Booklist: Ruby B.!

Last night, while AB & I were chatting, she interrupted herself mid-sentence. Her eyes got as big as saucers as she said very excitedly, "Oh, Mom! I forgot to tell you! At school today we saw that picture! Of that girl! Her name is Ruby! Her last name starts with a B! It's the picture we have!"

I had no idea what picture she was talking about, but for some reason the first word that came out of my mouth was "Bridges?"

"YES! Ruby Bridges!" She jumped up and ran to one of our many bookshelves, searching until she found what she was looking for. She handed me a postcard that has this image on it:

The Problem We All Live With by Norman Rockwell

 

I instantly had a "this is awesome" moment that included the following thoughts:

1. My kid recognized a famous painting. Awesome!
2. My kid's teacher is discussing this famous painting and the story behind it. (Super) awesome!
3. My kid is super psyched about what she learned at school. Awesome!

So, in the spirit of this awesomeness, I decided to make our first booklist of 2013:

  The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles & illustrated by George Ford

 

Norman Rockwell: Storyteller With A Brush by Beverly Gherman

 

Ruby Bridges Goes To School: My True Story by Ruby Bridges

 

Norman Rockwell by Mike Venenzia

Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges

 

Norman Rockwell Coloring Book

Happy Reading!

 

Articles of Interest.

{Image via The Alantic}

A round-up of interesting articles about books, parenting, creativity, and education from around the web:

• 8 Great Picture Book Biographies - Reading Rockets 
• What Grown-Ups Can Learn From Kids Books' - The Atlantic
• Gear for a Stellar First Day of School - Daily Candy
• How to Read a Victorian Novel - Novel Readings
• Back-To-School Blues - My Brown Baby

Happy Reading!

Articles of Interest

[image via Mothering]

A round-up of interesting articles about books, parenting, creativity and education from around the web:

• Why Women Still Can't Have It All - The Atlantic
• Sorry, Lego. THIS is What Awesome Toys for Girls Look Like - Girl Empowerment 
• Summer Reading List 2012: 10 Essential Books for Cognitive Sunshine- Brain Pickings
• Reinventing Education To Teach Creativity And Entrepreneurship - Fast Company: Co.EXIST
• Top Picks for Summer Reading: Graphic Novels with African American Characters  - School Library Journal
• Planting Peace on the Summer Solstice - Mothering

Happy Reading!

Articles of Interest.

A round-up of interesting articles about books, parenting, creativity and education from around the web:

• Music of Kindness: Playing Together Strengthens Empathy in Children - Creative Boom
• Does Computer Engineering Barbie Discourage Girls From Pursuing Math and Science?- GOOD
• A Mr. Rogers Mashup on the Importance of Make-Believe - PBS
• Sargent Shriver = The Epitome of A Good Man- Maria Shriver
• How to integrate literacy with STEM  - The Answer Sheet
• Author Nathan Englander Writes A Love Letter to The Moth - The New Yorker

Happy Reading!

Articles of Interest.

A round-up of interesting articles about books, parenting, creativity and education from around the web:

• Feed Your Kids' Creative Spark with Engineering - PBS Parents
• Remembering Ray Bradbury - The Paris Review Daily / Wired / The Guardian
• Skipping School: Why One Mother Ditched Her Daughter's State Testing - Babble
• Ray Bradbury on Space, Education, and Our Obligation to Future Generations - Brain Pickings
• Is Fiction Changing, for Better or Worse? Have novels become more entertaining, and less of a cultural touchstone or a political voice? - NYT Room For Debate
• Want To Spark Your Creativity? Go Outside - The Cultured Seed

Happy Reading!

Empowering Video: Dr. Jane Aronson

On Wednesdays I share a video that facilitates empowerment; because when you know better, you do better.

Dr. Jane Aronson founded Worldwide Orphans Foundation to help orphaned children become healthy, independent and productive members of their communities. In this video from TakePart, she and actor Andrew Garfield talk about a recent trip to Ethiopia and how Andrew is helping further Dr. Aronson's mission.

Articles of Interest.

A round-up of interesting articles about books, parenting, creativity and education from around the web:

• Are Enhanced E-Books Bad For Kids? paidContent
• The End of Brain, Child Magazine - Motherlode
• The World of Beatrix Potter - Steady Mom
• Artists Cover Philadelphia Neighborhood in Color - PSFK
• Lauren Child's New Girl Detective: Ruby Redfort - Telegraph
• The Best Interactive and Pop-Up Books of the Season - New York Times

Happy Reading!

Empowering Video: Adora Svitak

On Wednesdays I share a video that facilitates empowerment; because when you know better, you do better.

No matter your position or place in life, it is imperative to create opportunities for children so that we can grow up to blow you away.

Child prodigy Adora Svitak schools us on what adults can learn from children in her 2010 TED Talk.

bold ideas + wild creativity + optimism + high expectations = innovation

Articles of Interest.

A round-up of interesting articles about books, parenting, creativity and education from around the web:

• How A Books Is Born - GalleyCat
• Let's Go Reading in the Car - The New York Times
• The Top 10 Education Reforms Mom Congress Wants to See - Parenting
• New Research: Twenty-Something Moms are More Likely to be Single - ModernMom
• 50+ Ways to Explore the Great Artists With Your Kids - Creative With Kids
• Fisticuffs Over the Care and Keeping of Books - Book Riot

Happy Reading!

Maker Faire Excitement.

Thanks to the wonderful folks at GE, I got complimentary passes to the Maker Faire Bay Area. I took AB and my sister. It was fantastic. We were able to see all sorts of things. Some of the highlights included:

• A great talk by Kipp Bradford, an engineering professor and   online tech editor at Make magazine, titled, "Where Are All The Black Makers?"
• The Bazaar Bizarre filled with tons of crafty goodness
• Holistic Hula Hooping, which is an great concept because after you hula hoop, you can help but be happy and have a bit of a brighter view of life
• Extremely tasty food (I had quite the love affair with my cheeseburger)
• The Pedal for Power Music Stage powered by volunteer pedalers
• A Trojan Horse built out of cardboard by PenfoldPlant

The best part about it was the welcoming and jovial atmosphere. Even if you are not an engineer-y, tech-y, STEM oriented type of person you couldn't help but marvel at the things that people had created. The kicker was that those people wanted to explain their creations to you in the kindest, least pretentious, most educational, inspiring way. The crafters wanted to explain their process to you, why they use the materials they use, and what inspired their pieces. It was truly a makers' fair. You walked away from it thinking, "Wow, people are really doing some amazing stuff in the world."

AB's excitement about everything made me excited for everything that she has the ability to do and learn. (It definitely made me certain that enrolling her in a robotics camp this summer was a good idea.) She likes to make things and she loves her HexBugs. Make even sells a kit for making a DIY version called BrushBots from a toothbrush, pager motor, and coin cell battery.

Kipp's talk about the seeming absence of "Black Makers" was really interesting. Not every awesome thing that happens in this world needs to be tied to race. Audience members commented that Black Makers are everywhere, but a lot of them don't want to be known for being a Black Maker, they want to be known for whatever product or device they are making or the creative solution they are providing. However, I think that he was making a valid point that it is important for young minority kids to see themselves reflected in their role models. Therefore, it is important to see prominent minority Makers, whether they be engineers, scientists, programmers, mathematicians or crafters.

Overall, Makeput on a beautiful event. Who knows, next year I may be tagging along with AB as a Young Maker extraordinaire.

Articles of Interest.

A round-up of interesting articles about books, parenting, creativity and education from around the web:

• Motherhood: Ecstatic, Frenzied and Exhausted - Huffington Post

• 10 Best Books for Thinking Parents - Parenting

• Developing Outdoor Creativity with Your Kids - Patch

• "Why Don't We Have Any Black Kids?": An Education System Divided - New York Times

• The Best Places for Mom Entrepreneurs to Work It - The Mogul Mom

• Dickens, Browning and Lear: What's in a Reputation?- Guardian Books

Happy Reading!

Articles of Interest

A round-up of interesting articles about books, parenting, creativity and education from around the web:

• Are Moms Taking Over the Blogosphere? PSFK

• Writing in the Dark: Confessions of a Literary Night Owl - New York

• Are You Mom Enough? Why Attachment Parenting Drives Some Mothers To Extremes - TIME

• Mothers and More: Books About Families - Reading Rockets

• 11 Secrets of a Creative Mama (a.k.a How to Get Stuff Done w/ a Kid) - Goddess Leonie

• The Kid Lit World Remembers Maurice Sendak - School Library Journal

Happy Reading!

Articles of Interest.

A round-up of interesting articles about books, parenting, creativity and education from around the web:

• A Father Creates Touching Time-Lapse Videos of His Kids Growing Up - Laughing Squid

• An Inspiring Letter from Keri Smith

• Backyard Science: Books for Youth Explorers - School Library Journal 

• 15 Amazing Playgrounds From All Over The World - Flavorpill

• Books to Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month - Reading Rockets

• "She's With Me": How a Lack of Resemblance Brought Mother & Daughter Closer: HuffPost Women

Happy Reading!

Articles of Interest.

A round-up of interesting articles about books, parenting, creativity and education from around the web:

• When Do Kids Stop Being Cute? Babble

• How Technology is Ingraining Creativity at an Early Age - PSFK

• The Book Review is Dead, Long Live the Book Review - Book Riot

• 10 Great Green Books for Kids - TLC Parentables

• Narcissism in Pink and Blue: Gender-Reveal Parties - The New Yorker

• Multiracial Children: Teaching My Children to Check The Latino Box on Applications - HuffPost Parents

Happy Reading!

Empowering Video: Sir Ken Robinson

On Wednesdays I share a video that facilitates empowerment; because when you know better, you do better.

"Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. 

He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity

 and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence."

An animation of (my intellectual crush) Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk

 on changing education paradigms.

She Blinded Me With Science: The First Science Project

Today AB turned in her science project, "What Shapes Do Bubbles Make?" This was her first major school project so it was kind of a big deal. Since she is in kindergarten, participation was optional. But I chose for her to opt-in as a challenge. Her project was quite simple. She wanted to find out what shapes bubbles can make. So, we made different shaped bubble wands out of pipe cleaners. Then she went outside and blew bubbles to her heart's content. It turns out bubbles are almost always going to be round thanks to surface tension. She had fun and there were lots of references to scenarios and songs from fellow mixed kid Sid the Science Kid.

The only snag was the writing. AB began to complain if there were more than four lines of writing. But, I felt that it was important for her to actually write everything, as opposed to using the computer. She needs to practice her printing and grammar. This was the perfect exercise for it. In addition, I wanted to make sure that it was evident that she did the project, not me. While it was not as neatly presented as the kids (or parents) who typed their reports, AB was extremely proud of the finished product.

Here are a few sites to for you and your budding scientist:

• TIME for Kids: The news magazine has an edition specifically for kids. Many of the articles are written by their kid reporters. (Bonus: There are 4 different print editions available based on grade level. Check out a sample of the K-1 edition.)
• SciGirls: This is a show on PBS that is targeted at girls (just as the name suggests) and designed to spark an interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
• How Stuff Works: This site answers pretty much any question that you could think of, as well as many that had never even crossed your mind.
• Science News for Kids: A great resource from the Society for Science and the Public. 
• Literacy in the Sciences: Reading Rockets' comprehensive guide to connecting literacy skills to math and science.
• National Geographic Kids: NatGeo provides 15+ science experiments that can be done with things you have lying around the house, as well as recipes and science news.

Happy Experimenting!

Book Review: Looking at Lincoln

I am finally reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It has been on my TBR list for awhile. So, I've had Lincoln on the brain lately. AB, eve\r the mini-me, found Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman. (I wish that we found it earlier because it would have been a great addition to the Historical Biographies Booklist: Politicos.)

Looking at Lincoln tells the story of a little girl who is curious about the man whose unusual face is featured on our money. She heads to the library, of course, to satisfy this curiosity. She gives the reader a nice overview of the main points of his life, with a few fun facts and speculations in between. Apparently, Lincoln's favorite opera was the Magic Flute. His favorite dessert was vanilla cake, so perhaps Mrs. Lincoln made it for him on the day he was elected. "But maybe he forgot to eat his slice. He was often too busy thinking to eat." 

The author also makes sure to touch on some of the less pleasant aspects of his presidency, namely, slavery, the Civil War, and his assassination. It would not be a true biography without them. However, she addresses them in a way that I found refreshing. They were not glossed over. She beautifully illustrates prominent African-Americans of the time, former slaves Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass. She also depicts what slavery was with an illustration of slaves picking cotton under a harsh sun while a white overseer on horseback yells as he cracks his whip. The slaves pictured include children and women, one of whom has a baby strapped to her back. It is a truly arresting illustration that you don't normally see in a picture book. In addition, there is a soldiers uniform with a bullet hole over the point of the heart, a pistol, and a empty upholstered rocking chair with a stovepipe hat laying beside it.

Maira Kalman's amazing illustrations are a crucial aid to her story telling. Her modern style is a nice change from the traditional illustrations that usually accompany historical picture books. Her writing style is also effective. She never mentions John Wilkes Booth by name, but simply refers to him as a "wretched man who did not want slavery to end." On the other hand, she makes sure the reader knows the name of one of the first soldiers killed in the Civil War. After describing his uniform with the bullet hole, she writes ,"The soldier's name was Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth. Terrible things happen in a war." The numbers of those killed in the Civil War (or any war for that matter), allow a certain dissociation. The numbers are far to large to truly grasp that each and every person killed was somebody's child. That each and every person had a name. That each and every person lived and breathed just as we do today. 

Reading this book with AB forced me to discuss some less pleasant aspects of race and history with her. To explain that her ancestors were slaves. To explain to her that her ancestors were also likely slave owners. I didn't dwell on it, because she is only six. (I mean, it's not like I'm reading Roots to her at bedtime.) But, these are things that I want her to be aware of and I want to be the one to introduce her to them. Yet, at the same time, I do not want to burden her with race. As the black mother of a biracial child, I do not want to skew her perspective of the world to be "black" perspective. So, I struggle with finding the right balance to allow her to find her on way, hopefully as color blind as possible. 

We need more historical picture books that introduce history to younger readers in an interesting factual way that is not overwhelming. Books that encourage curiosity and research. Books that encourage discussion and engagement. Looking at Lincoln is a perfect example of that type of book.

How To Talk To Kids.

She's only six, but it's already starting.

"So, how was your day?"

"Good."

"What did you learn today?"

"I don't know."

"What did you do today?"

"Nothing."

Really? You just spent 4 hours with a 29 other kids and 4 adults (teacher, student teacher, and parent volunteers) and you have absolutely nothing to say about it. Really?!

I know that I am not the only parent who is experiencing this. There are tons of articles written about it. Various tips for how to get your kid to talk to you. I was fully aware that this day would come. But it wasn't supposed to arrive so soon.

AB went on a field trip today. She talked about The Field Trip for weeks beforehand. She counted down the days until this oh so important day, March 29, 2012, when she would be going on The Field Trip. I was expecting to pick her up and find a kid who couldn't way to tell me about all the fun, amazing, unbelievable things that had happened on The Field Trip.

Instead, it was like pulling teeth. I was lucky that she even told me the names of her bus seat buddies. Hours later, during dinner, she finally shared some highlights of The Field Trip.

This is not supposed to be so hard. She's in kindergarten for heavens sake. When I pick her up, she should be excited, right? Bursting at the seams, ready to share all the awesome stuff that happens in the magical world of kindergarten. I shouldn't need use an arsenal of tactics that are meant for parents of tweens and teens.

I know that this is not a result of her school or her teacher, both of which are amazing. My frustration will most likely be alleviated by finding a different way to engage with her.

But I can't help but think, "This would so not be an issue if I were homeschooling."

Empowering Video: Thandie Newton

On Wednesdays I share a video that facilitates empowerment; because when you know better, you do better.

Actress Thandie Newton speaking about her journey of accepting her "otherness" at TEDGlobal 2011.

Empowering Video: 2012 Women in the World Summit.

On Wednesdays I share a video that facilitates empowerment; because when you know better, you do better.

Go forth and do awesome things.