Just for completing Goal 2, we received a ticket to Frontier City/White Water Bay, 2 tickets to an Oklahoma City RedHawks game and a ticket to Oklahoma Children’s Theatre. 

Sign up today, get reading and get rewards!

-Erica Smith, Copy Editor

esmith@opubco.com

“Be Creative @ Your Library” is a free program for children and teens. Just to get you and your child started, you’ll get a packet with all kinds of free goodies: stickers, a coupon for free tots at Sonic, a couple of bookmarks, a reading log, free admission to local attractions and a chance to win tuition from Oklahoma College Savings Plan.

Then all you need to do is read 8 books to your child to reach your first goal.   Do that, and your child gets a really nice award ribbon, and coupons for free food at area restaurants.

For each goal met (8 books, 8 hours or 800 pages read) , your child is entered in drawings for really cool prizes.   There isn’t a list of books, and you don’t have to just read books checked out of the library (although kids do love getting new books to read). 

So sign up today at your local Metro Library branch or go to www.metrolibrary.org  for more information.

~Erica Smith, copy editor

esmith@opubco.com

Let’s all take 20 to 30 minutes and go for a walk and clear our heads.

– Linda Lynn   

Bonnie Harris, author of the new book “Confident Parents, Remarkable Kids: 8 Principles for Raising Kids You’ll Love to Live With (Adams Media, September 2008),” has plenty of tips for parents seeking solutions for morning time struggles between children and parents.

Several are listed in today’s Life section of The Oklahoman. Here are more of Harris’ tips to transform stressful mornings: 

1. Decide what the best morning routine is for everyone. Make a chart. If you have a white board, write each agenda item with a box next to it for your child to check off when done.

2. Pick out clothes the night before.

3. Make lunches the night before.

4. Go over the next day’s schedule the night before.

5. Remind children to get backpacks ready before the bedtime routine starts — don’t expect this to be done without reminders unless you have an especially organized child.

6. Establish a rule that anything you have to do concerning homework is done the night before or it doesn’t get done.

7. Get up earlier and get your personal routine done before waking the children.

8. Ease your child awake with a smile and a back rub — unless she uses an alarm clock.

9. If you’re creative, prepare a “fancy” breakfast menu to present to your children when they get up. This can be a once in awhile option.

10. If things are not going smoothly, even silently acknowledge everyone’s agendas.

11. If your child is cranky, validate how hard some mornings are to get going and that you often have the same problem. Each day is different.

12. If there is a particular problem your child is dealing with, acknowledge the problem, and offer help and support without trying to fix it.

While it provided a great opportunity to buy inexpensive books without leaving my house, I also felt somewhat guilty.

I assumed there will be other club flyers this year, so I only bought three books. I also assumed his mother would buy books.

However, would I be a bad parent if I didn’t buy at least one item from my son’s school fundraisers, including $1 books from the Scholastic Book Club? I’m a newbie at the whole public school thing.

Any help would be appreciated.

Write comments below to share with others, too.

Thanks!

— Brian Sargent
Click to send me an e-mail

I get two or three such books each year. They go straight into the trash bin because like most folks, I generally look up information online. Plus I don’t have space near my phone to store the bulky books.

That got me thinking that maybe I should “repurpose” the paper in the books into craft supplies. Papier-mache, decoupage, even gift-wrapping came to mind.

It’d be cute to give an active golfer, for example, a box of golf balls wrapped in the phone book pages advertising sporting supply stores or golf vacations. Or to decoupage a frame for Grandma with the pages listing relatives’ phone numbers. (Could be handy too!) The paper also could be torn in strips, dunked in glue and wrapped around an inflated balloon. Once dry, it could be painted and filled with candy to make a pinata.

What ideas do you have? I’m always looking for ways to keep the kids occupied while saving money.

Comment here or e-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com.

Susan Simpson, Education Writer

I’ve already written about the struggles of getting a toddler to eat.  So of course comes the guilt of “is he getting enough veggies? ” or “am I a bad mom for taking my kid to McDonald’s in Wal-Mart when I know he won’t make it through a 2-hour shopping trip without a Happy Meal?”

Along with these guilts, I have many more, as I’m sure other parents do, especially single parents who can’t do it all.

1. Reading.  Everywhere you look and listen, it is the same message. “Read to your child 20 minutes a day.”  I’m actually better about getting this done than other things.  But I do have the occasional day where there aren’t those 20 minutes.  Will my child then be behind his classmates in junior high or not get into college? 

2. Playtime, or lack of.  We are enrolled in the READY! For Kindergarten classes offered by Putnam City School District (which I highly recommend to parents in that district).  One of the things they emphasize is to set aside “educational play time” each day with your child.  This seems easy enough, right?  Wrong.  How do you know if you are playing “educationally” enough?  What if you’re attention is divided between helping solve a puzzle and dinner burning on the stove?  What if you’re just too tired?  Usually I make up for any missed playtime on the weekends with a trip to the park or zoo or something else fun.  But is this enough?

3. Screen time.  Something else you hear about everywhere.  “Limit your child’s screen time (i.e. TV, computer) to 3o minutes a day.”  Well if that’s the case, my boy has used up his daily limit before we even head out the door in the morning.  Between Sesame Street and the Today show, he has had his fill.  But as single parents, sometimes we have to use the TV as a tool to get other things done around the house.  Should I just disconnect the television altogether?  Because as long as it’s there, I’m bound to veg out on the couch and enjoy a healthy dose of reality television after a day at work. Does this mean my child will turn into a slacking couch potato?  

Ahhh, the guilts of motherhood.  Is there any escape?  My mom sent me a wonderful book about moms for Mother’s Day.  Inside the cover she wrote, “Good job, Erica.”

That’s the greatest compliment a mom could hear.

-Erica Smith