I just love it when I have the letters all assembled - especially the months that I use random colors - everyone just gets two random colors for their two-page letters.

I got them all assembled and sent out today, but, while they were sitting there waiting to go into the proper envelopes, I thought they looked so cute that I took a picture of them.

Here it is:

And that is all I have to share today - just wanted to show you the cute and colorfulness of the letters all gathered up together!

GO READ A BOOK!

I send personalized letters to children once a month, and in each letter I write, I tell the kids about a wonderful book. I write two letters - one for older bookworms and one for younger bookworms.

Well, I finished writing my January letters yesterday, and I had so much fun searching for animal books to talk about!

I picked two really great ones, and I wanted to share them with you!

For my younger bookworms, I chose Eric Carle’s Animals Animals. This book looks so great and every single time I pick out a book to talk about I want to go out and get it for my kids! I better be careful and not listen to myself too much, or we’ll be living in a box made of books! Heehee! If I had the means available to me, I would have sooooooooooooo many books! It would be fabulous! Like those libraries in mansions with the sliding ladders…. aahhh…

Well! A girl can dream, can’t she?

Ok, ok, back to the book - it is filled with loads and loads of poetry from many different cultures! From Shakespeare to Lewis Carroll, from Emily Dickinson to Rudyard Kipling, from passages in the Bible to Japanese haikus!

And then, of course, there are the amazing and wonderfully colorful illustrations by Eric Carle - most of the animals gracing two pages each! The whale stretches out on four pages!

This book sounds really fabulous! Here it is:

The book I chose to talk about to my older bookworms is The Kingfisher First Encyclopedia of Animals. This book looks so awesome! I know, I know - I already said that about the other one, but, I just get so excited about the books that I find! (Hence, wanting to buy them all!) I mean, really, though - just look at the cover:

Doesn’t that look fabulous? I know, I know - you can’t judge a book by its cover, but, you know what? A cover can definitely draw you in! And draw me in, it did!
The best thing about this book is that it is not set up alphabetically, but, rather, in animal groups - mammals, reptiles, birds, etc. There are two great things about this - for children who are just learning to look stuff up for themselves, this can be a lot easier. Also, this will help children to better understand and learn the classifications of animals. Very cool!

The book also has over 1500 beautiful color illustrations and photographs. And it has one of my favorite features of kids books - those little cross reference boxes to help the children find related topics within the book.

Yep - those are two very good books! They get my bookworm seal of approval!

GO READ A BOOK!

I’m so excited - I just ordered the crafts and goodies for the January mailings for the letters for children!

The theme is going to be ‘animals’. I haven’t picked out what books I am going to be talking about, but, I can show you the crafts and goodies - they are so cute!

And I’m sure I will have no problem finding great, and fun, books to talk that are all about animals!

I really get so excited when I order the goodies, and especially when they arrive, but, I also have such a blast picking out the books to talk about!

Ok, well, let me show you the goodies.

For the craft, we are going to make animal necklace pouches:

Aren’t those so cute? I hope I get to make one with my daughter - I just love it when there is an extra one for her and I to make together!

And to go along with that, the children will receive two animal bookmarks each:

Awfully cute, but, they are that clip kind, so I hope the smaller fingers can manipulate them. They were just too adorable not to get.

I’ll have to ask my moms how the little ones do with those.

Now ya’ll:

GO READ A BOOK!

This is my new My Very Own Mail blog! I am so excited to finally get it started!Reading is FUN! And, unfortunately, a lot (far too many) children just do not know this. Reading can take you so many places - literally and figuratively.One thing is for sure, if children do not have a strong reading background, they are bound to struggle in school - in all subjects. So we know that strong reading skills, or even good reading skills, are important for being successful in school.

However, reading is REALLY so much more than that! It is actually one of my very favorite things to do! It can be one of the most enriching hobbies - for young and old alike.

And wouldn’t it be so lovely to walk into the living room and see your child happily immersed in a book, so immersed he doesn’t hear you call his name! And the XBox, PS2, whatever….is actually turned OFF!!!

I know that gives me so much joy when I see my munchkins happily curled up with books.

There are a lot of good resources out there for encouraging our kids to read. One thing that might be right for my family might not be right for your family, so I will find as many as I can and post them here.

And hopefully we can get more of our precious babes turning off those video games and reading books!

The one thing that remains constant in all of my letters to the children, is that at the end, I always tell them to ‘Go Read a Book!’ — and because it is so helpful for them to see us reading (and enjoying it) I will follow the same practice here with you…..

GO READ A BOOK!