Museum of Lost Teeth -- Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Elyssa Friedland as part of the blog tour and will receive a small stipend for this post. All opinions are my own.

As a child did you ever wonder where the teeth go when the tooth fairy picks them up? I think it is a common thing to wonder about. That is until you find them hidden away in one of your parents' jewelry boxes or dresser. I mean what is a parent to do with all those baby teeth? I know I have Hazel's in my top dresser drawer, and I know my sisters and I found ours in my father's jewelry box. Where do you keep your children's lost teeth?

Paper Crafts and Embroidery Maker's Guides from Victoria and Albert Museum - a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Thames & Hudson sent me these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

When you go to a musuem do you ever wonder how things are made? The Victoria and Albert Museum have put out A Maker's Guide Series. I shared with you the Patchwork and Quilting book back in July. Today I am sharing the other two books. I am going to start with Embroidery: A Maker's Guide by the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

Alexander Hamilton and a Look at USA History

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Alexander Hamilton seems to be making rounds everywhere lately. With Hamilton on Broadway, everyone seems to be learning about this Founding Father. What do you know about him? I will admit I did not know too much. I am happy to say that after reading the two books I am going to share with you I feel like I know a bit more about Alexander Hamilton and his life. Hazel was also learning about Massachusetts history this year so there has been quite a bit of focus on the Revolutionary War. One of our homeschooling field trips has been to do a bit of the Freedom Trail after visiting the New England Aquarium. Today I am going to share these books for different ages to learn a bit more about Alexander Hamilton as well as some of the fun we had exploring our country's history. We are going to explore all of the states and one of our ways of doing it is the US State Postcard Exchange. Want to join us?

Asian Art, Legends and our April Happenings

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

I spent a good part of the past couple of days planning for April. I am so excited with some of the things I have planned. This month we will be exploring Japan and having a Japanese Tea Party. We will be celebrating Earth Day and sharing some great books and resources for your celebrations and we will be celebrating National Princess Week with some great resources and a giveaway. We also have a school vacation in there with a short trip so expect a review on trips and are planning some visits to museums, so there will definitely be some art resources shared including our first book today: Adventures in Asian Art: An Afternoon at the Museum by Sue DiCicco with Deborah Clearwaters and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. 

Color Exploration: Art, Quilts, Music and Color

Congratulations to Cindy R for winning the latest giveaway!!

We have been rather busy with our color explorations. Awhile ago we discovered some fun color music. I made a CD of songs from the following CD's having to do with colors or a color. It is one of our favorites to listen to besides maybe the Frozen Soundtrack. One of the songs on it is The Purple People Eater. (We found it on the Kidz Bop Halloween Party CD.)

Since Hazel has been loving the song, I made her a purple people eater peg doll. So here is our "One-eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater."

His horn and arms are from pipe cleaners and his wings are a piece of felt with a pipe cleaner to form them. 

We also had a big adventure yesterday. We headed into Boston to go to the Museum of Fine Arts. I went to meet my mother back in April to see the Quilts and Color Exhibit. Hazel really wanted to go see it, so I took her before it ended. We have also been reading books about artists some are shared below. Hazel wanted to see some of the paintings by the artists we read about. She really wanted to see something by Pablo Picasso. She has decided her favorite artists are Pablo Picasso and Georgia O'Keeffe.

When we first got to the museum we were told to go to the customer service area and ask for an art bag for Hazel. They give you a little tote bag full of scavenger hunts, questions about artwork and a sketchpad and colored pencils. Most of the things were for exhibits we were not planning on viewing, but she loved the sketchpad and tried to sketch some of her favorite quilts. After not finding all the colors she needed she decided I should take pictures and she would sketch them at home. 

In preparation for the visit to see the quilt exhibit, we have been reading books having to do with quilts. Above are the ones we have enjoyed. We loved reading about each state in A Quilt of States by Adrienne Yorinks and fifty librarians from across the United States. Another great one that teaches some American history as well as information about quilt squares is The Quilt-Block History of Pioneer Days with Projects Kids Can Make by Mary Cobb. We have done a few of the activities in it. The first is making a paper nine-patch square. For the paper you cut out color squares from magazines. We did this at my parents and cut up two of my mother's old magazines. Hazel had so many squares and so much fun, she made three paper nine-patches.

While at my parents, my mother offered us some five-inch squares she already had cut. Hazel picked out nine and began to hand sew them together. Then she picked out another nine to sew. Neither is completely finished, but she is close. She wants to make a reversible quilt for Ducky.

For more on color and quilts, check out:

• Exploring Intermediate Colors and Shades  
• Exploring Hues and Secondary Colors 
• Color Wheel and Mixing Colors
• Color Explorations: Painting
• Luka's Quilt
• Book Inspired Painting
• A Baby Quilt
• The Colors of Us
• The Colors in Nature
• Dying Yarn with Fruit and Vegetables Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Outside Water Play
• Square It Up! Quilts
• Picture a Tree
• Mixing Colors
• Brown at the Zoo
• Color Experiment Pinterest Board
• Quilt Pinterest Board

Children's Museum, Friends & Zoo

We had a very busy week last week. On Monday we met my friend in the town we grew up in for lunch and then the three of us went to the Children's Museum there. Now the friend we met and I have known each other since we were around six months old. Yes, we are lifetime friends. We both now live in different states and our hometown is about halfway between us. Her youngest is my goddaughter who is looking at colleges for next year. Well, we took Hazel by the houses we grew up in and went to the New Children's Museum. Of course anyone from around the area of West Hartford, knows the museum by the giant whale in front of it. See above. After we went through the museum we went into the whale. Remember the picture I asked where Hazel was? She was inside the whale.

Pond, Nature, Teddy Bear Picnic and Museum

We had a very busy day today. We had our Nature Adventures with Picture Books at the Mass Audubon Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary this morning. It is hard to believe there is only one more of them this summer. This week's theme was ponds! She read us a book about a walk around a pond and seeing animals and signs of animals. Then she showed us pictures of the animals we may see and off we went. Since it was hot and sunny when we started out, our instructor chose the pond in the Rockery, so we would be in the shade for the most part. Along the way we saw many dragonflies and damselflies. I did not take any pictures of them this week since we had so many last week. There were many steps to make the hill easier to get down and up, however one of the moms had her youngest in a stroller so she required some help getting back up.

We stopped along the way to look at scat (at least that is the official term for it--in house it is poop) and discuss which animals may have left it. She also pointed out a beaver boundary mound. Then we saw the water and the water lilies. We also saw a frog, but my pictures did not come out well of it. We saw a blue heron but we saw it when it was flying away from us.

Then we went over a bridge and our instructor took some water samples for us to explore. The first find was a snail. Then we found a baby dragonfly. It was hard to believe this ugly water bug turns into the beautiful dragonflies we were seeing everywhere.

We also found some baby damselflies. It was hard to believe how different they look from the baby dragonflies when they look so much alike as adults. (To tell the difference, damselflies land with their wings folded and dragonflies land with them open.)

Then we found an even smaller baby damselfly!! This was my find, so I'm proud!

Here are all of our finds or at least the ones we could get to stay in something. Several of the waterbugs took off on us when we put them into the ice cube tray. Apparently the whirliwig bugs or whatever they are have wings.

Then she showed us a rana slyvatica (a wooden frog that you rub with a wooden stick to make frog sounds). The kids all tried it out.

She also showed us models of the stages of a frog's life. The kids got to hold each one.

On the way back up the hill, I went with the kids who were walking to get them to stop every once in awhile to wait for the other adults who were helping with the stroller. At one point we stopped and the kids pointed out an animal down the road. The deer was kind enough to wait until everyone joined us and got a good look at it before running off.

After getting back to the nature center I realized we needed to get going so we could meet Hazel's friend at the Wenham Museum for a Teddy Bear Picnic. We got there late. Hazel went over to our friends while I went in to check in and pay for us. It was a little chaotic and the kids did not stay focused too well. I did get some pictures of Hazel doing the Teddy bear, teddy bear dance.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Touch the Ground.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Show Your Shoes.

Then they pretended to be bears with one child the mama bear to lead them in their behavior. Then Hazel wanted to go inside. The museum is on a main street/state highway so it was loud. They had read some books while the kids ate their lunches and had coloring sheets, but it was too large of a group and too spread out to keep them all focused with the noise from the road. So we took our teddy bears and picnic stuff back to the car and went inside to the museum.

I had only been to the museum once before. I know they have some old house as part of the museum with certain times to tour it, but we have not done that part. The rest of the museum is very kid friendly. It has toys, exhibits of life in the U.S. during the 17th-19th century and clothes for them to try on, toys that can be played with and then their are the dollhouses, dolls, and the trains with the buttons you can push to get them all moving. Needless to say the kids had a lot of fun. I did not bring my camera inside thinking a museum doesn't allow pictures to be taken. Our friend however did and sent me some.

Hazel is wearing a dress fashioned after the 19th century and a 17th century style bonnet. Downstairs where the model trains are there is also an interactive room for the kids to play. It includes a large model train engine you can sit in.

First they sold tickets since other kids were on the train.

Then Hazel loved pulling the suitcase around.

Then they got in the train. After this we each went our own way. Hazel was obsessed with a model house they could play in. She put Ducky to sleep in the bed and then took a basket to go to the market or churned butter. It was really cute!!

Overall a wonderful busy day!! We are going to plan a teddy bear picnic for the near future and invite a few friends.

This is where I share...

A Family Day

Museum

Today, I was lucky enough to spend the day with my family. My dear husband has taken today, Thursday and Friday off for a mini-vacation. We loved having him home. We decided to go to the Peabody Essex Museum for their story time or what they call PEM Pals. Hazel and I had gone once before and loved it. They share stories, sing songs and then do some sort of art or craft in the museum. They also have a Art and Nature Center (which is where the PEM Pals was held) that has all sorts of hands-on things to discover about nature. Currently in the Art and Nature Center they have an exhibit called The Ripple Effect all about water. Sorry I didn't take any pictures since cameras are not really allowed in the museum. However they have plenty on their website if you follow each link. (I scanned in some of the post cards we bought to send to Hazel's penpal in Australia and her project.)

Hazel's craft

Since it was Steve's first time in the museum we also went up to check out a few of the other galleries. Currently they are having a Native American Exhibit called Shapeshifting. It was interesting, but we didn't feel all of it was age appropriate for Hazel. Then we looked into some of the Native American Art, American Art and the Maritime Art Galleries. Oh, and Hazel wanted to check out the Asian Export Gallery. Then we went back to the Art and Nature Center and let Hazel play a bit now that the PEM Pals crowd was gone. She loved playing with the different types of musical instruments.

One of the neatest things  of the Peabody Essex Museum is the Yin Yu Tang House. It costs a little more to see it but it is so interesting. We did not do this today, but I hope to when Hazel is a bit older. It is a 200-year-old Chinese house that was disassembled and brought to America and reassembled. It is so interesting to see and learn about.

Then we had to get home for some lunch. Hazel fell asleep in the car on the way, but woke up when I tried to get her out. We had a quick lunch and then had more things to do--nothing worth blogging about. But it was a lovely day with my family. Do you have a museum or place like this near you?

Finally, a few things to share that I found interesting.

• Play Again a film trailer for a dvd available for purchase about screen time taking away our children's care for nature.
• Tarbeyah: Sharing My Love of Waldorf Education gives a good overall view of her children's Waldorf education and reassures me on our choice.
• LA Time: Hyping Classroom Technology... interesting column expressing opinions on technology in the classroom and how each generation deals with the new technology that will replace books.

Hope you had a great day!!