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Showing posts with label children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children. Show all posts

Someday, Maybe -- New Picture Book Full of Dreams

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

What did you dream of when you were a child? I dreamed I would be an inventor and have a huge mansion with all sorts of inventions to not have to do the cleaning, chores, cooking, etc. Of course, I also told my parents I would have some crazy number of kids 10, 20, or more and they could come help me take care of them all. Dreaming is such an important part of childhood. Today I am sharing a fun new multicultural book that helps get kids' imagination flowing. The book is Someday, Maybe by Diana Murray and illustrated by Jessica Gibson. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

No World Too Big -- Perfect Book for Earth Day & Women's History Month and so much more!

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

March is Women's History Month. April is National Poetry Month, and Earth Day is in April. Today I am sharing a book that works for all three of these special things plus shows kids other kids from around the world fighting global climate change. The book is No World Too Big edited by Lindsay H. Metcalf, Keila V. Dawson, and Jeanette Bradley and illustrated by Jeanette Bradley. It is being released this week! It is recommended for ages 5 to 9. 

Greenlee Is Growing -- a new picture book sharing the seasons of life

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Today I am sharing a new picture book that teaches kids about the idea of the seasons of life going with the seasons of the year. The book is Greenlee Is Growing by Anthony DeStefano and illustrated by Louise A. Ellis. It is recommended for ages 3 to 7.

Growing Pains -- Picture Book Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to share with you some fun picture books. Today's focuses on a boy who experiences growing pains, but also is curious about the tree he helped plant the previous day. It is such a sweet book. The book is Growing Pains by Alison McLennan and Melissa Johns. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Award Winning New Picture Books Perfect for Black History Month

 


On January 24, 2022, the American Library Association announced the 2022 Youth Media Awards! You can see all the winners here. I was happy to see Firekeeper's Daughter won the William C. Morris Award and the Printz Award. Ace of Spades was a finalist for the Printz Award. I really enjoyed both of these young adult books and Ace of Spades is another book great for Black History Month. I went through the list of awards and began requesting books from the library. I found five picture books from the list that are perfect for Black History Month and thought I would share them with you. One will be reshared as I did review it in 2021. We will start with Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford and Floyd Cooper. It is recommended for ages 8 to 12 or grades 3 to 6.

Books Made By Kids for Mom & Dad

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

April is almost over so that means it is almost Mother's Day here in the US. Today I am going to share two books that are perfect gifts for kids to make for their parents for Mother's or Father's Day, or birthdays. Each book is created for the child to write, draw, and fill in about their parents. Since Mohter's Day is fast approaching we will start with A Book About Mom with Words and Pictures by Me written by Workman Publishing and illustrated by Irena Freitas. 

Mamie Phipps Clark -- #blacklivesmatter -- the Black Psychologist Who Helped End Segregation in Schools


Today we are continuing our Black Lives Matter Series. Today we are getting to know about Mamie Phipps Clark. She and her husband, Kenneth B. Clark, helped end segregation in public schools. Kenneth often said he piggybacked on his wife's research and tried to give her more of the credit, but he often is the one who is credited still, so we are focusing on Mamie. I find her work and life so fascinating. She dealt with racism and sexism throughout her life and worked towards what we are still fighting for--equal rights. Even now her husband gets more credit for the work that was originally hers which he decided to participate in after she started it. Plus her most famous study was a doll test involving white and brown dolls. Now I have shared one of my biggest regrets of not saying something to a young Black girl at a store when she thought the white doll was more beautiful than the Black doll. This one hit me personally. Plus her work was used to end segregation. I think back to my own years of schooling and think of how much learning about other cultures from my friends of other races added so much to my life and still does. Plus to my own classrooms and how the mixed races always made the classes more interesting and a better experience. So with those thoughts, I would like to introduce you to Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark.

Sharing Saturday 16-46

Wow, it is already November!! This fall is flying by. It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Parenting & Lessons and Fall Features.

Sharing Saturday 16-45

Wow, it is already November!! This fall is flying by. It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Pumpkin Recipes and Lessons & Party Features.

Sharing Saturday 16-42

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop (a new one starts Sunday morning). 

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! It was a small party, but I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Fall and Parenting!

Sharing Saturday 16-36

Reminder: This link party is for child-oriented crafts and activities and parenting/teaching posts!! 
It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts,crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop (a new one starts on Sunday). 

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groupings of features: Educational and  Activities & More.

Coping with Tragedy

We had a lovely weekend this week. Hazel and I left Friday to visit my parents to help decorate their Christmas tree and then Steve joined us on Saturday so all five of us went on a Polar Express Train Trip. I will tell you more about that at Happy Family Times on Tuesday. 

It was very hard in the middle of this nice experience to turn on the television and hear about the tragedy that happened in Connecticut on Friday. (For those who may not know what I am talking about here is a report from CNN.) Now this tragedy hit me on many levels. First I grew up in Connecticut and have many friends and family who still live there. As a former teacher all school shootings really scare me. I think of my students and my friends who still are teaching. Plus a close friend from high school is an elementary school principal in Connecticut somewhat close to Newtown. Then add to all of those reasons that this happened in an elementary school and really could have happened anywhere. It was not like many of the other shootings where the shooter was out to get people who had hurt him, but rather this shooter went to the school where his mother worked and shot innocent children and staff. I know I was thankful that Hazel was not up to see the news (we wouldn't have had it on if she was) and that we have decided to send her to a Waldorf School where I feel they are a bit more protected.

However, Sandy Hook Elementary School had the security set up. They had recently installed a lock where the front office could see who was at the door before buzzing them in. I could not at first understand why they buzzed him in given how he was dressed and his mother was not there then. However later I heard there was broken glass which made much more sense. He shot his way in. So here this school had done what it could to protect the children, and still had such a horrible tragedy. How do we cope with that and how do we explain it to our children?

With Hazel's age, we are doing our best of her to know nothing about this event. We want her to feel safe in her world and at her school. However I know with older children you cannot keep such news from them. I was teaching when the Columbine Shooting occurred. I remember being glad it occurred during our April vacation so we all had time to digest what had happened. I also remember high school juniors telling me that they went over escape plans with their parents should anything like this happen at our school. (They literally went through the students schedule to figure ways out of the building from each classroom.)  This was in response to something that happened on the other side of the country and not a neighboring state. 

Now if teenagers were that fearful, I can only imagine how elementary students must feel now. I think the most important thing as adults is for us to be there for the children. If they need to talk, listen and reassure them. It is important for us to remain our calm and let them feel safe. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) have some great tips on helping children deal with a national tragedy here.

My heart goes out to the family of all the victims including the survivors. I pray to God to help all who were present that day and especially the young children that witnessed death that day. I know there have been stories of teachers who were shot while protecting their students. I can only imagine what those children will deal with knowing that. It breaks my heart that children so young have to deal with such violence. I hope you will join me in taking time today to say a prayer for all who have been touched by this act of violence and for God to help the families and the survivors process this horrible event.

Teaching about Hunger--Young Children

As you know I have joined the group, Moms Fight Hunger, for National Hunger Month. Our goal is to help end childhood hunger. I have been struggling with ideas to make a difference and for ways to explain hunger to Hazel. Today I'm going to share with you a few of my solutions with more to come each week.

One thought I have had is about nutrition. I feel so lucky that I can buy my daughter and my family nutritious food. Often I even am lucky enough to buy organic produce and organic dairy products. It troubles me that the food that is best for you is also very expensive. A friend from middle and high school who currently lives in Germany commented on how expensive it is to buy good, nutritious food in the United States when she was here visiting. That is troubling, because for the people without as much money, it means they are often deciding between quality and quantity. Is it better to get a small amount of more nutritious food or enough food to fill you? I'm glad that is a question I have not had to personally decide on. 

My Plans and What You Can Do This Week:
This week I planned with the local library's children's librarian to hold a story hour well actually three (for different ages) about food and hunger (depending on age group) and ask each child to bring in a can (or more) of food for our local food pantry. Now the local librarian knows me and about my blog and is always helpful when choosing books for the Virtual Book Club for Kids and any other topic I can come up with. She already knew I was participating in Moms Fighting Hunger and was more than happy to help. We planned the story hours for the first week in October, so we will have plenty of time to advertise it and get the needed food. I also talked to the local newspaper editor this weekend about the possibility of doing it and he is on board to cover it for us.

What can you do to help? How about donating some canned food or boxed food to your local food pantry.

Helping Children Understand There Are Hungry People in the World:

Then I was telling Hazel a story the other day. Now some of the traditional fairy tales scare Hazel. For example, in Hansel and Gretel she becomes afraid of the witch. Well before I had Hazel I had entered a dollhouse competition and made a gingerbread dollhouse and changed the story of Hansel and Gretel a bit for my entry. I had made the witch a nice old woman who had lost her family due to a house fire. She went off the woods to live since all the people in the village stared at her and talked about her. They called her the witch. The only way she knew to make a house was to bake a gingerbread house so that is what she did. When Hansel and Gretel arrive she invites them in and feeds them and teach them to make gingerbread houses. 
Hansel and Gretel
Source
Well I took this version and tweaked it a bit and told Hazel a story. You can download the story (it is two pages) at the following links.
Page 1                               Page 2

After reading the story to your child, have the conversation about helping others and that there are people hungry in the world and for that matter in your own town. Remember 1 in 5 kids are hungry!! We can put a stop to it if we all help!

What We Can Do Next Week:
September 17-22nd is Dine Out for No Kid Hungry Week. Please go check out what the offers are at your local restaurants and make plans to have dinner out with your family and/or friends. The more the better!! And tell all of your friends about it!! We need everyone so we can end hunger!!

Here is a flyer to hang around and advertise the week. You can also make your own to have the specific restaurants in your area listed as well.

Some Simple Crafts


Well Monday, Hazel and I had an adventure. The picture above is from part of our location. Feel free to comment with your guess. I will share its whereabouts in another post. We went to the town I grew up in and visited some friends of mine. One of my friends I have known since we were six months old. She traveled about two hours to meet us for the day. I will share the details of our adventure another time. We ended our day by traveling to my sister's for a sleepover. Again, I will share the details for another time--probably next Happy Family Times. Well last Sharing Saturday We Made That shared a Wave Sensory Bottle. I loved the idea and had all the supplies so I made one to keep Hazel busy for our over two hour car ride.

My sister left a pink plastic lei for Hazel on her bed when we got to her apartment. Hazel loves it and wanted to decorate it today. So we made some tissue paper flowers for it. I cut with my scrapbook scissors some tissue paper circles. Then we stuck half a pipe cleaner through the center of several of them (2 or 3) and curled the top so it would stay. Then we used the stem to wind it around the lei. What do you think?
Ok, that is what we have been up to. We are having a relaxing catch up day today. Hope you are enjoying your day! Don't forget to guess where Hazel is in the top picture!!

Crazy Week...Swimming, Sleeping Beauty, Peach and Raspberry Picking, Doll Doctoring...

Have you entered the giveaway yet? I am giving away a copy of My Garden by Kevin Henkes and many of the other blogs hosting this month's Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids are giving away some of his other books. Harper Collins is providing us with the books.

Ever have one of those weeks where you feel like you haven't sat down, but also feel like you haven't done anything. That is me this week. Hazel had her last week of the summer swim lessons. They are redoing the YMCA indoor pool for the next three weeks or so and the next session doesn't start until after that. We also signed her up for a dance class to start in a couple of weeks. My goal is not to overbook her this year.

Tuesday we went to our local McDonalds and she met Sleeping Beauty. We took one of Steve's distant cousins with us who is eleven and Steve's mother met us there.The eleven-year-old loves to play with Hazel and Hazel loves playing with her. 

Wednesday we had her last swim lesson and then we went to the yarn store and then to Connors Farm to pick raspberries and peaches. We were there around lunch time, but the only prepared food they had was ice cream so we had frozen yogurt and raspberries for lunch. Oops! We are going to be making peach jam soon!

Today we were suppose to go to the zoo in Boston with a friend, but due to a stroller in the wrong car we didn't. We were tired and kind of wanting a day at home to sit and enjoy. Of course we went out and ran errands. I bought some knitting needles so I can start on Hazel's Three Little Pig dolls. I bought yarn yesterday for them. Tomorrow we are going to see a musical version of the story. Hazel is so excited!

While at Joann's we decided to look at fabric for Hazel's Halloween costume. She has decided she wants to be Rapunzel. I picked up a pattern last weekend when they were on sale for $1 and we decided to go with cotton instead of satin. I'm hoping she will be able to wear the dress for her birthday party as well since she wants it to be princess themed and thinks all of her dress up clothes are itchy. Though I did get a picture of her today dressed up in one. The expression is due to the itchiness.

Then of course I have been playing doll doctor. I'm making some progress. I haven't sewn on Carrie's hair yet, but at least have it ready to be sewn on. I'm still working on Angel's, but this type takes a long time and a lot of patience. Then I got this book from the library. It is by the person who wrote the pattern for Angel. My mother also made several others of her doll patterns which are in this book. There are also animal patterns including an entire Noah's Ark. I can't wait to try some of them. I bought a used copy off of Amazon and cannot wait to get it. 

What have you been up to this week?

Mixed Berry Scones

A couple of Sharing Saturdays ago, Jamie at Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom shared her recipe for fresh strawberry scones (and homemade strawberry milk). We have gotten scones a few times at Starbucks lately so Hazel has been asking to make them. I told her I needed to find a recipe, so when I saw it, I knew we would be trying it. We followed her recipe for the most part except we used mixed berries--strawberries, blackberries and blueberries--since that is what we had. We also added a teaspoon of cinnamon since Hazel wanted to--she seems to think cinnamon goes in everything. I figured it wouldn't hurt in this recipe, so we did it.

Hazel cracked the egg all on her own and did not get any shell in the bowl!! Then she whisked while I gathered the next ingredients.
The next thing we needed to do was make some lemon zest. Hazel had never seen this nor do we use lemons too often, but I pulled out my zester and let her try. She had fun. Then she whisked all the liquid ingredients--including the zest.

We set that bowl aside and started on the dry ingredients. We used white whole wheat flour and this is where we added the cinnamon.
Then we added the butter and I used forks since I have misplaced my pastry cutter to break it up. Then we added the berries. I chopped them all a bit. And finally added the liquids from earlier.
But then it got hard to stir, so we used our hands.
Then we followed the directions to take it out and cut it and put it on the pan and in the oven.
I baked mine a little longer than the recipe said. Then we let them cool a bit, but we did eat the first ones warm.
We all enjoyed them. In fact I think Steve ate three or so for breakfast this morning! Thank you, Jamie for the recipe!!


This is where I link up...

Mother's Day Gifts

With Mother's Day only one week away, I thought it would be fun to share some homemade Mother's Day gift ideas. So if you have any from this year or previous, please link them below.

I thought I would share with you the gift we made last year for all of Hazel's women in her life. I took pictures of the one I kept, but we gave them to her grandmothers and aunts as well. (I can't remember if we made one for her godmother or not). This poem is floating around on-line. I believe the place I got it from was DLTK's Kids. (There are several Mother's Day poems at that link.)

Hazel Has a Little Lamb

25 Days Until Halloween!
Today I share another pair of pants. Hazel has been into the nursery rhymes so we have changed Mary Has a Little Lamb to Hazel Has a Little Lamb occasionally when we sing it. We also love Baa, Baa Black Sheep. I saw this fabric and thought it would be a perfect fabric for funky pants. I used a basic toddler pant pattern to make these, but wanted to jazz them up with a pocket--a must have for Hazel these days. I used some quilt applique techniques to make and add the pocket. The sheep itself came from Microsoft Word Clip Art. I didn't add the black tail or legs out of laziness and fear of it looking too busy.

The pants are just the correct length now, but with how fast she is growing I plan to add a ruffle when they become too short.




















And the dish ran away with the spoon (again!)

Ok, we are hooked on Hey Diddle Diddle here. Yesterday when we were out running errands Hazel turned to me (while we were holding hands) and said, "Let's run away. You are the dish and I'm the spoon." She repeated this a few times during the day. I decided it was time to make her The Runaways. I found the pattern at Happy Together. I changed a few things like adding arms and using 100% wool felt instead of fleece. Hazel loves them. I should also note that I did not follow the instructions carefully and wish I had on the spoon more so if you are going to do it, follow her instructions. Overall they were pretty easy to make and I know she will love them at least while she is on this kick. I'm thinking I may try to make a dish and spoon costume for Halloween. Hopefully this year she will be willing to put her costume on. Last year teething made it impossible to dress her up.

I updated these adorable guys with some needle-felting. You can check them out here.
http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-adventures-in-needle-felting.html

Hazel's Fairy Garden

The arbor entrance to the large garden

Large garden overall view