Here’s a simple, sweet Halloween story, Queen of Halloween by Mary Engelbreit, that can be used for the younger set to prepare them for that exciting but potentially scary night of trick or treating. Parents of children with special needs can select this book as a social story about a night out on the dark streets filled with costumed kids and adults might be like.
This simple but poignant story is of a fairy venturing out on Halloween night with her friend, the pirate at her side. Lots of relevant lessons like “Don’t be scared, it’s just pretend,” “grownups come along trick or treating” and “try to be brave” are illustrated through the story. The Engelbreit’s vintage inspired drawings give a warmth to a first outing among goblins and ghosts.
Use this book as a social story about a first Halloween experience. Walk you child through what happens and prepare them for the fun and fears of Halloween. Review what friends are going to dress up as and talk through the routine of ringing neighbors’ doorbells and saying “Trick or treat” as well as “thank you.” Talk about feelings. Why is Ann Estelle, the Queen, scared? What should she do? When do you get scared?
Predict the story’s outcomes. Pause at appropriate places and enjoy predicting with your child. You model a prediction first and make this an enjoyable activity. “I think Ann Estelle is going to go back to her dad and not stay at the dark house’s door. What do you think? Always praise any predictions. “Great prediction, let’s see what happens.” There is no right answer, the important thing is to be thinking ahead and proposing new endings to situations. This helps kids eventually create options in their own stories that they write.
An additional perk to this book is that you get an Ann Estelle paper doll at the end of the book so your child can re-enact the story or make up new adventures for her character.
If you are a fan of Mary Engelbreit, look for her latest book coming out mid-October called Mary Englelbreit’s Nursery Tales.
With the current financial crisis going on, everyone is talking about how to save money. I was watching a Target commercial the other night, and they were advertising hair clippers to do your own kids’ haircuts etc. I wanted to share my own tip for saving money and getting great educational toys for your kids.
Okay, I guess I have to admit I am a a bit of a scavenger! My girlfriends (and now their daughters) and I love to hunt for bargains at tag sales on Saturday mornings. Each of use has something we are hunting–18 year-old Alex made off with an elegant vintage bathrobe that she could wear to a party, Renee got a wooden ram for who knows where and I of course am hunting for toys for the grandchildren. Last week I got this royal puppet theater where you can part the fringed curtains and even set the time for the show to start. The theater plus the monkey puppet for only $2! You can take advantage of the fact that young families want to “clean out” when they have finished a stage, especially the baby equipment stage, and you can pick up used children’s items for a fraction or their original cost.
Books are a great buy at about 50 cents or a dollar. You can never have enough books for your child. Fill her library and let her choose or share them with friends. Be informed about what things cost when new so you can bargain your way down to a good price!
I am going to write a few blogs about some fun new Halloween books. I will warn you that I am not into the scary, creepy kind. I was actually half way through a pretty good book when the adorable, lively witch and her buddies encountered dragons and monsters. I closed it up and chose another book. I think kids are exposed to enough violence without connecting it to a fun holiday. So here is one of my picks:
Bats at the Library, written and illustrated by Brian Lies. These playful bats have discovered that the librarian left the window open at night so they declare a “Bat Night at the Library!” Their nocturnal capers include swimming in the water fountain, forming fun shadows on the walls, creating their own story time, and making copies of themselves on the duplicating machine. Lies’ luminescent drawings set the tone for the lively romp through the library at night.
Emphasize the rhyming words at the end of sentences and then repeat the two words—“All this sameness leaves us blue and makes us ache for something new. Blue-new. Talk about rhyming words, brainstorming more words that rhyme with “new” or add a rhyming line to the page that relates to the story and picture. An understanding of rhyme is a precursor to reading. Talk about the fact that the author and illustrator are the same person. Read about the author on the book jacket or look him up on the Internet. It sounds like he had a librarian friend who found a bat who had come for a visit at night. Did this spark his story? He must have a sense of humor because his picture on the back book jacket is upside down–just like his winged friends.
Point out the rich vocabulary the author uses in lines like “We’ve feasted, fluttered, swooped and soared and yet…we’re still a little bored.” Who feasts? Who flutters? Who swoops? Who soars? Use the new words to describe other animals, people or things.
If you like this one, you may want to take a look at Bats at the Beach by the same author.
I was visiting with a mom while I was working with her 3 year-old who had recently been diagnosed on the autism spectrum. We were talking about vacations and she shared that she had just gotten away for the weekend alone with her husband. She was so cute in describing her amazement at finishing a cup of coffee without interruption. What small things can mean a lot to moms–especially those who are so devoted in caring for, advocating for and stimulating their child with special needs.
I know it’s not always easy to find child care but even if you can steal away an afternoon or evening, don’t forget to take care of you.
When my youngest son, Peter, asked me for the most important advice I could give him as an impending father I said, “Be sure to date your wife!” Moms, feel free to forward this blog post to your husbands!
Check out Reading Rockets, www.readingrockets.org, offering “a wealth of reading strategies, lessons, and activities to help young children learn how to read and read better.” This site is packed with practical ideas from preschool resources to encourage pre-reading skills, including phonemic awareness (recognizing letters stand for sounds), a rich list of great kids’ books and authors, reading tips for parents in 11 languages, strategies to help kids who struggle, and helpful questions and blogs about reading.
Reading Rockets’ sister site, Colorin’ Colorado, www.colorincolorado.org, is “a bilingual site for families and educators of English language learners.” Again, it is filled with usable information for both parents and teachers, including book and author lists–which every parent is looking for when they are teaching their child two languages simultaneously, reading tip sheets for parents and educators, an extensive list of wordless books to encourage language and reading, books in 2 languages, and helpful webcasts, podcasts and videos.
Creative people are constantly developing slickly produced media for our kids. Some of it is educationally outstanding and some isn’t. That is why this DVD, “Sounds Like a Smile” caught my eye. It doesn’t have the glitz of an expensively produced DVD, but you feel like you’ve stepped into the neighborhood preschool class and its teacher has a really wide smile and expressive face to encourage imitating her sounds, songs and rhymes. It is no surprise that the content is educationally sound since speech pathologists were consulted on the material. A nurse-mom with a child with language delay produced this DVD for children with special needs as well as those developing typically.
As I viewed the DVD with my 2 year-old friend, he was mesmerized by the patient kid-pace, engaging Miss Miley puppet, repetition of sounds, catchy sound-related songs, and directions to follow. Choosing to focus on just a few sounds that preschoolers are expected to master: P, B, M, T, D, K and G, the teacher links the letter to its corresponding sound and moves to songs reinforcing the sound.
After the DVD was over, my little viewing companion walked away saying, “ka ka ka ka” imitating the teacher and showing that the lesson made an impact!
For my complete review, visit the Parents’ Choice website.
For some reason my daughter-in-law finds my life amusing. Yesterday she asked me to tell her something funny. Having just spent the morning with 2 and 3 year-olds, I could oblige. I had volunteered to be a “Love Lady” in the children’s program at Community Bible Study which meant I chose to be with the little ones for the morning instead of my regular group of adults. The teacher was the kind of person you would eagerly leave your child with—soft-spoken, unruffled, sweet and grandmotherly.
After free play, she got out her props and told the story of baby Moses found in his basket, floating in the river. Her large blue piece of paper covered the floor as the river, and “baby doll” Moses was wrapped in a pink, fuzzy blanket, secure in his basket. The princess with her flowing headdress, scooped him up and took him to his mother to be cared for. After the story, the children were encouraged to use the props to re-enact the story. All the girls found a baby doll, put him in the basket and looked for the coziest pink wrap to cuddle Moses. They brought me the babies since I declared myself his mother. Taking turns wearing the princess’ crown with dangling ribbons, feathers and glitter, the girls acted out the story over and over.
The boys, on the other hand, ignored baby Moses and went over to the “water” to stomp on the paper. They were delighted to watch it crinkle and tear. Maybe we needed a dad in the story to capture their interest.
I am not advocating separating toys by gender but kids do make choices based on their interests. When I was working with 3 and 4 year-olds at the special education preschool in Fairfield, I noted a few of the toys enjoyed equally by boys and girls. They loved the play kitchen, cooking up imaginary culinary delights and serving them to peers. Dollhouses also were popular with a mixed crowd.
I just had a conversation with my daughter-in-law who is getting reading for Will’s second birthday party this week. She wanted my recipe for ice cream pie and we were brainstorming on what to use for molds so she could form the chocolate rice krispy crust into an airplane. I loved her creativity and was reminded of a website I just discovered with several creative products to make eating and learning fun!
Check out www.spoonsisters.com for silicone letters and numbers ice trays. You can make juice ice or jello jigglers with them to enjoy a special message to your child or just have fun with letters and numbers. Their “constructive eating utensils” would get any little boy’s attention with the “Fork lift fork,” “Bulldozer pusher,” and “Front loader spoon” where the handles are construction vehicles made to be held by little hands. The pancake molds are cut-outs of trucks and airplanes for eating fun.
Okay, my personal favorite that I thought was for teaching the letter “M” in brownies is the “Baker’s edge brownie pan” actually designed to give the maximum amount of linear inches of crust. Yum!
So have some fun and learn a little while eating with your child.
I came across a video of a mom’s experience in coming to grip with her child’s diagnosis of autism. I thought it might be helpful to other parents as they face the possibility of their child having autism. On the NPR (National Public Radio) website (scroll down to the bottom) there is an audio show of the Brown family’s journey through their son, Gibson’s early years. His parents sensed that “something was off but couldn’t pinpoint it.” They didn’t get a definitive answer from their doctors and professionals. It wasn’t until mom took Gibson to see Santa Claus that it hit her. Her son wouldn’t have eye contact or smile at Santa and simply played with his beard. The insightful mall Santa asked if Gibson had “that autism thing.”
Now don’t get me wrong. Many kids–mine included–don’t relate to Santa and won’t look him in the eye because they are scared to death of him, but this was a last puzzle piece for this mom to seek a professional assessment.
So tune in if you want to hear a mom talk honestly about dealing with her questions, denial, and acceptance of her child’s diagnosis.
I got an e-mail yesterday from Deborah Diesen, the author of The Pout-Pout Fish, to let me know that her book had made it on the New York Times Bestseller List for Children’s Books this week! Congratulations to her and the Pout-Pout Fish.
As you know, it is one of my favorite “new” books out for children. I originally wrote about it in an article for Parents’ Choice. I will admit it is hard to get away from this book. Often I find myself reciting the catchy stanzas in my head: “I’m a pout-pout fish, with a pout-pout face so I spread the dreary wearies all over the place!” That is of course BEFORE this smug fish gets turned upside down to display his winning smile.
So check this book out at the book store or ask your children’s library to get a copy. You’ll love it.
