ABC with Lullaby
Book Week [20 – 26 August]
Literacy & Numeracy Week [29 August – 4 September]
Author Visits
Market Stall
We were super excited about Book Week this year. Previous years we have been keen to dress up like our favourite book character and appreciate all things books. But this year was all the more significant since we did all that AND I got to read our book to some Kindergartens and Early Learning Centres. That’s a bit different and so rewarding! To see the kids engaged, interacting and enjoying the story was pretty (unbelievable haha) special for me as the Author. They all stayed to listen to the story until the end and we all know that at times a child’s attention can wonder. Some of the groups even asked that I read it multiple times! So I will definitely take those as BIG positives, since ABC with Lullaby is over 30 pages.
Oh and another amazing thing to see – ABC with Lullaby sitting on bookshelves other than our own… 😀
It is probably fairly clear by now that literacy is a topic we are personally passionate about? Do we think it is extremely important? Absolutely! Generally, most people do? Mostly though, we absolutely love to see children enjoying books. This is where it usually starts… Then hopefully through listening to stories over time, gradual progression and (with some guidance and access to resources) by practicing to read and write – individuals can work towards achieving their literacy goals. So yes, it was great fun for us to celebrate letters and numbers during Literacy and Numeracy Week.
We created some colouring pages taken directly from ABC with Lullaby and additional letter/number tracing sheets which were distributed during our Author Visits and Market Stall. Great feedback received for those, so again big smiles from us. Why colouring pages? So children can be creative and design their own coloured versions of pictures from ABC with Lullaby. Enjoying colours while practicing to keep within the lines when colouring – an art which can usually take some time to master. But ultimately our aim is to encourage some fun. Hopefully with fun, comes some sort of positive learning – a very welcomed bonus!
Then came the dotted number sheets from 0 to 9. Why not practice those as well? You can do so much with numbers, once you know the basics.
Finally, different forms of the alphabet. Upper and lower case letters including cursive and standard. The cursive b, k, p, x and z (in particular) can look a little foreign to some children who have not seen them. If they then come across it being taught in their school, the confusion is understandable! It is a different letter style to what they have seen in the books they would have been exposed to during their first few years. This was one of my motivations to create and distribute the different versions. I’m almost certain it has been done before – but not by AP Pressing 😉 It can be helpful to have a bit of early exposure of differences while having some fun tracing. We like to use a different colour to trace each letter/number, so our sheets look nice and rainbow-like.
After all that, our big event was fast approaching! The AP Pressing stall for a Kindergarten Fundraising Market night was another surreal feeling. I must admit I was a little nervous. Just in terms of making sure everything looked as I had imagined. The rest was unknown and I suppose you have to be ok with that. We were hoping for a fun and colourful area showcasing ABC with Lullaby – I think we achieved what we intended. It was nice to get out and meet with the families. Definitely looking forward to attending more events in the coming months. Like a pop up store where readers can see our book ‘live’ and talk to us about what other exciting things we have coming up.
Sometimes it’s just nice to sit down and reflect with a nice warm fresh mint tea 😉
~Karol~
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