Waiting for Spring

Last weekend there was a collective sense of glee in the Twin Cities as we got our first taste of nice weather after months of seemingly endless winter.  We were all mischievous little bears borrowing hats with a shout, metaphorically speaking.  Of course, I always think life is like a picture book, and in this case, it’s like Red Hat by Lita Judge, in which there are no words–only sounds–to tell the story of some animals having a lot of fun at the end of winter.

We were right there with them.  No hat stealing that I saw, but the sounds of spring were in the air.  The park near our building was packed with families playing, grilling, smiling.  It felt like we lived at the park all weekend, and it was glorious.

This week has been decidedly less glorious outside, and the general glee has dulled as we debate whether we need winter boots and coats now or if spring jackets will do.  As we faced a snowy forecast on Wednesday, I tried to avoid complaining, but even my bright-side nature can only go so far against snow in May.

In the end, the snow missed us to dump record-breaking amounts to the south and east of here.  I stuck with my sneakers and spring jacket with only a slight sense of regret as I waited for my bus at 7 a.m. with a sharp wind chilling the air.  A winter coat might have been a warmer choice this morning, but I very happy to be leaving my boots in the closet.  Not exactly a “Roweeeee!” kind of happy, but I’ll take what I can get.

We just need a little more patience, and the cold, rainy, brown will turn to green, wonderful spring.  Actually that reminds me of another picture book:  And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano.  It’s a quieter book than Red Hat.  It’s more about the waiting, but the spring, when it finally arrives, is no less wonderful.

–

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.  A portion of purchases made from these links may benefit Proper Noun Blog.  Thanks for your support! :)

Thursday 3: Getting Ready for Easter

I’m excited for Easter this year because my daughter will spend it with us rather than with her grandparents.  My parents usually have Ladybug spend her Spring Break with them, and last year it meant that she was there for Easter.  We still celebrated Spring officially at the May Day Festival like we always do, but Easter passed by without any colored eggs or baskets or bunnies.  This year, I’d like to make up for that.  After the winter we’ve had (are still having, it seems), we will be celebrating every spring related holiday we can find.   Our plans so far include a family lunch and fancy clothes  because it’s time to come out of our winter hibernation, dress up, and enjoy the weather–even if it doesn’t really feel quite like spring yet. :)

In preparation for the festivities, we have been reading, of course.  Here are our picks:

Pictured:

Chester’s Colorful Easter Eggs by Therese Smythe – A good choice to read before coloring eggs for the first time perhaps.  Cute and colorful picture book for preschoolers.

The Story of the Easter Bunny by Katherine Tegen – Ever wonder where the Easter Bunny comes from?  Here’s a possibility.  I don’t think it’s canon or anything, but it’s a sweet story.  And it’s fun to speculate about the bunny’s back story.

Minerva Louise and the Colorful Eggs by Janet Morgan Stoeke – Simple story for the very young about the silly hen who never seems to know what’s going on, which is a big factor in kid humor as I’ve written about before.

You can read about our last Easter celebration (from 2011) here, complete with our spring related book picks from back then.

–

Did you miss last week’s Thursday 3 on my photo blog?  3 Funny Graphic Novels for Kids

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.  A portion of purchases made from these links may benefit this blog.  Thanks for your support! :)

Our Digital Life

It’s official.  My daughter, age 5, now has a digital device of her very own.  Granted, it’s just an old hand-me-down iPod Touch with a few games on it.  But  still, there’s a part of me that feels weird about dedicating a device to her use with all the talk in parenting circles about limiting screen time.  Not to mention the fact that we’re a tech-oriented family already.  I’m not sure I’m ready to add another generation in the digital mix.

There are about a million lists of do’s and don’t's for families navigating screen time issues, but I’m more inclined to look to books for advice.  I think you might be surprised at what you can learn from picture books, even if you’re a not a kid.  Like Matthew Cordell’s Hello!  Hello!, for example.  In this picture book, everyone is too busy with whatever gadget to say anything but a distracted hello to the little girl who is restless and sick of her own electronic options.

Until the girl is beckoned outside by a little leaf

From there the book explodes with color and imagination as the girl and her family say hello to what they’ve been missing.  It may sound a bit over the top or message-y, but the story is wry enough to transcend what might have been preachy.  Instead of rolling my eyes at yet another guilt-inducing admonishment to put down my smartphone, I was smiling, nodding, and looking around.  Asking myself, what have I been missing while glued to my device?

Maybe it’s just me, but I’d say a book like this is more effective than a list of the ways that screen time is bad for families any day of the week.  There’s only one rule on my list of do’s and don’t's: Read picture books.

Okay, two rules: Read picture books and take their advice.

–

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.  A portion of purchases made from links in this post may benefit this blog.  Thanks for your support! :)

Reading Hands Can with one hand

I am very pleased to say that Hands Can by Cheryl Willis Hudson is now available in paperback.  This picture book was first published ten years ago, and it has become a preschool favorite.  The bright colors, simple rhyme, and real-life photographs make it a good choice for 2-6 year-olds learning about their bodies and celebrating all the cool stuff they can do.  Not to mention it is great for talking about what it is like to have one hand with little kids.

That might seem like an odd thing to say because there are no one-handed kids in the book, but I have found this book to be a great jumping off point as I talk to kids because they tend to be most curious about the basics.   For example, these are real questions I have gotten from kids:

• “How do you hug?”
• “How do you put pajamas on?”
• “Can you hold hands?”

A peek inside Hands Can

Most adults can see obvious answers to these questions, but younger kids (under age 7 or so in my own personal experience) have a hard time working through these questions without guidance.  This is where Hands Can comes in.  I like to take each activity photographed in the book as a brainstorming session.  From the very first page with the little boy waving hello, I ask for other ways we say hello.  Kids can give creative answers.  After all, we might use our voice, our eyes, one hand, or maybe two if we are very excited.  I might demonstrate how I tie my shoes when we get to that page or have them come up with ways to accomplish other tasks with one hand or some other physical restriction for an exercise in problem solving.

In the spirit of answering questions about what I can do, I thought I would answer the one question that doesn’t really get asked: “Is there anything you can’t do with one hand?” Most people probably assume there are lots and lots of things I can’t do, but there are surprisingly few.  It took me a while to come up with these, but here are three things that are difficult (not impossible) to do with my prosthetic arm (and my work-arounds) :

• Grinding pepper.  For a long time, I just bought ground pepper so that I didn’t have this problem, but my husband is a bit of a foodie who likes things like freshly ground pepper, which means that peppering my food becomes a much more difficult task than it had been in the past.  Usually I just ask for help, but I have been coveting the battery operated pepper grinder at my mother-in-law’s house.  Technology, for the win! 
• Ziploc bags.  These are difficult because my prosthesis does not grip tightly enough to hold the bag while I am zipping it closed.  To get around this, I can secure the bag against something and zip.  In a pinch, I have been known to use my teeth.  It isn’t classy, but it gets to job done.
• Headphones/ear muffs.  I can put on headphones or ear muffs well enough, but I feel like I look a little silly when I do it because my fake arm doesn’t bend all the way to my ear.  Fortunately, I really don’t use either of these things very often.  As you might imagine, I was an early adopter of ear buds.

–

For more information see my FAQ about my fake arm or this article in Book Links magazine about the books I use to talk about my disability.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.  A portion of any purchases made from these links may benefit this blog.  Thanks for your support! :)

Princess Talk

I have a five year-old girl in my life, and it follows seemingly inevitably that princesses are also a part of my life. This is hardly the first time I’ve brought up princesses on this blog, and among parents of girls, the topic has been covered again and again.  Still we can never seem to resist a chance to talk princess with other parents, whether we love them or hate them.  So I listened eagerly (and added my two cents) to the MPR segment which had two dads giving their take on princess culture.

As an aside, does it seem like more dads are talking about parenting these days?  I hope so.  Parenting doesn’t have to be such a girls club.

Anyway, I think it was a caller who brought up the idea of redirecting the princess obsession with a little reality. Princesses don’t just wear pretty dresses and go to balls, and your young daughter might not have quite the same view of royal life after learning more about real princess life.  For the parents who decide to go that route (more power to you!), here are a couple of picture books you might want to slip into your bedtime story rotation:

 

A peek inside Princess in Training

The Princess and the Peas by Caryl Hart – When Lili-Rose May won’t eat her peas the doctor declares that she must be a princess, so they send her off to the castle.  She’s very excited until she learns all the work that comes along with being a princess, and eating peas back home with her family doesn’t seem so bad after all.  (This might also be a good choice for picky eaters.)

Princess in Training by Tammi Sauer – Princess Viola just wants to be the darling of her kingdom, but she is no good at princess stuff like waving and dancing.  Her parents send her to Camp Princess to learn everything she needs to know.  Only she ends up saving the day with her non-princess skills and becoming the darling of her kingdom anyway.  (This one is a favorite in my house.)

Maybe one of these will change the perception of princesses in your house or at least vary the story up a bit.  Either way good luck to you.

–

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.  Purchases made from these links may benefit this blog.  Thanks for your support. :)

Cold Snap

My buses have been all but empty this past week.  Nicollet Mall usually bustles with activity, but this week, the only people downtown are the ones huddled in bus shelters peeking out with hopeful looks or walking quickly with only their eyes showing against the fierce wind. In a cold snap, the city gets quiet and lonely.

On my way to work, winter is harsh winds, icy sidewalks, and heavy snow.  But at my desk surrounded by children’s books, winter is quite different.  The snow is delicate and perfect for play. The ice and wind are no match for us in a children’s book.  If only I could live in Toby Mills, the town in Eileen Spinelli’s Cold Snap.  Their winter is awfully cold, but it is warm with nostalgia and community.  This is a town that knows, the only way to get through a cold winter is to come together.

For all of you braving the cold Minnesota days for the rest of the winter, when it feels like too much, read a picture book.  Try Cold Snap.  Or if that doesn’t boost your spirits, try A Perfect Day by Carin Beger for a wonder-filled exploration  of a snowy winter day.  It will help you to remember that winter is more than hopeful looks and speed-walking to warmth.

I can’t change the sub-zero temperatures we’ve had recently, but I can change how I see them.  It’s still cold out there, but I’m smiling anyway.

There is more snowy picture book art at 7 Imp, and I talk more about the above books at Books in Bloom.  A few photos here on my photo blog, or check out some really beautiful shots of a Minnesota winter from Minnesota Public Radio.

–

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

The Spirit of Christmas in Picture Books

What does Christmas mean to you?  For me, it is a cultural holiday centered on family and generosity.  Here are a few books that I think capture the spirit of Christmas that will appeal to families who also celebrate culturally.

The Christmas Quiet Book is Deborah Underwood’s follow-up to The Quiet Book and The Loud Book, and it is perfect for sharing with kids during the holiday season.  Each page shows one quiet moment.  There is “hoping for a snowy day quiet” and “trying to stay awake quiet.”  All the familiar sights of Christmas are there, including the tree, presents, and a Christmas play.  The play’s quiet moments are “forgotten line quiet” and “helpful whisper quiet,” and only observant readers will likely notice the three kings bearing presents on the stage.  Other than that, the book is quite universal in it’s celebration of the quieter side of Christmas.

I think The Christmas Quiet Book would make a great bedtime book during the holiday season, but in case you need another sleepy story in your Christmas bedtime repertoire, try Christmas Eve Good Night by Doug Cushman.  In cute rhyming verse, readers are asked how various Christmas or winter related animals and others say good night.  We see a polar bear mother and cub who “grrr” good night, a nutcracker father and son who “crack!” good night, and many others.  We end with Santa calling good night to all as he flies over the earth with a giant bag of presents.

Just Right for Christmas by Birdie Black is a great book for sharing the spirit of generosity that many of us associate with the holiday season.  It has a similar story as Mr. Willoughby’s Christmas Tree, in which one giant tree makes several smaller trees.  In this book, a beautiful piece of cloth makes several gifts when the scraps are shared.  At the end, we see everyone skating together, from the king and his daughter who started the book to the little mouse who made a scarf from a small scrap and everyone in between.  This is a great opportunity to talk about how we can give from our surplus to help others.  I also like that most of the characters make their gifts since my family is going to be giving some handmade gifts this season.

A Merry Little Christmas: Celebrate from A to Z by Mary Engelbreit is an alphabetical look at one little mouse family’s celebration from the angel that tops their tree to the “zillion ways Christmas brings cheer.”  We also get occasional looks at Santa’s workshop for E (elves) and N (North Pole), but the focus of the book is really on the family.  They do everything together and exude happiness in almost every spread.  Other than the angel tree topper and the Yule log, which I was only vaguely familiar with, their Christmas was pretty universal.

The last book is my favorite.  A Christmas Tree for Pyn by Olivier Dunrea is a lovely book about a father and daughter living in a wintry home.  The gruff father tells his daughter “My name is Oother” when she calls him Papa, and he says “We’ll see” to little Pyn’s wish for a Christmas tree.  Pyn is persistent, however, and the two end up bonding over a tree they cut down together after saying a prayer to thank the tree (the only religious aspect to the story). I love the depth of emotion in this book from Oother and Pyn.  It beautifully captures the way that holidays can bring families together.  I highly recommend this book.

What are some of your favorite Christmas picture books?

–

For more about secular family life, see my Secular Thursday page or check out the Books for Secular Families Amazon Book Shop.  A portion of purchases made from Amazon.com links on this site benefit Proper Noun Blog.  Thanks for your support!

You Are Stardust

I read the first line of You Are Stardust: “Every tiny atom in your body came from a star that exploded long before you were born.”  My 4 year-old interrupted, “Is that true?”  She is the child of skeptics, and I could hear the disbelief in her voice.  I had to smile as I assured her it is, indeed, true.

I mentioned You Are Stardust in a recent post I contributed to Parents Beyond Belief about gift books for secular families, and I’ll probably bring it up again because it is easily my favorite picture book of 2012.  I could go on and on about science and wonder, but you read this blog so you know how I feel about that already. ;)

I really want you to see inside this book.  The illustrations are rather extraordinary. Take a look:

 

 

Here’s a video that shows the making of the book and there’s more cool stuff, including a teacher’s guide, here.

More about the book:

• Julie Danielson said on the Kirkus blog, “Don’t miss this one, which begs to be shared intimately with children. Gather together, be still, and learn how we are stardust.”
• Illustrator Soyeon Kim talks about her work in this “extraordinary debut” at Shelf Awareness.
• More from inside the book in this Scientific American blog post.

 

–

A portion of purchases made from Amazon.com links on this site benefit Proper Noun Blog.  Thanks for your support!

Nalah and the Pink Tiger

The room was quiet as the kids waited for the show to begin, but as soon as Auntie Nannybucket, portrayed by Anne Sawyer-Aitch, appeared, things were anything but quiet.  You have pretended a bucket was an elephant foot before, haven’t you?  The small audience giggled.  I think they were starting to get an idea of what they were in for.

The show, based on the picture book by Sawyer-Aitch, Nalah and the Pink Tiger, is a high energy romp through the imagination of a little girl named Nalah.  As puppets of all sorts pop out of doors and windows, it is sometimes hard top believe that there are only two hands back there making everything happen.  The thirty minute show was non-stop action with music, scene changes, and occasional projectile props to keep kids riveted.

The story reminded me a bit of Sarah Weeks’ If I Were a Lion or even Where the Wild Things Are (both of which are favorites of mine), and there are certainly plenty of young readers who will relate to the idea of one’s imagination creating a truly wild world.  While I haven’t read the book completely, I did peek over my daughter’s shoulder as she paged through it, and I thought Sawyer-Aitch’s “illuminated illustration” style captured Nalah’s boundless energy well and framed it in a kid-friendly window.

You can catch the show at various libraries in the Twin Cities or at Dreamland Arts in St. Paul on July 28th & 29th.  More details here.

If you like this, you might be interested in the last time we explored puppets at the library.  If you get a chance to see the show in a small group like we did, maybe you’ll get a behind-the-scenes tour.  It is fascinating to get an idea of how one person can make all that action happen by herself!

 

–

Disclosure: Amazon.com links are affiliate links.   A portion of purchases made via these links earns a commission for this blog.  Thanks for your support!

Number Fun (Ready for Kindergarten)

It’s only fair that numbers get their day since last month’s Ready for Kindergarten theme was Language Fun.  We have had numbers and math on the brain lately in our Picture Book Preschool activities:

• Getting Past 10 – Counting books that go from 1 to 10 are everywhere, but finding books that go to 20 is a bit harder.
• Simple Addition – Features a few books that introduce addition.
• Exploring Relative Size – We counted all sorts of things as we compared sizes.

For more number fun for preschoolers, here are some things I found around Pinterest:

Source: quirkymomma.com via Mindy on Pinterest

Source: theprincessandthetot.blogspot.com via Mindy on Pinterest

Source: confessionsofahomeschooler.com via Mindy on Pinterest

What are some of your favorite number related activities to do with preschoolers or kinders?

Next month’s theme is “Games,” so stay tuned!

–

See more posts for Parents & Educators here or follow my Kids Activities & Education Board on Pinterest for more preschool fun.

Disclosure: Amazon.com links are affiliate links. A portion of purchases made via these links earns a commission for this blog. Thanks for your support!