12 Days of Christmas Kick Off with Susan Case

12 Days of Christmas Extravaganza is being brought to you by Peggy at Pawing Through Books, Jennifer at Books and Barks, and myself. 
Each day for the next 12 days each of our blogs will feature a different author. There will be guest posts, interviews and giveaways! So be sure to stop at each blog to join in the fun!


A special thank you to all the authors who are participating and those who have donated prizes!


Merry Christmas!




CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN WITH BOOKS
Susan Case

I stole this idea and I don’t even know who to thank. Yes, being naughty at Christmas time is not a good idea. But someone, somewhere out there in cyberspace – perhaps living closer to the North Pole, found this idea on Pinterest, wrote about it, and I stole borrowed it. I confess: My name is Susan and I am a blogaholic. I have no idea where to look for it because I like to blog hop. Could be worse, right?

Going in my favor (Santa, are you reading this?) is that I love to read! So here is the “original” idea: Wrap up 25 children’s Christmas books and unwrap one a night and read it together as a family. Here’s my spin:  If you can’t find 25 Christmas books at the used books store or garage sales, especially with snow already blanketing some areas, then wrap up any children’s books – used, new, different genre; it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you are reading books with your children every night.

If you are really pressed for time, and can’t even fathom wrapping 25 more things, just put a Countdown Till Christmas stash of books in a basket and pat yourself on the back for teaching math: 25, 24, 23… Counting backwards helps children learn subtraction. If you’re out of bows, perhaps you could put Post-it-Notes with numbers on the books. I opted for not wrapping the books, but wrote numbers on the backs of the bows going 1 through 25. Children can put the bows in numerical order—backwards or forwards. Whatever works, as long as you’re reading.

You may be able to find children’s Christmas books greatly discounted just before and right after Christmas. Buy them and wrap them with the scraps of wrapping paper you’ve saved after opening your gifts and you’ll be ready for next year.

This looks so enticing! - Cristi

SNUGGLING, CUDDLING, AND READING PROMOTE:

• Bonding, security, consistency, stability, routine, self-esteem
• Literacy - a love of reading
• Helping children learn about their world through nature and science books
• The 3 Rs: Rhyming, Rhythm, and Repetition to enhance reading skills  

MY NEW YEAR’S CHALLENGE TO YOU

I have a simple challenge and it does not involve weighing yourself. Make a New Year’s Resolution to read at least one book a month—just for yourself. It is fun to blog hop, surf, tweet, text, stumble around upon, connect with Facebook, and join in the increasing number of cyberspace adventures (myself included), but please let your children see you enjoying good books. Something about anything can be learned from reading. But, of course, you wouldn’t be on this wonderful blog if you didn’t already love books. I wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS as you COUNTDOWN TILL CHRISTMAS WITH BOOKS!

Susan is the author of Kindergarten: Tattle-Tales, Tools, Tactics, Triumphs and Tasty Treats for Teachers and Parents. You can visit her blog at Kindergarten for Teachers and Parents.

Kindergarten: Tattle-Tales, Tools, Tactics, Triumphs and Tasty Treats for Teachers and Parents is an awesome gift for Preschool, Kindergarten teachers and parents. I have purchased it to give as a thank you for one of Junior's DSP's. The woman who was working with us on his community living skills is also going to school to become a teacher. This book was a warmly received gift. I have a few others who work with us I plan to give this book to. 

When your thinking about something different to give to the teacher from your child please do consider this book. I have always given books to the teachers of my children and it was always appreciated. 

You can even win a copy of the book, if not for you, then to give as a gift to the teacher, parent or student  in your life! All you need to do is leave a comment telling us about a teacher you remember, (can be yours or one of your children's), and why. For me I remember all my teachers but a few teachers stand out. Ms Driscoll who taught me the hated subject of math for 6-8 grades. Oh what a time she had! Mrs Smith who taught me 4-5 grade and encouraged me in art, (even though I have ZERO talent). Mr Forrest who taught history 7-8 grades and brought the horror of the holocaust vividly to me. Mr McCormick who taught my honors history class in high school and never stopped believing in me and encouraging me. Finally Mrs Mohair who taught me 2nd grade and let me write out a play based on Little Red Riding Hood, then let me choose actors, encouraged me in directing the play and then let me not only entertain my classroom but also talked other teachers into letting me bring the play to their classrooms. It was an awesome experience! I thank all of these wonderful men and women who really did make a difference. 


Please be sure to leave a comment and include your email address so we can contact you if you win!


When you finished here please stop by and see Jenn at http://www.booksandbarks.com/and Peggy at http://www.pawingthroughbooks.com


And be sure to enter the Rafflecopter Form to be in the big Giveaway! ENTER HERE