Baxter's PAW-lor Trick with Uncle Pete

Artwork by Jaime D. Buckley

Children’s books are so much more than just books. Books provide time for togetherness with a read-aloud. Books are a strong avenue for language development. 

Books are also a springboard for educational activities.

The key is to make the activities fun and to make the activities memorable.

The characters, storyline, and theme of Pickled Pumpkin Pie by deb troehler (link) and 

Jaime D. Buckley (link) definitely provide all of the above-listed opportunities.

When I was creating the follow-up activities for the story, I kept going back to the idea of a whole pie. Soon, that morphed into a HOLE in the pie—which lead to an activity that I used to do with my students. The activity below teaches children not only the difference between circumference and area. But it also helps children expand their minds and think outside the box

—Or, more appropriately, to think INSIDE the pie crust.

At first, Baxter kept thinking about the edge of the pie—or the circumference.

However, he soon figured it out.

The images below are useful for teaching children to cut a hole large enough in a circle to climb through it.

This post was shared on Create-with-Joy. Please check them out.

This post was shared on The Squishable Baby. Please check them out.

Kickstarter Kickoff with a New Book Project

Nearly two years have passed. Where, oh where did the time go? I am sorry that this blog has not received any new posts from me for a while. I realize there are no excuses for such a long delay. However, my dear husband has been battling the Big ‘C’ and my time has been spent with him and working extra hours to help him with his much-needed time off from work. He hasn’t beaten it yet, but I’m confident he will. He’s a fighter and my bestest best friend!

I wanted to take this opportunity to share my newest project—a story and activity book for the kiddos with a Thanksgiving theme. I know that we haven’t even reached Valentine’s Day yet. However, this project was put on hold in 2014 and is begging to be released. The project will hopefully be launched by late spring.

So, without further delay, I’d like to introduce Pickled Pumpkin Pie—a story told in rhyme about a quirky uncle and the family that loves him. This story is a tribute to my dear Aunt Kitty. While she was not a lot like Uncle Pete in respect to his peculiar ways, Aunt Kitty always brought laughter and sunshine into our home with every visit. Families are what it’s all about, after all, and I wanted to find a way to thank Aunt Kitty for making my childhood fun.

For this latest book project, I teamed up with a very talented artist—Jaime D. Buckley. His comic book style was perfect for the characters of this story and I am thrilled and honored that he created the illustrations for this book. He is definitely a “Hero” to me~and to this project.

To help defray some of the costs for this book project, I have also ventured into the world of crowdfunding with a Kickstarter campaign. I discovered this great avenue for supporting projects when I backed a campaign in Baltimore, Maryland—the former home town of my father and grandfather.

Below are some sample activity pages from the print version of the book:

Artwork by Jaime D. Buckley

A Needle-felted Pumpkin Available for One of the Pledge Tiers

Below you will find the link to the project. I hope you consider making a pledge. Thank you in advance.

Click Here to Access the Kickstarter Campaign