15
Jun, 2015

movie monday: raspberry finger hats

Raspberry Finger Hats from carissaabc on Vimeo.

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22
Apr, 2015

graphic novels for pre-readers

graphic_titlethe happy little dude loves books (hooray! says his librarian mom). he “sneaks” them in his bed at night when he’s supposed to be falling asleep. he sinks into them when he needs to calm himself down. he’s not reading many words yet, but loves the independence of exploring books on his own. and so we’ve delved deeply into the world of graphic novels.

there are many, many graphic novels published today that are in no way appropriate for a 5-year-old. there are also many graphic novels that are close to being okay for a 5-year-old, but are just not quite right either. sometimes it’s content-related (too violent, too menacing, too abstract, just too mature — he doesn’t need to read high-school dramas) and sometimes its format-related (if the pictures are too busy and cluttered, if the storyline all happens in the dialogue and the images don’t really give any clues as to what’s going on in the story, etc.). along the way, we’ve discovered some solid family favorites. here’s a list of what we’ve found so far:

zita the spacegirl trilogy by ben hathke:  these are the #1 hit with everyone. the happy little dude has read these each at least 5 or 6 times. we both love the illustrations and the storyline (it does have a few dark moments and there’s some magical zapping and laser action if that doesn’t suit your threshold for violent action). some of his favorite bits are the sketchbook excerpts at the end of each book.

 

 

bink & gollie by kate dicamillo: not technically graphic novels, but we are huge fans and i wanted to make sure everyone had heard about this series. quirky friends with quirky adventures and lots of pancakes.

 

 

 

 

 

owly (series) by andy runton: this gentle series is wordless, but uses pictograms (pictures in speech bubbles to represent speech) frequently. i soon discovered that if the reader isn’t sure yet what all those symbols represent (like an exclamation point or a skull and crossbones or a lightbulb), then those symbols are just as mysterious as words are.  it’s not a bad idea to read these together at least the first time to interpret some of the images. if you like this series, you’re in luck! there’s a bunch of them!

 

polo (series) by regis faller: wordless and gentle, these are often shelved at libraries within the regular picture books, but they are stories told in series of boxed images, so i’m calling them graphic novels. we’ve only just begun to explore this series, and i’m not sure if it will hold his attention, but i think they’re really lovely.

 

 

bumperboy (series) by debbie huey: super cute tales of a boy who travels between worlds through “borp holes” with his dog, bumperpup. these are out of print, but you might be able to find them at your local library or at a used bookstore. also there are earlier self-published tales about bumperboy and bumperpup available on the author’s website.

 

 

flying beaver brothers (series) by maxwell eaton III: funny, slightly odd books about ace and bub, who are (you guessed it) beaver brothers who “fly” via giant sling-shots loaded with hang gliders.

 

 

 

hilda (series) by luke pearson: these have a magical, mystical element and occasionally hint at darker stories, but they always turn out to not actually be as scary and foreboding as originally suggested.

 

 

 

dragon puncher (with sequel!) by james kochalka: this one is completely bizarre and i didn’t “get it” at all until i read a review that pointed out that the author had authentically captured the type of play that really happens in backyards all the time. after reading that, this book (which the happy little dude has now memorized) makes total sense and is really kind of brilliant. also, fun to read dramatically. and there’s a sequel!

 

 

binky the space cat (series) by ashley spires: hilariously silly adventures of a cat who refers to anything outside his house as “outer space” and who feels compelled to protect his humans from the aliens (bugs).

 

 

 

odd duck by cecil castellucci and sara varon: sara varon has written several books that are sort of borderline okay for young readers. this is probably the most okay one? robot dreams (wordless) and bake sale are also mostly okay? here’s the thing–her books all feature very whimsical and friendly characters, but some of the underlying themes are really huge. odd duck addresses the concept of making assumptions about others and judging them and wanting to be your own person and…. all that might be somewhat lost on young readers, but they can enjoy the books anyway. reader beware that some of her titles (sweaterweather for instance) contain some more adult activities (like smoking) and should be previewed before sharing with children.

bird & squirrel by james burks: wacky antics of two friends, one of whom is a worrywart and the other who’s a daredevil. also has a sequel.

 

 

 

missile mouse by jake parker: these are a bit on the violent side for me, but the happy little dude loves them and i can live with them.

 

 

 

flight explorer vol. 1, ed. by kazu kibuishi: an anthology of short story comics by some excellent artists. there are other books in the “flight” series and the “explorer” series but some of those are really for older readers. flight explorer vol. 1 is much more friendly for young pre-readers.

 

 

the incredibles (graphic novel series based on the movie) by various authors: worth noting if you have a huge superhero fan in your house but you’re not crazy about the classic superhero comics. the happy little dude loves these more than i do, but i wanted to include them in the list anyway.

 

 

other notables (mostly untested on the boy, but all approved by me) include:

jim curious: a voyage to the heart of the sea by matthias picard :: a wordless book by a french author that comes with 3d glasses! (i was surprised by the lukewarm response to this book at my house. maybe you’ll have better luck with it?)

monster on the hill by rob harrell :: i previewed this one last night and can’t wait to share it with the happy little dude. it’s the surprising story of a town who wishes their monster were more fierce.

birdcatdog by lee nordling :: wordless book that tells the story of three animals. you can read a single animal’s (visual) storyline or read all the storylines at once to see how they intersect to tell the whole story. fascinating concept! curious to see if the happy little dude will enjoy it or not…

the emperor’s new clothes illus. by jeffrey stewart timmins :: the classic tale, told in the classic way, but with cartoony images in tea-stained tones. nicely done and perfectly appropriate for kids.  glad to see there are also two other classic fairy tales in this series.

we’re looking forward to exploring more james kochalka works and the korgi series by christian slade very soon. when he’s working more on the actual reading-the-words part, i’m excited to introduce him to the “toon books” series at some point (i don’t want to show them to him now and have him memorize them before we can use them as incentive to learn to decipher all those letters!).

if you know of any other graphic novels that fit my picky descriptions and parameters above and that is not on this list, leave a note in the comments section. i’m always looking to discover more!

if you’re still not sure whether graphic novels count as “real” reading, read this.

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23
Mar, 2015

movie monday: the many sounds of the happy baby

Izza's noises from carissaabc on Vimeo.

Posted in baby stuff, video | 2 Comments
06
Feb, 2015

Apps picked by a 4 year old: Summing up the rest

I sort of dropped the ball on this and I’m just not going to have time to get him to do mini-video interviews for the rest of the titles, but in case you’re curious about the other apps that the Happy Little Dude plays all the time, here’s the list with a few notes (or caveats) by me:

#10–Monster at the end of this book: we both love this one.  Great book-to-app adaptation.

#9–Toca Lab: We also both love this one. You get to experiment with different “elements” which are named the same thing as real elements and sit on a periodic table in the same position as the real elements and sort of “say their own name” with their odd little mumblings and cheeps, but they don’t always behave like the real elements. Lots of fun bits to discover, totally worth the investment.

#8–Toca Robot Lab: build your own robot, then send him through a maze, collecting stars.  Simple, but gets a surprising amount of play.

#7 — Disco Fingers: I don’t really think he loves this one as much as he says he does (i pretty much never see him play it) but it was new when we were picking the top 12 and he likes the one “finger” that looks like a robo-cop and talks with an autotuned voice.

#6–Sago Mini Space Explorer: we both love everything by sago mini.  it’s designed for younger children, but he still giggles out loud a lot while playing this one.

#5–Piiig Labs: more science experiment fun, without the mess!

#4– Kapu Blocks: build mix or match towers with silly blocks then watch the animations that occur when your tower is complete. Or just knock it down with the wrecking ball. Fun to pretend to be a crane operator!

#3–Inventioneers: you can read my raving review about this awesome app here.

#2–Mr. Potato Head: by the same developer as the Endless Apps (which he also loves, but which didn’t make it to this list for some reason?). I’ve been hesitant to recommend this one, but i’m not sure why…. the commercial tie-in, perhaps? It is one he’s spent tons of time playing. first, you get to put together a mr. potato head doll with whatever bits you want and then choose a scene for that doll to interact with. there are usually several very silly animations that go along with each scene and there is very frequent giggling and “hey mom, you gotta see this!” conversations when this app is in use.

#1–Disney’s Cars “AppMATes”: we bought this app to go along with a toy car made specifically for this app that one of his grandma’s gave him for his birthday. the toy car is lost, but you can still play by just holding your fingers on the screen as though they were holding a car. he likes it because of the movie tie-in, but also because (siiiiiigh) he can earn things like rocket launchers for his car and he can use it to shoot cacti. and then he earns “hubcaps” (the local currency in radiator springs, apparently) which he can then use to buy more gadgets for the car. there are many things i don’t really like about this app (see… pretty much everything above), but i will say that there is a strong and nicely developed map-reading element to the app that i can really appreciate.

so there you have it.  maybe your kid will love some of these too? and maybe the negative bits i mentioned won’t bother you so much? what are the favorites at your house?

 

Posted in apps for kids, kid stuff, reviews | 2 Comments
25
Jan, 2015

this year’s diy christmas gifts, part 4: soft nesting bowls

 

IMGP9726 the funny part is that i distinctly remember giving myself permission to buy more gifts this year and not feel like i needed to make as many. ha! oh well, i loved making each of these gifts. these bowls were definitely the most time-consuming, but i actually chose the project because i like to have a yarn-based project to work on during long meetings and car rides, preferably one that doesn’t take too much thinking. this cute project fit the bill! although you have to pay attention while you’re crocheting the base (and increasing stitches at a regular rate), once you get the base to the size you want, crocheting the sides is pretty mindless. again, this project was discovered on pinterest, but with a few lazy, non-crocheter shortcuts for me (i mostly ignored any stitch instructions in the pattern and just did the whole thing in single crochet–no fancy border at the top or anything). it would probably look nicer if i’d actually taken the time to learn the other stitches and followed the pattern, but i honestly don’t think the little girls who received these sets (my niece and the happy baby herself) will care at all. in case you’re curious– i made one set with red as the largest and purple as the smallest (see above) and one set with purple as the largest and red as the smallest (see bottom photo below) so that i wouldn’t run out of the yarn used for the larger bowls. also, i don’t really recommend using this yarn for crochet–it’s quite splitty. but it does look all pretty, shiny, jewel-toned and it’s relatively cheap too!IMGP9725i got a text yesterday from my sister-in-law with this photo of the toy in action:

IMG_3416-001

Posted in baby stuff, crafty stuff | 1 Comment
23
Jan, 2015

this year’s diy christmas gifts, part 2: monster “rubbing” plates

IMGP9448 IMGP9452i saw this great idea on pinterest and decided to put my own spin on it and created this “monster maker kit” for my nephews. i tried it out and although i wasn’t wowed with the results (the evenness of the height of the glue makes a difference, fyi), the concept is solid and i think it will still provide a fun activity for two little boys who love to try out crafts. also, made from cereal boxes, hot glue and a set of restaurant crayons all tucked into a gallon-size zip-top plastic bag, this gift was practically free (shhhh! don’t tell!).

Posted in crafty stuff, kid stuff | 1 Comment
20
Jan, 2015

this year’s diy christmas gifts, part 1: squishy circuits kits

IMGP9707one of my favorite library projects this year was squishy circuits. the short description of this project is– use homemade playdough to conduct enough electricity to light up some led’s.

IMGP9709the longer description (and much more eloquent answer to the question, “why?”) can be found in this ted talk. lots more explanation of the “how” can be found at this website.

but if after following those links all you want to do is find out how you can make an awesome diy squishy circuits kit to give to all of your friends between the ages of 4-104, then this is the place for you!  here is what i chose to include in each kit:

IMGP9713

battery holder with wire leads.  i chose the 4 aa battery size.  the on/off switch was a nice feature, but you also need a screwdriver to open this one up to replace the batteries. i also included the batteries in the kit.

IMGP9711led lights. i chose the “party pack” for the best prices for the most lights.  occasionally, some of the lights just don’t work or get blown out right away.  it’s nice to have some back-ups.  plus… party!

micro-vibration motor. this item was the trickiest to make work. might need a stronger battery pack to be really effective?

if i made more in the future, i’d also add some sort of buzzer.  really, you can add any component you want, as long as it has a positive and negative lead and can run on whatever battery power  you’re including in the kit.

round metal tin.   i found mine at michael’s crafts, but can’t find it on their website. i actually would have preferred a square or rectangular tin, but could only find round, so that’s the shape i made my labels. if you don’t mind designing your own (or having round labels on a square tin) it doesn’t matter what size or shape your container is as long as all your materials fit inside.

printable labels

printable instructions and dough recipes (i printed these on a full sheet of adhesive label, then peeled off the backing and folded the page in half so that the printing would be double-sided and sturdy. then i cut them out into an accordion-fold string of circles)

here’s a few photos of the kits in action (with a little help from grandpa):

IMGP9498 IMGP9502enjoy!

Posted in fun stuff, kid stuff, tutorials | 1 Comment
19
Jan, 2015

movie monday: cooking with the beebees

a few years ago, i read a book called sadie and ratz to the happy little dude. it was a book about a girl who’d decided to name her hands “sadie” and “ratz.” her hands sometimes got into trouble, but it was never her fault–it was sadie and ratz’ fault! a few weeks later, the happy little dude’s hands got nicknames of their own. one was named “lloris” (where the “ll” sounds like a soft “dj” sound, as in spanish) and the other name took awhile to settle in, but eventually became beebeebobbi. after a few more weeks, both hands became simply, “the beebees.” interestingly enough, the hands of several of his best friends have also become nicknamed “the beebees,” especially when they are similarly misbehaving. but the beebees aren’t always naughty. sometimes they’re very helpful and rather chatty. here’s a sneak peek into the time they helped us to make a batch of pancakes.

Cooking with the BeeBees from carissaabc on Vimeo.

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12
Jan, 2015

movie monday: flashback to fall

oh dear.  the house of happy has been… distracted.  and also sick.  as in–we will likely all be asleep by 9:00 this evening.  so, i’m interrupting the [long pause in the] 12 days of toddler app picks (please chime in if you’ve been dying of curiosity to see the last 9 days of his picks! otherwise… i might just run the highlight reel and be done with it) to bring you a movie monday.  even this is old news, but it’s easy to post and right now, i need easy.  without further ado…. cow chicken and a walk in the woods:

 

A walk in the woods with Cow Chicken from carissaabc on Vimeo.

Posted in autumn, kid stuff, video | 1 Comment
09
Dec, 2014

App picks by a 4 year old: A 12 Day Countdown (Day 2)

http://instagram.com/p/wWaUneqmqY/

i’m doing a “12 days of apps” series on my work blog, so i thought it might be fun to ask the happy little dude what his top 12 apps are.

his #11 pick was bamba post office. you can watch the video above to find out what he likes about the app.  i like this app because they include some very silly gifts (can of worms, anyone?) and some very silly gift wrap options (a hot dog for a bow?! ha!) so there’s a generous giggle factor.  i also love the early literacy element of writing a note to tuck inside the gift and (like the happy little dude) i love that you can add in your own photo for the recipient.

find out my #11 pick here!

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