A Blog By Maria Dismondy
Parenting is Hard, but Navigating What Parenting Advice to Follow is Even Harder
The holiday season is coming with endless family gatherings. All your relatives will surely be giving unsolicited parenting advice. Don’t get me wrong, we all know that when someone gives you advice, it comes from the best place in their heart. However, sometimes your...
Celebrating With Stories
Stories are so important. The author gets to express themselves, and the readers can feel seen! One fantastic thing about storytelling is that there’s a story for everyone. There are so many stories out there, and they all celebrate different things. You can find...
Back to School Season- A Time of Transition
As September approaches, it is time to gear up for a new school year! The transition from summer to autumn can elicit various emotions: the excitement of learning, yet the sadness of closing the chapter of summer. The delight in reuniting with your classmates, yet the...
Empowering Kids with Character Through Reading
In a rapidly changing world, empowering children with strong character traits is crucial. Character development goes hand in hand with academic success, emotional well-being, and life success. Beyond the development of literacy skills, reading has the incredible...
Continuing Learning with Literacy Games
Summer can be a really fun time for kids and families. Filled with sun, cookouts, beach days, and movie nights, it can be a much needed break from all the stress that the school year can bring. However, summer is also a really important time for continuing a child’s...
Bringing the Summer Fun Inside on Rainy Days
Summer is the time to be outside and enjoy the beautiful sunshine. That is until stormy days roll in and keep everyone cooped up inside. I like a rainy day once in a while. The noise is soothing while I sit on the couch and read a book or watch a movie. However, it...
Reading Journals and How They Help Children
When you read your books, what kind of annotations do you do? Are you the kind of person that likes putting in tabs and sticky notes with all of your thoughts for you to find at a moment’s notice? Or are you maybe someone who writes down everything directly on the...
Planning for a Year of Togetherness
Tips for Families Living in an RV and Traveling the United States Our family is about to embark on an exciting (and somewhat scary) adventure! My husband, twin girls (Kenna & Layla), two mini Goldendoodles (Riley & Lucy) and I will be moving into a fifth wheel...
OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES FOR FAMILY BONDING THIS SUMMER
The sun is shining and kids are getting out of school to enjoy a well-deserved break filled with fun and joy. Some of my favorite memories from my childhood were made during the summer. Whether it was spending all day at the beach or riding my bike everywhere with my...
Book Basket for Kids
When you’re looking for new books to read, how do you search for them? Do you talk with your friends and ask them what their favorites are and what they’re currently reading? Do you find influencers you trust and have similar tastes to yours and see what they...
Promoting Children’s Passions with Book Events
When you were a child, what did you want to be? I’ve heard the most common answers were things like astronauts, actors, artists, and the like. For me, I was part of a group of friends who were afflicted by the 2000s Disney-induced craze of people who wanted to be...
Helping Kids Develop a Growth Mindset
As parents, caregivers, and teachers, we try to encourage kids to take creative risks and understand that mistakes are a good thing. We called mistakes “growth spurts” in my classroom because we grow from them. I announced to my students on the first day of school...
Supporting Your Mental Health as a Parent
You wake up in the morning, and your first thought is something along the lines of, “I need to get up and move in order to get the kids up so they’re on time for school,” “I have to pack them lunches and snacks,” or, “I need to make them breakfast.” During the day,...
What if you could fill your child’s attention bucket in just 10 minutes?
The thing I hear most from parents is, “I feel like I’m not connecting with my kids. They don’t listen or cooperate. We’re stuck engaging in power struggles and I feel terrible about our interactions, especially after I yell and lose my cool.” The truth about...
Beyond the Read Aloud–How to Get Your Child Engaged in Reading
Have you ever found yourself opening up a brand new book and ready to read, only to get through about twenty pages of the story when you realize that the whole time, your mind has been elsewhere? I experience this rather frequently. Though I read the words on the...
Four Ways to Make Reading With Kids More Interactive
I miss reading picture books with my kids! They’re both teenagers now and prefer reading on their own. Which of course, was always the goal. The great thing about reading with young kids is that it’s so interactive. There’s more to it than just the story. You create a...
Creating inclusive bookshelves: why diversity matters
“She looks like me!” exclaimed 6 year old Anisha excitedly, on first seeing the character Rocket in Rocket Says Look Up. “This is my favourite book now!” That is the power or representation in books. Positive Representation Every child should have the right and the...
What I’m Doing For Random Acts of Kindness Day
Have you ever been in one of those pay-it-forward car chains when you’re in the drive-thru line? It gives me quite the mix of emotions. First, there’s the delight and shock of something being taken care of for you, and then the guilty dread as you realize that you...
Word of the year 2023
It’s been 12 years since I began the practice of having a word help guide me through my year of life experiences and lessons. Each year I like to recap how it went and predict my intentions with the newly chosen word! Last year when I selected the 2022 word, Rise, I...
Fun Activities to Do as a Family on New Year’s Eve
Can you believe the end of the year is just around the corner? Sheesh! It feels like the years keep getting faster and faster. Well, don’t let the passing of time stress you out because we’re going to check out some ultra-fun activities to do as a family on New Year’s...
Who Are My Characters?
I am Melanie Adkins, and I am a Picture Book writer and illustrator wannabe! I am hoping that one day I will reach my goal and see my work in print. Today, I am here as a guest writer to think about character. It always amazes me to think of how all the characters...
All Reading is Beneficial Reading!
Now that Halloween is in the books for 2022, it’s time to start thinking about turkeys, holiday shopping, and the important contributions of Native Americans. November is Native American Heritage Month, which emphasizes celebrating diverse cultures and is a perfect...
