Last week I shared a round-up of books for animal lovers. Today I am sharing books for dinosaur lovers and some of them are perfect for Spanish learners or bilingual kids. If you like to give a gift to read and have a dinosaur lover in your life this post is for you! We will start with the stand-alone book (the others are in a series together). It is A Dinosaur a Day by Miranda Smith. This book is recommended for ages 6 to 9.
Can you believe Thanksgiving is almost here? Time is flying by as usual. It is time to think about gift buying and the holidays. Today I am doing a round-up of picture books that are perfect gifts for animal lovers!! Do you know any young animal lovers? Perhaps kids who love the Wild Kratts like Hazel did? To begin we will start with one with a thankful theme. It is from the World of Eric Carle. It is Little Book of Thanks from Brown Bear and Friends by Eric Carle and Odd Dot. It is recommended for babies through 3-year-olds.
As November hits I start thinking about calendars for the next year. We get many in the mail from various charities, but I really like ones that match our personalities, likes and mood for each year. My wall calendars from last year have added so much to my sewing room (Tea Pot Calendar) and classroom. My students and I talk about the different birds featured each month. My Page-A-Day calendars for 2024 were loved during the last school year but I am finding most of the kids ignore them this year although every once in a while, someone takes the Sudoku page to do the puzzle. This year I decided to only focus on wall calendars. I fell in love with A Calendar of Calm Wall Calendar 2025 with photographs by Ana Marques, and I knew Hazel would love Forever & Always: A Calendar Inspired by Taylor Swift Songs with images by Reese Faith Designs. These are the two I picked for us, but they have so many to choose from. Be sure to check out all the options at Workman Calendars. It is really great that they are not wrapped in plastic anymore! Workman has gone completely plastic free with their calendars!
It is hard to believe that Mother's Day is tomorrow!! I have not seen my mother since November since someone is always sick for every holiday this year. We are finally able to go see her!! I wanted to bring her a small gift for Mother's Day. What better than some jewelry made with my paper beads! This week I am sharing three packages of amazing gift wrapping papers that make beautiful paper beads as well as wrapping beautiful gifts. We will start with the one I have used the most. It is Marbled Patterns Gift Wrapping Papers - 12 Sheets from Tuttle Studio.
Spring holidays are upon us. That means it is time to think about gifts and cards!! Do you look for the right card for each person? Are you looking for that special one that they will keep forever? Lovepop can help!! You may have heard of Lovepop on Shark Tank in 2015!
Now I know it is only October, but if you are going to make holiday cards, gifts, or wrapping paper, now is the time to begin! So today I am sharing a fun holiday stamp set with some different ideas for the fall, holidays, and beyond for you and/or your kids to make. The stamp set is called Jingle Stamps, and it includes 22 stamps and a duo ink pad of red and green ink.
Hazel always makes gifts for the holidays for family members. This year she is struggling with ideas and time. In 2020 when our library was only allowing door pick-up and drop-off of books, I picked up a craft bag that the Children's Department left for patrons. I figured Hazel and I could do the craft some time. It sat on my desk for over a year. Inside it had tissue paper in different colors, two 5" x 7" flat canvases, a small container of Mod Podge, a sponge brush applicator and instructions. The idea behind the craft was for the kids to create a picture by cutting the tissue paper into different shapes and gluing it on to the canvas. This craft sparked my interest. I wondered how my Cuttlebug would be with tissue paper. I am a bit obsessed with butterflies right now. Since Hazel is turning 13 this year and I see that age as a big metamorphosis year, I thought her birthday party should be butterfly themed. I have some beautiful butterfly dies to cut with my Cuttlebug. I tried it out with four pieces (different colors) of tissue paper and got some beautiful butterflies. The largest ones had some tears in some of the layers but otherwise were great. Using the craft idea and my tissue butterflies, I wanted to make Hazel a butterfly picture. I found a pink square canvas that we had in our craft supplies and came up with this.
Do you know the classic children's book, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats? We loved it when Hazel was young and planned days around it like this one outside and this one inside. I love that it is a multicultural children's book that is just about going out to play in the snow. It is relatable to any child who lives where it snows. Plus the character, Peter, dresses in his red snow gear and looks adorable. Well along comes MerryMakers! They make dolls and toys that go with many classic children's books including The Snowy Day.
This year there will be shortages for gifts, especially toys. They are saying to shop early and not wait to see if things go on sale. I decided to provide my gift recommendations and my favorites of 2021 for you earlier than usual. I went through what I have shared with you and some of what I will share with you to give these recommendations. I may make additions in the future since I don't have everything I will review this year yet. I am dividing it up by ages for actual gift recommendations! Many of the recommendations are for books. If you follow the rule of four for gifting this should be helpful! I hope you find this list helpful!
Tie-dye can be so fun and always seems to come back on trend. We have had fun making our own tie-dye shirts and more. Today we are going to share note cards and gift wrap that both have tie-dye designs. Let's start with the Tie-Dye Note Cards.
April is almost over so that means it is almost Mother's Day here in the US. Today I am going to share two books that are perfect gifts for kids to make for their parents for Mother's or Father's Day, or birthdays. Each book is created for the child to write, draw, and fill in about their parents. Since Mohter's Day is fast approaching we will start with A Book About Mom with Words and Pictures by Me written by Workman Publishing and illustrated by Irena Freitas.
I have to confess--between the pandemic and winter about to begin, I have not really been motivated to do anything. Yesterday as the snow fell my biggest achievement was going out to fill the bird feeders. They were busier than ever with the snow. They still are. I loved sitting and watching the snow and the birds. Today isn't much better. However I finished this puzzle quite a long time ago and have been meaning to write the review but just haven't gotten to it. So here it is. I have been writing reviews of 1,000-piece puzzles in my Mommy Time Reviews. I am going to include a round-up of them as well as the five puzzles on my to do shelf! I just need to make space to do one. Lately my puzzle space has been filled with diamond painting instead.
