Little Red Driving Hood and the Three Repairs -- Book Review & Giveaway

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Stacey Rayz to bring you this post and giveaway. 

I always love sharing new versions of fairy tales. It has been a long time since I shared a Fairy Tale from a Different Culture. Although Little Red Riding Hood was not one of the fairy tales we shared from different cultures, we have shared some various versions of it previously. Today we are sharing a modern multicultural version of it. It is Little Red Driving Hood and the Three Repairs by Stacey Rayz and illustrated by Nenad Taskov. There is a giveaway at the end of this post!

The Three Little Guinea Pigs -- A Fun and Creative Twist on a Classic Tale

 

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

Now in my house we love fairy tales. We have done so much with them from our Fairy Tales in Different Cultures Series to crafts and more about different ones including The Three Little Pigs. We have "built" and crafted the pigs' houses several times. We used to also play a game of Three Little Pigs in bed in the morning when I needed some more rest and Hazel was up. We would put the covers over our heads, and I would voice the Big Bad Wolf and pretend one of the cats was the wolf. Hazel would say "Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin." We would basically tell the story under the covers. We would be in giggles by the end though. Today I get to share a new twist on The Three Little Pigs. The book is called The Three Little Guinea Pigs by Erica S. Perl and illustrated by Amy Young. The book is recommended for ages 4 to 8. Plus we have a craft round-up to go with this book!

The Year of the Pig -- Fun Facts, Craft Round-Up and Book Review

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

It is officially the Year of the Earth Pig according to the Chinese Zodiac. I thought it would be fun to celebrate the Chinese New Year with a look at fun facts about pigs as well as the Year of the Pig and of course some pig crafts and a fun Chinese pig story. We will start with fun facts about pigs!!

Sweet & Simple Needle Felted Animals a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

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

Welcome back to weekly Crafty Weekends!! I took a bit of a break over the holidays and had a three week long party to end 2018. We are back and ready to get crafty!! This week I am sharing Sweet & Simple Needle Felted Animals by Sachiko Susa. 

Books to Add STEM to Your Summer

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books 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.


It seems everywhere you look people are talking about STEM. The products at Lakeshore Learning seem to be labeled STEM or STEAM. This is the latest educational craze and it is about time. As a former math teacher I know the importance of math and science for our kids. I also know that it is important for them to be taught at a young age so they can really enjoy learning them. And for the most part kids love learning science!! It is one of the few places that hands-on learning is not made up it just is. The experiments and discoveries are natural and normal. They lead to real life math problems as well. However this is often where the elementary teachers have a shortfall. Since our elementary teachers teach all the subjects: reading, math, science, social studies, phonics, handwriting and grammar; they often focus on their favorites or what they feel are easiest for them to teach. It makes sense. Unfortunately it is often not math or science and sometimes the teacher's own insecurities of these subjects can be passed on (as well as the parents') by how it is taught and approached. It seems that the publishers and educational toy makers have finally realized they needed to bring products to parents and teachers to make teaching these subjects easier. After all in this high tech world science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are the careers of the future. So today I am going to share with you some great resources to bring a little STEM into your house this summer as well as a few of the lessons we did for our science units as I homeschooled Hazel the last six weeks of second grade.

My Giant Fairy Tale Activity Book -- Parragon Book Buddies Review

Disclosure: Parragon Books sent me a copy of this book 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.

This month's Parragon Book Buddies book is My Giant Fairy Tale Activity Book. I was really excited to see this book since we love fairy tales. 

This activity book tells the tales of The Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, The Princess and the Pea and Little Red Riding Hood. Throughout the story there are various activities to go with it. Things like coloring, mazes, find hidden pictures as well as counting, pattern finding and more. 

Sharing Saturday 15-34

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!!Once again your ideas blew me away!! I love seeing all the great things shared. The features this week are for our little ones, learning about the world and science. Remember the features are just a sampling of the things shared so if you did not get a chance to check them all out, go back and be inspired!

Sock Animals

For Hazel's half birthday she received a sock animal kit. It included one sock, two buttons, a piece of batting and a copy of Socktastic!  The other day she decided she wanted to make some sock animals. We opened up the kit and looked through the book.

Must Read Christmas Books!

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

 One of my favorite ways to teach Hazel about Christmas is using books that share the true meaning of Christmas. I have shared some here previously, and I have been pinning them to a special board. Today I am going to share all of them with you. I have divided them into two categories: the ones in Biblical time and the ones in more modern time.

Biblical Times

1) The Christmas Story by Patricia Pingry I love The Story of Mary also by Patricia Pingry as well for this time of year. It has a little more details in it.

2) Asleep in the Stable by Will Hillenbrand is a wonderful story. It describes all the animals sleeping in the stable except the owls. The baby owl notices the baby sleeping in the manger and asks his mother about him. The mother explains who the baby is as well as Mary and Joseph and God.

3) Hare's Christmas Gift by Eleonore Schmid is a tale about a little, shy hare who awakes to see all the animals heading towards him. He begins to follow the crowd to see what is going on. They all surround a stable. Eventually the hare gets enough nerve to go in and see the babe lying in a manger. The baby calms him so much that he curls up and keeps the baby warm while they sleep together.

4) The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola

5) Christmas in a Manger by Nola Buck is a board book about what each animal and person will do for the newborn baby in the stable. It ends with the baby and stating that He is the reason for Christmas Day.

6) The Cobweb Curtain: A Christmas Story by Jenny Koralek, William Barclay, and Pauline Baynes is a tale about a spider at a cave who sees the Holy family hiding from the soldiers and spins a web over the cave opening so they will not be discovered. It is a wonderful tale for the Escape to Egypt part of the story.

7) Three Wise Women by Mary Hoffman is a tale of three women in different places who see the star and drop what they are doing to follow it. Each brings the baby a gift of her own without realizing where they are going or why, but having the faith to know they must go.

8) Voices of Christmas by Nikki Grimes is a tale about the various people in the Christmas story. It has a line about each person and then has what the person might say or think. It even includes a neighbor in Nazareth. It gives lovely perspectives on the story.

9) Who Is Coming to Our House? by Joseph Slate

10) The Third Gift by Linda Sue Park is the story of myrrh. The tale is told by a young boy whose father is training him to harvest myrrh (sap from a special type of tree). His father lets him remove the biggest tear, as they call them. When they go to market to sell their tears, the spice market merchant calls them in to meet his special guests who have been waiting for them. The special guests are the wisemen. Eventually it is asked who the gifts are for and the young boy wonders why they would bring myrrh to an infant since it is used in funerals. This book answered so many questions I had about myrrh. I really enjoyed reading it and learning from it.

11) Little Owl and the Star by Mary Murphy

12) The Story of the Three Wise Kings by Tomie dePaola

More Modern Christmas Books that Teach the Christmas Message

1) An Early American Christmas by Tomie dePaola

2) God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa Tawn Bergron is another one of her books with Little Cub. I love this series because they explain so much of God and religious ideas in ways children can somewhat understand. This one of course covers Christmas and who invented it. As always there are lessons about how God loves all of us in it.

3) A Goodnight Christmas by Nola Buck goes through saying "Good night" to all the people and animals in the Christmas story and more as you realize it is a little boy saying it as he goes to bed on Christmas Eve.

4) The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie dePaola is a great story to show what another culture does and a little Christmas magic.

5) Angel Pig and the Hidden Christmas by Jan Waldron gives the true meaning behind Christmas. There is no money for gifts and the pigs are upset, but they learn the lesson that the best gifts do not come from a store.

6) The Birds of Bethlehem oops! That was in the one above!

7) Moritmer's Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson

8) The Sparkle Box by Jill Hardie is my new favorite Christmas book. I won it recently from Teach Beside Me. (She has some amazing giveaways going on still.) This book is about a young boy who sees a sparkly box on their mantle and asks his mother about it. She says it is a gift for all of them that they will add things to it and then open it on Christmas morning together. The boy sees a homeless man while riding in the car and asks his mother about him. He sees him again when they are leaving a store. The boy had picked out a pair of mittens for his class's mitten tree and a piece of candy for himself, but he gives both to the man and yells "Merry Christmas!" as he leaves. On Christmas morning the boy sees the box under the tree. When he opens it, the box is filled with slips of paper. On the paper are the things the family has done for others this Christmas season. The parents explain that this gift is for Jesus. The boy asks how it is for Jesus since it was a gift for others. Needless to say it brings home a wonderful message about charity.  

I also won with this book The First Christmas Night by Keith Christopher. It is another wonderful version of the Christmas story. You can read a review of it at Teach Beside Me: Christmas Books Review and Giveaway.

9) The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg is an amazing story about a candy shop opening up in a small town. A stranger came and bought the shop and no one knew what it would be. One girl bravely knocked and asked if the stranger needed help. She was happy to see the boxes full of candy. Then she saw something she had never seen before, a candy cane. The shop owner tells her about the candy cane. How it looks like the shepherd's hook and a J for Jesus. Basically all the legends I have ever heard about it are in this book. The message however is that the candy cane represents a more important message. How God sent Jesus to save the world. The shopkeeper asks the girl to help him spread the message to everyone.

Now I am sure we will have more to share, but this at  what I have at this point. I am thinking maybe next year we will do a story Advent calendar. Hazel is loving the craft one this year though!

Virtual Book Club for Kids: Mixed Up Fairy Tales by Nick Sharratt

This month the author for the Virtual Book Club for Kids is Nick Sharratt. We have really enjoyed his books. He has quite a range of books and then even more that he has illustrated. You can learn a little more about Nick Sharratt on his website.

Friendship with Charlotte's Web

This weekend Hazel and I went to the local music theater to see a production of Charlotte's Web. Now I have fond memories of the book and story from growing up, but I haven't read it (or seen the movie) since I was a child. In preparation of the show, I took the book out of the library. I also found the picture book, Some Pig by E.B. White at the library.

We started with the picture book, but I was disappointed that it really only told the story of the first chapter. Charlotte was not introduced in it at all. So then we started reading the original Charlotte's Web. We would read a chapter or two a night. Hazel really enjoyed this. I also wanted to prepare her for the ending with Charlotte dying. I must admit at first Hazel had trouble keeping the characters straight, especially only reading a chapter a night. But at the end she knew who was who by name. We finished reading the book last Monday night. We went to the show on Saturday.

Coloring Page Source

Now we have gone to this theater to see Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs and Rapunzel. (We have tickets to see Cinderella's Wedding, Snow White and Beauty and the Beast this summer there.) At the end of Charlotte's Web, Hazel cried. She cried because it was over and she did not want to leave the theater. She wanted to see the show again. I convinced her to stop crying by telling her we would break our no television rule and let her watch the movie, so we had to make a trip to the library before they closed Saturday to get the movie. She also announced that Charlotte's Web was her favorite show of them all. I was a little surprised since we had already seen Rapunzel, but she liked Charlotte's Web more. 

Now my favorite part of this story is the friendship. There are so many wonderful messages throughout this story. First there is the message when Fern asks her father how it is fair to kill the pig just because it was born small. 

"'But it's unfair,' cried Fern. 'The pig couldn't help being born small, could it? If I had been very small at birth would you have killed me?'"

Such a wonderful message about nature and God's creatures without the religious part even being mentioned. For those that do not know the story, her father let's her keep the runt of the litter and she names him Wilbur. Well, Wilbur grows quickly under Fern's care and eventually her father says it is time to sell him. He decides she can offer him to her uncle who lives down the street for $6 and that way she can visit Wilbur any time she wants. So Wilbur moves to the Zuckerman's farm and lives in the barn cellar. 

Around the barn cellar are the sheep who do not want much to do with a pig, a rat named Templeton and a goose who is sitting on her eggs waiting for them to hatch. Wilbur is looking for someone to play with him like Fern always did. Then he hears a voice saying she will be his friend. Wilbur does not see who is talking since it is night time, but is happy to have a friend. The next morning he discovers his new friend is a spider who eats flies or rather drinks their blood and is named Charlotte. This disgusts him a bit, but a friend is a friend and he was desperate. 

The sheep and rat tell Wilbur that the people are fattening him up so they can kill him for meat. He becomes distressed. Charlotte promises him that she will find a way for him not to be killed. She finally thinks of one and begins writing messages in her web. The messages are "Some Pig", "Terrific", "Radiant" and "Humble." The Zuckermans become famous for having a pig so special that there are words in a spider web. They enter him in the county fair and decide if he wins he will not be killed. At this point Charlotte is becoming very weary and needs to lay her eggs before she dies, but she goes with him to the fair and writes "Humble" in her web there. He does not win the first prize but gets a special ribbon that is even better. Therefore, he is saved. This is when he discovers Charlotte will not be returning to the farm with him since she will die in a matter of days. He takes her egg sac home with him with the help of Templeton. 

Now my favorite quote of the story is Charlotte's response to Wilbur's question of why she wrote the messages in his web. 

"'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you.'"

 With this story being about friendship, it seemed only fitting that we saw Hazel's best friend at the theater after the show. They played for a bit outside on the big rock by the entrance. Hazel posed by the crocuses while he was on the rock (sorry I won't show you his face). I actually got some really cute ones of them both on the rock.

Coloring Page Source

As you can imagine we are thinking a lot about spiders and pigs now. I would expect you may see some crafts along those lines soon. We have already taken some books out on spiders so we can learn more about them and why Charlotte had to die. I also started a Charlotte's Web Pinterest Board if you want to see some ideas. Our favorite character in the show was Charlotte. I may have convinced Hazel to be Charlotte for Halloween. We will see if she wants to closer to the time. 

I also made her a Match Game to go with the book. Here is a copy of it if you want it.

Sharing Saturday #33

Special announcement: I was quoted in an article at Ballooning Nest Eggs. Please go check it out!! I'm so excited!

I have spent the last two days in bed, but crawled out to check out last week's shared posts, and WOW is all I have to say. If you have not checked them out in awhile, definitely go visit some. There are so many great ideas!!

We had a tie for most clicked:

From April's Homemaking: Jonah and the Whale 

and From Happy Whimsical Hearts: Making Bells

Now a few of my favorites:

I always love to see new creative ways to color and paint! Check these out:

1) From Tutus and Tea Parties (with Megan from Posies to Petals Guest Posting): No Sew Busy Book

2) From Learn with Play @ Home: Painting with Seasoning & Spices

3) From Life with Moore Babies: Painting with Watercolors & Salt

Then with it being summer and the Olympics ending, these caught my eye:

1) From Taming the Goblin: Cardboard Crane (Oooh, Hazel would love one of these!)

2) From PlayDrMom: Mario Power Lemonade Stand (Such creativity and fun!)

3) From Brenna Phillips: The Three Little Pigs' Houses (Another one Hazel would love!)

4) From Learning To Be a Mom: Toddler Rhythmic Gymnastics-- Hoop (So fun and cute!)

5) From We Made That: DIY Sprinkler (So clever and looks refreshing!)

6) From JDaniel4's Mom: Olympic Values- Friendship (What great lessons tied to the Olympics!)

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

How We Spent a Rainy Day

So this morning we looked outside and saw a bunny in our yard. Then the male mallard came for some food. Plus we always have grey squirrels and morning doves, robins, sparrows and some finches around. Hazel was so excited to show me each of them. I love leaving food out for them so we get lots of wildlife in our yard. Then it started to downpour. We decided not to go to our class at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary even though it was not cancelled since it was on and off pouring. Plus we both felt a bit rundown from our overscheduled May, so we decided we needed a day at home.

Our Big Bad Wolf

We decided this was the perfect time to try out Lorie's (from Reading Confetti) idea on Retelling the 3 Little Pigs. When I saw this the other day, I knew we had to try it since Hazel LOVES the Three Little Pigs!! So first we went to our craft room and made the three pigs. We couldn't find our googly eyes, so we had eyeless pigs, but Hazel did not care.

Our 3 Pigs

Then Hazel wanted to paint while we downstairs so while she painted I hot glued the sticks for the stick house. Then when she finished painting we came upstairs and built the straw house and stick house and brick house.

Straw House (with some spots taped)

Stick House (with structure hot glued)

Brick House

Then Hazel put on the wolf nose I made from construction paper and we retold the story acting it out.

The straw house got blown/knocked down. Then onto the stick house.

Then onto the brick house...

Then we had to do the whole thing over. We changed the structure of the straw house to be more like a teepee.

Then we did it again with Mommy being the wolf.

After some lunch and stories, we worked on the favors for our friends (Hazel's godparents' daughter) first birthday party. Her mother asked me to make star shape crayons. I agreed and then found out she wants 100 of them. Needless to say we will be busy doing this for awhile. We spent a bit of time unwrapping and breaking the crayons. Luckily the ones our friend bought unwrap relatively easily!! I made a few trays of them. Unfortunately our star mold only does 6 at a time so we need to make it 17 times. The party theme is red, white and blue since her birthday is Memorial Day weekend, but they didn't want to buy that many boxes of crayons to do them in red, white and blue, so they are rainbow. For directions, I blogged about it here.

Then my little girl wanted to play fairy dance. She literally dressed as a fairy and danced around. I really should have pulled out the video camera for you to get the full effect, but it was fun to watch her show.

She kept asking me sit down to watch the show.

Then she wanted me to be a fairy with her. So she dressed me up as the butterfly fairy and we danced together.

Then she wanted to switch costumes. This of course gives you a better view of the butterfly fairy costume. The wings are a bit big for her.

Her pink wings were too small for me, so she decided I needed a feather boa instead.

Sorry all the pictures of me were taken with me holding the camera away from myself. So how do you spend a rainy day?

This is where I link up...

Check out the great giveaway at The Magic Onions. Armadillo Dreams is giving away a $50 gift card there.