The words for Week 13 are from the picture book, Stellaluna by Janell Cannon, a beloved classic!
Author: Pragmatic Mom
I am a mom with three kids and a husband living in Newton, MA. I graduated from Harvard University with a degree in HIstory and Science. I went to The Anderson School of Management at UCLA for my M.B.A.My background is entrepreneurial. I started several companies and currently serve on three boards including for my elementary school and preschool. I was a SAHM for nearly 8 years, and went back to work part-time just recently. Now I work almost full time as a WAHM for a consumer electronics start-up in Boston.My blog is my outlet to read children's literature which is my great secret pleasure, and to document any interesting and/or useful information that I acquire as I parent. My kids are quite active and pursue many interests collectively including soccer, gymnastics, rhythm gymnastics, karate (Chung Kook Doh), ice skating, Chinese, Spanish, flute, piano, T-ball, book clubs, and art. In my free time, I have been doing kickboxing, vinyasa yoga, zoomba, and I am trying to learn Spanish as well.Learning about SEO and how to blog has been a really fun enterprise albeit very time consuming. I started a bloggers group that meets weekly called www.coffeeshopbloggers.com. The S.O.S. on SEO. We share our collective frustrations and knowledge from blogging.Now you understand the Type A parent I am...hence the tagline my blogger friends came up for me for my blog:Type A Parenting for the Modern World
How Kids Acquire Foreign Language Skills
Exposing infants to language, even another foreign language is actually great for a baby’s brain development the latest research shows. Articles from NPR and the New York Times. I also have the foreign language DVDs that we used with our kids when they were young (that they actually enjoyed watching).
Learn Chinese Words and Culture Through Books for Kids
Mandarin Chinese is becoming very popular in the United States. I review a small stack of books that cover learning Mandarin Chinese as well as Chinese Culture including The House Baba Built by Ed Young, Find Out About China: Learn Chinese Words and Phrases, Life in China, History and Culture, Ni Hao series and Chinese Paradise series.
From Reluctant Reader to Voracious Reader: What Worked for Me
My oldest child is now starting 6th grade which is Middle School where I live. She’s a voracious reader now but it wasn’t always so. I guess there are many, many reasons why kids don’t like to read and for her, it wasn’t the decoding or sitting still; it was the act of performing. She hates any kind of attention. A root canal is preferable to her over performing and reading out loud was a performance to her.
Top 10: Fundraising Tips for Your School’s Auction
I was the co-chair for my elementary school Fundraising Committee last year and also served on my preschool’s fundraising committee a few years ago. For both schools, the auction is the single biggest fundraising event and must bring in a princely sum in order for the PTO budgets to function. This is what I learned to make an school auction successful:
Apps for Autistic Children
Thank you to Dad developer Kyle Tomson of Mobile Education Store, for letting me repost his great article on apps for high functioning autistic children who benefit from the language aspects of these apps. Kyle has a daughter, Caitlin, who is very high functioning on the autism spectrum so this topic is very near and dear to his heart, so much so that he just went and developed them himself!
50+ Favorite Books for 6th Grade from 6th Graders
I found it so interesting the wide range of interests and levels of newly minted 6th graders. They are reading everything from adult literature to fantasy adventure to Karl Sagan non-fiction. I guess it goes to show you that the middle school kid is everywhere on the spectrum from adult-like to still child-like.