The Rowdy Pea

a book for papa

For Father's Day, Ivo and I made Josh a book about our recent fishing trip up north. Ivo dictated all of the text to me, and then I picked out the pictures and put the pages together. When I asked him what he wanted the title to be, he said "Moby Dick" because that's a grown-up book about fishing. So here are some excerpts from Moby Dick:

To create the text, I put a slide show of our fishing trip pictures on the computer and as we watched it together I asked Ivo to tell the story of our trip. Then I wrote down his words. This was a really fun project and very easy to make.  Ivo loves hearing his story, and Josh said it was his favorite present ever.  Here's the whole story of Moby Dick:

We are going fishing.

We bring my life jacket, the rowers, and a tackle box.

We bounce the oars. 

In the canoe the fish swim under my seat.

We are rowing.

Papa casts his line.

We see a turtle, a line, and a loon.

All the fishes that we caught is model.

Then we row back to the dock.

We feel happy. 

 

We tried to make the cover look like an old-timey leather bound edition (it looks better in person than in this picture). The binding is a pamphlet stitch, which is very easy and only requires a nail and some string. Here are some good directions for making a book with a pamphlet stitch in case you want to make your own story.

 

we got worms

One recent, raining morning Ivo said, "Let's build a wormery Mama."  He must have seen this somewhere, because he explained all about filling a big plastic bottle with sand and dirt and leaves and worms. So I did a google search and lo and behold : A pop bottle wormery.  Later that morning we went to the library and checked out An Earthworm's Life which was perfect. There's just a sentence or two on each page and the illustrations are actually quite beautiful (which I'm sure is not easy when your book is about worms).  Ivo's favorite part was when a boy finds a worm "stranded" on a basketball court and gently moves him to a garden. That small act of stewardship really inspired him, and now he likes to scan every sidewalk for worms to help.

 

 

We love to watch our worms. In a few days they will be back in the woods, but for now they are sparking lots of questions and creative thinking. Yesterday Ivo asked me, "Do worms breathe dirt? Papa said the fish breathe water. So do the worms breathe dirt?" I thought that was very clever. And I got a chance to be clever too. Today I picked up a dead junebug from our laundry room floor and my neighbor said, "Ew! I can't believe you can touch that." I said, "Hey you're talking to the lady with a pop bottle full of worms on her dining room table."  She'd heard all about the wormery from Ivo so that sent us both into giggles.

flannel board: the three billy goats gruff

Our favorite story this week is The Three Billy Goats Gruff, so a few days ago I used my paper cutter to make Ivo a flannel board set. He loves listening to stories told with the flannel board, and sometimes he tries his hand at being the storyteller. Yesterday he put on a show for Josh and me. It was a hoot: "Once upon a time there were three Billy Goats Gruff." Then, in a tiny voice, "Trip trap, trip trap," A booming voice, "Who's tripping over my bridge?" Tiny voice again, "It is I, the littlest Billy Goat Gruff." Then the troll voice again, "Oh, wow, I'm coming to eat you!" This is the funniest part . . . then in the little billy goat voice he said, "Oh, don't bother with me. My brother will be along soon and he has horns on his head and will bing you down off the bridge never to be seen again." So much for the surprise ending!

a little stroll through the neighborhood . . .

Sometimes I can go a few days without the chance to hop online and visit my favorite blogs, and then when I finally do sit down I feel like I'm in some magical neighborhood going on door-to-door visits up and down the block. Sort of like a version of speed-dating but in this case it's ok to be interested in everyone! And since I love a good linky post (doesn't everyone?) I thought I'd pass on just a few of my recent favorites to my neighbors in this neck of the woods . . .

Jenny from Wildwood Cottage recently posted a slew of links to great children's book resources on her blog.  Did you know there are websites where you can actually look at every page of a book online, like you can really read the whole picture book from cover to cover if you want to? Very neat! Jenny uses it for previewing books for buying or borrowing, which I think is a great idea. Her blog is chock-full of book reviews and recommendations, and lucky for me Ivo is about the same age as her daughter CJ.  We often take her reading list with us to the library and have found some great books that way.

Jessamyn from Love This Life had me nodding along and saying, "yes!" with her Love Thursday post from last week. Which I find myself doing a lot when I read her lovely blog. I would totally sign up for her podcast if she had one.

We will be copying Denise from Mom in Madison with the arts and crafts projects featured here and here. It's so great to see these art ideas that are unfussy, inexpensive, and yet totally creative and clever.  I know Ivo will love to make those texture stones; I can almost picture them in his little hands. And another way to use all of these watercolor paintings I could wallpaper our living room with? yes please and thankyouverymuch! 

This post from Lizz at Red Dirt Mother is really perfection.  Beautifully photographed, a great craft project, and most importantly an inspiring little window into the life of "just another" creative, happy family making their way through the day together. Lizz always makes me wish for a house full of children.

And speaking of creative family living, I'm awaiting my copy of this book which should arrive any day. Can you guess what it is without clicking on the link? I know some of you will :)

OK, neighbors, that's all for today. Don't be a stranger now!

slowly pulling out of the winter blahs . . . some random chatter

Josh and Ivo made an igloo-type thing with the first big snowfall, and it's lasted all winter. Ivo calls it (guess what) "the carwash".  In other carwash news Ivo received a set of Green Bay Packer pom-poms for Christmas that he just rediscovered yesterday, and he has been using them to "make a car wash cheer".  Which is dancing around, swishing the pompoms and chanting, "carwash, carwash, round and round . . . yaaaAAY!" Do you remember those old-fashioned car washes that have swishy brushes like that? When I was a little girl I used to think they were the Fry Guys from the McDonald's commercials. There's a carwash like that on the way to Uncle Sams house that we always try to stop at. Getting a carwash halfway through a road trip is a kind of silly idea but it makes him so happy.

Nothing much is really new here, we've mainly been getting through our days on a playdate and a prayer . . . Ivo is so lucky to have a handful of very nice friends (with such nice mamas, too) who have been coming by to play with us frequently. It makes a world of difference to have a friend or two around.

Today Zinnia's Flower Garden by Monica Wellington arrived in our mailbox courtesy of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, which is an awesome program that gives free books to kids. It's for kids ages 0-5 of all income levels that want to receive a free book every month.  If a mom or dad signs up a newborn, that child will have 60 books by the time he or she is five years old. Isn't that amazing??  I am so glad our community is participating. And God bless Dolly Parton for her caring heart and generosity. This month's book looks particularly good. Ivo loves the other Monica Wellington books we've read, especially Mr. Cookie Baker and Annie's Apples. And the pizza one too. Actually he likes them all.  This one is a lot more text-rich but has the same style. Ivo hasn't read it yet but I have and I actually learned a thing or two about plants. I can't wait to start some kind of a growing project with Ivo, and a book like this is just the thing to get us started.  I am really, really dense about gardening, but seeds are pretty smart so my fingers are crossed.

some christmas reading

Last weekend I posted about some of our favorite winter books, but I didn't include Christmas books in that post because I just had so darn many winter books to yap about.  However now that it's so close to Christmas, this post is a little too late to be of any real help this year I suppose. But I do love my Christmas book collection, so I'll share a little of it with you anyway.  And since the game recommendations have been very helpful (thank you very much!) I would love to hear about any of your favorite Christmas books if anyone is inclined to share.

We are suffering from a few sniffles over here, so I'll just do this as a quick little list. I really mustn't be up past my bedtime in my current condition! This isn't a top ten list or anything, just a few favorites that I look forward to every year . . .

Richard Scarry's The Animals Merry Christmas  This is back in print in a very sweet new edition (here), but a couple of the stories have been cut so I linked to this one just for the sake of authenticity.  My very favorite Christmas book.

The Best Christmas Pagaent Ever by Barbara Robinson.  I think this book is just about perfect.

You Are My Miracle by Maryann K. Cusimano Love.  Ivo adores this book, and I am such a sap, I can hardly get through the end without tearing up. 

Take Joy! The Tasha Tudor Christmas Book. It's everything you would hope a Tasha Tudor Christmas book would be, but even bigger and more chock-full of goodness than I expected.  I just discovered this book and have it checked out from the library. Let me just say this book has no business being out of print--gah! We need a book like this now more than ever. 

The Christmas Dolls by Carol Beach York, The Doll's Christmas by Tasha Tudor and especially The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden . . . You know I love those doll stories! These books are treasures in my life.

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. I am very fond of this one. Although some do find it scandalous.

The First Christmas Stocking by Elizabeth Winthrop. I have that knitting envy you know. Never more so than when I read about that hard-working and kindhearted Claire, a real champion of the people. And as an added bonus, it's another tearjerker. every time!

And finally . . . Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book. If I had to pick only one Christmas book it would be this one.  It's a perfect collection of songs, stories, poems, and art.  Christmas wouldn't be the same without it at our house!

Just a few favorites off ye olde Christmas bookshelf. No doubt I've forgotton something close to my heart . . . but it's a start.  One thing I would love to find is a book for Ivo about the Nativity. I would love to hear any suggestions about this. We have two beat up old Golden Books that tell the story of the birth of Jesus, and Ivo is very interested in both of them.  I would love for him to have a beautiful, new book to encourage his interest.  Heaven knows it would get the annual mileage at our house for years to come! 

And I am going to take this week to read blogs instead of write one, so I will probably post a little here or there, but mostly I'll be out a-visiting.  Have a wonderful week everyone! 

winter reading

Here's a look at some winter books we've been reading this month*.  With about a foot of snow suddenly on the ground this is the wintery-est December I've had in the past several years, and what nicer thing than to have a three-year-old to enjoy it with me.  Especially a three-year-old with a finely honed sense of cozy appreciation.  After playing in the snow he likes to take everything off and start over, with fresh pajamas (which he always wears unless we're going out because they are so cozy of course) a "little warm snack", and cuddles with a blanket and a story. ahhhhh  . . . I try to let it be sweet, and not bittersweet, but I know my winters of this are numbered. Do twelve year olds do this? Eight year olds? someone tell me yes!!

I don't usually do book posts, but I love reading them when you do. There have been a few other bloggers who've done winter book posts recently that were very helpful to me (here , here and here for starters), so I thought I'd share ours. We also have a growing collection of Christmas books that I think I'll post about later. I love my Christmas book collection!  Living in the upper midwest this is the best season for reading, and there's never any shortage of good books on the topic of winter cheer.  so, cheers to that.

Just for a laugh, this is Ivo doing his matrioshka impression.

*And here are the books in the photo above:

top row: The Hat (Jan Brett), When It Starts to Snow (Phyllis Gershator), In the Snow: who's been here? (Lindsay Barrett George), When Winter Comes (Nancy Van Laan), The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats), Tasha Tudor's Bedtime Book (Shingebiss is the favorite winter story here)

middle row: The Mitten (Jan Brett), A Book for Bramble (Lynne Garner), Stranger in the Woods (Carl R. sams II & Jean Stoick), Bear Snores On (Karma Wilson), The Big Snow (Berta and Elmer Hader)

bottom row: The Tomten (Astrid Lindgren), Tracks in the Snow (Wong Herbert Yee), The Mitten (Alvin Tresselt), Snow Music (Lynne Rae Perkins), Gingerbread Baby (Jan Brett), Snow (Uri Shulevitz)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, warmest wishes to all  :)

happy equinox!

If you are in my hemisphere . . . happy autumn! If you're not, then I hope you have a spectacular spring season!  At our house we like to celebrate the first day of the season with a special meal and a few handmade treasures for Ivo.  I made him another book-related playset because enjoyed the Little Red one so much.  This time the story is Owl Babies, and the only crafting I did was to whip up three baby owls. I used a free Japanese pattern I found a while ago on craftster. 

Owl Babies is exactly the kind of book that appeals to Ivo--a small and vulnerable protagonist, high anxiety and drama, and a gentle, happy ending. Corduroy, Kitten's First Full Moon, Harry the Dirty Dog, and Knuffle Bunny are among other favorites that seem to bring him a similar emotional satisfaction. I really think he is going to love being able to act out the story with props, but tonight he fell asleep on the chair before I had the chance to give him his present. So, tomorrow he will have a surprise at the breakfast table.

Wishing everyone a wonderful start to the season!  We are starting the Autumn Seasons of Joy curriculum tomorrow, so I hope to be blogging about our progress.  Please take a look later this week if you like. I need the accountability :)