I’ve had this on my to-do list since I started blogging one year ago today. I’ve also added a blogroll, so please let me know in the comments if you would like me to link up to your blog.
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Congrats to MikeC, who said: five for fighting have been a big part of my life for years. through the good times and the bad times, john’s songs have really helped me out and made a bad day better. i would love this cd! Thank you to everyone who entered! If you are in the military, John Ondrasik created and produced a “For the Troops” CD compilation featuring a variety of popular artists that is available as a free download through AAFES.
MATERIALS:
STEPS:
I found two different “Five Little Ghosts” rhymes that could be used with this puppet here and here. We’re saving the other glove to turn into snowmen in a couple months.
Where Is Baby’s Pumpkin? by Karen Katz was a freebie with the Halloween costume I bought online for Emma in 2007. I wasn’t a huge fan of the costume (it was scratchy – good reason not to buy a child’s costume online, particularly for a sensory-sensitive child), but the book has been so well-loved that it was worth the purchase. Both Emma and Johnny read this simple, textured lift-the-flap book all year round. I’m not a fan of the ghoulish side of Halloween, so I appreciate the cute aspects emphasized in this story.
Bats at the Library by Brian Lies is the best children’s book featuring bats I’ve seen. The text rhymes beautifully, and the illustrations are full of great details. For example, during story time the book is upside down to accommodate all the little bats who are hanging upside down, and the last page has a little baby bat in what looks like a baby bat carrier being carried home by its mother. We borrowed this book after reading about it either at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns or Superheroes and Princesses (probably both, since I frequently visit both blogs) I find I don’t have much time to browse library books, so it’s really nice to have recommendations from fellow bloggers!
Sewing doesn’t have to take a lot of time. I made this skirt yesterday morning in under ten minutes – with all three children awake. MATERIALS:
The steps are very simple:
Fleece doesn’t fray, so you don’t have to hem the lower edge. Not a fancy skirt, but it made Emma happy on a Monday morning and a great technique for costume/dress-up sewing. I’d like to believe that it will keep her from wailing “but I don’t have a blue princess dress” every time we pass the toy aisle in Target, but I doubt I’ll get that lucky. Let me know if my directions are confusing. I didn’t take many pictures, because I only had ten minutes to make the skirt. And three children “helping”.
Emma, after getting Johnny to stop crying: I like making people happy when they are sad.
Emma and Johnny are outside. Johnny is whimpering, and I see Emma put her arm around him. “How sweet,” I think. Then, I hear this: Emma: Step on the buggy. Do it. Please? (uses arm to try to push poor Johnny onto some innocent bug)
After breaking up a conflict between Emma and Johnny Mama:I don’t like it when kids fight. It makes me sad.
Emma trying to cheer me up on a bad day: Mama, Belle is the prettiest princess. You look like Belle. This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to winner MikeC! Mike and Emma have been listening to Five For Fighting’s “Superman” and “100 Years” as part of Emma’s bedtime routine in recent weeks, so I was excited when One2One offered me the chance to review and host a giveaway for their newest album, Slice. I was sent a link to download their new album, and the kids and I enjoyed listening to it this week. Album Tracklisting: Referencing a slice of American Pie, this album is both personal and autobiographical, capturing snapshots and emotions from Ondrasik’s life. I feel that music is most genuine when songwriters draw on their own personal experience, and Ondrasik has done exactly that on this album. The album tracks are quite diverse. I’m a huge fan of simplicity in music, and the unembellished arrangement of “One Dance” coupled with the message that we need to make the most of the moments we have with our loved ones made it one of my favorite tracks. Mike and Emma both chose “Chances” as their favorite track from the album. “Augie Nieto” was another favorite of mine, because I always appreciate songs that tell stories, especially when the stories raise social awareness (in this case about Lou Gehrig’s disease and a man who has chosen to make the most of life in spite of his diagnosis). “Slice” is a fun, upbeat piece, while “Note To The Unknown Soldier” and 9/11-inspired “Tuesday” are sad/reflective. The One2One Network has an autographed CD to give away to one of my US- or Canada-residing readers. To enter, just leave a comment telling me why you want to win this CD. This giveaway closes at 9pm US Eastern Time on Thursday, October 29th, and a winner will be chosen using random.org.
Mike’s been gone all week (he gets back tonight). Emma is a HUGE Daddy’s Girl, and to get her out of mourning mode I suggested that we bake and decorate a cake. I originally intended to make and decorate a cake similar to her last birthday cake, which Emma also helped me make (incidentally also while Mike was out of town) and talks about all the time. We baked the same cake, but the thought of decorating it with all that stickiness on a Monday morning all over the counters AND Johnny (now old enough to be much too helpful) was a bit much, so we came up with this equally fun and tasty but much less work-intensive and messy alternative.
MATERIALS:
We mixed up the pudding, divided it into four bags, and added food coloring. Emma squished the food coloring around until it was adequately mixed (incidentally we could have mixed up the pudding the same way – see this post – but opted not to this time, mainly because I didn’t think of it until the ingredients were already in our large Pyrex measuring cup):
One of the yellowish shades was meant to be green, but we didn’t put much food coloring in it at the beginning and then Emma decided she quite liked the resulting very pale shade of green. We cut a small triangle off of one bottom corner of each bag so that Emma could help me pipe the pudding onto the cake as frosting. The end result was both pretty (see top photo) and tasty:
This was actually the first time my children have each finished a slice of cake AND asked for seconds. Usually they have a bewildering lack of interest in cake. This was a fun activity that we will definitely be repeating. If you do it, be sure to keep any leftovers in the fridge since pudding is meant to be refrigerated. If you homeschool, there are plenty of ways to turn this into an activity within a unit on measurements, color mixing, fluid mechanics, textures, aesthetics, chemistry, nutrition… |
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