After reading Siesta by Ginger Guy and illustrated by Rene King Moreno (An ALA Notable Book), I decided to try this. In the book, two kids and their teddy bear, gather together a few things, such as a yellow book and a blue backpack and then a brightly multi-colored blanket and then go outside for their “siesta.”
My son no longer naps, yet we enjoyed the activity of gathering some favorite things and a blanket and making our own tent outside on a bright spring afternoon. He even pretended to sleep for a few moments. The book is in both Spanish and English and I think my son appreciated hearing a different language: something I really should do more often, since I personally think Spanish is a beautiful language (for more so than English!).
I’ve been skimming over The ABCs of Literacy (reviewed here; that book inspired my 1000 Books Project) for ideas on helping use books as a tool in my sons’ stage of life and learning, and some of Ms. Dollins’ ideas have been very successful for us. I am not using books as a “preschool” curriculum or anything of the sort: I’ve just been trying to think out of the box and applying the books to my sons’ needs more than I had in the past. And we’ve both, I believe been enjoying that approach.
One of Ms. Dollins’ suggestions was to try to imitate the (good) things that characters do in books.
