Book Theme Cupcakes

For the past two summers my daughter and I have challenged ourselves to see if  together we can read 100 books.  My little reader just turned six so this was something we worked on together. I first learned of the 100 book challenge from Angela at Teaching Mama.  She created a fun chart to go along with the challenge and we have really had alot of fun with it!

This was our second summer seeing if we could get to the goal of reading 100 books and we did!  Last year my daughter's prize/reward was going to Chuck E Cheese.  This year she asked if she could have a play date with some of her friends.  So, we invited a bunch of her friends and spent the afternoon at the park.

Since this was a celebration I knew we needed something yummy to enjoy. So I decided on cupcakes but wanted to somehow turn a regular cupcake into something book related.  After searching the internet I came across this adorable idea from A Turtle's Life For Me.   I knew this would be perfect!

A Turtle's Life For Me shares a tutorial on how to make these cupcakes, which is very simple.  However, I switched it up a bit and didn't use PicMonkey.  Instead, I googled my daughter's favorite books, saved the image, copied into a word document and printed.  It worked perfectly!

Once I printed the book covers, I cut them out so that they look like a book, rubbed a glue stick on the inside of the 'book', inserted a toothpick, pressed together and voila, book cupcakes!

These book cupcakes were super easy and it was a fun way to celebrate this special accomplishment for my little aspiring reader!

Roly-Poly Egg Book and Craft

My daughter and I really enjoy our library visits and then reading all the books we find.  Some are real treasures like this one by Kali Stileman called, Roly-Poly Egg.  This is a cute book about a bird named Splotch who lays an egg, an absolutely perfect and beautiful egg of course.  But the egg rolls away and begins an adventure rolling, somersaulting and flying all while meeting some new animal friends along the way.

Besides reading books we also enjoy pairing them with crafts.  We both thought it would be fun to paint our very own Splotch and egg.  Here's what we used and how it turned out:

You will need:
Paper
Paint
Paint brushes
Googly eyes
Craft foam

We happened to have red paint just like the color of Splotch in the book.  But, if you do not have red paint,  you can make your very own unique Splotch with any colors you have on hand.  What's great about this painting is that Splotch is just that a 'splotch' or a 'glob' so really easy for even the littlest of kiddos to paint!

Start off by painting Splotch

Add some googly eyes

Next add the tree by painting the tree branch and some leaves.

My daughter also wanted to paint Splotch's egg AND the baby bird after it hatched.  We kept a page in the book open so that she could have something to work from.

The egg was fun to paint, especially sticking on the colored dots.  I cut out small circles from craft foam to use as the dots for the egg.

I wanted in on the fun too so I also painted a version of Splotch and his egg.

Mom's finished painting.....

Tiffany's finished painting.....

Who Am I? A National Geographic Kids Book Activity

Each month my daughter brings home the Scholastic book order forms.  I love how she sits down and circles the books that she wants.  One of the books she circles every time are these National Geographic Kids books.  My daughter is in kindergarten and the books are perfect because they are in line for pre-readers.  This series of books are great for kids as they explore a child's interest and motivate their minds to want to read.  National Geographic for Kids is considered informational reading, which is critical to success as the child progresses through school.  This series of informational books also helps a child learn about the world, while helping them with reading comprehension.  There was also another book I included not in the National Geographic Kids series, which goes to show that you can do this activity with any of your childs favorite book(s)

This Who Am I activity was an extension to these books to help with comprehension skills.

I simply copied the covers of each of the books we ordered, laminated them, cut out and attached popsicle sticks to them.

Next, I made up a list of questions.  Things like: "which animal hibernates in the winter."  OR "which animal is an amphibian."  I made sure to ask questions about each of the animals in the series we have.

It really made my daughter think about the animals we read in each book, working on her comprehension skills.

We also tied a craft into this activity by using the frog book and made our very own frog craft.

What you'll need to make this paper plate frog:

Paper plate

Green Construction paper

White Construction paper

Green paint

Paint brush

Tape

Scissors

Black crayon or marker

Hands

Pencil

Yarn

Start off by painting your plate green.
While your paper plate is drying help your child trace their hands.  Once the plate is completely dry, use some tape and attach your child's cut out hands to the bottom of the plate.  This will be the frog's feet.
Next, cut out 2 circles from the white construction paper to serve as the frog's eyes and draw black dots in the center of each circle.  Attach to the top of the paper plate.
Take your black marker or black crayon and draw a smiley face.
Finally, take your yarn, attach to the back of the paper plate and hang up.

If you are looking for an educational book series for your pre-reader this National Geographic series is highly recommended.  

Note: The thoughts in this post are strictly my own

Books That Will Make Your Kids Giggle

I love to read books with my 5 year old.  We visit the library about once every 2-3 weeks and usually borrow about 25 books at a time.  We've been doing this for about 2 years and over the course of this time I've seen how my daughter has evolved from the board book section to the non board book section.  She's learning to look at her book choices in a different way and it's really fun to watch how she decides on whether a book is to her liking or not.

We've read many books, some that bring smiles, laughter, tears and sleepy eyes.  For bedtime reading I try and choose books that have a more calming tone to them.  Here are a list of our favorite bedtime stories.

I love watching my daughter as I read to her and her reaction to the story.  I especially love the stories that make her giggle or out right laugh.  Here is a list of books that we have read that might make your little ones giggle too!

Bark, George


Knuffle Bunny


The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog


The Duckling Gets a Cookie


There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves


Peanut Butter & Cupcake


These are just a few of our favorite 'giggle' books.  Mo Willems especially has a line of not just funny but hilarious books guaranteed to make your little ones laugh.

I hope you enjoy our favorites as much as we do!  Happy reading!

Learn with Nursery Rhymes

Nursery rhymes are said to have been around for centuries and for most children nursery rhymes are probably their first experience with literacy.  Kids love them because they are fun to listen to or sing and dance to.

Here are some ways your child can learn from nursery rhymes:

• The rhyme and rhythm in nursery rhymes helps children hear the syllables in words which helps kids learn to read and helps with their language and cognitive development.

• Sequencing helps children become good readers as they learn the beginning, middle and end of a story.  Nursery rhymes are a great place to start sequencing.  We did this nursery rhyme sequence activity and my daughter had alot of fun with it.  

• Build self confidence with nursery rhymes! I wish I had a video clip to share but each night my kids and I send a good night message to their Grandparents.  They live 7 hours away and this has been a really special way to include them in our lives.  Our video messages are always songs and one of the things we love to do is take a traditional nursery rhyme song and change the words to it.  I believe doing this helps my children build confidence in how they express themselves.

• Most importantly, whether singing or reading nursery rhymes you and your child are bonding and creating memories that will last a lifetime!

I picked up this nursery rhyme book at a yard sale and it's one of my daughters favorite bedtime reads.  If you can find this book it's a must buy or borrow from your local library!

Speaking of lifetime, 40 years later I still have the Mother Goose book that my Mother read to me from. Now I share this same book with my children.  

Reading Comprehension Activity

My daughter loves when we have storytime at our house.  Every day we can easy read for 15-30 minutes.  Visits to our local library is always exciting because of the idea of finding new books to enjoy.  There has been one book that is not new to most, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  Although I've heard great reviews about this book I never made the decision to borrow it.  I have found another fun way to find books and that is at yard sales!  When I see a bin of books I'm all over it!  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was one I recently found and grabbed it for .25 cents!!  



After the first read my daughter was hooked!  She smiled and laughed and thoroughly enjoyed the story.  She loves how it rains and snows food!  Each night before bed my daughter chooses a book which is alot more fun and easier now that we have our rain gutter book shelf.   Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a favorite for at least a week straight!

To help my daughter with reading comprehension I made up this activity, here's what I used and how we played:

Giant Post it Notes (these are awesome!)
Permanent Marker
Brown paper bags
Prizes for bag

This was such an easy set up.  I had a list of questions I asked my daughter about the story and wrote 2 choices to each question onto the Post It Notes.  After I read the question my daughter had to choose which was the correct answer by jumping on it.

At the end of each path I taped a brown paper bag, if she chose the right path she would receive some goodies I hid in the bag.  If she chose the wrong path the bag would be empty.  She chose the correct answers so she got the prizes on the first try - had she not we would have just kept playing until she got it right!

This was a really fun activity that helped my daughter with her reading comprehension and got her moving at the same time.....and a little prize at the end never hurts!!

Friendships and Children

I had intentions of posting this shortly after my daughter started kindergarten but better late than never........My daughter started kindergarten this past September and with that came the making of new friendships. Here are two books that talk about friendship that we really enjoy.



Oscar needs a friend: This was such an adorable book and a simple  message for preschoolers and for kindergartners to understand.  This book allows you to stop and talk about what Oscar could do differently to help his friendship with his new friend, Ollie.

Peanut Butter and Cupcake: A book that will bring many smiles and chuckling especially because of the illustrations.  Peanut Butter moves to a new town and is trying to find new friends.  Peanut Butter doesn't have much luck but by the end of the book he finds the perfect friend and then some!



In addition to these books I wanted to do an activity to reinforce what we've read and talked about.

Our first activity was based on some questions about how we should treat our friends.  Since we did alot of talking about how we should treat other people the questions seemed appropriate.

We also turned this activity into a craft that my daughter could give to a friend once it was complete.

Here's what we used:

Card Stock (for flower template)
Flower Template
Scissors
Glue
Construction paper
Sticker Foam Sheets (cut to match up to petals on template)
Heart sticker

Here's what to do:

• Print off a flower template but it's easy enough to also free hand a flower onto card stock.  
• Cut out the flower
• Glue flower onto construction paper
• Cut out different colors from foam sheets as the flowers petals

Next, I asked my daughter a question and tried painting the picture of a situation and then read her two choices.  If she picked the correct choice she added a petal to the flower.  I also included some questions with just a yes or no answer.  Below is a sample and what I used as a guide for me. 

I'm proud to say that my daughter answered all the questions correctly! Once all the petals were added I included a heart sticker as the center for the flower.

My daughter cut a stem for the flower, glued it on and now she had a cute flower craft that she could give to one of her friends.  She thought about it for a minute and said, "Mom, I want to give this to you!"  Melt my hear, I will cherish it forever!

Our second friendship activity will get your child moving and is super easy to set up.  I went out to the driveway and wrote words inside some squares.  I then asked my daughter some more questions and she had to jump to the answer she thought was the right one.  I told her that if she answered the questions correctly there would be a surprise at the end.  Once again I'm glad to report she answered them correctly and her prize was a treat from the dollar section of Target.

We did alot of talking with this topic and I am so pleased that my daughter seems to be on the right track.  I'm excited for her and confident that she is off to a great start as she begins and nurtures her new friendships!

I hope these books and activities will help your child as they begin building their friendships too!

10 Free and Budget Friendly Summer Ideas

If you're like us than you might still have another 5 weeks before the kids get ready to go back to school.  Last year I made up a Summer Cup of Fun for things we could do on those "I'm bored" kind of days.  This year we are just winging it and finding fun in the more simple things.

Here are 10 ideas that are either free or budget friendly that you can enjoy with your family for the last few weeks of summer!  We have personally enjoyed all of these activities and although not over the top exciting, we have still made lots of fun memories.

1. Cloud Talk: Lay a blanket outdoors or if it's too hot find a spot inside near a window and talk about the shapes you and your child see in the clouds.  My daughter LOVES telling me the shapes she sees. Doing this will encourage your child to use their imaginations and work on their vocabulary skills at the same time!

2. Basketball: As I think about our summer so far their is one thing I think of first and it's playing basketball in the driveway!  Yup, so simple but yet, so memorable!  Since my kids are almost 5 years apart it can be challenging to find an activity that they can both play and enjoy together.  Shooting hoops is definitely one of them!  I join in too and every day no matter what we're doing we stop and play basketball even for just 15 minutes! If you don't have a basketball net at home most local parks have basketball courts.

3. Make Your Own Ice-cream Sundaes: Next time you are out doing your grocery shopping add ice-cream to your list along with some fun toppings and let the kids create their own yummy sundaes!

4. Backyard Story Time: Simply curling up on the couch and reading is always enjoyable but to make things a bit more exciting head outside for story time!  We laid out a large blanket, brought out some pillows, snacks and believe it or not it changes the experience of reading.

5. Visit Your Local Pool: This isn't a free activity but most pools are fairly economical.  Our local pool does not charge for children 5 and under and if you have older kids who can swim independently and who don't need Mom's help in the water

our pool offers a non-swimmer admission of just $1! Check out the prices of your local pool and enjoy a carefree day of fun in the sun!

6. Feed The Ducks: We have a few local places around our house with some pretty hungry ducks.  My kids always get a kick out of feeding them.  Just keep in mind to try and feed 'duck friendly food' like peas, oats or corn instead of bread.

7. Skip or Toss Rocks: We are also lucky to have alot of rivers and lakes in our neck of the woods.  The river runs through some of our local parks and the kids enjoy searching for rocks and tossing or skipping them into the water.  Literally, my kids can spend an entire morning or afternoon doing this!

8.Family Day: My kids enjoy having their friends over or going to their houses but it's also nice to designate a day where it's just you and the kids.  Pull out the board games or even the video games like Just Dance on Wii and enjoy each other!

9. Slip N' Slide Fun: For under $10 you can pick up a single lane slip n' slide at Walmart!  This year we sprung for a metal frame inflatable type pool but every year for about the past 5, we have had one and made a ton of use of it!  For less than a $10 investment your kids will have lots of splish splashin' fun and you can use it year after year!

10. Visit Rita's Italian Ice: We LOVE Rita's and no I'm not getting paid to say that!  We literally couldn't stay away last summer and even though delicious I needed to curb our Rita's habit this summer.  So, this year we usually only go on Wednesdays since it is half price on all their ices that day!  It's more of a treat this way than going as much as we did last year!  Check for a Rita's near you.

11 Children's Books That Teach Compassion

This past week we had some awesome finds from our local library.  On the top of that list is a book by David McPhail, The Teddy Bear.  This book was the perfect read for not only my 5 year old but for my 9 year old also.

I skimmed through it at the library and immediately knew I had to borrow this one.  The book is about a little boy who has a favorite teddy bear (something most kids can relate to) that goes everywhere with him.  Sadly, the boy loses his bear but the bear is not lost for long as another finds it and loves it just as much if not more.  It's the person who finds it that's the surprise and from there a very strong message is shared.  The Teddy Bear is a story of compassion, love and kindness.

Once I finished reading this aloud to both of my children I asked questions to be sure they understood the message.  My 9 year old grasped it better than my 5 year old which I expected but with a bit more explaining my 5 year old understood enough to appreciate this sweet read.

This book and the message it shares encouraged me to find a way for my children to spread the same compassion as the boy in the book.  As most kids, my two have their fair amount of stuffed animals and normally we save them up and donate them to Goodwill. However, I wanted to take things a step further so I searched and found organizations that accept stuffed animals for children AND the elderly who are experiencing traumatic type situations.  Places like firehouses, police stations, emergency services even nursing homes are happy to accept stuffed animals to have on hand.  They use them to comfort the sick, injured or whatever emergency/crisis they are tending to.

From now on as my kids go through their stuffed animal friends we will put them away until we have a large enough bin and then we will donate them to our local police, fire and emergency services.

If your child(ren) or organization that you might belong to, like boy or girl scouts, would like to do the same simply contact your local authorities and ask if they would be interested in your gently used stuffed animals.  Or you can contact the organizations I've listed below and share with them.  I will be leading a girl scout troop this upcoming year and this will definitely be one of our projects.

It's so great when a simple book like The Teddy Bear can send such a strong message that it encourages acts of kindness and love.

Organizations accepting stuffed animals:

Stuffed Animals for Emergencies

Project Smile

More books that share the message of compassion:

Click here to be brought directly to the page with these books