Ideas To Spark Reading in Children

Editors note: I recently moved my blog to a new server. You can find this same post (and all my others) at the new location: BalancingMotherhood.com, where I post daily.

Scholastic has a great interactive house graphic which shows all the areas of your home where you can incorporate reading for your kids. Some of its ideas and information include:

• In the bathroom: reading in the bathtub and using foam letters that stick to the wall in the bathtub
• In the bedroom: drawing and writing are associated with learning to read
• In the kitchen: using a cookbook to find recipes that start with the letter “c”
• In the family room: reading magazine and newspaper articles out loud together

These seem like simple concepts that we all know, but it’s a great reminder that reading comes in many forms and that we need to encourage it from the start. View all their tips in the graphic here.

Read my earlier post about American Reading Habits.

Cribs and Kid’s Jewelry Recalls

I wasn’t going to keep writing about all the recalls, thinking that Moms get that information in our everyday news sources, but then I decided to offer some links in case there is a Mom reading this who hasn’t heard this news yet. In the past week, there have been two crib recalls — one for a regular crib, one for a play yard (aka pack ‘n’ play). And, there is a recall on children’s jewelry that contains lead.

Here’s a list of the recalls from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Don’t forget, as I posted earlier, you can sign up to get email notices of all recalls, here.

Study Says Men Are Happier Than Women

I’m not shocked by this headline, given all that women do today, but I am a bit surprised.

“The New York Times,” is reporting that men are happier than women. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, economists at the University of Pennsylvania (and a couple), have looked at the traditional happiness data, in which people are simply asked how satisfied they are with their overall lives. In the early 1970s, women reported being slightly happier than men. Today, the two have switched places.

It goes on to say:

A big reason that women reported being happier three decades ago — despite far more discrimination — is probably that they had narrower ambitions, Ms. Stevenson says. Many compared themselves only to other women, rather than to men as well. This doesn’t mean they were better off back then.

I wonder if the women in this study truly aren’t as happy as men, or they are just putting too much pressure on themselves to be “happy.” Do men and women have different thresholds for happiness?

Read reader comments on this article here.

Can You Have it All?

Families have such a difficult time these days trying to do everything — work, school, activities, meals and still have some leisure time. Is it possible to really have it all?

CNN.com has a section dedicated to this topic. Here’s what its opening page says:

“Americans are working longer hours than ever before, taking a big bite out of their personal lives. Add economic pressures and technology that ensures a 24/7 connection to work and you have the line between job and personal life blurring.”

It also states:

“A stressful work life can affect your home life as well.”

The latter statement is quite a big message. If your job is causing you stress, you can’t possibly have a balanced life at home. It just doesn’t work like that. You’ll end up taking our your frustrations on your spouse, children or friends. I’ve found that if your job is that stressful, you need to reevaluate what you do or where you work. How you feel about your job definitely seeps into your home life.

Take its quiz, “Are you off balance?“ and see how you rate. I scored a 47 percent; it says I’m “in harmony.”

‘Supernanny’ is Back Tonight

I watched a past episode of “The Supernanny” last week, and it reminded me what great lessons are contained in every episode. If you’ve never watched the show, it’s a reality-based series where a family struggling with child behavior issues, seeks the advice from the Supernanny (aka JoJo).

The Supernanny comes to the family’s home and observes its regular routines and find the flaws in the current system. Over the course of a week, she offers suggestions, tips and tricks to get the family back to a functioning unit where the kids respect and listen to the parents.

Each week, there are new challenges and new techniques. It’s a great show that parents should watch to see how others learn to parent young children.

Watch the season premier tonight on ABC.

There is also a separate Suppernanny Web site with tips, articles, video clips, message boards and mom bloggers. Here’s the link.