Beach Favorites

While in the bookstore today, I happened upon a book I could not resist. As soon as I saw the cover, it called my daughter's name. She loves shells and as I have mentioned in a previous post, she also loves small books. Shell Crazy (A Crazy Little Series) by Tracy Gallup is a sweet short story about a sister and brother who love to hunt for shells on the beach. What drew me to the book was less about the words and more about the pictures. Each page is a photograph incorporating Tracy's handmade figures with a variety of shells. Our personal favorite is a reproduction of The Birth of Venus. Tracy has also published Stone Crazy as the first in this series and we look forward to more! Here are just a couple of our must-read summer beach books that precede our trips to the seacoast in New Hampshire.


Beach by Elisha Cooper. This beautiful book highlights all of the things you see in a visit to the ocean from the sunburns to the sandcastles dripped from wet sand. It begins with the arrival to the beach and shows the dwindling crowd as the day ends. The pictures show the long stretch of the beach and the peaches, pinks, blues and whites perfectly illustrate the sand and water of the day. The book is huge and with all if it's people-watching delights it is a book for everyone in the family to enjoy.


Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies
We love to watch the bats at dusk around our house and my kids love this book as a nighttime read aloud. The artwork is fabulous and the rhyming text is fun to read. There are some very funny details in the pictures. Take the time to explore.

Flotsam by Davis Weisner
A wordless picture book that needs little explanation since it won the Caldecott for 2006. If you have not seen this yet you need to get your hands on it. Imaginative, brilliant, and stunning.

In the blink of an eye!

In our school district their is a quiet pressure to have your child reading before they enter first grade. (We also do not have public Kindergarten.) I am not sure where the pressure comes from, the school district or fellow parents who are working with their children at an early age, but I feel it. So we have been working with our oldest on his phonemic skills. He loves books. He loves to collect them and we have been reading chapter books to him since he was three. And now he is beginning to read at a basic level and while exciting, I worry that he really does not want to read although he can. My worries are disappearing after a not-to-be-forgotten comment this week.
Surf that Wave is the first book my son has loved to read over and over again. Maybe because it is surfing or maybe because it is Backyardigans. (Maybe both!) In his words to his best friend while discussing books at our local library,

"I can read it in the blink of an eye."

Audio Books at Wendy's

I try not to eat fast food too often, but when we do we go to Wendy's since they have no trans fat in their foods. Recently, my kids and I discovered Wendy's is substituting the traditional toy for audio books from Listening Library. We were excited to get a Junie B. Jones book today!
By the way, our all time favorite audio book is Stink and the Incredible Super-Galactic Jawbreaker which is narrated by Nancy Cartwright. (THE voice of Bart Simpson.)

TeacherTube

I just found TeacherTube after seeking funny videos to show my graduate class this weekend. Until now, I only knew Youtube.
Here is a great video of a teacher rap. Way to motivate your students!

Robots, Puppies, and Hermit Crabs-Oh my!

These are the summer interests for my kids. After being inspired by a recent post at Chicken Spaghetti and then linking to it in my previous post on summer reading, I asked my kids what they would like to most explore this summer. My six year old would love to explore robots. My four year old puppies, and my three year old is currently fascinated by our pet hermit crabs.
Here is a list of robot resources for anyone else that needs more on this topic. I will post later on hermit crabs and puppies.

Can You See What I See (The first in the series) by Walter Wick
My six year has loved these books since he was two. We have all of them! We find them more interesting than the I Spy books since there is a little character Seymour that appears in every picture and it can be a challenge to find him. In this book, there is a two page spread with a large diagram of a tin-can robot with metal parts surrounding the diagram.
We have spent alot of time searching for the drawn parts in the pile of junk on the page. At the end of the book right before the end papers is the actual built robot chasing Seymour!
Can You See What I See-Cool Collections by Walter Wick
In this book one of the collections feature robots. In the "About the Book" section, the author gives credit to a robot collector for allowing Walter to use his robots in his photograph. My son has one of the robots in the picture and would like to own many more. I have found many collectible robots at Schylling.com.
Can You See What I See-Dream Machine by Walter Wick
This book has robots here and there throughout. It's futuristic theme is also very appealing.
My Little Blue Robot by Stephen T. Johnson
We have ordered this book and are impatiently waiting for it to arrive. Each page holds parts to a robot that the child can build and the robot talks!
Benjamin McFadden and the Robot Babysitter by Timothy Bush
This book is a favorite bedtime read. It's review from School Library journal was not as favorable but nearly every parent review on Amazon sings praises for a book their children love. Adding a babysitter robot voice also adds tremendously!
Rolie Polie Olie by William Joyce.
We loved Olie in book form before we ever watched the Disney show.
Hello Robots! by Bob Staake
This story is completely done in computer graphics making it futuristic in both design and topic. This is a great read aloud.

Since my six year old also has some beginning reading skills, I am always on the lookout for good early readers that include his interests. We have found:
If I Had A Robot Dog by Andrea Baruffi
See Otto by David Milgrim
Alien and Possum: Friends No Matter What by Tony Johnston illustrated by Toni Diterlizzi (Alien is a robot!)

We plan on making tin robots this summer. We have directions from an old copy of Martha Stewart Kids Magazine. I could only find Tin-can Robot Dog Directions online.
-4m sells a robot making kit
-A blog on robots from the Robot Society-Robot Gossip
-If you have $250.00 to spend, Lego makes a very cool robot kit.

Finally, I must mention that one of the reasons he gravitates towards robots is because he is a huge Transformers fan. He watches the cartoon and has collected the action figures for three years. He is amazing in his abilities to follow directions and "transform" them from car to robot, figuring out details I would have never noticed.
If you have any other resources to share, please leave a comment! We are lacking in our non-fiction resources. Thanks!

Another way to waste time while I should be working...

This was fun to make and you can make one at Voki.com. I ran across this while seeking blogging tools to share with my students in Marietta next week. Not sure how I got here....



Get a Voki now!

Summer Reading Updates

I recently ran across two interesting links to add to my summer reading programs.
Over at Lectitans you can participate in a Pirate Reading Challenge until September 19th and the Today Show has announced their 3rd book in their summer book club, Swordbird. I had read the first two books before they were announced, but I have not read Swordbird which was written by Nancy Yi Fan when she was 12 years old. Sounds interesting (a bit like Redwall) and I will be off to the bookstore or library to find it.
Coming next week:
Following my kids interests: Robots, Butterflies, and Puppies! Oh my!

Personal Policies Meme

I've been tagged for a Personal Policies Meme by HipWriterMama who always comments on my new blog and makes me feel a genuine part of the blogging community. This is also my first meme and as some others have mentioned it is one that requires some thought especially since many policies have been thrown out the window since having three kids in four years. Here it goes:
1. My kids go with me everywhere. I have always thought that if I take my kids to a variety of places they will be better behaved and learn more. My friends have always marvelled at my ability to go out to eat on a Friday night with three small ones or going on a 2.5 hour trip to the Eric Carle Museum for the day. If I want to do it I don't let the ages of my kids hold me back. We just go!
2. On the other side, I like to make sure my kids have time to play at home and are not overbooked. My kids are allowed one sport at a time. I love to look out my back door and watch them playing independently and doing things kids should be doing. My six year old climbs trees. My four year old makes mud buckets and my three year old does just about everything he can think of.
3. I must exercise three times a week for my health and well-being.
4. Although I love the library, I make a monthly trip to the bookstore with my kids so they can browse and pick out one book "to keep" as they say.
5. I allow myself lots of chocolate.

Final Late Check-in

Well, I read as much as I could considering I was visiting with family in Maine this weekend and watching three kids as my husband flew home from Australia where they just had one of the biggest storms in 30 years! Oh, and I also caught a nasty cold from my two year old and wanted to sleep for two days.
It's not much but here are my statistics. Sorry, MotherReader for not posting them sooner.
I finished a book! For me this rarely happens in a weekend since my reading is so broken up.
I also started three other books. (I had a hard time making decisions.)
Book Finished: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
This was a total page turner. I loved it possibly more than the first and I am very excited to get to the library and check out the third in the series. I love these book for many reasons, but here are some:
1.)Exciting, fast-paced adventure
2.)Mythological creatures and Gods with contemporary twists. It is so much fun figuring out who is who and who belongs to who and how the myths are related.
3. I never get lost in my reading. If I have an interruption I just pick up the book and find my place so easily.

I also started Pond Scum, The Sisters Grimm, and Physik.
Total Books Finished:1 (Books read from-4)
Total Pages Read:503
Total Hours Spent:6 hours 30 minutes

Not award winning for sure, but not bad considering I did spend a great weekend with my family and got sick. Maybe next time I might take a needed vacation and spend a couple days in a spa with my books!

48 Hour Book Challenge

Although I am watching three kids and visiting with my parents this weekend I will read as much as I can.

My list of hopeful reads:
A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett
Physik by Angie Sage
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley
I, Coriander by Sally Gardner
Pond Scum by Alan Silberberg

Happy Reading and thanks for the motivating challenge MotherReader!