Educating Young Students From The Inside Out

Educating Preschool students from the "Inside Out"

Monday, August 29, 2011

The gift of your presence

 Its our weekly story time!  

"Come gather round,
With a friend on the left and friend on the right, 
          Come gather round"
About two years ago I was walking in our local library looking for a new book about love and kindness, that I could select for the children in my Kindergarten class. I usually have an inner guidance and prayer before I go into the library to guide and help me select the perfect book for  teaching a certain "quality" to the children. 
On this particular day, a book literally fell onto my foot. I picked it up without giving it much attention and placed it back on the shelf. It was not the type of book that I would usually select. The cover wasn't that appealing ,expansive with color or intriguing.  Its cover actually had more of  a "cartoon" feel to the it. At the Living Wisdom School we shy away from any theatrical productions, videos and television.
Well, it fell on my foot again. Now, I am somewhat perturbed at this point. I took a moment to look again at the cover. The drawings by Patrick McDonnell looked somewhat familiar. So it intrigued me enough to slow down and sit with the book.
The title of the book: The Gift of Nothing  
This story is about Mooch a friendly little cat who wants to give his friend Earl a gift. This delightful story is around the love and friendship between friends. How often we spend hours trying to find just the perfect birthday gift for a loved one and we are discouraged about what we have chosen. But what should you do when your friend has everything? This is a tale about Mooch searching for the gift of nothing.  This book is for all ages.  I love to read this for our afternoon story or it is a sweet story for the bedtime ritual. You might be able to get away with reading it twice, since you will fall in love with it.
This is surely one book that you will want to give away, but purchase one for your child's shelf as well. 
Patrick McDonnell has quite a nice series of short children's stories. 
I encourage you to take a peak at the library you never know what enticing stories might fall on your foot. 

Joyful reading friends until next Friday.....

3 comments:

  1. I recently bought that book and another by the same author called "Just like Heaven" for my kids. I love them both! Great messages!!
    -- Diane

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Diane. I will be featuring the other books too. I love "Just like Heaven" as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This blog is so great!

    Thank you, Chandi

    ReplyDelete

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