I had the same teacher for fourth and fifth grade: Mr. Shepherd. After almost 19 years of schooling, I think he still tops the best teacher list. Every day after lunchtime recess, he would read aloud to the class. He wore snazzy socks. We liked his Spider-Man socks best. Our…
Leading up to the holiday, the Book Elf’s stock of literature began to run low. He was browsing at Hicklebee’s and came across a large atlas-like tome simply titled Maps. Not wanting to be discovered, he clandestinely escaped. But when he came across the same book again the following day…
My house is a wasteland of children’s art projects. Well, not children. Child. One child. A little lefty named Jacob who is well on his way to 10,000 hours of drawing expertise. Little piles of his work can be found in drawers and on tables; in folders and portfolios. I…
The Book Elf has found that no matter how many hours of research he does, how many “Best of” book lists he pours over, how many Amazon reviews he reads, truly outstanding books that make you want to read them again and again are rare indeed. Some words of caution:…
The Book Elf was assessing the calendar countdown to Christmas and appraising his stock of well-researched kid lit and has identified a two night shortfall. He has decided to write a non-committal note regarding some unexpected fire drill from his boss and bring in The Pajama Elf as back-up. The…
Two weeks ago I buckled down and did my obligatory clothes management clean-up of the boys closet. It generally involves going through every drawer and putting things into piles such as: Basement for Nate, Devon, Salvation Army, Girls Clothes Nate Wore Home From School, and Rags. Given the weather has finally changed,…
Keeping with this theme of mistake-making and perfectionism, the Book Elf brought us a little tome titled Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg. A quick Google search has also turned-up a song and a lesson plan and all sorts of other teaching accoutrement. So now that Jacob is learning to write, and…
When Jakey was three he went through an “ashamed phase.” If you even gently or innocently questioned his abilities, strength, size, or corrected his behavior, he would melt into a puddle of tears and cave baby grunts and would run away and hide his face. Once I balked when he…
We’ve recently had a couple of exciting developments here in the world of child development. First, back on November fourth, Jakey started sounding out words so he could write them down. He wrote “luna” and “mi casa” without me telling him the letters and it was the best. And then…
Surprisingly, I still remember quite a bit from kindergarten. I remember our alphabet letter books and painting outside on easels and little boys hiding under the tables and giggling. I remember my friend Esther inviting me over to play and describing how I would recognize her house because the back…