Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks - Book Review

Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks - Book Review

Primated by Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks tells the story of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas. Considering that each could only get a third of the book, I think their stories were well summarized.

I got this book mainly for myself, since I am a big fan of Fossey and Goodall. Birute Galdikas was new to me, and I was very interested to learn a little about her. My girls enjoyed to book as well, although I'm sure they are a little too young to appreciate how revolutionary these scientists were for their time.

My kids are big graphic novel fans, but I have never loved the format myself. That, in combination with the fact that I have already read a great deal about these women, at least two of them anyway, left me slightly disappointed at the lack of depth. But stepping back, I see that there is no way a book like this could include every wonderful and interesting thing about these researchers and their discoveries. This book does present an interesting introduction.

The artwork was poignant and silly in the right places for me, and open and fun enough to draw in my kids. 

I think this would be a great book for a child, or teen who is interested in this sort of research, or any of these scientists, but does not yet know much about them. I enjoyed the last section about Birute Galdikas the best; I suspect because I didn't already know anything about her, so could enjoy the story fresh. There is also a nice list of resources at the end if a child would like to learn more. 

Legends Series by Anthony Horowitz – Book Review

Legends Series by Anthony Horowitz – Book Review

My daughter has always loved retellings of the Greek and Roman myths. I picked up ‘Legends: Tricks and Transformations’ by Anthony Horowitz for her at the library, and once she started reading it, she zipped through all the stories in just a few days. She has since read the ‘The Wrath of the Gods’ volume as well, and told me she would like to read the rest. From a kid, I think that’s a darn good recommendation.

The reading level for these books are listed as 9 and up, and my daughter was 8 when she started reading them, and did not have any difficulty with the reading level. However, the old mythology itself, as most of you probably know, can be brutal. While I believe this is a child-friendly version, if you have a sensitive kid, these myths may not be a good choice, no matter who is telling them.

My Favorite Parenting Books

I used to think I was a calm and patient person - that was until I had children.

Instead of a single book review today, I want to share a short list of books that have helped me regain the calm me that was there before I spent my days with little people who are perfect masters of pushing my buttons. I certainly still let my emotions get the best of me still - and more often than I'd like, but remembering things I learned in these books always helps bring my family back together much better than I would have done on my own without their lessons:

How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk

This book is a short, easy read. There are even cartoons! They model example conversations between parent and child. Some have worked well for one of my children, and not much for the other, and vice versa, but there are many techniques included, so you can see what will work for your family. 

I remember being in the park one day, and irritated at my child for constantly asking for things - toys, ice cream, etc. I used a line from this book that I had thought sort of silly, and was shocked when she reacted almost exactly as the book said she would. I didn't think it so silly then. I went back and re-read it!

Parenting With Love and Logic

This is actually not dissimilar to the above book in some ways, but focuses more on my parental actions than my words (but words are still important to). It teaches the value of natural consequences, and the importance of letting children fail - in safe, and semi-controlled ways when they are small to help avoid bigger more dangerous mistakes when they are older. Before this book, I was a mom who was prone to step in and 'help' whenever a saw frustration on the little faces. Now I see more mistakes, more small failures, but also a lot more pride when they try again and succeed. 

Repeating myself drives me nuts, and I have also learned to say things once, but mean what I say. Now my kids  know I mean it too.

Simplicity Parenting

I actually still in the process of reading this one, and only halfway thought, but I love it so much so far, I already want to recommend it. 

We live in a tiny house, and 'stuff' becomes overwhelming very quickly. This book has helped empower me to declutter all the toys and other things that feel so wonderful, but are also suffocating us at the same time. I don't think we are all the way to 'simplicity' yet, but we are moving the right direction, and feeling the benefit of it already. I am looking forward to learning about simplifying our schedule and other areas of our life as I read onward.

Do you have a favorite parenting book? I'd love to hear about in in the comments. Thanks!

Bob Books – a Book Review

Bob Books – a Book Review

If you have young children, then you have likely already heard of Bob Books. They are very early readers for children who know their letter sounds, or most of them at least, and are ready to start reading very simple words.

With my first born, I actually refused to let her use Bob Books when I realized she wasn’t actually reading, but making educated guesses from the beginning letters and the pictures. That’s what eventually lead me to the Alpha Phonics reading program. I caught on when she read ‘blanket’ when the word was ‘rag’. After I was sure she had her basics down, we tried the Bob books again, but she didn’t find them all that interesting.

My new little reader at the moment, however, is in love with Bob Books. I still have to watch her, or she’ll start guessing at words instead of reading them, but she is easier to catch. She gets a huge grin when she finishes reading a book to us. I believe she is exactly the type of kid these books were designed for. They give her a sense of accomplishment, and pride as her reading skills progress. Even though she is working on set 4 now, which are slightly more difficult than the earlier sets, she still like to go back and read set 1 books from time to time.

From talking with other moms, Bob books seem like something they either love or hate. I think, like most things, they are something that will either work well for a child, or won’t, and maybe that’s where this divide comes from. Fortunately, almost every library has Bob book available. They may be popular, and not on the shelf much. I’ve had to place a hold on them when I wanted them at our library since they are never actually in the branch. But checking them out at your library is a great way to decide if they are a good fit for your new reading kid or not.

Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel – Book Review

Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel – Book Review

Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel was a quick favorite with my then kindergarten kiddo. Unlike many other things she loved back then, she hasn't 'outgrown' the Bad Kitty books. She squealed with excitement just last week (now a 4^th grader) when she saw that the library had the newest book in the Bad Kitty series.

The first Bad Kitty book (above) is a picture/alphabet book with one letter for the alphabet for each food Bad Kitty can try when they run out of her regular food, then again for each naughty thing Bad Kitty does, and then another one for each nice thing she does to make up for it. So it takes you through the alphabet several times. However, unlike most alphabet books, the words are not simple. I found it as amusing as my kids do.

The other books featuring Bad Kitty, however, are short chapter books, heavy with illustrations. They were perfect for my daughter when she was a strong enough for longer stories and chapters, but still intimidated by big blocks of text. She would read each book over and over again, and I could hear her giggling every time.

Book review: Come Back, Cat by Joan L. Nodset

Book review: Come Back, Cat by Joan L. Nodset

ComeBack, Cat by Joan L. Nodset is darling books that both kids and cats will love. There are few words, but the story involves a little girl who wants to play with a cat she meets. However, her attempts to catch and cuddle the cat are met with fear and aggression from the object of her desire. Through the story she learns how to move slower, and speak more calmly in order to win the cat over, and allow it to trust her enough to come near.

Kids often let their excitement about animals override their other judgments about how the animal is responding to them. This is a very simple reminder for children to pay attention to the reactions they get from a cat to help avoid frightening it, or getting bit or scratched themselves. My kids have checked this out from the library more than once, and really love reading it over again. The message seems to be working its way into their brains too, but sometimes excitement still gets the better of them. 

Movie Review: Wreck It Ralph

Movie Review: Wreck It Ralph

Parents who grew up in the Pac-Man, Q-Bert arcade age will enjoy this movie as much as their children will. The games that provide the central settings for the movie: a first person shooter with vicious destructive bugs, a candyland racing game, and Fix-it Felix Jr. – Wreck It Ralph's own game, are all fictional games (so far). Yet, the old classics make lots of amusing cameo appearances in the surge protector that serves as a passageway for the characters from one game to another.

There are good messages about friendship and being true to yourself, while also stretching to do more then you thought you could. What follows includes some spoilers for content to help parents judge if the movie would be a good fir for their own kids and family.

Overall, while there are scary moments, and sad moments, they felt milder than many kid movies. My kids said they shed a few tears.

Violence: The first person shooter game, and the character that comes out of that game use lots of over the top firepower. All the shooting is directed solely at the enemy giant bugs. Ralph causes lots of damage to objects and buildings, and occasionally uses his strength on the bugs, but there is no other violence toward other people. (People in the video game sense which is very diverse.)

Romance: Fix it Felix is quickly enamored with the character from the shooting game and makes frequent innocent romantic remarks to her.  They also kiss a few times.

Language: Ralph and the Candy racing girl exchange a lot of personal insults along the lines of ‘stinking breath’, ‘stupid head’, and so forth. As their friendship progresses, these are clearly used as terms of affection, but they are frequent. They also have a discussion of “Duty’ as a pun on ‘doody’, ie: poop.

Drugs/Alcohol: A character makes himself a martini. I didn’t notice any other references.

Alpha Phonics, How My Kids Learned to Read

Sticking with the reading theme, since it's time now for Summer Reading Programs, I thought it was past time for a review of the Alpha Phonics reading book. I used Alpha Phonics to teach both my kids to read the summer before they began kindergarten.

Originally, I didn't think I needed a formal reading instruction book. We are big readers in our family. They kids were read to from before birth. Bedtime stories are a ritual, and we read together throughout the daytime as well. Once they knew their letters, and letter sounds, I tried just starting in on some of the very early reader books, like the "Bob Books", and other similar phonics early readers. I believe we were on the third Bob book when I realized that my daughter was not actually reading. She'd been fooling me. She'd look at the pictures, then the first letter or so of the word, and make a good guess. She made it through 2 books perfectly that way. What tripped her up was the word "rag". She read it as "blanket" based on the picture.

That was when I started researching reading programs. So many of them seemed so complicated, with games, and videos, and songs, and. . .oh yes, at last books too. There were some darn pricey ones too. I chose Alpha Phonics in the end because it was simple, and reasonably priced. The Alpha Phonics website offered the first several lessons for free. We used those first, and they went very well. My daughter gained confidence, and since there are no pictures, I knew she could really sound out her words.

The Alpha Phonics book has been everything I wanted in a program for learning to read. Simple, and organized. There is no preparation or extra work I need to do. We just open the book up to where we left off, and work through the next lesson. There are some lessons that are very long in the beginning, and new sounds are repeated over and over for the child to get a good grasp on them. There were usually more than my kids wanted to deal with in a day, so we didn't always do one lesson a day - when we hit those big ones, we just worked thought one page a day instead. We still made great progress, but with less stress.

I still strongly believe that in order to raise kids who love to read, they must live in a house that loves to read. Parents who read to them often, and just as importantly, read for their own pleasure, and let their kids seem them reading do a lot for the child's attitude toward books. But Alpha Phonics has helped us so much too. it made the process of learning to read smooth, natural, and painless. Despite the rather dull appearance of the book, with no flashy colors, and no pictures at all, both of my kids lit up when I pulled it out, ready to work through the next lesson. Although, in all honesty, they both were more resistant in the very beginning, maybe up to around lesson 10 to 15 or so. By then, thought, they had the hang of the program, then knew how it worked, and more importantly, they knew they could do it. It built that sort of confidence in them. It is a program that I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn to read, or to help someone else learn.