My Reading Newsletter.

This is the first installment of my new reading newsletter. As I send these out, I will also post them here. If you want to this newsletter to come to your inbox let me know.

Triumphs and Challenges of Alphabet Books

A lot of the things that come up for me with children's books occur as I am reading them to my own kids. As Adrian is starting to become more interested in the sounds that letters make and their relationship to print symbols, we are spending more time with his alphabet books, around here we call them ABC books. There are many wonderful ABC books. Some focus on a particular topic, for example the ABC's of Airplanes or Eating the Alphabet; others use familiar characters like Clifford's ABC's.

Lately we have been reading through Christopher Wormell's The New Alphabet of Animals several times. I am going to use this book as my example of some great things and some pitfalls you may find in these types of books. I love this book. It has very bold print examples of both upper and lower case letter above the name of the animal pictured on the opposite page. The pictures are beautiful linoleum block prints with dark and rich colors. That's why I bought it; it's very visually appealing. It is important that the pictures stimulate the reader since there is no story to carry the reader forward.

Wormell included some animals that are not usually in alphabet books, probably in part because this is his second animal alphabet book. One problem with that there are animals in it whose name I am not sure how to pronounce (Ibex and Uakari). This might also come up in alphabet books that focus on a narrow topic, such as animals of the rain forest. Remember that it is ok to let your kids know that you might not know something. Model to them what a good reader does when he comes to a word he doesn't know. Another aspect that comes into play is prior knowledge. Prior knowledge is a large part making meaning while reading. It can be really helpful if your child knows a lot about dinosaurs and you are reading a dinosaur alphabet book together. In this book, Wormell uses Newt for N. To my three and half year old son, the linoleum cut print of the newt looks like an iguana, which appears in another book he has. Finally for the letter s the book uses sheep. This presents a challenge. Children that are beginning learn letter sound relationships might get confused. These are diagraphs: new sounds that are created when two letters are combined. I have also seen it defined as a double consonant that creates one sound. Other examples would be ch and th. (Two or more consonants together where each has a distinct sound are a blend, for example sl in slow, fl in flood.) The issues I have with the book do not take away from the experience. Similar issues can come up in many alphabet books. Its important to expose your child to a variety of alphabet books. Wormell's book is still a really fun, beautiful, and useful alphabet book. I applaud books like this one that do not use xylophone and zebra for x and z. (I have seen xylophone used in an animal alphabet puzzle, along with u for umbrella.)

Book Sources

The New Animal Alphabet came to our house via a yard sale. Remember that there are a variety of inexpensive ways to fill your house with good books. One such opportunity are the Scholastic Warehouse Sales. Everything in the warehouse is on sale. My favorite sections are the dollar section and the dent and scratch section. There are some sales going on right now. It seems these sales are better and longer during the recession. They are set up for people directly involved with schools. Because of that the registration may seem awkward. Parents are welcome.

Another good resource for inexpensive books is a library book sale. Booksalefinder.com is a site that lists library book sales by location. It is a bare-bones listing of sales in the area alphabetically organized by city. Many of these sales will have clearance pricing at the end of the sale. This may limit your choice but you can't beat two dollars for a bag full of books which what happens during the last two hours of the St. Louis Park Community Library sale.

Read to them. Let them see you as a reader. Let them read to you. Have fun with books.

Hard Wired

I know that a lot of learning occurs by watching and following. This is why when we swear or something like that we are not surprised (although sometimes embarrassed) when they repeat it. Is the repeating language and watching for context and meaning a hard wired process?
The reason I ask: Adrian was sleeping in his room. I came in a midnight to make sure he was tucked in and well covered. I being terminally clumsy stepped on a toy. It cracked rather loudly. My response was, "Shoot." It was a loud whisper. Without missing a beat or waking up, Adrian responded with his own, "Shoot." It really threw me.
Many people use the sponge metaphor. They soak everything up. Even while they are sleeping?

What you know you want; what you don't even know you want...

I know what my sanity goals are in parenting. These are the things we look at as light at the end of the tunnel. We treasure these moments, but there are things we want to see the end of. Diapers are a good example. Toddlers are super cute. Toddler diapers are not. We co-sleep so a big one for us was getting Adrian to spend most of his nights in his own room. Today I realized there might be parenting milestones I haven't even thought of.

Someone I know, today, was boasting that her son sleeps at night with no night light. The whole second floor is dark, no lights on. It makes me wonder what else is around the bend.

Savor every moment!

Adust your expectations

And your day will flow more smoothly. There are a lot of things we have no control over. Even more when you have children. Anyone that has been on a walk with Adrian knows that a city block is not a distance to be measured or even time, but more of an exploration.
Usually this leads to some frustrating struggles. "Hey we really have to get going. Pick up the pace or I am gonna pick you up."
Today we were walking home from the park. It was a failed attempt at a first trip of the year. Since everything had just melted, It was more of a lake with play structures sitting out of it. Its about 5 blocks away. On the way home, Auntie couldn't wait, she needed to get home. I was tromping ahead with Walter in the ergo impatiently waiting for Adrian and being vocal about it. A few minutes into it, I thought, "what's my hurry. Walter is asleep. We don't need to rush home." I stopped harassing Adrian. I was immediately able to start enjoying the trip from his perspective. Even though there was a new puddle about every eight feet. Everyone was special enough to deserve a pouncing. It probably took us over 40 minutes to get home, but I wasn't frustrated and Adrian had a blast.
There are not many times when we have the opportunity to take our time like this, but I would not have even thought about it had I not asked myself what the rush was in getting home. I get so immersed in the high speed go go go pace that it is there with me even when I don't need it. I may not frequently be able to adjust my expectations, but I should always be able to ask if its possible.

Sid the Science Kid

Some folks may disagree, but there's a lot of good in Sid. At first glance I liked the show because of its Muppet energy. Today I looked at it as a teacher. I think a lot of people could learn from the show. Those people being teachers. I was watching Susie (I think that's her name) the teacher. She engages her students to be scientist. What that means for kids in early grades is experiment, hypothesize, observe, write, and draw. Some teachers call it sciencing. Taking the subject matter and king a verb out of it. Susie guides her students through experiments. She listens to their observations and since they are the students observations, she does not interrupt them to correct them.
Kids can learn from the show and they can enjoy. I think the real usefulness of the show is for the grown ups.