Unprofessional Parenting

Weissbluth, Marc M.D. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. New York: Ballentine Books. Third Ed. 2003.

I was given this book as a gift when my first son was around 1 year old. It proved indispensable! I wish I would have had it sooner as it has solved a number of sleep problems my son had that could have been avoided if I had had this information a bit sooner.

From getting young kids to bed at night to solving wake up problems the advice has worked well for me for my older son and now I can start from the beginning with son #2. I have recommended this book to friends and family a thousand times so I thought I should post it here as well.

As a warning part of the process for correcting sleep problems in babies is potentially letting them “cry it out.” I mention it because I know some parents have strong aversions to this method as it might seem cruel (and is certainly difficult on the parents). Dr. Weissbluth does offer some alternatives for those who might have trouble with this but my experience was that letting my son cry only lasted three days and was absolutely worth it in the end. It was hard for us to listen to but our son obviously survived and I am absolutely grateful to this book for teaching me how to teach him to fall asleep by himself.

Written by Julie Steigemeyer and illustrated by Valeri Gorbachev Gobble-Gobble Crash, A Barnyard Counting Bash is an adorable counting book and a ton of fun to read.  I picked up this book on impulse the other day because I have been working on teaching my son to count and I thought this would be a fun addition.  I know, my son is only two but he can count to five and I’m not a crazy military type educator-parent, but he seems to enjoy learning these things.

Back to the book - it is a counting story (up to ten) that involves barnyard animals of all sorts as well as a farmer who is disturbed by the night time escapades of a group of wild turkeys.  Some of the pictures are a little small for my son to count (the baby mice are tiny little things) but for a child who is a little older I don’t think this would be a problem.

My son loves this book. It lends itself well to an exciting read if you tend to be a theatrical reader (I am). The “Gobble Gobble Crash!” refrain is repeated each time the turkeys bounce around and my son screams and laughs each time I set up a whispering lead in to the shouts of Gobble Gobble Crash as the turkeys slam into something new.  The book counts from one to ten and then back down again and some of the illustrations provide additional counting practice if you want to maximize the learning factor.

A great book and well worth the purchase.

I know, I know. Who hasn’t heard of the Berenstain Bears? I’m willing to bet that just about anyone who has ever been a kid or had a kid knows “the Bear family.” When I was young I had an entire collection of these books that took up two whole shelves in my bookcase. When I started buying books for my son I picked up a collection of stories that included five stories bound in one big book. I know that most of you know these bears but because of the resounding success of them with my son I feel obligated to give them a shout out.

When I picked up the first big book of stories for my son he seemed to like them right away. He was only 18-months old but he loved the book, the pictures, and the stories. After I read the stories about 100 times each I finally ordered another big book of stories that he loves just as much.

I now have to convince him to read the other books we have around if I want any deviation from the bears. He sleeps with both books in his bed so he can sit up and start looking at them immediately after he wakes up. This gives me a few extra minutes in the morning so I can get going before I go get him which was an unexpected bonus. He looks at them on the couch by himself in the mornings while I eat breakfast, he wants me to read them before his nap and his bedtime.

When he’s a little older there are a ton of Berenstain Bears activity sites on the web. Here a few:

• The Official Berenstain Bears Website
• Berenstain Bears Activities for Learning and Fun
• PBS Kids Berenstain Bears

In the mean time the spines have broken on my son’s first two Berenstain Bears books already.  I’m sure this isn’t a defect - they are just really well used.  I’m off to search for more - I am particularly infatuated with the collections because they take up less room in the bookcase and keep him busy for a while.  Berenstain Bears are worth their weight in gold (or honey, if you’re a bear)!

So far since my son was born I have had two friends with younger kids ask me where I get all those little kid books that are always scattered all over our living room floor. At first this question surprised me. As a book lover I assumed that everyone was as versed as I seem to be in the book searching and buying arena. The more I think about it though the more I figure that this question comes from our increasing reliance on computers and the Internet for our reading material. I’m a die hard though - I need that physical book in front of me while I read so I can make notes to myself as I go. Everyone calls me old fashion (that is until the power goes out and they can’t charge their wireless reading devices).

Anyway, although the teacher side of me would love to get into a philosophical discussion about the role of technology and new media in literacy and pedagogical practices I will save that for another post and for now offer the bare bones response that I gave my friends. There are tons of places to find kids books - both in person and online.

The last time I got the question it was directed at places my friend could go that day to pick up books. Here are my responses for physical locations:

• Large chain baby store or kids store: They do have books here but surprisingly the ones by us don’t have many books for babies. This probably varies from store to store but it’s worth a shot if you want a couple of books fast. The only other drawback is some appear to never organize their shelves so it can be something of a treasure hunt to find what you want.
• All purpose stores - Target, Walmart, etc.: Again, the selection varies by store and finding books for infants can be a bit of a challenge depending on the store but this might be someplace you’re going anyway so it’s worth a stroll through the book department to see what they have.
• Book Stores (especially the really big ones): Barnes & Noble & Borders in our area - yes they have tons of kid books. In fact, they usually have whole kid areas that are a great place to go. This does involve an extra stop (and an extra buckling in and out of that car seat) but this is really where you need to go if you want books the same day and want a large selection.

I personally love a visit to the bookstore - even with my son - but if you’re more an Internet shopper there are limitless options for books for kids.

• Children’s Book of the Month Club: This is a great option if you’re good at responding to those “featured selection” emails each month. They’ll give you a ton of books at a cheap price for signing up with the promise that you’ll buy a few at regular price in the next couple of years. They recommend books by age group and they have tons of those classics that you’ll remember from your own childhood. The only disadvantage is that you have to respond each month to the featured selection suggestion or they ship it automatically. This can all be done online though and with email reminders it only takes a couple of minutes.
• Amazon.com: This is an easy one. I love Amazon. They’ll give you discount shipping on most book orders over $25.00, they offer rush shipping, and then they’ll recommend books to you based on your buying history. Can’t go wrong here.
• Other online book sellers: Borders, Barnes & Noble, all the major sellers now have very easy to use websites that will ship your items right to your front door. A quick search of the topics you want will provide you with tons of titles and most have customer reviews so you can see what other parents think of the books.
• Almost any other major retail chain that I mentioned above will also have websites with a larger selection of books than the physical stores are likely to have.

If you belong to any parent newsletters the links on the website and in their emails will almost always have a “store” where you can search kids books and come up with tons of suggestions. Obviously, any search engine will also return you millions of results on buying kids books so if you’ve got a little time to sort through it that’s always an option.

That’s my short response. I’m glad my friends asked me about this though because there really isn’t a reason not to pick up books for your kids. If cost is an issue Amazon and many other online book sellers will have a used book marketplace where you can get books that are in great shape for next to nothing. Our local library (although it is pretty small) also has some kids books and does have a used book sale every year where we can pick up paperbacks for a quarter and hard cover books for fifty cents. Good luck and good reading!