A Bumper (Sticker) Crop

With the election drawing near, your kids are bound to be aware that something big is going on. Maybe you have a candidate or proposition sign on your lawn. Maybe you're having earnest conversations around the dinner table. And maybe you have the TV or radio turned on more than usual, tuned to election coverage. There's a bumper crop of presidential picture books that will help kids of all ages start making sense of all the election buzz.



Grace For President, by Kelly DiPucchio and LeYuen Pham, tells the story of a young girl who notices there are no women on the poster of presidents hanging at her school, which inspires her to run for class president. This book has a great explanation of the Electoral College built right into the text, plus an author's note to clarify. Suitable for kids 5 years old and up.

My Teacher for President, by Kay Winters and Denise Brunkus, heralds a different candidate. Second grader Oliver is inspired by all the campaign ads he sees to nominate his teacher as a candidate, and lays out all the reasons he thinks she'd be a good one. (This book will have parents wishing a teacher really would run for president!) Suitable for kids 5 and up.

So You Want To Be President? is by Judith St. George and David Small. Maybe your child (or your spouse!) finds all the campaigning so inspiring, he or she wants to be president. The job is not as easy as it looks, and presidents through the ages have coped with the challenges in all kinds of interesting ways. This Caldecott winning classic is a must-read for school-age kids.

Lives of the Presidents (Fame, Shame, and What the Neighbors Thought) by Kathleen Krull and Kathryn Hewitt is a collection of brief biographies of all the presidents. Pithy, interesting, and packed with lesser-known facts, this book is a great way to put presidents in perspective with their historical eras. Suitable for kids in grades 3 and up.



Kenneth C. Davis' Don't Know Much books are a staple for history buffs of all ages. His Don't Know Much About the Presidents is another fantastic installment in this classic series. Suitable for kids in 3rd grade and up.

Happy reading! And don't forget to vote!

--H.V.

PS: For adult reading recommendations, local bookseller Nicola's Books has started a blog.

Read All About It!

Please note: this is not a solicitation for book donations.

However, parents occasionally ask us if there are classroom materials they can donate. Books, because they are relatively fragile and get so much use, are something that we often need to replenish. Parents also ask us for book recommendations when they're looking to build home libraries. We've compiled lists of some of our favorites, grouped by approximate age.

There are some perennial favorites not included here: Where The Wild Things Are and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, for example. We figure you'll find those on your own. Our selections include lesser-known award-winning title, books on developmental issues, and some of our personal favorites.

Great Reads:

• Books for Infants and Toddlers (0-3 yrs.)
• Books for Preschoolers (~2.5-5 yrs.)
• Books for 4K Children (4-6 years)

Sometimes parents want kids to stop reading "baby" books (anything younger than their age or technical reading ability) but that shortchanges them. Older kids who continue to read younger picture books practice reading skills by using context, rhythm, and rhyme to scaffold their burgeoning decoding skills. Did you know that older kids benefit tremendously from reading aloud (even if they've memorized the text or are making it up as they go) to younger siblings. Plus, the younger kids eat it up!

Need more suggestions?

Bank Street College recommends 30 Picture Books You Don't Want to Miss

-- Admin

Sleep Solutions

Feeling tired and grumpy? You're not alone. Sleep issues are one of the most popular searches in online parenting forums.

At our centers, we have had so many conversations about sleep with new and experienced parents alike that we made a summary of our sleep suggestions. You can download a printable copy of our purple page on the topic here. Purple Pages are our coffee break-sized newsletters about various developmental and family challenges. We're up to more than forty different topics by now! Parents and visitors can pick up hard copies at any of the centers. Parents of currently enrolled children can download printable pdf files of all the purple pages plus other original material from our website, on the Child Development tab.

We recently received a mailing from parent educator Elizabeth Pantley introducing her No-Cry books and website. You can download her helpful suggestions at the links below:

• Newborn Babies and Sleep
• 8 Sleep Tips for Every Child
• Moving from Crib to Bed
• Solving Naptime Problems

Ms. Pantley is holding two sleep-related contests on her website. The deadline is Feb. 29th; four inners will have their choice of an autographed No-Cry book.

My own contribution to better bedtimes is a picture book called Hillside Lullaby. It's a story about a "wild little child" lulled to sleep by the sounds of the animals outside her window. You can download a free MP3 file of the song that goes with the book from my website.

Sleep tight!

-- H.V.