As I’ve unfortunately watched, most children’s TV sucks for parents. Either I find the characters too annoying or there’s way too much going on for me to follow along as a casual viewer.
One kid series I don’t mind watching is “Yo Gabba Gabba!” The series does a fab job mixing live action, puppets, music and celebrities along with on-screen visuals that are reminiscent of retro video games and TV shows to create entertainment that’s fun for both kids and parents.
Every night we have a ritual in our home. The Hubs and I make sure to read at least one book to our kidlets (usually, it’s a lot more). Sometimes it’s books they’ve brought home from their weekly trip to our local library or a book from their own collection. It seems like I’ve read them all the kid lit classics — Dr. Seuss, The Berenstain Bears, Curious George, The Pigeon books and Little Golden Books, just to name a few.
I always love it when one of my kidlets hands me a book, snuggles up to me and demands politely says “read me a story.” There are some books I’ve read so often that I seem to know them by heart. I breathe their rhymes, rhythms and repeats. It’s a joy to see that my kidlets, aged 3 and 5, are starting to recognize them too and read along with me.
The Hubs and I love to read and we hope our kidlets will also be avid readers. We always encourage family to give the kids books instead of toys as gifts. For my daughter’s birthday a few weeks back, my mother-in-law sent her three books that I’ve just fallen in love with myself.
They are BabyLit board books – a fun way to introduce young children to the classic literature of William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll and even Bram Stoker. I don’t want to mislead you here. These are not real story books, but rather counting and color primer books. However, they feature key elements from these classic stories combined with some simple text, that introduces young children to the characters, imagery and bit of the story they can understand.
A page from the Little Master Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet counting primer book
My daughter was given Little Master Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, Little Miss Austen’s Pride & Prejudice and Little Miss Bronte’s Jayne Eyre for her birthday from her Granny B, she herself had seen them in a magazine and thought they were cute.
A Page from the Little Miss Bronte’s Jayne Eyre counting primer book
These small, compact un-rippable board books (a plus with little ones) feature gorgeous illustrations, wonderful colors and clever literary touches that made me smile. I love how the colors used in these books actually communicate the moods of characters. My daughter doesn’t bring just one of these books over to me to read with her, she brings all three with her because she likes them so much.
A page from Little Miss Austen’s Pride & Prejudice counting primer book
There aren’t too many books in this collection. There’s a Little Master Stoker’s Dracula which would have been perfect for Halloween last week. I see that there is a Little Master Dickens A Christmas Carol that maybe our Elf On The Shelf might leave for my kidlets one night during his upcoming holiday stay. I hope that BabyLit will expand this series and expand to more classic literature and maybe tackle sounds, rhymes and even sentences. Anything that encourages young people to read, I’m all for it!
Now it’s your turn to share. What books do you like to read to your children?
First there were The Carpenters. Then, Donny and Marie. Now it’s my kidlets turn as rock’s newest brother & sister musical sensation: J&J…….!
Quick, Clive Davis, Jay Z or Dr. Luke – you better sign them up quick for a huge record deal before they go global!
My kids got to party like rock stars when mom broke out the Kidz Bop® new line of role play toys including the Glammerati Pop Star Electric Guitar, Mini Melody Microphone, Light UP Hair Extensions and LumeFX Maxi Star for an impromptu musical concert in our living room. The Kidz Bop Glammerati Pop Star product line includes instruments, dress-up accessories and makeup.
I’ve never been much of a jewelry person, but I’ve always loved charm bracelets.
When I was a little girl I used to sneak into my mom’s black lacquered jewelry box and try out all her different gold charm bracelets. She must have a least half a dozen of them, and each one represented a different milestone in her life. The best ones were the bracelets with charms from her various trips and vacations. My favorite one of all was the one from Italy which had tiny replicas of the Vatican, the Coliseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a gondola for Venice and the Fountain of Trevi.
My growing collection of charm braceletsYou’d have to be hiding under a rock (or maybe just a guy) not to know that this Sunday, May 13 is Mother’s Day. For the past few weeks I’ve been flooded with advertisements and direct marketed emails for all sorts of “gifts to get mom” – flowers, jewelry, cookie bouquets and even boxes of chocolate covered strawberries.
My son made & gave this to me..I say handmade is heartmade!
I love Mother’s Day. For me, it’s the perfect holiday. I don’t have to worry about revealing my age, have a big family get-together or spend hours slaving over a hot stove for a fancy celebratory meal. It’s also not a holiday about gifts — I’m happy to get a small bunch of flowers and cards from the kidlets (though I do suspect I’ll be getting some perfume since The Hubs has asked me the name of the scent I wear three times in the past week).
The other day the Hubs asked me what many women would take as a loaded question: “what are we doing for Valentine’s Day?”
I quickly rattled off the plans: “Well, for the kidlets, I got a Lego Hero Factory Toy and a Hello Kitty dinner plate set, plus a couple of cute cards. As for us, lets just exchange cards, no gifts.” Hubs seemed a little skeptical of my answer, but after reassuring him, he believed me and seemed satisfied with my answer.
“No gifts” for Valentine’s Day? I know to some people it might be sacrilege to say that, but, honest, I’m really not totally devoid of any sense of love or romance. I mean, what girl doesn’t want flowers, candy, perfume or jewelry to celebrate the day?
Sure, I like those things and would love to be on the receiving end of any of those items, but do I need them? More importantly, do I need them from my husband on February 14 in order to demonstrate just how much he loves me?
Look, I know my Hubs loves me. I mean, this is a man who sees me at both my best and worst and he still continues to be by my side. This is a man who sees me every morning without makeup and my hair in total disarray. He has heard me burp, fart and other various bodily noises. He is the only person, other than myself, who knows exactly what is hiding beneath my Spanx! He is the man who watched so lovingly as our two kidlets came out of my body and still tells me all the time how beautiful and sexy he thinks I am. He also knows how to romance me in the little, unexpected ways– he does the laundry without asking, watches bad 70s TV shows with me, and keeps the kidlets occupied on Saturday mornings allowing me to sleep in. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.
A recent photo of me & the Hubs – it’s one of my favorite all time ones of us.
Do I expect that Hubs will abide by my “just cards” edict? Probably not, I’m sure he’ll get me some flowers under the guise that they are from the kidlets. See, just another reason why I know he loves me!
What are your plans for Valentine’s Day?
