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. 

Read more ...

African Safari with Whittle World

We value creative play and I'm always on the look out for toys that promote creative play. I've had my eye on the Whittle World line for some time now, so I was ecstatic when Melissa & Doug sent me the Whittle World Airplane and Luggage Carrier Set to review. (By the way, I honestly cannot say "Whittle World" without giggling. Genius name! Get it?)

These toys are absolutely fantastic. R was excited to play with them and immediately made up several of his own pretend play scenarios. I love that this set can encourage play to go in many different directions. And the quality is impressive. I can see R happily playing with them for years to come. 

These toys do not require any fancy set up. Your child's imagination will be enough! But I thought it would be nice to help set up a special activity based on R's love for animals. 

I was thinking a safari trip to Africa was in order! R loved the idea and was eager to help as we turned a box into the African plains. We kept it simple, and covered the box in green tissue paper. We made a tissue paper watering hole and added a few other details with construction paper. We also made a couple trees from paper lunch bags and bits of tissue paper. For the animals, we colored coloring pages from here, here, and here. We cut the animals out and I made a stand from poster board for each one. This allows the animals to stand upright and be easily moved. We had so much fun working on this project together, and the fun was just beginning!

All of the little people boarded the plane. Their luggage was loaded on, and the pilot announced their take off. Zoom! They're off! R made the sound effects as he flew the plane around and around. This was an activity in itself!

But after a long flight, it was finally time to land. The little people began their African safari and had a blast taking pictures of the animals. One man swam with a hippo, while another narrowly escaped being charged by a rhino! He played and played until it was time to go inside and put his toys away. 

This was really three activities rolled into one! He's already brainstorming more small world scenes for his imaginative play, and I'm brainstorming more ways to use these toys as learning tools. Everyone is happy. 

{Disclosure- I received this Whittle World Airplane and Luggage Carrier Set from Melissa & Doug for review. I was not compensated in any other way and the views and opinions expressed here are both honest and my own. We plan on *purchasing* the other sets. I'm thinking Christmas? Shh!}

Read more ...

Small {Out of this} World Play

What do you get when you combine play dough with Safari Ltd. space toys and educational posters? A stellar afternoon of small world pretend play (pun fully intended)! R is in love with space and insists he wants to be an astronaut when he gets over his fear of "way up high heights," so when we received a package containing space goodies from Safari Ltd. we were ecstatic.

I began by setting up a space to create and explore. I hung the "Our Solar System" and "The Moon" posters with ticky tack on opposite walls in a corner of his playroom. Then I covered his table with a plastic tablecloth and set up the figures from his Space TOOB with some of our homemade play dough.

R really enjoyed looking at the posters and talking about our solar system. These posters are both beautiful and informative. We spoke about each object as he recreated them with play dough. He even had fun putting them in the correct order. He's a stickler for accuracy (except for when it comes to the scale of his planets :).

And then the play really began. He had each figure fly from planet to planet, avoiding asteroids before crashing into the sun. Except for the monkey. The monkey apparently knew better.

That monkey made a mess though. R exclaimed, "that monkey is getting into all kinds of trouble!" Before I knew it, the monkey was wrecking the entire solar system. Things were crashing all around and everything was buried beneath the play dough rubble. 

He played for hours and was sad when it was time to stop for dinner. This kind of imaginative play is fantastic for making time fly.

But how did the toys fare after all of this play? They are still just as wonderful as the day we got them. After a lot of love and some rough play, they still look like new.The quality is amazing and I know that we'll be playing and learning with them for a long time to come.

Space is the current obsession in my household and R has been creatively playing with these toys non stop. Did you see how he used them with our paper bag puppets? But Safari Ltd. has a wide range of other replicas to choose from as well. Whether your kids love fairies or dinosaurs, animals or history, Safari Ltd has something to offer.

You can take a look around at their website, or connect with them through Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

{Disclaimer- Safari Ltd sent me these products to review. I was not compensated in any other way and the opinions expressed are honest and my own. Also, I was to review them in *one* post but the likelihood of me posting about these products again is great. I will not be compensated for other posts, I am simply writing and sharing ideas that may contain these products because they lend themselves well to creative and imaginative play. Which we are all about. And, as I mentioned before, my son is smitten. :)}

Read more ...