Peg Dolls

 For the past couple of years I've been having fun making toys for my grand children.  Here are some of the peg dolls that I've painted to go with our favourite books.

 

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

                                                                    Room on the Broom

The Three Little Pigs

Owl Babies

Caps for Sale

Five Little Monkeys

Grumpy Bird

  

  Pete the Cat

I Love my White Shoes

and His Four Groovy Buttons.

The Hungry Caterpillar

I'm late but this is August's Treasure Basket.

Inspired by Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

I created some puppets for her.

Oh she loved the look of this big pom pom caterpillar.

She tried to pull the pom poms apart.

I encouraged her to continue to empty the bag and she found the tiny pom pom caterpillar.

Also in the basket were the pictures of the food that are in the story.

Yum the tiny, hungry caterpillar ate it all.

And then it became a great big caterpillar.

That was as far as we got with our puppets and story.

Next year we will have to create a butterfly puppet to add.

Books - The Mitten

All during the month of January "The Mitten" by Jan Brett was my 

grand daughter's favourite book.

It would be her first pick of books to bring to anyone of us to read.

Using that book, I introduced her to felt stories.

As we read the book we introduced each felt character,

let her hold them and really look at each.

The fun part, for her, was taking all the animals out of the mitten 

when the story was finished.

Raising a Book Lover

I love children's books and through my career I've collected a large library.

When I retired last year I sorted through them all and above is what I have left.

Behind each door is a cubby full of books waiting to be shared.

In another book shelf I've stored my baby board books.

Those are the ones we are using right now.

Every month I bring a new bunch of books to my daughter's place,

I am their baby book library - Nana's library.

My daughter and son in-law introduced books right from birth.

They made it a part of their bed time routine in the beginning.

My husband (Opa) and I shared books with her any time we could.

Starting with just reading one page, if that was all she was interested in.

I liked using flap books because we were into 'peek-a-boo".

Those books kept her attention a little longer.

Sharing books gave us that wonderful experience to bond,

for us to get to know each other,

to build trust, introduce new words, concepts, emotions, 

and to have fun.

And her love of books grew to more than just bedtime.

There were usually a couple of books available in her toy basket

to be seen as an everyday item not something special to be pulled out 

at certain times.

She was allowed to play with them, become familiar with how they felt

and learn how to open and flip the pages.

As she grew older the amount of books available to her at one time increased.

Her mom created a book shelf that is at her level and is in their main living area.

She has become more specific in which books she wants to look at.

She picks through the books until she finds the one she wants, carries it to one of us, climbs up on our laps, and turn the pages.

She now has her favourite books and her favourite pages.

Today she turns one and she loves books.

She loves to share them with us 

or enjoy them herself.

I think it's time to bring out the felt board and expand on the stories.

Pegkin Project Complete

Here is the second half of our Pegkins Project.

It has been so much fun meeting a new Pegkin each day

and hearing their story from the child who created it

Pegkin #11 Peppa

by Talia and Mom

Peppa lives in Talia's backyard and protects the bunny from raccoons.

She has magic dust to spread around.

Peppa only eats berries and she drinks the rain.

Pegkin #11 Serena, The Fairy Godmother

by Delfina

Serena, the Fairy Godmother with her friends Glenda and Celia help children.

She protects them when they need it and also sprinkles magic on them.  Serena's particular assignment is to protect the children of the Comox Valley.

Her favourite things are starry nights, snow and pizza.

Pegkin #12 Cinderella

by Victoria and Mom

Cinderella lives in a tower and castle with a bad witch.

The prince came to save her from the witch.

She likes to eat boiled eggs and apples.

She swings on a swing.

Pegkin #13 Sparkles the Snow Fairy

by Avery and Mom

Sparkles the Snow Fairy was born on the first snow day we had this winter.

She likes to eat foods the same colour as snow; popcorn, vanilla ice cream, yogurt, marshmallows, cauliflower and white chocolate.

She likes to play in the snow making snow angels and snowmen

and sledding down the driveway.

Pegkin #14 Princess Green

by Ayla and Grandma

Princess Green lives in the North Pole.

She is a baker for Santa Claus.

She makes cookies and candies for him to eat.

She's very old with white hair and has been around for a long time.

Princess Green is very nice and sweet.

Pegkin #15 Batman

by Cairo and Mom

Batman rescues people from the bad guy.

He drives the Batmobile really fast.

Batman can fly, run fast and jump big.

Pegkin #16 Maureen

by Kendyl and Mom

Maureen likes gingerbread.

She plays and runs and eats.

Her favourite things to eat are treats.

Maureen lives in a gingerbread house and she took a boat, and a train to her house.

She even does everything.

Pegkin #17 Bill and Ben

by Ben and Grandma and Grandpa

Bill and Ben

Bill and Ben

Bill and Ben

are flowerpot men.

Pegkin #18 BB8

by Emma, Sam and Mom

BB8 lives in Starwars Land.  He loves exploring with his friends and rolling around until he gets dizzy.  He likes to meet new people and his favourite food is Starwars cereal.

Pegkin #19 Elfie

by Meadow and Mom

Elfie is one of Santa's helpers.

He is 77 years old.

He helps Santa with presents and toys.

Elfie's favourite food is popcorn.

Pegkin #20 Grandma Rose

by Charlie and Mom

Grandma Rose is 100 years old.

Her favourite food is pancakes.

She lives in Comox, Vancouver Island and she loves to colour and sing with her grandchildren.

Grandma Rose's favourite time of year is Christmas so she can build a snowman and make cookies.

A last minute pegkin was created by Jordyn.

She used materials from the craft shelf and surprised us with 

Pegkin #21 Nutmeg

by Jordyn and Mom

Nutmeg lives in a gingerbread house.

He goes to work at the military to make his family money.

His wife is called Nutgirl, his son is Nutboy and his two girls are Nutwoman and Nutwoman.

When he's not working he likes to play with his 3 kids and build a snowman.

Pegkin #22 Gingie

by Maureen

Gingie has traveled the world.

She saw wonderful places and met a lot of fun people.

She would like to thank everyone who helped send her post cards back to StrongStart.

Merry Christmas