Picture books are an essential component to developing early literacy skills. One might come up with numerous adult oriented reasonings, beyond that picture books are pure fun. How else a child, who by nature is an active participant in the learning process, sits down and listens to something read to her? The illustrations in the picture books play a key role bridging the gap and provide the sensory input that rivets the child to the book.

But like everything one thing evolves in to another. Picture books eventually give way to chapter books. To ease the transition from understanding with aid to following the subject content by creating mental pictures, there are several easy reader books.

These easy readers books are classified in to different levels. In general I do not go by the age recommendation for each level. Combining age and the skill level only puts unfair pressure on the child.

Over time I see some patterns developing at home. I see strong likes in each of the above levels.

Just wanted to make a list of the books we read at home.

(1)Sometimes called pre-level as in for pre-readers. The author still relies largely on pictures. Many a times there is no story. The focus is on words. Select keywords are repeated again and again throughout the few pages of the book, supported with pictures. The sentences with keywords are simple, basic three word or two word sentences. The idea is to help the child understand the keyword, train the child to familiarize the keyword, reinforce the keyword with pictures. All this leads to the child recognizing the word, written or spoken, stand alone or in a different context.

See Pip Point series (by David Milgrim) in which the protagonists are Pip the mouse and his friend, Otto the robot. Names Pip and Otto are repeated in almost every sentence in the book. The names being phonetic are easy to read. The rest of the words are mostly sight words like ‘the’, ‘there’, ‘you’ with few rhymes like see-bee, few action words and couple of new words thrown in.

Biscuit series (by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, illlustrations by Pat Schories). The main character is an adorable puppy named Biscuit. Some pages do not have any print on them, just the pictures and the illustrations are tell-tale of what is happening in every page. “we can feed the hens Biscuit” is illustrated by the puppy’s owner, a small girl feeding the hens. Every book has a theme, a farm theme, where all animals are introduced. A school theme which talks about school and so on.

Mittens series (by Lola M. Schaefer, illustrations by Susan Kathleen Hartung). Where there is a puppy, there is a kitten and it attracts young readers all the same. The author picks a noun and verb, example a butterfly flying, and introduces prepositions that are associated with the noun and verb, example ‘the butterfly flew up’, ‘Mitten ran under the bridge’, ‘butterfly landed on a flower’ etc.

Elephant and Piggies series (by Mo Willems). Why leave pigs and elephants? This is least of MY favorites, but the young readers do not mind. Well it is MY blog and here is My honest opinion. The piggie is over hyper, unrealistic reminds me of Kareena Kapoor in Jab we met. The elephant is over sensitive and super stressed, reminds me of Nicolas Cage with his standard constipated look. These books are not your typical 15-20 page three word sentences. It is 50+ pages of a pig who wants to fly and keeps going Fly! Fly! Fly! Yes! Yes! Yes! Fly! Fly! Fly! and the elephant going No! No! No! You jumped! You can’t fly! Yes, every other word ends with exclamation. But as I said the girls seem to enjoy it. Chula can read, Mieja reads from memory, I don’t have to read it to them. Good.

(2)Pictures are still a bigger part of the book. There is a very simple story that can be summed up by an adult in one or two sentences.  There are slightly larger sentences and  lesser keyword repetition. The prime objective is to make sure that the child follows the story line.

Max And Mo series (by Patricia Lakin, Illustrated by Brian Floca) is about two hamsters(I think, may be they are some other kind of rodent pets) who live in a school in a cage. The series is about the adventures of Max and Mo. One we particularly enjoyed at home is MAX AND MO GO APPLE PICKING. After getting tired of being fed corn, Max and Mo escape their cage and have fun with the apples they find in the school.

(3)This is a flavor of what an young reader will experience in the future. There are chapters and each chapter is representative of introduction, plot and an ending. There is an index to every chapter. There are not just sentences, but paragraphs.

Mr.Putter and Tabby series (by Cynthia Rylant, illustrations by Arthur Howard) Mr.Putter is a senior citizen who lives in a neighborhood with other senior citizens. Mr.Putter finds in Tabby a companion. The stories are not just about the aches and ailments of being old and living alone, but are tasteful snippets in to the lives of old people, that evoke a myriad of feelings and makes the young readers wanting for more.

Also by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Sucie Stevenson are the Henry and Mudge series and easy read about a young boy Henry, his 180 pound dog Mudge and the adventures they share.

Cynthia Rylant (illustrated by G.Brian Karas) also has the High Rise Private Eyes series, about a boy and girl detective pair. For some reason, I found the pair to be sassy. We read about a couple of books and did not take much to the private eyes.

Amelia Bedelia (by Peggy Parish, illustrated by Lynn Sweat). Amelia Bedelia can be easily equated to our good old Suppandi. Amelia Bedelia is maid who manages to mess up every instruction given by her employers. If you tell Ameila Bedelia to clear the weeds in the garden, you must tell her ‘Unweed the garden’, for if you tell her just ‘weed the garden’, she would bring more weeds from your neighbor’s garden and lay it around in your garden. But in the end, she wins over her  employers with her awesome teacakes and mouth watering cookies. She is quite a character.

Magic School Bus series by Scholastic. The level 2 books are the ones I find appropriate for the 4-6 year old age group. Mrs.Frizzle, the teacher takes her class on a ride in the magic school bus. They can travel to the past, the future, in to the human body and in to outer space and the children learn first hand how circulation works, about the dinosaurs, how snow is made etc.

Fancy Nancy series (by Jane O’ Connor, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasner) The girls go ga-ga over Fancy Nancy may be because the protagonist is a girl. Or may be because, true to her name, Fancy Nancy is very fancy. Nancy is the fashion diva born to two plain parents. She has a chic BFF, a teacher who is always in vogue and a neighbor who can give models a run for their money, but her own parents and her sibling are so simple that they don’t even ask for sprinkles on their plain vanilla ice cream. The adventures of Nancy are about a variety of subjects like Nancy getting over her jealousy and sharing her best friend with another girl, trouble writing a book report etc. I like the fact that Fancy Nancy is always introducing new words.

“… we shout in unison. (That’s a fancy word for all together.)”

“…That makes me unique.(You say it like this: you-NEEK.)”

Young Cam Jansen series (by David.A. Adler, illustrated by Susanna Natti). Jeniffer, has a photographic memory and is nicknamed Cam, short for camera. She solves mysteries with her friends and is good at it because of her photographic memory. At thirty pages, it makes a good light read. For the young boys, David A.Adler also has the Bones series in which boy detective Bones is in charge.

There are many more like Poppleton the pig, Amanda Pig, Charlie and Lola, Nate the grate, Dick and Jane etc that we have read on and off.

(4) This is a complex form of the previous level. The shift from pictures to the written word is explicit. Rainbow Fairies, Cam Jansen, Akimbo series by Alexander McCall Smith, books by Roald Dahl and The Magic Tree house are some examples. So far, I read these books, few chapters at a time during bed time and the girls listen.

Happy reading young readers.

We have interesting food profile in our house. I am a vegetarian and R eats poultry, mutton and seafood. What we have is a perfect example of an arranged marriage and a standing example of not every thing can be ‘arranged’. In my teens, I cleaned the meat my father bought home and that sealed the deal for me. My amma being a vegetarian herself, did not mind. After my marriage, R and I had to work out dietary preferences and now we have settled in to a pattern. While I am still a vegetarian, I cook chicken and egg few times a week at home. Seeing how much I wince at the smell of seafood, R has stopped eating seafood at home.

But the issue was being a vegetarian in USA (though I am lucky that I live in California 🙂 and technically I must not crib…. ) where people do not comprehend the full meaning of vegetarian. While on the road the husband just says, “I will have number 2 please” and I have to say, “I will have number four, without X. But can you add Y and Z? And A on the side. I am a vegetarian. No meat, no egg, no seafood, no shrimp. No bacon bits. BTW, is the broth vegetarian too? Can you check? Thanks.”, fully knowing that I had lost the person taking order at ‘without X’. Sigh.

Places like Subway, where they have veggie sub, are equally bad. They have a system where they have their add ons in buckets in the order of cheese, meat, veggies, condiments. Even if the person making a Sub changes gloves every time he/she makes a Sub with meat, the person touches meat first and then continues to touch the veggies. And they use the same knife to slice everything. Even worse, in some Subways, the people outright refuse to change the gloves. While I am aware that if I am a vegetarian and also eat outside, I have make adjustments, it is the lack of awareness bothers me. If I thought ordering and awareness were an issue, I am facing the REAL issue after I had the girls.

First were the concerned relatives, who still refuse to believe that I can make decent chicken/egg/mutton dishes without checking for taste, this even after eating what I have cooked, started to throw questions at me right from the time Chula was six months old. Suddenly it was every one’s business. Both the girls did not like the texture of meat till they were three. Every time they spat out meat or egg, blaming eyes would be directed on me. I couldn’t help but laugh. Okay, I fumed a little, but now I find it funny.

Now the girls notice that I do not eat meat and there are hazar questions.

Chula: But why??

Me: I just told you why.

Chula: Am I a vegetarian?

Me: Well you eat chicken and egg and you enjoy eating it. So, no, you are not a vegetarian.

Chula: So am I non vegetarian? Do we eat hot dog, meat balls?

Me: No. You eat only chicken and egg. So if there is a celebration lunch at school and your teachers offer you pork or beef, you have to say no.

Chula: I want to be vegetarian.

Me: Ok. What is your favorite food in the whole world?

Chula: Chicken.

Me: So why do you want to be vegetarian? Just because you like me, you don’t have to copy me.

Chula: Ok, this one time I will eat this chicken and from tomorrow, I will be vegetarian.

Me: May be you can decide it after you are ten years old. How about that?

Chula: So what am I?

Me: Hmmm. You eat chicken and egg. So may be you are a Chick-eat-rian.

Presently we have decided on Chick-eat-rian.

PS: Mieja does not like to be defined by anything, least of all, her food. In fact she prefers to define her food as, “I like” and “I don’t like”. She refuses to waste time in questions related to food. Her recent occupation is, “So what happened before the big bang? How do you know that?”, “How old is the earth? How do you know that? Did you go for the birthday and count the candles?”, “How do you know that dirt has germs? Did you see that?”.

Same sex, same family, same parents, same environment, but different personality and styles of thinking.

Sandhya tagged me for unwomanly behavior.

Does gender define me?

Yes. Big time. Right from childhood if I think back. I am the only girl child born to parents who had clear expectations who married in to a family which had crystal clear expectations of me and my role. I must say that I haven’t done much to send shock waves through the family.

I have always been dolled up. My mother loves to choose clothes for me. Even yesterday, she picked out what I wore. Occasionally my MIL/SIL does it for me. I love to dress up. I loved the chutti, nathu, pullakku, false hair, flowers decoration, kasu malai, ottiyanam traditional ensemble  I was in for my wedding. I loved it so much that I felt bad that if I try doing that any time any where again it will be over the top. I jumped with joy that I could do a repeat of it for my seemandham, without making people roll their eyes and enjoyed every moment of it. I like beauty parlours and such. Not much the make up part, I just like the idea of being pampered. My favorite colors turquoise blue and baby pink, in that order, in the whole wide world.

The role of gender has always intrigued me and made me write this post three years back. I think that we are all ardhanaris basically, with varying degrees depending on nurture and exposure.

My actions, at this point in my life are divided in to

-comes naturally to me

-love to do, so I will put my life on hold to do it.

-hate it/tolerate it, but do it anyway because life has to go on.

-will NEVER do it, no matter what.

The best part is, R is the same way too. So there are no major combats at home.

I love to make things, be it crafting or building furniture or dishing out fancy stuff from my kitchen. All the furniture in my house are assembled by me. Of course they come with instructions, but when I open a box of furniture, things kind of click and snap in my mind. Once to calm down, I locked myself in the girls room and spent two hours assembling the two newly bought chest of drawers. When I came out of the room, I was Buddha(for five whole minutes adds R 🙂 ).

I painted the inside of my house. This was three years back with a 1 year old and a 2.5 year old. Picked colors, spent couple of hours every night prepping the room, covering furniture, get up next day, cooked for the day, painted like there is no tomorrow and packed up by the end of the day. Four days like this. I partly cribbed but mostly loved what I did.

I made the inside of two of our bedroom closets. There was provision for just hanging clothes and I wanted some kind of system where I can get more storage within the limited space and a tight budget. So I bought 12 feet wire shelves, hack-sawed it in Home Depot parking lot, loaded it in to the car, drilled and  hammered till the shelves were done.

I get vague ideas for a display shelf or a picture frame. I take my sketch to Home Depot early the next day(6.30AM – 7.30AM on Sat mornings works best) and consult with the guys to implement my idea effectively. Not all the ideas were super hits, but I like the adrenaline rush involved in the whole process. I probably would be wearing pink shoes, pink sweats, waving my pink cellphone and sporting a pink hand bag during the entire process. But who cares?

Planned an almost around the world trip from US to Tanzania to India and back to the US. Realized first hand how painful it is to make cost effective safari and hiking arrangements in a distant continent. All along there was this uncertainty if the tour operator is legitimate. When we landed in Tanzania and my tour operator did show up, I hugged him and almost cried.

While in Tanzania, we roughed it out on the mountain for five days, without shower or a bathroom. Perfectly cool with pit stops. Without any hesitation, will drop everything including the kids to do the hike again.

I have a record of  fighting with my teachers. In school, I once told my PT teacher that she was wrong, I was right and asked her to apologize to me. This was in the assembly hall, in front of an audience. I did not get apology, but got pure hell over the next few months I was in that school. While in college, while in an association meeting, asked the professor in charge to put his cigarette down. Proceeded to tell him that he is killing himself. Four words, ‘Did not go well’. Two years back, I fought for my grades with my Childhood and Culture course professor. We had different opinions, she made me redo one midterm and two research papers and then while arguing about the final paper, she said, ‘Something something a B grade is not bad. Something something all Asians are very sensitive about their grade. Think about it.’ I said, that I do not want to think about B because, I am A material. Not because I am Asian, but because I work hard for it and I deserve it. Proceeded to give her a mini lecture. Yes, I did get an A in that course.

Except for people, I kill all living things under my care. None of the house plants have survived past a month. They sense my presence and commit slow painful suicide.

I am horrible taking care of sick people, even my own kids. I am okay the first two days, then I undergo sudden transformation from Florence Nightingale to grinding teeth.

I have high tolerance for physical pain.

I cannot sing, dance, handle a needle, do kolam, string flowers even to save my life. Absolutely don’t planning on doing any of the above. I am the spiritual one, but not always religious and regular about lighting lamps and saying my daily prayers. Of late I am developing a strong aversion to anything domestic – cooking, dish washing, cloth washing and the likes of it. May be it is a phase, may be it will pass, but I don’t know.

Meanwhile R is there watering my house plants, secretly suffering his long spells of cold, giving tylenol to kids in the middle of the night, toiling in the garden, taking care of the fish and whatever pet I drag home, washing dishes and cooking an occasional dinner while I am buried in my end of the term papers, dressing up the girls for social engagements in pattu pavdai+matching jewellery+color coordinated bindhis(the girls are very particular, so I know how tough it is) while I am busy attending my weekend language development workshops, supporting my friday fasts,  and picking up loose ends, if any. All this without making fuss about roles and with only the girls(three including me 🙂 ) in mind.

Harry came to us during the winter break and simply never went back. We had much younger children in our classroom and they thought that it was their daily duty to put their hands in to the fish bowl and prod poor Harry. So it was decided that it will be best, for Harry of course, to have him at our house.

Monday morning we found Harry belly up. We put him in a ziplock and placed him in the trash container. As a part of their continuing effort to understand death, there were a lot of questions from the little ones about Harry passing on. In spite of our sincere efforts to answer them, they are still a little puzzled. Chula seemed to understand that death is serious business and that Harry is not coming back as Harry ever. She even cried a little bit before sleeping. The all knowing Mieja consoled her saying that we could always go to PETCO and get another Harry. I am not sure if she understands or is overly practical.

Harry, you brought happiness to our family and in some capacity and we hope we did the same to you.

Says Shruthi and it truly is a subject close to my heart.

My worst nightmare is all the trash collecting to heaps  and humankind drowning in it. Before throwing things, I try my hand on turning them in to something that can be reused. Some of these are imitation of what serious crafters have done, some are my versions of what I read.

I would like to dedicate all these projects to my wonderful glue gun without which many of these projects would not have been possible. My colleague encouraged me to get a glue gun and once I used it there was no turning back. Spread news papers to cover working surface, gather the materials and lock ‘n’ load glue gun, every single time I feel like Laura Croft 🙂

Created so far…..

CD Many Ways

(1)CD Coasters1: Children’s art work on one side(cut to size and laminated) and left over flannel scraps on the other side. A birthday gift for the children’s teacher.

CDArt1

(2)CD Coasters2: I am having a serious love affair with burlap these days. I have been saving the burlap bags in which they sell rice. The big idea was to make a bag. But considering my non existent needle skills, I decided to turn them in to coasters. I loved the result. Especially the coasters that show tamil letters and words such as INDIA and IDLY put a smile on my face.

BurlapCoasters

(3)CD Coasters3: I made some ‘very Indian’ art work on these CDs. I had to sand and prime the CDs for the acrylic paint to stick on the CDs. The big idea is to make these in to ornaments for the children’s teacher’s christmas tree.

CDArt

(4)Another CD project: The girls painted a ready made bird house(thanks Reva) and I just added this to the birdhouse and hung it.

CDBirdHouse

Gerber Bottle Many Ways
(1)It’s A Boy Party Favor: R’s nephew had a baby boy in May and I mailed these party favors for their baby announcement. I sterilized the bottle and the lids, painted the lids, added some IT’S A BOY ribbon and buttons on the top.

ItsABoy

(2)Party Favors-Candle and Candy Jars: We had so much baby food bottles that I was looking for something else to do with it and I stumbled on this. Loved it. The candle votive holders looked really pretty with vibrant yarn. But I decided to use the left over baby blanket/sweater yarn I had.

PartyFavors

Tetra Pak Containers – Tetra Paks cannot be recycled or composted. I try to buy the gallon cans, but sometimes,  cannot avoid tetra paks. When I throw them in to the trash can, I feel guilty. I saw this simple project in FamilyFun magazine. All it requires is hardy scissors and sticky back velcro. I use these as food containers, especially when I want to give a friend some food without having to chase the person to get my containers back.

TetraPakContainers

Brown Bags To Envelopes: I carry my own bags for bringing back groceries, but paper grocery bags tend to collect over a period of time. Brown bags are pretty hardy and are perfect for little hands that learn to wield a brush. But the girls are grown up and want real paper for painting. So I converted my collection of brown bags to envelopes.

GroceryBagEnvelope

Fuse Bead Greeting Cards: The girls do fuse bead work. We have a ton of fuse bead art work, which I am turning in to hand made greeting cards.

FuseBeadCards

Soup Can Pencil Holders and Big Metal Can Planters: This is just for home use and I used them as is.

CanHolders

I call the bubble lady amazing, for one reason and that is because she is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. We happened to see a bubble show by TheBubbleLady – Rebecca Nile( here and here ) in our local library. The community room was filled with about 100 bodies – children and parents. Irrespective of the age, the audience were mesmerized by the bubbles. As TheBubbleLady tried blowing bubble within a bubble within a bubble, we all held our breath. When she popped a bubble and out of it came vapor, we all cheered. When she narrated a story about the swamp adventure with mosquitos, spiders, dragons, scary swamp creatures all created from bubbles, we all jumped with joy. Something about bubbles brings the inner child out in the open.

TheBubbleLady seamlessly switched back and forth between managing children (Imagine about 70 children in the 0-12 year age group, in a room full of bubbles! Wild is the word.), managing the room to make it draft free – optimum for bubbles, spraying the room to make the bubbles last, and making the audience tap their feet for music. She was absolutely in the groove.

Leaving you all with a video.

Mieja: Where is my period?

Chula: You don’t even have periods.

Mieja: (In a teasing voice)May be I don’t need periods. (Calling out to me)Ammaaaaa, can you tell me about my periods??

Meanwhile, said mother is fainting in the kitchen. She quickly pulls herself together and runs out to investigate.

The children point to the birthday card they are making and ask her where to put ‘full stop’ in their birthday message.

Chula

Yes means no. No means yes.

Hot is for cold and cold is for hot.

Less is more. More is less.

Mieja

{Child X} always wants my things. That is unless she doesn’t want my things, she always wants my things.

Yesterday evening, while Chula was writing a poem (* don’t ask *), Mieja and I were rolling on the bed and having a conversation, which lead to an interview. I jumped right ahead, proper journalist style with pen and paper. She played along with her trademark, ‘Um…..um…..um’ and checked ever so frequently, ‘Did you write that down?’, ‘Did I say four already?’, ‘Make sure you get the right spelling, okay?’

Name four of your favorite activities

• Painting
• Plucking flowers
• Playing in the swimming pool
• Sledding in the snow

(If you ask me, dropping coins has to figure some where in this list. Electronics items have been unsuspecting casualties for her coin dropping. Things that have been damaged include, but not limited to CD player in car, music keyboard, slot for memory card in appa’s laptop.)

Name four of your favorite books.

• Princess baby
• Dora goes to the beach
• Fancy Nancy
• James and the giant peach

Name four of your favorite foods

• Plain white rice
• Keerai
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower

(Except for plain rice, the other things were news to me.)

Name four of your favorite TV shows

• Super why
• Sid the science kid
• Dora
• Strawberry shortcake

Name four of your favorite colors

• Violet
• Indigo
• Green
• Yellow

Name four of your favorite songs

• Adungada from Pokkiri
• Excuse Me from Kandasamy
• Allegra from Kandasamy
• Sollamal Solluvaan from Kandasamy

Name four of your favorite games

• Hi-Ho cherrio
• Candyland
• Smatch
• Go fish

Name four of your favorite animals

• Elephant
• Giraffe
• Tiger
• Lion

Name four of your favorite things to do with appa and amma

• Watch TV
• Making a picture for amma
• Making a book for appa
• Buying flowers for amma.

Name four of your favorite things to do with akka

• Blowing bubbles
• Swim
• Drawing with side walk chalk
• Having a picnic lunch/dinner

If you take a higher level perspective, you can make sense of the message given to every generation.

The message is not given by one single source. For that matter it is not even ‘explicitly given’.

The message kids now a days are getting is SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT.

It is not ‘if you work hard, you will get this’ or ‘this is a privilege, but it has been made possible for you’, just plain sense of you deserve the world and beyond.