SPECIAL! For this era of of remote learning!
For these Zoom times, I’ve reconfigured Capture to work on a shared screen. You can cultivate some of the suspense and glee of “swapping” words without touching physical cards.
LOUIS I, KING OF THE SHEEP by Olivier Tallec
Olivier Tallec’s picture book is a perfect blend of captivating illustrations and brief compelling lines of text. It’s a fitting parable for the Trump era even though it was published before 2016. To be honest, I was going to post this book review in Nov. 2016, but I didn’t want to jinx the election… So four years and one month later, here it is!
Marvelous Mazes – Juliet and Charles Snape
Marvelous Mazes is a good companion for the Stories to Solve books because it too presents games in a book format. And it too is captivating to young and old alike. The meticulously drawn miniature landscapes are intriguing to wander through even for kids who aren’t that into mazes.
STORIES TO SOLVE by George Shannon/Peter Sis
Stories to Solve is a book for family fun around the campfire or on the couch in quarantine. It’s a collection of 15 folktales from around the world which George Shannon has rewritten as puzzles for the readers to solve. It’s fascinating to see where different people’s minds go, and to notice that sometimes the youngest family members have the most innovative solutions. If your family likes this collaborative experience, you’ll be happy to hear there are two other books in the series.
Rhyme Time Activities
from a very old edition of Ladybug magazine
My heart goes out to the parents of pre-readers as they embark on this home-schooling adventure. So I’m going live with some ideas for the young’uns.
Fun With Corks
These Cork Projects are from a book by Sabine Lohf called Things I Can Make. (Chronicle Books, 1994.)
THE HERO TWO DOORS DOWN by Sharon Robinson
Based on real-life events, The Hero Two Doors Down is the story of the friendship between Jackie Robinson and a Jewish boy who lived on his block in Brooklyn.
PLAY ON WORDS (DavidJamesGames)
“With PLAY ON WORDS you not only make words, but also change, rearrange and steal words. Combo cards, flip cards, and wild cards give even more options in this tug-of-war word challenge that is just the right mix of brain exercise and fun.”
The Storymatic KIDS!
Storymatic KIDS presents a forum for engaging children in lively story-telling. It’s old-fashioned fun that promotes verbal and social skills often lacking in technology fixated youngsters.
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A SWEET SMELL OF ROSES by Angela Johnson and Eric Velasquez
A Sweet Smell of Roses follows two African-American sisters as they sneak out of their house to join the March on Washington in the summer of 1963.
