Has your Scout Elf visited yet this holiday season? The Lumistella Company is kicking off the Christmas season with a virtual event designed to bring holiday happiness to kids of all ages. Santa and his Scout Elves invite families to gather in the comfort of their own home and begin celebrating the holidays with “The Elf on the Shelf’s Night Before Christmas Storytime” featuring Brad Paisley.
“We are honored to bring Santa’s stories to life with Brad in an inventive way that keeps safety first this season,” notes Chanda Bell, co-CEO of The Lumistella Company and Santa’s chief storyteller. “I’ve consulted the Big Guy, and he was thrilled to have Brad’s support for the launch of “The Elf on the Shelf’s Night Before Christmas” storybook (exclusively at Target).”
On Wed., Dec. 2, “The Elf on the Shelf’s Night Before Christmas Storytime” with Brad Paisley will launch on The Elf on the Shelf’s YouTube channel. Paisley will narrate this humorous and festive tale about one Scout Elf’s Christmas Eve mission to serve up the perfect Christmas Eve, which almost ends in disaster before Santa saves the day. In addition, fans can enjoy a sing-along or two on YouTube with The Elf on the Shelf’s Night Before Christmas Song and other festive music videos, or they can immerse themselves in a silly elf-inspired talk show, “Cocoa with Joe.”
Paisley, whose Scout Elves often appear on his social media channels with funny antics each Christmas season, said, “Around our house, the Christmas season is full of family time and fun traditions. One of my favorites is waking up every morning to discover what kind of happiness and hoopla The Elf on the Shelf Scout Elves got in to while we were asleep. Our Scout Elves, Snowflake and Pinocchio, know how to make the holidays a time of joy, celebration and craziness.”
“We are deeply committed to creating joyful family moments, which the world needs now more than ever. Celebrations across the world may look different this year, but the joy of the season as seen through the eyes of children is a reminder that our shared traditions endure,” states The Lumistella Company president, Mike Champion. “We are excited to partner with Brad Paisley this season in bringing a little holiday cheer to all.”
Everyone knows that the best way to raise a child that likes to read is for the entire family to read. The child should see the parents reading, lots and often.
But that’s not the way it happened in my family. Oh, my folks could read; they just didn’t.
I never remember my father reading anything when I was a child. He got his news from the television. He might thumb through an issue of American Rifleman at the car wash. But he didn’t read books while we were kids.
(Later in life, when he was bedridden with bone cancer, a family friend who worked for the library would bring him bag after bag of Zane Grey and Max Brand and Louis L’Amour novels, which he devoured. But I digress.)
Despite the lack of reading that went on in the house, there was always plenty of stuff to read. Little Golden books and Bible stories at first. I learned to read at my mother’s side, as she read storybook after storybook to us girls. Although she didn’t read for herself, she read to us.
My sister read some. Every year she would start to read Under the Lilacs while sitting under the lilac bush, ironically, in our backyard. (I don’t know if she ever finished it.) When she reached the horse-mad stage, she read Black Beauty, My Friend Flicka, Misty of Chincoteague, and anything else equine-related she could get her hands on. Her reading tastes were largely satisfied with that.
I think the thing that turned me into the voracious reader I am today was not the example of my parents, but the sheer amount of literature that was available. Our parents purchased sets of children’s books. (I can’t remember what was in that series now besides Under the Lilacs and Uncle Remus Stories, which gave me fits with the dialect.) We had collections of Nancy Drew books and Tom Swift books.
My mother had a subscription to Reader’s Digest, but I don’t remember her reading it, or the Reader’s Digest Condensed Books that sat in fat rows on our bookshelves. When we weren’t making Christmas trees of the magazines by folding the pages, I read them and the Condensed Books. That’s where I acquired my taste for true adventure, I think. It’s not that big a leap from “Drama in Real Life” to Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. I first discovered To Sir, With Love as an R.D. Condensed book, then devoured everything I could get my hands on about teaching, my career goal at the time.
We also made extensive use of the public libraries and the ever-awesome bookmobile, since my parents’ middle-class income couldn’t keep pace with my reading tastes. And there were used book stores, too, where I could swap a grocery bag full of books for another.
There was no way my parents could screen my reading matter, so they didn’t even try. I didn’t receive a very balanced reading education or a very sophisticated one. I read whatever interested me, from novelizations of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to histories of Russia. I discovered Dr. Seuss and The Hobbit and Erma Bombeck. “Serious literature” I got from school, but love for reading came at home.
Having parents that read is a good thing, and no doubt it does help turn some children into reading mavens.
But if you ask me, letting a child explore reading at her own pace and through her own interests can be as effective as any planned course of literature or example of parents perusing the great books.
Hi! I'm a freelance writer and editor who writes about education, books, cats and other pets, bipolar disorder, and anything else that interests me. I live in Ohio with my husband and a varying number of cats.
It’s never too early to start thinking about the holidays. Igloo Books US, a division of Bonnier Books UK, is excited to announce the launch of their new Storybook Advent Calendars for 2020. These include three different versions: Disney – featuring tales from Disney and Pixar including Dumbo’s Snowy Day and Toy Story, a dedicated version for Disney’s Frozen (which includes content from Frozen 2), and Marvel Super Heroes.
The product comes as an over-sized paper-over-board wallet, which is tied together with a ribbon. Inside are twenty-four paperback books which include beloved Disney, Pixar, or Marvel characters. As an additional surprise element, the books inside are individually wrapped in recyclable paper sleeves to be opened every day leading up to Christmas, December 24th being the last day. The Disney Advent Calendar includes festive stories from both Disney and Pixar, while Frozen and Marvel contain a collection of stories from each franchise.
Paul Gregory, CEO of Igloo Books, said: “Disney’s Advent Calendar has been our best-selling product for the last two years now. This large format, high quality, gift collection and the 24 individually wrapped books, featuring many of Disney, Pixar and Marvel’s magical stories, is a perfect book-a-day December treat as children countdown towards the big day. Plus, the books can continue to be read and enjoyed for months and years afterwards.”
You can pre-order the new calendars on Amazon with a release date of Oct. 6.
If you are obsessed with The Mandalorian you will have the opportunity to delve deeper into the story. StarWars.com has announced a new publishing program dedicated to The Mandalorian, featuring books and titles for fans of all ages. The series kicks off this fall, with releases planned through the winter and spring.
The Mandalorian: The Ultimate Visual Guide (DK) by Pablo Hidalgo
The Mandalorian: Allies & Enemies – Level Two Reader (DLP) by Brooke Vitale
The Mandalorian: 8×8 Storybook (title to be revealed later) by Brooke Vitale
The Mandalorian: Junior Novelization by Joe Schreiber
You can preorder The Art of The Mandalorian (Season One) on the Abrams site. The book will be released on Dec. 15.
In addition, be on the lookout for The Mandalorian-inspired comics from Marvel and IDW Publishing and lots of other fun products featuring your favorite bounty hunter and, of course, The Child, aka Baby Yoda.
Stay tuned to StarWars.com for more on The Mandalorian publishing program.
Once you hear the full-throated laugh of your child, see them startle in surprise, or hear them squeal “again, again” when you finish a book passage, you’ll be hooked; you’ll know you’ve done it right, and you’ll have created a memory, a feeling, that will last a lifetime.
I know you’re tired. You’ve been working all day. You’ve come home (or have been working in the home) have started (or continued with) the chores, made food, dealt with the bills, the PTA, the in-laws, the friends, the frenemies, politics (lower-case p), Politics (uppercase P), married life, single life, traffic, the boss, the employees, and every other thing that an adult has to deal with on a day-to-day basis. If you have more than one child, I’d set the multiplication factor exponentially at 12 per additional child. Life is hard. Dead stop. Yes, you can say it, think it, feel it. Life is hard. And now, this little human (they are little humans even when they behave like little monsters) wants to hear a bedtime story. I’m here to tell you: Yes. Do it. And, you should encourage them to want to hear a story.
But, how? How do you effectively read with a child? Well, for starters the days of reading to, are over.
1. Be Present. If you think that I’m going to start with some New Age fangled stuff, you’re right. (Although at this point isn’t it really Old Age?) If you are rushing through the reading, looking at your watch, dreading every second of it, and thinking of what you’re going to be doing next, you should not be reading with your child. Stop. Don’t do it. Grab the iPad, the laptop, whatever and go to YouTube and find a story of somebody entertaining reading a book and let your child view that. You can go have a drink (your beverage of choice) and relax. You are in no condition to be reading a storybook. You are not invested. It is not that you are necessarily a bad caregiver. I’m not judging. I don’t know you. You are just not in the right frame of mind to complete the task at hand.
To read a storybook and actually connect with the book and the child, you need to be fully invested in the child and the story. There is no fooling a child. The second your mind starts to wander, the child will wander with you. Reading a storybook is work. And, it should be. The benefits that you read about in those articles I linked? You didn’t think those fell out of the sky, did you? Reading a storybook takes concentration, anticipation, joy, rhythm, and enthusiasm. You cannot do it if your mind is wandering all over the place. You have to fully commit.
If you want to establish a routine of regular reading with your child, you have to do just that: establish a regular routine. It has to be when you both set aside a place and time to be in your own little world–undisturbed from the world around you. You have to start by making the time available in your schedule, to be present. This is not something you can half-ass.
2. Do the Voices. If you are reading along and wondering if you need to do the voices of the various characters, the answer is a resounding, yes! And, by the way, the narrator has a voice. Kids love when each character has a different voice. It keeps up their attention, it sparks their interest, it engages their minds. I want you to stop for a moment and think of the story of The Three Little Pigs. Those of you that know the story, know the line: “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll bloooooow, your house down!” OK, how many of you just heard that in the voice of the Big Bad Wolf? What about “Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin”? Did you hear that in the voice of a tiny, squealing little pig? Chances are you did.
Now I’m not going to kid you. Doing voices is hard work. And, I know that some of you are put off by this. But I have news for you: your child doesn’t care whether or not you are any good at doing the voices. They only care about your enthusiasm and that you try. So, here are some tricks of the trade. If voices are not your strong suit, do dynamic reading. Vary your rhythm. Speed things up. Slow them down. Take, dramatic, pauses. Stop. Continue. Talk Louder! Talk softer. The punctuation on the page is your friend. Use it as a guidepost. [By the way, even if your voices are good, you should be reading dynamically anyway.]
3. Your Reading Must Be Interactive. Anticipatory/interactive reading is key to not only building a life-long love of reading but to building the critical thinking and reasoning skills we all need to survive in the world.
As you read the story, ensure that your child explores the pictures on the page. Ask questions like: “What do we see in these pictures?” “What do you think this means?” “How is this character feeling?” “Is she happy? Sad?” “Have we seen this before?” “Is there something missing?” You can even ask your child to predict what might happen depending on what the pictures are showing. Every now and then, take pauses in the story and ask your child to review for you what has happened so far. This, is your check for understanding. With younger children, you may have to do a bit of leading. Once you’ve done a recap, ask your child to predict what’s going to happen next and why they think that’s going to happen. As your child gets older, the predictions will get better.
The key to interactive reading is to remember that you are not just a reader, you are actively acting as a parent, teacher, caregiver, instructor, and mentor. You are developing vocabulary, bridging synapses, strengthening concepts–in short, you are building a human building. All, under the guise of reading a storybook.
Father, children's book critic, writer, judge, director, actor and amature photographer—together with his husband of 25 years—raising an energetic four-year old! "Parent is not just a noun, it's a verb. If you're ever in doubt as to what to do, substitute the word caregiver. It will steer you in the right direction."
Gone for now are the days of traditional playdates, team sports, and even school recess. Who knew playing at the playground would be something we’d take for granted. We all have had to come to grips with this new normal, but as an adult, it’s easier to stay connected to your friends. But it’s important to remember that kids need to keep in touch just as much, if not more than we do. And they can continue to work on their playdate social skills.
There are many ways to keep your young one social and active with friends while on lockdown. And you can even keep working on those social skills strategies that you’ve been building on over the last several months.
Before you jump right in, there are a few things to remember to make sure your virtual playdate is a success. Ask yourself what your child tends to struggle with during play, such as joining in, sharing, managing emotions, becoming overly excited with a friend, being too bossy, or being too grumpy.
Then work on that skill and make it clear to your child that her mission for the virtual playdate is to practice that skill. For example, work on how your child talks with other children, review what you might say and what to do, role-play, and practice how a conversation might go if done virtually. Practice with family members first, and then when it comes time, help her join in with her friends.
This is the time to pick a playmate whose temperament will allow your child a chance to play better in a virtual environment and to practice using the social behaviors you are working on. Compatibility does not necessarily mean putting two like-minded children together. For example, two overly bossy, rule-oriented children might argue and a domineering child might overshadow a shy child.
Think about what games might work well in a virtual environment for your child. What activities can you try in an effort to stay connected? Younger kids may not have the vocabulary or the ability to hold a long conversation, but interactive activities can be just the right mix of fun and entertainment.
Plan a game together. Kids can get together on Zoom, Skype, Facetime, Facebook Messanger video, or any other online platform.
Plan a scavenger hunt. Have the group gather online and then agree on a list of things they can hunt for while on a daily walk with their parents or siblings. Right now, there are many neighborhoods putting rainbows, bears, and other creative items in their windows. Have them find and take a picture of someone’s chalk art drawn on the sidewalk. Maybe they can hunt for a certain type of leaf or bug. They can count how many butterflies cross their path. The options are endless. When the hunt is over, the kids can regroup and compare notes on their next interactive virtual playdate.
What about a fun game of HedBanz, Pictionary or Charades? These are games that can easily be played virtually.
Have younger kids pick out a favorite storybook. Have them take turns reading to a friend. Kids can talk about when they got the book and why it is their favorite. Make it more interactive with Caribu. The app is free right now and you can choose a book from their extensive library.
For the craft-minded kids, pull out the supplies and set up your virtual playdate at the dining room table. Kids can talk and draw together. Have a show and tell at the end of the playdate.
If your child is reluctant to get online with other kids, have them become a pen pal. How fun would it be to stay connected by sending a friend a handwritten letter? Make it fun by including a drawing or adding one of your favorite stickers to share.
Debriefs are important. After any virtual playdate, debrief with your child. Children learn by reflecting on what they are doing and how it impacts others. The more you engage with your child, talk about the virtual playdate in a nonjudgmental way and after the playdate is over, spend some time chatting with your child about what they did well and celebrate their effort saying I heard you telling Julie what to do and what game to play. Ask your child to consider the feelings of her playmate, asking her what do you think Julie felt when you told her what to choose? What choices did Julie get to make? What choices did you get to make? Let’s look at whether or not that was fair together. Then also ask your child what they struggled with and make a plan and practice for the future.
Kids can learn that even though they have to distance themselves right now, they don’t have to forget about the ties they have to their friends.
A personal coach, author, teacher, and speaker whose work has inspired conversations about social skills at schools and in homes all across the county, Caroline Maguire believes all children can shine. Her work is critical to parents who support children with executive function challenges struggling to show their best selves.
Planning an Easter celebration to remember just got easier. Get your family excited for springtime with baskets filled with candy and adorable table settings guaranteed to bring the bunny to your door. Childhood memories of reading classic Beatrix Potter tales such as Peter Rabbit will come back to life with these charming collections from Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids.
Beatrix Potter™ Tight Fit Pajama
This pajama set featuring the enchanting illustrations of Beatrix Potter. Supremely soft and made of pure cotton, the cozy set includes a pullover top and elastic-waist bottoms. Retails for $39.50.
Beatrix Potter™ Cork Placemat
Pottery Barn
These charming storybook-themed placemats showcase illustrations from the classic tales of Beatrix Potter™.Made without BPA or lead, your family's dining space will be as safe as it is stylish.
Retails for $12.50.
Peter Rabbit™ Easter Basket Liners
This sweet Easter basket liner features Peter Rabbit and friends frolicking in the garden. Have your child’s name embroidered above the sweet storybook scene to create a keepsake your family will enjoy for years to come.
Retails for $19.50-$24.40.
Beatrix Potter™ Ceramic Plate Set
Pottery Barn
This ceramic plate set, features sweet illustrations from the classic tale by Beatrix Potter™. Sturdily crafted from porcelain, they are dishwasher-safe and durable.
Retails for $59.50.
Beatrix Potter™ Gingham Egg Chairbacker
Pottery Barn
This Gingham Egg Chairbacker adds a bit of whimsy to your dining room. Featuring a sweet illustration from the classic tale by Beatrix Potter™, it will make mealtimes more playful and spirited.
Retails for $19.50
Easter Bunny Wreath
Pottery Barn
Made of natural twig woven over iron, with grass, Styrofoam and sisal. This wreath features a bunny peeking through to delight everyone who comes through your door.
Retails for $59.
Pom Pom Bunny Pillow Cover
Pottery Barn
This sherpa pillow cover features an adorable cottontail bunny. The pom-pom adds to its whimsical charm. This pillowcase accommodates a 20" square insert (sold separately).
Walt Disney World’s Villains After Hours even just got more delicious! The event, which runs from Feb. 7-July 10 not only offers plenty of up close and personal encounters with the likes of Ursula and your other fave bad guys, but specialty food and drink too.
New to the list is Ursula’s “Poor Unfortunate Soul” float. According to @disneyfoodblog, the sweet treat is made with black raspberry soft serve, Cherry coke and topped with candy pearls and crown.
Your mini master builder can take their LEGO creations to a whole new level with E-Blox.
The creative E-Blox kits bring your brick designs to life with sound, lights and movement. The sets feature bricks and modules which are compatible with LEGO bricks and designed to add innovative elements, like a robot with flashing eyes or an animal that makes sounds. E-Blox also come in sets kids can use to create STEAM-based projects like a real working FM radio or an airplane propeller that spins.
E-Blox features three different categories: Circuit Blox, Power Blox and Story Blox. You can also purchase sets of add-on bricks, which you can simply use together with your existing brick sets, like LEGO. The Circuit Blox line helps kids explore concepts like electricity, current and voltage with building projects that involve lights, alarms, switches and LED lights.
The Power Blox line, which can work in conjunction with the Circuit sets, enables builders to add an electrical element to their creations with the use of LED and tin-plated blocks. When they connect to a battery block for power, they’ll light up without any wires.
The Story Blox bring reading skills into use with an interactive storybook that features QR codes. When the codes are scanned they enable kids to research using online learning sources and use that knowledge to complete themed models connected to the story.
You can shop the entire E-Blox collection here, with sets ranging in price from $10.99 to $54.99.
As if brick fans weren’t already excited about the premiere of LEGO MASTERS on Fox, now the show has announced some famous celebrity appearances you won’t want to miss.
The new competition series hosted by Will Arnett will have contestants competing for the ultimate title of LEGO Master Builder by facing themed building challenges. Each week will feature a new theme and along with it a special guest star appearance.
Fox has just revealed that stars like Mayim Bialik, Terry Crews and a few special Star Wars cast members will be joining the show. Bialik will help contestants in a space-themed episode, while Crews will guest star in a “Good vs. Evil” challenge. Nicole Byer of Nailed It! will join in the fun for a storybook-themed episode. The LEGO Movie producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller will lend their expertise to a movie genre-themed challenge.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an epic LEGO show without some Star Wars in the mix. BB-8, C3PO and R2-D2 will make an appearance on an episode which challenges contestants to build their own droids.