A Dozen Reasons to Read with Your Child

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reasons to read with your child

Do you really need reasons to read with your child???  Parents are told constantly to read to their children, or with their children – but perhaps having a little further explanation would help you understand WHY reading with your children is as essential as brushing your teeth twice a day.  This list is from the Georgia Preschool Association Newsletter.

Reasons to Read with Your Child

  1. Build a lifelong interest in reading.  “Getting children actively involved in the process of reading and having them interact with adults is key in a lifelong interest in reading,” said BeAnn Younker, principal at Battle Ground Middle School in Indiana.
  2. Children whose parents read to them tend to become better readers and perform better in school, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
  3. Reading to children helps them with language and speech development.
  4. Reading expands vocabulary and teachers pronunciation.
  5. Reading to toddlers prepares them for school, when they will need to listen to what is being said to them, similar to what is being read to.
  6. Reading to older children helps them understand grammar and sentence structure.
  7. Children and parents can use reading time as bonding time.  It’s an excellent opportunity for one-on-one communication, and it gives children the attention they crave.
  8. Being read to helps children learn how to express themselves clearly and confidently.
  9. Curiosity, creativity, and imagination are all developed while being read to.
  10. Being read to builds children’s attention spans and helps them hone their listening skills.
  11. Children learn appropriate behavior when they’re read to and are exposed to new situations, making them more prepared when they encounter these situations in real life.
  12. When read to, children are able to experience the rhythm and melody of language, even before they can understand the spoken or printed word.

Now that your motivation to continue reading with your child is renewed, check out these top 10 board books to read to your infant, as well as other  great books picks in my “Whatcha Reading” series.

Keep on saving!  :o)
--Barbara

**Remember, y'all, this post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

LeapFrog LeapReader™ “Ready, Set, Read & Write!

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Disclosure: I received free LeapFrog LeapReader™ products in order to host the LeapFrog sponsored MommyParty.  The opinions expressed here, as well as (some of) the cute kids are all mine.

When a big ol’ box of LeapFrog LeapReader™ products showed up at my door recently, I literally did the happy dance.  (…and just be glad no one was around to see that sad mess…)  I had the distinct pleasure of being chosen to host a LeapReader™ party, a privilege given to only select bloggers, as I later learned!  Included in my party kit were:

LeapFrog LeapReader™ contents

Keep on saving!  :o)
--Barbara

**Remember, y'all, this post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Whatcha’ Reading? Harold and the Purple Crayon

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Promoting literacy is such an integral part of my life, as a teacher and a mother, and I wanted to extended it to all of you. Therefore, I aim to bring a series “Whatcha Reading” to AFM. Here you will find book picks for children, adults, as well as tips for promoting literacy within your home.

Harold and the Purple Crayon - WhatchaReading

I recently re-read Crocket Johnon’s Harold and the Purple Crayon to my daughter. We marveled at how he kept the moon in his sight, and at how he used his crayon to carry his imagination even further, yet still end up safe and sound in his comfy bed. This was a perfect book, also, to enhance her beginning reading skills: we payed careful attention to the sight words she already mastered, as well as the ones she’s currently working on. Further, it was a great opportunity to introduce a few new words, like “moon”. (This was a great one, since we’ve been discussing the /oo/ sound with her “word eggs”; and its a simple phonetic spelling.)

Further, Harold served as a catalyst the following day in our driveway, bucket of chalk in hand, to create our own world, and travel far on our own adventures!

Later, we were inspired to pull out our copy of Harold’s Trip to the Sky, which extends his adventures with his trusty ol’ crayon.  We had discussions on what we would do if our crayons had that kind of magical power.  And given that I have a 4-year-old daughter, most of her responses involved princesses, fairies, mermaids, a sprkingling of pixie dust, and a few unicorns.  😉

Harold was a childhood favorite of mine, which I was thrilled to share with my children, when we found a copy of it at a garage sale a few years ago.  I was further elated when I saw it as an HBO animated series for kids.  We’ve caught it a few times, but I most enjoy the magic of Harold that is nestled between the pages of our books.  So……

What are YOU reading? 🙂

Keep on saving!  :o)
--Barbara

**Remember, y'all, this post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Whatcha Reading? – Princess Pigtoria and the Pea

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**



Promoting literacy is such an integral part of my life, as a teacher and a mother, and I wanted to extended it to all of you. Therefore, I aim to bring a series “Whatcha Reading” to AFM. Here you will find book picks for children, adults, as well as tips for promoting literacy within your home.

Princes Pigtoria - WhatchaReading

In my constant quest for books that satisfy my daughter’s thirst for all things princess, without indulging too much in to the whole glamorized “happily ever after once you’ve found your prince charming” fantasy, I found this little gem at the library recent: Princess Pigtoria and the Pea by Pamela Duncan Edwards.  It’s a clever combination of alliteration in its refreshing and witty use of the “p” sound, as well as a twist on a classic tale.

Princess Pigtoria collage

Find this at your local library, or head over to Amazon to snag your very own copy!

Check out these other great titles by Pamela Duncan Edwards, too!  Edwards has a nice series of children’s stories using imagination and alliteration, hand in hand.


 

 

Keep on saving!  :o)
--Barbara

**Remember, y'all, this post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Triathlon for the Every Woman {Whatcha Reading?}

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**



Promoting literacy is such an integral part of my life, as a teacher and a mother, and I wanted to extended it to all of you. Therefore, I aim to bring a series “Whatcha Reading” to AFM. Here you will find book picks for children, adults, as well as tips for promoting literacy within your home. Triathlon for the Every Woman WhatchaReading

I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I’ve more than brushed elbows with a celebrity.  Ok, so my old college friend may not be a Hollywood superstar necessarily (yet), but she burst on to the Triathlon scene a few years ago, and is making HUGE waves in influencing everyday men and women to not only pursue their dreams, but to PUSH through and accomplish dreams you never even knew existed.

Meredith Atwood, a.k.a. Swim Bike Mom, recently released her book Triathlon for the Every Woman: You Can Be a Triathlete. Yes. You.


Also available for your Kindle

To quote Amazon: “Triathlon for the Every Woman is a hilarious, fun and informative read–full of expert advice, training tips, and stories to turn a tired, busy woman into a tired, busy woman TRIATHLETE–no matter her size, age or place in life. Meredith Atwood, an overweight and overworked wife, mother and attorney, went from the couch to the finish of a half Ironman triathlon in a little over a year. Her book, full of contributions from expert coaches, nutritionists and athletes, takes the reader through the disciplines of swimming, biking and running. In addition, the book includes comical accounts of battling the scale and the balancing act of training with a spouse, kids and a full-time job. The book will inspire and entertain– and have even the busiest of women taking on the challenge of swimming, biking and running. Even for those lacking in time, motivation or hope, Triathlon for the Every Woman will turn everything around and make any woman a believer.”

More importantly, hers is a story of steering your own destiny towards something not only attainable, but admirable.  Hers is the story of turning the mundane -perhaps even doubtful and down-and-out- in to a story of triumph and encouragement.  The kind of story you set as an example for your children.  Seriously, just go read the “preview” pages on Amazon, and you’ll be hooked.  And possibly relate.

 

SO, whatcha reading?

Keep on saving!  :o)
--Barbara

**Remember, y'all, this post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Summer Reading Program: Dig in to Reading!

**This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**



The Summer Reading Program is just the first in many for my “Whatcha Reading” series.  Promoting literacy is such an integral part of my life, as a teacher and a mother, and I wanted to extended it to all of you. Therefore, I aim to bring a series “Whatcha Reading” to AFM. Here you will find book picks for children, adults, as well as tips for promoting literacy within your home.

Summer Reading Program WhatchaReading

Among my many lofty goals to accomplish this summer, summer reading tops the list. (Specifically, working on teaching my daughter to read. But I’ll dive in to that topic on another day…) We recently hit up our Gwinnett library, and signed up for their summer reading program, called “Dig in to Reading!”

Upon signing up, our “kit” included some great tools to help us get started, including a log to help us reach our reading goals, stickers, a some bookmarks. (That it also contained a coupon for a FREE Chick-fil-a kids meal, good anywhere in Gwinnett, and a coupon for a FREE slushie at Sonic were but mere bonuses!)  Along with their program, there are events happening at each location throughout the summer, including puppet shows, story times, and more!  If you’re a resident of Gwinnett, I highly encourage you to check it out!

Similar summer reading programs for children can be found throughout the metro Atlanta area.

Check with your local library to see what they have to offer!  Here is Dekalb’s program, and here is Fulton’s.
Summer Reading Program

Keep on saving!  :o)
--Barbara

**Remember, y'all, this post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep – book review

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**I am participating in a book review campaign with One2One Network for Harvey Karp’s The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep. I received this book from Harper Collins for the purposes of reviewing it, and have not received compensation.  All opinions stated are my own.**

 Sleeping Baby

Sleep.  For parents with little ones, it’s an enigmatic concept that seems forever out of our grasp, particularly in those first few months.  Yet, some parents and their young children struggle with sleep issues for years to come, seeing little to no relief in sight.  With lack of sleep comes countless consequences for the entire family:  it plays an important role in our ability to concentrate, as well as aids in metabolic processes as well — just to name a few.  For new mothers, sleep deprivation can also contribute to postpartum depression.

With parenthood comes a whole new outlook on sleep.  You want your children to sleep.  More importantly, YOU want a good night’s sleep!  And yet, it’s a concept that seems so firmly *just* outside your reach!

Especially in those first few weeks, where newborns ability to sleep for long stretches make quality sleep seem almost laughable, it’s important to be armed with the right tools, and the right information.  Doing a quick Google search for books intended to guide parents of newborns with sleep issues yields an overwhelming response, along with countless mixed messages and conflicting suggestions to help with this most-troubling issue.

Enter: Harvey Karp.  You may recognize the name for The Happiest Baby on the Block and  The Happiest Toddler on the Block.  Now he ‘s created an entire book dedicated to what new parents crave most: a trip to slumberland!  The Happiest Baby: Guide to Great Sleep is now available in paperback, and I recently had the chance to review the book.

Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep - book cover

Here is my disclaimer: for the most part, my kids have been good sleepers.  My daughter (now 4) and my son (15 months) began sleeping “through the night” after around 4-6 weeks.  My son, in fact, is a champ — he LOVES to the land of nod.  If lunch comes too late, he’ll lay his little noggin on his high chair tray and simply declare “night night”.  I digress.  My kids were not without their own unique night-time issues.  Each have had their bouts of rough sleeping, or rough getting-to-sleep patches.

Were I able to draw on the solutions from Guide to Great Sleep, my life may have been a little easier, perhaps a little saner during those rough patches.  What Harvey Karp’s provides is sleep solutions for children, from birth to age five.  In his latest book, Karp tackles:

  • How to train brand new babies to sleep better: Infants can be taught to sleep at least one extra hour from the first weeks of life! Dr. Karp shows how to safely boost baby sleep in just days.
  • What’s the best white noise (and which ones worsen sleep): The right white noise (low pitched and rumbling) is the key to good sleep—even through teething—for all babies. Plus, it even gives parents a more restful sleep.  I found this particularly  helpful with getting my son to sleep well in those first few weeks.
  • Why parents should always wake a sleeping baby: For good sleep, babies must learn how to self-soothe. The best way to teach babies how to fall back to sleep—when they rouse in the middle of the night—is to wake them just as they’re being put into bed.  And I’ll admit, this was a mistake I made with my daughter, but corrected with my son.  She was nursed to sleep every night for about six or seven months, which lead to me being SOLELY tied to getting her back to sleep if she awoke.  Which she did.
  • How to enjoy the benefits – and avoid the risks – of swaddling: Swaddling dramatically improves a new baby’s sleep. Yet, many states are shockingly banning this ancient parenting tool. Smart moms should do it and Dr. Karp will teach them how to do it properly and safely.  With swaddling, I simply have to giggle: my daughter was too wiggly even on day one to be swaddled.  The nurses at the hospital could not pick her jaw off the floor, seeing how quickly my little squirmy-wormy got herself out of that baby burrito.  Yet my son LOVED to be swaddled.  I, in fact, invested in some larger-size swaddlers, to allow him to do so through about six or seven months.  (Remember, my son is the kid who loves to sleep!)  You can read more about his stance on swaddling here, and his reaction to the ban on swaddling in some states here.
  • The importance of powering down: Staring at bright screens at night (TVs, computers, phones) can wreak a toddler and a parent’s sleep.  (Whoops!  When else would I get my blogging done?)
  • Easy “no-cry” tips that end infant and toddler bedtime struggles in just days!

With The Happiest Baby Guide to Sleep, no longer will new parent have to suffer months of sleep deprivation and no longer will babies have to cry themselves to sleep. Backed by compelling science, common sense and decades of experience, Dr. Karp’s landmark guide will revolutionize how millions of children drift off to dreamland.

You can purchase The Happiest Baby Guide to Sleep in paperback or for your Kindle, and also explore Harvey Karp’s other works here — or click no the widget below for further details.

 

Keep on saving!  :o)
--Barbara

**Remember, y'all, this post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Top 10 Board Books for Babies

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Just because a child is too young too read doesn’t mean that they don’t still enjoy looking at books.  Sharing books with your baby is a great way to entertain them and stimulate their rapidly developing brain.  Reading to them helps encourage their speech and language development, and of course it’s a great way to spend time together.  Board books are especially wonderful, because they can play with them (and chew on them), and you don’t have to worry about pages getting torn.  You can hold them in your lap while you talk about and point out the different things in the book, but you can also let them look at board books while sitting in a high chair or during tummy time on the floor.  Books with bright, colorful pictures of real life objects, animals, and people are always a great choice, as well as “touch and feel” books that have a variety of textures for their little hands (and sometimes mouths!) to enjoy.

I’ve put together a list of my top ten favorite books that my kids have really enjoyed over the years, and that your little one is sure to love as well!

Top 10 board books for babies

© Jeanneprovost | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

Top 10 Board Books for Babies

1. My First Word (Touch and Feel)

2. Peekaboo! (Baby Faces)

3. Smile! (Baby Faces)

4. Toes, Ears, & Nose!

5. Hugs and Kisses (Baby Faces)

6. Farm (Touch and Feel)

7. First 100 Words (Bright Baby)

8. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

9. Goodnight Moon

10. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Baby Faces and DK Touch and Feel books are some of my favorites for babies, as you can see from the list above.  Do you share books with your baby?  What book is your favorite one to read together?

*This post includes affiliate links, and I earn a small commission from any items purchasedMaybe even enough to add more books to our home library!*
Keep on saving!  :o)
--Barbara

**Remember, y'all, this post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Jill Kargman’s Momzillas

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Ever wonder what happens to the Bridezillas once they’ve achieved wedded “bliss”?  Jill Kargman’s Momzillas explores their ever-after (not quite so happily) in this fresh tale of a mom, plucked from a laid-back San Fransisco scene, and thrown in to the posh Upper East Side of Manhattan.  Meet Hannah, our protagonist, as she is quickly enamored with all the “ins” from a group of local moms.  The deeper she delves in to their world, while always on the cusp of it, the deeper she find the absurdity in their child-rearing practices, like paying “the baby nurse extra to walk with him in the Baby Bjorn on the treadmill in [the] gym so that he’d fall asleep.”  Add her mother-in-law, hell-bent on keeping her dear sweet angel of a son, and her grandchild, in the upper crust of society.


Kargman paints a world of Momzillas, all wrapped up in the Mom Race, constantly comparing their child to those around them, while freely looking down their noses to judge the moms who do not follow their same parenting philosophy — a philosophy which they certainly make sure their nannies, all in white-starched uniforms- instill in to their children! They humorously turn nursery school admissions in to a competitive sport -complete with social letters of recommendation, letters of intent of first choice, and a long list of prerequisite Mommy-and-Me courses.  Hannah must learn how to trudge through, in order to make the best for her daughter.

If you’re a parent, even if your not, you will find some grounds to relate to Hannah. Jill Kargman’s Momzillas is a quick, humorous read on how one mom, surrounded by the Momzillas, refuses to bend to their mold, and finds a way to create a Manhattan that works for her and her  family.

Jill Kargman's Momzillas
Keep on saving!  :o)
--Barbara

**Remember, y'all, this post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase from my links, which I"ll totally blow on waffle fries and sweet tea, y'all!**

Atlanta's Frugal Mom is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. In other words, if you click through to Amazon from some of the books or products I recommend and make a purchase, I get a small percentage in exchange for your purchase. It's a small way you can support AFM.