Season's greetings!

Welcome to the last ECA WebWatch for the year. This bumper issue contains lots of helpful suggestions for getting through the silly season. We begin with several fantastic links to advice on celebrating festivals with young children: how to minimise hassle and maximise fun.

Stuck with last-minute Christmas shopping? ECA WebWatch has a guide to some of the best books available for babies, toddlers, school-starters and for families to share.

If you're trying to find the perfect present for a colleague, what about a gift membership to Early Childhood Australia? Advice on how to purchase ECA Gift Memberships is below, as is our usual collection of quality-assured resources.

Early Childhood Australia wishes you safety and fun through the next few weeks and looks forward to bringing you another year of ECA WebWatch in 2007.

Best wishes!

Celebrating with young children

Family matters: Celebrations and events
Family celebrations such as Christmas and birthdays can be fraught with potential problems.

The Family Matters website provides succinct, sensible advice to deal with a whole range of seasonal troubles, from family conflict to 'pester power'.

The site also contains a guide to having the best-ever family Christmas and 10 top tips for family events.

Books to treasure

These books are must-haves for your service. They also make perfect Christmas presents for young ones.

Babies and toddlers

When I was a baby by Deborah Niland (Puffin Baby, 2006)
This charming, small-format paperback describes a boy's life from infancy as he grows up to be a 'big boy' with a new baby sister.

My first ABC by Pamela Allen (Puffin Baby, 2006)
Pamela Allen's bold, energetic illustrations leap off the pages. An added bonus is that she uses characters from her stories for each letter of the alphabet.

A goodnight kind of feeling by Tony Bradman and Georgie Birkett (Puffin, 2006)
A lovely bedtime book that describes a father and a child’s perfect day.

Chatterbox by Margaret Wild and Deborah Niland (Penguin Viking, 2006)
Everyone worries that Max's baby sister won't talk. They try everything, but to no avail. Then, one glorious day, she opens her mouth and ... repeats every word she's ever heard!

Preschoolers

Grandpa and Thomas and the green umbrella by Pamela Allen (Penguin, 2006)
Grandpa and Thomas go to the beach. They have a lovely day until the sun goes down and the wind comes up. The relationship between the two characters is delightful and there is fun and laughter aplenty. The story lends itself to investigating sounds and letters.

A particular cow by Mem Fox and Terry Denton (Penguin Viking, 2006)
This is one of those stories that accumulates characters as it rolls along: the run-away cow picks up a postman, some dogs and even a bride and groom! It's terrific fun to read aloud and guess what will happen next.

Dimity Dumpty by Bob Graham (Walker Books, 2006)
Another charming story from Bob Graham, who captures family life with humour and affection. Dimity is, of course, Humpty Dumpty's sister and she—contrary to the nursery rhyme—saves her naughty brother after his fall.

School-starters

Uno's garden by Graeme Base (Penguin Viking, 2006)
This is an extraordinary book for all ages. Graeme Base is an amazing illustrator whose pictures are worth poring over again and again. The garden is a paradise at the beginning but too many people move in and spoil it so Uno has to restore balance. There are also number games for clever readers.

Winston, the book wolf by Marni McGee and Ian Beck (Bloomsbury, 2006)
Children who are familiar with the 'wicked wolf' in other stories will love the word-eating Winston. Clever Rosie finds a way to get Winston into the library where he becomes very popular as a story-telling 'Granny'—even if his tail still shows.

Library lion by Michelle Knudsen and Kevin Hawkes (Walker Books, 2006)
Another 'strange animal in the library' book about a lonely lion who just wants to help. Libraries have many rules, but the lion has to break one to save Miss Merriweather.

Emily's Rapunzel hair by Cecily Matthews and Freya Blackwood (ABC Books, 2005)
This is a good introduction to chapter books, as Emily's story is divided into sequenced sections with strong supporting illustrations. It contains a lot of text and is best read with emerging readers before they tackle it independently.

Books for families to share

These are hard-cover, quite-expensive books for families to read to older children and to keep for forthcoming generations.

The fairy tales translated by David Walsher and illustrated by Jan Pienkowski (Puffin, 2005)
Four traditional fairy tales—Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and Cinderella—beautifully re-told with stunning illustrations. Fairy and folk tales often have 'scary bits', so adults need to choose carefully in order to match a child's age and level of understanding.

Aladdin and the enchanted lamp re-told by Philip Pullman and illustrated by Sophy Williams (Scholastic, 2004)
The magical tale of Aladdin with all of its exotic mystery is vividly re-told by a master storyteller. The rich, luminous illustrations bring the story alive for a new generation of readers and listeners.

Lugalbanda: The boy who was caught up in a war told by Kathy Henderson and illustrated by Jane Ray (Walker Books, 2006)
This is the oldest written story in the world, from the land we now call Iraq. It tells of Lugalbanda and a magical bird that grants his wish. The beauty of the ancient culture that produced this story is captured well by the sophisticated illustrations.

ECA Gift Membership

Need a gift for the person who has everything?

Why not give an ECA Gift Membership to a friend or colleague.

Membership to Early Childhood Australia contributes to our advocacy work in supporting high-quality experiences for young children and those who care for them.

Early Childhood Australia membership includes the following fantastic benefits:

• Up-to-date news and information through the popular Every Child magazine, Voice newsletter and state/territory branch newsletters.
• Opportunities to make contacts through participation in state/territory branch events.
• Discounted attendance at Early Childhood Australia conferences.
• Practical information and support through the Research in Practice Series, as well as the latest research and debate via the Australian Journal of Early Childhood.

You can order ECA Gift Membership through the Early Childhood Australia website.

Place your order by 15 December in order to ensure delivery pre-Christmas!

Early Childhood Australia books

Revisiting celebrations with young children emphasises the importance of children and families seeing the significant community events in home life reflected in their educational life.

Children, meaning -making and the arts covers all of the diverse fields within arts education for the young child, advocating how the arts offer highly relevant and significant forms of knowing.

All books are quality assured by Early Childhood Australia.

Let us know what you think! We welcome any suggestions or comments you have: webwatch@earlychildhood.org.au

Past issues of ECA WebWatch are available on the Early Childhood Australia website.

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ECA WebWatch - Issue 20, December 2006. Early Childhood Australia.