The abc's of Australian Animals: An Interactive Kids Yoga Book Review & Giveaway

Have you ever done yoga? I find it so relaxing. Plus there are so many benefits to it. According to Mayo Clinic, "Yoga is considered a mind-body type of complementary and alternative medicine." (Source) One of the biggest benefits is that yoga can reduce stress and anxiety and enhance moods. (Source) For more benefits, Yoga Journal has a great list of 38 ways yoga improves health. I want to pass this wonderful practice on to Hazel. I remember my mother taking yoga classes when I was young and she had a record from the class. My sisters and I would try to do the record by looking at the cover (each pose was pictured on the cover) and listening to the record. This instilled a wonderful practice in my life. When my life gets stressful, I tend to look for a yoga class to take or put a yoga dvd in to relax. Now I have a wonderful way to introduce Hazel to yoga in a fun and meaningful way. You may remember the wonderful book I reviewed in May, Luke's Beach Day by Giselle Shardlow. Well, Giselle has been at it again and has published The abc's of Australian Animals: An Interactive Kids Yoga Book and has been kind enough to send me a copy to review and offer me a copy to giveaway. Disclosure: I received the book free to review, but all opinions are my own.

First I should say this book is available in English as well as Spanish. The book goes through each letter describing an action of an animal found in Australia or Australian waters and gives a picture of a yoga pose. Hazel and I read the sentence on the animal and looked at the picture of the animal. Then we looked at the yoga pose and tried it. We still need to work on some things, but flexibility will come the more we practice.

Hazel's favorite was of course the letter h. She knows that it is the first letter in her name. She also thought the pose was pretty easy.

We really enjoyed doing the yoga together. 

She also wanted Ducky to try it with us,  so you will see him in a few of the pictures. Overall the book is very well written and illustrated. It is a wonderful way to bring a relaxing exercise into a child's life. I know we will be trying it some more.

Giselle Shardlow writes at Kid Yoga Stories.  She is a teacher, traveler and yogi as well as a mom and draws from these experiences to write her books.

I hope reading these yoga books and practicing the poses will help Hazel learn a bit about yoga and develop a love for it like I have. That way she will always have a healthy lifestyle or at least something to fall back to when life gets stressful.








Now it is your turn to try to win a copy of this book. Giselle is willing to ship worldwide!! All you have to do to enter is follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter and follow my giveaway rules except this one is open worldwide!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sharing Saturday 16-11

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

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, 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!! Be sure to join us at it!!

 Thank you to everyone who shared at last week's party!!  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! The features this week are March & Spring Features, Easter Features and Educational Features. 

The Snail and the Butterfly -- Book Review and Giveaway with Craft Round-Up

 

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

Today we are sharing a fun, new book with an important message--dream big and have courage and determination to reach for those dreams. The book is The Snail and the Butterfly by Dougie Coop and illustrated by CJ the Kid.  I am including a craft round-up to go with the book, and there is a giveaway!!

Hazel got Mail!

So today a package arrived for Hazel from Australia!! Remember how I told you Kelly over at Happy Whimsical Hearts suggested her son, Master D and Hazel exchange postcards. Well, Master D sent a postcard and a gift. Hazel was so excited to get mail let alone a homemade gift! We were just discussing send him another postcard, so now we will have to think of a good gift to make him. The best part is that Master D received his postcard from Hazel today as well.

Peg Doll Made by Master D for Hazel

I also want to share the amazing Cyber Monday Giveaway Beth over at Living Life Intentionally is holding through Dec. 4. Go over and check it out. If you win it will take one children's gift off your list. She has four choices covering various ages.

And finally!! I have updated the button codes at Sharing Saturday since so many people have been having trouble. I have gotten a good report of them working so far. And Sharing Saturday #7 is still open. Please go share a wonderful idea with us and check out all the amazing ideas already shared.

Have a great night!!

Craft It Up Around the World book review

Today I have the pleasure of review a wonderful book called Craft It Up

Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong.  Craft it Up Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong is published by CICO Books at £9.99 and is available from www.rylandpeters.com. This book was sent to me by CICO Books to review here, and I have to say I am so pleased to do so. The book contains 35 craft projects from different places throughout the world. The crafts are meant for children to do, and if they are older than Hazel, they will not need much help from an adult. The authors are currently based in Sydney, Australia, but between the two of them they have lived in many parts of the world and are trying to inspire children to look at the world around them and learn more about other places. I have to say it is the perfect book to go along with our multicultural adventures between our Fairy Tales in Different Cultures, Virtual Flat Stanley and Around the World in 12 Dishes.

One of the things I really like about this book is several of the crafts use recycled materials. The first craft I want to share is this wonderful map bunting. You could focus your circles to be spots you have lived, visited or want to visit, or you can do what we did and just take any place to be included. Hazel enjoyed helping me sew these circles together into the bunting. As we did this I thought it would be neat for a birthday party with a world travel theme. Really this book would be perfect for it. Now to convince Hazel of this idea.

To make this bunting I used one of Steve's outdated Atlas books. I had planned on going to AAA for a free world map, but didn't make it there, so I asked Steve to see what he had. I figured it was even better to use a book he didn't need or want anymore. I did not have a big enough circle punch, so I traced a glass and cut the circle myself. It really took no time at all to make a pretty long bunting. Now we are going to hang it on Hazel's tree in her room.

After that we made some of the crafts to go with the countries we have already "visited" this year. We made the Easy Peasy Felt Tulips for the Netherlands. Hazel is using them as the centerpiece on her play kitchen table. Great craft for springtime.

We made the Saving for a Snowy Day for Finland. He is made from a recycled smoothie container. We will be saving him for the winter. This is a great craft for the winter.

For Spain we made Click Clack Button Castanets. Hazel hasn't tried them since the glue was drying, but I did. She will love them, and she got to pick out the scrapbook paper we used. I made them a bit smaller than the instructions called for, but I thought this would help Hazel use them. This would be a great craft for any Spanish themed lesson or party.

For France I made the "Ooh La La" Pretty Parisian Embroidery. We will hang it in Hazel's room. She probably could have helped with some of the sewing, but I made it while she was in bed. She did however help me cut the fabric for the project. Again, wouldn't this be a perfect decoration for a world travel themed party.

The final craft idea I will share is for Egypt (this month's destination for Around the World in 12 Dishes) and it is Howard's Treasure Hunt Bottle. It is a recycled jar filled with some Egyptian objects and sand. I added on it a print out of the Egyptian flag and map. We used objects from Safari Ltd. Miniature Replica Toobs. Some we had and we picked up the Ancient Egypt one the other day at Michaels with our 40% off coupon.

We also included a bird amulet and a cat statue.

So Craft It Up Around the World is a great book full of ideas for kids who are exploring the world. The book includes a picture of the country's flag and shape of the country as well as some interesting facts about the countries. There are a variety of crafts calling on different skills, so they will appeal to both boys and girls of different ages. Again Craft it Up Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong is published by CICO Books at £9.99 and is available from www.rylandpeters.com. You can look for more great crafts from this book as we explore the world through all of our fun adventures as well!!

Linked Thru Leonard

This summer we have gone to visit my parents several times for various reasons. In June we met Jill of Just Jill Today there. She is a photographer and sells some of her amazing photographs in various products. She also has a campaign with Leonard the Lobster, one of her photographed models. 

101 Books to Read Before You Grow Up -- Book Review & Giveaway

 

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 to bring you this post.

What are your favorite childhood books? Do you have ones from your own childhood or from your children's childhood? Perhaps you love the classics like Charlotte's Web or something new like one of our favorites, Princess in Black. Or maybe you are looking at picture books or middle grade novels. Not matter what your favorites are or what you are looking to read today's book has suggestions for you. The book is 101 Books to Ready Before You Grow Up (Revised Edition) by Bianca Schulze and illustrated by Samara Hardy. There is a giveaway at the end of this post too!

My Rag Doll -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Search Press gave me a copy of these books 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.

Today I get to share with you a fun book for making rag dolls and all of her accessories. My Rag Doll by Corinne Crasbercu has eleven versions of a rag doll. 

A New Friend for Dragon -- Review & Giveaway Plus Dragon and Knight 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 to bring you this post.

With back to school there have been some great books coming out about differences. Let's face it when kids go back to school, they see people who are different from them in some way. It is important for kids to realizes that differences can be a good thing and that it is ok to be friends with people who are different. The book I'm sharing today is about just this. It is A New Friend for Dragon by Bianca Schulze and illustrated by Samara Hardy. 

The Incas -- Global Learning for Kids -- Peru

Congratulations to Bernice for winning the DVDs from NCircle Entertainment!!

This month Global Learning for Kids is exploring Peru. Since we have explored Peru previously with Around the World in 12 Dishes, I let Hazel have some say in what we focused on. We started by watching two DVDs. One was on Peru and the other on the Incas.

Hazel was fascinated by the one on the Incas, so we focused on them. We have been exploring books about the Incas from the library.

Animal Books & Activity Round-Up

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

We are a family of animal lovers. Hazel from a young age was interested in animals and learning about them. She has always seemed to love books about them and today I'm sharing some fun books and an origami kit all themed about animals. These books range for kindergarten and up. Starting with books for the youngest we will start with Hummingbird by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Jane Ray. It is recommended for kindergarten through third grade.

Multicultural Children's Book Day Post with Link Party for Reviews

It is hard to believe it is time for Multicultural Children's Book Day 2020!! I am so happy to be a co-host again this year. This is one of my favorite times to be a blogger.

Operation Christmas

So a few weeks ago, Annie from Annie One Can Cook shared at Sharing Saturday that she was co-organizing a sign up for Operation: Christmas. Operation: Christmas is volunteering to send a care package to a U.S. Military service person or in this case platoon for Christmas. We were assigned a platoon and the only message I received from its leader was he had a Christmas tree and a few things for it but anything else would be a blessing. I emailed him and asked if there was anything specific they wanted, but did not hear back, so I was on my own. I found a website from Military Missions in Kentucky that had a complete list of suggested things to send. So off I went.

A few of my goals were to have Hazel involved and to send useful things and fun things. I also tried to go a bit healthy with some of it. The platoon has 30 people in it so we made 30 cards. The tree style card idea came from Mudpies and Sunshine and was shared at Sharing Saturday this week. While we had the pom poms and pipe cleaners out, the snowman popped into my head. We made about 7 or so this way and the rest were just rubber stamped since Hazel lost interest. We sent two gift cards to itunes (which I purchased at church so my church got part of the money). Hazel also made one of her wooden color crafts--this one a nativity. I helped her a bit which helped her stay in the lines more than she normally does. We sent individual packaged almonds and trail mix and Craisins. Plus tea bags, iced tea and lemonade mix, hard candies, Lifesavers, candy canes and some Rice Krispie Treats (or I guess I should say Crisp Rice Treats since they are not made with actual Rice Krispie cereal but a crisped organic brown rice--I buy them at Trader Joe's). 

Now sending something to a military person overseas is interesting. They have special flat rate boxes at the post office to send it Priority Mail. Then you have to fill out the long custom form. I have not had to fill out the long custom form to send anything to Dino Boy (Kelly's at Happy Whimsical Hearts son) in Australia or to Kelly for that matter including the knitted farm swap squares.

I do not think Hazel totally understood who we were sending the package to, but she did want to help with it. I'm hoping it is something we can do each year so she learns more about it. Plus I love giving back to the military when they and their families are sacrificing so much to protect our country. 

Also one of my goals this year is to really keep the true meaning of Christmas present in our lives. Between this and donating a toy to the local toy drive done by the fire department in our town, I think Hazel is understanding a bit about giving to people even when we do not know them. Plus we always ask for donations to a local charity for her birthday party since she really does not need anything else and she goes with me to drop everything off (including things she has outgrown--toys and clothes) and sees the factory as they call it. I do hope to instill some charity in her.

What are you doing this year for others? Is this something you do every year or is this the first year you are doing it?

Summer Animal Fun -- Summertime Fun Reviews

Disclosure: I was sent these products 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.

 Summertime brings thoughts of many things--beach, heat, sunshine and animals. For me there are always new and fun things to see in nature and I like to share that with Hazel. What animals do you think about in the summer? We have so many different birds, bugs and frogs that come into our lives, so today's products are going to share those things with you. This year the town cleaned out some of the creek in our back yard and we discovered frogs around. So we will begin with Fabulous Frogs by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Tim Hopgood. 

Cattitude -- Book Review & Giveaway with Cat Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am working with The Children's Book Review to bring you this post and giveaway. All opinions are my own. 

Just like people animals have their own personalities. People often say cats are aloof and want to be the boss of the house. As the owner of three cats currently, I can honestly say every cat has a different personality. I have and have had cats that love to be with people and others that are shy when we have "strangers" in the house. Today we are sharing a book about a cat and her attitude. The book is Cattitude written by Bianca Schulze and illustrated by Samara Hard. Besides my review I am sharing a round-up of cat crafts and there is a giveaway as well!

More Duck & Swan Crafts and a Gift

Well, we are at home with the fever that is going around. So we are doing some more crafts and resting. Today we finished up some duck and swan crafts we started yesterday and then Hazel did some painting. You may remember yesterday we discussed ducks and swans near us for spring. We talked about some of our favorite books about ducks and swans and shared a couple of crafts with paper plates. Today we did some pine cone swans and ducks. The idea came from Family Fun. I made a few changes. We used construction paper for the beaks since I didn't want to deal with breaking toothpicks.

Hazel's Ducks

Hazel got a bit bored with the details and didn't get her completely finished (no eyes or beaks) and she wouldn't let me help with the duckling so it didn't get done. We obviously changed the colors of the pipe cleaners and feathers to represent that they are ducks and not swans.

My Mallard Family

 Next we painted some egg cartons to make Easter egg holders into swans. The idea also came from Family Fun. They called them swans, but I think they look more like ducks. The white one I used a higher egg carton (it was higher in the middle bumps) so the swan neck would be longer. I threw in some plastic eggs we had sitting around from our decorating to show how they will look completed. Hazel helped paint them yesterday, but I finished them today with the eyes, beaks and feathers.

Yesterday, Hazel received a lovely package from Master D, her penpal in Australia. Master D is Kelly's son over at Happy Whimsical Hearts. Kelly makes the most beautiful wooden toys for her kids and we were lucky enough to receive a beautiful fairy door that she made (as well as some other goodies). Right away Hazel wanted to play with it. She first asked what it was. Then asked if the door could open so the fairy could get out of the house. Then I explained that it represented a fairy house and pulled out the flower fairies I made for her and we set up a house for them. She loved it.

We also took out the beautiful gnome that Master D sent Hazel for Christmas out to come to the fairy party. We decided we need a few more seats for the fairies though. And two took a nap.

Hazel absolutely loved it!! Thank you Master D and Kelly!! It gave us something to play with while Hazel is resting!!

This is where I link up...

Sick Day Crafts

Today I wanted to call in sick, but as a stay-at-home mother there is no calling in sick, so we stormed on. To fill our time, I thought we could make some salt dough ornaments. I saw Amy's post over at One Artsy Mama yesterday with their creations and since there are so many steps it would fill the day. So this morning we mixed the dough. I had printed out Amy's post so I would be sure to do it correctly and learn from her mistakes. Hazel wanted to pour all the water in at once, but I explained that it wouldn't work that way (Thanks, Amy!). Then the dough had to sit for 40 minutes.

So we did some other crafts. I finished our TP roll pilgrims and Native Americans.  I used felt for their hats and the hair for the Native Americans. I added some feathers on the male. They could use some faces, but I didn't bother with that yet. Not that it really matters much since we canceled our Thanksgiving celebration.

I called my parents today and told them I think it is best that they don't come for Thanksgiving. As disappointing as that is, I know it is the right thing for all of us. I would feel horrible if I got them sick and we still don't know if we were exposed enough to the stomach bug going around and certainly don't want to pass that on. We will still have turkey and a few fixings (assuming we don't have the stomach bug) since I already bought the turkey breast, but it will be just the three of us. Perhaps, Steve's mother will come over for dessert, but we will see.

The other craft we worked on was making a gum drop topiary. Since Mommy is sick we had to use supplies we had on hand. I had a few small Styrofoam balls, gum drops, tooth picks and a paper cup. After starting out we decided to put more than one gum drop on a toothpick (since they were rather long). I had to play with what would hold it up. I finally threw in some of our homemade play dough--cranberry and gingerbread. Hopefully it will hold it as it dries as well.

The other thing we did to fill the time was write the postcard for Hazel's new friend in Australia. Kelly over at Happy Whimsical Hearts contacted me to see if Hazel would like to exchange postcards with her three-year-old son, Dexter. We of course loved the idea and are hoping it will turn into a great friendship/pen pal exchange. We went the other day to buy a postcard. Hazel liked several so we bought three of them. I also bought three stamps for them so we can mail all three over time. So I asked Hazel what she wanted to write on the postcard today and wrote it. Then she drew a little on it after I explained where she could write and where she couldn't on a postcard. Then I ran out and stuck it in the mail, so hopefully Dexter will get it soon. We chose to send the Massachusetts postcard with a nice fall tree on it since that is basically what we are seeing right now here.

Then we rolled out and cut out the salt dough ornaments. We ended up with 22 ornaments. We baked them and had some lunch. Then we read some stories and tried to take a nap. Ok, Mommy took a nap and Hazel did not. Then I called Steve who called his mother and she said she would take Hazel so I could sleep. I dropped her off there and slept all afternoon. It was wonderful. Fluffy curled up with me in bed and slept. The only time we woke up was when my friend called to tell me the gender of her baby that she is carrying. After that phone call I fell right back asleep and slept until I heard Hazel and Steve come home. Boy, did I need that this afternoon.

Since Hazel was at Nonni's for the afternoon, we did not finish the salt dough ornaments. So tomorrow we will paint them! I will have pictures of them tomorrow for you.

So the other realization I had today is that Hazel's birthday is only a little over a month away. I better get going on all the birthday party crafts I have been planning and putting off. So mixed in with my Christmas crafts you will see lots of nursery rhyme crafts.

Hope your day is going well.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Our mantle this morning

Happy Valentine's Day!! I hope you are finding a way to give and receive love today!! I have to say I am feeling well loved with the most entries EVER on Sharing Saturday. We have decided to end our Sharing Saturdays on Wednesday since people were not really looking at the entries added after that. So please feel free to link up today and tomorrow and go check out the amazing entries we have gotten!!

Today I want to share with you about our Kids' Valentine Swap.

We have six children participating including Hazel ranging in age from two to ten-years-old. One from England, one from Australia, and the rest from the United States. I know several parents have let me know that they have gotten them off late or have not mailed them, but we figured it wouldn't matter to the kids since getting mail is always exciting. All we asked was for each child to make a valentine and send it to each of the other's with a postcard from where you live. That way if parents want to do a geography lesson they have something more personal to use.

I gave Hazel several choices of cute valentines to make and this is the one she chose. She chose the one without candy (I was surprised) but made finger puppets.

Demonstrating how to use them

I cut out the hearts (using my scrapbook materials) and punched out the holes. Then we glued on eyes and added glitter glue mouths and stickers for cheeks, nose and ears.

On the back we stamped Happy Valentine's Day and signed her name. Then we attached a pipe cleaner for arms with a sticker.

We have only received one valentine thus far. It is the one from England. Hazel was so excited to get it.

Thank you, Annabel!!

We will share more pictures as they come in.

I also finally finished Hazel's owl last night and made her a quick valentine with it.

We have been doing some heart related crafts. Over the weekend, we made the marbleized hearts from Cheap Crafty Mommy that I featured on Saturday. Hazel's favorite part of the craft was mixing the paint into the shaving cream. After that she got bored (as she did with every craft we tried). I tried using card stock and foam hearts that we had. I discovered it didn't work well to scrap the paint and shaving cream off the foam, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Foam Heart

Oh, and we used pink, red and red glitter paint for colors.

I was happy with how they came out. Then I had to decide what to do with them. I made a mobile. For the two large ones I glued two of the hearts together and wrote God on them. Then on the small ones on the undecorated side I wrote words like: love, family, peace, hope, joy, faith. Then I strung them and hung it up.

We also tried the yarn hearts that I featured from Tot Treasures. Hazel's favorite part of this was cutting the yarn. She did not like getting her hands dirty with the homemade glue, so she quit pretty quickly on me with this one.

We also tried the bird seed ornaments that Verde Mama shared at a Sharing Saturday in January. We didn't have peanut butter since Hazel doesn't like it, but we used almond butter. It was a bit messy and liquidy at least more than I thought it should be, but that may be the almond butter. I'm not sure. Again Hazel didn't like get the mess on her hands and quit (but when I finished then asked to do another craft). We hung one outside already, but it doesn't look like it has been eaten at all yet, but our bird feeder is still more than half full (in the summer it empties in less than one day) and has been for weeks now.

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!!