If your preschooler is forever calling dibs on your iPad, and you’re in search of a satisfying game that doesn’t give you mommy guilt, check out the latest reading app for the 5 and under crowd. Elmo’s Big Birthday Bash from Random House is packed with plenty of learning-based activities to keep your little party-goer in gaming heaven. With 30 pages of interactive entertainment, kids can celebrate Elmo’s special day as they play guessing games, expand their vocabularies and, best of all, have fun while doing it. There are plenty of surprises along the way, and not just for the birthday boy. Our favorite part? No after-party sugar shock to contend with. We like to think of it as a screen-time reward for anyone who [&hellip
Reading with Walnuts Archive
Last week’s spring break ran a bit little too long for my sanity, so my ever-thoughtful husband offered to take our daughter with him to work for the day. She’d been begging him since Easter, so you can imagine her excitement when his calendar opened up and she was able to trek with him into the Big City (to a 7-year-old, commuting never grows old). While I was never able to accompany my dad to his job (one that required security clearance), I later worked for the same company while on summer break as a college student and was able to ride with him to work. He always let me pick whatever radio station I wanted (a big deal in the pre-iPod-ear-buds-glued-to-your-head days), and we [&hellip
Sometimes, my 2nd grader likes to speak backwards–not facing away from me, but mixing up the order of her words. She, of course, thinks it’s hysterical; I find it maddening, especially by the end of the day. Because she gets a kick out of making us work to figure out exactly what she’s saying, it’s a real power kick…for a 7-year-old. But I figure there’s got to be a positive side to her punchy behavior. Maybe this strange sense of little kid humor was the inspiration for Sentence Shuffle Fun Deck. Housed inside a Band-Aid-style box are 56 illustrated cards containing a bunch of words that are out of order (for instance, “scaredy cat is a Linda.”) Players must then unscramble the words to form [&hellip
When someone I know has a new baby, my favorite gift to welcome their little one is a book. It doesn’t matter if it’s a board book about bunnies or a picture book about penguins; I love the inviting prospect of sitting in a comfy chair with a little person on my lap, inhaling their fresh-from-the bath scent and snuggling in for some one-on-one time. It’s a small moment of parenting that gives me the greatest pleasure, and my hope is to offer that same experience to my new mom friend. If you’re on the lookout for a new baby gift this spring, be sure to check out Hey Little Baby! by Heather Leigh. The tender tale of a brand-new person and all the possibilities [&hellip
I never realized how my work as a camp counselor would someday come back to haunt me as a mother. Many moons ago, I had a camper who refused to play sports. Any time we were headed in the direction of a field or gymnasium, she suddenly felt sick to her stomach and couldn’t participate. Because I knew to play by the rules (and I certainly didn’t want the camp director reprimanding me for any bad choices), I let her sit on the sidelines. But of course, once the end of the day rolled around and ice cream time was upon us, her stomachache mysteriously seemed to disappear. Well, one day, rules or not, I was not allowing this manipulative child to have even one [&hellip
Happy (almost) Birthday, Dr. Seuss! Whose childhood hasn’t been enriched by the whimsical menagerie of characters that Theodor Geisel created over the years? From The Cat in the Hat, to Yertle the Turtle, we’ve been able to experience the charming stories of these unique individuals who we grew up and then, share them with our own families. Had the beloved author still been alive, he would have celebrated his 108th birthday on March 2, 2012. In honor of Dr. Seuss, PBS Kids will be broadcasting a 2-hour marathon of “The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That” this Friday. The on-air festivities will feature two never-seen-before episodes entitled “Seasons–Spring and Summer/Fall and Winter” and “When I Grow Up/Doing It Differently.” The cat’s zany [&hellip
My girls and I have nearly devoured every Valentine’s Day book in our public library this month; I like to think of it as calorie-free brain candy. If you’ve exhausted your fair share of “Mouse’s First Valentine” and “The Day It Rained Hearts,” here are some heartwarming children’s picture books that celebrate the power of love, as recommended by The Brooke Jackman Foundation, a non-profit that promotes literacy for at-risk children in NYC. Happy Valentine’s Day–and happy reading! Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti Shustak How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen Porcupining A Prickly Love Story by Lisa Wheeler Love, Ruby Valentine by Laurie [&hellip
My husband likes to tease me about my preference for the predictable, but in the topsy-turvy world of parenting, I take great comfort in the repetitive rhythms of my day. Because of my 7-year-old’s after-school activities, I plan make-ahead meals of roasted chicken on Mondays and spaghetti and meatballs on Tuesdays. (No need to phone home and ask “What’s for dinner?”) And when I make my twice-weekly visit to our local fish market, the guys behind the counter are already poised behind the flounder and shrimp. “What’s the matter?,” one of the fish men once inquired when I opted for salmon. Geez, am I really that set in my ways? Maybe that’s why I can relate to the title character in the brand-new children’s picture [&hellip
My 3-year-old has pretty good taste in music, if I do say so myself. Having introduced her to everything from ABC to ZZ Top–and oh yes, all those cool kiddie rockers thrown in for good measure–she knows her “Smokey Sings” from “She’s Got Legs.” And my 7-year-old is no musical slouch either, even though her play list is lately to Katy Perry and the soundtrack to “Peter Pan” these days. (An odd combination, and yet it’s diverse.) No matter my girls’ tastes, the one thing that unites them is their interest in music. As we parents have been told from the get-go, expose kids to a passion early on, and watch them take to it like moths to a flame. That’s the idea behind the [&hellip
When it comes to holiday shopping, what do you get for the kid who has everything? I’m exaggerating, of course, but sometimes it feels like my girls have more gifts than Toys R Us. While we swap out old stuff twice a year to make room for birthday and Christmas gifts, it still seems like the stuff multiplies overnight. I don’t remember being this spoiled as a kid, but then my mother reminds me of the infamous Toy Closet, a bottomless pit of toys, dolls, board games and books that was forever busting its seams. Talk about history repeating itself!… This year, we’re on a special lookout for non-traditional gifts that are easy on space and that encourage kids to use their imagination, instead of [&hellip