Spring
Somewhere
a black bear
has just risen from sleep
and is staring
down the mountain.
All night
in the brisk and shallow restlessness
of early spring
I think of her,
her four black fists
flicking the gravel,
her tongue
like a red fire
touching the grass,
the cold water.
There is one only one question:
how to love this world.
-Mary Oliver
Spring is coming. I can feel it…
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iPads.
They are everywhere.
And really what I mean is, television. It is everywhere.
The boy watching Dora before hitting the ski slopes.
The toddler engrossed in Jake and the Neverland Pirates as he waits for his dinner.
The screen lights that shine from every car we pass.
When did children stop sitting and waiting and being bored for even one minute?
And what will come of this generation if something doesn’t change very, very soon?
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Shh… Don’t tell anyone. For months, I betrayed my hero, Jim Trelease, the author of the much acclaimed Read Aloud Handbook. For a long time, I have said that I want to be Jim Trelease when I grow up. I mean, really, is there a better job in the world than talking and writing about the power of reading aloud to children?
Trelease has written often about the importance of reading aloud to children long after they become independent readers.
Trelease and other experts site the following as some of the reasons to read aloud to older children:
After all, reading and listening comprehension do not converge until the eighth grade. Therefore, adults can read books aloud to children that children can not easily read to themselves opening up huge literary worlds.
During this time of connection, an older child can understand that their parents remain a safe and important place to go for comfort.
With books as the prop, parents can discuss puberty, bullying and peer pressure without embarrassment.
So it’s pretty clear where I’m going with this.
Here comes the big confession. Until a few weeks ago, I had not read aloud to Caroline in months.
She was resistant and I was lazy. She was often reading more than one book a day and wanted to use all her reading time to do so. She didn’t want me to read. She wanted to read. I tried for a bit but then I stopped. After all, I told myself, she was reading. But always in the back of my mind, I felt a bit of guilt and sadness. I love reading aloud to the girls and I knew all the benefits.
When I saw a great TED talk by Jeanne Birdsall, author of the Penderwicks, I had an idea. I called the girls to the couch and we watched the video together. They were enthralled and when it ended I suggested we could read the book aloud together. Katherine said yes and Caroline, much to my dismay, said no.
I decided to forge forward and read to Katherine. Over the following days, Katherine made many references to Arundel Hall and Batty and Hound. Caroline began to get curious. A few nights later, as I began reading to Katherine, Caroline peeked around the corner and asked if she could join us.
She did and the rest is history.
I will forever love the Penderwicks. First, because it is a beautiful ‘old fashioned feeling’ yet contemporary story.
But even more so, I will love the Penderwicks because it has brought back my favorite time. The family read aloud.
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I love a good family vacation. Last week, we went on a two night adventure to Woodloch in Pennsylvania. We had heard great things about the place but had never been so we were not sure what we would find when we got there.
Here is what we found…
Ice skating…
and ice lying.
Snow tubing…
more snow tubing…
and even more snow tubing.
A new found love of air hockey…
Whipped cream at breakfast…
and a chance to see an amazing illustionist, Jason Bishop, perform in a ‘night club’.
And just some great time in the snow…
Here’s to family vacations!
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The other day, Katherine was singing as she often is.
“It’s always a good time!”, she sang loudly and repeatedly.
Caroline gave her a look, more for the repetition of the singing than anything else but Katherine wisely replied, “What, something has to be good now!”
If I could sell the girl’s optimism, I’d be awfully rich…
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As we settle in to February break, I thought I would share an article I wrote for this month’s Flager Parent. It’s all about fun ways to engage with children’s literature if cabin fever has made it’s way in to your house…
The temperature hovers around freezing. Snow covers the playground. No one wants to play outside but all the children are tired of the usual indoor games. Each year, I promise not to let the winter blues invade our house but as I flip calendar pages, cabin fever hits despite my best efforts. That’s when I pull out the books and get to work banishing the winter blues.
To get creative with reading and writing activities:
Children of all ages can enjoy listening to the same book. In order to embrace the family read aloud, it is important for parents to remember that picture books are still great for older children and that younger children benefit immensely from listening to chapter books. For older children, picture books activate visual thinking, tackle tough subjects in approachable ways and remind children, who may have forgotten, that reading is fun. For younger children, chapter books build background knowledge and vocabulary and teach important story structures.
Picture books that can be fun for the whole family include, I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen, Bear Has a Story to Tell by Phillip Stead and Blackout by John Rocco. For family chapter books check out, Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie, Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke and Marty McGuire by Kate Messner.
While children love listening to stories read aloud, they also love performing. Combine these loves by choosing a favorite book and turning it into a play. To keep things simple, choose a book with a small number of characters and lots of action. Depending on the age of the children, write a script, plan costumes and create tickets for a planned show. For younger children, parents can read a book aloud, while the children take to the stage, performing actions as their parents read.
Some book ideas for younger children include, Boy and Bot by Ame Dyckman, I’ll Save You Bobo by Eileen and Mark Rosenthal and Harriet, You’ll Drive Me Wild by Mem Fox. Books for older children that contain a small number of characters include, Let’s Go for a Drive by Mo Weillems, The Sniffles for Bear by Bonny Becker and Mouse and Mole, A Winter Wonderland by Wong Herbert Yee.
While most families have favorites books that all children agree on, there are also books that become personal favorites. Plan a “Favorite Book Election” and encourage children to campaign for their favorite book. Children can create campaign posters and speeches in an attempt to convince other members to love a new book. If children don’t have particular favorites books, create an election around famous book characters. How about Clifford vs. Biscuit? Or Franklin vs. Froggy?
While reading aloud is great fun for everyone, listening to audio books gives all the family members a chance to relax. As the temperature drops and fires fill the fireplaces, choose a selection of audio books, curl up by the fire and let the author and narrator do the entertaining. Visit your local library for books on CD or download books to your computer or smart phone.
Some books that transition especially well to audio include, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Wonder by R.J. Palacio and Clementine by Sara Pennypacker.
Your family can celebrate their love of books during family movie night. Many great children’s books are used as inspiration for quality films. It is exciting to watch a movie after the family has read the book and compare how the book and movie are similar and different. It can be equally fun to watch a movie before reading the book. If a book seems a bit advanced and complicated for your children, it can work well to watch the movie before reading the book. By doing this, younger children can gain a basic understanding of the characters and plot and will then be able to relax and enjoy the book.
Some recent movies inspired by children’s literature include….
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Dr. Suess’ The Lorax
Hugo
Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer
Mirror Mirror
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
Ramona and Beezus
The Secret World of Arrietty
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A few weeks ago, I wrote about our family’s first adventure on the ski slopes. We went again this weekend, having been one other time in between. As if often the case in this whole parenting thing, skiing has become so much more than just skiing for us.
You see, Katherine took immediately to skis, showing some signs of being my father’s granddaughter. My father was a passionate skiier, a man happier on skis than almost anywhere else. When I drove through snow on a late night in Lubbock, Texas all those years ago, I knew that Dad had died. Why else would snow being falling in Lubbock. Never really, before or since, have I experienced a sign like that. But I digress.
The point of all this is that Katherine appears to be a natural skiier. Her big sister, on the other hand, is not. The first day, Caroline’s skies crossed continually. She had a nearly impossible time standing still and an even harder time moving without falling. I was thrilled and beyond impressed that first day when she fought through the entire lesson to the end, determined to finish. I was even more impressed when she asked to ski again.
The next time we went, Katherine and Caroline continued the trend. Katherine left the bunny hill to venture on to a chair lift and down a bigger trail while Caroline stayed behind. This was not easy for Caroline, the big being left behind by the little. So needless to say, when she finished her lesson that day and asked to ski again, I was shocked and happy.
And then this weekend, Caroline was rewarded for her determination, her drive, her ability to see the long term benefit of learning how to ski through the short term embarrassment of it being so hard. She left the bunny hill behind and moved onward to the bigger trails, chair lift and all.
I hope as Caroline moves forward in life that she remembers these early days of skiing and the power of believing in your ability to work through something that is hard. Great things will continue to come to her if she only remembers…
Read more“When all’s said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it’s not so much which road you take, as how you take it.”
– Charles De Lint (found in Katrina Kenison’s The Gift of an Ordinary Day)
So with that in mind, I found hearts on Valentine’s Day
in my salad
and even in the dirt.
If this seems like a fun idea, be sure to check out See a Heart, Share a Heart by Eric Telchin of Boy Sees Hearts.
While my website was being beautifully updated, I took a bit of a blogging break.
Since I’ve written, we enjoyed the most gorgeous snow storm. We haven’t had a storm with enough snow to play in a long time. Everyone was excited and ready for a weekend of shoveling, playing and resting.
And of course, picture taking..
