A Ferdinand Tree

My family and I just got home from an adventure in London, Paris and Southern Germany. It was as wonderful as it sounds. I'd be happy to give more details to anyone who asks! My favorite part was staying in a small town in Germany hiking, biking and spending time with my family.

The power of literature has had a far reaching affect on my family. The way literature has woven our lives together amazes me. We still recommend titles to each other, but the books that have had the deepest impact on us as a family are the ones read aloud by me or my husband when they were too young to read to themselves. (and even when the could!)  My children and I share so many inside jokes related to  children's books I read them when they were much younger. Now that my oldest is 21 I felt so rewarded by the hours I spent reading to her when she turned to me and said, "Doesn't that tree look like Ferdinand's tree?" When all three of my kids burst out with this quote from Millions of Cats after seeing yet another cat in our small German town my heart surged with pride..."Cats here, cats there, cats and kittens everywhere. Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats."

One of the best experiences on our trip was in London. We had tickets to see The Tempest at the Globe Theatre. My son loves The Tempest. We have all loved watching the BBC production Merlin on Netflix together. Colin Morgan, who plays the role of Merlin, took on the role of Ariel. My son badgered asked me to read the play before we left. Did I? No! When we got to the theatre we went to the gift shop before waiting in line for two hours in order to get good groundling "seats"! There in the shop was an easy to read chapter book of The Tempest. It was so much fun sitting and waiting to get in while reading aloud a child's version of The Tempest to my grown children. The play meant more to me because I had read the book and even more because I had shared it with my children.

Keep reading to children! It gives them connection. It gives them memories. It creates and strengthens family bonds!

Sidle-Up for a Good Book!

I am LOVING the posts on Writing for Kids While Raising Them. Today's guest is Emma Ledbetter and she talked about the "Sidle-up effect".  I love the idea of the "Sidle-up Effect" because it happened to me over and over as a child. It started with picture books and continued through all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Today I try to attract my

My mom was a master book whisperer. She knew how to get all six of her children to sidle-up next to, around and draped over her...READ! There are some books that all six of us still can "Sidle-up" around. I would guess that all six of us could agree that The Story of Ferdinand is one of those books. Thank you, Mom! You were the best book whisperer ever! You and dad encouraged us to be great readers by example!

My favorite line from the book is this: "His mother saw that he was not lonesome, and because she was an understanding mother, even though she was a cow, she let him just sit there and be happy."

RANDOMNESS:
Today my daughter made my day. I had encouraged her to read "Out of the Dust" by Karen Hesse. She told me she was up until 2:30 last night finishing that book and that she wished the characters were real people because she would like to talk to them in Heaven...I think she is hooked! Her love for reading started with picture books!