Learning about art

Some more art books: Feed Matisse's Fish is part of a series called Touch the Art books, which also includes Make Van Gogh's Bed,Brush Mona Lisa's Hair,and Pop Warhol's Top.
These interactive board books bring famous art works to life. They have flaps to lift, fabric to touch, and other 3-dimensional and tactile items, reminiscent of Pat the Bunny.
Kids will love these fun, colorful books and they, as well as their parents, will learn and remember the art works. It will be so exciting for them to recognize the art works when they visit a museum someday.

I love this art book!

Have you seen Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose: The Story of a Painting by Hugh Brewster? What a gorgeous book! It describes a painting by John Singer Sargent, from the viewpoint of the child model. There are many other beautiful paintings and drawings in the book.
There are so many ways to expose your child to the world of art; back in the 1980's I couldn't resist the books by Mike Venezia, who has beautiful and accessible books about both artists and composers for children.
And who can resist Linnea in Monet's Garden, both the book and the DVD?
And follow these books up by spending a rainy afternoon pushing a stroller through an art gallery.

Two books for parents to read---

Be afraid...be very afraid...Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Mindsby Susan Gregory Thomas describes how marketers are targeting young children.
"It’s no secret that toy and media corporations manipulate the insecurities of parents to move their products, but Buy, Buy Baby unveils the chilling fact that these corporations are using— and often funding—the latest research in child development in order to sell things directly to babies and toddlers. Thomas offers other, perhaps even more unnerving epiphanies: the lack of evidence that “educational” shows and toys provide any educational benefit at all for young children; and the growing evidence that some of these products actually impair early development, and could harm our kids socially and cognitively for life."

I've written before about Baby Einstein, a typical one of these products that play into parents' insecurities and hopes for their children, and make them feel that if they buy expensive products they are doing something better for their children...
Think about it. Simply pushing your child's stroller through a shopping mall, or even just down a sidewalk beside a busy street, provides a myriad of sights, sounds, movement and color. And a parent holding a child, looking at him and talking, singing, or reading, is more beneficial to the child than a truckload of videos and gadgets.

My other current favorite book, the one I recommend to everyone, is The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Mealsby Michael Pollan. In it, he discusses factory farmed meats and vegetables and the omnipresence of corn and corn syrup in our diets...and makes a plea for humanely grown meat and locally grown produce. If you read this, you will never think about food in the same way again, and will not feed yourself or your children in the same way. This book was on both the New York Times and the Washington Post's top 10 books for 2006, and is changing the way people think about their food everywhere.
You owe it to yourself and your children to read it.

I love anthologies!

When I was a little girl, I owned two anthologies of children's literature, both published by Better Homes and Gardens. The first had a variety of poems and stories for younger children; the second had chapters excerpted from famous novels for children. I still own those books, and have read them many times. Does anyone besides me remember the Reformed Pirate? Sadly, they are no longer published, but recently I came across something similar, The Little Big Book for Moms . Not only does it have stories and poems, but it has recipes, songs and activities for children. It has old-fashioned illustrations you may be tempted to cut out and frame. And, there are others in the series, with different content:The Little Big Book for Dads.
Anthologies are wonderful. They will invariably remind you of a wonderful book or author you have forgotten, and must immediately introduce to your child!

Kids Learning Stuff went to Alaska!

I've just returned from a ten-day cruise through the Inside Passage, from Seattle to Alaska. One of my regrets (other than regretting I can't go back right away) is that I didn't take a child along with me. Visiting Alaska would be wonderful for children--from the humpback whales, orcas, puffins, totem poles and glaciers to the Tlinglit and Haida Native Alaskans in their colorful regalia, to the sea lions catching fish in the harbor only a few feet from the cruise ship--and a few feet from a group of bald eagles. Then there were the mysterious petroglyphs on boulders in Wrangell (according to Tlingit oral tradition, these petroglyphs were there when they settled the area, which may have been 10,000 years ago---are they from a people who no longer exist, or are they, as some suggest, carved by visitors from another planet?) The Gold Rush days are brought vividly to life in Skagway, where a movie in the National Park Service visitor's center depicts the hardships of the thousands who carried supplies through the snow over the mountain passes. For the brave (and non-acrophobic) a narrow-gauge train ride climbs past the tree lines (and past bears and mountain goats), through tunnels and to the mountain top at White Pass, for a while through a cleared passage with snow as high as the roof of the train.
There are many books for children about Alaska--one I read wasThe Klondike Cat, about a young boy who goes to the Gold Rush with his family, smuggling along his beloved cat, which turns out to save the day for his father.
Another book my second graders loved, a few years ago, was Prince William about the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, and a fictional little girl who saves a baby seal.

A resource for parents and teachers of gifted children

I just discovered the Duke Gifted Letter, which has interesting articles related to educating gifted children. In my view, all children are gifted, so this newsletter is for everyone.
You can bookmark this site, or by providing your email address, have it sent to you online.
The current issue discusses the use of the school library, a subject dear to my heart. More on that later... P.S. I see that the title has been changed to "Digest of Gifted Research"

Get your child ready for kindergarten!

I just read an article in the University of Florida School of Education newsletter which cites research showing that children who have certain reading-related abilities in kindergarten are much more likely to do well in school.
Most of the students who struggle with reading had a lack of early exposure to print and language development.
Besides the all-important reading to children, the researchers recommend the bookStarting Out Right: A Guide to Promoting Children's Reading Success which provides tips on teaching reading skills to your preschooler.
Such activities as rhyming, clapping out the syllables in their names, and taking apart simple compound words such as starfish (recognizing that it is made up of two other words) are important in preparing children for reading.

It's TV-Turnoff Week!

Ever since 1995, schools and other organizations have sponsored TV-Turnoff Week.
Today is the beginning of this year's turnoff week: seven days of finding other things to do than watching TV.
It's intended to make people think about how much time they, and their children, spend watching TV, and to spend a week focusing on other things to do.
If your child's school doesn't sponsor it, consider starting it yourself---today.
I first heard about this yearly event in Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook but today's Washington Post KidsPost also discusses it.
According to the article in the Post, pediatricians recommend that kids spend no more than one hour a day watching TV, using computers, and playing video games. "The more time you spend in front of the TV, the less time you spend reading, writing and doing arts and crafts and sports.
If your kids are not familiar with The Wretched Stone by Chris Van Allsburg, this would be a great week to read and discuss it. In this book, sailors find a glowing stone on an island and bring it aboard the ship. Soon they are mesmerized by it, and all they want to do is sit and stare at it. Hmm---what could this symbolize?

books for Earth Day, April 22

It's so important to teach children about the environment. Even the youngest child can make a difference. There are many books on this subject, but these are some of the best:
The Day the Trash Came Out to Play by David Beadle and the similar story The Wartville Wizard by Don Madden. In these stories, the trash runs amok and gets back at the people who litter.
The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest and A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry are beautifully illustrated books with a somber message. The second of the books discusses the pollution, and eventual rescue, of a river in New England.
The Lorax (Classic Seuss)by Dr. Seuss..."I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees", says the Lorax in this, the granddaddy of Earth Day--Hooray! by Stuart J. Murphy --not only a good environmental lesson, but this book is one of the MathStart series, and also teaches about place value.
Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg explores two different possibilities for our future. This book is better for older children, and is yet another treasure from one of our most important author/illustrators for children.

Two of my favorite books are The Wump World and Farewell to Shady Glade by Bill Peet. With his instantly recognizable illustrations and clever verse, he brings home the message of caring for the earth. Unlike the animals in Shady Glade, and the Pollutians in Wump World, we may run out of clean places.

Shades of Shady Glade--in Where Once There Was a Woodby Denise Fleming, the animals are displaced by a subdivision.
Earth Day Birthdayby Pattie Schnetzler, is great! This book gives us a song, to the tune of Twelve Days of Christmas, featuring endangered animals.
The Great Trash Bash by Loreen Leedy is an amusing book for younger children that nevertheless has an important message.

Have you heard about the 1000 book project?

The 1000 Book Project is offered through many elementary schools. Families participating in the Project borrow from a series of 100 tote bags each filled with 10 childrens' books. The goal of the Project is for each child to have listened to 1000 books by the start of first grade.

The idea behind this is simple. Imagine that you read one book to your child almost every day from birth on. To make it simple, if you read 300 books a year to your child for 5 years, that will be a total of 1500 books. Many parents do much more than that. I remember that my husband and I each read to our daughters on most days, and on some days it was several books. Just think of the advantage many children bring with them when they start school: they have been read to 1000 or more times, they have favorite books and authors, they know how to sit and turn the pages in a book...And think of the DISadvantage so many other children bring with them to school: What if a child who has never been read to, and has no books in his home, is sitting in a kindergarten classroom next to another child who has been read to daily at home. It is frightening to think of how far behind that child is already, and whether and how he might "catch up".

If you have children in elementary school or preschool or work in a school, it is worth thinking about how such a project could be started very inexpensively. It's my understanding that it does not involve 1000 different books, but only 1000 books. Repetition is valuable, even essential, for children, and even a small number of quality books would be fine. Books and bags could be donated or found inexpensively at yard sales, library sales, and other book sales.

All parents are teachers...

Yes, all parents are teachers, and as such, it is interesting to read books by the best teachers of our time, describing how they reach and teach children. In his bookTeach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 Rafe Esquith continues the story of his inspired work with impoverished students in Los Angeles that he began in There Are No Shortcuts. Esquith is intense, devoted to his students, a true workaholic, and comes across as more than a little nutty. He spends almost every waking hour working with his 5th and 6th grade students, and achieves dramatic results. His book is both inspiring and disturbing to me.
There are a number of good ideas in the book, such as the best way I've ever seen to prepare kids for standardized testing. He is also to be commended for his accurate belief that all students can learn, and can usually learn a lot more than people expect of them.
On the other hand, he achieves his results by adding several hours to each school day and working with his students on weekends and in the summers. Now I understand the negativity about teachers who do as little as possible during the school day, stay at school as little as allowed by contract, and take no work home; however, his schedule is not realistic for many people. I must assume his wife takes care of things on the home front, which frees him up to do all the extras. His schedule is just not realistic for many teachers. Once I worked at a school where a teacher was repeatedly praised for staying until midnight on many evenings to make costumes for a school play. It was wonderful that she did so, but she lived alone and had no necessity to be home. If one must put in those kinds of hours to be rewarded, it is very discouraging for teachers with families or other responsibilities.
Nevertheless, his books contain good ideas for parents and teachers. Another such author is Ron Clark, whose book The Essential 55: An Award-winning Educator's Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child gives the 55 expectations he has for his students, 55 rules every parent and teacher should consider.

My thoughts about IQ testing...

Recently someone asked in an online forum whether she should have her preschool child's IQ measured.
For one thing, IQ tests do not measure everything. There was an article I read several years ago (and remember at one time kids and their parents were not shown IQ test results) about someone who won a Nobel prize in science who went back to his old high school and got a copy of his files for some reason, and learned that his IQ, as tested by the school system was NOT in the gifted range. Obviously, his IQ test did not meaure him properly.

Also, IQ isn't everything. There are a lot of good attributes that are not measured by IQ. When I taught 2nd grade, a parent asked that her son's IQ be tested, and it came out around 100. Her response was to be very upset that he was only "very average". I replied that he was not average, he was a very well-behaved, kind child who was very considerate of others and well-liked by his peers and his teachers, that he was doing very well in his schoolwork, and that she should not focus on that number. There are many people with lower IQs who, by virtue of diligence, people skills, and sheer hard work have been more successful than those who have a higher number on a paper in a file somewhere.
Another issue is that IQ can change, depending on whether a child has an enriched or a deprived environment. I once knew of a child who was adopted at around age 6, after having a very chaotic earlier life of foster homes and adoptive homes that did not work out. At that time, his IQ tested at around 80, which is not indicative of future academic success. He was adopted by someone who gave him a very enriched environment and a lot of help with schoolwork. He eventually graduated from college and thus far has had a very successful career.
If you are concerned about whether your preschooler has a high IQ, your focus should be on giving him the most enriched environment possible, as long as it is done in a fun way, not by force feeding them flash cards or phonics whatever. Reading to them, visiting interesting places, a lot of conversation with older people, toys that require the child to do things (such as Lego, Duplo, and other building toys) rather than toys that the child just watches, are valuable. Arts and crafts which are creative--drawing and painting, rather than coloring in coloring books. (Now, coloring books are not fatal, children enjoy them and coloring within the lines helps hand/eye coordination but they should be a small part of a balanced diet of activities) Helping adults in any way that they can help safely is also valuable (see my earlier cookbook recommendation).

In short, do not be concerned with your child's IQ unless your pediatrician or a teacher has expressed concern about developmental delays. And in that case, they will help you locate testing.

Have you read The Higher Power of Lucky?

I just finished reading The Higher Power of Lucky which won the Newbery Medal this year. That's the prize awarded annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American children's book published the previous year. "Lucky" is the story of a little girl who lives in the desert--in Hard Pan California, population 43. The book is very entertaining, with a dizzying array of eccentric characters, including Brigitte, her father's first wife, who came from France to look after her after her mother (the second wife) died in a bizarre accident. I enjoyed it, but I'm wondering if this is one of those books that kids don't like as much as adults do. (Does anyone know a ten year old who has read it?)
Oh--almost forgot. The book's claim to fame, other than the Newbery, is its use of the word "scrotum" on the first page, referring to a dog's being bitten there. It raised a huge controversy in the school library community: some people concerned about age appropriateness (the book seems aimed at 4th graders, in terms of the difficulty and length), and others concerned about censorship...

Curious George--everyone's favorite monkey!

One of the most dramatic stories in publishing is the story of Curious George. German Jews Hans and Margret Rey were living in Paris during the Nazi invasion in 1940. They were not able to escape the city until Hans found some parts and managed to build two bicycles. H.A. and Margret escaped on bicycle from German-occupied Paris, with just their winter coats and several picture books (including a draft of Curious George, then called Fifi) strapped to the racks. They rode their bikes to Marseilles, got a boat to Lisbon, and eventually reached America.
(Thanks to information in Anita Silvey's book 100 Best Books for Children which lists her idea of the 100 best books for children of the last 100 years. She has several fascinating pages about each book)

I am in the greatest volunteer program!

I just went and sat in on a session for the volunteer program I'm going to be doing, and that I'll be a substitute volunteer for next week. The program is called Play Partners and teams of two people go to day care centers or family day care homes 1 hour a week for a month, each time reading a book and doing activities based on that book, Because of grants received by the organization, the day care provider and each child in the group all get a copy of the book to keep at the end of the month. If there are infants in the group, they each get a board book every month too. The program has huge plastic storage tubs of materials to go with each of the books, as well. The book we did today was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, and there were actually little stuffed animals or plastic figures for every animal in the book! A green frog, a yellow duck, a blue horse, etc. We began the session by singing a greeting song, calling each child by name and singing about the color he or she was wearing. Then, we read the book, with the kids, who had heard the book before, chiming in. Then, the woman who was leading hid the animals under a cloth, and picked up the cloth along with one animal, and the kids guessed which animal was missing. After that, we went into the kitchen where each child had two brushes and two colors of paint and we painted and talked about the colors and the results of mixing the colors. After painting, the children played with some toys that were also in the kit, a Lego Primo Set - Stack 'n Learn, a color and shape puzzle, and other toys emphasizing colors. The session closed with more songs,
including
Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light
On the corner shining bright
Red means STOP! (Hold up red card)
Green means GO! (Hold up green card)
Yellow means go but VERY SLOW (Hold up yellow card.)
Twinkle twinkle traffic light
On the corner shining bright.
I talked with the day care provider who was very enthusiastic about the program, especially the library of books she has built through the program. She was particularly happy about how responsive the children are to the books after they have experienced them in a multisensory way.

Stop that pickle!

If your kids know and love The Gingerbread Man they will think Stop That Pickle!is hilarious!I read this to my kindergarten students and they thought it was the funniest thing they ever heard. We compared and contrasted it with The Gingerbread man. You will be glad to know there is a happy ending for the pickle. He lives to run another day...
Kids love these fractured fairy tales. (Refer back to my post of February 5 for some more)

Have you read The Big Green Book?

The BIG GREEN BOOK which is by Robert Graves, and is illustrated by Maurice Sendak is a real crowd-pleaser. Kids love seeing the adults fooled by a little boy, with a bit of help from the Big Green Book of magic. It is amazing that this book is no longer in print. It's available used and in Spanish.

Send a birthday card to The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat is turning 50, and here's how to celebrate:

Go to firstbook.org and send the card and Random House Children's Books will donate a book to First Book, which gives books to low-income children who do not have books in the home.

Next, click here
The Cat in the Hat and buy a copy for your favorite kid!

Having fun with Broadway show tunes

This movie was a favorite of my daughters when it came out. They loved everything about it, the story, the characters, the actors, and the music. I can still see them up on the raised hearth in our house singing and dancing to "It's a hard knock life". For some reason, Amazon gives Anniea bad review, but no doubt the reviewer lacks the discernment of a 6 year old. Thanks to this movie they picked up a lot of vocabulary, learned who Herbert Hoover was, and learned to say "We love you Miss Hannigan" to me whenever I made demands they thought unreasonable.
Songs are a wonderful way to enhance your child's vocabulary. Imagine having these movies to show to your child: any or all of them: This DVD set,The Rodgers & Hammerstein Collectioncontains The Sound of Music, The King and I,Oklahoma, South Pacific,State Fair, and Carousel. Songs like "It's a grand night for singing", "Getting to know you", "Oh what a beautiful morning", "Doe, a deer", and many others which are a part of our cultural heritage.

Online interview with children's author Toni Buzzeo

1. Please, tell us a little about yourself to start:
I am a Jill of many trades and a wearer of many hats. Two things have always been true, though. I have always been a writer and I have always been an educator. I continue to be both! I hold a Masters degree in English and a Masters degree in Library and Information Science. Before I was a school library media specialist, I taught English at the high school and college level. Two of the great honors of my career have been to be named the 2005 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year by the University of Michigan Dearborn School of Education and to be named the 1999 Maine Library Media Specialist of the Year
I write many things including children's books, professional books, and many professional articles. I’ve published five children’s books and seven professional books and have four and three more (respectively) in the pipeline.
I also speak at schools, conference, and inservice trainings all over the country. In fact, next spring I will be speaking in Berlin, my first international speaking engagement, though I have taught in Morocco.
You can read more me and my books on my website at www.tonibuzzeo.com
2. Tell us something about each of your books...
I have published five picture books for young readers so far:
Little Loon and Papa (Dial 2004) is a story of fatherly love and the courage of one little loon who must learn to dive despite his fear.
Dawdle Duckling (Dial 2003) and Ready or Not, Dawdle Duckling (Dial 2005) are companion books about a loveable little duckling who is a champion dawdler and dreamer, but whose strengths lie in knowing when to get on board and when to enlist the help of one’s friends.
The Sea Chest (Dial 2002) is the retelling of a mid-coast Maine legend about a baby who washes ashore on a lighthouse island and the keeper’s family who adopts her.
Our Librarian Won't Tell Us Anything!: A Mrs. Skorupski Story with Book(s) (Upstart 2006) draws on my library experience and tells the story of a librarian who won’t tell her students anything--though she will teach them anything they need to know to become independent library users.
3. What books do you have in progress? Still forthcoming are:
Fire Up with Reading: A Mrs. Skorupski Story (Upstart 2007) in which Mrs. Skorupski sponsors a schoolwide reading incentive program.
Adventure Girl Goes to Work (Dial, 2009) is about a spirited young girl who has to go to work with her mom when the “big report” is missing. She causes chaos AND find the report.
A Lighthouse Christmas (Dial 2009) is based on the Flying Santa Service and is about a lighthouse family whose Christmas may not be possible when the supply boat is weeks late.
No T. Rex in the Library (McElderry, forthcoming) features a young girl whose “time out” turns into an adventure when she pulls a T Rex from a book and joins him on a library rampage.
In addition, I have some unsold and in-process manuscripts that I’m working on including a third grade chapter book and a picture book about a little puffin who learns to make her way in the world.
4. Many of my readers are writers or aspiring writers. Tell us when and how you first started writing, when and why you started writing books for children, and how you first got published.
I started writing in junior high--poetry. In fact, I was first published as a poet in my college and graduate school literary journals. I credit my success as a picture book author with those early years of writing poetry. Picture books aren’t all that different!
I started writing for children in 1995 because my husband reminded me that I’d always professed a desire to do that and I ran into a priceless story of a giraffe in a swimming pool when I was touring for a month in Kenya.
The reason I am published, I think, is that I have talent as well as an enormous amount of perseverance! There’s absolutely nothing quick or easy about being published (I have 150 rejection letters from the early years), but if you systematically divide your time by writing new manuscripts, seriously revising and improving your completed work, attending conferences and joining a critique group, and making connections with editors (at conferences) and building relationships with them over time, I believe you will get published. And by all means, join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators www.scbwi.org, both the national organization and your regional chapter. Take advantage of all they have to offer you.
5. Is there a question interviewers don't ask you that would be a smart question for them to ask?
What’s the most important thing a children’s author can do?
I think the most important thing a children’s author can do is to read widely and critically in the field. As a children’s librarian, I have always done that, but I think it is essential for us all to be aware of, involved in, and excited by the work of our fellow writers, to note creative trends as well as marketing shifts.
Sadly, too many people who aspire to write for children don’t take time to invest themselves in the world of children’s literature!
Happily, though, that world has become more and more credible in society at large and more readily available to us all!