One of my favorite things about having this blog is getting to review children’s books from publishers. I love being introduced to new books for kids. I’ve always loved children’s books and as an educator I tried to incorporate literacy in all of my lessons by incorporating picture books that reinforced the subject I was teaching. As a parent, I still use children’s books as an educational tool for my own children. Recently, I had the pleasure of reviewing three…
In both our new house and our old house, we have always had the problem of regulating the temperature in the upstairs bedrooms. Our new house (or I guess I should say our CURRENT house, because it is far from being new) uses steam radiators for heat in the winter and doesn't have any air conditioning in summer. The kids were constantly waking up at night because they were either too hot or too cold. The 2am wakeups were really…
Before I started this parenting blog, I ran an art education blog. After six years in an elementary art classroom and five in an art museum I have seen all the many ways art can enrich the lives of children and families. I try to use what I have learned as an art educator with my own children. One of the most important (and easiest) things a parent can do to foster art appreciation at home is to display artwork…
Teddy was a pretty decent sleeper until the switch from his crib to his toddler bed. Once he had the ability to get out of the bed on his own he would wake up, crawl out of bed and bang on his door screaming until we went to get him. Then we moved to a new house where the doors don't shut all the way so he just pushes the door open and comes into our room and climbs in…
This Halloween we are combining two of our favorite things: dressing up and reading. Dressing up as a book character is always a good idea. It’s great for school Halloween parties when you need costumes that are cute but not-too-scary. When kids dress up as book characters it allows them to interpret the characters in their own way to create personal connections to the characters, interpret deeper meaning into the material and get excited about reading books. This post may…
