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Books
Several years ago, I had two children in my preschool music class who requested a song about tractors. I immediately began to write a song with educational value involving tractors. The following week I introduced the song, “Tractor in the Field,” to my preschool music class, which was an instant success.
From the beginning, my wife encouraged me to transform the song into a book. After careful thought, I have finally made this song into an entertaining and educational picture book. The learning objectives are color recognition, listening for rhyming words, counting, and sight word discovery. Additionally, this book helps children contemplate with the addition of open-ended questions.
In the back of this book, the reader will find the music to “Tractor in the Field.” The song is available on most streaming outlets. A video of the song is viewable on YouTube, and as of 2023, “Tractor in the Field” is our most viewed music video. I hope this book provides many hours of reading and learning satisfaction.
Letters and Doodles is designed to help young readers, illustrators, and doodlers of all ages learn to write the English alphabet. Letters and Doodles can also help young children learn cartooning by doodling with each letter, both upper and lower case. The doodle pages may also be copied for repeated use.
All the doodles in Letters and Doodles begin with the letter to doodle. Hence, the word cactus; then, a cartoon cactus doodle using the letter “C.” All twenty-six upper and lower case English letters are taught in this book, along with fifty-two individual cartoon doodles, one for both upper and lower case letters. The main objective of Letters and Doodles is to promote literacy and creativity.
My Almost Dad came about through mentoring a child who had lost his biological father. There was a stable, caring adult in his life who he referred to as his almost dad. I have two great-nephews who, in their early stages of development, occasionally called
me da-da. Other children have called me uncle, dad, or some other term which identifies me as a nurturer or an almost dad.
I challenge you, the reader of this narrative, to think about the children you have helped guide through both the perils and delights of childhood. My sincerest hope is that you will be moved to impact at least one child positively and profoundly. Perhaps that child will one day say that you are their almost dad.
