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Welcome to the first week of The Book-Jumper Summer Reading Series! This is my way of inspiring parents who are looking for creative ways to keep their kids reading this summer. We are already off to a running start with a great book review of A Year in the Secret Garden and a book giveaway as well!
Our summer reading program will be a combination of some really neat things. All of our protagonists are girls or women and most of our showcased authors are women as well. I will be offering up a combination of themed weeks, great novels, booklist giveaways, and blog post recaps so be sure and stop by to discover more wonderful ways have A Bookjumper Summer while Exploring Our World and Beyond!
This week I want to take a look back to a wildly popular series I did earlier this Spring. Jump Into A Book readers loved it and I had a blast creating it as well. Every Wednesday readers could drop by here and find new and special happenings in the Secret Garden. There were crafts, great food, fun and laughter.
Here’s a recap of some of our more popular Secret Garden Wednesdays. These are too much fun not to read!
Which of these Secret Garden Wednesdays were your favorite?
Intrigued by the book?
Enjoy more month-by-month activities based on the classic children’s tale, The Secret Garden! A Year in the Secret Garden is a delightful children’s book with over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. AND, it’s on sale for a limited time! Grab your copy ASAP and “meet me in the garden!” http://amzn.to/1DTVnuX
The post Let the Book Jumper Summer Reading Series BEGIN! Revisiting The Secret Garden appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
Welcome to the first week of Book Jumper Summer Reading Series! This is my way of inspiring parents who are looking for creative ways to keep their kids reading this summer!
Our summer reading program will be a combination of some really neat things. All of our protagonists are girls or women and most of our showcased authors are women as well. I will be offering up a combination of themed weeks, great novels, booklist giveaways, and blog post recaps so be sure and stop by to discover more wonderful ways have A Bookjumper Summer while Exploring Our World and Beyond!
“Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow.”
We here at Jump Into a Book are jumping into a new area that we have yet to explore: we are reviewing The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Obviously, we know everything there is to know about our beloved classic children’s book. However, we realized that while we have written a whole novel jumping into The Secret Garden, we have yet to actually review it. So here we go!
From the Desk of Hannah Rials
Mary Lennox is an unpleasant, ugly, selfish child who is disliked by everyone who has come into contact with her. Her lifestyle in India has made her a spoiled child ready to order everyone around and have her way absolutely. When her absentee mother and father and the rest of her Indian household are all killed by an outbreak of cholera, she is sent to live with her hunchbacked, mysterious uncle in the moors at Misselthwaite Manor. Her uncle’s English household is appalled at her lack of manners and her inability to care for herself. They cannot see past her yellow, ugly manner. She has no appetite; she at first despises the moor and the English people who serve her and do not understand her way of living.
However, the more time she spends at the Manor, the more she listens to her maid Martha’s stories, the more she transforms. Her discovery of her uncle’s secret garden, locked away with a buried key, shows her the beauty of life. She becomes kind and gentle, aided by her belief in magic and her interactions with Martha’s brother Dickon, the charmer of all animals.
Misselthwaite is just an odd place. There is magic and there is mystery. When Mary begins to hear mysterious crying in the middle of the night, and after never quite receiving a straight answer from anyone in the household, she, and her complete lack of respect for authority, decided to explore the manor and discover the other secret of Misselthwaite–Master Craven’s son, Colin Craven, the diagnosed invalid who is most certainly going to die. Plagued by chronic hypochondria, Colin is an absolutely insufferable child who commands that everyone obey his every command since he is eventually going to die, whether from a crooked back, an outbreak of some disease, or his own thought. Once Mary and he discover each other, the rest of the household realize that the two cousins are kindred souls. She is the only one stubborn and selfish enough to let his own selfishness bounce off of her. Only she can calm him when he bursts into one of his fits or tell him when he is being ridiculous. Soon, Mary begins to trust her young cousin with her most precious secret: the secret garden.
With the help of Mary, Dickon, Ben Weatherstaff, and all of the creatures of the garden, Colin begins to come alive during his time in the garden. His epiphany gives him determination to live so that, when his father returns, he can show him that he is not an invalid. He is in fact, a young, healthy boy who is going to be an athlete and a scientific discoverer…a scientist who believes in the power of magic most certainly. In the secret garden, he learns to walk, run, plant, exercise, and love life.
The secret garden is a magical place where dead things come alive–plants, animals, an even small, unpleasant children.
I must admit, even though I helped with the creation of A Year In the Secret Garden, I had never actually read a full copy of The Secret Garden, only the abridged version from Great Illustrated Classic when I was a very little girl. I must say, reading it as an adult, I LOVED it! This is a beautiful story with wonderful ideas that all children should be taught. Now that I’ve started gardening in my own garden, I was able to appreciate the amazing magic of the secret garden. If this book somehow managed to slip through your reading repertoire as a child, as it did in mine, go back and read it. I think this would be a marvelous story to read aloud with your kids too. You just can’t ignore Mary Lennox and Colin Craven. They will not allow it!
Interesting Facts about Frances Hodgson Burnett:
- After her father died when she was young, her mother moved their family from Manchester England to Knoxville, Tennesse, a short drive from JIAB’s home base.
- Frances began writing stories when she was a young child, however, her mother forced her to burn her stories before they moved to the United States.
- Frances’ adult home in England was named Great Maytham Hall.
- She too had a passion for gardening like her young characters in The Secret Garden.
- Spiritualism and Christian Science became a major aspect of her life after her oldest son died. She worked these ideas in the novel through Colin’s power of positive thinking.
- Throughout her writing career, Frances wrote 124 novels.
A Look At author Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Home in England
Here’s an excerpt from a great article on the topic written by Into The Book:
Mrs. Burnett apparently got the idea for the book while staying at the home between 1898 and 1907. She spent hours wandering through the gardens and observing its inhabitants. The little red robin that shows Mary Lennox the way to the hidden garden door actually appeared in real-life to Frances who found a hidden door of her own, giving her the idea for the story! (I’d like to meet this clever robin!) Read the rest of this interesting story HERE.
What was YOUR favorite part of the classic The Secret Garden? Have you read A Year In the Secret Garden yet? If so, what has been your favorite activity thus far? Please share in the comment box below!
Enjoy more month-by-month activities based on the classic children’s tale, The Secret Garden! A Year in the Secret Garden is a delightful children’s book with over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. AND, it’s on sale for a limited time! Grab your copy ASAP and “meet me in the garden!” Grab this book on Amazon http://amzn.to/1DTVnuX
The post School is OUT…Let the Book Jumper Summer Reading Series BEGIN appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
Hello and welcome to our Secret Garden! Every Wednesday you can drop by here and find new and special happenings in the Secret Garden. There will be crafts, great food, fun and laughter. So please be sure to come by and see us in our Secret Garden created just for you.
Ah, finally the weather has turned warm, the sun is shining upon us and yes folks, the strawberries have ripened!
I can just imagine the great thrill that Colin and Mary must have felt in those first few days of summer sun that washed over their secret garden and lavished them with flowers in full bloom and wonderful wild strawberries hidden in the beds.
As we venture further into The Secret Garden it’s time to get outdoors, and pick ourselves some berries. We’ll be making jam for sure but who could resist strawberry shortcake.
Here’s a look at our berry picking day along with a little help from The Beatles. Don’t forget the strawberry short-cake at the end. You’ll also find a great recipe for strawberry jam in A Year in the Secret Garden
Strawberry Fields Forever……
What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song,
And I’ll try not to sing out of key.
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, I pick some yummy berries with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends.
Strawberries are in y’all. Have a great day!
Strawberry Shortcake Southern Style
Ingredients
2 (16-oz.) containers fresh strawberries, quartered
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup cold butter, cut up
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 (8-oz.) container sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
1. Combine strawberries, 1/2 cup sugar, and, if desired, almond extract. Cover berry mixture, and let stand 2 hours.
2. Beat whipping cream at medium speed with an electric mixer until foamy; gradually add 2 Tbsp. sugar, beating until soft peaks form. Cover and chill up to 2 hours.
3. Combine flour, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl; cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.
4. Whisk together eggs, sour cream, and vanilla until blended; add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Drop dough by lightly greased 1/3 cupfuls onto a lightly greased baking sheet. (Coat cup with vegetable cooking spray after each drop.)
5. Bake at 450° for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden.
6. Split shortcakes in half horizontally. Spoon about 1/2 cup berry mixture onto each shortcake bottom; top each with a rounded Tbsp. chilled whipped cream, and cover with tops. Serve with remaining whipped cream. Garnish, if desired.
Strawberry Jam Shortcakes: Prepare recipe as directed. Before topping shortcake bottoms with strawberry mixture, stir together 1/4 cup strawberry jam . Spread cut sides of bottom shortcake halves evenly with jam mixture. Proceed with recipe as directed.
Have you missed the last few Secret Garden Wednesdays? These are too much fun not to read!
Sale!!
Let’s celebrate the wonderful upturn in the weather with a Super Spring Sale! I have two of my most popular books on a super special sale until May18th!
The Waldorf Homeschool Handbook: The Simple Step-by-Step guide to creating a Waldorf-inspired #homeschool. And for a limited time, this best-selling book by Donna Ashton, The Waldorf #Homeschool Handbook is now only $17.95 until May18, 2015 ! http://amzn.to/1OhTfoT
Enjoy more month-by-month activities based on the classic children’s tale, The Secret Garden! A Year in the Secret Garden is a delightful children’s book with over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. AND, it’s on sale for a limited time! Grab your copy ASAP and “meet me in the garden!” http://amzn.to/1DTVnuX
Your choice, $17.95 each!
The post Secret Garden Wednesday:: Strawberry Fields Forever and a Sale! appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
Welcome to Weekend Links!
So far this month has been jam-packed with insightful education, booklists, outdoor activities and cool nature resources for kids and parents interested in raising global citizens. I would like to share them this weekend as my Weekend Links Round-up. Enjoy!
Check out my guest post at Kid Lit Celebrates Women’s History Month; The Mother of Trees Wangari Maathai -so honored to be included!
This was shared by one of our dedicated readers Donna Marie and the it’s from the author of the Secret Garden’s house. Bookish Illuminations; Entering The Secret Garden at Great Maytham Hall. It’s fantastic!!
How to Find Children’s Books in Spanish in One Easy Step from Spanish Playground
5 Amazing Multicultural Novels in Verse and the Kid Lit Blog via PragmaticMom
10 Simple Ways Kids Can Celebrate Earth Day-via Multicultural Kids Blogs
We Need Diverse Books Tells AWP 2015: Write Diverse Books That Sell via Publishers Weekly
Reading: It’s good for their health. Harper Collins Children’s Books
Grab it before it’s GONE! My Free Curious George Gets a Medal Rocketship Craft and Activity!
Get Out in to the Garden! Have you missed the last few Secret Garden Wednesdays? These are too much fun not to read!
If you are in the mood for another and inactive story, check out the enhanced digital eBook for kids, The Ultimate Guide to Charlie and The Chocolate Factory!
The Ultimate Guide To Charlie And The Chocolate Factory is a step by step roadmap to this magical world. Just some of the fun includes:
- A story filled with beautiful graphic illustrations including tantalizing Treasure Maps and vibrant tutorials.
- Over 20 Crafts and activities that not only entertain, but educate.
- You get to jump inside the book and enjoy creating the adventures yourself (Templates, maps, and more are included.)
- Ever wonder where chocolate comes from? Or how gum is made? Wonder no more. Now you get to make your own.
- Conduct activities in the areas of crafting, cooking, and game-playing as well as exploring many facets of candy production.
- The option to take Charlie’s journey over the course of several days or take shorter journeys if you wish.
- The creation of a new ritual of reading time with your family and the opportunity to experience the reading of this imaginative tale as a group activity, not a solitary event.
Go HERE to learn more and grab your copy from iBooks!
The post Weekend Links Earth Day, Garden and Other Assorted Book Fun appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
Hello and welcome to our Secret Garden! Every Wednesday you can drop by here and find new and special happenings in the Secret Garden. There will be crafts, great food, fun and laughter. So please be sure to come by and see us in our Secret Garden created just for you.
Happy Spring to You! Today on Secret Garden Wednesday we’re going to dive into the world of Bees. I know Spring is finally here because I’ve just spotted one of our pollinating friends the bumble bee over the weekend. As the temperatures rise the buzz in the air is loud. Day by day more and more plants and flowers are blooming. This is all thanks to pollinators such as bees, hummingbirds, bats, wasps and so on. Without them we would simply die.
Side Note about Bees:
Bees play a key role in the productivity of agriculture and the beauty of our world and are responsible for the pollination of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and flowers. But our cherished bees are facing peril in the form of the disruption of natural habitats. This disruption is in the form of lack of “bee flowers” due to the widespread overuse of pesticides, and numerous bee diseases and parasites have pushed bees to the tipping point. But Jump Into a Book readers can do their part by planting “bee-friendly flowers” and not treating those same flowers with pesticides (insecticides, fungicides or herbicides). That simple act can help to keep bees healthy and on their own six feet.
Did You Know…
- To get one pound of honey, that’s 16 oz requires 1,152 bees traveling 112,000 miles, visiting 4.5 Million flowers ?
With all of this traveling and the heat of summer, bees can get really thirsty. For a bee to drink water they need a surface to land on. To ensure that the bees are not only well fed but well watered too, let’s create a watering hole for them.
A Bee Watering Hole
Supplies:
- Flower pot saucer
- Rocks which you’ve collected or purchased at a craft store
- Water
Directions
- Arrange the rocks in the flower pot saucer.
- Add water until water covers the bottom half of the rocks.
- Place outside near flowers
Inside A Year in the Secret Garden we explore the world of bees as we make a bee house/hive to attract bees into your garden. Though our garden might be a secret we always need bees and other pollinators inside to help our gardens grow.
Have you missed the last few Secret Garden Wednesdays? These are too much fun not to read!
Want to enjoy more month-by-month activities based on the classic children’s tale, The Secret Garden? A Year in the Secret Garden is over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. A Year In the Secret Garden is our opportunity to introduce new generations of families to the magic of this classic tale in a modern and innovative way that creates special learning and play times outside in nature. This book encourages families to step away from technology and into the kitchen, garden, reading nook and craft room. Learn more, or grab your copy HERE.
The post Secret Garden Wednesday: What To Do When Bees Get Thirsty ? appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
Every Wednesday you can drop by here and find new and special happenings in the Secret Garden. There will be crafts, great food, fun and laughter. So please be sure to come by and see us in our Secret Garden created just for you.
In the Secret Garden, hunger plays an important role. It shows the well-being or stress of various characters, as well as where they live in the well-established British class system.
For a majority of 19th-century England, hunger was a real issue. Though only a behind-the-scenes character in the Secret Garden, hunger is used as a symbol to show a return-to-health for main characters Mary and Colin.
In The Secret Garden we have this real paradox going on where Mary and Colin inside their rich manor house are skipping meals not to let on that Colin is recovering and then going outside to receive food from Dickon and his poor family.
Hunger, however isn’t just a 19th century problem but has found its way into 20th and 21st century America.
“If you can’t feed a hundred people then feed just one. ” Mother Teresa
This shadow lying character of “hunger” in the Secret Garden actually brings up a great opportunity to discuss with your children hunger in 21st century America. Here’s the hard cold facts, everyday in the United States 35.5 million Americans, including 16 million children do not have enough to eat. That’s a staggering figure when you think the U.S. is one of the richest countries in the world.
“16 million children is enough to fill 18,000 school buses and 223 football stadiums. On average, those who live in food-insecure households have only $36.50 to spend on groceries every week.” -SheKnows.com
Many of these hungry people actually have jobs. This issue arises when rent and cost of living rises but salaries do not. People have to pay their rent to have a place to live and often times this means they don’t have enough left over for food.
For this Secret Garden Wednesday let’s explore the world of hunger right here in our own back yard. I think important to look at hunger on a local/national level. If you’re one of our readers from another country, I encourage you to do a little research on hunger in your area. I think looking at hunger locally brings it home to kids that it’s not some problem over there but a real problem right where you live.
The wonderful people over at SheKnows.com in collaboration with Unilever project Sunlight, has this wonderful discussion and activity guide to discuss hunger with your children as well as figure out how to feed a family on $36.50 a week. This great guide also suggests a solution to hunger in America with the Share-A-Meal program.
I hope you’ll take this moment and think about hunger and how it impacts our communities and how you and your family can make a difference.
Have you missed the last few Secret Garden Wednesdays? These are too much fun not to read!
Secret Garden Wednesday: Planting Time
Secret Garden Wednesday: Book-Inspired FUN
Secret Garden Wednesday: Perfectly Good Porridge
Secret Garden Wednesday: Garden in a Jar
Secret Garden Wednesday: Sticky Toffee Pudding
Want to enjoy more month-by-month activities based on the classic children’s tale, The Secret Garden? A Year in the Secret Garden is over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. A Year In the Secret Garden is our opportunity to introduce new generations of families to the magic of this classic tale in a modern and innovative way that creates special learning and play times outside in nature. This book encourages families to step away from technology and into the kitchen, garden, reading nook and craft room. Learn more, or grab your copy HERE.
The post Secret Garden Wednesdays: Studying the Class of Hunger appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
“If you want to see birds,you must have birds in your heart.” John Burroughs
Every Wednesday you can drop by here and find new and special happenings in the Secret Garden. There’ll be crafts, great food, fun and laughter. So please be sure to come by and see us in our Secret Garden created just for you.
This week in our secret garden, we have had a mix of everything from ice, snow, torrential rains, and finally severely clear beautiful blue sky sunny weather.
With the changing of the seasons comes new little visitors to our grade. We heard the croaking of frogs down by the stream and have seen an abundance of robins and other spring time birds.
Inside the pages of A Year in the Secret Garden, we share how to actually build a birds nest. I’ll leave that for you to enjoy with family and friends.
Today we’re going on a Springtime scavenger hunt plus we’re making some edible bird nest yummies !!
Enjoy !!!
Something To Do
Spring Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are always so fun. Take this fun list along outside with you and check off everything that you can find. Just remember not to take anything and leave it in it’s place. Have fun finding Spring.
Spring Scavenger Hunt
Check off the following when you find them:
- Grass
- Bird
- Flower
- Rocks
- Leaves
- Pinecone
- Butterfly
- Fruit Tree
- Feather
- Twig
- Ant
- Watering Can
- Bike
- Worm
- Squirrel
- Caterpillar
- Bird Feeder
- Vegetable Garden
Bird Nest Treats
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1/4 cup butter
4 cups chow mein noodles
DIRECTIONS:
1. Butter a 12 cup muffin tin.
2. Combine marshmallows and butter over medium heat in a saucepan; stir until the butter and marshmallows have melted. Stir in the chow mein noodles, coat well. Butter fingers and press the mixture into the bottom and sides of the prepared muffin tin. Refrigerate until firm.
After the nests are firm, place jelly bean, Cadbury or malt meal eggs.
Have you missed the last few Secret Garden Wednesdays? These are too much fun not to read!
Secret Garden Wednesday: Book-Inspired FUN
Secret Garden Wednesday: Perfectly Good Porridge
Secret Garden Wednesday: Garden in a Jar
Secret Garden Wednesday: Sticky Toffee Pudding
Want to enjoy more month-by-month activities based on the classic children’s tale, The Secret Garden? A Year in the Secret Garden is over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. A Year In the Secret Garden is our opportunity to introduce new generations of families to the magic of this classic tale in a modern and innovative way that creates special learning and play times outside in nature. This book encourages families to step away from technology and into the kitchen, garden, reading nook and craft room. Learn more, or grab your copy HERE.
The post Secret Garden Wednesday: Nest Building appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
Happy Secret Garden Wednesday !!! Every Secret Garden Wednesday readers can drop by & find new and special happenings in the Secret Garden. There will be crafts, great food, fun and laughter.
Last week was filled, and I mean filled, with ice, sleet… and finally a big dose of wonderful snow. Once the snow hit and we could get out of the house, everyone had a great time sledding, and cross country skiing as well as fort and snowman building. Some of the best fun of all was had by our resident foxes who played a roving game of kick the can with us as well as many adventuresome moments diving into the snow.
Traditionally speaking snow days in our house also brings out traditional foods. There’s always a big pot of vegetable soup on the stove, warm bread out of the oven, and more hot chocolate than you can muster. There is also a dessert that is so warm and cozy that it’s one of the first things I make on a “snow day” and that’s Sticky Toffee Pudding. Warm, sticky, and completely lovely. Its the perfect ending to a perfect snow day. The only thing more perfect is to eat it by the fire.
Cheers and Enjoy !!!
From the book A Year in the Secret Garden (page 63)
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Pudding Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for the pan
- 1 1/2 cups of sifted all purpose flour, plus more for the pan
- 1 1/2 cups chopped pitted dates ( about 6 ounces)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
Sauce Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups (Packed) light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup (1/2) stick unsalted butter
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream
Pudding Instructions
(Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 C). Butter and flour Bundt pan. Bring dates and 1 1/4 cups water to a boil in a medium heavy saucepan with tall sides. Remove from heat; stir in baking soda ( mixture will become foamy). Set aside; let cool.
Whisk 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat 1/4 cup butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl to blend (mixture will be grainy). Add 1 egg; beat to blend. Add half of flour mixture and half of date mixture; beat to blend. Repeat with remaining 1 egg, flour mixture, and date mixture. Pour batter into mold.
Bake until a tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Invert pudding onto rack.
Sauce Instructions
(Can be made 4 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature. Rewarm gently before using. )
Bring sugar, cream, and butter to a boil in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Continue to boil, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.
Cut cake into wedges. Serve with sauce and whipped cream.
Want to enjoy more month-by-month activities based on the classic children’s tale, The Secret Garden? A Year in the Secret Garden is over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. A Year In the Secret Garden is our opportunity to introduce new generations of families to the magic of this classic tale in a modern and innovative way that creates special learning and play times outside in nature. This book encourages families to step away from technology and into the kitchen, garden, reading nook and craft room. Learn more, or grab your copy HERE.
The post Secret Garden Wednesday: Sticky Toffee Pudding appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
It’s Secret Garden Wednesday!
Every Wednesday you can drop by here and find new and special happenings in the Secret Garden. There’ll be crafts, great food, fun and laughter. So please be sure to come by and see us in our Secret Garden created just for you.
One of the things I love most about The Secret Garden is that together, Mary , Colin and Dickon hold the key to.
This week my garden has been under a lot of ice and snow as well as frigid temperatures which ran below zero. To get our time out in the garden in there is only one choice and that’s to create an indoor garden. Our version is Garden in a Jar one of the fun activities in A Year in the Secret Garden. Here’s a sneak peak !!!
This is a really fun activity to do anytime of year but really fun when it’s too cold to go outside. Children love being able to take care of their garden and play with the small figurines moving them around their own secret garden, their very own garden in a jar.
Discovering the art of “Garden in a Jar” is only one of the many things readers will find inside the pages of A Year in the Secret Garden.
Over 120 pages, with 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities for your family and friends to enjoy, learn, discover and play with together. A Year In the Secret Garden is our opportunity to introduce new generations of families to the magic of this classic tale in a modern and innovative way that creates special learning and play times outside in nature. This book encourages families to step away from technology and into the kitchen, garden, reading nook and craft room. For more details, or to grab your copy of this vibrant book, go HERE.
The post Secret Garden Wednesday: Garden in a Jar appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
This time of year in the Secret Garden the earth is sleeping under a cloak of beautiful white snow. The birds have migrated off leaving the garden quiet from birdsong. This is the time of year when we clean up the garden when snow and rains allow. In the not to distant future, our garden will be exploding with life once again.
I thought we’d spend these last few weeks of winter together enjoying a few moments inside our book A Year in the Secret Garden. Marilyn Scott-Waters and I had more fun than two women should creating this activity guide to one of our favorite childhood books The Secret Garden.
Every Wednesday you can drop by here and find new and special happenings in the Secret Garden. There’ll be crafts, great food, fun and laughter. So please be sure to come by and see us in our Secret Garden created just for you.
One of the things I love most about The Secret Garden is that together, Mary , Colin and Dickon hold the key to.
One of our tasty treats in A Year in the Secret Garden is Porridge with Treacle. I’m sure all of you are asking , “what’s that ?” I thought today we’d take a closer look porridge, in fact we’ll just have ourselves a little Porridge Fest 2015. What do you say ?
What is Porridge ?
Porridge is a dish made by boiling ground, crushed, or chopped cereal in water, milk, or both, with optional flavorings such as sugar, cinnamon, nuts, raisins, is usually served hot in a bowl or dish.
Have you ever noticed that in most of our favorite children’s classic stories that they are always serving porridge or it’s bad version equivalent gruel ? There’s probably a good reason for that. Many of our favorite books are set in England or Great Britain. Northern Europe including Scandinavia have been eating porridge for centuries. I love the oat porridge of England and Scotland. My parents being from Sweden meant I ate a rice sort of porridge known as groat. Porridge can be made from any type of grain and is so very good and tasty.
According to the Daily Telegraph, porridge transformed mankind.
Alistair Moffat, a DNA specialist from Great Britain said,
“The greatest revolution of our history wasn’t the invention of the iPad, it wasn’t the invention of the steam engine, it wasn’t all the things you might lay your mind to. The great invention, the greatest revolution in our history was the invention of farming. Farming changed the world because of the invention of porridge.”
Porridge is a hearty meal that can be modified to either a sweet dish or a savory dish depending on how seasonings are being added. Over the past couple hundred years, porridge is eaten as a breakfast meal and let’s one stay full most of the day. In the story the Secret Garden, people ate two meals a day. Porridge in the morning and then supper at night. It was only the upper classes that would have more than two meals a day.
In other literary favorites such as Oliver Twist, “each boy had one porringer, and no more – excep
t on occasions of great public rejoicing” – has been viewed as a watery symbol of deprivation. The watery deprived version of porridge is known as gruel. The Roman armies as they occupied Great Britain were fed ‘water-grule’. Later various prison systems in Great Britain would serve their prisoners water-gruel and the term “doing gruel or doing porridge” became a term for being in prison.
Let’s look back a little bit into history and really see where the story of porridge leads us.
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while hence the rhyme, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.”
In peasant cottages there was no kitchen to cook in. The poorest families had only one room where they cooked, ate, worked and slept. It is also possible that most of these extremely poor families owned only one kettle. Poor town-dwellers usually didn’t even have that, and obtained most of their meals ready-made from shops and street vendors in the Medieval version of “fast-food.”
Those who lived on the edge of starvation had to make use of every edible item they could find, and just about everything could go into the pot (often a footed kettle that rested in the fire rather than over it) for the evening meal. This included beans, grains, vegetables and sometimes meat — often bacon. Using a little meat in this manner would make it go farther as sustenance.
To really understand porridge we really must go to Scotland. Porridge or Parritch is one of the national dishes of Scotland.
Traditions surround the making and eating of porridge. Stirring should always be done clockwise (for luck) with a spirtle or theevil, a wooden stick tapering to a rounded point, for stirring, and a carved head. In Scots, porridge was always referred to in the plural and was customarily eaten while standing, but the reasons for this latter custom aren’t really known. Some think it was due to the proverb: “A staunin’ sack fills the fu’est” (A standing sack fills the fullest), while others thought people ate standing up in case of a surprise enemy attack.
Once cooked, the porridge is ladled into porringers (bowls) with a separate bowl of milk, buttermilk, or thin cream 
close by. Each spoonful of porridge was dipped into the cold liquid and then eaten. Some sprinkled sugar over the porridge, and others preferred honey, treacle or syrup, or a small square of butter. Porridge was sometimes poured into a drawer in the kitchen dresser to be sliced when cold, either for eating out in the fields or for reheating in the evening.
Porridge for your Health
Porridge is highly nutritious because oatmeal contains protein, carbohydrate, fats, and soluble fiber, all the B vitamins, vitamin E, calcium, and iron. For the very poor in Great Britain, porridge prevented scurvy and other ailments from the lack of vitamins A, C, and D when one added milk and vegetables to the porridge.
What is Treacle ?
So now we get to the sweet stuff. For those of us who live in the United States, treacle will be a mystery but I’m hoping to end that for you right now. For those of you who live in Great Britain or the Commonwealth I imagine treacle has found a way to your heart , stomach, and table.
Treacle is what we call molasses here in the States. Treacle is any un-crystallized syrup made during the refining of sugar. The most common forms of treacle are the pale syrup known as golden syrup and the darker syrup usually referred to as dark or black treacle. Dark treacle has a distinctively strong, slightly bitter flavor, and a richer color than golden syrup,yet not as dark as molasses. Golden syrup is the main sweetener in treacle tart.
For those of you who are Harry Potter fans, Treacle Tart and Treacle Pudding were among Harry’s favorite foods.
Molasses has a stronger and more robust taste than treacle. In the US molasses is found in bottles in the baking section of your grocery store and treacle can be found in cans/tins in grocery stores in Great Britain.
Inside the pages of A Year in the Secret Garden you will find a delicious recipe for porridge and treacle. I hope you’ve enjoyed our porridge fest today and a closer look into this hearty and tasteful meal.
Enjoy !!!
Find out more, or grab your very own copy of, A Year in The Secret Garden HERE
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“I’m in the garden !!!” The Secret Garden to be precise. This time of year in the Secret Garden the earth is sleeping under a cloak of beautiful white snow. The birds have migrated off leaving the garden quiet from birdsong. This is the time of year when we clean up the garden when snow and rains allow. In the not to distant future, our garden will be exploding with life once again.
I thought we’d spend these last few weeks of winter together enjoying a few moments inside our book A Year in the Secret Garden. Marilyn Scott-Waters and I had more fun than two women should creating this activity guide to one of our favorite childhood books The Secret Garden.
Every Wednesday you can drop by here and find new and special happenings in the Secret Garden. There’ll be crafts, great food, fun and laughter. So please be sure to come by and see us in our Secret Garden created just for you.
One of the things I love most about The Secret Garden is that together, Mary , Colin and Dickon hold the key to unlocking the natural world. Through their struggles, triumphs, and adventures they unlock the wonders of nature and magic to us too.
According to Richard Louv, 2008 Audubon Medal Recipient and author of Last Child in the Woods, kids today are becoming more and more removed from nature, at the expense of their own psychological and physical well-being. Children are spending more time in structured activities and on electronic devices, leaving little time for unstructured play in nature. With this book, Marilyn and I have created an innovative and enchanting book inspried by a classic children’s tale that encourages kids to step away from electronics and initiate creative play. Here’s a quote from an article done about A Year in the Secret Garden:
“We wanted A Year in the Secret Garden to be the catalyst in introducing the beloved children’s classic, The Secret Garden to a new generation of families, Budayr shared. “ This guide uses over two hundred full color illustrations and photos to bring the magical story to life, with fascinating historical information, monthly gardening activities, easy-to-make recipes, and step-by-step crafts, designed to enchant readers of all ages. Each month your family will unlock the mysteries of a Secret Garden character, as well as have fun together creating the original crafts and activities based on the book. Our goal is to not only raise awareness for the necessity of families spending more quality “unplugged” time together, but to also share monthly activities that incorporate nature and the outdoors as well.”
It may be too chilly (or snowy!) right now to do garden activities but A Year in The Secret Garden is filled with other fun activities and ideas that are inspired by the classic children’s tale Secret Garden. Within these pages your family will find new activities, crafts, recipes and lessons (inspired by the book) in a something-to-do-every month format. With over 120 pages, 150 original color illustrations and 48 activities, your family and friends will be crafting, cooking, enjoying, learning and playing together!
Watch for the first installment in this fun new series next week and in the meantime, go here to get more details and grab your copy.
The post Secret Garden Wednesday-Because Book Inspired Fun is HEALTHY appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
