If you have a Harry Potter enthusiast in your house, you'll want to try your own Harry Potter Potions Class and Experiments, either for a birthday party or just for fun. I'm thrilled to be joining Rae Gun's annual Harry Potter blog hop. Go here to see all the posts about Harry Potter from bloggers around the web. Don't miss this list of more books to read if you love Harry Potter books! Harry … [Read more...]
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Word Inventing Activity
Readers love Willy Wonka's (of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) mouth-watering sweet inventions. The author, Roald Dahl, emphasizes invention in this story and not just with savory candies; he also invents delicious words. Words such as scrumdiddlyumptious, hornswogglers, snozzwangers, and whangdoodles. They're silly, absurd, wacky and 100% invented words! We've been inspired by Charlie and the … [Read more...]
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities
The Very Hungry Caterpillar book inspires many playful book-related activities for kids including these two play favorites: making clay creations to match the story and creating a stop-motion animation movie of the story. The clay activity is perfect for kids ages 2 and up. The stop-motion animation movie is a great activity for older siblings, ages 7 and up. Very Hungry Caterpillar Activity with … [Read more...]
Little Librarian Pretend Play
Do your kids pretend play library at home? We've had a book store but when we discovered Little Librarian, we started playing library, too. The Little Librarian kit includes: - 7 File Folders - 15 Book Pockets - 15 Book Cards - 4 Library Cards - 4 Reading Awards - 2 Bookmarks - 6 Overdue slips - 1 Reading Journal My only complaint is that it could be bigger. We'd love to have more of … [Read more...]
The Runaway Wok – Not Just for Chinese New Year
Guest post by Jenni Fischer, mom and filmmaker. The Runaway Wok by Ying Chang Compesten takes place during the celebration of the Chinese New Year, but it can be shared with children at any time. As an avid traveler pre-kids, now I travel using books like this one. Plus, this fun book gave me an excuse to stir fry (not that I needed one). Stir-fried rice is a significant dish for children at the … [Read more...]
Bubble Writing (Lettering) Motivates Kids to Write (Mostly)
Are you finding it challenging to get your kids to write? Because me, too! Sigh. Which is why I'm happy about bubble writing to motivate them. Bubble Writing First of all, bubble writing is really lettering, or making letters fancy, silly, scary, poofy, etc. We found tons of lettering ideas in the book, How to Be the Best Bubblewriter in the World Ever - from monster letters (below) to caveman … [Read more...]