Mother's Day / Spring Card -- Crafty Weekends Craft & Link Party

Mother's Day in the United States is just a couple of weeks away. This year I decided to make my mother a card based on one I saw at work. To make it I used some flower punches and my bow/mustache punch. I picked papers that were in my mother's favorite colors--purples, turquoises and such. I punched out many flowers in all the colors I had gathered. Spring colors and my mother's favorites.

Sharing Saturday 16-16

Reminder: This link party is for child-oriented crafts and activities and parenting/teaching posts!! 

Happy Earth Day!! I had planned a post on some fun books about animals for Earth Day, but instead spent the day outside with Hazel since it is the last day of her spring vacation. 

 It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts,crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And the Creative Kids Cultural Blog Hop lasts all month for anything cultural or diversity posts and a new one starts Sunday morning!! Be sure to join us at it!!

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! I always love seeing what everyone has been up to and your creative ideas!! Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week our features are Earth Day Features, Mother's Day Features and Educational Features.

The Mystic Princesses and the Magic Show -- A perfect chapter book for Earth Day

* Disclosure: The Gymboree links in this post are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you.

Disclosure: I was sent 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.

Can you believe Friday is Earth Day? I feel like spring is just beginning and it is already the end of April. How do you get your children to focus on taking care of the Earth for Earth Day? We have the perfect chapter book for the day and it is also perfect for next week which is National Princess Week. Anyone who has been following Crafty Moms Share knows I tend to look for books about princesses who are less frilly and typical fairy tale princesses but ones that show courage, strength and independence. Well the Mystic Princesses are just that type of princess. Of course what makes them the Mystic Princesses is that they each have a parent who is a god or goddess or Mother Nature. Each princess also has a special magical talent as well. 

These princesses however have joined together to protect Harmonie. She is the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. Aphrodite sent Harmonie away with her brother Eros when she was a baby for protection from Ares. Harmonie brings peace and calm to everyone around her which goes against Ares desire for war. Now his other children are after her and Eros so they separated and the Mystic Princesses have sworn to protect Harmonie. In the first book, The Mystic Princesses and the Whirlpool, PJ LaRue introduces the princesses and the story. We had the pleasure of reviewing the first book in the series for Multicultural Children's Book Day. Now we are bringing you the second book in the series,   The Mystic Princesses and the Magic Show by PJ LaRue.

Bloomsy Box -- Monthly Flowers by Subscription -- Product Review

Disclosure: I was sent this product 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.

In New England this has been a bit of a nasty spring. We have had a couple of snowfalls in April and lots of cloudy and cold days. I keep waiting for spring to really be here and crave some sunshine. Luckily BloomsyBox entered my life. BloomsyBox offers three choices of monthly subscriptions to have beautiful handpicked flowers delivered to your door. They even have weekly and bi-weekly subscriptions. Perfect for businesses or families who always need/want beautiful flowers displayed. 

Talisha Snow White & Jack and the Red Beanstalk - Multicultural Monday Book Reviews

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.

Today I get to share two fun takes on classic fairy tales that share some African cultures in the stories! These wonderful tales are from Nubi Tales. I have to say now that Hazel can read these book reviews are even more fun. She has read these two books several times on her own as well as having me read them to her. She really loves them. These books are a fun way to introduce various cultures to children. The first is Talisha Snow White and Her Little Munchkins by Aphrodyi Antoine and illustrated by Eloy Claudio.

In this take off of Snow White a young baby is left on a doorstep wrapped in a ukara cloth. Mr. and Mrs. White adopted the child and named her Talisha, which was stitched on the ukara cloth. The Whites also adopted seven other children over the years. Talisha was given the nickname of Snow and the other seven children were called the Munchkins. The Whites operated a bakery and the whole family helped. One day a woman came up to Snow and told her she was answering the ad that was placed for help. Snow did not place an ad, but there was a huge line of people waiting to get into the bakery so the woman began to help. Then the woman left her purse and when Snow picked it up to bring it to her everything fell out including a magic mirror. The mirror told Snow the story about her birth. The woman however poisons Snow and a struggle is had by the White family and this woman. 

Throughout this story there are cultural references and words. Many of the names in this book are words various African languages like Yoruba, Igbo, Zulu, Efik, Swahili and Akan. It also includes a cake that is popular in South Africa and terms from Nigeria. At the end there is also a page for the reader to think about his or her own name and its meaning or story as well as a word find. I have to also share that we were reading Tasha the Tap Dance Fairy by Daisy Meadows and Hazel thought the name should be Talisha. 

The second book is Jack and the Red Beanstalk by Aphrodyi Antoine and illustrated by Ebony Glenn. This tale tells of a grandfather sharing the story of their ancestor Prince Zuberi who defeated the giants and managed to keep them in their land, Hewa. The giants came to the land by climbing down beanstalks. When the last red bean was dropped by the leader of the giants Prince Zuberi caught it and passed it down for safe keeping through generations. The grandson, Jack, wanted to see the red bean one more time and took it from his grandfather's pocket. He brought it to the dinner table where it got mixed up in a bowl of red beans which he eventually dropped out the window. The grandfather and kids went to sleep. Jack wakes to find a giant beanstalk which he climbs and encounters his first giant. He climbs down to tell his grandfather. His grandfather tells about all that happens. His grandfather tells Jack he has to go and destroy the beanstalk so the giants do not come back. 

At the end of the book there are pages that start a discussion on heroes and explain the Swahili vocabulary and about a kalimba (also known as a thumb piano). Then there is a connect the dots as well. 

We love how these books bring a bit of African cultures into the stories and give the classic stories new twists and turns. They are stories you should check out. We love them!!