Board Books - not just for babies

 Board books are works of art in the hands of children.  Usually colorful illustrations accompany simple text.  This is what makes them perfect for early readers.

 Want to encourage a toddler or preschooler to get a bath? Read a book like this where different animals get different kinds of baths and pair with an animals.  Let them take the animals into the bath with them.  Clean the animals. Clean yourself.  It's a parent win!

 Board books are great for teaching early concepts like counting and letter sounds.  One Tiger is thee perfect counting book!

 Add animals to any book for kiddos to get excited about storytime and reading.  Someday, when I decide to go get a PhD, I am going to write about how making characters from a book tangible to children helps them to comprehend and retain the book more completely.  And, hey, how cute is this Schleich Bear?  When children have props, they can later act out or retell the story.

Make the story come alive.  Preschoolers love the book Dinosaur Roar!  let them retell it with their favorite dinosaurs.

Duck Books - Great Easter Presents

If you have a toddler or kid under 5 in yours life, these are the perfect Easter basket books!  Well, they are great for year 'round, but especially great for Easter.  Cute illustrations, simple text, a few ducking shenanigans, and fun!  We read these ALL the time.

Have a fun and playful day
Mel

Duck Books - Great Easter Presents by melanieshanks on Polyvore

Children's Book - Penguin Cha-Cha

Since it seems like Winter is nevvvvver going away (at least here in Ohio!), we might as well talk penguins.  We discovered this fantastic read aloud by Kristi Valiant a year ago, and it continues to be one of our favorites.  Julia follows some mischievous penguins around the zoo.  It really is laugh out loud funny the things these penguins do.  After we read the book, we picked out a penguin toob from Safari Ltd and made a clothespin doll of Julia and reenacted the book over and over.  It's a great read aloud.

Children's Book - Penguin Cha-Cha by melanieshanks on Polyvore

Party Croc Children's Book

Our new favorite book is Party Croc by Margaret Read MacDonald!  I have read this book no less than 20 time in 3 days.  The bright, fun illustrations of Derek Sullivan are hilarious.  The sing-song melody of the words read almost like lyrics.  There is a "chorus" of repeating lines where the croc is singing "party party going to a party party party I'm a party croc!"  I love it as much at G who is 4 1/2 (she likes to add that 1/2, don't you know?) and Roo who is 19 months.  Roo sways back and forth to the "chorus" song parts.  There is also a good lesson in the book about keeping promises, but it is not in a hit-you-over-the-head kind way.  This is a GREAT book.
Have a fun & playful day
Mel

Party Croc Children's Book by melanieshanks on Polyvore

Happy Friday

Happy Friday!  

I came home to find a package at my door! My tapirs arrived!

Hold on, Mel, what?

Yes, my tapirs arrived today and I am sooo excited.

 Let me explain.  G's favorite book right now is A Day with the Animal Doctors by Sharon Rentta.  I mean, favorite FAVORITE book.  She has is memorized!  It stars a mommy Dr. Tapir and her little baby tapir Terrence. Adorable.  Out of all the animals we have...we did not have any tapirs.  A problem I quickly remedied.  After searching for a bit, I found the Tapir and Friends Wildlife World Animal Store at www.tapirback.com - a tapir preservation fund.  I ordered and my little tapirs arrived in just a few days!  They are great quality toys too.

 On the way home, I stopped at the store for the ingredients for chicken enchiladas and found that my Kroger is selling Easter Schleich toys.  Nice.

 It's the little things in life that make me happy.  We are anticipating several inches of snow here this weekend, so I will be working on my etsy store, sewing, crafting, and being a shutterbug!  Have a happy weekend wherever you are!

Have a fun & playful day!
Mel

Mouse Mess themed snack

Mouse Mess themed snack by melanieshanks featuring an olive boat

If You Give A Moose A Muffin Snack

book themed snack2 by melanieshanks featuring Sur La Table

I LOOOVE this book.  It would be so easy to whip this up!  And G would love to make the muffins.

Book Themed Snack

Book themed snack by melanieshanks on Polyvore

It's G's turn to bring snack to preschool soon!  So...I am coming up with some children's book themed snack combinations.  The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear was the first one that popped into my head.

Julia & the Penguins Tea Party

 Our new favorite book is Penguin Cha Cha.  So...

 to make the book come alive, to inspire more imagination, to create more funny conversations, I painted a clothespin Julia and added a few penguins from Safari's penguin toob.  Big Blue Eyes LOVED it.  So much so that we had to have an impromptu penguin tea party.

 I am telling you...this is the Book of the Year for us.  She loves Julia twirling red dress. And the penguins are so funny!

 Of course, the penguins had to take a bath and...

eat cake.  Most of the penguins were pretty mild mannered...except one.  Naughty penguin.