Do you want to add a little culture to your children’s lives?  I discovered a children’s author I just love, James Mayhew.  Many of his books revolve around a little girl, Katie, who visits museums with her grandmother.

The first Mayhew book I read to my son was Katie and the Dinosaurs.   The story is about a young girl who goes to a natural history museum with her grandmother.  Her grandmother becomes tired and sits down on a bench for a nap.  Katie explores the museum by herself and discovers a door that says, “Absolutely No Admittance Whatsoever”.  She steps through the door and she is in a dinosaur land and ahead of her is a complete dinosaur adventure.  Read the rest of the story...

Personal finances.  It seems to be a topic in many households these days. Economically, it is a very scary time for many people. And lots of people are taking a serious look at their budget these days. Are we saving enough for retirement, emergencies and our children’s education? How can we save the proper amount for all of these things and pay for groceries, housing, and necessities?  Read the rest of the story...

Every week I go to the library and check out about 15 children’s books to read at night to my children.  Well this week, one of the books, Silly Billy by Anthony Browne, had a big impact, quite by accident, with our family.  This book is about a little boy who worries a lot.  His grandmother gives him some worry dolls to put under his pillow.  The story explains that you are suppose to give each doll one of your worries and they will do the worrying for you while you sleep. When we were done reading, my son asked me if we could make some worry dolls.  This surprised me. I asked him if he worried about things and he said he did.  I had no idea he worried and of course this worried me.  You know how us moms can be, I flew into a panic that my son had anxiety issues.  After I calmed down, we all agreed to make worry dolls the next day.  Read the rest of the story...

When my son started learning to read, I went to the library and picked up some learning DVDs to help. He was not interested. When he started kindergarten, a mom let me borrow her child’s Leapfrog learning to read DVDs. Both my son and daughter (two-years old at the time) loved them. My daughter now knows all of her letters and sounds because of the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD. And my son started sounding out words and learning reading rules with the Leapfrog Talking Words Factory DVD.

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