Taking a Leap

I love books!

I love the paper, the photos, the illustrations, the title pages, the blurbs...the comfort of holding in my hands the delight and excitement of story.

Information. Plot and character. Instruction. Encouragement. Confusion (you've read those types, too). Emotions. Challenge. All of that and more.

I fell for the convenience and asked for a Kindle for my birthday. Now I anxiously wait for the special delivery. One draw was the space saving, purse toting, suitcase emptying aspect of owning an electronic reader. Another enticement was the cutting edge type of technology, which usually doesn't woo me. I succumbed.

Never fear, my books, you are not being replaced. Rather, embraced and cherished. I still desire REAL books to surround me and make my home a place of comfort and coziness.

But for the travel and the sometimes here and now, I will have my Kindle.

Come on, mailman. I waiting.

The Mitford Series (Subtitle: How to Find Cheap Books)

What's on my night stand right now? Inheritance (which is waiting until I can refresh the plot line, problems, setting, characters in my mind), Mockingjay (disturbingly violent but riveting for the intended audience), and Book number 6 in the Mitford Series, A Common Life, The Wedding Story.

Reflecting on the last book listed, I can't find my set of the Mitford Series. I've had them all, lost them all, and am in the process of recollecting them all. Easiest way would be to go to the store and buy the entire set, or go online and order the whole set. But where is the fun in that challenge?

My strategy: thrift stores ($1 or less is an appropriate price to my way of thinking); yard sales; online bargains (but usually out of my $1 price range due to shipping); and my most recent way to go - www.paperbackswap.com.

Paperbackswap.com was an accidental find for me. But accidents are not always bad things. I joined, listed books I was willing to part with, and as soon as I gained my first point (one book sent to another subscriber, the mailer paying the postage), I was hooked - searching and hunting, requesting and waiting. It's a great deal!

Slowly, slowly, I have been recovering the entire series. I just began A Common Life, The Wedding Story. I love the character development for Father Tim and Cynthia, who is after all, an author and illustrator, someone near and dear to my heart. All of the characters are beautifully developed. Life happens, the good, the scary, the weird, the terrible. Seems to me that Mitford should and could be a real location.

What a nice way to drift off to sleep, visiting the reality of Mitford.

Reaching the World's Hungry

FYI - There are two new and wonderful resources available in the flick of a fleas' foot (downloadable from the Internet). Check these out if you want to teach a group about world hunger and get some discussion going on what to do to help.

Both are available from www.wmustore.com.


World Hunger 101 - World Hunger Event Promotion Pack by Angie Quantrell (gee, that name sounds familiar, hmmmm), $9.99. This downloadable booklet, posters, and plans give directions and information for a two-hour reality experience about hunger. Ideas and suggestions are given for ages preschool through adult. In our area, the northwest, October and November are months that reflect harvest, thankfulness, and giving to help those in need. This hunger experience and discussion will surely lead your group to reaching out to others.

Teaching Preschoolers About Hunger by Jennifer Cox (I know her, too!) is available for a longer focus on hunger. This resource will help preschoolers understand hunger in our country and world in an interactive 4-week study. This resource is also $9.99.

Ready to make an impact? Now you have the help to get going. Check them out!

Tip: Want to have a collection container that tells exactly what the money is for? www.wmustore.com also has the perfect savings bank - in the shape of a loaf of bread! It's called the World Hunger Bread Bank.

Our Farm

Our Farm, By the Animals of Farm Sanctuary is a beautiful book.

The imaginative poems are penned by Maya Gottfried and the life like paintings are by Robert Rahway Zakanitch. I just found this book listed on Amazon, but learned about it through my local library where I was checking out books for our farm theme.

Different artistic methods render endearingly sweet illustrations of farm animals. Each animal is represented by a hand-crafted poem perfectly sounding as if written by each particular animal. The animal 'voice' for each critter is funny and winsome and fits what we think farm animals are like in their actions and personality.

Kindergarteners loved the illustrations although some of the funny parts were above their heads. Still, this book is a delight to read and look at and laugh with.

Recommended by a youngster at heart.

The Boy Needs Dirt

According to the book I am currently reading for a class, Last Child in the Woods, Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv, kids need outdoor time.

Dirt, water, mud, sand, rocks, sticks, trees, grass, plants, bugs, snakes, fish, birds...They need it all, combined with unstructured play and free time. Just to explore, dream, learn, conquer, expand...

The boy found some dirt today. On my to-do list is making him his own dirt garden (as opposed to my raised garden beds, which I have filled with plants). His own dirt box he can fill with water, make mud, throw rocks, dig holes, bury treasure, get filthy.

But so far, the dirt box is still on the to-do list.

Today he found his own dirt box, right on the edge of Nana's green beans. Hand shovel, plastic horses (from Nana's childhood, mind you), and dirt towered over by producing green beans.

He had a ball, burying the horses, digging deeper holes, standing up the horses, digging again, running the horses across the dirt.

The boy needs some dirt of his own, Nana! Come on, get to the to-do list.

What Happens Then?

America's genius has been nurtured by nature-by space, both physical and mental. What happens to the nation's intrinsic creativity, and therefore the health of our economy, when future generations are so restricted that they no longer have room to stretch?...

Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and sky, transcendent hands-on moments and skinned knees. What happens when all the parts of childhood are soldered down, when the young no longer have the time or space to play in their family's garden, cycle home in the dark with the stars and moon illuminating their route, walk down through the woods to the river, lie on their backs on hot July days in the long grass, or watch cockleburs, lit by morning sun, like bumblebees quivering on harp wires? What then?

From Last Child in the Woods, Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv (p. 97)

What then?

More About Childhood and Nature

(Some children at heart claim the fort work of regular beach going children.)

Who can't remember spending hours, days even, outside running wild during summer vacation and on weekends, maybe even during after school hours? Who else besides me misses the unstructured, unscheduled, outdoorsy, free time of our childhood? I know I do, and I haven't been a child for many, many years (except in my mind).

Childhood and Nature, Design Principles for Educators by David Sobel hits all of those nails right on the proverbial head. For the health - mental, emotional, physical, spiritual - of each child, nature is the best medicine. Nature plus free time is even better.

See if you can think of a personal example for each of the following themes found in childhood play:

1. Adventure. I remember I was the horse AND rider on numerous robberies and explorations with my best friend. (She was also her own horse and rider.) We sometimes recruited our live horses to adopt a role and play along. I don't think they liked it.

2. Fantasy and Imagination. See number one. Since horses were of number one importance, they played dominant roles in our imaginary worlds. Depended on what color hat we each wore, but the color told the world who was the bad guy and who was the good guy.

3. Animal Allies. Either we were on a horse, pretending to ride a horse, or were a horse. How else could we know what a horse was unless we became a horse?

4. Maps and Paths. Maps? We created our own. It really helped when we found a REAL live Indian arrowhead. Our archeological discovery undergirded many subsequent adventures.

5. Special Places. Sometimes, horses were not involved. One particular fort was perfect. We carefully scraped it out from the center of an entire shrub system of crucifix thorns. Just try and break in, enemies. You will bleed!

6. Small Worlds. Barbies (accompanied by camper, horse, and tent) were custom made for small worlds. Or rocks became walls, twigs furniture, and miscellaneous bits and bobs transformed into miniature homes, complete with rules, regulations, and family members.

7. Hunting and Gathering. Girls need to eat, right? Or at least gather. We had to go out there and round 'em up. Mostly, I caught tadpoles. Didn't eat them. Did find out that they dry up in the hot desert sun and look like boogers stuck to the glass sides.

Now, who can't think of at least one nostalgic memory linked to any of the above principles?

Enjoy the little trip down nature's memory lane.