Books, books, books
I absolutely love books. Old fashioned, paper type ones rather than the electronic variety. Sorry, not sorry, but I just haven’t found the love of e-books yet. Reading from a phone or tablet just isn’t the same for me as relaxing with a book in your hand. And I love seeing all my books on my shelves and one catching my eye and reminding me to read it again as I wander by. If I ever had a big enough house (come on Omaze 😉) then I’d have my own library, full of squishy chairs and sofas – and maybe they’d surround a lovely indoor swimming pool, anyway, back down to earth and on with the books!
As a child our house was full of books and my houses since have all been the same. I’ve still got lots of the books from when my son was little and I love the fact that running forest school sessions gives me the excuse to continue buying kids books! I always make sure I have a book or two at my family forest school sessions, for those moments when a child may want a bit of time out, or some quiet time looking at a book or being read a story near to the camp fire.
Children’s books, whether fiction or non-fiction, often include beautiful illustrations and eye catching colours, as well as positive rhymes and easy to access facts. Basically the majority are just great to flick through and dip in and out of and I still love looking at them.
I feel giving children the opportunity to develop a love of books is more important than ever. Reading to children has far too many positives to list them all here – but they include building long lasting bonds, giving comfort and support, allowing opportunities to ask questions and fueling imagination and creativity. Taking the time out of a busy day to sit and read to a child is so precious and gives life long memories for both the adult and child. Not all the children who are read to when they’re young will grow up to be fantastic readers or loving books but that really doesn’t matter. For me it’s about being in that moment, being in that book, at that time.
So, to give me a further excuse to buy books that catch my eye I thought I’d do some regular book recommendations and mini reviews on my website, starting with the nature themed ones that I hope your kids will love. If you are one of my lovely forest school families then lots of these may be familiar to you, but hopefully they’ll be a few new ones that you’ve not explored yet with your children.
And don’t forget, you don’t have to always buy books, libraries are fantastic places to visit and give you and your children the opportunity to experience loads and loads of different books 😊.
Tree is the book I am starting with.
Text by Patricia Hegarty and illustrations by Britta Teckentrup.
It’s worth buying the book for the cover picture alone. It is just beautiful and the wonderful illustrations continue throughout the book.
Looking at a tree and its surrounding woodland inhabitants through the different seasons, it is interactive and engaging with easy to follow rhyming text. The simple story starts off in winter and follows the changes that each season brings. Each page provides lots to chat about, with colourful, but not over-powering, pictures of animals, leaves, flowers and the tree. Children will love the peek-through holes, which show the different animals in the tree.
The book has a matt texture which adds a sensory aspect and is a good size for children to hold onto. Whist full of colour, it also has a very natural, calming feel to it.
Recommended age is 1 to 4 – but I am a fair bit older than that and I love this book!!
Summary – calming, captivating & colourful