Petit Eco KIDS Guide to green toys, eco fashion, handmade organic baby

STORY TIME · Me... Jane by Patrick McDonnell

Me... Jane by Patrick McDonnell (Hachette Book Group 2011)

There are people in this world that really inspire me; too many to list them here but they all have one thing in common: their lives are full of passion and are a reflection of what they believe in. Earlier this year I had the pleasure (together with a couple of hundred other people) of meeting one of these inspiring persons: Jane Goodall.

Needless to say it was a very exciting night that left my head filled with ideas for positive change. One of the ideas that resounded with me the most is the importance of bringing the new generations closer to nature, of spending time with them engaging and interacting with the natural world. How are they going to develop a love for it otherwise?

The night ended with a book-signing session and one of the books for sale at the event was “Me…Jane” by Patrick McDonnell. Imagine my thrill at reading this beautiful children’s book based on Jane’s life story! I had to get a copy! So I did and it has been very much loved and read since.

“Me…Jane” tells the empowering story of a curious young Jane and her toy chimpanzee Jubilee. Jane spends her days immersed in nature, observing and documenting what she sees (some of her delightful drawings and notes are included in the book). She dreams of “a life living with, and helping, all animals” in Africa... until one day she awakes to find her dream come true.

This is a very sweet and simple story but what I love about it the most is the message it gives: follow your interests, have dreams and don’t give up.

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STORY TIME · Rose's Garden

Rose's Garden by Peter H. Reynolds (Walker Books 2011)

The first thing that grabbed me when I saw Rose's Garden at the bookstore was the cover image of little Rose, telescope in hand, sailing away in her fantastic teapot. And as soon I started reading it to little F we were both hooked.

Rose travels around the world in her floating teapot collecting seeds to remember the places she visits by; until one day her teapot is full, brimming with seeds waiting to be planted, and Rose is ready to put down roots. From there a beautiful tale grows touching on themes of hope and community spirit and tracing a very poetical parallel between multiculturalism and biodiversity. A bare city patch is transformed into a colourful garden thanks to the gathering of people from the community. Each and everyone of them helps to keep Rose’s faith in her garden; everyone’s garden.

I found this video book trailer (below) which gives a good idea of how sweet the illustrations by Peter H. Reynolds are, starting with sepia tones on the first pages and slowly incorporating colours as Rose’s garden blooms:

 

 

Here are a few activities that I think would work really well in conjunction with this book:

· Start a seed bank

· Create a seed exchange club; a bit like Pen pals… maybe Seed Pals :-)

· Visit a community garden

· Gather seedpods from your local parks and discuss how seeds spread (some great ideas here)

· Make a nature journal (check out this tutorial) and fill it with observations, drawings and photos

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NEW section: Story Time - kids books we love

This is a post I have been wanting to write for quite a while now. Being a bookworm myself (you will find 4 or more books sitting on my bedside table at any given time) I have naturally transferred my love for books to my daughter. Visits to our local library are treats we both enjoy tremendously and have been doing since little F was a baby (god knows how many parenting books I have borrowed from that library!).

So this new section I start today grows from my desire to find and share beautiful books for kids; books that nourish little souls, sparkle their imagination and foster curiosity. In this weekly space I will be sharing what we are reading at story time and I would love you to join me!

It’s really simple:

At the bottom of each Story Time post you will be able to share a link to your own post (a link to your blog where you write about your kids weekly reads). All the links will appear on Petit Eco KIDS so that we can all visit each other’s blogs and learn what favourite books we are enjoying.

Your post can be a full review of the book, a suggested activity to do after reading the book or a more personal entry on how your kids enjoyed the book (funny anecdotes are good too!). You can include as much or as little as you like (text and images). Up to you! Just make sure you include a picture of the cover (usually easy to find in Google or Amazon) and the book details (author, illustrator and publisher).

I hope you can join me!

 So, here is this week's favourite book at our home:

Waiting for Later by Tina Matthews (Walker Books) 2011

Something very special happens when a book arrives at just the right time, and that is exactly what happened to us with this heart-warming book called “Waiting for Later” by Tina Matthews (Walker Books). My daughter has been dreaming about climbing trees since she was almost a baby (way before she could physically do any climbing) and lately she has developed a fascination with creatures that live up in the trees. So finding a book about a little girl who spends an afternoon playing in a tree was just what she needed to fuel her imagination.

“Waiting for Later” is a simple but powerful story with a rhythmic flow about a little girl named Nancy. For Nancy the realisation that everyone is just too busy to play bring along the wonderful discovery that the natural world might just provide all the fun she was looking for.

With a subtle reference to the free range kids movement and the importance of just allowing free play to happen, “Waiting for Later” is beautifully illustrated by Tina Matthews using an ancient Japanese woodblock printing technique.

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BOOK · When Elephants Lived in the Sea

It has been a while since my last book post but I promise to make up for it in the coming weeks with a couple of great reads for kids. Starting with “When Elephants Lived in the Sea” (Lothian) by Jane Godwin and Vincent Agostino. We were lucky enough to find this amazing book in our local library a few weeks ago and it has been a favourite read since.

This picture book tells the fascinating story of how “as the world grew older” elephants evolved from sea creatures into land animals. Part fact, part whimsy this poetically narrated tale inspires a sense of wonder and transports us to an amazing time in the history of our earth and the animal kingdom. We learn how elephants adapted themselves to living on land and how they can still remember their life and friends from the sea.

BOOK · Let's Save the Animals

My little one loooves animals, all kinds of animals. Like most kids she can spend hours just observing a ladybug walk on her hand or spotting bunnies in a nearby park. And as we enjoy spending time in nature so much I think it is important to slowly introduce her to some initial conservation ideas; kids are the future after all!

Let’s save the animals (Walker Books Australia) is an ideal first book about conservation. With beautiful collages and text by Frances Barry and a flip-the-flap design it presents kids with some endangered species and explains why they are in danger. It also shares some really interesting facts about them and gives suggestions on what we can do to help save the animals. A lovely read with an important message for the future of our animal world!