"To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug." ~ Helen Keller. Recently, Little Kid began walking, and for the first time put those cute bare little chubby baby toes in the new spring grass of our lawn. At first she didn't know how … Continue reading Grasses Week

Spring is the perfect time to read A Boy, A Dog, A Frog and a Friend by Mercer and Marianna Mayer, one in a series of wordless books by this duo. In this story, a boy fishes peacefully alongside a pond while a dog and frog sit nearby. When something heavy tugs on his line, … Continue reading Wordless Book Wednesday – A Boy, A Dog, A Frog and A Friend

We are now probably one of the most hated families in our neighborhood. At some point last week, on one of our long afternoon walks, Big Kid discovered the joy of blowing the seeds off a white puffy dandelion. She spent the rest of that walk, and subsequent walks searching for white dandelions so she … Continue reading Wildflower Week – Dandelions

I must admit, I have never found a snail here in New Jersey. This year we have the time and motivation to really hunt around our backyard, so I hope we are successful! I know we are a few weeks behind in Exploring Nature With Children. We are still getting into a routine with distance … Continue reading Snail Week

Big Kid was learning about rocks, minerals, and fossils in pre-school before everything shut down a few weeks ago. She was loving it, so when I saw Fossil, a wordless book by Bill Thompson, I grabbed it on our last run to the library. We have read it a few times since, and have tried … Continue reading Wordless Book Wednesday – Fossil

I am happy to see more people back on Instagram and Facebook and sharing books again. It makes everything feel a little more normal. I too took a pause from posting the books we've been reading, but writing again has helped me feel like I am moving past the initial shock and obsessive news watching, … Continue reading The Stone Giant

Happy Easter to those who celebrate! We used this delightful, sparkly board book after dying Easter Eggs as a family yesterday. Big Kid was so excited to compare how we dyed eggs with how the bunny family dyed them in the book. Easter Egg Day, written by Tara Knudson and illustrated by Pauline Siewert, is … Continue reading Easter Egg Day

Little Kid has been obsessed with cats since she was a baby. We have two house cats who Big Kid "broke in", so they were not phased when Little Kid came along. They have always snuggled near her, let her pet them, and laid near where she plays. Little Kid's first word was even "cat", … Continue reading Our Favorite Cat Books

Big Kid dissolves into a fit of giggles every time we reach the climax of this charming story Egg, by Kevin Henkes. The book opens with 4 eggs sitting "waiting". Three hatch and the baby chicks that appear are left wondering what could be going on with the 4th. They finally peck the egg and … Continue reading Egg

We've been watching the tress in our neighborhood closely over the past few weeks. We've watched them change from a bundle of brown sticks protruding all over the place, to branches with hints of pink, white, yellow, and even some green. When we read When Spring Comes, by Kevin Henkes, we immediately recognized the tress … Continue reading When Spring Comes

I received A Story About Afiya a while ago, but have been having an extremely difficult time trying to put my thoughts about this touching story into words. It has touched me somewhere deep that I can't put my finger on. I guess that's what poetry does to us sometimes. Written by late Jamaican poet … Continue reading A Story About Afiya

New author Dr. Barbara Cavanagh is writing a series of books about nature topics you can experience from your home windows. The first one, From My Window I See...The Seasons, is about the changing seasons, perfect for this time of year as winter changes to spring. The book starts with two girls in front of … Continue reading Book Review ~ From My Window I See…The Seasons

Being in quarantine has encouraged us to get out and walk around the neighborhood more slowly each day no matter what the weather. Big Kid is noticing more than she ever has before. We've been able to see the buds on trees and bushes open a little more each day, little sprouts grow a bit … Continue reading The Changing Seasons

In the famous words of Will Smith, "my life got flipped-turned upside down", as I'm sure many of yours have. We are on week 2+ of quarantine and we are finally settling into a routine. I got both toddlers down for a nap at the same time, at least for the next 5 minutes, and … Continue reading Wordless Book Wednesday – A Ball for Daisy

The past few mornings, as I have been sitting in the now mandatory morning circle time my 3-year old has instituted, I have been trying to think about ways to add more consistency and pauses into our days. Everyone has started to get a little snippy. One of the easiest ways to pause and make … Continue reading On the Same Day in March