Dare to be a Smart Girl

I go back and forth on whether or not I want my four year old daughter to grow up faster. We can't go out all day (shops, galleries, museums) yet, because we still have to do "snack" and there is the "dragging her around" stage that inevitably happens. Not looking forward to hug and kiss rationing for mom or the all day phone-a-thons about nothing with her girlfriends or gasp! boyfriends. But to see a hint of the woman she will become is exciting, yet her doe-eyed innocence is to be cherished. Yesterday, on the way home from a friend's birthday party she asks me in the car "Mom, what do you think Sara's life will bring her now that she is five?"


Anyway, maybe I want her to grow up a wee little bit to do some of the more daring things in the fantastic book The Daring Book for Girls by Andy Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz. BTW, Miriam was nice enough to email me back and support my work here on the smart girls blog.

I will list some chapter titles and you will see how much fun this book will be for me, I mean for dear daughter! I think even the adult smart girls (you know who you are!) would love this book too. Hayley- there is a section on short-sheeting beds on page 194 ;) There are so many great chapters, didn't want to leave any out. So I will post the second half sometime later.
I hope to use the book a lot this summer!

The Daring Book For Girls

CONTENTS

Essential Gear
Rules of the Game: Basketball
Rules of the Game: Net Ball
Palm Reading
The History of Writing, and Writing in Cursive Italics
Fourteen Games of Tag
Spanish Terms of Endearment, Idioms and Other Items of Note
Daring Spanish Girls
Pressing Flowers
Four Square
Princesses Today
How to Whistle with Two Fingers
Chinese Jump Rope
Double Dutch Jump Rope
How to Tie a Sari
Hopscotch, Tether ball, Jump Rope
Queens of the Ancient World I: Wise Artemisia
Knots and Stitches
Rules of the Game: Softball
Caring for your Softball Glove
Playing cards: Hearts and Gin
South Sea Islands
Putting your Hair up with a Pencil
Cartwheels and Back Walk-overs
Weather
Lemon Powered clock
Snowballs
Every Girl's Toolbox
Going to Africa
Bandanna Tying
Five Karate Moves
The Daring Girls Guide to Danger
French Terms of Endearment, Expressions and Other Items of Note
Joan of Arc
Making a Willow Whistle
Periodic Table of Elements
Vinegar and Baking Soda
Rules of the Game: Bowling
Queens of the Ancient World II: Salome Alexandra of Judea
Secret Garden
Friendship Bracelets
Slumber Party Games
Making a Cloth-Covered Book
Pirates
A Short History of Women Inventors and Scientists
Sleep-Outs
The Sit-Upon
Lamp, Lantern, Flashlight
Explorers
Campfire Songs
Abigail Adam's Letters with John Adams
Clubhouses and Forts
Daisy Chains and Ivy Crowns
God's Eyes/ Ojos de Dios
Writing Letters
Reading Tide Charts
Making a Siene Net
Women Spies
How to be a Spy

Now I do have some lemons and could use a new clock. Going to see if dear daughter is available for some daring adventure............