Hide and Shh! -- a Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am so excited to be a Multicultural Children's Book Day reviewer this year!! I somehow missed signing up last year and it made me really sad. It was the only year I didn't participate in this amazing event. I am blaming going back to work full time. However this year I made sure to sign up as a reviewer!! Today I am going to share the first of the books I am reviewing and it is such a sweet book about inclusion. It is called Hide and Shh! A Not-So-Sneaky Sister Story about Inclusion by Christine Dendy and illustrated by Nathalia Takeyama. It is recommended for ages 5 to 7.

Trivia and Design & Doodle -- Product Reviews

Disclosure: Parragon Books sent me these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

 I have been off finishing my quilt for the boy at the homeless shelter for Hazel's class donation. It was due at school today, and I'm happy to say I finished!!

Once A Shepherd -- Book Review -- a book to talk about war and veterans

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Yesterday was Veteran's Day here in the United States. I usually try to do something to celebrate it by thanking our veterans and their families. Although I like to thank them all the time and think they deserve thanks all year long. This year Hazel and I were visiting my parents for our long weekend. (Hazel had Monday and Tuesday off of school.) I did not really have much planned for a Veteran's Day post or activity. However when I came home I received a box of books from Candlewick Press and it included the perfect introduction book to start a conversation about soldiers,war, loss due to war and recovering from that loss. The book is Once A Shepherd by Glenda Millard.

Christmas cards and Christmas gifts

Last night I stayed up late to finish a no sew fleece blanket for my mother-in-law. My mother had bought the fleece because her Crafty Chicks group was making the no-sew fleece blankets. (Members take turns teaching a craft and give a supply list ahead of time.) Well after picking the fabrics she found or I found I guess, the perfect fabric for a friend's baby shower so my mother made that one at the group and decided she didn't want to make another one. She gave me the fleece to figure out something to do with it.

It has a similar green as my mother-in-law's living room, so I asked my husband to show it to her and see if she would like me to make her a blanket. She did, so great one of the harder people to get gifts for is off our list. Well then I had to make it. Lately I've seen on Pinterest the braided look instead of tied. And then I saw on one of my favorite blogs Helping Little Hands, a wonderful tutorial to make a double layered no-sew braided fleece blanket. It was so easy (once you get through all the cutting and prep work). I used the paper clip as my tool instead of looking for a big enough crochet hook. It worked perfectly. Now I have one gift down! I'm only making two more and then I can get making things for Hazel's birthday party. I want to knit some owls for Hazel's teacher and teacher's assistant (plus I promised Hazel I would make her some). And I want to knit a gift for my mother's birthday, but that is in January, so I can put it off for a bit longer.

This week I also finished our Christmas cards. After printing out 100 of them (yes I print them myself) I realized our overly Christian cards were not appropriate to mail to our handful of Jewish friends, so I revised it for them. Do you do that? Or am I the only crazy one?

Hazel and I started on a craft this morning but then we had to run to church to help get ready for the Breakfast with Santa tomorrow. She fell asleep when we went out to run errands, but I woke her and now of course she won't go back to sleep. Ugh!! Why did I wake her?

Oh, well. Remember to stop by later for Sharing Saturday! Have a wonderful weekend!

Mindware Games & More -- Perfect Gifts for Tweens

Disclosure: Mindware sent me these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was hoping to get this post written before the holidays, but I got the items a bit late and then went on vacation. However these products are wonderful gifts for birthdays or other occasions as well as just great additions to your family games and activities or home school. One of the many things I love about Mindware products is how they are fun and educational. All of these fit that description. Three of these products are games that are fun additions for family game night. The first is Leaps and Ledges. 

Doll Valentine Play Date

 Disclosure: I was sent these craft lots to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I added links to the particular products for your convenience, but not for any compensation. 

Every year Hazel's school usually has the Friday around Valentine's off for a teacher's development day and it is right before February vacation. The past couple of years we have invited some friends over for a Valentine's Day playdate. This year we invited friends and their dolls. Two girls were able to come and the three girls had so much fun!! When they first arrived they picked out a mailbox for their doll and decorated it. I picked up small mailboxes at Target in The Spot section for $1 each. 

Language Fun -- Summertime Fun

Disclosure: I was sent these books free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Today I am sharing some books and products to have fun with new languages this summer (or any time). Two of these are books that use words from a different language in the stories and the third are a flash card and more set. I always find that these type of books and products help us continue to learn about different countries and cultures. We will start with Asha Loves Science Over in the Meadow by Dr. Najla Ahmed. I am reviewing this book as part of Multicultural Kids Product Promotional Services. 

Heartprints --Bilingual or Board Books Review & Craft

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Ideals Books./Worthy Kids. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Today we are sharing a book by P.K. Hallinan called Heartprints. It was originally published in 2002 but is being released again on December 8th. I received two versions of the book for this review: a board book and a bilingual paperback book. 

Both books have the same story in English. The bilingual version also has the words in Spanish.

Lucky Ducky Valentines with Free Printables

Now I know I have talked about Hazel's Ducky before. When I saw this idea for a Valentine, I knew we had to do it. Of course, I cannot find where I saw it. Sorry!! However, I found red and pink mini rubber ducks at Michaels and bought two packages of 8.

Facts and More from National Geographic Kids

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Last year Hazel became known for the "Did you know..." cards I put in her lunch and snack. Her teacher had her share them with the entire class and the kids loved it. This year I wasn't doing it and Hazel came home saying the kids are asking where they are. Now one of my favorite places to pull from is National Geographic Kids books like the two I am sharing today!! The first book is Why Not? Over 1,111 Answers to Everything by Crispin Boyer. 

Valentine's Day Crafts & More from Oriental Trading with Free Printable Valentine Cards -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Are you ready for Valentine's Day? We are, thanks to Oriental Trading. Now Hazel's school has a Father/Daughter Snow Ball the Saturday before Valentine's Day every year and this year I am co-chairing it. As a result I had even more Valentine's Day stuff to get than normal. I got the tablecloths we need for the Snow Ball.

Oriental Trading's Fun365 --a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these items in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Have you discovered Oriental Trading's Fun365?  It is a site that has different craft projects and articles. There are choices of Party Ideas, Craft Ideas, Wedding Ideas, and Classroom Ideas. I was inspired by ideas from the Craft Ideas and Party Ideas. I had so much fun exploring the many ideas there. I let Hazel look and help me pick what we would try. In the Party Ideas section there is a Rainbow Party and one of the crafts is a DIY Rainbow Coin Purse. Instead of doing the coin purse we used DIY Totes. (See current available totes here.)I asked Hazel to paint a rainbow on one for me. She wanted to use the Pearlized Acrylic Paint (available paint). Then she wanted to do a heart rainbow, but hers turned out more like a circle. She also did a square but wanted to use the pink on it.  I did a heart one for her as well as a star and an H. 

Sharing Saturday 15-3

A huge thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! It was the largest party we have had in awhile. I had a very hard time choosing features since there were so many amazing posts. Here are some of the ones I liked the best, but really there are many more to see if you have not checked them out yet. The topics for this week's features are Martin Luther King, Jr. (Monday is MLK Day in the US), Frozen, Valentine's Day and some lesson and polar bears ones.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Features

For everyone featured in this topic and ones not picked, please also link up at the Multicultural Kid Blogs Martin Luther King Day for Kids link party!!

Thanksgiving Crafts, Books and Games

Well this morning we finished our centerpiece turkeys. We got the instructions from Messner Holiday Library Thanksgiving Fun by Judith Hoffman Corwin. It is a book I found at the public library. It had a few crafts I liked but not too many. These turkeys were very easy. You need a toilet paper roll, paper (I used card stock), newspaper and googly eyes and glue (and we used a piece of tape). You could also use paint on the toilet paper roll, but I took the lazy way out and covered it in paper. The toilet paper roll becomes the neck and head. You use a piece of paper rolled with the newspaper stuck inside for stability for the body and cut the tail feathers out of two different colors and add the wings. As you can see Hazel and I had different ideas where the wings should go. Neither of us chose the place the book suggested though Hazel's were closer. Mine are on the body instead of the tail.

Next we read The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri. I used Rachel's squirrel from I HEART CRAFTY THINGS (she shared it at our Sharing Saturday link party, which is still open if you want to share with us). She got the squirrel template from All Kids Network. We decided to gather the same food as the busy little squirrel. So we made a tree trunk for his home and added the food we saw him gather in the book, bird seed, acorns, apples, corn, and berries. The book starts with the leaves are falling so we also glued on some falling leaves. We used real bird seed, acorns and leaves, a Christmas tree ornament apple, and some fall decorations of miniature corn and fake berries.

The next thing we did is we talked about Thanksgiving. I made up some memory games for Thanksgiving. This time I did not put the clear contact paper on them since I don't think they will get played with enough to get that messed up and they are easy enough to make. Hazel is at the age where she doesn't really remember much about Thanksgiving from the past so I thought I could introduce her to the whole story using these cards. Then we could play with them and keep talking about it. I did this in Word and you can download it  Thanksgiving Story Match Game.  If you need another format, please let me know. It is easy to save it as a pdf as well.

I also made a Thanksgiving dinner game, so we could talk about the food she might see at the Thanksgiving table. I figured this might get her excited to try some of it even if she hasn't had it before or didn't like it before. Again I did this in Word and you can download it at Thanksgiving Dinner Match Game Again let me know if you need it in a different format.

To make the game I cut the cards out and cut cardstock into 3 inch by 4 inch rectangles and Hazel and I glue sticked the pictures onto the cardstock.

A Big Surprise for Little Card and More-igami -- Two Fun Books

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copies of these book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own, and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Here are two new books that bring paper, cards and origami to life. The first is A Big Surprise for Little Card by Charise Mericle Harper and illustrated by Anna Raff. This book takes a little mix up and makes it fun as well as reminding the reader how fun books and the library can be!

Teddy Bear Doctor -- Book Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Storey Publishing. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Does your child watch Doc McStuffins? Or just like to play doctor with his or her stuffed animals? This book is perfect for him or her!! Hazel has two or three doctors kits (I think one is a veterinarian kit). She has always liked to play doctor and often dreams of being a toy doctor like Doc McStuffins. She really wanted the Doc McStuffins kit because she hoped when she pushed the stethoscope button Ducky would come alive. When we take our cats to the veterinarian, Hazel gets to listen to the cats and her own, and the veterinarian's and my and whomever will let her heart beat with our veterinarian's stethoscope. She loves going!! Needless to say when I saw Teddy Bear Doctor: A Let's Make and Play Book by Deanna F. Cook I knew Hazel would love it.

I Am Helen Keller -- Ordinary People Change the World Blog Tour and Giveaway

Disclosure: Penguin Random House Books gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today we are sharing I Am Helen Keller by Brad Meltzer and illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos. It is part of the Ordinary People Change the World Series. We have been having fun with the Blog Tour for this book series this month and have already shared the ones on Abraham Lincoln, Lucille Ball, and Martin Luther King, Jr. 

A Look at Japan for Asian / Pacific Island Heritage Month

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Multicultural Kid Blogs is hosting a blog hop today for this heritage month and I decided to focus mostly on Japan. I have a bunch of fun books to share with you to help focus on Japan and its culture. It is a mixture of coloring books, origami kits, a novel and an Asian cookbook. The first book I am going to share is another book in the Friendship Dolls Series from Candlewick Press. I reviewed the other two previously. Today's book is Dolls of Hope by Shirley Parenteau. 

Busy Day, But a New Idea to Share

Today, my mother-in-law has Hazel for a good portion of the day so I could run errands (and Steve is working from home so now she won't bother him). While out I found the cutest thing. This little mailbox box cost only $2 at Ocean State Job Lot. I'm going to introduce it to Hazel as a magic mailbox where we can send and receive mail from Santa. I will help her write Santa letters and then I will respond. As she gets older I will also introduce that I can send Santa a letter about her behavior if I think she belongs on the naughty list. So we will not be getting An Elf on the Shelf. We have our magic mailbox which costs much less and allows her to have fun.

Some other things to check out today:

Fairy Dust Teaching has a first blogiversary giveaway. She is giving away three different $50 gift cards. Go over and check it out!

Ready. Set. Read! has a link about Arthur's Christmas and provides a link to check for the 12 Days of Arthur's Christmas Activities in your area.

Silly Eagle Books has cute turkey hats to make. Go check them out. They are adorable. Hmmm...maybe I'll leave her a note to get her to share in our Saturday Share.

I Can Teach My Child has some great homemade gift ideas.

One Artsy Mama has some great homemade ornament ideas.





My Computer is My Canvas has a free printable of Thanksgiving name cards or food labels. Very cute if you have assigned seats or a buffet where you want to label the food.

Poet in the Pantry has a delicious looking recipe for gingerbread muffins.  All I have to say is Carrie you are lucky I don't live closer because I would be over to sample those. They look delicious!!

Well that is what I've been reading. Hope you are having a great day. I'm off to get some more things done before Hazel comes home.

Solar Prints

I remember as a child my mother and I purchased a solar print kit. It is funny the details one can remember of certain things. I actually remember the exact store we bought it at. Anyway, I was so fascinated by it. I remember collecting flowers and leaves and such to leave on it and leave the papers in the sun. My memory is for hours, but I don't know now. I decided to buy one of these kits at Lakeshore Learning to show Hazel a bit about the sun. (Sorry they don't sell them on their website.)

It was a bit different than what I remembered. It came with prints you could use or you could use any flat thing you found. At first I didn't buy the flat things (back from my memory I didn't worry about flat things), so we tried pine cones, acorns, sticks, etc. things from our nature table. I didn't bother trying to use the clear covers it came with either since the non-flat things would not fit in them.

They also said to leave it in the sun for 1-5 minutes until the paper turned white. Then you needed to soak it in hot water and then cold and then dry. As you can see my 3-d objects were more blotchy than anything. We also left them for a few hours in the window since we started this project just before we had to leave. Since it is winter and our sun is not too strong right now, I figured we would be ok.

We also tried a paper heart and a doily. Then tried flat objects like a feather, pine needles and some of the prints that came with the kit. We used the clear plastic holders for these. I also watched these more closely.

These came out much clearer, so I guess with this kit flatter is better.

Hazel was not as excited as I expected, but she is still young for it. We will try it in the summer and see what fun things we can use.

Our next project will be to do some things with shadows as Hazel is showing great interest in shadows.

Now we can make them into cards and what not. The kit came with cards and envelopes and some of the prints they gave us were words like Happy Birthday.

Hope you will join us for Sharing Saturday tonight/tomorrow!! Last week was our largest one thus far and hopefully this week we will break that record!