I'm a full-time mummy

This review started with an email for an interview opportunity with Dr. Bill Sears. I mean, the moment I saw this name, I was very interested to find out more. I mean, for someone who is best known for his attachment parenting philosophy, Dr. Sears is now working to help parents teach young kids to read BEFORE they get to school. I am of course interested to know what kind of reading materials and methods is he using to do so. Here goes my review:

About:
"American Reading at Home is a reading program from American Reading Company that helps children ages 3-6 during the earliest stages of reading development. The company publishes books that work like training wheels on a bicyclebecause so much of the reading support is provided by the books, children gain confidence as they master just one new skill at a time. The narrow hierarchy of skills required at each level ensures children don't get frustrated, but experience successful reading practice."

I created an account on their website and followed their easy to understand instructions in order to receive my first 5 e-books to read on my iPad. From my iPad, I just need to login once to the Bookshelf app using the email address that I used to create the account and I can immediately see the e-books there.

I have to say this is by far one of the most frequent used app in my iPad. Of course my 3.5 years old boy is not into reading stage yet so at the moment, I am the one doing the storytelling to him.

He just loves snuggling up next to me and listens as I tell him the stories, one after another! We sometimes go through as many as 10 books in a session, tiring for me yes but it is nice to see my boy so interested in books and I have been gently showing him the easy words in some books to get him to familiar with the words and I also sometimes tested him when we see the words being repeated again and again in the books.

He is more interested in the cartoonish type of books at the moment but I will definitely revisit the books with actual pictures of animals and objects later on. Pictures below are 2 of his favorite books at the moment, "Camping" and "Clean Cat".

And yeah, I mentioned in the beginning of my post here that this review started with an interview opportunity with Dr. Bill Sears, so of course I did posed 3 questions to him and got my replies! Below is the details in case you are interested:

Me: How do we begin introducing literacy to our preschoolers? Do we go with the phonics, or introducing the alphabets or sight words or what?   

Dr. Sears: The most important thing a parent can do to develop a healthy reader is to spend time side-by-side reading aloud to your child.  Learning to read takes a combination of many developmental skills so the answer is yes, all of the above!  Parents should try out the reading level wizard at http://www.americanreadingathome.com/wizard/  to identify your child’s reading readiness skills and independent reading level.  From there you will be guided on what skills to work on to move to the next level.

Me: Can we teach our children to read if they do not know how to recognize the alphabet yet?

Dr. Sears: Yes!  The first 2 levels for American Reading at Home (1 Yellow and 2 Yellow) do not require alphabet recognition or letter sound skills. Initially your child won’t actually read any words, and may not even look at the words, but she will remember the repeating sentence pattern and “read” the pictures. Your child is learning to read fluently, with confidence, and for meaning. She’s also learning that reading is thinking, which is an important foundation for future comprehension skills.  Knowing letter sounds isn’t required until the 3 Yellow level.

You can get the first 5 e-books for free at: http://www.americanreadingathome.com/bookshelf/

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the products in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

We have a couple of Dr. Seuss apps on my iPad and the latest one that my 3.5 years old boy still loves to listen to is of course the "What Was I Scared Of?" app. So when I received an email pitch on this app, I immediately requested to review it. Without further ado, here goes my feedback...

* Title: Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?
* Price: $3.99
* Category: Books
* Released: Nov 28, 2012
* Version: 1.09
* Size: 36.9 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Oceanhouse Media, Inc.
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later.

Description from the product page:

"Dr. Seuss reminds children that no matter what their struggles may be, they should always be thankful. This wildly imaginative collection of rhymes and illustrations will bring laughter and gratitude to the whole family."

* It is engaging and interactive and I love that we can also touch the objects in each page on the screen and the words pop out to tell you what it is!

* I like the storyline where it teaches us to always be thankful for what we have and never ever compare our struggles and hardships when we don't even know others who are facing much much worse difficulties and hardships compared to ours.

* There are some pages which I used the opportunity to teach my 3.5 years old boy such as the one below. I asked him to identify what is wrong with the person (no shadow):

* I also found myself chuckling along when I saw the page below... crossing the t's and dotting the i's.. oh boy... it is so funny!

* My boy's favorite page has got to be the bridge being built. He spent quite sometime looking over this particular page and asking me what are the parts and objects name and then he decided to tap himself since I was trying to answer him (whoopsss... hahaha... )

You can purchase the "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? " app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"

(** Article first published as Book Review: How To Be A Great Dad: It's In Your Hands by Carmen Elefante on Blogcritics.)

Although I am a mum of 2 kids and kinda concerned with the title of this book (How to be a great dad), I told myself maybe I should read this and then give some pointers to my hubby hehehe... so here goes my humble read of this book:

Title: How To Be A Great Dad: It's In Your Hands
Author: Carmen Elefante
Publisher: Carmen Sense Inc.; 1st edition (2012)
ISBN-13/-10:  978-0987984104 / 0987984101
Paperback: 128 pages

Description from the product page:
"It's much easier to become a father than to be one. How to Be A Great Dad is a revolutionary new book on fatherhood and what it means to be a loving and giving parent. With this fascinating collection of stories, suggestions, and gentle tips on active parenting, author and inspirational speaker Carmen Elefante has created a blueprint that will help fathers realize how important it is to be truly present in their children's lives. How To Be A Great Dad is a call to action and a book for fathers of all ages. It's never too late to work on being a great dad, and children are never too old to have a better father."

You know what caught my interest to review this book? It's the sentence "Do good and forget about it." at the end of Carmen's email to me. Btw, Carmen is the author of this book. I got his email in the middle of September this year and was about to be caught up really really busy with reviewing the Nissan LEAF (fully electric car) for 6 weeks and replied to him that if he doesn't mind waiting for 1-8 weeks for my review, I'd be happy to read his book.

Now back to his "Do good and forget about it." statement. Yeah, it totally reminded me of what my dad would be like. Just do something, don't questions so much, don't be calculative, just do it and make sure you finish it. No half-ar$e job. Do it and be done with it.

Back to the book. This book is not thick at all, about 128 pages in total with hardcover and glossy papers which I like. It is about 6 inch by 8 inch in dimension. There are a total of 9 chapters in this book, touching from stepping up to fatherhood, what to do to earn respect and trust and building everlasting memories with your family and children, the importance of commitment and being involve in your family and childrens' lives and activities you can do with your kids.

I like the way this book is written, there are inspiring quotes with accompanying pictures in each chapter, tips and advice to other men and hey, even a couple of recipes which you can try out with your kids!

Look at the picture below taken from one of the pages in the book which I totally love! I even highlighted the important points for you to read!

I've mentioned to my hubby before that he must not scold or reprimand my actions right in front of our kids no matter how wrong I was or how silly a decision I made or not made. Yes, I understood my actions and its consequences and no matter what, he should never ever react in front of our kids. No matter what heat of the moment or his flare of anger might caused him to behave that way, it is never a right thing to do in front of our kids. I do hope he takes note of this.

In summary, this is really an awesome book that you should have. Whether you plan to buy it for your hubby, a male relative or family member or friend, just get it. Heck, even if they are not male, just get one. Totally recommended it!

You can get this book from Amazon.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"