Since Thanksgiving, most of you have been pulling the decorations out of the attic and setting them up in preparation for the big holiday. While unpacking those boxes of decorations, I’m sure you ran across some of the old Christmas story favorites – Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, The First Christmas, the Nutcracker – the list goes on. Well, we are all very familiar with these stories, so I think many of us allow the season to go by without even dusting them off.

Here’s an idea to get those books read and have an enjoyable slow down moment with your family. Wrap up each book in Christmas paper. Place the wrapped books in a basket and set them under the tree. Each night, allow your kids to choose the wrapped book that they would like to read. Turn off the TV, make some hot chocolate and sit with your kids and read the story with them. I promise, that you will enjoy that “break” with your kids. What better way to end a busy day of work, school or shopping than to curl up on the couch with your kids and read a book.

Add an additional element of surprise for your kids. Add some new books to your collection. Christmas Around the World, by L. Sims is nice book because describes the holiday traditions of those in other countries. The Usborne Book Of Christmas Poems by S. Taplin would be a delightful addition to your collection. Maybe one night you would like to bake some cookies to enjoy while you read those lovely books – try Christmas Cooking (R. Glilpin and C. Atkinson) or Christmas Fairy Cooking (L. Pratt and C. Atkinson) for the little darlings in your life. These books and many more can be found at www.ubah.com/k2841 Enjoy those holiday books and Merry Christmas!

The Manny by Holly Peterson was my “summer read” that continued way too far into Fall! The story was an interesting peek into the lives of the “uber rich” in the heart of New York City’s Manhattan. While the thought of having my own cooks, maids and nannies is unimaginable to me, it’s always entertaining to read about this ultimate fantasy lifestyle in between doing my own piles of laundry, cooking dinner and helping kids with homework. When you add a young, good-looking, zest for life “Manny” to the mix, you would think that things would get really interesting! Unfortunately, it didn’t quite do that for me.

The character of Jamie, a working mother of three married to a rich, greedy, upwardly striving, workaholic husband, living in the heart of Manhattan intrigued me in several ways. First, I could relate to getting married in my late 20’s and being career and socially focused. Then, after you add kids to the mix and reach your late 30’s, you start to see how husband and wife evolve over the course of marriage and family life. Personal goals change, careers change, and marriage changes. Working hard in both career and family life can cause you to lose touch with what brought you together as a couple. I could see that struggle between Jamie and her husband as they started leading separate lives. Enter in the young, single fun-loving “Manny”, showering Jamie and her kids with attention and affection they’ve been missing and craving, how could she not fall for the Manny? To me the Manny represents all the love, affection, and humanity that was disappearing from Jamie’s marriage. Unfortunately this was very predictable from the start and the book lacked the depth to really draw you further into the experience.

The book continues by pursuing two story lines, one related to her high profile reporter career and the other, the growing relationship between her and the Manny and how he brings out Jamie’s true desires and goals for herself and her children.

I appreciated the fact that over the duration of the story, Jamie really fights to do the right thing…not just giving into her immediate emotions and feelings. She tries to make her marriage work and yet struggles with the realization that staying in an unhappy marriage doesn’t do anyone any favors. On the other hand, she painfully strings Peter (the Manny) along trying to figure out who and what she wants, which often got confusing, especially since her husband seemed to get worse and worse as the story unfolded.

I was disappointed in how predictable this book was and had a hard time making a true connection with the characters. It did improve towards the end as Jamie’s character opens up about her feelings toward the Manny, but overall the book ended up being simply a fun “escape” read.

More about The Manny on Amazon.

NOTE: I’ve been a lover of books all my life and I try to still get in a book every so often even when time seems to not want to permit it! We read to the kids every night and for those of you who read to your kids and yet still don’t have time to read for yourself, remember that it sets a great example for your kids to see you take a moment, pick up a book and read. Practice what we preach, right? It will do everyone good!

Chana Lynn, small business web designer and mother of two girls, Julia and Samantha. She resides in Raleigh, NC.

“The day you were born was a dream come true. It began the lifetime adventure of incredible YOU.” So starts the fun, sentimental, custom keepsake book titled The First Adventures of Incredible You. Through beautiful illustrations and a story that is a joy to read with its rhyming words and gentle cadence, you and your child will fall in love with this book.

Written by Sarah Riley Headrick and Sarah Foreman Rivera, two friends who met through a suburban playgroup when their first-borns were six months old, the two Sarahs quickly became experts in giving and receiving gifts for babies and young children. “We found the gifts that we most enjoyed giving and receiving were somehow personalized and had special meaning for the recipient’s family.”

Made custom by answering about 20 questions such as your child’s name, birth date, friends names and favorite park, The First Adventures of Incredible You cleverly and seamlessly inserts the personalized details of your child’s life while maintaining the rhyming, fun nature of the book.

A wonderful gift for girls and boys, biological and adopted children, children of all races and nationalities, for newborns, toddlers, preschoolers through third graders, The First Adventures of Incredible You is a Clever Parents favorite. Buy this hardcover book as a holiday gift, a birthday present, a baby shower or just because.

Use code cp10 for 10% off your purchase from now through December 15th. Purchase by December 7th (standard shipping) or December 15th (expedited shipping) for Christmas delivery. Learn more and buy the book at www.custommadeforkids.com

Just before Bob and I were married, my mother told me about her early days of marriage. She said that they didn’t have much money, and TV was not widely available, but what they did in the evenings was read books aloud to one another. It sounded strange to me, but a year or so later, Bob and I didn’t have much money, and there was nothing good to watch on TV, so I suggested that we read a book aloud to one another. What fun it was! We found that some books are better suited for reading aloud than others. Agatha Christie and Nero Wolfe mysteries were easy to read. War and Peace, on the other hand, just seemed to bog us down with the details.

When our first daughter was entering kindergarten, I attended the “Get to Know the Principal” session. The principal said that one of the most important things to do with your children is to read aloud to them. We had, of course, been reading books to them, but had sort of thought that this would end at some point. The principal said, “Read aloud every day until they graduate.” Thus began a very pleasant time in our lives.

We generally read one book as an entire family at night before our daughters went to bed, and I read them a different book each morning while they ate breakfast, after Bob left for work. When overnight guests came, we all piled into one bedroom and read whatever book we were currently working on. I remember one time when we were reading a ghost story in the mornings at breakfast, and my parents were visiting. Each morning they got down to the kitchen just as I was opening the book. These grandparents found them-selves stools to sit on, and they listened. They had planned to stay through a Monday, but at the end of breakfast on Monday they announced that they were staying another day. “Fine,” I said, “But why?” “Because you will finish that book tomorrow morning, and we want to know how it turns out.”

We found that, as our daughters grew, the complexity of the books that we read increased. We also had them read to us some nights.

As our oldest daughter was preparing for her wedding, I decided to pass on the advice that my mother had given me. About a month later, she reported that her new husband was reading Ayn Rand to her in the evenings, and she was enjoying it (to her surprise).

Here are some of the books that we liked the best:

For small children:

• Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown

• Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne

• Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling

• The Peter Rabbit Series, by Beatrix Potter

These children’s books have been recreated by others, so be sure to find the original versions, which we think are the best. The original Pooh books were “decorated” by Ernest H. Shepard. The original Rudyard Kipling books were illustrated with black and white line drawings by the author. The 23 original Peter Rabbit books were a tiny size (approximately 6 inches by 6 inches), also illustrated by the author.

For grade school-age children:

• The Little House Books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

• The Anne of Green Gables books, by L.M. Montgomery

• The Bunnicula books, by James Howe

For junior high and high school-age children:

• The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

• Jubliee Trail, by Gwen Bristow

• The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

I am the Queen of reading parenting books, most often written by other Mothers who write about their experiences. This was the first time I’ve read one by a Dad! It was very interesting to gain some perspective from the Father’s side of the parenting spectrum. I really enjoyed this book and literally laughed out loud reading several of the chapters!

Robert Wilder enlightens us with his parenting stories in a relaxed style as if you were having a casual conversation over coffee. I liked this book because it was not bogged down with lessons in child rearing, which I found refreshing; he simply relays the funny or touching experiences that we all have as new and more experienced parents. One thing that I’ve really come to enjoy is spending time with other parent friends and sharing our own funny or embarrassing stories with each other. There were many incidents in Robert’s book that I could relate to, such as a chapter on buying school supplies (“Supply Me”) or his chapter about choosing baby names and keeping them secret from other family or friends (”Hoarding Names”). That one really hit home with me! He also includes some more tender moments with his children. He clearly has enjoyed his fathering adventures as he has watched his daughter (Poppy) and son (London) grow into amazingly clever little people. Highlights included London’s use of a particular “choice” word at different social events or outings, the challenge of high maintenance moms, singing and driving simultaneously to keep his daughter asleep, and a hilarious episode on X-rated broadcasts via the baby monitor!

Another funny chapter is called “Papa Pia”. Wilder’s skillful writing allows you to vividly imagine the scene as he recalls changing his newborn’s exploding diaper on the sink in the Men’s Room! As you can imagine, the whole thing turns into a total disaster, conjuring up unforgettable memories for most Dads and Moms who have experienced something similar in their early child-rearing years.

In the chapter titled “Kidalgo” Wilder describes his children as seasoned air travelers and although well behaved they can still suffer the wrath of a nearby adult who is simply upset once they realize a child has been seated behind them. He humorously points the lights and air towards the discriminating couple in the row ahead to annoy them. In the end, he gets his revenge by being complemented by the flight attendant for having such well-behaved children. That, with a thank you and a swift kick to the seats in front of him!

Overall, the male perspective used to convey these humorous anecdotes creates a refreshingly unique and enjoyable summer read. I would highly recommend it.

Find Daddy Needs a Drink: An Irreverent Look at Parenting from a Dad Who Truly Loves His Kids–Even When They’re Driving Him Nuts by Robert Wilder in paperback on Amazon here.

NOTE: I’ve been a lover of books all my life and I try to still get in a book every so often even when time seems to not want to permit it! We read to the kids every night and for those of you who read to your kids yet still don’t have time to read for yourself, remember that it sets a great example for your kids to see you take a moment, pick up a book and read. Practice what we preach, right? It will do everyone good!

Chana Lynn, small business web designer and mother of two girls, Julia and Samantha. She resides in Raleigh, NC.

Like their bodies, kids’ brains need exercise to stay in tip-top shape. It’s no surprise that during the long, lazy days of summer, many students lose the equivalent of one to two months of reading and math skills.

Because the best learning often occurs when children don’t realize they are learning, fun and creative activities like painting, visiting the zoo or creating a beach towel “journal” are ideal for keeping summer brains in peak condition.

Following are ten, kid-friendly activities designed to give students the ultimate summer brain workout:

Grades K-3
Take a walk on the natural side. Plan a nature walk to a nearby neighborhood, park or zoo. As you and your child walk, stop to record observations with a drawing or a brief description. Gather any items you may want to save or examine more closely when you get home. Later, take the time to search the Internet or read wildlife books to learn more about the plants, rocks and animals you discovered on your walk.

Have fun with sidewalk chalk. Draw a hopscotch pattern, sketch pictures of your favorite characters from books, practice spelling your family members’ names or create math problems for you and your friends. Visit tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/learning-activities/summer-fun.cfm to learn how to make your own sidewalk chalk.

Write on. Keep track of your child’s adventures this summer by creating a beach towel or t-shirt “journal.” All you need is a white beach towel or t-shirt and fabric markers. Have your child include his or her favorite events of the summer on the towel or t-shirt, such as family parties or the scores of baseball games. In September, your child can bring the unusual “journal” to show-and-tell so teachers and friends can reminisce about summer fun.

Grades 4-6
Plant a mystery garden. Visit a garden supply store and purchase a variety of flower and vegetable seeds. Remove the seeds from their containers and place them in unlabeled bags. It’s up to the student to grow the plants and determine their correct seeds! Have your child keep a garden journal, including things like how often and how much water each plant received, and drawings or pictures of the plants as they develop. At the end of the summer, press the flowers in clear contact paper and enjoy the vegetables with the family.

Become a pen pal. Have your child write letters to a friend who has recently moved or a relative who lives out of town. The student could write about his or her summer experiences, stories about friends or pets or the latest family adventure. Consider visiting an art supply store and buying multicolor paper, stickers, stamps or glitter and design your own stationary.

Create a cookbook. Look through cookbooks and ask family members and friends to send their favorite recipes. File recipe cards by category and number each one so they can easily be kept in order. Try a new recipe each week and work together to read the directions and measure the ingredients. Take a picture of your child enjoying the finished product. At the end of the summer, have your child design a cover for the cookbook. Gather all of the recipes into a binder and make printed copies for family and friends.

Grade 7-9
Plan a vacation. Ask your child to use the Internet to learn more about your vacation destination. If you will be traveling out-of-state, research the state flower or bird and interesting tourist attractions. Gather bus and subway route maps and schedules to places you would like to visit, such as a museum or the zoo. As you travel, your child can keep a journal filled with notes about his or her favorite places.

Become a reporter. Keep track of local and national news by creating a family newspaper. Develop a list of article types, such as sports, comics, movie guide, etc. If the student is writing about a sporting event, use the Internet to learn more about a favorite player or team. Set up a question box in your home and ask friends or family to write questions your child can answer in an advice column. At the end of the summer, organize all of the articles in a binder. It will be fun to look back on in years to come.

Track the weather. Make a large calendar or graph to chart the high and low temperatures each day for a month. At the end of the month, the student can calculate the average temperature and record the highest and lowest temperatures. Consult an almanac at the library to find out whether the temperatures measured were above or below the average in your area, or if you broke any weather records.

All Ages
Read, read, read. Have younger children challenge their friends to a summer read-a-thon. Keep track of hours spent reading and the number of books read. Then, hold a summer-end pizza party to celebrate the winner. Older students can create a local book club by planning weekly meetings to discuss books and serving snacks that relate to the story. To encourage students of all ages to pick up a book, Sylvan has compiled a grade-by-grade list of great “summer reads.” For additional fun books, visit Sylvan’s www.bookadventure.com.

For free learning guides and a variety of complimentary activity booklets and writing journals, visit tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/learning-activities or call 1-800-31-SUCCESS.

Sylvan Learning Center Summer Reading List:

Elementary School
Kindergarten:
Whose Mouse Are You? by Robert Krause
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Grade 1:
Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott
Cork and Fuzz by Dori Chaconas

Grade 2:
The Principal’s New Clothes by Stephanie Calmenson
Henry and Mudge by Sucie Stevenson and Cynthia Rylant

Grade 3:
10-Step Guide to Living With Your Monster by Laura Numeroff
Aladdin: The Magical Tale of a Boy and his Wonderful Lamp by Rosalind
Kerven

Grade 4:
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
If You Lived 100 Years Ago by Ann McGovern

Grade 5:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Ronald Dahl
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Middle School
Grade 6:
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
The Black Stallion by Walter Farley and Keith Ward

Grade 7:
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Grade 8:
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

High School
Grade 9:
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, or, on the Segregation of the Queen by Laurie R. King
My Antonia by Willa Cather

Grade 10:
Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Series of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket

Grade 11:
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Grade 12:
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift and Pat Rogers
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

What’s the greatest gift Clever Parents can give a child besides their own time? The gift of reading, of course! Created by two teachers turned moms, The Gifted Grasshopper provides books that have been personally selected after scouring the bookstores for what kids love and what parents love to read.

Book selections are grouped by age and topic. In the Preschool area, for instance, you can choose from book sets about the alphabet, numbers, animals, fairy tales and more. The 2nd and 3rd grade area has selections on sports, poetry, math and chapter books to name a few.

“Jen and I pride ourselves on being able to find beautiful books for children: books with engaging text and beautiful illustrations; books that will foster language development and instill a love of reading in children,” says co-founder Laura Greenstein. “Books that are displayed at large bookstores are typically there because the publisher paid for the special placement, not because they are a quality selection. There are hundreds of books hidden on bookshelves in these stores or not even in stock at all that should be a part of every child’s reading experience. These are the books that are placed in Gifted Grasshopper gift bags. We are quite certain that when we send a baby bag to a baby shower, no one else has purchased the same books for the new mother to be. We feel confident that we can find original books for a bag for a child with hundreds of books in his collection already. Jen and I spend hours looking for great books to add to our collections.”

Bags are packaged by theme, however, if a customer has a need that is not covered by one of these categories, you can order a gift bag by Custom Request.

Gift bags come packaged in a Gifted Grasshopper tote and include a bookmark containing helpful hints that can be used while reading with your child, glasses to help your child spot new letters or words and Griffen the Grasshopper, a plush grasshopper puppet.

Learn more and shop away at www.giftedgrasshopper.com – happy reading!

Enjoy this week’s top stories from these great blogs for parents:

• Babyfaces: Photo of the Week – Newborn Yin/Yang Twins
• Boston Mamas: Baby Daze Review – A must-have, easy to use book to help you keep track of feeding, diapering, sleeping, etc.
• Celebrity Baby Blog: Jennifer Garner, a celebrity mom just like you
  We love how NORMAL Jennifer Garner is. Check out Jennifer and Violet at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market.
• Celebrity Baby Blog Reviews: The Phil & Ted E3 – A single stroller that accomodates two!
• Celebrity Moms: Gwen Stefani to Use Concerts to Help Kids
  Gwen Stefani announces plan to auction off VIP Concert Experience to raise funds for childrens charities
• Coochicoos – It’s a Great Time to be a Stuffed Animal – Cool new ways to stash your stuffed animals
• Classy Mommy Reviews Wife in the Fast Lane – We reviewed an advance copy of this entertaining read. The author will even call into your book club to discuss!
• One Chic Mama: Hot Crocs for Spring – Two great new shoe styles from Crocs
• SheFindsMom Baby Wearing Week – Wear Your Baby — Stylish Baby Carriers
• The Stylish Child Finds a Shower Gift with that Wow Factor
  Babycakes of Scottsdale creating shower gifts that take the cake

“There is no such thing as succeeding without reading,” says Dr. Richard Bavaria, vice president of education at Sylvan Learning Center. “Developing solid reading skills in the early years means children are more likely to become confident learners all throughout school.”

Dr. Bavaria suggests the following tips parents can use to help their children develop strong reading skills:

Pre-School Children

• Set aside time for storytelling. Reading and telling stories together help stimulate reading and writing skills.
• Read aloud. It sparks the imagination and helps orient children to language and the concept of written words. When reading a story aloud, point to the words as you speak them. Follow the sentence with your finger so that children begin to recognize how words appear on the page.
• Read often, but don’t expect to be able to read together for long periods of time.
  Encourage children between ages 4 and 7 to recognize words on the page.

Grade School Children

• Continue to read aloud. Even after children start to read on their own, reading aloud with them can help develop language skills.
• Encourage your child to try to sound out a strange word. Mistakes should be treated as an opportunity to learn a new word, not an embarrassment.
• Encourage talk and discussion as this contributes to the development of language skills and can help with reading. Ask everyone around the dinner table to talk about his or her day or tell a story.
• Introduce children to your local public library and get library cards for everyone in the family. Enroll in library-sponsored programs like reading challenges.
• Check with teachers and librarians to confirm the appropriate reading level for your child’s age. Get recommendations from them on good children’s books, or visit HYPERLINK “http://www.bookadventure.com” www.bookadventure.com to select age-appropriate titles.
• Read newspapers and magazines together. Help them read photo captions.
  Set up or designate shelves in a child’s room for her own “library.”
• Go to the Internet. The Internet can provide many opportunities for children looking for new things to read. Book Adventure is a free Sylvan-created, interactive, reading motivation program that can be found online at www.bookadventure.com. Students choose their own books, take short comprehension quizzes and redeem their accumulated points for small prizes. Book Adventure also offers teachers and parents resources and tips to help children develop a lifelong love of reading.

Sylvan Learning Center offers reading programs that are based upon solid and scientific research, educational industry best practices and common sense. Sylvan’s reading tutors use a systematic, age– and grade–appropriate approach that ultimately fosters reading independence and confidence.

For more great tips, visit www.educate.com.

Friday, March 2 is the 10th annual Read Across America Day, a one-day celebration that reflects the National Education Association’s year-round literacy campaign to build a nation of readers.

In honor of the day, Sylvan Learning Center has compiled a list of ‘Great Reads’ to help elementary, middle, and high school students achieve age-appropriate reading levels. Following are a few of the titles, taken from Sylvan’s BookAdventure.com, a free reading motivation program containing over 7,000 recommended titles for children in grades K-12:

Elementary School
Grade 1: Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss;
The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree, by Stan and Jan Berenstain

Grade 2: Poetry for All Seasons, by Demi, et al.;
Come Back, Amelia Bedelia, by Peggy Parish and Wallace Tripp

Grade 3: The BFG, by Roald Dahl;
The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Anderson

Grade 4: Winnie-The-Pooh, by A.A. Milne;
Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Case, by Donald J. Sobol

Grade 5: White Fang, by Jack London;
Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein

Middle School
Grade 6: Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling;
The Incredible Journey, by Sheila Burnford

Grade 7: Watership Down, by Richard Adams;
The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper

Grade 8: Jungle, by Upton Sinclair;
The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger

High School
Grade 9: The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen

Grade 10: The Hound of Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon

Grade 11: Blackout, by John J. Nance
Big Mouth & Ugly Girl, by Joyce Carol Oates

Grade 12: Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway

As a busy mom always short on time, what I loved most about Confessions of a Slacker Mom by Muffy Mead-Ferro was the sense of accomplishment that I felt after reading it in one night! It is a quick and easy read. I got the sense that the author wasn’t trying to write yet another parenting advice book, but instead wrote about her experiences growing up in the 70’s and her mother’s parenting style versus the popular, trendy parenting methods of today. It was a great tribute to her mother and the important life lessons she took away from growing up on a ranch in Wyoming and being forced to be an independent, hardworking, appreciative child.

I enjoyed reading several different chapters where she takes on many of today’s modern parenting challenges. First, her take on toys (Toys Aren’t Us) humorously describes needing to buy stock in battery companies, the constant chore of picking up the 60+ pieces to the toy or sorting through toys to put them back together, which I know from experience has taken up way too much of my time! I whole-heartedly agree with the fact that today’s kids have so much to choose from that almost nothing is truly special. She also reflects on how much more time was spent outside using our imaginations and playing with sticks, rocks and spending hours building forts out of card board boxes instead of buying expensive “educational” toys that the kids look at once and forget about!

I also enjoyed her takes on scrap booking (“every moment memorable but potentially trivial too!”), formal education (writing a recommendation for a 2 year old’s application to preschool), safety (learning the hard way instead of completely safety-proofing the house) and allowing for the natural consequences of a child’s behavior. Bottom line: she believes in building a child’s self esteem by encouraging them to accomplish a goal that wasn’t easy to achieve, learning a new skill or finishing a task that takes time and effort, and teaching children to want to do well for themselves, not just to gain praise.

By just saying “no” to the pressure of some of today’s parenting philosophies and giving children everything, she calls herself a “slacker mom.” By resisting these temptations, she believes in letting kids learn for themselves, and believing that it is okay for your child to have less and not have to be involved in every kind of activity or sport. She also believes that mothers need to have lives of their own, which as I’ve just hit the 40 year mark, I am a big subscriber to these days. I believe that being a slacker mom just might make me a better mom, wife and friend!

The book is humorous and easy to relate to and I enjoyed being reminded of what is truly important as we raise our children the best way we can in this fast-paced, overwhelming world we live in! Her most important message: she believes we are all generally good parents and we need to trust our inner instincts as the good moms and dads that we are.

NOTE: I’ve always been a lover of books all my life and I try to still get in a book every so often even when time seems to not want to permit it! We read to the kids every night and for those of you who read to your kids and yet still don’t have time to read for yourself, remember that it sets a great example for your kids to see you take a moment, pick up a book and read. Practice what we preach, right? It will do everyone good!

Buy Confessions of a Slacker Mom on Amazon.

Are you interested in international adoption, but aren’t sure where to begin? Fortunately for you, Dawn Davenport can help. Attorney, researcher and mother of four through both birth and adoption, Dawn has taken her own experiences and those of other families on the adoptive parenting path and shared them in a wonderful, positive and informative book, “The Complete Book of International Adoption: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Your Child.”

From deciding whether or not adoption is right for you to choosing a country, preparing and organizing the mountain of paperwork, potential health and emotional issues, choosing the right agency and how to address the many issues that arise when raising an internationally adopted child, “The Complete Book of International Adoption” is a thorough, informative guide to international adoption. Through helpful tips, worksheets, checklists and stories from families, the book navigates through the myriad potential problems with tangible help and suggestions. All the while reading more like a close friend spilling all of her deepest secrets and inside tips.

You can learn more about the book at www.findingyourchild.com and buy the book here.

I am a mother of two young girls, ages 6 and 4. For years I’ve looked to books in the parenting information section of the local library to help me with guidance on issues such as potty-training, ideas for kid meals, sleeping troubles, sibling rivalry, etc. Although I found an abundance of information, I quickly came to the realization that I wasn’t really enjoying these books with their unique theories on raising children and needed something a little more realistic and down to earth to escape my sense of being an inadequate parent.

The Three-Martini Playdate: A Practical Guide to Modern Parenting by Christie Mellor was the perfect dose of reality that I needed. Mellor’s book takes subjects like screaming, child-proofing and bedtime dramas and reminds us that we are the ones in charge and that we’ve become a society that completely over-analyzes and over-compensates for normal behavior and that it’s time to go back to the basics. She explains that it’s okay to go back to the basics (flashback to our grandparents’ days of raising children in the 50’s!). This book is very funny with a retro feel to it (hence the little tot’s first martini recipes) and at the same time full of practical advice on how to be a good parent and prevent your kid from becoming too full of him or herself (see her chapter entitled Child Labor – Not Just for the Third World). Probably one of the funniest chapters gives a great checklist for leaving Dad home alone with the kids while the mom makes herself scarce for the rest of the day, and doesn’t feel guilty about it!

Another chapter that I really enjoyed was the need for us parents to record every moment of our children’s recitals, plays, and school or sports events. She talks about how the audience has become one huge sea of video cameras with anxious moms and dads elbowing the parent next to them for a clearer view to the stage and missing the moment completely instead of just sitting back and enjoying the moment. Her advice to put down the camera and enjoy the show, and file this special memory away as it happens, hit home with me. It’s a piece of advice I will cherish for years to come.

I gave this book to my girlfriend and she read it all in one night! It’s a great read and a refreshing take on what we all know is true, but somehow we are too busy getting caught up in what has become silly little rules of parenting in our society today to realize it. This book would make a great gift to a new mom or mom-to-be! Just remember, stick to the basics…sit back, relax, sip that martini and enjoy this read!!

NOTE: I’ve loved to read books all my life and I try to still get in a book every so often, even when time doesn’t want to permit it! We read to the kids every night and for those of you who also read to your kids but don’t have time to read for yourself, remember that it sets a great example for your kids to see you take a moment, pick up a book and read. It will do everyone good!