Dogtown -- Book Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you have pets? Do you adopt them from shelters? We have three shelter cats and a bunny we adopted from a friend. Today I get to share a beautiful book about dogs at a dog shelter. This book has so many different connections and themes. It is a must read for animal lovers! It is an illustrated middle grades novel. The book is Dogtown by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko and illustrated by Wallace West. It is recommended for ages 8 to 12. 

Spirit of the Cheetah

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Did you know the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970? Earth Day is 51 years old this year. It was started to make people aware of the devastation to Earth that pollution, technology and more were causing. One great worry was the deforestation and extinction of wildlife. (Source) With that concern I am sharing today's picture book as an Earth Day resource. The book shares a tale that is set in Somali and shares a bit about the endangered cheetahs. The book is Spirit of the Cheetah: A Somali Tale by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed and illustrated by Julia Cairns. 

God's Work with Ministries and Books

Disclosure: BookLook sent me these books in exchange for honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

My main thoughts for 2018 is to take care of me. I want to find the time to exercise and to get myself healthy and fit as well as find time to connect with God each day. Today I am going to share some of our new endeavors and two great books to help me and Hazel with connecting with God. The other week I was at Hazel's school's chapel service and the principal shared one of the student's own ministries. She collects money to buy items homeless people would need. She packages them in a plastic bag and keeps them in her parents' cars so if they see someone begging on the street they can give them a bag. Hazel loved this idea and so did I. I always feel bad about not giving to them, but I also have heard not to because they buy drugs or some actually make more money then most of us just by begging. So Hazel and I went to Target and the Dollar Tree and bought some items and gallon bags.

Jumpstart's Read for the Record -- The Bear Ate Your Sandwich

Disclosure: Penguin Random House Books gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Have you heard about Jumpstart's Read for the Record? Tomorrow, October 27, 2016, is their 11th annual one. It is a program that was started to address educational inequities that leave too many kids unprepared for kindergarten. They have millions of people read the same book on the same day so it is the world's largest shared reading experience. This year's book is The Bear Ate Your Sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach. 

Little Loving Hands -- Product Review

Disclosure: Little Loving Hands sent me this month's box free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Have you noticed all the monthly box subscriptions out there? There are so many of them and they all have a slightly different theme, however here is one that teaches kids to about charity and giving. Little Loving Hands offers a monthly subscription where a box with a craft arrives each month and with the craft is also information about who the craft is for and an envelope (with postage paid) to mail it to the charity. The explanation of the charity was double sided

The Sparkle Box -- A Must Read Christmas Book!!

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge from Ideals Books./Worthy Kids. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

When reading Christmas books I always like ones that have the true meaning of Christmas in the story. Many just retell the story of the first Christmas, however the book I am sharing with you today does not. It shares the real meaning of Christmas with children and gives an activity for the family to do as well to focus on Jesus during this sometimes over commercialized season. The Sparkle Box by Jill Hardie and illustrated by Christine Kornacki is one of my favorite Christmas books ever. 

Avoiding the Summer Slide with Free Programs

Before I get into today's post, I have to share with you what made me so proud of Hazel yesterday. She had decided she wanted to get her hair cut. She was not sure what she wanted to do, but mentioned the possibility of donating it again. With it long it gets tangled very easily and she hates brushing them out. Well at the hairdresser she decided she did want to donate it and got a cut similar to mine. She was very excited this morning to brush her own hair and put her own barrettes into it.

Hunger Action Month

Today I am going to remind you that September is Hunger Action Month. I have joined a group of amazing moms to try to fight hunger for children. Did you know that hunger affects 16.2 million American kids? Or that kids go to school hungry every day and in fact 3 in 5 teachers say they have students who come to school hungry every day in their class? Did you know that we are raising the largest generation of kids in hard times since the Great Depression? Did you know that just $1 can help connect a child to as many as 10 healthy meals? (Source: No Kid Hungry)

Stone Soup Plan

Now much of what we did for Hunger Action Month, we actually did in August in preparation. I e-mailed local public libraries and preschools with story time plans to start a food drive. I already shared all of this in August. I shared to ideas using the classic tale, Stone Soup and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. For the Stone Soup plans I used ideas from the story time food drive I helped organize at my library last year as well as a few ideas I found on-line and a memory game I made. The Very Hungry Caterpillar plan came from several blogs and things I found on-line. The original idea came from The Good Long Road.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Plan

The next thing we did was to host a canned food drive at Hazel's butterfly party. Between me cleaning out our cabinets and what Hazel's friends brought we had a very full bag of food for our local food pantry. When Hazel is older I am hoping to volunteer with her at the food pantry and the local soup kitchens.

I also would like to share some more books to help start the discussion of hunger with children. For the younger children a good short story about hunger is The Hungry Monster by Phyllis Root. This story is about an alien monster that lands on Earth and is very hungry. He tastes things he sees--a daisy, a rock,  a tree, and then he sees a girl who gives him her banana (instead of him eating her) and he finally finds something he likes to eat. The girl is a little disgusted since he eats the peel and all. It is a wonderful introduction to talk about people who do not have enough to eat or enough good food to eat. The Very Hungry Caterpillar will also work for this. An activity following this discussion could be going to the grocery store and buying some food for your local food pantry. Let your child pick out some nutritious canned food and then bring it to the food pantry together.

For older children I like Kids Against Hunger by Jon Mikkelsen. In this story two friends wonder why their soccer coach does not get upset when a teammate missing practice every Wednesday. They decide to follow him one Wednesday and discover he is volunteering for an organization called Kids Against Hunger. The teammate explains that when he was younger his family went through rough times when they did not have enough to eat and now he likes to help others in that situation. The boys want to help to and suggest that they ask the coach to move their Wednesday practice to Thursday so the whole team can volunteer. It is a nice story to show how kids can help by donating their time. And of course the obvious activity with this book would be to volunteer at a food pantry or soup kitchen. To find a food pantry in your area look here. 

Another easy thing to do is Dine Out for No Kid Hungry. There is still five days left to have a portion of your meal donated. Just click the link to see what local restaurants are offering near you.

So I hope you will join us in trying to end hunger throughout the world even if it is making a donation (food, money or time) to your local food pantry and/or soup kitchen. Also feel free to join us in this link party to share what you have done to end childhood hunger!

Teaching about Money--Savings, Charity and Spending

Piggy Bank (Source)

Well for Easter, my mother-in-law hid plastic Eater eggs for Hazel. Some had Lindt white chocolate truffles in them and some had money. Steve and I thought nothing of the money since we assumed they would be coins, however she put bills in them. One even had a $5 bill. (I should also note that she has already given Hazel a $5 bill as well as all of her change.) We decided it was time to talk about money with Hazel. I should also add we have two savings accounts for Hazel. One is money we received as gifts (mostly when she was a baby) and the other is one we opened recently and I have put some spare money in it as well as we take her piggy banks and deposit it there. Hazel went with me to open the account and received a piggy bank similar to the one pictured above (but it is blue and has the bank name on it). They have a change counting machine that is free if you have an account, so we always take the piggy bank there.

It just so happened that I browsed the used book store last week and found a copy of Three Cups by Mark St. Germain. I had picked it up to think about and then ended up buying it without thinking about it. I guess it was God's way of saying I would need it and I did.  This book tells about how Mark St. Germain's parents introduced money to him. They gave him three cups for his fifth birthday. One was for spending, one for charity and one for savings. They helped him figure out how much of each allowance should go into each one. He wrote this book to explain the method and to use with his own son. 

On Sunday I read the story to Hazel and asked her if she wanted to have three cups like the boy in the story. She did. So we set them up. I grabbed three mugs from our spare mugs and we labeled them with sticky paper and tape. I let her pick the colors for the labels. Then we divided the bills among the cups. The next day we took the savings cup and her two piggy banks (we left her quarter supply since she uses those for rides at local malls and stores) to the bank to deposit in her savings account. The book went into how the bank paid you to keep your money there. 

The bank is next to Target, and we needed to do an exchange there, so we headed in. While looking through the toys and such she kept seeing things she wanted. We talked about how we can put them on her wish list (I keep one on Amazon as well as in Pinterest, so I can easily send it to family members) or she can save her spending money for an item.

The final cup is the charity cup. Trying to explain charity to a four-year-old is not really easy. She knows we have gathered clothes and toys for children in need at her birthday parties, but I don't think she really gets it. And right now I am about to kick-off our stewardship campaign at church including lessons for the Sunday School classes, so I have had a lot of charity and giving on my mind. I found a book at Amazon, The Giving Book by Ellen Sabin. This book explains about charity and really works as a journal for children to explore giving and helping throughout the world. It includes stories and things to explain situations as well as places for the children to draw, write and record.

I am going to introduce this book to her as her charity cup begins to fill a bit more.

We have decided to start an allowance for Hazel. I think we will be giving it in change so she can divide it among her three cups. How have you handled money with your young children? What age did you start? What has worked for you?

International Book Giving Day

Designed by Viviane Schwarz

Did you know there is an International Book Giving Day? I didn't, however I love the idea of it. It is simple to participate. All you have to do is give a child a book or donate a book to a charity or leave a book in a waiting room or lobby. (Have you seen these book exchange set-ups locally yet? I have. Several of the local hospitals have children's books in all the waiting rooms with a sign saying any child can take a book home from the collection and anyone can leave a children's book there for the collection/swap.) And the best part is it is on Valentine's Day. So instead of giving your child candy or a toy, how about a book?

Designed by Priya Kuriyan

Or donate a book to your child's classroom or school library or to your public library? It seems to me like the perfect Valentine's Day gift for your child's teacher or favorite children's librarian. I know several local charities around here give books to children. In fact the charity we collect for at Hazel's birthday parties every year gives each child a book with a week's worth of clothes when a social worker requests aid.

Designed by Barney Saltzberg after International Book Giving Day 2012

Now the really neat thing is that you can download for free bookplates at the International Book Giving website. They even have some for books that are just a gift to a child you know.

There are also some great ideas for everyone to help get involved and give back to your community and children worldwide. Check out their Help Organize Page. Ideas from hanging the colorful poster above by Priya Kuriyan, which you can download here, to Beer for Books (get a local bar or restaurant to participate) to organize a storytime or book swap. Finally you can add your name and how you are going to celebrate International Book Giving Day at their website. So will you join me in celebrating this day to encourage children to read?

Fighting Hunger

How do you know when you are hungry? I have sat through many Weight Watchers Meetings listening to this discussion of the answer to that question. How do you know when you are really hungry versus something else like emotional eating, boredom or habit? Do you ever have that problem? The answers usually are things like stomach rumbling, easily agitated, its been awhile since you ate, fatigue. Try to imagine your hungriest time and how you felt. Now imagine feeling that way most of the time. How would your life change? 

The High School Youth Group at my church does a 30-Hour Famine every spring. These high school students go for thirty hours without eating. They first start with a nice large breakfast and then go to school for a Friday. Then they return to the church and sleepover. On Saturday they usually do some sort of service project and then end the fast with Communion and a meal. Now you may ask yourself why a group of teenagers would go thirty hours without eating. It is to raise money for World Vision to help feed the hungry around the world.

As I was thinking about this post, I started thinking about the 30-Hour Famine. I actually just messaged one of the students who did this 30-Hour Famine all four years of her high school career (she is now in college) and was lucky enough to get one of the positions to visit a country where World Vision works to see how the money raised was helping. I first asked her for her first feelings on the 30-Hour Famine. She said, "You feel empowered, like you are making a difference in the lives of children you may never be able to reach otherwise." Then I asked her specifically about the hungry feeling. She responded, "Of course you lose focus and it makes the school day seem like ten times longer."

Next I started looking at the statistics. According to data released on September 5, 2012 by the Department of Agriculture, last year more than 16 million kids struggled with hunger in America that is equal 1 in every 5 children. (Source) Also, 62% of American teachers say they regularly see kids who come to school hungry because they are not getting enough food at home. (Source)

As a former public school teacher this statistic saddens me and scares me. I know what the lack of focus can do to a student as well as to a class. If the child is not getting fed enough, their ability is down and they will be less likely to succeed in school and thus less likely to be able to support and feed their family in the future. But what saddens me further is there is enough food for everyone in the world. Our society/world is not getting it to the people who need it. I am sure we all remember hearing about the starving people in the third world countries as children (usually Africa in my memory), but these people are starving in our country as well! We need to take care of them.

So what can we do? Well here are some ideas (many obvious):

1. Donate to an organization like No Kid Hungry $1 can connect a child with 10 meals!
2. Donate to a local soup kitchen/food bank with money, food, and/or time
3. Cook a meal for a local soup kitchen
4. Organize a food drive
5. Organize a bake sale or other fundraiser
6. Dine Out for No Kid Hungry September 16th - September 24th! For more information and to find participating restaurants check out here.
7. If you are a member of Weight Watchers (like me) do everything to lose as much as you can for the next 12 weeks during their Lose For Good Campaign (They donate a quarter for every pound lost to Share Our Strength and Action Against Hunger.)

So join me this month in helping end hunger and in celebrating National (End) Hunger Month!

Happy Friday!

Hand Love Tree

Today Hazel and I had a fun mother and daughter day! It started with a little painting for Valentine's Day. Then Hazel went to the dentist. I bribed her into doing what they asked by telling her we would go to the Lakeshore Learning Store afterwards (we are lucky enough to have an actual store only a few minutes away). But right afterwards we drove to Boston to drop off the donations we collected at her birthday party for Cradles to Crayons. Hazel surprised me and asked if we could go in for the tour. Then we went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch (one Daddy doesn't really like so we usually go there for lunch with friends). Then we made it to the Learning Store. We spent several hours there (and since she was distracted with all the toys and books we had a few accidents there). Then we went to Starbucks. Hazel got a cookie, a kids' hot chocolate and some milk and I got my chai. A pretty good day overall. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Painting using cookie cutters, bubble wrap hearts and rubber stamps

Oh, and we made the love tree craft yesterday. As well as this picture.

I was framed

Then here are a few from Cradles to Crayons. They always like to take pictures of their visitors and especially their Birthday Stars.

I was glad I waited so long to bring the donations in since we just bought a new wardrobe in the next size this past weekend as her clothes were beginning to get tight.

Oh, and  a reminder of the Valentine Swap. Do you have a young child who would like to exchange homemade Valentines with people from all over the world? Please check it out.

Hope you will visit a bit later or over the weekend for our Sharing Saturday! We had over 150 wonderful entries this past week.

Book Sharing Thursday

Some great things to check out:
1) A new blog hop to meet new friends and see new ideas/blogs. It is hosted by  Happy Go Lucky, I Heart Crafty Things, Joy in the Jumble and Keeping Up With Kristi. They will feature one blog each week. Go sign up your blog and/or visit new blogs. It is really amazing how many great ideas are out there!

I Heart Crafty Things

2) Go Pink October 30th! Over 50 blogs are going pink on Sunday. Check it out at The Artsy Girl Connection.

Book Share:

Children's Books
I know I'm always looking for good books to read to Hazel. Have any to share that you have been enjoying with your kids? Ok, I was trying to get a linky tool that you didn't need to enter a website, but it didn't work. I linked to the book on amazon, but you can just use your blog if you want.

Adult Books
What are you reading for yourself? Any good novels? Good craft books? Good parenting? ...


Thanks for sharing!!

Trick or Treat for America's Toothfairy

I received an interesting email today asking me to help promote this charity event. I do not know anything about the National Children's Oral Health Foundation and I tried to find them on the various charity ratings, but could not find them. It seems they are relatively new. Looking at their annual report (page 16 shows the financials) it looks like roughly 71% of the money goes to programs directly involving kids. I also did not know the person from whom the email came and he/she is not a follower. That being said, I am going to state a few facts I found on their website and share some of my stories.

• Pediatric dental disease is 5 times more common than asthma and 7 times more common than hay fever.
• 44% of American children will suffer from pediatric dental disease before they reach kindergarten
• 73% of preschoolers and 48% of primary school age children who have experienced cavities currently have unfilled cavities
• While the American Academy of Pediatric Dentists (AAPD) recommends that every child establish a dental home by their first birthday, only 1.5% of 1-year-olds have had a dental office visit compared with 89% who have had an office-based physician visit
• 4.5 million children develop pediatric dental disease every year
• Left untreated, pediatric dental disease can lead to malnourishment, bacterial infections, required emergency surgery, and even death
• Dental disease has been linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, pneumonia, poor pregnancy outcomes, and dementia
• More than 51 million school hours and 164 million work hours are lost each year due to dental disease, leading to increased educational disparities and decreased productivity.
• Approximately 43% of Americans lack dental insurance, including more than 20 million children; this is almost 3 times the population lacking medical coverage.
• For every $1 spent on oral health preventive measures, American taxpayers are saved as much as $50 in restorative and emergency procedures for the under- and uninsured.

Source:  http://www.ncohf.org/why

With Halloween next week, I think it is important for all of us to remember and think about our children's oral health. I know I have been building up the story of the Pumpkin Fairy. You can find my version of the Pumpkin Fairy on this past post. There is also a wonderful book, All Hallows Eve: The Story of the Halloween Fairy by Lisa Johnson, that has a similar story of collecting candy for a fairy and she will exchange it for a toy. I have also heard a version of a candy witch that visits a few days after Halloween. Anyway, I am planning on only letting Hazel keep a small amount of her candy and then sending the rest to work with Steve.

I also know we are lucky enough to have dental insurance and be able to take Hazel to the dentist. Hazel got all of her teeth early, so if felt like the first two years she was always teething. We also are lucky to have a pediatric dental group near us. I also grew up with dental insurance so going to the dentist was a must in my house. Even as an adult without the insurance (not all school systems offer it), I always went to the dentist twice a year. So I do feel this is an important cause. I also know that some children are more prone to cavities and problems than others. My nephew for example has many issues and needs to spend about 5-10 minutes a night taking care of his teeth. My sister does it with him and when he stays with my parents, they are well versed on what needs to be done each night. Apparently this runs on his father's side of the gene pool, but it still needs to be dealt with.

So I'm letting you know about this charity and also asking you to think about your own children's teeth in this crazy season of Halloween candy going right through to our New Year's parties (or in my case my daughter's birthday party since New Year's Eve and her birthday are the same).

Relaxing Monday

Mondays have become a day of relaxing for me. We have started with a weekly playdate at 7:30 a.m. with a friend and her 9-month-old. He takes an early nap at 9, so they come here until around 9 and then he falls asleep on their way home. Once a month I have an appointment at 10:30 so my mother-in-law babysits. We got in the habit of having her babysit on Mondays (when my appointments were more frequent), so she often takes her now even if I don't have an appointment. Today was one of those days. I spent some time shopping at Joanns. And then I met a friend at Kohls to spend our Kohlscash from our purchases last week. I came home for lunch and realized I didn't go to Staples. I need ink cartridges so I can print out all the interesting things I found for celebrating Michaelmas which is Thursday. Since I need to pick Hazel up around 1:30 unless my mother-in-law calls to tell me she got her to nap there (which hardly ever happens) I think I'll run out to Staples right before then.

I am hoping to get a bit more time to sew. I need to finish the three pairs of pants I'm making for Hazel and finish piecing her quilt. I will share the quilt pictures with you on October 19th when I get to be a guest blogger at Sew Happy Geek. It only seems fitting to share the quilt I made from her pattern and with the fabric I won from her blog on her blog. So look for a link that day.

Meanwhile, I was reading my Better Homes and Garden Magazine during lunch. I didn't get too far, but found something I wanted to share with you. You can download FREE pumpkin stencils and for each person who downloads BHG donates $2 up to $5000 to one of five charities (so up to $25,000 total). To do this all you have to do is visit BHG.com/charitystencils and you will have to log in or start an account there. The charities are The Humane Society of the United States, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Rebuilding Together, and March of Dimes. You can download as many as you want once you do the initial one which chooses the charity your $2 click will go to. Again it is FREE to you, so go check it out (even if you don't want the stencil you can always delete it later!).

One other thing to check out is the competition Not Just a Housewife is hosting. She is giving away a $100 Pottery Barn gift card and if she gets enough entries she will get two to giveaway. Go check it out. She is introducing a new website called Hometalk, which looks pretty neat in itself. They have decorators, contractors, gardeners, experts to answer questions for you and lots of giveaways all free!! Go check them out!

Some other interesting Halloween/Autumn Decorations and Activities to check out:

My Computer is My Canvas this freebie

I Heart Crafty Things has an adorable handprint cardinal craft from Tippytoe Crafts.

Tippytoe Crafts has a beautiful fall wreath tutorial.

Tatertots and Jello has several lists and links to Halloween crafts and Pumpkin Projects and Fall Projects.

C.R.A.F.T. has a guest blogger with some adorable small printables for free autumn decorations.

Silly Eagle Books has a great apple tree art project to go with a book. I think I'll be trying this later when we do more with apples.

And Mrs. Happy Homemaker has delicious looking apple nachos. Yum!!
Gotta try these!








Ok, enough time on the internet. Gotta run to Staples and pick up Hazel. Have a great day!!