Holiday Books

Give the gift of reading!

1. Elf on the Shelf:A Christmas Tradition (blue-eyed boy scout elf)...in case you've been living under a rock you must check out this amazing book! Parents be prepared...that elf is sneaky!

2. The Donkey's Dream...the sweetest book ever!

3. December...the new discover this season! It's the best ever!!

4. Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent and Christmas Reflections for Families (English and English Edition)...a simple and beautifully written way to celebrate Advent daily.

5. Polar Express 30th anniversary edition...one of my family favorites!

6. Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale...a lovely beautifully illustrated book.

7. The Crippled Lamb...this is the most beautiful book ever! Tears will flow! 

8. The Legend of the Poinsettia...wonderful story of the Christmas flower.

9. The Gift of the Magi...a happy ending story!

10. The Christmas Star.. A family fav!

11. Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend...I love this one!

12. The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale...a story you can enjoy now and at Easter.

From my house to yours! Happy reading! 

Children's summer reading...

These are two from our Mensa list that we had never read....and wow are they both amazing! 

Read more Here about the Mensa book list...we've been working on it for awhile now. 

I highly recommend both...for old and young alike! Beautifully illustrated!  Great morals!

The Quiltmaker's Gift teaches about the importance of giving... It is a lovely book!! 

And If I Never Forever Endeavor....ohhhh how I loved this one! It's about always trying...going for what scares you...doing the thing you want to do! Wow...don't we all need to hear this! Even at my age....making ourselves happy...doing the one thing that you want to do but you are terrified to do it....

Isnt it always better to try and fail then to never try at all!?! 

And this this gem ...Freckle Juice....I was able to share with my sweetie...takes me back to my own childhood! I remember reading it for the first time! I don't know who enjoyed it more?? 

We have 12 more in our Mensa book list! Wow what a fantastic list of books we have read this past year! 

Reading....gardening....learning...

I love to read!

I love bookstores!

I love to read to my child!

I love her love for books!

However I find it hard to find time to read adult books...

But today I finished this little gem!

Amazing! 

I love the author! I feel like we are friends! 

Check it out for yourselves....

The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities

He did amazing things and built amazing gardens to help support his community.

Last summer you may remember I tried my hands at my very first container garden. Read more ....Here about how I started our first one. 

My flowers did fantastic...Pipiri and I loved it and learned together about the importance of watering, planting, pulling weeds, what works and what doesn't....we discussed so many thing together.

My veggies however didn't do so great. 

So this summer I decided to do just flowers. 

And they look great...I love them! I truly have enjoyed my little garden...it sort of makes me feel like a grown up...(as if being married and having a child don't). 

But....Will has inspired me...so our last trip to the library I noticed that they had many different varieties of seeds. For free! 

The deal with it is...once your plants or veggies have grown...you simply take some of it's seeds back to the library. What a great idea! 

So we planted a few types of lettuces.

I'll let you know how it goes. 

As always thank you for supporting and reading my blog! 

Another book that we ❤️

We are still continuing to work our way thru our Mensa book list....for about a year we've been reading such fantastic books from this list...read more Here and Here about that.

And today we finished another AMAZING book!

The Cricket in Times Square

It is the sweetest book set in NYC in hardworking Italian families' newspaper stand in Times Square....the three adorable yet fully developed characters are some of my favorite book characters ever....a cricket, a mouse, and a cat!

Pipiri and I fell in love with Chester Cricket! 

His beautiful chirping...his love of nature...his helpful spirit...

This book has a wonderful moral for children...rabbit trails to explore...NYC, mice, pets, Chinatown, the history of crickets...and Pipiri and I spent oodles of our mornings researching each of these topics.

Check out these other super fun books and book options...thank you for supporting my blog!

A Guide for Using The Cricket in Times Square in the Classroom (Literature Units)

Tucker's Countryside

The Cricket In Times Square Literature Kit Gr. 3-4
Chester Cricket's Pigeon Ride (Chester Cricket and His Friends)

What's up next on our Mensa list?
Stuart Little

Pippi Longstocking

Mr. Popper's Penguins

Happy Reading! 

Easter craft book

To celebrate Holy Week for Easter this year we made this awesome book of hand and foot prints. 

We did several pages everyday...We actually completed it early. She was really into it so we just kept going.

Check out Catholic Icing if you haven't already! 

She has come super cute crafts for kids! 

Her blog is my go to for crafts. 

We also read Stations of the Cross for Children Which is an awesome book to teach children about what Jesus actually went thru. 

Here are some finger paints for you to check out..we have both brands.

Crayola 8-Ounce Fingerpaint

eco-kids Gluten Free Finger Paint

I use this religion curriculum with her Image of God: Who Am I?: Kindergarten. She actually does it on her own...lots of simple activities for her to do...cutting...glueing...connect the dots. 

       

            We also read our New Catholic Picture Bible...Stations of the Cross...and all of the chapters leading up to the resurrection. She absolutely loves this bible and asked to keep it in her room to read in the mornings. 

                        Happy Easter! 

I should have written this book!

This is the BEST HEALTH BOOK EVER!!   

The New Health Rules: Simple Changes to Achieve Whole-Body Wellness

It is everything that I believe in! 

Clean living!

It is the new way to look at health....

Foods to eat...nuts...veggies..water...stop the packaged foods! 

Working out...lifting weights...moving your body...meditation...

Natural cleaning products...de cluttering...doing something you love everyday..

Supplements...

Organic...

When I say everything I mean everything that I believe in!!

I love it and I highly suggest every person on this planet to read it!! 

Buy it Here! 

Thanks for reading! 

I have been made fun of, have made fun of others, and have not stood up for what is right.....

This morning I read this entire chapter book to Pipiri. All 76 pages! And it was the best book I have ever read to her! And we have read a lot of books!! 

Read This post and This one...to learn more about how much we love reading in our home! 

Typically I read maybe 2 chapters per day when we have a lengthy chapter book we are working on.

But today I literally couldn't put it down. 

I absolutely had to know what was going to happen.

And I have never done this before with a kids books. Never! 

If you have not read The Hundred Dresses you must do so! 

If you have a daughter you must read it! 

Even though this book was written in the 1940's it is relavent today.

Basically the book is about being teased...being bullied...not standing up for what's right...

This book lead to so many wonderful discussions with Pipiri. 

We talked about times I had been teased.

How some people are not nice.

How she should always stand up for what's right.

How I wish I could go back in time and stand up for things I knew were right but that I didn't have the courage to do so.

How it took me a loooong time to get this courage. 

Times I wish I had stood up when people I knew were being made fun of. 

How my feelings had been hurt when I was younger and girls and boys called me "Olive Oil"..."Zit Face"...told me I was too skinny...flat chested...told me I looked like a zipper...told me they didn't like me...or that I was not their friend...

I told her I wish I had stood up for my friend when another child acted awful because she didn't like the Christmas gift my friend had given her....my sweet friend cried and cried...knowing that her gift was not accepted kindly. I told Pipiri I did nothing...and I wish that I had.

I told her I had been mean to girls...I had talked behind people's backs...I had done the wrong thing many times in my life. 

I told her that I had been the bully in my life. And that I deeply regret it and today I try to be a great friend to the people that I know. That I don't talk about them behind their backs and that I treat people respectfully. 

I told her that I (as an adult) have stood up for friends when others are speaking ugly about them. I have told them that the other person is my friend and that I don't appreciate them talking about them. 

I told her even today people can be mean. People have hurt my feelings. That I have been made fun of and that women today have made fun of the way I look or the clothes that I have worn.

When my husband got home today he too joined in our discussions.

He told her he too had been the bully, had been bullied, and had not stood up for friends when others made fun of them.

The discussions this book brought were unbelievable! 

Girls from 5 to 95 will enjoy this amazing book! (And actually Brad truly enjoyed the discussions with us...)

It is wonderfully written, thought provoking...and simply amazing! 

Buy The Hundred Dresses here! You won't regret it!!

Reading to my little one

We love to read here!

My girl loves books just as much as i do!!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE books! 

I have written many times about how I have instilled the love of reading to my little 4 year old...

Here are a few posts I wrote about reading....
Here is a post on the books we are reading this school year
Charlottes web unit
Post on our summer reading challenge

Post on Captain No Beard books

This semester is no different. 

My homeschool curriculum is always based around literature. We do retellings, paintings, main lessons, poems, songs, plays, puppet shows, spelling, crafts, festivals....and we always have wonderful books included in each of these areas. 

I love to read to Pipiri ...it truly is something that I do everyday with her. Whether is snuggled up in the couch or at the kitchen table...she has books in her room tht she reads each morning before I get her for breakfast...she silently reads for basically an hour every morning.

We listen to books on tape in the car...and we frequent our library 2-3x a week (so excited our little community is getting a brand new library at the end of this month!!!)

We have also started a running book list of all of the books we read this year. So far we are up to 27. 

One of my New Years Resolutions is to read more adult books that I enjoy...being that I am typically reading kids books.

Here are the two I have read so far.

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness....still working on this one.

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: A Novel...this is a fantastic read! Loved it!

Happy reading!