Children’s Books: Hidden Objects

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, my mother subscribed to Highlights Magazine for my sister and me.  The first thing I did each time one arrived in the mail was flip over to the “Hidden Pictures” page.  I think I’ve always liked puzzles of that sort.  So, it’s no surprise that I have a number of “hidden picture” children’s books in my collection.  Allow me to share my favorites!

1.  Where’s Wally? (Martin Handford)—Yes, for those of you who live in North America, you read that right.  In the UK, he’s Wally.  (For those of you in the UK, he’s Waldo in the US and Canada).  This book is of British origin, so Wally was the original name.  Anyway, this is probably one of the more famous hidden object books.

Not only is it fun (and challenging) to try to find Wally, but some of the cartoonish pictures are quite funny. (Warning: There are some drawings of characters who may be dressed inappropriately in the opinion of some parents. It also contains a wizard and sometimes other mythical characters. Now as I’m looking through it, I may get out my black Sharpie).

2.  I Spy books (Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick)—These are my absolute favorites!  I first saw I Spy books when I substituted for a school librarian.  If you haven’t seen them, every page spread has a photograph of crowded objects, and you have to find the objects mentioned in the poems.  In some of the books, the objects are just grouped together randomly.  In others, the objects make a larger picture or scene.  I have 4 of the regular I Spy books: 

I Spy: A Book of Picture Riddles

I Spy Treasure Hunt: A Book of Picture Riddles

I Spy School Days: A Book of Picture Riddles

I Spy Fun House: A Book of Picture Riddles

I also have three I Spy books for younger children (Level 1 Scholastic readers). These puzzles may not be as challenging as the original books, but they are still fun for the little ones.

I Spy Funny Teeth

I Spy a Dinosaur’s Eye

I Spy a School Bus

3.  1001 Things to Spot books (Usborne)—These books are not as challenging as the first two series I mentioned, but they are fun for younger children.  They also double as counting books.  In each book, the child finds and counts a certain number of objects in the pictures.  I have four of these books, each with a different theme.  All four are illustrated by Teri Gower.

1001 Animals to Spot (Ruth Brocklehurst)

1001 Things to Spot in the Town (Anna Milbourne)

1001 Things to Spot on the Farm (Gillian Doherty)

1001 Things to Spot Long Ago (Gillian Doherty)

4.  Look-Alikes books (Joan Steiner)—The pictures in these books are made from ordinary objects but are disguised as something else.  For example, there is one picture of a zoo.  However, the things in the zoo are made of household objects such as crayons, a chess piece, pencils, a rolling pen, a cigar box, dominoes, a badminton birdie, a tambourine, and more.  You’ll have to buy one of the books to see what I mean!  The idea is to find those disguised objects.  I have only two of these books (and I really want more):

Super Look-Alikes

Amazing Look-Alikes

5.  Look-Puzzle-Learn books—These are Usborne books (but published in the US by Scholastic), and they are similar to the 1001 Things to Spot books, except these are probably geared more toward older children.  The pictures are more detailed, and there are higher number of things to find and count.  I have four of these.

The first one is illustrated by David Hancock.  The drawings are more cartoonish; the book is about different things in cities.

The Great City Search (Rosie Heywood)

The other 3 are illustrated by Ian Jackson—the drawings are more realistic, and the books are animal-related. (Warning: Some may object to the few prehistoric pages that mention “millions of years ago"--but you can either black it out or discuss it your kids).

The Great Animal Search (Caroline Young)

The Great Undersea Search (Kate Needham)

The Big Bug Search (Caroline Young)

6.  Spot the Differences in Teddyland: Usborne Picture Puzzles (Phil Roxbee Cox)—This is the cutest book!  Adorable teddy bears are placed in different scenes for each puzzle.  Each 2-page spread contains 2 of the same picture, but each picture has differences you have to spot.

7.  Can You See It?  An Eye-Opening Adventure (Pam Roller, Mike Young, and Tara Williams)—This book is very much like the I Spy series, only the pictures are a little bit more like collages and more one-dimensional.  While I prefer the pictures in the I Spy books, this book is also very fun and challenging.

8.  Can You See What I See?  Picture Puzzles to Search and Solve (Walter Wick)—This book was created by the photographer of the I Spy books, so it has the same quality.  The main difference is that he’s combined what he did in I Spy with other types of puzzles, such as mazes, matching, spot-the-difference, cryptic, and optical games.

I’m linking this post to “The Children’s Bookshelf” at What Do We Do All Day?

Geography Travels: Mongolia

Mongolia is another one of those countries rarely studied in geography units.  I found this study very fascinating, and we had a lot of fun with it.  Here’s what we did during our 2-week “travel” to Mongolia:

Week 1

Located Mongolia on the globe, map, atlas; discuss capital city Ulan Bator (Ulaanbaatar) and other major cities

Listened to “Asia Song” from Geography Songs

Looked at a Power Point on Mongolia and another website with great cultural information; unfortunately, both websites have been disabled.  Sorry.

Colored the flag (More Coloring Pages) and listened to the national anthem on YouTube.

Watched a YouTube video on Ulan Bator

Began a vocabulary page (which I made myself) and added terms as we studied them:  zud, pastoral, nomadic, steppe, arid, ger (yurts)

Read from Geography From A to Z (desert, steppes, mountains, basin, lake)

Atlai Mountains

Learned more about the Gobi Desert

Labeled a map of Mongolia (map from Enchanted Learning; I added the places to label).  We used a map at About.com Geography to help us.

Learned about the government, currency, economy(herding, agriculture, mining), climate (term zud), language, religion, and food

Week 2

Children Just Like Me and notebook page (Homeschool Creations)

Animals:  Bactrian camel, Przewalski’s horse, snow leopard

Colored a Bactrian camel printout from Enchanted Learning

National Geographic Kids has a nice page on the Bactrian camel.  Be sure to check out the video!

Check out the videos on the Cincinnati Zoo website.  A few of the videos show a baby camel being born and also the baby being examined 3 days later.  The reason I included this website in the kids’ studies is because I visited this particular zoo in 1993 and actually got to ride a Bactrian camel (I’d show you the picture…but luckily I don’t have it here, ha ha).  I can’t find that they do camel rides anymore.  I feel privileged! 

YouTube video on Przewalski’s Horses:

YouTube video--Traditional Mongolian folk song about horses:

Learned about Ghengis Khan, Kublai Khan and Marco Polo.  We watched the Animated Hero Classics DVD about Marco Polo.  We also learned about Xanadu.

Discussed culture, sports (Naadam), music, architecture, eagle-hunting (see Mongolian Eagle Hunting webpage).  Naadam is a famous sporting event held yearly in Mongolia.  The main focus is the 3 sports of Mongolia wrestling, horse racing, and archery.

Click HERE if you want to see a short YouTube video of Vice President Joe Biden watching an archery and wrestling competitions in Mongolia; also includes dancing, singing, and contortionist performances (and a speech by the Vice President at the end).

This one makes me think “Riders of Rohan” from Lord of the Rings:

Eagle Festival:

Several of the websites and videos we used are no longer available; however, I just came across this 5-part video by actress Julia Roberts, who lived with a nomadic family in Mongolia for a few weeks in 1999.  The focus is on wild horses, but it has plenty of examples of Mongolian nomadic customs, food, dress, language, and more.  Follow links to the other 4 parts of the video.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching this!

Read the Mongolia entry in The Not for Parents Travel Book

A ger, once called yurt (the Russian word), is a moveable tent made of felt or canvas and a wooden lattice frame.  This type of home is normally used by nomadic Mongolians.

To read more about the construction of a ger, visit Mongolia Street Connections (World Vision, NZ).

YouTube video on Mongolian felt making:

I made a model ger out of pipecleaners and felt and used it to make a Mongolia imaginative play set for the kids to play with.  I had intended for the kids to make a ger, but it ended up being way more complicated than I had imagined.  In fact, it’s taller than it ought to be!

Read story from Around the World in 80 Tales, read other Mongolian folktales online (some were on the disabled websites, but you can see one called “The Golden Pitcher” at Activated Story Theatre).

Notebook page (Homeschool Creations)

A few months after this study, we were privileged to visit the Field Museum in Chicago.  Their special exhibit just happened to be on Ghengis Khan.  The exhibit also included a huge collection of Mongolian artifacts and had plenty of exhibits on Mongolian culture and history.  I was so excited!  Unfortunately, photography was strictly banned in this particular exhibit.  I did get one of the exhibit entrance, though.

More Links:

Mongolia Travel Guide: Mongolian Children

National Geographic Kids: Mongolia

I’m linking this post to “History and Geography” at All Things Beautiful.

Snow Sensory Tub

I’ve seen these on blogs and Pinterest, but this is my first sensory tub made with snow.  Although Gabriela seems to growing out of sensory tubs, I think she would have done this tub all day if it hadn’t melted!  Think snow play without going outside in the cold!  Okay, so there are some things you must be outside to do (a real snowman, snow angels, snowball fights, etc.), but this is a nice alternative if you want them to stay in.

Gabriela did 3 different activities with the snow tub.  The first was simple scooping, smoothing, and stirring.

The second, and by far the favorite, was penguin land!  The penguins are from the Safari Ltd Penguins Toob set.  We made hills, caves, and slides (and a tiny snowman).   

The final activity, which we tried the next day with a fresh batch of snow, was using an eyedropper to “paint” the snow with colored water.  I first saw this idea at A Magical Childhood.  Gabriela loved it!   It cracked me up when Gabriela informed me that the yellow water on the snow looked like “cat pee.”

Later on, Moriah had a go at doing this activity.  By then the snow was quite slushy.  She used a lot of green and blue to make the scene look like hills and a lake.

This is our shortest-lived sensory tub but probably the most played-with.  Maybe we’ll still have snow tomorrow so Gabriela can play with it again.  (In all honesty, this mommy thinks we’ve had enough and is very eager for summer now).  Well, anyway, happy winter fun!

Geography Travels: Czech Republic

I always enjoy choosing a little-known country (one that often gets skipped in most geography studies) and discovering all sorts of interesting things about that country.  Czech Republic is one of those.  Czech Republic is pretty cool.  (By the way, we did this unit last school year…I’m still plugging away at finishing up last year so I can start on this year’s!)

Speaking as someone who has loved studying other countries and maps since I was a tot, I have to say that I was sorely disappointed when Czechoslovakia split up.  While I understand the reasons they decided to split into two countries (Czech Republic and Slovakia), MY reason for disappointment is simply that they also split up the ultra-cool country name CZECHOSLOVAKIA!  I loved saying it.  I loved spelling it.  Anyway.

Let’s get on to the details of what we did during this geography unit.

Week 1

Located Czech Republic on the globe, map, and atlas; discuss capital city and other major cities.  Discussed Bohemia, which is in present-day Czech Republic.

See how amazing this country is!

Listened to Eastern Europe song (from Geography Songs)

Colored the flag of Czech Republic (Best Coloring Pages)

Listened to the national anthem:

Here’s another version of the national anthem.  This one is partly instrumental/partly choir and includes a slide show:  Czech Republic National Anthem

Watched YouTube videos on the capital city, Prague:

Read from Geography From A to Z  about features found in Czech Republic:  hills, rivers, basin, forests, mountains

Labeled a map of Czech Republic (Enchanted Learning)

Look HERE for another interesting map of the divisions of Czech Republic.

Learned some of the Czech language and listened to a Toy Story 2 song sung in Czech:

Discussed religion and also learned about the Moravian Church and Jan Hus.  Checked out this bio:  Jan Hus.  Read more about the Moravian Church.

Learned about the currency, government, and history

Week 2

Music Focus:  Antonín Dvořák (listened to some of his music)

Looked at Classics for Kids-Dvořák’s Biography

Czech Republic is known for its puppets and marionettes.  We watched a cool video on marionette carving in Prague (see below), and we tried making our own puppets.  I did this simply by giving the kids a box full of craft and recycled supplies and let them design their own.

Looked at Czech Republic’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites (you have to scroll through the listing of Eastern European sites, as they no longer have a listing of JUST Czech Republic on Wikipedia).

Learned about the story of the song “Good King Wenceslaus,” which was in reference to Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia.  Here’s an interesting version of the song:

Okay, so here is a version of the actual song we sing:

Focused on Czech Castles.  Oh.my.word.  Czech Republic has some pretty amazing castles…I mean LOTS and LOTS of pretty amazing castles.  I’ve been to all kinds of castles in England, Wales, and Scotland, but I really want to go to Czech Republic to see those castles! 

Did our notebook page (Homeschool Creations)

LINKS:

Travel for Kids-Czech Republic

Kids Culture Corner (Au Pair in America)

Fun Kids: Where in the World?

Czech Republic-Manors, Castles, Historical Towns

Castles of Czech Republic

Kids.Net.Au—Czech Republic

I’m linking this post to “History and Geography” at All Things Beautiful.