Got an Arts and Crafts Kid? Try a Rourke Book

My dad used to call my sister “Miss Fingers,” because she was always touching things. I now know that she was a tactile learner – driven by curiosity and the desire to understand and experience objects up close and in person.

Today she is a renaissance woman of many talents: school teacher, mother, tennis whiz, quilter, seamstress, great cook, scrapbooker and home decorator extraordinaire.

My youngest daughter takes after her creative aunt. When she was really little, I would have my “Miss Fingers” roll up her hands in the front of her shirt, when we walked through stores with lots of breakables. She just could not resist “looking at” all the pretty things with her busy little digits.

She now spends her free time cutting, pasting, gluing, stringing and knitting things together. Her collages cover her bedroom walls, and her friends have been the recipients of homemade cards, picture frames, scarves, jewelry and one-of-a-kind posters.

If you have a child with a hunger for hobbies, check out the craft series by Big Universe’s partner, Rourke Publishing. Written by Tracy Maurer, these well-illustrated books are aimed at the Grade 3-6 crowd. Following the directions for each project strengthens reading comprehension skills and vocabulary – while fostering artistic creativity.

• “Paper Crafts with Pizzazz”
• “Scrapbook Starters”
• “Fabulous Fashion Crafts”
•  “Rock Your Room with Crafts”
• “Fingernail Art”
•  “Cupcakes, Cookies and Cakes”

Paula Willey of the Baltimore County Public Library in Towson, Md., reviewed this series for the November 2009 issue of School Library Journal. Here is what she had to say:

“The crafts in these cheery books are not too hard, but not so simple as to be boring, and are made with a minimum of specialty supplies. Lively, upbeat covers feature photos of regular girls with big smiles. Inside, the subject of each book is first put into context and then illustrated with seven to eight crafts. There is an emphasis on safety and on getting permission and on responsibility. Many projects incorporate reuse of household items that might otherwise be discarded (worn-out jeans, buttons, jars, newspapers).”

 Rourke Publishing also offers an “Explore and Draw” series, which would have been up my other daughter’s alley when she was younger – a combination of reading and sketching! Titles include:

• “Horses”       
• “Dinosaurs”
• “Cars”
• “Monster Trucks”
•  “Spacecrafts”
• “Wizards, Witches and Dragons”
•  “Airplanes”
• “Knights and Castles”

The ABCs of Car Games: Part Three

“This is June, the month of grass and leaves . . . and a new summer is offered me.”

 – Henry David Thoreau

There’s something magical about summertime: new adventures, freedom and beauty that one can almost sip from a straw.

Summer clips the tethers that hold us tight the rest of the year. We stay outside longer, we stop for impromptu ice cream cones, and we get up early on Saturday morning and consider it fun because we are headed to the farmers’ market.

And then, there are the vacations! Off we go to the beach, the lake, the amusement park or to the mountains to camp.

Unfortunately there’s usually some significant travel time involved on vacations, and that can be tricky with little ones in tow. But, that’s part of life, so early on I decided to embrace the inevitable car rides, seeing them as opportunities – rather than something one step above rubbing sunscreen in my eyes.

So, I came up with a kid-friendly strategy that made trips both fun and educational. In my two previous blogs I detailed tips to make long trips easier, including a packing list and some car game suggestions to make the time go faster and to exercise brain cells.

Here are a few more car games to boost your children’s language skills and minimize irritability and whining.

Who Am I?

One child says, “Who am I?” The second child asks, “Are you a person, place or thing?” The first child answers, and then the question-answer volley proceeds until the mystery item or person is guessed. (Are you smaller than a car? Do you make noise? Can you be eaten? Are you scary? Are you soft? This models conversation patterns, teaches critical thinking skills and sharpens listening aptitude.

License Plate Game

If you have a long road trip planned, print copies listing the 50 states. As your child spies license plates from different states, have him check the state off his list. Or, give him some crayons and a black and white map of the United States and let him color in each state that he sees. Reading, geography and small motor skills wrapped into one.

Rhyme Time

Language is made of sounds, and making rhymes is an early literacy milestone. This game involves parent-child interaction, which builds communication bridges as well as a wide vocabulary base. Some of the rhymes will be silly or nonsensical, but that’s OK. Language has its serious side, but words can be a delight, too.

Give a noun in a phrase, pausing so your child can fill in the blank. Start by example:

   The dog and a  ___. (hog, log, frog)

   A star with a  ___. (car, jar, or a nonsense word like “dar”)

   Jack Sprat and his ___. (cat, rat, mat, bat)

Fortunately, Unfortunately

Older kids will love this word play game. It encourages the imagination and a sense of humor. One person starts a scenario by say, “Fortunately…” The second person responds by saying, “Unfortunately…” You alternate between fortunate and unfortunate things. It’ll get the laughter going. For example:

   “Fortunately, we are stopping for lunch soon.”

   “Unfortunately, Mom left your sandwich at home.”

   “Fortunately, I have a bag of peanuts in my pocket.”

   “Unfortunately, the park we are going to is infested with aggressive squirrels.”

   “Fortunately, I speak ‘squirrel’ fluently and will be able to talk my way out of trouble.”

   “Unfortunately, the park is a wildlife refuge and kids aren’t allowed to speak out loud there.”

   “Fortunately…”

And so on.

Would You Rather?

This game is as simple as they come. Start by example, then let the kids have a turn.

   “Would you rather go to the pool or go to the zoo?

   “Would you rather eat lima beans or eat spinach?”

   “Would you rather pet a bear or pet a lion?

   “Would you rather have 12 toes or 12 fingers?”

These are just a few of the many games that can be played in the car. I shared “Horse on Wheels” in my first blog in this series and three other car games in my second posting: “The Great Race from A to Z,” “Sack on My Back” and “Name Game.” They foster communication, build literacy skills and boost family bonding. Check them out.

I’d love to hear about some of the word games your family plays in the car to pass the time. Feel free to post a comment.

Have a great summer.

*** If you are taking a laptop with you on your road trip and have a 3G Internet card or have Internet hookup at your vacation lodging, Big Universe provides a portable library for children at your fingertips. With thousands of beautiful picture books available 24/7, there is no reason for your kids to experience “summer setback” in reading. Maintain or even improve their literacy skills with a wide assortment of fiction and non-fiction stories.

The ABCs of Car Games: Part Two

In my last blog, I talked about summer vacation, traveling in a car and how important it is to prepare carefully when carrying young passengers. If you are going to confine small people in small spaces for hours on end, it’s best to have a plan. “Prepare or perish” were my exact words.

Car games are a good way to pass the time on a long trip, along with a pile of books, a new toy and some snacks. Car games are literacy builders, too – whether players look for letters on billboards, build an expanding story based on the ABCs and memory skills, or sing silly songs with changing sounds.

I shared a new but simple game called “Horse on Wheels” in my previous blog. Here are three more games to foster communication, build literacy skills and boost family bonding while putting some mileage on your car.

The Great Race from A to Z

Have your children look for each letter in the alphabet, using billboards and signs on businesses. See how many times they can get through the alphabet before getting to Aunt Carolyn’s house. Or, use a stopwatch to time the race from A to Z. It can be a group effort or kids can compete, depending on the squabble factor. Add a notebook and pencil to the equation if your children need practice with penmanship.

Sack on My Back

This is a memory game and tongue twister all packed into one! Each player takes a turn reciting the game prompt: “In a sack on my back, I think I’ll pack…” He or she adds a noun each time, starting with A, then B, and so on. Each player will need to listen closely, so he doesn’t leave anything off the list. “In a sack on my back, I think I’ll pack an apple, a basketball, a camera and my dachshund.”

Name Game

This rhyming car game takes some practice, but the kids love it. I never quite mastered it, but children have a special knack to pick up on the playful sound switcheroos, especially when names are involved. You can play it with other words, too. Learn one line; then add another. Here are several examples:

Darby, Darby, Bo-barby

Banana, Fanna, Fo-farby

Fee, Fie, Mo-marby

Daaar-by!

—-

Tom, Tom, Bo-bom

Banana, Fanna, Fo-fom

Fee, Fie, Mo-mom

Tooo-ooom!

—-

Maddie, Maddie, Bo-baddie

Banana, Fanna, Fo-faddie

Fee, Fie, Mo-maddie

Maaad-die!

—-

Dave, Dave, Bo-bave

Banana, Fanna, Fo-fave

Fee, Fie, Mo-mave

Daaa-ve!

(Clue: Note the rhyming pattern. Pick a name. Say it twice, then drop the first letter of the name and substitute the silly consonants and sounds.)

SEE MORE CAR GAME IDEAS IN MY NEXT BLOG (3^rd in a series)!

*** If you are taking a laptop with you on your trip and have a 3G Internet card or have Internet hookup at your vacation lodging, Big Universe provides a portable library for children at your fingertips. With thousands of beautiful picture books available 24/7, there is no reason for your kids to experience “summer setback” in reading. Maintain or even improve their literacy skills with a wide assortment of fiction and non-fiction stories.

The ABCs of Car Games: Part One

Oprah Winfrey said, “My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”

I’ve always been an optimist, so I appreciate her sentiment. I try to look at the bright side of things and make the best of less than ideal situations – even imprisonment in a smallish vehicle with three other people.

 …That’s 70 cubic feet of space, divided by four – not counting the luggage, the snacks and the pillows. But, I suppose if Oprah and her best friend, Gayle King, can go cross country for 11 days in a little Chevy Impala, I can survive for five in an SUV. 

 Road trips. They can be viewed as either adventures or a stress-packed short cut to Purgatory – especially if children are involved. If vacations involve a lot of driving, parents MUST be prepared. Prepare or perish, I say!

A captive audience

Some of my girls’ fondest memories are of the vacations we took when they were little. It wasn’t necessarily the destination that thrilled them either. I worked hard to make the drive time fun…and educational…to make the most of a potentially difficult situation. I figured I had a captive audience and took advantage of the opportunity.

If you set your children up for a successful road trip, 99 percent of the time, that’s what you’ll get. Plan well, prepare your children, have a positive attitude…and pray like crazy. That was my formula. I desired happy children…but, I also wanted to avoid a nasty case of vehicular momicide.

 We listened to books on tape, and we played word games. (See car game at end of this article…and more in the next blog!) We sang and we TALKED about what we saw out the windows.

Building Blocks for Literacy

A language-rich environment like this helps children develop their vocabulary and their ability to communicate. They learn how to express their observations and opinions, to ask questions, and to listen – all building blocks for literacy. And, if parents engage fully, they can get to know the hearts of their children.

 One for You, and One for Me

Of course, what’s a car trip without snacks? I packed healthful treats in Ziplocs, but crossing state borders was something to really celebrate! One Gummi Worm for North Carolina. Two for Virginia. Three for West Virginia, and, well, when you hit Pennsylvania, you hit the Mother Lode!

What’s in the Bag?

There were always a few brown bags marked “Top Secret,” too. When we reached certain landmarks and IF the children behaved properly, they each got a bag with her name on it. Sometimes it contained a coloring book or puzzle booklet. Other times it had a 50-cent bracelet, a miniature dolly, a little book or a couple of plastic animals. (Note: Don’t forget something for the return voyage!)

NEVER, No Never Ever…

And, of course, we NEVER embarked on a long excursion without a fresh supply of books from the library. We wedged a laundry basket between the girls’ booster seats, which gave them easy access to a heap of books. We left a list of the library books taped to the refrigerator at home with their due dates to make their return easier and to minimize late fees. Our library was good about printing a list for us. 

Now with mobile 3G Internet cards becoming more common, network access on the road is possible. That means websites like BigUniverse.com and all its beautiful children’s picture books can go on vacation with you. Can’t get much better than that!

To help get all you road warriors ready for this summer’s trips, I have compiled a checklist to make your preparations kid-friendly.

How to Survive a Road Trip with Kids

1. Pack comfort items. Pillows, teddy and a favorite blanket.
2. Buy or borrow books on tape/CD. Great for when it gets dark.
3. Bring drinks in spill-proof containers. Pack individual snacks. Dry nibbles are best. There will be crumbs, so choose things that can be vacuumed up.
4. Don’t forget hand wipes to clean sticky faces and grimy hands.
5. Buy or borrow a fresh collection of age-appropriate books to fight boredom and make the trip go faster. Have older siblings read to their younger brothers and sisters. You’ll get twice the mileage from each book.
6. Pick out a few movies for the laptop or DVD player, but use sparingly. I suggest saving them for the return trip or for when it gets dark. Don’t forget headsets – unless you want to be humming kiddie songs for the next week.
7. Tuck Dramamine, ear patches or pressure-point bracelets in the glove compartment.
8. Pack a jump rope, Skip-It or football in the trunk to facilitate some quick exercise at rest stops. Antsy kids don’t make good passengers. Stop often.
9. Give each child their own flashlight. Just take my word on it. It’s a godsend, while en route and once you get to your destination. (Don’t forget a plug-in nightlight, too.)
10. . Place a few surprises in opaque gift bags: mini books, Matchbox cars, stickers, word search puzzles, sugarless gum, Polly Pocket dolls, tiny spiral notebooks and washable markers, mazes, string and string games booklet, etc.
11. . Prepare a list of car games and pack any necessary props. Many of them are good literacy builders, since they involve word and symbol recognition, playful rhymes, spelling, counting and writing.
12. . Add your own ideas to this list.

A Car Game for You

“Horse on Wheels” is a good car game for beginning readers. It involves observation, counting, spelling, writing and stickers. It can be competitive in nature or not. It’s a little like bingo and a little like the driveway basketball game “Horse” – only there is no hoop or basketball…or driveway for that matter! You do spell “h-o-r-s-e” though!

 It’s easy to play and only requires three simple components.

1. One sheet of stiff card stock, matte finish (no shine)
2. One child-safe washable marker or a pencil
3. One sheet of yard sale dot stickers (office supply aisle)

How to assemble: Take card stock and write the word “horse” in big bold letters across the top. Draw vertical lines from top to bottom between the letters. Draw horizontal lines to create squares big enough to fit a dot sticker in the middle. Add a few more horizontal lines to create rows of empty boxes big enough for a child to write the corresponding letter. (See graphic above.)

How to play: The child looks out the window until he or she spots a horse. For every horse, the child gets to add a sticker dot to the chart, placing it first under the letter “H,” then in the “O” column, and so on. After the sticker is in place, the child should write the letter below the sticker. The first child to write “horse” three times wins.

Note: We were driving through Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, so it was easy to count horses. Not so easy if you are sticking to urban byways. If this is the case, mark the top of your sheet with a different word or phrase: dog, police car, taxi, bridge and so on.

–  SEE MORE CAR GAME IDEAS IN MY NEXT BLOG!

*** If you are taking a laptop with you on your trip and have a 3G Internet card or have Internet hookup at your vacation lodging, Big Universe provides a portable library for children at your fingertips. With thousands of beautiful picture books available 24/7, there is no reason for your kids to experience “summer setback” in reading. Maintain or even improve their literacy skills with a wide assortment of fiction and non-fiction stories.

Batter Up! Baseball Stories for Summer Reading

A white rabbit with pink eyes appeared in my driveway two weeks ago. It was a tame rabbit and quite lost.

My property is far removed from suburbia, so I have no idea how he arrived where he did. He stuck out like a sore thumb and would have been better suited for the snowy Arctic, rather than a southern lane lined with kudzu, poison ivy and wild roses.

He reminded me of the three white bunnies my brother, sister and I got one Easter when we were little…and, oddly, of baseball. Weird, I know, but bear with me.

After we had eaten our jelly beans and a couple of chocolate malted eggs that Easter morning, we settled down to name our new pets. It only took about 10 minutes. Their names were “Cherry Blossom,” “Apple Blossom” and “Harmon Killebrew.”

For the unenlightened, hoppin’ Harmon was named after my brother’s hero, a powerful home run slugger for the American League in the 1960s. We had recently moved away from River Falls, Wisc. – not far from The Twin Cities, the home of the Minnesota Twins, whom my brother Glenn loved. In particular, he worshipped Harmon Clayton Killebrew, who had hit 49 homers the previous season, driving in 140 runs and garnering the MVP Award.

…Naming his new rabbit “Harmon Killebrew” was the sincerest form of flattery.

My brother played baseball, so I did too. He charted each game he watched on TV, so I learned as well. He got sports books for his birthday and Christmas as gifts, and although I loved horse books more, I read his baseball stories – because to me a book was a book. I read whatever I could get my hands on…plus my brother was my hero.

He’s still an avid sports fan today, and he still likes to read. My parents were wise, giving each of us books tailored to our interests. They fed our passions and hobbies, while promoting literacy in a natural way. Our interests expanded and so did our reading material. I followed my parents’ example with my children, and they are both book lovers with a broad range of interests and a penchant for learning.

Families with baseball loyalties or who are spending time at the diamonds this summer will be happy to know that BigUniverse.com has just added some online baseball-themed books for young readers. They are a good fit for the sports-minded kid and a perfect way to fight ”summer setback” in the reading department. I think they’ll be a hit. Batter up!

• “Baseball” by Holly Karapetkova. Interest level 3-8. Grade: 1. Reading level: C. (Rourke Publishing)
• “First Basemen” by Tom Greve. Interest level: 6-12. Grade: 3-4. Reading level: O. (Rourke Publishing)
•  “Catchers” by Tom Greve. Interest level: 6-12. Grade: 3-4. Reading level: O. (Rourke Publishing)
• “The Baseball Card” by Jack Siemiatycki, Avi Slodovnick and illustrator Laura Watson. Interest level: 3-12. Grade: 3. Reading level: N. (Lobster Press)
• “Jackie Robinson Graphic Biography” by Saddleback Educational Publishing. Interest level: 6 and older. Grade: 4-5. Reading level: Q, R, S, T.
• “Babe Ruth Graphic Biography” by Saddleback Educational Publishing. Interest level: 3 and up. Grade: 4-5. Reading level: Q, R, S, T.

Also, Embracing the Child, Common Sense Media and Scripps Howard News Service offer their own lists of kid-friendly baseball books. Check them out.

Fight Summer Setback with Free Books

Summer is a mixed bag. There’s a little yin, a little yang and a whole lot of gray in between. There’s barbecue, baseball and beaches on the one hand and mosquito bites, sun burn and educational backsliding on the other.

Citronella candles, Skin So Soft Bug Guard Plus – SPF 30, and hats with brims will minimize two of the season’s pitfalls. A couple reading incentive programs by three national retailers will help minimize the third issue. 

• In a week, the Barnes & Noble Passport to Summer Reading program kicks off. Participating children, grades 1-6, use the bookstore’s summer reading passport to list each book he or she has read, including the title, author and locations mentioned in the story. Once the child has read eight books and recorded his efforts, he turns in the form for approval at the nearest Barnes & Noble store. Then the child is rewarded with a FREE book from a list of preselected titles. He also gets a chance to win a set of signed “The 39 Clues” books. The literacy initiative runs May 25 through Sept. 7.

•  If a child – 12 or younger – reads 10 books and fills out Borders’ Double Dog Dare Summer Reading Program form and turns it in, he gets a FREE book from the store’s summer reading titles. The program is under way and will continue until Aug. 26 or until books are gone. Forms may be turned at Borders, Waldenbooks or Borders Express.

• Kids up to the age of 14 can take part in Half Price Books’ Feed Your Brain Reading Program from June 1 until July 31. Participants are required to read for 15 minutes or more for five days each week to earn a FREE $3 gift card redeemable at Half Price Books Store. Kids simply need to print and fill out the Feed Your Brain log. They may use any reading material and can earn up to $15 in vouchers.

Local school, library or community group initiatives are a great resource to prevent reading skill loss over the summer too; however, parent facilitation is key. A child can’t drive to the local bookstore and may need help printing out the online forms and completing them.

A handmade chart will help keep track of daily reading goals, and parents can bump up the motivation factor for reluctant readers by adding bonuses when a goal is met: sticks of sugarless gum, 10 minutes of extra computer time, a visit to a new pool, stickers, a quarter in a jar toward the purchase of a new toy, or yard time with a soccer ball and dad. It doesn’t matter what method you use as long as books get read. Just a little effort yields so much!

“While the statistics on summer reading loss seem discouraging, there are answers,” say University of Florida education professors Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington in an article titled “Bridging the Summer Reading Gap” on Scholastic.com. “Studies suggest that children who read as few as six books over the summer maintain the level of reading skills they achieved during the preceding school year. Reading more books leads to even greater success,” they note. “When children are provided with 10 to 20 self-selected children’s books at the end of the regular school year, as many as 50 percent not only maintain their skills, but actually make reading gains.”

While B&N, Borders and Half-Price Books offer their reading initiative in the summer months, BigUniverse.com promotes literacy year round. This award-winning educational website offers thousands of colorful books with page-flip animation. Whether parent, teacher or homeschooler, this virtual library is the perfect antidote to “summer setback.”

No bug spray or suntan lotion required.

* If you are a frugal soul, check out “Tips for Getting More Books in 2010.”  In this blog, I list economic ways to add to your child’s home library.

Children, Books and Summer Vacation

It can be hard to keep a child motivated about reading when vacation arrives. Many kids drop the books when school ends and don’t pick them up again until school begins again. That can be detrimental to the learning process! Vacation is a wonderful time to help children extend their reading experiences. There are numerous books that can be used in conjunction with your travels. This is a great way to help children make connections between their world and the print world. When a child learns to make connections between what they read and what is happening in their world they learn a very important strategy in reading. Making personal connections to text, connections between text and happenings in the world and connections between one text and another text a child has read are very important methods for a child to become better readers. Reading is not decoding of words. Reading is understanding the words that have been decoded and finding some meaning in them!

The book Using Math Outdoors by author Amy Rauen and book publisher Weekly Reader is a math counting book that is great to read and then follow-up with a fun day on the beach imitating the activities from the book. The children in the book write numbers in the sand, count sea shells and rocks, and do some math. For the older kids there are several wonderful books. Weekly Reader has a book called Deep Sea Fishing by William David Thomas. It’s a beautifully well written picture book that will be a big hit with the kids before they hit the beach. The book details the different types of fishing, fishermen and the different fish that are caught in various areas around the world. Seasquirt Publications gives us The One Sea, Voices from the Deep by David Pierce Hughes. Learn about the Albatross, Crab and Sea Urchin and read about the Coral Reef, Penguins, the Abyss and more. If staying home is your plan for summer vacation then Illumination Arts Publishing has the book. Just Imagine by Thompson and Schultz is a beautifully detailed picture book that takes children to space, sailing on the ocean, and to dinner with kings and queens, anywhere their own imagination can guide them. Each of these books and many more are available to be read online over and over again at Big Universe, or the books can be purchased or found at your library.

As the kids gather their own memories of summer have them write their own book. On Big Universe  kids, teachers, anyone, can use some powerful authoring tools to create, print and even publish their own book. Pictures can be imported or you can use any of the almost 7000 clipart pictures that are already available on the site. When the teacher asks, “What did you do on your summer vacation?” why not hand her a copy of your book. That would be impressive!

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