Teacher Gela Podcast

⭐️ Website : EVERYDAY FUNDAY https://everydayfunday.ca/ ⭐️ Contact me : info@everydayfunday.ca  ➡️⭐️ Instagram : @teachergela_ https://www.instagram.com/teachergela_/ ⭐️ Youtube : @teachergela https://www.youtube.com/@teachergela/  

You can be friends with your classmate. And you can be friends with your dog. And you can be friends with the tree in the backyard.  The book “Apple and Magnolia” by Laura Gehl and Patricia Metola talks about an unusual friendship.  If you want to talk about relationship with your child (between you and your child) and teach about an unusual friendship, listen to this episode. You will learn how t...

“Poems Aloud” by Joseph Coelho and Daniel Gray-Barnett is a book that is made for school-aged children. But I saw many possibilities for our young children in this book and one of them is using the book in the quality time.  Because the poems have rhyming words, mindful scenes and fun performance factors, you can read them together with your child and have a fun connecting time.  I tell you specif...

With the story of a girl and her red shoes, teach your child about letting things go.  At the toddler level, you can teach that we can let the toys go that we don’t use any more. At the preschool and kindergarten level, you can teach that we want to practice letting things go because things change and we want to be able to change as well to experience the bigger world.  We use the book “Red Shoes”...

If you are looking for an alone time, I won’t be able to help you. But if you are looking for a quiet time, I can help you have that.  In this episode, I introduce the book “The Quite Book” by Deborah Underwood (author) and Renata Liwska (illustrator) and teach you a way to have a quiet (fun) time with your child at home.  It’ll give you an opportunity to teach your child about quiet and practice...

Would you like to have a little dreaming session with your little one this week? I have a perfect book and a play idea for you! The book “Door” by Jihyeon Lee is a wordless picture book and this can help you start.  In this episode, I introduce the book “Door” and a drawing activity that you can do with your child.  If you are a fan of daydreaming like me (🥰), learn about this book and a beautifu...

Are you in the “whole-family-is-sick” week? How are you surviving with a sick child at home? In this episode, I introduce a very simple activity that you can just give it to your child to do alone or you can do together with your child for a quality time.  In February, there are Valentine’s Day and Family Day in Canada. So we are going to use hearts and a theme of family. There is a way for you to...

Does your child have many books around in her or his room? Does s/he like to read alone? In this episode, I talk about encouraging children to read alone and be confident by herself/himself.  If you were curious about wordless books, you will hear my insights on them, too.  I’m using the book “Fly!” By Mark Teague in this episode. Related blog post :  https://everydayfunday.ca/give-your-child-conf...

If your usual available time for your child is the bedtime, I have a great bedtime book suggestion.  We are using the book “The Darkest Dark” by Chris Hadfield & Kate Fillion (Illustrated by Eric Fan and Terry Fan) and I help you to create a quality time out of the ordinary bedtime.  In the episode, I talk about small points that you want to study with your child to teach meaningful lessons an...

Do you make pancakes for your child? Here is a really fun story about pancakes. Book “Set Sail for Pancakes!” by Tim Kleyn tells a story about a girl and her grandpa going on an adventure to make pancakes. I love this book not only because it motivates you to make pancakes together with your child but also because it can teach growth mindset.  The girl and her grandpa in the story shows bravery, p...

We are in the mid-January and it’s the middle of the winter! So I would say it’s the perfect time to read the book “Ten Ways to Hear Snow” by Cathy Camper (Illustrated by Kenard Pak). Can you guess ten ways to hear snow? This book can help you have a conversation with your child about family and have a mindful time on a snow day. In this episode, I talked about some points that you don’t want to m...

Everybody experiences low moments. Even toddlers and preschoolers experience them. What do you want to teach your child to overcome those inevitable times in life? I’ll show you a way in this episode 79, using the book “A Flicker of Hope” by Julia Cook.  You will be able to help your child become a positive and growth-minded human being.  Related blog post :  https://everydayfunday.ca/how-to-be-ho...

Are you ready to enjoy the holiday time? What kind of mindset can we prepare to fully enjoy the time? I would say a mindful mind. In the episode 78, I talk about a play that you can do with your child at home. It’s a play that will help you practice mindfulness skills and have a mindful mind ready for your holiday time.  Learn about this “Mindful Smelling Play” and have a wonderful holiday time!🎄...

If you get sick in December,  This is the episode that you want to remember and come back to. Unlike our desire to be fully available for our loved ones all the time, there are times that we can’t be that. Sometimes we get sick and have not much energy in us. This week’s episode is for those times. We are bringing the book that we read last week (“If You Take a Mouse to the Movies”) and will enjoy...

It’s December!  I’m so happy to talk about Christmas time! We are starting with a simple and calm play idea though. For this week’s quality time with your child, I recommend to make a paper chain for your Christmas tree. To create a fun context, we add the book “If You Take a Mouse to the Movies” by Laura Numeroff.  I tell you the two important lessons that you can teach with this book as well. Li...

It’s the time that some animals get ready to hibernate.  You can teach your child about what kinds of animal hibernate, where they go, how long they stay in hibernation etc.  But in Teacher Gela classroom, we learn about a tortoise  who couldn’t hibernate, but instead, could find good things about winter and got to like winter. Yes, it might not be so realistic but it doesn’t need to be!😏 From th...

Do you like to think about happiness? Happiness is such a big value in my life and I love to teach it to children, too. Book “Where Happiness Begins” by Eva Eland can be a great first book to learn about happiness. So for this week’s quality time, I’m suggesting this book. In the episode, you can learn about the story of the book and how you can use this book with your little preschooler. Just rea...

Is your child’s favourite toy a dump truck? Does s/he like anything about construction play? Then, you wouldn’t want to miss this episode 73! Here is a book for construction-loving children. “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site” by Sherri Duskey Rinker (author) and Tom Lichtenheld (illustrator).  The main reason, however, why I’ve brought this book for this week is because this book is a good...

Are you in a situation where you need to deal with a new environment? Or is your child in that kind of situation? I recommend you to read the book “A House for Hermit Crab” by Eric Carle with your child. Hermit Crab is a real creature in the real world who naturally faces a lot of environmental changes. (It has to find a new shell as it grows!) The Hermit Crab in the book shows an ideal way of fac...

Do you believe that you can be all sorts of things? This might be a little off-track subject but this is the thought that came to me after reading the book “All Sorts” by Pippa Goodhart.  “All Sorts” is a story of a little girl who likes to sort things. She sorts things by shape, colour, kind etc. But one day, she realizes that people on the street cannot be sorted in one easy way and they are act...

Halloween is coming in a week!👻🎃 Do you have a little toddler who does not like scary stuff? And you are thinking there is nothing you can do to enjoy Halloween with your child? You might be wrong.😙 There is a way to have fun with Halloween in a not-so-scary way and I’m teaching you the way in this episode. We are using the book “The Little Old Lady who was Not Afraid of Anything” by Linda Will...

This week, we are talking about the famous book “The Kissing Hand” by  Audrey Penn. If your child has a hard time going to school or being separated from you, this is a book to read together. In addition to the main themes - separation anxiety and mom’s love, I talk about the points that will help your child develop growth mindset.  This book can teach you and your child about the great attitude o...

I found a great new book for this week’s quality time. “Zebra in the Mirror” by Tina Arnus Pupis and Marta Bartolj shows a zebra who struggles with humiliation about her appearance. Through a quiet reflection time, she is able to overcome the negative self-image and develop self-confidence.  The story is written in an easy and simple way so toddlers and preschoolers can understand too.  I tell you...

If you are in the season of fall like me, we don’t want to miss this opportunity to talk all about apples! It’s an apple season and I’m sharing four different ways to have fun with apples. Visiting apple farms, making apple muffins together, reading a book about apples and listening to a peaceful apple poem. The main play I’m recommending is baking apple muffins together but you can hear about oth...

Do you know the scavenger hunt for mindfulness? You get a paper that has pictures of different things. You take this paper with you and go outside. As you walk in the nature, you will use your senses and find the pictured items on the paper.  I’ve used the scavenger hunt for mindfulness many times in my past lessons.  I’ve found a good book to teach about this kind of scavenger hunt. If you and yo...