Sharon Creech- Lover Of Children

I'm not sure if I have shared this before, but as a child I was NOT A READER!  

**BUM BUM BUM**

I did not get into reading until I was forced to by that dreaded AR (Accelerated Reader) program when I was 12 or 13. As you would expect from an angry teenager with anxiety and an attitude problem who has never learned to love reading, I hooked onto the R.L.Stine fear street series. 

(In the interest of full disclosure I did like the Thoroughbred and Saddle Club books at some point.)

After that I moved sideways into L.J.Smith, then up into Anne Rice, then sideways to Anne McCaffrey. Occasionally, I caved in and read the books I was supposed to read for school like Othello and To Kill A Mockingbird (more on that later!).

Long story short, I never read the 'normal' books that other kids read when they are young. No Judy Blume or Ronald Dahl or E.B.White for me. This may or may not explain my obsession with children's and teen books even though I am physically an adult now, or so people tell me.

When I was working at Barnes and Noble they would have Christmas parties. When I say party I mean they would school us in all the pertinent holiday policies and events then play games where we win books. Not cheap mass market ones either. Newish, hardcover ones. I once won The Castle Corona and later acquired (I don't remember when or where) Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech.

I found these books to be phenomenal. 

After that I would often look at the C section in the young readers aisle at libraries and bookstores and think about picking up another of hers, but never got around to it until this week.

While we were volunteering at the library this past week I grabbed Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King, Pandora by Anne Rice, Love Life and Elephants by Daphne Sheldrick, the DVD of Hugo, and of course The Boy on the Porch and Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. 

She is a really cool author. She writes books about orphans who find people who love and care for them and about how kids really feel about things. I find her perspective fascinating. I feel like her books help me understand what goes on in those crazy little heads of the children around me which in turn makes me a better caregiver, teacher and parent. So really it's like professional development! (See I can justify anything!)

Next time you come across one of her books pick it up. It will only take you an hour or two to sail through one. I promise you won't be sorry.

Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy!

We have reached the Summer half-way point. It's true. This is it. We are halfway between one public school year and another which means it's time to shake things up and really make the best of our time!

So yesterday I threw the kids in the car and drove them to the lake. It was hot and muggy, but overcast so it wasn't suffocating. We played on the playground, went for a walk and explored by the lake edge. They even caught some fish!

Today I used some ratchet straps to make a 'tightrope' for them with a strap up top for balance!

I also Inflated one of the bounce houses I have for the little kids!
(It didn't hold the air like it used to though. I think it may have developed a leak)

Such a Cute Little Library!

A year or two ago I decided that my book obsession was a financial problem...

I know, it's an ugly thought.

So we started frequenting the library not just for kids books, but for me as well. At the time we were members of the library system in the county next to ours since our county has no library system, just small, mostly privately funded and volunteer staffed libraries. 

Our local library has recently made some changes and updates. So I decided that instead of purchasing a membership somewhere else, I would donate that money to our library and see how we make out there.

The truth:

We are a pain in our librarians butt. We may be stressing her out a little.

Honestly, we are fanatics. We go through several books a week each, request particular books that have to be borrowed from other libraries continuously and question her about getting specific things or having certain programs. 

So, a few months ago I decided that we should give as well as receive. We began to volunteer at the desk every second Monday night and it is so much fun! There have been a few boring nights when there were only a handful of people that came in, but I can always read or alphabetize the juvenile books (they always need it!) if I get antsy. 

Mini-me is loving the checking out books part but not so much the 'dead nights' with nothing to do. I have my suspicions that I will want to be more and more involved so that our library can meet our growing needs.. Oh yeah, and those of the rest of the people in town too.

I just hope we are viewed as ambitious and involved, not pushy and obnoxious!

Dear Authors

Dear Authors,

Let me start out by saying that you are amazing. I am in awe of the fact that you can create worlds and people that feel real to us, the readers. I am constantly surprised that there are still fresh ideas and complicated plot twists for you to share with us. What you do is like magic to me.

I admire your bravery at pouring out a piece of yourself and putting it out there, never knowing what kind of reviews or criticism you will have to endure. I hope that the raves make you feel appreciated, but I imagine that a few of the less enthusiastic assessments sting a little. Therefore, I always try to be sensitive in the honesty of my responses to your work.   

That being said, I hold you up to pretty high standards and expect a lot and often. Sometimes I think readers like me forget that you are real people with real lives and (sometimes) jobs other than catering to our literary needs. I have been trying to be more realistic now that some of my friends are published authors and I am (Facebook) 'friends' with a couple more.

It is difficult for me to except that not every single sentence of your writing will be amazingly perfect and exactly what I wanted and expected, but really that is what keeps things exciting. How boring would it be if every book panned out just the way I thought it would?

My main frustration comes when you drop off the face of the earth. Please stop doing that. Your may not know it but your readers miss you. Maybe we are not good at expressing our hurt. Maybe you don't know that we even know you are not writing anymore. We are and we do. 

Worse than disappearing is not finishing a series or trilogy. I recently gave up all hope of the third book in the Exiles trilogy by Melanie Rawn ever being written. I may be the last person to let go, but I finally did. She was ill for awhile and then when she came back she moved on and wrote different books. No 3rd book. Ever. I am frustrated and disappointed and angry and discouraged and many other things. I am boycotting her other books and from the looks of the Amazon reviews I am not the only one. It is sad.

I suppose my point is that you will have to forgive us our unrealistic expectations and impossible standards, with the understanding that we are dependent on you for our literary friends and worlds. We can't do this without you!

Sincerely,
Readers everywhere

My Humble Opinion on Reasons My Kid Is Crying

I was recently sent a copy of Reasons My Kid Is Crying by Greg Penboke for review.

 

GREG PEMBROKE is the father of two sons (and the husband of one wife) from Rochester, NY. He works part time as radio advertising copywriter three days per week and stays home with his young sons two days per week.

It just happened to arrive on a very busy day of work, and vacation bible school. Before I knew it, or had a chance to even open to the first page, my bible study friends were sitting around my livingroom, passing this book around, laughing and reading excerpts out loud to each other. 

"This book is hysterical!" 

 "My daughter has to see this!" 

After they left I sat down alone with it and had to completely agree with them. This book IS hysterical and oddly comforting. It is a collection of pictures of young children completely frustrated with the incompetence of the world around them. 

To see that other parents are helpless to prevent these complete meltdowns over things like "A fly landed near him" and "her popsicle was cold" is nice to know. Especially during the terrible 2s and horrible 3s... or if, like me, you always have a couple of kids in your house who have, as Pembroke describes it, "insanely specific goals" and "great expectations" for their lives and routines each day.  

If you are loving the idea of this as much as I was you can check it out on Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter! 

I received this book from Blogging For Books for this review.
 

 

Nurses = Outstanding

**I'm sorry. All my cool hospital pictures are in my computer... which is currently having some sort of mental breakdown. Hopefully I will be able to add them later.**

I have always had a lot of respect for nurses. My parents had many friends that were nurses when I was a child and I have had many great nurses as friends.

In our latest foray into the world of medicine with my daughters' mysterious chest pain I came to love and respect them even more.

Our emergency room nurses were wonderful. They were incredibly busy the night we came in, but the triage nurse had Gwen hooked up to an EKG within ten minutes of us walking in the door and showed it to the doctor right away. She had us in a room ten minutes after that. She was calm, efficient and compassionate. My hospital feedback for her- Excellent!

When we were in the ER room we had another nurse. He was in to hook her up to the machines in a very short amount of time and checked in on us often. He stoically endured her complete melt down when it was time for the IV and blood work and gave us updates about when the doctor managed to get in touch with the pediatric doctor and what was happening with transport. With as busy as they were and especially since their ENTIRE computer system crashed about 3 hours into our visit it would have been easy to close our curtain and forget about us, but he was very proficient and attentive. My hospital feedback for him- Phenomenal!

We were then transferred to a pediatric wing of another hospital where we had our first nurse for an hour until shift change and our second nurse for the rest of our visit. They were great with Gwen and extremely caring. If they came in while she was eating or sleeping they would come back later to do what they needed to do. They wanted her to be as comfortable as possible and took any concerns I had to the doctor immediately.

The second nurse also endured my anger/insanity at the incompetence of the pediatric doctor who discharged us, professionally and almost completely straight-faced. I wish I could tell their boss how outstanding they were. I think I should be getting a survey in the mail... maybe?

Bodies in Motion

As much as I LOVE to read and to see 'my' kids enjoying books I also recognize a child's nee to MOVE. Different ways of moving are important for physical, emotional and neurological development in young children and it is our jobs, as the adults in their lives, to make sure they have opportunities to experience a variety of movement. This is enormously easier during the spring/summer/fall, but just as important in winter.

One way I do this is with a ring/trapeze bar hanging from a tree

Other ways are with games like musical exercise and follow the leader. I have a gymnastics bar (Gwen's Christmas present a few years ago) in the mulched area next to my swing set which has swings, ladders, a slide and monkey bars. We have jump ropes, skip its, basketballs, soccer balls and a hula hoop.

From the scholastic website:

There is a growing body of research that shows a link between play and the development of cognitive and social skills that are prerequisites for learning more complex concepts as children get older. 

So make sure to keep those little bodies in motion!