Thursday Book Rec

I am an admitted book worm. If I could swim in books or sleep in them, I truly would. I am constantly on the lookout for new ones, both for the kids and myself. There's no better love you can inspire in children than the desire to read, but again, I am thousand-percent biased. This is one in a series of posts spotlighting books we picked up and absolutely loved! Most of these can be appreciated by just about any age, and I say this because I love them just as much as the kids do. I hope you do, too!

Image Source: Amazon

Title & Author: 

Dear Fred by Susanna Rodell

What It's About:

Grace misses her older half-brother after a change in their family situation causes her to have to move away from Australia to the States. She writes him a letter telling him how much she misses him and all the things they used to do, both good and bad.

My Thoughts:

This one made me cry, cry, cry. I picked this one up when we touched on communication and all the different ways to do it and I expected it to just be a fun book about letter-writing. It has a very touching message and anyone who has a heart will be touched by the story. Reaching for my tissues, now, just the memory is making me misty! Enjoy!

Thursday Book Rec

I am an admitted book worm. If I could swim in books or sleep in them, I truly would. I am constantly on the lookout for new ones, both for the kids and myself. There's no better love you can inspire in children than the desire to read, but again, I am 1000% biased. This is the first in a series of posts spotlighting books we picked up and absolutely loved! Most of these can be appreciated by just about any age, and I say this because I love them just as much as the kids do. I hope you do, too!

Image Source: booko

Title & Author:

Diary of a Baby Wombat by Jackie French. 

What It's About:

A baby wombat uses a week's worth of diary entries to tell about his seemingly mundane adventures in finding a bigger hole for his mother and himself. He makes a friend along the way but also inadvertently causes a bit of trouble, because he is, after all, just a baby.

My Thoughts:

I am known for doing semi-good, semi-horrible accents and when I picked this one up to read to the kiddles, I couldn't help but work on my Australian. Thankfully I'd watched a Planet Green show late the night before and got a fresh dose of Australian just in time for this book. It was so much fun to read that way and the kids loved it so much they asked me to do it again and again- I guess my nighttime "research" paid off. It's a really sweet book.

Scrapbooking Fun

We took a Scrapbooking Class at the Beltsville Community Center last week- bound to be our new hangout- and we really enjoyed it. I've taken a recent interest in Scrapbooking but didn't know how to start, so I signed my ever-so-creative 5 year old up for the class and we learned together.

I love the idea of making pictures with real, tangible materials and don't know why we didn't really get into this before. But, now that we know, I'll be stocking up on Michael's coupons and adding scrapbooking supplies to the budget.

Image Source: Creative Scrapbooking Supplies

A NOTE: the class we took is totally for kids, I just watched, learned and lived vicariously through them from a distance. I propped a book open in my lap and pretended not to be there because I didn't want to hover too closely so that my 5yo could work on interacting in a classroom environment that's not our homeschool group, with unfamiliar faces.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, here comes the recommendation that you try it with your kids, too. I liked the vibe of the class and would love to continue to go, provided there's space when we register. It was amazing seeing little boys embrace their creativity right alongside little girls and coming up with great things (read: it's not just for girls!). All the kids were so willing to help out and I was ever-so-touched by their generosity.

A class, for many reasons, is a good place to start BUT is not absolutely necessary. You can search online for scrapbooking tutorials or ideas of things you can make. It's so open-ended it can be anything you want it to be, just let your ideas flow. And it doesn't have to be costly, either.

As I mentioned above, if you go to Michael's or some other craft store, you can find the supplies you need to get started pretty cheaply ($1 for diecuts and stamps)- don't forget their weekly circular coupon! I was even told to go on Freecycle and request supplies there, because someone in your community may have some things they're willing to part with. The great thing is, little ones as young as 2 years old can do it, as for them, it would simply be a matter of pasting cut-outs or pictures of their choice to the background of their choosing. Let them have fun with it, no matter the age.