This Gothic City Blocks set, made in Poland, comes with many blocks with which you can build a castle or small village of houses. The blocks provide a great starting point for the imagination to wander and think about what life might have been like in the 14th century. Time to check on that cauldron of stew...
Thanks to The Land of Nod for sending us this set.
Recently, Avery and Nate have been putting together tracks like this, sort of like a roller coaster. Their dad taught them to place a piece of track upright (as seen on the left side) to achieve more height, thus producing more speed as the cars start down the track.
I thought it would be the perfect time to read Thunderstorm by Arthur Geisert after our recent storm here in Southern California. Thunderstorm is a (mostly) wordless story book that chronicles a particularly squally day in the rural Midwest. There is no narrative except for time stamps at the bottom of each page, showing the progress of the day. I love how Geisert uses line to depict the movement, energy and mood of the storm and the flurry of activity it produces in the course of one day in a prairie town. It provides a wonderfully detailed perspective of the countryside that is invaluable for my kids to see since we live in a mostly suburban setting. There is a richness of rural terrain and a great deal of new words associated with the rustic and agrarian way of life that, for now, my children might only learn from books and stories like this one. I try to read books about different parts of the country and world to my children to increase their background knowledge, which will hopefully diversify their point of view and support their reading comprehension later on in school. Our next acquisition of Geisert’s works will probably be Country Road ABC.
Also, don’t miss the interesting note about the illustrations on the book’s back cover!
Every year we seem to get Avery a pair of Pio Pios from Livie & Luca. It's hard to resist their charming and sprightly quality! Check out L&L’s current offerings of Pio Pios in chocolate, mint, turquoise and silver in babies’ and girls’ sizes along with their spring collection on their website. Loving these little Charm Vintage Gray sandals for the summer, too. We’ve gone through many pairs of L&L shoes and sandals and can say that their quality and durability hold up through many an outing and excursion. Note: we actually purchased this particular pair of purple Pio Pios last year but Avery just got around to wearing them recently. They’re still available in one size here.
This is a great first memory game for a toddler or preschooler. The game consists of wooden tiles with stylized pictures of animals in bold and appealing colors. I like how the tiles are substantial and made of wood, thus easy for little hands to handle and flip over. What's nice is that they are durable enough to pass on to someone else after Avery and Nate outgrow them!