Parenting Thursday: Celebrating Seuss

In case you didn't know, Sunday is Dr. Seuss' birthday. For the past I-don't'-know-how-many years, that day, or a day close to it,  has been celebrated as "Read Across America Day". While I did cool things with the day back when I was a teacher, as a parent, it's been more, "Oh crap, I totally forgot. Let's read some Dr. Seuss books at bedtime!"

I am pretty sure they took my organizational and planning skills out when they were performing my c-sections. Who knew that those skills were stored in the uterus?

What was I talking about?

Oh right, Dr. Seuss and his birthday. Even though I've always thought it was kinda weird to celebrate the birthdays of people who can no longer enjoy birthday cake, the kids and I are going to celebrate it this year. By more than just reading Dr. Seuss books at bedtime, though we'll probably do that too.

The web is filled with adorable crafts and snacks that celebrate Dr. Seuss. But if you'd like to encourage some thinking, check out the following activity:

1. Reread your kids' favorite Dr. Seuss books with them. 
2. As you read, talk about the words in the story: Which ones did Dr. Seuss make up? How can you tell? Can you still figure out what they mean? Which are you favorites?
3. Encourage your kids to make up their own words. If they struggle, have them come up with nonsense words that rhyme with their names (Jack could come up with vack, for example). This is a great time to talk about rhyming, syllables, the need for vowels, or prefixes and suffixes, depending on your kids' ages and language knowledge. 
4. Have older kids write down their list of nonsense words, have younger kids help you sound out and write their nonsense words. 
5. Hugmonkey's word was "snoobits", which I wrote and he copied onto writing paper. 
6. Have younger kids pick one word to draw. You can have them write the word themselves or you can write it for them. 
7. Let them draw their word and have them describe it to you as they do. Hugmonkey's "snoobits" is a dog like Snoopy, who is blue and is eating cheese - in case you couldn't get that from his illustration above. :) 
8. With older kids, have them put their word into a sentence, then make an illustration to match. Or have them use all their nonsense words in a story and have them illustrate that. 

The pictures probably won't turn out as cute as the orange slices turned Cat in the Hat faces I saw on Pinterest, but your kids will learn a lot about language from it.