March Happenings & Announcements

March is coming in a like a lion in New England with yet another snow storm predicted today/tonight and another storm later this week. We may actually beat the record in Boston for the snowiest season ever (I think we need 5.5 inches now to do it). I know I cannot wait for spring!! Seeing this artwork in a yard we drove by really cheered me up. Hazel now wants to paint on our snow.

April Happenings

For April Fools Day, Hazel's school had mismatch day. The principal sent out notices to the families that it would be a day where kids required to wear uniforms, wouldn't need to and all the kids so try to dress mismatched. Hazel loved the idea. To complete the look she wore different shoes as well.

April brings Easter!! We will be focusing on Easter and spring crafts as well as doing some posts on Easter around the world and multicultural Easter books. Yesterday we shared our first Easter Around the World post with the sawdust carpets of Guatemala. We also have done an Easter craft round-up here. 

You may remember a few weeks ago we shared some spring crafts from Oriental Trading. One of the crafts was Sparkly Easter Eggs. I finished making all but one of the eggs. I decided to only make one of each how the craft was meant to be done and got creative on the rest. Hazel will be making the last one and I'm leaving it up to her how she wants to do it. I made hearts, crosses, horizontal stripes, spots, and spirals. Then I hung them all in the plant/tree we have in our entry.

Tomorrow is Light It Up Blue for Autism Awareness. I have a good friend whose oldest son recently was diagnosed on the autism spectrum. She happens to be an occupational therapist whose past job (before becoming a stay-at-home mom) was working in an elementary school with autistic (and other disabled) children. She has been asked to start a blog of her own by Autism Speaks. She is in the process of doing it, but first she is going to be my one and only guest poster to help all of us become more aware of autism. I usually do not allow anyone else to guest post here, but I think her insight and information will be invaluable to us all and I trust her completely to post responsibly, so join us tomorrow for lighting it up blue!!

We also have our regular monthly events like Virtual Book Club for Kids and Around the World in 12 Dishes.

April's author for Virtual Book Club for Kids is Denise Fleming! Denise Fleming does the art and words for her books with some help from her artist husband. In her own words: 

"My books do not have many words, but I start with hundreds of words—writing and rewriting until I have just the right words to tell the story.(I love strong words, action words, words that convey movement and sound. And I love rhyme.)" Denise Fleming (Source)

 So much of her work is the art in the books. They are fun and beautiful!! Have you enjoyed any of her books yet? I hope you will join us April 14th to see what we do with her books!

For Around the World in 12 Dishes we will be exploring Portugal! I hope you join us April 21st to see what exciting foods everyone makes from Portugal and learn a bit about this wonderful country. I will be writing an introduction to the country for the Around the World in 12 Dishes blog.

That gives you an idea of what we have coming up this month!! I hope you will join us!!

February Happenings: Paul Galdone, Canada and Black History Month

With the busy start of February, I have not had a chance to preview the month for you. February brings some added events such as Valentine's Day, Presidents Day and Black History Month. We have joined some other great members of Multicultural Kid Blogs to bring you the Black History Month Blog Hop. We have already shared posts on Thurgood Marshall and the song We Shall Overcome. For Valentine's Day we have shared a simple sewing project of a felt heart so far.

Another event coming up this month is:

 International Book Giving Day is an initiative aimed at increasing children's access to and enthusiasm about books. To participate you donate or give books to children either ones you know or a charity or a classroom or library. Will you join us is celebrating?

For Virtual Book Club for Kids the author this month is Paul Galdone. Now most people know something of Paul Galdone's work since so many of his titles are classic stories. He illustrates them and tells the traditional tale. We will be sharing a Galdone book next week with you!!

For Around the World in 12 Dishes, we will be exploring Canada. This will be the twelfth country we have explored in this series!! We have had so much fun exploring the countries. Hazel is always asking where we will be exploring the next month. The new season begins in March. I hope you will join us exploring our neighbor to the north with food, stories, music and more!
Stay tuned for more reviews, giveaways and crafts!!

Trinity Snowman & January Happenings

Today I am going to share with you a wonderful way to teach the Trinity to children and what will be happening this month here at Crafty Moms Share. First our lesson. I found on Proverbial Homemaker, Art Day Trinity Snowman Project on Pinterest. Her post led me to Hope Is Where the Heart Is to get the printable, Trinity Snowman. The printable is available for free at that link.

It is a lovely description of how the bottom ball of a snowman is the Father--the rock foundation, the middle ball is the Son with open arms and the head is the Holy Spirit--our counselor and friend. I think I like this explanation better than the apple one we read about and did a craft with in the fall.

The obvious project to go with this printable is a snowman craft. We went out to dinner tonight, but I prepared ahead of time by cutting out the three circles and gathering some supplies for Hazel to make a snowman. It entertained her until the food came. For other snowman ideas check out the features at this week's Sharing Saturday, our past snowman crafts and activities and our Winter Pinterest Board.

This month's author for Virtual Book Club for Kids is Laura Numeroff. She is best known for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, but has a variety of books on all sorts of subjects. We will be sharing our chosen book and activity on January 13th.

Then on January 21st we will be "visiting" Peru with Around the World in 12 Dishes. We did a little exploration of Peru previously when we reviewed Daria's A Child's Life in the Andes. I am really excited to try the dish Daria suggested for us as well as a fun musical instrument craft I found. We will be posting our official dish on the 21st!! So join us then!!

I have been toying with the idea of running a Valentine swap again. Would you be interested in participating or having your child/ren participate? It would mean making some homemade Valentines and mailing them worldwide and then receiving some from all over the world. If you are interested, let me know. If there is interest I will put it together. 

That is what January brings! I hope you will join us for all the fun!

November Events

Source

It is hard to believe it is already November!! We have so many exciting things planned for the month. My mind however seems to already be on Christmas, so expect some Christmas ideas in November as well as a couple of Christmas product reviews and at least one giveaway. But do not worry we will also have plenty on Thanksgiving!! November is National Native American Month. We will be focuses on Native American fairy tales as well as other Native American crafts. My love for the various Native American cultures will shine through out November.

This month we are exploring Thailand with Around the World in 12 Dishes. We will start our exploration on Monday with a Thai Cinderella! Our recipe post for Around the World in 12 Dishes will be shared on November 19th! However the placemat and passport pages for Thailand are available (Thanks to Valerie over at Glittering Muffins!)

The author this month for Virtual Book Club for Kids is Karma Wilson! She is best known for her Bear books, but we are loving the Mortimer ones as well. She seems to have something for everyone--holidays, lessons, young and older. Have you discovered her yet?

We will be sharing our book and activities on November 11th. I hope you will join us for these great posts and more!

The October Line Up

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

What an exciting month, October looks to be!! Autumn is in the air in New England. The days are cooler and the leaves are turning their beautiful fall colors. October is also the month many of us go pink for breast cancer awareness. Oh, wait, I'm already pink! However if you want to see some statistics and facts about breast cancer check out my post from a couple of years ago.

This month, I have several fall and Halloween crafts to share. Some are previewed in my collage above. I have several reviews to do with giveaways (like my current giveaway that ends on the 6th). I will be continuing my celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and will be following Multicultural Kid Blogs with their celebration of both Hispanic Heritage Month and their one year birthday celebration. I will also be posting over there this month.

And of course we have our normal special events like Virtual Book Club for Kids. This month's author is Nick Sharratt.

Nick Sharratt is a fun British author and illustrator. Many of his books rhyme and they tend to be quick reads. I know the few we have looked at, we have enjoyed. I hope you will join us on the 14th to see which we are sharing!

We will also be "traveling" to Korea with Around the World in 12 Dishes. If you want to have a headstart, you can get the passports and placemat for Korea already. More about Korea when we use some stories and more to go with the food we try. Our post will be live October 15th.

I hope you will come back to see some of these fun things!! Happy October!!

Happening in September here at Crafty Moms Share

It is another busy month here at Crafty Moms Share. September is National Sewing Month. We are helping promote the Waverize It! Facebook Contest sponsored by Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts and Waverly Fabrics. To do this, I made Hazel a ukulele case so she can take her relatively new ukulele anywhere she wants to. She has already played at our public library and Trader Joe's Store. She has been asked to play at school and church as well. She loves playing it. You can learn more about it all here including some videos of her playing.

September is also Hunger Action Month. I am joining a group of wonderful blogging moms to help No Kid Hungry try to end hunger for our local children. My first step was to put together some story time food drive ideas and I sent them to local libraries and preschools. I hope someone is using them. You can read about them here and feel free to use them or send them to people as well. We also hosted a butterfly party where we asked guests to bring a can or two of healthy food for our local food pantry. Stay tuned for more ways we are helping and please accept my challenge to help in your local area as well!!



September also is the month of the first anniversary of the amazing group of bloggers Multicultural Kid Blogs. Stay tuned for more events to celebrate this as well.

September 15th to October 15th is National Hispanic Heritage Month. I am joining some of the bloggers in Multicultural Kid Blogs to celebrate this as well.

Around the World in 12 Dishes is "traveling" to New Zealand this month. Hazel and I have already started enjoying some New Zealand stories.



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The Virtual Book Club for Kids is continuing for another year. There are a few changes. This year the blog hop will begin the second Monday of each month and there is a change in who is hosting. This month's author is Bill Martin, Jr.

 Hosting the Virtual Book Club for Kids this year are:

The Educators' Spin On It -  Toddler Approved  -         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  

I hope you will join us for all of these fun-filled events this month!! Plus we will have our regular events--Fairy Tales in Different Cultures, Flamingo Friday, Sharing Saturday, Math Lessons, and Virtual Flat Stanley!