Book of the Month: Christmas Books

Due to unexpected circumstances there was no Book of  the Month for November so here is a combined post for November and December. This also concludes my one year "Book of the Month" series. Instead of a specific book, it is a genre of books: Christmas books, specifically Nativity Books.

Dominic's favourite Christmas books are Nativity books, he loves reading about baby Jesus being born and I love that he is so excited about it. 

Reading books about the story of Jesus birth is such a great way to teach about the birth of Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. 

I would love to know: what are your favourite Christmas books? Do you have a favourite Nativity book? What do you do to bring the true meaning of Christmas into your home? 

Book of the Month: Goodnight Moon

"Good Night Moon" written by Margaret Wise Brown is a classic that has been loved by children since 1947. 

Who else has memorized this book? It comes in handy when your child covers up the words but still knows what words you are supposed to say. 

Good Night Moon is a comforting book that promotes recognition of objects in the room and a feeling of stability as the bunny says goodnight, knowing that they will see those same items the next day. 

Like most children's book, this one also follows a rhyming pattern, which supports word recognition and memory. The simple words and pictures are also great for reading comprehension. 

A fun activity to try after reading this book is to point out objects in your Childs room that they can say goodnight to. 

This picture also shows our Thursday night tradition. Earlier this year Kyle went back to school and on Thursday nights he has zoom meeting for the classes e is taking. Dominic was so sad that Daddy wasn't putting him to bed so I decided to make Thursday nights special for him. He gets to come into Mommy and Daddy's bed and read books, sing songs and watch "Gee-Gee" videos (Jesus Videos on the Gospel Library app). Most of the time he is asleep before Daddy is finished. I also love it when he falls asleep snuggled next to me. 

Book of the Month: My Big Truck Book

 

Dominic loves picture books where you "point and name" items. Although, he will often insist that you repeat after him. 

Dominic also loves trucks (actually all vehicles). Because we went to BC for Dominic's Birthday we gave him his gift early, a set of trucks, so that he could bring a couple with him. We stopped in Jasper on the way and got this book, My Big Truck Book by Roger Priddy, for him from a little shop. He was so excited and walked down the street proudly carrying it. 

We had a little family party for him and he was excited to get more toy trucks and cars. 

It helped keep him entertained on the drive and since we have been back. He now knows all of the trucks and even I am learning what each truck is called! 

Other point-and-label books he likes are ones with animals, colours and letters. 

These types of books are great at helping children increase their vocabulary and develop word and picture association. 

Book of the Month: If You Give a Pig a Party

As Dominic's birthday came up, I wondered what we should do to celebrate with Covid restrictions and precautions in place. Although, I didn't stress over it too much because he didn't really know what a Birthday party was. The last time he went to a Birthday party was his first birthday a year ago, he was invited to a friend's party in February but we were at the hospital having Elisabeth. 

I was thinking about inviting people to meet at a playground but turns out we ended up going to BC so had a little party for him with three of his cousins. 

It was funny to see how surprised and excited he was to have balloons, a cake, presents and people sing to him. Two weeks later it was my Birthday and he actually understood what that meant and was excited for more cake. 

Ever since his Birthday, Nico has been wanting to read "If You Give a Pig a Party". It has become one of his most requested nap time book. He loves talking about balloons and parties now. He also loves the part where the pig is playing "hide-and-seek". One day when he woke up from his nap, he came up to me, laughing, and said, "a pig a hide a tree", referring to the book we had read before his nap. 

I love the "If you give a mouse a ..." and "If you give a pig a ..." books. I like how they start and end with the same idea and in between shows how the character becomes distracted by what the original activity was. As children become more familiar with the theme of the book they remember what to look for and recognize that the story line goes back to the first activity the character wanted. 

Book of the Month: Things That Make Me Happy

This is a really cute book that has simple words and pictures. Dominic loves it because he can "read it" himself and Elisabeth loves it because she can turn the pages herself.

It helps promote an understanding of what 'Happy' means and things that can promote the feeling of happiness.

 I would recommend it for newborn to preschoolers. The simple words and pictures won't overstimulate but will promote word recognition. Dominic loves that he knows what the word says by looking at the picture but is also starting to recognize some letters too.

Book of the Month: It's OK to be Different

I think 2020 will be a year that causes people to pause and reflect. The Covid-19 pandemic has taught us that the most important place we can be is at home with our families. Recent events has engaged the world in an important discussion on racism, challenging us to think deeper about the impact of racism and what we can do to change.

I am pretty active on Instagram, it is my preferred social media platform. Last week there was a powerful show of solidarity in standing up for the black community with people and businesses posting black squares for #blackouttuesday. I think the idea was to give the influence to black people for the day, to listen to and learn from them. Although, I posted a black square to my stories instead of my feed. 

I wanted to participate in learning from the black community and challenge myself to think deeper about racism and what I can do personally. 

I saw this image come up a few times on Instagram and loved the message: 

I started following this artist, @ohhappydani and love how she shares important messages of acceptance through her artwork.

Change starts in our hearts and needs to be taught in our homes. As a mother, it is my responsibility to teach my children. The most important thing I want to teach them are the two greatest commandments: To love God and to love their neighbours as themselves (that includes loving themselves). To understand that we are all children of God, created in his image. 

I pondered what I could do to more actively teach my children about accepting others. I know that my Nico learns and processes a lot of information from reading books so I looked through his book collection. We have books that focus on different cultural traditions such as "My Heart Fills with Happiness" (From the indigenous culture) and books that show people of different races such as "I am Canada" and Latter-day Baby books.  Most of the Latter-day books focus on doctrine from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but some would also appeal to all Christians like their books on the Creation and the Nativity. I do really like how they show diversity in the skin colour of the characters shown in the books. 

However, I wanted to have a book that specifically talked about differences in people and accepting others for who they are. I went on Amazon and choose this book, "It's OK to be Different". 

This book really does do a great job at discussing how people are different and also how we are different too. It is an ideal book for toddlers to start a discussion on accepting differences in people. 

I have heard the phrase, "Children don't see colour" and that is not true. Dominic can tell you whether something is red, blue, purple, pink or green. I am sure he can also tell that people have different coloured skin. In fact, research shows that babies as young as 6 months old recognize the skin tone of their parents in comparison to others. I believe that it is important to "see colour", to accept and embrace diversity and learn from each other. 

What are some books you have read that teach acceptance and/or show diversity? 

Book of the Month: Love you Forever

Dominic likes to pick out which book he wants to read and on Mother's Day he picked this book, "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. Perfect Mother's Day book about a mom watching her son grow and telling him that she will love him forever and that he will always be her baby. I often tell Dominic that he will always be my baby boy. He will say "no, Ella baby" (or El-la-la-la). My sweet little Elisabeth will always be my baby girl.

We took this photo a few days after Mother's Day. We set the timer on my phone camera and Nico loved running to the couch to get a photo of us looking at the book and then looking at the photo. Meanwhile Ellie fell asleep a few photos in ... haha.

If you read the page about the boy being a two year old, it describes my Nico pretty well (he will be two in August), except that he has never put anything in the toilet (hoping it stays that way). 

This book is also loved by adults as much, if not more, than children. I remember reading this book as a child and love that I can now read it to my own children. 

Lessons I learn from this book is that there are challenges in each stage of raising children but to enjoy the time you are in because it will go fast and before you know it, they will be grown and on their own. You have to hope that you raised them right - to come and visit you when you are old. 😊 It also does a good job illustrating the circle of life. I also love that it was written by a Canadian author. 

"Love You Forever" can be considered a philosophical book that can create discussion between parent and child and teach important life lessons. For my son, we talk about love and being happy. For older children, you can discuss the concepts of parent-child relationships and the happiness and personal fulfillment that can come from those relationships. You can also discuss what it means to grow up, take care of yourself and a future family. It can even create an opportunity to discuss death.  

Although the book takes the reader through the child growing up. The author wrote it while grieving the loss of the two stillborn children him and his wife were not able to raise. My sister recently had a stillborn baby and I think you will always wonder what it would have been like to watch that child grow up. 

What lessons have you learned or taught from this book? 

Book of the Month: I Wrote to The Zoo

In the past couple of months Dominic's language skills have grown exponentially! It is exciting to hear him say new words or put 2 or 3 words together. He is excited to see our reaction too. A new word he has started saying recently is 'chocolate'. I think he is starting to realize that he won't get chocolate every time he says it. Hahaha. Other new words are 'pray' and 'amen'. It is so sweet hearing him ask to pray and then say amen when the prayer ends. Makes those challenging days of "toddler testing" worthwhile.

I know that reading has helped him develop his language skills and I love that he loves to read. We read books at least 20 times a day and often the same book multiple times in a row. This is typical for toddlers and will support language development and story & word recognition.

This month's 'book of the month' is, "I Wrote to the Zoo". It was actually a gift for Elisabeth but Nico quickly claimed it as his. I tell him that Ellie is sharing with him.

This is really one of the cutest books with cute animal illustrations. This book, like other lift the flap books, promotes child participation. After a few times of reading it, I will have Nico say what animal it is and then repeat it after. Some animals he can say by name, like snake, frog and dog. Others he says part of the name, like 'raff' for giraffe. Others he will do sound effects or gestures, like the monkey - which is funny.

I also like how this book uses simple words to describe each animal too which helps with building comprehension skills.

Other lift the flap books that Dominic loves are, "Zoom Zoom Baby" which we got for free for signing up for his library card and "Where's Spot". These books also have different animals behind each flap.

It's funny seeing Dominic take things from one book and add it to the others. For example, at the end of "Zoom Zoom Baby", it says "bye bye". When finishing "Where's Spot" and "I Wrote to the Zoo", he will say "bye bye".

While reading, "Where's Spot" he started saying "no" when lifting each flap until he got to Spot at the end (except that sometimes he does call the turtle Spot .. Haha ... if you read the book, you will understand why), he will do that with the other two books as well. Although, he is starting to develop a sense of humour. Today, while reading "Where's Spot", he started saying "yes" to each flap he lifted and then would start laughing. He also likes to put things where they don't belong and then look at me and say "noooooo". For example, putting a toy in the fridge.

What has your child, or a child you have cared for, learned from a lift the flap book?

Book of the Month: Dr. Suess books

This month's book of the month post will highlight a collection of books. March 2 is Dr. Seuss' Birthday and the date chosen by the National Education Association as the annual date for National Read Across America Day. Schools and library's throughout the USA and Canada and other countries plan celebrations around this day each year to encourage children to develop an interest in reading and literacy development. This year would have been Dr. Seuss' 116th Birthday.

 Theodor Seuss Geisel had a unique and imaginative style of writing and illustrating children's books; which have been enjoyed for generations. Dr. Seuss books encourage story and word recognition through rhyming, repetition and short phrases.

Geisel was also a strong advocate of early literacy. In his book, "Oh, The Places You Will Go", he wrote: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

I love that Dominic loves reading, even when he wants to listen to read the same book 20 times in a row. I can already see how it has supported him in his learning and language development.

Prior to my maternity leave, I wrote a blog article for Terra Centre on the importance of reading to your baby and young children. You can read it here.

How has reading benefited you or children that you care for?

Do you have a favourite Dr. Seuss book?

Book of the Month: On the Night You Were Born

This is our sweet little Elisabeth at just 2 hours old. She was born just after midnight so it seemed fitting that her first bedtime story was "On the Night You Were Born" by Nancy Tillman.

I love the message in this book that teaches that each child is unique and special.  It tells of the excitement of various creatures and others such as the moon and wind to know of the birth of this child.

While reading this book, parents can share how special the child is to them. One of Dominic's favourite parts of the book is when it asks you to say their name out loud. His other favourite part is the picture of the ducks, he loves ducks!

Like most children's books, this one follows a rythem/rhyming pattern. This is an important part of early literacy as it helps young children in developing listening skills. It also helps children to recall the story and make it easier to retell and eventually to recognize words.

Book of the Month: That's Not My Puppy

For the year 2020, this blog will feature a book of the month. Most likely each month will feature young children's books because that is mostly what I read these days.

Dominic loves being read to and looking through his books! The last few months he has wanted to pick out what book we read before bed. When I was pregnant with Dominic, Kyle and I would read to him and now when I read to Dominic, I am also reading to our new little baby growing inside of me.

The importance of reading to your baby really does start before they are born! Around 18 weeks of pregnancy baby's hearing starts to develop and they will soon recognize your voice and other voices they hear often. Reading, singing and talking to your unborn baby helps to start the bonding process. Current research has also shown that reading to your baby in the womb promotes brain activity and can promote early literacy skills and language development. This continues after they are born too! 

At a time when our world is becoming increasingly digital and e-books are gaining in popularity, young children still seem to prefer print books. I personally love snuggling up with my little boy and reading a print book to him. It allows an opportunity for us to interact and talk about pictures as well as reading and pointing to words. Having him hold books and turn pages also helps him in developing fine motor skills and learn about different textures. 

Reading to both of my babies

January's book of the month is all about textures! The Usborne touch and feel Books, written and illustrated by Fiona Watt,  are all about recognizing different textures such as bumpy, fuzzy and squishy. They have quite a few different, "That's Not My __________" in their series. Dominic got the "That's Not My Puppy" book for Christmas from one of his aunties. He was so excited when he opened it and right away started feeling all of the different textures as he turned each page. He seemed familiar with these types of books so I started wondering if his daycare had them. Sure enough, I went to pick him up from Daycare a few days later and he ran over to show me some of the other touch and feel books in this usborne series. It was a proud Mommy moment seeing how he recognized the relationship between his puppy book and the other books at daycare. 

With Chinese New Year celebrations happening this week, I also thought it appropriate to choose this book for January's book of the month because Dominic was born the year of the dog. This is fitting for him because he loves dogs! We don't have a dog but he loves seeing dogs when we go for walks and visit people who have dogs; although he sometimes gets startled if they come too close to him too quick.  

"That's Not My Puppy" is ideal for ages newborn to toddler and helps to build sensory awareness, language development and recognizing differences between different types of dogs and textures. 


Do you have any, "That's Not My" books? What are your thoughts on reading them and how your child interacts with them?