What parent doesn’t love the joy of sharing a book with his child? As a mom of three, I know that the time spent choosing, reading and talking about books with my preschooler, kindergartner and sixth grader is always valuable. I love that they each have interest in books that they indulge on their own, too.

My younger children and I have recently had the opportunity to “test drive” an electronic reading system together, which is a completely new experience for them. VTech, a company that is well known for its electronic learning toys, now makes the V.Reader, an interactive e-reading system. I’m happy to share with you our impressions, as well as to offer you a giveaway opportunity just in time for the holidays!

Continue reading and enter the giveaway. . . .

5 Minutes for Mom is having a big Christmas Giveaway throughout November. Check out the site each day to see the new giveaway.

Dawn lives a life immersed in books. When she’s not reading to her preschool class or her own children, she’s posting reviews on 5 Minutes for Books or blogging away at my thoughts exactly.

The math and science concepts covered are: patterns, counting (zero and 1-12), shapes (squares and triangles), measuring, maps and sorting, all important building block concepts to be learned in the early childhood years. The activities in the workbooks include both coloring and drawing on the pages, as well as working with cards to be printed out from the CD that comes with each book.

The best thing about these workbooks in my opinion, and what makes them stand out from the rest of the crowd, is the literature connection each workbook provides, for also on the CD is a full copy of a picture book that relates to the concept presented. For example, in the Patterns: What’s the Big Idea? workbook, the picture book included on the CD is the wonderful Pattern Fish by Trudy Harris, a fun and colorful book that introduces the concept of recognizing patterns. The big idea (couldn’t resist) behind these workbooks is that parents and young children sit together and read the picture books first, then children can practice with the concepts presented through the workbook’s activities. If looking at the picture book on a computer together isn’t feasible, parents could also check the books out from their local library. I opted to do this, and my younger children have frequently chosen to look at the books on their own since we first read them together, reinforcing the concepts even more!

In complete honesty, I’m not the biggest advocate for straightforward paper and pencil activities for preschoolers and kindergartners. As an early childhood educator, I advocate for hands-on activities and experiences for young children, working with materials that can be manipulated and explored as their primary way of learning. That being said, I know that there are situations in which some young children crave workbook-type activities, especially in the older sibling scenario I described earlier. The What’s the Big Idea? series impresses me with the literary connections and the more interactive component of using printed cards to create one’s own patterns, etc. I feel confident that these activities will appeal to some young children, and I encourage parents to take a look at the series as an option for supplemental exposure to some basic math and science concepts.

We have two complete sets of 6 workbooks to give away! Leave a comment here if you’d like to win (U.S. and Canada addresses only, please), and we’ll announce the winners on September 14.

The winners of our recent giveaways are
• Racing in the Rain — #18, June
• One Day book and gift pack — #18 ibeeeg
• Her Sister’s Shadow — #30 Lanna

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.

Preschool teacher Dawn keeps busy with her students, her own children, loads of books, and blogging at my thoughts exactly.

My son Kyle actually likes doing workbooks. Weird, huh? I’m not saying he pops out of bed each morning joyfully anticipating a few hours (or minutes, to be honest) of filling in the blanks and circling math sums, but he really does enjoy them, both when they are homework from school and when I’m providing “enrichment” for him.

We received a workbook from Carson-Dellosa Summer Bridge Activities: Bridging Grades Second to Third that he’s been doing off and on since we got it. He’s actually entering 2nd grade, but he reads at a much higher level, and he likes math, so the sheets we’ve done have been a good level for him. We can always skip ones that don’t apply and come back to them later.

For whatever reason, this brand of these types of workbooks is motivational for my kids. Kyle likes being able to put a sticker on each page. Even when Amanda was older and doing 5th to 6th, she was somewhat motivated to stick with it (somewhat).

New (to me at least) are the Summer Bridge Activity Sets. Each box comes with 2 sets of cards. They are long and thin, easy to hold, and secured in the corner with a plastic brad. There are different categories with math, jokes, fun facts and more. The set is supposed to be for 2nd and 3rd graders, but some of the tasks seem quite easy. For example, a math card asks the child to identify the even numbers. We brought these along and they were a great car activity on our recent trip. Kyle enjoyed sharing the jokes and riddles and quizzing us and his 12-year-old sister (who actually enjoyed them too). A Word Play section reinforces language arts in a fun way. The puzzlers section offers several “spot the difference” type activities.

I would definitely buy more of these sets for quiet and educational fun on the go.

Jennifer Donovan and her family have survived several major road trips each summer, driving more than 2500 miles. Products like these make summer fun. She blogs at Snapshot.

I recently reviewed Pam Allyn’s book Best Books for Boys. In reading it, her love for students and her desire to help them experience success in learning was evident. With that in mind, I couldn’t wait to read Your Child’s Writing Life, which is written for parents (unlike the former which was helpful to me as a parent, but directed mostly at educators).

I feel almost weepy with joy at her words from a parent and educator who loves children that go right through to a parent’s heart. I’ll let her words beginning the section on the 7-year-old writer speak for themselves (since they rang so true to me, as the mother of a sweet 7-year-old boy):

Seven-year-olds are a poignant reminder to us grown-ups of the fleeting nature of time. They are standing between early childhood and something else: an awareness of mortality and the lines between what is real and what is not seem sometimes blurred.

Their teeth are wiggling and falling out one after the next. They even look a little funny, with their legs and arms and bodies all growing at different rates.

In this chapter Allyn outlines the developmental stage in the writing life of a child, from age 2 up to 12. She recommends activities to kindle the love of writing and specific books that will inspire them.

This is so much more than a how-to manual encouraging that desire that we parents seem to have to breed the best and the brightest. Instead of some sort of twisted recipe pushing early achievement, this really reads like a parenting manual. In fact, when she introduces the idea of a writing notebook, she encourages a parent to do the exercises/prompts alongside their child. I love this! What a way to connect.

We don’t think twice about making crayons and paper available and encouraging our preschoolers to use them to create, and it’s in this vein that Allyn informs and encourages us to incorporate writing into their developmental lives. Just as reading is important (and she stresses again and again that the best writers are readers too), writing is something we should be encouraging in a fun creative way.

I can’t say enough good things about Your Child’s Writing Life. Honestly, I could go on for pages about all the redeeming qualities (including “The Writing Doctor is in the House” which offers support as we are trying to support our children during times of homework stress and frustration). I am so happy to be able to give away a copy to one of you.

Leave a comment if you’d like to enter to win, and we’ll announce the winner right here on August 17.The giveaway is closed.

We have a couple of lucky winners to announce:

• The novel Rules of Civility goes to #
• The Where’s Waldo book pack winner is #14 Tammy Gordon

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed or video reviews on YouTube. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.

Jennifer remembers her own young writing life, including attempts in elementary school to write the next great (middle grade) American novel. She uses her blog Snapshot as her writing outlet now.

My youngest son turns 5 in November, missing the cutoff for public kindergarten, which means he’ll move to the kindergarten room in his daycare. We’ve discussed starting him on learning to read ahead of his peers, some of whom are still learning letters and sounds, something he mastered months ago. The Start to Read! Level 1 Early Reading Program 6-Book Set series is the perfect system to get him started.

The set is aimed at ages 4-6 and includes a read-along and songs CD, 5 beginning reader books and a comprehension workbook, along with a parent guide offering tips and ideas for following the 3 step process of listen, read, review. Each beginning reader book corresponds to 2 tracks on the CD, where the book is read twice. The child is encouraged to listen to the story while following along in the book, and then reading it on their own. Zach was apprehensive at first but once we finished the first book, he requested another, and then a third. We stopped after 3 books because it was losing his interest, but he did a great job of following the story and sounding out the words. Some of his reading was more remembering the story, but the parent directions encourage allowing the child to tell the story in their own words. A few days later he requested the other books on his own, then announced “I can read!” after we finished them.

In addition to the Start to Read set, School Zone provided us with two Little Get Ready! Books. The Get Ready To Read! Little Get Ready! Book is aimed at slightly older children — ages 5-7/grades K-1 — and teaches and reviews reading and writing skills such as letter-sound recognition, letter-picture recognition, action words, vowels, matching, opposites, rhyming and many more. The skills begin simple and grow progressively more difficult, keeping the child’s interest and challenging them where needed. Zach was able to whip through the earlier pages with ease, then needed my assistance for the more difficult pages. He learned some concepts that were new to him, such as ending sounds, that will help as he learns to read.

The second Little Get Ready! Book we received is Multiplication Facts and is perfect for my rising third grader who learned the basic concepts of multiplication at the end of second grade. The books starts out with grouping, then moves into more complex concepts such as tables and arrays. It stresses using the multiplication concepts already learned to understand new concepts. Math is one of Alex’s favorite subjects and flies through workbooks in his grade level. The Multiplication Facts book challenges him to approach multiplication in a new manner and will give him an advantage when he enters third grade.

The books are reasonably priced and available as sets or individually. School Zone also has flash cards, software, and games in addition to dot-to-dot, hidden pictures and other fun activity books. If you’re looking for fun and educational material to keep your kids from suffering Summer Brain Drain, School Zone is the place to go.

It warms Nancy’s heart to see her boys pull out their workbooks unprompted. She writes about her 2 boys, books and life in Colorado at Life With My Boys and Books.

Timmy Time: Picture Day — available June 28

From the back of the box: Come along for a picture-perfect day of fun with your preschool pal, Timmy! From good clean fun during school photo day to drumming up music lessons, these wonderful stories filled with surprises will have you laughing in a flash. So snap up these five adorable tales with a big focus on fun!

Fireman Sam: Brave New Rescues — available July 5

From the back of the box: Fireman Sam is back for more heroic adventures in fire safety! Fireman Sam and his friends in Pontypandy work together to save the day when Mike’s kitchen catches fire. Dilys gets stuck out at sea, and Norman cries wolf. . . literally! Come along with the hero next door and his brave brigade for some courageous adventures and daring new rescues the whole family will enjoy.

Hit Favorites: Preschool Fun – available July 5

Features 8 episodes in all from Barney, Thomas, Fireman Sam, Bob the Builder, Angelina Ballerina, Kipper, Roary the Racing Car, and Timmy.

So leave a comment if you are interested, and I’ll send these along to you (U.S. addresses only). Just for grins, tell me which DVD the child in your life would watch first. I’ll announce the winner on July 6.The giveaway is closed.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.

Jennifer Donovan actually misses preschool television now that her kids are 7 and 12 and don’t watch it anymore. She blogs about what they do watch at Snapshot.

Pam Allyn has spent years encouraging kids to read. In her writing, we can hear a special heart for the struggles that boys face, especially as they get older. She responds not with sympathy, but with a “make-it-happen” attitude that teachers and parents can benefit from. She outlines the obstacles that cause boys to perceive reading as a chore, and then gives plenty of solutions: Ritual, Environment, Access, Dialogue (READ).

Best Books for Boys: How to Engage Boys in Reading in Ways That Will Change Their Lives is written specifically for teachers, instructing them to set up their classroom libraries and reading settings in ways that will appeal to boys, but the information proved equally valuable to me as a parent. For example, she shared the ideal mix for a classroom library, and I immediately thought of the books I buy, shelve, and check out for my kids. Her ideal mix that will be attractive to all sorts of readers is at least 40% novels, 30% poetry, and 30% non-fiction. We might be a little bit low on the poetry (maybe not if you count rhyming picture books), but I was happy to be able to identify a variety in my home.

After a few chapters in which Allyn shares statistics proving that boys are struggling with reading and school, offering suggestions for improvement, and a hearty dose of encouragement and inspiration, the lists begin. Allyn offers suggestions grouped first by topic, then by reading level (for emerging, developing, and maturing readers). She includes many genres: Action and Adventure, Biographies and Memoirs, Expeditions, Fantasy, Humor, and Mystery, just to name a few.

What I liked about these book lists is that they are mostly populated with current, popular books. That means that a parent or teacher can easily find them in a bookstore or library and since I’ve seen my own bookworm of a daughter turn her nose up at an “old” or “boring” cover, I think it also insures that they’ll look interesting and thus earn a second look.

I was pleased to be able to mine a little more of Pam Allyn’s expertise with an exclusive Q&A:

1. How did you decide on the titles recommended in the book?

   I listened to the boys! I have the pleasure of working with many boys of all ages in my role as a literacy educator and advocate. The boys tell me what they love the most. I also work closely with teaches and librarians and they too have shared their favorites with me. Best of all, I get to read all these books and peruse them. These titles were compelling to me. Of course there are so many more, so forgive me if your favorite is not there! Please come to my website PamAllyn.com and let me know what your favorites are.

2. Given the different preferences that individuals have, do you see a common thread in books that seem to be sure-fire hits?

   Hmmm. I see a great variety in what boys love, but I think children are very sensitive to good writing. They are discerning. You can’t fool them with a great cover and a bad book. They also know when a writer is condescending to children. They seem to gravitate to books where the main character, a child or teen, is rich with complexity and faces challenges with courage.

3. Some of us moms have great memories of being young booklovers who also loved to write, but we don’t see this in our sons as much, even if they do like books. Is there a connection between reading and creative writing, and is it stronger in girls?

We do tend to encourage girls as writers more often. It seems almost like it is considered a more feminine activity.

There is a strong connection between reading and writing. I always say reading is like breathing in and writing is like breathing out. A recent study showed that even a small amount of writing in response to reading helps build reading comprehension.

4. Is there a typical age that reading interest tends to drop off in boys? What are some ways we can continue to encourage our boys who do enjoy books not to let the interest wane?

   Middle school teachers and parents report a steep drop in boys’ reading interests upon entering middle school. That transitional period can be very stressful for boys. The pressure in school mounts for them as the reading levels jump to a far more difficult level. It’s a crucial time to keep our eyes on the long term prize and make sure we keep reading fun for boys. Let them read what they love. Don’t let them forget why reading feels so good.

I so appreciate this book, and I appreciate that Pam Allyn took some time to answer my questions, but we are a community of moms and grandmas here, and I would love to hear what worked for you, too.

How have you encouraged your boys in particular to read?

Jennifer Donovan is the mother of two. A 12-year-old daughter who has finished half of middle school and is still reading (hooray!), and a 7-year-old son who learned to read by osmosis when he was 4, but does see other activities as more fun than reading. She blogs about their lives in the pages and out, at Snapshot.

I think most people are familiar with Klutz books. They’re known for their layouts and bright colours, which pull their readers in, for being jam-packed with lots of facts and information, and for their great sense of humour. They always come with hands-on applications and materials, taking their topics from the theoretical to the practical, and ensuring that kids will be involved with their subject.

The Klutz Guide to the Galaxy is an excellent example of all that Klutz does so well. Packed with information about astronomy, the planets, constellations, and our galaxy, it includes kits to build-your-own sundial and a very cool working telescope, charts to figure out how old you’d be on Mars, and other fun additions. There’s a Tourist Guide to the Moon, and a map of the galaxy (with the prerequisite “you are here” annotation!). There are the phases of moon, illustrated, and the “phases of Dave,” also illustrated (My favorite was waxing gibbous Dave).

There are travel guides for the other planets (hint: you pretty much always have to pack your own oxygen) and instructions for how to navigate by the stars, along with star maps. There are instructions on how to test your night vision, which begin: 1. Drink a big glass of water before going to bed. 2. When you have to get up to go to the bathroom… There are instructions for telling time using a sun dial or using shadows, and explanations as to the difference between magnetic north and true north.

All this information is contained in a spiral-bound kid-friendly package. And, just between us, it comes in pretty handy for adults who want a fun and easy way to brush up on all that stuff they used to know, before they had to fill their heads with boring information like where their car keys are, and what time their kids need to be picked up.

It’s tempting to write about all that is included in The Klutz Guide to the Galaxy, but you really should just get your own copy. It’s educational fun for everyone. You can see some of the inside page spreads at the Klutz site.

And guess what? THREE of you get to win your very own copy! Lucky you! Leave a comment below to be entered to win (U.S. residents only). The giveaway is open until 5/11.