One of his other homework assignments this week was to write a few 2-3 word sentences. When pressed to do this along with his standard penmanship worksheets he was nonplussed. Later that evening though, when our attention turned to reengineering the trap, he mentioned he wanted to write “Lucky” (the leprechaun) a note. Horray! We’d get our sentences done afterall. And sure enough, given the right inspiration he wrote out *several* sentences taunting Lucky that he wouldn’t outsmart us this time!

Lesson learned: Never underestimate the value of self-motivation. Or to put it more eloquently:

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
-William Butler Yeats

While we are no longer reading tales about leprechauns and how to entrap them, the story we read tonight definitely details a feat of mechanical engineering that kids will enjoy. Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead details the misadventure of a VERY lazy little boy.

Tommy is so lazy; he needs several machines to help him through his day. When the morning sun warms his window sill, his bed lifts up and dumps him into the bathtub. The bathtub tilts and dumps him into the drying room where is teeth are brushed and his hair is combed for him. Then he slides down a chute into a harness, which guides him into his shorts, pants, socks, and shoes. A sailor suit drops down over his head. Then the harness takes him to the feeding machine. Finally, his mouth is wiped for him.

Lazy Tommy Pumpkinhead (Library Binding) By William Pene Du Bois List Price: $12.89 USD Used From: $119.95 In Stock

I also had to chuckle when I noticed in the jacket cover the retail price of the hard cover edition we have was $2.57 in 1966. A family member bought it for me for my birthday a few years ago when I found it on eBay. I think the price was just north of $60. It’s out of print now and a bit hard to come by, but if you ever encounter it, do pick it up. As Wiley says “it’s the most awesomest book.”

We like to discuss why Tommy is sooo lazy. But reflecting on the leprechaun lesson, now I wonder perhaps Lazy Tommy was just lacking a little inspiration?

So how do we talk about etiquette or table manners but make it fun?

I found some inspiration in that Alice in Wonderland book again! We read the book and then hosted our very own mad cap tea party.

“They buttered the gears. They sugared the springs. They strawberry jammed the wheels.”

- from the Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland

I let my son Wiley enforce the “rules” when our “guests” got out of hand. He felt very much in control and I think now that he knows the “rules” he’ll feel much more confident at a table with all the adults this Thanksgiving.

Tea parties are a great way to teach a variety of things. We counted out the place settings. He set the table. We had made rice crispies treats so we served those to our guests. While pouring the teddy bear some tea, the top to the pot came off and Wiley exclaimed “look mom, there goes the hubcap!”

Of all the gems of wisdom she imparted that night, the piece of advice that I immediately implemented was this:

“Don’t just read to your children at bedtime.”

It is so simple and seemingly obvious but I needed to hear it. I realized that books could replace television in our home to get us through the late afternoon when my 5 year old Wiley usually started asking to turn it on.

The next afternoon, instead of television, we went to his room and pulled a few books from his shelf and began reading together. Wiley bounced around on his bed, his little sister crawled over the covers in search of a new toy to ogle. We passed the time not just reading a fun story but also talking about it.

This “talking about it” was some more of Frankenstein’s advice:

“Read a book and ask a question.”

Again, it was so simple and intuitive, but I needed a reminder. “Children come into the world breathing out questions,” Frankenstein said. (So true!) “When reading ask your child a personal, open-ended question, like: ‘Is there a character in the story that you would like to be friends with?’ ‘What did you think about xyz?’ ‘What did you notice?’ Avoid ‘ambusing’ them with comprehension questions or yes-no queries that force them into a corner, such as ‘did you like the book?’

“When children talk about a book, we build their confidence” she explained. “Kids will remember the story better if they talk about it and children who have these stories in their repertoire will develop a love of reading and learning. It’s not about how many books they have, but how many conversations they have had about them.”

That leads me to my new favorite quote that Frankenstein shared that evening:

“What good are books without pictures and conversations?” – Alice in Wonderland

Frankenstein didn’t mince words when it came to television and technology. They are no substitute for the interaction between a child and his peers or a child and her parent or caregivers. She offered Jane Healey’s Endangered Minds: Why Children Don’t Think And What We Can Do About It
as recommended reading to parents who wanted to explore the topic further. It looks like a great book, but at this point I am sure it will just confirm what I know—we have got to turn off the television and just read more. Or play more. I can’t let “I’m bored” send me into a panic, afterall:

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” – Dorothy Parker

So I credit Diane Frankenstein for helping me get back on track with making reading and conversations replace idle time in front of the tv. Since we’ve cut afternoon tv time out, and spend most weekday afternoons in his room, I have also been inspired to update the room a bit to create a “book nook” or a reading area. I want it to be a cozy comfortable little corner of his room. Right now we read together, but I hope he will also find this activity so enjoyable, he’ll retreat there on his own when he wants to unwind.

How do you create a haven for your young reader?

I am such a visual person, I immediately went to Flickr and scrolled through hundred of photos of classrooms, nurseries, playrooms to find inspiration. I have compiled a gallery on Flickr with photos that inspired me. What really impressed me was that I didn’t need to go buy anything special, just by adding a lamp, some low shelves and a some floor pillows, we have all that we need.

Do you have a haven in your home?

I’d love to see it! Or perhaps, like me, you found inspiration on the Internet! If you have an inspiration you’d like to share, include the URL in your comments below. Or include your email address and I’ll contact you. Then you can email the photo back to me as an attachment.

Giveaway!

I’ll be giving away one copy of:

Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (Hardcover), Jon Scieszka (Author), Mary Blair (Illustrator)

To enter:

Leave a comment below (1 entry)
Include a link to your ideal reading haven (2 entries)
Send me a photo of your reading haven (2 entries)

Contest will close at 11:59 pm PT November 19, 2009. Winner will be posted here and notified on Friday, November 20.

Suggested Reading:

• Reading Together: Everything You Need to Know to Raise a Child Who Loves to Read
  Diane Frankenstein
• Endangered Minds: Why Children Don’t Think And What We Can Do About It Jane Healy
• Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland
  Jon Scieszka (Author), Mary Blair (Illustrator)
• The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition Lewis Carrol (Martin Gardner, Editor)

More Inspiration:

• Audrey Blissful: New Reading Nook
• OohdeeDoh: Children’s book area in a bedroom
• Flickr: Book Look Gallery

Some would say you should save your candy to embellish your Gingerbread house come December. That is great idea but I find it’s hard to tell my son that he can’t enjoy the candy in some way, shape, or form now, so while I do save a large part of the stash for Gingerbread season, I also portion out a good part of the haul to use now.

So what do we do? Well, what does your child love more than candy? Playing with you! And with these activities, there is something for both of you to enjoy. I find I am best able to really connect with my children when the activity captures my imagination too. These projects did not disappoint.

The first step in your candy project is counting and sorting. This is a great way to demonstrate how we use mathematics in everyday life and allow them to flex their math muscles by asking them to sort their candy. They can do it by size, color, shape, or type. You can do it more than one time. Then they can count the pieces and you can discuss which of the piles is less than or more than the other(s).

When you have exhausted the sorting and counting game you can move on to the creation portion.

For this project you’ll need to use any “gummy candy” such as Tootie Rolls or Dots or anything that the size and consistency of a gumdrop. You’ll also need a box of toothpicks. I have done this with children as young as three, but please use your best judgment. If your child still likes to put things in their mouth (or eyes or ears for that matter!) toothpicks may not be the safest choice.

Anyway, once you have unwrapped all your gummy candy, you are only limited by your imagination. You can construct letters, numbers, shapes, houses, fences, stick figures… whatever you can fashion by sticking toothpicks in the gummies and connecting them together. My five year old did this project for 30 minutes twice this week (we went trick or treating earlier in the week). Today we brought out part of his train set and made fences, crossing gates, and a tunnel to accessorize the track! It was truly the highlight of my week to have us both so fully immersed in something together.

You can also use your candy to explore art and science themes.

Again, if you channel that creativity, there is no telling what kind of amazing creations you’ll produce. With some of the other candies you will need to alter their physical state to produce what we’re looking for. For example if you have Laffy Taffy or Airheads, unwrap them and attempt to run a pizza cutter or knife through them with your child watching. It will be difficult if not impossible. Next, heat them very gently for two to four seconds in your microwave, just long enough that they are warm and you can run your pizza cutter through them easily to make these strips. Roll the strips in your hands to make them nice and round.

Ask your child what they noticed? Was it easier to cut them after they were warmed? Another great way to demonstrate how science is part of everyday life.

Stash those miniature chocolate bars in the freezer for awhile until they are good and frozen. Then place them in a Ziploc bag and smash away with your meat mallet or even just the back of wooden spoon. What child doesn’t love to SMASH with wild abandon?

Sort your pulverized candy by color or texture and let the art emerge!

For our art project we made a little garden. The pulverized chocolate was the soil, the smashed Jolly Ranchers serves as the grass, the Laffy Taffy became the flowers. We even smashed a blue Jolly Rancher to make it “rain” in the garden.

Here are a few other fun “art + candy = fun” ideas I collected from the Internet:

• Creating with Candy
• Candy Critters
• Candy Masks

These activities were really engaging for both of us and enabled us to “enjoy” the candy without “ingesting” it! In all these activities, he only ate one piece of candy the entire time. I think he was just so immersed in the project he didn’t even think about eating it.

That’s what I call a win – win!

Happy Halloween!

So I created our fabulous sign up sheet. I even attempted to translate it into Spanish as there are 6 families who speak Spanish at home and whose parents know little or no English. After studying Spanish for 12 years I am embarrassed at how little I remember, but alas, I was able to piece something together with the limited vocabulary I could recall coupled with the online translations sites like wordreference.com. I am happy to report that all the slots were filled within 24-hours. (Can you say rock star room parent!? Ha!)

Are you planning a party for Halloween? If so, here are some tips for minimizing the SUGAR and WASTE factors, but maximizing the FUN.

With the party planning under control, I turned my attention to gathering a few books for the festivities. In addition to Over in the Hollow, these are three other books that are my list of must reads this fall.

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves This book has a winning combination—adorable illustrations and a meaningful storyline. The fox is just as cute as he can be and he is such an endearing character—concerned that his poor friend the tree is losing his leaves. Wiley’s Kindergarten class has been studying trees too so this is just perfect fit. Did you know, only broad leaf trees loose their leaves? Conifers are evergreen. We can’t take a walk anymore without discussing which trees are which.

Room on the Broom is a great read! Like Over in the Hollow, this book highlights the characters and antics of Halloween with a fun rhyming structure. The illustrations really bring the characters to life and while she’s not quite, Glenda the good witch, this witch is not the gruesome scary variety so it’s a safe bet for kids of all ages.

The House in the Night is not about Halloween or even fall per say, but the color scheme (just black & white with yellow) and the storyline: a house at night—makes it appropriate for Halloween. The illustrations are truly unique and remarkable. If they made a print of these pages, I’d order it and frame it! The words are so simple but as we read it together, we spend a lot of time on each page looking at the different items that are highlighted in yellow and talking about why they are highlighted.

I look forward to attending the class party and volunteering to read a story to the very subdued group of sugar-deprived children. Staying true to the CONTROL THY SUGAR mandate from the teacher, I ordered two dozen of these little treats for the kids. How clever! If you are enterprising enough, I am sure you can make them at home too. But I prefer to leave melting to the experts at Halloween ☺

What are you doling out this Halloween?

Happy Haunting!

Thank goodness the school library has been spared!

And while things like the elementary music program has fallen victim to the dreaded cuts, I am so very proud that our school still has a library. Interesting, it physically resides at the very center of the school. And that is so telling. Because I have come to realize just how incredibly valuable it is.

Just this week my son came home from school bubbling over with excitement to share the book he picked out at the library. He couldn’t wait to share it with me. As we read at bedtime, I had to stop for a moment, so I placed the open book, face down on his bed. “Mom! No!” I was swiftly reprimanded for handling the book this way. I sort of scoffed at first and then I realized, how sweet he was. To treat a book with such reverence and to appreciate what a privilege it was to have it on loan was really touching.

Mrs. Roquel, the librarian, has apparently schooled him in library borrowing etiquette. And she has made quite an impression; my son speaks so highly of her. I have never met her personally but from the way he talks, she sounds like a treasure. (Note to self: I really should make it a point to thank her.) She is doing so much to encourage an excitement around reading and an interest in discovering new things in books.

I can’t help but think how important a well-stocked and staffed school library is for reading achievement. In doing some Internet research, indeed there are many studies that point to a strong correlation.

“There are a number of recent studies in the library literature which have shown that a quality school library program is a powerful predictor of academic and reading achievement. In view of the current interest in the improvement of student achievement, particularly reading scores, it is especially critical that administrators realize that school library media resources and personnel are not only useful, but an indispensable component of the total school program and an integral part of the learning process.”

Source: http://www.libraries.phila.k12.pa.us/misc/research-sum.html

Do you have a library at your school? Or has it fallen victim to vanishing funds?