change of seasons

As much as we miss California we really appreciate the change of seasons here.

Yesterday was a gorgeous late autumn day- clear skies with a few fluffy clouds, warm breeze...It's hard to believe that it could change overnight (having had a couple of heavy snowfalls this year already we are prepared:)), and yet the snow on the ground will be welcome.
Today -slightly colder, but still bright sun and fairly warm outside. We decided to talk again about seasons changing and what it means for plants and animals.
The book that helped us do it is Four Seasons:Uncovering Nature by Annie Jones - a beautiful present from friends. The book contains loads of information and is beautifully illustrated.

Another book we enjoyed is Autumn Story ( Brambly Hedge) by Jill Barklem. Sweet story and gorgeous illustrations.

After reading we did an art project , inspired by this picture I found on pinterest. This project took us two days to finish.
Day one: We sketched a forest scene on a large sheet of paper- some trees, animals. Second step was separating sheet vertically into four equal parts- one for each season (initially it was done in pencil, when D. was ready to color I erased pencil and traced a line with a white crayon). Day Two: D. traced outlines with crayons using appropriate colors for each season (bright green for fresh grass, gray-blue for snowy ground, dark brownish-green for autumn grass, etc.). The forth step is painting each part with watercolors. Add some outlining with oil pastels and glitter accents and voila!

Happy Weekend to All!

Sleepy books

There's nothing better than ending a long long day with a nice sleepy book. Here is a list of my kids' favorites:
1. Grandfather Twilight by Barbara Helen Berger
Beautifully illustrated, this book invites kids to follow Grandfather Twilight through the woods to the sea. Grandfather Twilight carries a pearl that grows in his hands and becomes the moon.

2.  I Don't Want To Go To Bed by Astrid Lindgren
Beautifully illustrated by Ilon Wilkland, this book is great for calming a restless child. My daughter especially loves it because she is often protests the bedtime (even if she is very tired) just like little Larry from the book. Larry looks to the forest through magic glasses and watches animals go to sleep in their little beds. C. is usually out by the final page. She especially loves the part about little bird that plans his flying practice and falls asleep.

3.The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren

This is a wintertime book. The text is very simple, like an old lullaby. Tomten (sort of an elf from Swedish folklore) goes through the farm on long winter night. I heard and argument that this book might be scary, but for my kids it was rather soothing.

 

4. One Snowy Night by Nick Butterworth

This book is part of the series about Percy the Park keeper, which we absolutely adore. This is perfect wintertime read, when it is cold outside. The story is about park animals that came to Percy on especially cold winter night. This book makes kids giggle, great book for snuggles :)

 

5. Of course there is Goonight moon, which doesn't need an introduction. My little one is especially fond of it.

6. <Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book is another favorite of my son's. Its language is rich, the poem is quite funny. It's quite long and by the end of it D.'s eyes are closing.

7. The Man in the Moon by William Joyce
This book is fairly recent addition to our library. My almost 3 y.o. daughter wasn't interested in the story, but my 6 y.o. enjoyed it a lot. This is a story of the Man in the Moon, how he got there, what is he doing there. This book has a dark moment, but overall the message is positive. This book is full of magic, glowworms and moondust. The artwork in this book is gorgeous, both of my kids love it.

Crazy Wednesday

Took a trip to Denver Zoo today (yay free days), while it's huge and has a lot of animals, it is also really really crowded. D. and little C. were really overwhelmed. On the way home everybody agreed that the best zoo we've been to so far is Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. Not only it is beautifully situated and carefully planned, one can feed an enormous herd of giraffes that lives there, now how cool is that?


I'm still struggling with sticking to the "plan of the day". It's probably ok, since D. is only in Kindy, but it makes me wonder if there is a way to make our "studying" more efficient. There are always distractions and he wants to play all the time. I'm trying to keep at least reading (which he loves), writing and math as "must dos" every day, and throw some art in whenever we get the chance, but science and social studies- that we haven't touched at all...I mean science is there- nature walks, talk of personal hygiene, shopping for food...But social studies...ugh.

Picked up a gorgeous book from the library today- "One red apple " by Harriett Ziefert, illustrated by Karla Gudeon (saw it on Crafty Crow)- what a delightful afternoon read! Text describes life cycle of the apple - it is quite simple and thus is perfect for both D. who is 5 and C. who is 22 months. Illustrations are absolutely gorgeous- in D.and C. favorite colors, no less. Pages of the book are really sturdy, I think I will put it on the "wishlist", such a beautiful book must be at home. :)

Fall reading-Graeme Base

     I want to write a little bit about "The Legend of the Golden Snail"- a new book by a wonderful author/illustrator Graeme Base.
 Graeme's books are always beautiful, but most of the time they are a bit complicated for D., since he's only 5 and (being raised bi-lingual) only just catching up on his English. It's a bit early for "Animalia" and "The Discovery of Dragons", we can only admire illustrations at this point. However when I saw "The Legend of the Golden Snail" in a bookstore (and quickly took advantage of this educator's discount :)) I knew that it was just the book for us. The story  tells about a boy named Wilbur who sails to find a magical Golden Snail and turn her into a "Snailing Ship", but when he does find it he pities the Snail and sets it free. The story is engaging and emphasizes the importance of being adventurous and  kind. Illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, magical. (Samples of illustrations can be found on the MARS Gallery web site)
Each page is complete with little details such as the cool cross bone symbol (an interactive game of finding these symbols can be played on Graeme's web site).
We read this book over and over again, D. absolutely adores it and so do all of us.