Planting Rice

Here's a Tudy-To-Do for Thanksgiving: Cook up some brain power and still feed the hungry! 

That's right. Feed the hungry with this Tudy rave, FreeRice. It's a "click and give" website where you can play educational games and raise money to fight world hunger. The games cover English, Math, Science, Geography, Art and even your basic foreign language vocabulary in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.  And it's all for free, Tudygirls. How smart is that?

Founded by John Breen in 2007,  FreeRice is now run by the United Nations World Food Program and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. To date: over 71 billion grains of rice have been donated.  And they're still counting ...

So get busy this Thanksgiving!  Dress the turkey, bake the pie, then crown yourself  "Little Miss SmartyPants"!  Plant, sow, and reap the rewards! OMG...who knew planting rice could be this much fun?

Enjoy the harvest!

Foul Weather Friend!

When the weather outside gets frightful, stay indoors and curl up with a good book! A good book is your foul (and fair) weather friend!  All you need to do is curl up with one!

So download my bookmark of the month, print on card stock, laminate with contact paper, cut out (be careful!), punch a hole on top, then add a few curly ribbons!  And do as my November bookmark says!

The Street Where You Live

It was brought to you by the letter S!

Now, more than 4000 episodes and 122 Emmy Awards later, the street that revolutionized educational TV hits prime time ( Check your local PBS listing! ). Sesame Street, home to Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Ernie, Bert, Kermit The Frog, Miss Piggy, The Count, and countless other household names, will celebrate its 40th anniversary this Tuesday, November 10. And because it continues to be one of television’s most successful and endearing series, we’re still counting. How lucky is that?  Sesame Street's multi and cross-cultural appeal endures!  "Sunny Days..."

Celebrate this milestone sesame style with Tudy's fave street finds:  Kermit's Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, Imagine, Play & Learn, and of course, Play With Me Sesame. They're all classic Sesame so you'll be learning your ABCs, numbers, songs, and life skills in such a fun and intuitive way!  Chances are these books and DVDs will even bring out the kid in Mom and Dad. ( There you go! Can't say I didn't warned you :) )  And you just might end up with more play dates than ever imagined.

So how do you get to 123 Sesame Street?

Look around you, Tudygirls.  "Who are the people in your neighborhood?"  That's the street where you live AND learn!

( This blog's for you, Kermit!  You're still my one and only frog prince!!!)

Serendipity!

I love this word!  (Do you know what it means?  I'm not blogging! Check it out in the dictionary if you don't ;->)  So when I saw Penny Blubaugh's Serendipity Market on the shelf, I just had to grab it!  And guess what? Serendipity!!! It's a book of re-imagined fairy tales!  And you know that I just love that!  Mama Inez and Toby (her Woofy!) feel that things are not right with the world and that the only way to bring balance back is thru the magic of story-telling.  So she gathers the story tellers she's found and brings them to her market of tales - the Serendipity Market!

Blubaugh uses familiar fairy tale themes in her first book and adds a whole new spin to them.  So the princess and the pea and red riding hood aren't quite what you remember them to be!  There's a little sadness and darkness in some of the stories but a lot of light and love too!  And I guess that's what balance is all about!  My fave is Lost.  Read the Serendipity Market and tell me - which one is yours?

Best Witches!

!I visit the web but once a year.
When I do, green spiders! appear.
I'm Tudy, The Witch!!
I'm crafty! Oh dear!
!Will you see me soon?
Log on same site next year.!

Happy Halloween!!

(Download Tudy's witch hat! for more halloween fun!!)

Pumpkin A La Mode

"Then on the day of Halloween

and not one day before,
Fiona gathers all her pumpkins
and begins her yearly chore."

She's a chef after my own heart and, like all master craftsmen, she's been ploughing her dough for years (rumor has it at 400!).  You can't judge a pie by its aroma but there's something totally amiss with  Miss Fiona's Stupendous Pumpkin Pies.

First published in 2001, Miss Fiona's Stupendous Pumpkin Pies is that rare "trick AND treat" read that's just perfect for Halloween.  Double dip and you'll enter the wonderful, "fairest of the fair" world of noted children's author, Mark Kimball Moulton. There's an upbeat, rhythmic rhyme to his prose that makes reading Miss Fiona and other Moulton books (Twisted Sistahs is another Halloween fave!!!) fun and memorable.  And the current, whimsical illustrations by Karen Hillard Good take you back to a time when fairy tale books were just a joy to behold!

So what's the secret to Miss Fiona's wonderful, sumptuous pies?   I'm not blogging!!!  Maybe Miss Fiona's more than the butcher, baker, or pumpkin collector.  Remember, you mustn't judge her just 'cuz she's a stringy-haired, green-skinned spinster. Maybe she knows there are things best left unsaid.  But what can I say?  It's Halloween!  Time to eat, drink, and be scary.  And ghouls, well, Tudyghouls just wanna have fun!

Best Witches!!!

350!

It may just be the most important number of our lives!  No it's not a shorter year, and it's not the temperature for baking cookies!  It's the parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere that's safe for our planet and for all of us!  Right now we're at 387 ppm so we need to get moving to bring CO2 levels down to 350!  How do we do that?  Get involved on October 24 and beyond!  Check out the science, mission and creative ideas at 350.org and spread the word!  Even if all we do is some sidewalk art, the important thing is to get people thinking about the number 350! 

And even if you're a kid, it's not that tough helping out! Walk or bike instead of ride.  Swap out all your lightbulbs with compact fluorescents.  Plant trees and grow a few garden crops.  And if you've got other good ideas share them by posting a comment right here!  Remember this is our home and if we don't take care of it, no one else will!

LOL

"Run, run, run as fast as you can!  You can't catch me!  I'm the stinky cheese man!"

Admit it.  Laughter is the best medicine. And if there's one thing kids do naturally, it's this:  they Laugh Out Loud!!!

We forget there are books that actually do this better than movies, video games, or TV. Here's the clincher:  if a book's funny, it's bound to be read time and time again.   And that, Tudygirls, is the whole point of the game.

So check out Tudy's must-laugh read for October:  Jon Scieszka's and Lane Smith's The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. Think about it.  What if the Ugly Duckling grew up to be, well, really, really ugly?  Mr. Frog Prince?  A gooey, eeeyewy, slime ball.   And Little Red Riding Hood?  A triathalon running, "woman-in-red-shorts" superstar!!!

There are enough warped twists and turns in this fairy tale anthology to keep the hysterics coming.  You'll never view Aesop's world the same way ever.  And staid, predictable fairy tales become a thing of the past.

Enjoy the bounty!

OMdG!!!

Oh my demigod, that is!  Just in time for the release of the first movie, comes The Demigod Files.  Compiled by Camp Halfblood's "senior scribe" Rick Riordan, I was hoping to get the low-down on all things halfblood.  But The Demigod Files is more of an additional piece to the 5 volumes (ok, maybe a half addition!) and altho there are interviews with some of the more famous denizens of Camp Halfblood, I really wanted more!  Still, the 3 new adventures of Percy Jackson are worth the read!  And, since this is a Disney publication expect a lot of merchandise to follow!  Just take a look at Annabeth's trunk!

But I'm still hooked on all things Percy Jackson so I'm looking forward to The Lighning Thief, coming to a theater near you in 2010!

Claw On This

Bonjour!  My name is Meowry.  I'm a Tudypet lounging about.  Get to know moi and all things feline at Animal Planet Cat Guide! 

Are you purring yet?

Children Crossing

"Wayside School was accidentally built sideways.

It was suppose to be only one story high, with thirty classrooms all in a row.
Instead it is thirty stories high, with one classroom in each story.
The builder said he was very sorry."

Here's a gem of a book that'll lure you back into the school zone: Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories From Wayside School. 

There are thirty stories in this book and they all occur in that one room on the thirteenth floor.  They are all funny, scary, and, here's the kicker, totally relatable (oh, you know it!!! ). Each chapter showcases a character from Wayside School and, somehow, evolves into its own book (way cool!!! ). When you're done, you can flip thru the pages and reread your favorites. Like school, it's the kind of book that'll get you visiting (and hopefully reading! ) again and again.  I personally loved Chapter 1, Mrs. Gorf, and found kindred friends in D.J. and Calvin.

And for whatever its worth: watch 'em apples!!!

Tudy's take: A+

Back To School Cool

RRRing!!!

It's the call of the 3 Rs: Reading, (w)Riting, and (a)Rithmetic and all across the world, school's on.

Of course, there's always major angst that first day. Are you kidding me?  New teachers, classrooms, subjects, lockers, and for some, even a new school to navigate! Sure everyone's slightly nervous. But then, here come the old, familiar faces. Just catching up with old friends becomes a year-long social "to-do". And school's fun again!

So here's Tudy's Back-to-School Basics to help you ace the new school year:

Always prepare your backpack or school bag the night before.  Always!  Whether it's the first day, the 100th day, or the last day of school, doing so will keep your mornings ( and Mom's! ) zen-like.  Ooommmm!!!

Be a writer. Write things down. Write notes to yourself to remind you of names, places, and deadlines. Texting can only get you so far.  Your assignment notebook is your life-line. Use it!

Carry healthy snacks. Stir clear of sugar packed candy bars.  Fresh fruit, vegetables, and protein bars will keep you energized when days are long and those prime numbers ( you know they're infinite, right??? ) are slowing you down ....

Do you Sudoku?  Bring puzzle books and magazines to help pass the time on bus rides or between subjects.  Plus a little brain flexing always helps!

Wear a watch. Go ahead, make it your fashion "must-have".  Time management is a life-long skill and no other accessory helps manage your day!  Remember: you snooze, you loose! There's a big difference between a lunch break that starts at 11:45 and one that starts at 12 noon. Be on time!

And lastly, Zero in on that new face. Be the first to say "hello" to the new kid in school. First impressions make lasting connections.  Who knows? You just might make a new BFF!

So here's to school! Stay focused. Stay cool. And that's a Tudy Rule!