Books for Kids

(Goblin is 41 months)

I don't talk about books for kids very often. Mainly because Goblin gets obsessed with one book and makes us read it over and over again and by the time I'm so bored of it that I accidentally lose it I have lost the will to live and certainly don't want to spend an evening reviewing it. However I will make an exception on this occasion because if you haven't come across Press Here by Herve Tullet yet then you basically need to stop reading this and go and order it from Amazon right away.
Goblin got this book for his second birthday and while the adults thought it was quite amusing it was pretty wasted on him. You see the book requires the child to be able to follow basic instructions. Its not a story book. Instead, each page gives the reader - or their assistant, your child - an instructions relating to the dots on the page. Then you turn the page and something has happened to the dots based on what you "did" on the previous page.

This book sat untouched on our shelf most of last year. But this year it has come into its own. Goblin thinks its hilarious. It is helped by the fact that Hublet makes ridiculous sound effects every time Goblin touches a dot. But the best part of it is seeing how much Goblin has come on, in that he can actually follow the instructions and he sees an "effect" from his actions.

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Summer Virtual Book Club

(Goblin is 33 months)

The authors for the Summer Virtual Book Club this month are Don and Audrey Wood. To be honest I'd never heard of them so I was excited to get choose our book. They have done a lot of books (check out the linky) but we chose King Bidgood's in the Bathtub

The book is about a King who won't get out of the bathtub all day. Various people try to get him out by saying, there is a battle, a feast, a ball, to go to. But he insists on having them all in the bathtub. 
As I read the book I knew exactly what activity we would do to compliment this. We would have our own battle in the bathtub with junkmodel boats. 

Hublet and I found some instructions for making oragami boats and we tried our hand at it.  These got very soggy in the bath and sank pretty quickly.

I made a melon boat (and ate all the melon - yum!). Goblin threw this in the bath a bit too enthusiastically and it sank making the sails very soggy. It floated once I retrieved it from the bottom of the bath and emptied out the water. 

I made a giant pirate galleon out of cardboard. The cardboard did not like the water one bit and disintegrated instantly. But I retrieved the sails and popped them in playdough in plastic tubs.

This little boat made out of a juice bottle lid was sunk because the playdough was too heavy, once I took some of the playdough out it floated quite well except for Goblin's tidal waves.

And these two ice boats were a hit but didn't last very long in the warm bath. 

Goblin enjoyed the battle in the bathtub so much that the next day he asked for more boats. 

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Love Books: Summer reading book exchange

This summer we participated in the Love Books: Summer reading book exchange. Bloggers sign up and each blog is partnered with another blog that has kids of a similar age and you exchange a parcel with a book and activity. 

We were matched with Make, Do and Friend and sent them Biscuit Bear, and an activity. You can see their post about our book and activity by clicking here. 

And they sent us "Dinosaurs love Underpants" by Claire Freedman, illustrated by Ben Cort. Goblin already has "Alien's love Underpants" and "Aliens in Underpants Save the World" but we haven't got any of the Dinosaur ones so this was great. 

Dinosaurs Love Underpants is a rhyming story about how Dinosaurs were wiped out during a fight over underpants. Obviously the historical accuracy is dubious but the story is highly entertaining and Goblin liked it so much it has replaced Biscuit Bear as his new bedtime book that must be read every night (this is very unusual as Goblin usually sticks with one book for months and months). Well done Make, Do and Friend you saved my sanity - although if I'm still reading it in August I may rescind my thanks!

The two mystery red packages accompanying the book contained fabric pens and 3 white pairs of little boy pants.  This was great timing as Goblin has only just started to experiment with wearing pants, and we are getting through them quite fast!  

We stretched the pants over multiple DVDs to make it easier to draw on them. And opened the book at the first page to get some inspiration - it is covered in many different pants and Goblin went through and described each one to me. He had a little go at drawing but then resorted to chewing the pens and drawing on his legs. Goblin used to be really into drawing with pens when he was younger but for the last 6 months he rarely touches them - I think he's turning into a stereotype male "reluctant mark maker". Rather than decorating the pants himself he instructed me on what to draw. So we have a rainbow on one pair and a green dinosaur on a yellow back ground on the other. 

I'm happy to report that the pants have already been worn, and peed on, but not ripped apart by dinosaurs! 

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Summer Virtual Book Club - Mo Willems

Goblin is not keen on trying new books. He has about three books that he likes at bed time and anything else is considered an impostor and will result in tears and tantrums if we attempt to read it. However reading the same book week in and week out is driving me slightly loopy so I decided to join in the Summer Virtual Book Club to introduce some variety to our reading.

The Author the book club are looking at for June is Mo Willems. Goblin liked his book 'Don't let the Pigeon drive the bus', so I thought we'd try a different one. Our first attempt at reading 'Knuffle Bunny'  was not a huge success. We didn't get past page three before Goblin was in tears and telling us to stop. I've discovered the only way to introduce new books to Goblin is to read them to him during the day while he is play. Once he's heard the book once all the way through he no longer considered it a threat. So we finally managed to read the book to him while he played with his diggers, and by the time I had finished reading it he was sitting looking at the pictures and asking me to read it again.

I have to admit that while Knuffle Bunny is definitely a children's book I enjoyed it for its parental appeal. The story is about a little girl called Trixie, who goes with her Dad to the laundrette. She takes Knuffle bunny with her and he gets accidentally put in the washing machine. Because she can't talk yet she can't tell her Dad what she is unhappy about. The descriptions of her attempts to tell him are hilarious and every parent will recognise their child's pre-verbal communications in the detail. Hublet and I particularly like the description of Trixie going "boneless" - who hasn't had a child do that when they try to pick them up in the midst of an 'episode'.

Reading this book was timely because Goblin has been showing an interest in the laundry recently. Yesterday I caught him half way inside the washing machine and only last week he tipped an entire load of clean washing onto the floor so he could play hide and seek in the laundry basket! Or as Mo Willems describes it in Knuffle Bunny, Goblin was "helping Daddy with the washing".

After reading Knuffle Bunny I made Goblin his very own washing machine out of a giant cardboard box sprayed silver. Goblin had fun collecting dirty clothes to wash (including blankets, play silks, hats and some random items of cloth lying around the living room). I suggested his favourite toy Lamby might need a wash (like Knuffle Bunny in the book) but Goblin didn't think this was a good idea. Last time Lamby was washed he came out slightly pinker than he went in due to Mummy's ineptness at basic household chores. 

Once the clothes were loaded and the door shut Goblin added soap powder - A mini cereal box which I filled with a grated bar of soap. After he used all the actual soap up Goblin wanted to carry on filling the little draw I'd made, so we refilled the box with rainbow rice.

Then he turned the dial to select the right setting for the clothes, and pressed the buttons. Goblin and I made some interesting washing machine noises. And then it was time to fill the draw with soap again - apparently this has to be repeated frequently during imaginary washing machine play.

The Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids (the brainchild of Toddler Approved) is a place for bloggers/parents/teachers, etc. to explore some fabulous authors and new books! Each month we will study a new author and each participant will choose a book (or more than one) to share on their blog by that author. Each month we will have a link up where we can share any book-related activities, projects, etc.
Here are the authors for this summer and linky dates:
June 18th- Mo Willems
July 16th- Don and Audrey Wood
August 20th- Kevin Henkes

And here is the first link up. Have you read a Mo Willems book and done a related activity? why not link up.



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