{Guest Post} My Favourite Children's Author: Julia Donaldson

Julia Donaldson

One of her most popular books is The Gruffalo. Others include Night Monkey Day Monkey and The Magic Paintbrush. She's Julia Donaldson. In 2011, she was chosen to be the Children's Laureate, and her term runs from June last year to June 2013. This role is awarded once every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children's books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field. Find out more about it here. 

Sharing with us about Julia Donaldson today is Alicia Tan. A caffeine addict mum of 1 daughter who is journeying with my heart on the sleeve in this thing called Parenting. Alicia blogs about Arts and Crafts, Cooking, Parenting and her Homeschooling journey at http://www.beanienus.blogspot.com. 

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When I was younger, my favourite children's authors were like Enid Blyton and enjoyed titles from Aesop's Fables. When I became a mum, I suddenly became aware of so many other children's titles! Hence it was hard to decide on just one for this guest post. So I went on the perspective of the author which Dumpling and I enjoyed a lot together and she is none other than Julia Donaldson! :) 

When Dumpling and I first read some of her titles, they were really simple ones like One Ted falls out of Bed, Hippo has a Hat, etc.  

When Dumpling was older, we enjoyed longer stories with stronger plots. And of course, one of her personal favourites is the well-loved title: The Gruffalo. The Gruffalo is a story about brain versus brawn; between a mouse and a monster and how a small seemingly insignificant mouse manages to outsmart 3 predators and, even the Gruffalo himself. 

We had so much fun with this title. Intially, Dumpling was a tad frightened of this big monster with knobby knees and turned-out toes... so much so that while reading, she covered her face and refused to look at the page. She kept her face covered for such a long time that I could actually take a photo of her! LOL

The beauty of Julia Donaldson's books lies in the lovely rhyme and the humor - just take a look at the sample pages below! :p With the repetitive "verses" the child catches on quickly too. 

Source: http://clubs-kids.scholastic.co.uk/products/43189 

There is an official website where Dumpling and I also downloaded activities for some craft and dramatizing and had a ball of a time! 

And as 'luck' would have it, the plays were in town and we caught them too :)

Another of our favourite title from the same author is Room on the Broom. The story is about a witch and her cat flying on a broomstick when the witch loses her bow accidentally and three animals helped her along. In return, they got a ride on her broomstick where they were later able to save the witch from a hungry dragon. 

I do not really like seat work for young children (Dumpling was around 2 then) so, after reading this title, we ventured into more play learning. We learnt about shapes where I left her piece the various shapes together to form a witch (she did this without help). This was also a great way to introduce her to colours and spatial awareness. 

We then followed up with a baking activity the next day. For the little ones this is a great way to get them to hone their motor skills as well as introduce them to basic counting (via measurement of ingredients - 2 eggs, 1 cup of water, etc.) 

Tada: the witch's cats! 

I hope that you will try these out with your little one(s) and that you will enjoy these titles and the activities as much as we do!