What My Child Is Reading–March 03, 2012

I came back from my long business trip on Thursday afternoon. Anna was spending her “quiet time” in her room reading Our Bodies from A Child’s First Library of Learning series. She loves non-fictional books a lot. She also had a long list prepared of what she was missing most while I wasn’t here. One of the entries was library. This girl loves new books, and she was very excited to open up with me a big new box of Tiger Tales books that we received for review while I was away. So far we read two of them:

I liked At the Boardwalk by Kelly Ramsdell Fineman/Monica Armino better than Anna did because she couldn’t connect to the story. She didn’t know what the boardwalk was, since she only remembers being on the beach once in her life. In fact, she was on the boardwalk beach before, but she was too young to remember. Anna’s review: I liked the book because now I know what a boardwalk is.

My Friend Fred by Hiawyn Oram/Rosie Reeve is a cute book! I almost expected my daughter start asking for a puppy after reading it, but she didn’t, since she is really a cat person. The story is pretty simple and told in the first person, but the illustrations are adding a lot to the story. Anna’s review: I liked this book, because in the end she shared the dog. It was not hers, it was a family dog.

Like every other school in America, Anna’s school celebrates Dr Seuss’s birthday this week. They were asked to bring Dr Seuss books from home to school to share with the class. Anna lugged in Six by Seuss. It has her favorite story And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street and my favorite – The Lorax. We had a little discussion as to why we like these stories. Anna said that she likes Mulberry Street, because a boy in the story keeps imagining funner and funner things.

Anna’s kindergarten homework book was I’m Gonna Like Me by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell. I didn’t get to read the book before it had to be returned, but Anna complained that the book was good, but it was difficult to do a homework assignment of drawing the beginning, the middle and the end, because there is no story and no problem to solve. We read several other books by this pair, so I kind of know what she means. A separate story and a problem are presented separately in each page through illustrations, but the whole book is usually just a collection of thoughts to be processed in any order. Still – I can recommend these series as an interesting entry point for discussions about self-esteem.

Benefits of Being a Working Mom

I admit that it’s hard sometimes for me not to feel jealous of stay-at-home moms, especially those who still send their children to schools and preschools. They get to take care of their homes, cook elaborate meals, pursue their creative passions and whip up amazing activities for their kids that they generously share with the rest of us. My life is very different, but it does have its own advantages. I wanted to share some with my readers, especially with those who are trying to make peace with their own choices of juggling work and child caring. I wrote a pretty long list first and then reread it and reduced it to four

1. I am following my own career dreams. There will never be a need for me to live through my child, since I am fairly successful in my own career. I don’t think I will be pressuring her to have a career that I didn’t get to have.

2. I get to hang out with my colleagues, especially when I travel. I talk to other working moms who share the same joys and challenges of combining careers and motherhoods. It’s especially interesting to talk to women whose children are older and seeing that overwhelming majority of them are turning to be successful students and well-adjusted young adults. Perhaps it’s somewhat related to the fact that by necessity they had earlier independence and responsibility.

3. My daughter values our time together just as much as I do. We don’t have a lot of power struggle behavior, because I make a conscious effort to *really* spend time with her every day. Since our time is limited, I try to think of how to create memories and have fun together.

4. I think I am a good role model for my daughter. She loves listening to me talking to my husband about my work day. She doesn’t fully understand what I do (sometimes I don’t understand it myself), but she is growing with an idea that one day she too will travel around the world, be on calls, create pretty presentations and make her own mark on the world outside her immediate family.

A “Real” Afterschool

As many of my readers know, I am a working mom. My husband works part time and picks up Anna from her K twice a week. The other 3 days she goes to a YMCA afterschool program, and we pick her up after 5 pm.

At the beginning we were a bit skeptical about this afterschool program. About 5 dozen kids with ages from 5 to 9 in two relatively small rooms seemed like a recipe for chaos. It took Anna about 3 months to get used to this noisy environment, but now we all learned to appreciate the positive side of our YMCA program:

1. 1. As it often happens, a lot depends on the staff. Our Y program has a very capable director who runs a tight ship with a good crew.
2. 2. There are a lot of toys, games and books, and they change often enough to keep kids entertained.
3. 3. There are several men teachers which is great, especially for boys. Kids spend a lot of time outside and learn to play games that require a lot of players.
4. 4. Y is inclusive and has a few disabled kids. One of them is severely autistic. My daughter used to be very uncomfortable around kids with “non-traditional behavior”, but now she learns to understand and accept people who look and behave differently.
5. 5. Multi-age groups is definitely an advantage for Anna. She likes to hang out with older kids, and they seem to like her. Several times I came to pick her up and she was busy playing scrabble or Apples to Apples with them.
6. 6. Anna adores “Y clubs”. They have a cooking club on Fridays where they try different things – from salads to cookies, and a different club every 2 months on Wednesdays. Every child has a choice of three Wednesday clubs. Last time she was a writer, now she is in a drama club. I think it’s great that she can try different things with her friends (by the way, about half of her classmates also go to the same Y program) without me having to sign her up and drive her to different activities.

I feel very lucky that so far Anna’s first school year has been such a happy time. She hasn’t been clicking with her preschool mates well, and we’ve been worried. Now it’s entirely different story – she loves being with friends, loves her teachers and approaches every new activity with energy and enthusiasm. I am grateful to her teachers and Y instructors for reaching out and touching her in a big way.

What My Child Is Reading–Usborne Books

I admit that I have no idea what my daughter is reading this week since I am half the world away on a business trip. I do know that she is reading a lot as usual. And I bet that she is pulling out at least one of many Usborne books that we have in our home library. I am not an Usborne consultant (I barely have enough time for this blog!), but my friend Lynn from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile is and you can visit her store and perhaps pick some of the books that became our favorites over years.

I got Usborne The Complete Book of First Experiences for Anna when she was 3 and we were going on the airplane journey to her grandparents. We have read the book for what feels like a million times since then, and I wrote about it on my blog several times before. It’s still a solid hit, especially the doctor-related stories. I highly recommend this non-fiction book for early preschool age children.

I wrote about Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human Body lately on my blog. It says 8+, but my 5 year old and I are using it as our current “science book” since she is interested in learning more how our bodies work. She loves checking out Internet resources linked to each page and do experiments. We also have several other books from these series including First Encyclopedia of Science and First Encyclopedia of Our World. I love these books because they are brightly illustrated and give enough information without being completely over the top.

Usborne publishes a lot of activity books of every possible kind. We got Big Book of Science Things to Make and Do as a generous present from Jen at Chestnut Grove Academy, and I gave the second copy of it in a giveaway. Jen is an Usborne consultant as well, and you can visit her store here. To be honest, I am saving this book “for later” since I want Anna to be able to do these activities more independently than she would be able to do at the moment. The book is rated for 6+ kids.

We also love Usborne Lift-the-flap science books. Luckily, our library has a wide variety of them, and Usborne flap books are sturdy enough to survive library treatment. We do have one in our own collection – Lift-the-flap Picture Atlas. As all Usborne books, it’s beautifully illustrated and chock-full of facts. From time to time Anna pulls it from the shelf for her “pretend” games and travels to different destinations around the globe.

Week In Review–February 19, 2012

In our lives… As you are reading this I am hopefully landing in Tel Aviv. Anna is fairly used to me going on business trips, but this is the first trip of this year, and the long one – almost 2 weeks. I am sure though that she will enjoy her time with papa and her Presidents’ week camp next week. They are going to have “musical decades” theme, and I am curious to see how her musical tastes change after that week.

Afterschool. I have been in all day meetings for most of the week and coming home just in time to have dinner and put Anna to bed. She, however, has been very busy. She loved Valentine’s Day celebration and all the cards and candy she got. Then there was Russian, gymnastics, a science night (see below), an art show… I do hope she can catch a nice unscheduled break over the long weekend – papa is much better in just letting her be than I am.

Places we are going. Our district schools are well known for their focus on science. To be honest, I didn’t notice it much so far, but it was more obvious during an annual “science night” conducted by middle schoolers for four elementary schools of the district. Anna was super excited about this event and wanted to visit all “investigations”. She ran out of steam after about 10, and there were 20+ set up. It was interesting to see how many people showed up for this event, even on Thursday night. Our community is very invested in education, and this is reflected in quality and scores of our public schools.

Quote of the week:

• Me: OK, Anna, it’s time to go to bed. I need to get some things done.
• Anna: Getting things done is not the most important thing in the world. Love is more important. Love is the strongest thing in the world. Tickle me, mommy!

What My Child Is Reading–February 18, 2012

For our “read aloud” this week we started Clementine by Sara Pennypacker illustrated by Marla Frazee. The book is narrated by a plunky third grader that finds herself in trouble more than once every day. She has a very different personality than my daughter, and from time to time Anna begs me to stop reading, because she can envision the results of Clementine’s new “brilliant idea”. But then she begs to keep reading again. I find the book very funny and somewhat similar to Ramona’s series by Beverly Cleary. Definitely worth to look the series up in your local public library! 

I kept The Paper Dragon by Marguerite. W. Davol for Valentine’s Day even though the book is not your regular cute Valentine’s Day fare. It’s gorgeously illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators Robert Sabuda and tells the story of courage and inventiveness. As can be expected, the story is set in China where the main character is expected to perform three tasks to put a fearsome dragon back to sleep. Why did we read it on Valentine’s Day? Read it yourself to find out, but the story is more appropriate in length and content for 5+ children.

As you might have noticed, my daughter loves non-fiction book, and she was very fascinated by How a Book is Made by Aliki. Unfortunately, the book is written almost 25 years ago, and I suspect that the process of book making changed quite a bit since then. For example, an author in the book is typing her book on an old-fashioned typewriter, and not on a computer. Still, it was a good read and made a point that the book is made not just by an author and illustrator but by many other people as well.

Finally, I wanted to share chapter book series for (relatively) new readers called Cork and Fuzz by Dori Chaconas/Lisa McCue. I was attracted by unusual main characters of a muskrat and a possum and the fact that the first story reminded me strongly of Frod and Toad. The reading level is about 1st or early 2nd grade, which is too easy for my daughter, but the story is engaging, and she by now went through all the books.

A Valentine Day–Yay!

Our family is not really romantic and doesn’t go wild for Valentine Day. My husband and I don’t buy flowers or give each other gifts – we agreed on that very early in our dating days. We are quite satisfied with flowers growing in our garden:

However, we couldn’t resist getting into mad crafting in the days leading to Valentine Day – in addition to 24 Valentines for her school mates, Anna still had some special Valentines to make.

Watercolor postcard for someone special. It was my idea. Anna’s idea was different, so this someone special is getting two cards.

A picture frame – a surprise for Babushka and Dedushka that sadly still didn’t leave since I didn’t have a chance to get to the post office. So this is a virtual preview.

Making a heart sun catcher with painted petals from the same flower bush in the first picture.

”Russian cat” with Russian letters made during her Russian class. Anna’s Russian tutor actually teaches her reading and writing, not only speaking. Anna is making speedy progress and surprises me by recognizing all letters and being able to read simple words in Russian.`And this is another card for “someone special” fully executed by Anna (except for me cutting out a big heart) complete with an acrostic poem.

I hope that our sweet Mouse is not disappointed about her Valentine’s Day. I am happy that I could be here for her – I was expected to be on a business trip that has been moved by a week. She has so much love lately that every day feels like a Valentine’s Day with her.