The Inkblotter at The King’s English

I know it has been a long time since I wrote, but we went away on vacation to visit relatives in Turkey and I have finally finished putting all our new treasures away. Now I can relax and write

Our voyage was very long, and an activity travel bag is very important for a little one. So, I read other blogs about traveling with kids and looked up different books, and discovered that the most important thing to have in a travel bag is an I SPY book.

Fortunately for me, the week before we left for Turkey, my mom was visiting and we found some I SPY books at a yard sale for $1 each. They were the best $4 I have ever spent. I picked one to take and boy, was it a lifesaver! Can You See What I See?, Cool Collections, Picture Puzzles to search and solve — each page is an assortment of different things. Along the side, they have a list of things to look for. Mina’s favorite pages were the Dinosaur and the Robot. It occupied her for HOURS on the flight.

I also threw in her Goodnight Moon board book and Curious George’s 1 to 10 and Back Again because she was very familiar with them and there were lots of things to pick out and count from each of the pages.

One of the blogs that I read suggested a book about planes. I found a really cool picture book at TKE that are part of a vehicle series. It is called Airplanes!: Soaring! Diving! Turning! (Things That Go!). She really liked the pictures and bold colors in the book. Sometimes you needed to turn the book vertical to read and that added another dimension to the story; none of her OTHER books did that!!

In addition to these bigger books, I threw in a few smaller books that are just the right size for little hands. That way she can read to herself or to her babies without needing Mommy around.

All in all, no travel bag should be devoid of an I SPY book. It is an absolute ESSENTIAL! ~ Elif

I think just about anyone who knows Mina, knows that HOW HOW is a dog. ‘How How’ is what dogs in Turkey say instead of ‘woof woof’. It all started with one book (which at one time used to be in ONE piece!) about a dog on a farm. My mother-in-law brought it over from Turkey for Mina’s first birthday this fall. It was love at first sight! Each page pulled out to reveal what mischief the dog had gotten into. Since Mina really really uses her books, this one didn’t last very long. Pretty soon, the pages were falling apart, but that didn’t matter. We would tell the story from the pieces. Sometimes, she would pick a special page to take with her around the house that day.

She just loves to look at “how hows”. I think we have looked at every book at TKE that has dogs in it. We have a special one that we have to visit each time we go: Dog by Matthew Van Fleet. When we go, she has to take each copy of the book off the shelf and look at each one individually. She especially likes the page where the dogs pees on the tree, and is scared of the page with the sticky tongue. Mina likes very tactile books, but REALLY doesn’t like sticky tongues — she becomes a bit of a drama queen when she gets to that part of the book!

Matthew Van Fleet has a few different books in print, but Dog always tops the list. She was not interested whatsoever in Tails, and got bored with Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings pretty fast. Her interest perked up again with his new Alphabet book — I think it will be a new favorite in the weeks to come.

Autumn by Gerda Muller was her second favorite book. This book is fantastic because it has no words, so you can make up your own story. It lends itself very well to multicultural families, because each family member can explain it in their own language. The illustrations capture your eye and pull you into the story. We have since bought Winter and that was just as big hit as the first one. Mina will sit there and tell you what the girls are doing, or that the boy fell down while ice skating. She loves to sit and soak up everything that is happening, and will get excited when she finds something new! Even though it is a board book, I can envision it having a looooong shelf life in our house. I can just see Mina making up these elaborate stories about the boys climbing the trees, or what sort of jam the mom is making!

As I mentioned in my first post, Mina goes everywhere with her bookbag! We usually have it filled with a few board books and it amazes me that they are so worn in such a short time!! Let’s see… what is in her bookbag this week: Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Gorilla, The Hat, Curious George’s 1 to 10 and Back Again, The Little Mermaid board book, Gossie, Kiss Kiss!, thrown in a knitted baby doll and we are good to go out to eat!

Mina is now transitioning into “big girl” books and they do not fit in her little bag, so we headed out to JoAnn’s to pick up a new canvas bag to decorate. She picked out some iron on patches and decorations and that will be our weekend project. I think the next book to get will be an Alphabet book. Mina has started to pick out letters and wants me to spell words as we go. So far, her favorite letter is “O!”

Well, it is almost 8am and it is time to go and read Skippyjon Jones… She gets up, says “Mama… [says and signs] bounce bounce meow READ!” ~ Elif

Hi all! My name is Elif and my daughter, Mina, is in LOVE with the King’s English. In fact, it is one of the first things she talks and signs about when she wakes up in the morning. She says “Anne” (who, as many of you know, is the General Manager and Kid’s Room Manager), signs “book”, and says “vvvuvuvff” (her word for stroller). Then she proceeds to walk to the door, signs “walk” and bangs on the door to go out.

Her love affair with books began around her first birthday; she is now 17 months old and her love of books, a few in particular, has only deepened. We head to the bookstore about four times a week and visit our favorite books there, just as there are certain books we take in the car, different ones for restaurants, etc. There are books all over the place in our house; I have had to make Book Stations in each room! Each room has a basket for books and there are two bags of books by the door for going out. Hence the name of our series, “What’s In Mina’s Book Bag?”

I will also be writing a series of posts that are more geared toward parenting books–what I found useful and what was a waste of time. Hopefully, these will be somewhat entertaining tidbits from my adventures with Mina!

For now, I will leave you with this funny little story. At the moment, one of Mina’s favorite books is Harriet Dancing.

Gentle yet joyous, this springtime tale of self-acceptance is sure to set children spinning, as it tells the story of a hedgehog who loves to dance.

She loves it so much that she dreams about it. For the past 2 nights, she has woken up , signing “dancing” and “hedgehog,” and saying “dans dans dans!” Last night, she even included the part when Harriet falls down the hill–or, as Mina eloquently puts it, “DUMMMM dum dum!”   Well, the little bookworm is just waking up, so I must be off…  ~Elif

For more pictures of Mina, click on her above!