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NEW Parenting Books!!! Except they're old ...
I have a long shelf of parenting books. Granted, I don't really USE much of the advice given, mostly because I simply can't remember it, but I find the topic as whole very interesting, even before the advent of Flipper into my life.
But yesterday, I had a minor epiphany: I only need one set of books, books that will effectively do "double duty" by keeping Flipper AND me happy and occupied, all while learning something. I mean, isn't that endless goal, the ultimate quest? To teach-and learn-something easily and painlessly? Perhaps through...stories? Stories from my all-time favorite series, the Little House books? Now, lest you think it is a far far stretch to attempt to relate life as we know it today to a wandering family 140 years ago, THINK AGAIN!!
Yesterday, after slogging through the woods with the dogs, picking blackberries, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes ... we crossed the creek and waited for the dogs on the top of the bank. Seamus came sauntering along, as he usually does, but Sophie came flying up the hill, much faster than usual, and I could tell something was wrong. Her rear legs, chest and back were covered with yellow jackets. She had stepped on their underground home while clambering up the side of the creek. Poor Sophie!!
To her credit, she froze when I told her to and I used the leash to smack them away and got stung on the arm for my troubles. I told Flipper to run, and she and Seamus headed up the hill away from us. We all got home, Sophie utterly traumatized, Flipper full of questions, me hoping that I wouldn't have an allergic reaction, and so on.
After we all calmed down, Flipper and I went to Whole Foods where I may have set a new record for least amount of food for the most money. This is a record I break with some regularity, and my old neighbor-friend Rose and I often relate our money-at-Whole Foods tales to each other with the appropriate shrill cries of horror and disbelief.
On the way home, I had a little talk with her about obeying me, instantly, if I ever tell her to run while we are in the woods. I told her to go straight home and wait for me there if something like this ever happens again. But how much more effective is a lesson when backed with a short chapter from a book!!
And here is where my flash of inspiration struck ... I got out the very first book, "Little House in the Big Woods," and we read the part where a massive bear has gotten into the family cow pen, and the mother smacks it to make it move over, thinking it was her cow. (It is nighttime). She realizes that instead of their sweet cow Sukey, it is a huge, probably hungry, bear, and she calmly tells Laura to go back to the house right away, and Laura obeys her.
Later her mother praises her for doing what she said to do in an emergency without questioning her. Flipper LOVED this story. LOVED it. So the wheels in my fertile brain began turning, and I realized that all eight books offer a veritable treasure trove of useful information for parents, and nice illustrative life lessons as well! There is even a chapter about a kid getting stung about a million times by yellow jackets, but no one helped him because he had "cried wolf" too many times before!! How apropos, I thought!
Today, we'll read about picking blackberries, something Flipper dearly loves to do. And we'll read about how, as a result of all the mosquito bites, the entire family is felled by malaria. Somewhere, there's a lesson in there. I'm convinced I can find it.
Leigh appears every Monday on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Leigh at her blog Flipper and Me.
Leigh Sparacino
Leigh is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Monday.
Leigh grew up in Durham, attended college in
North Carolina, left the area for an island off the coast of Georgia,
the high mountains of Colorado, and her favorite mountains in western
North Carolina, before returning to the Triangle eight years ago. She lives near
Carrboro with her 4.5-year-old daughter Flipper and two dogs. She
is single in marital status only, surrounded by friends, family, and
her daughter's very involved and loving father. She works part-time and
tries to be as involved as possible in her daughter's school, The
Emerson Waldorf School, where Flipper is a kindergartner. She likes
wood, glass and other natural materials for toys, loves the principles
of Waldorf education and hates plastic. She might be the only person in
the world with no TV and who hasn't been to a movie in 15 years, but races
to the mailbox every Saturday for the most recent issue of People
magazine. In other words, a contradiction. Or just human.
I have a long shelf of parenting books. Granted, I don't really USE much of the advice given, mostly because I simply can't remember it, but I find the topic as whole very interesting, even before the advent of Flipper into my life.
But yesterday, I had a minor epiphany: I only need one set of books, books that will effectively do "double duty" by keeping Flipper AND me happy and occupied, all while learning something. I mean, isn't that endless goal, the ultimate quest? To teach-and learn-something easily and painlessly? Perhaps through...stories? Stories from my all-time favorite series, the Little House books? Now, lest you think it is a far far stretch to attempt to relate life as we know it today to a wandering family 140 years ago, THINK AGAIN!!
Yesterday, after slogging through the woods with the dogs, picking blackberries, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes ... we crossed the creek and waited for the dogs on the top of the bank. Seamus came sauntering along, as he usually does, but Sophie came flying up the hill, much faster than usual, and I could tell something was wrong. Her rear legs, chest and back were covered with yellow jackets. She had stepped on their underground home while clambering up the side of the creek. Poor Sophie!!
To her credit, she froze when I told her to and I used the leash to smack them away and got stung on the arm for my troubles. I told Flipper to run, and she and Seamus headed up the hill away from us. We all got home, Sophie utterly traumatized, Flipper full of questions, me hoping that I wouldn't have an allergic reaction, and so on.
After we all calmed down, Flipper and I went to Whole Foods where I may have set a new record for least amount of food for the most money. This is a record I break with some regularity, and my old neighbor-friend Rose and I often relate our money-at-Whole Foods tales to each other with the appropriate shrill cries of horror and disbelief.
On the way home, I had a little talk with her about obeying me, instantly, if I ever tell her to run while we are in the woods. I told her to go straight home and wait for me there if something like this ever happens again. But how much more effective is a lesson when backed with a short chapter from a book!!
And here is where my flash of inspiration struck ... I got out the very first book, "Little House in the Big Woods," and we read the part where a massive bear has gotten into the family cow pen, and the mother smacks it to make it move over, thinking it was her cow. (It is nighttime). She realizes that instead of their sweet cow Sukey, it is a huge, probably hungry, bear, and she calmly tells Laura to go back to the house right away, and Laura obeys her.
Later her mother praises her for doing what she said to do in an emergency without questioning her. Flipper LOVED this story. LOVED it. So the wheels in my fertile brain began turning, and I realized that all eight books offer a veritable treasure trove of useful information for parents, and nice illustrative life lessons as well! There is even a chapter about a kid getting stung about a million times by yellow jackets, but no one helped him because he had "cried wolf" too many times before!! How apropos, I thought!
Today, we'll read about picking blackberries, something Flipper dearly loves to do. And we'll read about how, as a result of all the mosquito bites, the entire family is felled by malaria. Somewhere, there's a lesson in there. I'm convinced I can find it.
Leigh appears every Monday on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Leigh at her blog Flipper and Me.
Leigh Sparacino
Leigh is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Monday.
Leigh grew up in Durham, attended college in North Carolina, left the area for an island off the coast of Georgia, the high mountains of Colorado, and her favorite mountains in western North Carolina, before returning to the Triangle eight years ago. She lives near Carrboro with her 4.5-year-old daughter Flipper and two dogs. She is single in marital status only, surrounded by friends, family, and her daughter's very involved and loving father. She works part-time and tries to be as involved as possible in her daughter's school, The Emerson Waldorf School, where Flipper is a kindergartner. She likes wood, glass and other natural materials for toys, loves the principles of Waldorf education and hates plastic. She might be the only person in the world with no TV and who hasn't been to a movie in 15 years, but races to the mailbox every Saturday for the most recent issue of People magazine. In other words, a contradiction. Or just human.
Comments
First of all, I think you (and by you, I mean "we") could write a parenting book based on the Little House books. I'll start thinking of an appropriate title.
Second, may I recommend Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor as a complement to the Little House series? I vividly remember reading it to Haley when she was about 6. It has moral dilemmas in it that really make a child think about right and wrong and shades of gray. The movie sucks. The book rules.
I can't wait to read Little House to my daughter. I read each book about 13 times as a kid - it was my Harry Potter. I'll have to check out Shiloh too. Thanks Di.
Also loved Anne of Green Gables - read that about as many times as Little House.