Do you have that someone in your family who is always reminding you to finish all the food in your plate, to turn off the tap when not in use, not to waste paper?
I remember in my childhood, my grandma used to nag at us for not finishing the food, she'd shower with cold water, have a tiny notebook where she'd write her important contacts and their phone numbers, use little handkerchiefs instead of tissue paper, and more!
Perhaps coming from their decades of living with little, often the elderly in our midst are more aware of wastage of precious resources they didn't have freely.
Perhaps we have taken potable water, clean tap water, meals on our table, paper to write on for granted! They aren't very costly, we may think, but they can be over time! Wastage definitely taxes the earth and is not a sustainable nor responsible way to live.
This is a book of a little boy and his grandma reminding him not to be wasteful, but to be more mindful of his little habits.
What we love:
- Bright, bold illustrations that really pop up - my 1, 6 and 8 year olds enjoy the drawings!
- Adorable characters in the home setting, which is really relatable
- Simple storyline to follow
- The cute ending! When the sky is dark, Granny prefers to turn off the light! It's time to sleep anyway, and it definitely saves electricity.
Conversation starters:
- What does wasting mean? 浪费是什么意思？
- Why shouldn't we waste resources? 为什么不应该浪费资源呢？
- Where does water come from? 水是从哪里来的？
- Does everyone in the world have access to clean water? 世界各地的人都有干净的水吗？
- How can we do our part to be responsible stewards of earth's finite resources?
Extension activities:
- We had fun making a speech bubble, to do picture talking on our subsequent reads to add a bit of interactive fun.
- Orange peel bath just like the boy in the book!
- Make a cardboard monster out of recyclables, just like in the book
- Act out the scenes in the book
We love the quirkiness of the 婆婆 and my younger girl likes to act like the 婆婆 to “terrorize” us. As the reading is accompanied with lots of laughter, the kids tend to ask for it again and again. There’s also lots of opportunities to discuss ways we can reduce wastage at home.
Bought this book because it seemed like a good book on teaching children about waste - which is what it is! It has many examples of how we can reduce waste, but also comes with a silly twist of how the granny wanted to lick her grandson's face because he had rice grains all over. Made both adults and kids laugh while we learned about ways we can reduce our waste (like only putting just enough amount of food that we can finish)!
