Christmas is for Kids… and reading… and artwork!

I have two very cute stories to tell about my little boy.

• Holiday Children’s Artwork is My Favorite!

Last night he sat down and drew this picture of Santa Claus:

I asked him how he drew it so well?? He said his teacher helped them do it one step at a time… first draw a circle the size of a penny in the middle of the page. Color it red. Then draw two ‘foothills’ next to the penny sized nose… (he asked me what a foothill is?)… then more hills for eyeballs and so on.. finishing with the ‘cloud’ around his chin for the beard.

Whatever she taught them, he is able to replicate this image nearly the same, over and over.
(I have 14 pages of Santa art to prove it!)

• Collecting Holiday Stories and Books

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The next story comes from a family tradition we have of collecting a few holiday books every year. My mom has helped out and sent a few along the way as well. We are starting to get a real pile of them!

When we were unearthing the giant totes of Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving day, my little guy was so excited to open the box filled with the books! He acted like he had never seen any of them before.

And in the last year he has gone from zero to the stars in his reading skills, so I guess it makes sense that these books ‘feel’ like he’s never seen them, because it’s the first time he could READ them himself!

He lugs two or three of them in the mom-van when we have errands to run, he filled up his church pack with about 10 of them last Sunday to keep him busy during services, and his absolute favorite thing to do in the evenings is read one of them to mom or dad before bedtime!

What a great holiday tradition to let the kids read to YOU for a change from favorite Christmas books.

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Today’s post is sponsored by Kabongo, bringing reading games to 4-7 year olds.

The Moon and the Cap

See more at memetales

Memetales is a great new website where parents and children can connect and read and create and share and …so much more!

What is it?

Memetales is THE online marketplace for picture books. It is a space where people who love picture books come together to share and create around the books. Creating a community of common interest surrounding every book is indeed the best marketing tool.

I had the opportunity to meet the Creator and all around amazing woman behind the scenes: Maya, in October. I had already virtually met her and knew I loved her. And now watching her little start up go from brilliant idea to Fabulous Product has been amazing to watch!

Take a minute and click over to Memetales.. tell me what you think of the site? Share it with your kids and imagine ways to interact and share and create around the theme of your favorite book! Do you know any children’s book authors? Tell them about this new resource and way to get the word out about their book.

I keep thinking how great this resource will be for teachers and librarians.. and what about homeschool moms?? Maya tells me an iPhone app is on the way, and I say HooRay! We have an iTouch and I would so love to have some of these books downloaded for the upcoming LONG family drives this summer…

ONE

• If you want to talk more about children’s books, I’ve been invited to share my passion Tuesday night (3/9) at #GNO (Girls Night Out on Twitter.com). I’ll be a guest panelist and you can join in by RSVPing on MomItForward.com! And don’t forget: enter to win the #GNO giveaway!

I have not been compensated for this post. I was simply asked to join in on #GNO this week on a topic I love!