The best season of all 2012- second week of December

Our quiet holiday preparations continue. As I've written before, I have toned down on crafts this year and try and vary activities. So the second week of December we:

Day 9: We read "Buying mittens" by Nankichi Niimi, since it became a holiday tradition for us of sorts. Kids traced their hands and decorated mittens using wax crayons.
D.'s creation:

Day 10: Christmas lights gazing. We drove around looking at pretty lights.

Day 11: Kids unwrapped new books in the morning. For C. it was "The Beasties by Jenny Nimmo, plus a chapter book for D.

Day 12: We went and bought our holiday tree. This year due to our home library (uncontainable) growth there was no room for a big tree, so we just got a tiny tree to put on a table

Day 13: Family movie night - Harry Potter! We also did some cute paper flowers for our trees with friends:

Day 14: D. and I tried our hand in origami again, and yet again were not quite successful. My dream of having a paper crane mobile in the kitchen is still far from reach it seems. We did have fun though (mixed with frustration) and managed two not quite pretty paper tables. We decided to make it our goal next year to master origami.

We listened to some holiday music, here is our favorite song of the week: Mika Nakashima-Yuki no Hana (Snowflakes)

Our books this past week can be found here, some holiday reads included.

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.

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.