I love to have fun with paper, food, paint, music and events and just being creative in all of it. However, I don't feel the need to be a perfectionist nor a professional in any of my creations. I wish I could have a blog JUST about the art of cooking, photography, sewing, art, mothering, jewelry making, card making, dancing, gardening, deep spiritual thoughts, decorating, poetry, party planning, baking.... and the list goes on but I can't. I don't think I was created with the ability to focus on one task. I like all of these hobbies layed out before me and the freedom to pick whatever I choose depending on the mood or time I have.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Christmas Book Countdown



This is one of the many Advent ideas from our Simple or Fancy Xmas Advent Calendar Ideas .

I am in love with childrens books! I love the illustrations, the colors they use and the stories!  My dream is to be a children books writer. It most likely will never happen but hey a girl can dream, right. 
One of the things we do in our home is have a Book Countdown to go along with our Advent Calendar.  Depending on how many books I was able to purchase prior to Dec. that is where we start our countdown. Last year, the boys were lucky and we had 24 books! One year we did a 12 days to Christmas countdown.

The great thing about this is you can also check out books from the library and wrap them up and of course return them when your done.  We have done that and I actually prefer that but we don't have a public library here, I know sad but true.

We use a variety of books not just Christmas books below are some of the books that have made it to our Christmas countdown.
Great Reads for Children (any time of the year):
One of my favorite Authors: Robert Munsch:
  • Love You Forever- Can't finish this story without crying.
  • Kiss Me, I'm Perfect
  • Smelly Socks- My son loves this book b/c he relates.
  • We Share Everything
  • Make up Mess
  • Class Clown

  •  Whoever You Are by Mem Fox
  • The Mitten by Jan Brett
  • The Donkeys First Christmas by S T Schroder
  • The Brambley Hedge Series by Jill Barklem
  •  The Fern Hollow Series by John Patience
  • The Three Trees by Elena Pasquals
  • Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
  • You are Special by Max Lucado
  • With you all the Way by Max Lucado  My boys love this because it's about Knights.
  • The Christmas Sweater by Glen Beck  Great story and illustrations
  • The Ox Cart Man by  Donald Hall
  • What a Wonderful Life by George David Weiss  We love to sing so we would sing this to our boys when they were little. It has the lyrics to the song in book form.
  • A Wish to be a Christmas Tree - Colleen Monroe
  • The Way I Feel by Janan Cain   I love al the color in this book.
  • Peeping Beauty by Mary Jane Auch  Great little story for girls.
  • The Christmas Giant - Steve Light
  •  Percy the Park Keeper by Nick Butterworth
  • The Little House by Burton
  • The Pine Tree Parable- Liz Curtis Higgs
  • Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae  You can buy this with the cd and I love the violin playing cricket part.
  • Merry Christmas Curious George - Margret and H.A. Rey  Our boys love George!
  • Narnia Series
  • The Twelve Prayers of Christmas by Candy Chand
  • Mixed Up Chameleon by Eric Carle
  • Nicholas Cricket By Joyce Maxner
  • I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont    Great illustrations and the counselor in me just likes this book.
  • Dream Snow- by Eric Carle

Anna Dewdney series on Llama Llama - Llamas run wild here so when we go camping we have been able to hang out with them!
  • Llama llama Misses Mama
  • Llama Llama Red Pajamas
  • Llama Llama Holiday Drama

  • The Best Christmas Pageant Ever -by Barbara Robinson  FAVORITE book and movie
  • Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale -by Martin Waddell
  • How Are You Peeling? Foods with Moods    Great pictures
  • The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka   Hilarious book
  • Snowball Fight!- Jimmy Fallon
  • What Santa Can't Do - Douglas Wood
  • Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini  The boys love his moosteache
  • The Series of There was an Old Lady books by Lucille Colandro
  • The First Bear in Africa by Satomi Ichikawa
  • The Snow Tree - Caroline Repchuk
  • I Love You More Than Rainbows by Susan E Crites
  • The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco  Portrays the Holocaust for children in an excellent way
  • Was That Christmas - Hilary McKay
  • Mouse's First Christmas - Lauren Thompson
  • Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
  • All the Ways I Love You by Theresa Trinder
What are some of your Children Book Favorites? 
We get most of our books from Scholastics because they are inexpensive, also Walmart has a good selection online to choose from and they are well priced.
Enjoy reading! 

Picture from Babyccino Kids.  A great website I stumbled upon Christian Children's Book Review  not all her book reviews are from Christian writers.

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2 comments:

  1. KatyNovember 29, 2011 at 11:10 AM

    This is a lovely ideas. I love the hungry caterpillar it is one of my favourite books ever.

    Katy
    x

    ReplyDelete
  2. MariNovember 29, 2011 at 11:21 AM

    Thanks Miss Pixie. Yes, my 4yr old just went through a The Very Hungry Catepillar phase. Thanks for stopping by!

    ReplyDelete

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