30
Dec
Month by Month: Books About the Year
Happy New Year! The new year is just around the corner, which also brings about the question” “What does ‘Happy New Year’ mean”? What’s ‘a year’ anyway? Explaining time to a young person is confusing in many ways. (It’s a perplexing concept to me, too!) In this day in age, we use the Gregorian calendar internationally that’s been around since it was introduced in 1582. The twelve months which include special events, birthdays, and holidays are what make up our calendar year today. The months are also often depicted by seasonal highlights and transitions noticeable year after year. As we move into the new year ahead, here are a few books that introduce the year through story and rhyme, month by month.
The Year At Maple Hill Farm
Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months
The Turning of the Year
Around the Year
Linnea’s Almanac 
Turtle in July
Once Around the Sun
Seasons of the Circle: A Native American Year
How Do You Say It Today, Jesse Bear?
Around the Year
Parade Day: Marching Through the Calendar Year
Toot & Puddle
When The Moon Is Full
Month by Month a Year Goes Round
Snowy Flowy Blowy: A Twelve Months Rhyme
Twelve Hats for Lena : A Book of Months
Calendar
The Navajo Year Walk Through Many Seasons
Skip Through the Seasons: A Seek-And-Find Book
Sing a Song of Piglets: A Calendar in Verse
Dog Days: Rhymes Around the Year
A Child’s Calendar
29
Dec
Celebrating The Winter Solstice
Happy Winter! December 21st or December 22nd of each year marks the first day of winter. For the past year or so, my family has been celebrating the rhythm of the seasons marked by the solstices and equinoxes. We find this to be a good way to learn about, reflect, prepare, and celebrate the season ahead. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year. After this day, the days will get longer and longer until the Summer Solstice, the first day of Summer. In the northern hemisphere, the Winter Solstice occurs when the earth’s tilt is furthest from the sun thus the cold days and long, creeping shadows. Many holidays and festivals during the winter season have roots in observance of this astronomical phenomenon, the rebirth of light.
In a world where the lights are always on, gadgets and technology leaving faces aglow with constant media all hours of the day and night, the Winter Solstice is an opportunity to pause and give tribute to the natural rhythms of life.
Additional Winter Solstice Reading:
8 Things to Know About the Winter Solstice
Why We Need the Winter Solstice
Winter Solstice Traditions: Rituals for A Simple Celebration
Celebrating Winter Solstice pinboard
Here are a few ways we celebrate the Winter Solstice…
ARRIVAL OF THE WINTER FAIRIES
Each solstice and equinox we have a little tradition of the fairies of that season making a fairy ring marking their arrival and thus the arrival of the new season. Typically, I make a ring before the girls wake up in the morning of foraged nature items found from hikes. In the center of the ring are a few tokens such as stones or buttons or bells. Throughout the year, the girls make fairy houses in our yard, and this is a way for the fairies to thank them for a place to say for the season. In the morning, they rush outside to see the ring made by the fairies of the new season.
DAY OF CANDLELIGHT
During the Winter Solstice day, we turn off all electrical lights for the day and use candlelight whenever we need light. To me, this is by far the most enjoyable and fulfilling Winter Solstice tradition. In the morning, I light candles in a few rooms and as everyone wakes, in the soft glow we go about our morning until the sun comes up. As the sun sets, we light the candles again and have dinner by candlelight. Even if you decide to only commit to eating dinner by candlelight, it is such an enjoyable experience for both kids and adults. Candlelight by default sets up an intimate, soft mood.
GOLDEN GIFTS
Another idea is to give a golden gift to loved ones– An orange, a golden wrapped candy, a small beeswax candle, a golden coin. I try to keep it simple and give one little token to each child that represents the sun or sunlight.
READ WINTER STORIES
Taking time to read wintertime stories, especially about the Winter Solstice is a calm, interactive activity as well as a good excuse to cuddle up on the couch together. Here is a winter themed list of children’s books, including books about Winter Solstice.
TAKE A WINTER SOLSTICE WALK
What better way to experience the nature of the season than take a walk outside? This year, we took to the woods. The day was cloudy and the tall trees protected us from the whipping Kansas wind. Without the wind, it was warm enough to discard hats and mittens.
HOST A WINTER SOLSTICE TEA PARTY
We had a few friends over for a Winter Solstice Tea Party serving gingerbread cookies, clementine oranges, and winter lemonade. They brought a treat as well and after we were done enjoying sips of winter lemonade and treats, we made Winter Solstice Lanterns.
WINTER SOLSTICE LANTERNS
This year, we made Winter Solstice lanterns that looked beautiful when lit! Inspired by this idea, we took pieces of white and yellow tissue paper and adhered them to a recycled glass jars using modpodge (or white school glue also works) and paint brushes. I cut out sun, moon, and star shapes out of black construction paper and those were also glued on with the tissue paper along with little star stickers we had on hand. This next part is important– Only decorate the outside of the jar! Otherwise, you could have an unwanted fire or burning on your hands. Once the design is finished to you or your child’s liking, apply one last thin coat of modpodge on the outside of the lantern, and let dry. It took an hour for these lanterns to dry and by nighttime they put on quite a glow show.
SET UP A WINTER NATURE TABLE
The concept of setting up a seasonal table is popular among Waldorf educators. The idea is to set up a table or corner in your home or school with items from outside along with figurines and decorations to depict the season. A nature table is a delightful play provocation as well as a way to show appreciation and acknowledge the nature of the changing seasons. Except for the cinnamon sticks and anise stars, the items for our table mostly came from walks outside and thrift stores over the years that were decorating the house already. This was our first year setting up a winter nature table, but next year I plan on spending more time on this new tradition. We set up ours just in time for the Winter Solstice, but will continue to add to it or change it as the season progresses. My oldest especially enjoys this newfound practice and I think both girls, as they age, will continue to enjoy it as time goes on. Here are a few tips for creating a Waldorf Nature Table as well as a collection of nature table inspiration.
BEDTIME STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT
When the sun goes down and the longest night of the year has arrived we read stories aloud. Bedtime stories are a part of our regular nighttime routine, but there is something very special about bedtime stories on the Winter Solstice. Maybe it has to do with the candlelight or the fact that it is dark so early? Or that our day was balanced between a mix of solitude and quiet, and celebration and togetherness? Since reading by candlelight is archaic, perhaps there’s an innate comfort of reverting back to old times, of a way of life long before modern conveniences? A magical time-travel experience? Stories have the power to connect us to histories and pasts long before ours and to enjoy these mythologies in flickering candlelight, like those before us is all the more transporting.
27
Dec
Sunday Greetings
Hello dear friends! How was everyone’s holiday weekend? We stayed in town and had a casual Christmas at home with family and puzzles and jammies and candles and slow, slow days. This year, all decorations on our Christmas tree were a homemade smorgasbord of paper snowflakes, pinecone weavings, and such that accumulated throughout the past several weeks. It was our stress-free alternative to chasing a busy 2-year-old and unruly cats away from fragile ornaments. One of the more recent adornments to our small scotch pine were these wood and paper stars pictured above that look lovely against both twinkle lights and sunlight. The idea to make these sweet stars came from The Eric Carle Museum blog, and were so enjoyable to make and I created extras for the window that floods with cool light in the late afternoon. I’m considering making enough to hang in every window of the house to leave up throughout the new year!
The light of 2015 is going out with 2016 quickly approaching. It goes by so fast. Do you have plans for New Year’s Eve? Any big plans for the year ahead? Wherever you happen to be or whatever you happen to be doing that evening, here’s to a very happy new year ahead to you! Thank you for spending time here with me if you are a veteran reader or someone that just happens to be passing by. Here’s little of this and that for the last Sunday morning of the year:
How fancy is this DIY retro New Year’s Eve crown? Here’s a simple kid version DIY crown — Just add a few glittery star stickers and voila!
The clearest nights are the coldest nights, but star gazing is vivid and worth the frosty bite. Take a minute to enjoy the winter constellations. Here’s a guide for constellations in the northern hemisphere.
This little book of the winter constellations.
A look back at winters of yesteryear in LFK. And an explanation behind the warm weather we’ve been having this winter.
If you’re planning to party it up with kids for New Year’s Eve, these confetti poppers will be a hit! Use the leftover confetti to make art.
A few more ideas of how to celebrate the New Year with children.
Last, but not least, an end of year reflection on purpose.
Happy New Year!
Currently listening: Andrew Bird’s “Auld Lang Syne”
24
Dec
Connecting Children to Nature in the Library
Please take a moment to head over to School Library Journal to check out the article “Children Are Being Connect to Nature Right in the Library”, which explores how public librarians are creating unique opportunities for their young patrons and families to develop a deeper connection with their environment. The environmental programs outlined in the article not only assisting in developing an ecological literacy in youth, but are active catalysts in instilling a magical sense of wonder about the world in which we live. Read more about it HERE…
18
Dec
Storytime Anytime: Gingerbread
Storytime Anytime is a concentrated storytime experience that parents and caregivers can recreate with the youngster in your life. Each storytime focuses on a book about a specific interest, a song, rhyme, or fingerplay that complements the story, and then a few, simple extension activities. Storytime doesn’t just happen in the library, storytime can be anytime!
Gingerbread has been around since 2400 BCE and today is a treasured international treat. This popular sweet not only temps taste buds of young and old, but also is the inspiration behind old nursery rhymes and stories such as The Gingerbread Boy
READ: Maisy Makes Gingerbread
SING: “Homemade Gingerbread” by unknown author via Preschool Education. This rhyme is simple to remember after you do it a couple times and summarizes the simple steps of gingerbread baking.
Stir a bowl of gingerbread, smooth and spicy brow.
(Hold a bowl and make a mixing motion with the other hand.)
Roll it with a rolling pin, up and up and down.
(Both hands out flat facing the floor, move back and forth like when using a rolling pin)
With a cookie cutter, make some little men.
(Pretend to hold a cookie cutter and move it up and down.)
Put them in the oven, till half past ten.
(Pretend to hold a tray and place it in the oven. Then point to wrist.)
PLAY: These are simple gingerbread activities to expand the theme of the storytime – Gingerbread!
- Make Homemade Gingerbread: Cooking with kids is a terrific sensory and bonding activity as well as exercises skills in science, math, and reading. Try making these gingerbread cookies or a batch of gingerbread cookie houses in your home. Your home will smell sweet and spicy and your child will be excited to be an active participant in the baking process.
- Playdough Pretend Play: Make gingerbread scented playdough for easy gingerbread play. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and beads, buttons, and ribbon to decorate. Roll the dough back up and start all over again!
- Explore Smelling Spices: A variety of spices go into the construction of gingerbread cookie dough. Cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, GINGER.. Smell these spices with a child. Have them close their eyes and see if they can tell the difference between them all!
- Gingerbread Man Story Basket: If you read one of the many versions of The Gingerbread Man (see book suggestions below) this gingerbread man story basket is a terrific extension activity. Prompt creative play and storytelling by assembling a basket with toys or items featured in the story.
- Cardboard Gingerbread House: Decorate a large cardboard box like a gingerbread house by using crayons, markers, paint or whatever art supplies you have on hand.
MORE BOOK SUGGESTIONS:
The Gingerbread Boy
The Gingerbread Man 
The Gingerbread Man
Cookie Count: A Tasty Pop-up
Gingerbread Baby
Gingerbread Friends
The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School
T
Gingerbread Mouse
For more gingerbread stories, songs, and fun, check out this gingerbread storytime post from a few years back when I was a youth librarian.
