Dimity Duck by Jane Yolen and Sebastien Braun

Who doesn't love Jane Yolen? We're big fans of her Dinosaur books, and were happy to be introduced to this one. The text is fun and the pictures are whimsical, telling the story of a little duck who spends the day playing with a frog. (What toddlers don't love ducks and frogs?) The text is printed in a large type and sprinkled with Ds, perfect for new little semi-readers to search for the letter of the week.

C Week in Review

Another good letter week has come and gone. I've discovered the best thing about this project is the awareness of text that it gives Emma. Almost anywhere we go--driving in the car, at the grocery store, at church--she says, "Look, look! Letters!" or she points out the individual letters and says the sounds. I'm no expert, but I'm betting that's a pretty important prereading skill. It also makes for excellent impromptu entertainment ("What letter is that? What sound does it make?").

PS. Sorry for the sporadic posting lately. My husband has been home off work the last couple of weeks studying for the bar exam and monopolozing my (I mean our??) computer. That and a stomach bug that set us back for a few days and delayed D week. Plus, I've got 8 weeks to go and am already itching to evict this baby. Is that enough excuses for you? I'll try my best to update regularly.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is, of course, a classic, and we've had it at our house for a while, though it's been a long time since we've read it. Emma enjoyed it a lot more than she has in the past--perhaps because now she knows what cupcakes and lollipops are??? It definitely works as a C book, though we have the board book version and the text was kind of small, which made it hard for Emma to spot Cs.

The Cat Next Door by Betty Ren Wright

This was a random library book find that didn't work too well for us. For starters, it's one of those whimsical picture books with a lot of text--not necessarily a bad thing, just not ideal for a two-year-old. It made it hard for her to look for Cs within the text. It also didn't have too many C words. However, if you're looking for a nice picture book to deal with the death of a grandparent, especially for an older preschooler, this one would work well.

Cards

With Valentine's day this week, what better craft than to make cards? I simplified things by using premade cards, which Emma colored with crayons and decorated with stickers.

The front of a masterpiece:

I helped by writing a message inside:

This was a fun, quick project, and even though we didn't get them done in time for Valentine's day delivery, I'm sure they'll be appreciated!

Cowpokes by Caroline Stutson

This was another random library book that I loved so much I'm thinking of adding to our home collection. Perhaps it's because we're in Texas now? Cowpokes is the story of (what else?) a day in the life of cowpokes. The illustrations are fantastic--the artist created 10 different cowpoke personalities that show up in every picture. The gently rhyming text is fun without being overbearing. And there were lots of Cs!

Just Call Out My Name...

Once again, I felt like I was scraping the bottom of the barrel for our "Do" activity this week. I need to do more brainstorming and research, because all I could come up with was "call," which is what we ended up doing. Emma is a regular chatty Cathy and talks to both sets of grandparents quite regularly, so instead we called MY grandparents (Emma's great-grandparents). She loved telling them about her day, informing them of the sound that the letter C makes, and singing the alphabet song. And I'm pretty sure my snow-bound grandparents enjoyed the call too.