The Family Reader

Dude

2009-10-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Dude, talk about awesome! Christopher Aslan's newest book, Dude, illustrated by Emily Mullock is another home-run hit. Dude is a pretty simple book with an even simpler concept, but the way it is carried out really makes Dude a book parents and kids are going to enjoy.

On each page, the Dude character is illustrated in a different situation, using the word "dude" to express his different feelings. We see everything from exhaustion and surprise, to awe and amazement. There are more than 25 different scenarios for Dude, and even more opportunities for you and your child to have
fun saying "dude" in a rainbow of different ways.

My six year old son loves putting himself into the book, pretending to be Dude and then trying all the different voices Dude would use in each situation. My husband stands firm in his jealously in not having thought of this concept himself. Then, when I told my best friend about the book, she laughed and was amused and entertained by the idea. Simply put, this simple book brings so much to everyone!

This is the third book I've seen by Christopher Aslan and I already can't wait to see what he comes up with next. I think we are looking at another legendary children's author, to sit high with the likes of Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle and Sandra Boynton (just to name a few of our household favorites).

If you are interested in purchasing Dude by Christopher Aslan, visit the publisher and you can make a purchase from their site: www.benjaminbrownbooks.com/dude.php

You Don't Have to Learn the Hard Way: Making It in the Real World: A Guide for Graduates

2009-09-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

Life lessons bound into a book. That's what You Don't Have to Learn the Hard Way: Making It in the Real World: A Guide for Graduates is all about. Sounds simple enough, but the trick is getting your graduate to read it! I suggest mom or dad read this book before handing it over to your high school or college graduate. Although this is something that needs to be in your child's hands, mom and dad or any other concerned elder could take the lessons in this book and slowly direct them to any child of any age.

Let's examine a topic directly from the book, "First Impressions." It immediately starts off with the "old saying" that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. It's very true and most adults will tell you that 95% of the time, you are not able to change what is impressed in the first few moments of meeting someone. So how does Parrish manage to reiterate the importance of this particular life lesson? Like countless other topics his book, he's got a red bolded statement right there in the margin area: A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. Wow - not only is it true, but pretty simple! Certainly he's got other great things to say, right? Yes, he does! Parrish's statement grabs the reader and invites further reading. On the next page is a numbered list of ways to make a positive impression and/or reassure someone else's impression they've made upon you. Again, it is pretty simple and easy!

Even though this book is geared towards those starting out in life, it is still applicable to those still living their life, no matter how far gone that seemingly "bright future" is. Rarely is it ever too late to learn something new and then apply it to your current situation or even life in general. Chapter 3 of You Don't Have to Learn the Hard Way is all about making dreams come true. It's a lot easier to accomplish and realize your dreams when you are starting off fresh and new in life, just out of college, and ready to take the bull by the horns. Parrish gives you all the tools you need to get it done. But there are many of us who had to live life a little before we were able to realize those dreams, and for those of us who are mid-life and still have dreams, we can still use the lessons Parrish shares.

For example, Parrish reminds us that when we don't like the situation we are in, we should change it. Of course, the older you are, the harder it is to do… but it is possible! Parrish uses the bold red note in the margin to remind us that we can make our dreams come true as long as we are dedicated to it through and through. Our own thoughts, however negative or positive they may be, are what a reality becomes. It is really easy to forget these lessons between all the ins and outs of day to day life, and us "old folk" need to be reminded of this. However, for those starting out in life, it can be something that feeds their attitude towards their future and make the difference between personal and professional success or something less than desired.

Parrish tackles just about every topic under the sun that can help a young adult become successful in life, and if they read it, I do believe they will truly have the positive reinforcement they need to be successful where they dream of success. For parents and older adults needing encouragement to renew their spirit and outlook towards the world, they too will find the encouragement they need to look forward to life as opposed to just living it one day at a time.

Hopefully I can keep these great lessons fresh in my memory to share with my children and when the time is right, hand You Don't Have to Learn the Hard Way: Making It in the Real World: A Guide for Graduates over to them to read. Simply put, this is the kind of book we all need on the family bookshelf!

A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy

2009-09-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

I didn't really know what to expect from A Girl's Guide to Modern European Philosophy, but seeing as how I've always enjoyed Philosophy and I love a great novel, I figured I had nothing to lose in trying this book on for size. Within the first couple of pages, I was hooked. Not only is Charlotte Grieg's storytelling very casual, almost as if a friend were conversing with you, but the story itself is relatable to just about any woman who has survived (most of) her twenties or even the 1970's.

Although the story takes place in 1970's Europe, it's quite relevant to modern times. This coming-of-age story deals not only with Susannah Jones' life as a philosophy student, but also as a young adult trying to find her rightful place in this crazy, ever-changing world. Being a mere 20 year old, Susannah faces the same anxieties related to her surroundings and friends that just about every 20-something faces.

Susannah finds herself pregnant during the time where women's liberation was abundant, and her inner battle leads her to a philosophical debate that ultimately rules her decision making. Susannah is thoughtful and cares deeply about making the right decision for herself, even though she sometimes lacks the ability to carry out her decisions. Susannah as a character is imperfect, and I believe that is what makes her so real and very genuine.

As I mentioned before, many twenty-something women and even those who still enjoy reminiscing upon those years, may find some familiarity with Susannah even if they aren't able to relate to her unplanned pregnancy. This is a surprisingly light read considering the philosophical topics offered by the book, and would be perfect for reading over a lazy day or weekend!

The Get Organized Answer Book

2009-09-03T19:40:00.001-07:00

Dingy Desk? 50 lb. Purse? STILL Haven’t Done Your Taxes Cuz of All the Mess??
Clear Away the Clutter and Save $$ NOW!!

Spring has finally arrived and you can start fresh with new organizational skills that will pay off big time and last all year round. Jamie Novak, clutter-free queen and author of the newly released The Get Organized Answer Book: Practical Solutions for 275 Questions on Conquering Clutter, Sorting Stuff, and Finding More Time and Energy, can help you de-clutter your home and open yourself up to all the possibilities extra space and organization have to offer.

Jamie is a nationally recognized home inventory expert and professional organizer who says that about 80% of the clutter in every home or office is a result of disorganization, not lack of space. Her strategies, tips, and tools for success can help everyone conquer their messes, learn how to save money, and start living a much richer, more productive life today.

· Lack energy to organize? How to get motivated

· Is organizing pricey? How you can save BIG bucks and BIG room at the same time

· Fooled by all the freebies? How you can and should stop taking home free stuff

· Kids who love to clutter? How to get your children involved in the organizing process

· And much more!

Known as the “World’s Most Relatable Organizer,” Jamie Novak is the organizing expert for NBC’s iVillage and the author of two bestselling books, 1,000 Best Organizing Secrets and 1,000 Best Time Saving Strategies. Jamie and her organizing tips are frequently featured in national publications and programs that include Family Circle, Woman’s Day, American Baby, Parents, QVC, and HGTV's Mission Organization. For more info, including Jamie’s new video reel, visit http://jamienovak.com/MediaRoom.html

The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal

2009-09-01T05:37:00.000-07:00

For the off-beat book readers and lovers of literature, The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal supply much of what these types of readers are looking for - energy, imagination, and friendship. Although the characters are far from your garden-variety, everyday people, the story itself is unique and witty. If you enjoy storytelling and the artistry of epic literary works, The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal is worth picking up and delving into.

The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal
by Sean Dixon

“A heavily embroidered coming-of-age tale.... Energetic....Full of sound and fury.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Imaginative.” —Library Journal

“An unapologetically high-concept novel that is both giddy and reverential.” —Quill and Quire

The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal by Sean Dixon is a mischievous rites of passage tale that takes place just as the Iraq war is exploding. The misfits and oddballs that make up the members of the Lacuna Cabal Montreal Young Women’s Book Club pride themselves on their good taste, intelligent discussions, and impeccable opinions. But what makes them different from other clubs is that they actually enact the books they are reading—until one of the books starts enacting their lives, so to speak.

And this book is The Epic of Gilgamesh—one of the earliest known works of literary fiction. As we know from the start, this epic poem begins “as an adventure story about a hero and his friend, but then somebody dies and everything changes and the hero goes on a long journey, in search of wisdom and the secret of eternal life.” Life imitates art, and our cast of characters set out on their own parallel journey to break their archetypes, discover their identities and places in the world, and grapple with the uncertainty of their futures.

The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal is a wildly ambitious novel that is infused with literary references from Margaret Atwood to Anne Carson to Michael Ondaatje. While the story has a surface veneer of playfulness with its raucous dark humor, underneath lies a deep exploration of human fragility and loneliness. Sean Dixon has succeeded in creating an original work that resolutely redefines the postmodern canon of literature by bringing it back to its core—the power of storytelling.

About the Author
Sean Dixon is a writer, occasional essayist, stage actor, and banjoist. His work has been published in The Globe and Mail, This Magazine, Canadian Theatre Review, and Brick, A Literary Journal. He gave up jobs as a shipper-receiver, a poster boy (of the putting up on billboards variety), and a prison driver to become a writer. He lives and plays banjo in Toronto and is currently working
on his next novel.

Wenda the Wacky Wiggler

2009-08-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

Wenda the Wacky Wiggler is the tale of a very spirited child. Much like my very happy and active son, she is filled with such joy, it can't be contained and she just has to move, move, and move. Then, just like in real life, the grumpy adults, who have lost sight of the daily pleasures life brings, want to keep Wenda from dancing around and enjoying each day the way she knows best. Despite their best efforts to keep Wenda silent and still, the grumpy adults saw Wenda's excitement for life welled from deep within. They opened their eyes and let Wenda's infectious love for herself and her love for life seep within their own hearts, and before they knew it, they were enjoying themselves, their lives, and all the things they were now able to do with a positive attitude - all thanks to Wenda!

Wenda's tale is inspiring for the young, and reminds those of us who aren't so young anymore, that the world through the eyes of a child can make us feel light and happy. Christopher Aslan has really poured his heart into this tale, and you feel that from the moment the story begins. If you don't walk away from this joyful tale with a smile on your face, you weren't paying attention, and you need to start over from the beginning!

Not only is Wenda the Wacky Wiggler a tale that is bound to become a treasured classic, but Emily Mullcok's illustrations are energizing and compliment the positive flow of the story.

I look forward to seeing more books from Christopher Aslan, and the positive messages they bring to the young and old. He's becoming a favorite of mine and I believe every other family will feel the same. Invite Wenda into your home today and you will feel her joy, too!

Lilly and Lucy's Shadow

2009-08-13T10:33:00.000-07:00

From page one, it is easy to fall in love with Lilly and Lucy. I see myself and memories from the past playing out through the pages of this beautifully illustrated book. I then see my twin girls as younger versions of Lilly and Lucy. Just like the girls in the book, my girls have danced and played with their shadows.

Some stories really give you a warm feeling when you read them, and this is one of those stories. Regardless of gender, the story is identifiable by all readers of all ages. Christopher Aslan's writing style makes reading aloud easy because of the rhythm and flow of the words. Toddlers and preschoolers will definitely enjoy not only the story itself, but the sound and the pictures that go along. Early readers will be able to read along and identify the action verbs, which is very helpful for children like my first grader, whom is learning to read longer words.

Lilly and Lucy's Shadow is a great addition to your family bookshelf. Between the writing and the artistry, it's got at least a little something for everyone in your home!

My Grammar and I... Or Should That Be Me?

2009-08-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy writing, and because I do a lot of it, I must make sure my grammar is spot-on. Plus, poor grammar is a pet peeve of mine and no matter how many times I grind my teeth over a poorly written sentence, I can't change the way others write. It makes it even harder for some since the rules of writing tend to change a little over time. For example, when I was in high school, you always, always added a comma at the end of a string of words, right before the word "and" (known as a serial comma). But now, the last comma isn't always necessary. So, when is it necessary? My Grammar and I… Or Should That Be Me? answers this and many more questions (including the big question posed in the title)!

For those of us addicted to proper grammar, and for those of you interested in being able to improve your writing, My Grammar and I… Or Should That Be Me? provides the answers to questions you have with a relaxed and sometimes comedic approach. Even through my fogged mommy-brain, I am able to sit and read through My Grammar and I… Or Should That Be Me? quite easily, which is more than I can say for some of my college level English textbooks!

Some of you may be wondering if I am one of those social networkers that reads and re-reads my Facebook status updates before I post. The answer is yes, I do. In fact, if I do see a grammatical error, I promptly delete it and start over or post again and explain my lack of accuracy by blaming it on my fogged mommy-brain! I suppose it would be a little too much for me to purchase My Grammar and I… Or Should That Be Me? as secret pal gifts for those who don't worry about grammatically correct status updates, especially now after reviewing the book.

Surely, there must be many more of you out there stressing over the serial comma, and if you are, My Grammar and I… Or Should That Be Me? is a helpful piece of therapy! For those of you simply pondering the proper usage of various nouns, pronouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, or even the serial comma (and many more), My Grammar and I… Or Should That Be Me? will provide you with a simple and easy to remember explanation for each question you may have.

If you like this book, you may also be interested in reading reviews on these other books:

I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

2009-08-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

I am a stickler for fact based books. I still have all my college books for reference, and even though they are only collecting dust in the bottom of a spare closet, I've convinced myself I need to keep them. I Used to Know That, by Caroline Taggart, is the book that isn't collecting dust because it wraps so many different facts into one compact book! In fact, it as found a nice little home on my computer desk - far away from the dark depths of a closet!

Unless you are teaching a subject in school or are a super genius, there's just no way you are going to be able to remember everything you were taught. You will probably remember the difference between an adverb and an adjective, but will you remember what "diphthongs" are? In fact, I had to read that word twice because I couldn't recall anything having been called a diphthong!

I've studied a fair amount of literature and even though it was in college - my most recent studies - I still am unable to retain everything, even after writing research papers on the same topics! I just don't use the information every day and of course, much of what I had learned has disappeared from my mental database. But I sat back and flipped through the literature portion of I Used to Know That and it was amazing to see what memories were being triggered! From Shakespeare to J.R.R. Tolkien, each literary great has at least a small spotlight in I Used to Know That.

Whether you are a literary buff, a lover of science, or just interested in unlocking the memory back that's collecting a little bit of dust, I Used to Know That covers many other topics like Religion, History, Geography, Nature and more!

If you like this book, you may also be interested in reading reviews on these other books:

Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge (Excerpt #2)

2009-07-29T12:47:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge by Susan Aldridge, Elizabeth King Humphrey and Julie Whitaker. You can read my review of this book here.

The Religions of the World

The map of world religions reflects the political and social history of humankind. Eternal quests for meaning, along with conquests, migration, trade, and evangelistic fervor have helped to shape the beliefs of nations and peoples alike.

Every human society has had some form of religious belief or practice. In simplest terms, religion is the belief that the world is inspired and directed by a superhuman power of some type.

Christianity, with some 2.1 billion followers, is the largest of the world's religions. Though it originally began in the Middle East, Christianity is no longer the dominant faith there. It is, however, the predominant religion in much of Europe and in North and South America.

Like some other religions, Christianity is divided into a number of different churches: In Russia, Orthodox Christianity is the leading religion. In South America, most Christians are Roman Catholics, and the same holds true in southern Europe.

Protestantism is more prevalent in both northern Europe and North America. With more than 1.5 billion adherents, Islam is the world's second most popular faith. Following the faith are most people of the Middle East and North Africa, a significant number in South and Southeast Asia, and long-standing minorities in the Balkans and eastern Europe. An influx of immigrants from former European colonies has seen the number of Muslims in Western Europe rise in recent decades.

Hinduism, the world's third largest religion, is prevalent in India, though large populations of Sikhs and Muslims can also be found on the Indian subcontinent.

Although Buddhism originated in India, the countries with the largest Buddhist populations are now China, Japan, and Southeast Asian states such as Vietnam and Thailand. Buddhism also has many followers in the Western world.

A notable exception to the dominance of Islam throughout the Middle East is Israel. Large populations of Jews are also found across Europe and North America, the latter home to more than 40 percent of the world's Jews. In fact, New York City has the second largest population of Jews of any city in the world, after Tel Aviv.

The United States is unusual for a developed nation in that a greater than usual proportion of its population holds religious beliefs, most commonly Protestant Christianity.

South America is predominantly a Catholic Christian continent. This is a legacy of the Spanish and Portugese Conquistadors, who brought the continent under colonial rule.

Africans retain many traditional religious practices in some regions. Christianity arrived more than two millennia ago, and Islam is the dominant religion of North Africa and West Africa.

India is a country of many religions. Four in every five Indians are Hindu, but there are also significant numbers of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains.

Australia is primarily Christian; however, its indigenous religions, centered around a belief in the ancient "Dreamtime" of creation, are key to its culture.

The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

The above is an excerpt from the book Know It All
A Reader's Digest book published in association with Quid Publishing. Copyright © Quid Publishing 2008.

Author Bios

Susan Aldridge has been a freelance science and medical writer for more than 15 years and has contributed to a number of magazines and websites. She lives in London.

Elizabeth King Humphrey has been a contributing writer, editorial advisor, copy editor, and co-designer for several magazines, books, and PBS documentaries. She lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Julie Whitaker has a master’s degree in anthropology and American studies. Whitaker has contributed to many books, including several encyclopedias. She lives on Vancouver Island, Canada.

Healthiest Meals on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What Meals to Eat and Why

2009-07-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from the book The Healthiest Meals on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What Meals to Eat and Why by acclaimed nutritionist Dr. Jonny Bowden (Fair Winds Press; 978-1-59233-318-9). This new book combines ingredients that promote long-term health to create meals that will literally save lives. Studies show that eating the vital ingredients featured here as part of a balanced diet can cut the risk of heart disease by three-quarters, boost overall heart health, and add years to your life.

Citrus-Stuffed Herbed Turkey
A bounty of protein and potassium

Safety First

The Food Safety and Inspection Service recently changed the recommendations for how high a temperature cooked poultry should be cooked to. Previously, experts recommended cooking whole turkeys to 180°F (82°C) and turkey breasts to 170°F (77°C). The new cooking recommendation is 165°F (74°C) for both. Check the internal temperature in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast with a meat thermometer.

Ingredients

Brining Solution
You will need 2 to 3 gallons (8 to 12 L) of brining solution for an 18- to 20-pound (8- to 9-kg) turkey.

Per gallon (4 L) of water:

1 cup (300 g) sea salt or kosher (not table salt)
½ cup (170 g) raw honey
2 teaspoons (4 g) finely grated lemon peel, optional
2 teaspoons (4 g) orange peel, optional
½ tablespoon cardamom pods, optional
1 teaspoon dried thyme, optional

Turkey

1 18- to 20-pound (8- to 9-kg) free-range, not self-basting, turkey

8 sprigs each of fresh rosemary (young and tender, not woody), sage, and thyme (or other herbs of your choice), rinsed and lightly dried (should total 1¼ to 1½ cups or 55 to 90 g when coarsely chopped)

2 shallots, peeled and halved

1 whole head garlic, peeled and crushed

1 lemon

1 orange

4 tablespoons (½ stick, or 55 g) butter, softened

2 tablespoons (28 ml) extra virgin olive oil

Salt

Ground black pepper

½ cup (120 ml) sherry

Prep Time: Overnight to brine, overnight again for optional drying, and 30 minutes to prepare for cooking.

Cook Time: 3 hours and 45 minutes to 4 hours and 15 minutes, plus 20 minutes to rest before carving

Starting with 2 gallons (8 L) of water, mix the brining solution in your roasting pan by combining all ingredients in correct proportions and stirring until the salt and honey are dissolved.

Rinse the turkey in plain water and pat it dry. Place the turkey in a lobster pot or large stockpot. (You can also use a plastic bucket if you line it with 2 or 3 clean garbage bags.) Pour in the brining solution to cover the turkey. If you need more brine to completely immerse the turkey, mix up another gallon. Place the turkey in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours. Remove the turkey from the brine, rinse very well under running water to remove all the brine, and dry thoroughly, including the cavity.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C, gas mark 6).

Stem and coarsely chop the herbs, setting aside about three-quarters of them (? to 1 cup or 40 to 60 g herbs). Mince the remaining one-quarter (about ½ or 30 g) and put into a medium bowl. Add the shallots and garlic.

Quarter but do not peel the lemon and orange and squeeze them gently to make a little juice, tossing the fruit and juice together with the herb mixture.

In a small bowl, using your hands, mix the butter with the oil until creamy. Moving carefully so as not to puncture the skin, work your hand between the turkey skin and the breast as far as you can go to create a pocket over both breasts. Smear half of the butter-oil mixture over the breasts, covering as much meat as you can reach. Place half of the reserved, coarsely chopped herbs in each pocket (on top of each breast). Do this carefully and when complete, gently reshape (from the outside) the herb "pouches" above each breast to look rounded and smooth. Salt and pepper the inside of both cavities and stuff them with the fruit and herb mixture. Tuck the wings behind the back, tuck the skin folds over the cavities to close, and truss the legs. Smear the entire bird with the remaining butter-olive oil mixture and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Slowly pour the sherry inside of the breast pockets, working it around to the leg joints.

Place a V rack inside of a roasting pan and cover it with foil. Poke about 15 holes into the foil. Place the turkey on the V rack, breast side down. Bake for 45 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 325°F (170°C, gas mark 3). Turn the turkey bird breast side up, baste (you can supplement the juices with a few tablespoons of sherry if you wish), cover with foil, and continue to cook for 2½ to 3 hours more, depending on the size of the turkey.

Remove the foil to brown the breast and continue to cook for another 30 to 40 minutes, or until the thickest part of the breast and innermost parts of thighs and wings register 165°F (74°C) on a meat thermometer. (When the turkey is done, the legs should roll loosely on the joint, and the leg juices should run clear.)

Let the turkey rest on a cutting board for about 20 minutes before carving.

Yield: For turkeys weighing more than 12 pounds, allow ½, to ¾ pound (225 to 340 g) per person, so an 18-pound (8-kg) turkey can serve between 24 to 36 people
The above is an excerpt from the book The Healthiest Meals on Earth by Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.

Published by Fair Winds Press; July 2008;$24.95US/$27.50CAN; 978-1-59233-318-9

Author Bio
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S, is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition, and health. He's a board-certified nutrition specialist with a master's degree in psychology, a life coach, motivational speaker, and former personal trainer with six national certifications. His most recent book is the much-praised The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth. His book The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising Truth about What You Should Eat and Why has been endorsed by a virtual who's who in the world of integrative medicine and nutrition, including Mehmet Oz, M.D., Christiane Northurp, M.D., and Barry Sears, Ph.D.

http://www.jonnybowden.com/

Go Green: How to Build an Earth-Friendly Community - Article

2009-07-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

The following is an article by Nancy H. Taylor, author of Go Green: How to Build an Earth-Friendly Community

Ten Ways to Green Your Home and Family
By Nancy H. Taylor, author of Go Green: How to Build an Earth-Friendly Community

We use a lot of energy in our daily lives, for heating, cooling, lighting, appliances and transportation. There are many ways to save energy and money by making a few simple changes.

1. Change your non-dimmable light bulbs from incandescent to compact fluorescents (CFLs). CFLs come in all shapes and sizes and even many shades of the color spectrum. So you do not have to have a white glare or even use the curly bulbs. Incandescent bulbs are going to be obsolete soon, so educate your kids about how much energy CFLs save. Because CFLs have a trace of mercury in the bulb, they must be disposed of at a recycling center.

2. Turn down the temperature of your water heater to 120 degrees F. or 50 degrees C. If your water heater is not insulated, wrap an insulating blanket around it. If your water heater is gas, and not insulated, be sure to leave room for the air vent. Do not cover any venting pipes with a blanket.

3. Arrange to have an energy audit for your home or apartment, which can be done through most utility companies or through an independent contractor. This audit will tell you where and how you are wasting energy, or areas that are lacking insulation. If you follow some of the suggestions, it is possible you can get a rebate from the utility and possibly a federal or state tax credit.

4. Get a programmable thermostat for your furnace or home heating system.

If your home or apartment is vacant all day, setting the heat to turn down while you are gone will save you money and energy. Also, turn the heat down at night. Adjust your air conditioner, so that it cools to a warmer temperature in the summer. Use shades to keep heat in during the winter and out during the summer. In the summer, open windows at night to let the cool night air in, then close windows and curtains to keep the house cool all day.

5. Teach your kids about turning off lights and the TV when they leave a room.

We are used to leaving appliances running even when we don’t need them. We forget that they are drawing energy, costing us money and creating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through their energy use. When you buy an appliance, be sure it is Energy Star rated; there are ratings for everything from air conditioners to Xerox machines!

6. Involve everyone in the family in using power strips. Any gadget that has a digital readout or transformer box on its power cord needs to be plugged into a power strip and then turned off when not in use. Computers, printers, DVD players, TVs, I-pods, phone chargers, adding machines, coffee makers, microwaves and just about any modern device all draw power even when they are turned off. If you plug the devices into a power strip and turn it off when not in use, you can save up to 10% on your energy bill.

7. Try to minimize the carbon-producing transportation patterns of your family. Do you take public Transportation? Do you carpool? Do you ride bikes other than for recreation? Do you combine with neighbors for shopping trips, meetings or events? How about airplane travel? Do you plan your trips ahead so you do not have to fly constantly for business? When you do have to fly, offset the carbon footprint of your trip by buying green tags. Try http://www.terrapass.com/ or http://www.nativeenergy.com/.

8. Food buying patterns use energy too. Most food travels 1500 miles from farm to fork. See if you can find food that was not transported from far away. Many stores carry local produce from neighboring farms. Read the labels on fruits and vegetables to see where they were grown. Buy in bulk. Avoid foods that use large amounts of packaging. Buy from the farmers market or Community Supported Agriculture when you can. Always take your own bag to the market, plastic is a petroleum product.

9. Water is another source of energy use; it needs to be heated for showers and washing dishes. Take shorter showers or put a shut-off valve on the shower to turn it off while soaping, shampooing or shaving. Put a water-saver nozzle on your showerhead and all faucets. Use cold water to wash your clothes and dry your clothes on a rack or a clothesline. Turn the water off when brushing your teeth, (a great way to teach kids about not wasting water) or while shaving.

10. Using potable water from the hose to water lawns and plants can deplete your water supply, especially if you are in a drought region of the country. If you live in a place where you could collect rainwater, catch it in a barrel and use it for watering plants and landscaping. If you are landscaping, plant drought resistant plants using a method called xeriscaping.

Now that you have begun to think about the amount of energy you use in your home or apartment, you can calculate your carbon footprint. This is a way to figure out how much carbon dioxide you or your household put in to the atmosphere on a yearly basis. It can be calculated just for your home, or it can include driving and flying as well.

Each carbon calculator is a bit different. Calculating our carbon dioxide emissions is still a rough science in the process of being refined. Try several sites to see which one you like the best. Some of my favorites are: http://www.nativeenergy.com/, http://www.terrapass.com/, http://www.b-e-f.org/, http://www.myfootprint.com/, or www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html.

After calculating your carbon footprint, you can choose to offset the amount of energy your home uses by purchasing green tags. Depending on the organization you choose, you could be funding a wind farm, solar panels for schools or methane generated from dairy cow waste. Your dollars contribute to developing and purchasing renewable energy. Using your money in this way makes us all less dependent on a fossil fuel economy.

Written by Nancy H. Taylor, author of Go Green: How to Build an Earth-Friendly Community, Gibbs Smith Publishers, Layton, Utah 2008. For more information, please visit http://www.nancyhtaylor.com/.

In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing - Article

2009-07-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

The following is an article by Lee Woodruff, author of In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing by Lee & Bob Woodruff.
Published by Random House February 2008;
$16.00US/$19.00CAN; 978-0-8129-7825-4

Handling a Crisis With Kids
By Lee Woodruff, author of In An Instant

“Tell the truth,” we always say to our kids when faced with their little transgressions, white lies or downright omissions of the facts.

Yet when a bomb in Iraq critically injured my husband, and my children needed some answers, I found myself in the difficult position of deciding just what they needed to know, what to withhold, and how to tell them.

Naturally, every parent is the best judge of their own child and knows intrinsically how to speak to them. But rocking a child’s world with bad news or fearful information was new to me. I have learned a great deal on my journey during the past two years about dealing with difficulty and I wanted to share some of my wisdom.

1) When speaking to your children about difficult or uncertain situations, hold hope and realism in equal measure. My husband was in a coma that lasted 36 days and during that time there were many question marks. I vowed I would never lie to the kids or fill them with false hope. But when they would ask me what Daddy would be like, or how he would recover, I said, “We don’t know exactly what Daddy will be like but I believe in my heart he will be OK.”

I found a phrase that held out some hope while sparing them the intricate details and some of the possible outcomes for their Dad. Most importantly, I wanted to protect my kids from all of the bumps and sharp turns I myself was going through with the roller coaster medical situation.

2) I frequently asked my children how they were doing and sometimes they asked questions. It was important for them to know that I was always ready to listen and patiently answer their questions, even if I was feeling like I didn’t have one ounce of energy left in my body to do so.

3) I offered my kids the chance to talk to a psychiatrist, minister, someone other than me. They never took me up on the offer but I wanted them to know there were other outlets if they felt they couldn’t express their pain or fear in front of me. There were well aware of how much I had on my plate. I never forced the issue and always followed their lead.

4) Hide your fears. My kids took every cue from me and I knew it would be harder for them if they saw me breaking down or railing at the world or worse yet, terrified. I knew my children needed to see me as strong and in control, especially with parent out of the picture indefinitely. It’s ok to cry in front of them—you are human, but histrionics are not going to have any positive
effect.

5) Keep as much to the daily routine as possible. I was separated from my children for 5 weeks, seeing them on weekends. It was extremely hard to be away from them, but what I realized was that bringing them down to Washington to be with me would be the worst thing I could do. They needed to stick to their routine, see their friends, keep their after school activities in place—all of that was “normal” to them.

6) When the going is rough—help your kids live hour by hour. That was some of the best advice I got from someone else. At certain critical points in a crisis, even day-to-day is too long. Keep their focus off their fear of the future. I tried to stay in the present and help my children focus on their day, their homework and their busy schedules.

7) Sometimes it does help to visualize the future. At bedtime, when they might be especially sad or tense, I would have my kids picture us all together as a family that coming summer, or imagine how great it would feel when we got Dad back at the dinner table. I tired to help them find small moments that didn’t over promise too much.

And lastly – love, love, love—shower them with love. You can err by smothering, hovering and over-indulging, but I don’t believe there is any such thing as too much unconditional love.

Author
Lee Woodruff is a public relations executive and freelance writer.

For more information, please visit http://www.bobwoodrufffamilyfund.org/ or join the nonfiction e-newsletter by visiting http://www.rh-newsletters.com/.

Forgive Me - Article

2009-07-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

The following is an article written by Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Forgive Me.
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Pub Date: January 2008
ISBN: 978-0-345-49447-4 (0-345-49447-4)

Lessons from Mom
By Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Forgive Me

No matter what I write about, my novels always seem to have a strong mother character. Inevitably, this character is inspired by my own astonishing mother, Mary-Anne Westley. From a dorm pay phone, a hostel in Nairobi, a restaurant in Athens, or the bench at my neighborhood playground, I’ve talked with her every day of my life.

Once a writer and model for Vogue and Mademoiselle, my mother settled happily into the role of full-time mom for sixteen years. When she left my abusive father, she worked for the phone company and then a chemical gas company, trying to make vibrant copy out of dull facts and figures. She put me and my two sisters through college, commuting over an hour to work until her retirement last year. Money was tight, but Mom never faltered, always inspiring us with her graceful acceptance of the way things had turned out. Now that I am a mother myself, I’ve been able to put some of her rules into practice.

Rule Number One: When in doubt, throw a party.

When my mother left my father, she left behind a giant house and many fair-weather friends as well. In our new, smaller house (next door to Mom’s former golf caddy), we all felt a little lost. When Christmas rolled around, Mom refused to get gloomy. She planned her annual Christmas party, inviting not only the country-club set, but our new neighbors as well: Lou, who had a few cars on his front lawn; Jim, who we suspected was a drug dealer. The same bartender drove across town to our new address, and Mom placed the Harrington’s ham, meatballs, and cheese ball on the dining room table in the middle of our crummy new house. When we dimmed the lights and lit candles, it felt like home.

Rule Number Two: When times get tough, the tough go shopping.

My mother is always beautifully dressed; my sisters and I regularly steal her clothes. When she had to work on telephone lines due to a strike at her company, she came home with a DKNY denim pantsuit, which she paired with pearls each morning.

At one point, while I was in college, my mother lost her job. I knew she was nervous about paying the mortgage, so when she left a message saying she had fantastic news, I called back immediately.

“You got a job?” I asked.

“Oh, no,” she said cheerily, “but Manda, that sweater you loved went on sale at Bloomingdale’s! I bought it!”

Rule Number Three: Believe—and believe in—your children.

I didn’t always tell the truth to my mother. I lied about boyfriends, I lied about beer, and once I lied about cashing in my meal plan in college and spending the money on a trip to Florida. But my mother always believed me. I think now that the guilt I felt when I lied was worse than any punishment could have been. My mother always expected the best from me, and in the end, I never lied about anything that mattered. I hope I will remember that overlooking a dumb decision (I had to eat Ramen for the rest of the semester, and learned my lesson in spades) might be better than policing my child. My mother’s faith in me, and her absolute belief that I would become an honest person, has been the guiding force in my life.

Last but not least: Mothers deserve to be happy, too.

My mother did give up a great deal to raise me and my sisters. But she never stopped wanting happiness for herself. If she came to visit us at college, she wanted to go out dancing, too. When visiting me in graduate school in Montana, she wanted to go river-rafting and skinny dip in the hot springs. If I ask her to stay in the car with my sleeping baby while I run into Target, she says, “Absolutely! If you go buy me the New York Times to read while I’m stuck here.”

Most importantly, Mom wanted to fall in love, and the best part of the story is that she did. On my mother’s wedding day, she was just as difficult as any bride, complaining about the humidity and the hairdo, and just as radiant. She danced, threw her bouquet, and boarded a friend’s boat with her new husband. And then she sailed off into Long Island Sound, leaving her three daughters to watch her go.

Author Bio
Amanda Eyre Ward is the award-winning author of How to Be Lost and Sleep Toward Heaven. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her family.

For more information, please visit http://www.amandaward.com/.

How Big Is Your God?: The Freedom to Experience the Divine

2009-07-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from the book How Big Is Your God?: The Freedom to Experience the Divine
by Paul Coutinho, SJ
Published by Loyola Press; October 2007;$18.95US; 978-0-8294-2481-2
Copyright © 2007 Paul Coutinho, SJ

The Enslaving Illusion of Love

Love is one of the greatest illusions that people have. This illusion of love is often the biggest obstacle to our relationship with God and to our greater and deeper experience of the Divine.

Reflect for a moment on the story of the couple who were so madly in love that every parent who had a teenage child would point to them and say, "If you want to know what love is, look at that couple." One day the man died. The woman was so devastated that on his tombstone she had engraved in bold letters, 'The light of my life is gone." People would go there to show their children that inscription and to talk about this ideal couple and how they loved each other. People also stopped by to console the woman, and one man stopped by often. He fell in love with the woman, and eventually she fell in love with him, and soon she wanted to get married again. But that tombstone was an embarrassment. They went to their pastor for advice. He said, "Let it be; don't worry. You have written, 'The light of my life is gone: Just add 'I have struck another match.'"

Abraham Lincoln once said that everyone is as happy as he or she chooses to be. Happiness, therefore, is an inner choice. When someone loves you, that person does not make you happy but makes you aware of the source of your happiness within you. Therefore, when someone you love rejects you, or goes away or dies, that person does not take your happiness with him or her.

When we cling to the love of another person or are dependent on it for our happiness, we become enslaved to that relationship. We fool ourselves by believing that our happiness comes from that person instead of from the river of divine life and because we are the beloved of God. Such a relationship is not a truly unconditional loving relationship. True love lets me freely be who I am.

God's most precious gifts are sometimes the very obstacles that stand in the way of our deepening our relationship with the Divine. Sometimes our relationships, even good ones, prevent us from moving to a higher spiritual level. Ramakrishna, one of the great Indian sages, tells this story:

There was a holy man who wandered the forests, always lost in the presence of God. Through his wanderings, he came to the city one day and found a young man, a wonderful man, and said to him, "Why are you wasting your time here? Come with me into the forest, and I will show you how to experience God, peace, and happiness." The young man said, "I can't do that. I have a wife who loves me dearly; she would be devastated if I went away. I have children who depend on me. They love me so much. Our family is so close to one another. There is so much love in this family. I cannot just leave them and go." The holy man said, "This is an illusion. It is a figment of your imagination. They don't love you the way you think they do. You don't love them the way you think you do." And the young man replied, "Of course I do." So the holy man said, "Let's test this."

The holy man suggested, "I will give you this little potion. When you go home, drink it, and you will fall down as if you are dead, but you will be aware of everything that is going on. I promise you that shortly I will come and revive you." The young man agreed. He went home, took that potion, and fell down as if he were dead. His wife was the first one to find him, and she began screaming and yelling and could not be consoled. "This husband of mine," she cried, "I love him so much. Why did God take him away so soon and so quickly?" His children also could not be consoled. All the neighbors were in the house trying to help the family. They were also talking about how much they loved this man. And the young man was thinking, I hope the holy man comes now, because he would then see for himself how much I am loved and cared for.

The holy man appeared. He asked, "What happened?" The wife said, 'This husband of mine -- l loved him so much and now he is gone, and I do not know what I am going to do without him." The children said the same thing. The neighbors were talking about him too. The holy man announced, "I can revive this man. I have this little potion. If I put it into his mouth, he will come back to life." And everyone stopped crying and looked forward in hope. "But there is one condition for this potion to work. One of you has to take half of it, and you will die. I am sure you love him very much and will have no problem doing this."

The wife spoke first. She said, "What is a home without a mother? This man does not know how to cook. This man will not be able to take care of the children." So, she said, she could not possibly take the potion. The children said, "Papa lived a good life. God will reward him. We are young and have our own lives to lead." The neighbors had their own families, so no one among them was willing to take the potion. The holy man revived the young man, and without turning back, the young man followed the holy man into the forest.

Now, I am not suggesting that you leave all your loved ones and go into the forest. What I am saying is that you should look at this great illusion of love for what it is. Don't give your loved ones and friends more importance, more value than they have. Jesus said, "Unless you hate your father and your mother and your brothers and sisters, you cannot be my disciple." I am not saying that you should stop loving your family. Jesus did not say that. Jesus said, "Love them with all your heart and all your soul. Love them like you love God. Love them like you love yourself." Love them, but know that you have to let go of them at the same time so that you will be able to follow God totally and unconditionally. This is something that we all need to think about. We all have to face this illusion in some manner, and the consequences of how we do so are very real.

When my mother died, all of us at home were worried about our father. He had spent forty-seven years married to my mother and was very devoted to her. We wondered if my father would die now that the love of his life was gone. But he didn't; he survived. He lived for twelve years after her death. Not only did he live, but he was fully alive. He was fully present to life. Of course he missed my mother. Of course he talked about my mother. But her death did not devastate him; it did not kill him.

When people die, we miss them and we cry for them, but if we truly loved them and freely enjoyed them, we cry because we're happy. The tears are tears of happiness, their lives were a gift to us and we remember the happy moments. Because we fully enjoyed them, we are free to let them go on the physical level and stay connected to them on the spiritual level.

This is true even in our relationship with the Divine. One of St. Ignatius's axioms is "Pray as if every thing depended on God and work as if everything depended on you." What St. Ignatius is saying is that we need to give ourselves fully to the task, in which God is laboring, and trust fully in the Divine. This reflects a childlike approach rather than a childish approach. In this relationship, we are free to be who we are, and God is free to be divine. This relationship is one of freeing love.

Author Bio
Fr. Paul Coutinho, SJ is an internationally recognized Ignatian scholar and speaker who brings an Eastern influence to Western spirituality. A Jesuit from the Bombay province of India, he frequently leads retreats, gives spiritual direction, and trains people to lead the Spiritual Exercises. Fr. Coutinho holds masters degrees in both clinical psychology and religious studies, and he has a doctorate in historical theology from Saint Louis University. He currently divides his time between India and the United States.

Remembering Our Angels: Personal Stories of Healing from a Pregnancy Loss

2009-07-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

No one knows the devastation and heartache of losing a baby more than a father or mother. Grieving parents often do not know where to turn and what to do with their grief in the aftermath of a pregnancy loss. In Remembering Our Angels: Personal Stories of Healing from a Pregnancy Loss, Hannah Stone has collected essays and stories from pregnancy loss awareness activists, doctors, grief counselors and grieving parents in the hope of offering a resource to grieving parents.

Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge (Excerpt)

2009-07-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge by Susan Aldridge, Elizabeth King Humphrey and Julie Whitaker. You can read my review of this book here.

Earth’s Climate: What Gives?

The Earth's average temperature has fluctuated greatly throughout its history. Today we worry about polar ice caps and glaciers melting more quickly than ever before. Still, there have been times in the past when ice and snow were virtually absent from the planet. Could we be headed for another iceless age?

The term ice age sometimes refers to periods when ice sheets were more extensive than usual. But these times are more accurately called glacials, and they occur within an ice age; the periods between glacials are called interglacials. We are now in an interglacial in what is probably the Earth's fourth great ice age. What has distinguished the last 200 years is the melting of ice at apparently unprecedented rates as the temperature of the Earth gradually grows warmer.

Climate Change

In the early nineteenth century the Swiss-German geologist Jean de Charpentier suggested that the Alpine glaciers he had been studying had at one time been far larger. Later a Swiss-American geologist, Louis Agassiz, built on Charpentier's notion and proposed that Earth at one time had been completely covered by ice.

Ice Ages Past . . .

Since then, scientific advances have contributed to our understanding of the Earth's ice ages, and it is now thought that the first major ice age occurred some 2 billion years ago. Another ice age, 850 to 630 million years ago -- probably the most severe -- may have covered the entire globe in ice, a frosty scenario known as "Snowball Earth."

The end of that ice age seems to have coincided with the evolution of a great many tiny organisms, although whether there is a causal link between these events and what they might be remains a matter of debate.

Then, between 400 and 300 million years ago, another ice age struck, and the planet was again plunged into a cold period, known as the Karoo Ice Age, named for the glacial till (sediment) found in the Karoo hills of South Africa.

. . . and Present

The current ice age began some 40,000,000 years ago, reaching its coldest period about 3,000,000 years ago. The last glacial period (often referred to inaccurately as an ice age) ended about 10,000 years ago, and the first human civilizations began to flourish shortly after. How global warming will affect Earth's cooling and warming cycles -- and, more urgently, sea level as glaciers and the polar ice caps melt -- is the pressing issue of our age.

The Global Greenhouse

Without the greenhouse effect, a natural process that heats the Earth's surface and atmosphere, our average temperature would be a frigid 0°F (–18°C) -- ensuring a permanent ice age, to say the least. The warmed globe radiates what is called "infrared radiation," most of which should travel through atmospheric layers to space. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s, more and more infrared radiation began to be absorbed by naturally occurring greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2). The increase of average concentrations of CO2, from about 280 parts per million in 1700 to about 380 parts per million in 2005 is the major cause of global warming.

In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) asserted that human activities -- including the use of fossil fuels -- was “very likely” the catalyst for global warming.

Some scientists estimate that the Earth's temperature will rise by as much as 9°F (5°C) by 2050, while others heatedly disagree. What isn't in dispute is that the world's ice is in a literal meltdown. For instance, the largest single block, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf in the Arctic, lasted some 3,000 years before it started to crack in 2000; a mere two years later it was split through and is now breaking apart.

The above is an excerpt from the book Know It All

Author Bios

Susan Aldridge has been a freelance science and medical writer for more than 15 years and has contributed to a number of magazines and websites. She lives in London.

Elizabeth King Humphrey has been a contributing writer, editorial advisor, copy editor, and co-designer for several magazines, books, and PBS documentaries. She lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Julie Whitaker has a master’s degree in anthropology and American studies. Whitaker has contributed to many books, including several encyclopedias. She lives on Vancouver Island, Canada.

The Global Achievement Gap - Article #2

2009-07-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

The following is an article written by Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap. You can read my review of this book here.

Education Accountability Version 2.0: A Letter to the Next President
By Tony Wagner,
Author of The Global Achievement Gap

Dear Mr. President:

Your education platform was filled with noble generalities. I suppose you thought you couldn't get more specific because the No Child Left Behind Law is increasingly unpopular and unworkable, and there is no agreement about how to fix it. It is an issue that doesn't lend itself to sound bites. To fix NCLB, you must first understand the skills that matter most in the 21st century and the ways in which the NCLB law is actually getting in the way of more meaningful accountability. And then you must invest in accountability "version 2.0."

Problem: Too few students are graduating from high school. The ones who do lack the essential skills they need for college, careers, and citizenship.

Nearly one third of our students do not graduate from high school. This problem is not more widely known because states are not held accountable for improving their graduation rates. Additionally, states use different formulas for calculating their districts' high school graduation rates, and almost all of them significantly overstate the numbers of students who graduate. Florida, for example, claims a seventy percent graduation rate, but the reality is closer to fifty-five percent.

The majority of the students who do graduate from our nation's public high schools are unprepared for college and the workplace. In the 21st century, the skills needed for careers, college, and citizenship have converged: Critical thinking, creative problem-solving, collaboration, and effective communication have become far more important than mere memorization and factual recall. However, at the high school level, states continue to test low level content knowledge and factual recall through multiple choice tests, and a passing score in even the most "rigorous" of these tests, such as the Massachusetts MCAS test, does not mean students are career and college-ready. Forty percent of the students who pass MCAS need remediation in college. Nationally, one out of every two students who starts college never completes a degree, and the main reason for this poor completion rate is students' lack of college-level skills, not lack of subject content knowledge. Similarity, employers complain that most new employees lack proficiency in the "new basic" skills outlined above.

Solution: The Department of Education should hold schools and districts accountable for their graduation rates and assess the skills that matter most.

The Department of Education should require all school districts and states in the U.S. to report their high school graduation rates according to a common formula. To ensure that schools teach the skills that matter most, the Department of Education should "audit" school districts' performance by testing representative sample populations of students with assessments that measure the most important skills. For example, the College and Work Readiness Assessment measures high school students' analytic reasoning, critical thinking, problem-solving, and writing skills and compares them to the scores of freshmen in 250 colleges. (http://www.cae.org/). Scores from tests like these will tell us whether our country is making progress in increasing the percentages of students who leave high school "college and work ready." Scores of subgroups of students would be reported, as they are under the current law, to ensure that districts teach all students new skills.

To create greater accountability, the Department of Education should issue and widely publicize an annual "report card" for every school district in the country. This short document would simply report the percent of students who graduate and the percent who graduate college-ready by subgroup. Transparency is a far more powerful way to create greater accountability than are the largely meaningless threats in the current law. States would then have the responsibility to develop strategies for helping their under-performing districts to improve.

Problem: The accountability measurements for Adequate Yearly Progress incents states and districts to create a boring, dumbed-down, test prep curriculum, and there is no common standard for "proficient."

One major problem with the NCLB law is the unrealistic expectation that every school will improve the number of students who score "proficient" by a certain percent every year until 100 percent of the students in the nation are proficient by 2014. This expectation leads to two widespread practices: 1) Many states, like Mississippi and Wisconsin, create easy tests where the standard of "proficiency" is such a low bar that most students can pass; 2) To ensure that more students pass state tests, districts require teachers to teach the test content and give frequent practice tests, leaving no time for more interesting or enriching learning opportunities. Increasingly in this country, what gets tested is all that gets taught.

The second major problem with the law is that it allows the standard of "proficiency" to be set by each state. So there are, in fact, fifty different standards of proficiency in this country. For example, students in Mississippi, who have traditionally been among the least literate in this country, are more "proficient" in reading than students in Minnesota, according to the two states' test scores. Because the states' standards vary so widely, their test scores tell us absolutely nothing about what students really know and can do.

Solution: Create a national high school writing test, benchmark districts' and states' yearly progress to a common international standard, and make the unit of accountability the district, rather than individual students.

Lack of writing skills is the number one complaint of both employers and college teachers. However, many states are no longer testing writing because they are not required to, and writing tests are expensive and time-consuming to score. To the extent that some states, like Massachusetts, test students' writing, it is by requiring high school students merely to write a five paragraph essay. The solution is for the federal government to administer a two hour writing exam to demographic sample populations of eleventh graders in all states, as is done in many European countries. The essay question for the writing exam would be based on a major event or document in American History. For example: "Discuss the causes of the civil war and the ways in which these causes continue to influence current events in this country;" Or, "Which
of the first ten amendments (which would be reproduced on the test) do you think is most important for a strong democracy and why."

The second solution to the lack of common standards is to use the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test results as the benchmark for progress in states' education improvement efforts. American students are significantly outperformed by students in most other industrial nations, in part because the PISA tests require very little recall of information and much more application of knowledge to new problems. These are the skills that matter most in the real world, but they are not ones our students learn in their multiple choice world. The incentive for states to improve their education outcomes is economic. States and school communities that have very low PISA scores, which would be widely publicized by the Department of Education, will not attract or keep businesses that demand all employees have 21st century skills.

Finally, in order for states to be able to afford much higher quality tests, like the CWRA and PISA, they should no longer be required to test every student every year. State and district accountability can achieved by testing sample populations of students every year -- a kind of educational audit. To do well on such tests, districts and schools would need to create local assessments for every student that were aligned with the new state and national tests. Each
teacher would be regularly assessing all of his or her students to ensure that students who might be among those randomly chosen for the state and national tests would be well-prepared.

Accountability 2.0 would focus schools and districts on preparing students for meaningful assessments which measure the skills that matter most in the 21st century. To prepare for these new tests, all students would be taught how to write, reason, analyze, pose thoughtful questions and solve problems. In short, they would learn the skills they need for college, careers, and citizenship, and they would be engaged in challenging and interesting work in their classes. Doing anything less that a version 2.0 of our accountability system puts our students' and our country's future at stake.

Author Bio
Tony Wagner is the co director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His most recent book, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach The New Survival Skills Our Kids Need -- And What We Can Do About It, has just been published by Basic Books. Tony can be reached through his website: www.schoolchange.org

The Global Achievement Gap - Article

2009-07-29T07:38:00.000-07:00

The following is an article written by Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap. You can read my review of this book here.

What Do Your Children Need to Know to Succeed in Today’s World?
And What Can You Do to Help Them At School and At Home?
By Tony Wagner,
Author of The Global Achievement Gap

The world is changing at an extraordinary pace. Twenty-five years ago, most young people who mastered the "3 r's" of reading, writing, and arithmetic and had a high school diploma were likely to be able to get and keep a decent job. Not so today. In research for my new book, I've come to understand that there are seven "survival skills" all young people need to master for success in today's world. The skills needed for careers, college, and citizenship have converged. Students who leave high school without them are far less likely to get a good job, succeed in college, or be an active and informed in our democratic society.

All Kids, New Skills

Here are the Seven Survival Skills, as described by some of the people whom I interviewed:

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

"The idea that a company's senior leaders have all the answers and can solve problems by themselves has gone completely by the wayside . . . The person who's close to the work has to have strong analytic skills. You have to be rigorous: test your assumptions, don't take things at face value, don't go in with preconceived ideas that you're trying to prove." -- Ellen Kumata, consultant to Fortune 200 companies

Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence

"The biggest problem we have in the company as a whole is finding people capable of exerting leadership across the board . . . Our mantra is that you lead by influence, rather than authority." -- Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Cisco

Agility and Adaptability

"I've been here four years, and we've done fundamental reorganization every year because of changes in the business . . . I can guarantee the job I hire someone to do will change or may not exist in the future, so this is why adaptability and learning skills are more important than technical skills." -- Clay Parker, President of Chemical Management Division of BOC Edwards

Initiative and Entrepreneurship

"For our production and crafts staff, the hourly workers, we need self-directed people . . . who can find creative solutions to some very tough, challenging problems." -- Mark Maddox, Human Resources Manager at Unilever Foods North America

Effective Oral and Written Communication

"The biggest skill people are missing is the ability to communicate: both written and oral presentations. It's a huge problem for us." -- Annmarie Neal, Vice President for Talent Management at Cisco Systems

Accessing and Analyzing Information

"There is so much information available that it is almost too much, and if people aren't prepared to process the information effectively, it almost freezes them in their steps." -- Mike Summers, Vice President for Global Talent Management at Dell

Curiosity and Imagination

"Our old idea is that work is defined by employers and that employees have to do whatever the employer wants . . . but actually, you would like him to come up with an interpretation that you like -- he's adding something personal -- a creative element." -- Michael Jung, Senior Consultant at McKinsey and Company

New Learning and Roles for Parents in the Community

The problem we face as parents is that these are not the skills currently being taught and tested -- even in our "good" suburban schools. In America today, I've discovered that there is only one curriculum in most of our schools: "test prep." What gets taught is only what gets tested. And because almost all of the tests students take -- from state tests for No Child Left Behind to Advanced Placement exams -- require a great deal of memorization and factual recall, these are the only skills being taught in most classrooms. As a consequence, one out of every two students who start college never completes a degree, and employers report that young people today are ill-prepared for the 21st century workplace.

The impact you can have on teacher or school or district may be limited as one individual. I believe parents and concerned community members must work together to become effective advocates for teaching and testing the skills that matter most.

In the last chapter of my book, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach The New Survival Skills Our Children Need -- And What We Can Do About It, I suggest that parents and community members must first understand some of the ways the world has changed and how schools need to differently prepare our students for success. Book groups, PTA meetings, and discussions in our churches and synagogues all provide opportunities for the kind of adult learning we need in order to be prepared to ask school board members, educators, and policy makers some important questions like:

• What do you think are the most important skills our high school graduates need today to succeed?

• How are you teaching and assessing these skills?

• How are you gauging the success of our schools -- by test scores or by the numbers of students who go to college and succeed there, as well as by how well prepared students are for work? Have you talked to employers and recent graduates of our schools to see if our students graduate with the skills they need?

New Ways to Support Our Children At Home

Many business leaders and educators alike worry about this generation's "lack of work ethic." However, I've come to understand that the "net generation" is not unmotivated, but rather very differently motivated. Growing up tethered to the internet as most are, today's teens crave connection with others and learning through discovery. They are accustomed to multitasking in a multimedia world and so find most work in schools to be pointless and boring. But, as parents, we worry about our children's futures and so push them to succeed in school. We look at their grades and fret about whether they will get into a "good" college. We push them to do more of the "right" things for their college application, and we hope that they will have a lucrative career some day.

All of these concerns are understandable, but the young adults whom I interviewed -- when I asked what advice they'd give parents -- told me that much of this parental worrying and pressure is actually counterproductive.

Andrew Bruck, a Princeton graduate and currently enrolled at Stanford Law School told me that "parents need to respect the extraordinary capacity of students. Our generation wants to do things. It's important to nurture children's creativity. There's so much pressure to succeed and to go to a brand-name school. There's no need for parents to pile on the stress."

A young woman in a focus group I conducted at a New England college agreed, saying "Parents need to support children in their dreams -- even if it's wanting to be an artist." Another in the group chimed in: "Parents shouldn't worry so much about how their children are doing in school. They should find out more about what their extracurricular interests are." Bruck's high school experience certainly confirmed the importance of extracurricular activities in students' lives. He told me that he learned more about writing and managing deadlines and leadership from his experience as editor of his high school's newspaper than he did from any of his classes.

Matt Kulick, a Cornell grad who now works a Google, had perhaps the best advice for parents when he said "A lot of my friends never had a good idea of what they liked or wanted to do because their parents said 'you're going to be a doctor' or . . . And it doesn't help to tell your kids to do more homework or to always ask them what grade they got. Parents need to find out what their kids like . . . My parents motivated me to do well -- not to get A's but to give my best effort. They trusted me."

Being an advocate in your community for 21st century teaching and learning, and trusting your children as they explore their interests. Easy to say, but hard to do. As parents we, too, need to continue to develop our mastery of the Seven Survival Skills -- and to be models for our children -- as we grow and learn together.

©2008 Tony Wagner

Author Bio

Tony Wagner is the co director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His most recent book, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach The New Survival Skills Our Kids Need -- And What We Can Do About It, has just been published by Basic Books. Tony can be reached through his website: www.schoolchange.org

i before e (except after c)

2009-07-29T07:26:00.000-07:00

While in high school and college, I found some very ingenious ways to memorize those desperately needed tidbits of information for tests and reoccurring topics. Those mnemonic strategies are still with me today. In Judy Parkinson’s book i before e (except after c), countless mnemonic strategies are presented in ways the young and old can appreciate.

Parkinson starts with the first trick of memorization we learn in life, our ABCs. She actually provides a little history with this mnemonic learning tool, along with many others in i before e (except after c). Who knew there were so many different ways to memorize topics of the English Language?

Not only are English Language mnemonics used, but there are examples for memorizing a myriad of facts. One in particular I wish I had known in my science classes was for converting Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa. But it is coming in handy now that I have Canadian friends that refer to degrees Celsius when talking about the weather! I just remember:

Celsius to Fahrenheit:
Multiple C by 9
Divide the answer then by 5
Next, all you need to do, is to add 32.

We’ve all used mnemonics whether we realize it or not. Or perhaps you didn’t realize that old saying “Righty-tighty, Lefty-loosey” is an example of mnemonics. Either way, we all benefit from these simple and fun ways of memorizing rules, proverbs, facts, people, places and things! Judy Parkinson makes mnemonics fun for everyone of every age in i before e (except after c), which by the way, is something I say to myself each and every time I have to spell the word “receipt!”

More Book Information:

I Before E (Except After C)
Old-School Ways to Remember Stuff
By Judy Parkinson
Published by Reader's Digest
April 2008;$14.95US; 978-0-7621-0917-3

Description

Hundreds of Memory Tricks You Learned in the Classroom

"Thirty days hath September..." How many times have your relied on that old maxim to figure out a calendar?

Or how about "Every Good Boy Does Fine" to remember the notes on the treble clef?

These ingenious, practical memory techniques abound in I BEFORE E (EXCEPT AFTER C) with its hundreds of curious sayings. In this clever -- and often hilarious -- collection, you'll find engaging mnemonics, arranged in easy-to-find categories that include:

Geographically Speaking
Time and the Calendar
Think of a Number
The Sky at Night and by Day
Guarenteed to amuse and inform, this little book is a perfect gift for students of all ages.

Author Bio
Judy Parkinson is a graduate of Bristol University. She is a producer of documentaries, music videos, and commercials, and won a Clio award for a Greenpeace ad. Parkinson has published four books and has contributed to a show of life drawings at the Salon des Arts, Kensington.

Reviews
“Parkinson’s book is a welcome throwback, an indispensible guide that can be used for general knowledge revision, or whenever that simple nugget of information proves elusive.”
-The Good Book Guide

“Remember all those awesome acronyms and nifty mnemonics you learned in school, to stop stuff going in one ear and out the other? No? Well, never mind—a new book called i before e (except after c) is here to re-educate the educated.”
-The Sun

If you like this book, you may also be interested in reading reviews on these other books:

Sharks and Other Sea Monsters

2009-07-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

Whether you are interested in learning about sharks and sea monsters or you simply enjoy a good pop-up book, Robert Sabuda & Matthew Reinhart's Sharks and Other Sea Monsters is a must-have! Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart are both well known for their children's books and masterminded pop-ups. These authors aren't just great children's writers, they are paper engineers! The imagination and creativity put into Sharks and Other Sea Monsters is no match to the pop-ups we saw when we were kids! These pop-ups are high-tech creations for the new millennia!

Sharks and Other Sea Monsters begins by illustrating and identifying the origin of early sea "monsters" reported since the first sailors set to the sea. Each page is dedicated to individual sea life and includes astoundingly intricate and colorful pop-ups. At the center of the book is an exciting and very realistic pop-up relication of a modern day shark. Some of the smaller pop-ups on the Shark page include a 250 million year old shark and even a life-sized megalodon tooth, a type of shark that is long extinct and was more than 50 feet long, weighing over 50 tons.

The book continues on with reptiles, long-necked sea lizards and even marine mammals and birds. It uses simple explanations with scientific words and pronunciations so that readers of any age can easily understand the history of large and ancient sea life. From fossils of prehistoric life to the ancestors of a common-day crocodile, this book has it all. Plus, there isn't just one pop-up per page. There are large, medium and small pop-ups on each page. It's a pop-up lover's dreams!

Sharks and Other Sea Monsters stands up to the sub-title of Encyclopedia Prehistorica, making it a must have addition for any collection of reference books. The pop-ups are so complex, it could be examined over and over again and still be a complete amazement as to how the pop-ups all come together. From age five to ninety five, everyone will enjoy this remarkable creation for generations to come.

The Fairy Chronicles - Dragonfly and the Web of Dreams

2009-07-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

J.H. Sweet brings back the Fairy Team in another magical story telling of The Fairy Chronicles. In book two of the series, Dragonfly and the Web of Dreams, the reader revisits this magical world of fairies, gremlins, brownies, mystical spiders and even a cameo from the Sandman! But there is much more than magic happening in Dragonfly and the Web of Dreams.

One of the best points to make about The Fairy Chronicles is the way J.H. Sweet weaves lessons of environmental responsibility into the stories, without it seeming out of place. Jennifer Sommerset, also known as Dragonfly in her fairy form, is avid on the notion of recycling and reusing. From making sure her family has the proper recycling bins, to encouraging her neighbors to do their part, Jennifer goes above and beyond the environmentally conscious duties of all fairies. Jennifer is also known for her pamphlets, created wholly on her part, for ideas on how to reuse things like coffee cans and butter tubs. These are everyday examples of how easy it is to make the world a better place to live in, and young impressionable readers will be educated and inspired by these environmentally friendly messages.

Dragonfly and the Web of Dreams also delivers the important message of team work, as the Fairy Team and other characters introduced in the first book of the series work together to benefit all of mankind. Sometimes team work also means working with someone you don't know very well or have a misconception about, and Dragonfly and the Web of Dreams demonstrates to young readers how you really can't judge a book by its cover. The Dream Spider is a very large, furry creature that has a deep booming voice and is very intimidating by appearance. However, in the end, we see how even someone who seems to be dark or scary can actually do something helpful or produce something as mystically beautiful as the Web of Dreams.

J.H. Sweet has perfectly captured the right balance of magic and mystery with real life lessons of team work, environmental responsibility and open-mindedness. These are perfect lessons for the targeted audience, and Dragonfly and the Web of Dreams makes a great family reading session! The magical fairy world of The Fairy Chronicles takes everyone, from the young and the young at heart, into a place that is exciting to visit, over and over again.

The Fairy Chronicles - Marigold and the Feather of Hope, the Journey Begins

2009-07-27T10:55:00.000-07:00

It is time to introduce you to the Fairy Team: Marigold, Dragonfly, Thistle and Firefly. Perhaps it is possible that they are the ones that magically fixed the lamp you thought was once broken, or perhaps that dragonfly you saw buzzing around yesterday was actually a fairy in disguise. In this magical fairy-filled world, anything from a young girl's imagination materializes in the magic of The Fairy Chronicles' first book of the series, Marigold and the Feather of Hope, the Journey Begins.

Young Beth Parish is starting her summer off in the most boring way possible - two weeks with her oddly strange aunt. As a nine year old, there is nothing else worse in the world than having to spend a half month with someone that is far from ordinary. However, no sooner than a can of root beer later, Beth learns that not only is her aunt a fairy, but she is too - a Marigold fairy, to be precise! It is at this instant that the young (and old) reader is pulled into the magical fairy world of writer and creator J.H. Sweet.

There are more than just fairies in this magical world. Garden gnomes, brownies and even nasty gremlins could be lurking around any house and garden on the block. Never fear, the fairies rescue the day when they defeat the nasty little gremlins wreaking havoc upon Mr. Forrester, just in time for the brownies to recover the Feather of Hope. This magical team effort is rounded out by the help of Beth's dachshund - the one creature gremlins are afraid of!

The Fairy Chronicles are more than just a magical ride through a mythical world, but also teach valuable life lessons while entertaining the senses. Learning to appreciate nature and the colors of the natural world is a great lesson to be learned in the midst of "Climate Change" and other scary, bewildering thoughts of the future. "Leave only footprints" is an idealistic thought for how all creatures (fairies and non-fairies) should treat the Earth. Also, while awaiting the rescue of the Feather of Hope, we see that Mr. Forrester believes that there are "two important things to consider" in our search for the meaning of life. "How we treat other people, and what we teach to children," are actual lessons demonstrated in Marigold and the Feather of Hope, the Journey Begins.

Another beneficial lesson weaved into this magical book includes knowing the importance of community as we see the how the fairies work together to solve problems with each other to benefit each other. The reader learns alongside Marigold on becoming an educated fairy and how fairies value honesty and virtue. Between the magic and the lessons, this book is a wonderful choice for young, impressionable readers with wild and ambitious imaginations.

In addition to being a very easy read, geared towards children ages seven and up, with colorful and imaginative illustrations by Tara Larsen Chang, it makes an excellent bedtime book to be read a chapter or two at a time. Magically fun adventures are on the horizon for Marigold, her aunt, the Fairy Team and others from the Fairy Circle. You and your child will both enjoy the adventures yet to come to the lovable fairies in J.H. Sweet's magical fairy world!

Back on the Career Track, A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work

2009-07-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

Being a stay-at-home mom is no easy task. For me, it just kind of happened. I was frustrated in my job, tired of dealing with illnesses my son continually had because of being in a daycare, and most of all, I despised the idea of someone else seeing all of his firsts. After six months of my own personal mommy madness, I decided to be an at-home mom. In the beginning, it was really tough having only one income and even only one car, but my husband and I did what we could to make it work.

Being at home with my son has had its ups and downs. I've enjoyed it thoroughly, but really miss the social interaction I used to have while working. I feel accomplished as a mom, but as an individual I know I will soon need something more. Something being at home can't necessarily give and eventually, I do want to go back to work. However, one fear I have about going back out into the workforce is the fact that I've been out of the rat race for a few years now, and I am rusty. I used to get every job I interviewed for, but now my confidence is kaput. I've gone from working with talented professionals to a talented preschooler. From working on hundred-thousand dollar budgets for government jobs to cleaning dried play dough from the rug. All of these changes weave into my psyche, making it that much harder to even decide if I really do want to go back to work.

For all of the moms out there who can relate to these issues, and have even slightly pondered upon the question of whether or not to return to work after being an at-home mom, there are two great women who've done a lot of legwork to guide the stay-at-home mom back into the workforce. Back on the Career Track, A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work by Carol Fishman Cohen and Vivian Steir Rabin is the perfect read for those interested in the idea of returning to work. Whether it's now or years from now, issues involved in everything from making the decision to return to work, to the actual process of relaunching a successful career are covered from A to Z in this handy guide.

The introduction of the book says it all: "Our Journey from Playdough to Real Dough." It can't be put any simpler than that! When reading the introduction, I felt myself nodding and agreeing with the writers. We have a fulfilling job as a stay-at-home mom, but we itch to do something more. We miss the excitement and intellectual stimulus that comes with a career, regardless
of how we felt about our previous run on the career track, or how happy we are with our present situation. When we think about having to go back to work, it's almost physically painful to think about it. It's not just leaving our home and any of our children, but so much more. From regaining confidence in our ability to have a successful interview to actually finding a job we can enjoy. There are quite a few speed bumps on the road to success and Back on the Career Track provides the knowledge needed to plow through and get back to a successful career.

Cohen and Rabin worked with more than a hundred women who had worked in fields from law and medicine to customer service and teaching, and by doing so, they were able to come up with a workable strategy for "Relaunching Success." Part one of the book is designed as a seven step program to get back out in the workforce, and being happy about it. From learning confidence and accessing career options to getting out there and making a name for yourself under your own terms. It's a simple recipe for success especially for the career-bound mom.

Part two of the book continues with the idea of returning to work after being an at-home mom by focusing on what Cohen and Rabin have coined as the "Relaunch Movement and Beyond," covering the change we've seen in women who've gone back to their careers after staying home to raise children. Back on the Career Track then closes with the pondering upon the future and if "Relaunching Success" will become easier for women in generations to follow.

The simple fact of knowing that so many women before us have successfully returned to a career after being at home is in itself a great confidence builder. Whether I decide to do it next year or in the next five years, I know that what I've learned from Back on the Career Track will provide me with the information I need to be confident and successful in my future career pursuits.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

2009-07-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

Imagine visiting a world of bright and vibrant colors, where the sky isn't only blue, but hues of green and purple too. A world of flittering dragonflies, fluttering butterflies, and buzzing bees over landscapes of green rolling hills and fields of fragrant flowers. All of this and more is brought to life in All Things Bright and Beautiful by Cecil Frances Alexander, through the awe-inspiring illustrations of Anna Vojtech.

Any parent wanting to share God's daily gifts with their child can do so through the verse and illustrations of the book. From infant to toddler and even preschool through grade school, children will remain captivated with the wonderment this book inspires.

All Things Bright and Beautiful is a wonderful addition to any collection of books because of the little time it takes to read, but mostly because the effect on your child's senses will last a lifetime.

Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire

2009-07-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire
by Rafe Esquith
Published by Penguin Books; January 2008;$14.00US/$16.50CAN; 978-0-14-311286-0
Reprinted by arrangement with Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire Copyright © Rafe Esquith, 2007

Replace Fear with Trust

On the first day of school, within the first two minutes, I discuss this issue with the children. While most classrooms are based on fear, our classroom is based on trust. The children hear the words and like them, but they are only words. It is deeds that will help the children see that I not only talk the talk but walk the walk.

I use the following example with the students on their first day. Most of us have participated in the trust exercise in which one person falls back and is caught by a peer. Even if the catch is made a hundred times in a row, the trust is broken forever if the friend lets you fall the next time as a joke. Even if he swears he is sorry and will never let you fall again, you can never fall
back without a seed of doubt. My students learn the first day that a broken trust is irreparable. Everything else can be fixed. Miss your homework assignment? Just tell me, accept the fact that you messed up, and we move on. Did you break something? It happens; we can take care of it. But break my trust and the rules change. Our relationship will be okay, but it will never, ever be what it once was. Of course kids do break trust, and they should be given an opportunity to earn it back. But it takes a long time. The kids are proud of the trust I give them, and they do not want to lose it. They rarely do, and I make sure on a daily basis that I deserve the trust I ask of them.

I answer all questions. It does not matter if I have been asked them before. It does not matter if I am tired. The kids must see that I passionately want them to understand, and it never bothers me when they don’t. During an interview, a student named Alan once told a reporter, “Last year, I tried to ask my teacher a question. She became angry and said, ‘We’ve been over this. You weren’t listening!’ But I was listening! I just didn’t get it! Rafe will go over something five hundred times until I understand.”

We parents and teachers get mad at our kids all the time, and often for good reason. Yet we should never become frustrated when a student doesn’t understand something. Our positive and patient response to questions builds an immediate and lasting trust that transcends fear.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rafe Esquith has been a classroom teacher for over twenty-five years with the majority of that time spent at Hobart Elementary in Los Angeles. He is the only teacher to be awarded the president’s National Medal of the Arts. His many other honors include the American Teacher Award, Parents magazine’s As You Grow Award, Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award TM, being made a Member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth, and the Compassion in Action Award from the Dalai Lama. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Barbara.

Fore more information, please visit www.hobartshakespeareans.org.

The Sneaky Chef

2009-07-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

Most moms will tell you that at some point, their child is a picky or finicky eater. There are only so many meals of mac and cheese, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets you can manage before you start looking for help. You want your child to eat more nutritional foods, but when they snub everything except what they've decided to eat, it makes it nearly impossible! The The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Lapine has the perfect solution for any mom looking for a way to get their picky eaters to include more nutritional foods in their diet.

In addition to being a recipe book filled with kid-friendly foods that they love, The Sneaky Chef explains how issues of control are what empowers the picky eater. Children don't have to eat poorly. They can enjoy nutritional and tasty food, which will help them fend off the childhood obesity monster that is creeping its way into the American household. Lapine gives many examples and reasons for "sneaking" the good stuff into their favorites, while making it easy for mom.

The book is arranged in a fashion that is easy to read and easy to reference. It includes lists of foods that kids believe to be the good, the bad and the ugly. More lists include staples to buy, important foods to buy organic if possible, the most contaminated foods, and the tools you need to make your sneaking work best. Plus, in Chapter Five, you will read all about "The Sneaky Chef's Bag of Tricks," where you will learn to be the queen of sneaking nutritional foods into their favorites. Tricks include methods to combine foods (the sneaky way, of course), the health benefits of those tricks, and even how to make the food visually appealing for children so they dive right into their meal! There are thirteen total methods used to make your child's favorites into something healthier! It's a win-win situation!

The second half of the book covers actual recipes you can use for breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, treats and drinks. These are things that kids already love, but prepared in a way that makes you feel better about what they are putting into their mouths. Imagine your children eating things like peanut butter cookies, burgers, fries, pizza, pasta, chicken, meatloaf and even cheese dip without cringing from the lack of nutrition making it past their lips! The recipes are easy to follow, aren't full of ingredients you've never heard of (or rarely use), have nutritional highlights and many have variations you can use to tweak to your liking.

Not only is this clever book a good educational reference, but it's a must have for every mom on the block. Please your children (and their palate) while giving them vitamins, vegetables, protein, fiber... and the list goes on! The Sneaky Chef is a book that lives up to its name, and then some!

On Becoming Fearless... In Love, Work and Life (Review)

2009-07-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

All women have fears. Whether it is the fear of loss, fear of growing older, fear of being poor, fear of being alone or even the fear of being overweight, fears come in every shape, fashion and form. Learning to overcome fear and facing fearlessness isn't a task easily taken. However, with the guidance of a fearless woman, fearlessness is just over the horizon. Arianna Huffington's latest book On Becoming Fearless … In Love, Work and Life is the hand reaching into the darkness to pull us away from our fears and towards a brighter future.

Over the course of the book, we are introduced to many different women, their fears and their fearlessness, including scholars, celebrities and the mom next door. The reader is intimately drawn in to the inner thoughts of fear and fearlessness these women behold. We see that over the last century, many women have crossed the paths of greatness and left a legacy we all can admire and even replicate for ourselves. But there's also the truth that sometimes, even our own fearlessness can be tested.

In the chapter entitled "Fearless in Parenting," we see how mythical the "supermom" really is, and how becoming a fearless parent means more than being everything to everyone (because as a mom, isn't that what we do?). Becoming a fearless parent is about being the best we can be, "and forgive yourself when you are not." Arianna directs the reader into the realization that being a fearless mom is to throw away the notion of perfection and to "embrace uncertainty and imperfection." No doubt about it, these are things Arianna's own mom taught her and is why she is so enlightened on the subject. If one mom can teach this to her own daughter, then it certainly can be taught from one mom to another mom.

Arianna exposes her inner thoughts and shares her own fears of the past. Her undying adoration and respect for her mother plays an essential role in her life as much as it does in On Becoming Fearless. Undeniably, Arianna's mother possessed a fearlessness not easily found in today's world. It's the legacy of her mom and the goal to live up to that legacy that makes Arianna the fearless woman she writes about becoming. From standing up to German Soldiers before she ever became a mother, to making the most out of every day and not letting a bump in the road slow her down, her mother was the epitome of fearlessness in Arianna's eyes.

On Becoming Fearless addresses more than just being a fearless mother, but also being fearless about the body, fearless in love, fearless at work, fearless about money, aging, illness, God and death, about leadership and speaking out, fearless about changing the world and ultimately living the fearless life. Every aspect of being a woman in today's society is covered, and antidotes to these fears are prescribed. Are you in fear of a dead end? There are no dead ends, only "U-Turns." Are you afraid of what money you don't have or are governed by? Put it into perspective and "stop making it more important than it is." Do you fear that the dream you are living is going to come crashing to an end? Well, at least you are living that dream. The list goes on, and Arianna makes it as easy as 1, 2, 3. On Becoming Fearless is more than a suggestion; it is the woman's instruction manual for living a happier, more fulfilling life. A life we all deserve.

If you are in need of a pep-talk, encouragement, or simply need a catalyst to keep you moving in the right direction, On Becoming Fearless … In Love, Work and Life is the weekend reading best fit for you, your mom, your friends and co-workers. Every woman will benefit from the positive, uplifting affirmations delivered in this book, and the words and quotes of so many great and ambitious women of our and our mother's generation set the tone for the ultimate goal - because all women can become fearless.

On Becoming Fearless... In Love, Work and Life (Excerpt)

2009-07-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from On Becoming Fearless
by Arianna Huffington
Published by Little, Brown and Company; April 2007;$12.99US/$16.50CAN; 978-0-316-16682-9
Copyright © 2007 Arianna Huffington

On Becoming a Fearless Mother

Motherhood brings out reserves of courage we never knew we had. Huffington Post commenter Deborah Daniels Wood writes: "Being a mom is probably the one thing that will make most women fearless. We would gladly step in front of a speeding train, a bullet, a raging mad dog, whatever it was that was threatening our children."

That's how I got through Isabella's eating issues. What helped me at the time, and has always helped me in dealing with my fears, is that I have to be fearless for them, because there is nothing that strikes fear in a child's heart faster than a fearful parent. Knowing that you have to at least appear fearless for your children -- to convey the assurance that everything is going to be all right -- can have the effect of actually making you fearless.

Huffington Post reader Lia Hadley sent me an e-mail about a trip she took to London with her then nine-year-old daughter: "When we arrived at the airport, it was late in the evening, and we had to take a long train ride into the center of the city. As we were waiting for the train (with not another child in sight), my daughter began to cry because it was all so strange, there were so many people, and it was dark and way past her bedtime. Trying to show her that she didn't have to worry because, hey, she was with her mom and a world traveler to boot, we had a discussion, which at least calmed her to the point that she stopped crying. By the end of the journey (five days later), she had had such a good time that she said she wanted to move to London when she grew up."

Some time later, Lia asked her daughter what had changed the London adventure from being scary to being fun. "I think," she said, "it was because I realized that despite the fact that you got lost all the time, we always managed to get to where we wanted to go. You would ask all sorts of strangers for directions, and the people were so friendly and so helpful, and we had such interesting conversations, that I realized being lost can be a lot of fun."

When I look back at my own childhood, my mother looms large as a teacher of fearlessness. Some of the ways she taught fearlessness to my sister and me were more eccentric than others.

One night when my sister and I were in our teens, we were on our way to see Chekhov's Three Sisters. We walked out of the house, closing the door behind us. My mother immediately realized that she'd forgotten her purse inside -- the purse containing not only the tickets to the show and her money but the key to the house. Any normal person would probably have rearranged the night's priorities, canceling the theater and getting a locksmith to open the door.

Not my mother. She didn't blink an eye. She went to the superintendent's apartment, knocked on the door, and asked him for some cash. We all climbed into a taxi, and when we arrived at the theater, she went up to the box office and explained what had happened.

They had us wait until everyone had been seated, and then they gave us three empty seats. My sister, Agapi, and I kept asking how we were going to get back into the house, to which my mother would say, "Don't think about it, just enjoy the play [which we did, by the way], and it will all work out."

It so happened that our apartment in Athens was on the third floor, opposite the fire station. My mother had a plan. When we got home, she went over to the firehouse and, in her charming way, asked the firemen if they could please bring a ladder over to a window of our apartment. Which they did. In short order, the window was open and we were in the house. Of course, my mother then served them soup, and we all had a great time!

I remember that night whenever I'm faced with canceled flights, lost wallets, and plans gone awry. My mother was a master at not ever panicking and trusting life to always give her solutions. She preferred to live in the moment -- even if that moment was one in which she was not in possession of the keys to her apartment -- with the assurance that it would all work out. The ability to trust is an amazing quality, and it was deep in her DNA. That trust and lack of fear paid her back well, keeping her open and receptive to solutions.

For Diane von Furstenberg, the most powerful lessons in fearlessness also came from her mother. Diane took the fashion industry by storm in the seventies when she designed a little wrap dress that launched a billion-dollar business. Thirty years and many ventures later, she still credits her mother. "My mother," she told me, "always said that fear is not an option. When I was eight years old she put me on a train from Brussels to Paris on my own. I was very afraid, but I was also proud to arrive safely at my destination. My mother was a Holocaust survivor, and when she was freed from the concentration camp by the Russians in 1945, she weighed forty-nine pounds. It took me a very long time to realize the enormity of what she had been through and of my heritage -- and the way she had been able to turn such pain into something positive. I grew up with a legacy that life is a miracle and that I'm the daughter of a survivor, not a victim. So when I'm in pain or in fear, I look through it for the light and the fearlessness."

When there are dead ends there are also U-turns, and if we don't panic, bridges can appear -- we just need to trust that there is a way. And there is always a way. That knowledge is a gift of fearlessness we can model for our kids.

Not All Fears are Created Equal

If courage is the knowledge of what is not to be feared, there is nothing like becoming a mother to help us prioritize and recognize how trivial many of our fears are compared to what really matters.

Janet Grillo, a writer-producer living in Los Angeles whose son has autism, told me: "The biggest fear a mother has is that her child will become damaged. That the perfect wonder of her baby will be undone somehow. That she will turn her head just at the moment he slips. That the spill of scalding coffee, the outturned handle of a pot, the stray pill, will find her child. I don't know if the vaccines I insisted upon, as a responsible parent following responsible medical advice, caused him harm. Or if the antibiotics prescribed to fight off strep did him in. Or if the toxins in the air and water that pervade everything we eat and breathe crescendoed, after generations, to a breaking point. Or if it was none of this, but maybe my son's genetic destiny, a ticking clock that would strike when he turned two no matter what I did or did not do. Or perhaps my fear itself called it forth, as some sort of extraordinary response from an unkind God.

"What I do know is that when my alert, engaged, charming, and vivacious son turned two, he began, hour by hour, day by day, to drift away. As if by helium, he lifted away from us, from our family, from our world, and inward toward a remote and private place."

It was the hardest and most frightening thing Janet and her husband, film director David O. Russell, had ever faced. But, Janet told me, "Ultimately, faith and fear could not coexist. One had to eventually prevail out of this eternal pull. I simply did not have the luxury to feel fear. Fear had become, in the face of my child's immediate need, an indulgence. He was here and autism was engulfing him, and I could either reach beyond myself and into the fog that gripped him and pull him out or I could continue fearing that I would lose him. Fear had to fall by the wayside. And faith is what emerged in the tiny triumphs of his returned gaze."

Children clearly help us tap into this faith, the source of the life force that vaporizes fears. They help us see the world in a more trusting way and discover a love we did not know was possible.

Author Arianna Huffington has written eleven widely praised books, appeared on numerous television and radio shows, and founded the Huffington Post, an enormously successful online source of news and opinion. In 2006 she was chosen as one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World." She wrote this book for her two daughters, in the hope that they will lead fearless lives.

Used with permission from the publisher.

Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog

2009-07-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog
by Ted Kerasote
Published by Harcourt, Inc.
July 2007;$25.00US; 978-0-15-101270-1
Copyright © 2007 Ted Kerasote

Chapter 1

From the Wild

He came out of the night, appearing suddenly in my headlights, a big, golden dog, panting, his front paws tapping the ground in an anxious little dance. Behind him, tall cottonwoods in their April bloom. Behind the grove, the San Juan River, moving quickly, dark and swollen with spring melt.

It was nearly midnight, and we were looking for a place to throw down our sleeping bags before starting our river trip in the morning. Next to me in the cab of the pickup sat Benj Sinclair, at his feet a midden of road-food wrappers smeared with the scent of corn dogs, onion rings, and burritos. Round-cheeked, Buddha-bellied, thirty-nine years old, Benj had spent his early years in the Peace Corps, in West Africa, and had developed a stomach that could digest anything. Behind him in the jump seat was Kim Reynolds, an Outward Bound instructor from Colorado known for her grace in a kayak and her long braid of brunette hair, which held the faint odor of a healthy, thirty-two-year-old woman who had sweated in the desert and hadn’t used deodorant. Like Benj and me, she had eaten a dinner of pizza in Moab, Utah, a hundred miles up the road where we’d met her. Like us, she gave off the scents of garlic, onions, tomato sauce, basil, oregano, and anchovies.

In the car that pulled up next to us were Pam Weiss and Bennett Austin. They had driven from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to Moab in their own car, helped us rig the raft and shop for supplies, joined us for pizza, and, like us, wore neither perfume nor cologne. Pam was thirty-six, an Olympic ski racer, and Bennett, twenty-five, was trying to keep up with her. They had recently fallen in love and exuded a mixture of endorphins and pheromones.

People almost never describe other people in these terms -- noting first their smells -- for we’re primarily visual creatures and rely on our eyes for information. By contrast, the only really important sense-key for the big, golden dog, doing his little dance in the headlights, was our olfactory signatures, wafting to him as we opened the doors.

It was for this reason -- smell -- that I think he trotted directly to my door, leaned his head forward cautiously, and sniffed at my bare thigh. What mix of aromas went up his long snout at that very first moment of our meeting? What atavistic memories, what possibilities were triggered in his canine worldview as he untangled the mysteries of my sweat?

The big dog -- now appearing reddish in the interior light of the truck and without a collar -- took another reflective breath and studied me with excited consideration. Might it have been what I ate, and the subtle residue it left in my pores, that made him so interested in me? It was the only thing I could see (note my human use of “see” even while describing an olfactory
phenomenon) that differentiated me from my friends. Like them, I skied, biked, and climbed, and was single. I had just turned forty-one, a compact man with chestnut hair and bright brown eyes. But when I ate meat, it was that of wild animals, not domestic ones -- mostly elk and antelope along with the occasional grouse, duck, goose, and trout mixed in.

Was it their metabolized essence that intrigued him -- some whiff of what our Paleolithic ancestors had shared? Smell is our oldest sense. It was the olfactory tissue at the top of our primeval nerve cords that evolved into our cerebral hemispheres, where thought is lodged. Perhaps the dog -- a being who lived by his nose -- knew a lot more about our connection than I could possibly imagine.

His deep brown eyes looked at me with luminous appreciation and said, “You need a dog, and I’m it.”

Unsettled by his uncanny read of me -- I had been looking for a dog for over a year -- I gave him a cordial pat and replied, “Good dog.”

His tail beat steadily, and he didn’t move, his eyes still saying, “You need a dog.”

As we got out of the cars and began to unpack our gear, I lost track of him. There was his head, now a tail, there a rufous flank moving among bare legs and sandals.

I threw my pad and bag down on the sand under a cottonwood, slipped into its silky warmth, turned over, and found him digging a nest by my side. Industriously, he scooped out the sand with his front paws, casting it between his hind legs before turning, turning, turning, and settling to face me. In the starlight, I could see one brow go up, the other down.

Of course, “brows” isn’t really the correct term, since dogs sweat only through their paws and have no need of brows to keep perspiration out of their eyes, as we do. Yet, certain breeds of dogs have darker hair over their eyes, what might be called “brow markings,” and he had them.

The Hidatsa, a Native American tribe of the northern Great Plains, believe that these sorts of dogs, whom they call “Four-Eyes,” are especially gentle and have magical powers. Stanley Coren, the astute canine psychologist from the University of British Columbia, has also noted that these “four-eyed” dogs obtained their reputation for psychic powers “because their expressions were easier to read than those of other dogs. The contrasting-colored spots make the movements of the muscles over the eye much more visible.”

In the starlight, the dog lying next to me raised one brow while lowering the other, implying curiosity mixed with concern over whether I’d let him stay.

“Night,” I said, giving him a pat. Then I closed my eyes.

When I opened them in the morning, he was still curled in his nest, looking directly at me.

“Hey,” I said.

Up went one brow, down went the other.

“I am yours,” his eyes said.

I let out a breath, unprepared for how his sweet, faintly hound-dog face -- going from happiness to concern -- left a cut under my heart. I had been looking at litters of Samoyeds, balls of white fur with bright black mischievous eyes. The perfect breed for a winter person like myself, I thought. But I couldn’t quite make myself bring one home. I had also seriously considered Labrador Retrievers, taken by their exuberant personalities and knowing that such a robust, energetic dog could easily share my life in the outdoors as well as be the bird dog I believed I wanted. But no Lab pup had given me that undeniable heart tug that said, “We are a team.”

The right brow of the dog lying by me went down as he held my eye. His left brow went up, implying, “You delayed with good reason.”

“Maybe,” I said, feeling my desire for a pedigree dog giving way. “Maybe,” I said once more to the dog whose eyes coasted across mine, returned, and lingered. He did have the looks of a reddish yellow Lab, I thought, at least from certain angles.

At the sound of my voice, he levered his head under my arm and brought his nose close to mine. Surprisingly, he didn’t try to lick me in that effusive gesture that many dogs use with someone they perceive as dominant to them, whether it be a person or another dog -- a relic, some believe, of young wolves soliciting food from their parents and other adult wolves. The adults, not having hands to carry provisions, bring back meat in their stomachs. The pups lick their mouths, and the adults regurgitate the partly digested meat. Pups who eventually become alphas abandon subordinate licking. Lower-ranking wolves continue to display the behavior to higher-ranking wolves, as do a great many domestic dogs to people. This dog’s self-possession gave me pause. Was he not licking me because he considered us peers? Or did my body language -- both of us being at the same level -- allow him to feel somewhat of an equal? He circumspectly smelled my breath, and I, in turn, smelled his. His smelled sweet.

Whatever he smelled on mine, he liked it. “I am yours,” his eyes said again.

Disconcerted by his certainty about me, I got up and moved off. I didn’t want to abandon my plans for finding a pup who was only six to eight weeks old and whom I could shape to my liking. The dog read my energy and didn’t follow me. Instead, he went to the others, greeting them with a wagging tail and wide laughs of his toothy mouth. “Good morning, good morning, did you sleep well?” he seemed to be saying.

But as I organized my gear, I couldn’t keep my eyes from him. Despite his ribs showing, he appeared fit and strong, and looked like he had been living outside for quite a while, his hair matted with sprigs of grass and twigs. He was maybe fifty-five pounds, not filled out yet, his fox-colored fur hanging in loose folds, waiting for the adult dog that would be. He had a ridge of darker fur along his spine, short golden plumes on the backs of his legs, and a tuxedo-like bib of raised fur on his chest -- just an outline of it -- scattered with white flecks. His ears were soft and flannel-like, and hung slightly below the point of his jaw. His nose was lustrous black, he had equally shiny lips, and his teeth gleamed. His tail was large and powerful.

Copyright © 2007 Ted Kerasote

History Lesson for Girls

2009-07-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from History Lesson for Girls
By Aurelie Sheehan
Published by Penguin; June 2007;$14.00US/$17.50CAN; 978-0-14-311190-0
Copyright © 2006 Aurelie Sheehan

Chapter One

One Day I saw them, our dream horses, and on that day I pulled over to the side of the road and cried. There they were, Appaloosas and roans and bays, and I thought I saw, squinting into the last bit of sunlight, a gray. All the horses moved together, a makeshift herd -- maybe they'd heard my car, or maybe it was a chill, the first winter breeze, almost imperceptible on a summer day. So many years later and now here they were in front of me. The horses trembled, shifted, and then became calm and separated out again, twelve or twenty of them, more than enough for the Alison and Kate Horse Training Company.

She saved me. That's the first thing you should know about Kate. It was the year we moved to Weston, the year my parents went haywire, the year my back started curving out of control as if it were the life of the party. She was five feet seven and had long brown hair bleached by the sun, and her father was an Egyptian emperor. Was he for real? Real enough for a small suburban dynasty. Real enough to pass on a legacy.

I think of Kate all the time. I think of her like I've got this little silver Egyptian cat in my pocket, a little silver talisman that won't go away. I think of her, and then I think of him, too, Tut Hamilton, sham shaman in suburbia. I can't forget him, any more than I can forget her.

The thing is, she saved me that year, and then it was my turn. That's what friendship is. That's how to make history.

I was thirteen when my parents and I moved to the fancy town of Weston from maligned and honorable Norwalk, two towns over. We were ready for anything, ready for the good things to start happening, and the first thing that went wrong was the blue room.

Mom wanted her studio to be blue, despite the fact that most painters prefer a room absent of color, a blank wall, a clean palette. She'd had a vision, you see, a dream of a blue room.

My father offered to paint the room for her, but she would choose the color, of course. She and I went to the paint store together.

"These men -- they're painting the world, creating color wheels, color contrasts, color inspirations -- without any real conception, no awareness at all, of what they're doing. They could be artists -- but no, no -- instead of using these glorious choices -- all the glory, all the opportunity, Alison -- they just sit around drinking coffee out of a thermos and painting houses
tan, tan, and tan again. How dreary . . . "

She continued talking as we got out of our Corolla (it also happened to be tan) and walked the short distance from the parking lot to the shopping center. I did hope she'd stop, or at least lower her voice, before we got to the store. She had a way of causing a commotion, despite her size. She was a tiny, fragile person, swathed in scarves and perfumes and charms.

Men of uncertain age and weight looked our way as we came in: Scheherazade and the too tall, too bony, too elbowy stalk, in a back brace, beside her.

My mother breezed by their troubling, huntery expressions, and we settled in before the paint chips. I'd just turned thirteen, my back was curved, and my parents were curved, too -- bohemians in Connecticut, the Land of Plenty. Either all the colors looked good to me or none of them did. Somehow it seemed that this, like everything else, could go either way.

Mom, however, was confident. She hummed with satisfaction, picking out various small, hopeful cards from the rack, cocking her head, pursing her lips -- rejecting one, then the other, until she came to her blue.

Today they've gotten hold of Weston and thrown up these monstrous vault homes, decorated with pillars and neo-this-and-that architectural details, but in 1975 the lovely colonials were what stood out, the historic touch. Some even had plaques near the doorways saying things like Paul Revere Slept Here in 1782 or In 1801, Here Stood Weston's First Mill. The split-levels such as ours, built in the aesthetically challenged sixties, were scattered like tawdry cousins among these statelier, storied homes. Still, moving to 12 Ramble Lane was a big step up for us, and my parents had attached hopes to the house, obvious as the taped-up notes left behind by the house's former owners ("Use 5-watt bulb MAX!" "Filter hose needs to be checked 2X year!"). Mom had torn down their notes impatiently the first day we moved in, replacing them with a sign of her own. Purple felt with silver letters, it hung on the door of her soon-to-be-blue room, her first real studio: "Artist at Work." She could turn it to face in or out, indicating whether she was "open" or "closed" -- a novel idea in a mother. Dad's office was in the basement (he had another at the university), but most of all he seemed keen on a certain green hillock in the backyard, where he could sit cross-legged and rumble with a middle-aged Om.

We were all dressed up now, decked out in zesty Marimekko. And although the first two weeks in Weston passed in a kind of misty, glorious disappointment, most of all we felt lucky to be there, in a town of lilacs and curving roads and studio doors that shut and hillocks and a barn.

Dad stood on the ladder. He'd painted all the edges first, near the ceiling and floors and windows and corners, and then he'd taken out the roller and started in on wide swaths of Prussian Wildflower.

"A bit dark, isn't it?"

"Well, it's what your mother wants. It'll lighten up as it dries, too, Allie Oop."

This cheerfulness was disconcerting. He'd been duped into thinking he could please my mother.

"It looks different from the little card."

"Goddammit," Dad said. A slop of paint had fallen to the floor.

The fact of the matter is, both my parents were fish out of water in Weston. Mom with her dreams of being a painter and Dad with his day job and his poetry books, including the award-winning one, all lined up on the mantel. They were attempting to piece together a life with art at its center and also (not that I was fully aware of this at the time) making choices based on what might be good for me, their daughter. Art geeks, adversaries, people who drove old cars: They weren't part of the PTA crowd, and they weren't swingers, either. Mainly they were simply my parents, and it was extraordinarily embarrassing, but seemed pretty natural, that they were so weird.

"Look, you can't tell anything from the card," he said. "Take a rag to that spot, would you, please?"

"Why do they have the cards, then?"

"To beguile the willing, Alison."

"Why would they do that? They would never do that."

"You don't think so? Think about the visceral and dark depths of the workingman's resentment, darling, and you might have another idea."

The son of Irish immigrants and bardic descendant of many a workingman, my father looked like he was a half second away from falling off the rickety old ladder -- either him or the tray of Prussian Wildflower.

"Do we have any more 7-Up?"

Dad concentrated on his next swab of the roller. His somewhat long and unkempt beard, a poet's beard, bobbed precariously close to the wall.

"Dad?"

He grunted. He smoothed the roller down, then over, making a reverse blue cloud in a white sky. "Try the garage."

Aurelie Sheehan is the author of the short story collection Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant and the novel The Anxiety of Everyday Objects. The director of the creative writing program at the University of Arizona, she has received a Pushcart Prize, a Camargo Fellowship, and the Jack Kerouac Literary Award. She lives in Tucson with her husband and daughter. For more information, please visit www.aureliesheehan.com

The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the REAL Truth About Becoming a Mom. Finally.

2009-07-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

The excerpt below is from The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the REAL Truth About Becoming a Mom. Finally.
by Vicki Glembocki

Book Description from Amazon.com: In the spirit of Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions, a reality check for new moms. I want to walk out of Target and leave Blair there, wailing.... Nice people work at Target. Surely someone would take her home and care for her and buy her pretty things. So begins Vicki Glembocki's brutally honest yet hilarious memoir of her agonizing transition into motherhood. Why agonizing? Because no one told her how tough it would be. Finally, Glembocki lays out the truth about those first months with baby: the certainty that you're doing everything wrong; the desire to kill your husband, your mother, your dog; the struggle to balance who you were with whom you've become--a mother. Unlike any other book on motherhood, Glembocki breaks the New Mother Code of Silence, proving that "maternal bliss" is not innate, but learned. Funny and wise, she connects with new moms on a shockingly intimate level, letting them know that they are not alone.

Excerpt From The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the REAL Truth About Becoming a Mom. Finally.
by Vicki Glembocki

Two weeks later, I push the stroller down a street I've never been on before. This is the first walk the baby and I are taking together. There is probably a line in the baby book my mother gave me, the one that's still in its plastic box in one of the many piles on our dining room table, where I'm supposed to document this moment-First Walk In Stroller. Taking this walk is supposed to be relaxing. The Girlfriend's Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood said so-"Get out and get fresh air…it does wonders for your spirit." My spirit is supposed to be inhaling the warm, late-March air, feeling invigorated while I maternally point out the many things the baby is seeing for the first time. The buds on the maple trees. The trail from an airplane. The tabby cat sunning itself on the back stoop of the white house we just passed. But I am not. Because the baby is crying.

I push faster.

She keeps crying.

I hum The Alphabet Song.

She keeps crying.

I shift the angle of the canopy, in case the sun's shining in her eyes.

She keeps crying.

I reach down the back of her neck, under the cotton blanket she's swaddled in, under her lavender one-piece body suit with the yellow butterfly on it so I can finger the tag, in case there's a plastic, price-tag holder sticking out of it. Or an open safety pin. Or a pickax. There's nothing.

She keeps crying.

No matter what I do, she keeps crying.

What I should do is turn the stroller around. I should not be in public. I should go home. But I can't go home. Because, a block away, there is a Laundromat, and in that Laundromat are the quilt from our bed and the afghan from our couch, tumbling in an industrial dryer, a task that was on my "List of Things To Do Before The Baby Comes" because the quilt and afghan-too large for our washer and dryer-had fused with zillions of sharp, blonde, burrowing dog hairs, discarded by Levi, our 80-pound Lab, hairs that I was certain would break free, lodge in the baby's throat, and choke her. I need to finish this job. I have two hours between each nursing so there's time to finish this job. I feel along the sides of the baby's swaddle to make sure her fingers aren't bent the wrong way. I tuck the blanket under her feet, in case her feet are cold.

She keeps crying.

What am I doing wrong?

I pull out my cell phone and dial Thad's office line.

"I can't do this," I say, before he even says "hello."

"What happened?" he asks. I hear the wheels on his office chair roll across the floor and his door close. I tell him about the afghan and the Laundromat and the crying. About how I can't stop the crying.

"Is she hungry?"

"No."

"Is she wet?"

"No."

"Maybe you just tried to do too much, sweetie. Maybe you should just go home," he says in his new mellow tone, the one he's been using in the middle of the night for the past two weeks, every time I nudge him awake and declare that I'm certain the baby is dead.

"She's not dead," he always says, calm and patient, just like he was when I woke him up with the same worry roughly 13 seconds before.

"How do you know that?" I always ask.

"I know."

"How do you know?" And Thad flips the covers onto me, staggers over to the Pack 'n Play at the foot of our bed, and leans over so his cheek is next to Blair's tiny mouth, waiting until he feels a few bursts of warm air.

"She's not dead," he whispers, climbing back into bed. I always lie there for a few seconds. Then I get up and check myself, resting my hand lightly on Blair's chest, swaddled so tight I wonder if the receiving blanket is the only thing holding her fragile body together, until I feel it rise, up and down, up and down.

Now, though, in the light of day, his soothing "everything's okay" tenor makes me clamp my teeth together, as if he didn't just suggest I go home, but instead told me to do the very opposite, to suck it up, to finish the damn bedspreads and then make a meatloaf.

You can purchase The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the REAL Truth About Becoming a Mom. Finally. at Amazon.com!

The Coming China Wars

2009-07-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

The excerpt below is from the book The Coming China Wars
by Peter Navarro
Published by FT Press; May 2008;$15.99US/$17.99CAN; 978-0-13-235982-5
Copyright © 2008 Peter Navarro

Author Bio: Peter Navarro, a business professor at the University of California-Irvine, is the author of the best- selling investment book If It's Raining in Brazil, Buy Starbucks and the path-breaking management book, The Well-Timed Strategy. Professor Navarro is a widely sought after and gifted public speaker and a regular CNBC contributor. Prior to joining CNBC, he appeared frequently on Bloomberg TV, CNN, and NPR, as well as on all three major network news shows. He has testified before Congress and the U.S.-China Commission and his work has appeared in publications ranging from Business Week, the L.A. Times, and New York Times to the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Harvard Business Review.
http://www.peternavarro.com/
http://www.comingchinawars.com/

Assassins in Toyland
by Peter Navarro

Apparently when you tickle Elmo he's not laughing, he's having a seizure. --Jay Leno

In an attempt to assure the world's children that millions of Chinese-made toys currently being recalled for containing toxic lead paint and tiny choking hazards can no longer hurt them, high-level Chinese officials announced Tuesday that millions of playthings are being rounded up and immediately put to death . . . According to the Xinhua News Agency, in the past three days alone, factory owners roused an estimated 365,000 Barbie dolls from their dream homes in a violent series of raids. During these raids, the Barbies were separated from their Kens, stripped naked, and had their heads shaved. They were then taken to an undisclosed area, leaned against the wall and shot by a firing squad as toy soldiers were forced to watch. --The Onion

These satirical treatments of China's toy recall crisis from America's top banana, Jay Leno, and parody newspaper, The Onion, provide at least some comic relief from a situation that has been extremely troubling, particularly to parents with young children. Although most people are already well aware of many of the details of this crisis, it is worth at least briefly recapping the extent to which America's toys have been turned into instruments of death by unscrupulous
Chinese manufacturers. Here's just a brief scorecard of the kinds of toys that have been recalled from the shelves by the likes of Toys "R" Us, Target, and Wal-Mart:

• 3.8 million Magnetix magnetic building sets that can kill by perforating the intestines if the magnets are swallowed

• 1.5 million Fisher-Price lead-contaminated toys, including popular Sesame Street characters such as Giggle Grabber Soccer Elmo, Chef Dora, Rev & Go Cookie Monster, Ernie and Bert, and Oscar the Grouch

• 1.5 million Thomas & Friends lead-painted wooden trains, and 1 million Hasbro "Easy-Bake" ovens that can trap children's fingers in the Oven and burn them

• 253,000 of Mattel's die-cast cars modeled after "Sarge" in the cartoon movie Cars, and 90,000 units of Mattel's GeoTrax locomotive line

• 31,000 "Skippy" plastic fish that can break and slash a child's hands, and 15,000 Laugh and Learn Kitchen Toys posing a choking hazard

For concerned parents and grandparents shopping for toys, it is critical to point out that whereas well-known brand companies such as Mattel and Toys "R" Us have had their fair share of had headlines, the bigger problem is often with those ultra-cheap, "no brand" toys that wind up at deep-discount stores. It is precisely in stores such as these that a variety of Halloween toys have been found to represent far more tricks than treats. Here's just a small sampling:

• 142,000 purple witch buckets, 63,000 green Frankenstein cups, and 55,000 candy-filled skull pails posing a lead hazard

• 120,000 "Creepy Cape" costumes capable of bursting into flames, and 97,000 Mr. Potato Head "Make a Monster Pumpkin" sets deemed a choking hazard

It is precisely these kinds of statistics that raise this overarching question: How can China's toymakers turn something as innocent and pure as children's toys into a profanity of poisons and choking hazards?

Baby Signing 1-2-3

2009-07-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

When my son was born, I knew nothing about baby signing. The older he got, the more I started seeing topics on the internet about the benefits of baby signing. As mothers, we want our children to be the smartest, most intelligent child on the block. However, I thought I had cheated him out of this language skill because I didn't start him as soon as I could have. Then I was introduced to Baby Signing 1-2-3 by Nancy Cadjan, and to my surprise, it really doesn't matter when you begin baby signing because children of all ages will benefit from the use of ASL (American Sign Language).

Baby Signing 1-2-3 is arranged in a very comprehensive way. The first part of the book addresses your child's developmental stages and the appropriate signing that can be used during that time. For those with children who develop at a slower pace either mentally or physically, an entire chapter is designed on how to modify the signing used during that child's individual development. The actual signs used during the developmental stages are contained in the second half of the book, and those same words are bolded in the text in the chapters from the first half of the book. This design makes it incredibly easy to reference the stage you are in with your child.

Since my son is four now, the stages of development aren't the most important parts of the book for our situation, but he can still learn signs in the order in which he would have if I had introduced ASL to him as an infant. Much like our children's own speech development and their capacity to understand, learning the signs he would have learned from stage one still applies. Words like mommy, daddy, milk and more are great starters even for the older child. The best thing is we can learn more signs at a quicker pace now that he is older.

Baby Signing 1-2-3 has been a great tool for my both my son and myself, and we've both enjoyed sitting down and learning signs together. He actually picks up the book and asks for me to help him learn. The added benefit is that once our next child is born, both my older son and I will be able to help baby learn ASL at a much younger age with the great help of Baby Signing 1-2-3. I highly recommend Baby Signing 1-2-3 for any individuals who are new to ASL and want to teach themselves and their children this life long, beneficial communication tool.

Emotionally Healthy Twins

2009-07-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

Mom to twins? Me too! Well, at least in utero. I still have some time before my twins are born, and I am already hearing phrases that make my ears ring in pain. It's amazing how the moment you become pregnant with more than one child, others seem to lose a sense of couth (if they ever had it to begin with) and say things like "better you than me," "are they natural?" or "double the trouble." The list goes on, and if you are a mom to twins, it is certain you've heard even more offensive or hurtful words. It all goes back to the stigma attached to twins. The stigma of always being a twin, being compared to someone else, having to always share the spotlight with a sibling that just happened to be born on the same day. I suppose if you aren't a twin yourself, you may not think about these things until you become a mom to twins. To go even further, parenting and raising twins to not feel that stigma could be the challenge of a lifetime.

Goodbye stigma; hello to Joan A. Friedman, Ph.D. Friedman is a twin, is a mother to twins, and is author of an amazingly insightful book, Emotionally Healthy Twins: A New Philosophy for Parenting Two Unique Children. This book covers parenting from pregnancy into adulthood, and couldn't have come at a better time for me!

Over the past year I've listened to my best friend talk about her twins. From their birth she's made a conscious decision to never compare the two - but it's easier said than done. It just seems to happen naturally. However, her goal falls in line with the first chapter in Friedman's book, being a mom to two unique children, identified by their own individual likes, dislikes and personalities. Two children not identified as "the quiet one" or the "more active one." These kinds of comparisons begin in utero and can follow each child into adulthood. Combating the comparisons is immediately addressed in Friedman's book. Even though the world around us glorifies twins by making them seem more intriguing or appealing (think Double Mint commercials), we as parents can and will silence the glorification and focus on each child individually, making sure they grow into emotionally healthy adults.

Emotionally Healthy Twins is arranged in a way for parents with twins of any age to simply pick up and start reading and learning ways to help each twin feel unique and separate. For me personally, and for my husband, this book is providing strategies to view our children as two individual children long before they are born. We've already learned to use phrases like "the babies" instead of "the twins" to ensure the separate and unique ideal we will want to follow after they are born. It is easy little changes in the way we are thinking that will make huge differences for them in the future.

As for those with older twin children, relative guidance is given to parents with children in their preschool years, elementary school years, preteen and teen years, and young adulthood. Each age and stage brings new situations to the table, from friends in school and those rebellious years, to forming meaningful and emotionally healthy relationships with people and potential spouses in young adulthood. Emotionally Healthy Twins really hits on all the basic, yet pertinent stages of raising a child who is happy with themselves and happy with their relationship to and with their twin.

So whether you've just found out you will be having twins, or have twins already into their teen years, Emotionally Healthy Twins: A New Philosophy for Parenting Two Unique Children has something to offer moms and dads alike. Even if you haven't overcome the stigma, there are ways to move from it and Friedman offers the tools you'll need to raise two unique children who share the same birth date.

You can learn more about this book at Amazon.com or http://www.emotionallyhealthytwins.com/.

I Heart My In-Laws

2009-07-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

A practical, laugh-out-loud guide to adopting your man's family -- from your first date to your firstborn

Girlfriends, fiancées, and wives, rejoice! Here, at last, is THE guidebook for practical advice about in-laws. A road map. A beacon of hope and light then, for the fiftieth time, you've told your in-laws what you do at your high-tech company and that your name is Christy, not Crispy.

Mirroring the natural progression of a relationship and incorporating interviews from women just like you, this hilarious, savvy guide will help you survive holidays, weddings, new babies, and the day your in-laws retire to the house next door because "it's a great real estate investment."

Discover a wide array of sanity-retention techniques and tips on scoring major points with each and every in-law. Learn how to sweet-talk his sister, mollify his mother, and defuse potentially explosive situations -- like when your pumpkin pie gives Nana a bad case of hives.

Offering handy translation charts with curse words in Irish and compliments in Portuguese, a list of gifts and how to interpret their hidden meanings, tips for reclaiming the holidays one Labor Day at a time, and your very own In-Law Vacation Playbook, I Heart My In-Laws embodies the old saying, "It's funny because it's true."

Author Dina Koutas Poch holds a B.A. from Brown University and an M.F.A. from Columbia University. She is a writer and filmmaker living in New York City with her husband. Her in-laws live in Connecticut.

For more information, please visit http://www.dinakoutaspoch.com/.

The following is an excerpt from I Heart My In-Laws
Falling in Love with His Family -- One Passive-Aggressive, Over-Indulgent, Grandkid-Craving,
Streisand-Loving, Bible-Thumping In-Law at a Time
By Dina Koutas Poch
Published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC
June 2007;$15.00US/$18.95CAN; 978-0-8050-8279-1
Copyright © 2007 Dina Koutas Poch

Regional Guide to In-Laws

There are seven territories of in-law personalities in this great country of ours. Each has its own unique flavor.

1. West Coast In-Laws

(California, Oregon, Washington)

Three words: Burning Man Festival. Your in-laws live where Manifest Destiny carried them. They come from a long line of gold hunters -- those in search of a truer, richer way of life. Every single Napa Valley wine they uncork, or Starbucks coffee they brew; or macrobiotic muffin they bake, they judge you for not living the way they do. "Oh, West Coast people are more laid back." Really? They're ultra-aggressive about lifestyle choices and the 40-hour workweek! How do you deal with your West Coast in-laws?

Compliment their tan. Their sunglasses. Their shapely mountain-bike sculpted legs. They'll eat it up (those egotists!). And coo when they mention how they fly seaplanes to their island house, and how the orca whales and "pristine wilderness" are their backyard. Blah, blah, blah. Make sure to note how very fresh the air is, even if it's making your allergies act up.
Read up on renewable energy resources: wind power, solar energy, and corn-powered cars. Tell them that you're already on the waiting list for one (a waiting list made of recycled paper, no less).

How to dress: In flannel and Tevas with thick socks.

What not to do: Smoke cigarettes. Joints, however, are cool.

2. Rocky Mountain In-Laws

(Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Utah)

Your rugged in-laws know a thing or two about machinery. They can plow. They can drive a tractor. They can dig a deep hole with a backhoe (and I'm talking about Aunt Trudy on dialysis here). They can also wrangle sheep on a mountain without the help of a gay lover (no matter what that movie said). How do you impress in-laws that live in winter for nine months a year and are known to wrestle bears for sport?

If your weenie job as an economics professor hasn't prepared you for life with these in-laws, buying a picture book about tractors and trucks -- something a five-year-old boy would drool over -- will help. At least you'll know your trenchers from your dozers and your grapple log skidders from your pipe layers.
Pick an alpine sport: ice climbing, fly-fishing, kayaking, mountain climbing, trekking, snowshoeing, skiing, or mountain biking, and excel at it. It doesn't matter if you live in Florida, you need to train so you can join your in-laws in death-defying "leisure sports" at high altitude (with no bleeping oxygen!).

How to dress: In jeans and a warm jacket, because you'll be outside shoveling hay.

What not to do: Mention how your gay brother in Boston just got married and a drag queen performed the ceremony.

3. Southwestern In-Laws

(New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada)

There are two kinds of ex-hippie in-laws in the Southwest: those with boatloads of money and those with a jar of pennies. Figure out which one your in-law is. The former has a perfect golf swing, and the latter reliably has peyote.

When your Southwest in-laws hug you, they practically blind -- the sun glints off their turquoise jewelry and belt buckles, sending signals miles into the sky. (Duh, that's how the aliens found Roswell.)

Your in-laws are into spirituality with a capital S. Every inch of wall space is covered with pottery depictions of Kokopelli and watercolor drawings of pueblos and adobe homes in rust and muted orange hues. They subsist on roasted green chilies and yerba mate. They also don't age. Is it the desert? The dry heat? Each time you see them, they're younger. In fact, they're twenty-five years old right now. It's terrifying.

How do you ingratiate yourself with southwestern in-laws?

Go hot-air ballooning with your in-laws! Everyone in the Southwest does it. How else do
you pass the time in l00-degree heat? Remember, hot-air balloons aren't just for Dorothy & Co. They're for you, your in-laws, and nineteenth-century explorers.
Vegas, baby! Anyone? Slot machines? Showgirls? People-watching? Shark tank at Mandalay Bay? (These are rhetorical questions. You don't have to answer them.) But you may want to propose them to your in-laws, when they bust out the tarot cards -- again. Hey, why don't you use those tarot cards to predict some winning hands of blackjack? As they say in the movies, it's just crazy enough to work, boss.

How to dress: A brightly patterned sundress and a necklace made of the largest beads known to man.

What not to do: Say you prefer modern art.

4. Texan In-Laws

Your Texan in-laws are smug about one thing: being Texan. We know you were once a republic! And everything's bigger! Six flags, the Alamo, that 72-ounce steak, and especially the hats. Fine! Texas is big, "American," flashy, and the center of the world.

If your Texan in-laws aren't gorgeously well-manicured people from Houston or Dallas, or cultured Austinites, they're ranchers and they don't give a damn about you, "the en-vi-ro-mentalists," and "the gov'nment." After all, the rest of the world is just not Texas.

Of course, you'll meet a second cousin-in-law that uses her panty hose to strain motor oil, but the rest of the family isn't too proud of her. So how do you deal with the Texan in-laws?

Accept that a lot of people you'll meet in the Lone Star State will have nicknames like Joe-Bob, Billy-Bob, Jim-Bob, Little John, Big John, etc. You'll be expected to know about their souped-up truck and new gun rack in intimate detail.
Respect the laws of the Barcalounger. Your Texan in-laws don't have normal chairs; they need something with a footrest. Succumb to the relaxation factor of holding conversations while horizontal.

How to dress: A "Don't Mess with Texas" T-shirt with a Stetson hat, only because your in-laws gave them to you upon your arrival.

What not to do: Forget to send good wishes to your in-laws on Texan holidays like Texas Independence Day, the start of Deer Hunting Season, the Opening Day of high school football practice, and the day the new model year of Ford F-150s hits the market.

5. Southern In-Laws

(Arkansas, Louisiana to Florida, and up to Kentucky and Virginia)

Your in-laws love NASCAR. If they don't, their neighbors do. Your southern in-laws are either "refined city folk" or "simple country folk," and they'll want you to know the difference.

Your southern in-laws are suspicious of you. It's not just you -- it's anyone outside their state. Your in-laws have never been "North," and by that, they mean Delaware. It's not that they don't want to go, just why would they? People have been in their town for generations. It's home, which is why you should move there. When you're south of the Mason-Dixon Line, do as those who live south of the Mason-Dixon Line . . .

Learn the key players in "the Confederacy." How many times have you met a southerner named Jefferson Davis? Billions? Every street, building, and public school is named after these folks: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Jeb Stuart, Alexander Stephens, P. T. Beauregard, or Nathan Bedford Forrest. But please never, ever mention the Destroyer-of-the-South, Yankee General Sherman. He's still on their "list," 150 years later.
Talk the talk. Know southern sport rivalries and which side you're on with the Tar Heels vs. Blue Devils, LSU vs. Ole Miss, and Tennessee Volunteers vs. Kentucky Wildcats.

How to dress: Something bright and feminine from your mother's closet.

What not to do: Don't call it the "Civil War." It's the "War of Northern Aggression."

6. Northeast Corridor In-Laws

(Ohio, Pennsylvania, and up through Maine)

If you or anyone you're related to went to a fancy school, now's the time to mention it. New Englanders love to think "they know better" and that "they are smarter" and that they "vote correctly." They can push up their dark-framed glasses and snub you with their "Plymouth
Rock" crap.

The crowded cities and suburbs of Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, New York, and Boston mean one thing -- your in-laws are the diversity in America. They smother you with affection because a hundred other relatives live down the street.

Join the rat race. You must keep up with the Joneses -- the family that you can see from the bay window in your in-laws' kitchen. Last week, the competition was about the house gutters. They won. This week it's about you. Who has the sweetest daughter-in-law?
Your northern in-laws have summer homes in non-warm places like Nantucket. What's the point?

How to dress: Like you just fell out of the J. Crew catalog.

What not to do: Mention that you didn't vote in the last election.

7. Midwest In-Laws

(Indiana to Missouri, up to North Dakota and Michigan)

If a giant, two-headed reptilian monster was heading toward your in-laws' subdivision, they would smile and wave. Your in-laws are that friendly and nice. Sometimes it's creepy. Like the time they offered a teenager a ride back to his college campus -- it looked an awful lot like kidnapping.

Between the ice fishing, apple-pie baking, and dining at Perkins Restaurant and Bakery (which they nicknamed Pukins), your big-boned in-laws spend a lot of time driving (8 hours is short haul), using terms like "who gives a flying fig," and asking "how ya doing?" followed by "okey,
dokey!" So how do you get ahead with them?

Dig into dishes that involve massive amounts of melted cheese. Your in-laws will prepare cheesy potatoes, cheesy broccoli, cheesy asparagus, and fried cheese curds -- which sounds awful, but c'mon, let's admit it, a little melted cheese makes everything better.
"Live simply, so that others can simply live." If your in-laws aren't city dwellers, they're farmers and they know how to birth a cow, mend a horse, or feed a pig. If you know zilch about farms, don't fret. Praise the good bugs -- ladybugs, lacewings, hoverflies, and honeybees -- and chastise the potentially bad bugs -- flea hoppers, lygus bugs, aphids, and mealy bugs. Impress your in-laws by differentiating good stinkbugs (they're green) from bad ones (they're brown).

How to dress: Something with an elastic waistband.

What not to do: Take shortcuts. Using life's conveniences (leaf blower vs. rake, microwave vs. Crock-Pot, etc.) only means you're not working hard enough!

And a Sword Shall Pierce Your Heart (Review)

2009-07-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

The loss of a child isn't a taboo topic, but it's certainly one that we as parents really do not enjoy talking about. After my aunt lost her 20 year old daughter, I was forced to face the topic head-on. Because of this, I've learned to look at my son in a new light. Every mundane moment turns into a Kodak moment. Every smile, every milestone, every laugh and even every cry is something I want to treasure. The thought of losing him is gut-wrenching. You think it won't happen to you, but as I've seen first hand, no parent is safer than the next because death has no age requirement.

Charlotte Mathes lost her son and as she describes in And a Sword Shall Pierce Your Heart, parents tend to reach out to every source possible to find others who have experienced the same loss. Mathes' book is an excellent resource, helping to fill the need of reading and learning about other parents and their losses, and to learn if there is any truth behind the assumption that over time, the pain from the loss of a child subsides and if it really does it gets easier to live each day without that child. The book is written from the perspective of a certified Jungian analyst whose personal knowledge of a mother's grief adds the necessary ingredient of honesty for those coping with the loss of a child.

As Mathes explains early in her book, C.G. Jung was a Swiss psychologist who theorized that mankind shares innate psychological patterns. These patterns, coined as Archetypes, repeat over cultural divides, both symbolically and literally. The Archetypes aid in the explanation of the process that takes place after the loss of the child. Not just the process of moving forward in life, but also the process of grief. Mathes' connection between these Archetypes and the people and feelings involved after a great loss provide a foundation for understanding the feelings and emotions involved. For example, Mathes explains when a child dies, the foundation of our beliefs can crack and crumble. As parents we expect to die before our children and when this seemingly structured part of life is broken, it is almost impossible to grasp on to something solid. Everything that was assumed about the common structures of life has then been turned around. The theory of Archetypes and the continuity, natural existence and flow of these patterns gives a grieving mother something to reach out and hold on to when the flood of emotions begin to become overwhelming.

And a Sword Shall Pierce Your Heart is broken down between different types of deaths, from sickness and long-term illnesses, to sudden and unexpected deaths. Each type of loss is connected to Archetypes and is then tied to examples of the various Archetypes throughout history and over many different cultures. Through personal accounts from other grieving parents and Archetype examples, Mathes provides the needed and sought after knowledge to a grieving parent. A parent's grief and mourning process is entirely their own, and rightfully so. However, they are not alone, as other belong to this exclusive "club" of those who've lost children. Others have walked the grieving path before them, and in a very familiar way.

The second part of And a Sword Shall Pierce Your Heart covers aids to help a mourning parent continue to move forward in life. Many of a grieving parent's needs are included in this portion of the book. While still using the identification of Archetypes, Mathes offers the reader a choice of activities and processes that can be used to heal and reflect. From journaling and creative writing to prayer and transformation, Mathes' aids cover the outer shell and inner layers of a grieving parent's embodiment. Another great addition to the book is an extremely useful appendix with references to various forms of historical accounts, movies and music that may also lend aid in the mourning process.

When searching for help after the death of a child, And a Sword Shall Pierce Your Heart makes an excellent choice for grieving parents. Additionally, it is also a practical resource for someone who is affected by another person's tragic loss. In my own personal experiences, it has been difficult to know what to say or what not to say to another parent grieving over the loss of their child. It may be impossible to identify with such a great loss when you haven't experienced the same kind of loss. By reading And a Sword Shall Pierce Your Heart, a better understand of the mourning process can be made for those who are not mourning the loss of their own child but want to be able to communicate with and help others who have. From the Archetypes to the actual mourning process and its aids, this book undeniably connects the Jungian theories to the mourning process and turns the darkness of a tragic loss into a pathway to brighter days.

Click here to read a excerpt of this book.

And a Sword Shall Pierce Your Heart (Excerpt)

2009-07-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

Younger Children's Reaction to Death
by Charlotte M. Mathes, LCSW, Ph.D.
Author of And a Sword Shall Pierce Your Heart

Excerpt from And a Sword Shall Pierce Your Heart: Moving from Despair to Meaning After the Death of a Child
by Charlotte M. Mathes, LCSW, Ph.D.
Published by Chiron Publications; September 2005;$19.95US/$23.50CAN; 978-1888602340.
Copyright © 2006 Charlotte Mathes

Because children grieve differently from adults, they may appear not to be mourning at all. One adult client confessed her long held guilt that as a child, the day her sister died, she went to a neighbor's to play. This woman has been mourning her sister's death for thirty years. With help, she recalled how bad she felt about her sister's death, even though she chose to play. Children often resume play even while hurting inside. They need more physical activity to release their strong emotions. Having a shorter attention span, they also require frequent respite from their grief and will often alternate short periods of mourning with pursuing other interests.

Children's reactions to death are also influenced by their concept of its finality, an understanding that progresses as they pass through successive developmental stages. In the early years, supposing death reversible, children believe a brother or sister will return and are not likely to be devastated. They attribute the imagined return of life to the good effects of ambulances, hospitals, or doctors who will magically revive the deceased. In the middle years, most children recognize that death is permanent, but some, even at age nine or ten, still believe the deceased will return.

We can already see that there is no set age for each developmental stage of a child's understanding. When asked, "What will happen when you die?" one nine-year-old said that his mother, father, and grandfather would help him come back alive. Another eight-year-old replied, "You go to heaven and all that will be left of you will be a skeleton. My friend has some fossils of people. A fossil is just a skeleton." A ten-year-old responded, "I think I'm going to be reincarnated as a plant or animal, whatever they need at that particular time."

Although children often provide concrete answers when asked what will happen at death, answers suggesting finality, they also manifest an intuitive sense that growth of some kind can continue after death -- just as the drawings of dying children in Rhoda Kellog's work show a sense of life's wholeness. A child who hears the story of ""Little Red Riding Hood," for example, understands that when the little one was swallowed by the wolf she really "died." Yet she also understands that Little Red Riding Hood comes to life again (springs from the belly of the wolf). The theme of life's transformations is the message of many fairy tales, and it also seems that children have an archetypal knowledge of the life cycle of death and rebirth, just like adults. Fairy tales portray transformation concretely -- a frog actually turns into a prince, for example, only because children have not yet learned to think in abstract terms.

Children also know intuitively what they need in order to heal themselves after loss, but they cannot heal alone. First, they must be freed of carrying too much concern for their grieving parents. Children are so attuned to the unspoken moods and feelings of their parents' sadness that they may try to protect them by not showing their own. The most important aid in a child's grief process is a safe environment where she can express her thoughts and feelings. Paradoxically, by not hiding her own grief, a mother can begin to provide that safe environment.

If a child feels safe, she will begin to create a story about her relationship with her sibling and her own thoughts and feelings about the death. Mothers can help each child understand her personal experience by encouraging her to talk about what she misses most and what she would have liked to have been different. Here again, the story will not be told in one sitting. Though very difficult, it is important that a mother be available whenever her child is ready to talk. By sharing her own experiences then and asking open-ended questions, both at a time when a child is ready to share, a mother creates a continuation of the family story with her child.

To help a child comprehend what may happen when a person dies, we can also offer new dimensions in imagination through fairy tales, art work, and religious stories, thus lessening the fear of death and also giving more meaning to life. Children are particularly drawn to fairy tales because authentic folklore stories enhance imagination, alleviate anxieties, clarify emotions, and suggest solutions to problems. They enrich a child's life because they start where she really is in her psychological and emotional being. A child comes to grips with a problem in simple form: everything is either black or white, for that is how her mind works. Fairy tales echo this clarity, but present more than the sunny side of life. They accomplish their inclusiveness by taking seriously our need to be loved, our fear of being worthless, and our fear of death, and they teach the child that struggle against severe difficulties is an unavoidable part of human existence.

Like their mothers, children need to develop an imaginative life for the deceased to inhabit. The thought of her child's death is too horrific for a mother unless she is able to move into an imaginative realm where she can find a safe place for her child to be. There, she slowly develops and nurtures an inner relationship. A surviving child also carries the experience of her sibling's death throughout her life, and she too needs an inner image of continuation. By encouraging a child to draw pictures of her family, a little one may find a place in her drawing for her missing sibling. She may also find comfort in writing letters or poetry to the deceased. Six-year-old Maggie found great comfort, and relief from her fears, by painting pictures and writing poetry. She wrote the following poem on Halloween, honoring her three-year-old brother who drowned in a swimming pool.

About My Brother

About my brother, he was the best
I haven't any scissors
But I have a spare of love to give him another heart.
I haven't any glue either,
But for Halloween, I'm going to be a Cat Woman
I've already got my costume
I think he would like it.

When I call to him, it makes me want to scream
I LOVE YOU, CHIP!

You are on my TV screen in my heart
But my heart has a little feeling,
A sad one, it's true
I won't sell it for some money,
I won't sell it for love.

I won't sell it for anything
But you fly like a dove.

By encouraging drawing, questions, storytelling, and writing about the deceased, a mother can also identify some negative thoughts that may be plaguing her child. Children often believe in magical thinking, that just thinking something can make it happen. Because they sometimes harbored aggressive fantasies in the past, they may even think the sibling's death their fault. Simply hearing once and for all this is not the case will not convince them otherwise, but careful listening combined with thoughtful questions and comments about one's own concept of the cause of death may alleviate their sense of guilt.

Sometimes anxiety will cause a child to repeat the same questions over and over again. Nevertheless, mothers should answer all questions truthfully and succinctly, in language the child understands. A child needs encouragement to talk about the actual day of death even if she often repeats questions like, "Where was I that day?" "How did I hear about the death?"
"What did I do next?" "What was it like at the funeral?" "Where is my sister now?"

Surviving children also need continued reassurance, even if they show little outward emotion. There is almost always a heightened fear of being separated from their parents. Because humans cannot survive without a nurturing other, our archetypal fear of abandonment is present from birth. After the death of a sibling, abandonment fear arises, not only from missing the deceased but also because parents are often emotionally unavailable. School phobias, nightmares, bed wetting, and psychosomatic ills are symptoms of this fear which is often called separation anxiety.

Because all children feel vulnerable, those who have been taught there is a loving and heavenly Father are more likely to feel protected even in times when parents fail them. Conversely, however, when a child dies, her siblings strive to answer the same questions as the parents about God's power and love. In the following chapters we will see that how a child dies introduces a variety of factors that complicate this existential struggle.

Excerpted from And a Sword Shall Pierce Your Heart: Moving from Despair to Meaning After the Death of a Child by Charlotte M. Mathes, LCSW, Ph.D. Copyright © 2006 Charlotte Mathes. Published by Chiron Publications; September 2005;$19.95US/$23.50CAN; 978-1888602340.

Author Charlotte M. Mathes, LCSW, Ph.D., is a certified Jungian analyst, a graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. She received her doctoral degree in psychoanalysis from the Union Graduate School in Cincinnati and is a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Counselors as well as a board certified supervisor for clinical social workers. Dr. Mathes has been in private practice in New Orleans for twenty years. She lectures and leads seminars in Jungian psychology, family therapy, and bereavement.

For more information, please visit http://www.charlottemathes.com/.

Click here to read a review of this book.

Itsy Bitsy Yoga for Toddlers and Preschoolers

2009-07-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

Itsy Bitsy Yoga for Toddlers and Preschoolers: 8-minute Routines to Help Your Child Grow Smarter, Be Happier, and Behave Better

If you've been looking for a fun and loving way to help your children learn and improve their development, look no further than Itsy Bitsy Yoga for Toddlers and Preschoolers. New studies show that young kids learn best through play and need at least 30 minutes of structured physical activity each day. There's no better way to engage your child than through the simple practice of yoga.

Excerpt from Itsy Bitsy Yoga for Toddlers and Preschoolers
by Helen Garabedian
Reprinted with permission

Itsy Bitsy Yoga for Toddlers and Preschoolers: 8-minute Routines to Help Your Child Grow Smarter, Be Happier, and Behave Better

Crane Pose

Building Balance Yoga

If you stopped to think about all the times you need me to balance throughout the day you'd be really surprised! Crane pose helps me improve my balance. It can make daily activities, like getting dressed, easier and fun.

Watch Me

Invite your toddler to stand with her feet a fist distance apart .
Stand next to your toddler and space your feet hip distance apart.
Lift one knee up to hip height. Hold the hands of a younger toddler if needed.

Say n' ... Play

Ready… Stand tall with feet apart and pull your tummy in.

Crane Pose ... Inhale as you lift one knee up to hip height.

Crane Pose ... Hold Crane pose. Allow hands come onto hips, or hold a younger toddler's hand.

That's it, Crane Pose! ... Invite your toddler to gaze at a non-moving object to help her hold Crane Pose.

Flap your wings. ... If your toddler is still in Crane pose, begin to flap your arms like they are wings. Invite your toddler to mimic you!

Good! ... Foot lowers. Let both feet rest on the floor for a moment.

Repeat once before switching to the other leg.

On the Go with Helen

When helping your child get dressed, use Crane pose to encourage him to lift a foot while putting on his pants, socks or sneakers. Say 'Crane pose' and your toddler will know it time to lift a leg for dressing. Crane pose makes getting dressed fun!

Yogi Wogi Says

Yogi Wogi says, let's count in Spanish while we do Crane pose! While holding one knee up in Crane pose count aloud in Spanish (or substitute another language) with your preschooler.

1. Uno Crane (oo-no)
2. Dos Crane (dose)
3. Tres Crane (trace)
4. Cuatro Crane (kwat-ro)
5. Cinco Crane (sink-o)
6. Seis Crane (saze)
7. Siete Crane (see-yet-eh)
8. Ocho Crane (och-o)
9. Nueve Crane (new-eh-veh)
10. Diez Crane (dee-ace)

Whenever you (or your child) drop the lifted knee and foot, it's time to either begin again or move onto the next pose. Counting Spanish Crane introduces your child to Spanish (or another secondary language in your home.)

Sunshine

Building Balance Yoga

Sunshine is similar to yoga's Warrior One pose. In Sunshine I develop strength, stability and physical confidence.

Watch Me

After teaching this pose to hundreds of toddlers, I discovered it is easiest to break Sunshine up into several mini-steps.

Stand across from or next to your toddler.
As you inhale, lift one knee up to hip-height as in Crane pose.
As you exhale, drop the lifted foot in front of you and make a big 'BOOM' sound!
As you inhale, notice the distance between the front and back heel. Your feet should be spaced close to a leg's length apart.
As you exhale bend the front knee until it forms a right angle. Look to see that the ankle is positioned below the knee.
Turn your shoulders forward to help square your hips.
When and if your toddler appears ready, you can show him how to inhale as his arms raise overhead. To ensure good alignment hands are a smidge more than shoulder-distance apart.

Say n' ... Play

Ready for Sunshine! ... Stand diagonally from your toddler.

Lift one knee up ... Lift one knee up to hip height (as in Crane pose.)

BOOM! ... Drop the lifted foot one leg's length forward and onto the floor! For toddlers, leg-length apart is only 15-30 inches.

Good Job! ... Make eye contact with your toddler and check foot/knee alignment. Give assistance as needed.

Arms up! ... Hands float overhead and are spaced a smidge more than shoulder- distance apart.

Sunshine, sunshine… ... Enjoy the pose for several breaths.

Let your toddler come out of the pose in any way they wish.

Repeat allowing the other foot to drop forward into Sunshine.

On the Go with Helen

My son now loves to do Sunshine pose with me. But when he first started, I noticed his back heel didn't always touch the floor. Then I figured out a little trick that would help him drop the heel of the back foot. I'd invite Andrew to look back over his shoulder on the same side as the lifted back heel. The twisting motion of the uppermost torso has helped drop the back heel of not only my son, but lots of other toddlers too!

Yogi Wogi Says

Yogi Wogi says, float your lifted knee and foot backwards instead of forward. Before you to make sure the area behind you is open. This is a super-duper way to challenge and improve your older toddler's core strength and balance.

Yogi Yogi Feet

Building Balance Yoga

Yogi Yogi Feet is a fun standing pose that improves my ability to balance. Older toddlers and preschoolers can begin to learn their right from left with your guidance during this fun Itsy Bitsy Yoga activity.

Watch Me

Yogi Yogi Feet is Itsy Bitsy Yoga's version of the "Hokey Pokey."
Stand next to or 18-24 inches in front of your toddler.
Younger toddlers may want to hold your hand as they explore balance during Yogi Yogi
Feet.
Begin the Say n' Play and encourage your toddler to join you!

Say n' ... Play

You put your left foot in. ... Swing left foot forward.

Lift one knee up ... You put your left foot out. Left feet swing backs (or to the start position.)

You put your left foot in. ... Swing left foot forward.

And circle it about. ... Circle the left foot in the air once before placing in on the floor.

You do the Yogi Yogi ... Hands dance up and down as in the Hokey Pokey.

Sunshine, sunshine… ... Enjoy the pose for several breaths.

and you turn yourself around. ... Twist to each side (or turn around once.)

That's what it's all about! ... Clap hands together three times.

Practice Yogi Yogi Feet twice with each foot.

On the Go with Helen

I like to sing Yogi Yogi Feet to my toddler when we are stuck in traffic. It's a fun way to keep him from being completely sedentary while cooped up during a car ride that's taking longer than expected.

Yogi Wogi Says

Yogi Wogi says, let's see how far can your foot go forwards and backwards in Yogi Yogi Feet. This will challenge and further develops your toddler's sense of balance.

An Intimate Understanding of America's Teenagers: Shaking Hands with Aliens

2009-07-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

As a thirty-something mom to a kindergartener and twin infants, I face daily challenges that test not only my parenting skills, but my negotiation skills, time-management skills, communication skills and a laundry list full of other skills needed to make my family and home a happy and safe place to be. As a step-mother to a sixteen year old, I have to work from a completely different playbook. Although I feel like it wasn't that long ago I was actually a teenager myself, I am reminded of just how far removed I am from those teenage years. It is almost as if I am an outsider looking at something completely foreign to me… something so different from what I remember my teenage years as being… something completely alien.

Bruce J. Gevirtzman has appointed himself as the expert on teenagers, and rightly so. He's spent more than 30 years teaching teens, being active in their lives in many different ways, and his hands-on experience has given him the ability to bridge the gap of understanding between teens and their parents. An Intimate Understanding of America's Teenagers: Shaking Hands with Aliens is the ultimate guide for understanding and communicating with teens. Not only is it appropriate for parents to read, but Gevirtzman speaks directly to teachers and teens in the book as well. If teens came with a user's manual, this would be it!

Although my husband's daughter doesn't live with us and I don't have a lot of contact with her, Gevirtzman's book and the topics discussed have shed a much needed light upon some of the concerns I've had in understand where she is coming from. I've also gotten a glimpse into the future of what I will be facing, because as Gevirtzman points out quite clearly, although times have changed and some issues are more serious with teens than they were when we were that age, teens are facing the same issues as before and they always will.

An Intimate Understanding of America's Teenagers is broken down into chapters that revolve around one specific topic each, beginning with communication and the unique language of each generation of teens, to the topics of self image, athletics and other extra curricular activities, sex, controlling parents, and a large array of other topics that make up the life of America's teens. In many of the chapters, Gevirtzman presents different answers to straight-shooting questions that teens themselves have provided. Answers to questions like what they see when they look into a mirror, why they participate in sports, would they tell a friend's parents if they knew their friend was doing drugs or other illegal activities, and even why males pierce their ears. It isn't necessarily the questions that will shock parents. Actually, it is quite the opposite. The questions are the same questions we as parents should pose to our teens at some point. The truthful answers are in part quite shocking when we realize that finally, teens are being honest and open (mostly), as this peek into their reality is very telling to their situations. All of this is provided in a way that only Gevirtzman could supply. His intimate knowledge of teens, from public faces they put on for the world to see, to private challenges they face every day, these teens share with him a slice of their lives that many parents and teachers never see or are just to pre-occupied to notice.

As Gevirtzman points out, being a teen is such a small snippet in time compared to the long life many of us have. However, the drama and effects of those few short years can not only last a lifetime, but it can also help (and often does) shape who we are for the rest of our lives. One off-the-wall incident in our teen years could change our very core and affect how we respond to things decades down the road. So why aren't we spending more time with teens, understanding them, so we can help make this time better for them? An Intimate Understanding of America's Teenagers does exactly that. It truly is a handbook for the ins and outs of the American Teenager.

Gevirtzman's shares countless stories of tragedy and triumph from the lives of the teens he's known over his three-plus decades of experience. An Intimate Understanding of America's Teenagers is also as funny as it is endearing and educational. Gevirtzman's experience as a playwright creates a page-turning book with the comic relief needed to make the seriousness of
the topics easier to swallow.

So whether you've got a teen, pre-teen, a tween or even a toddler, An Intimate Understanding of America's Teenagers has the information you need to make it through those few tough years that challenge even the most solid and stable families. Be sure to either read it with your teen if you have one, or ask them to take the time to read it too. It will benefit you both in ways that will not only makes those tough years a little easier to manage, but as Gevirtzman points out, the information he provides will help open those much-needed lines of communication that are key to having a good and loving relationship with the person most important in your teen's life… you.

More on An Intimate Understanding of America's Teenagers...

An Intimate Understanding of America's Teenagers: Shaking Hands with Aliens
By Bruce Gevirtzman

Gevirtzman takes us inside the minds of today's youths and contrasts them with teens of decades past. Including interviews with fellow teachers, Gevirtzman's book is threaded with one recurring truth: "Sadly, instead of parents and teachers and lawmakers and the public looking out for our kids, today's kids are largely left to fend for themselves," he concludes.

The New Mom's Survival Guide

2009-07-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

I don't really consider myself a "New Mom" per se. Rather, I refer to myself as a "Renewed Mom." I just recently gave birth to two beautiful twin girls, which is almost five years since the birth of my first and only son. A renewed mom has to go through the same questions and concerns that a new mom has to go through. After five years, I had forgotten about all the things that happen after birth, and all the questions I have about those things. From my hair falling out to strange skin issues I had never had before.

The New Mom's Survival Guide, by Jennifer Wider, M.D. addresses just about any and every question a new or renewed mom has about their body, health, sanity and yes, even their sex life. As she mentions in the book, we (and baby) are the center of attention when we are pregnant. We are in regular contact with a physician or someone of the like, always interested in how we are feeling. However, after birth, all the attention is then shifted to our new little blessings and we are left to fend for ourselves. All the while, our bodies are changing, our lives have turned upside down, and even our own focus is pointed outward.

ike every other women that's been pregnant, a few months after giving birth, my hair started falling out at a frightening rate. It's actually completely normal, but not everyone knows that. The New Mom's Survival Guide addresses this topic directly, along with so many other normal issues and questions like "What's up with My Feet," which was an issue I had after the birth of my son. In all the pregnancy books I had read while pregnant, not one of them discussed this phenomenon, and I was completely shocked when my shoes didn't fit anymore! That's right - I didn't know that your feet can grow in width due to pregnancy hormones. And as Wider answers in the book, not only will they most likely stay this new size, but we now have a valid excuse to go out and buy new shoes - a form of shopping therapy many new and renewed moms can appreciate!

The New Mom's Survival Guide also addresses tougher questions and answers regarding the mental health of the postpartum mom. From common Baby Blues to more serious issues of Postpartum Depression and even Postpartum Psychosis, The New Mom's Survival Guide answers the questions related to each, making certain the reader understands that these are issues that can be addressed by professionals if necessary, and aren't abnormal experiences for a new mom.

In the introduction of The New Mom's Survival Guide, Jennifer Wider, M.D. expresses her desire to "have created a sold, well-researched health guide for new moms that addresses their concerns about themselves" while swimming in a sea of information about their children. Not only has Wider successfully achieved this goal, but she does it in a way that isn't just straight-forward, but also in the way of making the reader feel as if the answers to her questions are coming from a good friend - not only a medical professional.

So for all the new and renewed moms out there with the lingering questions about their body, mind and spirit, The New Mom's Survival Guide, by Jennifer Wider, M.D is the prefect postpartum manual to have on hand. Without it, your questions may be lost in the whirlwind we call parenthood!

More on The New Mom's Survival Guide:

The New Mom's Survival Guide
How to Reclaim Your Body, Your Health, Your Sanity, and Your Sex Life After Having a Baby

By Jennifer Wider, M.D.

Description

The New Mom's Survival Guide Answers These and Many Other Questions:

Why can't I lose the extra weight?

I'm just too tired to have sex -- and It hurts. What should I do?

Can I catch croup from my child?

At last your baby has arrived, and you're experiencing all the joys that come with being a new mom. But you may not have bargained on acne and varicose veins, not to mention constipation, vaginal pain, mood swings, or perhaps one of the more serious conditions that pregnancy can trigger. In this compassionate, comprehensive guide, Dr. Jennifer Wider, a physician as well as the mother of two small children, delivers up-to-date medical information, candid answers to a host of questions, and expert advice on a range of postpartum issues, including:

When the baby blues are more than just a phase
Feelings of isolation for the stay-at-home mom
Feelings of guilt for the back-to-work mom
Cracked nipples and other breast-feeding concerns
Thyroid problems, anemia, diabetes, urinary incontinence, and other conditions that can show up during or after pregnancy

From redefining yourself to taking care of yourself while caring for your baby, The New Mom's Survival Guide contains such a wealth of practical help that new moms will turn to it again and again.

Author Bio

Jennifer Wider, MD, is a doctor, author, and radio personality who specializes in women's health issues. She is the medical advisor to the Society for Women's Health Research in Washington, D.C. Dr. Wider is a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan magazine and hosts a weekly segment on Cosmo Radio for Sirius Satellite. She has appeared as a health expert on The Today Show, CBS News, Good Day NY, Fox News, and a variety of cable channels. She lives with her physician husband, and their daughter and son, in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Visit the author at http://www.drwider.com/.

Reviews

"Practical, upbeat, and medically accurate . . . like having a wise and experienced doctor at your fingertips." --Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of The Wisdom of Menopause and Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom

"This book offers the kind of excellent advice, guidance, and reassurance that every new mom could use." --Brooke Shields, author of Down Came the Rain

Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge (Review)

2009-07-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

At least once each time my husband and I sit down to watch television, I spout off some useless trivia about Hollywood stars that he has absolutely no interest in. It usually starts off with something like "Hey, did you know the lead singer of that group is married to..." or "That actress' mom is the same actress who played in…" and so on. His usual response sounds something more like an animal's grunt, far from the response full of amazement or shock that my best friend would have supplied. Either way, I still enjoy sharing this useless information because I believe - rather, I dream of the day it will come in handy for him. Who knows, maybe he'll end up on Jeopardy one day and the question to the answer will be something he learned from me. Yeah right… dream on!

But now I have a plethora of facts to quote to him. Everything from protons, neutrons and electrons, to facts about the Cold War, Stock Markets, Religion, Philosophy, art, music and so much more. Facts that are more likely to be topics of interest on Jeopardy as opposed to which actor is divorcing over a love interest they met on their last movie set. Not that either of us will ever end up on Jeopardy, but Know It All: The Little Book of Essential Knowledge is in fact the best book I have on hand to help me feel like the studious citizen I wish I had time to be!

Know It All wraps up almost a hundred different subjects in just two pages each of straight facts. Each topic provides just enough information on its subject to enlighten and educate the reader, in preparation of conversations that could make their way around to these talking points. These "subjects of study" are broken down into nine different chapters of the book, including "Invention and Discovery," "Conflicts of the Modern Age" and "Religion and Thought." Know It All wraps up many things I should have learned (or remembered) from my schooling, but I either didn't pay attention that day, or I didn't use it, and years ago, I truly did lose it.

Know It All also throws in special features - little snippets of information packaging a topic in "an even smaller nutshell" like "Conversation Starters" you can use in casual situations, and even quiz pages to review what you may have learned in that chapter. Even as the book educates you, it does it in a fun and interesting way that will leave the reader wanting more. Each subject is an easy read as there are no fillers and the information doesn't go on and on - just the facts ma'am!

So, whether you are simply looking to increase your knowledge of worldly subjects, or you are interested in cramming for that Jeopardy try-out, Know It All is your best and quickest bet to learning more on the topics that not only come up from time to time, but actually have something to do with your day-to-day life.

Personally, I plan on memorizing a chapter or two so that when my husband and I are drinking our morning coffee and watching MSNBC, I can throw something even more meaningful out into the conversation at hand. Perhaps then I will watch his eyes light up in amazement of my broader scope of knowledge. That would be a nice change from his uninterested grunt over my Hollywood dribble! Thanks Know It All! Now I can feel like a know-it-all, too!

The Global Achievement Gap (Review)

2009-07-08T08:22:00.002-07:00

Although I’ve been a mother for less than a decade, I’ve come to see just how much the schools have failed to change with our changing world. When President Bush passed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, I though it would be a legacy for his presidency – a change our schools deserved. However, as pointed out by Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap, not only has NCLB failed to improve our school, they are further behind now, more than ever when paralleled with our social advances. In actuality, NCLB is yet another failed attempt to produce change for the better in our American schools.

Tony Wagner, a scholar of the school system, has spent a good part of his life in examination of the building blocks and the makings of the American school system. His book, The Global Achievement Gap is a call to action, bringing attention to our schools, who are producing test takers and not the critical thinkers we need our children to grow to be. Wagner produces a laundry list of pathways and solutions for real change in our schools. He presents new learning styles, real alternatives to current curriculums, ways to motivate our educators to teach in new ways and motivation for their students to want more out of their own education.

This call to action is a call to everyone with their hand in the school system. From teachers, professors and students to lawmakers and other government officials, everyone must open this book and open the conversation for the need to improve the quality of education and the type of students we are producing in America.

Now the hurdle to be jumped is getting this information out to those who need it, especially to those who don’t realize just how badly they need it. If you’ve ever wondered if your high school student is college ready, and if not, why not – or if you’ve seen children moved through the school system even when they aren’t producing passing grades – or you’ve experienced that feeling of wanting more for students – read The Global Achievement Gap. Then, find someone else in the school system and share the information with them and encourage them to do the same. This is the motivation we need to make our schools better, and Tony Wagner is the lead to follow in this greatly needed revolution.

More on The Global Achievement Gap:

Despite the best efforts of educators, our nation’s schools are dangerously obsolete. Instead of teaching students to be critical thinkers and problem-solvers, we are asking them to memorize facts for multiple choice tests. This problem isn’t limited to low-income school districts: even our top schools aren’t teaching or testing the skills that matter most in the global knowledge economy. Our teens leave school equipped to work only in the kinds of jobs that are fast disappearing from the American economy. Meanwhile, young adults in India and China are competing with our students for the most sought-after careers around the world.

Education expert Tony Wagner has conducted scores of interviews with business leaders and observed hundreds of classes in some of the nation’s most highly regarded public schools. He discovered a profound disconnect between what potential employers are looking for in young people today (critical thinking skills, creativity, and effective communication) and what our schools are providing (passive learning environments and uninspired lesson plans that focus on test preparation and reward memorization).

He explains how every American can work to overhaul our education system, and he shows us examples of dramatically different schools that teach all students new skills. In addition, through interviews with college graduates and people who work with them, Wagner discovers how teachers, parents, and employers can motivate the “net” generation to excellence.

An education manifesto for the twenty-first century, The Global Achievement Gap is provocative and inspiring. It is essential reading for parents, educators, business leaders, policy-makers, and anyone interested in seeing our young people succeed as employees and citizens.

About the Author:

Tony Wagner is Co-Director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He consults widely to schools, districts, and foundations and was Senior Advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A former high school teacher and principal, he is the author of several books, including Change Leadership, Making the Grade, and How Schools Change. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Find him on the web at http://www.www.schoolchange.org/, and you can purchase the book at Amazon.com

Reviews

“The Global Achievement Gap is a must read for all policymakers as the Congress continues its debate on how best to reform the No Child Left Behind law…It’s time to stop harping on what’s wrong with our schools, and instead provide them with the tools that they need to produce competitive, connective, technologically proficient, hopeful young men and women ready to take on the challenges of a global economy and succeed.”—U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye

“Tony Wagner takes us deep inside the black box of school curriculum in a way few authors have done. What do we mean by rigor? By 21st century skills? Wagner shows us concretely what thinking skills really are, how current approaches to ‘raising standards’ cannot get us there, and what will. Everyone concerned with American education should read this book.”—Linda
Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University

“Tony Wagner has managed to penetrate the jargon and over-simplified responses to the pervasive underachievement that exists among our students. He has charted an important new direction and given us a way to get there. This book deserves to be powerfully influential.”—Mel Levine

“Tony Wagner argues persuasively that old ways of teaching are completely unsuited to new ways of working. The Global Achievement Gap should be grabbed by business leaders to guide a much-needed conversation with educators.”—Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School Professor and author of America the Principled and Confidence

“In The Global Achievement Gap, Tony Wagner offers a thoughtful analysis of where we are in American public education (behind the times), and what we need to do to adapt to the future that is upon us. Drawing upon years of accumulated wisdom as a teacher, principal, trainer, and well-traveled observer of schools, Wagner builds a persuasive case for change in the way we approach schooling, grounded in the question, what does it mean to be an educated person in the 21st century?”—Dr. Richard C. Atkinson, President Emeritus, University of California

“The Global Achievement Gap is thoughtful and inspirational. It describes how, in these changing times, schools too must change if the US is to remain a strong economic and intellectual leader in the world, and it offers creative solutions and examples of success. This book will capture your head, your heart and, I hope, your future actions. This is a VERY important book for anyone who cares about preparing young people for success in a rapidly changing global society. Every school board member, administrator, teacher and parent in the nation should read this book.”—Anne L. Bryant, Executive Director, National School Boards Association

“Tony Wagner is not just talking about our schools here—he is talking about the future our nation. The Global Achievement Gap cuts through the complexity and partisan posing so often associated with this genre. It is a powerful call to action, and a roadmap of how to fundamentally rethink the education of our children. If we ignore it, we do so at great peril.”—Keith R. McFarland, author of #1 Wall Street Journal and New York TimesBestseller, The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers

“Kudos to Tony Wagner….Many people have been cursing the darkness of our education system, but by breaking down the many dilemmas that students, teachers and parents face as well as examining different approaches that have been successful, Wagner lights a candle for those who want to help, but don't know where to start. Whether we can transition through these exciting and perilous times will depend upon the culture we leave our young people. Tony Wagner has provided a map.”—John Abele, Founding Chairman, Boston Scientific, Board Chair, FIRST

“This important book is a wake-up call for America. For over fifty years, our schools have stayed the same, while the world has changed dramatically. Students memorize academic content, and study for standardized tests, but they never learn how to think, solve problems, or be creative. Wagner’s stories about the few remarkable schools that are transforming classroom instruction and pointing the way to the future are compelling. Every parent, teacher, politician, and executive should read this book.”—Keith Sawyer, author of Group Genius

“In this persuasive book, Tony Wagner delineates what skills are needed in a globalized era, why most American schools can’t nurture them, and how today’s schools could be transformed to cultivate tomorrow’s skills.”—Howard Gardner, author of Five Minds for the Future

I Love You More

2009-07-08T08:07:00.000-07:00

I Love You More reminds me of a game I used to play with my Papaw. I would tell him how much I loved him by reaching my arms out, like every other child, touting "I love you this much!" And he would always reply to me, with his fingers pinching out about an inch-long of space, "Yes, but I will always love you this much more than you'll ever love me!"

That sort of adoration I had with my Papaw, and the kind of love a child and mother have for each other is poetically defined in the children's book by Laura Dukesta, I Love You More. However, this book actually goes a littler further than the title implies because it is "A flip-sided book… like love it never ends" It begins with mom telling her son how much she loves him, and then at the end of the story, you simply close the book, flip it around and start again. This time, the adoring son recites his love for his mommy.

If your child is anything like my son, one story at bed time just isn't enough. This one book, so imaginatively illustrated by Karen Keesler, can be easily read from front to middle for the first story and flipped and read to the middle for the second and back again. It's fun and enjoyable for the young and old; the reader and the listener!

My four year old refers to I Love You More as "the magic book" and he's been wanting to read it every night since it made its way into our home. Plus, as a mother I get to read him a feel-good story that leaves me knowing that he truly understands just how much I love him. That's the best feeling to give a child before bed, and that's exactly what I Love You More delivers!

Poetry Speaks to Children

2009-07-07T07:46:00.000-07:00

From the moment the shiny new book arrived at my doorstep, I was excited to see what this incredible creation had in store for my son and for me. From the moment I cracked open the spine, I realized it delivers more than I had hoped it would.

Poetry Speaks to Children is a collection of poems and is accompanied by an audio CD containing many poems from the book, with most being read by the author. Even the famed Robert Frost's voice makes an appearance to read his well known "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Each poem of the book with a matching track on the CD is marked with the track number, making listening to your favorites quite easy.

The first thing I noticed about the book was the amazing illustrations by Judy Love, Wendy Rasmussen, and Paula Zinngrabe Wendland. These names may not mean much to most readers, but after viewing the images of imagination coming to life in full color on the pages of this book, it may give you pause enough to file these illustrators' names to memory. Each illustration captures the feel and wonderment of the poems bound in Poetry Speaks to Children.

The collection of poems, 95 in all, captures the diversity of humanity, cultures, and inner thoughts and feelings. The poetry isn't just poetry; it is literature in its purest form. Poems from greats like Langston Hughes, Lewis Carroll, and Rudyard Kipling share space with historic playwrights such as William Shakespeare and epic novelists like J. R. R. Tolkien. The best part of this collection is that children can enjoy a rich education of literature, learning about the beauty of poetry and the written word while having fun!

The recordings on the audio CD add to the timelessness of poetry. Some of the poems were recorded for the first time while creating the CD, thus resulting in crisp and beautiful poetic rhythms spoken by the author. Other tracks from the CD are from much older recordings, such as the Robert Frost reading. The varied sounds of the CD add to the feel of old and new merging together to make a classic for the younger generation.

Although my son, a mere 2 years old, can't read the words, he can enjoy the imaginative illustrations and the music of poetry when listening to the CD. It also allows parent and child to bond in a way a DVD or audio CD alone cannot.

Poetry Speaks to Children is the best choice for a new addition to any avid reader's collection of poetry. Better still, it is the perfect choice for introducing the beauty of poetry and the spoken word to anyone, of any culture, young and old. Within the pages of the shiny, wonderful book, poetry speaks to everyone in the family.