Remember the You Tube video of the boy opening a book for Christmas? If you don’t, it was widely viewed over the Internet as he cried and carried on about getting a book for Christmas. While my girls didn’t respond with quite the same level of disgust, I did feel like books were often quickly put aside in favor of seeing what the next package held.

A few years ago, I had an idea that has taken care of the ‘books for Christmas’ problem.

Everyone in our family is now super excited for the 12 days leading up to Christmas as we celebrate the 12 Books of Christmas.

Each day, the girls find a wrapped package at their breakfast spot. A book. They happily spend time flipping through the pages, looking at pictures and if time allows, reading.

As we approach the last day of the 12 Books of Christmas, I’ll be starting my list for next year. Just maybe, I look forward to the 12 days before Christmas a bit more than the real day…

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 I have fond memories of Christmas TV shows and especially of  being able to stay up late to watch them. In our house, Christmas TV does not seem to have quiet the same hold on the girls. In fact, Katherine is scared of the Abominable Snow Monster and Caroline gets sad every time that Frosty melts.

There is one program, though, that has made everyone happy this Christmas season. A Charlie Brown Christmas.

So imagine my delight when I read this post on Horn Book today. There is a well reviewed Charlie Brown Christmas app. I downloaded it right away and can’t wait to share it with the girls. The story is told in book form with the words highlighted. Perfect for my early reader. There are fun things to do on each page and the music can’t be beat.

So Charlie Brown friends, enjoy..

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I am finally reading Katrina Kenison’s , The Gift of an Ordinary Day. Many people, whose opinions I value highly, have told me to read this wonderful piece of writing and I am so glad that now is when I have chosen to begin the book.

Today I was talking with a group of moms at pick up about how the four third grade teachers are taking a different approach to homework this week. One completely ignored the school wide recommendation to give no homework on the first night of Chanukah. Three did not give home work on that first night but two are back to giving it now. One is giving no homework for the week.

I think there should no homework this week seeing. Then again, I really think there should hardly be homework ever so I guess this comes as no surprise. Whenever I speak with our most wonderful principal about the subject of homework, she reminds me that parents in our community have many different thoughts on the subject. I have known this but today it became even more apparent.

Of all the moms talking today, I was only one who thought there should be no homework this week. Many of them feel like the children do not ever get enough homework. I wasn’t really shocked but I was saddened. Our little ones are eight. They have a long hard roads of school and homework ahead of them. It seems like it would be ok and even good to have a bit of a break the week before the winter holidays begin.

I was feeling a bit lonely in my thinking when I read Kenison’s words below:

I’m continually reminded that a real education is not just a simple transfer of information, not a competition,  but a gradual and at times unfathomable process of awakening compassion, deepening understanding, and fostering the development of imagination, curiosity and will. Learning well doesn’t mean scoring high. It also means aquiring the tools necessary to take on the most challenging work of all- becoming the person you are meant to be.

So from a lonely place of confused values, I opened a book and found someone who understood.

Let’s hope all our children have the time and the will to find this place in a book one day…

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This fall, Katherine has spent her mornings at her Montessori pre-school and her afternoons at our half day public school kindergarten. I never thought twice about scheduling her days this way. She has been going to Montessori for years and has always stayed there through lunch and in the past year and a half, for a full day. When presented with the option of a two and half hour kindergarten day, it seemed quite obvious that I would extend her day by keeping her at Montessori as well. This is a common practice in our town. Many families choose to continue sending their kindergarten aged children to pre-school in addition to kindergarten to lengthen their day, thereby increasing their learning.

This week though, Katherine’s Montessori school is closed for the holidays so her day consists of only kindergarten.

The dreaded short day. Although, I’m not finding it dreadful at all.

I’m finding it slower and calmer and lovely. In hindsight, I’m wondering if I made the right choice for Katherine and for me. I’m always so quick to wish the girls bigger. To wish them easier. And in doing so, I’ve wished us so busy.

I suppose it is only in hindsight that I now know what this fall turned out to be. It was a fall that never let our community breathe. We ended the summer with a hurricane which brought us right into the craziness of the start of school. As we finally settled in to our schedules, the snow fell, knocking out power and closing our schools. As we got back on our feet from the snow, our community was rocked with the accidental and tragic death of a sweet six year old girl. And then the holidays approached with all their beauty and their stress.

As we go through our last school week of 2011, I feel so lucky to spend it in a quieter place.

It was only today, when taking the fifteen minutes to scooter to school felt like a luxury, that I realized just how much I needed to be in this place of relative calm.

May it remain so and may I have the wisdom to carve out this quiet in our days moving forward..

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Today was our annual cookie baking day. Our family goes to Rob’s parent’s house where we are joined by Rob’s sister’s family and good family friends. We are covered in flour and sugar all day as the kids alternate between baking and playing. It is a wonderful holiday tradition.

Wonderful and tiring. We arrived at home late this evening and I was sure getting the girls to bed would be a bit of a struggle. They were exhausted which can often mean, ironically, that going to sleep can be a challenge.

Apparently not though when you have a bed time reading routine.

Both girls climbed the stairs, showered and were under their covers quickly. Caroline tucked her fluffy comforter around herself and reached for her version of comfort food- an already read Babysitter’s Club book. What a perfect way to end a tiring day, visiting with familiar characters.

And Katherine snuggled up next to me as we picked right up where we left off last night,  reading about Pandora and Seabold in Cynthia Rylant’s Lighthouse series.

There are nights when I feel so lucky to have established such a strong bed time reading routine and tonight was one of those nights.

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Every time I sit down to write out the addresses on our holiday cards, I promise that the next year I will create labels.

It would be so much easier. So much faster.

But if I had created labels sooner, I wouldn’t feel the passage of time quite so strongly.

For the first time, the girls helped me with the cards. I can still remember the card we sent out the year before Caroline was born. We had captured a moment in time as our Boxer and tabby cat sat side by side and labeled the photo, “Peace on Earth.” So there was a time when we only had animals to include on our card and now we have children old enough to help stamp and seal the envelopes.

By keeping my holiday card addresses in an old fashioned address book, I watch this passage of time in a different way. I see names and addresses of people who we haven’t heard from in years but whose information remains in my book. I have erased names of spouses since divorced and penciled in names of new husbands or wives. I have erased old addresses and penciled in new ones. In doing so I am moved by the fact that these major life changes are marked in my book with the simple sweep of an eraser. Such sad and happy occurrences in one family are pencil marks in mine. Moves far away and moves back home. Marriages and divorces. Devastating diagnoses and amazing recoveries. All recorded in a small cream covered book.

Maybe I won’t feel so rushed to switch to labels after all…

 

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A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is a must read.

Kirkus Review writes of a Monster Calls,

A nuanced tale that draws on elements of classic horror stories to delve into the terrifying terrain of loss. . . . Ness brilliantly captures Conor’s horrifying emotional ride as his mother’s inevitable death approaches. In an ideal pairing of text and illustration, the novel is liberally laced with Kay’s evocatively textured pen-and-ink artwork, which surrounds the text, softly caressing it in quiet moments and in others rushing toward the viewer with a nightmarish intensity. A poignant tribute to the life and talent of Siobhan Dowd and an astonishing exploration of fear.

It has been positively reviewed here in the New York Times and here in the Telegraph.

It has received multiple awards: Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Books 2011, Fiction; SLJ Best Books of 2011, Fiction; The New York Times Notable Children’s Books of 2011, Young Adult.

Many book bloggers, including  Meg Medina (who I owe a public thank you for the nomination she sent my way for a Liebster award) declared a Monster Calls her favorite book of the year.

And I too loved it. I can’t stop thinking about the haunting tale. I also can’t help wondering if it is indeed a book for children. The story is so dark and so incredibly sad. Is it so because of the life baggage that I bring to it? Would children be equally disturbed?

As we approach award season, I am eager to hear more and more about A Monster Calls. I do know it should win awards.  I’m just not sure if it should be winning awards for children’s literature or for adult fiction.

 

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“The best way to cultivate their tastes is to read to them, starting at birth and keeping on and on. ‘Let me hear you read it’ is a test. ‘Let me read it to you.’ is a gift. So…read to them, read to them, read to them. For if we are careless in the matter of nourishing the imagination, the world will pay for it. The world already has.”

              Katherine Paterson, A Sense of Wonder

 

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I am always on the look out for a Read Together Book. A Read Together Book is one that a new reader can read almost independently. Snuggled up with a grown up (or big sister!), Katherine can read these type of books and feel so proud of herself as a reader when she is done.

When I glanced quickly at Eve Bunting’s Hurry! Hurry! I lthought I had a winner.

I ran through my check list:

Few words per page- check.

Big font- check.

These were the obvious things I saw at the libary. After Katherine and I had started to read, I wished I had taken the time to finish my check list before telling her excitedly that I had found another book she could help me read. As we moved through, I realized that my complete checklist would not have supported this book as a read together.  

Pictures provide clues for decoding the words- no check.

Strong repetition of text- no check.

Some easily decodable words- no check.

Fortunately, Eve Bunting, being the excellent author that she is, swooped in to save the day. Katherine barely noticed that she wasn’t the one reading as I took over the tale. With often as few as two words on each page, Katherine was captivated. There were actual ‘oos’ and ‘ahs’ and exclamations of ‘Oh my goodness Mommy! What’s going to happen?’

With only two words per page, Eve Bunting did not create a Read Together Book. But she did create a Read Aloud Book. So there were no complaints here…

 

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Sometimes all the information keeps pointing in the same direction.

 Last week, I wrote about the ridiculous discrepency between teacher salaries and those of professional baseball players.

Then I spent tons and tons of time this weekend preparing for a day of professional development that I will be conducting later this week. When I figured out how many hours I had spent preparing for the day, I became quite discouraged. While I love the work, it was crazy to realize just how little money today’s education system thinks my time is worth.  

And then I took the girls to make Christmas presents at our amazingly wonderful local bead shop and saw the poster above displayed among all their beauty.

It reads,

It will be a great day

when

our schools get all the money

they need

and the air force

has to hold

a bake sale

to buy a bomber.

I hate to repeat myself but, enough said.

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