stuart Little, by E. B. White (the author of Charlotte’s Web) – this is our current chapter book.  Stuart is the mouse child of otherwise normal people, and he has lots of interesting adventures.   There’s quite a bit of new (somewhat old-fashioned) vocabulary in this book, which I love exposing M to.  I think it’s so important to introduce this kind of thing to him.  I credit my ability to so easily “get” Shakespeare and other older literature to the fact that my parents raised my siblings and I on stories like this (as well as the King James Bible!). 

 

Count Yourself to Sleep, by Lynn Hodges – spare yourself this one if you have a low “sugary sweet” threshold. :)  M loves it and I bet other kids his age will too, but goodness… the book is basically a song about counting your blessings, and it’s okay in and of itself… actually very wholesome.  BUT the cd that comes along with it, which plays the song, is sung by a very cutesy, cutesy child’s voice and it’s almost more than I can bear.  M listens to it at bedtime every night and it does put him to sleep, so its fine as long as *I* don’t have to listen to it too! :)

 

I Wish that I had Duck Feet, by Theo LeSieg (A.K.A. Dr. Seuss) is great.  The rhyme is perfect, the illustrations are appealing and funny, and the story has a good message about being happy just being yourself.  This is probably the hit of the week.  (M might disagree with that, because I’m pretty sure the one above this is his favorite, but still… I just can’t call that one the hit of the week – sorry, M!).

The Original Curious George, by H.A. Rey – this is a book that belongs to M, and he’s been asking for it this week.  There are only a few character books that I really like, and the Curious George ones are at the top of the list (along with the original Winnie the Pooh books).  This is the story of how the Man in the Yellow Hat found George and brought him to the zoo.  M loves the part where George plays with the telephone and calls the fire department. :)  It really is a fun book to read!

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Have a beautiful day! :)

Books of the Week – Feb. 5, 2011

We read another Carl book this week – Carl’s Sleepy Afternoon, by Alexandra Day.  It was even more of a hit than our Carl book last week.  Carl is quite the dog – very adventurous and helpful and completely loveable.  So far we haven’t found a story about Carl that we haven’t loved or at least liked.  We haven’t read all of them though, so I can’t say for sure that they are all wonderful, but this one sure is!

 

A Far Fetched Story, by Karin Cates has been one of M’s top favorites over the past couple of weeks.  We read it at least once a day, and quite often it’s one of the books he chooses to look at in bed at the end of the day.  In my opinion, it’s okay… even cute, and sort of funny.  The real attraction (for me) is the artwork, by Nancy Carpenter – so interesting, and I can’t even explain why.  Here’s a note about the artwork, found in the front of the book:

“The paintings for A Far-Fetched Story are done in pen and ink with watercolor on Arches 90-lb. hot-press watercolor paper.  Each family member’s far-fetched tale, as well as a few other illustrations, are also pen and ink drawings with watercolor that have been color copied onto transfer paper and ironed onto white linen.  I used a sewing machine and colored thread to sew additional lines and add details to the linen paintings. – Nancy Carpenter” 

Interesting, no?

 

  

Our newest series of chapter books to read at lunch is The Littles, by John Peterson.  I remember loving these books when I was little.  I read them on my own in 2nd grade or so, but the vocabulary and story lines are super-easy for M to comprehend and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend these as read-alouds for 4+ non-readers.  There are a couple of things I’ve skipped (which is easier to do with non-readers than readers, right?), that I felt were too scary for M (like a Little almost getting eaten by a dog, and that kind of thing, which some children his age are fine with).  The three books pictured above are the ones we’ve read so far.  Our favorite is The Littles Go Exploring – a story about finding a hidden room, going on a adventure beyond the Dark Woods, and looking for Grandpa Little who disappeared 2 years prior.  Super-duper exciting stuff! ;)

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Have a beautiful day! :)

Books of the Week – January 29, 2011

We’ve been reading so many great books lately!  There’s nothing quite like snuggling up in a warm blanket and reading away winter afternoons, is there?  We have a date on the couch each afternoon at 3:30 and M does not let me forget about it, ever. :) 

The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver, by Thornton W. Burgess is one of our top favorites of Burgess’ animal stories (these are chapter books, and I wrote more about the series here).  There is so much fun, adventure, and real learning in this little book, it’s amazing.  The work of Paddy the beaver is really fascinating!  So we checked out two more books about beavers - Beaver at Long Pond, by William T. George; and Beaver at Long Pond, by Jim Arnosky.  Both are excellent!

Animal Tales, (sorry, I can’t seem to find any link for this one) also by Burgess, is a collection of very short stories about his animal characters.  These are fun little stories, and each has a lot of nice illustrations, something the longer ones are short on.  Since we’ve now finished all the longer Burgess stories that we own, this little book gave us our “Green Forest” (where all the animals live) fix for a while.  I plan to order the other stories as soon as possible.

Bartholomew and the Oobleck, by Dr. Seuss was a new one for M (although we have made oobleck before).  I enjoyed it, but I’m not sure what M thought of it – he just said it was long.  Which it is. :)  To make oobleck… use 1 part liquid starch to 1 part white glue – mix it together gradually until it forms a rubbery, non-sticky ball (add green food coloring if you want it to match the book).  Lots of slimey, gooey fun. :)

Carl’s Snowy Afternoon, by Alexandra Day is a sweet and charming book.  It has hardly any words, but the pictures tell a story that almost every child has thought of – a big dog who is a best friend and does things like letting you ride on his back and sled down a hill with him.  I love Carl.  M loves Carl.  I so wish we had a dog just like Carl!  And I just found out that this is just one in a series of books about Carl – yay!  We’ll be checking more of these out for sure.  This is a book that non-readers will love since they can simply look at the beautiful illustrations and tell the story on their own.  I’d say this book is the hit of the week.

Although, this book is a probably a tie for hit of the week:  A Child’s Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson.  I’ve been wanting to introduce real poetry – something more than nursery rhymes – to M for a while now, but had completely forgotten about this sweet book.  Oh. my. goodness.  You have to check out this book – it is full of poems about childhood, and they are something children can really understand and relate to.  It’s a bit dated, and some of it is not very politically correct, but we love it.

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Have a beautiful day! :)
 

Christmas Books

We checked out several really good Christmas books from our library last week. 

M’s favorite of the week has been Gingerbread Mouse, by Katy Bratun. It’s a pretty simple story about a little mouse living in a gingerbread house until Santa comes along with a beautiful new (and unlikely to be eaten) house for her to live in.  The illustrations are wonderful.  We even made a gingerbread house this week, which fit in perfectly with the story.
M also has really enjoyed Elliot’s Christmas Surprise, by Andrea Beck. The story does a good job of reminding us to be thankful for what we have, especially our friendships.  It also does a great job of showing the fun that can be had with a large empty box. ;)

The Bear’s Christmas, by Jan and Stan Berenstainis hilarious (if you are a 4 year old boy).  Poor Papa Bear tries to relive his youth with Brother Bear’s Christmas gifts.  He gets rolled into a huge snowball, and this is, apparently, the absolute funniest part. :)

We also checked out The Night Before Christmas, by Clement C. Moore.   This is the famous poem many know, but in our version the illustrations are done by Bruce Whatley (his name is familiar to me – any ideas what else he’s illustrated?), and they are amazing. Normally I like classic picture books to have the original illustrations, but this is definitely an exception.  Whatley knows how to bring the story to life, and this may be my favorite version ever.

There was one book that was so sweet (but not too sugary, if you know what I mean), it touched all of us – The Donkey’s Christmas Song, by Nancy Tafuri.I normally love all of Tafuri’s books, but she outdid herself with this one.  It is a very simple and beautiful story about the baby Jesus and the songs of the animals in the stable.  I don’t want to give too much of the story away; I’m hoping you’ll be able to find this one yourself and read it with your children.  I think even babies, as well as older children, will enjoy this one, the text is simple and short, and the illustrations are perfect.  I may have to put this one on our list to buy.

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns and Feed Me Books Friday.

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

Book Review – Little Star, by Anthony DeStefano

Recently, author Anthony DeStefano sent me a copy of his newest book, Little Star. 

When I first received it and flipped through the pages I enjoyed the story, but wasn’t sure how M would react to it.  Little Star is ignored by the other, bigger stars, and he is sad.  My tender-hearted boy is normally made very sad by things like this.  And Little Star burns so brightly on Christmas Eve night as baby Jesus is born, that he finally gets the attention of the other stars, but it’s only because they are concerned that he will burn himself out (another thing I thought M might find sad or scary).

On Christmas morning Little Star is indeed gray and almost all burned out. 

As many of you know we have had several losses this year – the death of a dog (not ours, but one M was firmly attached to and loved), the death of a great-grandma, an uncle, and a family friend – and too often this past year, death has been the topic of conversation in our home and on the mind of our sweet little boy.  I had hoped to spare him the experience of losing someone he loves for a few years, but the lesson came in a flood of losses and has been a bit more than any of us can handle well.

So, I was worried about what kind of effect this story would have on M in light of this past year, and what, at times, has been his obsession with sadness and death. 

He was very sad for Little Star when he was ignored by the other stars, and his eyes got a little teary when Little Star burned himself out.  BUT.  But, the ending of the book was beautiful and somehow it was exactly what M needed to hear, and obviously met some need for understanding within him. 

Little Star does burn out, but he is not gone.  He had such an important job to do and he did it so well, keeping baby Jesus warm with his light all night, that he will always be remembered as the most important star ever.  Giving one’s life, and light, for God and something important is never sad or meaningless, but is a wonderful thing to do, and something that is greatly rewarded.

I’m not sure exactly how M internalized this message, but it obviously struck a chord with him.  He wanted to read it “again” and “again”, something he hasn’t asked for much since he was a toddler.  Since he has been able to talk, he’s told everyone that his favorite book ever is Corduroy, by Don Freeman.  Now he says he has a new favorite – Little Star!  Coming from M, that is high praise, and definitely a recommendation of this sweet book. :)

I received a free copy of this book in return for writing a review about it.  This did not influence my opinion, and I was not obligated to write a positive review.  We honestly love this book! :)

We also loved his book, This Little Prayer of Mine:

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

Book Review – A Christmas Prayer, by Amy Parker

I LOVE this book, and plan on giving it to my 2 year old niece this Christmas.  It is simple, written in rhyme (rhyme that really works, if you know what I mean), and gently brings home the true meaning of Christmas.
The child in the illustrations thanks God for all the aspects of the Christmas story: the angels, the shepherds, the star, Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, and others.  It’s very well done and even brought a lump to my throat as I read it through the first time.

The illustrations are by Marljan Ramljak.  They are soft and pretty to look at.  I found them relaxing, albeit occasionally a bit too cutesy for my taste. 

This is a refreshing book for Christmas time – it helps offset the commercialism and materialism of the season. 
From the Thomas Nelson website:

Snuggle in this holiday season and offer up A Christmas Prayer.
In the tradition of A Night Night Prayer, this precious little child wanders through the house on a snowy Christmas night offering a prayer of thanks and blessing. The child finishes with thanks to God for the greatest Gift of all.
Noting all the characters in the Nativity, this lovable little nighttime prayer book has interactive dialogue and soothing rhyme for a child to repeat as they look around their world at Christmastime.
Between the soft Christmas glow of the illustrations and the smooth rhythm of the child’s prayer, A Christmas Prayer will make every parent and child want to snuggle up by the tree and offer a prayer of thanks to God for His many Christmas blessings.

Reading this book at Christmas will quickly become a tradition in our home, and I hope in yours too!

Thank you to Thomas Nelson Publishers for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book to review.

Books of the Week – Thornton Burgess

We’ve been reading more and more chapter books lately.  I read out loud to M at lunch, which really helps me not to eat too much, which in turn helps my level of fatigue in the afternoon to not be too terribly awful. (Like you really needed to know all that, right? :) )

Anyway, we’ve just finished reading The Adventures of Buster Bear, by Thornton Burgess.  This was such a fun book to read.  I have to admit, I edited a tiny bit of it that had to do with hunting, but it was only a couple of pages and really minor.  This book is full of fun, and excitement.  it seems funny to say about animals, but the character development is wonderful. :)  The vocabulary that Burgess uses is great, and the context of the story is so easily understandable that new words were absolutely no problem for M.  In my opinion, this was good, old-fashioned storytelling at its best.  If your child loves animals, he or she will love these books!

There are not many illustrations, but I don’t think M even noticed.  The story is just detailed enough to help along one’s imagination.

I bought this book and many of the others in the widget above several years ago, and I’m so happy to be able to read them to my son now.  M is really looking forward to all the other stories!

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Have a beautiful day! :)

What we are reading – Oct. 16, 2010

Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka series by Maj Lindman

 

Over the summer we began reading the Flicka, Ricka, and Dicka series of books, by Maj Lindman.  Although the three main characters are girls, M LOVES these books!  They are pretty cute girls, after all. ;)  The stories are in no way “girl” stories though, but really appeal to any child (or adult as the case may be and is in our home).

The three girls live in Sweden and they are triplets.  The illustrations are wonderfully detailed and fun to look at.  The really neat thing about these books is that each full-page illustration details a scene from the text on the opposite page.  So, for example, when Flicka is petting the dog, Dicka is holding the black kitten, or Ricka is pouring milk, the illustration lends itself nicely to a little comprehension game: Which girl is Flicka?  Which is Ricka? Which is Dicka?  They are triplets, remember, who like to dress alike by the way, and look alike, so you really have to be paying attention to the story to be able to tell who is who.

These are warm and charming stories of typical childhood, and are fun to read.  These have made their way onto M’s list of favorite books, and mine too!  Daddy is not 100% sold on them, simply because they are long (whatever), and the girls are Swedish, not Norwegian or German ;).   But he is the first to admit he is a bit biased. :)

Check out more children’s books over at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns!

Have a beautiful day! :)

What We’ve Been Reading – Oct. 9, 2010

The Brambly Hedge Series by Jill Barklem

I’ve missed writing these posts!  Summer was just too busy and I took a break from all the memes I normally participate in.  We’ve read so many great books that I almost don’t know where to begin.  

Early in the summer I began reading longer books to M as we ate lunch.  He loves books and his attention span for a good story has always been amazing.  Amazing, as in totally flooring me when he would sit still (this is a boy who never sits still) for a long Dr. Seuss book when he was 11 months old.  There were two of them actually – Are You My Mother? and To Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street (which is a pretty long book!).  A good book has always been worth sitting for with him, something I’m very thankful for!  It seemed like those months between 1 and 2 1/2 years were nothing more than a succession of him toddling over to me with yet another book in his hand.  :) 

Okay.  Enough bragging. (sorry!)

I want M to begin learning to visualize stories in his mind without needing to see the illustrations, and the Brambly Hedge books by Jill Barklem are perfect for that.  They do have beautiful illustrations, and I lshow them to M after reading the story to him. 

Honestly, some of these books aren’t all that long (although some are), but they are each full of suspense and magic.  I mean “magical” in the sense of a young child’s view of the idea of small mice who live in a little village and have homes like we have, only in miniature; and who have work to do; and who, best of all, go on wonderful adventures. 

The nice thing about these books is that there is almost always a suspenseful moment, and it’s then that I close the book and leave M wanting more.  ;)  We normally take 2 days for each book. 

Hands down, his favorite of the series has been The Secret Staircase.  The two main characters are 2 mouse children – Primrose and Wilfred.  It is midwinter and the village is preparing for its annual winter festival.  As Primrose and Wilfred rehearse a poem they plan to recite, they go searching through the attcs of the Old Oak Palace (the home of Lord Woodmouse), for costumes.  Primrose finds a key, Wilfred finds an old door behind a curtain, and together they find an old staircase leading up into the tip top branches of the oak tree.  The climb the staircase and… you have to read it to your child to see what they find. ;)

This book sparked M’s imagination like no other book has done.  He spent weeks with a little key from a small piggy bank in his pocket.  At random times he’d grab my hand and whisper that he’d found a door.  We’ve gone all through our house, “discovering” old hidden rooms. :)

His other top favorites from this series are The High Hills and Sea Story .  I hope you check these great books out!

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

Books of the Week – July 17, 2010

If it were up to M this week, you’d be hearing about Thomas the Train and nothing else.  If you have a Thomas and Friends lover, check out the book in the carousel above (Thomas’ Big Storybook); it is definitely the favorite around here these days. 

However, I’m going to spare you Thomas.  :)  Or maybe I’m just sparing myself!

My favorite of the week was Raggedy Ann and Rags, adapted from the stories by Johnny Gruelle:

 

M picked this up at the library without my noticing, and I was excited to see it in the pile when we checked out.  I loved Raggedy Ann and Andy when I was a child, and had forgotten about these great, detailed stories.  This book probably took us a good 20 minutes to read, but M hung on every word.  The story tells of how Rags (the dog) was found and then has his first adventure – where he helps the other toys save Raggedy Ann and another doll from floating away to sea. It’s really such a great and engaging story, and captured M’s imagination with the idea of toys having a secret life of their own, and I can’t wait to find more of these!

We also liked Elliot’s Shipwreck, by Andrea Beck:

We like all the Elliot Moose stories, and this was no exception.  It’s a great story of friendship, adventure, imagination, and problem solving!  A great add on activity for this book would be making little boats from various materials and seeing which ones work and which ones get shipwrecked!

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns and Feed Me Books Friday. Have a beautiful day! :)

Books of the Week

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve written about the books we’ve been reading.  We’ve found a lot of really good ones lately, and I have to say I am really enjoying having these posts as a reminder of all the good story-reading snuggle times we’ve had.  :)
Pondlarker, by Fred Gwynne is a gem.  M just happened to see it and picked it up.  I wasn’t sure about it at first glance, but I’m so glad he chose it!  The story is about a frog who wants to be kissed and turned into a prince, but when he finally gets his chance… he decides it’s pretty nice being a frog!  We are going to look for more books by this author – I was very impressed with the way this story was told and the subtle message about being happy with who you are.
 The Quiet Way Home, by Bonny Becker is a book we read when M was smaller and he loved it then.  He doesn’t remember it from then, but he still loves it!  The story is about a girl and her father who are walking home the quiet way.  Instead of walking past the growling dog, the roar of a lawn mower, the garbage trucks, and other noisy things, they walk home by where the kittens play, where a garden grows, where lilies stand - “Hush.  Can you hear it? Hummm, thrumm, dart-and-flee.  Honeybee.”   It’s a very calming book, which I personally love. :)  M loves the various noises and distinguishing between the loud and soft. 
For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns and Feed Me Books Friday. Have a beautiful day! :)

Books of the Week – June 5, 2010

We have been reading so many good, good, GOOD books lately!  M and I (and Daddy too!) just love all the ones in the carousel above, so please check them out. 

It was hard to decide on just a couple to talk more about (I usually try to just write about 2 books in detail, since I tend to be wordy… ).  And I decided to go with the two that M has been requesting almost daily over the past two weeks.

First, Encore for Eleanor, by Bill Peet.  Peet has become one of our very favorite authors.  This is a cute story about a circus elephant who falls from her stilts one day and is sent to spend the rest of her days at the zoo.  Poor Eleanor – she is so talented, but what can she do at a zoo?  Everyone stares at her and she stares back, and finally decides to hide in her zoo barn.  Thanks to a teenage girl who visits the zoo, Eleanor discovers a new talent and happily becomes a performing elephant again.  M loves this book so much, I think we are going to make some stilts like Ticia’s to go along with this book.  (I know… I said I was going to make them immediately after you wrote that post, Ticia, but you should know nothing ever gets done that quickly around here.)

Secondly, Farmer Dale’s Red Pickup Truck, by Lisa Wheeler.Wheeler is quickly becoming one of our favorite authors too.  In fact, this story is also about animals with interesting talents.  The story is in rhyme and it’s very well done, which is always important to me.  There is nothing worse than a rhyming story with a rhythm that doesn’t work, or words that don’t really rhyme.  Sweet-tempered farmer Dale picks up several animals on the way to a talent show in town; they end up being too much of a load and the old truck breaks down.  The sheep picks on the cow, the cow bosses everyone around, the pig is sort of whiney… it’s actually a pretty funny story.  I love when the cow is steering while Dale pushes and when he says, “ turn the key”  the sheep says, “He can’t, he’s got no h-a-a-a-nds”.  Cracks me up every time! :)  They actually learn a lesson about working together by the end of the story, but that’s almost eclipsed by just how much fun this book is.

For more reviews of children’s books, check out Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns and Feed Me Books Friday.

Have a beautiful day! :)

Books about Dinosaurs

I wanted to list (for my own records, and as a recommendation to others) all the dinosaur books we’ve read and loved.  If you are interested, I wrote about all of our dinosaur activities here.

These were mostly just-for-fun stories; the next time around we will find more non-fiction books about dinosaurs.  There’s a great series about types of dinosaurs by Carol Lindeen that I plan to check out sooner or later.














 

































Danny and the Dinosaur is by far our favorite, and one I remember fondly from my own childhood.  The "How Do Dinosaurs... " series by  Jane Yolen are great too, and a good way to learn the dinosaur names since each drawing is labeled.

Have any favorite dino stories?  Please let me know in the comments!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Book Review – Bible Jumble for Kids by Christopher D. Hudson

I recently received this little game book from Tyndale House Publishers.  It is full of jumble puzzles based on the Bible.  I think this would be a great companion to any home Bible lessons you may do with your children (it would be perfect for ages 8 to 12).  It’s sure to be a lot of fun, and it helps reinforce what they’ve already learned.   What a wonderful way to spend time together as a family!

Most of the puzzles were easy for me, but I still got a lot of enjoyment from them. :) 

Included in the book are the following:

• Traditional Jumbles
• Mystery Person Jumbles
• Jumble Detective
• Jumble Criss-Cross
• Find the Jumbles
• Bible Passage Jumbles

There are a total of 200 jumbles in the book.

Thank you to Tyndale House Publishing for providing me with a free copy of this book to review.

Books of the Week – 5/15/10

Our top two favorites this week…

Little Bear’s Visit, by Else Minarik:I just can’t say enough good things about these Little Bear books – they are even better than I remember from when I was a child!  In this one Little Bear visits Grandfather Bear and Grandmother Bear, and gets a story from each one.  One story is about when Mother Bear was little and made friends with a little robin.  The other story is about a gremlin who has magic shoes. :)  M asks for this every day at least once.  It’s quite long – 4 chapters – and he sits for the entire thing, even the 2 pages where there are no pictures! 

His other favorite this week was Big Brown Bear’s Up and Down Day, by David McPhail(thanks, Kim!) : This is a cute story about a rat trying to get Big Brown Bear to give up one of his slippers so he can use it for a bed.  But M loves this book mainly because there is a little toy car in it that winds up and goes, and the rat gets to drive it at the end. :)   

This is being linked to Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns, and Feed Me Books Friday.  Check out both of these great sites for more book recommendations!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Books of the Week – 5/8/10

Here are M’s favorites from the past week:

Edward and the Pirates, by David McPhail This was recommended to us by Kim at Educating Crumpet.  She thought M would enjoy it and she was right!  It has enough adventure and excitement (like Edward’s mom riding into his room on a white horse – really can a book get any more interesting or exciting than that?) without being frightening at all.  Edward can read and the pirates can’t, and this has sparked some sort of small flame in M – he is “reading” a lot lately (meaning books he’s memorized… I’m one of those moms that doesn't want my child to be reading on his own at 3, not that there’s anything wrong with that if you do. ;) ).  It’s a fun book and one I’m glad we got!

The Moon Might Be Milk, by Lisa Shulman This one was listed a week or two ago at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.  We found it at the library and M wants to read it at least a couple of times a day.  I’m not sure what is so fascinating about this book (it’s cute, but nowhere near the top of my list), but he really loves it!  The little girl and her animal friends are trying to decide what the moon is made of… flour? milk? sugar? butter? egg?   Turns out, it’s made of all these things when her Grandmother uses these ingredients to make moon cookies.  It gets my mouth watering every time and I think we’ll be trying the recipe that’s included sometime soon!

I’m linking this up to Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns, and to Feed Me Books Friday.

Have a beautiful day! :)