Diverse Picture Books About Spending Time with Your Kids

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in order to provide honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

The most important thing we can do for our kids is spend quality time with them. Today we are sharing three new picture books about parents spending time with their children. Two of them work on building kids' imagination and two are about bringing children to work. The first book is Indigo Hands by Sita Singh and illustrated by Maithili Joshi. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8. 

What Makes Hands Beautiful? -- Book Review, Giveaway & Handprint Craft Round-Up

 

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 J.F. Bierlein to bring you this post.

Do you ever think about hands? We use them all the time, and life would be so hard without them. As I thought about hands and looked at my own handprint crafts, I thought about how we use them for sensory and let's face it there are so many great handprint crafts! I am sharing a large round-up of handprint crafts and hand sensations. Think about kids playing with play dough, slime and finger painting. Or the fact that we hold their hands all the time. Our hands are truly our sense of touch and something special to us. Today I get to share a beautiful book about hands. It is What Makes Hands Beautiful? by J.F. Bierlein and illustrated by Houda Zahid. There is a giveaway and the craft round-up at the end of the post.

Halloween Children's Book Round-Up For the Easily Frightened Child with Crafts & More

 

October always has me thinking. When Hazel was young, we would avoid Halloween displays in stores. They scared her too much. It was hard to go anywhere, and the displays got put up earlier and earlier every year. She was easily frightened, and I had to be careful what I exposed her to. However, she loved dressing up for Halloween. (Perhaps this is why she wants to go into theater.) I have been thinking back to some of our favorite Halloween books and I thought I would share some of them and more with you! This round-up includes our favorite books and books we enjoyed when she was young and more recent ones as well as DVDs, costumes and some crafts and activities to go with the books. 

Maybe It's a Sign -- New Middle Grades Novel Review

 

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

The lunar new year began last week. In the Chinese zodiac it is the year of the dragon. With the celebration of the lunar new year there are many different superstitions that people of different cultures hold. I shared some fun facts a few years ago about it in particular in the Chinese culture. Today I am sharing a book about a Chinese American girl who is dealing with the loss of her very superstitious father as well as being in middle school. The book is Maybe It's a Sign by E.L. Shen. Lunar new year seems like the perfect time to share this book. It is recommended for ages 10 to 14.

Asian and English Nursery Rhyme Books

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing sent me these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Do you have preschoolers or even toddlers? Do you want to introduce them to other cultures but are not sure how to bring it to your home or classroom? I have to fun books that will do just that. These books will also work to help older kids become familiar with Chinese and Korean as well. Both books come with CDs so the pronounciation of the other languages can be heard and you do not have to try to figure out how it is said. Nursery rhymes have been a favorite in our house. Hazel even has a nursery rhyme quilt that I made her when she was younger and had a nursery rhyme themed birthday party when she turned three. Oh and there was the year that Hazel and I dressed as the dish and the spoon for Halloween. But today's books are different than our nursery rhymes. They give us a sense of different cultures. We will start with Chinese and English Nursery Rhymes: Little Mouse and Other Charming Chinese Rhymes by Faye-Lynn Wu and illustrated by Kieren Dutcher. 

Animal Books & More for the Very Young

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

My week and life has been turned upside down, so my posts may be a bit more sporadic. Sorry!! But family has to come first and right now my family needs me to be focused on them. However today I have some time to write about some fun books for younger kids. All of them involve animals. The first is Old MacDonald's Things that Go by Jane Clarke and illustrated by Migy Blanco.

Katie Chin's Everyday Chinese Cookbook -- Asian Pacific Heritage Month Series

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing 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. 

It is May and that brings several things. In the United States it means Mother's Day, the end of school is near and Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. This post is the first of mine in the Multicultural Kid Blogs Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway. (Scroll down for the giveaway!) Today I am sharing with you a new cookbook from Katie Chin. This book is Katie Chin's Everyday Chinese Cookbook: 101 Delicious Recipes from My Mother's Kitchen with photographs by Masano Kawana. Katie Chin is sharing some of her mother's everyday recipes just in time for Mother's Day!!

The Find It Book -- 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.

 We are sharing a book Hazel is really enjoying this month as part of the Parragon Book Buddies Program, The Find It Book by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Lisa Sheehan. This beautiful book is the latest by Margaret Wise Brown who also wrote Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, and All the Little Fathers. In this book the reader is asked to find various things from famous nursery rhymes in the beautiful illustrations. Lisa Sheehan is up for the AOI World Illustrations Award for her illustrations in this book. (Source)

Lebanese Music and Food

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this cookbook 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. 

Since July is ending, it seems only fitting to finish our exploration of Lebanon with you. Besides the books and DVD we found at the library we also found some CDs with a few songs from Lebanon. Putumaya Presents Sahara Lounge has four Lebanese songs and the other two CDs each have one. 

Nursery Rhyme Fun with Book Reviews

Make sure you enter the Earth Day Giveaway we are co-hosting!!

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.

Now if you have been reading Crafty Moms Share, you know we have a thing for nursery rhymes. In particular Hazel LOVES Hey, Diddle Diddle. Yes we have a nursery rhyme quilt, have dressed as the dish and spoon for Halloween, had a nursery rhyme birthday party and have just about every version and spin off written of Hey, Diddle Diddle (and yes there are quite a few). Well Candlewick Press added two more nursery rhyme books to our collection. 

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Exploring Cuba

Have you entered my giveaway for 4 Christmas DVDs yet? It is ending soon!!

This month we are exploring Cuba with Around the World in 12 Dishes. I was rather excited to learn more about Cuba since it is such a mysterious country to me. With all the trade and travel restrictions it seems like an unknown place. We have explored Cuba with books, stories, music, crafts and food from home. To learn more about Cuba and see more resources check out my introduction post at the Around the World in 12 Dishes blog. We had also learned a bit about Cuba during the Hispanic Heritage Month when we read about Celia Cruz, a Cuban-American salsa singer. 

Celia Cruz By Lionel Decoster (Own work) 
[GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Halloween Round Up

It is hard to believe tomorrow is Halloween. This year is the first year except for Hazel's first Halloween that she will be wearing a costume that I did not sew. She is going to be a kangaroo and where the Kigs Kigurumis Kangaroo Outfit that I reviewed last December. I am not sure if the joey is going to come trick-or-treating or if it will be just Ducky.

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Hungary

 This month we are traveling to Hungary with Around the World in 12 Dishes. We have been having a great time exploring Hungary with stories, art and food. Hazel loves the name Hungary and keeps asking if the people there are always hungry. For more information about the country check out my post on the Around the World in 12 Dishes blog. 

Halloween

Congratulations to Andrea F. for winning the ebook of Christmas Crafts for Kids and a belated congratulations to Brenda W. for winning The ABC's of Australian Animals yoga book!

I have never really liked the scary parts of Halloween. I don't like where Halloween has gone and how over the top it is. I do remember loving dressing up and trick-or-treating as a child, so I wanted Hazel to have that experience without all the drama and commercialism. For her first Halloween I was excited to dress her up and take her to some family and friends' houses. Now of course she is excited to dress up and go trick-or-treating. I have made her costumes except for the first year where I found an adorable one at a consignment shop.

I chose the duck and lion costumes. She wanted to be the dish and spoon with me since she use to take my hand and tell me to run so we could be the dish and spoon from Hey Diddle, Diddle. Last year she wanted to be Rapunzel and this year she wants to be Cinderella. I finally finished her dress. I still need to put the elastics in her lower sleeves/gloves, but I need her here to measure her arms to do that. Here is the dress.

I bought her a Cinderella wig to go with the costume. I will add a picture to this post once she is dressed up for trick-or-treating. 

She picked the darker blue for her gown instead of the Disney light blue. I should add she has two light blue dress up dresses to be Cinderella, but will not leave either one for any length of time since the cheap fabrics bother her skin. This is why I make so many of her costumes. 

Now Hazel is easily scared so Halloween is not a time we pull out the scary and gory decorations. We tend to focus on pumpkins, though we do have a large spider and web on our staircase this year and some friendly ghosts in our front entrance. I have struggled with explaining Halloween to Hazel and why so many people like to dress up scary. Last year I used the Mexican Day of the Dead to help explain it. Today I found a wonderful way to do it and to bring the religious meaning back to the holiday. Over at Catholic Icing there is a wonderful post on Explaining Halloween to Catholic Kids. I would say not being Catholic, that it could be used for any Christian children.

Then there is the issue of the candy. We try to limit Hazel's sugar input (and should really limit ours more). We have used the story of the Pumpkin Fairy to help with this. I shared our version of the story here.

This year we spent some time making the egg carton pumpkins that you have seen around on-line including some at Sharing Saturday. We took our candy corn rice krispie treats a step further and made them apple and pumpkin shape (we used cookie cutters). We decorated them this time with M&M's and Steve helped Hazel with the decorating.

The final thing I would like to share with you is a wonderful book. Now the note to parents says it is not a Halloween book, but it is about a jack-o'-lantern. The book is The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs. I bought a copy of this book for my church and then found a used copy at the used book store and picked one up for ourselves. The church used it for Hazel's class earlier this month and one of the crafts they made was a simple one. They took orange jack-o'-lantern goody bags and stuffed them and then added a special leaf on the tie.

The book goes through a farmer planting a pumpkin patch and then when harvest time comes choosing one special large pumpkin to carve a smiling face and leaving it on his porch for all to see. Throughout the book, there are Bible quotes to go with the story. It is really a nice book to take some of the scary away from Halloween and make you like jack-o'-lanterns more.

So that is a bit about our Halloween. How do you celebrate? We are really excited that this year it appears there will not be a Halloween storm so Steve will be home with us!

Happy New Year!! And now onto the birthday party pictures

Happy New Year to you and your family!! I hope 2012 is your best year yet in every way!

I promised to share pictures from Hazel's third birthday party, so this is the post. You may remember I shared the invitation, the favors and some decorations, decorations done with My Memories, and birthday hats and more decorations previously. So I won't repeat those at least not too much.

Busy errands and things

First I have to start by saying Happy Birthday to Amy over at One Artsy Mama. I am participating in her BIG Birthday Celebration by donating my needle felted Dala horse for her giveaway. She is giving away 17 ornaments to 17 lucky readers. Go over and check them out for a chance to win.There are really some beautiful ones. I'm having trouble picking my favorite.

Now that Hazel is finally feeling better, we spent the morning running errands. Most of the errands had to do with Hazel's birthday party. Hazel's birthday is New Year's Eve, so we always plan her party for the first since people are off. This year since it is on a weekend we are actually having her party on her birthday, but in the morning so we won't mess up anyone's New Year's Eve traditions.

Every year we have had a large themed party for Hazel. For her first birthday we did a cupcake theme because I feel in love with some plates that said "Our Little Cupcake Is Turning 1." I searched everywhere for cupcake things and this was the year before cupcakes were in. I found very little, but did find a template to make paper cupcakes for favors filled with pink and purple M&M's. Needless to say we had cupcakes instead of birthday cake. My mother knitted her an adorable cupcake hat from a pattern I found in a magazine.

For her second birthday our theme was Tea for Two. We had a tea party. I made finger sandwiches and lots of tea and sweets. I had people sign a paint your own small tea set when they came. And on top of her cake was another paint-your-own tea set--this one mini that my nephew and I painted. (He painted and I adjusted the colors a bit so there wasn't so much black.) Again there was not much out there for tea parties yet. Now I see them everywhere. I seem to be a year ahead of all the trends. I did however find at Michaels on Clearance garden tea cups with attached saucers for thirty-nine cents each and bought enough for the favors. I filled each one with two tea bags and a small tea cup note book. For the older kids I had paint your own tea cup, but unfortunately, all but one was sick and unable to come.

So for her third birthday, I think I already shared, my theme is nursery rhyme. Come on after making dish and spoon costumes for Halloween could I pick anything else. I found some great paper at the Christmas Tree Shop for twenty five cents for twenty five sheets. Then I thought about rhymes for the invitation. This is what I came up with:

Isn't the paper perfect? Now I'm working on decorations, food, and activities along with the theme. I bought some strawberry tarts from Yankee Candle on clearance for adult favors and plan to make scented (and possible glittered) homemade play dough for the kids.  I want to have different stations like pat-a-cake with some homemade play dough, a Jack be nimble jumping contest, Humpty Dumpty Puzzles, photo ops with a Hickory Dickory Dock clock and a tuffet and large spider for Little Miss Muffet (and make a white bonnet like she wears).

I'm also helping a bit with the planning of a friend's son's first birthday party. The theme is Winter One-derland. I'll share more on that another time.

Do you do theme parties?

Happy Halloween!

I will admit I really do not like Halloween. As a Christian it feels strange to celebrate it. Yet I see how fun it is for the children, so I celebrate it. I do love seeing the kids dressed up. Though I do have to admit since getting married and living in a neighborhood where the kids gets bussed in to trick-or-treat it has lost some of its appeal. (Literally we see people we have never seen before with cars following them through the neighborhood and go through at least 6-7 bags of candy before we turn off our light. Last year we gave out the candy Hazel had gotten because we ran out.) I find it even stranger that so many people put so much time and money into Halloween decorations. Hazel is still just beginning to get the idea of Halloween. She still does not like wearing her costume much, but at least this year we got her in it.

My Little Spoon

Craft at Party

Saturday we went to Hazel's school for their Halloween Party. It was a fundraiser for the eighth grade class trip. For a $5 entrance fee we got drinks and a snack and to play some games for prizes as well as do a craft and hear a story. Hazel refused to wear her costume when we got there. When we finally got it on her and got a picture of the two of us in our costumes and the party ended. However we had seen just about everything without the costume, and she had a great time.

Craft at Party

The craft was very easy and very cute. They had orange jack-o'-lanterns pre-cut out of paper so they would fold in half with a front and back. Using a glue stick they had the kids spread glue on the orange paper and then glue a piece of tissue paper (pre-cut in circles the a bit smaller than the pumpkin) on. They were given the choice of colors for tissue paper and could use two colors (one on each side). Hazel chose orange and yellow tissue paper.

Sunday we went to church. We skipped the Boo Breakfast due to the snow and a bad night of sleeping, but made it to church. Then we came home and had lunch and tried to get Hazel to nap, but she refused. Then we took her to some friends' houses and my mother-in-law's for trick-or-treating. She wore her costume somewhat to the first two houses, but refused to put it back on after that.
Then we came home and carved Hazel's first jack-o'-lantern. She helped me scoop out the seeds and goop. Then she used the scoop as a pretend knife and pretended to carve it. She looked so serious while she did this--I couldn't resist taking pictures.

Add caption

Today we have a busy day. Hazel is going to my mother-in-law's for their Monday playdate. Then I'm picking her up to take her to the special Halloween story time at the library (where costumes are expected since it ends with trick-or-treating at the various desks). Then after lunch and a nap I will take her to a few of our neighbors' houses. Since Steve got stuck working nights because of the storm again, I will than have to be home to give out the candy. Not sure how it will work to get her down with all of that going on, but we shall see.

The dish and the spoon!

What are your plans for Halloween? Hope you have a happy and safe one!! Remember to have your kids leave their candy for the Pumpkin Fairy!

Halloween Countdown for Toddlers & Spiced Pear Muffins

So Hazel has been getting excited for Halloween. Last year, she had a teeth breaking through and was miserable. She also refused to wear her lion costume that I made her. You can see in the picture when I forced her to try it on, she was not happy. For a Halloween Party at the library I got away with putting her in a dress and saying she was a princess. It was all she was willing to wear or should I say unable to take off herself. On Halloween, she literally refused to dress up. She was feeling miserable. So we did not go trick-or-treating. So I'm excited that she getting into it this year. She has changed her mind a couple of times (with some influence from her grandmother), but she has decided to be the dish and carry the spoon from Hey, Diddle, Diddle. If you have been following me, you will know this is one of her favorite nursery rhymes.

So to help keep the excitement going, I made her a way to countdown the days until Halloween. I was going to make something more formal and have things to do or stories to read each day, but didn't get my act together (or should I say the plan together) soon enough and also thought this would be perfect for her age. I made her an October calendar with the correct dates and the number of days until Halloween. At the bottom I included pictures of kids trick-or-treating. On our's I also included a picture of the dish and spoon. However, I removed this before I saved it as a pdf. Here it is in case you want one. Halloween Countdown Each morning Hazel will put a sticker on that day. This way she will have a sense of when Halloween is. She has been asking to go trick-or-treating every day, so I have been trying to give her a sense of the time.


Since we did not bake yesterday, I baked today. I had five very ripe pears to use, so I combined some recipes to make spiced pear muffins. The verdict is good. All three of us liked them!

Spiced Pear Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
dash of ground cloves
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, divided
1 large egg, lightly beaten
6.5 ounces Greek non-fat yogurt
5 pears, cored and pureed in food processor (I did not peel them)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Spray 18 muffin cups and set aside.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices and set aside.

In mixer bowl cream butter, granulated sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Beat until fluffy (if butter was not at room temperature it will take slightly longer but the mixer will do the work). Add the egg and mix well. Add yogurt and pear puree. Mix and stop to scrape bowl at least once.

Add flour mixture to mixer and mix well. Remembering to scrape bottom and sides of bowl.

Put batter into muffin cups. Divide and sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of brown sugar on top of each muffin.

Bake for 10 minutes at 450 and then turn the oven down to 400 and bake for another 10 minutes. The muffins are moist, so it takes a bit to bake them. Cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!!

Rainy Day = Tea Party

Something to make me smile

Ok, I have discovered two new to me fabric stores. I'm so excited to have some place besides Joann's to shop! One is near Hazel's school so next year when she will be going by herself I will have some place to visit often.

Hazel's newest tea set

Since I made Hazel the needle felted tea set, she has wanted to have a tea party/birthday party. Her birthday is still several months away (new year's eve), but I have been looking for fabric in the theme I want so she is getting excited for it. And we celebrated my birthday last month and my sister's this past Saturday and went to a friend's 5th birthday party, so she has birthday on her mind.

So this morning she set up a tea party in the living room. Of course it required two baskets of fruit and vegetables to serve with the tea cups (we used both felt and plastic). She also invited the Dish and the Spoon to join us.

Our Guests

Her set up after the party

After getting a sore back from sitting on a foot rest, I asked her if she would like a real cup of tea. So we made a pot of chamomile lavender tea with a bit of honey in it. I added milk to hers and used my good china cups to make it special. She claimed the tea tasted like chocolate, but only had a few sips. But she enjoyed it. I remember these tea parties with my mom, so I want to have special ones with her.

Taking a sip

She wanted cheese with her tea

Our set table with candles lit

We are working on some fall crafts to share, but it has been hard to get Hazel to stay on task for them. Hopefully we will have some tomorrow for you. In the mean time check out:
1) Make and Takes Little Apple Favors I want to try this one later today!

2) I {heart} nap time Halloween Crafts {Lifestyle Crafts}
3) I {Heart} Nap Time Free Printable for Halloween 
4) FamilyFun Magazine Tree sculpture  great nature craft!!