Lucinda's Library Notes

                                                     22 Inspirations from the Letter I for 2022!       Interesting Ideas to Inspire Ingenuity and Incredible Illustrations of Imaginative Individuality. Instruments Find or make a guitar, drums, shakers, xylophone, bells/chimes or trumpet and have fun being a marching band as you sing and play along to your favourite songs. Illustrations You can draw with pencils, crayons, markers and more.  Illustrate an idea or a story or just practice lines and circles and scribbles, whatever is according to your ability. Imaginative Play Interact in make believe scenarios with dolls and dollhouses, stuffed animals, dress up clothes, doctor kits, toy food and puppets, to name a few.  Use them to build conversations and play skills. Impre...

Interaction is Important for living species.  We are created with a need to interact for our survival. One person is never truly self sufficient and even if they come close, it is rarely if ever the optimal path. We thrive when we connect with others.   One of the major impacts of Covid19 is the effect it has on the early learning of babies and small children whose primary way of learning about the world is through their interactions with it which are reduced by the requirements for isolation. Children interact first and foremost with people from day one and learn. A baby learns how to communicate with cries to express their needs. They learn about human touch.  They then quickly begin to learn by watching others. They learn to eat, to wave, to put things together or take them apart, to make faces and sounds. People sing them songs and read stories and introduce little ones to ideas of what is right and wrong.   Children secondarily learn from things in th...

This uplifting and positive book is by Amelia Hepworth and illustrated by Tim Warnes.  The colours lend themselves to pencil crayon drawings although I think using chalk on a blue or black background would be effective too. Drawing snow drifts or mountain peaks, the moon and the bears would make for a beautiful activity to go along with this book. As another option, water paints or oil pastels would make incredible patterns just like the aurora borealis (northern lights) As a side note, Noah carved a bear for Christmas from soapstone. It is beautiful but also very soothing to hold onto. I would recommend soapstone carving as an activity with carving soap being a backup activity that would be fun to try.  I will add a picture soon! As we learn how a bear shares her love with her cub in this board book, we can also find free things to do with our child(ren) to spend time and enjoyable moments with them. Splashing in the water, watching the patterns in the sky, going for walks in...

  I HOPE YOU HAVE HAPPY HOLIDAYS! no "How-tos" today. You've got this!

HOPE     I planned on home learning but it is Christmas week as I write this post so HOPE seems like a much more fitting topic!  As a Christian, Jesus is born to bring us hope.  Knowing God gives us hope regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in and it is a tremendous gift.  Yet, the best gift of Christmas is that the baby in the manger is part of our salvation plan. For any interested in the true meaning of Christmas or looking for someone to talk to because you have questions about God, you are welcome to message me and I will do my best to help you find meaningful answers. Aside from spiritual hope, hope in the general sense of the word is also powerful and valuable in the lives of all people, including the children that are in your circles of the world. One of the circumstances of life that pulls deeply on my heart is a teenager or individual who has lost hope.  Life is so very precious and no person should find themselves in a place whe...

I was surprised to see this book and realize I had never once read this book even though it has been available since 1949!   Before I even opened the book, I wrote down five ideas for activities that could be done in connection with this text.  The setting is on a snowy day with a cast of animals gathering from their winter homes. 1.  Animal tracks in the snow:  Look in the forest or backyard for tracks in the snow and see if you can determine who or what created them?  Are daddy's boot prints there?  The dog's paw prints? A bird's tiny foot prints?  What else do you see?  In our yard you may find evidence of squirrels, raccoons, foxes, cats, chipmunks and rabbits.  Quite a diverse mix considering we are in the city. 2.  Animal homes matching activity: I created a file folder game that was a freebie online. The home images were coloured, glued onto a file folder and the folder was laminated with clear sticky shelf liner. The animals...

What a perfect time of year to talk about Gifts! Of course, the mind quickly goes to the festive boxes all wrapped up under the tree and the fun (or stress) of finding the perfect something for the friends and family that you hold so dear! So with that topic in mind what kinds of gifts are good for your children? Giving them items that foster their creativity, imagination and STEAM skills is much preferable to electronic gadgets and single purpose toys.  For example, craft kits, toy food, doctor kits and gifts like rocks and gems, building kits and blocks are great.  If you want to practice sensory skills, gifts like playdough, slime, scented markers, magic sand and bubbles are great. For gross motor skills you can gift a ball, a swing set, a rocking horse or classes at a trampoline park, bowling alley, golf dome or ice rink as examples that will help to keep your child(ren) active. If fine motor skills are on the list, you can provide gifts such as puzzles, shape sorters, leg...