Most people love to read, however most adults do not ready annually unless the habit was instilled as a child. Reading as an adult provides so many benefits, so take time to work with your child today and either read to them or encourage them to read.

When children are read to when they are little, they not only understand the story, but they also enjoy the comfort of your voice.  Then they get older and they begin to understand the story and want you to read it to them, or they can tell it to you from memory. Encourage your children to love reading.

Popular Age Appropriate Children’s Books

The type of book that your children will enjoy is often age dependent. Something like the three different series of the Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot is very popular with teenager girls for reading.

A Tomboyish girls dream of being a supermodel can be found in “Violet on the Runway,” a book that provides an exclusive view at life on the runway.  Violet is an awkward teenager who is transformed to high-fashion almost overnight, when she is unexpectedly “discovered” and whisked away to New York.  The nice thing is that you don’t get jealous of her because being a model isn’t as glossy as it appears in the magazines; Melissa Walker, the author, uses her insider experience as a fashion writer and is able to paint a realistic portrait of the fashion industry.

Males and females alike will both like Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why.  This is a hard novel about a boy, Clay, dealing with the death of Hannah Baker who committed suicide that he liked very much.  Hannah Baker left a series of cassette tapes behind telling the events that led her to committee suicide.  Depressed she tells how brutal high school was and why she died.

Fantasy stories are very popular with teenagers, including boys, as well as the Harry Potter series of stories.  Other popular authors include Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Stephen King.  The list of authors that your children can choose from seems virtually endless.

Watership Down was the first book ever prominently featured on Lost and is technically a story about bunnies.  And yes, I said Lost, the TV Show.  The story focuses on the members of one community forced to scrap and struggle their way toward survival.  But what makes it a joy to read is the way author Richard Adams personifies those bunnies, endowing them with stubbornness endowing them with stubbornness fear and resourcefulness as well as a unique, melodic vocabulary.  Invented words like “Owsla” (a bunny police force) and “silflay” (to go above ground to feed) waft effortlessly into the.

Children seem to be so smart by the time they are 7 to 10 years old today, and that seems to be because of the innovative toys and games that have been developed. Some of these games are designed to be played by the children alone, while others are interactive, allowing parents and children to play and learn together.

Children’s development is equating at a much higher speed and we as parents and grandparents exclaim how smart our children are for their age. The games they play are unbelievable and when we look at them, we realize they advanced and often cover topics that are not included in traditional curriculums.

Let’s take a look at one of them- Leap Frogs Math Games. This game is for a six year olds and teaches numbers. When this game is played, the next thing you know, your child is counting and recognizing numbers; then they are learning to add. This game truly does help a child when they enter into the school system as it advances their natural learning curve.

The activity of reading is also beneficial, allowing a child to recognize letters and words while also teaching them to read. While reading has been a long lasting tradition, the advent of the computer has drastically changed the way children play games.

Before you know it the kids are downloading games on the computer, which is just flabbergasting. My son was doing that at the age of 5. I never realized that they had games for the 5 through 12 year old age bracket available for download on the computer. My son was learning more than I have ever known on the computer.

One of the games kids download that my son used to use fascinated me. It involved flight and was an airplane game whereby you took off, flew around and landed the airplane or crashed it, whatever the case may be. My son is a small plane pilot so my son learned how to fly that plane in an attempt to be like his father when he grew up. My grandson loves planes and he taught himself that game which made me extremely proud of him. This game also taught him coordination and helped him learn how to count. All of these games have a special purpose and are teaching the children something that will help them in their future.

We find that our children’s development is depending a lot on hand games and on computer games in addition to a parent’s interaction with them. It is so different from 30 years ago. Anything that can help a child’s development is a blessing and that includes the games kids download from the computer. Never assume that your kids are just playing around. Check it out with your kids and see what they are learning.

When I was a kid, I loved the museum. The Natural History one was my favorite; I used to wheedle my way into the back rooms to see the animals that there were no room for in the display, and the huge insect collections in the basement.

Now I have kids of my own, I try to go to as many museums as possible. Sometimes we drive into the city to the science museum, where there is a hands on exhibit, and I am astonished for weeks after at how much they remember about the educational shows they get to see!

Sometimes we go see the dinosaur bones and the Wooly Mammoth skeleton, or we stop by the live butterfly exhibit during Monarch season and learn about migration all over again. Other days we wander through the art museum for an hour, making up stories about the scenes in the paintings.

I was very young when the huge Chinese exhibit came to America. I still remember the huge two man loom that stretched up two stories, and the weaver that sat at the top and called to the one standing below. There was a lady who could embroider on a sheer silk screen, and you wouldn’t believe it but one side looked like a tiger and the other like a hummingbird. I hope another exhibition like that comes for my children to see!

Even little museums can be a huge amount of fun, and a learning experience as well. If you travel through small town America, you can find dairy museums with ancient original milking machines, doll museums, aircraft museums and museums dedicated to wooden eggs, toy soldiers or quilts. There is always more to learn about a subject than you ever could have imagined!

The nice thing about museums is that many of them have free admission, or only a very small fee to get in and enjoy all of the exhibits. Don’t let your child miss out on being exposed to all the wonders of the world!

Recently I was talking to different people in the different parts of the world. I talked to my high school friend who is in Paris, my mother’s friends from Siberia, and my long-term friend from Moscow. They all were complaining about the recent weather conditions. I am completely agreed with them. The weather is getting worse and this is scary!

It is getting more cloudy and windy in Paris over the summer. It is getting warmer in Siberia during the winter and very rainy during the summer. In Moscow people basically do not see the sun anymore.

The climate is changing. The air pollutants from fossil fuel use make clouds reflect more of the sun’s rays back into space. Recent years show increasing temperatures in various regions and increasing extremities in weather patterns.

We can help work on solving this problem by doing our part. There are few tips:

•    Walk or ride a bike instead of driving a car.
•    Teleconference instead of flying.
•    Use compact fluorescent light bulbs.
•    Recycle.
•    Plant native trees.
•    Turn down the heat.
•    Buy renewable energy.

Yesterday was a last day of summer break. I and my daughter decided to celebrate. I invited my daughter’s friend over to our house so they would have a last chance to catch up before the schools starts. We went to the park, had a JamboJuce and organic hamburgers. It was fun!

Today is a first day of school. Yea! New teacher, a few new classmates and the happiness of seeing her old friends. While my daughter was setting up in the new classroom I was having some coffee and bagels in the lobby and talking to the parents. After that we all went to the assembly.

I love the assemblies in Kristina’s school. They are always sweet, entertaining, and very interactive. Everybody has a chance to talk and share: the staff, the teachers and of course the students. Today’s topic of sharing was “goals for the next year”. These are few of them; maybe your child can use them too. I love them all!

•    Read more
•    Write more
•    Make more friends
•    Be a better friend
•    Recycle
•    Train the attention muscle
•    Have more fun
•    Exercise more
•    Listen better
•    Pay more attention to the teacher

Have a great school year!

I am very lucky that my children go to such a good school. The teachers both my son and daughter have had in the past years have been great! I have to hold up my end, too, though. When my daughter started slipping a little in her grades and behavior marks I went to the teacher to ask why.

“She is lucky she is so smart,” her teacher said. “She is just completely goofing off in class. If she would pay attention she would be in the advanced class already.”

I was shocked! My little girl had always perfect marks for behavior each six weeks. The teacher said that she was talking to her friends and not paying any attention - in fact, she had even back-talked the teacher a few times.

At the same time, my little boy was acting up in his class, poking the kid next to him at circle time or when they were in line in the hall. “He’s such a sweet boy - this isn’t like him!” the teacher said.

I had just had my baby, and I figured they were just feeling a little left out! I sat down with each teacher and child, and we talked about the problems.

I asked if they would mind sending home a daily report for a few weeks, so I could deal with any issues immediately instead of finding out a whole week later.

Every day they had a note telling me about a problem, we would sit down right after school and talk it over. If they didn’t have a perfect mark for the day, no TV or video games. If they had a bad mark three or more times in a week, then nothing on the weekend, either!

It only took three weeks before all the behavior problems were gone, and their grades came back up. I was glad I had talked to the teachers, and we had found a solution!

Which sounds better, “Time to learn, kids,” or “Let’s read a story!” Your children can learn so much just from sharing a book with you, whether you are reading it to them or vice versa.

Reading for some kids is so easy, while others take longer to learn. I taught my daughter to read when she was not quite five with one of the ‘Little Critter’ books by Mercer Mayer, called ‘Just Go To Bed!’.

We read over and over about how the ‘Little Critter’ (who looks quite suspiciously like a bunny) is trying to get ready for bed. Every step of the process is hindered by his imagination, which turns him into a variety of things including an astronaut, a cowboy and a race car driver.

After a few weeks she had pretty much memorized it, and would watch as I traced enough, she could read them even without the pictures, and out of order! I used some of the same words to make new sentences, and she could read those too! Daddy was pretty surprised when he got home and she climbed up on under the words as we went along. I would fall silent every now and then and let her fill in a word. Then I had a bright idea. She was reading words, even with the prompts from the pictures - could she do it without the pictures? I wrote the sentences out in plain strips of poster board, and mixed them up.

Sure enough, she could read them even without the pictures, and out of order! I used some of the same words to make new sentences, and she could read those too! Daddy was pretty surprised when he got home and she climbed up on his knee and really read him the book!

Read to your kids, please, do! They can learn to read so much earlier then you think!

Sarah P.

You hated it when your Mom said it. You swore to yourself that when it came to raising a child of your own you would NEVER say those eight awful words.

You would be the perfect mother, and your children would be perfect angels. You would rule with a gentle but firm hand and never raise your voice. In your world, the children would be fed, bathed and lovingly tucked in bed by six, and your husband would be greeted by sweet serenity every night when he crossed the threshold.

You didn’t take in to account what the cost of raising a child would have to your psyche! When talking to children you find yourself spiraling down into this dark place, as nothing you try seems to get through. One by one, you break every vow you ever made about the way you were going to raise YOUR kids. Your voice rises to a screech, and your mood plummets.

You’ve tried the time out, which you always despised when you were a child. Doesn’t work. You send them to their rooms. They color on the walls. You threaten them with grounding - from what? They’re two and four! You toy with the idea of sending them to bed with no supper - but you know you’re wayyy too much of a softy to follow through.

And so you fall back on the one method you swore you would never resort to, the ultimate threat of everywhere fear…

“You just WAIT until your FATHER gets home!!!”

It’s OK. When they grow up, they’ll say it to their kids, too.

Learning to be social is a part of growth development that takes time to show! My daughter is an extremely friendly child - the kind that starts up a conversation with anyone, invites them to her birthday party, and reminds them they will need to bring a present!

You know what that is like if you have social children too! You love the fact that they aren’t shy, and secretly worry that they will try to befriend the wrong person. You have to let them grow, however, and being able to interact socially will help them a lot when they start school.

Then there are the other children of the family, that are almost painfully self conscious. My littlest boy has decided he doesn’t like people. Little old ladies who try to chuck him under the chin are met with squinched up eyes and a mournful puckered mouth. If they persist, he pretends he is a baby coyote and goes  “Oawoooooohh!” (Then everyone laughs, which just makes him madder!)

That’s OK! He will outgrow it, if I insist on taking him with me to the store and on errands, and not giving in to his shyness. My middle son was shy too, but he got over it. I took him to several mothers day out and bible school programs at churches the summer before he started kindergarten, and he quickly learned how to make friends.

As long as you expose your child to sociable situations, they can learn how to be more sociable. They all just do it in their own time! So don’t worry if one is outgoing and another shy. They will each grow at their own pace.

Sarah P.