Mind Games

After a two-player game of Shadows Over Camelot (in which we were thoroughly trounced by the forces of evil), I thought I would pull out something for Earth Day today.

First I turned to Dr. Seuss and his save-the-Earth classic, The Lorax. We probably hadn’t read this one since Earth Day last year, just because other books have been in higher rotation. JediBoy was rapt and enjoyed the story, and we did talk a bit at the end about the “moral of the story” and what happened if you cut down all the trees.

Next I pulled out the Cat in the Hat Learning Library title If I Ran the Rain Forest - which is done in the style of Dr. Seuss but was not written by the man himself. This learning library series offers some good information in small bites. As JediBoy read out loud to me, we learned about the four stories of the rain forest and how they are distinct, and the book ended with another admonition to stop cutting down all the trees.

After a half hour of reading, we were ready for a break from the books but weren’t ready to go outside because BabyGirl was fast approaching nap time. So I turned to good old Ed Emberley for a little drawing time. JediBoy is falling in love with the Ed Emberley books (most of which are my copies from when I was young) because they help him draw in a very easy, step-by-step way that he likens to Lego instructions. Each step shows beneath it exactly the shapes you’ll need to add, and you check the bigger work-in-progress drawing to see where they should go.

We drew together using Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Animals for an hour, creating scenes with frogs on a log, birds at a feeder, dragons in a castle, gorillas in a forest, and dogs on a walk. JediBoy kept drawing for half an hour after I got up to make lunch!