On the Line

Amelia has been enjoying reading The Little House books with me and learning more about pioneer families.  We decided one day to cut out some little clothes from scrap fabrics we had around the house.  Then, I hung a clothesline in the playroom and let Amelia go to town hanging all of the little clothes.  She was pretty happy with it until she noticed a picture of a washboard in one of the books.  I told her we would check out the antique mall down the street and if there was a reasonably priced one available, we would buy it so that she could get a more authentic idea of how laundry was done in Laura and Mary's time.  She even offered to use her own money for the purchase. We haven't made it up there yet, but I am reminded about it every day (and twice a day if we pass the antique mall)!

Pete's A Pizza

 Do you know about Pete?  I had heard of the story and had seen the book around, but until I volunteered one morning in Amelia's class did I know what a fun story it was!  The day I joined Amelia at school was "Food Week" and all I could think of while listening to her teacher read the story, is that every kid should have this book and every parent should reenact it with their child.

In case you don't know the story, I will give you a quick summary.  Pete is bummed because he had plans to play outside with his friends, but it starts to rain.  His father, in an effort to cheer him up, decides to "make" him into a pizza.  He kneads the "dough" (Pete) and throws it up in the air.  He sprays the dough with olive oil (water) and adds flour (talcum powder). He adds tomatoes (checkers) and cheese (paper).  He eventually throws Pete into the oven (couch) and bakes him to perfection.  I mentioned to Amelia that we should do that some rainy day and she was so giggly just at the thought of it!

So I vowed that the next birthday party I attended, I would put together a "Pete's A Pizza" kit for the birthday child.  My friend, Erin's daughter was the recipient.  Little Elise turned 2 at the end of April.

I made some paper cheese and then bought the book, some talcum powder, a cheap set of checkers from the dollar store, and some tins to hold the "cheese" and "tomatoes". 

 

I decided that what would make this gift even better was a bag to keep it all in.  I cannot STAND games and toys with a million little pieces UNLESS they are all contained.  It was my first attempt at creating a drawstring bag (which I did without my mom's help, thank you very much) and it went great.  I followed this SUPER easy tutorial. I custom made the bag exactly big enough to fit the book.  The bag was also the perfect, eco-friendly gift wrap!

 

Amelia was so excited to see the gift come together that she immediately added it to her birthday list (not just the book, but the pieces as well).  And as requested, she received the "Pete's A Pizza" kit, minus the drawstring bag to keep it all contained.  One day I will learn.

I can think of a million books that would be so cute to package in a bag with supplies to bring the book alive.  "Harold and the Purple Crayon", "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More", "Mouse Paint" just to name a few!

Amelia and the Oobleck

 With several inches of snow in the forecast, I knew Amelia and I were going to need a little extra something to get us through a day of being snowed in.  We headed to the library and filled our bags with books, CD's, and a DVD.  While Amelia was off picking out a book for Henry, I spotted the Dr. Suess book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck.  I had never actually read the book before, but I knew of the gooey green substance, Oobleck, that fell from the sky in the story.

 That night and the next day we read the story a few times and then I decided to tell Amelia that I knew how to make oobleck.  She was ecstatic!  (She's actually made it a couple times before, but obviously didn't remember).

She decided that the oobleck should be pink instead of green like the book.  After all, pink matched her bow and dress.  Who am I to argue with that logic?

Seriously, though, this stuff is so weird!  You just add 1 cup of water to 2 cups of corn starch.  And actually, we cut that in half because we were running low on corn starch and it was plenty.

While playing in our oobleck, Henry woke from his nap so I decided to stick his hands in too.  He wasn't too thrilled with that choice.  He eventually warmed up a bit, but was never as interested as his sister.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a great picture of his disgusted face because I was trying to keep him from falling off of the stool he was standing on.

A copy of this book and a little container of corn starch (with directions to add water) would be a cute little gift!

Literary Jackpot

One Sunday morning a few weeks ago it was beautiful out, so Amelia and I decided to take a walk together. About 5 minutes into the trip, I decided that we would walk a mile up to the neighborhood Goodwill store. I had been in the habit of visiting the store monthly to scope out their children's books. As we were walking, I figured out that it had been almost a year since my last visit. Gasp.

Amelia and I scouting out books together is nothing but trouble. Jason has complained on several occasions that our children's book collection is out of control. I never buy books for me because I only read them once usually, but I really cannot turn down a cheap children's book that we will read hundreds of times. And so often, people are practically giving them away. I hate when a great book doesn't have a home.

Well, long story short, we walked out of Goodwill with 24 new books--for less than $8. Craziness.


Poor Henry got the shaft--only one of the books was for him directly (although I know he will benefit from the others when he figures out that books are not for eating). Amelia has been getting into chapter books and we scored 2 Junie B. Jones books and a whole slew of Magic Tree House books which I remember from my teaching days as being very popular.

Fiction: check! Non-fiction: check! Fairy Tales: check! Berenstain Bears: check!

Needless to say I got an eye roll or two when we finally returned home almost 2 hours later with a stroller loaded down with books. I told Amelia that maybe we should make our walk to Goodwill a monthly event. At 30 cents a pop, how could we not?

Night Owl Book Worm

I sneaked into Amelia's room the other evening and captured this fuzzy picture with my iPhone to give my blog readers a glimpse of my little girl's nightly routine. Jason and I have long ago stopped trying to get her to stay in bed and immediately go to sleep. The girl loves to read and will do it by sunlight during the day and nightlight in the evening.

She finished reading her 40th library book tonight which completes the summer library reading program. It took her exactly one month--and I only counted NEW books that we had never read before.

But perhaps the summer reading highlight for her is the group of chapter books we picked up at Target for only $1 each. Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Secret Garden, and the Wizard of Oz to name a few. These are shorter versions of the original with a picture on nearly every page, but have still taken us several days to read. At the end of each chapter, she begs to hear another. In fact, in the picture above, she had been thumbing through these very chapter books for the past 40 minutes.

We have finished her first choice (Peter Pan) and only have a couple of chapters left in The Wizard of Oz. I can't wait to see what she picks next!

Joseph Had A Little Overcoat

Well, our summer reading is off to a quick start. Seems like once the warm weather hits, I cannot be without a good book to read. Seems as though Amelia is following suit. We've been hitting the library up every week and recently re-checked out an old favorite--Joseph Had a Little Overcoat.

We've borrowed this book at least twice before. Amelia likes the story (and the song we also have) and I like the pictures. There is one page in particular that I've always been quite fond of and every time we came to that page, I would say, "We should make a building like that sometime". The page shows a drawing of several buildings with windows and in each window is a real picture of a person. I like the contrast between the drawing and the real pictures. I am also sure there is a term for this type of art, but I am too naive to know it.

So, apparently, I had said that enough on that particular page that when we checked the book out this time, Amelia started saying, "We should make a building like that sometime" each time we would get to this particular page.

So, we did! Yet, another project that was perfect for her new easel! I cut out some quick rectangles from construction paper and added some magic marker windows. Then, I gave Amelia some old magazines and her scissors and watched her go to town filling her buildings with faces. I even found some old pictures of her, Henry, and other family members that made it into the windows as well.
Not the best picture, I realize. But, the project kept her busy for HOURS on MULTIPLE DAYS. I will definitely be storing this one away to do again!!

Charlotte and Harold

A few months ago, I thought I'd give a chapter book a try with Amelia. I chose one of my favorites, Charlotte's Web. Despite the few pictures in the book, Amelia did pretty good following the story and seemed to enjoy reading a chapter or two each day. So, imagine my excitement when I saw that the Florissant Civic Center was putting on Charlotte's Web as part of their Family Theatre Series.

That was the good news. The bad news was that given the mid-January date of the performance, I would unlikely be able to attend the play with her. Luckily she has a great daddy who took her for a special afternoon at the Civic Center to check it out. Incidentally, I remember seeing plays at the same Center as a child.

Not surprisingly, Amelia was engrossed with the play and even insisted on sticking around afterwards to get all of the cast members' autographs on her program.

After checking the Family Theatre Series schedule again, I was again delighted to see another well liked book-turned-play on the list. In February, they will be performing "Harold and the Purple Crayon".

Although I had never read this book to Amelia, it just so happened that I had a copy in the ever-growing toy/book/game area of my closet where I stockpile future birthday and Christmas presents. So out came the book and in a 24 hour period, she had requested it no fewer than 10 times. When request number 11 came, I no longer had it in me to reread the story right then, so I asked her if she'd like to draw it out on her new easel instead.


And if you know the story of Harold and the Purple Crayon, you can just about imagine how much fun we had recreating all of the scenes. If you don't know the story, I recommend giving it a look-see and THEN imagining how much fun we had recreating the scenes.

100 Books to Read Before Kindergarten

I don't know what it is about me and lists--I just can't get enough!  I came across this one and thought other moms may be interested as well!  It is a list of books that apparently every child should "read" before kindergarten.  Although, this is just one library's opinion and there are other similar lists posted all over the internet.  Some of the books I totally agree with and others I am not so sure.  Maybe I will make my own list when I am done with this one!

(The titles we've already read are in bold, I am hoping to read one each week until we finish the list!)

100 Books to Read Before Kindergarten

"More, More, More" Said the Baby

A Nap in a Lap

A Splendid Friend, Indeed

ABC, Like Me!

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Alphabet City

Alphabet Rescue

Amazing Grace

An Extraordinary Egg

Angelina Ballerina

Bark, George

Barnyard Banter

Bear in a Square

Big Fat Hen

Book! Book! Book!

Bread and Jam for Frances

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?

Caps for Sale

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Chrysanthemum

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type

Come Along Daisy

Come on, Rain!

Corduroy

Counting Kisses

Curious George

Daisy 1, 2, 3

Does a Cow Say Boo?

Duck on a Bike

Each Peach Pear Plum

Eating the Alphabet

Fancy Nancy

First the Egg

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Freight Train

Goodnight Moon

Gossie

Guess How Much I Love You

Hands Can

Happy Birthday Moon

Hear Are My Hands

Henry Hikes to Fitchburg

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

How I Became a Pirate

I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!

I Kissed the Baby

I Went Walking

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

In the Tall, Tall Grass

Is Your Mama a Llama?

It Looked Like Spilt Milk

Jamberry

Jazz Baby

Jump Frog, Jump

Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity

Little Red Hen

Little Toot

Llama, Llama Red Pajama

Love You Forever

Maisy Goes Swimming

Make Way For Ducklings

Mama Cat Has Three Kittens

Mama, Do You Love Me?

Max Cleans Up

Max's ABC

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten

Mouse Mess

Mouse Paint

Mr. Grumpy's Outing

Muncha! Muncha! Muncha

My Friend Rabbit

My Very First Mother Goose

Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs

Old Black Fly

Olivia

One Beautiful Baby

Planting a Rainbow

Rosie's Walk

Silly Sally

Snowy Day

Spots, Feathers and Curly Tails

Ten Tiny Tickles

Ten, Nine, Eight

The Doorbell Rang

The Hat

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

The Little Engine that Could

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

The Napping House

The Story of Babar

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

The Three Bears

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

There's a Nightmare in My Closet

Wemberly Worried

Where the Wild Things Are

Where's My Teddy

Where's Spot?

 

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

I haven't noticed much going on today to remember 9/11.  I only ventured out briefly this morning to the grocery store, but I saw no flags up around my neighborhood.  I didn't see anyone wearing red, white, and blue.  And it hasn't been the top story today on CNN.com--my only connection to the outside world since I rarely watch TV for listen to the radio during the day. 

It could be that my isolated self  is just missing all of the 9/11 talk.

Either way, I was wondering what I could do with Amelia to remember the day.  There isn't much you can do with a two year old to memorialize a tragedy she cannot even begin to understand. I decided we would put a small, American flag out by our mailbox.  Then, I remembered the book I have (The Man Who Walked Between the Towers) about a man who tight rope walked between the World Trade Center towers back in 1974.  The tale is true and an interesting one and the book has great illustrations.  At the end of the story, it mentions that "now the towers are gone" and shows a picture of where the towers once stood.  On the next page, a ghost of the two towers remains and the author says, "But in memory, as if imprinted on the sky the towers are still there.  And part of that memory is the joyful morning, August 7, 1974, when Philippe Petit walked between them in the air".  Needless to say, this book was part of our day today.

Its hard to believe its been 7 years already.

Like Daughter, Like Mother

Amelia's summer reading program through the library ended last week.  The program ran from June 2-August 2 and we read 54 new books to Amelia during that time.  As I've already mentioned in previous posts, it was a great motivator to get to the library at least once a week and Amelia seemed to enjoy choosing new books during each visit.  It is pretty rewarding to browse through the children's section at the library and recognize several books that we had previously checked out.

In addition to an appreciation of some lesser known titles and an expanded vocabulary for Amelia, there was another unexpected positive outcome of participating in the reading program.  One day I happened to overhear a librarian during one of our weekly visits to the library say there was openings in the "Time for Twos" story time.  I had pretty much given up on EVER making it into one of these exclusive story times because they fill up super fast. Unfortunately, I am not organized enough to be on the phone at exactly 9 AM on the first day of registration to secure a spot. But, because we spent so much time at the library this summer we got the added bonus of participating in a 3-week session of story time. Each session was 45 minutes and included a story (obviously), a game, some songs, and a craft.  Amelia enjoyed the weekly sessions so much!  In fact, she still talks about it and once I know the day of the week I will be working this school year, I plan on being one of those moms on the phone at 9 AM on opening day so that Amelia can attend again.  

But, Amelia isn't the only one who spent much of her summer behind the pages of a good book.  I've always been an avid reader, but there is something about summertime that always makes me a little manic about reading some great novels under the warmth of the sun.  I was fortunate enough to borrow a huge stack of books from a friend (thanks Danielle!) early in the summer and I've been working through those as well as some other recommended reads. For those of  you on Facebook, they have an interesting application you can download called Visual Bookshelf.  It will keep track of all of the books you've read as well as keep a list of books you would like to read (and a list of books you are NOT interested in).  If you are feeling ambitious, you can rate and review each one.  Lastly, you can see what your other "friends" are reading and/or what they recommend. The site itself will make recommendations, too, based on past books you've read.  

Anyway, here's what's been keeping me busy this summer:

Slam by Nick Hornby

Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini*

Its Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

The Glass Castle:  A Memoir by Jeannette Walls*

We are All Welcome Here: A Novel by Elizabeth Berg

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

Prep: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld

Ridiculous/Hilarious/Terrible/Cool: a Year in an American High School by Elisha Cooper

Jesus Land: A Memoir by Julia Scheeres*

Body Surfing: A Novel by Anita Shreve

I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley*

Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini*

Sharp Objects: A Novel by Gillian Flynn (reading this one now)

Going back and perusing the list again, I think it is a nice assortment of fiction and non-fiction.  There are a couple of Young Adult Fiction books and a book with short, comical essays.  There was even a "classic" thrown in for good measure.  I've starred my top 5 favorites.

These are the books either sitting next to my bed or waiting for me on reserve at the library:

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

Miserly Moms: Living on One Income in a Two-Income Economy by Jonni McCoy

Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them by Gary Belsky

I would love to hear some other favorites out there.  If you have one to share, please email me or post it in the comments section.

our little bookworm!

Amelia signed up for the "Catch the Reading Bug" Summer reading program at the library. The girl loves to read, so it seemed like a no brainer to take advantage of the program that offers prizes, Rascal's tickets, Red Robin meals, etc. for reading.  As an added bonus, I've been much more diligent about getting her to the library at least once a week, sometimes twice!  This, of course, is more for my own sanity, since each book we check out ends up getting read approximately 15 times each day, no exaggeration.  She has enjoyed visiting various library branches and picking out lots of new books at each visit.  This past week, we met the first mini-goal, which was to read 20 books.  Amelia was very proud to hand over her reading log to the librarian, fascinated by the ant stamp she put on the paper, but then had zero interest in picking out a prize.  Mostly, this was because she got sidetracked by the little club house available at the library for the kids to play in. After some prodding, she chose a little handheld butterfly game which she finally showed some interest in once we got in the car to go home.  

I am very much a "judge-a-book-by-its-cover" kind of girl, so that is how we've chosen most of the books for Amelia.  If one or both of us is intrigued by the cover, in the bag it goes, assuming of course that it is an appropriate length.  We are at a weird stage where she is past many board books, but still too little to pay attention for books that are much more lengthy.  Needless to say, we've had some real duds.  But, in case you are looking for some new books to try, here is a list of some of our top favorites from the 33 new books we've read so far this summer (many of these will probably end up on Amelia's Christmas list too!):

1. Bittle (especially great if you are a dog/cat lover)

2. Ivan the Terrier (see above, especially if you have a "challenging" dog like us)

3. Hiding (Seriously, I think this book has been read 9985 times in 5 days AND Amelia can recite parts of the book).

4. Truck Stuck (really cute with funny rhymes and pictures)

5. How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? (this is a pretty popular book that I see everywhere but never really paid attention to.  When I finally picked it up, it was great!  Amelia loves it and has learned some about dinosaurs and now she loves them!)

6. How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? (see above)

7. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (once Amelia got over the initial shock of the lady eating all of her beloved animals, she really liked it and got good at figuring out the next animal to head to the lady's see-through belly.  And then EVERY TIME we got to the page of the "dead" woman flat on her back after eating the horse, Amelia would look very concerned, point to the lady and say, "uh-oh".