Making a Birthday Book of Knowledge

Wednesdays with Whitney: Celebrating Knowledge

In their book Playwise Denise Chapman Weston and Mark S. Weston explain that children have a natural appetite for information and that their caregivers must nurture their curiosity in order for them to enjoy acquiring knowledge.

After reading their book it is clear that nannies help parents prepare the ground for a fertile learning environment. A child’s knowledge blossoms when there is an open and a non-critical learning atmosphere in their home. In this setting, a child feels good about learning and they become individuals who remain active knowledge seekers.

Nannies should celebrate the knowledge the children in their care acquire. With knowledge children can make better decisions. Knowledge allows children to ask questions and challenge information that doesn’t make sense or feels wrong. With knowledge children know the joy of feeling the pieces click into place — that moment of awareness when they say, “Aha! I get it!”

Making a "Birthday Book of Knowledge" is a great way for nannies and children to celebrate the knowledge the children have acquired each year. In preparation for a child’s birthday, nannies should record all the things he has learned over the past year in a large notebook.

Caregivers should include practical information (how to make peanut butter sandwich), academic acheivments, sports skills, and more. Nannies can treat the book like a journal and date each entry or they can sit down with the child and recall the physical feats, intellectual growth, and bits of knowledge the child acquired since his last birthday together.

You can also add information throughout the year. But then, tuck it away and don't read the entire book until the following year. On each birthday present the new book and read the old ones. When the child flips back through the books he will be proud to have a concrete symbol of his vast knowledge.

Stop by our new address next week for more fun projects by Whitney.