Picture Books for 5 year olds

A mousehouse reader Stephanie asked me last night for some ideas for good picture books for her 5 year old daughter who has started reading by herself but would still like to listen and read along to some picture books as well. My 6 year old likes to read her own books now (waaaaay too much Rainbow Magic) plus other short chapter books and her readers from school, but as she shares a room with Stella (4) she still loves listening to picture books as well. So here are some of Amelie and Stella's favourite picture books- most of the these are also the tried and true ones I grab if I am doing a days relieving in a classroom- all of them are popular with boys and girls around the 5/6 age group but there are a couple that particuarly appeal to girls from this list. 

Colour the Stars by Dawn McMillan- this is a lovely story about a little boy who is blind and his friend who teaches him what stars look like

Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen- this is really a cute story that kids love with lovely illustrations

I Had a Favourite Dress by Boni Ashburn- this is one for the girls all about a girl who has a favourite dress and as she outgrows it her mum sews it into different items- Amelie loves this

A Lion in the Meadow by Margaret Mahy- a classic story written in the 70's and still just as popular today- I love this story

The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr- another classic story by a wonderful author

The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson- this is Amelie and Stella's (and mine) favourite picture book at the moment- such a cute story, lovely illustrations and a good book to read aloud

Princess, Fairy by Penny Dale- Stella's favourite- I'm pretty sure it is a take on the fairy tale The Frog Prince but with the very appealing characters to young girls princesses and fairies!

The Princess and her Panther by Wendy Orr- another book Stella lovese especially about 2 sisters who dress up and have an adventure using their imagination

Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion- another classic story I think written in the 50's or 60's- a lovely story of a dog who really doesn't like having a bath, lovely retro illustrations

The Smallest Turtle by Lynley Dodd- always a good one to read aloud, lovely simple story with beautiful language- hard to find online though :(

What good luck What bad luck by Remy Charlip-  I found this at an Op Shop- when I read it to a class of 6 year olds they absolutely loved it and wanted me to read it again straight away! Can also be found printed as 'Unfortunately'. 

The Nickel Nackle Tree by Lynley Dodd-a neat counting book, again with great language and illustrations- appeals to all ages

Mouse Mansion By Karina Schaapman- this isn't a picture book as such, more a chapter book presented in a picture book format- Amelie loves this book especially the detailed photos

Well I know there are so many other wonderful picture books out there but these are the ones I could think of straight away- would love to hear of any of your or your child's favourite picture books too.

The other stories I would recommend reading is any fairy tales you can get your hands on- op shops seem to always have one or two when I take a look.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/196962183674898958/

These are some of my favourite ones...

Cinderella

Dick Whittington

The Elves and the Shoemaker

The Emperors New Clothes

The Frog Prince

The Gingerbread Man

The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs

Jack and the Beanstalk

The Little Match Girl

The Little Mermaid

Little Red Riding Hood

The Ugly Duckling

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The Princess and the Pea

Rumplestiltskin

The Dancing Princesses

Snow White

Stone Soup

Thumbelina

The Boy who cried Wolf

I'll write another blog post with some of my favourite chapter books as well, basically anything by Michael Morpurgo plus a few of my other favourites :)

Happy reading!

Megan x

my creative space: a fabric bookmark

Finally a creative space post- a little something I made the other evening for my nearly 5 year old Amelie. I have been really looking forward to reading chapter books with Amelie so I thought I'd make a little fabric bookmark to mark the occasion so to speak!  I received this amazing bag of scrap fabric from Nin last week as part of her 'Scrap Bag Swap'- what a treat to go through all the gorgeous fabrics.

Amelie and I had heaps of fun choosing our favourites- there was some debate going on in regards to some of the fabrics that we both wanted for our stash's (yes Amelie has a stash already ;) so I used some of the fabrics she chose for the front of the book mark...

..and this beautiful yellow fabric for the back- we both love this fabric :)

Thank you so much again Nin for the fabric, and for organising such a great swap. Check out Nin's blog as she has made a Scrap Bag Swap Tutorial page - there are lots of great ideas for things to do with fabric scraps.

I made a pile of the chapter books I want to read with Amelie first- most of them from when I was a child hence the tattered look of them! The only one missing is Pippi Longstocking which I will need to buy as that is one of my favourite books- I have very happy memories reading about Pippi's adventures.

Here's my list if you are wanting some ideas for chapter books for your children...

• Little Old Mrs Pepperpot by Alf Proysen (I bought a second hand box set from TradeMe)
• Milly Molly Mandy by Joyce Lankester Brisley
• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
• Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
• Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo
• Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Road Dahl
• The Twits by Roald Dahl
• Falter Tom and the Water Boy by Maurice Duggan (this is a wonderful story but is now out of print and quite hard to find- I managed to get a copy from a secondhand book dealer)
• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Famous Five series of books by Enid Blyton

And just had to share this- if you are wanting something to keep the kiddies amused for a while- read them this picture book...

The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch by Ronda and David Armitage, 

then give them a basket tied onto a rope and loop it over something like this or a tree branch and show them how to pull the basket up and down like a pulley just like in the story. The girls spent nearly an hour (honestly!) filling up the baskets and pulling them up and down!!

Would love to hear of your favourite children's novels or authors :)
For more creative spaces click here

Megan x

my creative space: a little house

I finally got my hands on a copy of the book "Scandinavian Stitches" by Kajsa Wikman, from our local library.

I've seen this book on lots of blogs and it is just gorgeous with heaps of cute projects, my favourite being the little houses.  I was even lucky enough to receive a house from Leonie as part of the kiwi christmas ornament swap which is now on my notice board in my craft space.

So I made a little house for my kitchen, just a bit bigger than the one in the book.

Kajsa's blog is so beautiful and inspiring too- check it out here http://syko.typepad.com/, her facebook page here www.facebook.com/sykodesign and take a look at some of the things in her Etsy shop- how cute is this little village!

 

Little Village

Love machine art print

For more creative spaces, head on over to Our Creative Spaces here

Megan x

Prince of children's tales

I've been meaning to share one of my favourite children's authors- British author Michael Morpurgo- for a while now. I discovered his wonderful books when I was teaching in the UK- I was really surprised to learn how many books he had written and that, as an avid reader growing up, I had never came across any of his books before. When I came back from the UK to NZ I read about seven of his books to one of my classes (aged 8 and 9) and they absolutely loved them. One of the best things about his books is that the stories really appeal to boys as well as girls so they are great books to switch boys onto a love of reading.  I remember they used to beg me to read more when I had finished a chapter or two which was really neat. "Kensuke's Kingdom" was the first book of his I read and it is still my favourite-I even got my hubby to read it as it is a really great story. So if your child is just getting into reading 'chapter books' then try searching out a few Michael Morpurgo books-he's written over a hundred books so there's plenty to choose from! (Can you tell I'm a big fan!)

And you can click here to listen to Kim Hill's interview with Michael Morpurgo last weekend on RadioNZ National 

And just had to share this sunset pic I took yesterday evening at a local park - Amelie loves to talk about the children on the other side of the world waking up as our sun goes down :)

Would love to hear of any of your favourite Michael Morpurgo books or any other favourite children's novels/authors...

www.michaelmorpurgo.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/8466033/Michael-Morpurgo-Prince-of-childrens-tales.html

Megan x

Organised Home Project 6: Eco-friendly Cleaning

Hello all, I hope you've had a good week. This week's challenge is more of a cleaning one than an organising one but it's definitely one that makes the house feel really good! After reading 'A Home Companion' by Wendyl Nissen I've been thinking a lot about having a more eco-friendly and healthy home so I got stuck in this week to making some home-made cleaners. I really enjoyed making them - it was like being a kid again mixing up potions and making 'perfume'! - and it's going to save a lot of money by buying less cleaning products.

Because it's an organised home challenge, here are some 'before' and 'after' pics...

Before

and After!

For the recipe's I used this liftout written by Wendyl (it came in an issue from the NZ Women's Weekly last year) as well as Wendyl's 'A Home Companion' book and a few other online recipe's.

To make the cleaners I made this week you'll need a few 'ingredients'.

-baking soda

-vinegar

-lemons

-essential oils- lemon, eucalyptus, lavender, orange and tea tree oils

-eco-friendly baby bath wash (I used Eco Store's)

-eco-friendly dishwashing liquid (I used Eco Store's again here too)

First I made some lemon dusters- I really enjoyed making these and maybe I'll even dust more now that I have a cute jar of them to use!

Then I made some spray cleaner- so far I've used it for the bench and the high chair, as well as cleaning the oven top (which it worked a treat on) and also my craft desk which had glue stick bits and other grubbiness on it and it looked good as new after using the spray.

Next I made some anti-bacterial spray which smells divine (my hubby used to complain about the smell of the Dettol germ spray as it is pretty strong!)

Then I made up some more baby wipes spray. I use this with flannels by just spraying the flannels with the spray.  I still use baby wipes as well but I'm going to try to use the flannels and spray a lot more. 

I also use Honeychild cloth nappies (which I mix with using disposables) so for when they get a bit stinky I made up a spray of just a cup of water and 10 drops each of tea tree and eucalyptus oils  It's a good spray for cleaning the toilet too. 

Next up I'd like to make some dishwasher powder and some laundry detergent but I'm going to need a few more ingredients for those ones.

Because I love having a crafty project for each of these 'challenges' I thought I would have a go at making some crochet dishcloths. I have seen them on heaps of blogs but have never used them, in fact I'd never heard of them until I started reading blogs! My sister was even asking me if I was going to crochet around a sponge as she had obviously never heard of them either!! Thanks for the ideas and comments on my blog post yesterday about them - I went to the knitting shop and bought some cotton yarn and made a cloth using single crochet stitches last night. If you want to have a go there are heaps of patterns and ideas here and also here.

After reading Angela's 'Eight household habits' I put up a hook in our kitchen for the cloth- much nicer than draped all over the tap getting smelly- thanks for the tip Angela :)

So if you're inspired to make some of your own cleaners now I've made up a little giveaway prize to help you get started...

...a ball of cotton yarn to make your own dishcloths, a tea tree oil soap,  tea towel, spray bottle and some cute sticker labels.

To be in to win...

 * leave a comment telling us about some organising you have been up to lately (leave your URL if you've posted about it) 

or *leave a comment telling us some thing(s) you'd like to do this year to make your home a bit 'greener" 

 or * tell us some of your eco-friendly cleaning tips

You can leave a comment on my mousehouse facebook page under the link to this post if you're a non blogger :)

I'll draw the winner next Friday the 25th March. I still have heaps of ideas and projects for my 'Organised Home' challenge but as I am nearing my due date I'm just going to start posting them whenever I can rather then every Friday as I think some weeks I'm going to be a little bit busy soon!

Thanks for reading along and joining in the challenge so far, have a great weekend :)

To see more of my 'organised home' projects, click here

Megan x

Edit: have just come across Sarah and Cat's "Gift of Love" appeal for mums and children in Christchurch- they are asking for knitted/crochet dishcloths among other things- check out their appeal here http://sarah-redgingham.blogspot.com/2011/03/gift-of-love-appeal-update.html

my creative space: Little Red Riding Hood

I saw this lovely old book at my mother in law's in the weekend- a gorgeous version of the classic Little Red Riding Hood story. Amelie loves reading it and dressing up as red riding hood- I bought her a basket from the Salvation Army store and she even made me dress up as the wolf with some brown fur fabric I bought last year to make baby blankets- funny what you get up to in a day sometimes!

I love this little cottage

Stella thinks that she's the little girl in the book and says "La La' very excitedly when she sees it :)

If you're wondering what this has to do with 'my creative space' I've had some Stitchbird little red riding hood fabric for ages now and as I had a couple of presents to make for two 4 year old girls last week I used some of it (along with some 'Katie Rose' fabric) to make two little satchel bags.

And keeping to my red riding hood theme I found this tutorial for a little doll that I'd like to make one day

And how sweet is this birthday card from Bee at Honeyjumble

Have you seen this amazing RRH pop up book illustrated by Louise Rowe? I found it via this post at weheartbooks 

Here's a lovely version of the story from Oxbridge Baby on youtube too...

For more creative spaces, visit Kirsty's here
Megan x

a colour book

I love colour! My favourite colour combination at the moment is pink, yellow, grey and turquoise but I really love all colours and so many different colour combinations. I am trying to stick to just those four colours for my house spruce up but I find it really hard as I like so many different looks!

Anyway,  I thought today I'd share the Snapfish book I made for a christmas present for Amelie.  I made this one for Stella after seeing the idea on Angela's Striking Keys blog and then I had an idea for Amelie's one- I decided to go with a colour theme and made it "A Colour Book for Amelie".
I had heaps of fun gathering up bits and bobs around the house for each colour- crafty things, toys, and other bits and bobs and taking a photo of each colour collection.

 

Then I went through my iphoto folders (I have over 6,000 photos in my iphoto going back to when Amelie was born -another thing to add to my decluttering/organising list!) and found photo's of crafty things I had made for her over the year and also photo's of other things that would match up to some of the colours.  Here's some of the pages I made.

I really like having the craft photo's in there as it is so neat to see all of the things I made for her in a little book. Both books were a hit with the girls although Stella goes for Amelie's more than her own which is funny! 

Well, time for some more 'organising' now yay! My craft space is looking very different and I've just got a few more things to do.  Can't wait to share on Friday and hopefully see some of your 'before and after' pics too! Sarah, the creator of KiwiMummyBlogs and the cool blog Bobby Robin kindly made me a button for the challenge to put on the Kiwi Mummy Blogs site - thanks Sarah! She also wrote a great post about decluttering here. And Meg has some awesome before and after linen cupboard pics and tips here.

Thanks for visiting :)

Megan

By the way, I got given a tip from the Clip Cafe  the other day to use 'picnik'  to edit photo's to make blog buttons and add watermarks to photo's and the like.  I just used it today to add text to my colour photo's above- it was really easy to use so thanks heaps for the tip!