New seasons are a great conversation starter with children. For young
children, new words they hear develop meaning easiest when they are paired with direct experiences. You talk about a dog. They see a dog, pet a dog, and hear a dog bark. The word dog develops meaning–and that meaning helps create long-lasting memory of the word.
It’s easy to give children needed direct experiences of seasonal changes in the spring, summer, and fall. It’s harder in the winter when the weather really makes it enticing to stay indoors.
Yet children need the hands-on experiences. They need to feel the cold air, touch the snow, pull their coats tight against the wind, see the frost on the grass and trees. Through direct experiences, they can then “make sense” of your words as you talk about and describe the seasons.
Remember, it’s all new to them! So bundle up and head outside!
Stay warm, 😉
Babette
2 comments
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January 10, 2011 at 7:06 pm
Julie
I’m glad to see my modus operandi validated. I always follow the seasons of the year, the weather, holidays, etc… I think it’s important to help children learn about traditions, the circle of seasons, to be attuned with nature. But I’ve also been doing children’s library programming for 25 years, and I hate the thought of my material becoming stale from years of repetition, so I always mix it up.
My immediate boss, with a relatively new minted MLS, has an entirely different style, he’s bored with themes and chooses featured books randomly. It’s made me feel a little dated, and I have to remind myself that even though I’ve told some of these stories over and over and over, it’s a whole new experience for some of the little ears.
January 11, 2011 at 6:47 pm
BabetteR
How nice the kids can get both approaches! It’s probably not an “either/or” as long as the “non-thematic” books are good stories and age appropriate. That said, I believe, based on the way young children learn, that stories which can tie directly and easily into actual experiences, whether the snow outside or the new baby in the family, encourage children’s growth.