Peekaboo Kisses

Oops... We have been reading this book for a bit now, and I was all ready to post it yesterday... Then it just didn't happen... Sorry about that!

For the end of December, we are reading one of our favorite books! It is:Peekaboo Kisses by Barney Saltzberg

This is a touch and feel book, which Little Girl loves. That also means that she has been able to enjoy the book for a long time, since she could feel the different textures before she could identify the animals or turn the pages on her own. Now she likes to help her "babies" touch the animals! It is so much fun to watch her share books!!

She also has become a big fan of playing peekaboo herself! She will hide her face to play, or she will hide the face of one of her toys and play with them!! While you can't see it, there is a huge smile behind that fabric!

So get out there and play peekaboo with your little buddies! And don't forget the kisses! They are extra important, too!

Happy holiday season to you and your families. I hope everyone has a safe and happy season filled with love, laughter and lots of shared reading!!!

Hanukkah Lights

Yesterday was a travel day for us, but it was also the first day of Hanukkah! (Or Channukah, or Hannukka... however you spell it in English!) To celebrate, our book for the start of December is:

Hanukkah Lights by David Martin, illustrated by Melissa Sweet.

In celebration of the holiday, we are lighting candles, making and eating potato latkes, playing with our stuffed Juday Macabee and more! Pictures will follow as the holiday proceeds.

Let us know how you are celebrating. And if you don't celebrate Hanukkah, that's ok too! Tell us how you are getting ready to celebrate your holiday with your family and friends!!

Here is one way we like to celebrate: making Hanukkah cookies!!

My Nose, My Toes and Me!

Time for another book! This is a great one for identifying body parts, and for practicing with those preposition words - under, behind... The book we are reading is:

My Nose, My Toes and Me! by Frida Bing, illustrated by Rachael O'Neill.

Little Girl loves following along with the little ones in the book, pointing out their noses, toes, mouths, etc., then pointing out her own! She even got her baby (appropriately named "Baby") in on the action! We found Baby's nose, ears, toes and more!
Then Little Girl decided that she should also share the reading fun. This is a lift the flap book, and she loves pulling the flaps. (And ripping them, but we are trying to curb that...) As she was reading with Baby, she gave Baby a turn opening the flaps to see what was hidden!

I can't wait to hear how your little ones enjoy this book and share their enjoyment with those around them!!

Goodnight Moon

Better late than never, right?

This is a book we have been reading for a very long time, but it is one of Little Girl's favorites. We read it to her every night before she goes to bed. She reads along and knows what is coming next.

For the first part of November we are paying tribute to:

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

This is a classic good night book, and I know it isn't exactly unfamiliar, but it is one that sticks with Little Girl. How do I know? Because every day Little Girl asks me (or Daddy, or whoever else is with her) to take her outside to look for the moon! She will go to the windows and look out, pointing and getting excited, saying "Moon. moon!"

I have also made some coloring pages for her - one my own version of a picture from the book where she can color in the moon in the window, and one with (very crude...) phases of the moon. She will be coloring those for a while I think!!

What will you do to make this classic book new and exciting? Share your crafts, ideas and projects!!

Miss Spider's Tea Party

Back on track!

For the second half of October I chose a book that is one of our "stand-bys." Little Girl loves it, Hubby loves it, and I love it, so it is one we could all have fun with. It also presents some great opportunities for crafts and activities, so we are looking forward to a fun few weeks! The book we are reading is:

Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk.

While the tea party is coming soon (when we visit Savta next week that will be a great time!), we did start with our art and counting fun. With my "expertly drawn" outline in hand, Little Girl got to color her own Miss Spider, and we practiced our counting by gluing all eight legs onto her.

Best of all, at least to me, Little Girl is learning to share her love of reading and decided that her baby doll (aptly named "Baby") wanted to color, too.

Due to circumstances...

...including buying a home and the Jewish holidays, I have fallen behind.... So yet again, we have a free reading period! We have been sharing some favorites here at home, and Little Girl is still insisting on Moo, Baa, La La La! whenever she can!
Keep reading, and hopefully by the middle of October things will have calmed down enough for us to get back into the swing of things!

Moo, Baa, La La La!

Back on track!

Little Girl (sort of ) picked the book for the second half of September. She loves this one, and has a great time reading along and "quoting" it to us all the time!!

We are reading:

Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton.

We are going to have so much fun practicing our animal sounds, coloring pictures and generally making animals of ourselves!!

I can't wait to see how you and your little ones play with this one!!

Oops...

Ok, well, I had a book all picked out for the first half of September, but time has clearly gotten away from me...
So, unfortunately, the September 1-14th book is... whatever you read! Feel free to submit pictures of your reading together... Hopefully on the 15th we will get back into the swing of things...

Museum Colors

Time flies when you're having fun! Little Girl loves our last book so much, it was hard to choose another book...! But choose we did. For the second half of August we are reading:

Museum Colors by Gisela Voss.

This book might be a little hard to find, but it is beautiful! It introduces children to colors through images of real pieces of art which can be found in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. With both Hubby and me having gone to colleges in or around Boston, and my parents having grown up there, this book makes me smile for a whole lot of reasons!!

We have been using this book as a way to talk about the different colors of things around the home. We have so far done a little bit of coloring (which Little Girl really wanted to do with her feet...), and we have also done some sorting, trying to group things by color. In the next two weeks I hope to do more exploration, and create more works of art of our own!

I can't wait to see what you come up with!!

Happy reading, and happy crafting!

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

This book has been a favorite of mine for a very long time! I used to read it when I led storytime, and it was always a hit! Now Little Girl loves it too, and she even has started acting some of it out when we read it with her!!

For the first half of August, we are reading:

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood.

In addition to reading together and eating yummy red ripe strawberries, Little Girl and I have been having fun acting out some of this story. Between the great big brown bear she has and a little stuffed strawberry I made for her, we have been able to play "hide the strawberry" (hide and seek) together. It is lots of fun!!

I can't wait to see what great activities you do with this book!!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Ready to read another book? Let's go!

Between July 15th and July 31st we are reading:The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle!

There are so many possibilities for activities with this book! So far Little Girl and I have only done one, but I promise that there will be more in the next two weeks...!

While I know that Little Girl is still a little too little to do too many arts and crafts projects, that doesn't stop me from trying! So I decided we would make a hungry caterpillar together. I cut out rough ovals of colored papers and put scrapbooking mounting squares on the backs. Then I let her stick the pieces where she wanted to on the paper. Sure, there was a lot of picking them back up, and I did have to re-stick the piece with a glue stick when she was done, but it worked really well! Once the pieces were down I drew on the caterpillar's eyes and antennae, and Little Girl colored whatever she wanted, and added some buggie stickers.

I can't honestly tell you which one of us had more fun, but I can promise that fun was had!

There will be more coming from us, I can't wait to see what you come up with!!

Happy reading!!

**UPDATE**

Little Girl and I had the opportunity to feed our very own Very Hungry Caterpillar! Using an egg-carton caterpillar and her plastic toy food, we let the very hungry guy eat whatever he wanted...!

(Pictures coming soon... I thought they were on the computer, but I can't find them...!)

Mouse Paint

It's time for the first book of our Crafty Book Club!!

Between July 1 and July 14 let's all read:

Mouse Paint, by Ellen Stoll Walsh

This is a great book to learn about primary and secondary colors. So far, I have tried to get Little Girl to finger paint with me and to color with crayons... Neither one has been too successful... But I still have a couple of ideas to try before the next book...

So have fun! I can't wait to see what everyone does!!

**UPDATE**

So we found a way to make finger painting work for Little Girl... Paint with yogurt!!

Little Girl had a GREAT time, and made quite a masterpiece on her tray!