Helping reluctant readers enjoy books

Helping your child love books isn't as easy as reading to them every night.   We found that out when 3Po and Jammy were babies.  The Pea had always loved books, and she still does, so we thought we were awesome parents for reading to her each and every night.  But when we started reading to 3Po and Jammy, they were just not interested.  We despaired of getting them to sit still long enough for more than a page or two -- that is, until we bought books about trucks and cars, and then they couldn't look away.  Those bunny and cat books that we had read to The Pea when she was little just couldn't hold their attention!   So just like sports, just like work, just like practically everything in life, rule number one in getting kids to love reading is to find a subject they they love.

What's in your smartphone?

Can you believe the Apple iPhone was released in 2007, five whole years ago?  How time flies! In 2007 I had a pink clamshell phone, and I thought it was the coolest, cutest thing ever.  Today, even my kids wouldn't be caught dead with that phone.  Heck, even my 3 year-old niece wouldn't want that phone.  She'd probably throw it away, thinking it was a fake toy phone, and ask for  a real one, with a colored screen that does things when you touch it.

I got my first web-enabled phone (a Samsung Reclaim) in 2009, and my first smartphone in 2010.  I honestly can't imagine life without one anymore!  I've had my current phone (and HTC EVO 4G) for just over a year now; it wasn't the most hi-tech phone when I got it to begin with, and a year later, it's even more outdated. It does feel clunky and sluggish, and I'm ready for a new one.  Unfortunately, I won't be eligible to get a new one (at least not without paying full price for the phone) for another 6 months or so -- but I'm not frothing at the bit, so I'll wait.

What's for lunch?

Ham and cheese sandwich, cucumber slices, grapes

I'm guessing you've figured out by now that the lunches I've been featuring for the week are not the lunches that I actually packed that week.  Other people might be organized enough to have all their kids' lunches for the entire week prepacked by Sunday night, but not me.  We started school in mid-August, and I began this series in September, so I'm actually featuring the lunches I packed 2 weeks ago.  So if you see Halloween-themed lunch photos posted in November, don't be surprised!

Another thing I'm guessing you've figured out is that I bought a BIG bunch of grapes a couple of weeks ago, because four out of five lunches on this post have grapes in them!

31 Days of Pink: Week 1

New parents love recording their child's development through photos.  They photograph every single milestone, and everything in between -- but by the time they have their third child, the photos have dried up to just the obligatory newborn, first birthday and first day of school photos.  So it is with my third year of wearing something pink every day in October.  With everything else going on, wearing and photographing something pink has been shelved to the farthest corners of my mind.  I had to resort to wearing pink pajamas on October 1 and 2 because I forgot all about my resolve until late at night!

It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month -- and you CAN make a difference

October is here again, and you know what that means: it's time to get out my pink wardrobe and see the world through rose-colored glasses.  Time to hope that we can make a difference.  Time to hope that there will be a day when they find a cure.

To be perfectly honest, sometimes I wonder if things will get better.  When you look at the statistics on breast cancer, it's easy to be discouraged.

• About 1 in 8 U.S. women (just under 12%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime
• Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among American women. Just under 30% of cancers in women are breast cancers.
• For women in the U.S., breast cancer death rates are higher than those for any other cancer, besides lung cancer.
• About 39,520 women in the U.S. were expected to die in 2011 from breast cancer.

I was so lucky that the lump my doctor found last year turned out to be benign, but I've had friends and relatives battle breast cancer -- and not all of them have won. What on earth can wearing pink actually do in the grand scheme of things.  It's such a BIG disease.  What can one person really do?

What's for lunch?

Who says cereal has to be eaten at breakfast?  My kids love having breakfast food for lunch or dinner! I sometimes pack cereal and milk, waffles with syrup, or yogurt with fruit and granola to have a lunchtime.  They also love homemade Egg McMuffins:  veggie sausage patties, cheese and egg on an English muffin.  The only "breakfast-y" food I've never attempted to pack for lunch is oatmeal.  My packed lunches are mostly cold, so if they want oatmeal, they have to eat it for breakfast.  Or dinner :)

How to make a Lego minifigure case

When we moved 3Po and Jammy into their own room, we told them they could set it up and decorate it however they wanted.  Unlike The Pea, who has grand plans of wall organizers and posters and beaded light fixtures in her room, the boys asked for only 2 things:  they wanted their room to be green and blue (their favorite colors), and they wanted shelves to display some of their Lego Star Wars sets.  I found the coolest Lego minifigure display cases on Pinterest, so I decided to use them as inspiration to make some of my own. Here's how I did it:

Contemporary children's book series I love

The book that inspired this post, The Mark of Athena, is coming out on October 2, 2012.  If you need to contact me on October 2, please don't.  I intend to be home sick with a cold.

One of the best things about having kids is rediscovering the joys of children's literature.  I read voraciously when I was young, and my love of children's books has not faded one bit.  I can still lose myself in the books I read throughout my childhood, like The Chronicles of Narnia, Anne of Green Gables or the Tintin comics, and there are many newer books that I love to read again and again -- Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, Twilight, and so on.   I'm amazed at how many wonderful books have become available for kids since I was a kid!

To bike or not to bike?

When it comes to my kids' independence, I don't think I'm all that uptight . I have never been the type to hover over them at the playground; I preferred to sit on a bench and let them play on their own, and if they grazed their elbows or skinned a knee (or, during one memorable time, slipped, did a face plant on the metal stairs and got a black eye) themselves, well, all the better to learn their lesson the next time. As they grew older, I had no problem with drop-off parties, sleepovers or camping trips.

There's only area where I am completely paranoid, and that is letting them walk or bike to school by themselves.

Star Wars Miniland Experience at Legoland Windsor

If you're a parent to a boy 5-10 years old, chances are he's crazy about LEGO Star Wars. It's one of LEGO's most popular themes, and every day you'll find millions of little boys busy building speeders and x-wing fighters and AT-AT walkers and dreaming of flying through a galaxy far, far away.

Fortunately, you don't have to be Richard Branson or a former N'Sync boy band member to be able to afford a visit to the Star Wars galaxy.  You just have to visit your nearest Legoland* , where the Star Wars Miniland exhibit is wowing fans with their detailed models, massive sets and cool light and sound special effects.