  | I love what Consuelo Munoz de Ruiz, a child development specialist, states on the back cover of the Lae Lae books, "Reading with your children makes family ties stronger, opens new horizons, teaches the young ones new concepts, vocabulary, morals and ethics." Consuelo helped her husband with his pediatric practice for more than 20 years. Together they saw thousands of families and she said that, consistently, the children who were read to were the most well adjusted and happiest of all the children that they saw. I so agree with her statement. Books bring a whole new world into a child's life and the reading experience provides "together time" closeness for both the parent or caregiver and the child. I love it when I visit my grandson Enzo and he asks me if I have brought the Lae Lae books. Now, in school as a first reader, he reads the Lae Lae stories to me where I used to read them to him. And now he enjoys creating new stories in the story telling section and completing the activities at the end of the book. He has grown up with the books and the puzzles and games that were too hard for him at first are now easy. When Zoe, my oldest granddaughter, was just his age, we read together and that was, in part, the impetus for my developing the Lae Lae collection. And her sparkly creative little spirit was what inspired me to create the Lae Lae character. I can't emphasize enough the importance of the "together time" experience of reading a good childhood book. The sharing and learning experience cannot be surpassed. |
|
0 Comments
Have you ever had an inanimate object which, over time, has taken on human characteristics? Tom Hanks's volleyball "Wilson" in the movie Castaway comes to mind. Well, my yoga mat has done just that. Although I have not found a name for my yoga mat, it has become my little friend. Yoga can be done by all ages, young and old and all can enjoy it in their own way. I enjoy it and I love it when I see my grandson in his yoga lotus pose; he is very serious about it. I am an early morning person and so, before the world gets noisy, I go into my office and put my special "nature's flow" music on and begin a short yoga exercise for the day. It clears and energizes me for the day. I do my balance poses and my stretching and strengthening poses. I love the fact that everyone can develop his or her individual experience with no rigid rules and nobody is there to watch me if I wobble a bit on some poses! I just try to make sure that my routine works for me. I get amused at (and can pronounce) some of the English pose terms that I can identify with like butterfly, cat/cow, pigeon, frog, dead bug, tree, cobra and my favorite, child's pose. I know that it's good for me but some days, I just don't want to get started. I go on and roll my mat out however and look down at my little yoga friend smiling at up me as if to say, "you can do it and you will feel so good when you are through - now don't let me down." And he's right ....so I begin. Thank you little yoga helper.  |
|
RSS Feed