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How Our Day Goes
I’ve been reading a lot of fascinating blog posts from other moms on how a typical day goes at their house. I think it’s fun to see how other people do things. So for your perusal I offer what happened at our house this Wednesday. It’s fairly typical of our life and the type of (Continue reading...)
Gift Dilemma: WWYD?
Do you have a policy on gift giving? The Bear That Heard Crying is one of Hannah’s favorite books. It’s a beautifully illustrated story (based on a true event) about a little girl in the late 1700s in New Hampshire who got lost in the woods and was protected by a bear. You can get it (Continue reading...)
Manners: P’s, Q’s and Why We Care
As I mentioned on the A Spirited Mind Facebook page recently, I find it interesting that people can react negatively to the subject of teaching manners. I wonder if that might be because etiquette can be used as a means of looking down on others, or as a way to assert superiority. I think that’s (Continue reading...)
Preschool Bibles and Devotional Books
Bibles and devotional type books for children abound, but I find that most are targeted for older kids or are so watered down as to be nearly useless for teaching kids about God. Here are a few exceptions that I’ve run across. I would love to hear what your favorites are, especially if I missed (Continue reading...)
Math for Preschoolers – 13 Books for Toddlers and Little Kids
As I mentioned on my Mosaic Tile Toy Giveaway post, shape games are a great way to teach math to preschoolers. We also count things, play with manipulatives like little bears and buttons and blocks, learn numerals with a dot system (you can see our “number wall” in the picture above), and talk about measurements (Continue reading...)
Tomato Sprouts
About a week and a half ago the kids and I began our latest science/gardening experiment: this year we are trying to grow tomato plants from seed. We bought a packet of tomato seeds that promised “up to 40 plants.” That’s a fairly safe promise if you think about it, because even if you get (Continue reading...)
This Little Prayer of Mine Review and Giveaway
After noting the advance comments from Danae Dobson and Bernice King, I was interested to see Anthony DeStefano’s new book This Little Prayer of Mine. Many religiously themed books geared toward children are treacly and/or are oversimplified to the point of being doctrinally incorrect, but I was pleased to see that DeStefano’s book avoided those (Continue reading...)
A week in books and nothing to show for it
I loved Little Women like every other red blooded American girl does, but so help me I could not get through Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. I can’t put my finger on why I didn’t like this book. The writing was all right, it seemed accurate and well researched, but I felt (Continue reading...)
Excellent Board Books that Kids AND Parents Will Love
Children are made readers on the laps of their parents. ~Emilie Buchwald Reading to children of all ages is important and, as I mentioned in my tips for getting past the book ripping habit, if that means you have to have a board book phase while teaching your baby or toddler not to rip books, (Continue reading...)
Reading to Babies: Six Tips for Getting Past the Ripping Phase
I’m all about reading to children – the earlier the better. It’s easy to read to small babies, because they are fairly docile and easily mesmerized by Mama’s voice. Don’t laugh, but when Hannah was a baby I read her the entire Little House on the Prairie series AND the entire Narnia series. I’m not (Continue reading...)