Booking Through Thursday: Size Matters

Booking Through Thursday's question this week is:

What’s the largest your personal library has ever been? What’s the greatest number of books you’ve ever owned at one time? (Estimates are fine.)
Is your collection NOW the biggest it’s ever been? Or have you down-sized?
What’s the fewest number of books you’ve ever owned (not counting your pre-reading years)?

I believe my personal library was the same size when I was single as now, when I live with a husband and two children! Through six moves in married life, I have pared down my books as much as I could. Still, I kept all my beloved children's and young adult books through all of this. One reason was that they are still some of my very favorite books. Another reason was to save them for when my children might be interested in reading them.

We only have a few more children's books now than I ever did!

My best guess at the number of books in this house is around 400.

The smallest number of books I owned was probably twenty-five to fifty when I was a child at home. When I left home, several of the household-at-large books were given to me or just mysteriously came with me. More were given to me as my mother cleared out her homes. My collection grew from there. I always bought books at library sales and garage sales, but I also started buying books online during my college years.

Now, with children, I find their favorite Christmas-gift books come from my Goodwill selections.

The Easiest (and Most Polite) Children's Thank You Notes

Margaret Shepherd, in her book The Art of the Handwritten Note, has this to say about thank you notes: "Party or no party, birthday gifts require a thank-you note written by you in your own handwriting. 'Fred says thank-you for the Ferrari,' is acceptable only if the car is two inches long and Fred is still in diapers."

What about children who cannot yet write in their own handwriting? Artwork is often welcomed by the gift-giver, as are photos, especially of the child using the gift.

I have to thank my mother for the following easy children's thank-you note idea.

Cut a length of paper (butcher paper, for example) to fit a low craft table. Tape the edges of the paper to the table so that it won't move around when it is colored. Supply whatever craft materials you would like your child to use. Ready, set, go! Let your child color and decorate to his or her heart's content.

When your child has finished, cut the long paper into notecard sizes. You might also write "Thank You" along the side of each card, or your child's name and the date.

You should now have between 20 and 40 customized notecards to use the next time your child receives a gift.

Thank you, Mom!

Two Ways to Help Children Who Get Frustrated with Writing

Often a child has difficulty forming perfect letters and numbers due to the fine motor skills challenge it presents. This may cause emotions to run high. From the child's perspective the skill being attempted may seem impossible.

Working on the concept of perfectionism helps. See this wonderful page from the National Association of School Psychologists for more on this topic.

So does practice. The challenge is to give plenty of opportunities for practice but at the same time make sure it is fun, at least at first.

#1: Make it larger.

A child who struggles writing letters and numbers may need a bigger space to write them. This can also be helpful with very active children because it allows their bodies to move around a little bit, too.

Gather 8.5 x 11" pieces of paper, preferably white copy paper for ease of use. You will need as many pieces as the letters in your child's name. Draw dashed lines in the outline of each of the letters in your child's name, one per piece of paper. (Don't make the dashes too close together or it looks like the child's work is already done.)

Tape the pieces of paper on the floor or a table within easy reach of your child, in the order of your child's name. Ask him or her to trace the letters to spell the name. Give lots of encouragement and laugh with him or her if that's appropriate.

Note: If this is still hard and too frustrating for your child, allow him or her to practice drawing lines alongside a ruler, which will eventually, with practice, make very straight lines that a perfectionist-leaning child will like.

#2: Do Dot-to-Dots.

Dot-to-dots are a less threatening way to make lines from a specific place to another specific place. Children who feel threatened by the idea that they have to make a perfect letter may not feel threatened at all making lines that will reveal a fun shape. It is best to give a few dot-to-dots in a row, or as many as your child wants to do (within reason), in order from simplest to hardest.

Additional Activities:

My son also likes any activity better when it's done in a Kumon workbook. He has tried this one and this one and this one.

I also refer you to one of my favorite learning activities blogs, Children's Learning Activities, for their activities that work on fine motor skills.

Storybook Week 9: I Stink!

I Stink! was written by Kate McMullan and illustrated by Jim McMullan. The first thing to do for Storybook Week 9 is to get hold of a copy of I Stink! from your local library, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, or favorite brick-and-mortar book store.

1. Read the Story

Language Arts

Read the storybook or watch the Weston Woods storybook video from Scholastic Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics. Or do both.

2. In Your Community

Social Studies/Story Interest/Arts and Crafts

Talk about your community: Do you see police officers in your community? Fire trucks? Where are the library, city hall, fire station, grocery stores, haircutting shops, and post office? Do you see garbage collectors in your neighborhood? What do they do? Where does your trash go?

Set up a play community using building blocks. Or, if you have them, use play sets. Here is one that we used for a while. And here is a great idea for building a Safety Town out of cardboard boxes, paper, glue, and markers or crayons. (The craft idea is at the end of part two of this great safety tips video. It is not step-by-step instructions, just a demonstration of what the children made. They use cardboard boxes of different sizes, glue white paper onto the surfaces, and allow the children to decorate them into whatever "safer buildings" they like.)

3. Parts of a Garbage Truck

Story Interest/Fine Motor Skills/Arts and Crafts/Language Arts

This eHow page describes types of garbage trucks and their parts. You and your child can learn vocabulary words like: cab, hopper, passenger cabin, compactor, packer blade, rear-loader, front-loader, hydraulic, and lift.

Here you can see pictures of actual trucks to apply your new vocabulary.

Here you can print off garbage truck pictures for coloring.

If you don't already have a garbage truck in your toy collection and your child is very interested, consider investing in a toy garbage truck with working parts (this one has removable trash bins and figures).

For an older child: This is also an investment, but you might consider buying the Melissa & Doug Mighty Builder Garbage Truck which requires a lot of assembly using a screwdriver. We have not used this product, but from reading the reviews, it seems like a big hit with young children. It needs assembly by an older person, so it might be a good fit for a family with both older and younger children. (I've included links in this post solely based on relevance; we have not tried these products and I don't receive any benefit from mentioning them.)

4. Your Own Alphabet Soup Recipe

Story Interest/Language Arts

In the story, the garbage truck gives his recipe for alphabet soup, made in the back of his truck. It includes apple cores, banana peels, and other trashy items. You and your child can think up your own alphabet soup recipe by going through the alphabet and finding words that start with each letter. It would be an added learning tool to use a chalkboard, dry-erase board, or Magna-doodle to write the words you come up with next to each letter. Your alphabet soup recipe-making could even extend across twenty-six days if you assign one letter to each day.

The very most ambitious among you might even come up with a food item for each letter and make that food with your child, although it would take some stamina to do all twenty-six letters this way!

 5. And Even More Garbage Truck Activities!
Arts and Crafts/Gross Motor Skills/Social Studies

This eHow page has additional fun and educational activities about garbage collection.


To see previous Storybook Weeks, click one of these links:

Storybook Week 1: Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/storybook-week-1-chicka-chicka-1-2-3.html

Storybook Week 2: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/storybook-week-2-chicka-chicka-boom.html

Storybook Week 3: Chrysanthemum: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/storybook-week-3-chrysanthemum.html

Storybook Week 4: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/storybook-week-4-click-clack-moo-cows.html

Storybook Week 5: Curious George Rides a Bike: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/05/storybook-week-5-curious-george-rides.html

Storybook Week 6: Diary of a Spider: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/05/storybook-week-6-diary-of-spider.html

Storybook Week 7: Harold and the Purple Crayon: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/05/storybook-week-7-harold-and-purple.html

Storybook Week 8: How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?: http://schooloutofschool.blogspot.com/2011/06/storybook-week-8-how-do-dinosaurs-say.html

The Rainbow Fish Lotto, A Toddler and Preschooler Game

I recently found The Rainbow Fish Lotto at a used bookstore near our home (Half Price Books). It was a low-enough price that I decided to risk buying it to see if it was a good gateway game for our two-year-old.

The game consists of four cards with several images from The Rainbow Fish story printed on them. There are smaller cards with one image each from the story. A basic way to play is to give each player a large card and place the stack of smaller cards in front of everyone. Someone (maybe Mom or Dad) picks up a card from the pile and each player looks to see if it matches one of the images on their larger card.

The box says the game is for ages 3-6. We found good ways to use it with a just-turned-two-year-old who could match the pictures.

For other skill levels, the game can be simplified or made more complex. There are two different versions specified in the game instructions and when playing the game it is easy to think of different ways you might want to use the cards. One way, which a toddler will quickly discover, is to take out all the cards, look at them, and then put them back in again. And repeat.

Speaking of toddler play, one of my favorite things about the game is the sturdiness of the cards and the game box and lid. This type of game could easily be made at home by printing out pictures from a storybook and cutting and arranging them. However, the game we bought will live through toddler play for quite a while.

And of course, this would be a great activity after reading The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.

(I don't get any compensation from this review of the game; I just liked playing it with our toddler. :)

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sushi for Lunch

I thought this was a fun idea from Jif, which I found through bon appetit (which I believe I found through Money Saving Mom's website).

I did have to pin the rolls together with toothpicks. Just before serving them to my toddler, I took them out. (I also placed the "just for fun" chopsticks out of his reach. :)

Our younger son enjoyed it:

Our older son tried the chopsticks:

Then gave up and ate:

Summary:

The lunch was enjoyed.
It was easy to make and put together.
Do not bother with the chopsticks, even for fun, if your children are like mine! (They love play-fighting and don't know how to use chopsticks.)
I don't think this was an all-time favorite, but if the plan is same-old peanut butter and jelly anyway, this is a more exciting way to do it.

Learning to Tie Shoelaces

On some kindergarten readiness lists is that dreaded challenge Learning to Tie Shoelaces. We did not even broach the subject in our house until our son was five years old.

At that age, he was ready for a new challenge, so we said we would start the learning process.

Tip #1: Go very slowly.

We don't learn many skills on our first try. Don't expect your child to learn much the first time you show them how to tie their laces. They might be able to remember the first step (for example, make an X with the shoelaces).

Tip #2: Modify their expectations.

Tell your children that they will NOT know how to tie shoelaces on their first try. Tell them you will practice together many, many times before they know how to do it.

Each time my son complained, "I don't remember!" or, "I can't do it correctly!" I said, "That's okay! It takes lots of practice before we know how to do something!"

Then I asked him if he remembered the first step (which I knew he did) so that he could tell me something correctly and feel proud of it.

Tip #3: Use one of the fun methods out there.

Characters like jumping bunnies do help children remember the steps to tying their shoes. I like this method from Wondertime magazine.

Tip #4: Shoes with laces are hard to find!

When we felt we were ready to start tackling this skill, I went shopping for shoes with laces that would fit my five-year-old. It was hard! Almost all the children's styles were flip-flops or velcro or just stretchy.

Our consignment store had some, but I had heard never to buy used shoes for children, so I hesitated. Other shoe stores did not carry laced shoes except for very much larger sizes. My son has long feet and I still had trouble finding any laced shoes his size! I thought our only option was going to be football or soccer cleats!

Finally, I did find a pair of sneakers and a bunch of Converse at Target in his size. I spent more than I wanted but he does look good in them.

Tip #5: Keep velcro shoes on hand.

Until your child is adept, don't make his or her teachers spend half the school day tying shoelaces. :) Send your child to school in velcro or slip-on shoes. You may never be thanked for it, but I bet the teachers will feel gratitude.