READ BOOKS TO BABIES ON UP

It's never too soon to begin reading to your child.

I read to mine when they were in the womb and I knew they could hear me.

I brought my children to the library as soon as they could walk.

I read to my toddlers on up to preteens at bedtime nightly and it was as popular to them as Friday pizza & popcorn movie night was.

I enrolled them in weekly storytime.

Every couple of weeks I'd bring a new selection of books home and stack them in the kitchen to read during breakfast time. That was probably even MORE popular than Friday nights OR bedtime stories lol. Reading to them in the mornings seemed to capture their attention so much! They never seemed to want it to stop! ❤️ I suggest funny books. It wakes them up and helps them be happy.🤗

My kids all still love books... for different reasons. I've always loved them. I'm sure there's a blog somewhere here on our site that explains how books pretty much saved my life as a little girl.

Besides being therapeutic to many children, being read to or reading themselves promotes language skills and helps them become better learners.

Search this blog for more about reading to children, our thoughts on libraries, and homeschooling.

(OH PS: I now read to my baby granddaughter and she seems to love books too.😁 Tell me how happy this Nana is..!?)

Keep 'em reading!

Back to School Anxiety: Bullying

Download “School Boy Being Stressed” by David Castillo Dominici via freedigitalphotos.net I recently wrote about how to help your child if they’re struggling with going back to school because they were bullied. My biggest most important tip was to listen, because I honestly could not write a ‘How-to-make-them-not-afraid’ column. Frankly I thought that was absurd. Fear is sometimes real. Anxiety is sometimes truly there, and for a good reason. Our job as parents isn’t to try to make it go away, it’s to try to find out the true source of those worrisome feelings. If you’d like to read more, click here. And if you’re child is struggling to find excitement about the new school year, don’t deny it, just accept it and move forward gently. Here’s some more on bullying: Family Matters Links: A Touching Story/Song Bullying: A thing of the past A Peace Poem By My Teenage Daughter A Deeper Insight into My Thoughts on People Who Bring Harm to Others Other Links: Stop Bul

6 Ways to Support Teens and Mental Health (Column Related)

Enjoying a trip to see family and exploring the outdoors. May was Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s over now, but it shouldn’t be. I’m not a medical professional or anything even close, but I am convinced that every person on the planet (no matter age, economic status, profession, race, or gender) is vulnerable to events that can alter their state of mind. If you’re not sure about this, just research the increase in the amount of people seeking psychological help due to the pandemic, then try getting an appointment with a therapist or counselor that doesn’t require weeks or months on a wait list. There are so many things damaging our mental health that we don’t even realize. Add underlying issues not yet detected and undiagnosed…it’s a bad situation made worse, and the need for support more urgent. Many teens are struggling with mental health issues right now and many of us don’t even know it. How could we? Not too many teens feel comfortable talking to adults about ‘their stuff’ a

Green Punch Buggy....!!!!

Green Punch Buggy...No Punch Back! As I was writing this blog post, my son came to me showing off his Lego creation. And don't you know I got hit at least five times since on my computer screen was displaying at least five different punch buggies, of five different colors thanks to Google Images. (Bad timing I'm thinking...) How can we possibly have world peace with these silly cars in the world!? ;) Don't the owners of these cute-but-obnoxious-cars understand that driving these things around town promotes violence!? ;) Anyhow.... The original purpose of this blog was to ask parents everywhere this question: Do you find yourself saying 'PUNCH BUGGY *BLANK-COLOR*! ' to yourself, even when the kids are not in the car??? I do! Isn't it funny how those games we used to play as a child are still around? I bet our parents say the same thing.... HAPPY FRIIIIIIDAAAAYYYY! P.S. I got hit at least ten more times, since as my son stood beside

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