Wildwood Cottage

Surprise!

I can't believe that it's been such a long time since I posted last. I haven't been spending much time on the computer lately because I haven't been feeling very well for what seems like ages now. I'm hopeful that I've turned a corner now though, and I can tell you why I've been neglecting my blog and all of yours too- CJ is going to be a big sister!

Surprised? :o)

For a long time, CWH and I thought CJ would be it, and about six months ago, we started giving having another one some thought. And here we are! The last month has been rough, but I was lucky enough to have my mom come stay with us for week, during which she literally cleaned our entire house, played with CJ, and gave some much-needed company. CWH has been so sweet, going above and beyond the call of duty to make things as easy for me as possible (making me a fried egg and toast at 5 AM springs to mind).

I feel more like myself today than I have in a long time, so I'm cautously optimistic that I'll slowly be able to get back into the swing of things in the blog world- I hope so, because I miss hearing from all of you!

Unplugged Project - Metal

I'm a day behind getting this post done because of the long weekend- better late than never, right?

I confess I had no idea what to do for Mom Unplugged's latest project about metal. I finally thought to mention it to CWH. He thought for a minute and asked, "Could she do something with washers?". I thought it was an inspired idea, so off we went to the hardware store where we picked some washers, bolts, and nuts. Last night, I put everything in a tray and let her explore it all- she's never touched hardware before, and she was intrigued. She liked gathering them up-

















and investigating them.

















Then I remembered CJ has a magnetic wand, and thought that might be interesting for her to try.

















She was intrigued, espcially when she found the wand could do this-

















What fun! She sat at the table playing for at least a half hour, proving once again (for us at least), simplest is best!

Fun With Glue

I'm happy to say that I think CJ has finally gotten the best of her cold. Hopefully she'll be done with it once and for all in time for the long weekend!

She wanted to do something messy yesterday, so I decided to let her experiment with a bottle of glue- up to now, we've only used glue sticks.

















She really had a good time!

















It was only a matter of time until she stuck a finger in...

















...and used it for lotion. :o)

















It was just messy enough that CJ enjoyed herself, but not so messy that it took me too long to clean up. I love it when things work out that way!

Sick

We are now entering Week 2 of CJ's cold. I'm beginning to wonder if her nose will ever stop running. We're all ready for her to be better! Her new favorite activity is making little beds for herself out of whatever she can put together- here's what she came up with this morning...

her old changing table pad and a baby blanket. She has a bit of her old sparkle in that picture, but soon we were back to this-

Her upper lip is chapped from going through a box of 250 Kleenexes in less than a week. Did I mention that we're all ready for her to be well?

A Preschool Train Unit

I can't decide if this blog is in its death throes, some kind of metamorphosis, or what. While I'm figuring that out, I've finally got post about trains ready that's been simmering on my brain for weeks!

I think I mentioned that we purchased Moving Beyond the Page's preschool curriculum a post or two ago. Because CJ has been fascinated by trains for a few months now, I decided our first book to study would be Freight Train by Donald Crews. The curriculum is divided into different areas such as Basics, Animal Stories, and Classics. There are several books in each area, and you're meant to work through an area before going on to the next. I don't know if we'll be that rigid about it yet or not, but Freight Train was a great start for my train-loving daughter. CJ has known her colors for some time now, but she adored the book all the same, and I think one of the reasons is because she was able to "read" it to me after just a few times through. The manual for the curriculum, Peak With Books, mentioned not to discount books for your child just because you might think they're too easy. I never would have checked out Freight Train for CJ for just that reason, so I'm glad I found this resource.

On with the books! There are too many for me to write individual reviews for, so I'm just going to list them here with a ** denoting CJ's favorites. I'm going to make a special sidebar for them too- hopefully today!

Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo by Kevin Lewis

I Love Trains! by Philemon Sturges ** 

Two Little Trains by Margaret Wise Brown

This Train by Paul Collicutt

Train Song by Diane Siebert (this is a special book- the building on the cover is where CJ attends music class!)

The Caboose Who Got Loose by Bill Peet

Country Crossing by Jim Aylesworth ** (CWH loved this one too!)

Puff-Puff, Chugga-Chugga by Christopher Wormell

Train Song by Harriet Ziefert

Here Comes the Train by Charlotte Voake **

The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

Clickety Clack by Rob and Amy Spence

Niccolini's Song by Chuck Wilcoxen ** (My favorite!)

Here's a CD we've been enjoying along with the books-

All Aboard! by John Denver

And here are a few links I found helpful for more ideas if you need them-

Train/Railroad Theme from Pratt's Education Resources

Story Lesson about The Little Engine that Could from Hubbard's Cupboard

All Aboard the Virtual Vine Express from The Virtual Vine

And that's all I have- I hope you have as much fun learning about trains as we did!

Unplugged Project - Green

I was determined to take place in this week's Unplugged Project because I've missed the last few. This weekend turned out to be busier than usual because we bought CJ a swing set on Saturday! It took CWH about six hours to put it together Sunday, so after her nap, we were able to turn her loose onto the set (pictures forthcoming!). I was afraid another week would slip away from us, but after we ate supper, CJ asked to paint, so I gave her some green paint and let her go at it.

Despite paint on the carpet, we had a good time, and as usual for paint sessions of late, CJ wanted to use it as lotion.

And her finished painting-

Once again, simplest is best for us- if I try and be too clever, we end up not being able to do anything!

Books At Last

At last- the books I've been meaning to post about!

When I spotted A Pipkin of Pepper  by Helen Cooper at the library, I grabbed it right away because CJ and I just loved the first book in the series, Pumpkin Soup . The books tell the story of a cat, squirrel and duck who usually live together peacefully and love to make pumpkin soup. In both books, the duck gets contrary ideas in his head, and trouble ensues. In A Pipkin of Pepper, he decides that their soup would be even better with some pepper. The cat and squirrel vehemently disagree, and there's an adventure in the big city as well. I love everything about these books- the animals, the language, and their illustrations.

Also by Helen Cooper, Toy Tales  is a very simple chapter book. Each chapter tells the story of one of Timothy's toys- a bear, frog, duck, and pig. Each tale has a gentle lesson to be learned- for example, the bear accidentally gets thrown in the washing machine, and he's afraid Timothy won't love him because he doesn't look the same. Timothy is surprised at the change in Bear's appearance, but he loves him just the same and soon has him covered in chocolate cupcake. CJ has asked for this book repeatedly, I'm going to buy this one- it gets five stars in our book!

The Grumpy Morning  by Pamela Duncan Edwards tells the story of a barnyard full of grumpy animals. They're grumpy because the farmer has overslept, and all of them need something critically important- the cat needs cuddles, the goat needs oats, and the pig needs slop, among other things. At last, the farmer wakes up and calmly takes care of everyone. Peace returns to the barnyard! This a fun, cute book- be sure and do like CJ does and find the little owl on each page!

CJ loves trains, so when I saw The Goodnight Train  by June Sobel I had to check it out. The illustrations by Laura Huliska-Beith are just as important as the text- some of my favorites included smoke coming from the train in the shape of a car, ice cream cone, and an elephant on a skateboard! The text is rhyming, and it's great for sound effects with lines like, "Cars sway on the wooden track. Wheels go click. Wheels go clack. Glide across a plain so flat. Gently toss this way and that. Clickety- clack! Clickety-clack! Clickety-clack!" Eventually the train comes home so it can go to sleep. This is a great bedtime book whether or not you child is in love with trains!

I got Dem Bones  by Bob Barner for CJ because she loves all things related to Halloween, and this book has lots of skeletons playing musical instruments. It's also a fun way to learn about the different bones in the body and the names of the instruments the skeletons are playing. CJ has always loved books that we can sing, and this one did not disappoint. The information is presented in such a  fun way she doesn't even realize she's learning, and that's something like magic in my opinion.

When Steph at Montessori Free Fall  mentioned Our Nest  by Reeve Lindbergh, I knew CJ would like it- we love to watch birds. The story opens with a child in bed reading a story with mom, "Snuggled in bed, You're all safe and warm, Like a bird in a nest in a tree." The goes on to show a cat and her kittens, a chipmunk, and a harbor among many other things before it makes the gentle point that the universe is the nest for everything, and because of that, we're all connected. This is a lovely book- I might have to buy this one too.

When Mom and Kiddo blogged about The Magic Rabbit  by Annette LeBlanc Cate, I was pleasantly surprised to see that our library had a copy. Her description of the book and the illustration on the cover piqued my interest, and I wondered wht CJ would think about it. She thoroughly enjoyed the story of the rabbit who gets separated from his best friend, the magician, in the big city. The black-and-white drawings lend themselves to the bleakness the rabbit and magician feel when darkness falls and they're still separated. Rabbit's nose saves the day, as does a train of magic yellow stars. Wonderful.

We recently got the preschool curriculum from Moving Beyond the Page  for CJ, and we're currently working on our first unit with Freight Train  by Donald Crews (remember what I said about trains?!). We're both having a lot of fun with it, and I have a post in the works about train books now. Stay tuned!

HOW Long It Been?!

There has been a lot going on in the off-line world of Wildwood Cottage lately! It all started when I decided to take CJ on a road trip to visit family a couple of weeks ago. Preparing for that, traveling, being away from home, and then recovering took longer than I expected. We did get settled into our routine eventually though, and I was ready to do a book post. Then my browser kept crashing! After that happened a couple days in a row, I lost my enthusiasm for posting. I will do a book post eventually- I have so many good ones to tell you about! Today is not the day, though- I'm reading an incredible book, Operation Red Jericho by Joshua Mowll (on loan from my dad- thanks, Papa!) and I want to get a chapter in before CJ wakes up from her nap.

In the meantime, check out this post  from Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup- I thought it was so wonderful I had to share. And that reminds me- I only have a day left to do a post about my tea pot collection for the tea party she's hosted this month! So much to blog about, so little time...:o)

Fun Stuff

I haven't written about how CJ and I spend our days lately, so here are some long-overdue pictures.

Last week, I made her some new playdough- yellow and lemon-scented for spring!

Can you see the look on her face? I believe she was concentrating on making a road at the time.

One rainy afternoon, I made myself a cup of tea, and CJ asked for a cup. Instead, I gave her a few tea bags, some loose tea, and a piece of contact paper.

She sat and played with the tea leaves for at least a half hour, grabbing minuscule bits and sprinkling them wherever she wanted.

For a beginning science lesson, I gave her some ice cubes in a tray. She quickly decided they were too cold to handle, so I gave her some tongs.

Grabbing the cube with the tongs took some practice, but she did it! CJ also enjoyed playing with the melted ice cube water. It was fun to see her trying to put together the fact that the water came from the melting cubes.

CWH and I made her this circle puzzle from a template in Teach Me to Do It Myself by Maja Pitamic.

I was afraid it was going to be too simple for her at first, but she had to stop and think and rearrange at the end. We're going to make her some more puzzles like this, only with different shapes.

We picked up this Feed the Animals game at a trip to Lakeshore Learning a couple of months ago, and CJ has really enjoyed it, when she has the patience to pay attention to what she's doing.

It's a challenge for her to hold the tweezers just right to get the bone into the dog's mouth. I ended up making marks on the tweezers so she'd remember where to hold her fingers.

CJ loves to stamp!

She has a set of ABC stamps that I like to get out when she wants to do something in the kitchen. She played with these for quite awhile- I really need to get her some more, I think!

And that's all for now- I'm going to update my sidebar with a Spring book list, so be sure and take a look.

Chipmunk's ABC

And the winner of the giveaway is...Bunny B! Bunny, send me an email with your address and I'll mail the book to you this week!

Thanks to everyone who entered- I think that I will be having a lot more giveaways in the future. They're so much fun!

And as a consolation prize to those of you who didn't win, check out this post from Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup about Beatrix Potter- I thought it was fantastic.