If you row these awesome books, you know that this particular story is a bonus book. This book is also out of print. The cheapest I've ever seen a copy is $30 prior shipping and tax. However; I got SO LUCKY - I was surfing on ebay, and a girl posted a listing of 25 Little Golden Books for sale all for $20! Jenny's Surprise Summer was one of those books. So, we not only got the book we needed for an amazing price (this girl had no clue what gold she had!) we also got a bunch of really great other books to enjoy. We were happy to add it to the mix and my daughter has loved and adored and absorbed this book so much this week. Here is what we got into:
Monday-
This book has a strong purpose in making decisions and for a child that may be more difficult - understanding that only one may be chosen, or the consequences of choosing one thing over another. Decision making teaches self control, problem solving, and analyzing skills. We all need this on a daily basis.
In the book, Jenny must make a choice between her two found and beloved kittens. We see personality differences and environmental difference in the two kittens and in the beach house at Grandma's and Jenny's city home with her family. Jenny had to make a tough choice for what was best for each kitten and best for each home. It was a hard choice but she made a wise final decision and got the best of both worlds.
To start our day, Ellie was given the choice of what she would have for breakfast. Did she want eggs with cheese, or oatmeal with almond butter? She chose eggs as these are her favorite breakfast food. Her next decision making was in deciding on what to wear. The weather here began very cool and so a pullover was necessary. Ellie has two of the same pullovers but in a variety of colors between the two. I laid them out and she observed them then made her choice of which she wanted to wear for the day. We made these sort of decisions throughout the day. We make these decisions every day really, but we put more emphasis on the process and discussed how Jenny had to make a decision as well in the book.
We were dressing for an adventure yet before we left, I gifted Ellie with her own two plush kittens that looked just like Smokey and Pumpkin from the book!
Oh, Ellie immediately got the reference and properly called them by appropriate name. I asked her which cat she would choose if she could only keep one, and why? She chose Pumpkin as well because she wanted to be cuddled. So sweet. She carted them with her to the car and off we set for one of our state parks on one of our lakes where we could play on a big wide open beach! The kittens sat on the beach; Ellie pretended to feed them with her shovel. She pretended she had milk for them in her sand bucket. Ellie chased ducks, built with sand, rocks, and sticks, fed the ducks, and went swimming in her clothes which she little by little stripped down to shirt and underwear only in the 56 degree sunny weather. Kids have no care about cold water it seems, haha! She had such a blast of a time! I didn't care as long as she was happy and having fun. She ate cauliflower pizza for lunch and used a clean toy shovel as her utensil to eat! This was because I forgot a fork (which is best with cauliflower crust) and it was actually really cool and went with the theme!
While on the beach, as Ellie built in the sand, I read our go along books. I'll list those at the end.
After the beach, we returned home for dance class and a playdate before bed with a friend. It was a great start to the book!
Another day...
We read the book and reviewed our bible verse for the story which is James 1:5, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you."
For a snack, we made "sand" to eat! Vanilla pudding topped with crumbled and crushed chocolate chip cookies. Not healthy, but it was a treat and she really loved it! She ate this with a shovel from a bucket!
We also want to do monthly service projects to teach our daughter the love of Jesus, serving others, aiding our community, and being selfless. For September, we tied in our project with this book and donated food to our local humane society for cats and dogs. Due to COVID-19 we could only drop off, but we did discuss that these animals do not have a home like our dog, Blondie has, so we should love and help God's creatures until a family can take them home and care for them. Jenny in the story adopted the two kittens she found and cared for them very well. I'm proud that our Ellie is already such a great care taker of our dog and does well to give our dog Blondie her breakfast and dinner daily, lets her out to potty, crates her and uncrates her upon leaving and coming home, cuddles her and kisses her night night before bed. These lessons teach responsibility, selflessness, time management, and compassion. We will be back to our humane society for cuddles and play time with animals and more food needs again when they can open up without fear of a pandemic.
Next:
We played in the sand box at our house and read the book. We also made sand play dough! Very easy to do:
-2 cups of flour
-1/2 cup salt
-1.5 cup boiling water
-2 tbsp oil (I used olive, can use baby oil and can add essential oils for calming and soothing beach day vibes if desired)
-2 Tbsp cream of tartar
-Sand (your desired amount)
We also added pink food coloring just for that extra sensory input growing young minds depend on!
---I mixed all ingredients in the boiling water except the sand. I stirred well the sticky dough. I added the sand. Once cool enough to manipulate, I let Ellie form it however she wanted. We built a sand castle with it of course. We added sand toys (the kids you make shapes on the beach sand with) to our play.
For lunch, I served Ellie a "sand"wich sandcastle with a banana dolphin in the ocean for a side! She just adored this! I cut bread with cookie cutters which happened to be floral shaped in varying sizes. I built up her sandwich large on bottom - small on top. Her sandwich was pimento cheese (we are southern girls!) I topped it with a toothpick with some fabric for a flag. Now...the ocean for the dolphin was a little icing...and quite possibly a tad too much blue food coloring? Hahaha...I shall let you be the judge of that....SO FUN!
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
And we also read in our bible Mark 4:35-41.
Jesus Calms the Storm
35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
Then after reading the science behind God's creation of thunderstorms, we created our own cave and thunderstorm in the back yard with the sprinkler, pans & cookie sheets, a table, cardboard box, and dark bed linens. This was fun!! We made rumbling, banging, clanging thunder with the cookie sheets and spoon and whisk. Ellie loved this. We made lightning by reflecting the sunlight off a silver spoon into the cave fast and scattered. What a neat lesson in and of itself! Then, Ellie and our dog, blondie, ran through the "rain" from the sprinkler and got wet. Then to the cave she ran to get safe and cozy with Pumpkin and Smokey.
We went on a hide and seek kitten hunt around the house. Ellie carried her beach bucket and scavenged the house for paper cutout kittens I had hidden. She loves these sorts of games. She seeks high, low, inside things, under things, etc. Then we counted how many kittens we found and color sorted them. I love that on her own, she saw each kitten and named them Pumpkin and Stormy when she saw their orange and gray colors. It showed me she really made the connection to the story and the activity. And that is what this is all about!
My favorite part of this row was how easily we could tie this book back to God - God's love, being a good steward, trusting God in hard and scary things, and God's creation. I hope these ideas will be fun and helpful to any of y'all planning to row this story!
Here are the go along books we got into:
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