Category: Parenting

My blog covers education and children’s books. When I cover parenting issues, it usually contains book recommendations. Parenting topics include academic subjects, summer learning, bullying, special needs, fitness and more.

Karen L Day, No Cream Puffs, Tall Tales, http://PragmaticMom.com, chapter books for ages 8-12

Book Club, Activity and Interview with Karen Day

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My oldest choose No Cream Puffs by Karen Day for the first book club of the year. They are in 5th grade now and have been meeting for book club since 2nd grade. My daughter played soccer with the author’s daughter this past spring, but she had no idea that the mother is an author, though we (the moms) have all heard of Karen Day and knew of her books here in Newton, MA. What I didn’t know was that KAREN was a really great baseball player and the book is loosely based on her own childhood story! (see interview below)

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How to Raise Boys Who Read from a dad of 6 boys!

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Thank you to my work Dad Friend, who also has a blog called adverlicio.us, an online ad archive, for this great article from the Wall Street Journal on How to Raise Boys Who Read by Thomas Spence with a note that says “Hint: Not with Gross-Out Books and Video Game Bribes.” Spence is apparently disgusted by the pandering of publishers to reluctant boy readers with Gross-Out books and proposes a simple solution that worked for his 6 (that’s right, folks, SIX!!!!) boys: TURN OFF THE SCREENS! FILL THE HOUSE WITH GOOD BOOKS.

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Susan Sowers, invented spelling, beginning spellers, learning to read and write, literacy, Kindergarten, Pragmatic Mom, http://PragmaticMom.com

Invented Spelling Necessary for Learning to Read: Froshus Dobrmn Pensr

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Invented spelling is the name for children’s misspellings before they know the rules adults use to spell, often before they know how to read. In some respects inventive spellers are learning to write as they learned to talk. Invented spelling is not so much an approach to writing as it is a way of removing obstacles in the path of a young writer. Children don’t automatically and spontaneously arrive at the correct spelling of a word simply because they read.

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