Life: Acting Real Life Out

When you ask my nephew what his favorite videos are, he now replies, "Planet Earth, Life, Galapagos (en francais) and T'choupi (en francais aussi). Life, is another version of Planet Earth, narrated by Oprah Winfrey. It is a beautiful display of wildlife across the globe.

My nephew, in true 3 year old form, enjoys acting the different scenes. He gets his animal critters out of the toy box and begins to explore, who hunts who? Hunting and Hunted is his favorite episode. Unfortunately we don't have an ostrich for the cheetah to eat nor do we have a "cheetah deer" for the tiger. Luckily he can improvise. Sometimes he enjoys acting out the videos without props and just take on the animal personalities himself. He ropes in other 'actors', like myself to play different roles.

From Galapagos, one of his favorite scenes is watching the giant predatory birds hunt for iguanas, swimming in the sea.

The videos have been amazing to develop quite a large and specific vocabulary and to introduce the concept of "interdependence". Acting out before, during or after, is a great way to have a 'conversation' with kids about what they are understanding and thinking about while watching videos!

Enjoy the stage with your kids! Enjoy Life!

Kitty Landers

Check it out- a show for kids!

Interesting themes and original characters.

Online has so much to offer!

Website: http://www.kittylanders.com/

YouTube Site: http://www.youtube.com/user/kittylanders#p/f

The Last Song- Movie Watching with the Girls

As you know, Auntie CC and I took all the girls to see, The Last Song, starring Miley Cyrus. We all loved it. Most of us cried. After the movie we had to discuss the events of the movie.

After I read, watch a movie, or even go on a vacation, I like to retell it and remember and linger upon the best parts. It's an important skill to be able to identify significant parts and be able to analyze why they are significant- both to the text and to our own lives.

I don't want to give away our favorite parts and significance that we found in the movie- trust me, our car load of girls came up with many. So I will just describe the conversation and how it went. It took some of us awhile to really decide which parts meant more to us than others and why. It is easy to say, "I like the part when.... happened." It is harder to then explore, "Why?" It is in this next step that leads us to a more interpretative understanding of books, characters, movies or even life.

As we turned the corner to the nieces' house, Little A said, "Wait! I have a fourth favorite part!" Before we emptied ourselves onto the sidewalk, we all pondered this next part of the film. Remembering our predictions and lingering on what actually happened in the movie. We all talked about this last part. Then we ran into the house and ate Easter supper!

After watching a film or reading a book, find out from the people in your Literary Family, what are their favorite parts and why?

Enjoy the reading!

The Joy of Inquiry: Ask Questions Close to Home

What is that? Why does it look that way? What is it doing? Is it always going to look like that is going to change?

Curiosity is wonderful and contaigious. We want children to be curious about the world and ask many questions about it! This is what scientists, writers, historians, doctors, and mechanics do. They raise questions, gather up data and observations and make guesses and research some more.

Why not take a walk and study something in your neighborhood together: a plot of earth, a construction site, a series of stars in the sky or even a tree. Look at. Observe it together. Raise questions. Try and answer them. Read about the topic. Ask other people about the topic. Visit your "something" once a week (or month) to see how it has changed.

You can do the same with a photograph or a series of

photographs. Maybe it is a photograph about the natural world or maybe one from history. You can follow the same inquiry method with these text sources as well!

Looking closely, raising questions, searching for answers, and then looking again is a great way to capture children's attention and to learn and build content knowledge about the world. It also is a great bonding experience- learning about a topic together!

"Is that tree beginning to bud. I think I see a nest in the tree. Is that a bird's nest in the tree or is it for a squirrel? Will it have big green leaves?"

Maybe you will want to study to study how plants change in spring and summer or you will want to study how effective recycling is in your town. Maybe you have questions or just interests in your immediate vicinity. Show kids how to turn their world into sets of questions that they can eventually answer and research together. Revisit the photographs or come back and visit the same pond two weeks later. What has changed and what is the same?

Whatever it is, show kids the joy of first hand research! Show them the joy and necessity that we all have as communitty members to be inquisitive and informed!

Enjoy the studying. Enjoy the reads.

Traveling with a Pre-Teen: AB and I Hit the Museum in Philly

For AB's thirteenth birthday, I decided to take her to the week's vacation to Seattle and the San Juan Islands!

On our way to the west coast AB and I had a stop over in Philadelphia. We had one day to visit the city and had to make some decisions what to do! We went to the old city in Philly, down by Constitution Center, the African American Museum of

Philadelphia and the Liberty Bell. We toured around in the morning and after lunch we decided we wanted to go to the art museum as well.

Looking at art. What a great experience. We headed first to the impressionists. I had to call up all that remembered about looking at art. Ironically enough I depended mostly on my knowledge of art that I learned in the 7th grade, rather than my few art history courses I took in college. AB and looked the the technique of the artists, we looked at the art from different angles and distances, we thought about the dates and what was happening in history at the time the pieces were made, we compared pieces that were close by together and we even tried to tell the story of what was happening in some of the art. Discussing and debating the significances of the pieces and even hypothesizing about how and why the pieces were made helped the two of us engage in enjoying the art. Working on thinking about the art together helped us both spend more time observing, but also understanding that there are messages and beauty to revere in art. We walked through the exhibit, not as passive observers but as active readers.

We headed to the contemporary art to read those paintings and sculptures next. This part of art museums always present a challenge for me! We tried to engage in the same way with more abstract pieces of art and tried to think about what was this teaching us about the world. We saw a couple of Calder’s 3D sculptures and mobiles. We took pictures of some of our favorite pieces that we wanted to remember and think more about!

Then we headed to the Picasso exhibit! We got the audio tour- always a great idea- and found the commentary both interesting and enlightening. Not just about Picasso’s art but about the historical time in Paris around the period of cubism and bout other artists creating pieces of art in the same time. It gave us a ton to talk about on our way back to the airport.

Just before we left on our birthday week extravaganza- AB and my god son and I spent the a Saturday in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. We went with a particular focus- to find sculptures and artifacts about Greek mythology! You remember how my god son is obsessed with The Lightening Thief? Currently he is onto book 3. Well, he wanted to see for himself how these gods were depicted back in history. Of course there was immense curiosity planted in the book that references the museum as well. So we toured the MET with just that focus.

Whether you are experiencing a new city, visiting a particular exhibit, or following a literary text to the museum, viewing art and interacting with kids helps all of us to see more and read more in the text. Mary

Ehrenworth, a scholar and literacy expert at Teachers College Columbia University wrote a book, Looking to Write, that describes how teachers (and frankly families) can help kids see the literary potential in art.

Enjoy the arts! Enjoy the read!

The Birthday Extravangaza

So you are wondering- how was the 3 year old's birthday? So much fun! It truly is amazing to see how my nephew has grown in just three short years. You hear all these statistics about intelligence and talking and the amount of words that some kids have by the time they enter kindergarten. Well, I can safely say, my nephew is in the 30,000,000 words category. Language is just exploding all around him!

On his birthday morning, we took him to the Imax movie at the science center in the old city of Montreal. There was film about the Space Station. My nephew sat through the whole film. Days later I could see what information stuck with him!

First of all, the count down and loud take off with the fire was the first thing he told his BFF, Toddler T, in daycare!

Then, as all the other kids were trying to put on their snowsuits (yes, it snows in March in Montreal), my nephew and Toddler T are laying in the middle of the hall on their bellies. "Don't lay down in the hall. Please sit up," called one of the teachers, en Francais. My nephew replied, "I'm not laying down. I am floating in space. I am an astronaut."

Then at home, when I got to babysit him one evening, my nephew gathered up a few things in his new "surfer's backpack" that Big Girl C and Baby E gave him for his birthday. "What are you going to do with the backpack," I asked. "It's not a backpack. It's my pack for space. I am putting on my suit to go walking and fixing our station. I need a few things." He gathered up his cell phone, so he could call his mama, he gathered up some blocks (that he said were apricots), and his little notebook I brought him with a pen. "What is your notebook for?" I inquired. "It's for you know... actually I need to make a list." He proceeded to make a list and then "called for help". "I need some equipment. Yeh and I need lots of things." He carefully made his list and then stuffed it into the pack!

What fun we had!

When it was time to go to bed, something that my nephew tries to avoid at all cost, he decided we would read! "Find a few books!" I told him. Well... he did. He brought over a stack of about 20 books. He turned to me and said, "Titi, first read all of these! Then I will do my doe-doe. (sleep in french)." I looked at the stack. I looked at nephew. I had to smile. What a clever boy! We snuggled up and read till he fell asleep. I Dream of Trains and Corduroy each got a couple of reads!

Enjoy your family! Enjoy the read.

All About Owls

Have you seen the Owls? The mama owl and the papa owl, taking care of little babies in their nest? It is a web cam set up so you can see how they live. It is absolutely incredible. My friend M, who blogs on the green spotlight, posted it on her facebook page.

You should watch this with your own literary family- What do you see? What do you wonder? Why is this happening? What will happen next?

Keep checking in and witness these babies growing up!

Click here to watch the live cam of the owls.

What a wonderful way to inquire about the natural world together- it may even to reading more about Owls!

Enjoy the bird watching, enjoy the reads!