Ok, remember I was the Home Biz of the Week over at The Home Biz Blogger?

Well, Eve also interviewed me for that and she has posted the interview. You can find it here:

Featured Home Business - My Very Own Mail Interview

I tell you, WAHM’s are some of the coolest people! I have thoroughly enjoy working and interacting with them!

WAHM = Work At Home Mom

Thanks a ton, Eve!

GO READ A BOOK!

I just love it when I have the letters all assembled - especially the months that I use random colors - everyone just gets two random colors for their two-page letters.

I got them all assembled and sent out today, but, while they were sitting there waiting to go into the proper envelopes, I thought they looked so cute that I took a picture of them.

Here it is:

And that is all I have to share today - just wanted to show you the cute and colorfulness of the letters all gathered up together!

GO READ A BOOK!

That is the name of a really great new blog by a stay at home mom of three precious girls. She is always on the lookout for great activities for her girls - fun and educational - and wants to share her finds with all of us. And so, she started Little Fun; Little Learning.

One of my favorite posts she’s made so far is all about some of the great books that she recommends reading to your kids. She actually lists some of my all-time favorites as she discusses Reading with your child.

It really is a great new blog, already filled up with many wonderful resources - you really should check it out!

GO READ A BOOK!

I send personalized letters to children once a month, and in each letter I write, I tell the kids about a wonderful book. I write two letters - one for older bookworms and one for younger bookworms.

Well, I finished writing my January letters yesterday, and I had so much fun searching for animal books to talk about!

I picked two really great ones, and I wanted to share them with you!

For my younger bookworms, I chose Eric Carle’s Animals Animals. This book looks so great and every single time I pick out a book to talk about I want to go out and get it for my kids! I better be careful and not listen to myself too much, or we’ll be living in a box made of books! Heehee! If I had the means available to me, I would have sooooooooooooo many books! It would be fabulous! Like those libraries in mansions with the sliding ladders…. aahhh…

Well! A girl can dream, can’t she?

Ok, ok, back to the book - it is filled with loads and loads of poetry from many different cultures! From Shakespeare to Lewis Carroll, from Emily Dickinson to Rudyard Kipling, from passages in the Bible to Japanese haikus!

And then, of course, there are the amazing and wonderfully colorful illustrations by Eric Carle - most of the animals gracing two pages each! The whale stretches out on four pages!

This book sounds really fabulous! Here it is:

The book I chose to talk about to my older bookworms is The Kingfisher First Encyclopedia of Animals. This book looks so awesome! I know, I know - I already said that about the other one, but, I just get so excited about the books that I find! (Hence, wanting to buy them all!) I mean, really, though - just look at the cover:

Doesn’t that look fabulous? I know, I know - you can’t judge a book by its cover, but, you know what? A cover can definitely draw you in! And draw me in, it did!
The best thing about this book is that it is not set up alphabetically, but, rather, in animal groups - mammals, reptiles, birds, etc. There are two great things about this - for children who are just learning to look stuff up for themselves, this can be a lot easier. Also, this will help children to better understand and learn the classifications of animals. Very cool!

The book also has over 1500 beautiful color illustrations and photographs. And it has one of my favorite features of kids books - those little cross reference boxes to help the children find related topics within the book.

Yep - those are two very good books! They get my bookworm seal of approval!

GO READ A BOOK!

My mom and my sister-in-law sent the kids my very favorite gifts ever - yep! Books!

What better gift can there possibly be?
One of the books that Shawn got was called, The Black Tattoo.

I haven’t read the book, yet - but, it looks really neat!

And he really enjoyed it. And the part that has me so jazzed?

The cover! Yes, the cover! You open it up and it is a huge poster - merging the arts, you gotta love that!

That’s right - I’ve been picked as Eve Lester’s Home Business of the Week on her Home Biz Blogger blog!

Click my new badge to read all about it:

The Home Biz Blogger is a fabulous place to go to learn all kinds of things about running your online business.

There is so much information there - I don’t even know where to start, but, you can bet I’m going to be checking it out a lot!

Thanks so much, Eve!

Now ya’ll:

GO READ A BOOK!

My friend has a radically cool new site to help us all get more exposure for our lovely blogs!

The site is called TopMomma.com - see the pretty button in my sidebar?

Anyway, this is a cool new concept in blog promotion - and it’s fun, too!

You submit a picture to represent your blog, one that is compelling enough to catch yourself some clicks.

The more clicks you get, the longer you stay on the page, and the higher up on the page you stay!

Here is another one of the cute buttons for you to display:

So get on over there, and sign yourself and your great blog up and get some more visitors, and meet some more momma bloggers!

Don’t forget - it’s TopMomma.com

And also…

GO READ A BOOK!

Yep, yep, yep! They do! They do!(You would have to be a Land Before Time fan to catch that… are you?)
Anyway, back to Taco Bell - they are giving BOOKS with the kids’ meals!!!!

I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not - but, I LOVE BOOKS!
And the books are teaching about kindness, courage, honesty, and perserverance.

So not only are they promoting literacy, they are teaching good values, as well!

And that, in my book, rocks!

Here is a pic of the one my son got:

(I know it’s terribly blurry, I’ll try to get a better shot of it tomorrow.)

GO READ A BOOK!

Toddlers are full of energy. For them the whole world is just one big adventure. So just how do you keep these little explorers busy?

Here are a few fun and educational activities you can share with your toddler:

Draw a Giant Picture – Buy a large piece of cardboard (poster size) at your local arts supply shop and have fun drawing a huge picture with your toddler. You can use finger paints, crayons or markers. If your toddler is young just let him scribble or dab paint onto the poster board. Talk about the different colors as your drawing, for example say “Wow, your orange tree looks really nice. Mommy’s going to draw a red balloon now”

You can even take turns lying on the sidewalk and draw a body outline of each other using chalk. Once you have the outline draw in the face and features.

Make a Mask – Using paper plates help your toddler cut out eyes, nose and mouth and paint in the colors of your toddler’s favorite animal. He can be a cat, tiger or even a mouse. Once you finish with your masks, put them on and pretend to be animals. Toddlers love pretend games and this activity will help build their creativity.

Go on a Field Trip – Nothing fancy, just go to the local pet shop and show your toddler all the different types of animals or fishes. You can also go on field trip to look for bugs around your neighborhood. A field trip to the supermarket is great fun too. I’m not talking about your weekly shop but just a special field trip where you buy only a few items but your toddler can help you choose, weigh and even pay for them. This usually works great with fruit and vegetables since there are so many different types.

Show your toddler the different types of fruits and name them. Talk about the different colors and textures. Let them be just like you and place the items in your shopping cart and on the checkout counter. This is a great way for even young toddlers to start learning about their environment and the foods we eat. You can even make a special fruit salad when you get home.

GO READ A BOOK!

I’m so excited - I just ordered the crafts and goodies for the January mailings for the letters for children!

The theme is going to be ‘animals’. I haven’t picked out what books I am going to be talking about, but, I can show you the crafts and goodies - they are so cute!

And I’m sure I will have no problem finding great, and fun, books to talk that are all about animals!

I really get so excited when I order the goodies, and especially when they arrive, but, I also have such a blast picking out the books to talk about!

Ok, well, let me show you the goodies.

For the craft, we are going to make animal necklace pouches:

Aren’t those so cute? I hope I get to make one with my daughter - I just love it when there is an extra one for her and I to make together!

And to go along with that, the children will receive two animal bookmarks each:

Awfully cute, but, they are that clip kind, so I hope the smaller fingers can manipulate them. They were just too adorable not to get.

I’ll have to ask my moms how the little ones do with those.

Now ya’ll:

GO READ A BOOK!