High Maintenance Mom

Today we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Mount St. Helens May 18, 1980 eruption. "30 years ago the largest terrestrial landslide in recorded history reduced the summit of Mount St. Helens by 1,300 feet and triggered a lateral blast that blew down and scorched 230 square miles of forest. Within 15 minutes, a vertical plume of volcanic ash rose over 80,000 feet." (learn more at the Mount St. Helens 30th Anniversary web site). There are also two YouTube videos made by the USGS, one on the eruption and the other on how volcano monitoring has changed since the eruption. Also see the poster, 30 Cool Facts about Mount St. Helens.

I am a huge fan of good manners. I am not talking militant manners but the basic good manners many kids and even adults lack. My 4 year old loves to write so with the Make Your Own Thank You Notes she got for her birthday we have been writing thank you notes for some time now. My 2 year old son likes to add his drawings. Here is how I engage my kids in writing thank you cards...

I watched the season 40 show highlights at http://www.pbs.org/parents/sesame/about_ss_season40video.html and laughed the entire time. It's really worth a look. Celebrities continue to make special guests appearance with relevant topics that kids of all ages can relate to. Sesame Street and I were both babies when I started my love affair with Aloysius Snuffleupagus or snuffy as most of us call him. Now I have 2 small children of my own and they love Elmo and Abby! I also came across Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street in my online readings and thought it looked like a great book for Sesame Street fans. Mostly, I just like that I can trust the show to be educational and funny. It (along with PBS as a whole) is a sure thing and nowadays...that's a big deal.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) has persuaded the Walt Disney Company to offer a full refund to anyone who purchased a Baby Einstein DVD in the last five years. "As a result of our 2006 Federal Trade Commission complaint, Disney stopped claiming that Baby Einstein videos were educational for infants...Recent research shows that screen time is not educational for babies. Now parents who purchased Baby Einstein DVDs, mistakenly believing the videos would make their babies smarter, can recoup their money." The refund is only available for a limited time. Click here to learn more about the refund. Below is more information about CCFC...

My family is already a big fan of They Might Be Giants and we were not disappointed by Here Comes Science. It's one we can listen to / watch hundreds of times. First of all, it comes as a DVD/CD set so the kids can watch at home and listen in the car without my husband writing code to grab the sound from the DVD. And most importantly, They Might Be Giants, once again has found a fun way to interest kids in a variety of more technical concepts (chemical elements, paleontology, the circulatory system, evolution, astronomy, and more). B loves the bloodmobile and spent a full night drawing it over and over with the white blood cells dressed in their army hats.

S's favorite song is Electric Car. N also likes the bloodmobile song. We also like Here Come the ABCs [CD/DVD Combo] and Here Come The 123s [CD/DVD Combo] - also now available as DVD / CD combos.

A friend of mine, who is a reading specialist, was explaining the other day how kids who never go out with their families to the zoo or other trips often do not acquire the vocabulary they need to read at grade level. I knew the trips we took with the kids helped them learn but I hadn't really thought about how hard it is for kids to read about animals if they had never seen them in real life or been introduced to them in stories. Of course, kids learn at different rates so showing your six-month old an animal at the zoo might not have the same effect as talking to an older child about animals. And it also doesn't mean that shoving a year's worth of trips into a week is going to have any benefit. We've recently been trying to help explain how concepts are connected and a recent wedding near DC provided a ideal and early opportunity to talk about the formation of the United States...

My family chooses only a few organizations that we donate to or become members of because, let's face it, everyone wants our/your money. Our local Audubon society is one membership we happily renew each year. It allows us access to many local farms, sanctuaries and hiking groups normally hidden away.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. For a good and quick overview of the historic adventure, watch the NASA cartoon. You can also view NASA images of the launch, newly restored videos, an interactive view of the landing site and other exciting images and information from the NASA homepage. There are many celebrations this weekend from model rocket launches to landing parties. On Monday, July 20th, we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of landing on the moon.

I came across a very kid friendly web site that I thought was worth passing along. It's a good old fashioned made at home web site with games for kids. http://juliasrainbowcorner.com was started by "Julia's" parents when she was a toddler and continues now that she is 11. There are very low key games, activity sheets, web resources and other kid related subjects. There's even a game that shows kids how to recycle. It isn't overly fancy but it is fun. Check it out with your kids and let me know your thoughts.

Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers: The Story of Success discusses how summer vacation is a disadvantage for poorer kids because the more wealthy kids go to camp, read books, and have other advantages during the summer. Kids who do not have these advantages often enter school the following year behind their peers. Summer reading programs can help narrow the gap. Reading is an incredible gift and helps kids find / explore their interests. Some kids need gentle assistance in learning to love books. They need to be read to, they need to see others reading, and they need to be given books that are not too challenging or too frustrating. I've found our local librarians are very helpful in finding reading materials for our kids. Most libraries have a Listening and Reading program where kids meet some type of goal to earn a free book. This is N's first year in the "Reading" program and he loves being a "big kid". Barnes and Noble also has a summer reading program for grades 1-6.