Enjoying the rewards of sharing my love of reading with my children, and hoping to pass some of that joy along to others.
I'm a credentialed teacher who chose to leave the classroom temporarily to enjoy being full-time mom. My boys have crowded bookshelves and I keep a "stash" in the closet of books they have yet to grow into. Library day is a much anticipated treat around here, and bedtime stories always seem to end with, "could we have one more, please?"
I'd love to hear if you've enjoyed the same books we do, or if you know others we might enjoy... so please share!
Grab My Button!
Feed Me Books Friday: Grab the Code, Join the Fun!
My husband and I were marveling the other night at the
180 degree shift T has made in his attitude toward books. Where we once couldn’t
pin him down long enough to get through a wordless board book, we now have to
set a limit on stories before he pulls every title off the bookshelf (and not
just for the fun of the mess). It gives me great joy to say T has become a book
lover. I even had to have J bring half a dozen books from home for T’s recentstay at the hospital. We read them so many times I think I’ll have to hide them
for the next couple of months just to give myself a break! With T’s growing
interest in books, we’ve made an adjustment to the bedtime routine, namely,
making room in B’s bed for T to listen to books, too. Now, each boy gets to
choose a book for Daddy to read. T usually insists on positioning himself in
the middle rather than letting J hold the book between the boys – which is odd –
I guess he likes the cuddle factor as much as he enjoys the stories.
Sibling Sweetness
The combination of my existing fondness for warm andfuzzy bedtime books and the glow I’m basking in thanks to T’s newfound love of
reading led to a special affinity for Goodnight Me, Goodnight You, by TonyMitton. I stumbled upon this gem at the library, but I’ve already put it on my
Amazon wishlist because I found the soothing text and vibrant but still mellow
illustrations so pleasant that I’m sure we’ll need (and enjoy) repeated
readings. The story, written in rhyming couplets, follows the bedtime routine
of a sister and brother as they bid goodnight to their day, their surroundings,
and the world. It concludes with the siblings telling one another goodnight and
settling into bed. While T and B are certainly not going to put each other to
bed, it is a treasured feeling to see them cuddling up together to foster
literacy as well as emotional bonds.
Appropriate for toddlers, preschoolers, primary grades.
Sunday morning, T woke up with a congested nose and a cough. This afternoon his pediatrician said his cough will probably linger and I should use a saline rinse in his nose, but he's otherwise just fine. In the three-and-a-half days in between, we had two trips to urgent care, an ambulance ride to the ER, diagnoses of respiratory distress and pneumonia, two nights in the hospital, seemingly countless nebulizer treatments, and some major disruptions to our household. We are grateful to be on the recovering end of this little curve-ball life threw at us, but I can't say we are quite back to normal. I am behind on visiting the friendly and talented folks who link their posts and leave comments here. I have no review prepared for this week, and while I could stay up tonight and write something, I'm going to trust that my readers will afford me the luxury of catching up on sleep now, and catching up on blogging later. I do have a request of you though: B has been coming home from kindergarten reciting nursery rhymes (Three Little Kittens, Jack and Jill, etc) and I'd love to encourage his interest. There are any number of collections and anthologies of nursery rhymes, but I'm wondering if anyone has a favorite? Best collection? Best illustrations? Some other intriguing reason? For those who loyally visit and link up every week, I am including a link tool in this post, and I hope you'll visit one another until I can get caught up and make the rounds. Counting my blessings and soon some zzzz's.