Sunday Exploring: Chatham Village

 Twenty-one years ago, shortly after moving to Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania (a Pittsburgh suburb), I was wandering around my neighborhood with my one-year-old son in a backpack when I met another mom with her young son in a backpack. We shared a nice long walk that afternoon -- and have been walking together ever since. Mary Lou and I have covered a lot of ground, both literal and figurative, in the intervening years. Monday through Thursday evenings most weeks, we log five brisk miles over hilly terrain, usually close to home. On Saturdays, we frequently hit an estate sale somewhere not too far away and walk the surrounding neighborhood afterward.

But our Sunday morning walks these days are my favorites. A few years ago, we decided to walk every street and alleyway in our town. It took nearly a year of Sundays to finish Mt. Lebanon - and then we branched out into surrounding communities. In the years since, we've covered a good many neighborhoods all around Pittsburgh, and I've learned more about my city from our hikes than I'd learned in the fifteen years plus before that. We especially enjoy cemetaries, the steep hillside neighborhoods where steps often replace sidewalks, and the quirky older communities with interesting architecture and mature landscaping.

Today we visited Chatham Village, a planned community in the Mt. Washington section of Pittsburgh that's on the National Historic Register. It was developed in the 1930s in the model of the "Garden City" movement launched in England. It's as lovely and well-planned today as it was then. You can read more about it here and here.
 
 The community consists mostly of townhouses grouped in clusters around common greens with curving sidewalks, giving it the feeling of a college campus, I think. And each cluster has a lovely "folly" like the one shown above to house communal garden implements.

 The homes have lovely details - red brick, slate roofs, copper gutters and downspouts, limestone around the windows, and crests above the entry ways. And each cluster of townhomes is a little bit different.

 Around the perimeter is a large park of virgin forest (dating back to colonial times and before) with paths that curve and wind along the hillside. We saw plenty of wildlife today, including a large buck with an impressive rack.

 This is the updated playground, seen through the mist that hung over the hills this morning.

 And I arrived home to find that a squirrel has made a nest in the planter atop my rain barrel. And all day since I've been hearing him storing his acorns inside the rain barrel (which fortunately has a screen to keep debris out of the water).

I think he and his buddies are using my squirrel bench as a buffet table. But that does seem appropriate. And maybe there's a picture book in here...

Route 19 Writers: A Blog for Writers, Readers and Anyone Who Loves Kidlit

I know it seems crazy, since I haven't exactly posted regularly (okay, hardly at all) this past year, but I'm also writing now for another blog. The Route 19 Writers are a motley crew of mostly children's book writers who live along Route 19 South in the Pittsburgh, PA area. I've known most of them for years and am in awe of them as both writers and all-around-great people.

We take turns posting (at least three times a week), usually on a different theme each month. For this first month, we chose the theme "Novels" - but we allow lots of leeway in what to write about. You can see my first post on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and other  motivational writing "tools" here.

It even has the super easy directions for making this charming button chair (get it? Butt-in-Chair? That's the main tool you need to get your novel done.)

Of course, there's lots of other great stuff to find there too. A report on the great Katherine Patterson and her recent talk in Pittsburgh, a piece on finding your voice, a fabulous tutorial on twisting folktales to turn them into novels, new picture book stories, or tall tales, and even an interesting and funny discussion on figuring out what teens like to read (complete with very, very tasty recipe for Cornflake Chicken - yum.) I hope you'll check the blog out! Here!

Next month's topic is Giving and Receiving. I'm still noodling what I'll write about when it's my turn - but I'm already promising some kind of a nice giveaway. (Let me know if there's something you'd like me to write about.)

Oh, the new picture of the frog in my header is one I took this summer of one of the residents of my family's newish pond. I'll leave you with some images of flora and fauna around the pond this summer. (Can you tell I'm already feeling nostalgic for warm weather? Even though I really do love fall too.)

 This deer visited daily to clean up all the fallen apples from the tree that's the base for my tree house. She was very considerate and didn't eat any of my landscaping plants.

 The fish - mostly just the 12-for-a-dollar feeder goldfish - were prolific breeders this summer. It was so exciting! We rescued a few babies (which seemed to be a popular menu item for the adult fish and the frogs) and a number of them grew quite large by the end of the summer.

A view of the whole pond and new deck (before I did a lot of the planting around the pond). 

So great to be back blogging! I didn't realize how much I missed it until I started up again. Thanks for your patience with me.

Happy Birthday, Frances!

Karen MacPherson's syndicated Children's Corner column this week alerted me to an important occasion: the 50th birthday of Frances, star of the classic picture book series by Russell Hoban. (I strongly recommend reading Karen's column - always good and this one is chock full of interesting facts about Frances and how she came to be. Also, if you haven't read the Frances books, it's time to get to the library. Or better yet, go buy them.)

I first met Frances, the strong-willed, persnickety, song-writing, problem-solving badger, when I was a strong-willed, persnickety child myself. Although song-writing and problem-solving weren't my strengths so much, it's still small wonder that I identified with the young badger. The challenges Frances faces are universal ones of early childhood, and she confronts them with a quirky intelligence and creativity that I found both inspiring and reassuring. 

To celebrate this important event, I broke out some homemade bread and jam and my copy of Bread and Jam for Frances, my favoritest Frances book of all. Everything was delicious, and the dog enjoyed our read-aloud very much.

Possibly what she liked best was that I shared my bread and jam with her.

Anyway, I noticed something while I was reading the book: one spread seemed kind of familiar to me. And then I realized why.

The lower image is a spread in my Mimi book that I must have unconsciously modeled on the Frances one shown above. How funny!

By the way, notice how my copy of Bread and Jam for Frances is in black and white with blue washes? At the time the book was printed (1964 - this was a book club copy I got through school), color printing was still both expensive and tedious. Illustrators had to meticulously make color separations by hand, with separate transparencies created for each color used. These were done in shades of gray and took real skill. That's why the old books often had only one or two colors. I feel very fortunate to be able to do my illustrations with full color and any media!

Over the years, the Frances books have been re-released with color. The top image shows two different era versions of the cover of A Birthday for Frances. And here's a comparison of an inside spread.

It's probably just nostalgia, but I like the older one better. (I do like the new color one too - just not quite as much.)

Another interesting thing to note is how much more text-heavy the older picture books were than ones published today.  A friend who attended a children's writing conference last weekend said the editor who spoke recommended no more than 50 words for a picture book text. I wonder if the push for shorter and shorter texts for pretty much all picture books has contributed to the decline in their sales; as the New York Times noted recently, many parents are pushing their kids to listen to chapter books at earlier and earlier ages. Maybe they would feel less need to do so if they had meaty complex picture books like these old ones available.

Here's a brief excerpt of a scene between Frances and her mother to give you a feeling for the quality of the writing and for Frances' personality. Mother is getting things together for Frances's sister's birthday, and Frances is working through her jealousy by pretending to prepare a party for an imaginary pal:

"Who is Alice?" asked Mother.

     "Alice is somebody that no one can see," said Frances. "And that is why she does not have a birthday. So I am singing Happy Thursday to her."

     "Today is Friday," said Mother.

     "It is Thursday for Alice," said Frances. "Alice will not have h-r-n-d, and she will not have g-k-l-s. But we are singing together."

     "What are h-r-n-d and g-k-l-s?" asked Mother.

     "Cake and candy. I thought you could spell," said Frances.

By the way, in case I've convinced you to rush out and buy copies of all the Frances books (and I hope I have), you need to be aware that in honor of Frances' birthday, HarperCollins has released abridged versions of the Frances books in an "I Can Read" format for beginning readers. I haven't seen them yet, and it's encouraging that Hoban and his daughter worked together on the reformat. But I'm sure I'll never love them the way I love the originals - and I definitely recommend reading them first.

Last but not least: food. You can find my recipe for the homemade bread I nibbled today in an earlier post here. And, in case like Frances, you have learned to like some other more adventurous foods as well, here is a recipe for soup that I think goes especially well with the bread. I got the recipe from a neighbor, who got it from a cookbook - but I don't know which cookbook and the neighbor has long since moved away. I think it was called Chippewa Soup. I also may not have the recipe quite right. Somehow I never actually wrote it down; I just kind of remember it - plus I've undoubtedly changed it over the years because I am as much a revision addict for recipes as I am for the written word.

Tomato Vegetable Soup

aka Chippewa Soup

aka The Best Soup You'll Ever Eat on a Chilly Autumn Night

Ingredients
Olive oil
2-3 yellow onions, finely chopped
3-4 ribs celery, finely chopped
2-3 carrots, shredded
2-3 cloves garlic (Note: if you are lazy or pressed for time, most supermarkets carry all the veggies pre-chopped/shredded and sometimes it is just worth the extra expense)
Curry powder to taste -- I use 1 T mild curry powder when making it for people who don’t like spicy stuff (aka children), 2-3 for the more adventurous eaters (aka certain adults)
1 tsp cumin
Ground black pepper
1 26-oz can Campbell’s tomato soup, plus water to reconstitute it
2 11-oz cans Campbell’s Green Pea soup - but NO water. (Yes, it is really gross looking right out of the can. Try not to think about it.)
1 cup milk or cream (more if you prefer a thinner soup)
1 ham hock (optional)
Chopped ham (optional)
Dollop of low fat sour cream (optional)

Directions
In a large stock pan, heat the olive oil. Add the onions, celery, garlic and carrots and sauté until the onions are translucent and the celery and carrots are softened. Mix in seasonings and cook, stirring, for a minute or two to combine flavors well. Add soups and water (it is really tricky to get the pea soup stirred in well - but worth the trouble because coming across a big lump of the concentrate when you're eating your soup is an unpleasant surprise, in my book). Add ham hock, if using. Try not to examine it too closely as this may also gross you out. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer on low heat at least one hour (more is better). Stir occasionally to prevent soup from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Shortly before serving, stir in milk or cream (and chopped ham if desired) and heat through.

This is quite good served on a doily with a tiny vase of violets, along with a crisp green salad and Swedish Sour Rye bread. If you are careful, you can take bites of each and make everything come out even.

And if you did not get this literary allusion, I am going to admonish you even more strongly to go check Bread and Jam for Frances out of the library.

Another Radio Day! Parents Rule with Pat

I'm doing a radio show this afternoon on topics from my latest parenting book, The Preschooler Problem Solver (Peachtree, 2009). I'll post the announcement for the show below, which you can listen to on the radio, the internet or by podcast. Pat Montgomery, the host and a parenting expert herself, and I will cover lots of interesting topics, including how to handle oppositional kids, coping with meltdowns, talking to kids about fun topics like sex or family finances, how to help your child make and keep friends, and of course, that perennial favorite, how to get your kid to quit picking his nose at the supermarket. Should be a good hour - please join us or send Pat your questions!

In case you didn't get an email from me about the show, here's the official announcement from Pat:

It is about time someone wrote a book about preschoolers and the myriad of issues their parents face. My guest this week has done it for us and she is willing to tell all she knows. At least all that will fit into the hour long show!

Carol Baicker-McKee PhD is trained in child and family psychology, as well as being a mom of three. Her book, The Preschooler Problem Solver: Tackling Tough and Tricky Transitions with Your Two to Five Year Old, is terrific. She has so many wonderful ideas and insights from all her experience that she shares in this book. And, it is a fun and interesting read!

We are going to discuss:

The defiant toddler

Nose picking

Planning for the new baby

Toilet training

And much more.

You are not going to want to miss this show!

Blog: http://www.parentsrulewithpat.blogspot.com

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You are welcome to call in during live shows with questions or comments. 404-943-1620

Be sure to pass this notice on to anyone you know who would be interested in this topic.

Knowledge is power. Be informed.

As always, you can hear the show locally in Sandy Springs on 1620 a.m. or, for most of you, on the internet at www.radiosandysprings.com or www.americaswebradio from 2-3pm EST every Thursday.

Can't listen at that time?

Go to iTunes and sign up for free podcasts!! Browse for Parents Rule. That way you will never miss a show.

Or

Go to http://www.radiosandysprings.com/showpages/parents.php to listen or download at your convenience. Any problems with that, give me a call.

Upcoming shows:

Mar 25 Helping Kids that Others Don’t

Apr 1 replay of Nightmares and Dreams

Apr 8 Dr. Papciak, our favorite pediatrician, is back

Apr 15 TBD

Apr 22 Grandparenting

Apr 29 TBD

Radio Day

I'm doing two radio shows today for my latest parenting book, The Preschooler Problem Solver (Peachtree, 2009). The first show today is with Grandparenting Today on WMKV-FM in Cincinnati OH. I'll be chatting with host Sue Zimmermann from 1:30 to 2 pm EST about a variety of topics related to young kids and grandparents. The show also streams live here.

Then this evening, I'll be talking about manners for munchkins with Stacey Powells on The Exhausted Parent Network show on KMMT radio in Mammoth, CA shortly after 7 pm PST. You can click on the link to listen to the show live here.

Come join us!

Peace in the New Year

I'm making a wish for peace in 2010 - for the world, for my family and friends including all of you, and for myself.

The paper crane is a symbol of peace. In 2001, I gave out paper crane ornaments (like the one in my current header) as my holiday cards, and this year I'm planning to make one daily - at the end of the year I'll turn them into something cool and auction the resulting piece for a donation to a peace-related charity (not sure which one yet).

The cranes are easy to make once you get the hang of them. A google search will reveal many, many tutorials for making them, including this animated diagram one here (I think it's pretty easy to follow.) Adding some beads makes the cranes hang a little better and look good as a stand-alone mobile. I use jewelry wire threaded through a long needle (large enough to fit through the body of the crane, from the center to the point on the top). The first bead can be a charm or dangling bead, and you can add others or just pass the wire through the body. You can also put more beads above if you like, or just make a loop in the wire to thread a ribbon through for hanging. For the last few years, I've made these often, and I keep them on a branch in my living room; if I need a quick gift for a visitor or to enclose in a note, I just grab one.

For several years, I've been making the cranes mostly from recycled papers (like the ones in the photos above). Here are a few close-ups of some from last year (though I apologize for all these crappy pix). These ones are from security envelopes:

And these are made from (left to right): a page in a magazine, a map, and a calendar page.

There are several excellent children's books about paper cranes, including this one by Rosemary Wells, one of my favorite author-illustrators. Yoko makes cranes to stay connected to her grandparents who live far away, which is a nice use for your cranes too.

This gorgeous award-winning book by the versatile Molly Bang is one of my all-time favorites with cut-paper illustrations. Her paper sculptures (and the book design) are so clever and detailed and just beautiful - they really make the story come to life. The book was first published in 1985, which means it squeaks by the CPSIA disaster (phew) and is in print still in any event. You can read the Molly Bang's excellent discussion about the Chinese folk tale, her book, and how teachers can use it with their students here.

And finally, the book that is synonymous with paper cranes for generations of students: the true story of Sadako, a 12-year-old girl who contracted leukemia in the wake of the atomic bombing of Japan and tried to fold 1000 paper cranes to make her wish of recovery come true (there are conflicting stories about whether she succeeded in finishing the cranes).

The book is an excellent starting point for many difficult discussions with older kids and young teens. It's a vintage book, first published in 1977, so the older copies do fall under the CPSIA axe; fortunately, it has been reprinted many times and is still readily available. You can read the wikipedia article about Sadako here. Recently, Sadako's brother, who still has some of the original cranes, donated one to the 9/11 memorial. You can read the CNN story about it and see a photo of one of Sadako's cranes here.

I'll close with the words on the base of the Children's Peace Memorial in Japan that was inspired by Sadako's story (and to which you can send your cranes):

"This is our cry.

This is our prayer.

For building peace in this world."

Cut Paper Christmas

I'm not sure why, but I always have urges to do cut paper crafts at Christmas (which is why the floors are always covered in tiny scraps at the holidays).

The two paper cuts above were leftovers from a flurry I cut one year to decorate packages. They're basically just the snowflake idea. I precut thin paper (these were origami paper) into a circle, folded it in half (right sides together), in half again, and then into thirds and then cut patterns out freehand. There are a few simple tips that may help you make especially intricate ones: first, do the folding carefully and press the creases well (you can even iron them). Second, have a mixture of large cut away areas and others that are narrow and repeating. Be sure to use very sharp scissors; I use embroidery scissors. (Though check out these amazing Polish paper cuts that were traditionally made with sheep shears!) Finally, take care not to tear delicate areas when you unfold them. (Small tears can be repaired by gluing narrow support pieces to the back of the paper cut.) I always iron my finished piece flat.

The paper cut above was done by my oldest son when he was almost 10, and the similar one below was cut when he was not quite 5. You can see he gained a lot of skill in the years between. In both cases, I folded a piece of paper for him (right sides together) and drew one image onto the wrong side, making sure I had an area of join along the fold. By 10 he was able to cut the design out pretty accurately by himself. I showed him how to trim the excess paper close to the drawn lines and then to cut into tight areas, removing sections at a time, rather than trying to cut along the whole perimeter. When he was younger, I held the paper and rotated it for him as he snipped (mouth open - why do kids do that when they cut with scissors?). Even so, he accidentally snipped off the antlers, but they're cute fawns or does anyway.

Other tips to help young cutters: First, work moderately large and minimize the number of curves or delicate stand-alone areas. Also, use a moderately heavy paper, like old paper bags (below) or coated silhouette paper (above). Cardstock is usually too heavy for folded designs - takes a lot of hand strength - and thin papers flop too much, becoming frustrating.
The teddy bear below was by my daughter when she was going on 6. She had better fine motor skills than my son did around that age, and she was able to cut the bear on her own, though I recall cutting out and gluing in place the eyeballs and nose/mouth pieces.
Can't recall which kid did the penguins below, but they were accordian-folded, like the strings of paper dolls.
The tree below was our Christmas card one year. Last year I made up a page of smaller images to use as gift tags, and meant to post them as a printable pdf - but apparently I never did. I'll see if I can hunt it down and put it up tonight. I made the ornaments with handheld punches while the design was still folded in half.

Hm. I just thought of one thing that has probably prompted my Christmas paper cut connection: these Danish paper cuts. I bought these at a little shop at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware many years ago. (Sorry the photo is blurry.)

The top red one I hung the Christmas after I got it. Then I decided I could leave it up until Valentine's Day, because of the heart theme. Then I decided I could leave it up all year because of the kitchen/cooking theme. Then it faded to almost white...

I was about to throw it away when I realized I could just paint it red again, so I did! I think it's even brighter now than when it was new.

If all those paper cuts sound too complicated for you or your kid, you could make something like these trees instead, which are crafted entirely from recycled materials (from left: newspaper, greenish magazine and catalog pages, and someone's old physic's homework. The stars are from a Triscuits box and the papers are just taped to cones I made by twisting - and sometimes stacking - and taping together subscription cards from magazines. I stuffed extra recycled paper inside the cones to weight them and make them stand better).

To make these, cut long strips of paper, fold them in half, right sides together. Mark a line to cut to, and use your scissors to cut fringye-y "bites" up to the line. For younger kids, cut the strips over-wide, so there's less chance they'll cut all the way through, and stretch the paper taut by taping it between two chairs; you can trim the paper near the fringe afterward. Start attaching the strips of fringe near the bottom of your cone in a spiral, anchoring it frequently with small pieces of masking tape. You can make a little extra piece taped into a cone for a nice pointy top, and tape a star on to hide any lopsided parts.

I used these for a centerpiece at a party last year, and several people asked me where I bought them - they really come out looking nice.

After you finish your craft, relax with Jan Pienkowski's gorgeous silhouette illustrations in his telling of The First Christmas. This book was first published in 1984, making it toxic waste under CPSIA; fortunately there are later printings available.

Or enjoy this incredible silhouette version of The Night Before Christmas by Thai artist Niroot Puttapipat. Absolutely breathtaking - and with an amazing pop-up on the last spread. (It's a recent book - 2007 -- so no CPSIA worries.) Although the cover says it's a papercut edition, I think Puttapipat actually made his silhouettes with pen and ink (as did Pienkowski I believe). [You have to scroll down to see the photo of the spread - I think I needed to crop the photo.]