Books Involving Color and Art

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Some of the links (Target ones) are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

I love art and want Hazel to love art. My love for art came from having an amazing elementary school art teacher. In fifth grade the special field trip was to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In order to go you had to pass a test on art and artists as well as complete a packet of projects and more. I am always looking for ways to bring art into our lives and I love doing it with books. Plus of course taking her to museums, but this is not always possible, so books at home definitely help. Today I am going to share five books that involve art or color. Some are about color and some are about art and others are based on art. All of them help you have conversations with kids about color and art. We will start with the two about color. The first is Pink Is for Boys by Robb Pearlman and illustrated by Eda Kaban. This book is coming out in June!

Mutlicultural Product Review: Dutched Up! Rocking the Clogs Expat Style

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book to review free of charge from Multicultural Kid Blogs as part of the Multicultural Kids Product Promotion Services. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Today's post is about a wonderful new e-book written by a group of bloggers who live in the Netherlands. The book is Dutched Up! Rocking the Clogs Expat Style by Olga Mecking, Lynn Morrison, et. al. Many of the authors are also members of Multicultural Kid Blogs. This book is an adult book but many of the stories can be shared with children as well.

Have you ever considered moving to a new country? Did you ever wonder what it might be like to adjust to the different culture there? I know I think about it when I watch HGTV's House Hunters International. Then it is more about just the different home styles--room size, kitchen differences, etc. This book shares stories from women who came from all over the world to live in the Netherlands. The women describe some of the things they had to adjust to in this new country. The stories are divided into twelve chapters and share the tales of everything from culture shock to doctor's visits, transportation to throwing a party and so much more. 

Some common themes are the height differences and the bicycles. Did you know Dutch people are among the tallest people around and their homes show it? Or that most Dutch people own multiple bicycles since it is a major form of transportation? The stories shared are funny and real. Some will make you cry and all of them will give you a better picture of what it is like to live in the Netherlands and perhaps give you insight into things to consider before moving to a new country. 

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about the Dutch culture or is considering a move to a new country or just wants to be entertained. I hope you will check it out!

Craft It Up Around the World book review

Today I have the pleasure of review a wonderful book called Craft It Up

Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong.  Craft it Up Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong is published by CICO Books at £9.99 and is available from www.rylandpeters.com. This book was sent to me by CICO Books to review here, and I have to say I am so pleased to do so. The book contains 35 craft projects from different places throughout the world. The crafts are meant for children to do, and if they are older than Hazel, they will not need much help from an adult. The authors are currently based in Sydney, Australia, but between the two of them they have lived in many parts of the world and are trying to inspire children to look at the world around them and learn more about other places. I have to say it is the perfect book to go along with our multicultural adventures between our Fairy Tales in Different Cultures, Virtual Flat Stanley and Around the World in 12 Dishes.

One of the things I really like about this book is several of the crafts use recycled materials. The first craft I want to share is this wonderful map bunting. You could focus your circles to be spots you have lived, visited or want to visit, or you can do what we did and just take any place to be included. Hazel enjoyed helping me sew these circles together into the bunting. As we did this I thought it would be neat for a birthday party with a world travel theme. Really this book would be perfect for it. Now to convince Hazel of this idea.

To make this bunting I used one of Steve's outdated Atlas books. I had planned on going to AAA for a free world map, but didn't make it there, so I asked Steve to see what he had. I figured it was even better to use a book he didn't need or want anymore. I did not have a big enough circle punch, so I traced a glass and cut the circle myself. It really took no time at all to make a pretty long bunting. Now we are going to hang it on Hazel's tree in her room.

After that we made some of the crafts to go with the countries we have already "visited" this year. We made the Easy Peasy Felt Tulips for the Netherlands. Hazel is using them as the centerpiece on her play kitchen table. Great craft for springtime.

We made the Saving for a Snowy Day for Finland. He is made from a recycled smoothie container. We will be saving him for the winter. This is a great craft for the winter.

For Spain we made Click Clack Button Castanets. Hazel hasn't tried them since the glue was drying, but I did. She will love them, and she got to pick out the scrapbook paper we used. I made them a bit smaller than the instructions called for, but I thought this would help Hazel use them. This would be a great craft for any Spanish themed lesson or party.

For France I made the "Ooh La La" Pretty Parisian Embroidery. We will hang it in Hazel's room. She probably could have helped with some of the sewing, but I made it while she was in bed. She did however help me cut the fabric for the project. Again, wouldn't this be a perfect decoration for a world travel themed party.

The final craft idea I will share is for Egypt (this month's destination for Around the World in 12 Dishes) and it is Howard's Treasure Hunt Bottle. It is a recycled jar filled with some Egyptian objects and sand. I added on it a print out of the Egyptian flag and map. We used objects from Safari Ltd. Miniature Replica Toobs. Some we had and we picked up the Ancient Egypt one the other day at Michaels with our 40% off coupon.

We also included a bird amulet and a cat statue.

So Craft It Up Around the World is a great book full of ideas for kids who are exploring the world. The book includes a picture of the country's flag and shape of the country as well as some interesting facts about the countries. There are a variety of crafts calling on different skills, so they will appeal to both boys and girls of different ages. Again Craft it Up Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong is published by CICO Books at £9.99 and is available from www.rylandpeters.com. You can look for more great crafts from this book as we explore the world through all of our fun adventures as well!!

Virtual Flat Stanley in the Netherlands

So last week I introduced our Virtual Flat Stanley Series. Flat Stanley is based on the book, Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. There are now a series of these easy reader books about a boy named Stanley who is made flat when a bulletin board falls on him during the night. He is flat and small enough to be mailed in an envelope to travel.

Now this series began because my aunt emailed me a couple of weeks ago to help her step-granddaughter with her school Flat Stanley project. The Flat Stanley template they mailed to England never got returned, so she had nothing for the project. Since I live in the same state, I thought it might be fun for her to have some from around the world--even if they were just pictures due to time constraints. I e-mailed a few blogger friends and got a few responses. Now we are opening it up to anyone who wants to participate. You can get more information here.

Today Flat Stanley is in the Netherlands!

The first person who responded to my request was from E Strea Chikitu in the Netherlands. For those who have not had the pleasure of visiting this wonderful blog, you will often see her beautiful creations there--often crocheted and she even gives the patterns sometimes. Oh, how I wish I could crochet better. I may attempt it again after seeing her beautiful creations.

Now some information about this particular Flat Stanley:

On April 30th our queen handed over her crown to her oldest son. And so we have a new King this week.Our oldest daughter gave Stanley woodden shoes and Dutch National colors so he will be ready to celebrate The Crowningsday.Stanley is in our front yard with Rozemarijn. We put out the flag since it's our new Kings birthday today.

This picture is for the prince becoming king.

You can see more pictures of honoring the new king at E Chikitu Strea .

Hazel and I wanted to explore The Netherlands a bit more. After all the whole point of this series to learn more about other places. Luckily we had a few books from the library and found some crafts and coloring pages at DLTK's Crafts for Kids. The first book we have out is Easy Breakfasts From Around the World by Sheila Griffin Llanas. Now we had this book for Around the World in 12 Dishes, so you will see it again soon as we do our post about Finland.

This book is wonderful because it gives a little introduction to each country and then an easy recipe for a breakfast there. So our breakfast from the Netherlands was Anijsmelk and Hagelslag. Anijsmelk is warm milk flavored with anise seeds and honey or sugar. Hazel loved it!! I was actually surprised at how good it was since I am not usually a fan of anise seeds. Then Hagelslag is toast with chocolate sprinkles on it. Now we didn't have any chocolate sprinkles, but we had leftover Christmas sprinkles so we used those.

We also had some Gouda cheese. We made Hazel's toast and cheese into butterflies. We happened to use whole wheat cinnamon raisin bread for the toast. Oh, and we cut up some apple since breakfast in our house is not complete without some fruit.

Crushing the Anise Seeds

Hazel enjoyed playing chef. We made this when she stayed home with a cold the other day, so it gave her something fun to do in the morning.

Stirring the Anijsmelk

Spreading butter on the toast

Her favorite part was of course putting on the sprinkles. I have to admit we had red and green sprinkles all over our kitchen after this breakfast.

We also wanted to learn a bit about the culture. We did some coloring pages where we saw the wooden clogs similar to the ones on Flat Stanley as well as windmills and tulips. Plus of course a map and a flag.

We also made a windmill from a toilet paper roll. We got his craft from DLTK.

Steven was surprised when Hazel told him about the windmills in the Netherlands. 

We also took out of the library Birthdays Around the World by Mary D. Lankford. Now since one of Hazel's dolls or stuffed animal has a birthday every day, we can say she loves birthdays. So I thought she might enjoy hearing some of the customs in other countries. This book gives a little introduction about each country as well. For example it tells us at The Netherlands means the low lands. It also goes into how the windmills were used to pump water from the land. Now they use diesel and electric pumps.

In the Netherlands, the family often decorates a birthday chair. They may use garland called slingers. The birthday child often gets to choose the food for the evening meal and stays up later than usual. Traditionally they have very rich and elaborate pastries called gebakjes. A birthday cake is served without candles. For a very large or special birthday they may have an ice cream cake. A game often played at a party is Koekhappen. Children are blindfolded and try to eat a soft cookie hanging on a string. Another traditional birthday game is Zacdoekje Leggen or Drop the Handkerchief. Children sit in a circle and one child is It. The It child walks around the circle and if they catch someone not paying attention they drop the handkerchief behind that child and then that child has to chase the It child around the circle. If they tag the It child they get to sit back down, but if the It child makes it back to the empty spot in the circle, the new child is It. Editorial Note: I have been informed that the family with this wonderful Flat Stanley does put candles in the birthday cakes.

So that is what we learned while Flat Stanley is in the Netherlands. We hope you will join us next week to see where Flat Stanley is visiting.

Flat Stanley's Travels

Multicultural Monday: Book Clubs & Readathon Connections

As some of you know, we are participating in both the Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids (look for the link party a little later in our next post) and a Readathon.

As I was reading some Mo Willems books to Hazel the past few weeks to prepare for the Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids, I came across the Knuffle Bunny series. It took us awhile to get Knuffle Bunny Free (the third and final book in the series).  In this book, Trixie goes to Holland to visit her grandparents and loses her beloved knuffle bunny when he gets left on the airplane. When her father calls the airline to ask them to check the plane, he finds out the plane is already headed to China. This gives us an opportunity to look at the culture in two different countries for Multicultural Monday. Since I just got the book, I have not done any of these crafts but wanted to give some resources to you.

Holland:

Around the World Crafts for Kids from Squidoo

--divided by country here is the link for Holland.

Dutch Activities for Kids from DLTK

--coloring pages, worksheets, favorite characters and of course tulips and windmills

Crafts Around the World: Holland aka The Netherlands from The Crafty Crow

--post written by a guest blogger from Holland...much on art, culture and life as well as a felt board craft.

A Kid's Life in The Netherlands from ThinkQuest

--written by a kid describing history and life in the Netherlands.

China:

China for Kids! from Rainbow Kids

--many different activities and craft ideas including coloring pages from animals to homes and holidays

China Crafts from Activity Village

--animals, fans, hats, drum, and much more

Asian Crafts for Kids from Artists Helping Children

--a good list of crafts for all Asian with a strong showing on Chinese including a Chinese yo-yo

Around the World Crafts for Kids from Squidoo

--divided by countries here is the link for China

China from DLTK

--many for the Chinese New Year but more general the further you go down

A Kid's Life in China from ThinkQuest

--written from a kid's point of view describing life in China

While checking out MemeTales pre-Readathon I found some free books on their India series. Hazel and I have been enjoying reading some of them from the computer. (Memetales is no longer working.)

The first is about a girl who brings Stickfiggy to visit her grandparents in India and Stickfiggy learns about the country and culture. The second is a story about the wind, but uses the Indian word for wind, vayu to name it. This of course brings us a new country about which to learn.

India:

A Kid's Life in India by ThinkQuest

--written in a kid's point of view of life in India

India Activities including Diwali from DLTK

--coloring pages, worksheets, crafts, animal crafts and more

Indian Crafts for Kids from Activity Village

--peacocks, henna and more

India for Kids from Activity Village

--Learn about India worksheets, maps, famous people and more!

Ok, this is my quick installment of Multicultural Monday. There will be another post later for the Summer Virtual Book Club including the link party. I hope you have been enjoying Mo Willems books as well so you can share with us!