Mathew's Monsters Book Review and Activities

The Book:

The book Mathew's Monsters by Stephanie Sisler is a story and an activity all rolled into one. It is designed to test and strengthen reading comprehension while having fun! This book is about a young boy who imagines there are monsters in his room at night. It's a cute story, full of wonderful descriptions, that had R giggling throughout. 

I read the story to R, who is not quite ready to read this one on his own, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He absorbed the story and loved answering the comprehension questions. He took great pride in circling the correct answers, right there in the book! There were also several pages to color for further hands-on involvement. 

R loves to color, but it was a bit too much for him to color all at once. I see this as a bonus. As I read the book to him the first time, he answered all of the questions, but I let him pick out the pages he wanted to color. Then we read it again. And again. He kept coming back to this book and had a lot of fun while he worked his way through it. 

A Special Offer:

You can purchase this book on Amazon or at CreativeReadingForKids.com. The Creative Reading For Kids website also has a sneak peek and bonus activity! And if you buy this book through the website, be sure to type "Childhood Beckons" in the comment section at the end of the order to receive a free set of greeting cards. The greeting cards feature all of the monsters in the book and come with a set of markers. And they are awesome. This is a freebie worth 15 dollars just for Childhood Beckons readers!

And I hope that you'll follow Mathew's Monsters on Facebook for future updates. There are more books in the works, and clicking "like" will ensure you're one of the first to know when they are available!

{Disclosure- I received a copy of this book and a set of the greeting cards to review. The opinions expressed are my own and they are honest. I did not receive any other compensation, and I will not receive anything if you purchase a book.}

Extension Activities:

This fantastic book prompted a whole week on monsters! Here are a few of the activities we had fun with.

• Monster Math- Create your own monster minus the eyes! Have fun with math to add them afterwards. Please visit the post to find out more.
• Monster Hunt- Craft simple little monsters out of construction paper and hide them around the house. For an added element of fun, have your child search for them with a flashlight!
• Crayon-resist Watercolor Monster- Have your child imagine and illustrate their very own monster. 
• Monster Munch Phonics- Monsters love munching words! Create a simple monster using recyclables and have your child feed them the words they are reading.
• Make a Monster Game- This one was a ton of fun! Play like the classic Cootie Bugs game. Roll the dice to add features to your monster. Only you don't have to stop once you get a pair of eyes! Use play dough, craft supplies, and even Cootie Bug game pieces! 

Do you want to know more about the upcoming activities? Don't miss a post! You can subscribe or follow me on Facebook for future updates. 

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Monster Math Game and Craft

Today I'm writing over at Inner Child Learning about this super fun monster math game. This activity has it all! It's a craft, it's a storytelling prompt, and it's fine motor, handwriting, and math skills practice. Did I mention that it's also fun?

I'd love for you to hop over there and check it out. This would be perfect for some Halloween learning. How will your family play?

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Happy Halloween!

I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!!

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Carving Pumpkins

This year we let R(4) carve his pumpkin. This was a huge first! Didn't his turn out cute!?

 

We had cleaned out our pumpkins the night before for our pumpkin guts sensory bin. Lately R's attention span has been somewhat poor and I was worried about how far he'd get into this project. He has been so full of energy this past week. It's been extra hard for him to sit still. I think the pumpkins being previously cleaned out helped. He started by drawing the face, and he immediately knew exactly which face he'd like his jack-o-lantern to have. He wanted a sleepy face!

Next, I had him poke holes over his design. I thought it would make the cutting easier for him. He did such a good job and followed the lines very carefully.

Then he got to carve! We showed him how to hold his pumpkin and the carving tool while keeping all fingers away from the blade.  At first he just sawed back and forth without applying pressure to move the tool along the lines he had made, but he eventually got the hang of it. He tried really hard and was very careful while using the tools. I'm proud of him and how capable he is. I do want to say that he still didn't finish his carving. He did a good bit, but ultimately I finished his design for him. I'm sure next year will be even better.

I also thought I'd share the pumpkins my husband and I carved. I'm somewhat disappointed in mine because I had grand plans, but my attention span was awful and I grew tired of it. I wonder where R gets it?! Haha.

This is Kevin's. It's a design from a book series he loves and is currently reading (again). Extra points to whoever is dorky cool enough to know which series!

And this is mine. It is suppose to be a haunted house. Does it look like the door is open and the light is streaming out? That's what I was going for. Professional pumpkin carving is obviously not in my future, but R loved it. He said it was spooky!

At what age did your children carve their first pumpkins? Or do you have an estimated age in mind for when they might?

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Homemade Pterodactyl Costume

This year, R wants to be a cat. A cat. For me, that's the epitome of boring as far as Halloween costumes for boys are concerned. I want him to be happy though, and being a cat will make him happy. I'm just a little bummed I don't get to try and make something awesome. Of course I don't tell him any of this, but that's the truth. He might be saving us a lot of trouble though. You see, for some reason, I often procrastinate. Even if I'm excited about something. Sure I can say that this year would have been different, but who knows? At least a cat costume will be simple and quick, right?

This is a little embarrassing, but I thought I'd share it anyways. Last year R wanted to be a "flying dinosaur" and the only thing lamer than me waiting until Halloween day the last minute to make his costume, were the ones you could buy. Go ahead and google "pterodactyl costumes."  Okay. So I should have started a month before, but honestly, I started this project at around one in the morning on Halloween day. If you have a child that desperately wants to be a pterodactyl and you start now, you could make it 100x better, so I thought I'd tell you all how I did it.

I don't have pictures of the process because I was in such a frantic dash to the finish, but I think it's all pretty easy to comprehend. If I don't explain it well enough and you have questions, please ask and I'll try to do better. Anyways, I just put him in a green thermal and green sweat pants. I bought some green material for the wings and quickly made a pattern by using his shirt as a guide. The wings were sewn and tacked onto the shirt. I liked this because I didn't have to sew a lot, and he got to wear the clothes for more than just one day. We also bought mittens and split each mitten in half. My husband hand-sewed the mitten into a forked hand, so that he would have his thumb and two other "claws." He had two fingers on each side of the mitten, and it didn't bother him at all.  You can see this in the above picture.

The head was the time consuming part, and it wouldn't have been bad at all, had I started even a week earlier. You could make this look much nicer with a little well spent time. But hey, if you're like me, at least you know you can pull this off in less than 24 hours. I bought a plastic fireman helmet from The Dollar Tree and trimmed the back rim off. Then I taped folded paper plates to the helmet to make the pterodactyl shaped head. Next I covered the whole thing with paper mache. I was just slapping the stuff on and then drying it with a hair dryer. Meanwhile, my husband was making R's feet. We wanted him to wear his shoes, but my husband really wanted him to have dinosaur feet, so we sculpted some out of thin cardboard. We used a cereal box and just cut a piece out to fit around his shoe. We put it over his shoe, taped it together, and then removed his shoe to work further. Then my husband cut out pieces of the cereal box for the talons. He taped them to the base and then we covered everything with paper mache. Then we slept. Briefly. Next, I primed each piece with thin coats of spray paint primer. I let that dry (thankfully it dried quickly) and then spray painted everything green. I added a few details with acrylic paints and called it good. In order for the helmet to attach to R's head, I attached some of the leftover wing fabric to the inside of the helmet with Velcro. The fabric then fastened under his chin with Velcro. To wear the dinosaur feet over his shoes, we first put his foot through the hole in the top of the paper mache foot. Then we put his shoes on and slid the feet into place. So easy.

It's not perfect, but there you go. Maybe there's someone out there like me, with a child like R, who needs an idea fast. R loved it, and that's all that really matters. It was cheap, which is an added bonus. And in spite of the thrown together nature of the project, the helmet has held up well this past year. Although the feet met their demise in gravel driveways.

What do your children want to be for Halloween?

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Halloween Magnets Made From Salt Dough

We love magnets. R has always had a love for magnets and his collection has grown quite a bit. Did we need to add to it? Probably not. But we had fun making these festive magnets anyway!

We started by making the salt dough, and I have to say that R really did this by himself. I told him how much we needed for the recipe, but he did all of the measuring and mixing, rolling and cutting. It really amazes me at how fast he's growing up and how capable he really is.

The Recipe:

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup warm water

Start by mixing the flour and salt. Then slowly mix in the water. We use our hands. It gets lumpy, and gloopey, and sticky before it turns into the dough. R loved that part. Then you turn it out onto a floured surface and roll it thin with a rolling pin. We also flour our rolling pin before hand, and several times during the process so that the dough doesn't stick to it. You don't want it too thin, but the thinner it is, the faster it dries. Ours typically range from 1/4 of an inch to a 1/2 inch.

Making the Magnets:

To set the mood, we listened to our "Wee Sing For Halloween" CD. It was perfect for this activity. We used our Halloween themed cookie cutters, and as R sang along to the songs he would hold up the cookie cutters that went along with it. His own musical puppet show!

A song about a spider came on and he insisted that we make one even though we didn't have a spider cookie cutter. So he decided how he wanted it to look and rolled out the dough for the legs and fangs. I just made sure they were attached to the body securely.

Then we put the cutouts onto cookie tins and popped them in the oven. We let them dry for four hours on 200 degrees F, before checking them. Most of them were done, but a few of the thicker ones were still a bit soft, so we put them back in for another hour.

We waited until the next day to paint the creations. I think he did a wonderful job. I adore his jack-o-lantern faces. After they dried, I covered them with a thin layer of Mod Podge. Next we applied the magnets and googly eyes with hot glue.

Give as Gifts!

We are keeping several of them, but plan to give a bunch away. The adults in our lives will receive a few of the painted ones, and his friends will receive a few of the unpainted. We thought that they might like to paint them instead. We will also include the googly eyes because they are fun!

{Did you enjoy this post? Don't miss out on any of the fun! Please consider subscribing or following me on Facebook for future updates. Thank you for reading!}

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Halloween Freeze Dance

We are getting a lot of use from our  Wee Sing For Halloween CD. It was an instant favorite and R asks to listen to it every day. He listens intently and tries to follow along with the song book it came with. We dance. He really can't get enough of this CD!

Well, I've been having some back problems lately, and as much as I'd love to, I haven't been able to really get down and play with R this past weekend. One bad day in particular, we stayed in and did arts and crafts and cuddled and read a ton of books. Those are all fantastic activities to do together when mom is feeling less than great, but those of you with kids know of the excess energy they often contain. I could tell that R was just itching to jump and run and get out some of that energy, so I suggested that we play freeze dance!

We played his new favorite CD and I would occasionally hit the "pause" button to make the music stop. When the music stopped he would freeze in the middle of dancing. It was rather hilarious. He had a lot of fun and really got into it. Plus, he really enjoyed being my entertainment. It got some of his energy out without me having to go very far or do very much.  It saved our sanity until daddy could get home and help with all of that energy!

This activity would be great for a Halloween party. It would also be fun on a rainy day, or just because with the whole family or some friends. I would also recommend recording this activity for future viewing!

What are some of your favorite Halloween songs?

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