A recent visit to our local library enlightened me to the “newest” form of audiobooks for kids: Playaways!

Made specifically for libraries, these are self-contained audiobook players that can be checked out like paper books. Just add a AAA battery and plug in some earphones and you have a portable audiobook for taking out and about!

Not only great for car rides and errands, these are also terrific for taking to bed. The kids have enjoyed drifting off to sleep with narrative stories literally within reach.

Check to see if your local library carries Playaway titles. (They make Playaway titles for adults, too, of course…and there is also Playaway View….with screens!)

Well….

I purchased and saved until summer Pineapple Paintbrush’s preschool art class curriculum, and I’m so glad that I did!

We’ve been enjoying learning about line, color, texture, and art mediums, not to mention some of the great artists themselves (O’Keeffe, Pollock, Kandinsky).

It was the kids’ first time with several art mediums, including oil pastels and acrylics. We created a wall gallery to display their acrylic on canvas artwork:

As a break mid-summer, we took the kids to the local city art museum. It’s a gem we haven’t yet taken them to, and hadn’t visited ourselves in 10+ years.

The museum staff had a neat art scavenger hunt set up for little visitors, which was fun…but I think our kids would have enjoyed it nonetheless. They were enthralled! Real paintings by famous people, many of them 5+ feet tall, displayed in a pristine and uncluttered (and brightly lit) environment….pure bliss.

I even unearthed a new artist to watch, Mary Whyte, whose work was on display this month. Her collection, entitled “Working South,” is as real and as raw as you can get. I was mesmerized.

We have committed to being yearly regulars to our local art museum, a gem of a place for sowing inspiration.

I’d heard he wrote his fans back, but I had no idea it’d be so fast….

Monday afternoon we found a brown kraft paper envelope in our mailbox, from none other than…

Mo.

A cute little Knuffle Bunny stamp adorned the outside.

Yep, a handwritten note from Mo himself. Rainey was giddy.

Talk about making a little girl’s day!

Over at Heart of the Matter Online, I’m sharing our favorite websites for learning!

Our favorite author/illustrator around here is Mo Willems. All of his books, all of the subjects, all of the cutsey characters…what’s not to love?

One of the things we want to start doing more as a family is letting people know how great we think they are! That includes authors of our favorite books.

Rainey knew just what to write to Mr. Willems. Short and sweet and to the point….but the illustrations she added made it unforgettable.

We’ve heard that Mo Willems is good about writing his fans back. He also posts fan mail on his webpage from time to time. We’re just happy to be able to write him….period!

And for me, the sentimentalist, it’s nice to see that you can still send fan letters via snail mail.

Want to write a favorite author/illustrator? Check out this list (and this one) for mailing addresses for some of the most notable.

Have fun!

I feel a tad bit more confident in that I can grow things to edible size before they shrivel up or get eaten by deer and rabbits. We also grew tired of last year’s crops, so this year we chose new veggies.

I also tried, for the first time, starting seeds indoors. I was scared to go it alone with homemade inventions, so I splurged and bought a Bio Dome from Park Seed.

It’s been a learning process — trial and error. I was so excited about how fast and tall the seedlings were growing until my master gardener sister-in-law gently told me that they were simply craving more light and trying to reach up for it. (Oops.)

She lent me a grow light, though, and after setting up a mini-greenhouse indoors and restarting with new seeds, it was all good.

(Grow, baby, grow!)

Cucumbers, bell peppers, radishes, basil, green bush beans, cherry tomatoes, cilantro. By next weekend these pretty plants will move to their permanent home outdoors!

I also indulged a curiosity and ordered live strawberry plants with grow bags. The colorful ads looked so convincing….big, juicy berries overflowing and cascading off of balconies and railings….and boy, do we love strawberries. I just had to try.

It’s a pity that 2/3rds of these lovely plants didn’t take. Park Seed is shipping out 25 new plants free of charge today, though, with promises to let their certified horticulturalists aid me in my second attempt.

Ever since I read (and loved) Lois Lenski’s Strawberry Girl I knew I’d somehow have to learn to grow strawberries.

This just has to work.

AND, what’s a garden without child-created art with which to decorate it? The kids made some super beautiful garden stones with colored marbles and stained glass tiles!

Are you gardening this year?

What are you growing?

We sat down on Sunday and the kids made up a list of things they wanted to do and places they wanted to go this week. It’s Tuesday, and so far we’ve already checked off three activities!

Yesterday they began one of the projects I was the most excited about: Making books.

I’ve had blank bound books from Bare Books tucked away for over a year, waiting until the kids got a little older and interested in this type of project.

They learned how to plan out their story ideas and sketches on plain paper beforehand. It was a lesson in patience and pre-planning. (Even I sometimes don’t like this step! But I know it’s important.)

Once their storyline was in place and their main characters created, I handed them the blank books. Over the next two hours, they sat still and drew and wrote.

I was enamored by their creativity and persistence. They woke up today and promptly after breakfast returned to their workspaces. Their goal is to have them finished by bedtime tonight.

So glad they’re loving this newly found hobby!

I guess I’ll be buying more Bare Books!

Today at Heart of the Matter Online, I share ways your preschoolers can have fun outside now that the weather’s getting warmer!

His room theme is loosely robots mixed with assorted tech. You know, technical machine stuff. Typical fodder for the son of an engineer who’s as math minded as he is.

We took some of G’s most intricate drawings and my husband scanned them onto his computer. With Photoshop, he let G’s creations come to life amid stock photo environments.

(If you use a Mac, an easier, cheaper program that does pretty much the same thing is Pixelmator).

We displayed them in floating, aluminum frames, which fit perfectly with the feel of his boyish room.

Kudos to my smart husband for creating such cool artwork that’s sentimental at the same time….keepsakes for sure.

Young George Washington (a First Start Biography) and Anne Rockwell’s President’s Day.

We then set out on a craft I’ve been so excited about, yet another idea straight from the pages from our newest favorite crafty book, Every Day’s a Holiday by Heidi Kenney: President Peg Dolls!

We looked at paintings of the presidents to decipher their individual hairstyles and dress. (And no, we didn’t make all of the presidents — just five or so each!)

I was lucky enough to stumble across the tutorial here on the Etsy blog — enjoy!