The Right Write Start

If you want to learn about great ways to encourage your child's writing skills, then I have the book for you! Before the holidays I received Jennifer Hallissy's new book, The Write Start: A Guide to Nurturing Writing at Every Stage from Scribbling to Forming Letters and Writing Stories. As soon as it came in the mail, I gobbled it up.

The Write Start is a fantastic resource for parents who wish to encourage their children's writing skills. In the first part of the book, Hallissy offers parents guidelines for observing writing readiness, tips for parents to demonstrate their own love of writing to their children, and ways to encourage confident writing. She also includes ideas for making the home an inspiring place to write (I loved "The Writer's Pantry").  However, I wish that in the future when authors are describing ways to create a place in their home to keep equipment for their children they would keep in mind that some of us live in only 650 sq. feet of space and do not have room for yet another desk and bureau of stuff. Ideas for the rest of us, please! (I'll have to come up with a solution and blog about it, I guess.)

Hallissy's experience as an occupational therapist makes the chapter, "Preparing Your Child To Write," especially helpful. Her ideas emphasize the importance of a multi-sensory approach and there are excellent suggestions as to how to support both the big and small muscles required for writing. I found the detailed description about the proper way to write, from siting, to holding the pencil and forming letters to be very useful. I also appreciate that she includes non-writing ideas which support these skills.

Hallissy identifies four stages of writers: the Scribbler (pre-writing), the Speller (forming letters), the Storyteller (turning words into sentences and stories) and the Scholar (mastering communication). Identifying these stages allows parents to chose and encourage appropriate writing activities for their child.

The second part of the book includes writing activities. Hallissy breaks them down into various categories, such as "learn, "do", "play" and so forth. She describes the activity, the materials needed and then presents variations based on the level of the writer. For example, in the activity "Food For Thought", Scribblers can scribble on flip-top memo pads like waiters, but Scholars can move on to creating cookbooks.

This is not a book about drills, and it is not about rushing to the next "level." I like the way Hallissy emphasizes flexibility, imagination, the parental role, as well as following the child's lead (because sometimes it is right to just stop).  Many of the activities are variations on what you may already be doing: writing thank you notes, keeping a journal or nature notebook, but the author offers a new look at these familiar projects as well as suggesting fresh ideas. I love the idea of having your child keep an Inventer's Logbook, for example. Hallissy also includes a helpful set of templates to use in some of the writing exercises.

You can be sure that I will be doing some of these exercises and activities with Kiddo and New Kid in the near future, I am already gathering my materials, so watch this space! In the meantime, I highly recommend Hallissy's book, The Write Start.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher but it in no way influenced my review or my opinion of the book, and I was not compensated in any other way. I rarely accept offers to review or promote products on this blog, only when I think it will be of interest to my audience.  Thanks for reading!

Transportation Tuesday, Special Edition

Over the holidays the New York MTA ran a special vintage train on the M Line from 2nd Ave to Queens Plaza. Of course we had to go!

I love the vintage advertisements. Does your skin feel fine?

On the way home the attendant told us our train car was from 1932. How cool is that?

At Queens Plaza we discovered these lovely mosaics on the wall above the platform. The cityscape ran the length of the platform. I love the art that you find in the subway stations.

What to Do When You Have Tons of Tiny Pieces of Bread

It is our Christmas Eve tradition to have cheese fondue, and somehow it also became a tradition for me to grossly overestimate the amount of bread we need. So this morning I made tiny pieces of French Toast! The blizzard meant that Daddy-O could not leave until later in the morning so he was able to supervise the boys (I don't even want to know what all the craziness I heard coming from the other room was about!) while I cooked up a batch of the cutest French Toast ever.

Look at how high the snow is -- and we live on the second floor (ok, I'm sure you can figure it out...)!

The wind was so strong that snow was able to make it through the door crack in our building's foyer and stuck to the sides of the wall and the baseboard. Maybe we should get that taken care of.

I see sledding in our future.

Have a Jazzy New Year

When I was thinking about what books to read for New Year (see last week's post) and the dearth of them that are available, it struck me that Jazz-themed books would be a great alternative. They encourage dancing, singing and general mayhem, not unlike the New Year's parties of my youth. ( Don't worry, I won't bore you with the dull happenings of New Year's parties of my parent-dom.)

Here are few we like:

Cool Daddy Rat: Scat and daddy-love, a good combination.
Bebop Express: Trains AND jazz, what could be better?
Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop: Oh, how I love this book.
The Jazz Fly: A little weird, but so is jazz.
When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat: Just try to resist the rhythm. Just try.
The Jazz Man: New Kid is obsessed with the song, "This Old Man," and this alternative keeps me from going insane.

How are you using books to celebrate the New Year?

Link up to What My Child Is Reading to find more.

Why I Love the Theater: Mummenschanz

During my previous, childless existence, my life was steeped in the theater. Rarely a week went by when I was not working on, writing, reading and teaching about, or seeing the theater. Since I had kids, well... that part of my life has diminished significantly, but last night's performance of Mummenschanz reminded me why I have always been drawn to the transformative universe of theater.

For, in what other universe will an amorphous brown blob's struggle to reach a platform both send an audience into rapturous giggles and speak to it about common goals? Where else can two sticks bend and twist, sprout eyes, dance, face off and then become one while entrancing both my 5 year old and the 85 year old woman two rows in front of us? And where else can two strangers with toilet paper faces falling in love elicit audible "Ahhhs" from an entire audience of diverse individuals?

Only in the theatrical universe. And last night that wonderful, magical, whimiscal  and most of all, insightful, world was created for us by Mummenschanz. In the world of Mummenschanz there are no words, only our shared human emotions, struggles and conquests playfully and imaginatively rendered by performers in guises ranging from the amorphous to the human-esque. It is a tribute to this nearly 40 year old Swiss performance troupe that their performances enrapture audiences in countries with such disparate cultures as Guatemala, South Africa, Iran and the United States. What does that say about our shared existence as human beings?

In last night's performance a giant slinky-like creature played back and forth with the audience with a giant pink balloon and when the balloon went slightly out of reach, a young boy, so enraptured with the interaction walked over, arms out and bounced the enormous balloon back to the slinky-like creature, who caught it deftly with its "mouth."  That is the extraordinary, communal spirit of Mummenschanz. Kiddo said it best, when, at the end of the show he promptly proclaimed, "THAT was the best show I've ever seen!"

Don't miss this rare opportunity to see Mummenschanz; their time in NY at NYU's Skirball Center lasts until January 8 and after a brief stop in New Jersey, they are gone. Take the opportunity to see the performance, you will certainly be glad you did.

For tickets to the performance visit online: NYU's Skirball Center.
For more on the history and technique of Mummenschanz, visit their website. You can also join their Facebook page.
To see short clips of their work, you can visit them on you tube. I love this one of the notebook faces that was on The Muppet Show in 1976. It wasn't in last night's performance.

Books for a Happy New Year

Natalie over at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns is probably this blog's most dedicated commenter. It is quite nice to know one is not just blogging to empty air and so I am glad that I can join in her Blog Hop, "What My Child is Reading."

I started to look for New Year books a while ago (I know it's not even Christmas yet, but you just can't wait until the last minute when you rely on the library!). There are quite a lot of books about Chinese New Year and Rosh Hashanah, but surprisingly few for the January 1st holiday.

The Stars Will Still Shine by Cynthia Rylant. Rylant has written how many books? I believe at last count the total was twelve billion. I love the simple text and the reassuring nature of the story, that good things will go on, just as before. Plus... great illustrations. (This is actually a book I picked up last year for Rosh Hashanah.)

Shanté Keys and the New Year's Peas by Gail Piernas-Davenport. A fun story about a girl who learns about various New Year's Traditions as she hunts for some good luck black-eyed peas.

Happy New Year, Everywhere! by Arlene Erlbach. Are you the kind of person who has the energy for New Year's themed crafts and activities organized by country? If you are (ummmm, not me, though some are pretty easy), then this is the book for you.


New Year's Day (A True Book) by Dana M. Rau. Kiddo loves facts, so he got a kick out of this book, which, like the above book, details traditions from around the world.

What New Year books are you reading? I wanted to also read P. Bear's New Year's Party, but it was not available at our library.

Happy Early Weekend -- Mummenschanz

As an early weekend gift I will send you off with this short preview of Mummenschanz here in NYC. Kiddo and I are really looking forward to seeing the show on Monday. Should we bring our own roll of toilet paper, do you think?

Drawing with Toddlers

Lately New Kid has been demanding that I make letters on his drawing paper. I think this is from seeing his big brother write, but also he is very interested in identifying letters these days. I didn't want New Kid to start expecting me to draw for him, I wanted him to explore scribbling.

I stopped making letters and said to New Kid, "let's do it together!" and then started making crazy noises while scribbling. He thought it was great fun and joined in.

This idea came from Susan Striker's Young at Art. I couldn't find the exact quote, but if a child is insisting on the parent producing something recognizable on the page Striker suggests scribbling while making a noise such as "Firetruck! Whooo-weeee-whooooo-weeee!" If you are interested in ways to encourage creativity and the artistic process in your child, I highly recommend Striker's book. Actually, I view it as essential reading.

Transportation Tuesday

First stop: Grand Central Station Holiday Train Show.

St. Lucia Day

Today is St. Lucia Day, a holiday celebrated by Swedes and those who wish they were. We fall somewhere in between. Since there are no pretty blond girls living with us we dispensed with the candle tiara. Plus, wax drippings on the scalp are overrated. Instead, we made the traditional saffron buns to celebrate. Kiddo didn't want to do the dough shaping, but he did like popping on the raisins.

Extra Credit Reading:
Lucia and the Light
Hanna's Christmas
Lucia Morning in Sweden
Lucia, Saint of Light
God Jul: A Swedish Christmas

Holiday Book Shelf

I seem to be doing a lot of book themed posts lately. Are they boring? Probably. But whatever.

I keep the holiday books in the closet 11 months out of the year, and bring them out about this time. I have to admit there is a big part of me that gets really excited for the appearance of the Christmas books.

This book at the left is my vintage copy of Santa Claus A Fuzzy Wuzzy Picture Story Book. This is the copy I had as a kid. I remember loving this book, especially the flocked Santa Suit. Now when I read it I cringe a bit at some non-PC references. Some judicious editing when I read it is necessary.

Here are few of my favorite books I bring out this time of year:

The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren.  Only a curmudgeon wouldn't love a little troll who looks after the farm animals on a snowy night.
The Tomten and the Fox (see above!)
Christmas in Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren. Possibly my all time favorite Christmas book for the memories it brings back and the Carl Larsson-esque imagery of Swedish Christmases.
A Norse Lullaby by M.L. Van Vorst. Such a soothing book, New Kid loves to hear it over and over.
The Christmas Magic by Lauren Thompson, of the Mouse's First Series fame (Mouse's First Christmas is wonderful, too).
Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett. More Scandinavian Christmas goodness.
Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkein. This is an amazing collection of letters that Tolkein wrote to his children from Father Christmas. We had this book as a child and I poured over it every year.
Christmas is Here by Lauren Castillo. If you want a book with the Biblical story, this is the one.
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story by Lemony Snicket. Did you know? Hanukkah is actually not the Jewish Christmas. Hilarious.

Of course there are a million -- a million -- Christmas books. What is on your holiday bookshelf?

I'm linking up to What My Child Is Reading.