I Wish You More

Rosenthal, A. K., & Lichtenheld, T. (2015). I Wish You More. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

I wish you more ups than downs, more gives than takes! I wish you more hugs than ughs simply becaue you are everything I could wish for...

Sometimes wishing silently for all the good wishes we have for others might just not be enough. Sometimes we need to know that people wish well upon us. This is a heartwarming list of nothing but good wishes that we wish upon those we love. Why just have those unspoken good wishes? Why not share them and let those special ones in our lives know the good wishes we wish for them?

My boys loved this book. I feel this is an excellent way to teach the young ones to share their good sentiments and for them to learn that we only should wish good upon others. Getting them to practice this from an early age will only mean that more good people will live in this sometimes cruel world. My children are such good boys but naturally, because they are young fall into the "I hate this! I hate that!" And although perfectly normal, it is not acceptable so I try my best to teach my children to be kind and thoughtful and considerate and loving and caring. And that' s what my aim is. As we read it my oldest son told me, this is what you telll us to do. To be nice and wish for only good things for ourselves and others. 

I Wish You More Read Aloud

Are We There Yet? By Santat Dan

Santat, D. Are We There Yet? New York: Little, Brown, 2016. Print.

How do children survive long trips? How do children do it? The answer to that is quite simple, actually. Children create alternate worlds in which the unimaginable takes place. Here is a journey to grandma’s birthday party as told by a very bored young boy who survives this journey by using his imagination. So the next tedious, long journey to grandma’s house can be less agonizing if the imagination is used wisely.

Another thing that is important and should be mentioned is the imaginative way in which the author presented the book where you have to flip it backwards and sideways to get to the end of it. My children absolutely loved that!

As a child, I used to be a migrant. Every summer we would pack and get on the road. Imagine the nature of the journey when there were three brothers, two sisters, two parents, and me! All of us crammed up in my father's '67 Plymouth. The journey was, if we were lucky 22 agonizing hours. Reading was out of the question for me because I get motion sickness just from looking down so the only other thing other than sleeping that I could possibly do was imagine. Using my imagination helped me keep my sanity. 

I believe that this is a good book that can be introduced to children before a long trip so that they may be prepared for what's to come and so that they know that before they whine, they should imagine! And who knows? Maybe the next time you take a long trip, they'll be creating alternate worlds with dinosaurs or pirates, or princesses and dragons!

Are We There Yet? Trailer

Let's Play by Hervé Tullet

Tullet, H., & Franceschelli, C. (2016). Let's play! San Francisco: Handprint Books.

Creativity at its best. Let’s play by following the journey of a yellow dot in which no kid of any age will be able to resist. A simple way to allow a child’s dexterity in following the lines leading to the ball will enhance these skills while having fun. Why not make this a hands on experience and allow children to practice over and over so that they follow the lines to the very yellow dot?

I read this with both my boys, 4 and 9 and although at first he was a bit reluctant, my 9 year old followed the yellow dot as well. Despite the fact that there's no story line, this activity is fun to do as a hands on reading fun experience and as simple as it, it helps children follow instructions. Yes! For example, when the circle is in the bottom right hand corner, it tells them to go to the middle of the page, and when you flip the page, guess what? That's what the circle is! 

Hervé Tullet Introduces Let's Play