Books we LOVE!

is a terrific resource for families. This book details fun to be had with your kids all year ‘round from local venues, to short out of town stays, and simple adventures in your own neighborhood. Get curious and try something new and exciting that you never thought you would do! Heather and her 9-year old son have made a goal to pick one "thing to do" each week. So far their favorites are #117, #508, & #384.  #508 is a nature trail guided walk on the Cosumnes River Preserve and #117, a back-in-time Gold Rush Days adventure, occurs in September and comes highly recommended! Lastly, #384 is an Indian Grinding Rock Loop trail with over 1200 holes! If you end up getting the book, make sure and share with us your favorite adventures!!

highlights the 50 words from nature that have been removed from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. According to an article from wideopenspaces.com, these words were replaced with words like hard drive, blog, and broadband. It’s concerning that words like acorn, bluebell, ivy, dandelion, and kingfisher are “fading away like water on stone.” Many adults and children are unable to name the plants that grow in nature around them. We are becoming out of touch with nature. We may not even notice, let alone be able to identify, the trees or birds we drive by daily. The Lost Words is a wonderful antidote to this deficit. It piques our curiosity through beautiful images and poems of these disappearing words and summons them back into our lives and the lives of our children. It is meant to inspire us to go outside and begin to observe and ask questions. This is a stunning book that is so fun to read, one poem at a time, savoring each word, each name, and each beautiful illustration.