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Posts
Online Knitting, Crocheting and Embroidery Books
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008Project Gutenberg has some great books that are in the public domain that you can enjoy online or download for free. Most of them are older, but many are as fresh today as when they were first written.
Today I found some on crocheting, knitting and embroidery. If you’re interested in any of these art forms you may enjoy looking at these books.
But first, here’s a poem called “The Praise of the Needle”, by John Taylor, that I thought you might enjoy. It was in one of the books:
Flowers, Plants and Fishes, Birds, Beasts, Flies, and Bees,
Hills, Dales, Plains, Pastures, Skies, Seas, Rivers, Trees,
There’s nothing near at hand, or farthest sought,
But with the needle may be shap’d and wrought.
Here are some of the books with links to their download urls at Gutenberg:Exercises in Knitting
Knitting, Crochet, Point-Lace, etc.
Beeton’s Book of Needlework
Encyclopedia of Needlework
The Development of Embroidery in America
Jacobean Embroidery
Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving
The Art of Modern Lace Making
Can Anyone Recommend any Italian Children’s Music CD or DVD?
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Michelle wrote:
Thank you for your great website.
Can you tell me if there is a website where I can purchase CD’s of Italian Music for children and/or DVD’s?
Thank you
Michelle DeFazioThere are some CD’s on Amazon that you can buy. Here are a couple I found that got good reviews. You can hear musical clips for some of them. The first two have mp3’s you can pay to download directly from the site:
Canzoni Per Bambini, Volume I – CD
Canzoni Per Bambini Vol.II, Italian Songs for Children – CD
Teach Me Italian (Paperback and Audio CD): A Musical Journey Through the DayHere are two for adults – the first one includes That’s Amore by Dean Martin and Volare by Dominico Mudugno:
Eh, Paisano! 100% Italian-American Classics
Viva Italia! Festive Italian ClassicsIf anyone knows of any other cd’s or dvd’s or places where you can buy them, please let us know about it in the comments below.
-Mama Lisa
Traveling With Kids
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008My family and I are planning a trip to France! And, yes, that does include my six year old daughter and thirteen year old son.
My husband and I are very excited, but we’re trying to go with our eyes open: It’s not going to be easy! Traveling with young ones is always a challenge, and the current low value of the dollar makes the financial burden that much greater.
Here’s a few of the thoughts we’ve had and resources we’ve discovered as we prepare.
Baby Jetsetter is a wonderful blog about traveling with kids. It’s focused on babies, so my kids are a bit old for some of the tips, but if you’re planning a trip with the diaper and pacifier set, you should definitely check it out. For instance, the latest post gives great recommendations on what to pack and what not to pack in your carry-on bag for the plane.
The falling value of the US dollar is making traveling more expensive for Americans. Just this morning the New York Times posted an article on some coping strategies. I particularly like the suggestion of one commenter to forgo expensive Parisian restaurants and, instead, plan some picnics of baguettes and wheels of Brie or Camembert. (And maybe some grapes or apples on the side. I can’t completely ignore my diet!) What could be more genuinely Parisian?
I can get by in French, and my son is studying it in school. But my husband and daughter don’t know a word. I’m trying to prepare them by injecting some phrases into our conversation where I can. A few bonjour’s and s’il vous plait’s may not seem like much, but they’re a start.
And then, of course, there are the books!
I’m planning on picking up Ludwig Bemelmans classic Madeline to help acquaint my daughter with images of Paris in a way she can relate to.
There’s only so much wandering around museums we can expect a six year old and thirteen year old to tolerate, so we picked up Fodor’s Around Paris with Kids. It’s filled with kid friendly parks, boat rides and amusement parks that will, hopefully, make the city of lights come alive for our kids.
And finally, my husband is an inveterate reader and a history buff. He refuses to leave the house without studying two thousand years of the history of any place he goes. So he picked up La Belle France, A Short History by Alistair Horne. When we finally arrive, he may not be able to speak a word, but we’ll have to struggle to cut him off from lecturing us for hours about the historical background of every monument and Roman ruin we visit.
It’s taking a lot of preparation and it’s going to cost us a bit, but I think traveling is very important for both kids and adults. And, despite all the anticipated problems, it should be a huge amount of fun!
One More Word about American Girl Dolls
Friday, January 11th, 2008In previous blog entries, I’ve been discussing less expensive alternatives to American Girl Dolls. Ed Gawlinski wrote in to tell us about some of the pluses of buying an actual American Girl Doll. One point he made was that the characters in the books are good role models for girls.
Since then, I came across a blog article about how a six year old girl brought her less expensive doll to the American Girl Store in New York City. At the store, they style the hair of American Girl Dolls. But they refused to style the little girl’s doll’s hair because it wasn’t an authentic American Girl Doll, even though the girl was in tears.
I called the store to see what their policy is and they confirmed that they don’t style other dolls’ hair. So be warned if you go to the store. It holds true even if you bring your child there for a birthday party and her friends all bring their dolls – any dolls that aren’t American Girl Dolls can’t be styled.
My first reaction to hearing this was to be appalled. But, after considering it for a while, I can understand why they would have a policy like this. It took me about an hour to brush out the hair of my daughter’s non-American Girl Doll and I had to work hard to make it look good.
Nonetheless, there must be a better way to handle it. What do we want to teach our kids? That they live in a world of exclusivity – that only the well off can take part in special activities. They’re excluded – or their friend is excluded – because she doesn’t have that doll?
Instead, shouldn’t they try to craft their polices to help teach children compassion for others?
The American Girl Dolls institution should try to be a good role model – just like the characters in the American Girl Dolls books!
Can American Girl Dolls and Their Books Be a Good Role Model?
Thursday, January 10th, 2008In an earlier blog post, I talked about a less expensive alternative to American Girl Dolls. My daughter and I call them “Me” Dolls. I feel that these dolls are good for kids since they can play with them without parents worrying about the dolls getting messy.
Today Ed Gawlinski wrote to me about what he feels are the benefits of the American Girl Dolls…
The American Girl dolls, at least before they were bought out by Mattel, were intended to be (or at least approach) “museum quality” in accuracy and workmanship. The dolls, clothes and accessories are intended to match one of the books associated with that doll. They are admittedly expensive. However, the books can be bought separately and they are (in my opinion) excellent books that I had enjoyed reading to my two daughters and listening to them reading the stories aloud to us. These were great opportunities to talk about American History and society.
I still get catalogues in the mail from them. In addition to buying clothes for the dolls you can buy matching clothes for the girls. That can be very expensive. However, it can also bring alive a period in American history for your child which is a very valuable learning experience. The cost of the doll, etc. can be useful in teaching your daughter how to take care of valuable property. Naturally, they should also have dolls and toys that they can treat more roughly, take outside and get dirty, etc.
I had been the director of a Saint Lucia performance for over twenty years. In the American Girls’ book, “Kirsten’s Surprise”, Kirsten explains the Swedish Saint Lucia custom to her cousins, and they organize a Luciatag celebration. Over the years, many of the girls in my performance had a Kirsten doll, and we used these dolls in their Saint Lucia outfit or Swedish outfits to decorate our performance area. Occasionally, a girl would wear her Kirsten outfit as her costume.
Hopefully, in four to six years, your daughter will start to enjoy reading the American Girls books and then will appreciate having one of the dolls to help bring the stories alive. I am happy to see that some entrepreneurs have taken the idea behind the American Girls dolls and come up with a less expensive alternative. I did know a number of my daughters’ friends who destroyed theirs and that was unfortunate.
I am hoping that in ten to twelve years when my granddaughter is old enough to enjoy them, that American Girls dolls (etc.) will still be available in the stores. However, I do know that both of my daughters have kept their dolls and the books in excellent condition. They each had two dolls and over the years, they acquired (for Christmas and birthdays) a collection of outfits and accessories. They enjoyed getting outfits for their dolls even while they were in high school.
The girls portrayed in the books are strong role models for a little girl. I was very glad to be able to include these books in their library. One of the dolls, Molly, had a father who was serving in Europe during World War II. One of Molly’s outfits included a flight jacket. The daughter who had this doll is now a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, having graduated from the Air Force Academy last May.
I don’t want to be a commercial for Mattel, but I am very glad to have been able to provide my daughters with these dolls and even more so, with the books.
-Ed Gawlinksi
Note: In the second photo above, the girls are in Swedish Costumes that their mothers made based on the one of the outfits worn by the Kirsten American Girl doll.
Many thanks to Ed Gawlinski for sharing his family’s experiences with the American Girl Dolls with us! -Lisa
UPDATE: If you’d like to read another point of view, you can read a later post called One More Word about American Girl Dolls!
Great Dolls for Girls – Me Dolls and American Girl Dolls
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008The American craft store Michaels has wonderful dolls that are similar to American Girl dolls. American Girl Dolls are very popular dolls in the United States. The girl who gets one is supposed to have a doll that looks just like her. The problem is that American Girl Dolls cost $90.00 (they come with a book and cd). Extra clothes cost about $28.00. Most of the kids I know who have them keep them in their closets. (To be fair, my daughter’s only 6. The dolls may be meant for older kids who would keep them nice and neat and clean in their bedrooms.) It’s a lot of money to spend on a doll to have it out in the real world getting all messy. Yet in my mind, a doll should be out in the world with your kid. So when my daughter got this similar doll from Michaels for her birthday, that I knew cost much less, I was very happy. I knew she could play with it as much as she wanted and I wouldn’t have to worry about it.
The doll from Michaels costs a little over $16. Then you have to buy it at least one outfit, since it comes unclothed. The outfits cost about $8. The shoes are about $3.
We call the doll from Michaels a “Me” Doll – though they officially call them The Springfield Girls. Most of the girls in the neighborhood think it’s an American Girl Doll – though I’m told that you can tell that the hair isn’t as nice. But for about $27 you can get a girl a nice gift that she can play with – without your worrying about a $90 toy getting ruined.
Michaels has about 5 variations or so, but if you or one of your relatives feel like splurging on an American Girl doll, there are many more dolls to chose from. They have over 30 different dolls in their line. Some are interesting “historical” dolls that come with a story about them. One doll called Addy is supposed to be from 1864 and was a slave who escaped to freedom. Kirsten is a doll who’s supposed to be an immigrant to the US in the 1850’s. There’s a series of books you can buy to read about her experience.
Lastly, you can visit one of the American Girl stores – there are 5 of them in major US cities. They’re not just stores to buy products. You can have your doll’s hair “done”. You can have a tea party with your doll, see a musical (no kidding!) or eat dinner! It’s probably a good idea to make reservations first.
For now, my daughter and I will stick to playing with her dolls from Michaels!
-Mama Lisa
UPDATE: Ed Gawlinski wrote to me about the benefits of American Girl Dolls which I posted in a later entry called Can American Girl Dolls and Their Books Be a Good Role Model? You can get yet another point of view by reading One More Word about American Girl Dolls. Feel free to join the discussion in the comments below or on one of the later blog posts. -Lisa
A New Children’s Book Site
Saturday, January 5th, 2008My friend David wrote to me about a new site he created…
Hi Lisa,
Happy New Year!
As you know, I usually indicate links to you that relate to free resources, but on this particular occasion I would draw your kind attention to some children’s books by a friend of mine, which are for sale. I have made a website for him at www.pmacbooks.com. If you consider that a link from your Mamalisa blog would be appropriate, that would be great. I have copied to Peter, in case you have any questions you might like to put to him.
Kind regards,
David W Solomons
There are long excerpts of Peter’s books on his site so you can get a good idea of what they’re about before ordering them.
-Mama Lisa
Multilingual Kids Books on the Web
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008I’ve been asked twice in the past week for free multilingual books.
Here’s a link I found called Books in Multiple Languages. They have English children’s books with translations in Spanish, French, Polish, Italian, Romanian, German, Chinese, Finnish, Swedish, Maori, Greek, Dutch, Farsi (Persian), Afrikaans, Croatian, Turkish, Russian, Japanese, Ukrainian, Portuguese, Arabic, Hebrew, Pennsylvania Dutch, Sloven, Indonesian, Malaysian, Hungarian, Dari, Hindi and Filipino.
If anyone knows of any other good multilingual book links, feel free to let us know about it in the comments below.
Someone was also looking for children’s books with animal sounds around the world. There’s one called Who Says a Dog Goes Bow Wow? by Hank de Zutter. You can click the link to see it on Amazon.
-Mama Lisa
“Chanson d’Automne” – Autumn Song – A Poem by Verlaine
Monday, November 26th, 2007Here is one last poem about Autumn before I focus on the topic of the upcoming December holiday season.
I came upon this poem while looking for French podcasts to brush up on my French in anticipation of a trip to France in the Spring. There’s a whole podcast in French devoted to this poem that you can listen to. It inspired me to come up with my own translation, which you can read below.
Chanson d’Automne is a very sad poem that was written by Paul-Marie Verlaine in 1866. Most French people are familiar with this poem as it’s taught in school. French children are often required to learn it by heart.
Chanson d’Automne
Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l’automne
Blessent mon cœur
D’une langueur
Monotone.Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Sonne l’heure,
Je me souviens
Des jours anciens
Et je pleure;Et je m’en vais
Au vent mauvais
Qui m’emporte
Deçà, delà,
Pareil à la
Feuille morte.Autumn Song
The long tears
Of Autumn’s
Violins
Wound my heart
With a monotonous
lethargy.All suffocating
And pale when
The hour strikes,
I remember
The old days
And I cry…And I am going away
On an ill wind
That carries me
Here, there,
Just like a
Dead leaf.Follow the link to hear Chanson d’Automne recited
Announcing Mamá Lisa’s World en español!
Monday, October 1st, 2007We’re very excited to make an important announcement – Mama Lisa’s World, our collection of children’s songs from around the globe, is now available in Spanish!
Mama Lisa’s World features almost a thousand kids’ songs from more than a hundred countries and cultures. Many are available in the original languages, with translations into English, French and now Spanish. It’s a great resource for parents, teachers and anyone interested in multicultural childhood culture.
I’d like to thank my friend and colleague, Monique Palomares, for her translations and my husband, Jason Pomerantz, for his programming. And, of course, I’m especially grateful to the many contributors who have made this great resource possible!
If you’d like to sing a traditional children’s song for us in Spanish, we be happy to post it!
Come on over and visit Mamá Lisa’s World en español!
A New Rosetta Stone!
Sunday, September 9th, 2007I found an interesting feature in Webster’s Online Dictionary at http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org . If you set it to “Non-English” and type in a word – it will give you that word in all of the languages it has for the word, with the definition. That’s pretty interesting to see.
For instance, the word “okay” exists in many languages. If you set the dictionary to “Non-English” and type that in, you can see all the languages for which they have information, that have the word “okay”. (Of course, “okay” is originally an English word, but it’s spread all around the world.)
The Quack Project – Animal Sounds Around the World
Monday, July 30th, 2007Do ducks quack in the same way all over the world? Of course the answer is, No! English ducks say, “Quack! Quack!“, French ducks say, “Coin-coin!“, and so on…
Discover the different sounds that ducks, horses, pigs, cows, frogs and roosters make in different languages at The Quack Project. They let you hear some of the sounds for free. If you want to hear a more extensive list of animal sounds, you have to pay for a CD-ROM version.
Otherwise, you can check out Derrick Abbot’s Animal Noise Page for a list of what animals say in 17 languages. If there’s a lot of interest out there in this topic, let me know and I can work on adding this feature to my site in the future.
-Mama Lisa
Does Anyone Know of a cd with Portuguese Kids Songs? Or would someone like to sing a couple of songs for us?
Saturday, July 14th, 2007Teresa wrote:
I would love to buy a cd with all those Portuguese nursery rhymes. I have been trying to search on the net and I just can not find anything. Any ideas on how to get the cd with songs featured in your home page.
Thanks
TeresaI found a couple of Portuguese Children’s cd’s on CD Baby. I’ve never heard them – but you can listen to clips on the site. You can click the link to get there. Or, if anyone would like to recommend a CD or would like to sing some of the songs on my Portuguese children’s song pages, please comment below or email me.
Thanks!
Lisa
Raising a Bilingual Child
Thursday, June 14th, 2007WineMama has an interesting discussion on her blog about her determination to raise a bilingual child and the difficulties she faces.
New Blog about Music Education called “Musicing”
Tuesday, May 1st, 2007Vince Bates recently started a blog about music education called Musicing. I like his thoughts on music. He believes music should be taught in schools to become a vital part of the student’s whole life.
Here’s what Vince wrote (it’s also an explanation of what “musicing” means):
“‘Musicing’, to me, means any and all human action related to music… Joyful play, I think, is integral to musicing…. people engage in musicing because it is personally fulfilling – because it might lead to increased happiness and fulfillment…. This blog will explore how music in school can become joyful and personally fulfilling musicing.”
I’m curious about what Vince has to say and will be reading his blog to hear his thoughts on music.
Zooglobble Counting Down Top 50 Songs
Monday, April 30th, 2007Zooglobble is another blog to check out if you’re interested in children’s music. In it, Stefan Shepherd reviews lots of children’s musical CD’s.
He’s also been rating the top 50 children’s songs. His latest, songs 6 – 10, were Mary Had a Little Lamb, I’ve Been Working on the Railroad, Down by the Bay, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Freight Train. Can’t wait to see what his top 5 favorites are!
International Children’s Digital Library – ICDL
Saturday, April 14th, 2007The International Children’s Digital Library is a wonderful site to visit with children where you can read online books in many different languages. You can choose to browse books by country, by age group, and by language. They have picture books for young kids, and chapter books for more advanced readers.
You choose the book you’d like to read. Then you click the arrows to turn the pages of the book.
So head on over there and check it out. You’re in for a treat!
-Lisa
One Last Post about Pi
Saturday, March 17th, 2007Check out Jeremy, from my previous pi post, lip-sync-singing pi to the xth digit! (Did you get what I was trying to say there? It’ll all become clear when you watch the clip…)
I thought that was too funny to pass up! –Lisa
Check out the site Super Simple Songs to see some kids videos with Jeremy in them.
Can Anyone Help with Spanish Pronunciation?
Friday, March 16th, 2007Tracey wrote:
Lisa
Are you able to assist me with how to pronounce the Spanish words? I’d like to teach my grade the nursery rhymes.
Thank you,
Tracey Morand
Hi Tracey,
There are some recordings of Spanish songs on my site. You can find 3 on the Mama Lisa’s World Mexican Children’s Song Pages and more on the Mama Lisa’s World Spain Children’s Song Pages. They’re the ones with MP3’s.
We like the internet page called Spanish Pronunciation Key to help learn the Spanish pronunciation of different letters.
There’s also Languageguide.org’s Spanish pages. There you can click on pictures of different words and hear them pronounced.
If anyone would like to record any of the other Spanish nursery rhymes or songs that are on Mama Lisa’s World, I’d be happy to post more recordings. That way people would know how to pronounce them.
Thanks! -Lisa
Blogs about Books for Kids
Friday, February 16th, 2007Looking for a good book for a child? I’ve recently found two blogs that talk about children’s books: Kids Literati and Books for Kids Blog. At Kids Literati, books are reviewed by Kara, the grown-up daughter of a storyteller and children’s bookstore owner. She grew up surrounded by kids books. The reviewer at Books for Kids Blog is a retired librarian. She spent her adult life around childrens books.
I found Kids Literati a couple of months ago when I noticed they did a video review of Make a World by Ed Emberley. The review compared the first printing of the book with a recent reprinting of it. An interesting idea! More important to me, I was able to see what the inside of the book looked like. Emberley goes through a series of steps, showing how to draw different pictures. I knew right away that Emberley’s style would be perfect for my 5 year old daughter. She loves to draw and is very good at looking at pictures and drawing from them. After watching this video review, I ended up buying 2 of Emberley’s books for my daughter.
This is just one example of a review at Kids Literati. Kara has reviewed over 60 books thus far. You can tell she loves most of the books she reviews. She’s good at pointing out what’s special about them. However, her reviews aren’t sugar-coated. I noticed her review of A Series of Unfortunate Events was less than glowing. (I have to confess that I picked up the first book in this series and had a hard time getting through the first chapter. So I appreciated her candor.)
Warning: You’ll leave the site wanting to go out a buy a big stack of children’s books!
Before you do that, head on over to Books for Kids Blog and see what’s cooking over there. Generally, they review books for a wider age group of kids. The most recent posts are reviews of books for teenage boys. As you go back in time you can see there are often reviews of several books on one topic, which I think is a great idea. Some topics already featured are snow, stories about dogs, ghost stories, books about science fair projects, Valentine’s Day, and Civil War books. She even covers princesses with a list of “Princess Stories That Won’t Shrink Ze Brain.”
For anyone who has children in their lives, both of these blogs can be great tools to help pick out good books. Probably the best bet is to jot down the names of some that sound interesting and head on over to your library with the child. Then check out some books!
________
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