Rhyming Prompt: December 10
This holiday season, I feel full of cheer.
Your kindness to me has been really quite dear.
And all of the good deeds you’ve done make me smile,
The truth is I just really like your style.
In fact, so much, I have something to say.
I love you! I hope that makes your day.
Telling someone you love that you love them is great.
It can make them so happy that I wouldn’t wait.
Is there someone in your life you’d like to delight?
Go share the love—set their heart alight.
Download the prompts for December 9-12 here as a PDF or here as a Microsoft Word Document (you may have already printed these—I’m just re-posting them here for convenience).
A close-up image of the December 10 prompt. It is printed on cream cardstock with a green border, and has a gold embossed frog in the upper right hand corner, which is highlighted in silver. The prompt is nestled in a lit Christmas tree.
Other Materials:
None.
Suggested Pose:
Franz has illustrated his love with a haphazard doodle of hearts. He doesn’t have functional fingers; it’s rather impressive, given that. Hopefully the kids will color it in and love it despite the fact that it looks like it was hastily completed by an exhausted and overwhelmed amphibian. It’s the thought that counts.
Activity:
Have your child tell someone they love that they love them. Importantly, this should be someone your child actually and independently loves, and you should try to avoid guiding them toward any one person. Your third cousin who they’ve met once via Zoom is out.
Rationale:
Empathy informs our interpersonal relationships and our emotional lives. In order to practice empathy, we need to be in touch with how we feel and we need to be comfortable expressing those feelings. Inviting your child to verbalize their feelings independently is an important part of their emotional development. This is also a great opportunity for your child to think through the relationships they value without coaching, and to think about how they show those people/pets their admiration.
Book Recommendation:
A classic for today—Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratney & Anita Jeram. You likely already have this book, but did you know there’s an entire cartoon dedicated to it? I did not! It might be a fun family watch. Our always fabulous group member Kate also recommended the book The Invisible String, by Patrice Karst & Joanne Lew-Vriethoff, which looks wonderful. You can watch a read aloud here.
A closeup of the cover of Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram, which shows little nut brown hare holding up the ears of big nut brown hare on a patch of grass.