Monster Piece Theatre

I love how some of the Sesame Street sketches are intended to delight parents too. Monster Piece Theatre is always good for a laugh!

 

Town Hall Bells

There is something about the sense of community that a simple sound creates. In our little town, we have always had town hall bells that ring at noon and 6 o’clock in the evening. I love hearing them and knowing that everyone else in this town is listening to them at the same time that I am. It makes me feel connected and as a stay-at-home mom that is so important to me.

Books in our Basket

Althea loves books. I mean. Loves. Books. And truthfully we just can’t keep up with her reading appetite. My parents are kind enough to bring back several selections for her shelf chosen from a lovely book store they visit when they travel to Vermont seasonally. Of course, we try to buy her lots of books too and subscribe to magazines for her but it does get very expensive. This is why we have our library book basket that we fill with new books every week or two. We visit our local library but I also put books on hold for my man to pick up from the larger library in the city on his way home from work. My latest favourites are from the Random House series called “Bright and Early Books for Beginning Beginners.” So it’s not even for beginning readers – the series is designed for beginning beginner readers which I think is brilliant! Some of the early Berenstain Bears stuff is in this series and they address simple concepts in a fun way like “Inside, Outside, Upside Down” and “Old Hat, New Hat.”

I’m also  a huge fan of Al Perkins’ books in the series which includes “The Ear Book” and “Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb.” They are written in such a way that they delight my girl and have a rhythm that I can have fun reading to her. Althea’s new thing is to say “Alfea read a book!” right after I have read it to her and it is astounding how much of it she remembers and reads to herself. She even simulates the flow of the rhyme which is the start of literacy! Recently, she’s even decided she doesn’t want me to read to her before nap. She wants to read them herself and she’ll pile a huge pile on the couch beside her and just go through them reading aloud and laughing at all the funniest bits. Luckily she still wants to be read to before bed at night. Thank goodness because I have visions of all the books we’re going to read together in the future too like “James and the Giant Peach,” “My Father’s Dragon” and “The Wolves of Willoughby Chase” but those are a ways a way yet…