1 forest, 12 grasshoppers, 12 frogs. 12 birds and 1 bulldozer

I grew up in a city with skyscrapers everywhere where people live in high-rise apartments. We didn’t have a garden so there were not many colours around me. There was white, the colour of most of the apartments, and there was gray, the concrete on the road. The sky was supposed to be blue but pollution meant it was often gray. The park was my happiest place because it was full of bright colours. I remember it would often take me and my two older brothers over 30 minutes just to walk to the nearest park but we didn’t care and we went there almost every day. When I moved to Australia I absolutely fell in love with this country because of its vast nature. I love the nature because it is where I can imagine and dream.

The location of Draw and Tell Chester-Petersen is in the forest. The characters in the story also come from the forest. I want to use the story to take children on a journey to the nature and I want to encourage parents to take children to the nature more often.

Most children don’t like changes. Babies thrive on routine and young children feel safer and secure when they know what to expect next. Draw and Tell Chester-Petersen is a story about transition. I want to show children how they can embrace changes and that changes are not that scary. I want to teach children we can always overcome challenges that may come with transition when we do it together as a family or a community and we don’t have to be afraid of it.

Putting the hidden messages aside, I hope you will simply enjoy reading Draw and Tell Chester-Petersen with your children. I hope you will laugh with your children when you imitate the sounds; I hope you will enjoy counting with your children and playing “I spy with my little eye” spotting things around you in different colours. But most important of all, I hope the story doesn’t end. I hope it is only the beginning of your story; I hope you will take your children to the nature, where you can create your story together; a story about a family adventure; a story about swimming in the lake and splashing water at one another and laughing together; a story called your story. Are you ready to write your story?

Happy reading, exploring and writing....Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit....

Till next time....

Simone

 

1 Fine Day

Friendship is such an integral part of life. Some children make friends easily but some find it difficult to make friends or maintain a friendship and need a lot of guidance. The reason I wrote Draw and Tell Charlie is to introduce the concept of friendship to children and to help them develop the ability to make friends.

You may have heard this say before, “if you feel lonely, go and find someone who is lonely and be their friend”. In Draw and Tell Charlie the story begins with an introduction of Charlie who lives in a big blue house with his family with no mention of any of Charlie’s friends. When you are reading Draw and Tell Charlie to your children you can point out Charlie has a family but he hasn’t got any friend yet, but rather than feeling upset about not having any friends to play with, he decided to introduce himself to his new neighbour and be their friends. You can role play with your children to teach them how to make friends by extending you hand and say “Hi my name is ....... What is your name?”

A new relationship is easier to form when two parties share something in common. You can point out Charlie and his new friends play something they both like. A common interest can also maintain a friendship and help it flourish. If your children are finding it hard to settle into daycare centres or preschools you can enlist the help of the teachers to find friends for your children by telling them what activities your children like to do and ask them to help your children find friends who share their common interests.

Charlie was able to share his big blue house with his new friends. You can point out how good Charlie is to be able to happily share with his friends. Sharing is an important concept to introduce to children at this young age. If you would like helpful tips and activities about sharing, you can find a few articles I have written about sharing under the DID YOU KNOW label on this blog.

Helping children make friends is quite important and I sincerely hope that Draw and Tell Charlie gives you the opportunity to introduce the concept of friendship to your children and help your children have confidence in making friends.

Happy reading and making friends!

Till next time....

Simone

1 rainbow, 1 blue sky, 1 bright sun, 3 friends and a new neighbour

I was never too into birds until I saw the rainbow lorikeet for the first time after I moved to Australia. I was immediately captivated by their beauty and thought they were the most beautiful creature in the world. They are not shy at all. I know that because I have had firsthand experience being befriended by them. They were perching on the balcony balustrade singing to me one morning and after leaving a piece of bread with a sprinkle of sugar on a plate for them, we instantly became best friends! Almost every day I would find them perching on the same spot singing to me and waiting for me to feed them.

Children love birds; they love to read stories about birds; they draw birds; they pretend to be birds and fly and chirp like them; they lie on the mat to watch birds fly around; and they try to look for their nests on the trees.

When creating my Draw and Tell series I didn’t have to think twice about writing a story using a bird as the main character. I purposely used triangles and an oval shape to draw Robin and the letter C to create the feather because I want parents to realise how easy it is to draw and tell a story. I also want parents to realise that their children don’t have to be like Picasso to be able to draw a picture that touches someone.

Let me share with you my experience with a 3 years old girl. She felt extra special that daddy dropped her off at daycare but after daddy left she missed him so much that she was teary the whole morning until she started painting on the easel. When I asked her to tell me what the painting was she pointed at a patch of yellow in the middle and said “this is daddy, he is a diamond. I am painting this for my daddy”. The week prior we had set up an activity with different plastic diamonds and children were fascinated with the shape of the diamonds and how it seemed to sparkle when you hold them up in the light. They were told that real diamonds are precious. You see, this little girl didn’t paint a Picasso and the painting looked like a lot of scribbles; but she had found a way to express her emotion by painting a diamond to represent her daddy because she wanted him to know that he is precious like a diamond to her and that she missed him. When I told her dad the story behind her painting, he was very touched by what her little girl had done for him. Since then, children’s paintings and drawings have a totally new meaning to me. I highly recommend you to spend a few minutes listening to your children the stories behind their drawings or paintings. It is also a great opportunity to find out what your children are thinking about or are going through that you are not aware of.

I decided to provide Draw and Tell Robin as a FREE eBook because I want parents to be able to experience what draw and tell is about and how simple and effective it is to draw and tell a story. I want parents to draw with their children and I want children to use their drawing to tell a story.

Many parents around the world have downloaded Draw and Tell Robin and I hope you will too. Simply visit www.rainbowballs.com.au  You may also like to download “how to draw and tell Robin” and “Draw and Tell follow up activities” which are also available for FREE.

I would love to hear from you. If you would like to tell me how you and your children may have benefited from drawing and telling Robin together please inbox me a message on facebook www.facebook.com/officialRainbowballs

Happy reading and drawing!

Chirp chirp...till next time....

Simone

2 Full Bellies

As a child I loved going to the park and one of my favourite activities was to look for butterflies. I would head towards the shrubs and flowerbeds straightaway to look for them and as soon as I found them I would follow them quietly, completely mesmerized by their beauty.

The beautiful colours and intricate patterns on the butterflies and the way they fly fascinate me. When they fly they resemble beautiful ballerinas dancing on stage; the flowerbeds are their performing stages where they dance freely without a care in the world. 

The story of Draw and Tell Bella was written simply because I love butterflies. I didn’t have a clue what the story would be about when I decided to create it. I named the main character Bella and created a younger brother for Bella because I want readers to be able to imagine 2 butterflies dancing together in the story. Bit by bit as I drew the butterfly the storyline emerged. I am not going to give too much away here except that you will find 2 full bellies in the story! The story also has a humorous side to it because I want readers to feel happy after reading the story. I once wrote that it is good for adults to read a children’s book because it always has a happy ending and many adults resonated with me.

My hope is that when you read this story with your children you will be able to imagine yourself dancing in the park; looking for that one special creature that intrigues you; walking around the colourful flowerbeds; enjoying the scent of the flowers and the beauty of nature. My hope is that when you read this story it will take you back to your childhood; perhaps you are like Bella, or maybe you are more like Brian who was fortunate enough to have a sibling like Bella. My hope is that after reading this story, you will take your children to the park to look for butterflies together and get to experience the sheer joy of nature simply by observing one of the most beautiful creatures in the world. My hope is that you will enjoy the simplicity of the story; appreciate the teaching messages hidden within the story; and laugh at the humour side of it; and simply feel good after reading the story - the story with a happy ending.

Happy reading and dancing!

Till next time....

Simone

1 red delicious apple, 1 granny smith apple, 1 orange, 1 slice of watermelon, 1 bunch of banana and 1 pineapple – what’s their story?

I love fruit. Australia has such a great variety of fruit we get to enjoy throughout the year. The government has been promoting healthy eating in schools and daycare centres/preschools jumped on the bandwagon by partnering with parents to encourage children to pack fruit in their lunch boxes. I felt it necessary to write a draw and tell story about fruit but the story turned out to be much more than just fruit.

Whilst drawing the fruit I realised how different they are to one another. They all have different appearances, colours, tastes and shapes. When eaten individually they taste delicious but when we mix them together as a fruit salad they complement one another and taste even better.

Identity and respecting one another’s uniqueness are important concepts to teach children from an early age. It is not too early to teach children as young as 3 years old about the concept of healthy sense of wellbeing and the importance of embracing one another’s uniqueness. No matter what our appearances, backgrounds and cultures are, we all have gifts and talents to contribute. When we unite and pool together all our gifts and talents we can contribute so much more to those less fortunate than ourselves and to the world at large.

Amy, the red delicious apple, is the main character of this story hence this eBook is called Draw and Tell Amy. The story is about Amy spending her School holiday at her grandma’s and one by one her ‘fruit’ friends appeared.

Draw and Tell Amy is one of the chosen stories I present at daycare centres/preschools. After storytelling we usually set up an activity where children prepare seasonal fruit together and learn about turn-taking and team work. Children also get to share the fruit salad afterwards. Feedback from the teachers so far have been positive in that after listening to Draw and Tell Amy the children were interested in participating in this activity and eating the fruit.

You can preview Draw and Tell Amy by visiting our website www.rainbowballs.com.au

Happy reading and healthy eating!

Till next time....

Simone

It all began with a 4 years old boy from France

The idea to create draw and tell stories for children was conceived after I met a 4 years old boy from France. He had been brought up speaking French at home and only understood a little bit of English. The first time he ever sat with other children on the mat to listen to a story was when it was being told using the draw and tell concept. When studying towards my Bachelor degree in early childhood teaching I learned about the enormous benefits of parents reading with their children. One of the benefits was that it helps strengthen parent/child relationship. These two events have been the catalyst for my passion to create draw and tell stories to foster a love of reading in children and to provide parents with a simple and fun way to strengthen their relationships with their children.

The name Rainbowballs has been chosen to illustrate the many colours I use to create draw and tell stories. My eBooks are created with a combination of colours from the rainbow. Each colour has its own characteristic and represents a distinctive emotion. Yet when we put various colours together it depicts another emotion and tells a different story.

Visual images help children, especially those from the ages of three to six years old, to better understand a story. My Draw and Tell series have been created with this in mind. I use lines, colours and shapes to create images that attract young children’s attention to listen to the story.

My website www.rainbowballs.com.au was launched in June 2012. I have since released fifteen eBooks of my Draw and Tell series which includes one personalised story, seven short stories for ages 3+ and seven long stories for ages 4+. Other eBooks from the Draw and Tell series are in various stages of development and will be released when they become available.

Till next time.....

Simone