Last fall I went with my daughter to meet children’s book author and illustrator Jan Brett. She came to the Boise area as part of her holiday book signing tour (if you go to the Magazine’s Facebook page, there’s a photo of me with Mrs. Brett).

        We enjoyed reading her books when my daughter was little and looking at her whimsical Scandinavian illustrations, which fill the colorful pages of her books.

        Years ago the Magazine even used her book The Mitten as our inspiration and theme for a small tree that we decorated for the Saint Alphonsus Festival of Trees.

        So that morning, my daughter and I waited in line for a couple of hours with our favorite Jan Brett books cradled in our arms. We added to the stack her new holiday book, The Night Before Christmas, and another book that I bought that morning. I just had to introduce my two little nephews to the world of elk, reindeer, trolls, and of course, hedgehogs.

        The two hours passed quickly as we chatted with others in the line. Many parents brought their small children with them, but many were moms like me—coming to meet Jan Brett, whose books they remembered reading to their young children.

        Some of my greatest memories are from sharing my love of books with my daughter and reading to her when she was little. And now here we were, years later, standing in line together to meet a favorite children’s book author of ours. This is my year for a lot of reminiscing, walking down memory lane with our now senior-high daughter.

        As we were working on our February early learning issue, I couldn’t help but reflect on our daughter’s own early learning years. Reading through the editorial features that you’ll find in this issue, the tips, ideas, advice, and more, I thought, “I wonder how her father and I did—how did we fare when it came to her early education?”

        The answer is “we’ll see,” because she’s not done learning yet; she’s not done experiencing new things while on her life-long education journey. Hopefully we’ve helped lay the foundation, and her early learning years will progress into a lifetime of learning.

        She recently received a welcoming and congratulatory letter from the president of her chosen university. Maybe college acceptance letters like this could be copied to students’ parents, too: “Welcome to the next step in your child’s academic journey and congratulations for the early learning and educational foundation that you helped build.”

        Pretty soon she’ll begin to build her own memories at college. If she has time to send a letter, email, or text to us, I hope it starts with “Things are great—the journey is going well!” And I hope she includes, “Miss you!”

        Looking for more answers? Pick up your free copy of the 2012 edition of Treasure Valley Family Resources today, or click and read its digital edition at www.treasurevalleyfamily.com.