First Swimming Lesson

The children had their first swimming lesson this week. This swimming school is amazing for little ones. It is a heated indoor pool just large enough for lessons with two teachers and five small children. The instructors do an amazing job of getting a wide variety of skills introduced and practiced in a half hour lesson using songs and games. In their very first lesson (and only second time in a pool) they blew bubbles, dunked their heads under water, kicked behind themselves while on their tummies, learned to hold on to the side of the pool and scoot towards a ladder, learned to scoop the water with their hands, and jumped in to be caught by waiting arms several times.

I was very impressed with the program. Michael had a wonderful time and enjoyed every second of the lesson. When it wasn't his turn with one of the instructors he dunked himself under the water over and over again. He was having a blast.

Ava's reaction was more complicated. She was having a wonderful time until they asked her to put her face in the water. Ava does have tubes in her ears, so it is possible her negative reaction to getting her head wet is due to some odd sensations with the ears. I think it is much more likely that it is residual sensory issues though.

She was persuaded to blow a few bubbles and was happy to leave that portion of the lesson behind. The teachers deliberately were teaching the children how to hold their breath while being dunked (very briefly) under the water though and Ava handled that very poorly. She got more and more agitated every time it happened and took longer to move on and get back into the flow of the lesson with each subsequent dunk. Finally, near the end of the 30 minute lesson, she just lost it and started crying. At that point the lesson was over.

When asked what she thought of swimming lessons, she was quick to state she didn't like the "getting my head wet part." However, she's not upset at the idea of going back, so it wasn't all bad for her. It will be interesting to see if next time is better or worse. I can see it going either way.

I think, next time, I will ask the instructors to give her a verbal warning before dunking her and ask them to give her a little more recovery time between dunks (and explain why). If I can get them to modify things just a little I think she'll desensitize more quickly.

Color Mixing Lights and Darks

I wanted a quick and simple art project that introduced something new and practiced something old. We reviewed our tape resist technique using tape to make a skewed 3x3 grid. Then I showed the kids how to start with a primary color and mix in white to make a lighter version and black to make a darker version. We made light and dark red, blue, and yellow and filled in our grid with all nine colors. Then we talked about which ones we liked the best and what feelings might be associated with different sorts of colors. Fun was had by all and the entire project only took about 20-30 minutes.

DIY Tabletop Easels from a Cardboard Box

OTs are always raving about the benefits of writing on a slantboard or working on an easel. I'm not sure why but I think it has to do with hand (or finger or wrist) strength and fine motor skills. (Any OT's out there who would care to enlighten us in the comments?) I have a full size easel, but it takes up a ton of space and I never feel like dragging it out of its corner and setting it up. I've been wanting some tabletop easels for the kids, but I've never been willing to spend the money on them. They're crazy expensive.

Every week my husband breaks down cardboard boxes in preparation for recycling day and one day I was staring down at them and had a idea. I sat down yesterday and made these from one medium sized cardboard box in about 20 minutes.



I forgot to take pictures while I was making them, but essentially I cut all the tape and broke the rectangular box completely down flat and cut it in half. The long side of the box becomes the front of the easel and the short side of the box becomes the bottom of the easel. You have to cut triangles off the four remaining pieces to make the puzzle fit together. The right side of the easel is formed by a short half and long half of the top of the box and the left side of the easel is formed by a short half and long half of the bottom of the box. I know that's clear as mud when written out, but I promise it works. Then just tape the thing in place with some packing tape to hold the shape. I also made a tray for the front to catch drips from a piece I cut from a second box.

If someone is really interested in making these and can't figure it out, I'll try to make a picture tutorial another time.

Here's a back view (Sophie likes the easel too.):



Here's Michael working on his first creation with his easel: (something about a monster, a map, footprints, and a hiding hole)



I was absolutely amazed at Ava's picture. I asked her what it was and she told me it was her "kitty fairy". Because I'm that kind of mom I took a picture of it, slapped a caption on it, emailed it to all of our relatives, and put it on my blog. I really do think it is beautiful. I'm thinking of slapping the original in a frame and putting it in her room. What do you think?

Pinterest Strikes Again (and look where it got me this time)

I've been seeing... hmm... let's call them "giant squishy water bags" all over the kids and DIY boards on pinterest lately and honestly I thought it looked like a lot of fun. The following conversation with my husband went like this:

Me: "Let's buy some clear plastic sheeting, fold it in half, duct-tape the open edges together, fill it with water, and let the kids jump on it!"

Husband: "You're crazy. That'll never work."

Me: "But I saw it on Pinterest! It must work."

So, the next time we were at a home improvement store we bought some clear plastic sheeting and duct tape.



Then I folded it in half and taped the three open sides together leaving a 2-3 inch gap on one side and stuck a hose in it. Then I proceeded to re-tape the sides with about three more layers of duct tape to fix most of the leaking. If you decide to try it, I'd suggest slightly overlapping the plastic sheeting and just going with two layers of tape to begin with. I also had the kids stuff in some shapes made out of craft foam I had in my craft supplies stash. I propped the corner with the hole and hose up on a chair until the bag was about as full as I wanted it and then removed the hose and taped up the hole.

We ended up with this:



The children loved it. It was so much fun. They ran around on it exhausting themselves for an hour. They jumped on and chased air bubbles. They tried to push the foam shapes around inside the bag. Ava enjoyed running and sliding. How she managed to avoid slamming herself into a deck rail I do not know.

Now, if I were completely sane, I would have stopped once the children had run off their initial excitement. It had been great exercise, and a good sensory experience for the children. Ava pre-OT would never have walked on that squishy bag. Ava pre-OT couldn't have handled the wet and slightly sandy surface of the bag. The activity had already been a huge success.

I didn't stop there though. I was thinking about how to stretch the sensory experience even further. So I decided to strip the kids down to their undies and toss some washable tempera paint on top of the bag and see what happened. (You should have seen the look on the neighbor's face when he briefly came out onto his deck and glanced over to see me in the middle of squirting a puddle of red paint onto the "giant squishy water bag" right in between my two mostly naked children. He went right back inside.)

It started like this:



Then looked like this:



I didn't get a picture of the end, but Michael and Ava were covered in paint from head to toe. I hosed them and the bag down and we headed straight for the tub. They had so much fun.

Date Nights

My husband and I have recently begun trying for regular date nights. We're aiming for about once a week. That pretty much means that instead of engaging in independent pursuits for an hour or so after putting the children to bed and before falling asleep exhausted we are trying to spend a couple of hours together. We've been picking out a movie to watch. We watched Salt and Knight and Day. Knight and Day was surprisingly enjoyable. Salt was fine although not spectacular. Last night we rewatched the first Bourne movie which we hadn't seen in years.

My first rule for picking out a movie is that I absolutely do not want it to make me cry. When I only get a couple of hours a week to escape into a fantasy world the last thing I want is to spend the experience getting put through an emotional wringer. That rules out dramas, war, romances, and most romantic comedies. I'm also not a huge fan of horror. That pretty much leaves action, action/comedies, and some sci-fi/fantasies. Given that I've seen about five non-children's movies in the last five years, that leaves plenty of movies to choose from.

It isn't exactly high-class entertainment or an elaborate "date", but it is some uninterrupted time spent snuggled up next to my favorite person in the world. That's all I need to make me happy.

Who's Right? - Driving / Parking Scenarios

Who has the right of way in this driving scenario?

My husband and I have different opinions about who has the right of way in a certain driving scenario. I would like to get your opinion (Not that I would ever go to my husband saying, "See, I was right. My readers say so...)

See my delightful, artist quality sketch of the following driving scenario:



Car A wants to turn right heading north. Car B also wants to head north. It will be a left turn for Car B. Car A has a yield sign at the intersection. Car B is in a left turn lane.

Now, we both agree on this much. If the light is red and no cars are coming from the N/S, Car A has the right of way. Car B definitely shouldn't be turning left on red.

If the light is green, and there is a left turn arrow that is also green Car B has the right of way (Car A should be looking at a red light with a yield sign). - True or False?

If the light is green, but Car B does not have a green arrow (therefore Car A should also have a green light and their yield sign) Car A has the right of way. - True or False?

We drive through an intersection just like this regularly. I really do want to know the answer to the true/false questions because just as much as I feel I'm right about my interpretation, my husband feels he's right about the opposite.

Parking Lot Irritation - Am I right to be irritated in this situation?

Our school's driveway/parking lot situation is a horseshoe (again, see amazing diagram). I'll admit, there are no signs indicating that the driveway is one-way. However, I get irritated whenever someone drives in the opposite direction from the arrows I've drawn in. Somehow, I feel like it is just understood that this is a one-way horseshoe. Is that just me? Am I grumbling at people in my mind without justification or do you see this as an obviously one-way situation as well?

I fell in love with a tree... (A Story of a Quest)

It all started with a children's book.

The children and I were heading to check out at the library and Ava spotted one last book attractively displayed on an endcap. It showed a little girl in a green dress with a crown of pink flowers in her hair swinging from a tree full of pink flowers. She snatched it up and added it to our pile.

Later that week, when we finally got around to reading A Tree for Emmy by Mary Ann Rodman. It turned out to be a pretty sweet picture book about a girl who loves the mimosa tree in her grandmother's field and so asks for one of her own for her birthday. She and her parents found it difficult to find one and finally end up with a baby sapling from the ground below her grandmother's tree.

As I was driving around town, I began to notice beautiful fern-like trees with gorgeous pink blossoms. There's one on the drive to my parents' house. There's another on the way to the school where Ava has speech. After reading A Tree for Emmy I realized they were probably mimosa trees. I also quite liked them. Once I became aware of them I saw them everywhere. Driving around town with the family, my conversation with my husband would be peppered with interjections of "Mimosa!" accompanied by a pointing finger. On the train at Six Flags, I spotted and pointed out several. Taking the children to their private speech therapist, I noticed a gorgeous specimen across the street. Michael and I walked over to look at it close up while Ava was having her turn. I'm sure it had been there the entire year and a half we've been driving there, but only now did I notice it.

As we were driving home from Six Flags I decided to see if I could just buy one. Enough with the love from afar, I wanted to just get one. I had already decided earlier this spring that I wanted to get a flowering tree and hadn't quite decided which one yet. Now I was sure. I began searching online vendors. Of course, the abrupt decision to buy one ruined the anniversary (next week - 8 years) surprise my husband had been planning. That was sad, but now we would get to choose one together.

There are pink varieties (the most common), white varieties, and a dark pink (flame) variety. (Go here for oh so pretty pictures of flame mimosas.) Looking at pictures online I decided that the flame variety was the most striking one. Only one online vendor carries it right now. It doesn't ship until fall. And it is rather pricey. So, I decided to look for it locally. We visited and called several nurseries and none had what we wanted. I went back to the online vendor and searching for a coupon code stumbled across hundreds of very passionate negative reviews about this particular nursery so we decided against ordering from them. As it turns out, A Tree for Emmy was right about it being difficult to get your hands on a mimosa tree.

Then I remembered how Emmy got hers. One night, after dinner, our family went on a baby mimosa hunt. We drove and parked by the mimosa tree near my parents' house. It was on a common ground so I thought we could look for some babies growing under the tree. We brought buckets and little gardening spades just in case we might find a baby tree to dig up. The children were quite excited about going on a quest for baby mimosas.

Isn't the tree amazing? We nicknamed it "Mama Mimosa". But no baby mimosas were growing under it.



Then I looked down the hill and spotted three more mimosa trees growing on the banks of the dry creekbed.



I was determined to try everything to find some baby mimosas. But did you see that hill? And the rocks? The children thought all those rocks looked like a lot of fun. I thought dragging two small children down that hill carrying buckets and gardening tools sounded like a recipe for disaster. One one hand, I really wanted to search for some baby mimosas. On the other hand, I like my children healthy with no broken bones and no head injuries. Fortunately, just then a friendly neighbor passed by walking her dog. Hearing of our quest, she offered to let us go through her backyard down some steps to the creekbed.

To make this long story slightly shorter...



We found 11 seedlings. They had sprouted in a shallow patch of eroded soil in the creek bed. They had managed to grow in less than an inch of dirt over gravel and rocks. They would have been washed away with the next hard rain. We brought them home and potted them. To the best of my minimal gardening ability I am pampering them. (Please don't die, please don't die!) And now I have my very own mimosa. Well, to be more specific, I have eleven mimosas.

According to internet research the mimosa tree has as average lifespan of 10-20 years and grows to a height of 20-40 feet. So 1-4 feet of growth per year. How many years is that until blooms? Of course, I'll have eleven trees by then and what on earth will I do with eleven of them?


The end.


PS: If anyone has a flame mimosa tree near them and would be willing to collect some seed pods and mail them to me in the fall I would be forever grateful.

Slacker Parenting Win

Ava wakes at the crack of dawn. Ava has always woken at the crack of dawn. During the summer that is before 5am around here. Her first and second summer my husband and I took turns getting up with her, bleary eyed and a more than a bit grumpy. Her third summer, when she was 2 1/2 we split the difference. We got a tot clock and we'd set it for about 30-40 minutes after she woke up. She knew she couldn't leave her room until her clock turned yellow and that bought us an extra 30-45 minutes of sleep every day.

This summer she's been waking up just as early as always. She's older and more independent now though and I feel guilty locking her up in her room for over an hour after she wakes up. (I got used to the 7:05 wake up time we were able to get away with during the winter when it stays dark longer.) So we told her she could go downstairs and play quietly when she woke up but she can't wake anyone else up until her light turns yellow. If her light is blue, that means Mommy, Daddy, and Michael are sleeping.

Well, that worked when she was only waking up about half an hour before the alarm, but much longer than that and she'll sneak into our room wailing, "Mama! My light not turn yellow!!" Now, in a perfect parenthood world, I'd pop up happily whenever she wakes up and spend quality time with her, but I'm a night owl and I really wanted to try to hold on to sleeping in just a little. I had an idea...

I started setting out a bowl of dry cereal and some water by her computer before I go to bed. Now she knows that when she wakes up she can go downstairs and entertain herself and eat at the same time. It worked beautifully for a few days. My husband and I would wander down after our alarm went off and we leisurely got dressed/showered to find her happily eating Cheerios or Mini-wheats while playing educational software. That was pretty nice.

Then something even stranger started happening. My little early bird who has woken up with the dawn 99 out of 100 days for her entire life began sleeping in. She's slept till 7:45 for about five days straight (that was typed in a whisper to try to avoid the curse of saying such things out loud). My hopeful hypothesis is that now that she gets no attention for getting up early, she has no reason to get up when she surfaces with the light. Instead, perhaps, she has actually learned to roll back over and enjoy drifting back to sleep for one more cycle. Hmm. Slacker parenting = better sleep for my daughter. Who knew?

Losing a Syllable: Bittersweet

Daddy has become Dad. Mama has become Mom. Michael articulates the single syllable distinctly and with a flavor of satisfaction. It feels right. He turned 4 1/2 a couple of weeks ago and I didn't even notice the half-year anniversary. He's getting older and more mature right on schedule. Somehow, I simultaneously enjoy hearing him call us by slightly more mature labels and feel a little twinge of sadness for the extra syllable I lost. I loved "Mama". At least I get to hold on to it a little while longer with Ava.

One Manipulative - Multitude of Concepts and Skills

(I apologize for the overly bright colors in the pictures. Photography is not my area of expertise. They give you the general idea though.)


Concepts:
colors
shapes
big/little
same/different
more/less
prepositions (on, under, over, by, up, down, etc.)
simple arithmetic (counting, simple addition and subtraction, etc.)
simple and more complex patterns

Skills:
Counting
Sorting
Compare/Contrast
Description
Fine Motor Skill of Lacing (using laces or pipe cleaners)

My children love lacing beads onto laces. I have some animal/transportation beads in my crafting supplies that I used when making busy book pages and the children beg to do the activity.

I was ordering some more art supplies and some bright foam beads caught my eye. I thought the children would enjoy some new beads so I tossed them in my order. The children loved them. I enjoyed lacing them as well. I also realized how useful they can be as a math manipulative or when teaching early language concepts in therapy (they are a choking hazard though - closely supervise or only use with older children).

Homemade "Deluxe" Kitty Condo

Michael has recently developed an obsession with dragging things out of the corner where we tend to pile recyclables until recycling day to use in "projects". As one example, I walked around the corner one morning to find soda can dog (please ignore messy piles of random things behind soda can dog).

As an aside, to alleviate the problem of being buried under huge piles of abandoned art projects I have had to introduce the concept of some projects being practice projects while other projects are keeper projects. The practice projects, we make and then throw away or recycle perhaps taking a picture of it first. The keeper projects are displayed, but only after taking something else down off the wall, or off the table to make room first.

I decided to redirect Michael to a project that might actually be useful. We collected sturdy, decently sized boxes and built a four story, six room, double-wide kitty condo. The boxes are held together with packing tape. Scissors cut openings in the boxes and we used pipe cleaners as toys to tempt the kitties in. I did most of the work while Michael "helped" by enthusiastically bounding around, decorating the condo by taping on scrapbook paper (often covering entrances), and twisting up pipe cleaners into interesting shapes and calling them kitty toys.

The kittens (now a year old - see them when they were tiny) were definitely intrigued and the entire project kept Michael engaged for at least an hour. Hmm. Ignore random messy piles in the background of the picture again. I'd say I'm going to work on that problem with my housekeeping, but I try to be truthful here.

Teaching Children Their Own Personal Information Through Song

When Michael was little (as in still eating in a high chair little) I modified a nursery rhyme to teach him his full name. As he's gotten older I've added verses to teach him his address and his phone number. Song is a fun way to teach and learn and the children will beg to hear the song again and again because it is about them.

The names, addresses, and phone numbers used here are completely made up. Insert your own child's information (or student's information) as appropriate.

I use the tune for "Do You Know the Muffin Man?" (click on the link and hit play sample if you don't know the tune).

The original lyrics are:

First Verse:
Oh, do you know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Oh, do you know the muffin man,
That lives on Drury Lane?

Second Verse:
Oh, yes, I know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Oh, yes, I know the muffin man,
That lives on Drury Lane.

Here's the modified version for teaching a child's full name:

First Verse:
Oh, do you know Brian's full name,
Full name, full name,
Oh, do you know Brian's full name,
It's Brian Lewis Brown.

Second Verse:
Oh, yes, I know Brian's full name,
Full name, full name,
Oh, yes I know Brian's full name,
It's Brian Lewis Brown.

Alternately, you could sing:
Oh, do you know Brian's family name,
family name, family name,
Oh, do you know Brian's family name,
It's Brian Lewis Brown. (etc.)

This is how I sing the song when teaching their street address:

First Verse:
Oh, do you know Brian's street address,
Street address, street address,
Oh, do you know Brian's street address,
It's 44 Westing Estate.

Second Verse:
Oh, yes, I know Brian's street address,
Street address, street address,
Oh, yes I know Brian's street address,
It's 44 Westing Estate.

Alternately, you could sing:
Oh, do you know Brian's house number,
House number, house number,
Oh, do you know Brian's house number,
It's 44 Westing Estate. (etc.)

This is how I sing the song when teaching their phone number:

First Verse:
Oh, do you know Brian's phone number,
Phone number, phone number,
Oh, do you know Brian's phone number,
It's 123-456-7899.

Second Verse:
Oh, yes, I know Brian's phone number,
Phone number, phone number,
Oh, yes I know Brian's phone number,
It's 123-456-7899.

You could choose to leave out the area code if you live in an area where only one area code is commonly used. I also slow the tune down significantly when singing the 10 digits of the phone number to make sure each number is distinct.

Then put it all together.

And then you can string all three parts together for a "Song About You" - a six verse song that teaches your child's (or student's) full name, street address, and phone number. (You could also add two verses about city and state and another two about zip code if you are so inclined.)

Feel free to click on the image at the top of the post to open a one page printable to save to your computer. If you're using the song in therapy you might want to send home an example of what you're doing for parents to practice.

Holiday Water Play

Well, the extended weekend over the Memorial Day holiday was wonderful. We enjoyed our visit with our son's godmother more than I can say. Often, on her visits, we go to many of the wonderful attractions here around St. Louis. This time the dual contributions of 95 degree weather combined with our new outdoor sprinkler park caused us to decide to just hang around the house enjoying the deck and spending quality time together.

We spent hours each day on the deck playing with the children in the water. Here are some additional ideas for fun with a water sprinkler system used as a homemade sprinkler park for kids.

A while back we noticed that the children loved playing with all the various PVC pipe connectors at home improvement stores. That gave me an idea for a simple cheap building toy for the kids. We bought some connectors and some pipe. My husband cut the pipe to several different lengths and the children have a blast building shapes, cubes, flags, and all sorts of free form creations with the pvc materials. I brought the bin out on the deck and encouraged the children to run the sprinkler hoses into the pipes to build fountains and sprinklers.

I also persuaded my husband to run an extra length of the sprinkler tubing down from the deck over to the children's playset to mount some sprinklers over the slide. He put in a joint so we can disconnect it and pull it back up onto the deck when he needs to mow the lawn. There's also a valve so the children can turn the water on and off at will to switch the slide from regular mode to water slide mode. I taught them how to pull a small kiddie pool over to the bottom of the slide and they went to it.

As it turns out, the smaller diameter sprinkler hosing works beautifully for filling up water balloons. We filled up a ton of water balloons and let the kids pop them by throwing them down onto the surface of the deck. It didn't occur to them to throw them at each other and I didn't feel the need to point that out as an option. They had a blast. We also turned several of them into baby water "piggies" and put them in the water table with soapy blue water (I called it their pigpen). The soap made for a nice sensory experience as well as making the baby piggies difficult to catch. Then we had to make mama and daddy piggies. Eventually the children convinced me to move the piggy families into the big pool. I colored the water with some washable tempera paint and the children had a blast taking care of the piggies. Some of the balloons were filled with water. Some were filled with air. Some were filled halfway with water so they could be shaken. Some we filled with water and a little soap so that bubbles were formed when the kids would shake the balloon. My husband even managed to get a small water balloon filled up inside a larger balloon so the kids could watch one bounce around inside another. Michael decided that one was a pregnant mama piggy with a baby insider her and Ava instantly demanded another for her piggy family. All in all, the water balloon piggies were a surprising success.

DIY: Use Home Improvement Sprinkler System to Make Kids Water Playground

Home improvement stores sell component based sprinkler systems. You buy some hose, connectors and valves. Choose some cool sprinkler heads. Then hook the whole thing up to your hose.

In our case, my husband installed a splitter down on the hose faucet so he'll still be able to hook up a regular garden hose and then ran the sprinkler system hose up to the deck level. He attached the hose under the deck rail. I just made that sound simple, but it did take him several hours. Then he pierced holes (with a special tool) in the hose and installed a smaller hose with a valve and sprinkler head every few feet along the deck. With the valves, the children can turn each sprinkler head on and off individually. We also left two of the smaller hoses free flowing and called them kid faucets. They can open the valves and use them to fill cups, make "water snakes", spray each other (neck down), or anything else that suits their imagination. There is also a master valve they can use to turn the entire thing on and off at will.

Hopefully the pictures will give you an idea. We got it up and running today. The children had so much fun. I intend to send the children out to play every day this summer in the morning when the deck is in the shade. I'll simply send them out in clothes that I don't mind getting wet. They will be able to play in the sprinklers whenever they like, and use the "kid faucets" whenever they like as well.

A New Succulent Garden

Around the time I started my first "real" job (self-contained speech and language classroom in a middle school) I discovered succulent plants. Traditionally, I cannot keep houseplants alive, but these adorable tiny plants were supposed to be so easy to take care of I couldn't resist picking one out. It lived on a windowsill in my classroom. I got addicted to them. I wanted one of every kind I could find. They would grow, I'd split them up and transplant them to bigger pots. I got a shelf. The kids enjoyed helping me watering them. I'd cart them home every summer and bring them back the next fall.

Then, one summer I got married, quit my job, decided to return to graduate school to pursue a doctorate, and bought my first house. Umm. Let's just say things were crazy and I was looking to simply in every way possible. I put the entire garden of plants on the curb with a "Free to a Good Home sign". They all disappeared overnight.

Honestly, I didn't miss them. First there was the new house, new marriage, and graduate school. Then Michael and Ava arrived in quick succession. There was a time when the children were both tiny, that I couldn't hardly muster the energy to pet my cats much less miss my succulent garden.

Now that the children are older and life is beginning to find some balance again I have been looking longingly at the tiny baby succulents in the garden section of whichever store I happen to be in at the moment. This weekend I decided to treat myself to a late mother's day gift. I picked out some pretty succulents, some cactus potting soil, and a pretty neat pot that will securely straddle my deck rail and built myself a brand new succulent garden. It's beautiful. I couldn't be more delighted. And this sounds a bit dorky, but my spirits lift and I feel a little joy every time my eye wanders in that direction.

Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin: A Series Review

The children and I have just finished an enchanting series of chapter books. The books are lovely and I will not be able to do them justice but I had to try.

Books written for children are a mixed bag. Some of them aren't very good, to be honest. Others are entertaining, beautifully illustrated, sweet, fun, or all of those. Almost all of them are written for children though. What I mean by that, is that in addition to the content of the book being directed at children, the prose is modified for children as well. Vocabulary is simplified, sentences are shorter and less complex. Effort is made to make the prose engaging for children. Often the modifications are necessary, appropriate, and well done. Some of my absolute favorite children books use rhythm and rhyme to make the text fun to read and listen to.

These books are different. The prose is exquisite. I feel like I'm reading a classic - or poetry and yet, somehow, the stories are still accessible to even very young children. Here is a short excerpt from the first book to illustrate: "So the children's wings were the least of Mrs. Tabby's worries. She washed those silky wings every day, along with chins and paws and tails, and wondered about them now and then, but she worked too hard finding food and bringing up the family to think much about things she didn't understand. But when the huge dog chased little Harriet and cornered her behind the garbage can, lunging at her with open, white-toothed jaws, and Harriet with one desperate mew flew straight up into the air and over the dog's staring head and lighted on a rooftop - then Mrs. Tabby understood."

Every two or three pages, there are beautiful, delicate, detailed illustrations that bring the story to life and help keep little ones engaged in the story. These books entranced my 3 and 4 year old children - a boy and a girl. They entranced my husband and I. I imagine that a young independent reader (1st-3rd grade) would enjoy them as well. Even a middle or high school reader could become addicted to this series.

The books are fantasies in the sense that they are about four kittens who were born with wings. Other than that fact, though, the books take place in the perfectly ordinary settings of a city and the countryside. While appropriate in content for even very young children, they are not all sweetness and light. The kittens encounter hunger, fatigue, injury, and the danger of discovery by humans. These topics are integrated seamlessly into the stories and are part of what make the stories so engaging for the children.

The first book in the series is Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin and illustrated by S. D. Schindler. Four winged kittens are born to a perfectly ordinary alley cat under a dumpster in the city. When the kittens are old enough to fly the mother sends them away to find a better place to live in the country. Eventually the kittens find a better home.

The second book in the series is Catwings Return. Two of the catwings decide to return to the city to visit their mother only to find her missing and the old alley being demolished by the humans. They discover a lost black, winged kitten who needs to be rescued.

The third book in the series is Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings. The youngest catwing makes a new friend and although she helps him in the beginning, he is able to help her in the end.

The final book in the series is Jane on Her Own. The youngest kitten goes off on her own in search of adventure. She learns some lessons before finding just the right place to settle.

I cannot recommend this series of books enough. They are a perfect read-aloud introduction to early chapter books for young children. The books are five short chapters each with enough illustrations to keep children used to picture books interested. These books could even be read over the course of a few weeks in 5-10 minutes per therapy session. Use them as a "reward" for good therapy behavior and know that they are perfect for increasing listening comprehension, expanding vocabulary, and exposure to advanced syntax at the same time.

Bottom line: Highly recommended.

The Beginning

Imagine a beautiful sunny evening in a crowded park. My husband and I are pushing the children on side by side swings surrounded by other small children and their parents. Michael calls back to me but I can't quite hear him and I ask him to speak up. And this is what he asked.

"Mama, how were the first people borned when there weren't any other people yet to born babies?"

Umm. Well, that question was a bit deeper than I had anticipated. And it didn't really seem like the best place to be discussing it. And, to be honest, I hadn't quite thought through how to answer that question with my preschooler.

After fumbling around a bit and not managing to answer the question at all I simply explained that it was a very smart question to ask and the answer was complicated and that we'd discuss it at home. He hasn't brought it up again yet, but I really do need to figure out what I'm going to say.

Do you censor when you read to your children?

Censoring seemed to be an unintentional theme of our evening last night. I found myself revisiting the issue more than once over the course of the evening. In general, I'm not a big fan of censoring. However, with my children, I feel they need to be exposed to content when they're developmentally ready to understand and discuss it and not before.

We wanted to have a movie night. First we tried Madagascar 2. I felt a large part of the humor was inappropriate for a 3 and 4 year old and stopped the movie about 20 minutes in. I just explained to them that mommy and daddy didn't know it, but this movie is actually for big kids - not little kids and so we were going to stop it and watch a different movie. We then watched Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure which was quite sweet. We all enjoyed it and stayed up a bit past their usual bedtime to finish it.

Then, as part of bedtime we began reading the second Moongobble and Me book: The Weeping Werewolf. The children thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the series and so I requested the second from the library. Unfortunately, the very first chapter was called "Bullies" and involved a rather nasty bullying episode. In my opinion, my children are a little young for that content. They were unfamiliar with the term, and so I defined it before beginning the chapter by simply explaining that "bully" is a word for people who are being mean to others. I tried to read the first chapter to them and found myself modifying the language of the bullies to make it a little less intense. As the episode increased in intensity, I couldn't really even modify it and I ended up skipping the chapter altogether.

The second chapter picked up with the actual story where the first left off and we found ourselves back with the familiar characters and the plot line that we were all enjoying. I would still recommend the series to others, I'd just warn them about this first chapter and tell them to use their own judgement when reading the series to younger listeners. I was disappointed to have to skip the first chapter entirely, but I didn't feel the content was appropriate for my preschoolers. I do not at all regret skipping it, and yet I feel vaguely guilty about the censoring.

Have you ever had to censor parts of a book you were reading to your child?

Library Loot

We tried taking the children to the library when Ava was 1 and Michael was 2. That didn't work out so well. I would go on my own occasionally, but the trip as a family didn't seem productive. We tried again when Ava was 2 and Michael was 3. That was a little better, but still not great. Instead of trying to let the children choose their own books, I would reserve them online and just run in and check out the reserved books.

Recently I decided to try again. It's amazing. I remind the children of the library rules (quiet voices, slow feet, books treated gently and respectfully, etc.) as we walk from the parking lot to the entrance. The children independently head to the children's section and begin to choose books for their piles while I head over to pick up any books I've reserved. Then I join the children and try to cut them off when their piles start to approach a foot high.

The first time we went I forgot to bring a bag. Helping a 3 year old and a 4 year old get a pile of books each out to the car carried in their arms was interesting. This time they each brought their backpack. They brought books to return in their backpack and thoroughly enjoyed pushing them through the return slot. After checking out, they filled their backpacks to overflowing with new books to come home. They begged to choose books to look through on the drive home. All in all, the trip was a complete success.

Such literary riches.

Fun With Pattern Blocks

After watching the children have so much fun with the colored tiles that came as part of our RightStart Math kit, I decided that they needed more shapes to play with. I found this set of pattern blocks on Amazon for about $5-10 less than all the other sets. It shipped quickly and the quality is great. I don't know why it costs so much less, but I'll take it.

Then I found an amazing set of printable patterns at Prekinders. She has the patterns in color version and in black in white. I printed them in black in white. It is a bit more challenging for the children and saves color ink.

When we first started the children were really frustrated because their pattern blocks kept sliding around. I cut some large pieces of contact paper from a roll I got a while back and taped them sticky side up in front of each child. This allowed me to slide the patterns under the contact paper. They could build their designs and then slide the pattern out from underneath to see the pattern. You can also just slide blank paper under the contact paper and let them make up designs of their own. I played too. We all had great fun and our kitchen table has been taken over for two days now.