Night Light Stories

NOTE:  I am reposting this information ... because this is a site you really should visit!  I especially enjoyed their latest poem, Captain Destructo.

I am also very excited to announce an upcoming series of children's books written by the husband-wife team behind NightLight Stories!

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As much as I love to cuddle up with a good book, there's something truly magical about having a story read to you. During my years in the classroom, I always treasured the times my students gathered around to hear my voice read the words of a favorite chapter book. Sharing that special time with my own toddler is not only a daily treat but also holds lasting memories for me. And, I wish, so much that my sweet husband would read aloud to me; I love the sound of his voice.

And all of that is just a fraction of the reason that I adore Night Light Stories.

"Night Light Stories is a podcast featuring original children's stories." The stories are funny, entertaining, and great for kids of all ages. Another unique aspect of Night Light Stories is the re-occurring star character, the author's pet ferret Mojo.

The site currently includes 10 episodes, each episode is an original story written by an experienced teacher and mommy ... with some help from her husband. The latest, The Watermelon Seed, is a darling dialogue between a young boy and his grandmother via letters ... over the course of his mother's pregnancy. The story features a soothing rhyme pattern, facts about what plants need to grow, and time transitions over the seasons. In the end, the young boy is introduced to his new baby sister. Too cute!

Aside from the creative content of the stories themselves - which makes this blog well-worth visiting, the podcasts are produced with obvious skill and attention-to-detail. Love that!

As if the stories aren't enough, the text of each episode blog post includes useful and engaging features:

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  Words of the Day, aka "juicy words" - really great new vocabulary with words and simple definitions
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  Activity Ideas - ideas for extending a child's story-listening experience.
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  Comprehension Questions - leads for discussing the story with your child and helping him recall details

and ...

Bright Birthday Wishes - the author provides you a creative way to wish someone a happy birthday. All you have to do is send an email to have an announcement made at the end of each podcast episode and on the blog. What child (or adult) for that matter wouldn't love that?

Teacher Thought: There are three modalities of learning: Seeing (visual), Hearing (auditory), and Touching (tactile). Listening to stories - via podcast - is an excellent way to develop a child's ability to process information auditorially, a skill that is extremely helpful to all students in a classroom. This skill is invaluable and is much different than sitting on a parent's lap and following along with a book.

Give Night Light Stories a try; you won't be disappointed!

Letter Recognition - Online - Part 1

I am constantly finding great resources online ... sometimes it's hard to stop ... it's like an obsession! Lately, I've been focusing on Letter Recognition with my toddler. I have dozens of resources bookmarked, but I decided to give them to you in bite-size pieces ... three at a time!

A Printable Activity: Alphabet Picture Pages
Simple, black-and-white images - one for each letter of the alphabet.
This is a pdf file that prints in seconds and is ready to use - love that!

• Cut apart the cards, color them, and match with foam letters.
• Leave as solid pages, attach to a magnetic surface, and place a magnetic letter in the matching square.
• Make letter cards and use the sets as a Memory game.
• Lots of possibilities for very little work :)

An Interactive Site: Starfall.com - ABCs, Getting Ready to Read

Starfall is a plethora of resources, but I focused on this one interactive component. This activity requires a lot of clicking, but I think it's well worth that effort.

• Click one of the letter blocks and the upper case and lower case letter are presented visually and verbally.
• Click again and you'll hear the phonetic sound the letter makes.
• Click the arrow to see a picture whose name starts with that letter.
• Click again and the word is presented at the bottom of the screen and spoken aloud.
• Get it? Keep clicking ...
  

A Video from YouTube: ABC Song, Let's Start Smart

My toddler enjoyed it, and I like that it focuses on lower case letters.

Toddler TV Time

inspired by All About MEme Monday @ MommyBrain

Allowing young children to watch television is a bit of a controversial subject, and there's been all kinds of research done to provide evidence of the TV's impact on toddler learning, social growth, and attention spans.

Some parents firmly believe that no television should be "consumed," while others leave the TV on morning-noon-and-night. Still others fall somewhere in between ... I fall "somewhere in between" but I also have the perspective that what my toddler watches should be valuable - as much as possible. It's not just about quantity; it's more so about quality.

I will also honestly tell you that sometimes a 20-minute DVD saves my sanity, and I could care less if she's learned something while watching it. How's that for a reality check? :)

Here are some of the toddler media I consider to be quality:

1. Eebee's Adventures - one of the first shows NHV ever watched when she was about 9 months old. It features real babies/toddlers engaged in hands-on learning with things like balls and ramps, containers and scoops, and everyday objects. The philosophy behind this program is that learning is taking place every day and every waking moment. It reminds parents to capitalize on the "little things" that teach big ideas. The parent section of their website is one of the best I've seen.
2. Super Why - there's a real-life problem that mirrors a storybook problem; the literacy components include displaying story text at the bottom of the screen, choosing a word from a list, looking for super letters, using context clues, and spelling. There's also a website for parents (and teachers) with additional literacy activities.
3. Sid the Science Kid - this show is to science and thinking skills as Super Why is to literacy; a new science concept is first introduced in the home, and then carried to school; I most appreciate the questioning skills that are modeled. There's also a website for parents (and teachers) with activities to expand the episode's focus.

A few other thoughts on this topic - articles I found and read online:

• TV-watching Guidelines for Toddlers from BabyCenter
• When Toddlers Turn on the TV and Actually Learn

What TV programs does your toddler watch/love/learn from?

Smithsonian Free Museum Day

Looking for a fun - perhaps different - way to spend a Saturday afternoon with your toddler?

Oh, and did you catch the fact that I said, FREE?

I love, love, love FREE toddler-friendly entertainment, especially when it's something that grown-ups enjoy, too!

Smithsonian Magazine is sponsoring a nationwide Museum Day, which allows you to enjoy free general admission to hundreds of museums and cultural venues on Saturday, September 26, 2009.

Click Here for more details.

Click Here to find a venue near you.

Click Here to download the required Admission Card.

It will be a tough decision for us here in the NW. Here is just a partial list of participating museums in the area:

• Bellevue Arts Museum - Oh, an art museum near a Jimmy John's location ...
• Experience Music Project - This is my personal 1st choice.
• KidsQuest Children's Museum - We already have a membership.
• Log House Museum - This one made me chuckle ... and think of my dad.
• Seattle Art Museum - What's not to love about an art museum?
• The Museum of Flight - Guessing this will be CPV's top choice.

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Will you be enjoying a FREE trip to a museum on the 26th? If so, let me know which museum!

Website: Parts of the Body

Just throwing out a quick post before running to Costco ... oh, how I love going to Costco with a toddler in tow!

I searched high and low for interactive websites for toddlers that reinforce or provide practice with Parts of the Body. I didn't find a lot of options, but the one site I did find, I really like. While my toddler is no where near ready to mouse around a website, this is an activity we did together - she pointed and I moused.

Features I love:

• Starfall is a website that makes learning to read fun - how can you beat that?
• The visual image of the girl/boy is very clear and cute.
• The auditory feedback is really great. Natalie enjoyed the tune so much she danced right along.
• As a teacher, I really appreciate the visual cubes meant for each word/letter.
• I like having the opportunity to share a computer-based activity with my toddler :)

http://www.starfall.com/n/me/myBody/load.htm?F

Handmade Coloring Books

Looking for a truly wonderful, unique, non-commerical, beautifully hand-drawn coloring book?

You didn't even know you could wish for something like that, did you?

Well, you can.

And ... you can support a truly fabulous mom while enjoying one of her gorgeous books!

Handmade Coloring Books by Flipflops & Applesauce

I am so in love with these books. In my opinion, Chrissie is quite a talented artist; of course, I can barely sketch a stick figure, so I don't know if my opinion carries much weight :) I do know that her designs are clean and simple and very child-friendly.

Currently her books include: ABC uppercase and lowercase letters, Nursery Rhymes, Numbers 1-20 and Shapes. The tech-nerd in me thinks the idea of a digital file is brilliant! Place your order and you'll receive the coloring book as an attachment via email. The file is yours for personal use. How cool is that?

Which book are you going to order? How to you plan to use it? Let me know!

HealthyToys.org

HealthyToys.org

The homepage asks ... Why do we need Healthy Toys?

Ummmm, WHY do we need Healthy Toys? Let's start with the fact that our children deserve healthy toys! Oh, wait, I think they are actually referring to their website; not healthy toys in general ...

This is their answer ... HealthyToys.org includes test results for more than 2,200 toys and children’s products. This site is a first step in providing consumers with the information they need to make better choices when purchasing toys and other children’s products.

Couldn't agree more; consumers need to make better choices ... because the government provides absolutely no regulation of toy manufacturing! Preposterous, I tell ya! Where did companies get the idea that parents prefer cheap over safe? When did become okay to expose children - from birth - to awful chemicals?

Hold up. Wait a minute. This is not a soapbox post. Let me get back to this awesome website because, really, parents of babies, toddlers, and kids of all ages need this website!

An overview of the delightful features of HealthyToys.org

• The site is wonderfully organized, easy to use, and super informative. I learn something new (and sometimes startling) everytime I visit.


• You can search for a specific toy or browse by brand and/or type. There's also a listing of the Best and Worst Toys.


• When you look at a toy's rating, you are given an Overall Rating (Low, Medium, or High) as well as the levels of these chemicals: Lead, Bromine, Cadmium, Chlorine, Arsenic, and Mercury. If you're really into that sort of thing, you can even access "complete chemical results" for more numbers and chemicals. And I highly recommend taking a few minutes to read the Chemicals of Concern tab.


• You can even created Your Toy List which allows you to track toys that your own or make a shopping list of safe toys. What a great feature, and one that keeps me from frantically taking notes while I visit the site.


• If your toy isn't in the database, but you'd like to get it tested, you can cast your vote from an existing list of toys or nominate your toy.
  

Just as an example, I searched for a common toy and one that we have in our house, the Little People Animal Sounds Farm. Surprisingly, it has an overall rating of Medium because the levels of Chlorine run high in the animals - you know, the first thing in our child's mouth when playing with this toy? And there are low levels of Lead and Bromine on part of the barn itself. You can do the same thing - and get immediate results like these - with any of the toys in your house right now. Give it a try!

Exciting news that just reached my inbox ... HealthyToys.org is expanding their scope and launching HealthyStuff.org on September 1, 2009. "This new site will include toys, car seats, and even purses alongside new and used cars and - our newest category - pet products!"

HealthyToys.org is a tool designed to give parents a bit of control over the health and safety of our children. What a wonderful resource!