“Giggles the Green Bean” was written by Lauren Davis and illustrated by Michael Vincent Fusco and the book teaches kids on ways to go green.

“Giggles” comes out of earth, onto a “Stinkytown”. What was once a thriving, lush and green surrounding, is now a big mess of litter, pollution and dying environment. “Giggles” goes on a mission to find a way to reverse this and meets with an wise old “Cabbage”. “Cabbage” shares with “Giggles’ 5 simple ways to help our earth : Recycle, Reuse, Save Water, Reduce Energy and Eat Healthily.

Will “Giggles” succeed in sharing these 5 simple steps with everyone in Stinkytown? Will Stinkytown ever be Greentown again?

Share this with your kids and re-create a dramatic but happy ending, which I’m sure the kids would appreciate.

About the Book :

“Giggles the Green Bean” was written by Lauren Davis and colorfully illustrated by Michael Vincent Fusco.

Lauren Davis became keenly aware that children needed to learn how to make a difference in keeping the environment clean. Inspired by her brother’s environmental activism, she penned her first children’s book, Giggles the Green Bean. Lauren has long been involved with children including working as a camp counselor and pre-school teacher. A former leadership development executive, Lauren currently lives in Portland with her family and dog, Lily.

Michael Vincent Fusco is the incredible illustrator for the Giggles the Green Bean series of books.  He is a creative force that brought to life the characters and concepts of the story.  Not only is Michael an accomplished children’s book illustrator, but he also does detailed paintings, drawings and music.

Buy it! : My kids were really enthusiastic when I was reading “Giggles” with them. They can identify with all 5 steps, because it has been drilled in their heads, not only by me, but also by their friends and teachers to practice these 5 simple steps every single day. My middle child, especially loved the illustrations of a happy “Giggles” and the various costumes “Giggles” dons at the end of the book. The message of this book is simple, if we all do a small part to help our environment every day, imagine, the whole world’s population doing their small part, imagine how big an effect that would be! So, go on.. get this book and start practicing those 5 simple steps and share it with everyone in your community about the underlying message of going green!

Giggles has his own (very cute!) website  and you can also purchase the book here and get some free goodies like free temporary tattoos, a packet of green bean seeds, and stickers of the star “Giggles”! You could even request for the author to autograph the book!

Here are three lucky Parent Reviewers who had a chance to review this book :

Mom Start :  The wise old cabbage teaches Giggles that you need to recycle, use water wisely, use fewer paper products, save energy, and eat healthy food. All of these concepts are presented with an example that children can understand.

As They Grow Up :  This book is a fantastic book when it comes to teaching young children about living a little “greener” and is suggested for ages 4 and up which makes sense.  My two year old loved the illustration and the story but as far as understanding everything that it was saying, he didn’t.  Of course over time as we read it more and more it would.

Happy Healthy Families : I loved reading about Giggles with my munchkin boys! Not only was the story a very important one in that it helped them understand about taking care of their environment, the illustrations are amazing! And with my kids, and I am sure with others, beautifully drawn colorful pictures always help them stay interested in a story.

Thanks to New Year Publishing for giving us the opportunity to review this book.

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GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

There are about 44 detailed play figures, with 12 storage layers. The child has to sort out each pair of animal, and this is the best part… I saw emus and kangaroos, which I would think Aussie kids would be quick to point out! If a younger child (3 -4 years of age) were to play with it, they’d have to realise that each storage layers has to be in sequence, or they won’t fit as an ark. Which was a pretty neat idea, as this teaches them the concept of small to big. Kids from 6 onwards will like it as the story of Noah’s Ark comes to life for them.

Personally, I liked it because the lil plastic pieces are not strewn everywhere..and the boys do make it a habit of putting each and every lil figurine in, stacking them neatly and leaving it as an Ark. I just have to remember that I can’t let my 19month old anywhere near it, as he will start throwing them everywhere. Or thinking they were edible.

Remember this folks, it’s only meant for kids 3 years and above. There are many lil pieces that are a choking hazard. Each lil figurine is pretty hardy, and I can’t see any of them losing a limb or two. The child is to fit each figurine into its matching shape, and then stack them accordingly. These are all made in Australia, and since it’s introduction in March 2009, it has already won 10 awards!

About Tier Toys:

Tier Toys was established after six years of research and development resulting in an extremely robust USA and Australian patent for an educational puzzle toy. They created a line of toys known as Stackers, which are ingenious stack and play products that range in theme from Noah’s Ark to a Monster Truck.

Buy it! : It is currently retailing at $49.90, at Amazon, but will be available in “brick and mortar” retailers pretty soon.

Win it! : For this Mega Xmas & New Year Giveaway, 1 Tier Toy Animal Stacker will be given away to 1 lucky reader and all you have to do is :

• One mandatory entry- visit their website and tell us what are the other stacker toys that are available.
• One additional entry – Come back every day until this Giveaway ends and get an entry!
• Three additional entries- if you have our badge up on your blog or you can grab our Mega Giveaway badge from our sidebar. Please leave your blog url to qualify.
• Three additional entries – Be our Facebook Fan (located at sidebar) and share the link! Please leave your Facebook Name.
• Giveaway is open to US shipping addresses only and closes on 21st December 2009.  The winner will be picked using Random.org. We will not be emailing winners, so please make sure you subscribe to our feed or check back here for the winner announcement post.

Disclosure of Material Connection : http://cmp.ly/0

Parenting Spike: The seriously difficult child- My Kid Steals

by Andrew D. Gibson, Ph.D.

Mrs. Jones in the Hartford, Connecticut area, writes to say that her ten year old son, Spike, steals. He steals from them, from his grandparents and from everyone else. And yet he has everything that any kid could possibly want. What is the story?

In our times, when we see a kid stealing everywhere we suspect drugs or alcohol. We assume he is trying to raise money to pay for them. But Mrs. Jones’ comment that he has everything already suggests something else is going on.

First, check out the possible drug connection. Look for some tell-tale signs: Does he display mood swings? Got a new set of friends? School performance worse than usual? Unusual trips to the doctor? Any of your booze missing? Attitude particularly negative? Does his clothing change for the worse? Does he use breath mints? Has be become even sloppier? Anyone ever suggest he might be using?

This is just a start and you can do a quick internet search to learn more if any of these things seem suspicious. But other than that, miserably unhappy kids steal because everything is theirs to begin with. They have a gross sense of entitlement. If you offer them a piece of pie, they will insist on taking the whole thing without so much as a thank you. They certainly do not feel any obligation whatsoever to work for future pie. They are entitled to pie, especially your pie. Period

The circumstances of Spike’s life, whatever they are, has convinced Spike that everyone has taken from him so he is going to take back. And, moreover, whatever he gets he should have gotten more of.

Generally what happens with kids like Spike, if their parents enroll in a serious course of learning how to detach themselves from his bad behavior, it will gradually go away. It is a hard route but an effective one when parents are ready for it.

The good news is that one of the things that parents can usually count on happening, is that the stealing will stop if they do a really good job of learning how to control themselves.

Therapy probably won’t do the trick though parents of kids like Spike should be in it anyway for the comfort they are likely to get. Spike will, of course, have nothing to do with it. Therapy relies too much on talk and Spike is immune to talk. He probably sees the therapists as an extension of his folks, anyway. It isn’t going to fly.

Spike needs action. The heavy lifting of eliminating all of Spike’s bad behavior, including stealing, is more likely to come from an active parental demonstration that what he does negatively won’t get the attention it used to receive. If we assume that stealing is just attention getting behavior we can test the theory by never reacting negatively to Spike’s incidents of theft. Escort him back to the store if you can. But don’t harangue him on the way. If he refuses to be escorted, drop it. This is the model for dealing with the rest of his bad behavior, too. It all adds up in ways parents never imagine.

About The Author

 
Dr. Andrew Gibson was born in Detroit at the close of WWII. He grew up in the midst of farming country in central Michigan. Both parents were teachers. He keeps a picture of his childhood companion, Wags, to this day (you had to see the tail to appreciate the name). After discharge from the Navy after the Viet Name war, he graduated with a BA and MA from San Diego State University and earned his Ph. D from the University of Connecticut. He has taught at Portland State University, n Portland Oregon, at the University of Maine, Presque Isle and at SUNY New Paltz. He resides in Eastern Connecticut, with his wife of 41 years, where he conducts a private practice in parenting seriously difficult children. His book “Got An Angry Kid? Parenting Spike-A Seriously Difficult Child’ is the first of a series examining seriously difficult children at various age and emotional disturbance levels. He invites you to find him on the web at DrAGibson.com.

TO THE WINNERS OF

3 pairs of SmartKnit KIDS Seamless Sensitivity Socks each:

1. Janice #123

2. cheryl h #131

3. Arla #92

4. Bobbie #7

5. Aik #29

AND

Busybody Wall Calendar and Organizer

 Erica #5

AND

Secrets of A Christmas Box Gift Sack

1.  YouthfulTips #37

2. Heather Diotte #59

The winner is required to do the following:

1. Submit your relevant info via the Winner’s Submission Form Below; AND
2. Leave a comment in this post to let us know you have submitted.
3. If any winner does not claim her prize by the 13th December 2009, we will do a second draw.

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAD PARTICIPATED!

cforms contact form by delicious:days

The 6 lucky winners of November’s prize – A copy of Chicken Soup’s All In The Family are:

1. Betty Hamilton
2. Nicole Carr
3. Jason Nickolay
4. Pending reply from subscriber
5. Pending reply from subscriber
6. Pending reply from subscriber

Testimony for the Chicken Soup series of books is hardly scarce, and always glowing. Therefore, Count Your Blessings, the latest offering from the creators of the Chicken Soup books promises to be another glorious journey for the soul…this time for the tested soul.

That every cloud has a silver lining is exemplified by the 101 real life stories and anecdotes presented by ‘real’ people, which make these lessons of life closer to us. Tsunami survivors, grievances, loss of a loved one: all of these are real situations which can be hard to get over. This book is a powerful tool which will fortify the reader with reasons to smile even in times when one might think that one has reached the nadir in emotions, relationships and generally, life in itself.

Released in November 2009, this book by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Amy Newmark, Laura Robinson and Elizabeth Bryan is available in paperback.  As email subscribers of Parent Reviewers, SIX lucky readers will get to win a copy of Chicken Soup Count Your Blessings each during our December draw.

Hurry, sign up as our email subscriber and you’ll stand a chance to win these awesome books plus other fabulous gifts during our monthly draw.

Disclosure : Prizes are courtesy of www.chickensoup.com

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

I recently got a T-Shirt by MomsRTheBest.com to review..and I have to say, I just love the caption. Don’t we all just need a ‘Time Out” from our kids? Even if it’s just for 10 minutes of complete peace. A breather. Some personal space. Some pina colada. Ok… I seriously need a vacation! ;D

I’m a t-shirt and jeans kinda mom. Everywhere I go, I’m in my t-shirt and jeans. It’s easy to wear, wash and never gets too crumpled. And the t-shirts from MomsRTheBest.com, are 100% pre-shrunk ringspun cotton (which means, really nice and soft), and has a slimfit cut.

At MomsRTheBest.com, they have some really apt captions like “Mom – Body under Construction“, and “A Mom’s Work is Never Done“! I really liked my t-shirt..and I can hear  other moms chuckle when I’m picking up my kids from school. It was easy to throw into the washer and dryer..and it came out just fine! Not wrinkly and crumpled!

About MomsRTheBest.com

Cheryl Wood (the owner) is a wife and full-time working mother of three young children – 2 yr old son, 3 yr old son and 5 yr old daughter, trying to balance life!  As a busy mom, the staple items of her wardrobe are t-shirts and jeans.  Aside from work and being a mompreneur, most of her “free” time is spent running errands, cleaning up behind the kids, chauffeuring her daughter to social outings, or handling important household responsibilities so it’s important to her that her wardrobe consist of comfortable clothing that can quickly be thrown in the washer & dryer.  At the same time, just because she’s a mom, she doesn’t want to look frumpy or outdated.  That’s what prompted her to launch Moms R The Best — a mom-owned company that offers quality, fashionable tees for busy moms who still want to have a feminine appeal even while handling everyday business.  Moms R The Best tees are slim-fitted to flatter the female silhouette unlike many boxy, unflattering ladies tees.  Moreover, Moms R The Best tees contain unique slogans that every mom can relate to — some spunky, some meaningful.

Buy It! : This makes a splendid gift for all mums. That includes Grandmas too! There are also shirts for Dads, Infants/Babies and your Teens! Xmas is looming real close, so if you’re out of ideas, do check the website out!

Win It! : ONE lucky reader has a chance of winning an awesome long sleeve t-shirt of your choice! Here’s what you need to do :

• One mandatory entry- visit the website and tells us the choice of your t-shirt and size.
• Three additional entries- if you have our badge up on your blog or you can grab our Mega Giveaway badge from our sidebar. Please leave your blog url to qualify.
• Three additional entries – Be our Facebook Fan (located on the sidebar), and share this giveaway link! Please leave your Facebook name.
• Giveaway is open to all shipping address and closes on  16th December 2009.  The winner will be picked using Random.org. We will not be emailing winners, so please make sure you subscribe to our feed or check back here for the winner announcement post.

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GIVEAWAY CLOSED!

At our house, we have a big suitcase full of costumes for playing dress-up. I feel that it’s incredibly important for every child to have the opportunity to “be” anyone (or anything) they would like to be and playing dress-up is a great way to build a child’s imagination and creativity.

Costumes at our house include Transformers, a chef, military, a cowboy and various hats that we’ve picked up over the years. Of course – when ‘the girls’ come over they bring princess costumes and Xander likes those too!

We were both very excited to get to play with an awesome NASA Astronaut costume recently! At school Xander had learned about the planets – so he was extremely excited he could  pretend to be a space explorer. The costume was really high quality and came with coveralls, a baseball-style cembroidered NASA cap and NASA patches (including special commander patch). It was easy for him to put on and take off and once he was done, it went right into our costume box for next time.

The Aeromax company  has lots of different costumes and accessories for your little ones (they have adult sizes also!) I even saw an awesome astronaut helmet to go along with the astronaut costume we received! You will also find costumes for nurses, cowboys, knights, ballerinas and so much more.

BUY IT : The Jr. Astronaut suit makes a wonderful Christmas gift for any young aspiring space traveller.   You can purchase it from Aeromax at their online store here.

WIN IT : We know you’ve been waiting for this *grins*. YES! Thanks to Aeromax, we’re going to giveaway one Jr. Astronaut Suit. Here’s how you can stand a chance to win it:

• One mandatory entry – Visit our sponsor, The Aeromax Company and choose one other costume you like (besides this one, of course!)
• Three additional entries- if you have our badge up on your blog or you can grab our Mega Giveaway badge from our sidebar. Please leave your blog url to qualify.
Three additional entries – If you tweet this giveaway. Please leave your twitter id or thread in the comment section.
If you qualify for additional entries, please comment separately and let us know which option you’ve used
Giveaway is open to US shipping address only and closes on 14th December 2009.  The winner will be picked using Random.org. We will not be emailing winners, so please make sure you subscribe to our feed or check back here for the winner announcement post.

I honestly feel that RESILIENCE is one of the most important quality that every child should have. I feel it is something a child has to build up over time. Growing up is not an easy task, and as parents, we shouldn’t pave the road with gold bricks.

Hi! I’m Su Chin, and I am a parent of 3 boys. I’m not a parenting expert with PhDs and accolades behind my name. I’m just an observer and a learner. I learn so much from my kids. I learn so much from other people’s kids. I volunteer as a parent helper for my Grade 1 son and my 3 year old Kinder son. I’m no expert in the Teen years yet…but I’m taking all this in now, to gain experience points (oh no..playing too many games on Facebook!) to help me cope with the not-so-distant teenage years.

Here, I’m going to share with you how we should prepare our kids that failing, is part of success. One example I’ve experienced is playing board games with my first son. We first started playing, when he decided to join the chess club in school. Chess. Hmm…probably the hardest game to win. Well, he learnt how each piece moved from the chess teacher..so I didn’t get a boil, getting him to understand how a knight moves. As we started our first game, it was evident that he thought the objective of the game was to ‘eat’ as many pieces as possible. Well.. I ate his queen and declared a “check-mate”, to which he asked, “Does this mean it’s over? You won?”. I nodded my head..and he sat there, trying so hard to hold his tears in. To him, this was his first lost. He was trying so hard to swallow that lump of losing…but the dam broke. Tears started rolling down his cheeks and I knew he didn’t understand what losing meant.

C’mon… who has deliberately let their kid win in a board game? I won’t tell anyone. We want to let our kids taste the sweet smell of success. We want them to be winners! But..we can’t let them win all the time, can we? I feel that it would make them lose respect for other players. Become gloaters. A gloating winner is the worst person to play with.

I’m glad to say, 2 years on…and we’ve dropped playing chess (as it was taking too long to finish!), and we’re playing monopoly now. Yes, he now understands what losing means..and does not mind losing as well. And when he wins, he’s very gracious about it. He gives me a hug and tells me to try harder next time. ;D When he loses, he grins and says cheekily, “I’m gonna win the next game! Just you watch!”.

Another example I want to share was a recent experience with a pre-schooler. She goes to pre-school with my 3 year old boy. She’s one half of a twin, and the teachers have been trying to teach this set of twins to socialize with kids other than themselves. They pretty much stick together during snacks and playtime. Let’s call her “Amanda”.

This one instance, there was a group of pre-schoolers, 2 boys and 2 girls. One of the girls is pretty much the ‘top dog’ and took both boys into the cubby house. She closed the door on Amanda and told her, “You’re not allowed inside with us”.

She didn’t know how to respond, turned to me, and said, “Milly doesn’t want me to play. She’s not being nice.”

I’m no expert, so all I could say was, “If she doesn’t want to play with you, that’s ok. What do you think we should do?”. Amanda replied, “I think I wanna play with someone else. Someone else who will play with me.”.  With that, we walked together to another group of kids, and she managed to blend in again. Sometimes, we have to help them problem solve a situation, so that they can apply it a little later in their lives.

I think little lessons like this help our little kids build up resilience. An understanding that our world is not perfect. That things are not given to us on a silver platter.  It does sound a bit harsh when I write it this way, but I truly believe that if we continue cotton-balling them, they’ll grow up to be spoilt bratty adults. And I’m sure we all know one or two of them, be it in the office or community.

Always show your child/children that in every circumstance (good or bad), you will always love them, support them and will guide them, if necessary. Because that’s the best way to help your child realize his potentials.

Here are some great resources I want to share with you, about resilience :

• APA Help Center : What makes Kids Care in a Violent World
• Kid’s Health : Resilience
• Family TLC : 10 ways to make your children more resilient.

Parenting’s really hard work, but if you and I keep at it, and we’ll see good results in the near future!