Soccer Jersey Match & Dress-Up

Sadly, this is the last week of the MeMeTales Readathon. We hope you had a great time with all of the ebooks you read and please know that by participating you've helped donate over 6500 meals to hungry kids via FoodforEducation.com!

And just in time for the Olympics, this week's theme is Global Culture. Books this week include Mandy and Pandy Say "Ni Hao Ma?", Cora Cooks Pancit and Good Fortune in a Wrapping Cloth.

I had a lot of different ideas for this, including animals of the world, some puppets and a multi-cultural puzzle. But when I was getting ready to set up the map of the animals of the world, I suddenly remembered some soccer jerseys.

A few weeks months ago the Farmer had an idea for one of his soccer magazines (they come by the 100s at our house...okay, maybe not 100s). "You should make paper doll clothes out of the jerseys." I said it was a good idea and even got as far as tearing out the jerseys, but then they sat and sat and sat. Until today! 

The Farmer didn't think they were National Team jerseys, but guess what?! They were!!! 

I cut out 13 jerseys and had the Farmer explain to me which one represented which country. The Farmer helped us set up, then went into the living room to play with Sprout (he wasn't in the room to make sure I kept my jerseys straight!).

NOTE!!! I somehow mixed up the Mexico/Spain jersey. It was a Spain jersey and I kept telling Sweet P it was Mexico. Something tells me I'm not making many friends with Spain/Mexico soccer fans. 

Countries represented:

• Argentina
• Croatia
• England
• Holland
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Mexico
• Poland
• Portugal
• Spain
• Sweden
• USA

World Map Match

We spread out a World map and Sweet P and I talked about each country the jersey represented. I'd show her where the country was and she'd lay the jersey on top of it. I think she liked looking at the map more than anything. 

Dress-Up Dolls

After the map match, she moved on to dress-up dolls. We used two sticker dolls from our Melissa & Doug Fashion Sticker Collection as our paper dolls. I gave the Sweet P the option of using tape or a clothes pin to adhere the jerseys.

Soccer Jersey/Country Match

Once she finished playing with the dress-up dolls we did a match game with the names of the countries and the jerseys. I'd say "This is the USA jersey, can you find USA?" and she'd go hunt for the letters. It was a challenge, especially since we had Poland and Portugal, and Ireland and Italy, but she figured it out. 

Another NOTE: Soccer plays a big role in our household, especially since the Farmer coaches 2 teams, so this was a really fun activity for us. The Farmer was really excited about it and it was a really fun way to teach her about other countries with something other than flags. 

MeMeTales is giving away 6 "What Does it Mean to be Green" books and posters AND 6 Let's Go Chipper Activity packs! Enter via Rafflecopter for a chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 Like the Iowa Farmer's Wife on Facebook to receive updates and see other posts! You can also follow The Iowa Farmer's Wife on Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Pretend Play: Composting

Guess what?! It's Week 5 of the Readathon and it's all about being kind to the Earth and being Green! We are lovin' the 2 free ebooks this week, Let's Go Chipper: Into the Great Outdoors and What Does it Mean to Be Green? Both books have some fabulous ways to love the Earth and reduce your carbon footprint.

I had a few ideas on what we might do as an activity this week, but Sweet P beat me to it. Read on to see how:  

Pretend Play: Composting might sound a bit weird, but composting around our house is as common as throwing something in the trash or recycling bin. So while it sounds weird, it should come as no surprise that when Sweet P plays in her play kitchen, she also composts.

We use plastic bags we've saved (even though we use reusable bags, somehow plastic bags still find a way into our house!) for our compost because it's what works best for us right now. The Farmer takes the bags out to the farm and puts them into our compost bins. At some point we hope to get a bin for our compost instead of using plastic bags in the house, but right now our kitchen is a wee bit cramped. Anyway, the plastic bag hangs on the door to the basement and we've taught Sweet P to throw apple cores, banana peels, orange peels, etc. into the bag.

One day I hauled a bunch of stuff up to her room using a plastic bag and after we put the stuff away she asked for the bag.

Sweet P: "I need it for my compost."

And pretend play compost began.

Monday we were playing upstairs and she was cutting fruit, veggies and bread (while Sprout was eating it) from 2 different sets of Melissa & Doug wooden food when she said, "I need a compost bag." Instead of going to find a plastic bag, I said "Why don't you use your reusable bag?"...so she did!

As she cut up her fruit, she'd drop pieces she deemed unworthy of consumption into the bag. She also took a whole tomato and said, "This is all moldy" and tossed it in.

I have to be honest that I never thought we'd be playing "Composting" with our kids, but there I was!

Here are a few other things we do around here (read more in What Does it Mean to be Green?) to reduce our carbon footprint:

• Recycle (you can read more about that in this post)
• Grow our own vegetables and buy local as often as possible 
• Eat produce that is in season
• This was hard for me until we had our own garden, but now I refuse to buy fresh tomatoes out of season. Nothing compares to garden fresh tomatoes!
• Walk to the library (we can't walk many places from our house, but the library is super close so we walk as often as we can, even in snow!)
• Save clothes for future siblings
• Turn off the water while we brush our teeth
• Draw on recycled paper (I save any and all scrap paper so she can draw on the back)
• and we DEFINITELY eat our ice cream out of a cone! (read the ebook if this is confusing!)

One we're working on:

• Shutting off the water while we rub the soap on our hands

Check out the MeMeTales Pinterest Board for more Earth Based Books, Activities, Crafts and Learning Curriculum.

Like the Iowa Farmer's Wife on Facebook to receive updates and see other posts! You can also follow The Iowa Farmer's Wife on Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Box Monster Phonics

It's Week 4 (already?!) of the MeMeTales Readathon and this week's theme is Imaaaaagination! Read more in this post on how to participate if you don't already!


The free ebooks this week include Night Boy, Doors in the Air and There's a Dinosaur in the Park (which is the book we used for our activity). 


Quick side: When I was in college I watched Sponge Bob Squarepants (yep, in college) and there's an episode where he and Patrick receive a TV in a box. They throw the TV away and play with the box all day. Squidward doesn't understand why they threw out the TV and when he asks why Spongebob responds, "We don't need a television, as long as we have our...imaaaaagination (and forms a rainbow with his hands)". And what a statement that is!


Since that episode, I have a hard time saying the word imagination without using that tone. And like Patrick and Spongebob, we had an awesome time playing with a box this week! 

I knew I wanted to create a box monster for the kids after seeing the idea on Inner Child Fun's 10 Boredom Busters post, so when we read There's a Dinosaur in the Park I decided we'd make one!

I grabbed a glue stick, construction paper and a black felt tip marker. Sweet P was eating dinner while I created, but she could have easily made the box monster. She, of course, wanted the monster to be a girl so that is why she has such HUGE lips! We had googly eyes on it until Sprout pulled one off and I decided to get rid of the choking hazards!

We started out feeding the box monster dry pasta and pretzels. She was still hungry so some toys got thrown in as well. After a while, we turned it into a phonics game.

For the game we used a set of foam numbers and letters. I'd pretend to be the box monster and say, "I'm STILL hungry! I'm hungry for a Rutabaga! Rutabaga starts with???" And Sweet P'd yell, "R!" and jump to find the letter R.

For the numbers, I'd say "I'm hungry for 5 dates! Can you find the number 5?" And she'd toss in the number 5. This went on until the monster'd eaten ALL the letters and numbers! Then, Sweet P decided to get in the box!

Sprout also loved opening and closing the box, pulling up on the box, pulling things out of the box and playing with the dried pasta.

Stay in touch with the Iowa Farmer's Wife on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

{Readathon 2012} Love Never Fails

The theme for week 3 of the MeMeTales Readathon is Character Development. I thought long and hard about what we might do to talk about different elements of our character, manners and positive behavior, and was having a hard time coming up with something other than reading more books about positive behavior (which we did in fact do).

Sweet P and I read Good Habits to Have and talked about different ways we could be kind to others. She's still learning about honesty so we read Hermie and Wormie in the Flood of Lies (Max Lucado's Hermie & Friends) to discuss the importance of telling the truth. We also read A Life God Rewards for Little Ones (Breakthrough Series), The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners , Please Is a Good Word to Say by Barbara Joosse and Pat Them Gently (a $1 book from Target).

After the kids went to bed that night I got out my materials for my personal bible study. I'm in the midst of doing a personal bible study at our church where we learn 6 different bible study methods. This week's method is the Word Study method by Rick Warren and pretty in-depth. You begin the method by choosing a word to study in the bible. There were several examples and a list of word choices, but I decided I'd work within the theme of the week and chose the word Character.

There are several parts of the study including looking up the definition, translation, origin and meaning of the word you choose: Character. I discovered that character comes from the Greek word Ethos (if you're familiar with Aristotle's Rhetoric), which refers to moral competence, or showing moral character. The Latin form is ethicus, which we now know as ethics. (Are you lost, yet?)

After finding the meaning, you go hunting for where the word appears in the bible. I was a bit surprised to see that it only occurs 3-4 times (depending on your translation).

The most well-known being Romans 5:4

Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings,because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Through suffering we learn to persevere (keep trying), which builds character (moral competence), which leads to hope. And hope does not disappoint (different translation of Romans 5:5). 

I found other scripture passages that referred to character such as 1 Corinthians 15:33and Hebrews 13:5. But the verse that took  me in another direction (where I'm going with this) was 2 Peter 1:5-7, which lists the characteristics of someone with good character. 

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.

Okay, here we see faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance (there it is again), godliness, mutual affection (or brotherly kindness) and love. Sound familiar? I thought so, too. Several of these characteristics are also mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 (also known as the Fruit of the Spirit passage):

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

We see love again, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, goodness and a few other characteristics to embody. From here I saw that LOVE appeared over and over (which should come as no surprise). And I also saw hope and faith. Can you see where I'm going? I said the verse "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." in my head and thought, "of course." Then I turned to 1 Corinthians 13. 

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails.

And as I read the passage, one I've read more times than I can count, I suddenly realized that in teaching my children to love God and love others as He loves us, they inherently learn patience, kindness, humility, integrity, honesty, self-control, gentleness and perseverance. 

All of these character qualities are found in love and the perfect example of love comes from God's love for us. If we can strive to love and teach our children to love as God loves us, then all the other characteristics follow. 

The word LOVE appears in the bible over 7,000 times (NIV).

Turns out that's what He's been teaching us all along. 

Stay connected with the Iowa Farmer's Wife on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

The Grouchy Ladybug Activities

I love the humility lesson in The Grouchy Ladybug along with the friendliness of the friendly ladybug despite the attitude of the grouchy ladybug. 

As we read through the book this week, we mimicked some of the other animals the ladybug came across. Here are the few of the actions we did:

• showed our stinger like the yellow jacket
• used our hands as horns like the stag beetle
• prayed like a praying mantis
• opened our mouths like the sparrow
• stretched our claws like the lobster
• lifted our tail like the skunk
• hissed like a snake
• laughed like a hyena
• beat our chests like a gorilla
• lowered our noses like a rhino
• raised our trunk like an elephant
• said THANK YOU! like the grouchy ladybug

Grouchy Ladybug - Friendly Ladybug - Leaf w/ Aphids Craft
I like to think that at the end of the book the Grouchy Ladybug becomes friends with the Friendly Ladybug. They also help the leaf by eating all the aphids. Saying thank you when a friend shares and thank you when someone helps us shows appreciation to our friends or acquaintances.

To show the end of the book relationship, Sweet P created 2 ladybugs and a leaf w/ aphids on it. The Grouchy Ladybug had a down-turned mouth and frowny eyebrows to show the difference between the two ladybugs.

She chose pink for the Friendly Ladybug and red for the Grouchy Ladybug. Because she wanted to paint with green and yellow, she used both on the leaf.

I set the plates outside to dry while Sweet P played for a bit. When I brought them back in she glued on eyes, mouth and eyebrows. I was going to have her poke through the plate with a pushpin to make a hole for the antennae, but the plate was wonky and she had a hard time so I did it.

Using a circle cutter with a grip, she cut out 10 black circles for ladybug spots. We used a sunburst hole punch for the aphids, but it was too hard for her to push. I even had a hard time! I punched out 10 aphids for the leaf.

To finish, Sweet P glued the spots on the ladybugs and counted the 10 aphids before gluing them to the leaf.

I set them together to take a quick photo and she rearranged them so that the ladybug mouths were touching the leaf so they could eat!

Here's what Baby Blue was up to while Sweet P glued!

Like the Iowa Farmer's Wife on Facebook to receive updates and see other posts! You can also follow The Iowa Farmer's Wife on Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

{Readathon 2012} Pretend Play Parties

Sweet P LOOOOVES birthday parties (partly because she LOVES cupcakes) and celebrates daily with several of her stuffed toys and dolls. Most days, one of her toys has a birthday (I think Beary is now 8 years old) and she has a great time setting up her dolls and serving food.

After reading Lott's Tea Party as part of the MeMeTales Readathon, I noticed how many of those things Sweet P does to prepare for her own pretend play parties and as we read we talked about the similarities. She loved the owl drinking tea and wiping his mouth. We also noticed that Lott wears a bow just like Sweet P!

We have a set of felt cookies that I made for Sweet P as a Valentine's gift and they are so much fun. Last week as we played upstairs she made cookies for me, the Farmer, Beary and several other toys. I loved watching the thought that went into each cookie and her preparation as we told her the color of frosting and how many sprinkles we wanted.

Today we'll be making cookies for a friend who recently had a baby and delivering them on Saturday!

Check out more Friendship ideas on the MeMeTales blog and if you haven't already joined the Readathon 2012, you still can! Find out more info in this post.

Visit MeMeTales Week 1: Animals and our 5 Little Ducklings post for animal-related ideas.

Like the Iowa Farmer's Wife on Facebook to receive updates and see other posts! You can also follow The Iowa Farmer's Wife on Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Activities

Sweet P got a University Games Brown Bear-Panda Bear, What Do You See? Game from Gammie for Christmas (Gammie is a thrift store shopper and finds ridiculously amazing things for ridiculously cheap prices--like Sweet P's wooden kitchen that she found for 18$ when it retails for $140!). Since it's Eric Carle's birthday and we're co-hosting an Eric Carle linky party this week, we pulled out our game and set to playing with Gammie and our cousin Blair.

This game is very simple and a great way to talk about different colors and animals. You simply turn cards over one at a time and if you get a match, you place it on one of your animals. If not, your turn is over.

It's a great way to teach a child how a game is played and the concept of taking a turn. Sweet P won the round we played and when you have matched all of your animals, you go down the line saying (she was the Panda Bear) "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, what do you see?" "I see a Bald Eagle looking at me." and so forth down the line until you've said each of your animals. We haven't read the Panda Bear version so some of the animals were new for her, but it was a great way to talk about new types of animals (like Water Buffalo!).

Last weekend we went garage saleing (because that's what we do when Gammie comes to town) and found one with a lot of preschool items from a home daycare closure. I found this folder for .25 and thought it was great! We played with it along with the game and I'd ask Sweet P, "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, what do you see?" And she'd say "I see an orange bear looking at me." Great for color recognition! Very simple and worth the .25.

Check back this weekend for more Eric Carle ideas!

Like the Iowa Farmer's Wife on Facebook to receive updates and see other posts! You can also follow The Iowa Farmer's Wife on Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Readathon 2012: 5 Little Ducklings

It's Week 1 of the MeMeTales Readathon and this week's theme is ANIMALS! If you haven't signed up, you still can. Read more in this post to find out how.

We LOVE the MeMeTales 5 Little Ducklings ebook. In fact, I think I like it more than Sweet P does!

If you're not familiar with The 5 Little Ducklings, it's an old rhyme that is often sung so I can't help but sing the words! I like to read the ebooks as well as listen to them - so this one gets sung (even the Farmer gets it stuck in his head) instead of read.

I knew I wanted to use felt (surprise, surprise!) to create the ducks and quickly whipped up some yellow ducks and a mama late one night. I used Sharpie for their eyes and a little orange piece of felt for the beak. I hot glued them together and wa-la! Instant ducklings.

Sweet P loved putting them on and singing along, but also liked playing with them flat on our bookshelf. We did the activity a few different ways:

• Mama duck on my finger, baby ducks on the bookshelf: she pulled one off and scooted them back and forth as we sang
• Mama duck on my finger, baby ducks on her hand: she flicked one off each time the mama called them back
• Mama and baby ducks on the bookshelf: she dropped the baby ducks on the floor as we sang

Sweet P wanted a grilled cheese for lunch so I made a mama duck with her 5 little babies! As she ate she'd say "There's only 4 now!" and we made up silly rhymes like "4 little duckies sitting looking so yummy! I ate one and now it's in my tummy!" 

Mama duck: grilled cheese with carrot hair and beak, grape/raisin eyes
Baby ducks: Banana with raisin eyes and carrot hair and beak
Cloud/sun: Greek yogurt and carrot
Water: blueberries

We've been having a great time with the Readathon! How about you?

Find other fun activities from other bloggers by visiting the MeMeTales Blog!

Introducing: MeMeTales Readathon 2012

I mentioned the MeMeTales and PBSKids Readathon 2012 last week in my 60 Ways to Make Reading Fun post, but here is the post that will tell you all about the Readathon and how YOU can be a part of it!

It's simple, it's educational and it's fabulous!

So how does it work?

1. Visit How Do I Participate in Readathon 2012 for a complete list of details and instructions regarding the Readathon.
2. Each week there will be a series of new ebooks your child can borrow/read through a MeMeTales app (available for iPad, iPhone, Android phone/tablet and Kindle Fire) or through MeMeTales online (this is how we read it since we don't own any of the above!). 
3. By signing up or downloading the app, you instantly receive 20 ebooks free! You'll have access to a newsletter with weekly activities centered around the theme. 
4. Each week of the Readathon (6 total) has a theme:
• Week 1: Animal Fun
• Week 2: Friendship
• Week 3: Character Development
• Week 4: Imagination
• Week 5: The Green Earth
• Week 6: Global Cultures
5. Participating in the Readathon also supports FoodForEducation.org, an organization devoted to helping children around the world attend school. For each child who joins the Readathon, MeMeTales donates a meal to send a hungry child to school. 
6. Various bloggers are participating in the Readathon and creating crafts/activities to go along with one of the featured books each week. Check back to see ours for Week 1. 

I sincerely hope you'll join us in participating in Readathon 2012! Use hashtag #readforgood to interact, communicate and connect with other Readathon participants.

60 Ways to Make {Reading} Fun

I was inspired to write this list after our library distributed a list of ways to make reading fun during Spring Break. I absolutely, positively love to read, and can only hope I share that passion with my children. While most of these talk about reading with/to your child, these can most certainly be done by a child who can read on their own. Read to, with or alongside your children as often as possible.

Read {where}
1. in the bath tub (empty, of course). Fill it with blankets, pillows and books.
2. outside. In a chair, on a blanket, under a tree, in a tree house, at a park.
3. in a fort. Build a fort with your child and climb inside for a book or two.
4. with a flashlight. Turn off the lights and read to your child by flashlight.
5. in a book nook. Create a special place for reading books with comfy blankets and stuffed toys.
6. at the table. Start each meal with a book or a bible verse.
7. wearing dress-up clothes.
8. under a table.
9. in a laundry basket (if you're small enough to fit!).
10. out loud.
11. on the stairs.
12. every day.

Read {what}
13. a book in a different language.
14. a how-to book.
15. a pictures-only book.
16. a book with chapters.
17. a year book (preferably your mom or dads).
18. the newspaper.
19. labels at the grocery store.
20. a comic book.
21. the Bible
22. street signs.
23. a book from the library.
24. a book that plays music.

Read with {or to} your
25. mom.
26. dad.
27. grandma.
28. grandpa.
29. brother
30. sister.
31. cousins.
32. aunt.
33. uncle.
34. neighbor.
35. best friend.
36. babysitter.
37. favorite stuffed animal/doll.
38. pet.
39. self in the mirror.

Read a Book About
40. your hometown.
41. your state.
42. your country.
43. a castle.
44. dinosaurs.
45. the past.
46. the future.
47. another country.
48. your favorite animal.
49. your favorite food.
50. your favorite activity.
51. the moon.
52. going on vacation.
53. the place you're going on vacation.
54. fairy tales.
55. someone famous.
56. a holiday.
57. the seasons.

{Active} Reading
58. sing the words.
59. act out the words.
60. spell the words.

Since we're talking about reading, I wanted to share some exciting news! We are joining PBS and Memetales for their Summer Readathon 2012! As one of the blogs participating in this project, we'll be sharing a weekly activity that corresponds with one of the Readathon books. Stay tuned for more about the Readathon later this week!

Like the Iowa Farmer's Wife on Facebook to receive updates and see other posts! You can also follow The Iowa Farmer's Wife on Twitter, Pinterest and Google+