Children's Home Library Start-Up - My Dilemma.

"Long before children are introduced to the public library, books should be a part of their home lives. Begin a home library as soon as the child is born." - Jim Trelease (The Read Aloud Handbook, 2001)

If you don't have a home library for you child, I strongly encourage you to start one. It doesn't have to be expensive. Want some awesome, inexpensive bookshelves? Craigslist is a great place to search. I think we paid $30 for a nice all-wood shelf for my son's room, but you can find shelves even cheaper than that on there. If you're lucky enough to have an IKEA near you, that's a great place to look too. Or make these shelves. I plan on putting some of these up once my son gets a little bigger and is able to explore books on his own a little more.

Need some books on the cheap? That's even easier than finding inexpensive bookshelves. Visit garage sales, thrift stores, consignment stores, consignment sales, and library book sales. I get amazing deals at these places all the time (Read about it here and here). But I would also encourage you to spend some money on new books when you can. There's a special feeling that comes with having your very own, brand-new, shiny book! You can always request these at birthdays and holidays too, if your family and friends are wanting gift ideas for your little one. (You can check out the Literacy Launchpad Store in the sidebar for some great book-buying!)

I have been working on my child's home library for years now, because as a literacy teacher, I'm always buying books! And as it turns out, this has created a bit of a dilemma for me. I don't know which books are his and which books are mine!

He does have a some books that are definitely his. And I let him chew on these, drool on these, and crumple the pages as he explores them. But there are many books that I consider mine, and I guess I'm just not a good sharer. I know he would enjoy many of my picture books as he gets older, and I want him to have the freedom to look at and explore them on his own. But I'm fearful of what may happen to my precious books!

So what do I do? Do I need to just let it go and share? Books are meant to be enjoyed, right? Hopefully, if I teach him how to properly care for books, he'll treat my books kindly.

... Or do I leave my books put up somewhere for special reading times only? What would you do?

I'm up for a reading challenge!

Biblio File has posed a great reading challenge. It's based on one of those "1000 Books You Should Read Before You Die" lists. We've all seen those, right? And then felt terrible because we've only read a few, if any, of the books listed. No? Just me?

I've accepted the fact that I will probably (OK, certainly) never read all of the books on the list, but this challenge is a way to feel a little bit better about myself by reading at least a few of them.

Remember parents, it's important to be a reading role model! Come on and join me. You can sign up at the Biblio File blog.

Recycle You Old Horn Book Magazines

Isn't it pretty??

Audio Books (See Also: How a Stay-At-Home-Mom Stays Sane)

If you're at home with your kids during the day (or even if it's just on the weekends), and you're anything like me, you probably don't like having the T.V. on much, if at all. My sister and I have frequently discussed the dilemma of this, because often the T.V. is the closest thing to adult contact we get during the long, lonely weekdays. Especially during the winter when there's not a whole lot you can go do to get out of the house.

Solution? Go visit your local library and pick up some audio books! It may not be quite the window to the outside world you're used to with the T.V., but it's something to keep you company, it won't put your children into a zombie-like trance (like the T.V. does to my son), and your children will probably enjoy it! Not to mention, it can help improve their literacy skills (much more than T.V. can).

Another perk of audio books? I rarely have time to sit down and just read lately it seems. But with audio books I can listen while I cook, clean the kitchen, fold the laundry, or play on the floor with my son. It's a great way for me to catch up on some of the reading I've been wanting to do.

There are many options when it comes to finding audio books. There are MP3s, CDs, and cassettes. Not many people still have cassette players, but if you do, I've found that there's quite a bit more selection to choose from at the library. Also, podcasts are an option. I like to listen to podcasts from Just One More Book and Children's Book Radio. As well as podcasts from my church, and Mars Hill.

In the photo above, you can see what we've been listening to lately around here. The Phantom Tollbooth and Mama Don't Allow are from the library. Just So Stories and The Story Tree were Christmas gifts from Isaac's Gramma and PaPa.

My son is only six months old, so he only has a very limited appreciation (if any) of audio books, but I still pick up audio CDs of picture books and JV fiction. Partly because I enjoy hearing those too!

The T.V. stays off during the day at our house for the most part (football on the weekends is the big exception). We do the majority of our T.V. watching in the evening, after our son is asleep (thank you, DVR). We aren't totally anti-T.V., but we don't really want our son watching a ton of it. Especially not before he turns two-years-old.

So go ahead, dust off that old boom-box (check out my huge one in the photo above) and turn off Dr. Phil. You'll be glad you did!

Oh, and let me know what some of your favorite audio books are!

The Hat - Lesson Reflection

The Hat, by Jan Brett, was a hit... as anticipated (See Tuesday's post for a review of the book). Here are some thoughts about yesterday's predicting lesson:

•  My first group session was a little crazy. The students just got so excited during our activity we did during the read-aloud. They had a difficult time staying seated and staying quiet long enough for me to read each page. I mean, I love that they're so engrossed in the story and our activity, but I don't enjoy having to say, "On your bottom, please," over and over... and over.

• I gave the students complete creative freedom with their "hats" and puppet. No regrets there.
  

• Keeping the order during a unit on predicting proves to be quite tricky, because each child is eager to get their prediction out first as we go through each story. I hate to enforce strict rules about raising hands and what-not too much, because I want them to feel free to chime in and say what they're thinking, and I want it to be fun. But perhaps I need to put more focus on this?

• Conversations between the puppets were a riot!
  

• Yesterday we used some paper puppets to do predicting during The Hat. The students each couldn't wait for it to be their turn to predict with their animal puppet. After one student's turn had passed, he immediately said, "Can we read the story again?" I said, "We still are reading the story!" I love when they are so blantantly excited about our story and what we're doing. Motivating and Empowering readers?? Check!

• The clothesline activity I came up with added the perfect element of fun, and helped with comprehension. I loved it. 

• This lesson would be so much fun with even one child. Oh, the possibilities! I can't wait till Isaac is old enough to play around with these activities!
  

• Yes, he purposely put the stocking over the hen's eyes.

Again, detailed instructions for this read-aloud and activities will be available soon!

The Hat, by Jan Brett... A Review

Photo by Denis Defreyne

Thanks goodness for a great children's book to warm me up on a winter day. Oooo... how I love me a Jan Brett story! The Mitten is usually a staple of every preschool teacher's library, and it should be. It's a beautiful book. So beautiful, that for a long time, I ignored Jan Brett's book The Hat. Big mistake!

The Hat opens with a little girl, Lisa, hanging all her woolen clothes on the clothesline. When the wind blows one of her stockings off the line, it ends up stuck on the head of an adorable hedgehog, Hedgie. An embarrassed, Hedgie, tries to casually pass the stocking off as a hat when he is mocked by various other animals he runs into throughout the story. Do the other animals buy into Hedgie's story? You'll see when you reach the fun surprise ending!

Brett's illustrations are in her signature style, complete with detailed vignette's that add important details to the story beyond the text. In these vignettes we see Lisa searching for her missing stocking. We also see what's happening with the animals Hedgie visits with, after they have run off.

A big part of what makes Brett's books so much fun is the expression she conveys on the faces of the animals she illustrates. I love seeing the silly story of what's going on in the animals' fictional world, juxtaposed against the tale of Lisa, going about her business in a realistic human world. When these two worlds mingle at the end of the story, it's a perfect climax to the book. I really love that element Jan Brett uses in her books.

This story works great with our predicting unit because the details of Brett's illustrations give many clues which we can base our predictions on. And I think my students love this story even more than The Mitten. In previous years it's been one they have talked about for months after hearing it. They just love Hedgie! And who wouldn't?

We'll be reading this story in class tomorrow. Stay tuned to hear how our lesson went. I'll be posting about it later this week, complete with photos!

Ever Wanted to Write Your Own Children's Book?

Photo by bingbing

Come on, we've all dreamed about it... writing your own children's book! Well, I've at least dreamed about it. A lot. The idea is very intimidating though. Plus, the ins and outs of the world of children's book publishing seems complex, and is something I know zip about.

Well, be intimidated no more! Simple Mom recently introduced five new columnists on her blog, and one of them is Maya Bisineer. Maya has started an online picture book bazar - Memetales. It is the coolest idea! She's genius! You'll have to go visit and check it out, because my description won't do it justice.

And after you've checked out Memetales, stop by the comments section here and let me know if you've ever dreamed of writing (or illustrating) a children's book.