Hazel Cooks Pancit --Inspired by Readathon 2012

As I mentioned yesterday this week's theme for the Readathon at Memetales is Global Culture. One of the books that is free this week is Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina Lazo Gilmore. Well, after reading it we were inspired to try to make pancit.

Back to our post. Cora is a young child with three older sisters and an older brother. Since she is the youngest she does not get to help with the cooking, but cannot wait to get her chance. One day all of her siblings go out and she asks her mother to teach her how to cook. She gets to do the jobs her older siblings usually each do when they make pancit--one of her favorite Filipino meals. In the story Cora gets to soak the rice noodles, test the noodles for softness, shred the chicken and stir in the noodles.

MemeTales Readathon Week 6: Global Culture

The books for this week are Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina Lazo Gilmore, Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth by Joan Schoettler, Mandy and Pandy Say "Ni Hao Ma?" by Chris Lin and Mandy and Pandy Visit China by Chris Lin.

The Mandy and Pandy stories are meant to introduce the child to Chinese and have both English and Chinse in them.I will admit I am not good at pronouncing the Chinese, but I did try. Cora Cooks Pancit is about a Filipino family and cooking a favorite meal. Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth takes place in Korea. Since they were all focused in Asia, we did Asian crafts.

Readathon Week #5--Earth and Being Green

For this week's theme, MemeTales Readathon has chosen Green/Earth. There are two free books along this theme. Through the five weeks over 5500 meals have been donated to FoodForEducation.org. Has your child(ren) joined yet to donate another meal?

The books this week are Let's Go Chipper! Into the Great Outdoors published by Let's Go Chipper and What Does It Mean To Be Green? by Rana Di Orio. Let's Go Chipper! Into the Great Outdoors is about a suburban squirrel going on a camping trip and meeting all sorts of new friends there. The purpose of the book is to remind children to get outside and discover the world even in your own backyard.

Imagination--Readathon Week 4

Sharing Saturday is still open through Wednesday!! Please stop by to share your child-oriented crafts and activities and to check out all the inspiration others have shared!

Also Happy Family Times is open! Please stop by and share your fun family activities this week! Help us to inspire each other to have more quality family time!


As you know, we are participating in several book clubs, readathons, etc. this summer. The Memetales Readathon 2012 has imagination for its theme this week! I love this theme!! For the people signed up, there are three free electronic books to read with this theme. (Plus for every child who signs up a meal is donated to FoodforEducation.org!)

The first is Night Boy by Anne Laurel Carter. I love this story. Night is the younger brother and Day is the older sister. Night cannot wait to play hide-and-seek with his sister, but he has to wait until it is dark. He pulls out his blanket to make it dark and she goes and hides (to the west of course), but he jumps in his spaceship and heads in the wrong direction and gets distracted creating constellations and the night sky. Day calls him back and it is his bed time, so she tucks him in for the daytime. The perfect activity is to study the night sky of course. Although Hazel's bedtime is well before the sun sets during the summer here, we did some exploring of constellations. We talked about how people saw images in the stars and named the constellations using their imaginations. Then we created some of the constellations using flashlights and black paper or tin foil as suggested in the links below.

Readathon Week 3 at MeMeTales

I'm guest posting over at Happy Whimsical Hearts!! It is the day of her Happy Lil Hearts are Baking Link Party. Won't you come over and share with us?

As you know, we are participating in MeMeTales Readathon 2012. This is week 3 and in the first two weeks they have had 3,000 kids join in. For each child that joins they are donating a meal to FoodforEducation.org, so this is huge!! Plus the kids read 14,688 books this week. Their goal is to have 100,000 books read and donate 10,000 meals. If you haven't joined yet, please do. It is free and you get free books each week to go along with the theme that you can read on your computer or electronic book device.

Friendship, Readathon, Book Clubs and More

   
Today I thought I would share a bit about friendship. It is the theme of the Readathon 2012 Week 2. Did you know that 1256 readers have signed up so they have donated over 1256 meals to hungry kids via FoodforEducation.org? (If you want to join just click on the Readathon 2012 button above and for each reader that joins a meal is donated!) For more information and some links to different friendship crafts and activities go to MeMeTales.

Readathon 2012 Week 1 -- Animal Themed Books

We are participating in MeMe Tales Readathon 2012. It is a six-week program where you can receive free electronic books for a week each week based on the theme of the week. This week is the first week and the theme is animal themed books. We were able to read The Five Little Ducklings, The Donkey and The Wolf and The Lion and The Mouse.

Readathon 2012

As summer time begins next week and for many of us it has really started since school is out, it is important to remember to take time to read and to have our children read. As a former teacher I can tell you how much our children forget during each vacation, but they forget so much over the summer. It is important for us as parents to encourage their reading to help them maintain their knowledge and learning experiences.

I know as a parent the summer time often means an increase in social time, family vacations, and just time to enjoy the beautiful weather, however while doing these things we often forget or let our guard down on the educational things. This is what creates the summer slump or the summer slide. (For more ideas about combating this visit PBS Parents.) I know Hazel cannot read yet and I do not plan to teach her unless she starts to on her own, but this is because of our choice to send her to a Waldorf school. However, we always try to read to her each day at least before bed time, but also throughout the day. So this year, I am joining to support Readathon 2012! 

What is Readathon 2012? It is a program where MeMe Tales, PBS Kids, Harper Collins and several other publishers have joined together to help combat the summer slide. The program will be six weeks long and kids will be able to get free books to read in each week's themes. And for every person who signs up at MeMe Tales they will contribute money to send one child to school for a day via The Food for Education Program. Kids will earn badges and certificates for their reading during the program. Parents will have access to many resources to encourage the reading as well as many bloggers sharing crafts and activities to go along with the books.

How do you join? Go to MeMe Tales and create an account. For more information visit this wonderful post at MeMe Tales.

Each week there will be a theme for books. The first week is Animal Fun. I know I cannot wait to see what books we can get for free with that theme. Hazel loves animals!!

So come join me and Hazel in reading this summer with free books (electronically) including stories like Thumbellina, Jack and the Beanstalk and Exploring India and these are all free right now! And if you are like me without a smart phone or Nook or Kindle, you can read the books on your computer.