B a r b a r a s h e r I l L u s t r a t I o n s b y r a L p h

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Happening Books encourage children to pay attention to what is happen-
ing to them and to focus on different aspects of their experiences.
Games for 3- to 6-Year-Olds
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Making the book encourages children to be creative and to focus on
how to organize their memories.
If you ever kept a diary as a young person, you’ll remember the influ-
ence it had on your day. Knowing you are going to write about your day
tends to make you more aware because you want to have something to
write down!
Lessons from the Rocks
I was walking along the beach one day when I spied a collection of cairns
that were made and left behind. These little towers of balanced rock
reminded me of an activity I was doing with a child that morning in which
I was trying to help him learn about size. I had given him some measuring
cups that fit inside of each other so that he would get firsthand experience
of some things being bigger or smaller than others. With measuring cups,
no matter how hard you try, a big cup will not fit into a smaller one.
Gathering up a small pile of different-size rocks that were more or less
flat, I could see several possible games to play with your little one that will
help her begin to notice differences in sizes.
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Focused
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Flat rocks of different sizes
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Have your child try doing these activities with the rocks:
⽧ Make a Tower. Place the largest, flattest rock on the bottom and care-
fully add one rock after another on top. See how high she can make the
tower without its falling over. You can take turns adding a rock with
your child to make it a game to play together.