Poetry Friday - A Valentine Poem

Question

Do you love me, 

or do you not?

You told me once,

but I forgot.

- Anonymous

...from Good Morning to You, Valentine

Happy Poetry Friday!

This is one of my favorite poems, and so short!

Goodness knows since I have become a parent, I forget... a lot.  You know about the parents mixing-up kids' names?  This is me.  Every day. Every time I speak to the children.  I would have thought that I would escape this embarrassing truth of parenthood, but no.  I feel awful that I call my kids all the wrong names, all the time.  Boys, I love you, all of you, whoever you are!  (And husband, I love you too!) 

This week flew by... I have been thinking a lot about preschool, or not, for our two older boys next year.  (The not-inexpensive preschool my oldest went to this year increased tuition by 12.7%, which is causing us to re-evaluate everything.) I hope to get back to more book posts soon!

An update on Lucky (the book I was considering altering because of an advertisement in it), I sent it back intact with my husband when he was running errands.  I hope to speak with a librarian about it next time I have the chance. Thanks everyone for your feedback and suggestions!

The Poetry Friday roundup is at Big A, little a. Have a great weekend!

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!

The tree is up, the cards are mailed, the presents are wrapped, and the very important Elf work is done (my four-year-old asked for a yellow ball just a few days ago - I am thankful that I found one on the first try (thank you, Wal-Mart! It was worth dealing with the crazy parking lot to fulfill the last-minute Santa request.))

We had a snow day on Friday for everyone and I'm looking forward to a wonderful week with the kids and family. Have a wonderful Christmas, happy holidays, and a fantastic 2009!

Teacher gifts and holiday presents

My four-year-old son is in his first year of preschool, which means it's my first time planning teacher gifts. After quite a bit of thought, I'm planning to make Oreo truffles this weekend, and I've also done charitable gifts in honor of my son's teacher and assistant teacher via Heifer International. I hope the teachers like their gifts! Based on the responses I've heard from a few teachers to the ideas, they should go over well.

I'm a researcher and so I've been digging up other ideas for teacher gifts for future years. Gift certificates are a convenient and appreciated option, and gift certificates to bookstores, craft supply stores or popular everyday stores like Target also seem to be very good choices.

The charitable donations idea came to me after I was contemplating Target gift certificates. I had recently watched this Advent video about consumerism at the holidays, which made me feel that a charitable gift may be a wonderful option. I chose Heifer because it is convenient, a well known organization, easy to order online and has nice "packages" such as a flock of chicks, etc. Another option that would be wonderful that I'm considering for future gifts are donations to literacy and reading organizations -- issues close to most teachers' hearts. I asked online how people feel about charitable donations as teacher gifts and got a mixed response, many moms don't feel quite right giving that kind of gift, but -- most of the teachers who commented liked the idea!

Another great gift idea is giving to the classroom -- buying books or needed supplies, or giving a gift to the school. Ask your child's teacher or school librarian for ideas.

Of course, it's not required to give a teacher a holiday gift, and a kind thank you note from parent or child is always a wonderful idea. Everyone needs and deserves appreciation!

Do you give gifts to your children's teachers? Are you a teacher? What are your favorites?

St. Nicholas Day

....is tomorrow, December 6. I just finished up wrapping two gifts for the boys -- a Schleich Nativityand a board book, Christmas in the Manger. (I also wrapped up two Byron Barton board books for my two-year-old nephew's birthday -- Trucks and Trains.)

It will be our first time celebrating St. Nick and I'm looking forward to it. Since I love books as gifts, I expect St. Nick will deliver more books and probably more Christmas books every year. 

What are your St. Nick traditions? 

(Tomorrow is also Poetry Friday!)

Christmas Giving - less consumerism, more love

Many thanks to Meredith at Like Merchant Ships for sharing this video.

My husband and I learned of a local charity run by nuns that does clean water projects and other services a few years ago.  It has fallen off our radar for a while and I'm so glad this video brought the issue back to our attention.

Happy Thanksgiving!

First of all, thank you to everyone who has stopped by this blog.  It's been a wonderful experience to talk about books and share our favorites.  I'm having a great time and am thankful to have the blog as a bit of a creative outlet and to "meet" great people along the way.

Next, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  Great holiday!  What's better than sharing gratitude and food?  

We are celebrating with extended family and are mostly packed up and ready to go.  I think I've made a terrible error in planning though -- I have no book.  Shoot!  Vacations are one of the best opportunities for me to read and I realize this morning that I'm not prepared.  Of course, with two young children and a newborn, I may not get all that much time to read, but with lots of relatives around,  I'll likely get a few blissful, peaceful minutes here and there.  Perhaps I will grab a novel my husband just finished or read one of our relatives' magazines.  I'll survive, but next trip I want to plan better for reading.  We are going to Jamaica next year for a family wedding and I need to make books for the trip a bigger priority.

(The boys will have plenty of books for the trip, it will be hard to keep it to just a few that fit in the suitcases.)

Here's a book I wish I had on this trip -- 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews shares what looks like a very interesting book about First Families.  Looks like great post-election season reading.  I'm also very interested in this book about Lang Lang featured at The Well Read Child.  I didn't know who Lang Lang was before reading the review but it sounds like a great book and I'm particularly interested in piano since we just brought one into our home.  

Have a wonderful, blessed, and tasty Thanksgiving!  I hope you get in some good reading too.

Karen and family

November Carnival of Children's Literature - The Gift of Reading edition

Welcome to the November 2008 edition of carnival of children's literature.

The theme for this carnival is The Gift of Reading. As the holiday season soon approaches, people will start planning their holiday celebrations and gifts for their loved ones. I felt the Gift of Reading is the perfect theme for the November carnival -- a well-chosen book is a wonderful gift, especially to a young reader. 

One of the reasons I blog about our favorite books is to support our family's commitment to reading. I hope to make gifts of books a significant tradition.  I was lucky to learn to read, to have parents and siblings that read to me, and to enjoy reading throughout childhood.  I'm not a sentimental person, but one of my favorite gifts is a dictionary my mom gave me for my 12th birthday, I still have it and it is a nice reminder of my family's commitment to education and learning.  

This carnival is dedicated to the gift of reading. Enjoy!

On Literacy and The Gift of Reading...

Jen Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page shares the article A Gift for All Seasons at Foreword magazine.  

Amy Smith presents tips from her family's read-aloud experiences on How to Maximize Learning During Story Time at Kids Love Learning.

Need inspiration?  Have a look at The Babes at Read, Read, Read.  Adorable!

Book Reviews and Children's Literature Gift Ideas...

Cinderberry shares a book that looks like a lot of fun and would make an interesting gift:  The Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes.

Rebecca Reid shares several alphabet or ABC books, also known as Abecedaria at Rebecca Reads

Steven Bush presents We Belong Together and Queen Vernita’s Visitors at Book Dads: Fathers That Read!.

Peter Jones shares a children's book with a magical topic, A Modern Tale of the Tooth Fairy. 

Becky Laney presents Gift Ideas for 2008 #1 posted at Becky's Book Reviews and Fly Me To The Moon: Fun Gift Ideas 2008 at Young Readers.

Lynn shares Unique Books & Gifts for Your Hard-to-Please Literary Friends at Imaginary Blog. 

and Gifted Authors....

Tarie presents an interview with Paula Yoo, whose novel Good Enough is nominated for a 2008 Cybils award in the young adult fiction category.

That concludes the November carnival -- thank you contributors and visitors! Visit the next Carnival of Children's Literature at Jen Robinson's Book Page on December 17.

Play nativity set for toddlers - preschool

My kids haven't used a play nativity set yet, but it is something I would like them to have. I didn't grow up with a religious Christmas, and this is something I would like to share with my family.  

When I discovered Playmobil toys, I purchased their nativity set which I felt was a good value. However, the set has very tiny pieces and it's not quite right for my 4 year old and 2 year old boys. I will save the Playmobil set for 2-3 years from now when it will be better suited for them.  In the meantime, I found a nativity set made by Schleich that looks beautiful -- we have several Schleich animals that the kids enjoy.  I think this may be a great set, and I am thinking of getting it and giving it to the kids for St. Nicholas (another tradition I did not grow up with -- my husband did, and while I'm not keen on tons and tons of presents at the holidays, I think we can keep our celebration modest and frugal.)

However, I am torn.....  at our 2 year old parent-child class at a local Christian school, the teacher has a lovely homemade nativity that has felt characters glued to wooden blocks -- super child friendly and it's homemade -- I love that.  Not that I need another craft project to add to my list -- I am already thinking about making felt play food, personalized ABC photo books, and curtains for the new baby's room....    But the homemade nativity would be neat.  I would need to search and see if I can find patterns for the people and animals.  I would love to find if anyone has made these on a crafting blog, but my searches from last year came up empty.  

Oooh, found via Google! A couple links -- a pattern for sale, and a project book with instructions.  Also on Etsy  -- patterns for felt dolls, very cute!

I'm not sure which path we'll take, but these are the current best ideas. 

Then, we should look for some great Christmas story books for the family.  So many projects, so little time!  Any recommendations? 

Halloween Poems for Preschoolers -- It's Halloween!

Here is another great book our family discovered at the library -- It's Halloween by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Marilyn Hafner. 

It's Halloween is a collection of rhyming poems about Halloween, with fun illustrations. What I like about this book for my almost four-year-old is that it's not too scary. I'm very sensitive to things that may make my kids uncomfortable, and this book passed the sniff test. The two most concerning poems in the book are one that describes an unfriendly (OK, mean) family who didn't give treats (and how they got tricked). It ends well though -- the people say, "We're sorry!" The other slightly sensitive poem describes a haunted house where all the spooky things are having a party and how the kids prefer to stay away -- it mentions witches and goblins, etc., but the context is more about having a fun time than about being scary. So it works for us. During our reads, my son seemed concerned over the mean people, so I made it a point to emphasize that they said sorry. And we talked about how sometimes people are mean. He's OK with the book and has requested several reads, insisting that all the poems in the book are read at each sitting -- no shortcuts for mom!

We've really enjoyed It's Halloween and I plan to get a copy for our kids' collection. 

A note on formats:  We checked out a hardcover from the library, but the most common format at Amazon is paperback.  The cover graphics are different but interior illustrations appear to be the same as far as I can tell.  Although I prefer the hardcover version, I'll probably buy what's least expensive.

It's Halloween

Today is Poetry Friday among the Kidlitosphere -- check out some wonderful poems shared by kids lit bloggers at this week's host, Two Writing Teachers.