red yarn hair, button
eyes, candy heart, and a sweet
smile that warms my soul
Vintage and antique toys and books thrill me. But what thrills me even more is sharing my love of all things raggedy with my perfect children. Watching my perfect children play with my beloved toys (or replicas of those toys) or reading my favorite books makes me smile. Knowing that they are getting as much enjoyment (at least for 2 minutes) as I did is so awesome.
This week's Blog Blast from ParentBloggers is about sharing your childhood memories with your kids. Those who choose to share their "sharing" are entered into a drawing to win a subscription to Highlights Magazine's new publication, High Five. How cool is that? Especially if you were a reader of Highlights when you were a small-fry (and I was!!).
I would have to say that the childhood love that I have shared the most would be my love, no, adoration of Raggedy Ann. I have my Grandmother's Raggedy books, my Mommy's dolls, my own dolls, and now my kids each have their own. There's something about the simplicity of the doll that has endeared her (and Andy) to my heart...and the hearts of millions. And my children love her. They each sleep with a smaller doll, and par-tay with the larger ones. We read the books at night, the household favorite being "Raggedy Ann in Cookie Land".
Speaking of books, I have also shared my love of them, especially Golden Books. My Mom shared her favorite books with me when I was smallish (love "Shirley Temple's Fairyland") , and we have both passed on our love of those books with this generation. With the birth of each child, my Mom gave them copies of her cherished childhood books (like "Gabriel Churchkitten" by Margot Austin), and I have created a Golden Book library of my favorites. For every holiday and birthday, each kid gets a new book. Though I don't think you can ever have too many books, we might be coming close.
Cabbage Patch Kids (they have some of mine, but they also each received a new one as a first birthday present), crayons (only Crayola will do), miniatures (I love tiny dolls and furniture - as did my Grandma and Mom), ColorForms, Dolly Pops (Fisher-Price's Snap 'n Style dolls are a pretty close match, though Elliott and Janna will have mine), and play kitchens (complete with TupperWare) are other playthings from my past that I have happily showered onto my kids.
Obviously toys and books aren't the only thing I have shared, but those are the ones that stand out the most. Writing this post has made me think of the wonderful things my Mom (and Grandmothers) passed on to me. My hope is that I am making them proud. I also hope that my babies will carry on their love of my beloved possessions to their children.
In keeping with the sharing theme of this post, I need to mention that I have also shared a loathing of socks with my kiddos.
5 comments:
I am sure that your Mom and Grandma are very proud. What a wonderful tribute to what they started. Carrying on such wonderful traditions that your children will undoubtly continue.
Great post.
Speaking of books as presents, what I find makes a real difference to the kids is when the story touches their heart. There are books nowadays that are really making this happen. I am speaking of the personalized books. Heard of them? These books weave the kid as a character within the tale. The kid gets to be a part of all the action.
We grew up on Famous Fives and Amelia Janes and such - but what do today's kids have? There are no real children's authors today - even the most famous of them do not cater to children exactly. Sorry, Rowling, am a great fan of yours, but wouldn't call you as a children's author, really. This is where the personalized books can make a huge difference.
The stories are created just as delicately as we want them to be; the illustrations are soft and beautiful, and the kid is a character in the tales.
I literally wept with joy when I saw our six-year old bouncing everywhere quite happily with his personalized book. We gifted him the Three Little Pigs personalized book. A lot more followed later on. We get our books from unique-child-gift-ideas.com, but there are dozens of other such sites on the Internet. You don't get personalized books in the bookstore.
Thank you for your suggestion, Anita. While I would love to reply to you in "person", I am unable since you have your profile blocked.
I have heard of personalized books. And while I think they're very neat, I personally don't like the idea that kids don't have to suspend their disbelief. What should be an imaginative process becomes "fact".
I love going to bookstores to purchase books for my children, and my kids love going with me. No, I may not be able to get personalized books at a retail shop. But in my mind, what I get from shopping with my kids is so much better. The look of sheer bliss on my kids' faces when they see shelves full of books just for them fills me with joy. And when I see a book that I loved as a child (or one that I am discovering with my kids for the first time) being carried to bed by one of my babies, my heart swells.
Though my children are young (4 years, 2 years, and 7 months), I know that any books my kids are reading are making a lasting impression on their lives and in their hearts. That's what books are intended to do. Personalized books, in my opinion, aren't any better than regular old books. It's the reading of the book - the journey you take while you are enjoying the book - that makes the difference.
Hello Courtney, thanks for replying. I cannot agree with you more. I treasure those moments when I go to the bookstore and get books for the kids and myself. Bookstores are so much like hangouts for parents with their children nowadays that it is hard not to spend a lot more time there than you intended to do. Sean loves pulling the books from the bookshelves and I have to oversee that he doesn't mutilate them until I pay for them ;)
But I was actually trying to make a different point here. What I wanted to tell is that most of the books today are touted as kid's books, but I am not sure if I should approve of their content. Going with the fast pace of the world, the content is rapidly becoming bleaker and bleaker. Are we pushing our kids towards a cynical future? I really don't know about that.
But where it comes to the classics, we do shop like crazy. Having said that, I must say that the personalized books do work on a different plane together. They are special to the kid, and you cannot deny that. After all, it's got their names in them.
Perhaps I gave the idea with the last post that I don't prefer bookstores. I do frequent them also. Just that I am lately on a personalized books binge for my kid, probably :)
I totally understand where you're going with the personalized books. We have yet to give our kids any because their favorite books already have their names in them. Gabriel's book is "Gabriel Churchkitten" by Margot Austin and Elliott's is "Elliot's Noisy Night" by Andrea Beck. We lucked out with those books!! Now I just need to find a good one with a Janna...
I, too, have noticed the bleak atmosphere of some "children's" books. As a result, I really push the books I loved as a child. Yeah there are a few among my faves that are a little less than joyous, but they do seem "happier" than some of the current reads for kiddos.
Thanks for replying, Anita!! I am relatively new to blogging, and I find myself feeling excited with the notion that someone might actually comment on something I wrote!!
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