Random House New Releases - Family & Relationships - Activities - Between May 22, 2012 and June 21, 2013.

Quirk Books Entertains Your Kids by RAISING QUIRK

2013-05-16T00:30:00-05:00

Quirk Books Entertains Your Kids 20 Crafts, Recipes, Activities, and More!
Compiled by RAISING QUIRK

eBook, 39 pages | Quirk Books | Crafts & Hobbies - Crafts for Children; Cooking; Family & Relationships - Activities | $0.00 | May 16, 2013 | 978-1-59474-696-3 (1-59474-696-6)

This summer, Raising Quirk’s mission is to keep your kids from ever having to say “I’m bored.” So we’ve rounded up our favorite crafts, recipes, games, and activities from Quirk Books titles and jam-packed them into our funnest, awesomest, and kid-friendliest e-sampler yet. Whether you’re taking your family on the road or stuck indoors on a rainy day, we’ve got you covered.

Projects include:

COOKING:
How to Teach a Kid to Cook
Robot Bites
Banana Split Pops
Little-Bitty Fudge Puppies

CRAFTING:
Bottle-Cap Frames
Starburst Straws
Turtle Magnet
Get Your Kid to Clean Up

OUTDOOR ADVENTURE:
Get Your Kid to Put On Sunscreen
Plan a Scavenger Hunt
Yakima! Choreograph a Fight Scene
Nick and Tesla’s Low-Tech (Practically No-Tech) Bottle Rocket and Launcher

RAINY DAY ANTICS:
Get Your Kid to Play Alone
Futaleufú Mattress Rafting
Put on a Comedy Show
Learn a Magic Trick

FUN ON THE GO:
How to Keep a Family Happy During Car Trips
Make Trail Mix and Hit the Trails!
How to Build a Sand Castle
Games to Play in the Car

Children don’t come with an owner’s manual, so Raising Quirk brings together advice, activities, entertainment, and, most important, other parents who still feel kinda like kids themselves. Our motto: We help cool parents raise cool kids. After all, parenting is a lifelong adventure, and we’re all in it together. Consider us your virtual playgroup and join us at Raising Quirk online.

Touch a Butterfly by April Pulley Sayre

2013-04-23T00:30:00-05:00

Touch a Butterfly Wildlife Gardening with Kids--Simple Ways to Attract Birds, Butterflies, Toads, and More to Your Garden
Written by April Pulley Sayre

Turn your garden into a hummingbird hotspot, a haven for butterflies, and a thriving ecosystem that will delight and inspire the young and young-at-heart.

Gardening with children is a pleasure in itself, but when you learn to include wildlife in your plans, gardening becomes an even more joyful family experience. Creating a garden that invites wildlife opens up a wider world of nature for investigation, inspiration, and delight. Begin to see your yard from an animal’s perspective; discover plants that attract colorful birds and bugs; embrace sensory experiences that native plants and creatures bring; and understand how your yard fits into the surrounding landscape. Along the way you will discover simple ways you can actively support wildlife in your immediate environment, no matter where you live. This family-friendly guide to wildlife gardening leads you on a path to discovery, where trees are transformed into bird and animal habitats, where sunny spots are revered for dragonfly viewing, and where your entire garden becomes an animal-welcoming kingdom.

The Artful Parent by Jean Van't Hul

2013-04-09T00:30:00-05:00

The Artful Parent Simple Ways to Fill Your Family's Life with Art and Creativity--Includes over 60 Art Projects for Children Ages 1 to 8
Written by Jean Van't Hul

Bring out your children’s creativity and imagination with more than 60 kids' art activities from the creator of www.ArtfulParent.com.

Art making is a wonderfully fun way for young children to tap into their imagination, deepen their creativity, and explore new materials, all while strengthening their fine motor skills and developing self-confidence. The Artful Parent has all the tools and information you need to encourage your children’s creativity through art. You’ll learn how to set up an art space, how to talk to children about their artwork, how to choose the best art supplies (without breaking the bank), how to repurpose and organize the piles of art created, and even how to use kids' art activities to soften everyday transitions.

The more than sixty engaging kids' arts and crafts projects included here are accessible and developmentally appropriate for one- to eight-year-olds, and they’re a far cry from the cookie-cutter crafts many of us did in school as kids. From bubble prints to musical chairs art, these kids art activities allow children to explore art materials, techniques, and ideas as they grow more creative every day. With activities for downtimes, action art for releasing energy, and recipes for making your own art materials, this book is your guide for raising an artful family.

Before They're Gone by Michael Lanza

2013-04-09T00:30:00-05:00

Before They're Gone A Family's Year-Long Quest to Explore America's Most Endangered National Parks
Written by Michael Lanza

A longtime backpacker, climber, and skier, Michael Lanza knows our national parks like the back of his hand. As a father, he hopes to share these special places with his two young children. But he has seen firsthand the changes wrought by the warming climate and understands what lies ahead: Alaska’s tidewater glaciers are rapidly retreating, and the abundant sea life in their shadow departs with them. Encroaching tides threaten beloved wilderness coasts like Washington’s Olympic and Florida’s Everglades. Less snowfall and hotter summers will diminish Yosemite’s world-famous waterfalls. And it is predicted that Glacier National Park’s 7,000-year-old glaciers will be gone in a decade.

To Lanza, it feels like the house he grew up in is being looted. Painfully aware of the ecological—and spiritual—calamity that global warming will bring to our nation’s parks, Lanza sets out to show his children these wonders before they have changed forever.

He takes his nine-year-old son, Nate, and seven-year-old daughter, Alex, on an ambitious journey to see as many climate-threatened wild places as he can fit into a year: backpacking in the Grand Canyon, Glacier, the North Cascades, Mount Rainier, Rocky Mountain, and along the wild Olympic coast; sea kayaking in Alaska’s Glacier Bay; hiking to Yosemite’s waterfalls; rock climbing in Joshua Tree National Park; cross-country skiing in Yellowstone; and canoeing in the Everglades.

Through these poignant and humorous adventures, Lanza shares the beauty of each place and shows how his children connect with nature when given “unscripted” time. Ultimately, he writes, this is more their story than his, for whatever comes of our changing world, they are the ones who will live in it.

From the Hardcover edition.

Leap Write In! by Karen Benke

2013-04-02T00:30:00-05:00

Leap Write In! Adventures in Creative Writing to Stretch and Surprise Your One-of-a-Kind Mind
Translated by Karen Benke

Invite your jittery mind into quiet slips of timed or untimed writing experiments that are designed to encourage your timid heart to forge forgotten feelings and entice your shy-self to make friends with emerging emotions. With a bounty of prompts to select from, you’ll be inspired to explore all the wacky, confusing, brave, soul-stirring wonderings and wanderings of your emerging life’s inner treasure in a way that’s sure to unleash what you most need to say. In this book you’ll find:

   • On-the-Spot Drops that offer quick “free-fall” prompts on different themes, such as short-winded poems and seven-line stories.
   • Mini Memoirs to unlock personal narrative to share, or not.
   • Suddenly a Story suggestions to explore feelings and states of being like fear, reluctance, compassion, kindness, anxiety, anger, jealousy, happiness, and more.
   • Surprise Yourself Surveys for those who think they know everything about themselves.
   • Untie-Your-Mind Word Lists to jump-start stalled imaginations.
   • Definition Decoders to introduce new ideas and styles of writing.

Created especially for tweens, teens, and other earthlings, this book provides you with a chance to create imaginative poems, stories, fragments, and real-life on-the-spot sketches. All that’s required is that you take a breath, relax, reset, and leap write in!

Geek Mom by Kari Byron

2012-10-30T00:30:00-05:00

Geek Mom Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families
Written by Natania Barron, Kathy Ceceri, Corrina Lawson and Jenny Williams
Foreword by Kari Byron

It’s fast becoming a geek world out there, and all moms need to show off their tech smarts and superhero-like skills in order to keep their savvy kids entertained and engaged. Geek Mom: Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families explores the many fun and interesting ways that digital-age parents and kids can get their geek on together. Imaginative ideas for all ages and budgets include thrifty Halloween costumes, homemade lava lamps, hobbit feasts, and magical role-playing games. There are even projects for moms to try when they have a few precious moments alone. With six sections spanning everything from home-science experiments to superheroes, this comprehensive handbook from the editors of Wired.com’s popular GeekMom blog is packed with ideas guaranteed to inspire a love of learning and discovery. Along the way, parents will also find important tips on topics such as determining safe online communities for children, organizing a home learning center, and encouraging girls to love science.
Being geeky is all about exploring the world with endless curiosity. Geek Mom is your invitation to introducing the same sense of wonder and imagination to the next generation.

Geek Mom by Kari Byron

2012-10-30T00:30:00-05:00

Geek Mom Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families
Written by Natania Barron, Kathy Ceceri, Corrina Lawson and Jenny Williams
Foreword by Kari Byron

Imagine Childhood by Sarah Olmsted

2012-10-16T00:30:00-05:00

Imagine Childhood Exploring the World through Nature, Imagination, and Play - 25 Projects that spark curiosity and adventure
Written by Sarah Olmsted

For children, potential is limitless, curiosity is an electrical current, and every moment is open to the possibility of the unexpected. Day-to-day life is filled with adventure. Road blocks are invitations to try new routes. And the world is vast and expansive. This book is a celebration of childhood through the crafts and activities that invite wonder and play. The twenty-five projects and activities in this book are meant to speak to the way children engage with the world. These projects are not about what is produced in the end (although that part is fun too) but rather they are stepping-off points—activities that spark curiosity, an adventure, or an investigation. They’re about the process of getting there. They’re about the conversations that happen while making things together. They’re about getting to know the world inch by inch. They’re about exploring imaginary universes and running through real forests. They’re about living in childhood . . . regardless of your actual age. They’re about being a kid.

Side by Side by Tsia Carson

2012-08-21T00:30:00-05:00

Side by Side 20 Collaborative Projects for Crafting with Your Kids
Written by Tsia Carson

Crafting is always more fun and more meaningful when it’s shared with those you love. Discover the joy of working alongside your child while creating arts and crafts that inspire. With these twenty whimsical projects in a variety of mediums, you and your child will find fun ways to work collaboratively and independently—together on the same project, or side by side on related projects. Create Giant Newspaper Snowflakes that take traditional paper snowflakes to magical new levels. Create surprising monoprints that take glitter glue to new heights. Explore the versatility of embroidery with a child-friendly version that uses a leaf as the canvas and a more advanced version that uses a child’s drawing for stitching inspiration. Get out in the garden and plant a Living Willow Teepee that will be a perfect playhouse and retreat for years to come.

Some of life’s best moments are spent simply doing things in the presence of the ones we love, not necessarily doing the same thing together, but being together and working side by side. The craft projects in this book will help you to create just those moments with your child.

Random House New Releases - Family & Relationships - Activities - Between May 22, 2012 and June 21, 2013.

Quirk Books Entertains Your Kids by RAISING QUIRK

Quirk Books Entertains Your Kids 20 Crafts, Recipes, Activities, and More!Compiled by RAISING QUIRK

Touch a Butterfly by April Pulley Sayre

Touch a Butterfly Wildlife Gardening with Kids--Simple Ways to Attract Birds, Butterflies, Toads, and More to Your GardenWritten by April Pulley Sayre

The Artful Parent by Jean Van't Hul

The Artful Parent Simple Ways to Fill Your Family's Life with Art and Creativity--Includes over 60 Art Projects for Children Ages 1 to 8Written by Jean Van't Hul

Before They're Gone by Michael Lanza

Before They're Gone A Family's Year-Long Quest to Explore America's Most Endangered National ParksWritten by Michael Lanza

Leap Write In! by Karen Benke

Leap Write In! Adventures in Creative Writing to Stretch and Surprise Your One-of-a-Kind MindTranslated by Karen Benke

Geek Mom by Kari Byron

Geek Mom Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century FamiliesWritten by Natania Barron, Kathy Ceceri, Corrina Lawson and Jenny Williams Foreword by Kari Byron

Geek Mom by Kari Byron

Geek Mom Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century FamiliesWritten by Natania Barron, Kathy Ceceri, Corrina Lawson and Jenny Williams Foreword by Kari Byron

Imagine Childhood by Sarah Olmsted

Imagine Childhood Exploring the World through Nature, Imagination, and Play - 25 Projects that spark curiosity and adventureWritten by Sarah Olmsted

Side by Side by Tsia Carson

Side by Side 20 Collaborative Projects for Crafting with Your KidsWritten by Tsia Carson

Quirk Books Entertains Your Kids 20 Crafts, Recipes, Activities, and More!
Compiled by RAISING QUIRK

Touch a Butterfly Wildlife Gardening with Kids--Simple Ways to Attract Birds, Butterflies, Toads, and More to Your Garden
Written by April Pulley Sayre

The Artful Parent Simple Ways to Fill Your Family's Life with Art and Creativity--Includes over 60 Art Projects for Children Ages 1 to 8
Written by Jean Van't Hul

Before They're Gone A Family's Year-Long Quest to Explore America's Most Endangered National Parks
Written by Michael Lanza

Leap Write In! Adventures in Creative Writing to Stretch and Surprise Your One-of-a-Kind Mind
Translated by Karen Benke

Geek Mom Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families
Written by Natania Barron, Kathy Ceceri, Corrina Lawson and Jenny Williams
Foreword by Kari Byron

Geek Mom Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families
Written by Natania Barron, Kathy Ceceri, Corrina Lawson and Jenny Williams
Foreword by Kari Byron

Imagine Childhood Exploring the World through Nature, Imagination, and Play - 25 Projects that spark curiosity and adventure
Written by Sarah Olmsted

Side by Side 20 Collaborative Projects for Crafting with Your Kids
Written by Tsia Carson