Crafty Stay-cation Activities -- Crafty Sunday Review

 

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

I have missed the last two Crafty Sundays because we were having a staycation. We had a wonderful week and I thought I would share with you some of our activities and ideas for a staycation especially the ones on the crafty side. My birthday fell on during the week and it was the big 50. My sister came and made me a birthday cake and dinner with her wonderful assistant, Hazel. It was a lovely social distant celebration. Then we set up a puzzle to work on for the week. I finally finished it except for the two pieces I somehow lost. Ugh! I always do that. The puzzle is Mount Fuji Japan Jigsaw Puzzle. I love setting up a puzzle and having it to work on with my family. We like to do this when we vacation at the Cape as well. 

Sharing Saturday 13-35

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! And a very special thank you to all the people who took the time to check out some of the amazing ideas shared!! With Hazel starting school next week, I am finally starting to think about back to school. Since we are one of the later schools to start I have seen lots of ideas on-line including at last week's party. Our features will be about back to school, fall, some favorites and we had a most clicked from Gift of Curiosity: Apple Printable Pack.

Back To School Help

1) From Planet Smarty Pants: Questions for the New School Year

2) From Sunshine and Hurricanes: Armed and Ready to Make Lunch

3) From Krafts and Kiddos: Simple Ways to Make Back to School Easy

4) From Willamette Valley Wonder Woman: Back To School Free Printable Lunch Notes

Back To School Crafts

1) From Enchanted Homeschooling Mom: Back To School Wreath

2) From Stella123: Back To School Pinwheel Pencils

After School Snacks and Activity

1) From Schooling a Monkey: Healthy Snack Idea: Apple Chips Recipe

2) From There's Just One Mommy: 12 After School Snack Ideas

3) From Kandy Kreations: Fun Family Tradition with Cookie Friday

Some Art/Lesson Favorites

1) From Toddlers Through Preschool: Observing Trees

2) From An Idea on Tuesday: Painting Without a Brush

3) From Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds: Fall Watercolor Art

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: This week we continued our exploration of Japan with a look at the language, we reviewed the newest Octonauts DVD and are giving away a copy!, we made a doll checkers game for free, we made some Olaf mugs for party favors for Hazel's Frozen party, we learned about Saudi Arabia by cooking Al Kabsa for Around the World in 12 Dishes.

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.

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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.

Beautiful Origami Paper Wreaths -- Crafty Sunday Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book (and the origami papers) in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Did you know that yesterday started World Origami Days? World Origami Days run from October 24 through November 11 each year. October 24 was picked because it was the birthday of Lillian Oppenheimer. She started the first origami group in the United States as well as being one of the founders of British Origami Society and OrigamiUSA. November 11 is Origami Day in Japan and thus why it was picked to end the celebration. (Source) In celebration of World Origami Days it seems we should create some origami, so today I am reviewing an origami book. All of the papers I am using I have shared previously but they all come from Tuttle Publishing. 

50 Animal Crafts for Little Kids - Book Review

Disclosure: I was sent a this ebook to review free of charge from Georgina Bomer. 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.

Continuing on our theme of National Craft Month, we are reviewing another wonderful craft book, 50 Animal Crafts for Little Kids by Georgina Bomer. This book is available in now out of print.

Goodnight Ganesha Book Review and Fun Facts about Ganesha

 

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

I took last week off. My family made the decision to put my father into a memory care facility. His care has gotten to be too much for my mother and his Alzheimer's is getting worse. I needed time to help my mother move my dad and also time to grieve this next step. Although I'm still grieving I am trying to move on with life. So today I am sharing a new picture book that comes out this week. It is a bedtime story and is about the Hindu culture. It is perfect for Hindu kids as well as others who want to learn about other cultures. It will be available on August 31, 2021. The book is Goodnight Ganesha by Nadia Salomon and illustrated by Poonam Mistry. It is recommended for ages 3 to 7. To go with the book I will be sharing fun facts about the Hindu god, Ganesha, so it can be a learning experience for those not familiar with the Hindu religion.

Holiday Gift Recommendations & Where to Shop This Year

 

Disclosure: All of these recommendations are based on reviews I have written or will write for products that were sent to me in exchange for a review. Some links will be affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage if you purchase through them. Thank you for your support!

This year there will be shortages for gifts, especially toys. They are saying to shop early and not wait to see if things go on sale. I decided to provide my gift recommendations and my favorites of 2021 for you earlier than usual. I went through what I have shared with you and some of what I will share with you to give these recommendations. I may make additions in the future since I don't have everything I will review this year yet. I am dividing it up by ages for actual gift recommendations! Many of the recommendations are for books. If you follow the rule of four for gifting this should be helpful! I hope you find this list helpful!

Fun Facts about Hot Dogs-- National Hot Dog Day

Did you know today is National Hot Dog Day? There are all sorts of events going on in honor of it. Be sure to check out this article for some of the deals you can get. Today I thought I would share with you some fun facts about hot dogs. 

World Sight Day--Book Review: Yuko-Chan and the Daruma Doll

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of these products free of charge. 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.

Did you know Thursday, October 9th is World Sight Day? "World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment." (Source) This year's call to action is "No More Avoidable Blindness".

To celebrate World Sight Day, Tuttle Publishing asked me if I would be interested in reviewing a picture book about a blind girl and how she saves her village and they offered to send me one to giveaway. I of course said yes! So today we review Yuko-Chan and the Daruma Doll by Sunny Seki.

Fun Facts about Cinco de Mayo

It is hard to believe it is already Cinco de Mayo. This year of course is so different than other years since many of us are living with stay-at-home orders but I thought it would be fun to talk about Cinco de Mayo. But first do you know what Cinco de Mayo actually is? I think most people know or realize that the words Cinco de Mayo is Spanish for May 5th, but most do not know why it is a holiday. Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexico's Independence Day. Mexico's Independence Day is September 16th.

Origami Polyhedra

 

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

I love teaching geometry. It is funny because I took geometry in summer school to get ahead in math. Eighth or ninth grade is when my math brain kicked in and I wasn't in the honors program. So, the summer after ninth grade I took geometry in summer school to get into the honors program. My own exposure to geometry wasn't great because of the rushed aspect of summer school, but when I started to teach geometry, I fell in love. Geometry is a visual math. There are so many things that lend to projects in geometry and origami is a fun way of exploring shapes and can be a fun enrichment to any geometry class. I have shared different products and lessons over the years involving origami and math. Today I get to share a book that teaches the ultimate geometry lessons with origami--the polyhedra!! The book is The Complete Book of Origami Polyhedra by Tomoko Fuse. 

Sharing Saturday 14-38

Have you entered the amazing giveaway for Hispanic Heritage Month yet? There are multiple prizes packs and lots of chances!!

Thank  you to everyone who shared with us last week and to everyone who visited others posts. We did not have a most clicked so our features this week are based on Autumn, Child Activities and Crafts and a few of my Favorites.

Autumn Features

   
1) From MultiCraftingMummy: Autumn Owl Collages

2) From I Heart Crafty Things: Apple Tree Craft for Preschoolers

3) From Dabblingmomma: Acorn Cap Jewels 

4) From Powerful Mothering: Easy Fall Tree Activity 

5) From Every Star Is Different: Fall Kick-off Birthday Party (Pumpkin Bowling Shown)

Child Activities and Crafts

 1) From Best Toys for Toddlers: Teddy Bear Race Game for Toddlers

2) From Super Duper Kids Blog: How to Make an American Girl Sleeping Bag 

3) From Wesens-Art: Stamping with Kids/ How to Make Mini Ink Pads

4) From Planet Smarty Pants: Encouraging Our Kids to Tinker

A Few of My Favorites

  
1) From April's Homemaking: Simple Sunday School Creation Story

2) From Happy Whimsical Hearts: How to Make a Rainbow Peg Doll

3) From Wugs and Dooey: The Parable of the Sower Small World Play

4) From Moore Babies: Girly Pirate Party (Treasure Hunt Shown) 

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:

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From Your Hostess: This week we shared our cherry exploration and end of our Japan exploration, our post about Juan Quezada to kick off the Hispanic Heritage Month and it includes the Multicultural Kid Blogs Hispanic Heritage Month Giveaway, our Vietnamese cooking for Around the World in 12 Dishes and a review of a soon-to-be-released book with CD, Korean Folk Tales. We have had a very multicultural week!!

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.

<a href="http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/search/label/Sharing%20Saturday" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g424/cpericola/SharingSaturdayoption2-150_zpsba88f805.jpg" /></a>

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.

Sharing Saturday 15-18

Have you entered my current giveaway? This is one you do not want to miss!!

Thank  you to everyone who shared last week!! I am blown away by the creativity and amazing posts shared. 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  May Features, Educational Features and Food and Play Dough Features. 

Happy New Year!

I know I promised to keep posting and somehow between Hazel and I being sick (Hazel still is) and Hazel's birthday party, I feel like every time I sit down to write I just want to go to sleep and I didn't want to write a bad post, so I waited. So this is a bit late, but I thought I would share about New Year's Eve and Day with you. How did you celebrate? Did you celebrate?

Did you know there are different times of the year that people in the world celebrate New Years? Hazel and I took some books out from the library to let her know more about New Year's and I have learned so much reading them. The first one is Happy New Year! by Emery Bernhard. This book gives a bit of history of New Year's and how it has been celebrated throughout the times. It also goes into the ways different cultures have and some still do celebrate it and when. It even discusses the change of the calendar to make January 1st the new year introduced by Julius Caesar. (This is the reason on months do not match their prefixes by the way.) Caesar changed the beginning of the year to January instead of March. By the way if you are in Rome on New Year's Eve, watch out for dropping crockery. Their tradition is to throw their cracked or chipped crockery out the window at midnight. Noise-making was originally meant to scare away evil spirits. In Bali it still is. On New Year's do you celebrate the new year or say goodbye to the old one? Each culture seems to differ on this as well. 

The other books we took out (so far) are craft books. We have Holiday Handiwork by Gillian Souter. For New Year's it has a noise-maker craft as well as a dancing dragon for the Chinese New Year. By the way the Chinese New Year and other lunar new years (like  Vietnamese and Korean) will be January 31st this year. This year the Tibetan New Year is March 2nd; the Persian New Year is March 21st; the Hindu New Year is March 31st; the Hmong New Year is April 12th; and the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) is September 25th. (Source of dates)

Our third book is Happy New Year, Everywhere! by Arlene Erlbach. This book shares information about the new year in twenty different countries as well as a craft/project to do from that country. This book is wonderful for teaching about different cultures! And the activities look so fun!

This year is the first year we actually "celebrated" New Year's Eve with Hazel. We went to our local library. They had some crafts and a countdown to noon. Then they played fireworks on a large screen television and had the kids jump on bubble wrap (it sounded like fireworks). Then they served sparkling cider and fish crackers. Hazel had so much fun. Oh, and the librarians had a balloon drop at noon for the kids too. Each child could make three crafts. The first was a New Year's crown. They used some Grinch crowns they had.

Then they had an egg shaker with plastic Easter eggs, popcorn kernels, decorative tape and stickers. Every child needed one to shake at noon!

The final craft was a homemade kazoo. It is made with a toilet paper roll, tissue paper, rubber band and a hole punch. Punching the hole is key to it working.

Hazel had so much fun!! She did not want to leave. Luckily we were headed out for a nice lunch with her grandmother at Hazel's favorite restaurant so we got her out of there.

And to make it even more interesting for you here are a few fun New Year's traditions I found on-line:

• In the Netherlands, they burn their Christmas trees in bonfires to get rid of the old and welcome the new. They also have fireworks.
• In Spain they eat twelve grapes at midnight to secure twelve months of happiness.
• In Japan they host "forget-the-year" parties in December and then on New Year's Eve the buddhist priests 108 times to expel the 108 human weaknesses. 
• In Brazil it is customary to wear all white except also brightly colored underwear. It is customary in Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and Venezuela to wear brightly colored underwear. Yellow is supposed to bring money and red brings love.
• In Chile, they eat a spoonful of lentils at midnight to have a year of work and money.
• In South Africa, they throw old appliances out their windows.

Source

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/newyearcelebrations.html

http://www.latinopost.com/articles/2498/20131226/new-years-eve-2014-oddest-new-years-eve-traditions-from-around-the-world.htm

Now I would love to hear your family's traditions.