Pie In The Sky

Lois Ehlert is this month's featured author for the Virtual Book Club For Kids (hosted by Toddler Approved, Mommy & Me Book Club, and The Educators' Spin On It).  K & I listened to a reading of Ms. Ehlert's colorful Pie In The Sky on youtube, being as Baby Girl's been quite curious with the laptop lately...

* Story:  Pie In The Sky by Lois Ehlert
* Age:  1
* Activities/ Experiences:
          1. Collect leaves.
          2. Paint sky's reflection with mirror.
          3. Bake mini cherry pies.

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1. Collect leaves.  For the tree aspect of this book, we ventured out into the backyard.  Checked out the trees.  Looked up at the sky & clouds.  Piled up leaves.  Crunched them, threw them, examined them.  'Tis the autumn season!

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2. Paint sky's reflection with mirror.  Pie In The Sky!  This title immediately reminded me of a blog post I'd seen for "painting the sky."  It took a little searching, but I did find it again at Growing A Jeweled Rose.  (Check it out; the creativity in this activity is brilliant!)

Since the story is about growing cherries on a tree, then turning them into a luscious pie... K finger painted on a mirror with cherry pie filling.  All the while... her face, the sky, & trees reflected back at her!

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 3.  Bake mini cherry pies.  A taste-test!  We made a cherry filling from scratch and baked them in little pie crusts in a muffin tin.  (Used a recipe at Sew Sweet Stitches I found on pinterest.  Thanks yet again, Pinterest!)  Did the same with canned filling.  And although the bright, red canned-filling did look prettier, we all agreed the homemade filling was sweeter & tastier.  --Well, that's what daddy & I said, anyway.  Baby K seemed to equally enjoy both!   

Check out more Lois Ehlert activities: 

My Very Own Fairy Tale

I highly recommend the website for this book!  I See Me offers personalized books that spell any child's name...  In this particular story, My Very Own Fairy Tale, the name is spelled in rhyme by fairies.  It made for a special birthday gift!

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* Story:  My Very Own Fairy Tale by I See Me
* Age:  Our sweet baby turned ONE!
* Activities/ Experiences:                                                             
          1. Fairy Dress-Up.
          2. One-derful Woodland Fairy Party.

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1.  Fairy Dress-Up.  I just couldn't resist!!!  A sweet, playful way to celebrate our Baby K... 
(I can't wait to show her these photos some day!)

tutu & wings (etsy)



wings, sunbeams, & enchanted forest



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fairy pretty

2.  One-derful Woodland Fairy Party.  Oh how I love themes.  LOVE them!  For a memorable & unique way to honor our baby girl, we decided on this particular fairy idea, based on a doll K received from her Auntie S.  --Its as sweet & special as she is!

Here's MAGICAL details of the big day:
*  Whimsical decorations: Tulle & glitter, of course.  :)
*  Natural elements: ROCKS painted as labels, MOSS on the cake table, &   TREE stumps as platters & a cake stand.
*  Fairy drinks: juice = PIXIE PUNCH, water = BIRTHDAY RAINDROPS, & soda = MORNING DEW
*  Fairy treats: berries, pretzel twigs, & mints as BUTTERFLY KISSES

party prep: making flower head wreaths

party prep: painting rocks

 

almonds = EGGS in nests, cotton candy sticks = FAIRY WANDS (etsy)

raspberries & marshmallows = MAGIC MUSHROOMS

bubbles = FAIRY WISHES

butterfly snacks (juggling with kids)

pixie sticks & honey sticks







 










cupcakes like MUSHROOMS

Happy Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!!  Every moment with you is FAIRY much a blessing!

The Three Bears

A classic must-read!

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*  Story:  The Three Bears by Byron Barton
*  Age:  11 months
*  Activity/ Experience:
          1. Play with oats.

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1.  Play with oats.  This really held Baby K's interest!  Dumping & pouring with the bowls, funnel, & scoop.  Examining, inspecting, & feeling the "porridge."  Even daddy commented, "Wow, she's been playing with that for a long time!"   

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, & The Big Hungry Bear (again)

We love this book!  With its strawberry theme, we concocted a yummilicious-smelling playdough for Baby K to explore.

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*  Story: The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, & The Big Hungry Bear by Don & Audrey Wood  (again)
*  (See another fun post of this blog titled The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, & The Big Hungry Bear.) 
*  Age:  infant 
*  Activity/ Experience:
          1.  Playdough. 

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1. Strawberry-scented playdough.   Played with this a lot here at home, and took some to daycare to share with friends too.  Baby K squeezed, patted, manipulated, & tore off little pieces of the dough with great concentration.  --It clearly doesn't taste good though, as she put some in her mouth then quickly spit it back out.  I love how our Sweet Pea is willing to try new things!!  

Here's how we made the dough, using recipes on cooks.com as a guide:
Mix 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup salt, 2 tablespoons cream of tartar, & 2 packages of strawberry Crystal Light.  Add 1 cup water & 1 tablespoon oil.  Stir over medium heat until mixture forms a ball.  Knead until smooth & store in air-tight container.

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, & The Big Hungry Bear

A splendid book Baby K has enjoyed since the womb.  (Seriously!  Often read it to my belly via a fetal microphone!  -Okay, that sounds a little weird.  --But I was EXCITED!!!)  Regardless, this story offers an excellent opportunity to incorporate all the senses.  I was glad to refer to it for the Summer Virtual Book Club, since I'm sure we'd all agree, babies do indeed investigate their world with a lot of tasting, smelling, feeling, hearing, & seeing. 

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Story: The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, & The Big Hungry Bear by Don & Audrey Wood
Age:  infant
*  Activities/ Experiences:                              
          1.  The 5 senses with strawberries.
          2.  Fingerprint onesie.

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1.  5 senses with strawberries:
Taste:  Strawberry-flavored lip gloss.  (Mmm, tasty AND pretty!)  Earth's Best Brand of strawberry banana baby food.  Strawberry-flavored freeze-dried yogurt.
Smell:  Strawberry-scented bubbles.  Strawberry-scented wax.  (Never to soon to give a "nose for knowledge!")
Feel:  Plastic strawberries, large enough to not be a choking hazard of course.  --They've been left accessible in her play area, to repeat the experience whenever she wishes.  And she does!  Even took them in the bath.

sweet bubbles

Hear:  Plopped the plastic strawberries in a bucket of water.  --This was quite entertaining!!  Baby Girl really got the giggles when the strawberries clunked into a cup.
See:  Went to our town's annual Strawberry Festival.  Bought red ripe berries, put them in a sensory baggie for squooshing, and it was pretty funny to watch K carry the bag while scooting around the kitchen.  -Carefully.  As if she had a bundle of precious jewels!

plastic berries

plastic water berries

toting the goods

outside plastic water berries

in the bath

bag o' squished strawberries

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  2.  Fingerprint onesie.

Inked up Baby K's fingertips.  (Mommy & Daddy too!)  Her red fingers grabbed a handful of the onesie, leaving splotches on the material.  Drew "seeds" & "stems" with fabric markers, transforming the prints into strawberries.  Then, added a mouse iron-on to complete the book's look!

(before)

(during)

(after)

 

Check out these other brilliant activities done with Don & Audrey Woods' books:

A Picnic With Monet (again)

Bonjour!  Today we revisit the beautiful artwork of Claude Monet in this simple, yet eye-catching board book.

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*  Story:  A Picnic With Monet by Julie Merberg & Suzanne Bober

*  (See a previous post of this book, titled A Picnic With Monet)

*  Age:  infant

*  Activities:

1.  French breakfast.

2.  Floral sensory bottles.

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1.  French breakfast.  Now that Baby Girl is starting to chew with her gums...  I was looking forward to sharing my favorite French breakfast with her.  We headed to our town's Farmers Market, pretending to stroll a french open-air market along the Mediterranean.  (Oh I hope Baby K shares my imagination some day!)  Picked out a delicious strawberry crêpe, and was reminded how I did this very thing last year, insisting my pregnant belly chose this treat!  We washed it down with Le Chocolat Chaud, my most favorite french breakfast item.  I am ecstatic to have found a recipe reminiscent to what I drank every morning in Paris umpteen years ago.

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2.  Floral sensory bottles.

silk flowers, oil, water, food coloring, marbles

silk flowers, oil, water, food coloring, pebbles

A Picnic With Monet

One of my very favorite painters!  Excited to share this board book of Monet's art with Baby K...  His depictions of nature & landscapes are certainly appealing to the senses.

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*  Story:  A Picnic With Monet by Julie Merberg & Suzanne Bober

*  Age:  infant

*  Activities:

1.  Picnic.

2.  Feet painting.
3.  Butterfly craft (& mommy's tattoo!).

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1.  Picnic...  with Monet's paintings!

picnic among the trees

age 8 months

Monet's art joined our evening.

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age 2 months

2.  Feet painting.  Baby Girl has done a few feet paintings while lying on her activity mat...  But now that she can sit up, she's graduated to feet painting in her jumperoo!  I just dab a lil acrylic paint on the paper while she squishes, squooshes, stomps, & splats with her feet.  Its messy fun! 

Taken from a brain-based learning class, Mozart's Piano Sonata in D Major was a great, fast-tempo, accompaniment to this activity. 

age 9 months

Aww, baby legs.



Paint! Paint!

 4.  Butterfly craft.  And mommy's tattoo!  I've done the painted butterfly footprints with Baby K a few different times now.  They are such a cute keepsake to hang on the wall & to make into cards.  Even though, I gotta say, I find getting a baby's footprint to be quite a challenge! 

While creating these latest momentos, it struck me.  What a brilliant idea for a TATTOO!  I searched online, thinking I couldn't possibly be the only person to come up with this.  And I did find some cartoon-looking tattoos, but I really wanted was something more realistic.  I put my design on paper, gave it to an amazing tattoo artist, and she turned my vision into a piece of art!!  Even though this was a rather impulsive creation (usually I'm much more of a planner!), I ADORE carrying my baby's precious little feet with me wherever I go...   

Wow, perhaps Monet is even more INSPIRATIONAL than I thought!  :)