Feed Me Books Friday: Learning and Laughing

Less “Lazy Days”

I can’t believe the start of school is less than a month away! I had grand plans for all the academic practice I would do with B this summer to make sure he didn’t slide backward in any of the skills he honed in preschool. What do they say about the best laid plans? That’s not to say he didn’t learn this summer. He’s been a backyard explorer, a road-trip navigator, a shopping assistant, an eager participant in the library summer reading program, and a teacher to his brother. I still want to make sure we brush up on those 3 Rs before kindergarten begins, so I’ve been trying to be sure we include some letters and numbers in our daily play. An easy way to review and refresh is with thoughtful book choices.

Riddle and Review

One of our summer library finds that was quickly added to our purchasing wishlist is Q is for Duck, An Alphabet Guessing Game, by Mary Elting and Michael Folsom. While the title might sound initially confusing, I’ll bet you can figure it out… How is Q related to a duck? (Quack!) The layout of the book is what really makes it fun. The letter is introduced in one spread with an illustrating clue: “A is for Zoo. Why?” The answer is not revealed until you turn the page, allowing you and your child to make an educated guess at the target word before checking your answer. This is also an excellent opportunity for letter sound practice:

• Does zoo begin with A?
• What letter does zoo begin with?
• What sound does A make?
• Is there anything in a zoo that begins with A?
• Do you see anything in the picture that begins with A?

B loves riddles and puzzles, so the Q and A format of the book and the picture clues are really engaging for him. I love that he’s reviewing the letter sounds and exercising those cognitive muscles of deduction.

More Puzzler Practice

A fun craft for letter recognition is the clothespin match wheels by confessions of a homeschooler. Your child can practice lowercase and capital letter matching as well as matching letters to pictures with the beginning sound. Also great for letter sound practice is the alphabet wheel found at a to z phonics where your child can match the letter to a picture beginning with its sound in the window flap. We made both – the turning wheel and opening flaps are a hit, but need to be laminated or made from cardstock (or both) to be durable. The clothespin matchup is fun with a time challenge or as a waiting game. We used smaller size clothespins from the craft aisle at the dollar tree to make less weighty.

Appropriate for: preschoolers, primary grades.

image courtesy Tim Harrison, fotopedia.com

Read more...

Play with Logic and Spatial Skills

You’re Getting Warmer…
Hide and Seek and Peek-a-boo are timeless games around any home with children, and here is no exception. The warmer/colder game is a fun twist on hiding play. Sometimes B (or more often Mommy or Daddy) gets tired of hiding under the stifling blanket and waiting to be found (especially in the heat of summer)! We take turns with B hiding objects inside and out:

On the bookshelf...

In the couch cushions...

On the bed...

Even in the bathtub!

...and in the garden.

Then we give clues to find them: “You’re getting warmer, warmer, now colder, warmer, hot!” Sometimes we also practice spatial cues, including higher, lower, left, right, near, and far, for an extra cognitive challenge. B loves to be the clue giver as much as the hunter, and I love that he’s practicing academic vocabulary while he’s having a good time. Sometimes we hide several objects at once, sort of like an easter egg hunt, and it becomes a memory challenge as well. Occasionally B gets so caught up in finding good hiding spots, that the object disappears for a day or two until we come across it again in another game!

Backseat Hide and Seek
I’ve capitalized on this interest in searching for hidden objects to make car rides and waiting at the doctor or restaurant more fun as well. There are several great books that introduce kids to the concept of searching for hidden pictures without being quite as complex or challenging as the famous Where’s Waldo? We enjoy the Little First Look and Find series for independent play/reading because they’re sturdy board books and each page has a picture bank of items to find, so word recognition is not required. Some of the I Spy series has this feature as well, and B enjoys the more challenging I Spy Books when he has a grown-up to help with the reading. We recently purchased Hide and Seek in Colors, which has a magnifying glass on a ribbon that tucks in the front cover; and while it isn’t really necessary, it makes the seeking more fun, and having a physical object to seek with allows us to practice our warmer/colder game.

Appropriate for toddlers, preschoolers, primary grades (depending on complexity and independence)


Come Play at the We Play link up at Childhood 101


Stop by Friday and share a book or two at Feed Me Books Friday!

Read more...

I Blinked, and Six Years Later…

The Memory is a Funny Thing

Have you noticed that there are certain events that seem like they happened only yesterday, and yet you have trouble remembering what life was like before? Milestones, like graduations, moves, weddings, births, jobs; as another year rolls by, it’s hard to believe they happened so long ago. Yet at the same time, you ask yourself, “What did I do before?” The other night, my husband and I were driving home from a niece’s birthday party. B was singing along to a Wiggles DVD in the backseat, T was not happy to be in his car seat (getting a tooth and fighting sleep), there was an inflatable monkey squeaking between the travel high chair and the stroller in the cargo area, my husband J began humming along to the Wiggles tune with B, and as it was the eve of our wedding anniversary, I wondered to myself, “How did we get here?”

No Regrets

There is absolutely no negative connotation to that question. I am not disappointed or wishing for bygone days. Rather, I am amazed. Time really does fly. We all hear it from our parents, from our friends who have children before we do, but no one can understand the cliché until they’ve experienced it. So, here we are, six years happily married, two beautiful children, and as hard as it is to believe the time has passed, the memories of our previous life are foggy and distant; this is what is our life, now is the only thing that feels real. I can only hope that as time continues to whiz by and our lives continue to evolve, the changes that come will leave room in my memory for the happiness I am blessed with in this moment.

A Year in 32 Pages: The House in the Meadow

In a coincidental parallel to our anniversary, we recently brought home Shutta Crum’s The House in the Meadow. Inspired by the counting poem “Over in the Meadow,” the story follows the life of a couple from their marriage to the completion of their home. “A bride and a groom and their best friends 10” celebrate their marriage in the meadow, then the countdown brings a myriad of workers and community members who contribute to the construction of their home, including masons, carpenters, and plumbers, right down to inspector number 1. The rhythm sometimes gets a little sticky with the construction vocabulary, but B loved talking about each worker and seeing the house take shape with each turn of the page. The illustrations are cut-paper collage, striking and bold. I appreciated that the workers represented various ethnicities and included women as the leaders of several crews. The home is completed the following spring, just in time for the couple to move in with their new little one. With my experience limited to home renovations rather than construction, I can only imagine that year would feel like an eternity, and yet at the end, that couple with the new baby would look back at their wedding and say, “has it really been a whole year?”

Sprouting Some Curiosity

Beyond the bouncy rhyme and counting practice, there are some good opportunities to stretch that cognitive development if you extend the discussion around the book. As I mentioned, the community represented is diverse, and you may want to highlight that with your child, emphasizing the choices he or she has. Though not the backbone of the story, the book also depicts the passage of time and seasons – a very tough concept for a young child. The illustrations help show the changes in the scenery, and if you live in an area with distinct seasonal changes, you might want to page through the story with a photo album near by and track the passage of a year in your town.

The House in the Meadow also offers an ever-so-simple introduction to the concepts of marriage and children, which you may choose to elaborate upon with your child if it seems appropriate. As I mentioned, the timing was coincidental, but reading the book gave us a segue to talking with B about our wedding, looking at a few pictures, and making our anniversary plans. Finally, you can extend the discussion further to the social domain by highlighting the importance of the various community workers in accomplishing the goal. Point out that each has a special talent that was important to the final product. Community workers are often a part of the social studies curriculum for kindergarten and/or primary grades (check the references page for links to academic standards) Check with your child’s teacher if you’d like to use this story to help your child make connections.
Appropriate for toddlers, preschoolers, primary grades.
Also linked up at:

Read more...