A “Pawsitively” Fabulous Blog Tour: Meet Max the Dog!

Posted on April 12, 2011 by viviankirkfield

Usually I review picture books on Wednesdays…but today is very special because I am hosting my first ever book tour for an amazing author duo…MAX THE DOG AND HIS PARTNER, ANTHONY MAJEWSKI.

Maximus, a.k.a. “Max” is an English Labrador who shares stories about his real life experiences.

“Dogs Work Too! From Max’s Point of View” is about the day that Max visits Leader Dogs For The Blind. The adventure first outlines how Leader Dogs for the Blind was founded in 1939 and has placed over 14,000 dogs in 39 countries. Amazing! These wonderful dogs help people who are visually impaired or blind.

This is an organization that is privately funded (by donations from people like you and me) and it is near and dear to my heart. Many members of my own family (myself included) have serious eye conditions like glaucoma and macular degeneration and several have become blind because of those diseases. I truly understand the difficulties a blind person encounters in their day-to-day life…and how important a helper like a Leader Dog can be.

There is also a great giveaway that you will want to hear about, so make sure to read to the end. Also check out the Reading With Max blog as they have a whole tour schedule for each day.

With his buddy Co-Co by his side, the two explore the importance of training leader dogs and how the dedicated volunteers work so hard to provide well-trained leader dogs to people in need.

“Dogs Work Too! From Max’s Point of View” is a great book to read with your children and includes pictures on every page. It’s a great learning tool that will help young children understand how and why dogs work to help people…they can be more than just loving pets.

Reading picture books with young children engages them in the world between the pages, encourages them to observe what is happening to the characters in the story and allows them to relate those events to their own experiences. It is really important for us to teach our children to reach out to help others…and the books in this series are PERFECT for doing that! This book helps young children learn about people who are blind and the Leader Dogs who assist them. The book also gives encouragement to young children who are blind themselves.

Most children love dogs and this is a wonderful way to get them interested in guide dogs. It is an amazing sight to see a Leader Dog guiding his master (or mistress) down the street…equally amazing are the people who train Leader Dogs…they must be gentle, yet firm…sounds like good parenting advice, don’t you think? 🙂 You just might need to get your children this book. And, there is also a coloring book as well! You can purchase Max’s newest books, ask him questions, enter his contests, ask him for his paw-o-graph or tell him about your own adventures on his website.

And guess what? A portion of the proceeds from books sales will go to Leader Dogs for the Blind which is the non-profit organization that provides these well-trained dogs to blind or visually impaired people…FOR FREE! A wonderful cause and book to teach us the importance of dogs that work too!

“Dogs Work Too! From Max’s Point of View” CLICK HERE TO BUY

Visit READ WITH MAX to learn more! You’ll find books, coloring books and fun tattoos by Max.

Now, Max needs your help with something. He needs your vote!

Max’s video titled “Read With Max! Childrens Book “Dogs Work Too!” A Story About Leader Dogs for the Blind” has been selected to compete in the 2011 Peoples Telly Award. This competition is conducted online at the Official Telly Awards YouTube website. Voting started Monday, March 28th and continues for 4 weeks, so you still have lots of chances to vote for Max! Click On The Telly Awards Image To Give Us A “Thumbs Up” And Cast Your Vote!
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOUT LEADER DOGS FOR THE BLIND!

And here’s some great news! There is a contest for 2 $50 Visa gift cards!! One of you could be the winner! All you have to do is follow the blog tour…each day’s post has a word at the end. If you put all of the words together, it will make a sentence and the first one to post on Max’s blog with the whole sentence is the winner! So get busy and check out every blog stop (even the ones you might have missed) and get the word for the day. You can get the whole schedule list here.

THAT’S RIGHT…ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS FOLLOW THE BLOG TOUR AND YOU COULD WIN $50! So here are the instructions again:

Follow the tour and win a $50.00 Cash Gift Card Prize!

The tour will stop at a new site each day. Each site will display a “MAX” WORD OF THE DAY. Collect “Max’s Word” each day and complete the long sentence from Max by the end of the tour! My blog is the 14th stop on the tour, so word number 14 in the long sentence is: THEIR.

At the end of the tour on May 4th, be one of the first two people to post the sentence on:

Read With Max Blog Site

Winners will have to correctly write the entire sentence to qualify. So the word from today is: THEIR

For the full tour list, please go to Blog Book Tour.

Thank you so much for visiting today…I know Max and his partner, Anthony Majewski appreciate your interest and support. Don’t forget to view the YouTube video and give a thumbs up for Max!

If you have the time, please stop by my website: www.positiveparentalparticipation.com where there is a new special going on in honor of the 40th anniversary of the NAEYC’s The Week of the Young Child…April 10th through April 16 which focuses public attention on the needs of young children and their families.

Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?

Posted on April 9, 2011 by viviankirkfield

Image via Wikipedia

They say you can’t go back.

What do you think?

I remember walking into P.S. 199 as a student teacher. I had attended this elementary school as a ten-year old sixth grader…now I was 20 years old and a senior in college, pursuing my early childhood education degree. How small the double wooden entrance doors looked now! How tiny the seats in the classroom seemed!

It didn’t seem to be the same school that I had stored away in my memory banks.

Since January, I’ve been presenting the SHOW-ME-HOW Story-time Reading and Crafting Program to District 11 kindergartens and Pre-K’s. It is really great to be back in the classroom, interacting with students and teachers and parents.

But today’s kindergartens don’t seem to be the same as those stored away in my memory banks.

Why do I say that?

When I was teaching kindergarten (back in the 60’s and 70’s), the children learned through play and there was very little “formal” instruction. In today’s kindergartens, I see a lot of “formal” teaching of reading and writing…not just the ABC’s.
When I was teaching, kindergarten was a preparation for first grade. In today’s kindergartens, there seems to be an expectation that the children will be reading and writing by the time they enter first grade.
When I was teaching kindergarten, we understood that children mature in their own unique ways…while it is true that some 4½ year olds are quite capable of learning to read and write (I had several who came to kindergarten already reading and writing and speaking several languages), it is also true that many children have not yet developed the fine motor skills necessary for holding the pencil and mapping out the letters. With reading, we have the same situation…some children have the eye-brain coordination, but some need just a little more time to physically mature.
In my opinion, the only advantage to “pushing” these little ones to read and write is that, if there are problems such as visual impairment or learning disorders, they may be discovered at this earlier age and intervention can be arranged. However, the down side is that we are already labeling these young children…and often these labels stick, even if it was just a maturity issue that was the cause.
Almost every kindergarten teacher I have visited with has mentioned the lack of time to READ picture books to the children. Arts and crafts are also an area that is pushed to the back burner. Now, all of you know how passionate I am about reading to young children…and how much I believe in the importance of encouraging children to express themselves in arts and crafts activities. I realize that the curriculum and standards are mandated by the state…teachers don’t really have control over those things and are held accountable for the levels of learning their students achieve.
The almost frantic pace I observed in some of the kindergartens was even stressful for me…imagine how it must be for five-year olds! They change activities (and rooms) as if someone is surfing channels on the TV with a remote control. Perhaps they are used to it…having been exposed to the constant mini-bytes that are prevalent even on the educational TV channels. Again, I undertand that most of kindergarten teachers would probably prefer to go back to a “kinder, gentler” type of classroom. Don’t get me wrong…I do believe in routines and schedules for young children…I think they thrive when they know what the plan is…I just wish it was a less hectic plan. I know it used to be in the kindergartens stored in my memory banks.

What do you think? Do you have a child in kindergarten? Are you a kindergarten teacher? Do you agree that the kindergarten of today is the new first grade? And, do you think this is a postive or negative change?

THREE IMPORTANT REMINDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TODAY, APRIL 9th, is the LAST day you can purchase SHOW ME HOW! at 50% off the cover price on my website: http://www.positiveparentalparticipation.com. Parents, grandparents, teachers and daycare providers of preschoolers…please don’t delay…this unique resource is a shortcut to providing educational fun-filled self-esteem building acitivities for your children. MOTHER’S DAY is just around the corner…what a wonderful gift this would make, even for an expectant mom! And this is also the last day to enter to win the collection of craft supplies for your preschooler…purchase a book or fill out the contact form on my website or leave a comment on my blog about why you would like to win the prize.

TOMORROW: Sunday, April 10^th…I will be at the Covered Treasures Bookstore in Monument, CO from 2-3:30pm, talking about reading, crafting and cooking with young children and signing copies of my book. For more details, please go to www.coveredtreasures.com or call 719-481-2665. The Book Fair (from 12:30-4pm) is for the benefit of the Tri-Lakes Community Preschool Tuition Assistance Program. If you are local to Monument, Colorado Springs or Denver, please head on over to say hello and do your part to support early childhood education!

Tuesday, April 12^th…I will be hosting Max the Dog as he continues his 36 day book blog tour. For more details about the on-going contest and to see where he has been and where he is going, please visit: http://readwithmax.com/blogbooktour.html

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

Posted on April 8, 2011 by viviankirkfield

Illustration from A Picture Book for Little Ch...

Image via Wikipedia

One of the stories I read to the kindergarten children is ANGUS LOST by Marjorie Flack.

Well, I could have written a story yesterday called MISS VIVIAN IS LOST!!!!

I usually print out the school’s directions from MapQuest and then several days before my scheduled visit, I take a ride over to make sure I know how to get there. So far, I have been to 5 different elementary schools in District 11. For some reason, my printer refused to print out the directions, so I wrote them down by hand. And, because life just got in the way, I wasn’t able to take the dry run to Bates Elementary.

BIG MISTAKE!!!!

Misreading my directions, I took a right on Austin Bluffs instead of a left. After going several miles, looking for the next street to turn on, I realized that something was wrong. I called the school and was given the bad news…I had gone in completely the opposite direction. I turned around and headed back and was able to find the general vicinity of the school…but this particular building is set back in a maze of winding streets, some of which are one way. After calling the school office again and receiving additional instructions, I finally made it there…half an hour late. 😦

I felt really badly as I hate to be late for things…especially when others are waiting on me. However, we were able to arrange it so that I could read the story…KATY AND THE BIG SNOW by Virginia Lee Burton. I then took a break in the teachers’ lounge for 45 minutes while the children went to their next scheduled activity. And, as my daughter says, “Everything happens for a reason.” In the lounge, I met the school librarian and we began to talk about the SHOW ME HOW Story-time Program. She wondered whether an evening presentation might be of value to the parents of the Pre-K students and told me she would speak to the Pre-K teachers about it.

At 10:20am, I made my way back to the kindergarten classroom and was able to help the children do the craft project…a snow-covered road way picture. Again I was impressed with the creativity of the children…each made the picture from their own perspective.

Leaving the children finishing up their pictures, I headed over to the other kindergarten class to again read the story and work with them on the craft project. I know both classes had a wonderful time…as I put on my coat to leave, one little girl came up and hugged me…and another said, “I love your hair, and your eyes, and your glasses. 🙂

This program is so very valuable, especially because these days, kindergarteners are the “new 1^st graders”…they have set curriculums and are expected to reach various goals in reading and writing…so there is less time for listening to picture book stories and doing arts and crafts.

To me this is quite sad…so much learning takes place when young children listen to and discuss a picture book story….so many skills are acquired when they participate in arts and crafts activities. I hope parents and teachers will head over to my website to check out my book that makes reading, crafting and cooking with young children a snap!

And please don’t forget…TWO VERY IMPORTANT UP-COMING EVENTS!!!

Sunday, April 10^th…I will be at the Covered Treasures Bookstore in Monument, CO from 2-3:30pm…talking about reading, crafting and cooking with young children and signing copies of my book. For more details go to www.coveredtreasures.com. The Book Fair benefits the Tri-Lakes Community Preschool Tuition Assistance Program. If you are local to Monument, Colorado Springs or Denver, please head on over to say hello and do your part to support early childhood education!
Tuesday, April 12^th…I will be hosting Max the Dog as he continues his 36 day book blog tour. For more details about the on-going contest and to see where he has been and where he is going, please visit: http://readwithmax.com/blogbooktour.html