Family Briefs

I hate clearing books off the kids’ shelves, I mean they’re BOOKS!  You don’t throw out things that are GOOD for you, do you?  But the truth is, we simply have too many (’course, we have “too many” of a LOT of things).  Now that the youngest is 3, there are several books we can pass along to the library, other children we know, charitable organizations, or sell at the local consignment store.  It’s still hard to part with them . . . .

. . . but when I stumbled across this, my guilt went away!

From Unclutterer:

“My wife and I recently discovered the website One More Story. It is a great way to supplement your child’s book collection while increasing her reading comprehension and basic computing skills. The site has the equivalent of books on tape with highlighted words. The site also includes illustrations, sound effects, and music with certain stories. A demonstration is available for preview. “

They offer a number of ways to use their online library, and the annual subscription rate is only $44 - I spent more than that at the last school book fair!  And this website won’t clutter my house at all.  Check it out!

In light of the recent tragedy in Haiti and Chile, Sylvan Dell Publishing is doing its part to help parents and teachers educate children about earthquakes. For the entire month of March, the Panda’s Earthquake Escape eBook will be available on the Sylvan Dell Web site for free.

Pandas’ Earthquake Escape, written by Phyllis Perry and with stunning illustrations by Susan Detwiler, follows the adventures of a mother panda, LiLing, and her cub, Tengfei, for several days after the devastating earthquake that hit China two years ago. Perry’s story follows the two pandas’ quest to survive outside the comfort of their reserve.

The eBook features read-aloud, auto page flip, and selectable English and Spanish text and audio. This title is also available in hardcover and paperback. We hope this book is enjoyed and helps children understand world events around them.

When I have the time, I keep the house pretty clean, rotating those big tasks (like cleaning the oven, scrubbing baseboards, washing windows, and dusting ceiling fans) periodically throughout the year. As such, my spring cleaning is more of a de-cluttering. I’d like to say that I have an organized way to attack all the accumulation from the previous year, but I don’t. Whatever mood strikes me is where I choose to attack.

Today it was the garage. Our garage, like most, lacks air conditioning. When the sun is out and it’s 90^o, the mood is not likely to strike to go clean it. Today, however, it rained most of the day - thereby keeping out the mosquitoes and lowering the heat (the humidity, however, is another issue).

Working through some of the kids stuff, I found myself sorting the Play-Doh (tossing the old stuff while they weren’t looking), putting the right color Play-Doh back in the “can” with the coordinating lid - thanks to my OCD. I gathered all the cap gun stuff back in it’s box, put all the propellers back with their respective shooters, and put all the paint supplies back in the paint drawer. It’s a very cleansing feeling - getting everything sorted and back in it’s proper place . . . of course it’ll all be undone by this time tomorrow.

See, when things are cleaned and in their proper places, the kids can find them - it’s like having Christmas all over again! Including the fallout afterwards. Now, I do have my kids clean up after themselves like any self-respecting parent would, but they aren’t as good at putting everything in it’s proper place - their method is more a cram it somewhere and run off to get something else out.

I’m hoping Packy the pack rat can help us a bit with our sorting. Sort it Out! is a wonderful tale about a pack rat who collects things. When his mother has enough and instructs him to sort it out and put it all away, that’s just what he does. This rhyming story by Sylvan Dell Publishing is such a fun read, but I think I love the pictures by Sherry Rogers the most. The fun, bright animations remind me of “I Spy” books - there are so many fun things to find on each and every page. On the first page, for example, the fence is made of paper clips; the wagon wheels are tinker toys; the doormat is made of dominoes - LOTS of fun things to find.

As the pages go by, Packy, discovers lots of different ways to sort out his treasures. I love the way the sorted items are put into one succinct rhyming word that is to be found on the adjoining page . . .

“The turtle, the clover, the skinny string bean,
he placed in a pile made of things that are . . . green.”

This has been great for my almost five-year-old who is learning to read.  She has just enough clues to find the word on the adjoining page and shout out, “Green!”  Now, if I could just get her to carry that enthusiasm over into sorting out her stuffed animals into a pile that we could find a new home for, I’d be excited too!

As with all the Sylvan Dell Publishing books, there are activities at the end of the book to keep you talking with your kids about the story.  There are hidden picture challenges, a scientist’s sorting chart, Packy’s sorting cards (which we’ll copy and cut out to “practice” our sorting), and a writing project to stimulate kids’ creativity.

I think I’m gonna head over to their store and buy me a cuddly packrat . . . just to remind me to sort out my own stuff and keep it in it’s place (and toss anything that doesn’t have a place as I’m sure Packy’s mom will do when he’s not looking :-)       ).

There is an area just below our excuse-for-a- garden (3 blueberry bushes, struggling strawberries, a fruitless fig tree, and a lone cabbage school experiment) that is becoming something of a jungle. Not that Tarzan would feel safe swinging on any of the vines, but he’d at least find some prickly shade under the young mimosa tree. The prickles are attached to a thriving blackberry bush - something of a slap in the face for all the work we’ve put in on the strawberries.

I had plans to go out and chop through all the undergrowth and restore order from chaos, but the kids don’t want me to disturb the blackberries. They’ve read “Blackberry Banquet” by Terry Pierce, one of the books in our Sylvan Dell library, and they want to try the “juiciest berries any critter could eat.” I’ve tried to explain they are not critters and probably won’t be nearly as fond of the blackberries as the mouse, bluebird, and squirrel in the story. After all, we’ve seen plenty of these critters stealing our blueberries (despite the net)!

And while I doubt that a bear is going to tromp through the yard looking for our delectable blackberries, I”ve tried to convince the kids that by “flaunting” these berries outside the net, we might be at risk for just that! Apparently, they are all FEARLESS, as the blackberry bush remains. Heck, I might as well just clean out around it and integrate it into the garden. That’s my best hope for getting rid of it, ’cause it’s sure to wither and die once it’s a part of the garden!

**Find out more about the educational books at Sylvan Dell Publishing. Each one of their books has a wonderful section for learning more after each story. There are questions to discuss, recipes to try, and things to think about.**

Seems our community is running rampant with a stomach virus. Some of the company we had on Thanksgiving Day came down with it just hours after leaving (it wasn’t my cooking, honest!). We’re so glad to have narrowly escaped the vomiting and diarrhea, especially with small children!

I’m not so sure we’ll be so lucky to escape a bad case of stripes; I can already see the early symptoms in at least two of my children - the two who care what other people think. What? You’ve never heard of this dreaded disease? I hadn’t either until we found it at the library - a book, that is, by David Shannon.

A Bad Case of Stripes is a delightful story about a young girl who loves lima beans. Now, she didn’t tell her friends this, of course, because no kid likes lima beans and she wanted to fit in. She cared a lot about what other people thought of her, so much so that she had a terrible time choosing her outfit for the first day of school.

Of course, who cares about what clothes you’re wearing when your body is covered in bright, bold, rainbow stripes? This is exactly what happens to Camilla Cream as she’s trying to get dressed for that first day of school. Her mother sends her to bed and calls the doctor, but Dr. Bumble can’t seem to find a reason to keep her home from school.

At school the next day, Camilla is laughed at by everyone. Of course, when her stripes changed to red, white, and blue with stars during the Pledge of Allegiance, her classmates began shouting out different designs. Sure enough, her skin changed to match the polka dots, chekerboard, and camouflage patterns that were being called out.

The specialists are called in; the experts are called in; even an Environmental Therapist is called, but Camilla’s condition only seems to worsen. No one can determine a cure for this odd skin condition that seems to take on the colors and shapes ofwhatever they mention (especially yucky when the experts talk about viruses and fungi).

Only when a sweet, plump, old woman stops by and offers to help, does Camilla seem to have a chance. The woman offers Camilla some lima beans. “”Are those magic beans?” asked Mrs. Cream. “Oh my, no,” replied the kind old woman. “There’s no such thing. These are just plain old lima beans. I’ll bet you’d like some, wouldn’t you?” she asked Camilla.”

Just after refusing the lima beans, Camilla finally admits that she really does like lima beans. As she eats the beans, Camilla is cured.

Oh, if only the stripes were really that easy to get rid of. But aren’t they? Maybe not after one dose of being ourselves, but after regularly practicing being ourselves - you know, on a daily basis. Getting dressed in the morning with no one else in mind but ourselves - not what others will think, but what do I think of the clothes I’m putting on?

I’m so glad that my oldest daughter (who currently cares quite a bit about what others think - and she’s only FOUR!) absolutely loves this book - don’t tell her, but she’s getting it for Christmas (the library wants their copy back :). Hopefully, she’ll see the hidden message amongst the pages and learn to make choices for herself and not for others.

Happy Reading!

A friend of mine, who is not a book lover, likes reading my book reviews. She knows the importance of reading to her child, but she has no idea which of the MILLIONS of available children’s books to choose. Since she just had her first child a few months ago, she asked me to suggest some good books for babies.

While I was pregnant with our first child, my husband and I read aloud to each other from The Runaway Jury, by John Grisham. Shortly after he was born, we finished reading it to him. Now, I’m not suggesting that you read John Grisham or Stephen King to your children; but I am saying that when children are very young, it doesn’t matter what you read to them as much as THAT you read to them. So if you aren’t into children’s books, you can get away with reading them something you like when they’re really really young (unfortunately that changes as they grow, and they are likely to choose your least favorite book as their all-time-have-to-read-it-every-night favorite!)

As they get a bit older and you want to begin drawing them into the world of books, a popular choice for years has been Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt. When I received this book at our first baby shower, everyone else seemed to recognize it as THE children’s book to have. I felt like I’d been living under a rock somewhere for the last decade - “what kind of mother is she going to make if she doesn’t even know about Pat the Bunny???” Well, that’s what they said in their minds . . . if nothing else, perhaps this review will save you from that embarrassment.

Pat the Bunny is an enjoyable little interactive “touch and feel” book, there are several others in the Pat the Bunny series that I enjoy more (for varying reasons). I think one of my favorites is Five Red Apples. There are five plastic apples across the top of the book that slide back and forth. Presumably for counting, but I love how they entertain my youngest in the car! Another in the series, called Butterfly Roundup, is also great for entertainment value - there is a plastic bunny that swirls around up and down a little pole, so the butterfly seems to be fluttering around.

Another Pat the Bunny series favorite is Sweet Dreams. This little book has a extension attached to the book that has a plastic bunny with a push button. When you push the button, the bunny lights up! One of our children enjoyed sleeping with this book in their bed - if she got scared, she had control of her own nightlight (in addition to the three that were already on, of course!).

Within this same series, we also received a fabric book, called Sleepy Bunny. It has a stuffed bunny on a string that you can slip into a pocket so he looks like he’s “in” some of the pictures in the book - all of course while working his way to bed! Several of my children like to sleep with books, and soft ones like this make it easy to say, “yes!”

If you’re looking for more books with textures, we really like DK Publishing’s “Touch and Feel” series. We have the Baby Animals book, but I’ve seen others that are equally good. The bunny fur feels so real to me, and I love the leather for the baby elephant’s ears. And of course you can tell your little one, “They are all babies, just like you!”

My favorite tactile book is That’s Not My Puppy by Fiona Watt (Usborne books). This book goes through all these different dogs with, “That’s not my puppy!” and then says why it’s not (its coat is too hairy, or its collar is too shiny, etc.). The various textures presented combined with the repetitive nature of the story, makes this such a fun read for children AND adults!

Enjoy these and may others and snuggle up and read tonight!

I just hate when my children select a bedtime story that doesn’t help get them ready for bed! They have some books that make noises; some that require you to get up and dance; others that have scary stories or pictures. I’m often able to reject these non-sleep-inducing books before we’ve snuggled in to read, but sometimes those library books surprise me. So much for a smooth transition to bedtime!

But there were no surprises in the book, Animals are Sleeping, from Sylvan Dell Publishing. The story begins with, “Shhh . . . shhh . . . the animals are sleeping . . . ,” and proceeds to show a wide variety of animals asleep in different positions in their habitats. The short and simple text on each page allows children to soak in the rich illustrations, and the illustrations lend themselves to mini-nature explorations. For example, on the page with the groundhog, my 3-year-old loved pointing out the dandelions above ground - she calls these “blowing flowers.” Another picture with birds perched in a tree lent itself to a discussion about what kind of birds we were seeing, the fact that one of the birds is facing opposite of all the others, and how many colors we could count on the birds.

Because the book is not FULL of text, it’s easy to increase or decrease your discussion based on how much time you have before bedtime! And, of course, all the discussion opportunities within the story are in addition to the activities available at the back of the book. There are also “Learning Links” and “Teaching Activities” available on ’s Web site.

So, if your kids are sleepy (and even if they’re not), this might be just the story for you to send them off to dreamland with! Happy reading!

There’s nothing like the budding of spring to get me itching to get outside and enjoy a little nature. There’s nothing like the onslaught of pollen to get me sneezing and running back inside. Ah well, nature has it’s moments!

As we have been watching the backyard become more and more green, losing the drab brown of winter, we’ve also noticed all the extra activity - the squirrels, chipmunks, and birds are busy, busy, busy! Just last week, there were more Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve recorded a few podcasts and just felt like they weren’t clicking, so we’ve been on “sabbatical” and worked on a new format. We’ve tried lots of different things, and now we finally have something to share with you. We’d love some feedback - take a listen and let us know what you think!

During the family meeting segment, we mention Read the rest of this entry »

I have no problem “falling back” in the fall - though I may not always make good use of that extra hour, I fully appreciate it! I think I’ve mentioned that “springing forward” gives me a bad case of jet lag!

I’m not tired at the “right” time, and I’d really like to sleep until 7 on the weekends. But my 19-month-old has other plans. Despite my thinking that her internal alarm that was waking her at 5-ish would be corrected with the time change, I was wrong. We were up again today at 5.

The older kids are having trouble too - they aren’t sleepy at the “new” bedtime. I’m sure it has nothing to do with their Read the rest of this entry »