Lessons from reading preschool books

Reb and I catch up on our reading during our 45 minute car ride to school each morning. We read the readers that she brings back from school each day and on most days, we read a couple more from our bookshelf at home.

I love the opportunity to rediscover many of my childhood favorites when I read to her and I realise that many lessons can be learnt from these books - simple life lessons, such as:

• You need a Map to find your way when you are lost - Dora the Explorer series
• Find yourself a good quality house with solid walls and floors and preferably a chimney, else you may find yourself getting disturbed by unruly passersby- Three little pigs
• Location, location, location is key when it comes to real estate - Noddy moves house

and so forth. Really, good lessons for navigating the challenges life brings.

One useful lesson that I thought to share can be found in the book - Big Dog, Little Dog - by P.D Eastman.

It talks about two dogs, Big Dog and Little Dog, who love to do things that are different from each other. For example, Big Dog will paint a side of the house in red, Little Dog will paint the other side in green. One will decide to ski, the other to skate.

So anyway, Big and Little dogs went to the mountain for a trip and checked themselves into a hotel. Big Dog got assigned to a room with a small bed and Little Dog got assigned a room with a big bed. They both tossed and turned and couldn't get to sleep that night and were not happy.

The next morning, while on the morning walk, they discovered that they both had problems sleeping. What could they do? They ask each other. A little bird who happened to be there suggested that they change rooms. And viola - problem solved.

The story ended with the little bird saying - Why make big problems out of little problems?

How true.

I wonder how much of this got to the 3 year old but it sure did sink in with me.

Have you found any interesting life's lessons to share from the books that you read?