Tag: Scout and the Gumboot Kids

Our Favorite Picture Books This Year

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review3 Comments

A week or two ago, Wyatt mailed a letter to Santa from the big Santa Mail Box in our city – and to be honest, I had no idea that he was going to get a letter back when we did it, but wow did it bring a smile to my boy’s face! And, we found out that Santa loves books too! We have read some fantastic books this year, and I wanted to share some of our top favorites with you.

(this post contains Amazon Affiliate Links)

Wyatt’s current favorite holiday book is the Llama Llama Holiday Drama. I read this a billion times a day, and when I am not, he is looking at it himself half the time. Thanksgiving in the Woods is a fun one that we actually won in a giveaway on Instagram this year- and while we both love it, I think it would be so fun to actually have a Thanksgiving in the Woods one year! I included Ohana Means Family, but it was more my favorite than Wyatt’s. I just loved the illustrations and the introduction to Hawaiian culture to Wyatt. Scout and the Gumboot Kids were a big favorite of Wyatt’s this year, whether on television or reading the books. He really loved The Case of the Wooden Timekeeper. Then finally, all the way back in January, we read Little Wolf’s Song and Winter Walk, and Wyatt loved all the howling in Little Wolf’s Song, and then surprised me by really loving Winter Walk.

Leo the Lightning Bug! This book also came with a CD, and Wyatt still listens to it and flips through the book, reciting parts out loud with it. It reminds me of me when I was his age, listening to books on tape and record and looking through the books. (For Christmas I bought him The Thousand Star Hotel by the Okee Dokee Brothers, which he can flip through while he listens to the story streaming..ah technology.) Nightsong was really cool, and Honey, adorable. Wyatt is a fan of David Ezra Stein. He is also a giant fan of the Little Blue Truck, and he loved this Springtime book. Which reminds me I never bought him The Little Blue Truck’s Christmas! Then finally we found two new to us owl books that we really enjoyed, Tanna’s Owl and Otto the Owl who Loved Poetry.

The Giraffe That Walked to Paris is my favorite picture book that we read this year. I liked it way more than Wyatt, so it is definitely my favorite, not his. I had never heard of this event before and it was sort of sad but neat to learn about it. Anatole was an old favorite of mine that I enjoyed sharing with Wyatt, who also liked it. And then finally, The Salamander Room – this book made me commit to adopting our leopard gecko Harry, which I realize is two different species entirely but it was still a fun way to segue to Harry for Wyatt.

I did miss the library so much this year, browsing the shelves and all the new books. If there are two places I miss going, it is the library with Wyatt and then Ikea with Billy. We would drop the boy off to my mom then head to Ikea and have lunch and shop. We are exciting.

I am looking forward to reading more with Wyatt in the months ahead, especially now as he is picking up letters and can read some of the words himself more and more! He loves reading, and I love that he loves reading!

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My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized18 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer
Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

I took some time off from blogging and social media in general last week to just have a “week off”. We homeschooled, but didn’t do as much as we normally would, and we also prepared for our little Thanksgiving. It was just me, Billy, and Wyatt, so I picked our favorite sides, cheesy potatoes and green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and then we made cranberry rosemary chicken and called it done. It was a good meal with my guys, but didn’t feel like Thanksgiving. I also had a terrible time baking! I dropped my pumpkin pie, my shortbread didn’t turn out, and Billy had to run to to the store early in the morning Thursday to grab a pumpkin pie so we had dessert. Lol. We did have two great family video chats with our families though so that was a bright spot in our day. Billy had to work Friday, so we put up our tree on Saturday and decorated for Christmas. Wyatt loves the tree every year so it is a happy occasion, always.

Read Last Week:

So this book was amazing and fully deserves all the love it receives. I ended up buying it and don’t regret it; it was fantastic and I can’t wait to read Winn’s next book. It was beautifully written, it made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me read parts out loud to Billy – definitely on my top ten of the year.

Reading This Week:

I love anything with a fox. And this looks perfect for my mood right now!

Watching:

Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch version), GBBS, Agatha Raisin (again), and the Queen’s Gambit, which is amazing. When Billy and I were younger and frequented coffee houses all the time, there was sort of a chess thing happening at the time as well, and everyone was playing. We entered a tournament and I remember I beat one of the top guys and his friends were all you got beat by a girl! I am of course nowhere even close to Beth’s skill level in The Queen’s Gambit, but so weird that being beaten “by a girl” was a weird thing even when I was playing.

Wyatt is watching a lot of Molly of Denali, Wild Kratts, and Scout and Daisy these days. I have to admit, I love all of those cartoons too…

And that is about it from my corner of Michigan right now! Stay safe everyone.

Homeschooling: Bee Week!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading, homeschooling13 Comments

This week was bee week! I was really looking forward to this one. I might say that about all of them though, as I am the one who really picks the themes…

This week we had some great activities, and great books, including our new read aloud of Winnie-the-Pooh! We started Sunday by going in search of bee hives – I thought I knew where one or two were but they turned out to be empty this year.

On Monday we started with the letter H, for honey and hive, played a memory match vocabulary game, talked about the different types of hives, and “created” a hive out of Honeycomb cereal. Oh and snacked on some honeycomb cereal with drips of honey on it, which was as sticky as it sounds.

Tuesday, we continued working on the letter H and vocabulary, did some sorting and pattern work, and started our fun counting book, complete with little wooden bees. In the afternoon we set up a pollination creation garden, where Wyatt created a little garden (inspired by our Monet’s waterlilies art from pond week) and I filled two of the flowers with powdered Tang to “bee” the pollen. Then we dipped a paintbrush in water, and used it to transfer the pollen from flower to flower. It turned out really cute!

Wednesday was such a sticky hot day, and not from honey but from humidity (another H word!) We did some table work, planted some seeds to grow a pollinator garden, then made homemade honey playdough, which was really fun. Wyatt loves to pretend bake and cook (and really help bake) so this activity was a hit.

Thursday I reserved for music and reading and poetry exclusively. It was a fun day! We listened to Flight of the Bumblebee, talked about the waggle dance that bees do to tell the other bees where to find flowers, and read some poems and rhymes. Friday we were going to make honey soap but decided to save it for Saturday when Billy could participate. So look for that update on my Instagram!

Next week we are going to take a little break, but then resume again the following week. Wyatt missed a month of school or so with the COVID shutdown and I didn’t start working with him right away, so we are going to keep working over the summer, with small breaks.

Resource Roundup!

Twig and Moth – Collection of Bees

Fun with Mama – Bumble Bees

Mrs. A’s Room – Bees Mini Unit

Preschool Discoveries – Bees

Books Read:

(This section contains Amazon and Usborne affiliate links)

This week I went crazy with the book buying. I love love love our copy of Winnie-the-Pooh and I wanted it to be a special one. If you were going to pick just one or two books though, I would go with Why Do We Need Bees? and Follow that Bee. Although Are You a Bee is really good too!

Bee by Britta Teckentrup || Summertime in the Big Woods || Why Do We Need Bees || Follow That Bee || Are You a Bee || Honey || Winnie-the-Pooh

Other Media Consumed:

Scout and the Gumboot Kids – The Case of the Buzzing Sweet Maker (Season 1, Ep 1)

Caitie’s Classroom – Bees

Maddie Moate – Beekeeping with Maddie Moate

And that is about it! It was a really fun week, filled with so many good reads! I feel so much more knowledgeable about bees myself now! If you have any questions about the materials I used or how I adapted them, let me know. You can comment here or send me an email!

Puddles and Pinecones

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review, books and reading, day in the life, DIY craft, family, special needs parenting8 Comments

Over the weekend the weatherman predicted torrential rain storms, flooding, and then to top it all off, ice. Well, it did rain, a very drizzly cold rain that did do a little flooding, and raised the rivers and creeks a little bit higher. We had plans to stay inside and do fun things there for most of the day and night, but..we couldn’t resist a little splashing in puddles first!

Wyatt wears AFO’s – braces for his feet to help him stand stronger when he is working on walking and standing. We love his braces, they are great tools to help him. But they also make it hard to buy shoes and boots, boots especially, as we can’t really manipulate his foot into one with the stiff braces. But we found that Butler boots have enough give in them that they slide fairly easily right over the braces – so we ordered him a pair of bright cheery yellow boots, his favorite color, and perfect for adding some sunshine to a dreary day. Then it rained and we got our wish to go stomp around in the puddles!

The cutest little stomp and splash ever!

While we are all excited that we found boots that work with his needs, Wyatt is more excited about the fact that he now has gumboots like the character and kids on one of his favorite shows, Scout and the Gumboot Kids! This very morning while we were watching one before school (they are short and perfect for a moment like this!) Wyatt went and got his boots out and started putting them on, just like Scout and the Gumboot Kids. Gumboots are another name for rain boots, or wellies, whatever you want to call them, and this show is adorable, with nature mysteries presented by a felt mouse in his own little cardigan and gumboots. The episodes are short, with a quick mystery that includes clues, and a mindful moment, which I am hoping to incorporate more of into our lives. The talented Jessie Farrell also provides the music and song for these episodes, with lovely lilting tunes that are so catchy that kids don’t even realize they are learning as they are singing along. As a companion to the Scout series, there is also Daisy and the Gumboot Kids, and Daisy is a crafty little mouse full of ideas for nature crafts. We love these shows and I love the inspiration they provide, while teaching Wyatt about all sorts of things – caterpillars and butterflies, space, agates, trees, dinosaurs are some of our favorites!

Not only is this series on television, they are now a series of books published by Firefly Books! We were lucky enough to receive a set of four signed books before Christmas, and now that the holidays are over, we really have time to spend looking through them together and talking about what we read. These books are beautiful, with full page artwork that captures the eye and attention, as page-size photos of the characters that Wyatt loves, solving the mysteries on paper within a book! Each book also contains two pages of field notes that relate to the mystery, mindful moments, and a nature craft. There is so much within the pages to inspire creativity and learning! We have been having a lot of fun with them. We also received a cute little coloring and activity book, a signed CD of Jessie Farrell’s music for the show, and stickers!

Today we spent some time reading through the books a little after school – Wyatt likes to “read” them to me too.

After we read about bird feeders and butterflies, I had a book and craft set up in the other room waiting for us.

We read the book, The Wooden Timekeeper, and talked about conifer trees, pincones, and the rings on trees, and how when you count them you can find the age of the tree. Wyatt really liked playing with the pinecones and petrified wood the best.

I showed him the pictures in the book of the craft, and let him choose whether we made an owl, bear, or mouse. My sweet boy chose to make an owl, my favorite! It was a group effort, with him doing the gluing while I helped out with the placement and cutting. We had a great time reading and making this little owl together! And look how cute!

Scout and the Gumboot Kids and the series, both on television and the books by Firefly Books are such a great resource for kids to learn, and entertaining and cute to boot! (yeah, see what I did there..)

Thanks to Firefly Books for the wonderful gift of the books, CD and extra little fun things!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading, Uncategorized34 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

I finished up my Christmas shopping for all kids under 12 in my family last week! My family decided a few years ago to just buy for the kids and not really for the adults anymore so this means, I am almost done! I need just a few more things, including a few small things for my husband, as well as teachers and therapists, then I can say I am finished completely. I wanted to be done by December, but I am ok with where I ended up. This morning (Saturday as I write this) we are heading to a pottery market; my mother-in-law sells her pottery at this art show so we go to support and I usually also pick up little things for Wyatt’s team while I am there. So, hopefully I will be finished with them today! It is also my husband’s work Christmas party tonight and I am looking forward to going. It is always a good time.

Read Last Week:

I finished Wrapped Up for Christmas! It was a fun little Christmas read, chockful of Christmas spirit and happiness, perfect for this time of year. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy! Review coming up soon!

Reading This Week:

The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey. I received this book as part of a blog tour and I am about halfway through. I plan on finishing and reviewing at the beginning of the week! I don’t usually post photos like this of covers from my Instagram but I had such fun with this one. My friend and I spent a morning styling this one together at her house with her collection of antiques. We had a great time and I feel like we will collaborate again!

Posted Last Week:

Hello, December

Book Review: 21st Century Yokel

Watching:

The Great British Bake Off (previous seasons again), Shetland, and then we watched Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas last night. Wyatt is also watching Scout and Daisy and the Gumboot Kids – these are such fast and quick little shows, like five minutes, and he loves the music and nature mysteries. I get ideas for projects for us to do together as well!