Did you celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday?

Yesterday was Dr. Seuss's Birthday and the kick off for Read America. We usually do something fun for this, and we did, but not to the same level as in the past. On Friday when I was babysitting, Haylee and I read Red Fish, Blue Fish and then she got to go fishing form the chair. Fun foam fish and paperclips, a stick some yard and a good magnet. Then we read "The Cat in the Hat" and we played a bean bag toss game. I made a "Cat in the Hat" hat from an oatmeal container and red and white paper. She then had to throw her little bean bags into the hat.  And finally we read Green eggs and ham- we made green and vanilla pudding and made "eggs" for dessert.

Yesterday for my boys I made waffles with different colored batter- pink, green, blue. And while they ate, I read to them "Oh the Places You'll Go!" With the boys being so busy, I don't get to play as much as we did when they were home and we had all day to read and have Dr. Seuss games, but they still expect something- which makes it fun.  I will say that when I started talking to them in rhyme they thought I had lost my mind, but we all laughed as we worked on that for about 45 minutes- talking like a Seuss book. 

Discussing 9/11

Recently Robert decided that he was going to read the book "I Survived The Attack of September  11, 2001"  ( you can check amazon for this book)which I thought was a great idea and timing, but when he finished it this week, he had questions as he was only 9 months old when it happened. As he asked questions, Garrett had looked at the cover of the book and then he asked questions about "Well what is 9/11?" "Why would they do that?" and "How did the towers fall?" When he started to ask these questions, it dawned on me that the school wasn't really discussing this topic (which Robert confirmed for me) and that neither of them had seen the events of the day. So we discussed it a over a couple of days this week. We have magazines from that 9/2001 that we pulled out and looked at the pictures and the stories and then we searched 9/11 videos.  As we sat here by the computer, watching the events, I tried to explain what we knew when it happened, how scary it was and some of the aftermath.

IT was a very god learning experience, but I made sure that we had lots of time (not a deadline) so that we could discuss as much as the kids wanted to. If you haven't discussed this with your kids, you might want to take that opportunity. It was a good time of discussion, learning and sharing. It let me boys know that I am real and that yes I was scared that day. And most importantly that we will be okay.

This book was a good starting point and maybe we should have read it together all three of us, but I'm not sure that Garrett was ready for separating the fiction and the real life events. But remember we were there and experienced the tragedy but our kids maybe weren't even twinkles in our eyes or were too small to even know that anything had happened.

Summer Reading Bags

Our local Library has a great resource for preschool children, but it kind of stops at that age. They have reading backpacks. These backpacks have several books, an activity and maybe a movie that all relate to a theme. Well Garrett wanted one of these book bags, but was disappointed in the themes offered. So after thinking for a little while, I decided that each week, I could easily make him a backpack that was themed from the things that we have here at home. This way maybe he will read some of the books that get missed and play with some of the things that he has forgotten about. I can also sneak in some writing , coloring and learning activities.

This week's backpack theme - FIRE TRUCKS AND SAFETY
I pulled 4 great books off the shelf - Nippy the Fire Dog, Big Frank's Fire Truck,  Tonka Fire Truck to the Rescue & The Magic School bus Gets All Fired Up (A Fire Safety Story)

I then checked out our drawer of videos and DVDs and found 2 which I added to the bag - "There goes a Fire Truck" & "Firehouse Dog"

Then an activity which I could have added several but I turned to the puzzles and we have 2 puzzles that are Fire Trucks and I dropped both of those in. One is a big floor puzzle from Melissa and Doug and the other was a little more challenging with 60 pieces.

Garrett is thrilled with his themed backpacks and I am too as it get him thinking in different areas and using some of the stuff that gets put on a shelf and forgotten.

I will try to add the other themes as I get them pulled together.

The Flowering Cross - book and activity

I stumbled on a great Easter Activity when I purchased the book "The Flowering Cross" by Beth Ryan at a local discount store. This story is about a little girl who befriends the neighbor man and gets him to attend church on Eater with her. At the church they have a flowering cross, where flowers are placed on the cross during the service. The neighbor then goes home and makes a smaller version of this cross for on the Easter table.

The lessons in this book are incredible. First that children can lead others to our Lord. Second, that we are to reach out to our neighbors in love. And third, that on Easter Sunday the cross of Jesus became a living cross.

Now as a kid our church had a cross, that was filled with potted flowers for our "Living Cross." So when I found this story I knew that it was to help remember what I had experienced in my youth. But I hadn't seen the pattern at the end of the book for the tabletop cross. When I got home I found the pattern. Luckily for me, my husband is a wonderful woodworking and he easily made me a couple crosses. I was able to share with 2 other homes this story this year, but I went back and bought a few more book, so I can pass this along to a few others.

But here is what our Flowering Cross looked like this year and hopefully we will get to share this for many years to come and with many others.

My Heart's at Home

I recently received the book "My Heart's at Home" by Jill Savage and I really had problems laying it down at night. It had great ideas about what our homes can be to our families. Is you home the peaceful, resting place for your family or is it the crazy chaotic, stressful place? What about a place where your kids can experiment with who they are and what they enjoy learning about? This had a great layout to the book and what mom's and dad's can do together to make your house a HOME! It was a great read. You can check it out online here: http://www.hearts-at-home.org

Jill has written many other books that you can check out while you are on the website, but she always has something to share on raising a family and protecting your marriage!

A Memory Book as a gift



The front cover of the book

This summer Gary's family went on a Family Vacation to the Williamsburg Area. This was an exciting trip as 17 of us had never vacationed together, but all went well and we had a great time. Here over the holidays my sister-in-law provided each family with a true treasure of memories. She had taken photos from the trip and using an online photo service put together a beautiful hardcover book. This is a great way to remember the trip and the times spent together. I have the habit of taking pictures and eventually getting them into albums for the boys, but this book will be something special. I thought it was just a great idea for how to get  those photos into a usable form and something that will be looked at often.

"The Popcorn Book"

Yesterday we had a snow day and I suggested that we get out the hot air popcorn popper and make some Carmel Popcorn.  To this there was a chorus of "Yeah!" So I pulled out the popper and we made the first batch of popcorn.  While it was popping, Garrett asked so what makes the popcorn pop? To this I quickly went to the bookshelf and pulled off the shelf "The Popcorn Book" by Tomie de Paola.

 We stopped making popcorn and read the story. This is a great little read with all sorts of information about corn and the Native Americans and their culture. So after we finished reading the book, we went back to making the Carmel Popcorn.

Watching popcorn actually pop is something that a lot of kids have never seen because of microwave popcorn where the popcorn pops inside a bag. So for Garrett this was a lot of fun to watch the popcorn pop!!!

Here is our recipe for Carmel Corn
(please make the popcorn with your kids, but be very careful with the syrup it can be extremely hot and I would hate for anyone to get hurt!)

2 gallons of Popped Popcorn
2 sticks oleo
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup Corn Syrup
1/4 cup water
1 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp soda

Pop the popcorn and set aside. Make sure that the popcorn is in a large kettle or pan that will fit in the oven.
Mix the next 4  ingredients together and melt, bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from stove and cool for 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and the soda and stir until well mixed in.  Then Pour over the popped popcorn and stir the popcorn to help distribute evenly the Carmel. Place in the oven at 250 degrees for 1 hour - stirring every 15minutes. Let cool and store in a sealed container.

(this recipe can be cut in half for smaller quantities)

"The Tiny Seed" by Eric Carle

I love the Eric Carle books for their great stories and illustrations. Today we read "The Tiny Seed" which is a most appropriate book for my boys because each year they plant sunflowers! But today I saw 2 new things in this story. First, was that as I read it Garrett was worried about the tiny seed and he was upset when it died and the new seeds took off.  We talked about the life cycle of many things and that this is the way God made plants to work. (I could have gone really deep and explained that it will happen to us too, but I didn't.)
But the other thing that I saw was the similarity to the Biblical story of "The Sower" found in Luke 8.  The first seed got too hot, the second got too cold, the 3rd drowned, etc. But this was very similar to the story which I hadn't picked up on before.

Anyhow now that we have this story fresh in our mind, we will be starting our sunflower seeds so that when it finally dries out around here the boys can move them outside to their "Sunflower House."  This was an idea I found in a book over 10 years ago and we have been hooked ever since. In one corner of our garden, the boys will layout their "house." Mainly a rectangle with doorways (places where they haven't planted seeds), this gives them a place to dig during the summer, plants to take care of on their own and they are always amazed by how tall the sunflowers get. Robert has now taken to reading the seed catalogs when they come in to find what variety will grow the tallest. So here is a great story to read and a fun activity that will grow all summer long and then in the fall, you can collect the seeds, or just leave the heads outside and watch the birds eat the seeds right from the heads. But I know that we will be starting sunflowers here in the next few days.

Dr. Seuss Week

practicing tracing our fish

I really don't think that one day is quite enough

for all of the Dr. Seuss fun stuff.

On day one, we had a lot of fun,

Red Fish, Blue Fish, One Fish, Two Fish

Oh the things that I had wished!

We made our fish from fun foam

And then we let those little fish roam

Behind the chair

There was only 1 pair.

Fishing for our colorful fish

We went fishing by color matching

When our magnet was a latching

Have a great week 

And don't forget to stop back for a peek! 

Getting the House Organized!!

Okay, so the blog has taken a back burner while our family (myself included) have had to fight off a few sicknesses that have really taken their toll.
But I wanted to share this really great book that I just finished and it has caused me to take some actions in my house. The title of the book is "The Complete Guide to Getting & Staying Organized" by Karen Ehman.  This isn't a book that tells you how to do it in your home but helps you create a plan for your home and how to manage different areas of your home and family. There are several things that we have already tried and I know that it is going to be slow, but to de-clutter our home 1 room at a time has been great here in the last month. One of the coolest ideas in the book is to have a Mission Statement for being a MOM! What a neat idea - an answer to Why am I here and what am I doing?

But to get started you have to be Honest with yourself, do you really need that item? Have you used that item or are you just keeping it because of who gave it to you? IF you don't love it or don't use it - do you really need it? I have started a box that if I stumble across something that I don't know where to put it and I start asking those questions and I find that I am not really going to use it - it goes into the give away box. This box when it gets full either goes to Goodwill, Salvation Army, or recently we were able to donate to the 4-H Auction. It is so freeing to let go of things that we aren't using or need and get them out of the house and out of our way.
I can hardly wait to start feeling better so that I can continue to de-clutter some additional rooms in our home.  It is amazing how great it makes you feel to be able to see an organized area and know that it looks good!
If you get a chance take time to enjoy this book!

Reading Through the school year

Well earlier this summer we set up pictures of barns and the kids earned their animals for their farm with every book that they read. It seems that the animals have lost their excitment. So today I started taking down the farm - to which Garrett protested, but when I explained that we would do something else, he was alright with taking it down. So today we have enlarged a coloring book picture (with my auction buy of an overhead projector) of a combine and a wagon for Garrett and a tractor and wagon for Robert. The object will be to read enough books to fill the wagons with ears of corn (that they will get to color) for each book.

I have found that having these simple interaction with the books and being able to keep track of how many books they have read is a lot of fun for them and encourages reading. So what are you doing to encourage free reading (school assignments don't count) for your kids this fall?

Waiting activities

On Saturday we went to the Autumn Leaf Festival Parade. Now the parade doesn't start until noon, but we were there at 9:30am so that we could save seats for the rest of the group that sits with us (we are now up to 17 for our family and there are families that sit beside us, too that we know.) But what do you do with kids while they wait, you can only eat so many times, so we have learned to take a few books with us that all ages can enjoy. The "I SPY" books are great for this kind of waiting time. And the bigger the book the better. We have found that there are 3 or 4 of us looking at a picture trying to find a certain item. And this is something that Garrett at 4 (and he did it last year too) can handle and the boys at 9&10 can handle too. Now the toddlers were a different story, but reading them a story works too. This is just something that we have found helps when we are waiting for an event of this type to start and we know that we will have a long wait. Adding a book or 2 really doesn't take much space or weigh that much when carrying in the blankets and chairs and such. SO enjoy a good book and have some fun the next time you are waiting !

Summer Reading Project

When Robert was younger he tracked the books he read through the summer by adding a body part to a dragon on our upstairs bulletin board. HE really enjoyed the activity that followed reading a book. Well after a lot of looking through bulletin board ideas, the boys and I have talked about having our "Reading Farm"." This week we will draw and color the barn which is the base for our farm then in order to have farm animals, they will have to read a book. For each book read, they will get a farm animal to write the name of the story on and them color the rest of the animal. So by the end of the summer, they are hoping to have an entire farm (maybe I'll even include tractors and equipment - we'll have to wait and see) But this is just an idea that has encouraged my boys to keep reading especially during the summer!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Garrett & I are working on learning the alphabet. "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" is a fun little story that the kids just love to help read, but since Garrett seems to enjoy action too, we adapted. We took a piece of freezer paper and drew a tree, it looks like a regular tree, not really a coconut tree. Anyhow we have the little magnet letters on the refrigerator so now when we read the book, it is sometimes in front of the frig so that Garrett can find the letters and move them up the tree. Then when they all fall out he gets to slide them down the tree. For the last part of the story, he has been lining them up along the bottom in order and getting them out of the pile. Just another fun way to enjoy books and make them hands on.

Our Dr. Seuss Day

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to go to Keystone and read to 3 of the 3rd grade classes for Dr. Seuss DAy. I read "Oh the Places You Will Go." Following the story, I had extra time so I asked the kids to think of where they might want to go or what they wanted to do when they grow up. It went over very well and the kids have some great goals. I can't wait to see it when they reach their goals. That evening we had green eggs & bacon (okay we didn't have slices of ham, just 2 big hams in the freezer. I made 2 different kinds of eggs, Robert had scrambled and Garrett had fried, but each had green eggs thanks to the food coloring. Robert read to us before supper "Green Eggs & Ham" which was a nice treat. Both of the boys enjoyed the day and the fun that we can have with books.

Library Mouse

Some have let me know that they liked "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" idea that I shared a couple of week's ago. So today Robert, Garrett and I had a chance to read another book and add an activity. Today's book was "Library Mouse" by Daniel Kirk. We read this cute book about finding the author in you. So following reading the book, I had paper cut and stapled together for the boys to write their own books. Robert went to a friends so we didn't get to finish our books, but for Garrett a simple story using stickers as the pictures for numbers or colors. I will write the color on the page and have him finish with pictures that are that color. Also another one that we are going to work on is the Counting - each page will have a number and the correct number of similar stickers for him to Count. I have done this before and Robert loved reading his books to mom & dad and even his stuffed animals. We still have some of his first books just for the fun of it.