Crafty Moms Share: nature

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The Curious Nature Guide -- Summertime Fun Review

Be sure to check out my on-line Thirty-One Review & Party!! Get all your summer organizing essentials!!

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 for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase from them.

This summer I feel like all I want to do is spend time with Hazel. Perhaps it is the fact that she just completed her first year of full time school and I missed my time with her. It also helps that we have had beautiful weather so we have been getting outdoors a lot. Or perhaps it is the combination of those two things and this great book as our guide. The book is The Curious Nature Guide by Clare Walker Leslie.

http://www.storey.com/books/the-curious-nature-guide/

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.

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! There were such amazing ideas shared last week. I had a hard time figuring out which ones to features. These features are just a sampling of the posts shared. I hope you will go and check them all out! This week our features consist of Nature Related Crafts (and lessons), Science Lessons and a Few Favorites.

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.

Here is a perfect book for Earth Day although I'm a little late. This amazing book was one of the prizes in our Earth Day Giveaway. When I saw it I thought it looked like a book Hazel would love. I was right. Not only does Hazel love it, Steve and I love it and my father was looking very interested in it (and he really doesn't do books). The book is Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman with help from John Niekrasz.

http://storey.com/book_detail.php?isbn=9781612122311&cat=Nature

It is time for the Virtual Book Club for Kids and this month's author is Aliki. Now Aliki has wonderful children's books. Some are about historical people, some about things like the five senses and others about experiences. We have read several and Hazel decided her favorite is Quiet in the Garden.

Sharing Saturday 14-28

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Thank you to everyone who stopped by last week to share and be inspired and a special thank you to all who took the time to visit others. With the holiday, we had less than usual, but there were many amazing ideas shared as always. Here are some of my favorites.

1) From Just a Touch of Crazy: "Summer Is" Poem Printable

2) From DabblingMomma: Leaf Creatures

3) From Our Adventure Story: Clouds Study with Printables

4) From Living Montessori Now: N is for 40+ Summer Nature Walks

5) From Wesens-Art: Summer Ideas

6) From ABC Creative Learning: Curious George Goes Camping Poppins Book Nook

1) From Rubberboots and Elf Shoes: Sandcastles: Books and Activities

2) From Toddling in the Fast Lane: Recycled Flower Crown

3) From Blossom Family: How Your Child's Brain Works

4) From Krafts and Kiddos: Seashell Letters

5) From Mini Monets and Mommies: Alphabet Art with Plants

6) From Exploring Literacy with Heart: Inspiration #2...Play

7) From An Idea on Tuesday: Pirates and Mermaids

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.

Featured Button Code:

From Your Hostess: This week we our review of the newly released Cat in the Hat DVD and have one to giveaway, a review of a beautiful book on Mulan as well as one on Chinese words, our color exploration looking at secondary colors and hues and another one looking at intermediate colors and shades or violet, a review of the book, Mei-Mei's Lucky Birthday Noodles, and our lime exploration!

Make sure you enter our giveaway!

Now for This Week's Party
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1) Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).

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 Sharing Saturday button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

4) I would love it if you would follow me on Facebook, Google+, and Pinterest

5) If you do not have a blog, but want to share an idea you can leave it in the comments or e-mail it to me with a picture (if possible).

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

Needle Felted Acorn Top Strawberry

So yesterday I mentioned we had collected some acorn caps when we walked back to our car after checking out the swans. After letting them sit for a few days to make sure there were no bugs in them, we wanted to needle felt some acorns. Our plan was to bring them to school as part of Teacher Appreciation Week. I tried to choose wool roving colors for different seasons and one of them was red. Hazel commented on how the red one looked like a strawberry. We decided to make strawberries. Since we have already shared our Strawberry Exploration, we will just share the craft today. We painted the caps green first.

While the paint dried we began needle felting. We took some red roving and rolled into a strawberry shape. Then we needled it as much as possible. I have some safety needle felting tools for Hazel to use, but she did catch her finger once. I always had to finish them since she was afraid of holding them and needling. We also decided to make some unripe ones so we could show the progression of strawberries.

For these we mixed some colors to make them look like they were ripening. Once the shapes were solid enough, we glued them into the caps. Then let them dry overnight. Now we have some lovely needle felted acorn top strawberries. Hazel decided she wanted to keep all the strawberries and acorns we made for herself and give them to the teachers, but she also wants to make more.

For more ideas on strawberries (mostly recipes) and fruit explorations:

Spring Fever = Time Outdoors!

Spring has finally arrived in New England!! We went from below average temperatures to warmer than average and lots of sunshine this week. I am loving it and so is Hazel. As a result, our craft ideas are put aside for being outside. We have been exploring nature and just playing. Here are some of our adventures from this week.

Spring has finally hit our area. It is hard to believe it is already May and the temperatures are just getting to be springlike. After school and gymnastics class, Hazel wanted to come home and get outside. I didn't blame her. She asked if she could plant some flowers in her garden. A few weeks ago we read Henry Cole's On Meadowview Street and Hazel wanted to do what Caroline did in the book.

In this book, a young girl named Caroline moves into a new house on Meadowview Street. While her family is settling in she decides to see if there is a meadow on Meadowview Street. On her way to see, she sees one lone flower growing in the middle of the lawn. She wants to save the flower and finds some sticks and string to rope it off. As the flower grows more flowers come up and she expands her meadow. Birds and bugs come to visit and soon she wants a tree. Eventually her whole yard is a meadow and some of the neighbors follow suit.

Since we don't have a random flower in the middle of our yard, Hazel decided she would do it in her garden. Last year Steve dug me a new garden with better sunlight, so my old garden became Hazel's. It has my oregano and our raspberry bushes in it, but otherwise is hers to play and/or plant. Since she wanted a meadow, I bought her some butterfly and hummingbird flower seeds. We also found all the flower seeds from the past couple years that hadn't been finished. We figured we can see what will grow. The first thing we had to do was get rid of the weeds. Hazel took out her hoe, but I didn't get any pictures of it. Steve dug up some of the oregano (which has taken over this garden the past few years) and then our landscaper came and he wanted some to take home so he dug up the rest of what I didn't want. Once the weeds were up, Hazel began planting the seeds. I planted some of the milkweed seeds we found in the beginning of April. Then I explained to Steve that she wanted to rope it off like the girl in the book. He pulled out some of my stakes and I gave them some string.

We also released her ladybugs today. They did not seem to want to leave their plastic home, so we put it in the garden.

Hazel had so much fun, digging, planning and planting. I hope some of it grows for her, but I figured we can always buy some annuals if they don't. For now the fun is just the hope and getting out there. Plus we let her do what she wanted with all the seeds. She asked for help with pouring them into her cup.

She and I discussed where to plant the sunflowers. This year I bought her pink sunflowers (Ms. Mars from Burpee). I hope they grow since she is so excited for them. I also found an old pack of yellow sunflowers and we mixed them up for her.

Steve asked if she wanted a scarecrow for her garden and put it in for her. Then he helped her rope it off (while I took a nap).

When Hazel came in, I ran out to get a picture of the final product. They added some more things like a "Welcome to my garden" sign and fences. Hazel also wants to put her wooden bird feeder and bird bath that she and Steve put together. That may be tomorrow's adventure.

Hopefully later in the year, we will have a butterfly and hummingbird paradise. I'll let you know!

For more of our gardening posts check out:

Poetry, Trees and Bees

April is National Poetry Month and last Friday, April 18th was Arbor Day. We have been doing things for both of these and today I thought I would share them. A few weeks ago Hazel got her first (and second) bee sting. I went to the library looking for books on bees. The children's librarian suggested some poetry including Unbeelievables by Douglas Florian.

This book has various poems about bees and then gives details about the information shared in the poem. It is a wonderful way for children to learn more about the positive sides of bees. We learned that male bees do not sting, only females do. The male bees or drones main purpose in life is to fertilize the queen bee's eggs.

While in the poetry section I found a few more poetry books to check out. We really enjoyed reading Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow by Joyce Sidman. There would be two poems with the question of "Who am I?" or something similar at the end and then the next pages would give details about the animals or things that were described in the poems. Hazel asked to get this one out again.

We also got a few others out that we have not read yet. They are Fold Me a Poem by Kristine O'Connell George (I wanted to try the origami with Hazel), Insectlopedia: Poems and Paintings by Douglas Florian and Seeds, Bees, Butterflies and More! Poems for Two Voices by Carole Gerber (the librarian recommended this one).

Last Thursday the craft at the library was in honor of Arbor Day on Friday. I did not take Hazel with me since she was spending the day with Nonni, but I saw what they did and knew we could do it at home. Hazel also happened to ask last week to learn more about trees, so I was actually going to the library to look for books on trees. The craft was to cut a toilet paper roll in half and glue it down as your trunk. Then use green tissue paper for the leaves and they had sequins for flowers or apples or whatever. I used buttons. I gave Hazel lots of supplies to choose from and she came up with her own version. I did mine after her, so she would not get any ideas from me.

I found some stories about trees which we have been enjoying.

Picture a Tree by Barbara Reid, we actually did artwork with this book last summer. Mighty Tree by Dick Gackenbach is a story about four tree seeds and what happens to each tree. One tree remains and keeps spreading its seeds. One thing I did not like is the seeds looked like maple seeds and the tree looked like a pine. The Family Tree by David McPhail is a wonderful tale about a boy who saves the tree, that his ancestors left when they built their farm, from being taken down for the road. Someday a Tree by Eve Bunting is about a tree that a family loves and they discover one day that it has been poisoned. The community comes together to help them try to save the tree, but it is too late. The girl however plants some of the acorns she collected from the tree near the dying tree so someday there will be another great oak.

We also took some books out to learn about trees. We have not read them yet, but the two above I think will be best. They are Be a Friend to Trees by Patricia Lauber and Tell Me, Tree All about Trees for Kids by Gail Gibbons.

So that is what we have been up to. Have you read any good children's poetry this month or learned about trees?

Earth Day 2014

Congratulations to Sara G. for winning the Dearfoams Slippers!

Today is International Earth Day. It is the day we try to remember to be good to Earth and take care of our planet. We do not do anything too special to celebrate the day, however we do try to be green. This year we are meeting friends for an Earth Day celebration where the kids make crafts and things. That is tomorrow however. Hazel has been asking to learn more about being green. I added a book to her wishlist and my parents bought it for her for Easter. It is What Does It Mean To Be Green? by Rana DiOrio.

We enjoyed reading it and seeing some of the things like giving clothes you have outgrown to others (Hazel hates when I do this), composting, feeding the birds, recycling, growing your own garden or buying local produce, etc.

On this note Hazel also helped my father clean out his compost bin (well it was my grandfather's) that he did not want anymore, so we could bring it home. Steve set it up for us yesterday and also helped get my garden ready for us to do some planting. We planted some seeds to get them started indoors. We used our recycled food containers. Our strawberry containers were the best since they were big and had holes already.

We also filled our bird feeders and have been blessed by many birds coming to get fed.

We also leave some wool and yarn scraps out in a suet feeder for the birds nest building supplies.

Those are the main ways we are being green besides of course recycling as much as we can. Oh, and yesterday it was finally warm enough to hang out a load of laundry. I love using my clothesline! What do you do for Earth Day?

3-D Art Lab for Kids Book Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Quarry Books. 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 I get to review a wonderful new art/craft book for kids. Quarry Books was kind enough to send me a copy of Susan Schwake's 3-D Art Lab for Kids: 32 Hands-on Adventures in Sculpture and Mixed Media. This is the third Art Lab book by Susan Schwake. The book has seven chapters. The first two are about setting up and the tools you will need. Chapters 3 through 7 are for different medias: Paper, Clay, Textiles, Sculpture, and Jewelry. At the end of most of these chapters they have a visit from an artist in that media. Most of the projects also have a little bit about an artist who makes similar art.

We decided to try the Nature Weave found in Chapter 5: Textiles. The instructions were easy to follow and we had the materials around the house (though I had trouble finding sticks because apparently Steve got rid of Hazel's stick collection). Hazel loves to try to weave though she tires of it quickly. She was very excited to do this project. She helped cut the yarn and ribbons and weave. I tied the warp yarn on to the sticks and helped her get started and did the weaving when she tired of it. Then she choose where to put the nature items into it and I hot glued them on for her.

The book has some great ideas for projects which would be even better for slightly older kids than Hazel (age 5). However it was fun to do this project together and she loves it! I hung it in her bedroom so she could see it all the time and she asked if we could make another one.

The exciting thing about this book is each project is unique and can be done over and over resulting in something new. Some of the projects create fun things and others useful and some both. It has so many different ideas and ways to go that it will lead to lots of fun and creative time.

3-D Art Lab for Kids is available at Quarry Books and Amazon. The suggested retail price is $24.99 in the U.S, $27,99 in Canada and 16.99 in the United Kingdom. (Sorry I don't know where the pound symbol is.) If you are looking for a way to add art to your child's live as well as get his or her (or their) creative juices flowing, this book will definitely be a wonderful start!

Thanksgiving Crafts & Games Past and Present

We did this fun and easy craft this year so far. We got the idea from Crafts for Thanksgiving by Kathy Ross.

We changed the craft a bit because I wanted to put the corn on something stiffer than felt. I had these natural wood pieces and thought they would look nice and work well. Hazel had so much fun gluing on the Indian corn.

The Curious Nature Guide -- Summertime Fun Review

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

Sharing Saturday 15-19

Nature Anatomy Book Review to Celebrate the Earth

Virtual Book Club for Kids: Quiet in the Garden by Aliki