Virtual Book Club for Kids: Quiet in the Garden by Aliki

It is time for the Virtual Book Club for Kids and this month's author is Aliki. Now Aliki has wonderful children's books. Some are about historical people, some about things like the five senses and others about experiences. We have read several and Hazel decided her favorite is Quiet in the Garden.

The book is about a little boy who goes to sit in his garden with his pet bunny and remains very quiet so he can observe all the animals around him. He watches the various animals eating and observes other animals asking why the animal ate whatever it ate. Then he gathers some fresh food (mostly fruit and vegetables) for all of his friends in the garden.

Every time we read this book, Hazel asks if she can do this sometime. I remind her we have done it, but tell her of course we can do it again. A few weeks ago we had a picnic in our back yard. While I was off getting something, Hazel had a visitor about a yard and a half away--a rabbit. We did not get a picture of the rabbit, but here is one from one of the  other times we have had a rabbit in our yard.

We pulled some of our carrots which need thinning out and left them for the rabbit after he hopped away. We also fill our bird feeders and leave some food on the ground for the bigger birds, squirrels and chipmunks. Though the squirrel still tries to get food from the feeder sometimes. We also leave cracked corn for the ducks that visit each spring.

We also have planted flowers to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Hazel also planted a meadow garden this year. We planted milkweed seeds in it in hopes of getting some monarch butterflies, but no luck thus far.

However on our butterfly bush we have had a beautiful yellow butterfly.

And when we walk in the woods we try to be quiet as we never know what we might be rewarded with seeing. The last time we went for a walk we got to see a heron.

We also saw some frogs.

And if you sat on some rocks you could see many turtles swimming in the water, but they did not photograph well. A few months ago we saw the importance of being quiet and still with nature and we were rewarded with chickadees eating from our hands. (We were walking with my sister and nephew.)

We also saw deer that day, but they were in a distance in the woods and I could not get a clear shot of them. So to go with this wonderful book, I suggest the simple activity of sitting quietly in nature and observing. For extra fun try feeding them! Of course one of our favorite visitors to watch is the occasional turkey.

For those that do not know about Virtual Book Club for Kids, we are a group of bloggers that host a blog hop each month to share activities and crafts to go with a book by the author of the month. The blogs who host this blog hop are:

Toddler Approved- The Educators' Spin On It- Rainy Day Mum- 3 Dinosaurs- Learn~Play~Imagine - Crafty Moms Share - Reading Confetti- Inspiration Laboratories - Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Kids Yoga Stories - Enchanted Homeschooling Mom- Ready-Set-Read - Boy Mama Teacher Mama - PlayDrMom - Fantastic Fun and Learning - Growing Book by Book- Royal Baloo - The Outlaw Mom® Blog - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Teach Preschool - Mama Smiles - Coffee Cups and Crayons - Juggling With Kids - Here Come the Girls-

Now for the blog hop. Please stop by and check out all the other great ideas to go with Aliki's books! And if you have any of your own, please share them as well!!