Toad Cottages & Shooting Stars: A Grandma's Bag of Tricks » (Original)

Sharon Lovejoy, an author, illustrator, lecturer, and teacher, is the children's garden adviser to the American Horticultural Society, and has been a guest on Today at NBC, PBS's Victory Garden, and the Discovery Channel. She speaks at conferences and gardening organizations around the country. She has four grandchildren, and divides her time between San Luis Obispo, California, and South Bristol, Maine.

Make leaf rubbings, blow jumbo bubbles, bake Moon Pizzas and Granny-ola in a handmade solar oven, grow a snack pot of radishes and carrots, create a firefly lantern, and on a rainy day make rainsticks.

Illustrated with evocative photographs and the author’s watercolors, this magical book shows how to do 130 activities that connect grandmothers and grandchildren through nature—in the kitchen, the garden, and the art room.

Toad Cottages & Shooting Stars is more than an activity book; it’s an interactivity book. It’s about being curious, about being adventurous, about noticing and really seeing things, about instilling a sense of wonder. Sprinkled throughout are Mrs. Lovejoy’s inventive grandparenting ideas that help make every visit a memorable one, filled with simple joys and discoveries that will have grandchildren coming back again and again.

Contents:
Introduction
1. Preparing Camp Granny
2. The Neighborhood Naturalist
3. Kids in the Kitchen
4. Kitchen Garbage Garden
5. Kids in the Garden
6. Rainy Day Activities Appendix Index