Aug 08 2009
The Daily Doodle – A Great Book for Parents
As a teacher, I spend a great amount of time looking at books, reading books, and picking just the right book to get kids interested in reading and writing. As an aunt, I always want to be sure I know that my nieces and nephews can each express themselves in their own way. So, I was super excited when I had the chance to look at and review “The Daily Doodle” written by Janet Lee (who just happens to have her PH. D and might know a bit of something about children).
The first thing I noticed about this book was that it was colorful and fun looking. My niece was immediately drawn to the colors and pictures on the cover. So, we decided to explore it together. The first few pages are full of ideas and thoughts for parents and ‘kudos’ to the author as she also remembered to write a letter to the kids. My niece loved me reading the letter directly to her and we hadn’t even gotten to the fun part yet.
Once you get into the book itself, it has pages and pages of activities geared toward self expression for children. Each pages has a topic and then there is lots of room for the child to draw or write whatever it is they feel about that topic. I was curious to see what my niece thought about bedtime because unlike her teenage brother who loves to sleep, putting this 6 year old to bed is nothing short of a miracle. So, we turned to that page and I read the title, “Bedtime”. I told her to write or draw whatever she wanted and at first she was hesitant, so I acted busy doing something else and she began. She colored and drew for a good 15 minutes before showing me the picture of a “playground” of all things. It gave me a great place to ask, “Why?” She explained to me that every night when she goes to bed she is mad because she has to stop playing. She wants to play and not sleep so much. Can you imagine the discussion from this one simple activity?
It got me excited because some of the pages could really allow a child to express themselves and give their parent/teacher/counselor a jumping point for discussion. My niece and I were both very impressed by the book. We decided we would do one activity a day, but I can also see that it could be used on an as needed basis or any way that someone felt it would fit their situation.
So, if you have an opportunity to buy one fun, but useful book for your child, I would without hesitation recommend that you check out, “The Daily Doodle” written by Janet Lee or check out her webpage for other books at www.drjanetlee.com or on Amazon.com
