Today is Valentine’s Day, and, love it or hate, this holiday is bound to inspire some questions from the kids in your life. For these little humans just beginning to understand how our world works, sometimes big feelings surrounding love and affection can be tricky to navigate. Sharing a book with a trusted loved one is a great way to sort out some of these complicated emotions.
Some children may begin to blush at the mention of Valentine’s Day as they make their first awkward attempts at young love. “This Is Not a Valentine” by Carter Higgins is a sweet look at age-appropriate ways to interact with a crush. In adorably childlike crayon and marker drawings, two little ones express their burgeoning affection in some less-than-conventional ways. Rest assured that this gentle story focuses on warm words and quiet acts of kindness rather than grand gestures or potentially unwanted contact. Continue reading “Expressions of Love for Little Ones”
January 31 is National Inspire Your Heart With Art Day, and while I know that is certainly a long holiday title, it is one worth celebrating with your own little artists. Art can look like a variety of things, ranging from painting to performing, so I have compiled a list of a few ideas to observe this holiday with your child.
The first way you and your child may want to choose to celebrate this holiday is through reading! Reading and literature on its own is an art form, but this list includes several books that celebrate and highlight different types of art and artists. Here are some biographies/works of pioneers in the art world that will inspire your child (and hopefully you as well):
Matthew Burgess’ “Drawing on the Walls” follows the life of Keith Haring as he fights to make art publicly accessible.
Continue reading “Inspire Your Heart With Art”
Brrr, it’s cold outside! Let’s stay cozy and warm inside while creating this winter-themed craft.
Here is what you will need to create your very own popsicle stick snowpeople. Make yours special by adding color, ribbons or any other favorite materials. The possibilities are endless!
Items needed
- Construction or cardstock paper in each of these colors:
- White
- Black
- Orange
- Pink
- Blue
- Yellow
- 2 googly eyes
- 1 jumbo popsicle stick
- White paint
- Paint brush
- 2 chenille stems
- Black marker
- Glue stick
Continue reading “Snowpeople Craft”
‘Tis the season to be freezin’. But we’ve got just the cure. Make yourself DIY hand warmers to bring some warm and cozy into your cold and frozy.
Materials
- 1/2 cup flaxseed
- 1/2 cup barley
- Funnel
- Scissors
Everyone has seen the different ways you can use peanut butter to stick birdseed onto pinecones, cardboard tubes or other small objects to create bird feeders. These are fun activities for little hands but can get messy quickly and are a concern for those with nut allergies. When I saw a recipe for a birdfeeder that does not involve peanut butter, I was pretty excited. This is a fun way to create bird feeders with little mess, almost no waste and young ones can be involved in almost every step.
Continue reading “Two-Ingredient Bird Feeders”
Every once in a while, you come across a fabulous cookbook or a wonderful picture book, but rarely are they one and the same! “Arab Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook” by Karim Alrawi is just such a book. Not only does it contain great recipes, but it also has a story to accompany each dish. The intro also gives the reader a bit of the history of cookbooks; did you know some of the earliest cookbooks date back to the tenth century and included recipes for soap? Continue reading “Cookbooks We Love: Arab Fairy Tale Feasts”
A new year brings with it a swirl of emotions, in keeping with the month of January’s namesake, the Roman god Janus, who symbolizes both entrances and exits, passageways and transitions. There’s excitement and perhaps a little trepidation in welcoming the glitz and glamor of the new, as well as the bittersweet pang of nostalgia “as the Old Year becomes past tense,” as poet Bobbi Katz writes in her poem “New Year’s Eve: A 21st Century Ball Drop.”
To help sort through the variety of feelings you and your family might be navigating this time of year—feelings of reflection, celebration, resolution, affirmation, gratitude, growing pains, grief, commemoration, heartache, hope and more—here is a list of poetry books and anthologies to get you through. May you find a poem or two in the books below to share as you encounter both the old and the new shapes of 2022!
“Every Month Is a New Year” by Marilyn Singer & illustrated by Susan L. Roth
Though the modern Gregorian calendar marks the beginning of each year on January 1st, in many places and cultural traditions around the world the year and its beginning is marked differently. Continue reading “Poetry to Ring in the New Year”
As we head into the colder months, what better way to spend the time than snuggling up with the ones we love — while sharing a big bowl of popcorn and a good book!
Spread a blanket on the floor, cozy up in a warm bed or build a reading fort of your own creation. Pick an old favorite or find a new book to explore.
I’ve included some cozy reading suggestions and my absolute favorite popcorn recipe below.
Yummy things first! POPCORN!
I came across this popcorn recipe years ago through a friend. This is fabulous savory popcorn to make year-round.
You will need:
Continue reading “Popcorn and a Book”
“Big bodies, small bodies, dancing, playing, happy bodies! Look at all these different bodies! Bodies are cool!” Tyler Feder’s new picture book, “Bodies Are Cool,” is practically perfect in every way. I’ve followed Tyler’s social media and books for a long time, so I knew I was going to love it. Each page features all sorts of folks doing all sorts of activities, including my favorite pages which focus on people swimming! Young and old, big and small, moms and dads, all are in swimsuits having a grand time! Her whimsical and bright illustrations will make you want to read this book over and over again. You’re likely to find something new every time you read it. I read it a third time just so I could find everybody with a tattoo!
This book celebrates ALL bodies, and by the end, you may find yourself staring into a mirror admiring your coolness.
It’s common to create paper chains to count down the days until a favorite holiday or highly anticipated event. These chains are visual trackers that can help little ones grasp the concept of time. Recently, I saw where parents were creating paper chains for New Year, and I thought this would be a wonderful activity for families to count down to midnight on December 31.
I love how versatile these paper chains can be. When I started to create my own for this blog, the plan was to just write the time in a 12-hour format using different colors. Then I realized I could also write the time in a 24-hour format. What a great way this would be to introduce and practice this concept to older children.
Then I thought about being super visual with different times and writing out the times with words and drawing little clocks on light-colored paper. (But how amazing would it be to create a rainbow chain! I love the idea of using super special paper to make the midnight chain, such as patterned scrapbook paper.) Continue reading “Count Down to New Year’s Craft”
