Parenting Tips: Neater Clothes pt 2

OK, so last week I blogged about ideas for helping kids keep their folded clothes folded.  Today, how can they get them folded  in the first place.  NO, not by you folding them.  By them folding their own shirts. Shirts seem scary to fold, but their are two really simple ways to fold shirts that you can teach children easily.

#1- Buy a Flip and Fold.
I know, most "As seen on TV" things are pretty useless, but this is actually really helpful.  Even developmentally challenged kids can learn by using a flip n fold.  After a while they will no longer need the tool, but can do it on their own in just a few simple steps.  Yes, it's $19 but wouldn't you pay $19 to get your kids to fold their own shirts????

#2- Make Your Own Folding Machine!
If you want to save the $19 and get the kids involved, check out this kids' video for how to make your own Flip n Fold! It's easy and kid-doable as demonstrated by these students and set to the Mission Impossible theme music! [There are also other youTube videos for making your own. ]

#2- Learn the Japanese system for folding t-shirts. 
In just three quick and easy steps a shirt becomes neatly folded.  I don't find it any better than my system BUT...My kiddos are usually awestruck when they first see it done.  "How did you DO that?" etc. Teach them so they can amaze their friends at camp of sleepovers.  They will be a hit! Best of all, they will be so intrigued that, like practicing a "magic" trick, they will soon be able to fold [or Re-fold] their own clothes!

#3- Teach them your favorite way.
I have my own 3 step system that I find just as easy as either of the above, but that's because I have had so much practice! [:-)   The advantage of the two systems above is that neither is "Mom's system" and... anyone with adolescents or teens knows that any system will be preferred to "Mom's" system!

Video thanks and credits to youTube

School Bell: Organize School Projects

About now in households across the country kids are struggling with that last "big" project for history or science.  Whether it is a model of the solar system, a whale report, a policy paper or other research project,  many kids and parents are pulling their hair out.  Sadly, I have no magic cure.  But here is a strategy to try.

Remember that the goals usually are:
1-- to teach your child how to break big projects and tasks into smaller component parts,
2-- to help them learn to work piece by piece rather than to leave it all to the last minute,
3-- to explore or summarize a topic, idea, or concept.
The goal is NOT to frustrate your child or discourage them!

So...
1-Sit with your child and help them break the project into parts. Take a freebie giveaway calendar or make a calendar between now and the due date.  Schedule in the in-vetween deadline goals to be finished two days ahead [to allow for emergencies or for the fun of handing it in early!].

2- Challenge your child to work XX number of minutes each day to get to that week's goal. [If you can do it with 10-15 min per day it works best.  If it takes more [ex 30 minutes a day] break the 30 minutes into 10-15 minute chunks so the frustration level stays under control yet progress is visible and steady.

3. Choose a reward [I'll use an ice cream sundae party as my example.]

4. Each day they reach the goal put a piece of the reward in place. [sprinkles in a basket or on the shelf, ice ream cones, choc sauce, etc.] This helps them see progress and motivates them to finish.

OR

4. Draw a picture or make a "ticket" for the reward and hole punch it each time they reach a mini-goal. So for example after 5 punches they get a dish of ice cream at home, after 10 they get an ice cream cone at a local spot, after 15 [when the final project is handed in] they can invite a friend [or two]  over for a make-you-own sundaes buffet celebration

Alternative to ice cream: movie night, dinner out, trip to a fun park, etc.... choose it to match your child and the difficulty of the project. .

Image thanks and credits to: telegraph.co.uk, loving your child.com, oregonlive.com,

Anything Can Happen: Super Moon & Moon Games

The local news ran a story about this weekend's "Super Moon" caused when the moon is closest to the earth.  It made me remember some amazing, creative photos that I had seen a long time ago by a French photographer.  It took me quite a while [and made this post a bit late] but with the help of today's internettechnology, I finally found them. Photos of stars, of eclipses, of new moons, harvest moons, and more.

I love when someone's creativity and skill creates something wonderful as in full of wonder. Here are just a few of Laurent Laveder's stunning efforts.  When you can, visit the website with several photo galleries of his work.  Bookmark it.  Go back and visit it again and again.  Show your children.  Celebrate the creativity and imagination on Anything Can Happen Day of someone who thought "What would happen if...." and created such images! Maybe you too can learn to play with the stars and, this weekend, with a Super Moon!

Maybe a game of catch




Or  hula hoop?


Or perhaps you can catch the moon and balance it on your finger...

Or move it around for a better view.


Be inspired!  Anything Can Happen! !


Image credit, thanks and awe to Laurent Laveder

Quick Takes: Inspire!

Last Saturday I shared my favorite movie [fictional] to get kids thinking about changes they can make.  I mentioned a book of true stories to follow up. Here are two more books that should be part of your home library or community library.  Borrow one and choose chapters that fit your particular child or children. Don't wait for them to read it.  Read a chapter to them.  Talk about it the next night at dinner. Maybe make it a weekly tradition this summer! Find things around your own community that your child can DO.  Help them see they can make a difference!

1. Real Stories, Real Kids, Real Change:
   Courageous Actions Around the World
   by Garth Sundem
  pub: Free Spirit Publishing,  2010

  Thirty true stories of teens and kids as young as 6 years old who through heart, stubbornness, and courage achieved significant change. Very current [including a story from the tsunami and other events the kids may recognize from the news] This is a GREAT book to own and to recommend.  Inspire your kids to believe that change and courage come in all sizes, all ages, all nationalities, all genders... and how might it be living in each of them?

2. Kids with Courage: 
    True Stories about Young People Making a Difference
   by Barbara A. Lewis
   pub: Free Spirit Publishing 1992 [but still cool!]

This is an older book, but its stories are still moving. It includes 18 individual stories of courage broken down into the areas of crime, social action, heroism, and the environment.





Image credits and thanks to: jacketflap.com, freespirit.com

Quick Takes: My Favorite Movie to Inspire

I recently had the chance to see one of my all time favorite movies and realized I had never posted a recommendation for it on this  blog.  The movie is a very little known story from 1987:

Amazing Grace and Chuck

 The two leads in the movie are played by a young boy [his only movie I think] and a pro basketball player, Alex English, which may have contributed to the movie being overlooked by many.  However the movie also boasts some serious star power.... Gregory Peck playing the President of the United States, Jamie Lee Curtis, a young [pre-CSI] William Peterson plays the boy's dad, and Frances Conroy plays his mother. Avid TV and movie viewers will also recognize other familiar lesser known faces in various supporting roles. Mike Newell directed the movie and later went on to direct hits such as "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Enchanted April."

This 1987 movie does not pretend to be a realistic way of ending the threat of war but deliberately and literally leaves viewers with the message... "but wouldn't it be nice."  Although the movie is fiction and takes place at a time when the fears and political enemies were different,  I have used this movie with my kiddos and my students to start the conversation about the impact that anyone, even a child, can have when they champion a cause.

To follow up with real-life examples I share chapters from a wonderful, award-winning book:
It's Our World ,Too!- Young People Who Are Making a Difference: How They Do It and You Can, Too!   by Philip Hoose. It won a Christopher Award for "artistic excellence in books affirming the highest values of the human spirit. Every chapter celebrates a child or teen who has made a significant difference through their effortsand every chapter is true!  [pub 1993 by Little, Brown and by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 2012].

Check these out.... please!  Share them with kids you know.

Quick Takes: Operation Beautiful..Great News!

I have great news for anyone who has a girl between 8 and 14 on their gift list this Christmas or Hannukah!
One of my favorite books to share is coming out with a followup for adolescent girls! It will be titled:

Operation Beautiful for Best Friends  by Caitlin Boyle.
While it is not yet published, it is scheduled for release December 20, 2012 and I can barely wait! I have already pre-ordered one for each of the girls on my gift list! Consider it as a wonderful gift  for a girl you know and care about.


Caitlyn Boyle has compiled the story of an amazing campaign to transform the way we look at ourselves using nothing more complicated than a simple post-it note.  To get just a glimpse of this quiet revolution in the making---

P-l-e-a-s-e........Check out her website: operationbeautiful.com

Boyle's first book was:
Operation Beautiful:  Transforming the Way You See Yourself One Post-it Note at a Time

Order the book online, or used, or through your local library for free. But check it out!  Especially if you have daughters, but even if you don't.  All children today are bombarded with images of what they "should" look like, be like, feel, think, etc.  Reading [even browsing] this book will fill you with ideas for showing your children [and maybe anonymous people in your world] with more positive messages.

How long does it take to jot a post-it note?  Try it.... we can change lives!

Anything Can Happen: Laundry Tip

Have you ever had a clothes washer repairman scold you about using too much soap in your wash?  While it looks funny on a sitcom I learned my lesson years ago after a costly repair.  It looks funny on a sitcom but I was taught some tips over the years since and have never had the problem again:

1- You should not see more than a few bubbles through the washer window of a front loader or on the top of a top loader. [Rich, bubbly suds like the picture at left may look impressive, but it is much too much soap for the rinse cycle to manage. It will eventually result in a picture more like Bobby Brady's above or the new version at right.]

2- Take whatever the manufacturer suggests, divide it by TWO and try it on an average load.  If it does well, stick with it.  If not, add a little more and try again.  Continue till you find what works in your washer. [Remember that it is to the manufacturer's sales totals advantage for you to use more than necessary! Rarely will half the suggested amount be enough.]

Here is my favorite new product... especially helpful if you are smart enough to have your kids doing their own laundry...  Purex laundry sheets [soap and softener all together imbedded into sheets].  I cut each sheet in two so that I can be absolutely sure my wonderful kiddos aren't over-sudsing my machine and the clothes.


You don't want this Friday the 13th to live up to the image of its name!

Remember the lesson of Bobby Brady on The Brady Bunch!.....


Image thanks and credits to: mysweetsavings.com, webdiva305.wordpress.com,  ehow.com.uk, youtube.com

Focus on Fostering: Share this Book!

I recently was part of a conversation about the book:
Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew

This book generally gets [and deserves] good reviews and I know many adoptive parents who have found the book helpful. However, in this conversation it came out that some parents find it discouraging.  The book is full of the fears and concerns experienced by adopted children and in the process includes many ways that parents unintentionally may make things more difficult or send unintended messages. One person I talked to said it almost dsicouraged them from choosing to adopt a child they had been considering, for fear they would not be able to make the child happy. NOT what the author intended!

Sadly, far less well known is Sherrie Eldridge's wonderful second book:

20 Things Adoptive Parents Need to Succeed..Discover the Unique Need of Your Adopted Child and Beocme the Best Parent You Can 

THIS book is far more PROactive than reactive. In it Eldridge focuses on the parents and provides lots of practical ideas for success.  This book is far more encouraging AND far more useful. 

While it focuses on adoptive children, I recommend it to foster parents and kinship parents as well.  ANYone who is attempting to raise children not born to them can learn specific ideas to help their challenges in this second book. 

So, readers.....

Spread the word. Get a copy.  Give it to a friend who is adopting. Give one to your local library or association.  Give it to a social worker or your child welfare department. Write the author with your feedback.  Best of all... write the publisher!! As a published writer myself I know how hard it is to get publishers interested in a book proposal, especially one that is targeted to a minority market. THANK the publisher for recognizing this segment of the parenting market. Thank them for the positive rather than exploitive nature of this book. Ask them for more books for this market!

And if you know someone who is considering this special kind of parenting......

Reach out....Share your successes. Share your expertise.  Share your stories!

Image credits and thanks to: lsmnj.org,

Read Across America... Day 6-- Authors

This is the last day of my celebration of March 2nd Read Across America. Each day I recommended a few favorites for different ages, stages, and situations.  If any of them fit your needs, I hope you will try them... check your library, interlibrary loan programs, online used books, and local bookstores.  Enjoy!!

[As an author myself, did you really think I could finish this week without a nod to authors???]

What Do Authors Do?
by Eileen Christelow
Pub: Clarion Books
ISBN0-395-71124-X

Having spent this week sharing books for children I decided to finish the week with a book about authors written for children.  While this is too long for really young children, it is an excellent look [with cartoon style illustrations] about how authors come up with books, write them, find publishers and illustrators, have them printed and distributed to readers. I especially like the fact that she includes [as a real part of the process] readers reading the books and reacting to them!

PS She also wrote and published a companion book What Do Illustrators Do?  also by Clarion. 

Remember, you can always search previous blog entries for some of my all time favorites that I have already bogged about. Check them out too! Search using "Recommended" and "Suggested Reading." And... watch for more books now and then to pop up!

Next week: Back to the regular blog schedule.

Read Across America... Day 5-- Dr. Seuss Quiz

Continuing my preparation and celebration of March 2nd Read Across America. Today is actually the anniversary of Dr. Seuss's birth, the date chosen for Read Across America, celebrated in elementary schools around the country.  So, to celebrate here is a quiz about Dr. Seuss.... see how well you know him.

1. What is the real name of Dr. Seuss?
a. Theodor Geuss Seisel
b. Theodor Geisel Seuss
c. Theodor Seuss Geisel
d. Theo LeSeig

2. How many published children's books did Dr. Seuss write and illustrate?
a. 37
b. 44
c. 46
d. 63

3.  What was the first children's book Dr. Seuss published?
a. "One Fish, Two Fish"
b. "The Cat in the Hat"
c. "And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street"
d. "Horton Hears a Who"

4. Before Vanguard Press accepted Dr. Seuss's first book, how many other publishers had turned it down??
a. 20
b. 27
c. 28
d. 29

5. What was Dr. Seuss's job before he became a published children's author?
a. pediatrician
b. advertising illustrator for Standard Oil
c. Saturday Evening Post cartoonist
d. Dartmouth College magazine editor


6. What was the last book Dr. Seuss published?
a. "The Lorax"
b. "The Butter Battle Book"
c. "Oh The Places You'll Go"
d. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"

7. Which book did Dr. Seuss write to win a bet with his editor, Bennett Cerf?  [Bonus points if you know what the bet was!]
a. "Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now!"
b. "Green Eggs and Ham"
c. "The Cat in the Hat"
d. "If I Ran the Zoo"

Tomorrow-- How about the authors and illustrators?

P.S.  You can also search previous blog entries for favorites I have already written about.  Some of my all time favorites I have already bogged about. Check them out too! Search using "Recommended" and "Suggested Reading."

Answers:
1. c although he use d as a pen name for books he wrote that other people illustrated [Note: It is Geisel spelled backwards!] Seuss was his middle name, and his mother's maiden name.  2. b [although Geisel also wrote more books under other pen names]  3. c [a real street less than a mile from Seuss's boyhood home in Springfield, MA]  4. all of them [different numbers can be found in different sources, because Dr. Seuss often changed the number when he told the story!] 5. b, c, and d at different times [but never a doctor] 6. c [ published in 1990, before his death in 1991] 7. b [The bet was that he couldn't write a book using 50 words or less. Seuss won.. it uses exactly 50 different words.] Trivia...book "d" was the first recorded instance of the word "nerd."

Read Across America... Day 4- Special Issue Books

Continuing my preparation and celebration of March 2nd Read Across America. Remember each day I will recommend a few favorites for different ages, stages, and situations.  If any of them fit your needs, try them... check your library, interlibrary loan programs, online used books, and local bookstores.  Enjoy!!

Today:  Special Issue Books

Kids Wanting To Run Away:

I Was So Mad
by Mercer Mayer
pub: Golden Book Co
ISBN 0- 307-61939-7

With Mayer's familiar creatures. we follow as the "child" is angry with his mother, then father, then little by little everyone and everything and he decides to run away.  This book is a delightful look at that familiar childhood experience and feelings.

Constant Interrupting:

My Mouth is a Volcano

by Julia Cook  Ill Carrie Hartman

pub: National Center for Youth Issues


ISBN 978-1-931636-85-8

One in a series of books that address Children's Life Skills the Center has  created a humorous story that teaches children how to manage their thoughts and words without interrupting. This book has won awards and you can find lesson plans and activities to go with it online.


Little Kids Misbehaving in School: 

David Goes to School
by David Shannon
pub: Scholastic
ISBN 0-439-32171-9

This sequel to No! David follows David as he goes to school and gets in trouble for his antics in the classroom. The teacher eventually calls him to task, but he ends his day with encouragement and understanding.



Tomorrow-- Happy Birthday Dr Seuss

P.S.  You can also search previous blog entries for favorites I have already written about.  Some of my all time favorites I have already bogged about. Check them out too! Search using "Recommended" and "Suggested Reading."

Read Across America... Day 3- Acceptance

Continuing my preparation and celebration of March 2nd Read Across America. Remember each day I will recommend a few favorites for different ages, stages, and situations.  If any of them fit your needs, try them... check your library, interlibrary loan programs, online used books, and local bookstores.  Enjoy!!

Today:  Books about Acceptance

Accepting Others--

Splish, Splash!
by Sarah Weeks, Ill  Ashley Wolff
pub: HarperTrophy  [A My First I Can Read Book]
ISBN 0- 06-444282-9

This great little kids book about a bathtub that gets much too full, is a delightful way to start letting kids learn about accepting all kinds of people without judgment.








Accepting Life: 

Some Things are Scary
by Florence Parry Heide, Ill Jules Feiffer
pub: Candlewick Press
ISBN 0-7636-1222-7

This book takes the sting out of scary by showing all the ordinary reasons to be scared... like brushing your teeth with something you thought was toothpaste, but isn't  and the more serious fears.. like having your best friend move away. By the end readers realize that everyone feels scared, that it is an occasional but real part of life, and accepting that it is normal.



Tomorrow-- Special Issue Books  [running away, interrupting, misbehaving in school]

P.S.  You can also search previous blog entries for favorites I have already written about.  Some of my all time favorites I have already bogged about. Check them out too! Search using "Recommended" and "Suggested Reading."

Read Across America... Day 2 -- Feeling Different Books

Continuing my preparation and celebration of March 2nd Read Across America. Remember each day I will recommend a few favorites for different ages, stages, and situations.  If any of them fit your needs, try them... check your library, interlibrary loan programs, online used books, and local bookstores.  Enjoy!!

Today:  Being Happy with Who You Are

Good Thing You're Not An Octopus
by Julie Markes, Ill  Maggie Smith
pub: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN 0- 06-028465-X

With great humor Markes leads children to be grateful they are themselves by letting them see the potential challenges of being something else, learning that everyone and even every creature has its own challenges. 

It's Okay to be Different
by Todd Parr
pub: Little, Brown and Co.
ISBN 0-316-66603-3

This book with Parr's typical style and illustrations make it okay for all the ordinary differences in life from missing teeth to moods and feelings to saying no and many more.

P.S. For how different FAMILIES can be, check out Parr's The Family Book which is phenomenal on this topic!

Spoon
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal  Ill Scott Magoon
pub: Disney, Hyperion Books
ISBN 978-1-4231-0685-2

Spoon envies the life of fork and knife and chopsticks, thinking their lives better than his dull life.  But Spoons family helps him see the advantages of being a spoon, and leads to spoon being happy being who he is.


Tomorrow-- Books About Acceptance

P.S.  You can also search previous blog entries for favorites I have already written about.  Some of my all time favorites I have already bogged about. Check them out too! Search using "Recommended" and "Suggested Reading."

Read Across America... Day 1--Bedtime Books

For several years Read Across America has been held on March 2nd, the birthday of author Dr. Seuss. I am going to be away from Feb 29th to March 6th visiting my daughter on the West Coast. So, I decided to do my posts ahead and to piggyback with Read Across America as the excuse to recommend some of my personal favorite books for children that deal with situations that are common for readers of this blog.  Let the teachers and schools highlight "typical" reading.  I will highlight some special books for special situations.  They may not have won awards [though some have] but they have proved helpful for me and for mine.

So each day I will recommend a few favorites for different ages, stages, and situations.  If any of them fit your needs, try them... check your library, interlibrary loan programs, online used books, and local bookstores.  Enjoy!!

Today-- Books for Bedtime Challenges

I Don't Want to go to Bed!  
by Julie Sykes and Time Warnes
pub: Scholastic
ISBN 0-590-76345-8

A picture book about Little Tiger, who never wants to go to bed when Mommy Tiger says it is time for bed.

What's Under My Bed?

by James Stevenson
pub: Mulberry Books [William Morrow Co.]
ISBN 0-688-09350-7

Especially great for grandparents raising children because the heroes of the story, that reassure and comfort the child are the child's grandparents who have a unique way of dealing with and normalizing nightmares.

I Had a Bad Dream: A Book about Nightmares

by Linda Hayward, Ill by Eugenie
pub: Golden Books  [About Living Series]

ISBN 0-307-10397-5



Jason has nightmares but is comforted and reassured by his father and learns to feel safe.



Tomorrow-- Feeling different  [books about being happy with who you are]

P.S.  You can also search previous blog entries for favorites I have already written about.  Search using "Recommended" and "Suggested Reading."

Focus on Fostering: Bonding books

What are you favorite bonding books? All children love bedtime stories, but children in care seem to have a special need for books about connecting, books about unconditional love, and all the things they dream about.

The Kissing Hand and Love You Forever are two perennial favorites. 

My kids and I also like:
 
How Many Kisses Do You Want Tonight?  
[by Varsha Bajaj, Ill by Ivan Bates, pub: Little, Brown and Co., ISBN 0-316-82381-3]

When I read this book I follow along with the story giving kisses by the number each animal requests [1-10]... the kids are usually giggling happily by the time we get to the little girl who asks for a hundred. 

I Will Hold You 'Til You Sleep  
[by Linda Zuckerman, Ill by Jon J Muth, pub: Scholastic Press, an Arthur A. Levine Book, ISBN 0-439-43420-3]

This book starts with reassuring a child that you will be there to share the happy times, the rough times, the painful times, and the fun times. But it also goes beyond that to show that constant supportive love is not only a gift to your child, but from one generation to the next, both forward and backward by ending with a unique turnaround of comforting an loving presence.  


Send me your kids' favorite comfort books and maybe we can get a list going? 
There can never be too many bonding books to read to kiddos at night!

Parenting Tips: Get the Kids Talking

Do you ever feel like extracting teeth would be easier than getting your kids to talk other than arguin?  Do your dinner times conversations feel like they alternate between mini-interrogations and that your children withhold information with a skill spies would envy?

Shake it up a bit. Pick up any of the dozen or so versions of:

KidChat : Questions to Fuel Young Minds and Mouths
by Bret Nicholaus and Paul Lowrie
Pub: Questmarc Publishing
ISBN 0-9634251-6-1

I have used the 2001 edition [shown here] for years both at home and at school for writing prompts for my middle school students.  There are holiday versions, KidChat Extreme. etc. etc.  Each book has new and different questions to start a conversational ball rolling.  Some are silly, some thought-provoking, some teaching opportunities, and more, but all are safe and entertaining for kids roughly 7-13 [though I have used it for older also].

Great for imagination, discussion, and just plain conversation, I have found the book a life saver on long car rides, and even when a sleepover starts to lag a bit or needs a bit of calming down. Try some--

A Few Examples:

1. If snow could fall in any flavor, what flavor would you choose?

2. If you could be famous for anything at all, what would you want to be famous for?

3. If you could get out of school for a week but instead had to spend those five days helping an adult at their job, whose job would you want to help out with for that week?

4. If you were a king or queen, what is the first rule you would set for the people of your kingdom?

5. If you could ask the president of the United States [or your state governor] one question, knowing that you would get an honest answer, what question would you ask?

6. If you could be shrunk down to one inch tall for just one day, what do you think would be the most exciting place to explore? 

Parenting Tips: Kid's Books on Decision Making

Do you remembering any of the "Choose Your Adventure" type books?  At various points in the story you have a choice to make.  Depending on what you choose, you go to a different page in the book, over and over making each reading somewhat different.

There is a great series that uses this same approach but deals with moral decisions, peer pressure, etc.  At my last check there were 5 books in the series [$6-10 each], plus a leader's guide [$15] available for the whole series.

Each book is around 60 pages total, but depending on your choices, the actual story length varies. Great for readers 7-12 or a bit older if they struggle with reading.There are several different authors who contribute to the series and the topics are all situations that children face all the time. The same publisher also makes a similar [reader choices] series for ages 4-10 called Kids Can Choose, but I haven't seen any of those myself so can't actually recommend them yet.

The Decision Is Yours series:

Finders, Keepers :  What should you do with the wallet and money you and a friend find.

Making the Grade : More time on soccer than homework and a bad report card make a tricky mix.

First Day Blues : How do you make friends on your first day in a new school?

Bully on the Bus:  What do you do if an older kid in school threatens to beat you up?


Under Whose Influence? : To drink with friends or not?

School Bell: History Help

Kids often complain that history classes and history itself are dull, boring, and too hard. Flashcards, outlines and charts may help them organize, cluster, and memorize information. But, if you own a television, a DVD player and a library membership you have another opportunity to get your kids involved.

Children who have grown up in the television era [not to mention computer age] will find it far easier to focus on a television screen than a textbook.  Your job is to find sources that have accurate information.  These DVDs [or older videos] also help kids who are visual learners and can retain information they have watched better than information they have to read. Some of you may be old enough to remember the days of filmstrips in school.  Even filmstrips were more fun to watch than reading the history book assigned chapter paragraph by paragraph each child around the class!

Look through your child's textbook to see what topics and people will be covered during the year. Then search for programs about those.

Go online and search for National Geographic, Biography, and History Channel specials.  National Geographic has an array of interesting programs on state parks, regions of the country, and other geography based topics.  The History Channel is your source for info on wars, historical eras, etc.  The Biography Channel will help bring historical figures alive with details and more.

Once you have found a program, check out your school library or your town library to see what they have available for sign out.  If there is a specific one you want, ask the librarian if it is available through inter-library loan. Plan a 'Desserts and DVDs' or 'Brownies and Biographies' night at the start of each unit.  Your child will have an introduction to the topic that will be a baseline to hook with the information they cover in class. This will not only build interest, but help them retain what they hear in class. Try it!

PS. These DVD programs also provide great idea starters for history projects. [Ex: The History Channels program on the Navajo Code Talkers really fired up one of my kiddos to get excited about his project!]


Image credits: japanprobe.com, mtrushmorenationalmemorial.com,kaboodle.com, vetsed.org

Holidays 101: #24- Marshmallow Pops

For a quick, fun vacation activity with kids try these:
[Maybe you can make them and save them for a pint-sized New Year's Eve home party!]

Marshmallow Pops

You need:
Lollypop sticks [or in a pinch popsicle sticks]
Bag of large [or giant] marshmallows
Milk chocolate to melt [ex: milk chocolate chips]
Piece of styrofoam

"Toppings":
      Graham crackers [crushed in a baggie with a rolling pin]
      Snowflake sprinkles [or multi-colored sprinkles]
      Peppermint candies [break up in a baggie w/wrench or hammer]
      Other [get creative.... oreo cookie crumbs, toffee chips, etc.]

Directions:
1. Put each marshmallow on a stick.  [Get several ready at a time.]
2. Melt the milk chocolate [with a little oil added for consistency] in microwave.**
3. Dip/roll the marshmallow in the melted chocolate.
4. While still wet, roll the chocolate covered marshmallow in a topping of your choice.
5. Stick the Pops into the styrofoam or clay to cool and "dry"

6. Eat or put in baggies to save for later. [For gifts, bag two or three and tie with ribbon.] 

ENJOY ! !

** When melting chocolate in a microwave it helps to add a bit of Crisco.  I usually microwave it for about 20 seconds, then stir, then repeat for 15 seconds, then 10 seconds etc. till the chocolate stirs easily.