Boredom Busters

Anyone else been hearing, "I'm Bored Mom", or "What can I do Mom" or "I'm Hungry Mom" (which translates into the first two phrases about 90 percent of the time).  It's summer vacation and my kids suddenly have NO IDEA what to do with themselves.  Thing is, they have some strange idea that I should be a constant party planner.  I'm not getting paid enough for that folks.

I DO NOT like hearing those phrases OVER AND OVER AND OVER again though.  And the kids don't like my usual responses of "go outside", "read a book", or "clean up the mess you just made".  So, I created a tin can filled with popsicle sticks.  Super fancy.  Now every time any of the kids start teasing me about what they can do I pull out the can.  The rules are simple: #1 close your eyes to pick & #2 if you don't want to do what you picked go up to your room and have a ten minute break.  Either way it equals me not getting teased for a little while.  As you can see the can is filled with fun stuff and chores, because of this my 7 year old has quickly learned not to say anything at all to me about boredom, because he doesn't want to be stuck having to do extra work.  :)  My 3 year old on the other hand LOVES the can and thinks its a great game to pick things out of it.  The 5 year old is somewhere in between the other two.

It's been helpful to us this summer, maybe some version of this could work for you too!

Something Fishy by Barry Louis Polisar

I received this delightful book of poetry, Something Fishy by Barry Louis Polisar, illustrations by David Clark (published by Rainbow Morning Music Picture Books, distributed by IPG) for review not long ago.  We LOVED it!  I'm sad to say my 7 year old isn't easily excited by books lately... but when he saw this one he wanted to sit down and read it together immediately (Hooray!).  The poems are clever and delightful, the illustrations are expressive and hilarious.  It's quite wonderful.  Here are a few pictures I snapped to give you an idea.

Herring

Herring fish can travel far. 

Here's some pickled in this jar!

The Crab

Of course, with Father's Day on the horizon, we simply can't forget all the daddies out there!

Pot-Bellied Seahorse

Isn't that hilarious?  I laughed out loud when I read that one to myself for the first time!  The book is filled with many other equally wonderful poems.  Now I must get my hands on Peculiar Zoo by Barry Louis Polisar, illustrations by David Clark.  I have great expectations for it, after having enjoyed this one so much!

We've Gone Cootie Catcher Crazy!!

Did you make cootie catchers when you were a kid?  (We called them fly catchers.)  They're those folded paper fortune teller sort of thingies that used to be super fun!

Well guess what, they're still around and better than ever!! Lilac got this awesome  Cootie Catcher Book  for her birthday and last week she pulled it out!  I am not kidding when I say this was the main form of entertainment for the WHOLE week!

She has become OBSESSED with this things! I mean she carries them around with her, she built a house for them in the backyard, she even sleeps with them. Seriously, cuckoo-cuckoo for cootie catchers!!

As you can see above, the ones in the book are pretty cool. There are like one hundred different types: fairy tale themed, sport themed, food themed, animal themed, magic 8 ball-ish,  and even blank ones with stickers included to create your own!

And, apparently cootie catcher-itis in contagious because now all the girls are in love with them! Lilac wouldn't share the ones from her book (of course!) so I used old calendar pages to make some for Cuteness...

She especially likes the tiny ones for Minnie!! And she needed that gigantic box to carry them all (and she needed to run away when I tried to take the picture, stinker!) Hers don't have words or numbers, just the pretty calendar prints, but she is 100% happy with them.

Which brings us to girl number 3, Rainy. She wanted to get in on the cootie catcher action too...

We made hers on white copy paper and I planned it so they'd be a bit of a reading game too (with simple words on the outside folds that she could sound out each time she plays with someone.)

She and I worked together on what to draw for the fortunes, we just chose simple pictures of good and bad things to 'get.' Rainy by far prefers when people land on the mean ones, like the scary dinosaur or the diaper you see above. She is constantly trying to persuade people to pick 8 so they'll end up getting the diaper! It cracks her up!!

As you probably know, I am not a star at writing tutorials but if you haven't made cootie catchers before here's a link.

Also I discovered that there are more pre-printed cootie catcher books out there.  We might get this American Girl one next and maybe I'll keep these valentine ones in mind for next year.

Of course, you can have fantastic fun with homemade ones too--just watch out if you play with Rainy!

Art Show!

Have you ever thrown an art show?  Take it from me, you should.  Things to keep in mind:

1- Send out invitations in the mail (we sent ours a month in advance).
2- In the invitations invite your friends and relatives to bring their own art work to display.  (This made the show for me.  It was just wonderful to see my children get excited about what others had made- everyone ooooed and ahhhhed over each others entries.  Both adults and children participated, it was wonderful.)
3- Let the kids run the show.
4- Provide a way for everyone in attendance to vote anonymously on their very favorite pieces.
5- Have small participation gifts for everyone who brings art to display.  (The three top pieces of art work -those that received the most stars- got a little something bigger.)

I honestly can't express how much fun this event was.  Everyone (adults and children alike) had the best time.  The party actually culminated into an unexpected (unplanned) auction for artwork with the grandparents in attendance outbidding each other.  We were all in stitches as we watched (and the kids were overjoyed)!

I refuse to take any credit for this event.  It was truly thanks to my very determined 5 year old... he was the one who made something EVERYDAY for the show.  He was the one who insisted on sending invitations through the mail and he created the guest list.  He made art show signs (like the huge one in the second picture).  He helped with refreshments.  He talked and talked and talked about the show, until everyone in the family was convinced that it was an event NOT to be missed.

We are going to have to make this art show an annual event.

Marla Frazee draws...BABIES!!

Hey everyone, hows your summer so far? With the impending arrival of Robyn's little bundle, we thought we'd spend some time on babies here on the blog.

I'm starting off with books drawn by Marla Frazee, who I think I can safely say is probably my favorite female illustrator...probably. (I really hate to be too definitive about that kind of thing, plus I'm so bad at picking one favorite...but I absolutely love her work!)

She done a lot of different books that focus on babies. Here are a few that I think are just delightful...

Written by singer Woody Guthrie, New Baby Train definitely has a folksy feel. In this book a little boy is telling (what I assume to be) his siblings that new babies come to families after they've ridden on the new baby train. The art in this one is just so fun-- babies as travelers and train passengers, it's really clever!

I have the board book version of Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers.  It's sweet and rhymy and chuck full of darling Marla Frazee illustrations of  lots of different babies doing all sorts of things!  It is SO cute!!

Hush, Little Baby is simply the lyrics of the classic lullaby accompanied by Marla Frazee art. I love seeing different authors and artists take on classic songs and stories.  This one is just darling! It seems to be only available as a board book now, though the copy I got from the library is a hardcover. I'd really like a copy of my own!

Happy reading!