A Review: How to Raise a Wild Child

I've been reading a few books at the same time, so this one took me a bit longer than it would have normally, but it was so well worth it. A few days ago I gave a little glimpse into some of the thoughts How to Raise a Wild Child by Scott D. Sampson had me mulling over and now I am happy to share a few more insights with you.

This book was pretty much perfect. It was part parenting manifesto, part environmentalist love letter to childhood and nature, part practical. It was just the right amount of story, idealism and action plan, and I can't quite get over it. I was really worried that it would be a something that wasn't tangible, just a series of nice ideas with no real implementation possible or a lot of preachy-ness on things I already new about. But it wasn't that at all - instead, through personal stories, solid research, real life examples, and just pure passion, Dr. Scott relayed a series of concrete ideas and solutions that parents and educators can use to instill a love for nature in their children while simultaneously saving our education system, curing the obesity epidemic, and saving our planet. (Yes, he's left me THAT hopeful. The man should be our secretary of education and interior combined.)

Wonderful ideas aside, one of the best things about this book was the structure. Dr. Scott walks the reader through the issues our nation (our world, really) is facing in regards to a vanishing appreciation for and knowledge of nature and then does a wonderful job of linking it to the massive changes that have occurred in the last few decades in childhood and education (none of them that good). He then explores the role of the "nature mentor", a trusted adult who may or may not have a vast experience in the outdoors, who guides children, their own and possibly others, through nature exploration. Dr. Scott address each major developmental stage and looks at how parents and teachers can expand their children and students' natural horizons. And, in the last section of the book, he looks at a couple of other barriers and potential partnerships between children and nature, such as technology and the rewilding movement. He ends with an incredibly moving picture of a potential future, should we, parents and educators follow through with the many ideas and tips delivered in the book.

This is one of those books where I'm going to need to just purchase my own copy. Given some time to let everything sink in, I'll need to go back to consult or to revisit ideas (there are great summaries at the end of each chapter along with specific and concrete tips for raising a wild child), which is similar to how I felt after reading Kim John Payne's book, Simplicity Parenting (another recommended read). I also feel like this needs to be required reading for all educators. Dr. Scott is deft at picking up on the issues plaguing public education and offers real solutions that I know would move us in a tremendously different and better direction. I sincerely feel that working from the direction of the classroom, as well as the home, would be incredibly effective in making a change in how our nation views our environment.

I cannot say enough good things about this book, so I'm going to end with a list of things I truly just loved about the book:

• It was hopeful, encouraging, and non-preachy.
• There was a solid mix of story, example, and practicality - it was easy to get through and a joy to read.
• My heart sung during the sections discussing children's need to play to learn and I am determined to put together an outdoor playscape - I'd love to see this done at our local schools, as well!
• He mentioned Waldorf schools a bunch of times. 
• It was well organized and thoughtful; the concepts felt accessible. 
• I was left with so many ideas and plans it was almost overwhelming, but in a good way!

 Please, please, please pick up this book and read it. It is a must for parents who desire to be worthy living in this beautiful world and to make it worthy of our children. Whether it's something that just puts a fire under your bum to do more or inspires you with ideas you hadn't had before, it's totally worth the read!

A Review: The Farm

A couple of weeks ago I checked out a few books from the library. I did this despite the fact that I already have an unwieldly pile of books on top of my bookshelf that has been threatening to topple over for months. Oh, but I'm so glad I checked them all out, because they've all been fabulous so far, and The Farm by Tom Rob Smith is the first I've finished.

I heard the author interviewed some time ago on NPR and heard him describe this book. I don't recall exactly what he said, but I remember thinking, "Man, I have to read this!" Then, of course, I promptly forgot all about it until I saw it on the "New Arrivals" shelf at the library. Into my book bag it went.

It really was a good thing I was reading three other books along with it, because otherwise I would have finished it much sooner. It is certainly one of those books one could easily devour and then be sad it's all done, regretting it hadn't been savored (I often feel this way about chocolate, too). But I paced myself and truly enjoyed the adventure.

I suppose The Farm could best be described as a psychological thriller. It's told through the voices of a son, Daniel, who starts off the story and appears as the main character, and his mother, Tilde, who's really the storyteller. The premise is that Daniel's parents have retired from England to a farm in the Swedish countryside, where Daniel's mother is originally from. Out of the blue and some months after his parents have left for Sweden, Daniel receives a panicked phone call from his father saying his mother is "not well" and has essentially escaped from a mental institution in Sweden. Long story short, Daniel's mother appears back in England and says that things are not as his father says. There is a plot moving against her, no one is to be trusted, and he must believe her or be counted against her as well. And so the story begins, Daniel's mother explaining in great detail everything that had happened to her, everything that has convinced her of a vast and dangerous conspiracy taking place in the idyllic Swedish countryside.

While there is not a lot of physical action in this book, and much of the story is almost more told rather than shown, I was still pulled deeply into the plot and characters. I related to Daniel, who can't seem to wrap his head around this drastic changes in his parents, whom he loves so much, but then couldn't help but side with his mother, who comes across as the quintessentially disbelieved woman, the one the men want to shut away and claim insane rather than deal with her uncomfortable truths. 

And this idea of women and their role alongside their men continually pops up as a theme in this book. What fun it was to tease apart those overarching themes about relationships and sexuality. The Farm was light and easy to read in many ways, but it also managed to give me something to think about, which I loved.

I truly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it heartily to anyone who is looking for a solidly good and likely quick read.

Memories from a Once Wild Child

I'm currently reading How to Raise a Wild Child by Scott Sampson (of Dinosaur Train fame, if you've watched the show). I'm hoping to review it on here when I'm done, so I won't say much, but I wanted to write something now, because reading this book has prompted me to think about some things. At the moment, I'm in a chapter discussing middle childhood (from about 6 to 11) and how important nature experiences are at this particular set of ages. It makes sense - most of my profound childhood nature experiences happened during this time of my life, usually with groups of roving neighborhood kids when I lived in Massachusetts.

I wanted to put down some of these memories. They're all, for the most part, quite strong, but I love thinking about them and putting them down. I'm very much the kind of person who likes to go over old, happy memories like someone might a photo album (love those, too), or look fondly over a collection of things.

My grandparents' "yard":
I spent all of my early childhood and most of my middle childhood in a town called Groveland, Massachusetts. I don't know what it's like to be a child growing up there now, but my memories are fairly close to idyllic. It was reasonably rural, at least by suburban Massachusetts standards, what with farms and open land and a fair amount of woods (much of this is developed now). My dad's parents lived probably three or so miles from my house, so we spent a lot of time there. Both of my grandparents grew up on farms and keeping one was just natural to them.

Years and years before, my grandfather had run a chicken farm at the end of their road, providing eggs for the local grocery stores. By the time I came along he had given up chicken farming and kept beef cattle. Big, beautiful brown and white cows idled away in his fields, wandering down to the cow pond where I would one day (unsuccessfully) attempt ice skating. Their huge brown eyes and docile ways had me in love about as soon as I knew them.

My grandmother had little to do with the upkeep of the animals; that was all on my grandfather, and me, his helper, of course (I loved giving the cows "dessert" - oats in big rubber bowls). She, instead, tended massive, meticulous, and beautiful flower gardens. She could grow anything and took great pleasure in it. I could spend hours wandering from section to section of their massive yard, taking in the wide variety of color and shape. In the way, way back of their yard, up beyond a line of shady pine trees, there was a large veggie garden where I would freely harvest snacks during the summer.

I often think of my grandparents' yard (well, small farm, really) as my first connection to nature. Even though they moved from that house and all that land in 2000, I can picture that place in my mind almost more clearly than my own home's yard. Time with my grandparents, when I was small, meant time outside, getting dirty and also with the expectation that I would entertain myself, and there was no shortage of entertainment.

When my grandfather became wheelchair bound in the late nineties and the cows were sold off, the land and house soon to follow, I started taking time to wander up into the cow pasture, a place I had never been previously allowed to go. I was in awe of just how much land there was. I felt a huge pain in my heart that this place wouldn't be my family's any more and that it would likely be developed by whomever purchased it, paved over and built up as so much of the land in that area is now. I remember taking the time, even at only 11 or so, to relish the silence and the feeling of the land around me. 

The Broderick's Yard: 

The Broderick's were the family next door, and are honestly the best family. The three kids in that family were some of my favorite playmates growing up, particularly Kate, who's adventurous and competitive spirit pulled me out of my naturally stagnant shell. If I hadn't had the Broderick kids (and later, the Beatons, another group of adorable and active kids) as neighbors, I probably would have spent a majority of my childhood reading books and playing Sonic.

My strongest outdoor memories from my Massachusetts neighborhood occur in the Broderick's yard. They had a huge yard with all the typical childhood amenities, along with a killer sledding hill in the winter, and a mom who would make tuna melts accompanied by Cape Cod potato chips and juice mixed with seltzer water (of course I remember the food!).

There really weren't any limits to where we could go, and as we got older, we would wander farther and farther afield. I remember one particularly warm winter day when a group of us found ourselves in the woods. Rather than snow, there was ice, because that area tended to get really wet, so I suppose there must have been some melting earlier in the season, then things got cold again and froze over. But with the warmth of that particular day, we found ourselves hoping from sheet of thick ice to sheet of thick ice, hanging on to trees and their little patches of dry ground, playing some sort of game, the exact parameters of which I'm not sure of, having the times of our lives. I don't think those particular circumstances cropped up again, at least not while I lived there, and it was, for me, a once in a lifetime event that now seems so simple, but felt amazing at the time.

Maudslay State Park

My last memories from Massachusetts come from an unlikely place, at least in terms of the great outdoors. Newburyport is a large-ish town on the North Shore, sort of akin to the Old Port in Portland (for my Maine friends - Massachusetts friends are free to decry this comparison). In Newburyport there is Maudslay State Park. I haven't been there in years, like, probably close to twenty years, at this point, so my memories of the park itself are extremely foggy, but I include in these rememberances for a reason - it still gives me such a strong feeling when I think about it. I only have fleeting images in my mind of this place, but the sense of loveliness and stillness and mystery sit solidly over me. It's an interesting to me, that a place where I don't have a real distinct memory of could still leave me with such a strong impression. I love how natural places can do that to you.


I know a lot of folks like to think of Millenials as the first generation shut up in the house, transfixed to their computers and TVs, but I would argue that my friends growing up, both in Massachusetts and in Maine, spent a majority of our time playing outside. We were frequently kicked out by our parents and would run from yard to yard, following some kind of adventure or figuring out which place would be best suited for whatever sport we were going to play. Even as a teenager, here in Maine, I can think of many times I spent with friends outside rather than in, never with our noses buried in something else.

This is the kind of childhood I hope for my kids, one where their best childhood memories take place outside, with a friend or group of friends, lost in their play.

The Crush

From the moment I cracked open and devoured Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone I could not wait for the day I would have a kid with whom to read it. I imagined us snuggled together in bed, my little one rapt with attention as we flipped page after page, neither one of us wanting to stop. I could not wait for the anticipation for the next book (I even considered making my child wait a year between each read, because, after all, I did, sometimes even longer!).

This summer we attempted the first book because E. had expressed some interest when she saw me rereading The Order of the Pheonix over the summer (she also wanted to read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon because my mom was reading it, but we decided we'd better save the sexy Scottish warriors for another time). After learning within the first chapter that the heroic boy wizard had been orphaned as a baby (not much younger than her own little brother) she needed to stop. It just wasn't fair! She had said. How could that happen? So, we stopped, and I wondered if this initial read was just too soon and feared that it would prevent her from ever wanting to try to read the series again.

But then, something wonderful happened. E. made a friend at school and that friend loved Harry Potter (so much so, I heard, that she is going to be Harry for Halloween this year). This, and the fact that there is a movie I will not let her see until she has read the book with me, prompted E. to beg me to start reading The Sorcerer's Stone once again. With a little reluctance, afraid I would really ruin it this time, I started the book again.

And she's loving it.

We're on our way to Hogwarts as we speak and she is thrilled or chilled by each character she meets. She thinks Hagrid is sweet, the Dursley's are vile, and she's already picked up on Draco Malfoy's general awfulness. But most of all, she is absolutely enamored with Harry. And who wouldn't be - he's a kind, humble boy who has a sense of justice. Who wouldn't admire a person like that?

Today, at the doctor's office, she got to pick a sticker, per usual. I spotted a sticker with Harry and Hermoine on it and pointed it out. Immediately, E. snatched up and told the nurse who had been offering the stickers that she was reading Harry Potter and loved Harry (the book, she meant, of course). Later that day, she came downstairs, a bashful grin on her face.
"Mama," she said. "I kissed Harry Potter on my sticker."
My, oh my, what have I done?

Book Review: Simplicity Parenting

I just finished an amazing book and I need to share (I'm also participating in Mama Kat's writers' workshop this week). Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne was one of my latest reads and it's totally flipped my world and ways of thinking when in comes to my kids, my parenting, and how I manage my home and our family rhythm.

I suppose the thing that touched me the most about the content about the book is how the philosophy sits with me amongst all the other parenting "tips" I've read and heard since I had E. nearly six years ago. First of all, I have very mixed feelings about identifying with a particular philosophy or style, because it seems a bit silly to me. I mean, I don't think my mom described herself as an "AP" parent or "laissez faire" or anything else that I suspect she might describe as being nonsense. That said, I personally find a lot of comfort in have names for things - it makes it easier to identify what I like and feel good about/doing, and in this age of Google, having a label or name for something certainly makes it easier to gather more information.

So back to my point - when it comes to parenting style/philosophy, the tips and advice within Simplicity Parenting ride the fence nicely between gentle, AP style parenting and some of the ideas aligned with more traditional parenting (something my own parents and grandparents might be familiar with). Essentially, the idea is to make sure your children know you are the parent (there is none of this ridiculousness with lots and lots of choices, talking every little life event out, and letting the kids make most, if not all, of the calls in their day) and you're here to make things safe and calm and predictable, which is exactly what young children (kiddos under 7) need.

On the other side of that coin, however, is not an authoritarian dictator, but loving parent who takes the time to gently guide her children into life. As a parent, you make decisions for you children not from a place of what works best just for you nor just for the child, but for the family as a whole. Simplicity Parenting doesn't tout a child or parent centered world, but a family centered world. There is also an underlying understanding of what your child is trying to communicate with his or her actions, good or bad. Behavior, good or bad, is not something to reward or punish, but to be considered as a symptom of something larger happening in her world. When you figure out what that larger thing is, you can either fix it if it's causing negative behavior or you can encourage it if it's causing positive behavior.

Another point made in the book and applied in multiple areas is the idea of stepping back. Step back in the home's physical environment. Get rid of the stuff and clutter. Get rid of the toys (!!). This is the tip I took to the most quickly and have found the most success with so far (I've only just finished the book). We got rid of about 3/4 of the toys and other things in our house and it has improved things immensely. Step back in your day - for very young children and even kid's in the middle grades, there isn't much reason to have so many scheduled activities. Kids' days are so heavily scheduled with school that it is a release ("a breath out," so to speak) to come home and have nothing structured to do. Step back in your words - there is a lot of reasoning out of things and talking about things with kids these days. I know in the past I've spent a lot of time explaining myself to E. or tying to get her to use her words for things, too. It's easy to forget that children, even especially bright children, don't always fully comprehend what is happening or being said, even if they have a wonderful vocabulary and seem to sound "ready" for things, whether it's an explanation of why fishies must live in water or why they must go to bed now instead of later or why there are thousands dead after an earthquake they heard about on the news.
 

I also loved how the book was written. As I was perusing reviews on Amazon I noticed a pattern of people complaining about the writing style, that Mr. Payne sort of went on a bit and could have made his point more quickly and with few words. Yep, he sure could have, but there is a comforting, dreamy quality to the writing that caused me, at least, to slow down a bit and really think about what he was saying and why. I rather think those who complained that he "took too long" to get the point missed the whole point of the book - life is not supposed to be rushed through! Enjoy the journey as much as the result.

And lastly, if you're looking to begin to dip your toes into the world of Waldorf, this is the book. I dived right in and read a book of lectures and then Rahima Baldwin Dancy's book You are Your Child's First Teacher, which was great, but it's all very Waldorf and I feel a lot of those books leave you feeling with a bit of guilt, like, "Why didn't I know all this before having children! I've ruined them!" which is a feeling I really dislike, but I also know to take a lot of these things with a grain of salt. I think that if I had read Simplicity Parenting first, I would have left a lot of that guilt behind. Plus, Waldorf, for those who are less...I don't want to say less open-minded, but are maybe a little leery of New Age-y kind of stuff, but anyway, Waldorf can seem a little strange, and if you read this book first and you get the basic parameters of the Waldorf education/parenting philosophy, the stranger stuff doesn't seem so strange, or you can at least look past it and enjoy the universally really wonderful things that come with it.

And that concludes my much longer than intended review of Kim John Payne's wonderful book, Simplicity Parenting.

New Year

After a wonderful Christmas (though a holiday I have to say I'm a bit happy to see the backside of - it's always a bit stressful to get everything and everyone together) it's that time I simply cannot avoid, being the goal maker (though I haven't yet quite hit "keeper") that I am.

New Year Goals (Can I ever NOT do this?):

Eat less (and better) and move more

• Try to introduce daily exercise into my life once more
• Try to eat "clean" and have a lot less sugar in my house in and in my body
• Try to work on planning ahead and prepping meals to make our eating a bit easier
• Maybe take up a new "sport" like snowshoeing or cross-country skiing

Organize and purge the ridiculous amount of kids' toys and baby clothes I have in our basement closet and attic

• Wash and properly store all of E.'s old baby clothes
• Properly store all of M.'s outgrown clothing, give away/return some that we were given on loan
• Make a final purge of the toys upstairs and donate/throw away what we don't want/need
• Properly store the toys we're going to hang on to
• Start a toy rotation program and create some "rainy day" bags and busy bags for the kids

 Write more!

• I would like to blog more...
• But more than that I'd like to write more fiction (many moons ago that is all I did, and I miss it quite a lot)

Read more!

• This is the easiest - crack open some more books!
• I want more poetry in my life, but I somehow have a huge problem picking up a book of poetry; maybe I need to find a website or something that will send a poem to my inbox on a daily basis? (Update: poets.org does this, so yay!)

What are your goals (or resolutions) this year?

Back to School

I think I really need to start taking some grad courses. You know you have school deprivation when you easily pick up a textbook-grade paperback and flip through it like it's Us Weekly (you also know you've been out of school too long if you debate whether or not you ought to italicise the name of a magazine, both because you care and because you don't know the answer).

A few weeks ago I showed up at our library with a list of seven books. Seven books that did not contain characters that were married to sexy Scottish warriors, scheming dwarves (who also somehow manage to be sexy, in that smart guy kind of way), or have anything even remotely to do with Edwardian England (hello, Downton Abbey withdrawal). They were all books related to Waldorf education, either from a parenting or a curriculum/education perspective.

Over the next few days the books came in and I spent a lot of time at the library, schlepping small children, who both love books, but would have preferred to be outside (well, I suppose the baby didn't care, but E. most certainly did).

I don't know that E. would agree, but I'll say, so far, it's been worth it. I'm about halfway through the pile, having read three and a half of the books (I'm literally smack in the middle of my fourth) and I have learned so much. There is a sense of empowerment that comes with being presented with new tools in life, particularly in parenting. There have been so many areas where I have felt helpless and have known in the back of my mind that my way of doing things needed to be changed. Now I understand why I need to make changes, and I'm attempting to make those changes. It's not easy, but it feels so good to try and to see positive results.

I doubt all this sort of vague hinting about at what I've learned and am still discovering is terribly interesting, but I hope to eventually synthesize it into more bite sized (and interesting) bits here, if only for my own reference.

So, after I become an expert in Waldorf education, I fully intend to return to my "fun" books (including and not limited to presidents' killing vampires, more hot Scottish warriors, dragons, and maybe moving back in time to Victorian England, either with Austen or Dickens, not sure). Learning new things is undeniably good, but one does need a bit of variety, right?

What are you learning about?

Just Smile :-D

I'm joining Mama Kat this week (for the first time in ages - so happy it's one more thing that's making me smile)!

10 Things to Smile About (inspired by Things I Can't Say)
Here are 10 things that are making me smile today.

1. Learning new things (this past week I've read this and this and am reading this)
2. Impromptu photo shoots with E. with her new school clothes for Kindergarten!
   
3.  Finally getting to go for a run and really running. 
4. Beer brewing in our house. (And it has chocolate in it!!)
5. A delicious forecast expected for the rest of the week, perfectly coordinated with boat rides, balloon festivals, and a trip to Mackworth Island. Love August in Maine. 
6. These last few weeks of uncomplicated nursing with M. It makes me smile, but shed a tear or two as well, not knowing what to expect once I start working part time again. 
7. Seeing my name in print in the adult ed. brochure! 
8.  This song:
9. M. and his sleeves. 

   

   What...what are these??

10.  Ocean State Job Lots and a giant bottle of $7 organic extra virgin olive oil 
    
    
    What's got you grinning?

Summer Themes: Farm Week

Yee-haw! It's farm week at our house, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be my favorite week this summer, if only because I haven't had to do a thing except bring E. to camp at an adorable farm in Scarborough, Maine and then pick her up a few hours later, happily dirt covered and filled with stories and songs all to do with farms.

Besides attending camp, we've also been reading stories about farms, like:

• On the Farm by David Elliot (a fun rhyming tale about all the animals and happenings on a farm)
• Deep Sea Farm by Dahlov Ipcar (a story about a merman who farms on the bottom of the ocean - totally appropriate, I think, since Scarborough is also a coastal town)
• Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin(a fun farm setting, and I sort of feel like it introduces the concepts of unions...a little Animal Farmish)
• Brown Cow Farm by Dahlov Ipcar (a farm themed counting book)
• Down on the Farm by Merrily Kutner (a rhyming story that follows a little goat all over his farm) 

To finish out our week, we'll likely visit a local farm (I love Scarborough, but it's farm from local for us) and do some strawberry picking and buy some local produce to do a little cooking project with.

I hope to post some pictures of the farm where E. is going to camp at the end of the week - it's really worth a look (and I can't say enough how much fun it's been to send E. there; I know she's really loving going and this week is going by a mite bit too fast for her liking; if we were closer I would have considered two weeks rather than just one!).

A Little Note (that might turn out to be longer than "little"): You might be wondering why I chose farms as one of my themes for our summer fun. I was a really lucky little girl - my grandparents had a farm. They raised cows for beef (organic, grass fed, way before it was cool) and kept a large veggie garden along with high bush blueberries. Both of my grandparents had grown up on farms. Eating fresh and local wasn't a hip lifestyle choice for them; it was the only choice if their families wanted to survive huge catastrophes, like the Great Depression

For me, their home was a little piece of Eden, where I roamed around, helping my grandpa feed the cows and picked my snacks and lunch from the garden. I even saw baby calves born and got to ride on a great big green John Deere. These experiences shaped me in a very appreciable way. I knew what hard work looked like. I understood where food comes from. I was a very small part of a very old tradition, something that was deep within my family. And, above all, I was doing something very, very fun!

I wanted these experiences for E. While we live a pretty rural area and live right down the road from a farm (we frequently have to drive around escaped cows on our way to town), E. hasn't had the chance to really spend time at a farm and see how it works. I felt that camp and doing some activities at home would help give E. just a little piece of what I was so lucky to grow up with.

The Wonders of the Library

Source: http://www.tchps.org/homes/dt_50.htm

I am a reader. Like, I lovelovelove reading and books and places that have books (like schools, bookstores, and, of course, libraries). I was a pretty lame kid and my favorite place to hang out (and the place my parents would ground me from as a teen instead of the mall) was the library. As an adult and parent now, I naturally gravitate towards libraries when searching for a place to drag my kids.



Benefits of the library (when you're a parent):

• It's free. Never turn down anything that's free, unless, like, it's a disease. 
• It's usually pretty quiet. Now, kids aren't always quiet, but I know with my daughter, she's far more inclined to be quiet if everyone else around her is  - the library usually has this effect on her. 
• Libraries usually cater to children in some way. Whether it's a reading program, a playgroup, or just a nice, clean space for kids to play, libraries are usually well equipped for hour long (or longer) visits that won't feel like a chore. 
• Free magazines, books, and wi-fi! I love this. Not that we don't have all those things at our house, but it's different, and in my case, if the baby is sleeping in the Moby and the girl is happily looking at books or playing, I have some time to rest my brain and enjoy some reading that's not infused with an elephant and pig. 
• In keeping with the free, libraries, at least in our area, frequently offer passes to children's and art museums and zoos. For our family, it's kind of a big, expensive trip to get to the museums in our state, so taking out the expense of the pass is a help. 
• You meet other potentially like minded parents and their kids. It's like the hot spot club or bar you might have trolled in your pre spouse and kids days, looking for a hot date (can you tell I never actually did any of that...I met my husband in high school). 

Another tip? If you live in a fairly rural area like we do, check out lots of libraries, not just the one in your town. I've found that you can easily get another library card if your fairly local, either for free or for a small fee. We have library cards at three libraries, including our town's, and all three offer different activities throughout the year. I'll probably expand our library card holdings over the summer to include my parents local library and possibly the library in one of the much larger towns in the area that offers a larger variety of activities. 

Happy International Children's Book Day!!

Source: http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=269#top

Don't you love social media? It wasn't until I logged onto Facebook this morning while the girl was at preschool did I learn via Roald Dahl's fan page that today is International Children's Book Day. Here's a link to a little extra info about the day and the group who promotes it (the International Board on Books for Young People, or IBBY).

I don't think I need to tell anyone about the importance of literacy in kids' lives. I know here in Maine we have a wonderful program called Raising Readers and many school districts, including the one I work for, put on literacy nights or have on going programs for families to participate in throughout the year. So, while I think we all know the importance of literacy in our children's lives, I don't think we can be reminded too much.

In young children, even tiny babies like my little guy, hearing a story and looking at the pictures (especially vivid, high contrast pictures) stimulates important parts of a young child's rapidly developing brain. It's common sense that if a child is exposed to lots of language early on, his own language will expand more fully. I'm not saying that if you read to you infant every day he'll be speaking full sentences by nine months, but when he does start speaking, he will have access to a wider, more precise vocabulary, which will only benefit him further on in life.

Plus, reading aloud, even if the benefits were nonexistent or minimal, is a great way to play with you kids, at any age. There really isn't a better or easier way to build a sweet memory with your kids than curling up at some point in your day, snuggling together, and cracking open a book.

How to get the most out of reading with your kids.

• Pick a quiet, relaxed time to read. Reading aloud should not be rushed. You should not feel stressed. Everyone involved should feel like they can really invest the time and make it a quality experience. 
• Have a special, comfortable spot to read. We like to read in Mama and Daddy's bed, snuggled up with our own pillows and special stuffies. Maybe you have a comfy sofa or the rocker-glider in the nursery?
• Let the kid(s) pick the books, but...
• Don't read something out loud (a lot) that you really can't stand. Yes, this is for your little ones, but it's also for you. It's not going to be a fun time if you're reading a book you really, really can't stand. Obviously, you give in once in a while, and it is beneficial and a pre-reading skill for kids to hear the same book several times in a row, BUT, don't make yourself miserable. 
• Reading is more than saying the words. I really hope to do a how-to video soon on reading aloud, but for now, I'll say this. First of all, talk to your kids about what your reading in the story. I'll be the first to say this doesn't happen every time we read a book, but if something interesting or relevant pops up, or the girl has a question, we talk about what we're reading. Reading aloud is an awesome way to weasel in some extra learning or to address an issue that's happening in your family's life. Secondly, and maybe this is just me with my slight dramatic flair, but reading aloud is a performance. You do not have to be a great Shakespearean actor to be good at reading aloud, but you have to be willing to put some emotion behind it. Kids are a million times more responsive if you are able to try to do that. Check out some books on tape to get an idea of what might sound good (the Skippy John Jones books on tape are hilarious, and Jim Dale who narrates the Harry Potter books is freaking amazing). (P.S. I realize not everyone has great fluidity in reading aloud. A lot of that comes with practice. If you're just starting out and are not great at reading aloud, it's okay. The mere fact that it's being done is awesome.)