In a message dated 1/14/99 9:21:54 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

>  I think my preservation ethic
>       began with the two classic stories of the 1940s by Virginia Lee Burton
-
> -
>       Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel and The Little House.
>       the original builder."

Great books!  In fact, I used them and some others in a program I gave for
kids using children's literature. Another great one is "The Bedspread" by
Sylvia Fair (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1982). This one is about 2
elderly bedridden sisters who embroider their memories of the house they grew
up in onto a quilt. Each had a very different way of remembering it, depending
on what was important to them -- and how well they could embroider! It was
great -- my sons (now 20 and 17) still remember it as one of their favorites.

I used the same idea in the class -- after we read the story, the kids drew
the house they lived in.  It came up with some interesting perspectives
(including one 8 yr old boy who produced a drawing of space ships in battle
and a 4 year old girl who drew a pony and a rainbow .... oh, well).

Mary Krugman