There's More to Books Than Reading: A Book Review
Photo courtesy of Kathryn Lord.
Most career nannies are naturally creative and have some kind of background in education. Still, there are many nannies who might be in this profession to pass the time or who might be starting out, right out of high school and have not attended a higher learning institution yet, or don’t plan to. And that’s ok! Even if you don’t have a creative bone in your body, that’s ok! The internet is a wonderful thing and no one can doubt the power of Pinterest. Need help planning lessons for your littles? It’s a safe bet that the internet has you covered.
If you’re like me, though, you still love a good old-fashioned book. I don’t like to turn to the internet for ALL my needs. I miss the days of researching by opening up a reference book in the library and copying down notes by hand. I know, I’m a nerd. But, I love books. And I love being a nanny. And I love supporting other nannies. That’s why, when I learned of a book that a fellow nanny from the U.K. published called “There’s More to Books Than Reading: How to help your child bring stories to life,” I knew that I had to contact the author, Kathryn Lord, to find out more about her book. Through my conversation with her, I learned that she would be speaking at INNTD in the U.K. this year, as well as at Nannypalooza U.K. I knew that Nanny Magazine just had to interview her and I also knew I had to get my hands on her book! For an interview with Kat Lord, check out our July print issue where she talks about her life, career, and inspiration for her writing.
If you are interested in her book, look no further! I have it. I’ve read it. And I love it! What a great idea, sharing your knowledge and love of reading with other nannies, parents, and educators. My favorite thing about the book might be the quotes from famous authors before each chapter, as well as submissions from teachers regarding their favorite books and the lessons they were able to build around them.
The book is broken down into chapters based on the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) which, in the U.K., sets the standards for the learning, development, and care of children from birth to 5 years old (foundationyears.org.uk). There are seven areas of learning and development that each chapter touches on: communication and language, personal, social, and emotional development, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, physical development, and creative development.
Ms. Lord offers reading suggestions for each area of learning and activities to go along with it, mainly how to ask questions to add to the integrity of the story and really get your little ones thinking and using their creativity, as well as to think in an abstract way about what they are reading, which may or may not include pictures. Each chapter includes a couple book ideas with a synopsis as well as different activities you can do to go along with it. I love this because it gives me ideas for books I may not have read or heard of before, and it gets my creative juices flowing on days when I might just feel too burnt out to come up with ideas on my own.
Reading this book at the start of the summer was perfect because I knew that me and my charges had a busy schedule of activities ahead of us, but I wanted to be able to do SOME fun learning-based activities. My intentions were all well and good, but I had a million things on my plate and little to no time to plan anything. Insert Kathryn’s book here. I’m saved! Inspiration hit and I was so excited to try out some of the activities involved. I highly recommend this book to nanny and educators; at 98 pages, it’s a quick and easy read. I was lucky enough to receive my own special copy of this book from the author herself, but you can purchase it on amazon or on the author’s website, moretobooks.com.
