Coloring the Rainbow - Book Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Catherine Rose to bring you this post and giveaway.

Today we are sharing a fun new picture book that is about the power of connection, diversity, and inclusion which is shown through musical instruments. The book is Coloring the Rainbow: A Story about the Power of Connection by Catherine Rose and illustrated by Jeffrey Dale. There is a giveaway at the end of this post!

Before Music: Where Instruments Come From with Musical Instrument Craft Round-Up

 

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

Music is such an important part of life. We hear music everywhere. Listen to the wind blowing or the birds singing. It is musical. Today I am sharing a book that takes a look at music from across time and around the world. It shares where musical instruments come from and I'm sharing a round-up of diy musical instruments for kids. The book is Before Music: Where Instruments Come From by Annette Bay Pimentel and illustrated by Madison Safer. It is recommended for ages 8 to 12.

Finding Family Treasure -- a Middle Grades Novel about Family History & More -- Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I am working with The Children's Book Review, K.I. Knight, and Jane R. Wood and was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I am receiving a small stipend for this review.

Have you ever looked into your family history? Perhaps you have gone onto Ancestry or Family Search and looked up your relatives. Did you discover anything? Or perhaps your child needed to share a bit about the country your family comes from. Do you come from just one country? As what I call an American mutt, I cringe at those assignments. How do I pick one of the countries my family is from? When Hazel got that assignment, we went with Steven's family history since he is Italian American. Today I am going to share a middle grades book with you that a diverse class begins researching their own history. It is a tale of genealogy, family, connections and so much more. The book is Finding Family Treasure by K.L. Knight and Jane R. Wood. Oh, and there is a giveaway at the end of the post!

Chinese New Year Resources

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

The lunar new year begins on Friday this year. Many countries celebrate the lunar new year but in America it is often referred to as the Chinese New Year. We already shared a few resources for the year of the dog (this new year), but I wanted to share a few more with you. The first is a book that gives a new version of the old fairy tale, The Emperor's New Clothes. The book is The Chinese Emperor's New Clothes by Ying Chang Compestine and illustrated by David Roberts. 

The Year of the Monkey -- Book Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Immedium. 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.

February 8, 2016 begins the lunar new year. There are several cultures that celebrate the lunar new year, but the Chinese is the largest one and the most heard about one. The Chinese have an animal zodiac for each year. It is based on a twelve year (and twelve animal) system. We are ending the year of the sheep and will be beginning the year of the monkey. There are several versions of legends as to how the twelve animals were picked. Today we will focus on the year of the monkey!!

Asian Book Reviews -- Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

This post is part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway. More details about all of this below including the giveaway!!

Since May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, I contacted my friends at Tuttle Publishing. It was a logical choice since this is their specialty. They publish books on Asian cultures, languages, and history. They have books for children and adults. It is a wonderful publishing company that puts out high quality and beautiful books. They also have provided five of the books for the giveaway below! The first book we will review is one of the prizes.

The History of Zero--Asian Pacific American Heritage Blog Series and Giveaway Post

This post is part of the Asian-Pacific American Heritage Blog Series and Giveaway on Multicultural Kid Blogs. You can enter the giveaway at the end of the post. There is a link party for all Asian-Pacific American Heritage posts on Multicultural Kid Blogs. We also have a link party for Japan posts in our Global Learning for Kids this month. Next month will be India.

History of Zero:

Can you imagine a world without zero? Or perhaps you wonder why we need to represent nothing at all? For centuries there was no mark or symbol of zero. The history of the number zero begins in Asia. It is believed that the first people to have a symbol for zero were the Babylonians. The Babylonians had inherited the counting system of the Sumerians which was the first to have a symbol instead of hash marks for each number.

Around 1450 B.C. By Свифт/Svift (my work) 
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Prize Review

Have you entered the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Giveaway being hosted over at Multicultural Kid Blogs? It is part of our Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series. I will be co-hosting two posts in the next couple of weeks as part of the series and I wrote the first post for the series on Multicultural Kid Blogs. I also played a roll in getting some of the prizes for the giveaway. I thought I would take some time to review the prizes since I wanted to check some out for myself. There are three prize packs that you can win and each has a good number of books. Some of the books we have reviewed previously and others we have not. Today I am going to review four books published by Lee & Low Books that I got out of the library. I will also share information about the other prizes that I have previously reviewed or know something about. I will provide links to where prizes can be purchased for your convenience. I do not get anything from you purchasing them besides the joy of sharing wonderful resources.

 The Prizes

Hispanic Heritage Month Celebrating with Music--Celia Cruz and Musical Crafts & Giveaway!!

As Hispanic Heritage Month continues on, we are sharing what we have been doing to learn more about Hispanic Music. A few years ago we made maracas, guiro, and a cajita based on Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou's tutorials. We also made zampoñas and a rainstick previously (thanks to Daria). This year we got a free copy of Daria's latest e-book: 10 Musical Crafts to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage. You can get a free copy this month on her Monthly Song Page (and scroll down to enter a great giveaway). After this month you can purchase a copy on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Hispanic Heritage Month Blog Hop--Learning about Juan Quezada a Mexican Potter

Today starts this year's Hispanic Heritage Month. The theme this year is Celebrating Hispanic Heritage with Kids. To do this, I turned to books from the library. Anyone who reads Crafty Moms Share regularly knows I love to read books about other cultures and countries to Hazel. We both love to learn about them.  The first book we are sharing this month is The Pot That Juan Built by Nancy Andrews-Goebel. This is the story of Juan Quezada and his pottery.

Dreaming of Hawaii with Pu'ili, Hawaiian Rhythm Sticks, Music and Stories

Now this winter has been harsh for most of North America. The past two weeks it seems it snows five to six inches every few days here. I am so over winter and cannot wait for spring!! My friend, Daria, invited me to make pu'ili with Hazel and tell you about her fabulous giveaways!! Daria is giving away a ukulele and a pair of pu'ili [POO' ee lee] which are Hawaiian rhythm sticks. Now she thought of us because she knows about Hazel's ukulele and knows how much Hazel loves to play it as well as any instrument really. We have even made our own ukulele. I should also add that Hawaii is my dream vacation. Steve has already been there, but it is the place I really want to go. One day I hope...

Around the World in 12 Dishes--Peruvian Purple Corn Pudding

Have you entered my current giveaway yet? There is just over a day left to enter!!

This month we are exploring Peru with Around the World in 12 Dishes. Now for Peru, I e-mailed my friend, Daria for recipe advice. Daria actually lived in Peru for part of her childhood. She suggested we make a mazamorra morado or Peruvian purple corn pudding. She even suggested a recipe for us. But before we get into our delicious recipe, let's talk about Peru. Now we discussed a little of Peru awhile ago when we reviewed Daria's A Child's Life in the Andes and the companion CD Little Songs of the Andes. Both are available for sale at Daria's Little Village Store.











Peru is a country in western South America and was home to many ancient civilizations including one of the oldest in the world, Norte Chico, and the Inca, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered Peru in the 16th Century and Peru gained its independence from Spain in 1821. Peru has the peaks of The Andes as well as the rainforests of the Amazon Basin. Spanish is the main language in Peru, however many Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages. (Source)

Now let's talk about our mazamorra morada. If you want a wonderful scent in your house, I suggest you cook this pudding. I can still smell the sweet pineapple, cinnamon and cloves in the air a day after making it. Now we used this recipe found on About.com. Normally I post my Around the World Dishes on the third Tuesday of the month, however I had some trouble finding purple corn. Daria had suggested a Hispanic market. I called six I found on-line. Only one answered (and one had been disconnected). The one that answered did not have purple corn, so I goggled it and found it at Amazon. I didn't get it until after the third Tuesday and then I had to get the other fresh ingredients.

Mazamorra Morada or Peruvian Purple Corn Pudding

Ingredients:
1 pound dried purple corn
1/2 pineapple (including rind)
1 quince (or a green apple if quince is not available)
1 teaspoon whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
1 apple
1 cup dried fruit: prunes, apricots and/or cherries (we used prunes)
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons corn starch
juice of 1 lime

The first step is to put the dried fruit in a heat proof bowl and cover it with boiling water. Then set aside to cool.

Next put the purple corn in a large pot and add 10 cups of water. Then cut the pineapple into small bite sizes. Put the cut pineapple aside but add the rinds to the pot. Quarter the quince and add it to the pot with the cinnamon sticks and cloves. Bring the water to boil and boil uncovered for about 30 minutes until the water is purple (which it is almost instantly) and the quince is very soft. While it was boiling, Hazel juiced the lime and we took a pineapple break with the other half of the pineapple. It was the first time Hazel liked a fresh pineapple though she did get a hurt tongue from eating too much of it.

Once the mixture is done, strain the liquid and return the liquid to the pot. Throw away the corn, pineapple rinds, cinnamon sticks and cloves. Take 1/2 cup of the liquid and put it in a small bowl with the cornstarch. Set it aside for later. Peel and cut the apple into small bites. Add the sugar, pineapple, apple, dried fruit (strained from the water), and a pinch of salt to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for about 20 minutes until the apple is soft. Stir occasionally.

Add the cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil again. Stir constantly for about 5 minutes until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice. Cool. Serve room temperature or chilled. Sprinkle with cinnamon when serving.

We loved it!! Steve thought it was a bit spicy, but he enjoyed it.

We of course enjoyed some stories from Peru. Hazel really loves hearing the different stories from all the different cultures.

We also listened to some Peruvian music with songs from these CDs. 

We also looked at some resource books.

Now a few of these books are craft books. The textile book suggested a Peruvian weaving as a craft. Since we did a weaving recently, I decided not to attempt this right now. We did however try the Peruvian clay whistle from the World Crafts Musical Instruments book. Ours did not turn out well though. (It was suppose to look like the yellow one on the cover.)

So that is our exploration of Peru. Have you explored Peru or made a Peruvian dish? Feel free to link up here and visit the others to see more dishes and explorations!! Also print out the Peru Placemat and Passport Pages to have explorations with your own kids.

Making Musical Instruments--Homemade Xylophone

We found a fun book at the library. In Nifty Thrifty Music Crafts by Felicia Lowenstein Niven has wonderful ideas to take recycled objects and make music. Many of the ideas are familiar, but some have new twists. Hazel cannot wait to make a ukulele, but we need to finish our box of cereal first. This book also has rhythm blocks, panpipes, finger cymbals, colonial drum, American Indian clapper, tambourine, rain stick, maracas and a ukulele. We are definitely going to try the ukulele at some point. I also like the rhythm blocks, but we will see. Anyway we started with the xylophone. 

Now we have a xylophone, but making one is part of the fun of the homemade one. To make one you need empty jars, a wooden stick (chopstick, pencil or a stick) and water. You can also have food coloring--Hazel will tell you this is one of the best parts.

You fill the jars with different amounts of water and can add food coloring to each one. We made different colors in each one and tried mixing colors to practice what colors would make the secondary colors. We used different jar sizes, but they could all be the same.

Then you hit the jars with the stick to play it. Hazel had the best time experimenting. She tried hitting the sides where the water was, the sides where the water was not and the tops. Then she asked if we could put the lids on. Apparently I did not take a picture of this, but in this picture you can see the lids all around.

With the lids on she hit the sides and the lids to see if they made different sounds. She had so much fun with this activity. She did not want to dump it out so she could play for Daddy. She also asked if we could do it again. My little musician is always happy making music.

Needless to say, we will be doing this again. I think she liked the homemade one better than her store bought one.

A Day in the Andes

Today I am going to explain our "trip" to the Andes thanks to Daria. Daria recently published a new CD and e-book about a child's life in the Andes. The CD is called Cancioncitas De Los Andes/Little Songs of the Andes and the e-book is called A Child's Life in the Andes.  Both were released April 2nd and Daria was kind enough to offer us a free copy of each to review and we LOVE them!! The combo pack of the book and CD are available at Daria's Little Village Store for $12.99. You can also buy just the CD at iTunes and Amazon.

Now before I go into how wonderful these activities are, I want to give you a little background. Daria lived in the Andes in Peru for part of her childhood. Needless to say she knows much about the area firsthand.

Now onto this great book and CD. Every time I play the CD, Hazel says to me, "Mommy, I like your music." The music is not like the music we normally listen to or even the other amazing album of Daria's that we have. We began our journey to the Andes by just listening to the CD a couple of times and loved it. 

Now that our mood was set, we sat down to read the book. We learned all about life in the Andes including what food was native to there. (Sorry we didn't have a play potato or I should say I couldn't find it if we still have it.) Plus about the animals and life in general for the children. Then there were all sorts of coloring pages.

Hazel only colored this llama so far, because we were busy doing the other activities like making musical instruments. We had already made a rainstick, so we some zampoñas following the easy instructions in the book. Hazel loves trying to play them!

Then we decided to follow the suggestion in the book to have a stuffed animal parade, but we decided to use our two llamas (one stuffed and one plastic) and also to use our two instruments. We had Steven video us. (Fair warning, he is not the best with a camera of any sort!)

Now if you are interested in exploring the Andes from your home, please stop by Daria's page and buy her new CD and E-book. They are amazing and we really enjoyed them! Thank you to Daria for sharing these wonderful resources with us!!

Chinese New Year Instruments

We have been reading some books about the Chinese New Year. Hazel is rather excited. In fact her favorite activity is to pull out musical instruments and practice marching for a parade. The books we have read so far are Dragon Parade by Steven A. Chin and A World of Holidays: Chinese New Year by Catherine Chambers. We also have been playing the dragon race game that was in her High Five Magazine which was her first introduction to the Chinese New Year.

Sharing Saturday #37

Have you entered my current giveaway? You can win a copy of the fantastic book, Show Me a Story by Emily K. Neuburger. This is a must for anyone who wants to help develop their child's imagination and storytelling skills!

Don't forget to visit Dine Out for No Kid Hungry and check out the deals at your local restaurants to help end childhood hunger!!

Did you stop by and check out the great ideas shared last week? I did, and I must tell you I'm still in awe!! I have several features, but first want to apologize for the lateness of this post. I have my oldest and dearest friend visiting tonight and we went for a girls dinner out. (We have been friends since we were six-months-old!) Needless to say it is great to see her and we have been catching up a bit, especially since she arrived after Hazel was asleep so we could have some grown up time. Ok, on to this week's features.

I am finally starting to feel like fall so here are a few apple features!

1) From Reading Confetti: Paper Plate Apple Tree

2) From Repeat Crafter Me: Plastic Bottle Apples

3) From Annie One Can Cook!: Apple Pecan Pie Bars

4) From Tippytoe Crafts: Wormy Apples

Did you know that September is National Sewing Month? In honor of that here are a few sewing (and knitting) features as well as one of my favorites!

1) From Rae Gun Rambling: Princess Dress Bustle Skirt Tutorial

2) From About Blogging Time: The Elephant Softie

3) From Frontier Dreams: Kitten Mittens

4) From Earning My Cape: Tunisan Stitch Belt

5) From Wind of Imagination Is Here: A Paper Office

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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From Your Hostess: In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month starting September 15th, I am sharing our homemade Hispanic Heritage Musical Instruments

 

Now for This Week's Party   

A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow both hosts via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

Hosts are Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart. A reminder: Mia is taking a blogging break. Hopefully she will be back soon to host again!!

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post.

3) Post the button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest. 

All right everyone...This is a PARTY!! Have Fun!!

National Hispanic Heritage Month Begins Saturday

Did you know that National Hispanic Heritage Month begins Saturday? It runs from September 15 to October 15th. President Lyndon Johnson put into place National Hispanic Heritage Week and President Ronald Reagan expanded it to a month. (Source) My friend, Daria, reminded me and asked if I would like to make some of her musical instruments in honor of the month. I, of course, jumped on it. If you have not already checked out Daria's webpage you should, but especially check out her Monthly Song Page so you can enter her great giveaways for a pair of handmade maracas and/or a basket of castanets. Everything we made today came from her tutorials which you can find links to on her Monthly Song Page. Everything was made with recycled ingredients for the most part or at least things we had hanging around the house.

Hazel had a great time making the instruments, decorating them and playing with them! The pictures above are of her making and decorating them. We will start with the most well known instrument we made--maracas! Daria does a great job of explaining maracas including a bit of history. We used a small water bottle (we only had one in our recycling bin), two empty bubble containers (with the wands inside still), toilet paper rolls, beads, and electrical tape (red) and then Hazel decorated them with paint. Hazel loved putting the beads into the different containers. I taped the toilet paper rolls to the containers and then she decorated away. We actually have some maracas from the store so I included a picture of them as well so you could see the similarities and differences!

Next we made the guiro. This is actually easy to make and is somewhat similar to the maracas. We used an empty water bottle with ridges. We put some beads in it as well. Hazel also painted it a bit, but I don't recommend this since the paint flaked off immediately when we played it. Again, Daria does a good job explaining the guiro and a bit of it history. I think this is my favorite one we made!

The last instrument me made today is a cajita. Cajita means little box. It literally is a small box with an attached lid. To play it you hit it with a wooden stick on the inside, outside, wherever. I had picked up a couple of wooden boxes on clearance at the Christmas Tree Shop when we visited my parents last week. (Daria suggests a cigar box.) I pulled out the smallest one and gave it to Hazel. She added some paint so she could add her own touch (or at least that is the reason she told me she wanted to paint it). Then she played it with a pencil as well. Again, Daria does a great job explaining about a cajita, so please check out what she says.

After playing it a couple of times she decided she wanted to use the box for Ducky's diaper cream. She thought it was the perfect size for it. Oh, well. 

Since the cajita is from Peru, I thought I would share a children's book for you about life in Peru, Tonight Is Carnaval by Arthur Dorros. All of the illustrations are pictures of arpilleras sewn by the Club de Madras Virgen del Carmen of Lima, Peru. They are beautiful!!

The story is told by a young boy about his family getting ready for the Carnaval, which is three days away. First the work must be done. He goes into details about the work including farming, taking care of the llamas, sheering the alpacas and turning it into yarn and then taking their potatoes to the market in the village. After the market the Carnaval will begin. If you do not know, Carnaval is a celebration just before Lent. In the Andes it is celebrated for three days and nights with music (from a local band which the story teller gets to play in this year), dancing and feasting. 

Stay tune for more Hispanic Heritage Sharing the next month!! Next week Monday will not be multicultural due to the Virtual Book Club for Kids, but I will share something with you later in the week.