100 Paper Planes to Fold & Fly

Do you like airplanes? Do you like making your own plane and having the coolest, most awesome plane around? Well, I sure do and guess what?! I now get to have the most raddest plane ever thanks to 100 Paper Planes to Fold & Fly!! This is such a fun book for kids and adults. It has the paper, instructions on how to fold 4 different types of planes, and 3 game ideas.

What I really LOVE about this book is that you get to have a blast making planes but at the same time, you get to teach your children about science! For quite a few years I thought that science was boring. And then I married Garrett. He is a complete science nerd! He has slowly convinced me that science is actually really neat and interesting. But don't tell him I think that! ;)

Anyways here are the concepts and skills taught by using this book as well as some activity ideas.

Skills/concepts:

• dexterity
• vocabulary- gravity, lift, thrust, drag
• marksmanship/aim

Activities:

1. Teach your child about the 4 forces and then have them experiment with altering those forces. For example; add a paper clip or pencil to add weight, have a fan blowing onto the plane, throw the plane harder or softer. You can get more information on the 4 forces here
2. Create a course for the plane to fly through.
3. Select a target to hit.
4. Create your own action packed, plane movie (totally picturing some chase or fighting scenes).

If you are ready for this awesome packed adventure click here

See how excited I am. This book is so cool!

I'm a Dirty Dinosaur

My goal with this blog is to give parents ideas of how to make books fun for them and their children. Today I read I'm a Dirty Dinosaur by Janeen Brian and Ann James. This is one of Spencer's favorite books. Whenever he sees it, he starts growling like a dinosaur.  It is so much fun! I love sitting down and reading with him. Spencer is 15 months old. His attention span is not very long. When I read this book to Spencer I always use fun voices, do actions, and of course growl. This helps his short attention span to last for the story and it is a great time for him and I to have fun and be silly.

This book is fantastic because it teaches the following skills:

• Language development
• Body parts

Additional activities you can do: 

• Use a toy and do the action words (shake a maraca, tap a stuffed animal, etc)
• Make your own dirty dinosaur with paper and crayons, pudding, paint, or mud

The adventure begins

I sell books. That is still mind blowing to me. This is something that I never thought that I would do. I have always been so shy. Talking with people has never been my strong suit. I am a person who usually just likes to keep to myself. But now that is all going to change.

About a month ago I was invited to a friend's Usborne party. I attended to be nice but didn't think that I would like the party or be able to afford the books that were being shown. To my utter astonishment, I immediately fell in love with these books and was shocked when I saw that they were actually affordable. I suddenly wanted every book that I was being shown. At the end of the party the consultant was giving her pitch of why we should host a party with her and why we should join her team. A thought came into my head that I should listen and think about doing this. I started looking into the company more and debated whether or not this was something I really wanted to do or if it was just a desire to get free books. A little bit later, my family went to the county fair. While we were there we saw a booth for Usborne. I immediately ran over to show Garrett the really cool books that I wanted to get. The consultant that was there was talking with me. She asked if I had thought about becoming a consultant. My response was that I was sort of thinking of it. She gave me her flyer and then I went on my way. That night when we got home I just kept reading over that flyer and looking through the catalog. I looked up more information about becoming a consultant and by the next day I knew that I really wanted to do this. The thing that pushed me over and made me decide that this was right for me was the company's mission statement.

I taught preschool for 6 years to children from very low income families. Their parents were always asking me how they could best help their child to learn. My answer was always the same, read to them. Reading creates bonds and also exposes children to new thoughts and worlds. Many of these parents would tell me that they didn't have enough money to have many books in their house. This deeply saddened me. I would then tell the parents options that they had to expose their children to books. I would tell them where their local library was and remind them that could borrow books for free from there. Another frequent thing that parents would tell me is that they don't know what to do with their child. When they would try to read with them, the child would get bored and they found it difficult to keep their child engaged. Parents would also ask me how they can use books to teach their child. I would do everything I could to help them. I would tell them reading tips and give them ideas of how to connect stories with real issues and ways to teach them. But I never felt like I was doing enough.

I am excited for this new adventure that I am on. After reading the mission statement from Usborne, I realized that there was a way for me to make a real impact on the life of many people. I have the ability and privilege to expose families to a wide variety of books, as well as giving them tips on how to make books more meaningful. I am nervous but oh so excited for my new business. I know that this is going to be one amazing adventure!