Art Appreciation for Toddlers


Chronicle Books publishes several delightful art history board books that introduce popular artists and can serve to inspire children’s art projects and story time. I’d also like to think that now’s a great time to start developing my daughter’s appreciation for art and art history as she brings a sense of wonder to every activity.

The authors (Susan Goldman Rubin, Julie Merberg, and Suzanne Bober) do a good job of choosing artwork that we can all relate to: pictures of people taking naps, going on trains, dancing, gardening, learning to walk, etc.

Our family loves these art themed board books: as a baby Miss Leyba looked at the pictures; now that she’s two, we read the books together and she makes up stories of her own about the pictures.

Here are some of our favorites pages from the series:


Matisse Dance with Joy featuring his paper collages


Andy Warhol’s Colors although Miss Leyba calls him (in all seriousness) “Andy Wormhole”


In the Garden with Van Gogh – love those yellows and blues together




A Picnic with Monet – mama’s favorite

Chronicle books publishes many others including:

– Magritte’s Imagination
– Counting with Wayne Thiebaud
– Dreaming with Rousseau
– Painting with Picasso
– On an Island with Gauguin
– Quiet Time with Cassatt
– Sharing with Renoir
– Sunday with Seurat

They also have a Mini Masters Boxed Set that includes four of the books (Dancing with Degas, A Picnic with Monet, A Magical Day with Matisse, and In the Garden with Van Gogh) for around $11 — if we didn’t already own one book in the set, I would SO jump on that deal!

What better (and easier!) way to teach kids about art then to expose it to them when they’re young?! Their brains are like sponges; they absorb and retain EVERYTHING! (Makes me so jealous! My mind is a sieve these days.)

Next up: going to an actual museum to see works by these artists! Wouldn’t that be a great NEW activity to do on a Friday?! I need to put it on the calendar. There’s a Post-Impressionist Masterpieces exhibit coming (only) to San Francisco. It would be the perfect introduction. I’m excited already.

Binoculars Craft Project

My mother is an avid birder and loves to share her enthusiasm and knowledge with us. During her visit she made binoculars with Miss Leyba, a fun and easy project designed to introduce young kids to birding and give them a way to practice looking through their own, homemade binoculars.

Grandma began by cutting a paper towel roll in half. With the intention of wrapping a piece of paper around each of the paper towel tube halves, Grandma and Miss Leyba then cut the paper down to size.

Miss Leyba decorated each piece of paper with crayons and stickers.

They then glued the paper to the tube.

Grandma wrapped each tube with packing tape to seal the paper to the tube and to create a smooth surface to easily hold on to. My mom then stapled the two tubes next to each other lengthwise to form the binocular shape.


Phew! She can see out of them and they fit!

They then used a hole punch to make a small hole on the outside of each of the tubes.

They cut a piece of ribbon the length of a necklace (plus several inches for each side to tie on) and then attached it to the tubes so it could go around Miss Leyba’s neck.

Finally it’s time to head outside and practice looking through those binoculars!

The first step is to practice finding/focusing on stationary items like flowers, leaves, rocks, bird feeders, and trees.

Finally, out in the field “birding” with Grandma.

Since this activity, going out birding has become a favorite activity around here. Thanks for the great project, Grandma!

Early Morning Birding

By our front window Miss Leyba and I set up this basket with bird guides and Miss Leyba’s binoculars (more on those tomorrow) so we can easily watch and identify birds together. Through the window we have a great view of the blackberry bushes, a dead tree, and an open field, all areas that the birds love to frequent for food and shelter. Next to the basket, we have a poster of common feeding birds found here in Western America that my mom bought for Miss Leyba.

Some of the bird guides in our basket:
– The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Western North America (containing over 130 bird songs!)
– Birds of California Field Guide (Our Nature Field Guides)
– Birds (Fandex Family Field Guides)
– Field Guide to the Laguna de Santa Rosa
– Western Trailside Birds (Peterson Flash Guides)

Often in the early mornings, we sit by the open window and listen to the birds. We watch birds chase each other, fly about exploring our neighborhood, and care for each other. All spring we watched a pair of robins care for their young living in the birch tree in our front yard.

Together we love observing the natural world.

Biologist in the making?! (Like Mama! It runs in the family.) We shall see.

Pardon Miss Leyba’s pajamas and adorable bed head! I didn’t think you’d mind.

Recycling in Northern California

This weekend at our neighborhood street fair, we saw recycling, trash and compost bins with these fantastic signs and I started thinking about how lucky we are to be able to recycle so many things in our curbside bins. I think I often take it for granted how green our county is! (Shame on me!)

We can recycle a number of things that you typically can’t recycle in other parts of the country including all plastic types, shredded paper, laundry baskets, lawn furniture, plastic toys, bubble wrap, and household electronics such as cell phones, answering machines, stereos, and home printers.

Yes, lawn furniture and stereos. It boggles the mind.

And we don’t need to sort our recycling! Perfect for busy mothers.

Our trash pickup also includes a compost bin that gets collected weekly. In our yard debris/compost bins we can compost tea bags, bread, vegetables, fruits, pasta and rice, eggshells, wood ashe, and yard clippings.

(While this is incredibly convenient, the down side is that we don’t have our own compost pile that we could use to enrich our garden. We end up buying compost instead and that’s a of a financial bummer.)

And in true California fashion, a keen reminder that our trash doesn’t really go away. Evidently we’re all about laying environmental guilt on you. Sigh.

Sorry about that.