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Books can compete with new digital toys

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Do you have any New Year's resolutions still hanging around? Did you want to paint the garage, plant more flowers, and quit smoking, drinking and eating ice cream with your bonbons behind the badly-in-need-of-paint garage?

I know how you feel. This year I just want to read more with the children in my life and even that resolution has its challenges. With their new Nintendo controls held tightly in their hands, they seem more determined to go digital than ever before. How can reading compete with a portable multimillion-dollar production with special effects?

Here are some books with adventure at their core that may lure the children away from those flat, large and tiny screens.

For the smallest children, try “Wheels on the Bus” which was illustrated by Jerry Smath. This is the familiar song set to the page with the horns bleeping, babies crying and wipers going swish, swish, swish!

You can have a parade around the house or neighborhood singing this song and coming up with your own sound effects. Make a bus with a large cardboard box. Take a posterboard and cut out the rough shape of a bus with some windows. Let your child paint it yellow and tape it to the side of the box. The child can put his or her dolls or stuffed animals in the bus and push it around or can sit in the box and sing the song. You can take a ride on a public bus. That can be a big adventure for a small child.

For preschoolers or children in the early grades you might get a kit to make their own books. “Creativity for Kids: Create Your Own Books” is a great kit. It comes with story ideas, supplies to make two hardcover books, markers, etc. With some help and involvement from you, children can make their own books. Then they can read the story to you or the whole family.

If you don't have a kit, just take a small stack of paper and fold it in half to make the pages. Cut a piece of cardboard from a cereal box and cover it with paper for the bookcover. Tape it all together and you have your book.

“Animal Adventures” is a Little House Chapter Book by Laura Ingalls Wilder with illustrations by Renee Graef. This story recounts several experiences with Laura encountering bears, deer and panthers. The chapters are short and each chapter is a complete adventure.

This is a good book to read before going to the zoo. This time of year, the zoo is open but not as busy as in the spring and fall. When you see an animal there, you might talk about its natural habitat and what it would be like to run into them in the wild.

For older children, you might get “The Curious Boy's Book of Adventure” by Sam Martin. This book has instructions for everything from fishing and building a campfire to juggling and dog-training.

Limiting digital time is wise and if all else fails you can always lose the battery charger!

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