I have to admit, I have a thing for this boy's feet. I love everything about them. Even the dirt. A tidier mother might have told him to get his dirty feet off the table and go wash them, but me? I grabbed my camera. Anyways, I'd rather wash the tablecloth (which needs regular washing anyways) than interrupt a reading boy.
He and his sister fought over who got to read the book first. It usually drives me up the wall when they fight, but I was grinning ear to ear over this particular sibling conflict. The book worth battling for: I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916 by Lauren Tarshis.
My kids love the "I Survived" books, and I'm wondering, why didn't I think of writing these books? I'm no Lauren Tarshis, of course, but I can imagine that writing first person narratives of historical events for kids would be an intriguing writing project. As a homeschooling mom, I'm thrilled that my kids are getting a big dose of Social Studies and Reading in the same gulp.
If you're the type of mom who gets excited about children's books and children who read, you're probably already a fan of the e-zine, Alphabet Glue. Annie has created another wonderful copy of her magazine "for kids who love books (and their grown-ups)" (love her tag line).
Volume 3 of Alphabet Glue is packed with inspiring book lists, story maps, handmade book tutorials, story starters, and a mathematical story chart (for the homeschooling mom who loves an activity which encompasses Literature and Math at the same time!).
Annie has generously offered to giveaway five copies of Alphabet Glue Volume 3 to readers of A Foothill Home Companion. Lucky you! (And lucky me that you're here reading my blog! Word on the street is that blogs are dying in the shadow of Facebook and Twitter. Tell me it isn't so!)
To enter the drawing, leave a comment with one of your family's favorite book related activities or projects. We'd love to hear how you make reading come alive and extend beyond the binding of the book.
And don't worry about this blog dying. I'm old school. You can have your Facebook and Twitter. I'll hang on to my wordy, picture filled, sporadic blog posts.
P.S. For more pictures and less words, you can find me over on Habit this month.
Oooooh! I'll have to look for those books.
ReplyDeleteOur favorite reading activities. Hmm. My oldest likes to write comics with the characters in them, or act out parts of the books outside with his brothers. Personally, I just love talking about books. Though lately we've been reading books that have been made into movies. Lots of fun discussions there.
me too! my son reads ALL the time - in the car, at the dinner table, watching T.V. (my favorite). i love that and i hope he never looses his interest. thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteyou don't have to enter me in the give-a-way, I just wanted to say my blog isn't dying. I don't do facebook or twitter nor plan too. Give me a blog (like yours) any day of the week instead :)
ReplyDeleteWe've started a family writing club, held Saturday evenings. The promise of refreshments - hot chocolate and popcorn - holds only some of the allure. : )
ReplyDeleteOh, and we're called Quills R Us, or so I've been told.
Thanks for hosting!
~Andrea
Molly - can I please re-post this post on my blog? My oldest loved each and every one of these books (we found them as a set at a yard-sale for a dollar, can you believe?) and we brought home from the library the huge oversize DK book, "Story of the Titanic" and Nick wished he could jump in the book and walk around... that is some booky love there.
ReplyDeleteI loved winning the Alphabet Glue activities in July. Would love to win again.
Our current fave book activity is from "Look What I Did With A Leaf" which I will be posting on next week when we complete the leaf animals that they are in the middle of creating. This book took us on amazing walking adventures and taught my children about the types of trees and their leaves in our town and surrounding woods and lake. Magical, I tell you. At your library.
xoxo michele
Years ago, my little girl and I walked down the street to the goofy-old-thing store many times before deciding that it was worth it to buy a set of dishes with "pictures all in blue" like the ones in the Frances book. They were way too expensive and we really had enough dishes but Frances had such a hold on our imagination that we had to have them. They didn't exactly match, we found when we got home, and many have since been broken, but we still eat from them every day. And still refer to them as the dishes with "pictures all in blue".
ReplyDeleteMy daughter (she's in the picture book set) likes to do art projects around the books she loves, trying to recreate and explore the styles and mediums of the illustrators. But my son is all about dramatizing and inventing alternative endings.
ReplyDeleteOh yay! I love Alphabet Glue. And Annie. And you. And reading. I love all of it.
ReplyDeletewell....right now, freshest in memory is visiting an Ingalls homestead. talk about bringing something to life!
ReplyDeleteLOVE the new header-so so pretty. Would love to win the latest & greatest copy of Alphabet Glue-it looks just as awesome as volumes 1 & 2! (I totally didn't mean for that to rhyme.) Anyway, with school, homework, and sports lately we are just sticking with the tried and true reading and cuddling before bed-you can't beat it! Thanks for the chance.
ReplyDeleteoh i love learning about something i don't know about.
ReplyDeletelately we have been using " rip the page" and exploring our writing as part of our homeschool learning.
My girls love the American Girl books so we started an American Girl club in our home school group. Such fun!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog(I can't find where to follow,I check in daily and added you to my sidebar)
ReplyDeleteMy son loves old books like WESTERN and INDIAN books he will go and make things they used after he reads them.some times I can see him out hearding the cats and chickens like the books he just read.
I did facebook but quit,my blog is trying to keep up with others but no matter what it is my way of blogging about our homeschool and homesteading
ReplyDeletewhenever my oldest finds a book he particularly loves, he writes and illustrates a bunch of plots based on the characters, in order to have a whole series to enjoy. Also (this isn't so much about bringing books to life but it makes me happy), my mother, who lives across the ocean from us, calls us using skype most evenings, and reads a chapter of a book to the boys.
ReplyDeleteOne of our all-time favorite book activities is reading aloud to each other. We are book addicts over here!
ReplyDeleteRead alouds and animal sounds pretty much sums up our reading activities. My sonis 15 months old and can't get enough Brown Bear, Brown Bear.
ReplyDeleteNEVER interrupt a reader or wake a sleeping baby/kid. My mottos!! Love anything to do with great book titles!
ReplyDeleteI love climbing into bed to read to the kiddies and then discovering the dirty feet and footprints by looking at the sheets. Lovely blog!
ReplyDeleteThis looks wonderful. My daughter is already passing on her love of reading to my granddaughter.
ReplyDeleteWe love the book The Apple Doll this time of year! We love to go apple picking and make apple dolls of our own.
ReplyDeleteThis looks fabulous. Fingers crossed!
We love to read, and I have an 8yr old with similar feet. He loves being barefoot. I think you need to stop talking about blogs dying. I know this is the rumor, but I just won't believe it. Hmmm...we love to read and then talk and talk and talk about the books. It usually leads us onto the path of further investigation on topics inspired by the book.
ReplyDeleteI don't Facebook or Twitter. The blog is alive and well as far as I can see. I believe it is a more personal and creative media than either of the other two.
ReplyDeleteRegarding reading...our favourite is Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett. Either Daddy or me reads the book out loud whilst the children (aged 2 and 3) act out the animals. It's usually very riotous and loud but they love it and as my husband is often away on business he knows it off by heart and can tell them the story by phone or Skype and maintain the connection with them.
Oh, I loved this post! Blogs seem like such a perfect medium to me in so many ways - FB and Twitter just can't compete.
ReplyDeleteMy little guy likes to act stories out, too. I love watching how he processes all of the things in his own life as he acts out the adventures of the characters in the stories. I'm working on putting together a dress-up box for him for Christmas; I think it will be a hit. :)
I have just fallen in love with your blog. I covet the lifestyle of those whom pursued the homesteading life and whom have a knack for arts and crafts. Thanks for sharing your heart and your talent!
ReplyDeletewe are whipping through the books by Lloyd Alexander about Taran the Wanderer. My kids are 3,5,6,&8 and they are all completely enthralled w/the story. Right now their favorite activity is to pretend to be characters from the story by dressing up & running through the house. :) I love to have them draw pictures of what they think the characters look like...interesting to see where their imaginations take them!
ReplyDeleteHmmm. Dying? I've wondered. I do think that comments are down across the board, because FB and Twitter have accustomed us to short bursts of response, or even just hitting the "like" button. Oh, wait, you have 26 comments so far, so never mind. ;-) No, but seriously, I've heard that from other bloggers as well. Keep it up, though, Molly! Some of us still appreciate the value of well-strung words!
ReplyDeleteOooh, count me in! Not very original I'm afraid, but our favorite book-related activity is probably just spending time at the library. There is a great kid's room at our local branch that my 3-year-old loves.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard about this e-zine before. We did three activities this week around books -
ReplyDelete1. Instead of driving to the library we kayaked to the library with my daughter dressed as a cat.
2. We read Stellaluna about a Mother bat and her baby bat and then I kayaked my daughter to a Flying Fox bat colony up a local creek. It was the first time she'd seen a bat colony and flying foxes up close.
3. We made a Heidi style dirndl out of fabric scraps someone had given us.
Felicity St.John
I love finding books for my 2 year old that encourage movement as well. Picture books with lots of animals that we can act like or ones that you can dance with like Barnyard Dance.
ReplyDeleteas @ pass-ed.com
Thanks!
We used to have a "daily fable" book that our mom read us from every day. And there were lots of drawings, laughter and story-mutations afterwards!
ReplyDeleteHello, I've just found you via sew mama sew. You have such a beautiful blog. I hope blogs like yours never die. People who can write like you do are such a gift.
ReplyDeleteMy son likes factual books our favourite is an old ladybird book called Pond Life, we take it nextdoor to Grandma and Grandad's garden and see what we can find in their pond.
When I was little I wanted to earn the books girl scout badge and one of the activities was making a "book on tape". I quickly got out one of my favorite books "Owl at Home" and got to work. When my first daughter was about the same age and needed an activity I told her about it. She promptly found a book and got to work. It is super fun to find the page turn sound effect and any other sound effects that might go with the story. Then when you are finished your little siblings (and your mamma) can enjoy your masterpiece!
ReplyDeleteWe are a Five In A Row family around here and love mixing up activities like apple pie baking and paper airplane flying with the books we read. Would love to get this e-zine!
ReplyDeleteMy oldest likes to write comics with the characters in them, or act out parts of the books outside with his brothers.
ReplyDeletethank you for being my go-to blog for kid's reading recommendations. I think my girls will love that series. and me too. I'm a total sucker for survival stories.
ReplyDelete