Pointing Parents toward Kid Coding; Fun to fill the Day!

 Coding Site for Kids 

As I am a teacher; and love the fact that the child in me is still learning, I came upon this easy coding site called; Grasshopper! It's from Google! I love Google!

The first thing to check out is the Fundamentals.

    Fundamentals means, let's start at the beginning. The site easily walks you through it.  As you progress, you earn Congratulations! when you succeed. They take baby steps for incremental learning. It's slow and steady and something not to fear. 

    The first thing I made was a flag; just three colors, but the placement is what your learning, and by using Your Keys (see below) they have as choices that make it easy to comprehend. As a bonus; they give you hints if you mess up so it's easy to backtrack and fix.  Hmm? Where have I heard that before, "you learn more by your mistakes  than your successes." Kids will figure this out easier than us adults for sure.

Here is the flag that starts you off in Fundamentals;

    Your coding gets more refined as you go, and they teach you little coding hints! "My, I think I might have to keep going and learn more!" Such a positive and entertaining site.

Wait Till The Moon Is Full by Margaret Wise Brown 1948

Old Book Discovered, What a Great Find!

    This is a wonderful picture book, titled "Wait 'til the Moon is Full," by Margaret Wise Brown. (aka "Good Night Moon," author). This is an old book I found tucked away in a cedar chest. It came out the year 1948, so the illustrations are of that era. One can only think this a precursor to the theme of moons. The illustrations are beautifully done by Garth Williams.

    Margaret W. Brown has written many books over 50 and there is a long list on Wikipeadia to pursue.

    In this particular story, a Raccoon wants to go outside to see what the night beholds, but his Mother wants him to wait until the moon is full so he can see better I imagine, but the question that comes to mind... aren't raccoons nocturnal? I think they come out whether the moon is full or not. Lol. That is O.K. because it makes for a beautiful story for children ages 4-11. This particular book is not well known compared to her others; 

The four that I'm familiar with are;

• The Runaway Bunny, illus. Clement Hurd (Harper, 1942)

• Goodnight Moon, illus. Clement Hurd (Harper, 1947)

• Scuppers The Sailor Dog, illus. Garth Williams (Little Golden Books, 1953)

• Big Red Barn (reissue), illustrated by Felicia Bond

MY Dear PATREON Subscribers- Writing Children's books is a challenge due to the many things that go into it: the planning, the research, the design, the illustrations (they take time), the editing, the publishing, the distributing, the marketing, etc.  

If you have enjoyed my books, those I've made, and those I've read aloud on The Tumpsky and Mrs. Small Youtube Channel, consider donating a 1$ contribution to my Patreon Page. I so appreciate you, and Thank You for your heartfelt feedback. Don't forget to view my recent   Give-Away blog where I will be sending the winner a bound book of my #2. latest picture book via the USPS, from 2020. (See Below).

1. "Tree's Adventure, Making New Friends," 2016 and... 

The Synopsis: A tree discovers a way to travel and make new friends, only one thing the people run away from him. He succeeds in hurdles he never thought possible. and discovers friends that he hadn't considered at first. A happy outcome brings Tree back home content with his adventure and newly found friends. 

    2.   "A to Z 26 Alphabetic Alliterations - Apple Alligator to Zucchini Zebra," 2020

Fun and Silly ABC Book for the Whole Family!

LETTER C Page: "Cat and Camel chewed chocolate chip cookies
while catapulting cauliflower-cannonballs into Cows campground!"

Again, Thank You For Your Support on Patreon!

Come Visit my Patreon Page!

How Tumpsky and Mrs Small Came About

I Want Help Kids Learn To Read

So I Read Picture Books Aloud...

Which Lead Me to Writing and Illustrating Two of My Own Picture Books...

Which Further Lead Me to Becoming a Preschool Teacher...

Which lead me to Reading Picture Books Aloud on YouTube channel for Kids, 

and to Start my Own Channel Called Tumpsky and Mrs Small!

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    Turning a new page in Mrs. Small's life was a challenge to be sure (2016). After moving to Placer County, for various reasons, I needed to make some big changes. I wanted to reinvent myself uplifting my spirits to a brighter level so to speak. I joined a great church called Granite Springs Church and helped with Bible study teaching young children about the Bible. The kids gave me great confidence and reminded me of when I raised my own kids, and how much I'd missed being a role model to them. I really enjoyed raising my children, it gave me purpose. I still had energy for helping kids and I knew I was going to make kids my focus.

    Before I moved, I had taken a night class on the subject of Children's Literature at Canada College in San Mateo. We studied different genres and authors and topics of interest. I loved the class and still sometimes talk to that teacher today. The class taught me how to read aloud in front of other people and perform little skits with props we'd make. Like once I made a monkey paper puppet and an alligator prop to tell the story in front of the class. So I started doing funny voices and using items to puppetize characters. This class brought me out of my shy shell a bit more, it taught me it's O.K. to be goofy in front of other people. The teacher would say, "your audience are children, they love when you get animated and silly!"

    Somehow I knew I had to be a teacher so I went back to school at night to earn 9 more units of ECE to be certified for teaching preschool.    

    While I was a student at Sierra College, I worked part-time and worked on my first children's book. It was a great escape and I felt proud I could show others that I somehow attained art skills growing up. I worked on it off and on, determined to finish it. It was slow going and It took me three years to finish, but it kept me content when I was alone. It gave me something to do, be challenged by, and focused on the positive. In truth my kids helped me come up with a story as it pertained to our lives to some degree.

    My first book is called, "Tree's Adventure Making New Friends." Everyone wanted it to become a series... (but we'll see I kind of have book burn out).  

    Here is a synopsis of the book:

 A tree uproots himself and sets out on a quest to make new friends. He tries to befriend everyone he encounters without understanding why others are frightened of him. He learns new things about himself about being different than other tree's. He learns not everyone is the same. And not everyone can be your friend, and that you should be with the ones who like your company and want you around.

Here are some illustrations from the book.

MY Published AVAILABLE BOOKS FOR PURCHASE

@tumpskyandmrssmallpublications or
https://www.facebook.com/tumpskyandmrssmallpublications/
 
📌 (1)Tree’s Adventure Making New Friends: ISBN: 978-0-692-78174-6 https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B07SV5GJ2F
📌 (2) A to Z 26 Alphabetic Alliterations-Apple Alligator to Zucchini Zebra:
ISBN=978-0-578-67609-8 https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B07SV5GJ2F