One Good Book Swap - a swap for kids

I'm hosting my first swap. . . . . .

One Good Book Swap

Swap rules:
This is a book swap for kids. You will choose a book for your child's partner. Your package will include the book and a minimum of three goodies to go along with your book. One of the goodies should be handmade and the others can be purchased. Here's an example to give you some ideas.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: include the book and then a minimum of three goodies like alphabet cards, magnetic letters, coloring pages, a CD or tape of the story, letter cookie cutters, stickers, felt board pieces for the story, a stuffed animal/softie(say a palm tree for this book), a craft related to the story, etc. Other goody ideas for books might include puppets, finger puppets, recipes to go along with a story, a book mark, stationary in the story theme, paper dolls to go with the story, games, etc. Be creative and have fun with this. The possibilities are endless!
Gently used books are fine as long as they are in good condition(no writing/scribbling, ripped pages, mildew, etc.) If you prefer brand new books please specify that in the information for your partner. There is no set dollar limit for this swap. You don't need to spend a lot but please be generous to your partner and give something you would be happy to receive!

All swap packages should be mailed by Saturday October 18^th. Remember a child is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the package so if you can't follow through please contact me immediately. I want this to be a good swap experience for everyone involved.

If you have multiple children you may sign up as a family and receive one book package or you can sign up each of your children separately so each child receives a book package. To clarify if you sign up your children separately each child will be given a partner to send a package to and in return will receive their own package. If you sign up as a family you send one package and receive one package. I hope this makes sense. It's my first swap and I'd hate to confuse everyone. If you have any questions leave a comment or e-mail me.

Sign ups start now and will go until September 18th. If you'd like to sign up please email me at jillytacy(at)yahoo(dot)com with the following information:

Name:

Address:

e-mail address:

Blog address:

Child's name:

Child's age:

Child's reading level(optional):

Are you willing to swap internationally?

Favorite books:

Your child's interests:

First Day of Preschool

Nature Girl had her first day of preschool today. She wore a pretty white dress and went off to preschool with no problem. Really, she's a pro now after attending preschool last year. She didn't even mind that I was working and couldn't bring her. MB our friend and neighbor has been taking great care of Nature Girl for us and does the drop off and pick up at preschool three mornings a week. We couldn't ask for a better daycare situation for Nature Girl! She has handled the transition of me going back to work very well. It makes it much easier for me to work knowing she's happy and having fun with her friends at MB's house.

MB took these first day of school pictures for us. Wasn't that sweet?!! Thanks MB it makes it seem like I was there! The kids are lining up and walking like ducks to meet their parents at the end of the session.

She's growing up so fast! The time has flown by. This year it's four year old preschool, next year kindergarten and then in the blink of an eye college! But I'm not ready to think about that yet!


Yesterday I came home from school to find two packages. Did I tell you I love coming home to swap mail? Well I do, especially when it looks like this mini quilt! Isn't it gorgeous?!! Wendy made this beautiful mini quilt for me as part of DQS4. I love the color combinations, the fabrics and the quilting! I haven't been able to take a picture yet since I brought it to school to show some teachers who quilt and forgot it on my desk so I borrowed this picture from Wendy's blog. Funny thing is it looks like the picture I would have taken. Doesn't that look like my table that's in all of the pictures on my blog?!! Sorry, I digress. . .thank you Wendy for the gorgeous mini quilt and the Moda fabric squares. I can't wait to sew again!

Swaps and Thank Yous

It's been more than a week since I posted and we've had quite a few swap goodies waiting to be shared with you. I'll warn you now this is a long post. But hang on till the end for a fun swap announcement.I won a give away over at Life is a Musical. The talented Beth created what she calls "ugly bags" using fabric she got at a yard sale. I was thrilled to win one and I don't think it's the least bit ugly! Beth created this ugly bag to be used as a reusable shopping bag but I've been using it as a tote for all of my IEPs and special ed paperwork that I'm lugging around now that I'm teaching again. It's a big bag and I've filled it with paperwork. Beth was kind enough to send along a surprise for Nature Girl. She created a Nemo crayon roll with an elastic closure. It's perfect for Nature Girl who can't tie yet. Thank you Beth! Nature Girl has been enjoying drawing and coloring pictures this week.


I've been back at school but it was nice to come home to swap mail this week. When we received our August Mini Quilt package there was a sticker of a bird on the card. Nature Girl thought the sticker was for her and peeled it off the card and included it in this drawing.


It's a flower family. I'm the biggest flower, Nature Girl is the middle flower and her dad is the littlest flower. This picture is so cute . . . it just makes me smile!


This is the mini quilt that Ros made for me. Isn't it cute! The August mini quilt theme was hand stitched. She printed the picture on a special fabric using an inkjet printer then hand stitched the quilt. It turned out great! It's such a sweet picture and I love the stitched frame around the picture. Thanks Ros!
My mini quilts are temporarily hanging on my quilt line which is too full at the moment. I'm awaiting the arrival of my mini quilts from the Miniature Booty Swap 2 and DQS4 and then will find a permanent home for all of my mini quilts.

This is the mini quilt I made for Ros. It's all hand stitched and quilted minus the worm. I hand stitched one worm but I lost him and needed to make a second one so I cheated and machine stitched the second worm. I still haven't found the first little lost wormy. He must be crawling around here someplace. This is the back of the mini quilt. I made a pocket for the worm so Ros could take the worm out if she doesn't like wormy apples. Lol! I think he's cute!


Tracy sent us these goodies for the Russian Doll Swap. The doll is so sweet and she has three little dollies in her pocket that are actually finger puppets. Nature Girl claimed the pink one as her own. Tracy also included some lovely ribbons for me and goodies for Nature Girl. Tracy has a great blog sharing her animals, crafts and construction of her environmentally friendly home in Scotland. It's very interesting so go take a peek.


Nature Girl took this photo of her goodies. The cat in the basket wasn't part of the swap but she got it on a trip to a carnival with her Grandma and Papa this week so it had to be included in the photo. Notice the pink russian doll finger puppet tucked in the basket behind the cat. I love the little pouch with her name stitched on it. It came stuffed with beads for making a necklace or bracelet. Thank you Tracy!

This is the quilt I made for Lisa in the Miniature Booty Swap 2. I was so excited about this because for the first time I actually had mitered corners. I think I'm finally catching on to the binding thing. Yeah for me!
Lastly I wanted let you know I'm going to be hosting my first swap. I've had several people ask me about the swaps Nature Girl has participated in so I decided to host a swap for kids. More details to follow later this week so make sure you come back to check it out and sign up.

For the LOVE of Strawberries!

Our good friend Val from Yarni Gras sent us a wonderful strawberry package this week! We LOVED our strawberry goodies!


This was a swap was hosted by my friend Susan at Chickenfoot. It was a swap for me but Val being such a wonderful friend sent along some goodies for Nature Girl including a cute Strawberry Shortcake tote and a sun catcher kit that Nature Girl insisted we make right away. Here's Nature Girl with her finished sun catcher.


We were fortunate to receive an original Curly Girl Arts piece. It's a sketch book and with strawberries on it. We were very excited about this! If you haven't seen Curly Girl's blog check it out. She is a very talented young girl!! She has a tutorial for the strawberry sketchbook Nature Girl and I are holding. The sketchbook tutorial is here.

I was just saying I needed a tote bag for school and look what Val sent for me...a strawberry tote bag! I was a little upset on Friday when I was half way to work and realized I had forgotten it! But no worries it's stuffed with items for school and is ready to go with me tomorrow!

Val sent lots of goodies as she always spoils us! We got two pincushions, two tote bags, a strawberry note book, lots of yummy strawberry recipes and the strawberry sketchbook(I just realized the sketch book isn't in this picture!) Thank you Val and Curly Girl for all of the lovely goodies! Your goodies are still in my head waiting to be translated into swap goodies. I hope to make them a reality later this week!

Swapping Updates and Thank yous!

We've had a great summer when it comes to swaps! I've been busy finishing up swap goodies and sending them off. We participated in the Mee Crafty kid swap this summer. We were partnered with Ali and her boys for the swap. The boys are dinosaur fans so we put together dinosaur themed goodies for them. We sent tee shirts, felt dino finger puppets, dino eggs, dino softies and cherry Twizzlers because they're Nature Girl's favorite! I used Clair Garland's pattern to create a stencil for the dino tee shirts but opted to design and create my own dino softies. I like the stegosaurus softie the best! Ali and Boys blogged about their goodies here. The pictures they took are very cute! Thanks to Ali and boys for a great swap! We had a lot of fun with this swap and it was our first international package. We blogged about the goodies from the swap here.

After a summer of fun adventures with us Adventure Bunny was sent off wearing her new costume and accessories. You can see Adventure Bunny at her new home here.

When you send a swap package out you get one in return. Adventure Bunny arrived at her new home the same day Nature Girl's new swap friend arrived here. Daffodil the bunny has since been renamed Daffodil Love Bunny and is seen here enjoying some ice tea. Nature Girl isn't usually allowed to sit on our table so she was excited that she could for the picture!


Daffodil arrived with a photo scrapbook detailing her summer adventures before arriving at our house. Daffodil has enjoyed lots of snuggles, ice tea and a trip to daycare since she came to live with us. You can see more about Daffodil in this blog post. This swap was through the Little People Swap blog. Thank you to Karah and kids!


I participate in the Miniature Quilt Swap. Each month you sign up and create a miniature quilt between 6 and 12 inches for your partner. I made this one for my July partner Solihubb. I received this beautiful mini quilt this week from her. Thank you Solidia, I love it!!! It's going to be hung up next to my desk at school.
This is the back of the quilt. The fabric is soooo cute! Nature Girl was trying to steal my mini quilt because she loved the fabric! No such luck, I'm keeping it!!

A Recipe Treasure

My summer is ending so I'm doing some summer cooking while I can. Tonight I was shredding zucchini, peppers and onions to make zucchini relish. I had some extra zucchini so I decided to make zucchini bread using my mom's recipe. Several years ago my mom took the time to handwrite and illustrate individual cookbooks for my siblings and I. As I searched for the zucchini bread recipe tonight this apple crisp recipe fell out of my cookbook.

This was the recipe my classmates and I made in kindergarten 31 years ago! See my signature. Since there's a jumble of letters and names, I highlighted it with an arrow. It's neat to have this recipe sheet as a reminder of my younger days and my first school experience.
I'll have to try this recipe with Nature Girl this fall. I think I'll send home a recipe sheet like this with my preschool students this year so maybe they'll look back in 10 or 20 years and remember cooking in preschool. I think my kindergarten teacher would be happy to know this recipe is still floating around and in use again!
As I post this I smell delicious zucchini bread cooling in the kitchen. It smells so yummy!!! Tomorrow the house will smell like pickles as I can the zucchini relish. It's a little stinky but worth it to have a stash of zucchini relish all year!

Going to School

On Friday I spent a few hours at school. I got to see my teaching space for the first time. I'm in a room shared with two other teachers. The room is divided into three sections with folding walls so that three teachers can work in the room at the same time. I'll be teaching special ed and this is often the set up for a special ed room or resource room.

This is the view from my desk. The blue wall is the folding wall. And the wood door heads to the hallway.
This is the view from the hall way door into my room. The open doorway heads to an OT(occupational therapy) room. I'm hoping it isn't used as a pass through since that will be disruptive. In my little space I have two boxes of materials, a desk, computer, table, chairs, 2 filing cabinets-one is broken and a computer for a student. I'm planning to head back on Monday morning to add a little bit of personality and to bring in my own materials as I know I'll need them!!!!
The little fake window above my desk is going to be turned into a cork board and will have things that inspire me like family pictures, favorite things and a sign that says "Progress not perfection." To remind me that everyday I should make a little more progress but not to strive for perfection. It's a lesson I need to learn! Finding a balance between home and work will be my biggest challenge this year.
In the afternoon I'm teaching a preschool class that will be held in a different classroom. I haven't seen that space yet and haven't talked to the administrators or other preschool teacher about what that program will look like. Good thing I have some experience and can fly by the seat of my pants because I think that's what I'll be doing for the first little bit! Of course eventually it will all come together, it always does.
I start teacher workshops this Wednesday. Nature Girl is excited and can't wait for me to go to work so she can go play with her friends next door! That's not the reaction I expected but I'll take it!!! It seems I'm the last one who was ready for me to go back to work but here I go. Wish me luck!