Noby and the Tricky Things

ABOUT THE BOOK
FAMILY ACTIVITIES

Noby and the Tricky Things

text: Lou Peackock / illustrations: Christine Pym

Nouby has become a “big” boy, certainly older than his little sister, but some things are still difficult for him. This is a story about a child’s journey towards independence and the challenges that accompany it, especially the presence of a younger brother/sister who shares the child’s parental interest.

Family Activities

This is a beautiful story, highly sensitive to the child’s path towards independence, on the one hand, and his need for the support and encouragement of his parents when a new child is born in the family, on the other.

Video

Dear Parents,

The story describes the things that Noby is able to do, and the things he needs support and assistance with, and shows the beautiful mediation of the mother, who, despite her preoccupation with the infant, constitutes a model for parenting, as she improves Noby’s confidence in himself and enhances his independence and sense of ability, by highlighting behaviors that give him an opportunity to understand himself and build his personality, at the same time supporting him and making sure that she will always be there for him.

Family Activities

About empowering the child and his sense of ability: We can talk about the things that Noby can do, the things that he finds difficult to do, and the feelings that accompany that. We can talk to our children about the things they can do, which they weren’t able to do but can now do.
About the feelings accompanying the birth of a brother: The birth of a small child in the family carries mixed feelings of joy and jealousy in the child who has become an older brother. We can talk about the feelings of Noby, and we can ask our children about their feelings at the birth of a brother and the reasons they feel like that.
About independence and support: We can follow the mother’s looks and her communication with Noby, which allow him to be independent on the one hand and supports him on the other. We can talk to our child about the things that make them feel old, and we can also ask them if there are things that make them feel small, and how they want us to support them.
Intellectual and emotional dictionary: the story contains intellectual vocabulary, for example: I thought; I believed. It also contains emotional vocabulary, for example: I felt; I could; I needed; I got angry. It is important for our child to acquire these concepts, to use them in their daily lives to describe emotional states, which allows our child to express their feelings and thoughts, and to facilitate their use during dialogue.
We can prepare a growth ladder and call it the “time ruler:” we can choose a wall or a place in the house, and we can continue to record the child’s height on it. We can choose pictures of our child at different ages and stick them together in a long album like a ruler that we prepare from cardboard and that we can decorate. We can talk about the capabilities of our child at every age, from the day they are born until today.