Pool, Peas, and Picture Books

Also mild panic setting in for our final week of summer

Hello, beautiful humans!

Let’s start with the last P first: Panic. We have exactly one week left until our household and our lives as we know them will drastically change. My eldest is going to Kindergarten.

I know, I know, it is sort of not that big of a deal. Except that I have been a stay-at-home mom since the day he was born and we have been together all the days, all the time. And listen, I have taken solo trips, we have done overnights away, and he plays some team sports, so it isn’t like we have never been apart, but for the majority of his five years we have been together 24/7. So, yeah. His suddenly spending 7.5 hours away from me five days a week is going to shock our little systems.

He told me today that he is no longer feeling nervous about going to school, instead, he is feeling excited. This is my WIN for the day. I am still totally nervous but trying to tamp that part down and amp up my excitement. Wish me luck.

My second P: Peas! Y’all, this is just a simple nanny/mommy hack that may change your life: give your toddler or child frozen peas. Don’t cook them or defrost them or microwave them or let them sit out for too long. They must be frozen upon entry. I kid you not, I have never ever in over 20 years of being a childcare professional met a kid who doesn’t love frozen peas. Most eat them like they are candy. I don’t know why, it is nanny/mommy veggie magic.

And that brings me to my third P: Pool! We finished our dinner and I was trying to convince them (and myself, let’s be honest, it takes a pump-up session most nights) that it was nearing bedtime. I had been promising the pool all day and then, inevitably, something else would come up. Kinetic sand. Sweeping the floor. Trips to the mailbox. Dinnertime. That kind of thing. My pool promises undelivered became such a betrayal, such a potential point of tears and agony that I thought…well, we only have one week of summer left. Maybe we should lean into it. And so, even though it was 7:20 PM, we geared up and hopped on our bikes to head to the pool. It was the most delightful 45 minutes of our day.

All that to say sometimes the parenting win is a shifted mindset, a frozen vegetable, or the ability to throw routine out the window and chase the joy.

On the ride to the pool my eldest kept exclaiming how much he loved me (it was a lot) and even though it felt a little like I bought his love with pool time, I also know how great it feels when a person you love can give you a little thing to make you happy. Giving him a few (attempted) laps in the pool was such an easy way of letting him know that I see his wants and I love him. Plus, less screaming at bedtime is always a perk.

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LIT TIP

My fourth P is Picture Books! As my kids get older our bookshelf gets more and more full. I am always trying to reshuffle and make room for the new arrivals but I also keep our favorite board books around. Why? Several reasons!

First, I am nostalgic. I see Freight Train by Donald Crews and can’t imagine it not being a part of our shelf. I think kids carry nostalgia too. Both my kids still reach for and request their favorite board books and the familiarity is cozy and sweet. They like being able to read along with me and know what is coming next.

Reading easy and familiar books on repeat can help foster reading readiness by giving your child an opportunity to connect the words on the page with the words that are being read. Especially if they know the storybook well enough that they can finish the rhyme for you while you read along.

As children start to read on their own, the vocabulary they encounter becomes quite limited (think of all those early reader books that are such a slog to read aloud) but if you keep the picture books in rotation, then you keep exposing your kids to the more complicated and colorful vocabulary used in picture and board books. The more they see, hear, and familiarize themselves with those big words the faster they will recognize those words when it is their turn to read them.

I tell myself all this as I wrestle to cram all the kids’ books on their shelves so I don’t have to give up our copy of any of my favorite picture books any time soon.

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FROM THE STAX

GREAT, NOW WE’VE GOT BARBARIANS! by Jason Carter Eaton Illustrated by Mark Fearing

All parents make empty threats, right? So thinks our protagonist in this delightful comedy. If the house is too messy then what is the worst thing that can happen? Some ants? A few mice? A horde of barbarians?

My kids laugh out loud every single time we read this book. My oldest loves the part where Törr arrives for glory and cheese curls. My littlest waits in eager anticipation for the punchline ending. No spoilers here, but if you want a funny new way to suggest your kids don’t leave their food all around the house may I suggest this book? And the threat of Barbarians of course.

A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE by Julia Donaldson Illustrated by Axel Scheffler

When her cramped house is feeling way too small a darling woman asks a wise man for advice. Oddly, he says to bring in the farm animals one by one. How will this help? Read the book to find out!

Our house is teeny tiny and can sometimes feel like a squash and a squeeze. Maybe all we need to feel differently about our situation is a change in perspective. Or a wise old man. Or a slew of farm animals. If you haven’t read anything by this duo, get this book (or any other by them) STAT. Two picture books I am so reticent to relinquish (see above) are The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom, written and illustrated by this same pair.

WALLPAPER by Thao Lam

In this wonderful wordless adventure, a small girl makes a big move. Once in her new house she hears children out her window but is too afraid to approach them. Instead, she picks and peels back the layers of wallpaper on her wall and discovers a full world to explore, monsters included. Her wallpaper world leads to a world of self-discovery.

This book is a favorite for everyone in the family. The paper collage art is stunning, the story is simple enough that even my youngest exclaims triumphantly “They are making friends!” at the appropriate plot points, and the moral is not only about bravery but also about allowing yourself time to find it. This feels pertinent for the next chapter of our lives, where making new friends can feel scary. I love it. You’ll love it. Check it out.

WILD SYMPHONY by Dan Brown Illustrated by Susan Batori

A minute musical maestro mouse introduces you to his animal orchestra through poetry while peppering the pages with life lessons and secret puzzles for solving.

When I realized this was a kid-lit book by the author of The Da Vinci Code I had…mixed emotions. But, we had an excellent time reading this book. The life-affirming messages are positive and simple, the poems are musical and fun, the illustrations are full of life with little hidden treasures throughout, and there is a secret puzzle on every page that was an added (though probably should have been expected considering who wrote it) bonus we loved to solve.

This book also has an interactive element for those who want to digitally add to the book. I did not do my job and test it out because the QR code led me to a site that asked me to download an app and I just…resist that kind of thing. I am sure it will delight.

Also! All US royalties are donated to music education worldwide through the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. So that is very cool.

WHEN THE FOG ROLLS IN by Pam Fong

Life as a little puffin is easy and fun until a fog rolls in and our little friend loses his way in the mist. Sometimes the only way through a fog is to wait it out, to go through it. An obvious allegory for finding one’s way through emotional turmoil, this puffin sends a quiet and hopeful message about resilience in the face of the fog, whatever yours may be.

I think my whole family loves how this book approaches big scary emotions of feeling lost and overwhelmed and boils it down into a simple and uncontrollable moment of weather. This book will open doors to discussions about what the fog could represent (for me, I felt it represented a depressive episode…time to unpack that!) and how we cope when we feel lost inside whatever version of the fog comes for us.

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CHAT WITH ME!

What are your favorite ways to sneak a veggie win into your kids’ lives?

Do you have many weeks left of summer? None? What is your favorite way to celebrate heading to school again (or for the first time)?

What is a picture book you know will be on your shelf for years to come? I still have a copy of Stone Soup from when I was a child which means that not only did my mom keep it on the shelf through all those purges, but she passed it on to me so that I could keep it on ours. Amazing.

Thanks so much for being here and happy reading y’all.