Today we drove for a total of five hours for a two hour lunch. We were on four highways and a few back roads. Normally, on Memorial Day weekend, this would be the stuff for complaints but not today. We drove to Old Saybrook, CT to celebrate a 70th wedding anniversary. And no, that is not […]

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Growing up, I had a piano teacher named Mr. Cooper. He was definitely the coolest dude I knew. We played show tunes and easy listening tunes and Christmas carols with the occasional piece of classical music thrown in for good measure. Fast foward to the present and we’ve had a piano sitting in our house […]

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So maintaining two blogs does not seem to be working. Instead of writing twice as much, I am not writing at all. Rob and I were away last week, and this picture was hanging in our room… And I thought to myself that in order to make boring art, one must first make art. When […]

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I’m really not sure what part of this picture I love more… Caroline is reading her book before she even gets out of bed for the day. And Katherine loves her ‘sissy’ so much these days that instead of getting up and starting her day, she is watching Caroline read. Now that’s a lot of […]

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I have never gotten too terribly excited about poetry. But thanks to my girls and Gotta Book, I seem to be embracing poetry month this year. Each day a great poem is landing in my in box and with it links to lots of other great poetry related wonders. This weekend, for example, the girls […]

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I found inspiration to come back from my long and unannounced blog vacation thanks to one of my fellow kid lit bloggers, Gregory K. at GottaBook.  He is hosting the 2011 edition of  30 Poets/30 Days  in which he will feature a previously unpublished poem (or two!) each day for the month of April. I can’t […]

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In a blog post, last week I talked about the power of inspiring instead of entertaining our children. Amazingly, this weekend, my girls put my words into action. And I did nothing to set this up. We always have paper available. We always have markers available. And we always have magnifying glasses available. That was […]

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I am taking the most wonderful on-line class right now with Mariah Bruehl of Playful Learning. Mariah has a blog, a brick and mortar location where she offers workshops and materials and an upcoming book. I have taken many things from her class but as I am clearly having time management issues right now as I […]

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I am thrilled to announce that I wrote an article for the latest edition of the fantastically wonderful Literacy Lava. Click here to read what I had to say about reading to siblings of different ages. Susan Stephenson, the editor of Literacy Lava and blogger extraordinaire at The Book Chook  writes, “Can you believe this […]

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In honor of  Nonfiction Monday, I thought I would write about Caroline’s latest reading love. Sports Illustrated for Kids. When parents learn that the reading life they model for their children can have a direct impact on both their children’s reading skills and  their enjoyment, panic can appear. “But I only read magazines!” or “But my […]

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