Book diary

How many books of your childhood can you remember? I only remember a handful of them although I must have read hundreds! The Reading Environment by Aidan Chambers suggests the great idea of making a reading journal starting in the early childhood. Before the child can write, parents and carers can write entries for them, simply stating the title and author of the book. You can also add one of the child's interesting comments about it, a short summary or even grade it out of 10. Not only does a book diary help keep track of reading, but it also shows a bit of who you are to others. Aidan Chambers suggests that all school children should have a book diary that new teachers could read at the start of a new year to get a snapshot of that child's personality. The books you choose to read reveal who you are.

I followed his suggestion and gave Alex a book diary. He was over the moon with the excitement of having a book just for him, one with an elastic band to keep it closed and a ribbon as a bookmark! We went through the library books we had already read and started adding entries. He was very proud to show it to everyone at school. He is eager to be able to write it it himself but for now he would still like me to do it because he doesn't want the pages to get messy.

Recording authors is a good way to raise children's awareness that a book is written by a person and doesn't just come out of nowhere. As I was reading all the entries to Alex a few weeks ago, we both noticed that several of the books were written by the same person. We wouldn't even have noticed without the book diary.

Christmas bedtime stories

Last year I read about a very nice idea on a blog. It was an advent bedtime story tradition of wrapping up the child's christmas books in newspaper and writing a number between 1 to 24 on each package. Each evening of the advent season the child unwraps one book that they read at bedtime. I think it is a really nice way of rediscovering books and having a little surprise each evening while waiting for Christmas.

Alex and I have almost finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I am planning to start the Christmas books series next week. He doesn't have many Christmas books so I went to the library and borrowed a few after reading some recommendations. Here are some of the ones that I am sure he will enjoy reading.

Father Christmas Needs a Wee by Nicholas Allan

This is a cute counting book in which Father Christmas has drink after drink going in all the children's houses and soon enough, he needs a wee! He needs a wee so badly that he forgets to leave presents under the tree but then realises his mistake and goes back to each house to leave presents. What I like about this book is the rhyming and the pattern (FC drinks one drink in the first house, two drinks in the second house, etc. He leaves six presents in one house, five in the next, then four, then three, etc). I also liked the suspense! Is Father Christmas going to wet his pants? I will let you find out.

Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini

This is my favourite! It is the story of a daddy moose who wants Christmas to be perfect. He decorates the house, bakes lots of cookies, cooks a goose and some chestnuts, hangs stockings, wraps presents, but oh no, he has forgotten the tree! Fortunately, his little children moose are here to help and come up with a very funny solution. I love the illustrations of this book. The colours are very christmassy and it certainly puts you in a Christmas mood. I am particularly fond of the funny details in the drawings. Children love these. Oh, and did I mention that the text rhymes and is full of funny words? It is all very creative, so do get it!

Grandfather's Christmas Camp by Marc McCutcheon

I borrowed this book from the library without knowing what to expect. I was really appealed by the illustrations by Kate Kiesler which really give this book a complete atmosphere of cosy winter. The paintings of the characters, Lizzie and Grandfather, are very realistic, and so is the story. There is no Father Christmas or silly moose in this one, it is all absolutely true life, so there is a good chance of the children identifying with the character of Lizzie. Because of the realism it is also a good book to have in Montessori classrooms. Here is the story line. Mr Biggins, the dog, went running after a deer and got lost in the snowy mountain. Lizzie and Grandfather go out to get him but have to bivouac for the night. I really enjoyed the specific vocabulary related to mountain life such as "switchback" or "alpine zone". This is a really good book!

What is Christmas? by Michelle Medlock Adams

This book is really good to explain the meaning of Christmas to young children. What is Christmas about? Is it about the Christmas cards? Is it about the mistletoe? Is it about the Christmas tree? What is it all about? In the end, the book reveals that the holiday is all about Jesus's birth and that is what we celebrate. I really liked the short, meaninful text which rhymes and the nice illustrations to go with each stanza. The only regret I have with this book would be that it is a board book, which are usually aimed at younger children than the text and message of this book. I know that everything about this book will appeal to Alex who always wants to understand everything, but the format may put him off slightly as he usually refuses to read board books which are "for babies".

Y'a pas d'images! There aren't any pictures!

J'hésitais depuis un moment a commencer a lire avec Alex des livres sans images. A 4 ans et demi, est-ce trop tot? Est-il vraiment pret? Et s'il rejette le livre en disant "y'a pas d'images!"? Est-ce que je risque de créer un blocage? Beaucoup de questions qui se sont vite avérées inutiles.

Dimanche apres-midi, il y avait la premiere version film de Charlie et la chocolaterie a la télé, ce qui m'a décidée a me lancer. Oui, car Alex est FOU de chocolat et je me suis dit que le livre de Roald Dahl serait parfait.

Vous vous demandez peut-etre pourquoi je trouve ca si important de lire des livres de ce type a son age. Il y a plusieurs raisons a cela. En particulier, ca enrichit son vocabulaire, ameliore sa concentration et sa capacité a imaginer, alors que les livres trop graphiques et pas assez bavards qu'il a l'habitude de lire limitent ses apprentissages en n'utilisant que des mots connus, en limitant le nombre de mots par page et en le forcant a accepter les représentations de l'illustrateur. Peu de liberté en somme.

J' ai bien ménagé mon effet et lui ai annoncé que deux jours plus tard, on commencerait a lire "un livre de grands", avec peu d'images, a propos d'une usine a chocolat et d'un chocolatier un peu fou. Il s'est tout de suite montré extremement intéressé et voulait commencer la lecture la, tout de suite. Avant ce jour-la il n'avait jamais EXIGE qe je lui fasse la lecture, alors je me suis empressée de répondre a son souhait pour etre sure de ne pas rater le moment (mon coté Montessori, surement).

J'avais prévu de commencer avec un ou deux chapitres seulement le premier jour mais son enthousiasme m'a poussée a continuer jusqu'a la fin du troisieme chapitre. Le lendemain, il m'a demandé de continuer notre lecture, ainsi que le jour suivant. Aujourd'hui cela fait trois jours qu'on a commencé Charlie et on en est a la moitié du livre. Je n'en reviens toujours pas. Est-ce possible qu'il ait ete pret depuis plusieurs semaines ou meme mois?

Il s'est bien exclamé "il y a pas d'images!" comme prévu, mais il a suffit que je réponde: "tu vois des images dans ta tete, non?" pour qu'il s'en contente.

Il est fasciné par les billets d'or, les glaces qui ne fondent jamais, les chewing gums qui ne perdent pas leur gout, les oompa loompas et toutes choses sorties de l'imagination de Roald Dahl. C'était surement le livre idéal pour une premiere lecture de grand.

I had been thinking for a while about starting to read books without pictures to Alex. At four and a half years, is it too early? Is he really ready? What if he rejects books saying, "there aren't any pictures!" Will I risk putting him off forever? A lot of question which soon proved unfounded.

On Sunday afternoon, there was the first version of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film on TV, which helped me make up my mind. Alex is CRAZY about chocolate so I thought that Roald Dahl's "Charlie" would be perfect.

You might be wondering why I find it so important to read a book of this type at his age. There are lots of reasons to do so. In particular, it enriches his vocabulary, improves his concentration span and his capacity to imagine when picture books force him to accept the illustrator’s own representation of the story and limit the number of words per page as well as their difficulty. It is like speaking to a baby only using the words that they know: mama, milk, sleep. It is quite limiting, isn’t it?

I tried to instil some suspense and announced that two days later we would be starting to read a “big boys book” with few pictures about a chocolate factory and a crazy chocolate maker. He immediately showed strong interest and wanted to start reading now. Before that day he had never DEMANDED that I read to him, so I fetched the book so as not to miss the opportunity (my Montessori influence, probably).

I had planned to only start with one or two chapters but his enthusiasm after the first pages pushed me to continue to the end of the third chapter. The next day, he asked me to read on, and the next day. Today it has been three days since we started Charlie and we have read half of it. I still can’t believe it! Is it possible that he had been ready for many weeks or even months?

He did exclaim: “There aren’t any pictures!” but I replied to him: “You can see pictures in your head, can’t you?” and he never mentioned it again.

He is fascinated by golden tickets, ice cream that never melts, chewing gum that never loses its taste, the oompa loompas and all things out of Roald Dahl’s imagination. This was probably the ideal title to start reading “big boys books”.

Dumbing us down

Je lis en ce moment "Teaching Montessori in the home - The Pre-school Years", autrement dit "Utiliser la méthode Montessori a la maison - de la naissance a 5 ans", d'Elizabeth Hainstock. C'est vraiment tres intéressant et donne plein d'exemples d'activités que l'on peut préparer pour l'enfant, avec a chaque fois des explications détaillés sur ce qu'apporte telle activité. Les toutes premieres pages font référence a l'esprit Montessori, a l'enfant dans son individualité et sa volonté d'apprendre.

J'en ai traduit un passage que je trouve particulierement intéressant:

"De nos jours, beaucoup trop d'écoles ne permettent pas aux enfants de penser par eux-memes. Ils sont trop souvent soumis aux contraintes d'un programme national stérile et uniformisant dans un environnement ou les décisions des adultes prédominent. Pendant ce temps, les enfants et leurs parents sont persuadés qu'ils se trouvent dans un lieu d'apprentissage réel, et surtout, sérieux. Ce qu'ils en retirent a long terme est un apprentissage de surface décousu qui ne profite ni a l'enfant ni a son enseignant.

Les enfants d'aujourd'hui ont besoin de beaucoup plus de stimulation qu'on ne leur offre. Ils apprennent par coeur, répondent a des questions de manuels scolaires par des réponses de manuels scolaires. Il est rare qu'ils aient l'occasion - et la permission - d'utiliser leur intelligence d'une maniere imaginative et créative. Dans les rares occasions ou un enfant ou un jeune adulte doit donner une réponse qui résulte d'une véritable pensée, il n'aura pas recu la préparation dont il a besoin. Ses capacités de réflexion autonome, tres peu stimulées, seront devenues stagnantes a force de mise au rebut. Trop de jeunes gens aujourd'hui ne sont capables de s'exprimer que par généralités vagues et abstraites.

Est-ce de la faute de l'enfant s'il est mal préparé, ou de la structure de notre systeme d'éducation actuel et des parents eux-memes qui placent trop d'importance dans la dépendance? Sommes nous en phase de créer une génération d'enfants choyés et dépendants a qui l'on permet progressivement de perdre tout concept d'originalité et de créativité? L'importance d'enseigner a nos enfants comment apprendre et penser par eux-memes durant leurs premieres années ne doit pas etre sous-estimée.

Nous nous devons d'offrir a nos enfants un cadre solide sur lequel son apprentissage futur - un processus sans fin - sera basé. Un enfant préparé de cette facon ne se satisfera pas d'un apprentissage superficiel mais cherchera sans cesse a approfondir ses recherches. Un esprit bien développé ne pourra pas etre refermé par un environnement restrictif."

Je m'excuse pour les fautes et les répétitions, ce n'est pas un texte facile a traduire. Cette édition a plus de douze ans et pourtant, on ne peut que déplorer a quel point ce texte s'applique au monde d'aujourd'hui...