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'Tis the season to be reading!

11/26/2019

*Note: this post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Any purchases made via the links provided go to support our literacy efforts.

The winter season begins with the last month of the year and the celebration of several holidays, depending upon culture. This is the time of year when families gather from far and wide around the table to celebrate the season and the joy of the holidays. It is also when time honored family recipes emerge to once again take center stage. This is not the time to relegate the children to the play room but to include them in the preparation of the family meal. Cooking is a wonderful way to engage all of the senses, producing memories that resurface with the scent of certain foods and is also a wonderful way to boost reading and math skills in children without them even knowing it. Cooking also builds self-esteem, confidence and teaches life skills. Planning menus, choosing and reading through recipes and writing out a grocery list all involve reading and as a meal is prepared, math and science skills are engaged (to further enhance these skills, double or cut a recipe in half).

Cooking, especially during the holidays, is a cross-cultural experience that helps us explore our own heritage as well as other cultures and allows for an opportunity to learn where our food comes from and the people involved. To support this idea consider including the following books along with your traditional holiday favorites:

For additional baking/cooking and holiday related stories, take a look at our book lists.

What's happening in December?

1st: Author Jan Brett’s Birthday - Brett has numerous books that lend themselves well to the winter season. Her beautiful illustrations offer detailed depictions of animals and people from various locales and cultures. Consider The Mitten, Annie and the Wild Animals and Home for Christmas as well as the classics The Twelve Days of Christmas and The Night Before Christmas.

5th: Walt Disney’s Birthday - Need we say more? Disney is an industry unto itself. Read about the man himself in the Who Was? series Who Was Walt Disney? by Whitney Stewart or another Disney biography. You can then further explore the wonderful world of Disney through the many Disney characters we all know and love.

7th: Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - Take this opportunity to search online, visit your local library or bookstore for age appropriate books to learn about this day in American history.

10th: Poet Emily Dickinson’s Birthday - Share Dickinson’s poems with your child. Consider Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson by Frances Schoonmaker Bolin or Poetry for Kids: Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson and edited by Susan Snively. Also, look out for Jane Yolen's picture book biography Emily Writes: Emily Dickinson and Her Poetic Beginnings coming out in February 2020.

Melvil Dewey’s Birthday - A great time to teach children about the Dewey Decimal System and visit your local library to see it in action. Consider Do You Know Dewey? by Brian P. Cleary and The Great Dewey Hunt by Toni Buzzeo.

11th: Author William Joyce’s Birthday - Think Rolie Polie Olie and The Guardians of Childhood. Consider our personal favorite The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and look for the short film on YouTube.

30th: Author Mercer Mayer’s Birthday - Known for his Little Critter and Little Monster series. With hundreds of books to choose from it shouldn’t be difficult to find one or more to read to your child.

31st: New Year's Eve - Celebrate the ending of the old year and the beginning of the new with Natasha Wing's The Night Before New Year's.

Remember to take this time at the end of the year to build fond memories with your children as you celebrate family traditions of old as well as introduce new traditions. Try to always include a book at the end of the day or at the beginning of a meal or even while waiting for those cookies to come out of the oven.

“Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits,
lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.”
Alain de Botton

We want to pass along a word of thought. As we discuss family time and building memories, we just want you to keep in mind that those warm and fuzzy moments that you remember with your own mother or grandmother will never be passed down if you don‘t teach your own children to cook and bake and value time spent together. Grandma‘s timeless recipes will be forgotten and a little bit more of your heritage will be lost. Give your children an appreciation of their ancestors and family history while building memories that they in turn will want to pass along to the next generation.

Happy holidays from our family to yours!

Author

We are three generations that seek a way to get back to basics. It’s not that we eschew technology, but sometimes simpler is better, especially in raising our children. Mom was a reading teacher, Amanda is an early childhood educator and Kate a children’s literature specialist and former school librarian along with the latest additions, a daughter (now 4) for Kate, and two sons (now 1 and a newborn) for Amanda. We advocate reading aloud, the simple toys that use imagination and encourage creativity and learning in the kitchen, which can be a fun mess but also teaches life skills. Join us in raising healthy, happy, inquisitive and intelligent children.

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The Mad Holiday Rush

11/13/2019

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*Note: this post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Any purchases made via the links provided go to support our literacy efforts.

As the mad holiday shopping rush begins, we like to think that parents will choose gifts wisely, but that’s not often the case. Today’s media has a grip on our children, showing them an endless array of useless, mind-numbing gadgets that seem to serve no purpose but to make someone money and when our children see these, they feel they “need” them. “But mom, I need that” is the phrase I often hear from my four-year-old. How quickly they learn. But children need to play, and not only on a digital device.

Play is essential to the developing child because it contributes to cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being. Play is also essential for healthy brain development and is the best way for children to explore the world around them. The simplest way to encourage play is by providing plenty of toys. So, understanding that play is the work of children, it is essential that we as parents provide them with toys that stimulate the imagination, build creativity and promote problem solving skills. The nonprofit, National Association for the Education of Young Children, asked two researchers about what their work tells us about toys, children and play. Jeffrey Trawick-Smith (Professor of Early Childhood Education at the Center for Early Childhood Education at Eastern Connecticut State University) states that one trend that emerged from the studies is that “basic is better,” meaning toys that are open-ended and can be used in multiple ways, such as building blocks, vehicles and construction toys. He also found that the highest scoring toys were those that “prompted problem solving, social interaction, and creative expression in both boys and girls. Interestingly, toys that have traditionally been viewed as male oriented—construction toys and toy vehicles, for example—elicited the highest quality play among girls.” So be sure to set aside any preconceived notions you have about toys and gender and sometimes even about the recommend age (though remember to keep safety at the forefront) and choose toys that force children to think outside the box and utilize their imagination and creative energies. Perhaps even let them play with the box, which always seems to be the most fun.

An observation and thought I would like to share with you is the dismay I feel when I see kids who live in a totally digital world because I don’t know what it will be that will generate their memories in the future. I’m one of those pack rats that saved all my toys and today I love sharing my Fisher Price Briarberry Bears and accessories, Polly Pockets, Barbies, Beanie Babies, Puzzle Place set and others with my four-year-old. She loves to see what I played with as a child. Even though some of those toys still exist, they generally are not in the form that I had. When I get them out for her they bring back my own memories and show her what the world I grew up in was like. With the Christmas Wish Book and toy stores a thing of the past, I see children with less actual physical toys and instead games that are downloaded. What will they have to look back on and what will they share with their children? Just keep in mind that what is happening in their life today will be the memories that they will look back upon. What memory would you like your children to have in the future and what memories and toys will they be able to share with their own children?

Happy play and memory making!

-Kate @ BTBL

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Back to Basics

'Tis the season to be reading!

What's happening in December?

“Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits,
lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.”
Alain de Botton

Author

The Mad Holiday Rush

Author

Author

Archives

Categories

Back to Basics

'Tis the season to be reading!

What's happening in December?

“Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.” Alain de Botton

Author

The Mad Holiday Rush

Author

Author

Archives

Categories

“Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits,
lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.”
Alain de Botton