Butterfly Kit

We're going to try a butterfly kit this spring!  A friend who homeschools her preschooler son has done this and they loved it. 

Update on the butterfly kit:  it was a very interesting experience.  A little traumatic for me when one of the butterflies was caught up and struggling in getting out of the chrysalis and ended up not making it.  I blame myself for not removing enough of the stringy fibers around the chrysalis when transferring to the net container. Lessons learned through experience.   I would approve of repeating the experience, the kids would love to do it again also.  

Dinosaurs! The Complete Guide to Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Reptiles

My 5 year-old-received this book as a gift, and it is AWESOME! I had 
looked online for a while to find a good dinosaur book and didn't ever 
find one that seemed right for a preschool-kindergarten age child. We are so lucky to have been given this book because it is wonderful -- 
the perfect dinosaur book for children!

See this book at Amazon.com

The reason our family loves this book is the wonderful illustrations -- 
as the cover states -- "more than 250 superb illustrations". Dinosaurs 
of all types come to life, with great visuals, size references to adult 
human beings, and helpful pronunciation guides. The book is oversized giving plenty of room for the rich visuals inside.

Who knew there were so many dinosaurs -- at bedtime my 5-year-old will ask to browse a few spreads and talk about these fascinating 
creatures. It's wonderful to share and learn together, and I'm pleased to recommend this book as a great family exploration or as a great gift to share.


Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a commission on Amazon.com sales. Thanks for reading!

Baby Danced the Polka

See this book at Amazon.com

First, I want to thank my friend Susan for recommending Karen Beaumont's book, Baby Danced the Polka!  This is a sweet book with wonderful text, artwork and lift-the-flap details that make it a delightful book to read with our own children or to share as a gift.

Baby Danced the Polka tells the cute and fun story of a couple with their little baby living on an old-fashioned farm.  The farm is an interesting setting, and ma and pa are trying to do their chores -- interesting chores, like starching long johns and fixing chow...  and baby is supposed to be taking a nap... but... baby wants to DANCE!!!!  And so, baby dances all through naptime with a variety of toy animals, cat, pig, cow and sheep.

In the end, the whole family dances the night away together.

Nearly every page has a lift-the-flap that shows baby dancing and dancing.

I love this book for the great words and lift-the-flaps and also the happy family relationship, along with the real and very familiar situation of mom and dad tring to get some things done during naptme.

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a commission on Amazon.com sales. Thanks for reading!

What we are reading: The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin

See this book at Amazon.com

Halloween is coming up! Last year we checked out and shared a great collection of poems -- It's Halloween! This year, our family borrowed a copy of The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin from the library and want to share notes about this cute book.

Spookley is a cute little story with a basic message -- it's OK and even valuable to be different from everyone else. The plot is like a Fall version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer... Spookley is a pumpkin who is square. The round pumpkins make fun of him until one night during a storm, Spookley saves the day. The farmer realizes how special Spookley is, and decides to plant his seeds in his fields the following year, which leads to a magical kind of surprise -- pumpkins of all shapes, colors and sizes!

The book comes with a bonus CD, which we listened to and enjoyed as well. Spookely is a cute book that our kids enjoyed very much. My oldest talked about Spookley a lot after reading the book.

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a commission on Amazon.com sales. Thanks for reading!

Cardboard Building Blocks

See this toy at Amazon.com

Sometimes the simplest toys are the most fun. This is true with one of our family's favorite toys, basic cardboard building blocks. I think these have been around forever, I remember playing with similar blocks waaay back when I was in preschool and kindergarten, and they are still in early childhood classrooms today.

We've owned our cardboard blocks for about two years now, and they have been the most played with blocks in our house. (We have three sets, the cardboard blocks, a set of very fine wooden unit blocks, and a set of wooden ABC cubes. I should probably also mention plastic peek-a-blocks, although those are separate in my mind as baby toys vs. building toys.)

What I like about our cardboard blocks:

1. They are lightweight, I do not have to worry about anyone getting hurt when they topple over
2. The boys are pretty good about cleaning up the large cardboard blocks -- we keep them in a not-so-attractive but very functional LARGE cardboard shipping box that sits in our living room. Clean up is often a game of toss-the-block-in-the-box. It's fun.
3. Everybody can play with them. The 5-year-old, 3 year-old and 1 year-old all play and everybody loves it. Dad and I play too, and we have a good time.
4. They are not made of plastic. Our family has many plastic toys, but it's nice to have something fun that's not plastic in the mix.
5. They are sturdy. They have been thrown, stepped on, kicked down and knocked over many, many times, and are still in good shape despite our rough handling.

What I don't like about our cardboard blocks:

1. They were spendy. Daddy purchased ours at a learning boutique store, and I remember saying -- you spent what on a bunch of cardboard?? cardboard??? The blocks come packed flat, and so it's very clear that what you have purchased is really not all that much in terms of material. Thankfully, the delightful experience of building big structures and the enduring play value of the blocks has made it seem like it was a good purchase vs. some of our other toys that have not gotten nearly as much use. (Frugal tip: a fun free alternative to purchasing cardboard blocks is to save up a lot of cardboard shoe boxes and let the kids play with them. This is what the boys' grandma has done, I walked into her house one day to an enormous tower of shoe boxes and it was also delightful. Grandmas are so smart!)
2. Storage. They take up a little room, so it may be useful to have a place in mind for keeping them. I am OK with a big shipping box full of cardboard blocks in the living room. These could fit in a closet if I were more organized.

What the kids love about the cardboard blocks:

1. They are large (comparatively). It does not take stacking many of the largest red blocks before my 3 year-old has a tower taller than he is, and that is just cool.
2. They are open-ended, and the boys get to be creative with them. We love building walls, and towers, and caves, we enjoy walling off a corner of the living room for a fort (and using the large storage box and couch cushions as additional building materials), we build statues... Most recently the boys have gotten into karate-chopping the blocks and kicking the blocks, which is a little rough on them, but it's been loads of fun.

I'm happy to share that these simple blocks are some of our favorite toys and recommend them for families with toddlers and preschoolers.

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a small commission on Amazon.com sales.

Go Away Monster!

See this game at Amazon.com

In all honesty, we don't play many board games in our house. That is kind of sad for me as a mom, because I grew up loving all board games and playing them as often as I could wrangle a willing friend or adult into playing with me. Perhaps the boys are still too young to love board games (and still working on turn-taking skills). My oldest (now almost 5!) loves Candyland. (Our three year old does not play it yet.) But one game that both our 5 and 3 year olds play is.... Go Away Monster by Gamewright.

Go Away Monster is a cute and simple game. Each player (up to four players total) chooses a game board that looks like a bedroom. There is also a small sack with game pieces that fall into two categories -- items that belong in your bedroom and... MONSTERS! If you happen to draw a monster, you get to yell GO AWAY MONSTER!!!!, and in our house, you get to toss your little monster across the room.

This has been loads of fun. The boys like picking their rooms and selecting items for their rooms in the game. The game has gotten my older son acting a little bit like a decorator, wanting to coordinate his favorite room with the best matching room accessories. The boys also enjoy all the monsters, they like the surprise of pulling a monster from the sack, and they love yelling GO AWAY MONSTER!!!

My nearly-five-year-old also at times decides that some of the monsters are nice monsters and he has chosen to invite them to stay and hang out in his nicely decorated room.

Game play moves fairly quickly, and it works with our kids' attention spans. The set packs up nicely in it's container, and it's an easy way to have a little family fun. The kids have not grown bored with it.

Go Away Monster is a simple, fun, delightful game that our family enjoys very much. I recommend it and think it's a great game to share with preschoolers.

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a small commission on Amazon.com sales.

Scaredy Squirrel at Night

See this book at Amazon.com

I had heard about Scaredy Squirrel around the kidlitosphere (that's the children's books blogging community) -- librarians and other kids' books fans had written favorably about it. But I had never made a big effort to go out and find it.

My oldest son (almost five) grabbed a copy of Scaredy Squirrel at Night by Melanie Watt when we were at the library a few weeks ago. (His book selection method right now is pretty much grabbing anything the librarians have on feature display, we are coming home with many great things!)

Scaredy Squirrel at Night is written in a cartoonish format with very cute illustrations. A simple plot summary: Scaredy Squirrel is very worried about having bad dreams. He has very specific concerns about the subject matter of nightmares -- he is afraid of things like polka-dot monsters and mean fairies and unicorns. (The drawings for all these things that Scaredy Squirrel is afraid of are cute, in a scary way.) Being proactive, Scaredy Squirrel comes up with detailed plans to avoid his bad dreams by staying awake. Unfortunately his plans go very wrong and poor Sacredy Squirrel has an unexpected adventure.

It's a cute and funny book. And I think my five-year-old has picked a winner. We recommend Scaredy Squirrel at Night and I'm making a note to also check out the original Scaredy Squirrel (and any other in the series that may exist.)

Happy reading!

Mommy's Favorite Children's Books earns a small commission on Amazon.com sales.

I Spy... A Great Giveaway!

It's been about a year since I started Mommy's Favorite Children's Books last summer and when it started, I hoped someday to do a giveaway contest with a great prize.   Now I am happy to announce the first blog giveaway..... featuring I Spy books.  

I Spy books are favorites of my 4.5 year old son.  We have a few in our collection and he enjoys the photos so much.  I love how focused he is while working on searching for items within the pictures.  We love I Spy books for anytime, and they are very useful when kids need to sit a while while waiting or traveling. 

This giveaway celebrates a brand new I Spy book....  

I Spy A to Z!

Easy-to-read riddles by Jean Marzollo are paired with forty-six object-filled photographs by Walter Wick to create I Spy A to Z, the most engaging alphabet book ever! With more than thirty titles and 36 million books in print, the I Spy series continues to win the hearts and minds of parents and kids everywhere. 

 

This giveaway offers FIVE prizes!  Wow!

One very lucky reader will receive an awesome grand prize package valued at more than $80 with books AND games! 

• Wii Video Game ‘Ultimate I SPY’

• Board Game ‘I SPY Memory Game’

• I SPY A to Z: A Book of Picture Riddles

• I SPY Treasure Hunt

Four (4) runner-up winners receive a copy of the new book I SPY A to Z: A Book of Picture Riddles!  (Each book valued at $13.99)

HOW TO ENTER:  Leave a comment (with your email or a link with a way to contact you if you win) and include 1) the title of your favorite children's book and 2) why you love it.

We're doing this the old fashioned way, one entry per person, please. No duplicates or incomplete entries. Entries will be accepted through July 6.  US residents only, please. Winners will be chosen at random, announced and notified by email on Wednesday July 8.  

(Anonoymous commenters and new visitors -- thank you so much for visiting --please be sure to leave me a way to contact you if you win, otherwise your entry is invalid. If you forgot and want to fix it, post an identical comment with a way to reach you, thanks.) 

Thank you for reading and entering the I SPY giveaway at Mommy's Favorite Children's Books!  Good luck!

A sweet classic board game: Candyland

There are only two board games that get regular use at our house -- Candyland and Go Away Monster  (review to come).  

I wonder if there is anyone who is unfamiliar with Candyland -- this classic board game has been around for generations.

A (our oldest, 4.5 years), loves Candyland, he is willing to play it anytime. 

See this game at Amazon.com

As a child I remember being very bored with Candyland.  Perhaps it's because I was an early reader and I felt the color cards were too simple.  I much preferred Chutes and Ladders .  I think that may mean I'm unique.  My new brother-in-law has detailed memories of Candyland's Lord Licorice.....  uh, I thought, who is that?  

It is interesting to compare various versions of Candyland published over the years.   The current came has Princess Frostine instead of Queen Frostine.  The molasses swamp has become a chocolate swamp, and the gameplay has changed.  In the version of my childhood, a player would get stuck on a dot space until a certain color card was drawn, which made for a long, frustrating  time stuck.  The modern version has a photo of licorice on the sticky spaces and the unlucky player only loses one turn -- for a gentler and less frustrating wait. 

The Hasbro web site has a history of the game and neat slide show with photos of the different versions through the decades.  Which version do you remember playing as a child? 

Now that I have a child that loves Candyland, I'm just now experiencing the best of this game with him.  

I admit, I let my son cheat and win every time we play.  He does not like getting sent back to an earlier point in the game by one of the special cards.  For a little while the house rules were that pieces only go forward, but now I am sending my player back to try and model the correct way to play.  A seems to be innately competitive, and he wants to win Candyland every time we play, cheering for himself when he receives double color cards and expressing disappointment when his game piece advances only a space or two.  He sweetly invites me to join him in the Candy Castle as soon as he wins.

I have heard the new, electronic Candy Land Castle  game suits younger players (2 and 3 year olds) who aren't ready for the classic Candyland game.  Apparently the concepts are totally different, and Castle is about color and shape matching.  I am not a big fan of electronic games though, and they can be expensive.  Have you tried Candyland Castle?  Let us know what you think!

A book for Father's Day -- I Love My Daddy by Sebastien Braun

I've got to say, Infant Bibliophile is on top of things -- I visited today to find Father's Day books -- a topic that would very possibly have completely slipped my mind until the week of.  I so admire the organized!  

Anyway, I have a single addition to the Bibliophile's list.  It's a beautiful, beautiful picture book called I Love My Daddy by Sebastien Braun.  

See this book at Amazon.com

Just look at the gorgeous images! Beautiful color! Each spread depicts a father bear and baby bear spending time together in sweet everyday moments.

The boys have enjoyed this book, especially, "My daddy tickles me!"  

I discovered this great-looking book when it was sold at Pottery Barn Kids a couple years ago -- those home decor style-makers picked a winner!   Since this purchase I have perused the PBK book selections a few more times -- I didn't find anything that grabbed me as much,  but kudos to PBK for making shelf space in its stores for children's books.

Added:  When is Father's Day this year, anyway?  I went and looked it up -- June 21!  Mark your calendars!

(Also, yes, today is Memorial Day!  Yes, I have the holidays all mixed-up! We do not have any books about flags, the USA or patriotism!  It's a huge deficiency in our collection.    And my husband was an Army reserve tank commander.  I have one book about Abraham Lincoln, that's it!  Any suggestions?)

Sending gifts for a 2 year old's birthday

Today I sent birthday gifts for a charming little two-year-old relative blessed with gorgeous red hair (like mine).  You would think it's easy to choose books for gifts because I have this blog that is all about our recommended favorites, but it took a few minutes to think about what might be nice (and to remember what I've already given!)  I ended up choosing two of our family favorites:

In the Small, Small Pond 

Our family's paperback copy of In the Small Small Pond is tattered and taped.  It has been very much loved.  Honestly I'm not sure why the book is such a favorite.... perhaps it is the bold and beautiful warm colors, the wonderful and colorful animals (with a little frog that appears on every spread), or maybe especially the ear-pleasing phrases.  All good reasons to love this book, which was recognized as a Caldecott honor book.

See this book at Amazon.com

It's everything I think a perfect children's book should be -- very, very, colorful, beautiful, simple and engaging.  

Harold and the Purple Crayon DVD set

I may risk getting some hate mail from saying this, but here are my true feelings:  The Harold and the Purple Crayon DVD set of the complete HBO series is...  better than the books.  

See Harold and the Purple Crayon at Amazon.com

Yup.  These DVDs are awesome.  Sharon Stone does a fabulous read, the music is wonderful and the animation of Harold creating his many drawings adds a lot to the stories.  I found this series when I was searching for some family video entertainment that is age-appropriate, gently paced and not too scary.  It fit our need perfectly.  

I had not heard of Harold or experienced him in my own childhood.  Harold is a young boy with a fantastic imagination and great artistic ability.  He imagines things, and draws them, and they become real....  he has wonderful adventures, he experiences some dilemmas and challenges along the way and uses his trusty purple crayon to confidently take charge of things. 

We did not experience the book until I picked up a copy at a resale shop.  All I have to say is that after seeing the videos, the book was ho-hum.  We still read the book, and sometimes books are more convenient and appropriate than videos, but given the choice, the videos are the superior media.   And that's the truth.  Hmph! 

I hope baby B loves his gifts!  (Is it right to call a 2 y.o. a baby? He's really a toddler!)

Knock Knock Jokes

Knock, Knock!

Who's there?

Banana!

Banana who?

Is it just my favorite, or is the banana joke the most well-known knock knock out there? 

We were traveling home from Thanksgiving when my 4-year-old decided to start telling us knock knock jokes with nonsense words for the who and punch line.  It was clear that he enjoys them, and I started trying to think up any halfway decent knock knock to share with the family.

Coming up with knock knocks is not the easiest for me. I managed a few, "Harry up and open the door!"  but after about 5 or 6 I was seriously stuck and made it a point to go purchase a knock knock book at Amazon.   

We were just looking at one of the books last night, Good Clean Knock-Knock Jokes for Kids, as we were having another family knock knock session. (We improvised a great one in Jamaica based on the name of an appetizer on a restaurant menu.  Here it is: 

Knock, Knock!

Who's there?

Jamaica!

Jamaica who? 

Jamaica me crazy! 

Hope you like it!)

It is hard to review a knock knock book.  Some of the jokes are good, some are OK, some are clunkers, some don't make sense.  But.... having a knock knock joke book on hand is a fun, good resource for some fun family entertainment.  I think making up your own is awesome and great brain exercise, but when you run out, a joke book keeps the fun going. 

I want to get some videos of the kids telling knock knock jokes.  They are not master joke tellers by any means, but they enjoy the interaction and pattern of knock knock jokes.  I think that we'll enjoy knock knocks for at least a few more years.  Perhaps I will remember a few more in time than just the banana and Harry. 

I *think* that joke books fall into the nonfiction category.  If you are interested visiting today's Nonfiction Monday, check it out here at the APCL Mock Sibert blog. 

Kumon Maze Books

see this book at Amazon.com

As we were getting ready for a family trip to Jamaica, I was running around Target trying to get odds and ends for the trip.  Knowing we would have a few long airplane rides, I checked out the activity books and decided to try a couple Kumon books.  

Even before we left, A (age 4.5) found the maze book and sat in his room before bed tracing the paths with his finger.  He loves it!

For people who have not seen activity books in years, it's a nice surprise to see the vivid color artwork.  The pages are very attractive. 

I recommend the Kumon maze books for preschoolers.  

Edited to add:  Exploring what's out there, I see other maze books and connect the dot books that also have nice colors that are by other publishers too.  In the past I have printed connect the dots puzzles from free online sources, but I like the color illustrations and ease of a book format for organization too. 

Nonfiction Monday - A Children's Picture Atlas for Earth Day

See this book at Amazon

Welcome everyone to Nonfiction Monday!

I'm thrilled to share this beautiful picture atlas with you. It seems very appropriate to include this beautiful book about our Earth as we approach Earth Day this week. We recently purchased this at the recommendation of online friends and it is fantastic!

The 48-page Usborne Children's Picture Atlas is gorgeous, informative and wonderful for preschool and grade school ages. Its contents include a series of informational pages that show and explain our world and what kinds of things kids will see in the maps, and then nine beautiful spreads of maps illustrated with drawings of landmarks, people, animals, plants, and vehicles.

It's gorgeous to look at and very interesting to explore. I especially love the "Can you find these things on the maps?" lists that link the information pages to the maps in a fun and challenging game. We love our copy and I'd recommend it as a great addition to your child's collection or as a great gift book.

Nonfiction Monday bloggers, please share your posts in the comments. Thank you!

NONFICTION MONDAY LINKS -- APRIL 20, 2009

Roberta reviews two poetry books by Douglas Florian, insectlopedia and in the swim at Wrapped in Foil Blog

Spring is here! Great Kid Books reviews Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert, exploring the world of butterflies.

100 Scope Notes reviews A Mirror to Nature

Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect shares What Can You Do With An Old Red Shoe?

Sarah at In need of Chocolate reviews a Seashore field guide

The JustOneMoreBook! podcast contribution to non-fiction picture books this week:- a chat about The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau: http://tinyurl.com/cm8tyd- excerpts of Jason Lowe's session at NYC PEN group about response to Lee&Lowe's books:Baseball Saved Us Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story Su Dongpo: Chinese Genius Listen here: http://tinyurl.com/c73vpf

The Book Chook reviewed a wonderful picture book called Roadworks, great for little truckaholics or youngsters who'd like to find out how a road is made

Kim at The Wild About Nature blog reviews Where Should Turtle Be? by Susan Ring.

Lori at Lori Calabrese Writes! takes a look at What's so Bad About Gasoline?

Jules has a sneak peek of Steve Jenkins' new title, DOWN DOWN DOWN, at 7-Imp, aka, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Abby (the) Librarian has a post about multicultural books for preschoolers - Reading Around the World for Preschoolers  

Amanda reviewed Recycle This Book at A Patchwork of Books

Simply Science takes a look at A Temperate Forest Food Chain by Rebecca Hogue Wojahn and Donald Wojahn.  (Karen's note -- I checked out Simply Science and think I found a new favorite blog!) 

The ACPL Mock Sibert Blog features Mermaid Queen by Shana Corey -- It's a beautiful picture book biography. 

Book Scoops shares Onward: A Photobiography of African American Polar Explorer by Dolores Johnson

Katie from Katie's Literature Lounge says -- It's National Wildlife Week... I've got a bunch of reviews featuring all kinds of wildlife. 

Thank you so much everyone for sharing great Nonfiction Monday articles!  And thanks so much for your patience while I got the roundup finished.  I appreciate it!   --Karen

New Kohl's Cares for Kids books - Dr. Seuss

The Kohl's Cares for Kids program is now featuring Dr. Seuss hardcover books and plush toys.

See all the merchandise at Kohl's com or visit your local Kohl's store to purchase items for $5 each.

The Dr. Seuss books available right now are:

• I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
• Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?
• And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street
• If I Ran The Zoo

Melissa and Doug Opposites puzzle cards

The boys and I recently visited our local resale shop, and I found this educational puzzle made by Melissa and Doug for $5.00. I'm thrilled with the find and plan to use it as part of our "home education experiment" (doing some Montessori and other activities at home).

We are sad to leave the Montessori preschool where A attended this year, and so we hope to do some great learning activities at home. It is kind of exciting and I hope it's a good experience for everyone. At A's school, I had seen a similar matching puzzle with mother animals and their babies. So I was pleased when I found this similar matching puzzle for opposites. It is nice because it teaches about what opposites are, and it increases the kids' exposure to written words, even though they are not reading yet. A and J were working with the puzzle this morning and J (age 2.5) asked my husband, "what this word?" "what this word?" It was fun.

The puzzle cards come in a wooden box. For everything to fit, the cards must be assembled. The cards are nice and heavy and should hold up well.

Amazon has listings for these puzzle cards (only $4.20!, I guess my bargain was not that amazing) and other puzzle cards of different types if anyone is searching for similar items. Here is a link:
Melissa & Doug Opposites Teaching Puzzle Cards

The Very Hungry Caterpillar's 40th Anniversary

See this book at Amazon

2009 marks the 40th anniversary of one of our favorite books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  In honor of 40 years, there is a new pop-up edition available -- it looks very cute!

Amazon.com has a video segment featuring Eric Carle speaking about The Very Hungry Caterpillar and how he made the book. (The interview is delightful... don't miss it!) He says in the interview "I LOVE COLOR!"  which makes me smile.  Eric Carle turns 80 years old this year.   Happy birthday Mr. Carle, and thank you for this very wonderful children's book!

P.S.  Here's a link to Eric Carle's blog.

UPDATE April 6:  I ordered a copy of the pop-up book but unfortunately it is fragile and I'm afraid it won't survive our boys' love.  We prefer the board book version.