Amazing Sunflowers

"Keep your face to the sunshine 

and you cannot see the shadow.  

It's what sunflowers do." 

Helen Keller

Emmy and I recently explored an amazing sunflower field at Colby Farm in Newbury, MA. This field is planted annually and tended to by the Colby family.  The sunflowers were absolutely gorgeous.  Emmy couldn't believe how tall the flowers were and how many of them were in the field. We estimated in the 1,000's.  There were so many honey bees busy at work collecting pollen to take back to their hives and beautiful butterflies resting on the sunny heads of the flowers. We spent a long time exploring this field taking in the beauty and relishing the quiet.

After our visit, I was inspired to show Emmy Vincent Van Gogh's paintings of sunflowers.  This allowed us to talk about Van Gogh's technique of using vibrant colors and swirling brush strokes (post-impressionism) as well as still life painting.  Emmy and I will be working on our own still life paintings of a vase of sunflowers and will share them at a later time.

Still Life: Vase With Twelve Sunflowers 1888

Emmy has always been interested in Van Gogh's paintings especially his most famous work The Starry Night (1889).  In a previous post, I talked about how we kept a picture frame in Emmy's bedroom that held a different postcard each week of a famous painting. She always wanted The Starry Night to be in the frame.  With our renewed interest in Van Gogh, we decided to check out a book about Van Gogh from our library.  I had learned of a series of books by Laurence Anholt (Anholt's Artists Books For Children) that focused on stories of real children who had actually met famous artists. There are nine books in the series and we would like to read them all, but we began with Van Gogh and the Sunflowers.  This story focuses on Van Gogh's time spent in Arles, France. A young boy named Camille befriends Van Gogh when he moves into the yellow house at the end of his street.  Camille brought sunflowers to his new friend and watched him paint.  Others in the town thought that Van Gogh was odd and that Vincent and his paintings didn't fit in with the town.  Emmy and I appreciated Camille's father's explanation,

"People often laugh at things that are different, 

but I've got a feeling that one day 

they will learn to love Vincent's paintings." 

Not only are Anholt's illustrations wonderful to look at, but the book also includes reproductions of works by Vincent Van Gogh.   For another recommendation of a book about art, check out this post.  

A wonderful book celebrating sunflowers is Eve Bunting's Sunflower House.  This story shares the lifecycle of the sunflower beginning with a boy planting sunflower seeds into a circle which creates a sunflower playhouse to the flowers wilting and the seeds dropping to the ground.  The story is told in rhyming verse and the illustrations, by Kathryn Hewitt (who also illustrated Bunting's book Flower Garden), are exquisite. Emmy's favorite part is when the boy and his friends sleep in the sunflower house.  She is determined that she will plant a similar house and have her friends over to sleep among the giant flowers.  

Whenever the topic of gardening with children comes up, I always suggest Sharon Lovejoy's books as resources. In her book, Sunflower Houses: A Book for Children and their Grown-Ups, the pages are filled with terrific suggestions of flowers to plant and projects to make and also with Lovejoy's beautiful drawings and whimsical poems. I remember making clover chains and firefly lanterns when I was a child.  I also remember picking dandelions for my mom. Emmy and I enjoy stringing dandelions together to make crowns to wear and bouquets to give.  Gardening is not something that is easy for us as we live in an apartment building in town, but I am determined to create an indoor garden with Emmy.  If you are interested in other books about gardening, check out the following posts:

The Child's Garden

In the Garden: Who's Been Here?

Bumpety Bump!

Here's a song that Emmy and I have been enjoying since our visit to the sunflower field...

Sunflower ~ written by Neil Diamond and recorded by Glen Campbell in 1977.  

In the Garden: Who's Been Here?

Spring has arrived! Every shop in our little town has flower boxes full of the most colorful and fragrant flowers. Emmy and I stop and smell the flowers every day on our way to and from school. We also marvel at the blossoms on the trees. So beautiful!

When we went to the library, we asked the librarian to suggest a book for Spring and she recommended Lindsay Barrett George's In the Garden: Who's Been Here? Perfect! Two children, Christina and Jeremy, and their dog, Sonny, are sent to pick vegetables in the garden where they discover quite a few other creatures who have already been to the garden that day.

George's illustrations are so realistic that you really feel a part of the story. Emmy's favorite page is the one with the chipmunk nibbling the seeds in the sunflower.

"Christina looks down into a large sunflower. Something's
been eating the seeds in the middle of this sunflower.
I wonder... Who's been here? A chipmunk."

Emmy loves giving a guess after the repetitive phrase I wonder...Who's been here? and is delighted to turn the page and discover the two page spread showing a close up of the creature and the plant.

This is George's fifth book in the Who's Been Here? series. The first three starred George's own children Campbell (Cammy) and William and are each set in nature surrounding their home (woods, snow, pond) giving the reader a wonderful sense of the great outdoors. The fourth in the series has a slightly different format as it follows a teacher who is traveling the world and reporting back to her students through letters, sketches and maps. Each book in the series has a reference page at the end highlighting the animals giving the reader even more information.

If your child loves nature, then these books would be perfect.

In the Woods: Who's Been Here?










In the Snow: Who's Been Here?

Around the Pond: Who's Been Here?

Around the World: Who's Been Here?

Here are a few songs about gardening that Emmy and I have been enjoying!

Little Seed (tune: I'm a Little Teapot)
Here's a little seed in the dark, dark ground.
(crouch on the ground)
Out comes the warm sun, yellow and round.
(stand up and connect hands over head)
Down comes the rain, wet and slow.
(flutter fingers and slowly squat down)
Up comes the little seed, grow, grow, grow!
(jump up - jump, jump, jump)

Plant Your Seeds (tune: Row Your Boat)
Dig, dig, dig the earth
(make digging motion)
Then you plant your seeds
(pretend to drop seeds)
A gentle rain
(flutter fingers down)
And bright sunshine
(circle arms above head)
Will help your flowers grow.
(squat down and stand up raising arms above head)

Zoe Hall

As we approached the month of September here on the North Shore of Massachusetts, Emmy and I wondered if Autumn would ever arrive. The heat crept its way into the middle of September and then WHAM, Autumn was here. There really wasn't much of a transition...80 degree weather to 50 degree weather practically overnight! And the wind...BRRR (temperatures feel more like 40 degrees)! Now I know what New Englanders mean by a Nor'Easterner!

With Autumn upon us, it was time to bring out our collection of books on the subject. We've posted about our favorite Autumn

books from last year here, but we have plenty more to share! It seems like the books that Emmy is enjoying the most this time around are all written by Zoe Hall! First up is It's Pumpkin Time with illustrations by Shari Halpern. This book is a pleasant celebration of Halloween and an excellent lesson on the science of how pumpkins grow.

"All summer long, my brother and I get ready for our favorite holiday.

Can you guess what it is? Halloween! And can you guess what

we do to get ready? We plant a jack-o'-lantern patch?"

Ms. Hall's text is simple and informative and Ms. Halpern's illustrations are vibrant and engaging. They make a great team! A great bonus is the last page where you can find a diagram of how a pumpkin seed grows underground.

Emmy and I recently went to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkin. We brought along the book It's Pumpkin Time and read it before we set off into the pumpkin patch. Emmy was delighted to discover the vines that once held the pumpkins. She even tried to figure out which pumpkin stem went with which vine!

To prepare for carving our pumpkin into a jack-o'-lantern, Emmy

is using a washable black marker to draw different faces on

the pumpkin. With a damp cloth (or sponge), the marker wipes clean and the pumpkin is ready for a new look! We also keep a dry cloth near by. Another great way to practice a variety of faces for a jack-o'-lantern is to cut a pumpkin shape out of orange felt and then cut different eyes, noses, and mouths out of black felt. Voila - a Mr. Pumpkin Head!

Emmy has suggested that I add her favorite pumpkin finger play to this post so here it goes:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one says, "Oh my it's getting late!"

The second one says, "There are witches in the air."

(OR "There is something in the air.")

The third one says, "But we don't care."

The fourth one says, "Let's run and run and run."

The fifth one says, "I'm ready for some fun."

Then whoosh went the wind and out went the lights

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Second up is The Apple Pie Tree. Hall and Halpern team up again to create a wonderful tale that follows two sisters and an apple tree through the seasons.

"My sister and I have a tree that grows the best part of apple pie.

Can you guess what that is? Apples!

And every year, we watch our apple tree grow."

Also hidden among the tree's branches is a family of robins which shows the importance of the tree providing shelter for the birds. Emmy and I enjoy the last page where you will find a

diagram showing how bees help apples to grow and Zoe Hall's own recipe for making apple pie!

Apple picking season was early this year so we missed our opportunity to pick our own apples. However, Emmy enjoys going to the Farmer's Market and choosing an apple for a treat. Here she is biting through the skin of the apple and eating it whole - FINALLY!

Next up is Fall Leaves Fall! Once again Hall and Halpern create an autumn tale where two brothers anticipate their favorite season.

"All year long, my brother and I wait for our favorite

season to come. Can you guess what it is? FALL!

How do we know when fall is coming?

We watch the leaves."

The children watch the leaves, catch them, stomp them, kick them, collect them, compare them, rake them and jump into them!!! These activities as well as labeling the leaves and creating leaf pictures are all introduced and invites readers to do the same things! And of course the last page includes a diagram describing how leaves grow throughout the year.

Emmy and I recently went on a leaf collecting walk and talked about the

different types of leaves we found - mostly maple and oak. Emmy really wanted to find a Ginkgo leaf like in the book, but there are no Ginkgo trees in our neighborhood!

And finally, Surprise Garden. This Hall and Halpern story follows three children as they plant a garden...loosening the soil, poking seeds in one by one, watering the garden, and watching the small green shoots grow. Surprise!

"We're planting the seeds for a surprise garden.

Can you guess what we will grow?"

When it's harvest time, the children have a garden party to eat all their delicious produce. Following the pattern in all of Hall's and Halpern's books, the last page includes a helpful guide linking seeds to plants.

Speaking of harvest time...check out another one of our favorite Autumn books here and laugh along with Emmy to Big Anthony's antics in the book Strega Nona's Harvest by Tomie dePaola. Also check out this post if you are interested in gardening with your child. Included is the delightful book How Groundhog's Garden Grew which is a wonderful book for Thanksgiving.

Emmy and her classmates planted bulbs outside of their school last week.

We are looking forward to a spring surprise of daffodils and tulips!

Lastly, here is one of Emmy's beautiful pieces of Autumn art. So easy to make!!!! Emmy's favorite part...tearing the paper into small pieces.

Happy Autumn everyone!

A Child's Garden

Our new house in the North Shore of Massachusetts comes complete with a beautiful garden! Wonderful for someone like me who really doesn't know much about gardening and just feels appreciative that the yard is vibrant and fragrant. My dad enjoyed gardening and I enjoyed being with him as he dug in the soil and planted the most colorful flowers. My mom and I would usually be pulling weeds while he planted, but that didn't matter. This rich image of being out in nature with my family stays with me to this day.

Nowadays it seems that being out in nature is tougher than it was when I was a child. Perhaps it's the "rush about" mentality that many of us have fallen into where we can't seem to just slow down and embrace what we have in the moment. I fall victim to this way of thinking constantly and struggle with how to maintain a balance of work and family. I know that I want Emmy to experience the wonders in nature as much as possible. I wish for her to have dirt under her fingernails and a multitude of messy treasures in her pockets.

With all of this in mind, it was a complete joy to come across the book, A Child's Garden by Molly Dannemaier, in a small bookstore in New Hampshire. This is a gorgeous piece of work that focuses on how to bring the out-of-doors back into the lives of children. Dannenmaier begins with an explanation of what children really do when they step outside, which is not always what adults think they do or want them to do - think tree climbing and bug digging and hideaways. When our children clamor to go outside, we build swing sets and slides, sign them up for team sports, take them to zoos and adventure parks, but rarely have them explore their own backyard. With beautiful photographs, Dannenmaier shows wonderful examples of the most exquisite backyards and parks throughout the world that will inspire you to shape a part of your yard as a place of delight and interest for your children.



Heading up a national movement for outdoor play is Richard Louv. If you would like to learn more about the importance of being out in nature every day, check out his latest book Last Child in the Woods as well as his website.



Now for the perfect gardening book to share with your child, try How Groundhog's Garden Grew by Lynne Cherry. With lush illustrations, Little Groundhog learns from Squirrel's teachings how to grow his very own garden. With subtle environmental messages such as, when Wren and Praying Mantis strike a deal with Little Groundhog: "If you promise not to harm us with bug spray, we birds and insects will help you with your garden. We will eat the harmful insects that hurt your plants." Cherry teaches us the importance of living in harmony with nature. Ever present in a book by Lynne Cherry, you will find realistic drawings, labels and information galore. Keep this book in mind for the Thanksgiving season as it ends with a grand feast of all the food harvested from Groundhog's garden and shared with his friends.

The Carrot Seed

I find comfort in things that have endured for many years. Take the Crayola Crayon for instance. The first box of eight Crayola Crayons was introduced in 1903. Invented by cousins Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith, the crayons sold for a nickel a box and came in black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green. Feeling the slight weight of the crayon in my hand and smelling its unmistakable scent takes me directly back to my own childhood. What joy I found in spending the morning busily working with paper and crayons. This joy continues as I watch Emmy carefully choose a crayon and transform her white paper into a world of color.

And who could forget the classic board game Candy Land! Invented in 1949, Candy Land has been a beloved game with children for 60 years now. The game was first invented by Eleanor Abbott to keep herself busy while she was recovering from polio. Children loved the game so much that she submitted it to Milton Bradly where it went on to become the number one top selling preschool game of all time. Of course I remember playing this game as a child and then teaching my nieces and nephews to play. This past Christmas, Emmy's Aunt and Uncle gave her Candy Land and together we continue the board game tradition.

And so we come to a children's book that has also endured the test of time. The Carrot Seed was first published in 1945 and has never been out of print. The combination of Ruth Krauss's simple text and Crockett Johnson's (of Harold and the Purple Crayon fame) eloquent illustrations creates a triumphant and deeply satisfying story for readers of all ages. I have always thought that children's books carry more meaning than many novels do and in less than 20 pages. This book is a fine example of that. With childhood determination, a young boy shows, through the planting of a seed, that with faith anything is possible!

Rediscovering the joys of my own childhood has been one of the most amazing aspects of becoming a parent. Emmy allows me to become that child again. The one who was not afraid of anything and ran full force into every new adventure. Through her I see the possibility of every day being lived to its fullest. I am forever grateful to my little girl!May the light always shine within you!

Sow and Grow: A Gardening Book for Children

Oh my goodness, where have these books been hiding! I have been collecting books for children for quite some time now and am always on the lookout for a vintage book in superb shape. Recently, I found the next best thing - a brand new book with a vintage look. I discovered Sow and Grow: A Gardening Book for Children and was instantly "in love." Just feeling the cover of the book was enough to send tingles up my arms. As soon as I got home, I searched and found out that this book was just one in a series of three books. JACKPOT! See and Sew: A Sewing Book for Children and Look and Cook: A Cookbook for Children are the other titles in the series. All of the books are beautifully bound and filled with the most endearing vintage artwork. Each book is filled with wonderful tips on how to bring gardening, sewing and cooking into your child's life. These charming books would make a very thoughtful and wonderful gift to anyone with a love for the home and all of its craftiness. I know these three books will hold a special place on our bookshelf and am looking forward to exploring each of the them with Emmy.

I wish that I could find out more about the author of these books, but at the moment all that Google will tell me is that there is someone else with the same name receiving a whole lot more press thanks to the whole Chris Brown/Rhianna thing. I do know that Tina Davis is a graphic designer and created Tina Davis Design. She holds an MFA from Yale and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Ms. Davis lives in Israel and the USA. Well, this is just not enough for an author junkie such as myself. I want to know much, much more like how these books came to fruition. I will continue to search and hope that another book will come out soon!

Bumpety Bump!

I ADORE the book Bumpety Bump! by Pat Hutchins and Emmy does too. This is the endearing story of a grandson who spends the day gardening with his Grandpa. Emmy likes to imagine herself riding in the wheelbarrow by bouncing on my legs "Bumpety bump, bumpety bump, up and down." If you are ever looking for a book for a young child, consider one by Pat Hutchins. She is a fantastic writer for young children. She uses rhythm and repetition to engage her readers and her drawings are exquisite.

Another recommendation would be Hutchin's first book Rosie's Walk. Rosie, the hen, is blissfully unaware of a sly fox trailing her as she goes out for a walk. Children love to watch the antics of the fox as Rosie manages to lead him into one accident after another. Introducing a new author to Emmy is such a delight to me. I look forward to the day when we can actually converse about the author's writing style. Until then, I will continue to answer Emmy's number one question, "What's that?" as we turn the pages of a book together.