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Lucie begins her first day of pre-K this afternoon, and is so excited to start! A wonderful book from Random House that captures this feeling is Kindergarten Countdown by Anna Jane Hays and illustrated by Lind Davick.

A little girl named Lucy counts off the days by naming what she’ll do in kindergarten, what she’ll wear, and what she’ll learn. The countdown is a great way to prepare kids for that exciting first day of school (if you have a preschooler or in my case a pre-K’er, then substitute the right grade when you’re reading it out loud).

Not only was I thrilled that the main character had the same name (though spelled differently) as my daughter, the book captured the excitement and all the things she had to look forward to - making friends, playing games, practicing writing, using your manners, and so on.

Activities
This would be a really fun book to use as a countdown to the days leading up to school. You could read Kindergarten Countdown and combine it with a calendar. Assign an activity like “buy school supplies” or “pick out school clothes” to the days before school starts. You could also make time to come up with snack and lunch box menus. Each time you do a countdown to school activity, you could discuss all the exciting things they will be doing, and answer any questions your son or daughter may have.

If your child is apprehensive about his or her first day, having a Kindergarten Countdown activity would be a good way to help them through their fears. You may even want to combine the calendar with a “dry run” by getting up early, getting dressed, getting their backpack ready, and pretending to wait for the school bus, or walking or driving to school. Many schools have open houses before the first official day, and that’s a great opportunity for your child to walk around the school, meet the teachers, and find out where the bathrooms are.

More Bento School Lunch Ideas
Are you tired of bento box lunches yet? I hope not because they’re so fun to look at even if you’d never take time to make them. Check out Laptop Lunches, a website featuring American-style bento boxes designed to help book, The Laptop Lunch User’s Guide: Fresh Ideas for Making Wholesome, Earth-friendly Lunches Your Kids Will Love. (A good pairing with this book is Ann Cooper’s Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children.)

Another site to check out is the Lunch in a Box blog. Blogger “Biggie” makes bento boxes for her preschooler, “Bug.” Read her Need for speed: A mommy’s lunch manifesto. I’m very inspired by this wonderful blog, though I’m not sure how much bento box creativity I can get out of PB&J and pudding - the only two things my son Nathan wants to eat for lunch these days.

(And thanks to The Common Room: Recipe Carnival - LUNCH for the bento links and other great lunch ideas.)

Ironies of ironies, Nathan’s teacher at summer school is making them write in a journal! They have to do at least three sentences on a topic of their choice every day. Plus they have weekly homework, a spelling list, and have to read 20 minutes outloud every day, too. I like how this is dovetailing with what I’m doing here, in my Mother’s Journal, and with our library’s summer reading program. But it’s a lot of work for Nathan, especially for a seven-year-old who has daily karate and twice weekly baseball practice or games. (And we haven’t even started math class yet!)

I believe we’ll have plenty of time to do all the fun things we usually do in the summer, like trips to museums and playdates to the park. I’m especially looking forward to a few trips to the Denver Zoo this summer. In preparation, we’ll be reading three wonderful books from Slyvan Dell Publishing:

Turtle Summer: A Journal for My Daughter - This is a companion book to Mary Alice Monroe’s novel, Swimming Lessons, the sequel to The Beach House. In the novel, the readers witness a young mother, Toy, writing a journal for her daughter, Little Lovie. This is the journal Toy is writing, a scrapbook journal that explains the nesting cycle of sea turtles and the natural life along the southeastern coast, including local shore birds, shells, and the sea turtle hospital.

I like the idea that this is a kid’s companion book to an adult novel. It’s like sharing something growup with your child. (Click here for information on Turtle Summer, learning links and teaching activities).

ABC Safari - A great animal ABC book for younger children. Once you’ve discovered all the animals, turn to the “For Creative Minds” educational section for sorting cards and animal fun facts. (Click here for information on ABC Safari, learning links and teaching activities).

The Rainforest Grew All Around - The Denver Zoo has a rainforest exhibit, which we adore (especially the cool snakes and lizards). This book is almost as good as the exhibit, especially because it gives the song, "The Green Grass Grew All Around" an clever rainforest treatment. The “For Creative Minds” educational section is filled with facts about rainforest plants and animals, how they live, and the products we use that come there. (Click here for information on The Rainforest Grew All Around, learning links and teaching activities).

The book even includes a recipe for Rainforest Cookies that uses several ingredients from the rainforest.

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Little Fun; Little Learning is blogged by Revka, a homeschooling, married SAHM to three girls. (She also blogs at The Porch Light.)

Revka says she’s always on the lookout for fun activities and educational ideas "the littles," kids ages 0-5. At Little Fun; Little Learning she shares complete on-site projects/ideas and links to valuable resources.

No only does she write about fun crafts like Hand Print Sheep, but she gives you very detailed instructions and ideas on how to combine the craft with other activities. She also highlights books, writing activities, and ways to teach children about money.

Revka’s only been blogging at Little Fun; Little Learning since January 8. I predict her site will be a great resource for parents of little ones, not just homeschoolers. Check it out!

Happy Halloween everyone! Here are some old Halloween pictures of the kids. The Minnie Mouse and Cowboy picture is from 2004. The Chinese outfits from 2005. And Iron Chef Nathan is from 2002.

So what are your plans for the big day?

Lucie will be having a Halloween party at preschool. However, Nathan won’t. Costumes and parties are too distracting at school. In fact, the negative impact is so great on learning that they might as well stay home for all the work that would get done. So no Halloween activities at school for the big kids. I don’t have a problem with that since there are so many things to do in the community for Halloween.

Still as a family, we tend to keep it low key. Usually all we do is take the kids out trick or treating (Paul’s job) while I’ll be at home passing out candy. Nathan’s going to be Spider Man and Lucie’s going to be a kitty.

So the big question is, what to do with all that candy? CDKitchen has some great recipes for leftover Halloween candy, like this one for Candy Bar Smoothies:

Candy Bar Smoothies
Makes: 2

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup chocolate milk
2. 1 cup chocolate ice cream
3. 2 Kit Kat candy bars, chopped (this would probably be good with Snickers, Butterfingers, or any other type of chocolate candy bar)

Directions:

1. Combine the milk and ice cream in a blender; process just until smooth.
2. Pour into a bowl; cover and freeze 3 hours or until frozen.
3. Stir with a fork until slushy, and stir in wafer bars. Serve immediately.

© 1995-2006 CDKitchen, Inc.

I also like this one for Candy Bar Stuffed Baked Apples:

Candy Bar Stuffed Baked Apples
Makes: 4

Ingredients:

1. 4 medium apples (7 to 8 ounces each)
2. 1/4 cup coarsely chopped chocolate covered toffee candy bar
3. 1/4 cup coarsely chopped chocolate covered nougat candy bar
4. 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
5. 1/4 cup finely chopped chocolate covered toffee candy bar
6. 1/4 cup finely chopped chocolate covered nougat candy bar
7. 3/4 cup apple cider
8. 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Directions:
Note: the double listings of candy bars is intentional. You need both coarsely chopped AND finely chopped.

1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat the oven to 350? F.
2. Place the apples on a cutting board. With a sharp knife, carefully cut the top 1/2-inch from each apple. Using an apple corer or a small melon baller, scoop out the stem, core, and seeds from each apple, leaving the bottom intact. Stand the apples in a 9-inch square baking dish, cut side up.
3. Divide the coarsely chopped candy bars among the apples, about 2 tablespoons of candy per apple. Place 1 1/2 teaspoons of the butter inside each apple, on top of the candy bar pieces.
4. Again, divide the finely chopped candy bars among the apples, about 2 tablespoons of candy per apple, placing candy on top of the butter inside each apple.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together the cider and sugar and pour the cider mixture over and around the apples.
6. Using oven mitts or pot holders, place the baking dish in the oven and bake the apples uncovered until tender, about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
7. Using oven mitts or pot holders, carefully remove the apples from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Serve hot or warm, spooning the pan juices over the apples, and add vanilla ice cream if desired.

Warning: These apples are very hot when coming out of the oven, and there is a lot of hot juice. Be careful not to spill any on you!

© 1995-2006 CDKitchen, Inc.

Technorati tags: trick or treat, Halloween, recipes, candy

I’m sure like many Boomers and Xers you remember the Reading Is Fundamental commercials. But it’s been awhile since I’ve seen any or heard what RIF is up to. Well, I’m glad Colgate-Palmolive got me to sign up for RIF’s e-newsletter because it’s chock full of good stuff:

• Monthly Activity Calendars (I’m sure I’ll be swiping a few good ideas off this section for A Readable Feast)
• Read Aloud Stories including The Wheels on the Bus. I’d let Lucie watch this one, but I’d never get my computer back.
• Printable Parent’s Guides
• How to start a children’s letter writing drive to let Congress know that RIF matters
• The RIF Reading Planet Club
• And so much more…

So subscribe now to Reading Is Fundamental!

Technorati tags: Reading Is Fundamental, children’s books, RIF, education, literacy, reading