The Five Little Peppers Books

     Recently, I've been re-reading some of our older books that I haven't read in years. I've really been enjoying the Five Little Peppers series. It is a really fun series with lots of books and it is great for a family read-aloud or for kids ages 9 and up! 

     It is a series by Margaret Sidney about a family with five kids (which is, by the way, relevant to our family now, which makes it even more fun) and about their hard life in the little brown house. They count their blessings though, and are happy, lively, and a very closely-knit family even in the midst of hardships. The series starts with The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, and continues on to have twelve books in total. There are also four films on the series that we haven't watched, but are on our 'to watch' list. 

     This is one of my childhood favorites, along with many others. Let us know in the comments below: what are some of your favorite childhood books? 

Eliza's Cherry Trees: a Cotton Candy Craft

If you've ever been captivated by a flowering tree in the spring or wondered how the cherry trees ended up in Washinton D.C. you should run to go find this wonderful book.

Front and Back Photo Bookmarks

Favorite Homeschool Resources

Oh my!  It has been a long time since I've written a post.  Mostly that's because  I have finally waded into the thick of homeschooling. I'm finding it's a murky (but delightful) bog...there's always more to do.  I know some people do a great job juggling homeschool life with blogging, but that's definitely not me yet.  

Children's Author/ Illustrator Aaron Zenz

I don't normally do this kind of thing on my blog, but my friends are experiencing a very unusual situation.  I know many of you look for ways to reach out and  help others as we approach the holiday season, and many of you also are looking to buy quality children's books for your children for Christmas.  I wanted to let you know of an unique way I know of to do both right now.

Children's book author and illustrator Aaron Zenz and his wife Amity went to high school with me. About a month ago, Amity had surgery to relieve pressure on her spinal cord and brain.   Recovery these  weeks after have been rough going, complete with pain, blackouts, and intense nausea.  Additionally, complications were discovered that required her to undergo a second operation on her brain. She is currently in the hospital with much pain and still without resolution of the complication.  

Amity and Aaron have six children who Aaron supports with his writing and illustrating.   Needless to say, this time has been more than difficult for the whole family.  They can really use our prayers and encouragement.   One way to encourage the Zenz family would be to visit Aaron's website aaronzenz.com and to support them by purchasing some of his very fun children's books or encouraging grandparents to do the same.  

There are dozens to choose from for a wide range of ages.  One very popular and funny book is Hiccupotamus about a hippo who just can't seem to get rid of his hiccups.  A book Aaron illustrated that I was very happy to find is Nugget on the Flight Deck.   Just right for J's navy veteran grandpa to read to him someday! 

 Aaron also facilitates a fun blog called Bookiewoogie where his children themselves are interviewed to review a weekly children's book.  I'm sure the Zenz children would be delighted to have you check out their fun reviews and pictures.

Thank you for considering doing one of these two things to support some really precious people!

MaryAnn F. Kohl: Art with Young Children and a Giveaway

It's a treat to be able to interview someone you admire who is an expert in a field you care about.  That's why, even though this is a busy season in my life, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to interview MaryAnn F. Kohl, author of over 20 award-winning books about children's art and a contributor to Family Fun magazine (among many other distinctions).

MaryAnn recently sent me a copy of Scribble Art to review, and the girls and I have been having a ball trying out the activities there.  So far, we've done salt painting, made an easy piñata, and tried tissue paper collages (my favorite so far!)

The thing I love about MaryAnn's books is her obvious and genuine care for children.  It is tempting as a parent or a teacher to gravitate toward art projects that "turn out well," with end-products that make adults feel that the time has been worthwhile.  MaryAnn, on the other hand,  sees art from the perspective of a child and knows that it is the creative exploration that is often very special to children. That's why in Scribble Art, you'll find oodles of ideas for open-ended art experiences.

Who knew that there were so many possibilities for art mediums and canvases around the house?  Liquid starch, flour, sawdust- even insulated telephone cable find their way into over 100 activities that children can do independently for the sake of fun and beauty.

I'm finding it can be a great boon to have this arsenal of fun lying about the house, by the way.  The other day, as I was making dinner and needed to work uninterrupted, I found the tissue paper collages to do the trick nicely!

So let's turn now to MaryAnn and hear her perspective on doing art with young children.

1.  Can you tell us a little about the role art has played in your own life personally, both as a child and an adult?

When I was little, I was constantly coloring in coloring books and on blank paper, and at times, on the walls. My mom provided me with scissors, glue, paper, and wonderful crayons all at my reach on a shelf we called the coloring shelf. As I grew, I had some talent with drawing, though I was never super talented, but I enjoyed it enough that I was often complimented on my work. This encouraged me to volunteer to do covers for classroom books or decorate invitations for the Halloween Party. When I began teaching, I found that even the most rowdy child would quiet down and become focused when doing art, and by art, I mean actually creating unique work with materials on hand, not copying something I the teacher had made. So I made sure art was a big part of everything we did. When I had my own kids, art was important from the beginning. Playdough, painting, coloring, and collage were a constant for my kids. They are both very good at art now, and though I don't think it is because of all the activities we had specifically, I do believe that their creativity was honored which has inspired them to go forward in life with that ability.

2.  Each of your books makes a unique contribution.  What about Scribble Art do you especially like?

Scribble Art was the first book I wrote, and has sentimental connections back to my teaching years where all these ideas were tested with kindergarten through grade three children, children I knew and loved. I choose these projects because they were open-ended and I was so excited to write a book to encourage creativity for children where their own unique artwork rather than copying adult made cutesy projects. The book was published in 1985 and it is still my favorite and still selling well around the world (in 9 languages no less).

3.  What tips would you give parents for doing art with very young children?

Start small! Rather than putting out jars of paint for a painting project, start with some shallow jar lids filled with about 1/8" of paint, perhaps three colors tops. Use small brushes or cotton buds for beginning. On the other hand, using big brushes and a bucket of water outdoors will paint thousands of rocks and squares in a sidewalk. Big or small, messy or tidy, start with fewer materials in the beginning, and add more in as the children become adept at using them and learn to handle the wonder of it all.

4. As a mother, I often feel my blood pressure rise when art starts to get messy because I envision myself spending the rest of the day cleaning it up.  I would love to hear about how you dealt with the tension between creative art and cleaning up messes when you were a parent of young children.

Do messy type art on days you are ready to handle it. Otherwise, skip it for the time being. The smartest thing is to set up the art area ahead of time to catch the mess. For example, tape an old shower curtain to the floor or over a wall near their little work table, or keep a damp sponge on their work area for them to wipe their fingers; wear a fitted apron or cover rather than a big shirt with rolled up sleeves that get in the way. Plan ahead to prevent problems. Sometimes I put a loop of masking tape on the bottom of a paint cup so it won't tip over, or certainly only fill it half way, not to the brim. Ideas like this make things easier. And if possible, working outdoors is always nice and much easier to clean up. Encourage the kids to help with the clean up too. Part of being a child and being given wonderful experiences is to participate in setting up, mixing, cleaning up, etc. They love to wash the tables with a big soapy sponge!

5.  Would you also give us some tips on doing open-ended art with young children in a group setting?

I like to place materials on the center of a table that everyone can gather 'round together (usually no more than 6 at the table at a time). Everyone can reach in and use what is available, and everyone cleans up their own mess. I rarely show them any finished product they should be trying to achieve; I would rather just see what they do with the materials. Most materials shout out how they should be used, so you don't have to say much. For example, if you have contact paper peeled away and sticky, and there are cotton balls and scraps of paper on the table, the kids will automatically stick the cotton balls and scraps to the sticky background. Let the materials you choose dictate how the activity will go. Sometimes you need to give a little demo or a brief explanation so they aren't left completely in the dark with new or unusual materials. But try not to make a sampale for them to copy, because they will copy it, and at that point, the whole purpose of creativity and unique thinking has gone out the window.

6.  Which of your books / activities do you especially recommend for the youngest crowd?  (2 to 5 year olds)

Preschool Art is the best book for the 2-5 year old group, but it costs more than Scribble Art, and Scribble Art would do very well for that group too. My website also offers reduced price eBooks, which is another option.

7.  Is there anything else you would like to add?

I would love for everyone who is interested to join my mailing list. I send out a very nice newsletter once a month called the ArtsyKidsNEWS, with four or five art projects that go well with that particular month. Halloween/Autumn/Harvest is coming up soon and will be sent by email, free of course, at the end of September. Each month one person wins a free art book! Sign up on my website, home page, lower right corner:

http://www.brightring.com

I'd love for your readers to visit my Facebook page too. 

Go here:

https://www.facebook.com/maryannfkohl?ref=hl

or go here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/MaryAnn-Faubion-Kohl/84206837844?ref=hl

MaryAnn has such a gentle touch in her thinking about children and mothering.  Wouldn't you loved to have had her for a teacher (or a mom-coach :)?  To hear more of MaryAnn's kind voice take a look at the beautiful interview that Tinkerlab did recently.

*********************************************************************************
MaryAnn has graciously offered to give a copy of her book Mudworks (the bilingual edition) to one reader here at Having Fun at Home. To be entered in the giveaway, take a look at MaryAnn's website Brightring  and leave a comment on this post about something you saw there.  (make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you if you win)

For additional entries,
1) Like MaryAnn's Facebook page.
2) Like Having Fun at Home's Facebook page

Leave an extra comment for each of the above.

The giveaway will close at midnight on October 1st.  At that time I will chose a winner using Random.org

Update: Giveaway closed.  Winner is #21 Jennifer!  

Leaf Man Activity : A Book and a Craft for Lois Ehlert

I know we've done a successful project with the toddlers in my home school co-op group when I overhear them reminiscing about it together later on.
  "Remember when we made leaf man?"
"Yeah.  Mine was a leaf LADY!"
 I overheard this conversation among them this past week, and I knew then that it had been a good activity.

The Book
 Leaf Man was such a simple activity that I hadn't bothered to blog about it, but since it seems to have been a hit, I thought I should.

First, we read the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.  The story is pretty simple; not much happens, but the illustrations are the beautiful nature collages that Ehlert is known for.  It seemed to capture the imagination of the toddlers well enough, at any rate.

The Craft
After story time, we went outside to collect nature materials to make our own little leaf men.  Leaves, sticks, seed pods, lichen, and the like.
I cut out a basic gingerbread man shape out of brown paper and attached it to the end of a popsicle stick.
We talked with the children to help them arrange their nature materials on the gingerbread men and glue them down.  Each little man was finished off with two plastic googly eyes.
After the glue dried they were all set to act out the story from the book or to make their own!

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle: Art Project

I figured Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed would capture the attention of the two-year-olds I would be teaching at last week's homeschool co-op.  The bigger challenge was finding a craft or art project that would be simple enough for toddlers but still related to the book.

We decided to make a flower collage out of paper we colored with the shaving cream marbling technique my girls had enjoyed so much last year.  The marbling makes a fun textured look that is similar to Carle's art style.

I gave each child a cookie sheet and squirted a pile of shaving cream on top.  I asked the toddlers to show me where to squeeze some paint, and then let them stir the paint into the shaving cream with the back end of a paintbrush.

The trick is to stop them stirring before the paint is too mixed with the shaving cream.  You get a much better marbled effect if it's not too homogeneous.

It's also helpful to make sure that the shaving cream is spread over a large enough area so that it will cover an entire piece of paper.

After the paint was mixed, I gave each child a piece of white card stock and told them to press it straight down onto the shaving cream.

We lifted off the card stock and wiped the shaving cream off the paper.  (Try to get as much off in the first wipe as possible to keep the blurring minimal).

After the cardstock had dried, I cut out a flower center, petals, stem, and leaves.  The toddlers used glue sticks to glue them on to a brown piece of construction paper.

What other fun activities, crafts, or art projects have you tried to go along with Eric Carle books?  

Preschool Art Lesson: Light and Perspective

A book we recently read together for our Five-in-a-Row preschool co-op, Storm in the Night, has lots of nighttime pictures in which the light shines dramatically from various angles.  This seemed like a good opportunity to discuss light and perspective in art.

Nocturnal Animals Project: Watercolor Resist

For our Five-in-a-row homeschool co-op recently we read the book Owl Moon.  One of  our conversation topics afterward was the concept of nocturnal and diurnal animals.  My husband suggested that we also talk about the special reflective eyes that God gave night animals.  Nova has a good article describing the science of a nocturnal animal's eyes.  

I was really tickled to find this lightning bug project from Toddler Approved that provided the inspiration for our art project.  For our co-op project I:

1  Printed off a page of nocturnal animal pictures I found on the internet.  

2.  Gave each child a yellow crayon to color in the animals' eyes (Coloring around the eyes a little is a good idea to make them stand out better) and the word "nocturnal."

3.  Allowed the children to paint over the whole picture with dark watercolors.  The yellow crayon resists the paint and makes the eyes pop out.  

Four Easy Reader Books

I'm always impressed when a children's author is able to take a small set of simple words and craft an engaging story out of them.  Besides the classic Little Bear Books, and Frog and Toad, these are four of M's recent favorites.

The Fire Cat

Patterns in Nature: a Book and a Craft

I've often enjoyed how the patterns and shapes in nature mirror one another.  That's the idea behind the beautiful picture book Shapes and Patterns in the Natural World. 

Snowy Evening Watercolor Resist

For our homeschool co-op the other day we read Robert Frost's classic poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.  For our activity we did these watercolor resist paintings using masking tape.  I found the tutorial on Art Projects for Kids' site and added a cardinal (scanned from the book).  The kids painted him red and glued him in one of the trees.

It was a pretty involved painting for preschoolers (probably better suited to older children), but the results are really striking.

3 Russian Crafts for Kids

In our Five In a Row co-op this week we read the book Another Celebrated Dancing Bear which takes place in Imperial Russia.  I believe this is the first book we've read with that setting; so I was pretty excited to see what kinds of crafts I could find to illustrate Russian culture.

1.  Printable nesting dolls.   I love these adorable Russian nesting dolls.  You can print them out in full color or in black and white outline to color them yourself.

2.  Faberge eggs.  I am honestly shocked that I have been unable to find any children's nonfiction books containing the story of the Fabrege eggs. Their history is all about riches, surprises and lost treasure- just the kind of thing kids love, and such a great way to teach about Imperial Russian and the 1917 Revolution.  If you want to tell your children the story and show them a few pictures, this link from PBS has a pretty good summary.

We used a really fun silk technique to dye the eggs.  They don't actually look all that similar to the historical Faberge eggs, but they're fancy- which is basically what we were going for.  I'll be writing about how to make them in an upcoming post.

3.  Russian Architecture-  The colorful onion domes on the Orthodox churches in Russia are so striking. I thought it would be fun to let the kids design their own churches in this style.

My husband (who has a much steadier artistic hand and loads more patience for historical accuracy) sketched some historically accurate domes and spires for me on a piece of card stock.  I used those as templates for cutting out lots of domes and spires from different colors of construction paper, along with some other basic shapes.  The kids could then arrange them like building blocks on their page and glue them on once they found an arrangement they liked.  They used markers to draw on details like windows, stripes on the domes, and crosses.

Any other ideas for Russian kids' crafts?  

Comprehension Cards

A little while back my mom picked up a pack of spelling flashcards at a garage sale.  M loves them because they are "self-checking" flashcards, meaning she can do them on her own.

The concept behind the cards seemed easy enough to replicate; so I made up a set of reading comprehension cards that M could use in her rest time to go along with some of her favorite picture books.

Each card contains a multiple choice question, and next to each answer I punched a hole with a hole punch.  On the back of the card, the hole of the correct answer is circled.  M's job is to push the end of a pen or pencil through the correct hole.  She turns the card around to see if she's right.

The flashcards got tucked into a scrap paper pouch I made at the back of each book.   I did it for both fiction and non-fiction books, but the questions for the fiction books seemed to work a little better for M.

Little G has been asking for some flashcards of her own.  Any ideas for how I might modify the concept for a pre-reader?  

The Story Road

This is Annie. She took a little trip down the story road today. She hopped from book to book as we told a story about her, each aspect of the story relating somehow to the book she was on.

 The book paths forked and combined at various points so the author could decide what kinds of things they wanted to include.

 Each of us took a turn making up a story with Annie and the books. I went first, and it was interesting to see how each girl copied a bit of what I did but also added her own elements. We came up with some pretty crazy stories :-)

(You might have noticed that both girls are wearing two sets of clothes- leftovers from their self-declared "dress-up day.")

It's Playtime!

Three Art Mediums for Three Types of Clouds

1.  Cirrus - white chalk
2.  Stratus- thick gray paint
3.  Cumulus- equal parts shaving cream and glue.  It dries fluffy and textured- really fun!
     (for cumulonimbus- add a little black paint)

We did this as a go-along activity for Mr. Gumpy's Motorcar and The Cloud Book today in our homeschool co-op.  I liked that it worked for our wide age range  (3 year olds through six year olds)

Three TerrificThanksgiving Books for Kids

I really love Thanksgiving.  Among the holidays, it's one that is relatively untainted by commercialism.  The grit of the Pilgrims is inspiring, and being deliberate about thankfulness to the Lord as a family is so potent.  Plus, because it's not an explicitly religious holiday, I don't feel like it is being irreverent to indulge in some of the fun and silliness that surrounds it.

All that combines to make it one of the holidays that I'm really willing to invest time and energy into making special.

Here are three of my favorite Thanksgiving books.

1.  Most Beautiful Artwork:  N.C. Wyeth's Pilgrims by Robert San Souci.  The illustrations in this book are out- of- this- world gorgeous.  Instead of the typical, artificially manufactured fare that you usually find in children's books, these pictures come from art that stands on it's own merit.  They are based on a series of murals painted by N.C. Wyeth for The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in New York in the 1940s.

I love the play of light and color throughout the book, and I appreciate the way the depiction of the pilgrims challenges the typical conception that they were dour and stiff people.  Lots of life and joy in this book- without being saccharine.

The author consulted many sources for making text, and the writing is just fine.  (although, really better for older children.  My little ones just look at the pictures for now).

2.  Best Text:  Tattered Sails by Verla Kay.

The illustrations in this book are rather good too, but it is the text that really stands out.  Tattered Sails tells the story of a Pilgrim family's difficult voyage across the Atlantic (not necessarily the Mayflower, but it could have been) and ends with their thankfulness at settling into life in the New World.

Verla's Kay's writing style is impressionistic.  Instead of straightforward prose, she uses short staccato phrases strung together to paint a poetic picture of life during that time, and I think it really works.  Our family have several of Kay's history stories, and we read them over and over.  It's rhythmic without being trite.

3.  Most Fun: Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton.  This isn't necessarily a Thanksgiving book, but it's about a silly turkey, and it's humor is just right for toddlers.  So fun!

So...I'd love to read about your favorite Thanksgiving books.  Please link up! (or leave a comment)