Books: A Seed Is Sleepy, plus... An Egg is Quiet!

I've really been enjoying picture books lately, especially beautifully illustrated ones. I think I read them to my son just so that I can read them, lol. I'm so selfish!

The fact is, my son won't read them on his own and I don't blame him; at eight years old, they are not usually captivating enough for personal reading when he'd rather read Lego or Star Wars encyclopedic volumes or chapter books. And while this is where I would normally sigh, I've found that he's happy to enjoy these beautiful books as long as we sit and read them together! Yay for me ;-)  At least for the time being. Then I'll just have to read them for me  ;-)

At this time of year we have a bit of a book tradition: we take several spring, egg, and seed related books off our shelves or out from the library. Not an earth shattering idea, I know. It blows in with the spring air and everyone has the same idea!

However, there are a few books that we specifically read every year. Two of them are the topics of this, um getting long winded, post.

First, A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston and beautifully illustrated by Sylvia Long. Subtly packed with information the elegant pictures delight readers of all ages. The narrative begins "A seed is sleepy" and progresses with imaginative adjectives to "a seed is awake." It's just a very creative introduction or re-introduction to seeds and plants with a wonderful array of examples. I love the endpapers! At the beginning of the book, they are a double page layout of various seeds; at the end of the book, they are a double page layout of the plants they grow into. This book is very lovely and everyone should read it at least once!

The second book is what led us to the first book. An Egg Is Quiet by Dianna Hutts Aston and, of course, also beautifully illustrated by Sylvia Long. This gorgeous book prompted me to find more by this author/illustrator duo. So far it's just these two books, but Dianna Aston's website promises a third book (hopefully illstrated by Sylvia Long): A Butterfly is Patient (spring 2012).

Ok, back to An Egg Is Quiet!

Progressing from a quiet to noisy egg, this book travels the life cycle of an egg. Did you know eggs were colourful, shapely, clever, differently sized, artistic, and textured? Well, probably you did. But that's not the point! This elegant book is such an amazing introduction to eggs of all varieties with a splash of information to round out the experience. This includes a visual time line of three egg's developments: a chicken's, a salmon's, and a grasshopper's. And there are wonderful end papers here too! The first set is a collection of wonderful eggs (to scale I think) and the last set is a collection of the corresponding birds! It's fun to flip back and forth matching up the two. 

We are lucky here in Edmonton. Our Royal Alberta Museum has a wonderful display of stuffed birds found in Alberta. In fact we made a special foray into this section to check out those birds AND to check out the wonderful egg collection! I love the way the museum has designed the layout so that we can check out the local-Alberta found eggs as well as see samples of eggs from all around the world. They even have a section where they compare sizes beginning with a hummingbird egg and work up to an ostrich egg.

But if you are not so lucky as to either live here or have something similar, I have a link to the RAM's online egg exhibit for you!

Eggs: A Virtual Exhibition
From their welcome page... "Welcome to Eggs - A Virtual Exhibition, the closest you may ever get to seeing wild bird eggs without disturbing birds at the nest. This virtual exhibit showcases eggs of the world with a special emphasis on the eggs of Alberta. The Royal Alberta Museum hosts one of the most extensive egg collections in North America. We have an on-line field guide with over 300 egg images as well as information on egg biology and a touch of egg trivia. So put on your virtual helmet and we'll visit some nests!"

A lot of information is provided and some of it in a rather bland presentation. I'd start with the "Bird Families Menu" and click on the bird of interest. But have fun and look around  ;-)

This post has been linked up with...



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New Royal Alberta Museum-- Downtown!

[I'm not sure why the video is not uploading... instead, follow this link for the video]

The RAM has been under review for an upgrade for several years now. Apparently there have been too many hurdles to grow the provincial museum in it's current location. The new plan, as viewed in the video, is to build it downtown, just north of City Hall.  It looks like a really exciting project which I hope goes to a local firm, particularly one that focuses on sustainable design.

For more details, check out this press release link.

Because the new building is constructed off site from the current museum location, it will remain open during the years of construction! Yay  ;-) I'm very excited for a bigger and better museum; I have often lamented about some of the amazing ideas I've come across while visiting other museums around the world. I've had enough of a sampling to know we can do so much better here.

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Royal Alberta Museum Feature Exhibits-- close soon!

Today we went to the RAM and I'm so glad we did. I haven't been paying attention to the turn around of new exhibits, so I hadn't realised that two of the newest additions (Illegal Killer Trade and Better Choose Me) were ending May 1 and the third (Heart and Soul) May 8th. I also didn't realise how interested my son would be in them and their activities.

So here they are...
[note, it was an impromptu visit and I was without a camera, but the links bring you to a pdf flyer with a few photos]

RAM-- Wizard of Oz!

Here Be Munchkins!

Much to my surprise, my son LOVED the Wizard of Oz exhibit up at the Royal Alberta Museum. It runs until January 9th, 2011. It looked like a great exhibit and I figured kids would love it, I just had no idea that it would be one of my son's favourites at the RAM. His other main favourite being the Insect section.

There is much to do in this exhibit and it covers a wide range of possibilities.

Anybody Home?

The first to catch our eye was the Wicked Witches' Castle where my son had fun building with the wooden blocks. Then we tossed flying monkeys at the yellow cow bells ;-)

The Munchkins' area was next with a home, tables and chairs, puppets, and more. We didn't dally much in this section. Just long enough for a photo opportunity.

There's a black and white section called Dorothy's House. A very simple section. Tipping over the watering can triggers corn to grow. And a rotating cube puzzle would be fun for the young ones.

Sort the Eggs...Sort of

Further down the line, there's an egg sorter and a Tornado Alley. Recreating tornadoes in three different ways went over well with my boy, lol.

Next section had us seeing green (extra large green lensed glasses) in Emerald City and building yellow brick roads with four different shapes! All fourteen of the Wizard of Oz books could be found and read in this section as well as some other similar themed books. This was also the "act out the story" section complete with costumes.

So those are some of the places, what about the characters? Well check your pulse rate in the Tin Man section after getting your blood pumping and feeling a heart beat! Test your courage with the Lion in the 'cave of courage' after spotting all the hidden things in the forest. Play 'whose brain?" with the Scarecrow and tackled some brain twisters too!

Spinning Tops

Emerald City and Air Balloon

Follow the Yellow Brick Road!

Courageous?

Let's Get That Blood Pumping!

Idea: Give That Kid a Camera!

A camera is such wonderful way to explore the world and express your creativity. And why not let the children in on this?!

My son captures his favourite toys

He captures vacation memories

Although I don't think children, depending on their age, should be running around with $2000+ cameras, a decent camera is a must in my books. Just like good quality art materials, a good quality camera can be the difference between well used or forgotten. If the camera is too cheap and takes poor quality photos, then who would want to use it? Luckily, it is relatively easy to find a decent camera new or used for a good price these days. Each year camera technology changes and updates leaving behind perfectly great cameras that no one wants anymore. These can be awesome starter cameras for the young photographer who may or may not be the most careful with such devices.

I also abhor dumbing down things for children. I never dumbed down my vocabulary for my son and I'm not going to do so with technology. Besides, these kiddos take to technology like a fish to water, it's so oddly natural!

And plays with perspective

Sure, start off simple with certain things, but allow for continued growth. I'd prefer to buy a camera with several features, but begin a child off with the concept of point and shoot and increase their camera knowledge as they gain experience and/or as they desire.

Photography helps us explore our world, capture memories, and is an outlet for creativity.

Ideas for all those photos?

How about create a picture book using the photographs! Children can write and "illustrate" their very own picture books, for themselves or as gifts.

And tries different angles

Of course, there is always the scrapbooking idea. Scrapbook an event or vacation, etc.

Make a photo timeline! Of a person's life or a day in your life. Take pictures of historical locations and sculptures and create a timeline with them.

Make photo t-shirts by printing out the photos onto iron-on transfer paper. If you don't want to do t-shirts, do canvass bags or aprons or something entirely different.

Create a photo collage and frame it. Maybe a family one or a collage of special memories. How about a collage of all the things you're grateful for?!

Print out and frame favourite photos and put on an art gallery opening in your living room!

Create photo note cards, holiday/birthday gift cards, calendars, or other stationary.

With your imagination, the sky is the limit!

If you live in, or are visiting, the Edmonton/Area you can visit the Royal Alberta Museum and see the Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit which is breathtaking and very inspiring. It runs from May 8- January 9, 2011. From the RAM website, here's a link to their pdf describing the event, the history of the competition, and a few stories behind the winning photographs.


Or, you can visit the Natural History Museum's website to check out the photographs from the Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.