Dr Seuss

It's Dr Seuss' birthday today so I thought I would do a post about the fantastic author. To be honest I never really cared for Dr Seuss when I was growing up, but now that I have kids it's a totally different story. Dad, on the other hand, has always been a huge fan (even more so when he found out that Theodor Geisel also went to Lincoln College). Nicholas and Daniel agree with their Dad, so Dr Seuss has a prominent place on our bookshelf and our library trips!


Whether you like Dr Seuss or not, his books provide the perfect building blocks for learning to read. His rhyme and rhythm are very catchy and his illustrations are weirdly enticing. Kids really seem to get drawn in by his his zany characters and intoxicating silliness. It has to be good for stimulating their imaginations and creativity. Seuss books are also graded - green, blue and yellow back - so you can build up and read trickier and longer books as the child's reading ability develops. As a result of all this I have grown rather fond of the dear doctor's fantastic far fetched books myself!


I just asked Nicholas which is his favourite Dr Seuss book and he went off on a tangent: "Oh the places you will go - no - Green eggs and ham - wait - McGelligot's Pool - I know - If I ran the circus - oh yes - I wish I had duck feet - it's it's - Yertle the Turtle - actually, mom, I just like them all okay!" I guess that explains it all!


Daniel's favourite at the moment must be the ABC Book. It has played a big role in helping him identify the upper case and lower case of each letter in the alphabet. The letters in the book are nice and big too so he always traces them with his finger. He also likes Mr Brown can Moo and Hop on Pop for obvious reasons!


The official Dr Seuss website, Seussville, is filled with all sorts of fun and games, and characters from Dr Seuss' books. The great thing is I can leave the boys on their own and they are competent enough on the computer now to navigate around themselves!


There are so many blogs out there with great activity ideas for kids, but the one I like best must be Not just cute (dig a bit deeper because she has done a few Dr Seuss posts). I am getting so caught up in all of this I might even be tempted to do a Dr Seuss party sometime. Have a look at the weird and wonderful ideas on Pinterest. I also just stumbled across Oceanhouse Media which lists a whole lot of Dr Seuss apps. I think Dad has his task cut out for this weekend. You've got to love the internet!




I thought I'd finish off with some of our favourite Dr Seuss quotes but then I realised there are actually too many. So I started searching for a website displaying a collection and the best I came up with is good old Google Images. I think if I had to choose only one it would have to be:

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will indeed!
(98 and 3/4 % guarenteed.)
KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
. . .
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So .... get on your way!

I think I'm going to make green eggs and ham
for breakfast tomorrow!