I have a slow start to the week but I make up for it at the end.  As we roll into 2015 my voice-mail and email starts to fill up – which is always exciting!  I have a harder time keeping up sometimes but I am working on it.  Right now my February looks like it will be full of fun places to visit.  Keeping within this week though, the Preschool Building Stories chug along and then visiting Head Start to finish the week off.  Look at the schedule below:

• Wednesday: Week 2 of Building Stories at the Carver Library – this week: PUPPETS!
• Thursday: Week 2 of Building Stories at the Plympton Library – this week: PUPPETS!
• Friday: Hull Family Network show at 10:00am
• Friday: Triumph Head Start show at 2:00pm

As always, the Preschool Building Stories Workshops are open to the public and all are welcome to join whether you have come to earlier session or not! Please check the Upcoming Shows page for more information on all of these shows.

Places I will be visiting this week:

1. Carver
2. Plympton
3. Hull
4. Taunton

There are times I draw up a cartoon and it takes me back to my childhood.  I hated Rice Crispies and thought all of the cartoons where they said that the cereal “talked” to you made the thought of eating it repulsive.  That’s where the inspiration for this cartoon came from.

Anyone who knows or who has asked Big Ryan can tell you that he is one of the biggest Hulk fans there is.  He spotted this at his local library – and he said it made him smile.  So he wanted to share it with you for this week’s picture.  Now, go read or Hulk may SMASH!

 

Sometimes when you do something over and over it almost becomes a second nature and you do it without thinking.  As I was rushing through the holiday seasons I had a whole slew of Preschool Building Stories.  As much as I love doing them it was nice to have a small break from them so that the batteries can recharge!  Well, now they are full power and I am ready to go!  I am starting the Preschool Building Stories at the Carver and Plympton Library this week – both are afternoon (after school) opportunities to come and find new ways to enjoy telling stories at home!  More information is available on the Upcoming Shows page.

• Wednesday: Carver Library @4:30pm – Preschool Building Stories (Week 1)
• Thursday: Plympton Library @4:00pm – Preschool Building Stories (Week 2)
• Friday: Lil’ Munchkins Day Care and Preschool

This is the first week of the Preschool Building Stories – but if you can’t make it, don’t worry, you can come to the second session (Week 2) and pick right up with what we’re doing!  Each week is a different subject and hilarious to boot!  First week we talk about how to do voices and sound effects into your story-times!

Places I am visiting this week:

1. Carver
2. Plympton
3. Scituate

This is actually the very first cartoon idea for The Kid Inside.  It still makes me laugh to this day!

I had a great trip to Jenny Grist Mill on Monday morning with my daughter as we went birding.  We saw many different kinds of birds including a few rare sightings of the Eastern Bluebird, and an even rarer sighting of a Wood Duck still hanging arond after the warm weather has disappeared!

 

With the New Year around the corner I have to update the Upcoming Shows Page – I usually procrastinate setting things up for the new year because I like to look back on the year I’ve had instead of all the things I have coming up.  I do love working and all – but the end of the year I like thinking back to all the new places I’ve seen and the great people I met.  I don’t have any shows this week as I usually try to take this week to get my new brochures ready – speaking of which – here is a sneak peek of them:

I am mailing them out this week and also spending vacation time with my daughter.  All in all – great week!  Next week I have new Building Stories sessions starting up.  I will put the dates below – so mark your calendars!

Building Stories starting up next week:

• CARVER LIBRARY @ 4:30pm – Jan 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th
• PLYMPTON LIBRARY @ 4:00pm – Jan 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th

Remember, you don’t have to come to every session – but you should!  Each week we explore a different way to tell stories that you can use at home and make storytime fun for everyone!

I always get help with my cartoons either from my wife, my sister – or, in this case, a friend who informed me that the cartoon would be way funnier if we saw the damage of what Amy (the little girl in my cartoon is aptly named) has caused.  I agreed and scrapped the original version and re-drew it.  It was sage like advice as I like this, the new version, way better than the other.

Best part of this job is being able to see all the fantastic sights that New England has to offer.  The above image is from Provincetown and this is how they decorate the Pilgrim Monument.  It’s an amazing sight and you can see it from all over the town.  Amazingly, I was entertaining right next to the sight so I was able to get up close and personal.

I also saw this at a Toys R Us while shpping for the kiddos.  Somebody there has a sense of humor… or they were having a educational tutorial about the Dinosaur’s diet… if they existed today.  The last pic, below, is from Plymouth.  My daughter and I were walking downtown one night and came across this lopster trap Christmas Tree on the Plymouth wharf.

I am pretty sure that this week will be plenty busy – even without many shows.  I am still entertaining at a school on Tuesday – but after that it’s vacation time!  My daughter will be home with me for two weeks straight.  I’m sure my wife is cringing at the thought of all the trouble the two of us can get in!  Of course, Thursday is Christmas, if you celebrate it or not I hope you have a wonderful day.  I know that I still get excited to see what’s under the tree for me that morning from the ones I love!

• Tuesday – Blue River Montessori School

That’s all for this week folks!  A new round of Preschool Building Stories is set to begin in January and I hope all that can come will attend!  It should be a blast!

Places I will be visiting this week:

1. Duxbury