The Gerda Muller Series

I bought this series for Emma when she was about 9 months old. She loved to turn the pages and chew on them.

When we went to the beach this summer, Emma would stare for long periods of time, at the center pages that illustrates the children playing at the beach, swimming, building sand castles, flying kites, putting on sunscreen, and laying on towels. She would tote along the book when we headed down to the water and I think it really helped her to connect with her reality.

She had a hard time moving from Summer to Autumn though. She wasn't interested. She kept handing me the summer book and opening up to the beach scene. I tried to peak her interest by mentioning "boats," which she is crazy about, but still not a whole lot of attention was taken.
I decided to try a little simple project to perk her up interest. On one of the pages, the children are sticking leaves on to paper with tape and also coloring and cutting.

After breakfast, I took the book out and we looked through it. I talked about the leaves falling and how the children were collecting the leaves for their art project. We then grabbed an empty basket, and went in search of good, colorful leaves. When we collected a good amount, we came back inside and got to work.

Emma choose the leaves and I stuck them on. She then had a great time with the apple stickers and of course, coloring!

At this age, Emma's attention span is only so long, so I was a little bummed, thinking that she didn't really take an interest in it, blah, blah, blah.
Later on, though, before her nap, she handed me the book. When we got to the page with the children sticking on the leaves, Emma made a little sound of glee and pointed to the wall where I had hung her leaf poster. "Leavefs, leavefs!!" she said over and over! I guess she did enjoy the art project after all.
I must say also, that I really enjoy this series of books, because it really relates to our lives. We were given a book a while back that has pictures of different objects such as french fries, orange juice, pizza, ice cream, macn cheese, TV's. There was barely a picture of any sort of fruit or vegetable. I find that to be sad. That these books, that are very popular, don't stress the importance of eating fruits and veggies. That is why I also enjoy Muller's books so much. She shows pictures of children picking fruits and nuts, crafting, knitting, jaring, caring for animals. It's really exciting to see such a book come so close to home.

Comments

[Mom Unplugged]

These look like lovely books! I have not seen them before. Where did you first encounter them? Thanks for the recommendation. I shall have to add them to our rapidly growing list of books to read!

[Mom Unplugged]

These look like lovely books! I have not seen them before. Where did you first come across them? Thanks for the recommendation. I think my youngest would like them, so I shall add them to my ever expanding list of books to read!