All posts filed under: kids

In My Brain Today: Guest Post and Give-a-way: Luca’s Lashes

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By Leslie Lindsay What a fun week!  I am blessed with yet another guest post from author Nicole Fonovich, co-creator of the “Luca Lashes”  a collection of kids’ ebooks and interactive apps – aimed at kids ages 0–4 – that turn“fear of firsts” into fun. Created by long-time educators and husband/wife team Nicole and Damir Fonovich, the series was inspired by their little boy, Lucas, and their desire to help him be brave in all his childhood discoveries. The newest release is Luca Lashes Visits the Doctor. Other 2012 ebooks cover first swim lesson, airplane ride and first haircut. Take a look below for a fun Luca Lashes contest! Okay…take it away, Nicole!! NICOLE FONOVICH, M.Ed, is a tech-savvy mom blazing a new trail in children’s publishing. (image source: http://www.lucalashes.com/t-about.aspx) “Taking your child to the doctor? Five tips to help them say “Ah” with confidence. Winter is on its way and everyone knows what that means. Not skiing, not hot chocolate, not kissing under the mistletoe. Colder temps bring cold and flu season, sick kids and doctor’s …

Special Guest Post: Author Darryl Nyznyk of “Mary’s Son: A Tale of Christmas”

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By Leslie Lindsay  (image source: http://www.marysson.com/aboutdarryl.html) Darryl Nyznyk I am thrilled to host author Darryl Nyznyk of Mary’s Son: A Tale of Christmas.  Winner of 3 Mom’s Choice Awards (middle grade reader), bestselling Mary’s Son: A Tale of Christmas by Darryl Nyznyk is a modern-day story that portrays the true meaning of Christmas, much like the classics did.  Here, Darryl gives us wonderful tips on how to raise your children to be givers.  Since that’s the ‘reason for the season,’ why not start teaching them that vital lesson now?   (image source: http://www.marysson.com/marysson.html)   In fact, a tradition at our house is to present our children a “Christmas Book” in the first few days of the holiday season.  It’s a great way to build their holiday library.  Why not add “Mary’s Son” to your gift-giving list?  It would make a wonderful treat for Godparents, Godchildren, Sunday school teachers, and others.  Or, you may WIN a signed COPY!! Be sure to take a look below for contest details!  Okay…take it away, Darryl! My wife and I raised four daughters through …

Cute & Simple: Back-to-School Photo Collage

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By Leslie Lindsay With kids, it seems everything marks a milestone.  So, why would going back-to-school be anything but?  This fall, we sent two back to school–one to her Pre-K class at a familiar faith-based educational institute and the other at a “new-to-us” elementary school: welcome to 1st grade. And if you are anything like the other 200 million-billion parents out there sending their kids back to school this fall, chances are you’ve got yourself a fair number of photos marking the event.  Why not turn them into a photo collage and send cards to close family and friends? It’s fun, it’s easy and it’s relatively cheap.  I printed 12 photo collages from Walgreens for about $5.00.  I added a blurb on the back that I created in Word, printed out, and affixed to the photo–names of teachers and schools, fall activities, etc. I even added some extra card stock around the photo itself, and by doing so, it increased the size from a 4×6 to a 5×7, which fit better into the 5×7 envelopes …

In My Brain Today: My Cranky Kid

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By Leslie Lindsay Back-to-school.  While it brings elated parents, new clothes, and supplies…it also brings cranky kids.  My 1st grader was excited to go back and so far, so good.  She likes school, she likes her teacher and really hasn’t grumbled too much about her “homework.” But yet, there are still growing pains.  She has been increasingly cranky.  The crank-o-meter is rising…and the only thing I can figure is that she is coping poorly with some of the changes in routine. Therefore, I have “lost it” at least twice and all within a 24-hour period.  (You’d think she would have learned, right?!)  Sigh.  I yelled at her.  Loudly.  It hurt my throat.  I kid you not.  I felt bad, of course.  But I couldn’t take it anymore. Six years old is sassy.  Six year old girls think they know everything, think they are the boss, show little respect for anyone or anything…and well, I was just fed up.  I pulled her arm, wrapping my fingers around her bony little shoulder and turned her around, “Look, …

Apraxia Monday: Taking Apraxia to School

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By Leslie Lindsay At home, he may be a regular ol’ chatterbox, even though he has apraxia.  On the playground, she may squeal and giggle and talk with her friends, even though she has apraxia. That’s because it’s summer.  And your children are at home with you in a familiar environment, where they know the routines, the expectations, and the words/phrases needed to get their messages across.  But this week–or maybe it’s already happened: your child with apraxia will go (back) to school. What’s a parent to do?!?  Relax.  I’ve got you covered.  Not only are you dealing with the “regular” back-to-school angst every parent deals with, you have at least one other concern: childhood apraxia of speech (CAS).  And it’s not easy. Start early, but not too early talking to your child about what it means to go back to school. Get yourself and your kiddo over to the school.  Drive by on your way to Target and point it out, “Oh look, there’s your school!”  You may even consider packing a picnic and having lunch …

A Little Literacy, Please: Mary Poppins

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By Leslie Lindsay When my daughters came back from an outing to the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri raving about “Mary Poppins,” several summers ago, I scratched my head and raised my eyebrows.  Mary Poppins, really?!  Isn’t she kind of…well, old-fashioned? But they loved her mysterious magic and fun.  They were mesmerized by her wit and charm.  I had to run out and purchase the movie for they wouldn’t stop talking about her.  My oldest even wanted to be her for Halloween that year.  I convinced her, sweetly, diplomatically that maybe she better be something else.  And so she was Strawberry Shortcake. We definitely went through a Mary Poppins phase and I guess it wasn’t all bad.  There were some good, wholesome lessons from the sassy nanny. Anita Diamont, a journalist and New York Times best-selling novelist mentioned that this was one of her favorite childhood books in Everything I Know I Learned from a Children’s Book, (Roaring Book Press, 2009). She says, “Mary Poppins herself was the best magic of all: a free-spirit who comes and goes …

Apraxia Monday: Updates

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By Leslie Lindsay You will have to excuse my lame post today…but I will give you a few updates in the apraxia community: My family has registered for the Fall Apraxia Walk in Chicagoland at Ty Warner Park.  This walk is sponsored by CASANA with coordinators from the Windy City Apraxia Network.  The day of fun is scheduled for Saturday, October 15th 2011.  Break in your walking shoes and come support CAS!  For more information, or to register on line, see http://www.apraxia-kids.org/chicagowalk  Do it before September 26th and get a FREE tee-shirt.  Registration is $20/adults and $10/kids “Small Talk: All About Apraxia” is gearing up for the FALL sesssion!  It’s 5 weeks of everything you ever wanted to know about apraxia.  Our first meeting will be Thursday, September 15th from 7-9pm at Panera Bread in Naperville, IL.  Please, ask your friends, family, teachers…anyone who may be interested in sharing and learning experiences with CAS.  It’s FREE!   Email me, leslie_lindsay@hotmail.com for more inforamation or to place your name on the interest list. I’ll be guest blogging …

Write on, Wednesday: Published Author

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By Leslie Lindsay Lately, I have been getting a little nervous about the idea of becoming a an author.  I have been so “in the zone” of writing and researching, and trying to find a suitable publisher and now editing that well…I guess I sort of lost track of the fact that all of this hard work will really come to fruit in the form of a book.   It will transform me into “just a mom” to published author. What, me?  Really?!?  Couldn’t be.  Ah, but it is…. But here’s the thing:  I won’t change.  Nope.  It’s still me.  I didn’t decide to become a writer.  It was just one of those things that happened.  It’s always been a part of me; it wasn’t really a conscious decision.  I wrote because I wanted to learn.  I wrote because I needed more information on how to help my daughter with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), I wrote because I figured if I had questions, then others probably did, too. So, I get a little bubble of …

A Little Literacy, Please: Goodnight Moon

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By Leslie Lindsay Seems every parent receives a copy of Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon, at some point in their parenting journey.  We did.  Wrapped in brown paper packaging was a small board book version of the classic, along with a hand-sewen pillow emblazoned with a moon and stars, “Dear Baby Kate,” the note read.  It was from extended family on my husband’s side of the family. We still have the book.  Even though it’s a board book, the last page is torn and repaired by Dr. Mom.  My daughter’s still request it be read on occassion and they always ask about the torn pages.  “Baby Kate did it,” my youngest likes to announce.   She’s right. We’ve read the book the traditional way–straight through.  We’ve read the book with normal volume of voice at the beginning, getting quieter and quieter until we are whispering at the end.  And we’ve even adapted the book as the girls got older to a more “crude” way of reading, “And the old lady said shut up and go to bed already!”  At …

Cute & Simple: Summer’s End

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By Leslie Lindsay “Summer’s End,” hummm…sort of have mixed feelings about that, and I bet you do, too.  Sigh. Anyway, I am in the process of slowly making that transition from the open-ended days of summer to creating a sense of structure around here.  And in doing so, I uncovered a project that I meant to tackle months ago. In June, our family packed up and headed to Mackinac Island, Michigan.  It was short and sweet, but still a vacation.  A slip back in time, if you will.  While we were there, I purchased a picture book for my girls.  (It’s sort of become a tradition.  Book = souvenier).  And so, as a way of prolonging the vacation, I decided to get crafty. Sorting through photos digital images, I found a few I liked, downloaded, and printed them off to insert in the book (you can print off on regular ol’ computer paper, by “inserting photo” into a word document). I think I will add a few blurbs about what we did and funny things we …