Value Bookshop's Reading Notes

Here in Malaysia, the muslim celebration of Hari Raya Aidilfitri has begun. Hoards of people travel back to their home town or what we call “balik kampung.” If you have a long way to go and are traveling with your kids, I’m sure your greatest hope is that they sleep most of the way. Hahahah. But you know what, car trips is one of the best times to hone your children’s reading skills. You can play phonic games with them.

• The rhyming game — What rhymes with hat? or dog? or man?
• I spy — I spy with my little eyes, something that begins with the sound /b/
• The guessing game — I’m thinking of a red fruit that begins with the sound /a/, or an animal that ends with the sound /t/.
• For those just learning to blend sounds, why not say the segmented sounds and see if they can put it together — /b/ /a/ /t/, what do you think I’m saying?
• Phonics bingo — make several bingo cards but instead of numbers in the squares, write in alphabets. Then, cut up the 26 alphabets and put it into a container or zip lock bag. Draw them out randomly, don’t say the name of the alphabet but rather make the sound. Have your kids check their bingo cards to see if they have that sound. If they do, they color the square that has that particular alphabet. The person that colors an entire row (or entire card) wins the game.

These are just some ideas to make your car trips fun and educational. It’s also a relaxed way to learn phonics. I’m sure if you put your thinking cap on, you’ll come up with more phonic car games.

SAM FEELS BETTER NOW!
Author: Jill Osborne
Illustrator: Kevin Collier
ISBN: 9781932690606

This is not your normal storybook that you would read to your children at bedtime. This book was written for a very special purpose and that is to help children overcome a traumatic experience. Many things can be traumatic for children e.g. sexual ,physical or verbal abuse, war, natural disasters, dog bites, death of a loved one, accidents, etc….

What’s in the book:
It’s a simple story of Sam, a young boy, who has been traumatized by something awful. He goes to see a special therapist who helps him to cope with the effects of that trauma. Within the story are promptings for children to draw pictures:

• draw a picture of someone who is scared
• draw a picture of something awful or scary
• draw a picture of people that Sam can love and trust
• draw a picture of a place where Sam can feel safe at home
• color Sam’s feelings
• draw ways that will help Sam relax etc…

The story is formatted into stages:
- identifying the source of the problem
- identify people who can give support
- thinking out a safety plan
- identify feelings
- learning how feelings can be felt in the body
- relaxation methods

Sam’s trauma is not indicated in the book. This part is left open for children to fill in the blank. And the interaction exercises gives opportunity for children to inject their own experience into the story. So you can see, if children are traumatized by something, they can tell their experience without apprehension. As you know, some children may not want to tell what happened to them but they are okay telling what happened to Sam.

The author suggest that this book be used as part of a trauma therapy session. It does not replace a therapy but rather works as one of the tools. At the end of the book is a therapist’s guide and a list of references and resources. This book is invaluable for those working as child counselors and professional child therapists. It is especially geared towards children 4-10 years old.

Can parents use this book?
Since I don’t have children suffering from traumatic stress, neither am I a child therapist, I wondered if this book would still be useful to me. Well, I believe almost all children do have some kind of fear e.g. fear of the dark, fear of ghosts etc…. Maybe not to the extend of being traumatized by it but the process of identifying, talking about how to feel better definitely is beneficial. It gives parents an idea of how to approach such problems rather then dismissing their children’s feelings with a “don’t be silly, there’s nothing to be scared about” attitude.

So, in summary, this is not a book you would cuddle up and read with your child. It is a resource book to help children deal with traumatic stress. Ideally, it should be used by a professional therapist as part of a trauma therapy but regular parents like me could benefit from learning what it’s all about too.

I actually didn’t plan to do this craft but I saw my son taking a piece of paper and tried to fold it into a kite. He even took some rafia string and attached it to the bottom half and then ran outside to try to fly it. Of course that didn’t work.

I thought I’d follow up on his “kite” enthusiasm. Unfortunately I don’t know how to make a real kite… yet. So, I settled for an easier kite craft.

I just used art block paper and cut out a kite shape. Had the kids color and decorate it. For the tail, I cut little rectangles out of crepe paper and then used some thread (left-over from my cross stitching days) to tie them up. I would have used yarn but I didn’t have any.

I didn’t want to disappoint him so I thought of a way to make the kites fly. I hung them outside of the house.

When the kids saw where I put the kites, they wanted to do more. My son was satisfied for a while but he was still bummed he didn’t have a REAL kite to fly. Looks like this mom needs to upgrade her crafting skills

p.s.: Don’t forget to check out Fun Kids Crafts for more easy kids craft ideas.

I haven’t done arts and crafts with the kids in quite awhile and so when my daughter commented that she needed a bookmark, I thought why not make one ourselves. Came across this idea of making bookmarks from felt and ribbon. Just perfect because I’ve got some felt that’s been sitting in my craft box for err… a few years now. Instead of ribbon, I have some lacy material that I’ve also kept for such an occasion. I’m like that. I would sometimes keep scraps and stuff thinking “oh, this would be handy for a craft project one day.” Except that “one day” hardly takes place.

Well, today I’m glad I have these “stuff”. Anyway, this is what we came up with:

It’s pretty easy to do. I didn’t follow any exact measurements. My daughter said she wanted them for her scriptures, so I just estimated how long the bookmark should be.

• Cut out a rectangle felt.
• Glue on the lace/ribbon. This part is slightly longer than the felt rectangle, so it’ll stick out of the book.
• Cut out a big shape for the top and glue it to the top e.g. heart, flower, butterfly. You can make the bookmark suit a particular occassion by using a corresponding shape e.g. pumpkin for halloween, christmas tree for christmas, love for valentines, apple for teacher’s day etc….
• Embellish it further with sequins, buttons, stars etc….

Older kids can do the cutting under supervision. If you want to make it easier for the kids, cut out the different felt pieces and ribbon/lace first and just have them glue it together. At first I tried using white glue but later switched to the glue gun which works better.

For more easy kids craft ideas, get this Fun Kids Crafts downloadable e-book. It’s filled with over 700 crafts with illustrations and templates. If you’re like me who need no-brainer kid crafts, then you’ll appreciate the simple ideas you’ll find here. The crafts use easy to find materials and the techniques are simple too.
There are crafts without glue, holiday crafts, preschool crafts, toilet roll crafts, Halloween crafts and many more.

Click the image below if you want to take a peek at some sample pages and also to see the bonus e-books that come with it.

Alternatively, you can also join Fun Craft of the Month Clubs. The craft ideas are delivered to your mailbox every month. You can choose from 3, 6, 9, and 12 month subscription kits. Every month, your children will get 4 craft kids. That means they have something to do every week. This is a great way to get them away from the television. Also a good break for homework, homework, homework. This will give you some good bonding time too and you don’t have to crack your head on what to do and where to get the stuff. You just get the kits, sit down and start working on them. Definitely hassle free. This is a good thing.

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