PBS Kids Halloween DVDs Review

Disclosure: PBS Kids gave me a copies of these DVDs free of charge. 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.

Are you ready for Halloween? We are not. Nor are we excited for it. I really do not like the holiday and all the Halloween items seemed to be out extra early this year and they seem extremely gruesome. Has anyone else felt this way? Hazel has had bad dreams since seeing some of those bigger than life size lawn decorations at a store. I have realized it is better to not take her to most stores at this point or to avoid the ones with so many Halloween decorations. Hazel has not decided what she even wants to be yet, but she knows she has to choose from costumes she has or the Princess in Black. 

This year we are focusing on calmer and not so frightening parts of Halloween. PBS Kids has helped by sending us three DVDs to review from some of Hazel's favorite shows. 

Fiber One Snackcessory Challenge

Have you entered my current giveaway yet? Come win the fantastic book to inspire creativity and imagination!!

A bit ago I was contacted and asked if I would make and share a Fiber One Snackcessory to help promote the contest they currently are running. They offered to send me all the materials I would need to make this Snackcessory. I was intrigued and needed a bit of creativity challenge so I said yes. This weekend a package arrived with my supplies.

Now first what is a snackcessory? Well it is a container to carry your Fiber One bar (or any other snack). I'll admit it took me awhile to decide to do this because I try to stay away from most bars of any type and really any processed food, but I figured we are always looking for ways to keep snacks so why not try it.

Second, what is the challenge? You must design and enter your own snackcessory at Fiber One Snackcessory Challenge. You will have a chance to win a trip for two to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City in February 2013 and the nine finalists will each be awarded a $500 gift card for a handbag of their choice and a box of Fiber One Bars and Brownies.

Well my package arrived this weekend. It had a black container that looks like it is a hard case eye glass case, adhesive spray, a plastic ziplock bag, a small jar of glitter, a Fiber One bar, and directions. At first I was going to not do the glitter. My big fear was and is the glitter getting everywhere. I attempted to seal it, but I must admit it is coming off a bit still.

They asked us to personalize them, so I helped Hazel add some gems this morning. They were sticker gems, but did not stick to the glitter. We used glue which made them slide around a bit and they dropped a bit down the side. They originally were all in a line. Then I added her name in glitter glue. She wanted the black case as soon as she saw it. She loves opening and closing it and needless to say, for her, glitter only makes it better.

Then I decided to get creative. My first thought had been cover it with fabric. I thought about doing it like the fabric covered Easter eggs. Instead I decided since I knew Hazel would love the glitter to do some fabric covered boxes. My next challenge was finding the right size box. I found two. One is from dollhouse furniture (as a miniaturist I save lots of little boxes and containers) and one is from modeling wax that I bought for Hazel that we have not used yet. I added adhesive Velcro to the dollhouse furniture box so it could close and stay closed. Hazel added princess stickers. I think this one is for her as well.

Then I got to thinking of one Hazel could make with me. I wanted it to be more than covering a box. I thought of sewing one, but Hazel couldn't help with that. I came up with toilet paper rolls. I decided to double them up so it would be stronger. Now I'm imaging using this in a purse or school bag, so you want it to be strong as to not crush your bar. I traced the bottom of one of them twice and cut out the circles from some cardboard we had in recycling. I glued the bottom on and then for the top I cut a piece or ribbon. I glued the ribbon onto the circle so it had both ends hanging off a good amount. I glued one end to the tube and folded the other end and secured the fold with glue. I let them dry (or at least I did with the one Hazel made which turned out better). Next we picked fabric and cut out two circles slightly bigger than the cardboard circles and a rectangle big enough to cover the toilet paper roll. I used pinking shears so I would not have to worry about fraying. Hazel picked some of the nursery rhyme fabric I had leftover from her quilt. We Mod Podged the fabric on. We did the circles first and then the rectangle. We let this dry. Then I cut a adhesive Velcro square to fit the ribbon and put Velcro so it would close. And yes, the Fiber One bar does fit inside! I think I may go enter this one in the challenge! Won't you join me in it?

Jonathan London's Froggy Series Themed Birthday Party Ideas and Giveaway

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review and are providing the book for the giveaway. 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.

Have you been following the fun challenge Penguin Kids gave this month? It all started because Froggy's Birthday Wish by Jonathan London and illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz was released on March 10th! We were lucky enough to receive a review copy as well as two other Froggy books, Froggy Builds a Tree House and Froggy Gets a Doggy. Have you discovered the Froggy series yet? They are so fun. We are going to provide some general Froggy birthday party ideas as well as ones from each book. For even more Froggy birthday party ideas check out my Froggy Birthday Party Pinterest Board!

Virtual Book Club for Kids: The Amazing Pig by Paul Galdone

It is time for the Virtual Book Club for Kids!! This month the featured author is Paul Galdone. Since so many of his books are classic tales, I considered doing Cinderella and counting it as my Fairy Tales in Different Cultures, but to be very honest, I couldn't think of a fun craft or activity to do that we haven't already done with some form of Cinderella. So we decided to feature The Amazing Pig.

The Day No One Played Together--Book Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book digitally to review free of charge from Donalisa Helsley. 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 the honor of sharing with you a wonderful children's book about compromise. The author, Donalisa Helsley, was kind enough to send me this book digitally to review. She is part of the Multicultural Children's Book Day group. The book, The Day No One Played Together, is based one her own daughters and the all important lesson of learning to compromise. 

The story is about two sisters who go out on a beautiful day to play in the yard. Each girl has her own idea of what they should play and neither is willing to play the other's game before playing her own, so they play by themselves and are miserable. Eventually both girls go inside and try to play together inside. Again they both have ideas of what to do, but cannot decide which idea to play first and both end up playing alone again.  At lunch their mother suggests they compromise. She explains that compromise means finding something to do together with a little of both ideas in it. After lunch they find a way that both girls can play together and still do what she wants and have fun together.

This book is a wonderful example for young children about compromising. It gives a clear definition of the word compromise and then follows it with an example. It is a must read for all families with young children. Then the bonus is that it is a multicultural children's book since the girls are not Caucasian. And as they should, the girls learn it is more fun to compromise and play together than to play alone. They compromise by one sister giving a concert to the other girl's dolls. Since we read this book, Hazel has been talking about compromising whenever we come to a difference of opinions. She definitely got the concept from the book. 

The book also is a Mom's Choice Award Recipient. It is available on Donalisa's website, Wild About Reading, as well as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I definitely recommend this book and reading it to young children and especially siblings. 

For more multicultural book reviews check out:

• Rainbow Stew by Cathryn Falwell
  
• Julie Black Belt Series by Oliver Chin
• The Year of the Horse by Oliver Chin
• Sora and the Cloud by Felicia Hoshino
• Justice Pon di Road by Aliona Gibson
• Books about Civil Rights
• Multicultural Christmas Books
• How the Sea Began: A Taino Tale Retold by George Crespo
• In My Family by Carmen Lomas Garza and What Can You Do with a Rebozo? by Carmen Tafolla
• Princess Grace by Mary Hoffman 
• Butterflies for Kiri by Cathryn Falwell
• The Colors of Us by Karen Katz
• Most of My Fairy Tales in Different Culture Posts
• All of my Around the World in 12 Dishes Posts

The Octonauts & the Sea of Shade Book Review & Giveaway Reminder

Disclosure: I was sent this book digitally to review free of charge from Immedium. 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 have the pleasure of reviewing one of the Octonauts books! Hazel and I were so excited to review this book. Hazel loves to watch the Octonauts on television and loves the Octonauts: To the Gup-X DVD we reviewed and are currently giving away until March 25th. I had requested to review one of the Octonauts books to go with this giveaway. It is perfect timing as well as we have been so focused on sea creatures!

Today we are sharing The Octonauts and the Sea of Shade by Meomi. This is one of the four Octonauts books written by Meomi and published by Immedium. All four are available for $15.95 at Immedium as well as other book retailers. Meomi is the original creator of the Octonauts and these are the original books.

Our Tweak Peg Doll

The Octonauts and the Sea of Shade starts out with Tweak Bunny realizing that shadows and shade are missing. The Octonauts adventure to the Sea of Shade to find the Shade King. The Shade King is in charge of all the shade in the world. The Octonauts want to find out what has happened to cause all the shade to be missing. As they adventure through the Sea of Shade they see sad looking shadows. Captain Barnacles begins to play his accordion and the shadows begin to cheer up and remember how nice it was outside of the Sea of Shade. They all go to the Shade King and discover the Shade King thinks no one appreciates or loves their shadow since they are stepped on and such all the time. The Octonauts show him how creatures are missing their shadows and he agrees to let the shadows return as long as the Octonauts make sure the shadows are treated well.

Coloring page available at Disney Jr.

This is a sweet story with the same characters as the television show although one has a different name as Hazel was quick to point out. The underwater spaces in the book are much more creative and fantasy than the cartoon. Some of what is underwater in the book looks like it is really above water, but the pictures are beautiful and the story is so creative. I loved reading the story and seeing more basics of the characters than you get in the television show. For example Kwanzii is a kitten and I always assumed him to be a rough and gruff tomcat. The other main difference is there is not the information about a specific sea creature like the television show. However the story line was so creative and made me stop and think about how important shadows and shade are to all of us. It is definitely something we take for granted. To go with the book, I made a Tweak peg doll (see above). Now Hazel has four of the characters as peg dolls.

Our Octonaut Hat Craft

This story leads to so many things you can do with shadows. The first is the obvious shadow puppets. On Friday we went to a great shadow puppet show at our local library. We are going to try to make a shadow puppet box and some shadow puppets. The man who did the shadow puppet show gave us a card with instructions. Stay tuned for more on shadow puppets from us. An easier task would be to make some hand shadow puppets. Here is YouTube video with some instructions on making a few.




For older children, you could easily do a math lesson on similar triangles and then do a height estimation project like this one. To do similar triangles, the student needs to be able to set up and solve ratios.

Now if you would like to win a copy of the Octonauts: To the Gup-X DVD, be sure to go here and enter before March 25th!!

For more book reviews visit:

• The Wooly Hoodwinks vs. the Dark Patch 
• Sora and the Cloud 
• Year of the Horse 
• Julie Black Belt Series
• Rainbow Stew
• Princess Grace 
• Ava's Poppy   

Book Review: Sora and the Cloud

Disclosure: I was sent this book digitally to review free of charge from Immedium. 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 we got almost a foot of snow. With all the cold, beautiful snow outside, I thought it was the perfect time to review this wonderful book by Felicia Hoshino called Sora and the Cloud. It is one of those wonderfully dreamy books that can never happen, but it is always so fun to think about happening.

This story is about a young Japanese boy exploring his world. Sora is a climber and one day he climbs a tree. Waiting in the branches of the tree is a friendly cloud. Sora hops on and the two become friends as they have an adventure. Throughout the story there are Japanese references such as food booths in a festival, kite flying and lyrics to a children's song about kites. The story has been translated into Japanese and both text are written on each page. After Sora returns to his family, his sister starts to check out the friendly cloud. It is an imaginative story about young children exploring and discovering the world around them. 

Felicia Hoshino has illustrated many books and finally she writes and illustrates her own. It is beautifully illustrated and is the kind of book you can imagine a child daydreaming about. Add the Japanese culture throughout the book, and it is a wonderful introduction for any child. The book makes me smile. The story is simple yet fantasy and it makes it that wonderful mix that makes you happy to read.

The book is available for $15.95 at Immedium. It is a wonderful addition to anyone's multicultural library!

For some more multicultural children book reviews check out:

• Year of the Horse
• Julie Black Belt Series
• Rainbow Stew
• Princess Grace 
• Civil Rights Movement Stories
• Hispanic Picture Books
  
• Multicultural Children's Book Day Blog Hop

Sharing Saturday 15-39

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! It was another amazing week full of so much inspiration!!  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! This week's features are October Educational Ideas, Bats and Spiders and a few of my favorites.

Halloween Memory Games & Halloween Book Memory Games

As you know we have been reading Halloween books (click link to see the books and some crafts to go with them) we borrowed from the library. Last night I decided to make her some memory match games for Halloween. I saw the idea on A Pumpkin and A Princess. I bought some Halloween scrapbook paper yesterday at Joann's. It is on sale 5 for $1 this week. Then I went into Word and used the clipart to find some good (not too scary) Halloween pictures. Since Hazel has been so into Erica Silverman's The Big Pumpkin, I made sure to include a witch, ghost, vampire, mummy, bat and pumpkin. I added a few others as well, but the game could be played with just those if you want to relate it to the book.Click Halloween Match Game  for a downloadable link.

Then I cut out each card and cut out 18  3" by 4" rectangles from 2 sheets of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper. I glued each card onto one of the scrapbook paper rectangles. Then I covered them with clear contact paper to protect them and make them a bit more durable, and cut them out of it. I laid them all down on one sheet and folded it over them to have the contact paper on both sides. Hazel loves playing it!

I also made some from another favorite Halloween book, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams. For these I made 12 rectangles (six designs): the shoes going clomp, clomp, the pants going wiggle, wiggle, the shirt going shake, shake, the white gloves going clap, clap, the tall black hat going nod, nod and the scary pumpkin head going boo, boo. To download these cards click Little Old Lady Match Game.

Then I cut them out and put them on different scrapbook paper and covered them in clear contact paper and cut them out. For this scrapbook paper you only need one sheet and cut 12 rectangles measuring 3" by 4". 

Needless to say (after the number of times I read this book to Hazel) she loves them!

I am loving these simple crafts that lead to hours of fun and entertainment and learning for her! Do you have any to share? Visit our Sharing Saturday link  party and share them with us! Anything kid friendly is welcome!

Also check out this sharing of  an announcement of a giveaway. Have a great day!!

Halloween Decorations

Today I will share a few more Halloween crafts we have made. Now remember I hate the blood and gore and scary side of Halloween, so our crafts are much more friendly. Like these adorable black cats pictured above made from toilet paper rolls. I wish I could remember where I saw it. Sorry!! (If it was your blog, please let me know, so I can add a link!!) I had planned to make the adorable owls at Family Fun Magazine, but Hazel made one sort of that way at Sunday School on Sunday. We may do it still though.

Hazel's Sunday School Owl (studying Solomon)

Then we made an adorable mummy from a paper towel roll. We got this idea from All New Crafts for Halloween by Kathy Ross. It has beads on pipe cleaners (with straws to help stabilize them) for eyes. I wrapped it with crepe paper instead of toilet paper since it was already a nice width and I had some in the craft room.

Making Mummy

Hazel also decorated a foam pumpkin with some new glitter glues.

Hazel also informed me that her baby doll Pocahontas was going to her first Halloween party as a fairy princess. She had picked out a baby doll tiara and wand at the craft fair at the Pumpkin Patch this past weekend. We decided she needed some fairy wings to have a complete costume. So I took some floral wire (bought at the dollar store) and made wing shapes. Then we glued on some tulle to both sides. While the glue dried, Hazel decorated them with glitter glue. Then I cut them out the next day and tied a piece of elastic cord to them for her arm holders. 

So what do you think? It was a pretty easy costume for a baby doll. If I had been making them for Hazel I would have sewn the tulle rather than glue it, but we were looking for a quick way to make them.

Hope you will join us tomorrow night for Sharing Saturday!! Come share your child-oriented activities and crafts and get inspired by all that is shared!