From Following Featherbottom to Pete the Cat to The Cat in the Hat, a book birthday party is a fun way to celebrate the occasion for a pint-sized bibliophile.
We love the idea of building a party around a child’s favorite book.
It can make the story come to life for the child and their guests.
And depending on how you structure the party, it can also be the perfect way to create a beginning library.
I remember fondly Fourth of July celebrations as a child.
We’d go to the local firework stand and pick out our favorites. My sister and I would light off fireworks in the days leading up to July 4th. Imagine LOUD for several days!
On July 4th, the whole town would gather in the park for festivities. There’d be concerts, baseball games and food. The night would end with the sky lit up in a splendid array of color.
My kids, too, look forward in anticipation to the Fourth of July each year. The fireworks, parades, barbecues, picnics, gathering with friends and family, all things red, white and blue…what’s not to love? (more…)
Do you have a child who loves creative writing?
I have a second-grader who is handed a sheet of paper at school for the topic of the day—one sheet with four lines—and comes home with those four lines filled out with prose, plus four additional papers stapled to the back of the writing sheet.
Though the writing is an exercise in stream-of-consciousness thinking, I love the creativity that she finds in expressing herself in this way.
And just like with reading, creative writing offers many benefits for children’s development. (more…)
Since my kids were babies, I’ve seen them take steps forward after family vacations.
I truly believe that there’s something about the stimulation of new surroundings and experiences that opens a child’s mind.
When my son was 6-months-old, we packed up the car seat–and baby monitors and sleeping sacks and strollers and bottles and binkies and puffs and diapers—and took our first plane ride to visit friends in Florida.
It was on that vacation that my son said his first words from the back seat of the rental car.
“Momma,” he said from the back seat, clear as day. Wait, what? I turned around and he was staring right at me, arms outstretched. “Momma,” he said again.
It melted my heart. I’d been waiting to hear that word since the day he was born.
As I look ahead on the calendar, Father’s Day is just around the corner. It’s a day to celebrate the father figures in our lives and let them know how much they are appreciated and loved.
You can show them how much they mean to you in many different ways. Some ideas include spending the day together, a phone call if they don’t live nearby, a purchased gift, breakfast in bed (a favorite in our house), a homemade card, an acrostic poem or a simple hug and “I love you”…the ideas are endless!
A few years ago, the kids decided to create a Father’s Day scavenger hunt. They love suspense and the element of surprise and are fans of scavenger hunts themselves. What better way to show their dad love than to create one just for him! (more…)
“Hurry up…”
“Eat dinner quick and then get ready for…”
“We don’t have time to…”
Have you uttered any of these phrases recently to your kids? It seems the fast-paced world we live in is only getting faster.
Each year a country is chosen to pick a theme for International Children’s Book Day. The 2019 theme, chosen by Lithuania, is “Books Help Us Slow Down.” Slowing down isn’t just a problem in the United States. People around the world are struggling with information overload, haste and rush.
Finding ways to slow down is more important now than ever. (more…)
One of the first signs of springtime is waking to the chirping and songs of the cardinals and robins outside the window. What a delight! In honor of these springtime fliers, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite bird books for kids.
We think they are the perfect way to help your child’s imagination and reading take flight. (more…)
I remember my first Mother’s Day.
Our son had just turned six months old and I was barely coming out of the fog of those early newborn months. Months of sleepless nights, feeding woes and constant fear I was doing it all wrong. The nagging feeling that I was clearly not prepared for motherhood.
No one told me it was going to be this hard. No one told me my heart could hold this much love.
It was at this first Mother’s Day that I really began to understand the huge responsibility that came with the title “Mom,” and at the same time the tremendous gift I had been given. (more…)
April showers bring… May baskets.
Somehow April has zoomed by and it’s May 1 again.
I’m not sure if it’s because we’re all busy enjoying the activities that come with the spring weather or just consumed with fighting our pollen allergies, but somehow this date sneaks up on me every single year.
And every year, I am reminded of May’s coming with the beautiful, thoughtful May baskets that arrive on my porch. (more…)
On April 28th, we celebrate National Superhero Day by honoring all superheroes, both real and fictional. It’s a day to celebrate those who serve and protect, while fighting evil.
Did you dream of being a superhero when you were little? Perhaps you played a make-believe hero with costumes or action figures. I have many memories of playing with my She-Ra castle. (more…)