Travel Journals for Children
Recently we took a long vacation to Florida (read all about our adventures in Siesta Key and Walt Disney World!). Before we went the Easter Bunny brought Travel Journals for the kids. The teacher in me wanted to try to make our trip somewhat educational…so why not get them to do some creative writing and...
Book Review :: Wonder
While I was at the library a few weeks back the bright blue cover of the book Wonder caught my eye. I had heard friends say that this was a must-read, but hadn’t had the chance to read it yet, so I grabbed it. Wonder is a young adult book, by R.J. Palacio. As soon as I...
The Dude Diary
At our school’s book fair this fall Max stumbled upon a book that he declared he simply must have. Usually for book fairs the kids are given a certain amount of money and told that they must buy books…not other “stuff” like erasers, posters or other gimmicky junk kind of stuff. So he knew the diary was off...
The Obsession with Big Nate Books
A few weeks ago my dear friend Ms. Amy, who is a librarian at our local library (the awesome Kenton County Public Library) suggested that Max might like the Big Nate books. So I checked a few of the books out just to see what he thought. He picked one up that night, started reading...
The Books I’ve Been Reading…
This post was inspired by Ella Bella Princess of Kentucky, my sweet nine year old daughter. She wrote a blog post a few weeks back listing all of her favorite books and books she had been reading over the summer. After reading her post, and helping her take a picture of her favorite books I...
Family Movie Night :: Harry Potter Party
When the kids were young I read the Harry Potter books to them. We only made it through book three before they were off and reading on their own at night. After we read each book we would watch the movie as a family. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban seemed to take eons...
Alphabet Books Revisited
A lot of time goes into learning How to write a children’s book. It’s amazing that every book an author publishes is different with its own little twist or spark to make it special. A lot of people don’t realize how much time and effort goes into making the perfect kids book. But maybe you...
Beyond Books :: Weather Books & Raindrop Mobile
Yesterday afternoon was dark & stormy, and that kind of weather called for some book reading & crafting. So first I collected a bunch of books about weather for the kids to read. The craft I picked was inspired by a Cloud Mobile post I saw on Crafty Crow. I had trouble printing the images...
Beyond Books ~ Eric Carle Books & Crafts
One of the kids’ favorite authors is Eric Carle. And I must admit, he’s one of my favorites as well! I love the bright & beautiful illustrations and the sweet & simple stories. Here’s a handful of books written by or illustrated by Eric Carle from our bookshelves: I gathered them all together (plus a few not...
Beyond Books ~ Summer Journals for Children
Even though children aren’t in school during the summer, it doesn’t mean they can’t be learning. “Summer Journals for Children” is the perfect project to encourage kids to practice writing skills, express themselves creatively, and to document things from their own perspective. Here’s how we started making Summer Journals… On the last day of school...
Making Books with Children :: All About Me
Recently I taught a course for children entitled “Beyond Books”. Each week I selected several books in the same category/theme/area of interest and planned activities based upon these books. I tried to come up with fun, engaging & hands-on learning activities for the children. My hope in this class was to encourage a love of...
Monster Mayhem Craft
We did a monster craft this week and the kids had so much fun and got to get the creative juices flowing in the process. Some small tots are afraid of monsters…but this project might be just the ticket to help make monsters a little less scary. It’s also a great opportunity to talk to...
