Dr. Michele Borba reached out to me and offered to be a guest author on How Families are Paying for College and gave some excellent advice on paying for college. One savings plan that she did not mention that I do for my kids is the 529B savings plan which allows the money that you save to grow in a tax advantaged way.
30 Books for 3rd Grade & 4th Grade
These are the book recommended by my library. It skews a little young so you can use this for Going into 3rd grade if your child loves to read. This list is from my public library (Newton Free Library) and the books are newly published this year. There is a nice mix of easy chapter books, chapter books, non-fiction, mysteries, folk tales, poetry, magazines and audio books. The range of topics also should appeal to even hard to please reluctant readers.
9 Things You Shouldn’t Say to Your Child
I found this great article on CNN.com and I’m afraid that while I don’t say all of these 9 things, the two I do say (#1 and #8), I say frequently. So, as penance, I am posting on this to remind myself to stop it! If you need to know the rationale of why these 9 Things are no-nos, the full article is here and there is extensive explanation for each one. Actually, I say #9 too. I am such a bad parent!
11 Great Children’s Books Set in Florida
There’s a glamour to Florida set back back in time that rivals Hollywood in California and maybe that is why these talented children’s book authors firmly set their books here. To be sure, some are from Florida and/or from the South and seem to know every nook and cranny of their small towns. But even more interesting are the characters they create; characters who have lived hard and stoic lives but never really told their stories to anyone, except now, in these books.
There must be something in the waters of Florida that makes almost all these books award winning, from Newbery to National Book Awards. And I feel strongly that the books on this list that don’t have a special sticker on the cover are all deserving of one!!
19 Wonderful ABC Alphabet Books for Kids
ABC books with a little something special about each of them plus a game to learn letters of the alphabet.
Newbery Award Winners from 1922-2012
This is from An Unconventional Librarian who cribbed it from Lois Lowry’s web page. I just added the winners from 2006-2012 which were not on the list. Here is the link to ALA/ Newbery Winner plus Honor Book Winners for a more comprehensive list.
Children’s Books That Teach Tolerance
I wasn’t familiar with this award though I do know about the Simon Wissenthal Museum from living in Los Angeles. My art teacher had a piece exhibited there and he said that it was the highlight of his career. I went through the past winner list and I haven’t read all the books, but the ones I have read (Though My Eyes, The Year of Miss Agnes, So Far from the Sea) are OUTSTANDING so it makes me want to read the entire list of winners, both past and present.







