In Bird Watching with Youngsters, I discussed birds and in another post, Keeping a Bird Watching Journal.  One of the journal activities I mentioned was writing a story or poem about the birds you and your youngsters see.  You/they may want to read some bird stories or poetry first to get an idea of the type of writing you’d like to do.
*Poetry – Your poem can be of any type, rhyming or free verse, about one bird or the numbers of birds you see around your home or on a trip.
*Nature Story – I often wrote these for children’s magazines.  …read more

Keeping a bird watching journal provides an enjoyable summer activity for youngsters and the adults.    Actually this can be a year round project, but since it’s mid-spring, let’s start yours now.
There are various ways you can do this:

Simply keep a list of the birds you see.
List the birds and write something about them.
Add a sketch to the list and description.
Write a story or poem about the birds you see.
Make a papier mache model of a bird…or use other materials for a bird sculpture.
Make a painting of some of these birds you see and list.

In my anthology, Tales of Adventure and Discovery, …read more

As this year rapidly races to a halt we here at One Book, Two Book have found some astounding new releases that your kids will be reaching for even before they shake those deliciously wrapped boxes.
With that said, here is your list of stocking stuffers for 2008, complete with our favorites. All of the “Best of” books were published and released in 2008.
The Best Holiday Books, 2008
The Best Non-Fiction Books, 2008
The Best Board Books, 2008
Best Picture Books, 2008 
The Best Books for Middle Readers/Tweens, 2008
Best Books for Young Adults, 2008
Mary Emma’s Favorite Books 
Marcie’s Favorite Books

Good Non-Fiction books are hard to come by even though kids are curious about everything and soak up knowledge every second. This year we have books about Frogs (from the same author as the Spider), but everything seems to be about about politics even down to books about the Lady Liberty herself.
Lady Liberty: A Biography
What To Do About Alice?: How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy!
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution
Nic Bishop Frogs
The …read more