Commemorate Lewis Carroll’s Birthday and do as he suggests: “I try to believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
January 27, 2012
Reading encourages us to be creative, innovative, ingenious, imaginative, & curious, qualities we need in abundance if we want to lead interesting lives. I agree with Elearnor Roosevelt who said: I think at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy god mother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.
I think reading is one of the most creative acts; you cannot read without being creative. Those 26 black marks, the meaning of the words, the implications of those meanings, these are all the products of the readers’ imagination. Reading requires a child to make something new, to take a leap. Books give children something that is provided by nothing else. That something, simply put, is the unknown. The imagination flows toward that which is not known. The familiar does not inspire it, but it surges spontaneously at the slightest opportunity for mystery and adventure. The imagination is a hunter who loves the challenge and the chase.
Alice had an active imagination and she was very good at believing in six impossible things before breakfast. And what were those six impossible things? “One, there are drinks that make you shrink. Two, there are foods that make you grow. Three, animals can talk. Four, cats can disappear. Five, there is a place called Underland. Six, I can slay the Jabberwocky.”
Kung Hei Fat Choy ~Chinese New Year 2012~ The Year of the Dragon.
January 23, 2012
Celebrate the Year of the Dragon by reading some of my favorite stories which feature unlikely dragons—the best kind of dragons in “my book” and other stories that take you inside the Chinese Culture. The recommendations are terrific read aloud to children of various ages. As Walter Dean Myers, our current national ambassador for young […]
Was Benedict Arnold a notorious traitor, a coward or a hero?
January 17, 2012
Benedict Arnold was a General during the American Revolutionary War, who started out as a general on the American side and was commissioned into the British Army as a brigadier general. If you are curious how this happened, read on! For younger children, ages 7 and up, Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold by Jean […]
Parental Involvement is key to a child’s success— in and out of school.
January 12, 2012
There’s no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student’s achievement, and we need to recruit, train and reward more such teachers. But here’s what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents. Parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a […]
Stories that endure are those that enlarge human experience.
January 7, 2012
Joan of Arc would be 600 years old this year. I suspect that the longevity and appeal of her story is that so much of the story remains enigmatic. I speculate that part of a story’s shelf life has to do with the mysterious qualities that we will never know. But we continue to read […]
