Tag Archives: Child

Follow-Me-Fridays: Where’s Miss Vivian?

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Hugo Oehmichen Im Kindergarten

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I walked into Bristol Elementary School…the halls are brightly decorated with the artistic efforts of the students.  The two kindergartens where I was to do my presentation are separated by another room which serves as an office for the two teachers and their assistants…what a great set-up!

The children were eager to hear the story of Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready For Bed? by Barney Saltzberg.  The teacher had introduced me as ‘Miss Vivian, who used to teach kindergarten many years ago and now she wrote a book about books and she is going to read to us today’.  I opened the picture book to the inner title page and began, “This is a story about a little pig named Cornelius who does some very silly things…Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready For Bed?”  I have to tell you how amazed I was when one of the boys asked, “And who is the author?”  Usually I do say the author’s name after I tell them the title…this time I didn’t, and it was great to hear such a question from a 5-year old. 🙂  After I told them the name of the author, the same child piped up, “And who drew the pictures?”  We talked a minute about the fact that in this particular book, the author was also the illustrator and then we read the story about the little pig getting ready for bed.  When Cornelius brushes his teeth with soap and a body brush, the kindergarteners laughed.  And when the little pig chooses a pile of TWENTY books as his bedtime story, the children knew that his father would NEVER read so many books at one time.  But when Cornelius feeds his fish CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES, one girl raised her hand and said, “If you feed your fish cookies, they will die because cookies have sugar and fish can’t eat things with sugar.”  I agreed and added that it was a good thing that this was just a story and that many stories are just “made up” and those events didn’t really happen.  “That’s because it’s fiction!” exclaimed another child.

WOW!!!!!

I guess that is one of the things that I love most about young children…they are sponges for knowledge…what an opportunity parents and teachers have!  It is so important to spend those precious moments with little ones…just 15 minutes is all it takes to read a picture book story or do a simple arts and crafts project or prepare something together in the kitchen.  Those 15 minutes (or more if you have it) of “quality” time, participating positively with a child, leaves an impression that builds self-esteem, develops pre-literacy skills and creates a life-long parent-child bond.

After the story, I showed the children the No Tick-Tock Clock craft project and explained how we would proceed to make it.  I loved the way the teacher wrote the steps on the board as I spoke…using a simple picture (like a bottle of glue) and then a word (like glue)…to give the children a reference to follow as they worked on their clocks.  The children really enjoyed working on the simple craft project and were excited to be able to bring it home to show their parents and use it to help them know when it was time to get ready for bed.

If you are interested in getting a copy of a great resource that provides story suggestions, simple craft projects and easy healthful recipes, I hope you will take advantage of a very special sale going on right now to celebrate The Week Of The Young Child and to help enable young families to purchase a copy of SHOW ME HOW! BUILD YOUR CHILD’S SELF-ESTEEM THROUGH READING, CRAFTING AND COOKING.  You can check it out by going to my website…if you pay by check or money order, you can get the book for $14.95 (plus postage…U.S. only)…only one copy per address, no dealers, please (April 10-April 16).  This is an amazing 66% off the cover price of $44.95.  The book is a great resource for parents with young children and I am trying to make it available to as many parents as possible.

 

For those of you who are interested in the Read with Max Book Blog tour, to find out more information about Leader Dogs for the Blind or to follow Max on the rest of his book blog tour:  http://readwithmax.com/blogbooktour.html

Also, please don’t forget that I will be taking part in the EASTER EGGSTRAVAGANZA GIVEAWAY BLOG HOP from April 20 – April 25.  It will be the first time I will be giving away a copy of my book on my own blog, although it has been part of many reviews and several giveaways on other blog sites.  The other really cool thing is that there are over 200 bloggers taking part…you will be able to hop from one to another…read their posts and enter their giveaways. So keep your eye on my posts for more information. http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com/p/giveaway-hop-page.html

Please stop by tomorrow for Saturday Ramblings: Preserve, Protect and Promote…Earth Day 2011

15 Minutes a Day: Do You Care Enough?

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Unidentified Mother & Child

Image by George Eastman House via Flickr

When I was young, I wanted to become a teacher.

I believed I could help children step confidently onto the path to a successful and happy life. 

I cared enough about reaching that goal to study hard in school so that I could graduate and then pass the licensing exam.

As a kindergarten teacher, I cared enough about my pupils to spend many hours after school, choosing the best books to read to them and creating projects for them to work on.

As a parent, I cared enough about my own children to listen when they had something to say and to talk when they needed to hear me.

As a daycare provider, I cared enough about the children in my group to devise a program that provided a balanced and harmonious day of indoor and outdoor activities.

As an author, I cared enough about the future of today’s children to write a book that provides a winning combination of picture book story recommendations, simple craft projects and easy cooking activities that work together to build a positive self-image, develop pre-literacy skills and create a life-long parent-child bond.

That book is now available!

You can grab a copy at half-price on my website!

The question is…DO YOU CARE ENOUGH?

I care enough about the future of today’s children to offer parents and teachers a ONE YEAR MONEY-BACK guarantee!

Buy a copy of the book and use it for 15 minutes a day for a whole year.

If, after using it for a year, you don’t feel it:

  • Helped build your child’s self-esteem
  • Developed your child’s pre-literacy skills
  • Created a positive bond between you and your child

Please return it to me for a FULL REFUND!

Do you care enough about the future of your child?

I know that being a parent can often be overwhelming.

There are bills to pay, laundry to do and dishes to wash.

Many of you have jobs outside the home as well.

Parents today practice a juggling act…trying to balance so many things.

But your responsibility to your children has top priority.

Do you care enough about the future of your child?

Buy a copy of the book and use it for 15 minutes a day.

The schools and society are often blamed when children are led astray.

But we, as parents, are the first influencers of our children.

We, as parents, are their original mentors.

Do you care enough about the future of your child to get a copy of the book and use it for 15 minutes a day?

Read one of the suggested stories and talk about it with your child…that takes only 15 minutes.

 

Get some construction paper, glue, scissors, an old magazine and some crayons and make one of the simple craft projects…that takes only 15 minutes.

Let your child help you prepare one of the easy healthful recipes…that takes only 15 minutes.

How important is your child to you?

Important enough to invest 15 minutes a day?

Here is a chance for you to help your child grow up to be successful in life…a person with a positive self-image.

But you have to be willing to invest the time.

Just 15 minutes a day

Use the book and see noticeable results.

But the key is in using the book.

Many products come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

I care enough about YOUR child to give you a 365-day money-back guarantee.

Do YOU care enough to give it a try?

Please stop by tomorrow…I’ll be sharing some of the comments from parents, educators, self-esteem experts and picture book authors who have already read the book.

WE ALL NEED A CHEERING COMMITTEE AND PARENTS ARE A CHILD’S MOST IMPORTANT FANS!

Avoiding holiday shopping temper tantrums

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We’ll all be shopping more in the next few weeks.  If we take our preschoolers, there is always a possibility of a temper tantrum.  WHAT!  NOT MY CHILD!  NO, NO, NOT EVER!…STAMPING MY FEET WITH STEAM COMING OUT OF MY EARS 🙂

Realistically speaking though, here are three easy discipline tricks that really work.

  1. Make a game out of what must be done: Sing a silly song, make funny faces, say the ABC’s in a high/low voice.  This works for things like buckling up the seat belt of the car seat (don’t all children hate that), leaving the toy store, putting on a jacket or hat.
  2. Be matter-of-fact: Don’t ask, “Do you want to put on your jacket?” or “Shall we put that toy down because we are ready to leave?”  Just say, “We are ready to leave and we are putting on our jackets.” (and maybe start singing a song about now we are putting our jackets on, jackets on, jackets on, etc.)  Or, “It’s time to leave the store and put the toy back…which shelf are we putting it back on, the top shelf or the bottom shelf?” (always make sure that when you give your child a choice, BOTH choices will lead to the goal YOU have in mind)
  3. Warn, distract, and then proceed with what needs to be done: Children like to know what the plan is…and they need to realize that what you say goes and that there is no discussion or negotiation.  It helps, if possible, to give a warning.  For example, when you need to leave the store, give your child a warning in a friendly upbeat tone of voice, “One more hug for mister bear and then we will put him back on his shelf and go and get a drink at the water fountain on our way to the car.”  After the hug, help your child put the bear back, scoop him up, head towards the water fountain, singing a song about bears or water or whatever.  Or, if you are at the library, you might say, “You can turn two more pages and then we will take our books to the librarian to check out so we can go home and read one of them.  Again, scoop up your child (if there is any question he disagrees about your plan to leave), and head towards the library checkout.  Let your child know you understand how he is feeling, “I bet you wish you could stay in the library all day, but it’s time to check out.  You can hold the library card and give it to the librarian.”

One of the hardest things about dealing with preschoolers is that they are easily distracted and often cannot stick with one thing for very long.  This distractibility is a blessing in disguise, however.  No matter what they are involved in: looking at a book, playing with a toy, having a temper tantrum…they can almost always be distracted from it if your are able to turn their attention to something else.  I am not really a very good singer, but when my children where little, I sang ALL the time…when I buttoned up their jackets, put them in the stroller, washed their hair.  Silly songs, happy songs, high songs, low songs…it really worked!   I can remember only one temper tantrum…one of my children (I won’t say which one) wanted a candy bar as we were checking out at the grocery store (don’t you LOVE how they put all those tempting sweets right at child-level?) and, being busy putting up the food on the counter and trying to watch the register read-out as the items were being scanned, I “ignored” my child’s rising whine of “I want a candy” and soon I had a 2 year old laying flat on the floor, kicking his feet.  Had I been paying attention and intervened at the start of this candy demand, I think I could have distracted him and avoided the temper tantrum altogether.

For more parenting help during the holidays, you can check out Katherine Lewis’ blog carnival: