Life Lessons

When I was little my mom was pretty sneaky. I didn't really realize it at the time, at least not as much as I do now, but she would use books to teach us values and common sense. One of her favorite series to use was the now classic Berenstain Bears. When my baby brother was going to be born, we read Berenstain Bears, when she wanted to teach us about stranger danger, we read Berenstain Bears, when we were afraid of the dark, Berenstain Bears . . . they are still in publication and, in my opinion, as useful as ever when it comes to disseminating important information to children. They are entertaining and explain important topics in ways that kids understand. What follows is a list of some of my favorite titles, though there are many more:

• The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers
• The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners
• The Bird, The Bees and the Berenstain Bears
• The Berenstain Bears Think of Those in Need
• The Berenstain Bears and the Bad Dream
• The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies
• The Berenstain Bears Count Their Blessings
• The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food

Check out their home at PBS Kids!

Making Music

I wanted to highlight to Jazz inspired poetry picture books today. Poetry and Jazz seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly, and these two books are good compliments to each other as well. The first is I Live in Music by Ntozake Shange and the other is Jazz by Walter Dean Myers. Though not a book of poetry, a good prose book to throw into the mix is Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman. All three of these books, and their illustrations, speak to the way that music makes us feel more alive.

Putting together a dress up trunk like the one in Song and Dance Man is a great way to bring these books to life. Gather up some old clothes from relatives, garage sales and/or thrift stores, include shoes and accessories too. Put on some music, for these books I would recommend Putumayo Kids' New Orleans Playground CD and let your kiddos put on a show!

When I was little my sister and I had a dress up trunk of old dresses and costume jewelry that was given to us for Christmas by my great-aunt and great-grandmother. We occasionally added new pieces as old ones got worn out - but it was well used for many years. Creating a dress up trunk is not just an investment for one day's activity, but for years of pretend play!



As a side note: creating your own dress up trunk from used clothes is a lot more personal than just buying one of the pre-fab trunks or costumes that are available - and it is a good green option that cuts down on consumer waste!

Happy Father's Day

My local library had a great display of books up for Father's Day at my last visit, so I grabbed the one with the most interesting title. They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but title's are usually pretty telling and this one did not disappoint: The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman (who also happens to be the brilliant author of the Newbery Award winning The Graveyard Book - someday I'll do a whole post of Neil Gaiman books, but today is not that day).

The illustrations, by Dave McKean, are wonderful and the story is engaging. I hope you will check out a couple great Dad's Day books this year to share as a family. Dads, reading to your children is one of the bests gifts you can give them, and will insure that you will be knee-deep in ties, soap-on-a-rope and "World Greatest Dad" mugs, paperweights and mouse pads for years to come!

Belated Christmas

I had very good intentions of posting a Christmas-themed reading selection BEFORE the holiday. But alas and alack, things at work got quite busy and I missed my window of opportunity before the holiday.

Still, I did want to give a shout out to the book How Santa Really Works by Alan Snow. This is a great picture book for sharing, or for older readers (2nd grade and up) to tackle on their own. The basic story is laid out pretty simply, but there are extra hilarious tid-bits in speech bubbles from the elves on each and every page. While it is a truly fun and whimsical read, it is subversively educational because the North Pole, it turns out, runs very much like a large business with its departments and divisions of labor. Somehow, it's more interesting when one is learning how Santa does it than how Wells Fargo Bank does.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Thank you for reading, and keep an eye out in the New Year, for new posts and new ideas for taking adventures with books!

The Nutcracker

Most little girls will go through either a ballet stage or a horses stage, some both. For me, I was a ballet girl, through and through and Christmas season meant one thing to 5 year old me: The Nutcracker!


I would put on my leotard, tutu and slippers and begin twirling harry-carry around the living room to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.


I never really knew the story of The Nutcracker though, I knew the music, but could not have told you what was happening in the scene during any particular song. I would have loved to have one of these versions of the classic tale available to me as a ballet-loving kid.


The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers is great, easy to read and share aloud picture book version of the classic tale. This book is perfect for young audiences who don't have the patience to sit through the whole ballet, or as a short introduction to kids about to attend their very first performance.


The Nutcracker by Eyewitness Classics is a great one for older kids who want to go more in depth into the story, the ballet and its history. The book features the full (long version) story as well as great pictures and side bars with  non-fiction information about everything from historical nutcrackers to German Christmas traditions to the Russian premiere of Tchaikovsky's ballet.


Last but not least The Nutcracker by Janet Schulman is a well-illustrated picture book, but more importantly it comes with a read-along CD that features music from the ballet.


If you have kids that love to dance this is a great excuse to expose them to classical music and ballet. There are many excellent and easily available recordings of Tchaikovsky's score - check one out at your local library or invest in your own copy. Crank the music and get your dance on! You can act out scenes from the story together, or just enjoy moving around to the melody.

Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow . . . . .

Here in Colorado it is snowing again. I love the snow. Last year we didn't get a measurable snow until November, this year we have had two in October and I have loved it! Most snow books seem to revolve around Christmas, it is hard to find some just about the changing seasons - but I've managed it.

Snow Party by Harriet Zeifert tells the story of snow people who gather to celebrate the first snow of the season. Late at night while the snow falls around them, the snow people kick up their heels.

The Winter Visitors by Karol Hayes may be short on words but it is long on story. A simple read due to its low word count and simple word choice, it tells much more story through the pictures which appear in multiple frames per page like a comic or graphic novel. It is a great book for little ones to use their imaginations and practice their story telling by explaining to you what is going on in the pictures - a story within a story.

Last but not least Under the Snow by Melissa Stewart tells a simple story of how many animals make it through the winter. For instance, did you know that the wood frog can freeze solid under the snow and survive to thaw out and hop happily away come spring?

Now my family had a tradition that the first solid freeze or the first snow of the year we would have homemade chilli for dinner and a fire in the fireplace. Perhaps this is the year to start a tradition of your own, maybe chilli like my family did or perhaps pumpkin bread, candle making, s'mores, chicken noodle soup, meatloaf or chicken pot pie. The sky is the limit, use your family's tastes and your own favorite comfort foods and activities as your guide.

Over the River and Through the Woods . . .

I love camping.

Next to reading a great book, it's probably my favorite thing to do.


Growing up my family and I took camping trips to many of the National Parks and innumerable state parks. I learned to fish, start a fire, build a fort, toast the perfect marshmallow and play spades, about wild animals, poison ivy and geology. For a curious kid camping trips are the best!


BUT

Sometimes, and especially here in Colorado, the weather just gets in the way of plans. Quite literally raining on the parade.

So when you can't go camping outdoors, bring the adventure in - and take a good book (or five) along for the ride!


You can set up a tent indoors, or even better: build one together out of sheets and assorted furniture:




If you have a fire place, build a "camp" fire to roast marshmallows! If this is a dinner time camp-out, try the recipe below for one of my favorite kid and camp-stove friendly meals. Then it's time to snuggle up in the tent, wrap up in a blanket or bed down in a sleeping bag for story time!

My all-time favorite camping book: Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe by Vera B. Williams. It's the story of a family float trip down the river in a book that looks more like an illustrated scrapbook than a traditional children's book. As bonuses it has a couple camp recipes and even teaches you how to tie knots!

Some other good picks:

• Curious George Goes Camping


• S is for S'mores: A Camping Alphabet (This one also has great info for grown ups!)


• Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping


• The Boy Scouts Book of Campfire Stories

But there are SO many to choose from. An Amazon search for Children's Books about camping produced 8,309 results! A search of the local Denver Public Library system yielded 168 books in their collection. These include tales from many of your favorite characters and series like Caillou, Maisy and Little Critter.

So next time you're ready to gear up for an outdoor adventure but the weather just won't cooperate - Take an adventure with a good book instead!

Recipe for Hobo Pockets:

The recipe for hobo pockets is - there is no recipe, just ingredients! Older kids can help cut the veggies, and everyone puts the ingredients of their choice onto a square of aluminum foil. Grown-ups then fold the foil into little packets, and place the packets in a 375 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes.

Ingredients (mix and match as desired):

• ground beef or turkey
• cut russet potatoes
• spring onions or pearl onions
• cut carrots
• herbs (parsley, sage, thyme)
• seasoning salt
• peas
• sweet corn
• mushrooms
• cut celery
• salt and pepper

My personal favorite: beef with potatoes, pearl onions, peas, mushrooms, herbs and a dash of seasoning salt. Experiment with your own tastes and have fun!

Lightning and Thunder and Tornadoes, Oh My!

I don't know about the kids in your life, but I remember vividly my fear of summer storms as a child. I was terrified of thunder and, after an evening spent in a closet waiting out a tornado warning, I was afraid of any strong wind gusts as well. Like so many fears however, I found that more I new about a topic, the far less fearful it became, to the point that by late childhood thunderstorms were (and still are) one of my favorite parts of the summer.

The cliche rang true - knowledge was indeed power. Power, and freedom from fear.

Books were a key part to gaining that knowledge.

One episode of PBS' Reading Rainbow was probably the tipping point. In this episode James Earl Jones brought life to the story of Kipat, who watched his herd, as he stood on one leg like a big stork bird in Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain. The story taught me about the importance of the rain to the plants and animals who share our planet, that summer storms are a blessing for the Earth.

Another book that helped me to make sense of the weather was the children's non-fiction book Weather Words and What They Mean. This book gave me words to put the phenomena I saw around me.

Recently I used these two books, in addition to Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, to teach two different programs for preschoolers about the weather. The weather here in Colorado this summer has been rather crazy, and often severe, so I thought some of the kids I see each day might be struggling with the same fears I once had regarding the weather.

Here are the crafts we did:

Drawing the Weather

Supplies:
blue construction paper
blue, grey, white and yellow crayons
glitter (glitter pens or rolling glitter)
cotton balls
school glue (or glue sticks)

The kids were each given a sheet of "sky" and then were encouraged to use their imaginations and the supplies provided to draw the weather. Many drew lightning, made glittering rain and had lots of fun gluing cotton ball clouds to their papers.

Making Clouds

Supplies:
dixie cups (or other small disposable container)
white school glue
shaving cream
blue construction paper (which we glued to paper plate frames in advance, to add support)
craft sticks (to stir and stick with)

Put one part school glue per two parts shaving cream in a cup, then have the kids mix the shave cream and paste together - this will be their cloud foam. They can then plop it on their papers and shape their very own clouds, big or small, globby or thin, thick or sparse.


Next time - one of my other favorite parts of summer, Camping!!