 Wrestling with a fundamental question Welcome back! We had a wonderful holiday season, albeit a bit quieter than normal, and January was a month of rest around here -- unless we watched the unfolding of political news. The Boss returned to teaching in the middle of last month and I wrestled with a few questions about blogging. Preparing for 2021 Stories Matter has been quite interesting as I worked through some basic questions:
Ultimately, the fundamental question I wrestled to the mat is what do I think is important about books -- or even one book -- to share with parents and teachers? To the mat to get the answers Providing quality reviews requires consistent and timely access to books. Checking books out from the library is a reasonable approach to managing expenses, but just released titles may not yet be available at the library. So the conundrum is how to get the books without always purchasing them -- which can be accomplished by developing a two- or three-month planning cycle. Contemplating planning cycles leads to the question of themes. Sticking with traditional themes such as "Black History Month" would make the planning easier -- but if you know me, you know choosing the easier route is not really how I approach problem-solving. Parents and teachers have access to loads of resources for well-known monthly themes, so what else would be relevant and useful? A question which runs parallel to the question of what is important about books -- turns out January was a mentally challenging month for me - not as restful as I led you to believe. Nevertheless, I wrestled both questions to the mat repeatedly to create a plan for the year which I am excited to share with you! The world around our children The overarching paradigm for the 2021 Stories Matter is grounded in the world around our children. This is quite a broad concept, but allows for some interesting monthly themes. I'll review some parenting books, take a look at how nature and various art forms enrich our children's lives and provide direction for using a book or a monthly theme during family read aloud time, as a classroom resource and as part of a learning at home focus. Here's the roadmap for the next three months: Here's to a wonderful year exploring the world around our children! May you find it relevant and useful, Nonna Follow the link below to purchase books at Stories Matter and support local bookstores. Stories Matter @ Nonna and The Boss Comments are closed.
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