If you are like me, you check your stats regularly.
If you have two kids in your blog and are like me, you check to see what the ‘Clicks‘ are that get clicked on each day.
Today I had a bit of a surprise.
The first Click was on the poem Hug O’ War, from Shel Silverstein’s book ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’. That poem, along with Snowball, from our past Bedtime Stories, are popular or common searches that lead people to my blog in 3D.
(take a look to the right and see)
Now, want to see a coincidence?
I clicked on the other ‘Click‘ to see what else someone clicked at….
Last night as I viewed how my Stats in 3D have slid into the ‘nothings-going-on-here’ cavern again, I noticed all of the sudden my views take off.
Every now-and-again, somewhere around the world somebody(s) gets a hankering for Shel Silverstein and his wonderful poems. Last night a few searches were done and 3D received 10 hits for some of his poems, including Snowball, which was viewed 6 times along.Snowball was actually founds via search 161 times last year alone. Another one of my personal favorites, Hug Of War, was viewed 4 times last night.
Back when I created this blog I put a smithering of our family favorites from Shel’s book, “Where The Sidewalk Ends” in the top header entitled, Bedtime Stories as we always read some of these poems to the kids as they went to bed. As you can see, these are not the typical children’s’ stories.
They are fun!
If you have an propensity for the silly or imaginative readings these poems can be a lot of fun as you act out the character in the poems.
But as a parent these poems, or this book, has greater value. Our kids loved hearing these stories at night and then want to try to read them their self . It created genuine interest in books and reading for our girls. Now, every night at bedtime they demand to hear another story.
The benefits of enjoying books and reading?
Dylan brought home her 2nd report card this week. She received all ‘A’s again. Her teacher’s comments included how “Dylan is advanced to the next grade level in all her academic studies. She is a great listener and contributes well in class discussions.”
As a parent you gotta feel proud of that and can’t help go back to when we read ‘Acrobats‘ over and over until the girls could read it by heart.
I’ll swing By my ankles, She’ll cling To your knees As you hang By your nose From a high-up Trapeze. Just one thing, please, As we float through the breeze– Don’t sneeze.
This year, while shopping for Christmas presents for the girls, Santa spied another Shel Silverstein book for them, A Light In The Attic.
And I hope to start reading and learning this book with the girls real soon. But first they feel compelled to finish reading another good children’s book, The Children’s Bible.
If you have some young children I invite you to explore the world of Shel Silverstein and open up their world of imagination and fondness for reading and books.