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Congratulations to Lori H. for winning 
the 4 Christmas DVDs!

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! I had such a hard time choosing the features this week since there were so many amazing ideas!! I hope you will take the time to check them all out! We had a tie for most clicked.

1) From Krafts and Kiddos: CD Turkey Craft

2) From Stimulating Learning with Rachel (",): Aliens, Robots and Monsters (lots of great learning ideas here!)

Since we set our Christmas tree up today I am getting into the Christmas spirit. I have been thinking about Christmas cookies, how to bring Jesus into Christmas more and we received an Elf on the Shelf yesterday as a gift (I was avoiding them for as long as I could an much rather our Mouse and the Miracle), so knowing that you will understand some of the features I picked this week. We have our Christmas Features and our non-Christmas Features!

Native American Biographies Round-Up

Happy Thanksgiving!! I thought this year I would honor the Native Americans by doing a round-up of ones to check out! Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating!! I thank God for all of you who take time to read Crafty Moms Share!!

The other day I did a round-up of Native American stories and picture books. Today I thought I would share some biographies I found on Native Americans. For the most part I only took one biography for each person but many have more than one out there.

Books about Multiple Native Americans

• Extraordinary American Indians by Susan Avery discusses the lives and accomplishments of Native Americans from the eighteenth century to present
• Native American Heroes: Osceola, Tecumseh & Cochise by Ann McGovern
• Famous Native North Americans by Bobbie Kalman profiles Native Americans who had a large influence on their tribes as well as the United States and Canada.
• Native American Chiefs and Warriors by Stuart A. Kallen
• Native American Scientists: Fred Begay, Wilfred F. Denetclaw Jr., Frank C. Dukepoo, Clifton Poodry, Jerrel Yakel by Jetty St. John
• Native American Women by  Suzanne Clores

Books Donated by Lee & Low Books with 

Reviews for Blog Hop

Links take you to book at Lee & Low Books and there is a link to each review!

Doll Sized Starbucks!

The other day Hazel and I were at Starbucks (a favorite place to go of ours) and we noticed the adorable cup ornaments they have for sale. We realized they were the perfect size for the 18-inch dolls. Hazel of course had to have one, so we bought one. My plan had been to wait until after Christmas and buy her some more on clearance, however when we were at our normal store one of the managers informed me the tend to sell out quickly, so I should buy them now. We did. Hazel was so excited to play Starbucks with her dolls. 

Native American Legends and Picture Books

Today I thought I would share some Native American picture books and legends with you. Hazel and I have been enjoying reading them and I find it such a wonderful way to share the Native American culture with Hazel as well as learn more about it myself. Some of these books we have had a chance to read and others we have not yet. However I wanted to give you a pretty comprehensive list. Also below is the blog hop and giveaway with a newly added bonus prize!! Make sure you enter this week!!

Native American Crafts and Activities Book Round-Up for Native American Heritage Month Blog Hop and Giveaway

Have you entered my giveaway for 4 Christmas DVDs yet? It is ending soon!!

Have you been looking for some different Native American crafts? There are the typical (almost stereotypical) ones--feather headdress, paper bag vest, etc. I want to teach Hazel more about Native Americans. I know I do some of this by reading her books about Native Americans and their legends and stories, but I want some crafts as well. I figured there must be other people like me, so I thought I would do a round-up of the Native American craft and activity books I have found as well as share three of the crafts we did. 

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Exploring Cuba

Have you entered my giveaway for 4 Christmas DVDs yet? It is ending soon!!

This month we are exploring Cuba with Around the World in 12 Dishes. I was rather excited to learn more about Cuba since it is such a mysterious country to me. With all the trade and travel restrictions it seems like an unknown place. We have explored Cuba with books, stories, music, crafts and food from home. To learn more about Cuba and see more resources check out my introduction post at the Around the World in 12 Dishes blog. We had also learned a bit about Cuba during the Hispanic Heritage Month when we read about Celia Cruz, a Cuban-American salsa singer. 

Celia Cruz By Lionel Decoster (Own work) 
[GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Sharing Saturday 14-47

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! I am sorry for any confusion when Linky Tools thought I had not renewed my account. I was having some issues with Pay Pal this week. I highly suggest you go check out the great ideas shared last week. They were wonderful. For features I chose some that involve turkeys (in honor of Thanksgiving next week), winter (it feels like winter here), and play and lessons.

Turkeys

1) From Kiddos and Krafts: Footprint Turkey Craft

2) From Dabbling Mama: Leaf Turkey

3) From JDaniel4's Mom: Potato Masher Turkey

Winter

1) From Planet Smarty Pants: Make a Paper Winter Village

2) From ArtClubBlog: Printed Snowflake Cards

3) From Crystal's Tiny Treasures: Pay It Forward with a Jar Full of Thanks

4) From Tiny Tots Adventures: DIY Snow Globe

Play and Lessons

1) From Montessori Soul: All About Weather

2) From Stimulating Learning with Rachel (",): On the Moon

3) From The Practical Mom: Pretend Play with a Real Stethoscope

4) From An Idea on Tuesday: Classroom Restaurant

5) From All Done Monkey: Trumpet Craft {Birth of Baha’u’llah}

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

Featured Button Code:

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From Your Hostess: This week we cohosted the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #21 (it goes on all month, so link up your multicultural posts!), shared our exploration of China with a review of the book All About China, reviewed and am giving away four Christmas DVDs, shared a fun Christmas craft book that takes you around the world, learned about Sarah Hale and how she saved Thanksgiving in the United States.

The Multicultural Kids Blog Native American Heritage Month Blog Hop and Giveaway is still going on!! Make sure you enter to win one of the amazing prizes!!

Now for This Week's Party 


A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the Sharing Saturday button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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Thanksgiving and Sarah Josepha Hale

Have you entered my giveaway for 4 Christmas DVDs yet?

Have you ever heard of Sarah Josepha Hale? I know I hadn't, however I had heard and memorized something she wrote: "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Sarah Hale was an American author and editor. She was also a mother and wife and she is responsible for our national holiday--Thanksgiving. I know you are probably thinking what do you mean she is responsible for Thanksgiving, because that is what I was thinking when I saw this book at the library, but she is the reason we have a national holiday.

Sarah Hale By painted by James Reid Lambdin (1807-1889)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Christmas DVDs Review and Giveaway

Disclosure: NCircle Entertainment gave me a copy of the DVDs free of charge and is supplying the ones for the giveaway free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the DVD on NCircle Entertainment's site for your convenience. You can also find their DVDs at local retailers!

To help get us in the Christmas spirit, NCircle Entertainment sent us four Christmas DVDs to review and are supplying another set of four to one of my wonderful readers!! Hazel was really excited to see a few of her favorite shows represented. She insisted we start with the newly released Octonauts: The Very Vegimal Christmas.

Craft It Up! Chirstmas Around the World -- Book Review

Disclosure: Ryland, Peters and Small gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Today I am going to share with you a fun Christmas craft book that helps teach a little bit about various countries around the world. In August of 2013, I had the pleasure of reviewing Craft It Up Around the World. Now the same authors, Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong have a second book published, Craft It Up Christmas Around the World. 

Multicultural Monday: All About China -- Book Review

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Today I am going to share our exploration of China. The fourth book in Tuttle's All About series has recently been published. It is All About China by Allison "Aixin" Branscombe. Like the other books: Indonesia, Japan and Korea, All About China gives a wonderful overview of what it is like to live in China. The book is full of information, stories, crafts and recipes. In the beginning the reader is introduced to two Chinese children who share their lives throughout the book. 

Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #21

Please note this is NOT Sharing Saturday, but the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop. If you do not have multicultural activities, crafts, etc. to share, you can still share at Sharing Saturday.

Welcome to the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop! 

The Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop is a place where bloggers can share multicultural activities, crafts, recipes, and musings for our creative kids. We can't wait to see what you share this time!

Created by Frances of Discovering the World through My Son's Eyes, the blog hop has now found a new home at Multicultural Kid Blogs.

This month our co-hosts are:

Multicultural Kid Blogs

Russian Step by Step

Crystal's Tiny Treasures

Marie's Pastiche

All Done Monkey

Crafty Moms Share

Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tail

Mommy Maleta

Happy Muslim Mama

Artsy Craftsy Mom

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Thank you to everyone who shared last week with us and a very special thank you to the ones who took the time to visit what others shared!! This week our most clicked was from Janis Cox: Crafting Saturday: Soap Carving Tadeo Turtle.

For the rest of our features this week I picked some Native American posts (it is Native American Heritage Month), Math posts and some of my favorites that include all the seasons!! There are MANY great Thanksgiving ideas shared last week if you are looking for any, please go check them all out!!

Once A Shepherd -- Book Review -- a book to talk about war and veterans

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Yesterday was Veteran's Day here in the United States. I usually try to do something to celebrate it by thanking our veterans and their families. Although I like to thank them all the time and think they deserve thanks all year long. This year Hazel and I were visiting my parents for our long weekend. (Hazel had Monday and Tuesday off of school.) I did not really have much planned for a Veteran's Day post or activity. However when I came home I received a box of books from Candlewick Press and it included the perfect introduction book to start a conversation about soldiers,war, loss due to war and recovering from that loss. The book is Once A Shepherd by Glenda Millard.

Math Lesson: M & M Statistics Lesson

Do you still have Halloween candy sitting around? We do. We gave out M&M's this year and had lots leftover. I always buy like we are going to have the number of trick-or-treaters we had a few years ago, but the numbers seem to be down. With all the leftover packages, I thought I would share a simple statistics lesson I use to use when I taught math. You may not know, but the colors of M&M's in a package is actually calculated by Mars, Incorporated. This lesson will involve division/percentages and averaging plus making a circle graph. There are also other extensions you can do with it. We did not do the whole lesson since Hazel is not ready for this kind of math. She did however help me gather the data from the M & M packages.

More Autumn Fairies

Last week we shared our autumn peg dolls using fake leaves as clothes. Today we used fall paper doilies as our clothes on clothespins. We started by making ones with the sunflower doilies. We decided to use them as skirts and used markers to make their tops. Then cut a slit in the center of the doily and glued it on as a skirt. We did two layers of skirts on most of them.

Dances of India Book Review

Disclosure: Our Little Loka gave me a copy of this book free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.


Today as part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs Multicultural Kid's Products Promotion Services, I get to share with you a wonderful board book called Maya and Leela Present: Dances of India by Kyra Khanna, Malini Sekhar and Alyssa M. Torres. This colorful book goes through in simple details of four popular dances in India. They are Bharatanatyam, Dandiya Raas, Chhau, and Bhangra. Each is a traditional dance from different parts of the country. It is a wonderful introduction for young children to the culture of India.

Clay Nativity Ornaments

Today we are sharing our fun and simple Christmas ornaments. Hazel is making these for all of her teachers and family members as their Christmas gift. The idea came from making a nativity set using clay and nativity cookie cutters. This was one of our crafts at our Night in Bethlehem last year, but Hazel did not try it since I was busy and Steve is not that into doing crafts. I made a sample one up for the church event this year.

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Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! And a very special thank you to all who took the time to check out what others shared!! If you haven't yet, you should. There were some amazing ideas shared!! We did not have a most clicked, so my features this week are Thanksgiving themed and a few favorites.

Friday Fruit Exploration: Pears

Today we are sharing our pear exploration. All week we have had different kinds of pears--Barlett, D'Anjou, Comice, and Asian. I only took pictures of the D'Anjou and Asian. Sorry!! Hazel loves pears and we have had them on our waffles or in our oatmeal for breakfast!

Pears are an excellent source of fiber and vitamin C and are sodium, fat and cholesterol free. One medium pear is about 100 calories. (Source) The skins of pears contain three to four times more phenolic phytonutrients as the flesh (inside). These phenolic phytonutrients are antioxidant, anti-inflammatory flavonoids, and potentially anti-cancer phytonutrients like cinnamic acids and the skin contains half of the pear's dietary fiber. A new study has shown that eating a combination of apples and pears will reduce risk of type 2 diabetes in women. Pears are often described as hypo-allergic. They tend to be a low allergy food. All good reasons to enjoy a pear! (Source)

Holiday Shopping -- Products Review -- Uncommon Goods

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Uncommon Goods. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Before I start this post, I will warn my family that they should not read this one until after Christmas since it contains gifts I am giving them!!

Have you started your holiday shopping yet? I try to have mine done before Thanksgiving so I can enjoy the holiday season and not have to deal with the crowds at the mall. Now I do all the Christmas shopping for our family including my own gifts. After the first few Christmases I realized I needed to because even with a list, I was not getting what I wanted. When Uncommon Goods asked if I would review some products I jumped at the chance since they offer unique and unusual gifts.  They offer handcrafted gifts and more that are in harmony with the environment and there is no harm to animals or people with their products. Not only that, they stand behind their products and there is no date that things must be returned by. Plus with every purchase they donate $1 to a non-profit of the buyer's choice (from their list of non-profits to which they donate). This is not an ordinary company. 

The Mouse and the Miracle -- Christmas Product Review

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

I am so excited to share this amazing product with you today. It is a Christmas product and I usually do not like to do much Christmas this early, but this product is wonderful and I want you to have a chance to get it in case they run out! Everyone who we have shared it with wants to get one and I have already ordered another set for a Christmas gift. Yes, this product is that great. I am sure you have heard of Elf on the Shelf. Well, I find the Elf on the Shelf a little creepy and refuse to have one in my house. I love seeing what people do with their elf however and think it would be fun to be able to be creative. And now Oriental Trading has come out with a wonderful religious replacement for the Elf on the Shelf!! They call it The Mouse and the Miracle, but I like to say we have a Mouse in the House.  (What can I say, I like to rhyme.) Without further ado, meet Holy!!

Native American Book Reviews for Native American Heritage Month Blog Hop & Giveaway

Disclosure: Lee & Low Books gave me these book free of charge to review and giveaway. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

November is Native American Heritage Month! I love learning about Native American cultures, so I love this month!! While I was helping find prizes for the giveaway, Lee & Low Books offered to send some to review and giveaway. I of course jumped at the opportunity. They were kind enough to send me two Native American themed books to review for you.