"The Giving Tree"

"The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein

This book was gifted to me for my graduation from my best friend -- my history teacher, Ms. Owen. The front cover has the most amazing inscription, sending me back into crazy years when life was full of crazy opportunities and many possible directions. While I have positive feelings towards this book, it may be a book needing more discussion instead of just a fun story time read. In searching the web for other fun resources to share, I stumbled upon some articles talking about the possible negative reactions that can be taken, things like self-sacrifice and selfishness. I've always appreciated the ending relationship in the story, where the young boy and tree come to appreciate each other and can just be together again, like they were at the start before human wants interfered, but I do appreciate this new perspective. So, re-reading this book ended up being a more mind-opening experience than originally anticipated, and while fun, it can provide a good learning space too.

Get It Here: Amazon, Target

"And so the boy cut off her branches and carried them away to build his house." 

Crafty Little Houses

You Will Need:

• Notched Craft Sticks
• Liquid Glue
• Washi Tape

How To Play:

This activity is nothing but straightforward. Open a pack of notched craft sticks (or use Lincoln Logs, or regular craft sticks) to build your own wooden house! We did our building on a more-humid Florida day so our glue didn't dry very quickly, but the tape worked wonderfully. A friend of ours gave us a box of this decorative tape, so that's become the kids' craft tape, saving my clear office tape for me. We left the houses on the back porch, and they have been rebuilt every day!

Here's where we found an example of the different traits and brain processes of our kids -- Faye struggled with the engineering and problem solving aspects of trying to get pieces to stand up, and Aedan had no problem finding new solutions. On the other hand, Faye was much more creative with the extra pieces, and story line of her house than Aedan, bringing her My Little Pony toys into play. It's so interesting to see how different people work, when you raised them the same way!

"Take my apples, Boy, and sell them in the city. Then you will have money and you will be happy." 

Instant Applesauce

You Will Need:

• Apples
• Water
• Lemon Juice
• Instant Pot
• Apple Slicer/Corer
• Blender (One day I'll get an immersion blender, then less bowl containers to clean!)

How to Make:

• Recipe from Tastes Better from Scratch - Brandon is allergic to cinnamon, so we don't include that, but the applesauce is still plenty sweet and most of us eat it right up. Faye loves helping to make it, but won't actually eat the applesauce anymore. Although sometimes we can get here to eat it when we store it in reusable squeeze pouches though.

Somehow we always end up buying apples even though we never eat them, so we end up making this applesauce pretty often. After coring the apples, we end up splitting them into even smaller pieces, so that they cook even faster. 

We also keep the peels on, mainly because I don't want to cut that off, so we blend up the apples after they've cooked, so it has a consistent texture. Aedan's not a fan of the blender noise, but he mustered up the courage to help me out. And then helped himself to a few bowls.

"And he would gather her leaves... And make them into crowns and play king of the forest."

King of the Forest 

You Will Need: 

• Scissors
• Tape or Stapler

How to Play:

Print out the below file and cut the pieces out to make your own forest crown! We were going to try this with some real leaves from the yard, but it's summer and the leaves are all dried up. So, until we climb up and get some fresh leaves, imagination it is!

Some other fun resources for the book, and other crafty ideas that we didn't do... yet.

• Apple Picking: Florida doesn't have any apple picking farms, but maybe you can find one nearby! We may have to resort to oranges instead.
• "Twistable, Turnable Man": Did you know that Shel Silverstein was a songwriter? He wrote songs like "A Boy Named Sue" sung by Johnny Cash! This CD is a tribute to his work, and highlights more of his work.
• Plant a Tree: Get one of these tree kits and start your own forest! 
• "The Giving Tree" Movie (1973): Animated in School House Rock style and narrated by Shel Silverstein. watch and listen to the story instead of reading it.
• Teaching Children Philosophy: Maybe a potential solution to some of the fears about the book, this website has a good selection of thoughtful questions to consider, and to start discussions with your kids about happiness, giving, and the true nature of love.