Welcome!
Why I write The EnjellaAdventure Series:
To foster a love of reading in all children! I believe the magic of reading is the most potent growth and intelligence developer of children. Many famous, successful people throughout the centuries attribute their knowledge and achievements to the education they gave themselves through reading.
Reading together with your children is the best gift you can give them! I know, sometimes you want to sprinkle magic powder on them and make them disappear (!) but most days, there are magical moments when the bond you struggle so hard to establish blooms into an unexpected hug, or a shared revelation. When the goal is raising the best child you can, arming them with the skills they need to survive in this world, and fostering a relationship of mutual love, there is no wrong approach.
We mothers feel this incredible burden to be SuperMoms.
We can’t work hard enough, read enough, teach our children enough, and be there with them enough. But the reality is that just trying to be present for our children IS enough. Enough to show them they are loved and cared for and they have someone in their life that tries, and then the next day, tries again, to continually strengthen the connection between them.
There is no wrong way to share interests with your child! We get bombarded with information – and told what to do, yet there are many different ways to sustain a close relationship in spite of daily frustrations and time demands. Moms don’t have to like going to the park, or messy art projects, we can get as much bonding time out of engaging our children in cleaning up the play area together as we can from a trip to the zoo. It just takes the right mindset and a little practice.
Reading to and with my children was one of my favorite ways to connect (and then after a hard day re-connect) with my energetic multi-interested group. Enjella the Elbow Fairy magically appeared in our lives to fill a gap I perceived in age-appropriate reading material. I was always searching for books that we could read together to pass on one of the greatest gifts I could give my children – a love of reading. The Enjella Adventures have been written with that magical bond in mind, that our hopes for our children can come to fruition through our efforts to guide them and help them grow and pass on our passions. So have fun with it!!! Connect with your children as you read the stories with them, or to them, or even watch them read the books themselves.
Please let me know what you thought of Enjella and what your kids thought! Review it on Amazon, or leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.
I hope you enjoy sharing and spreading the magic.
Do We Really Want Our Kids Accepting a Surveillance State?
Granted, it is a subtle line: doing the right thing because someone will not bring you toys if you don’t and doing the right thing to become a better person. But at the time of the year when the world refocuses on a dialogue of peace and harmony among all people, do we want to emphasize to children the only reason to do the right thing is because Santa won’t bring us presents if we are bad?
Do we want them to accept a life where someone is watching us and reporting all of our transgressions to a higher authority?
I thought that was old school. Our grandmothers taught good behavior that way. After all “… He sees you when you’re sleeping//He knows when you’re awake.” In the olden days, many faith traditions ‘encouraged’ good behavior with fire, brimstone and the threat of damnation if base human frailties could not be subdued.
I believe New Age leaders like Deepak Chopra when he speaks optimistically about the evolved higher consciousness of the world. Part of this elevated state involves continuing to focus this holiday season less on commercialism and more on good will to all.
In this busiest of seasons, let’s put the pieces together for our angels. I will try to go the extra mile and find teachable moments for children, rather than letting an elf spy on them.
“So be good for goodness sake!” © Jane F. Collen December 6, 2023
"Pioneer Passage: The Journey of Cornelia Rose Book 3 is the third but hopefully not the last of author J.F. Collen’s epic story of a journey across America, taken by Cornelia Rose and her family in the mid-1800s. Cornelia Rose has left her beloved family and her lovely home in Sing Sing, New York to dutifully follow her husband, Obadiah, who has recently been appointed a Federal Court Justice in the territory of Utah. To reach the great Salt Lake City required a dangerous and arduous wagon journey on the famous Oregon Trail where mountain crossings, deep river fords, restless Native Americans and dangerous animals await these intrepid emigrants.