Category: blog

The Burnaby Early Childhood Development Table Book of the Month: Mine! Mine! Mine!

 Cameray and

The Burnaby Early Childhood Development Table

Book of the Month: Mine! Mine! Mine!

mine mine mineMine! Mine! Mine! is a children’s story by Shelly Becker about a girl named Gail who doesn’t like to share. The illustrations by Hideko Takahashi are bright and have soft lines too, which makes it visually appealing. The story fits well with our monthly theme of childcare because it follows Gail as she learns how to share with her cousin Claire. Learning to share doesn’t come easy for Gail. When Claire starts playing with Gail’s teddy bear and tea set, Gail gets angry and takes the toys away. When Gail’s mom explains to Gail the importance of sharing toys with others, the story takes a funny turn as Gail decides to share old, dirty things she doesn’t care about. Gail’s mom notices this sneaky move and teaches Gail that to become a “pro” at sharing, you have to share some things you hold dearly.Continue reading

The Burnaby Early Childhood Development Table Book of the Month: RED: A Crayon’s Story

 Cameray and

The Burnaby Early Childhood Development Table

Book of the Month: Red: A Crayon’s Story

red a crayon's story

Red: A Crayon’s Story is an insightful story by Michael Hall. It’s about a red crayon that can only colour in blue. Other crayons ask the red crayon to help them with drawing strawberries, cherries, and other red things, but they all turn out blue. The red crayon feels a sort of identity crisis because as much as it tries, its intentions don’t match its outputs. That is, until the end of the story, when a berry coloured crayon asks the red crayon to draw a blue ocean. By the end, the red crayon realizes and accepts it can be itself, and that’s perfectly okay.Continue reading

The Burnaby Early Childhood Development Table Book of the Month: Oh Say Can You Seed

Cameray and

The Burnaby Early Childhood Development Table

Book of the Month: Oh Say Can You Seed

oh say can you seed

Oh Say Can You Seed? is a fun, rhyming children’s book written by Bonnie Worth and illustrated by Aristides Ruiz. This book illustrates the fundamentals of how seeds grow into plants, and the fruits and vegetables that we eat every day with bright pictures and a rhyming structure. Kids will recognize popular characters in the story: The Cat in the Hat, and Thing 1 and Thing 2 created by Dr. Seuss. This book is a great fit for March’s theme of Spring Science, because with the cold weather tapering off comes the opportunity to start planting veggies or flowers for your home or garden as summer nears!Continue reading

The Burnaby Early Childhood Development Table Book of the Month: A Perfectly Messed Up Story

 Cameray and

The Burnaby Early Childhood Development Table

Book of the Month: A Perfectly Messed Up Story

a perfectly messed up storyA Perfectly Messed-Up Story is a children’s book written by Patrick McDonnell. This book tracks the story of Louie, a young boy in pajamas. Except that his story is interrupted when splotches of jam, peanut butter, crayon marks, and more clutter the pages and ruin his storytelling. Louie becomes upset and decides he’s not going to tell his story anymore: “Who would eat a jelly sandwich while reading MY book?”Continue reading

The Burnaby ECD Table Book of the Month: Jared’s Cool Out Space

 Cameray and

The Burnaby Early Childhood Development Table

Book of the Month: Jared’s Cool Out Space

jared's cool out space

Jared’s Cool-Out Space is a children’s book that illustrates concepts relating to positive discipline. Positive discipline involves a set of parental techniques that include validating your child’s feelings, asking your child what they can do to relax when they are feeling bothered, and how to create a safe and positive space where they can go to feel better and then, by natural extension, “do” better.

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Cameray Book Recommendation: Maya Was Grumpy

 

CAMERAY BOOK RECOMMENDATION: MAYA WAS GRUMPY

maya was grumpyMaya Was Grumpy is a children’s story written and illustrated by Courtney Pippin-Mathur. As the title suggests, the book is about a girl named Maya who spreads her grouchy mood around the house, affecting those around her. After a while, Maya’s grandma shows Maya all the fun things they could be doing – if only she was in a better mood. This starts to rub off on Maya, after learning she’ll miss out on swinging with the monkeys, bathing baby elephants, and hunting for hippos. Although Maya shrugs it off at first, with an “I didn’t want to do that anyway” growl, she slowly comes around and realizes that she can improve her own mood by doing fun stuff with her grandma.

This story is funny and entertaining, because it mixes fantasy with reality. Maya feels grouchy and grumpy at home, but it is grandma’s ridiculously silly suggestions for play activities that make her laugh and get out Maya out of her grumpy mood. We recommend Maya Was Grumpy for kids aged 4 and up.

How can parents use this book?

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CAMERAY – 2015 IN REVIEW

CAMERAY – 2015 IN REVIEW

By Tracey Rusnak, Executive Director

Wow, time flies! It’s almost February as I sit down to write about what happened at Cameray in 2015.  It was a busy, eventful year!  Here are the highlights:

 

New Brandingcameray logo - review 2015

An exciting project this year was the development of our new logo and website, thanks to Hyack Interactive. It was high time we updated!  We are happy to have received very positive feedback on our new look.

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Family Resource: The 5 Love Languages

The 5 Love Languages

based on the book by Dr. Gary Chapman

How do meet each other’s deep emotional need to feel loved? If we can learn that and choose to do it, then the love we share with our partners and/or children will be fulfilling and rewarding.

Love languages are basically the language we speak when giving and receiving love. For example, if I feel most loved when getting hugs and kisses, then I would tend to give hugs and kisses to others to show them I love them.

BUT…The key to love languages is figuring out what the other person’s primary language is so that you can give love the way THEY want it received (rather than assuming they receive love the same way as you). See below for detail on each love language.Continue reading

Cameray Book Recommendation: Let’s Talk About Saying No

Let’s Talk About Saying No

saying noLet’s Talk About Saying No is a book written by Joy Berry about when to say no, and when not to. The book is accompanied by bright illustrations, and the topic is presented by a cat named Casper, which makes the topic lighter and fun to look at. Casper the cat talks about a bunch of situations where Tonya, the girl in the story, should say no, and other times when she shouldn’t. For example, Tonya learns that she should say no when someone asks her to do something she knows she shouldn’t, like taking cookies from the cookie jar when she is not allowed. She also learns that she shouldn’t say no when someone asks her to do something she should, such as when her mother asks her to go to bed because it’s late and she has school the next day. There are many other examples in the book that get this basic idea across.

This book is great because it talks about an important concept that children learn as they grow up, but presents it in simple writing that isn’t preachy. Joy Berry has written other stories in the Let’s Talk About series, such as Let’s Talk About Feeling Angry, Let’s Talk About Being Helpful, and others.

How can parents use this book?

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