Archive for the 'reading' Category

reading dogs

March 1st, 2011

Acquisition of literacy skills is of particular interest to me as the mother of a bright but incredibly active little engineer and a stereotypically precocious younger daughter. So, I perked up when I read about the Reading Education Assistance Dogs (READ) program. Troubled readers are paired with dogs with sweet dispositions who lay next to […]

literacy or bust

June 18th, 2010

I’ve written before about the struggles with raising a little boy and having high academic standards. The greatest struggle is that early academic excellence is measured in literacy and handwriting, while little boys would be the star students were it instead science and math. My own pupil listens with rapt attention to technical explanations of […]

Absinthe & Flamethrowers… looks interesting

June 10th, 2009

This book looks right up our alley.

wonderful children’s books

March 26th, 2009

You may already be familiar with Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket. If you aren’t, and you’ve got 7 year olds to read to, check out The Series of Unfortunate Events. Snicket has a new book on the shelves these days. This one is more of a performance. He has teamed up with a composer to […]

the more it snows – tiddly pom

January 13th, 2009

“… the more it goes – Tiddly-pom the more it goes – Tiddly-pom on snowing.” – Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner I’ve been reading two chapters a night of Winnie the Pooh to Will and Sylvie. Our collection is tattered from 34 years of use so I flinch when the kids reach […]

deflowering etiquette

January 9th, 2009

In case you’ve been deflowered, amusing Edward Gorey etiquette book on the appropriate response.

one last minute Christmas reflection

December 25th, 2008

I realized yesterday that my favorite Christmas songs were all written by men who don’t even celebrate the holiday – “There’s no place like home for the holidays” was written by Al Stillman (aka Al Silverman), “Let it snow!” by Sammy Cahn, and “Donde esta Santa Claus” by Guster. Although for us Christmas has very […]

on the bookshelf – the joy of reading

December 17th, 2008

I’d forgotten until last night one of the primary reasons I had kids – to share my favorite books. Sure, there were many other reasons, but I’d been looking forward to building traditions around books like we’d had growing up. Yeah, yeah – I’m bookish. To this day, Christmas involves reading (and crying through) The […]

front page news

November 6th, 2008

A car ad.

the battle at home

September 23rd, 2008

We’re raising a strong-willed child. Although this can be a great thing for him in life – it puts him at great advantage to succeed in all of life’s endeavors – I’m afraid that if we mis-step in our parenting through his tantrums, he may instead end up with a poor self-image, finding solace in […]

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