When your daughter likes pumpkins and Hallowen and Thanksgiving dinners (even if you don’t live in the US) what can you do?
You buy her books about it and you read them together. And you carve pumpkins and make Hallowen costumes and go trick or treat with her.
And then she will make the Thanksgiving menu and ask you to include some turkey in it and some gravy, of course. And corn and potatoes. But not sweet potatoes, she doesn’t like sweet potatoes. And a pumpkin pie she will help making. And some edamame, she loves edamame. What if they are not a Thanksgiving tradition? Since she is making the menu, she can put anything she wants on it.
And then she will repeat the menu daily, in case you have a bad memory. I don’t have.
And then we will have a small Thanksgiving dinner, just the three of us, because we will be on a lockdown by then. But hey, it was a fun autumn, full of stories about pumpkins and turkeys and everything!
“You Ronald look like a real prince, but you are a bum!”
The Paper Bag Princess
Story by Robert Munch
Art by Michael Martchenko
Annick Press Toronto , 2020
This is indeed the smallest book I’ve ever seen! It fits in my palm and for some time now my daughter take it with her in the backpack every time we go on a trip. She even took it to school, well tacked in her pencil box.
My only fear is that we will lose it, it is so small…. that it will be a big lost, for sure!
I had this book, in fact the whole “If you give…” series by Laura Numeroff, on my children books’s wishlist since my daughter was 2 or 3 years old.
The years passed, she was almost 5 and other books had priority. Until the last november at Bookfest, when I saw it as a new release from ones of the biggest publishing house here in Romania, Arthur.
And, because I coudn’t go myself to the Bookfest, I sent her godfather, who was going, a list with the books I wanted for her. Since the holiday season was approaching and then her birthday he wanted to buy her also some books from the list. One of them was this. And so we got to finally met this lovely character that soon became a favourite of my daughter.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not like mice. In our culture they are pets, in my grandparents house there were traps and poison for them all over the place. And when a field mouse would enter the summer house or the main one, it would be a very bad day for everyone!
Not even the romanian children books or folk stories don’t have them as characters. There are dogs and cats and chickens and goats and pigs. Even the big bad old wolf is. But no mice. So imagine my surprise when I started buying international children books and I found them all over.
But let’s get back to our book …
This little mouse has a lot of demands and adventures and I get why the kids may feel like they could have the same experiences. Because sometimes they do. All experiences from the book, except a haircut or moping the floor ( which will be very helpful) but the rest, oh yes!
If you want to read or to buy this book, you can find it here:
And, at the end of a day, you will also feel exhausted, just like the little boy in the book is. But the goog news is that, if you have just a little bit of energy left in your body after you finish reading the book, you can take part at the Greatest race of cookies!
And who wins gets all the cookies in the house! And then asks for a glass of milk and then…
Then you get to play with your best friend and to eat an extra cookie before going to bed. Which we did.
And what about you? Have you ever gave a mouse a cookie?
We’re back in online now. And, beside all the tehnicalities that can go wrong (and sometimes they sure do) there are a lot of other aspects that can’t be ignored.
For instance, if you are a parent of 2 or more children, you must possess the following:
1. a big house, with a number of rooms, equiped with table,desk and chairs, bigger then the number of children attending online courses. And the rooms must not be too close, in order that the online classes can be held properly; the teacher and the students will talk loud.
2. a number of electronic devices on wich the lessons can be watched equal or bigger then the number of children. A spair one would be a plus, if a battery wears out or something goes wrong on one of the devices.
3. two sets of hands, heads and bodies entirely, to be fair. If the children are preschoolers or first graders, they will need some asistance on their online courses. And since the classes are generaly in the morning, if you can’t double yourself, find a helper. Or own the fact that you are serious limiting your children rights to a free mandatory education. If they attend a public preschool or school. If not, save some money for later therapy sesions, it will be needed!
4. if you are a teacher yourself, that could be a really big challenge. The biggest of all I assume. In one room of the house your kid is having his online classes, in the other you are holding yours. Top that!
5. money to pay your electricity, heating and cable bills. Imagine having online classes in a house without electricity, cable or heat. As a lot of the houses in rural Romania are.
I heard today at “radio gossip” that the Romanian Minister of Education, when asked how can the online courses can be held in a house without electricity, she replied that the children can watch the lessons on TV. I sure hope it was a misunderstanding and that the history will remember her for something else, bigger then all of that.
So, we really like bears … small bears, big bears, brown bears, white bears. Funny silly bears or big serious ones. All sorts of them.
The first bear my daughter met 5 years ago, when she was a baby, was Corduroy. It was love at first site, pardon read. He remained one of her favourites for a long time. Then came Winnie the Puf, how she calls it, even though she knows is Puh. Then is was Paddington’s turn to move in our library. We loved all it’s silly adventures, we also saw the movies and now she is watching cartoons with Mr. Brown, the bear from the Darkest Peru that loves eating marmelade sandwiches.
Then Little bear come, with his little books and his little friends. And the list goes on.
The latest love is the little bear from Goldilocks and the three bears. She even padded it on the page where he asks Goldilocks if she wants more porrindge.
And of course, the bear from Leaves by Davis Ezra Stein, who loves leaves so much that he doesn’t want them to fall out of the trees.
But, enough talking, let me show you our collection of bears books. I wonder, what is your favourite?
Pentru ca astazi este Ziua internationala a Educatiei, am vrut sa omagiem educatorii de pretutindeni. Multi dintre noi, parinti sau nu, suntem sau am fost candva educatorii cuiva. Unii au facut scoli inalte pentru a deveni educatori de prestigiu; altii au avut un talent deosebit si o daruire remarcabila pentru a ii invata pe ceilalti. Cu blandete si rabdare si cu multa empatie. Ori folosind vorbe urate si metode gresite si mult prea autoritare de predare. Unii au adus aceasta meserie la stadiul de arta. Altii nici nu si-au dorit asta, pentru ei fiind doar o slujba.
Cu totii am avut un domn Trandafir in viata noastra. Si marii autori de carti pentru copii au avut unul sau daca nu, l-au inventat.
Iata mai jos o mica galerie a educatorilor pe care i-am cunoscut din cartile citite pana acum, la cei aproape 6 ani ai fiicei mele. Cand va mai creste va afla si despre peripetiile altor dascali celebri. Pana atunci insa, premiul I in clasamentul nostru il primeste Miss Margareta, profesoara de muzica a indragitei Crizantema. Il poate imparti cu Miss Honey, profesoara Matildei sau cu Miss Stacy, profesoara lui Anne of Green Gables. La polul opus o gasim pe doamna Miss ce le are in grija pe Madlen si celelalte 11 colege ale ei.
I’m preparing some materials for the activities I want to do with her today. I print some images and drawings for colouring, I trace contours on a cardboard and I apply adhesive tape on it.
Little miss is watching cartoons on TV. Even if she knows some of the episodes by heart, she pays a lot of attention to all of her favourites. She likes some of the characters so much that she tells us all about their adventures, with lots and lots of details. She loves to tell stories, every little adventure becomes a fascinating story when she tells it.
I do not know from whom she has this gift of storytelling, her mother is an engineer!
The publicity break starts and she comes to inspect the work table:
– Oau, how cool! You did this? she asks, turning the piece of cardboard I’m working on. And all of this beautiful drawings! We will colour them later, ok?
– Later, tomorrow, whenever you will like!
– I already told you, later, now I can’t! I have important things to do, children things!
I don’t dare to ask her what important things she has to do, I’m afraid she will start a list with lots of household chores. Like she did the other night,when her father came home from work and asked her what she did all day. She said that she dusted, made muffins, eat them, watered all the flowers (we only have 5 or 6 pots with flowers, but hey, who am I to comment?) washed the laundry…
– Oh! Is that so? And what important things you have to do right now? I reply after a few seconds I need to gather the courage to ask.
– To play, to watch cartoons, to organise missions with my superheroes team, I have important things to do, mama! Children things!
little humans 