The Tiny Seed

 Eric Carle

A lot of these books are available as big hardcover books, but I like the board books better.  This one doesn't really make sense for the under two crowd, but it has nice colours and it can be pulled at and chewed on this way.  Having smaller pages doesn't take away from the art, and they didn't edit the books when they made them smaller.

This one is all about seeds from a flower going through all the seasons and finally falling to the ground and making a new flower.  It's about all the seeds that don't make it and why they don't make it.

And then there's this page near the end about how the flower is so big and everyone thinks it's so amazing.  This could have been left out.  My kids just don't care about that.

And then the flower dies and sends off new seeds, continuing the cycle.  It's a good teaching book about the life cycle of plants.

Your First Garden Book

 By Marc Brown

We have yet to start using this book.  I found it at my parents' house, and it's incredible.  It has all kinds of basic plant that kids can grow.  We should be able to start using it next spring.

 I actually like the pictures in this.  They're totally dated.  And it's full of terrible jokes and puns.

The gardening projects include planting parts of vegetables and fruits.  It even teaches you how to make your own peanut plant!

The book is divided by seasons and has recipes and other activities to pad it out.  It isn't a big book, but it's pretty packed with projects and information.  We should be able to use it for a few years.  I'm pretty stoked.

Friday Post - Moving Art on Netflix

 We rely on Netflix to entertain the kids, but we're still careful about how we watch TV with them.  Most importantly, they don't get to pick their shows on their own.  They have to pick from a small selection of things that we're willing to watch with them.

One of the shows that gets requested often and that we encourage is "Moving Art"

 Moving Art is a collection of nature videos with distorted time.  We like to watch the flower one most because we can name the flowers as we watch.  It's really calming to watch.  It's especially good if kids are sick or tired or grumpy.

The music that accompanies it is a sort of fake Phillip Glass.  I dislike Phillip Glass, and this music is pretty corny, but it works well for what the videos are trying to achieve.