Portland Parents

And with it comes The Summer Reading Game! It’s a free game that encourages your kids to read or be read to over the summer. It’s already begun. Kids win prizes for every section they complete. Sign them up today! (I’d give you a link, but you have to go to the library to do it.)

And for the truly adventurous, the library’s also offering their normal “read for life” program for adults. Pick up a card at the library and read or listen to four to six books. ( Not seven and eight is right out). Do this and you’ll be entered in a drawing for some fabulous prizes!

Paknaks are soft rubbery gewgaws that attach with velcro to your child’s clothes, backpacks, bike helmets, or any other thing you want to personalize. Very cute and stylish, and kids ( maybe younger kids, but check them out for older kids too ) will adore them.

I especially like this idea because while I want my kids to have personalized “stuff,” I’m really against putting their names ( or even their initials ) somewhere a would-be kidnapper would see it. ( Yeah, I worry a lot about kidnappers, but these are my treasures we’re talking about. ) With these little PakNak charms, you can make your blue-backpack-just-like-everyone-else’s be instantly recognizable without making your kid a target.

Totally cool!

We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends.

If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn’t know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency?

Hence this “ICE” (In Case of Emergency) Campaign The concept of ” ICE” is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name “ICE” ( In Case Of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn’t know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose.

In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as “ICE.”

For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. A great idea that will make a difference!

Update your mobile phone and those of your kids today!

Do you have kids?
Do you have a will?

In A Parent’s Guide to Wills & Trusts, Don Silver will explain why wills and trusts are so very important to parents. He’ll do it in 250 pages, with a striking question and answer format that will leave you with few questions. Each section is clearly marked out, and each question is answered in plain speech. In fact, each question is at the most 5 lines, and an answer takes up about a page, rarely two pages. This book is concise yet thorough and makes an excellent Bathroom Reader; or anywhere else you have a few minutes to grab a page or two. Are you a little early collecting your daughter from school? Read up on how to protect your kids’ and grandkids’ inheritances in the sad case that they get divorced.

I definitely recommend this book. Don won’t lead you wrong.

PS I’ve been informed that you can get a six dollar discount at the publisher website!

When your kid’s in elementary school and they’re reading hundreds of books a month, you don’t think you need to worry about this. But you’re wrong.

Eighth graders are a lot more busy than fifth graders. More homework, more rehearsals, more time spent with their friends. And what loses out? Reading, of course. Part of it is, in the words of one teen, “After all those words in my homework, the last thing I want to do is read more.” But students who read on their own become the strongest readers and writers, and they get the most out of our cultural and intellectual atmosphere.

According to the Oregonian ( 2008-1-27,A11), eighth grade “students who never read for fun are a year or more behind the class in reading ability.”

So what’s the deal? How can we help our kids keep reading? The best way may be to restrict them from reading. One sneaky teacher convinces kids to read John Steinbeck by making the kids get parental permission first. Another good way is to read yourself, and to have lots of books around. School librarians have the best chance of being able to match kids and books, but if you spend the time reading a stack of young adult books, you could at least talk with your kids about the books.

It could be your own private book club!

Roger Ebert loved the Golden Compass. He thought it was a great classic kids fantasy movie and that it would be a hit.
He was disappointed by the uproar about the movie, and how many people refused to watch it without even giving it a chance.

People are comparing it to Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings. As far as the movie production goes, and the fantasy story around it goes, it’s in the same ballpark as those two movies and so a kid who liked those two movies would like the Golden Compass. However, Phillip Pullman wrote his trilogy as pretty much an exact opposite to CS Lewis’s Chronicles, and the film is, according to Ebert ( I haven’t seen the movie but I’ve read the book ), “viciously anti-god.”

That shouldn’t keep you from seeing this movie, however. It’s not an “athiest film” … ask yourself why an atheist would feel the need to “attack god.” In fact, in the end, good overcomes evil, and characters willingly make sacrifices to help one another.

Roger Ebert is a Catholic who has read the Bible cover to cover, and he can’t find anything wrong in this movie. Maybe you should give it a chance too.

Gever Tulley, founder of the “tinkerer school,” talks about 5 things you should let your kids do; that allowing kids to explore helps them become more self-reliant, confident and safer overall.

He persuasively argues that allowing your child the freedom to explore will help them learn bigger life lessons than ones “you can learn from Dora the Explorer.” One of his examples is fire; teach your kid to play with fire and actually let them poke around with it. Learning how to control and work with a mysterious and primal force is one of the great things that people learn. It teaches them about intake, combustion, and exhaust, the three crucial pieces of “fire” that you’ll need for a fire.

when we remove every sharp object, every pokey bit from the world, then the next time the child comes into contact with something not made out of round plastic, they’ll hurt themselves with it. We rob our children of valuable opportunities to learn how to interact with the world around them. And despite our best efforts and intentions, kids will always figure out how to do the most dangerous thing they can in whatever environment they’re in.”

The video linked above is somewhat less than 10 minutes and is worth the time spent watching it. He’s very persuasive.

I can’t wait. As the father of two lovely and talented daughters, I was reluctant to buy them the The Dangerous Book for Boys. Not terribly reluctant, mind you; but I did buy my eldest a couple of “girl talk” sorts of books. I just want her to have all the tools she might need in the future. Tools I didn’t have. She has read and re-read the The Big Book of Girl Stuff several times. The Daring book talks about cool girl stuff like tree-climbing and like mutual funds.

Through January 13, the Forestry Museum has carousel animals on display; a collection of 25 rare hand carved animals. From horses to dragons, you’ll be enchanted with this magnificent exhibit. Admission is $7 for parents, $5 for children ( 2 and under, free ) and $6 for grandparents.

However, you can get a coupon from their site for a free kid’s admission with an adult. Carousels!

( here’s a direct link to the coupon ).

Doria wrote in:

I am looking for a Mom’s taxi service to shuttle my kids to school in the
morning. I am trying to get rid of my car. I live close to public transit
which is convientent for almost everything except getting my kids to school in
the morning.

In the spirit of blogs, chatter, et cetera- sound in with any suggestions and I’ll forward them on to Doria.