Archive for the ‘Child Development’ Category
Why should I read to a toddler?
I’ve posted on this before, but the issue recently came up again in my practice so I’ll get back on my soap box. Why should I read to my toddler? Everyone says I should . . . but why? An IPad can read a book to a child and the child can even control it—isn’t […]
Filed under: Child Development, General Thoughts, Picture books, Why do kids love it | 1 Comment
Tags: Development, Margaret Wise Brown, Reading
Snow White–the end
Jan brings up that Snow White is one of the most passive of heroines. What does she do? She begs the huntsman to spare her, she cries and she runs. She enters the dwarfs’ house and steals a meal. When she wakes up she tells her tale to the dwarfs and agrees to cook and […]
Filed under: Child Development, Fairy Tales, General Thoughts, What's it all mean, Why do kids love it | Leave a Comment
Tags: Fairy Tales, Meaning of fairy tales, Snow White
Snow White – part 4
We have seen that Snow White, as SurLaLune Fairy Tales puts it succinctly “. . . must die to the pre-pubescent world of the dwarfs in order to be eventually reborn into the adult world as a sexually active women.” SurLaLune, too, points out that the glass coffin allows her to continue to be an object […]
Filed under: Child Development, Fairy Tales, What's it all mean, Why do kids love it | 1 Comment
Tags: Brothers Grimm, Fairy Tales, Meaning of fairy tales, Snow White
Snow White, part 1
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as with most fairy tales descending from an oral tradition, exists in a number of differing forms. I’m going to use the Brothers Grimm 1812 version as the earliest written form of the work that we recognize. The most often seen form today is Grimm’s 1819 version. SurLaLune Fairy […]
Filed under: Child Development, Fairy Tales, What's it all mean, Why do kids love it | Leave a Comment
Tags: Brothers Grimm, Fairy Tales, Freud, Meaning of fairy tales, Seven Dwarfs, Snow White
I know, most of what I write is about why kids love the stories they do, but I haven’t gone off on a rant for a while, so I guess I should. I’ll probably talk about a little Beatrix Potter story when I finish my rant, just because she’s wonderful. But today, I’ll rant. Most […]
Filed under: Child Development, Fairy Tales, kidlit, What's it all mean, Why do kids love it | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cinderella, Goodnight Moon, The Cat In The Hat, Where the Wild Things Are, Why do kids love it
Preschool Day Hooray!
It’s always a pleasure to look at a good picture book. I’ve talked before about the experience of being “held” by a book and how it really is part and parcel of the experience of reading–a part that comes (at least in part) from actually being held while your mother read to you lo those […]
Filed under: Child Development, Family, kidlit, Picture books, Why do kids love it | 1 Comment
Tags: Linda Leopold Strauss, picture book, preschool, Preschool Day Hooray!
Back in April I posted on a New York Times article about teaching philosophy to elementary school children. The article profiled Thomas Wartenberg, a philosophy prof. from Mount Holyoke College, who developed a primary primary grade curriculum in how to “do philosophy” with young kids. His website is here. I just finished his book, Big […]
Filed under: Child Development, General Thoughts, What's it all mean | 6 Comments
Tags: Big Ideas for Little Kids, Knuffle Bunny, philosophy, The Giving Tree, Wartenberg
Just an aside, new on the BSBSD (bedside bookstack of doom) is Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner, which looks like it’ll be wonderful. I’ll let you know when it bubbles to the top. And check out Art Passions’ post on The Frog Prince. The picture below is by Anne Anderson, and is taken from Art […]
Filed under: Child Development, Fairy Tales, General Thoughts, What's it all mean | Leave a Comment
Tags: Brothers Grimm, Fairy Tales, feminism, Freud, Frog King, Frog Prince, Iron Heinrich
The Graveyard Book, part 2
I’m fascinated by the chapter in The Graveyard Book on the Dance Macabre: what does it mean in the context of the book and why did Neil Gaiman include it?. I’d also like to just comment briefly on the way the book ends. Chapter 5, the middle of the book, begins after Bod has been […]
Filed under: Child Development, kidlit, What's it all mean | 1 Comment
Tags: children's books, Dance Macabre, Danse Macabre, Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
Mo Willems and D. W. Winnicott
It’s been a while since I posted about a picture book. Where the Wild Things Are and Goodnight Moon are pretty much the only ones I remember talking much about. I’ll try to work in a couple this week, though tomorrow night I’ll be at Blue Manatee for Lois Lowry’s visit, so I’ll try to […]
Filed under: Child Development, kidlit, Life, What's it all mean | Leave a Comment
Tags: Knuffle Bunny, Mo Willems, Transitional Object, Winnicott
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