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Parenting Press®News for Parents — May
Dear Friends of Parenting Press,
Welcome to the May issue of our electronic newsletter for parents. Our goal is to provide you with interesting and useful information in a format that’s quick and easy to read—and FREE. We welcome your comments, both about the newsletter content and its format. To get the newsletter delivered, you can sign up for an e-mail subscription.
May 2008
IN THIS ISSUE
- WHAT’S NEW?
- FEATURES
- POTPOURRI
- COMING ATTRACTIONS
- Adopt a Marine
- History of the Alphabet
- Normal Development in Babies and Toddlers
I. WHAT’S NEW?
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See You Later, Procrastinator! (Get It Done)
Are you a slacker tired of never being on time? Then chuckle—and learn—your way through Pamela Espeland and Elizabeth Verdick’s latest guide for kids, 90-some lighthearted pages of tips, cartoons, and lists on breaking the procrastination habit.
Oriented to older elementary and middle-school students, See You Later, Procrastinator opens by promising the authors won’t nag, scold or make readers feel bad: “Instead, it tells you ways to get your stuff done quickly, get organized, get control of your schedule, and most of all, get started.”
See You Later gets started with “Procrastination Investigation,” which identifies the many reasons that someone—child or adult—might postpone starting a task, and offers quick tips for overcoming each obstacle. For example:
You feel buried and don’t know where to start? Solution: make a list of everything you think you need to do, ask someone to help you prioritize the tasks, delete those things you truly don’t need to do, and then tackle at least one of the high-priority items on this new shorter list.
You’re grossed out by the job? “Hold your nose, grit your teeth and get it done.”
Stressed out by a huge project? Slice it into smaller, less intimidating tasks.
You need a motivator? Give yourself a reward for doing your homework or your chores.
You’re worn out? Figure out when you work best and are most alert, and schedule your most important tasks for that time of day.
Freaked out? It’s normal to get scared, and being afraid is a major reason why people don’t get started on a job. So often they are:
Scared to fail
Scared of making mistakes
Scared to decide
Scared to succeed
Then the authors give readers “20 Ways to Kiss Procrastination Good-Bye,” which include remembering what you have to do. Of course, they don’t leave us in the lurch wondering how we’re going to do that: there’s a page and a half of bullet points that make sense for all of us. One that the “News for Parents” editor especially likes: “Laugh it up. You’ll remember things longer if you link them to something funny.”
The 20 ways also include advice that is dear to the heart of any writer: how to overcome writer’s block. When you cannot think of what to write, you are not procrastinating, the authors point out, and they suggest several ways to get you started, including writing the middle or ending of your piece first. (So easy with word processing!)
In short, it’s a great book. Highly recommended, even by someone who believes she seldom procrastinates!
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Round Robin Reading
Your kids don’t like to read? Yikes! What can you do?
Make reading part of your morning routine.
Confronted with a reluctant reader, the newsletter editor one summer started her second grader’s day with the Ramona Quimby stories. Before he could go out to watch the carpenters remodeling his house, he had to read two pages aloud. Struggling with his own pesky toddler sister, he could identify with Beezus Quimby and before long, he was anxious to read much more than two pages. When he did weary of reading but wanted to know what came next, his mother would finish the chapter.
Read as a family.
When family members pass the book from one to another, each reading a page, the better readers can generate excitement for the beginning readers, and everyone can hear different reading styles, especially for dialog. (Just imagine when Mom reads Henry Huggins’ lines and Dad is Beezus or Ramona!)
Read at Random
Another twist: each of you choose a different book. One of you starts with a sentence—the first in the book, the first in a chapter or one chosen completely at random!—and then the next family member or friend reads from his or her book. Imagine what a silly story you can create! For example:
“It was Mrs. May who first told me about them.” (“The Borrowers”)
“Already the tempest had continued six days; on the seventh its fury seemed still increasing; and the morning dawned on us without a prospect of hope, for we had wandered so far from the right track, and were so forcibly driven toward the southeast, that none on board knew where we were.” (“Swiss Family Robinson”)
“Once upon a bicycle,
So they say,
A Jolly Postman came one day
From over the hills
And far away. . .
With a letter for the Three Bears.” (“The Jolly Postman and Other People’s Letters”)“Way out at the end of a tiny little town was an old overgrown garden, and in the garden was an old house, and in the house lived Pippi Longstocking.” (“Pippi Longstocking”)
Pick a Page
Here’s a variation on “Read at Random.” Each of you writes a number on a scrap of paper and puts it in a bowl. Then each reader selects a scrap and reads from that page.
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Circle Swings, Cheap-o Lamps and Cootie Catchers
In the spring, a young man’s—and a young woman’s—fancy turns to. . .Treehouses! Tarzan swings! Treasure hunts! And with the help of a new book, Treehouses and Other Cool Stuff: 50 Projects You Can Build, your family will have all the how-to’s you need for dozens of projects.
Some are quick and easy: cootie catchers (AKA fortune tellers) are made with a square of paper and a pencil. The “Ugliest, Best, Cheapest Desk Lamp in the World” (at least, according to authors David and Jeanie Stiles) can be assembled with junk gas flex pipe, an old 29-ounce can and a lamp socket and cord; including shopping or scrounging for parts, it’ll probably take most of a Saturday. So will the lemonade (or worm) stand cart and the treasure chest. The swings, seesaws, model sailboats, and swinging and stable treehouses may take more time, but most can be constructed with scrap material.
Treehouses and Other Cool Stuff starts with a sawhorse that you can build for kids (it doubles as a footstool for adults) or they can build themselves, a toolbox project and saw guide. Then there’s some carpentry tips: how to crosscut a board, drill pilot holes and toenail. For kids with access to woods, you’ll find instructions for an easy-to-camouflage hut that starts with two saplings being tied together, a frame of branches and lots of evergreen boughs for “siding” and “roofing.”
Looking for more adventurous projects? Frame a treehouse and then sculpt a “monster” with chicken wire, burlap, plaster and fiberglass cloth. Or use lattice and chicken wire to frame a playhouse that looks like a dragon, a hippo—or any critter your kids dream up!
Many of these projects could also be done in miniature: a playhouse for dolls, a fort for action figures, or one of the monsters for a model train to run through.
For more information, ask your library or local bookstore if it has a copy of this new book on its shelves.
II. FEATURES
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Tips for the month
Each Saturday, Parenting Press posts a new parenting tip and the previous week’s tip is moved to the archive. The topics planned for May are:
May 3 — Understanding Children’s Anger
May 10 — When Not to Negotiate with Your Child, Part I
May 17 — When Not to Negotiate with Your Child, Part II
May 24 — Why is Anger so Difficult for Children?
May 31 — When Grandma Criticizes Your Parenting
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Family Fun Ideas — Upside Down Day
Beef stew for breakfast? A skirt fastened around your neck? Mittens on your feet? We bet you can get giggles out of your entire family if you propose an upside down day!
Kick off the fun with brainstorming: exactly HOW upside down do you want to be? Do you want to wear pajamas to school and work? Eat dinner at the breakfast table? And cereal for supper? Or maybe it’s a Saturday you turn upside down: sleep all day and do projects all night.
P.S. Remember the upside-down cake!
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Community Service — Create Yard Sale Excitement with Carnival Activities
Our goal with this column is to suggest ways that you can model the concept of sharing and giving back to your community. There are other practical advantages to community service, too. Kids can use these projects to meet school or youth group requirements for community service and to start building resumes that they’ll use when applying for first jobs or college.
This month, as the weather begins to improve in most parts of the country, and many of us are cleaning out outgrown clothes, toys and sports equipment, a group yard sale is a convenient way to see your neighbors, send your discards to new homes and raise money for your favorite nonprofit or school. You can raise more funds and have much more fun if you add carnival activities here and there throughout the yard. A few suggestions to get you started:
Create displays of go-together items and add word-play signs: use a garden stake with lightweight cardboard to say, “Hat Tricks This Way” and direct customers to the mirror hanging by the rack of hats and scarves. Set up the “Reindeer Crossing” yard sign with the holiday decorations. Display old posters and record album covers in your “Vintage Delights” corner with the purple polyester tuxedo, 1980s bridesmaids’ dresses and original go-go boots.
Hang “Free Stuff This-a-Way” signs on tomato cages and then tuck the boxes of giveaways at the back of the sale area, so people have to walk past the for-sale items.
Put kids at a table at the entrance with homemade cookies (maybe made from refrigerated slice and bake dough), coffee and lemonade to sell.
Set up a face-painting station with your best artist.
Swath the group’s most imaginative young person in silk, satin and beads, give her a crystal ball, and let her tell fortunes.
Dump a bag of clean sand near the truck and tractor display, so little kids can try out toys while their parents browse.
Other ideas that will encourage people to stay longer and spend more: a table for a balloon animals, where one of your talented kids twists exactly the critter that someone orders, and a digital photo booth with costumes, where people can pose and then return in an hour for the printed photos. If you have lots of space, you might even add a car wash in the driveway!
Most important: lots of signs that remind customers which nonprofit is receiving all the proceeds.
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Raise funds with a Parenting Press Book Fair
Would your school or group like a new fund-raiser?
For years Parenting Press has been offering its carefully written books on child guidance, problem-solving and dealing with feelings through preschool Book Fairs. Now our Book Fairs are being expanded to schools, churches, child-care programs, parenting groups—any organization that can use parenting and children’s books.
More information about our Book Fairs is posted online. We have posted a copy of the brochure, an explanation of how much you can earn with a Book Fair, a step-by-step guide to make Book Fairs easy and fun to organize and downloadable promotional materials.
III. POTPOURRI
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Special of the month—Celebrate Our Founder’s Birthday!
This special has expired.
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