Being a new mom, one of the most exciting times of the year for me now are holidays. I love the opportunity to share cherished family traditions with my little guy, while starting new ones together.
One tradition that I was especially excited about starting this year was one I had found on Pinterest (where else?)-- a Christmas "advent calendar" of books. What an awesome way to share the excitement of the holiday spirit and the joy of reading together with my son all in one!!
The way I originally found this idea presented was to wrap up twenty-five books, put them under the tree, and have your child pick one each day to enjoy together. For this past holiday, I modified this idea a bit for my son because of his age, so instead of wrapping each gift separately, I reused the same gift bag and tissue paper each evening, but replaced the book with a new one for him to unveil each day.
I decided that I wanted to have all holiday books for our 25 Books of Christmas tradition. Choosing the books was hard (there are too many great Christmas favorites!), but finding them proved to be less difficult. I rummaged through my childhood book collection, visited used library sales, and browsed online book stores.
Each day, he really enjoyed exploring the tissue paper as he unwrapped each book. And I enjoyed cuddling up next to the fireplace and colorful Christmas tree lights to read a holiday story to my son. I can't wait for this tradition to continue again next year and grow and blossom into a cherished holiday memory.
Do you have any holiday traditions with your family that involve books or reading? What stories are a must read for your family around certain times of the year?
Happy Reading and Happy Holidays!!
Welcome
Welcome to our Reading Promises Blog for families at Sinking Springs Elementary! Thank you for stopping by to read, learn, and share with us.
The purpose of this blog is to connect the readers of this blog and their reading promise experiences. The Reading Promise Project is based upon the reading streak author Alice Ozma chronicles in her real life memoir, The Reading Promise, between her and her father. What started as a seemingly lofty goal of 100 consecutive nights of reading together when Alice was in fourth grade, turned into a streak lasting until Alice's first day of college, 3,218 days. Our project aims to inspire as many others as possible to create reading promises of their own.
The purpose of this blog is to connect the readers of this blog and their reading promise experiences. The Reading Promise Project is based upon the reading streak author Alice Ozma chronicles in her real life memoir, The Reading Promise, between her and her father. What started as a seemingly lofty goal of 100 consecutive nights of reading together when Alice was in fourth grade, turned into a streak lasting until Alice's first day of college, 3,218 days. Our project aims to inspire as many others as possible to create reading promises of their own.
If you are a Sinking Springs parent or student, I hope that you will use this blog as a way to communicate with other families about your reading streak experiences. Tell us stories from your daily reading experiences, what books you've loved and what books you've passed up. Share your successes with us to celebrate and your challenges with us to collaborate on solutions. What little magical moments have arisen because of the commitment you've made to reading with your family? What books have you found that are must-reads for other families?
If you are a new visitor to our blog, I invite you to join our conversation and share your thoughts and experiences! From what I've learned by following Alice Ozma on various social media networks, our readers are not the first, nor the last to be inspired to begin reading streaks. I've seen other stories about amazing family reading moments and the readers at our school would love to hear about thoughts, experiences, suggestions, successes, and challenges from anyone else out there who is taking the same journey or just interesting in sharing his/her thoughts. Contribute to our conversation! Become a part of our online community of readers. We'd love to have you.
Join us in the effort to make reading a special part of your everyday life. Make a promise to read with your family, your classroom, your friends, your loved ones.
Join us in the effort to make reading a special part of your everyday life. Make a promise to read with your family, your classroom, your friends, your loved ones.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Day 119: A New Holiday Tradition
Labels:
building excitement,
Christmas,
Family Reading Streaks,
holidays,
infant,
Mrs. Hartman,
traditions
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I have an entire basket of Christmas books that we read when my daughter was younger. I miss those days, but I enjoy sharing them with my nephews now. We love the Polar Express and the Jan Brett Christmas collection!
ReplyDeleteJan Brett's books are some of my favorite too! I love all of the detail in her illustrations. It's great that you can continue to share your Christmas collection with your nephews.
DeleteWe have several traditions involving books. First, each Christmas Eve I still read to my boys (ages 20, 18 and 8 years) B is for Bethlehem a Christmas Alphabet that is religious and then Twas the Night Before Christmas. Also, we usually go to the super crowded children's mass on Christmas Eve so I take a tote with our non-secular books to read while waiting the 45 minutes (or more) for mass to start. Finally, I have added to our collection each year including both religious books, secular and books about Channukah. In the past, I've added them on the Feast of St. Nicholas, as he leaves items to prepare for the holiday in our house (santa hats, Christmas books, Christmas baking items, etc). I think that this tradition of a Christmas book advent calendar would be tremendous with each year adding a few new to the collection instead of purchasing 25 new ones each year. The surprise would be which nights have an old favorite and which ones have a new one!
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