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By:
Mayra Calvani,
on 12/1/2014
Blog:
Mayra's Secret Bookcase
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children ages 4-10,
fantasy,
grandparents,
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Self-Esteem,
family literacy,
Family Pen-pal Kit,
GoldStar Magic,
intergenerational products,
Terry Nicholetti,
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When I moved from Ithaca, NY to Washington DC in 1998, I was missing my three granddaughters, ages 10, 8, and 6, and wanted to stay close to them. At the same time, I was going through a rebellious phase, resisting doing daily things we all need to do, cleaning, sorting mail, paying bills, etc. My therapist encouraged me to make friends with the “little girl” within me who was so angry about “shoulds” and find a way to work together. She also encouraged me to look for the “why;” why should I care about this task that I don’t want to do.
One day I told her that I had paid all my bills on time that month, and she said, “Good for you! Give yourself a gold star!” What an idea! So I started a little notebook, listed my accomplishments, and gave myself a gold star each time. I wanted to share this idea with my granddaughters, so I designed a two-way postal card out of oak tag. On the top part it said, “Here’s something I did that I’m proud of.” On the bottom half, to be returned to the sender, it said “Here’s what I think of your story.” I made up a supply of these cards, and for a while, we exchanged these messages with great joy.
When I shared these cards with my friends, they said, “This is a great idea; you should turn it into a product!” I didn’t want to just write up a boring “how to” pamphlet to go with them, so I got the idea to write a children’s story about a little girl named NoraLee Johnson who hates doing chores and misses her grandparents who have moved away. She is visited by Loofi Mondel from planet Ifwee, where the motto is “If we care, it’s magic!” They travel in a space ship to Ifwee, where NoraLee meets several residents who only do things they care about. Then they give themselves gold stars, and share their accomplishments with people they love. That’s GoldStar Magic!
They also show her the “magic two-way postal cards” so she can stay close to her grandparents by writing to them about things she’s proud of. The GoldStar Magic! Family Pen-Pal Kit, ™ including NoraLee’s Adventures on Planet Ifwee, two-way postal cards, gold stars, and a link to download the Ifwee song.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Terry Nicholetti, Founder and Chief Encourager of Speak Out, Girlfriend!, is a former teaching nun and professional actor/playwright and author, with nearly 30 years experience in sales and marketing. A speaker, consultant and member of National Speakers Association, Terry helps clients, especially artist/entrepreneurs, find their voice and tell their stories. For the past five years, Terry has been studying Mindfulness Meditation, and loves to share a simple yet profound process for becoming more “mindful or “present” at difficult moments, for example, when one is nervous right before a presentation. A member of Unity Worldwide Ministries congregations for more than a decade, Terry has built her Speak Out, Girlfriend! 9 Steps to Get from Fearful to Fabulous in part on Unity principles, especially that the spirit of God/Source/Universe lives in each of us, and that we create our life's experiences through our thoughts. Inspired by missing her own grandchildren after a move, Terry created and produced the GoldStar Magic! Family Pen-Pal Kit ™, including the delightfully illustrated NoraLee's Adventures on Planet Ifwee, to help children and their grandparents get closer together, one story at a time.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: GoldStar Magic! Family Pen-Pal Kit, ™ including NoraLee's Adventures on Planet Ifwee Genre: children
Author: Terry Nicholetti
Publisher: Terry Nicholetti
Purchase link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0971648816 The Gold Star Magic! Family Pen-Pal Kit™
Bringing children and their grandparents closer together – one story at a time!
Parents: Are you looking for ways to help your young children (ages 4-10) stay in touch with their grandparents?
Grandparents: Are your Skyping, texting, emailing, to stay in touch with your grandchildren? Do you remember how exciting it was to get something in the mail addressed to you?
The Gold Star Magic! Family Pen-Pal Kit™ offers a really unique way to use first class mail to help children get closer to their grandparents – as well as build their self-esteem – one story at a time! The kit is built around NoraLee’s Adventures on Planet Ifwee, a delightfully illustrated, 32 page book about a little girl who hates doing her chores, and misses her grandparents. When she visits Planet Ifwee, she learns how to use GoldStar Magic! to solve both these challenges. NoraLee meets residents like Robinia Clarinda Gazaundry, who helps her dad with the family laundry. From her new friends, NoraLee learns to do something because she cares, give herself gold stars because she feels so proud, and use magic Two-way postal cards to tell her grandparents so they can be proud too.
The kit also includes:
6 Two-Way Postal Cards™ and sealers for children & grandparents to tell their stories.
Lots of Gold Stars.
A link to download The Ifwee Song!“ by Terry and Jan Nigro of Vitamin L Children’s Chorus.
By:
Jen Robinson,
on 11/1/2013
Blog:
Jen Robinson
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Did you know that November 1st is National Family Literacy Day? The idea is to focus on activities and events that showcase the importance of family literacy programs. Like these:
The folks at Scholastic are releasing infographics related to their new SPOTLIT initiative. SPLOTLIT is a "collection of children’s books (50 books per grade level - Pre-K through middle school) approved and hand-picked by a committee of 27 experts (professors, teachers, librarians, etc.)." I've seen the list of experts, and will share that link when Scholastic publishes it on their site. I certainly think that they did a great job.
You can view the SPOTLIT collection books here. The Preschool list contains many of my family's favorites (like Blueberries for Sal, above).
Scholastic says that SPLOTLIT is:
- "The place to find guaranteed great reads hand-picked by some of the most knowledgeable experts in the fields of education and children's books
- A collection of original, re-readable, memorable, diverse, appealing, and inspiring books for all sorts of kids in preschool through middle school
- Expert-selected, kid-tested, stick-with-you-even-after-the-last-page books for today's readers"
Here is an infographic showing the connection between SPLOTLIT titles and the major literary awards:
You can find several other related infographics, including one that highlights the range of animal protagonists in the books, on Scholastic's website.
How will you celebrate National Family Literacy Day? I'm celebrating right now, in a way, by listening to my daughter request read-aloud after read-aloud from her babysitter. I also plan to have a marathon read-aloud session with Baby Bookworm tonight. We were too tired to read at all last night, after trick-or-treating. Tomorrow we'll be going to the library. Because, really, every day is family literacy day, as far as I'm concerned. Or, as Scholastic says, Read Every Day, Live a Better Life. Sounds right to me.
© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. This site is an Amazon affiliate.
By: Terry Doherty,
on 3/12/2010
Blog:
Share a Story - Shape a Future
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Is it Friday already? Wow, what a week! Today at Jen Robinson's Book Page, Jen is wrapping up the week with a look at how we take the next step. She and her guests are offering answers and ideas to some of the toughest questions we have as adults ... mostly parents, but not always. We have a few questions left ourselves, so here goes ...
- Is there a book from your childhood that you didn't like "back then," but that you've since re-read and liked? What was it about the book that you didn't like before?
- Do you have a favorite chapter book for reading with kids of different ages (e.g., 4, 9, 13)?
- What book(s) has your child recommended to you that you loved?
Just a reminder for new visitors. Here's how it works ...
1. Select the question or questions that resonate with you.
2. Find an old post or write a new one that answers the question. [Be sure to grab the Share a Story button from the sidebar to include in your new post!]
3. Come back here and link your post either via the inLinxz box or as a comment.
We'll be adding links for this question through tomorrow (Saturday). If you haven't had a chance to link up through the inlinkz box, don't fret ... the comments will remain open for 30 days, so if something strikes you next week, we'd love to hear from you then.
Two weeks ago, I mentioned that
Sleeping Bear Press donated three (3!) copies each of its Bear family bedtime stories:
Say Daddy!
and
Goodnight Baby Bear
. Well, imagine my surprise when those books were followed up with five (5!) copies each of
R is for Rhyme: A Poetry Alphabet
and
S is for Story: A Writer's Alphabet.
We are celebrating
Reading for the Next Generation at Jen Robinson's Book Page today, so it only seems fitting to have bedtime, rhyming and story books as our last giveaway. Three winners will receive a full set of the four picture books, which offer fiction and nonfiction content! The set is for you and your family to enjoy.
- Say Daddy by Michael Shoulders (Ill. Teri Weidner)
- Goodnight Baby Bear by Michael Shoulders (Ill. Teri Weidner)
- R is for Rhyme: A Poetry Alphabet by Judy Young (Ill Victor Huhasz)
- S is for Story: A Writer's Alphabet by Esther Hershenhorn (Ill. Zachary Pullen)
Two other winners will receive a set of the R is for Rhyme and S is for Story to be donated to their local library.
1 Comments on It's Never Too Late to Read: Bedtime Books Giveaway, last added: 3/12/2010
Welcome!
Bienvenue
欢迎 (huān yíng)
wilkommen
Yeah! It's here!
Share a Story-Shape a Future 2010 has started. We selected the theme
It Takes a Village to Raise a Reader because learning to read is an immersive process ... everyone in a child's life plays a role, either formally or informally. One of our goals with this year's event is to share ideas about all of the ways we can create readers and, by extension, celebrate the efforts that each of us dedicate to the children in our lives.
With today's theme,
The Many Faces of Reading, Terry will takes us on a guided tour around the proverbial "village." She's hosting at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub (Reading Tub blog) and we'll share stories with and from people in our communities who dedicate themselves to promoting reading.
- Lee Wind starts us off with Dads! He shares the 3 Secrets of Reading with Your Daughter.If you've got the worry ... Lee's got the answer.
- Greg Pincus
- Melissa Taylor offers a win-win-win with parent-child book clubs at Imagination Soup. Don't tell anyone, but this is the best book club you'll ever join. From Melissa: "PS, Oprah, I've got one on ya. You forgot the kids."
- Terry thought Just One More Book had something on this topic, but Andrea Ross says it was probably her article The Family that Reads Together ... What's In It for Me? She wrote this as a guest blogger for the Children's Book Review. Here's a link to the podcast version of The Family that Reads Together.
- Sarah Mulhern will talk about the teacher-student relationship at The Reading Zone.
- The Book Whisperer (aka Donalyn Miller) is going to talk about teaching ethics, responsibility, and the difference between "teaching books" v. teaching to read.
- Terry Doherty shares her experience as a reading tutor at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub.
2 Comments on Share a Story 2010 Day 1: The Many Faces of Reading, last added: 3/8/2010
This morning on her Parents and Children Reading Together blog, Cathy Miller has a handy list of literacy terms with family-friendly definitions.
Some terms, like sight words, you may recognize, but others are a little more technical. That said, they are words you're likely to hear during parent-teacher conferences and see when reading the results of standardized tests for reading. As you read Cathy's list, it becomes clear that some words make the concepts sound harder than they are ... try metacognition for example: thinking about how you think. C'mon.
Cathy is doing a radio show with award-winning author Stacey Kannenberg that will be available on the Get Ready to Learn Mom website. She'll also be continuing her series about ways to help independent readers at Parents and Children Reading Together.
Disclosure notice: Cathy serves as a member of the Reading Tub Board of Directors. She offers counsel and is a sounding board for me in framing literacy programs, building outreach, and educating families about reading with kids.
This is a cross-post with Scrub-a-Dub-Tub blog.
It's hard to believe that it's already been three months since the
first issue of Literacy Lava hit the virtual newsstands. In my
first post, I wondered aloud how Susan Stephenson stopped time. Now, it seems that time is flying ... the second issue of
Literacy Lava is about to arrive.
While I may be able to take the heat, my refrigerator apparently found the kitchen too hot! So while I was dealing with all that yesterday, I fell behind Susan and the
Literacy Lava crew in telling you about the upcoming edition. That's okay ... we still have a few more days until the new copy arrives on 1 September 2009.
Like the first issue, you will find lots of practical, fun ideas for engaging kids with books and raising readers. One of the things I love about the magazine - and particularly this month's collection of articles - is that there are lots of ideas that aren't just about sitting and reading a book. I don't want to give anything away, so for now, I'll let you *hear* what Susan has to say about the new edition.
Making literacy part of our everyday family life is often just a matter of remembering. We need to make sure our kids see that reading, writing, and communicating are important to us, and give them lots of opportunities to participate too.
Literacy Lava 2 is a free magazine that will bring you ideas: for motivating reluctant readers, for literacy on the go, for developing the imagination muscle, for linking math and literacy, for having a pirate party and a book picnic, for rhymes, games, activities and more!
Brought to you by bloggers and writers who are passionate about children's literature and literacy, Literacy Lava 2 is erupting with no- or low-cost activities parents can do with kids to promote literacy.
There's a great new collaborative blog on the block ...
Booklights by PBS Parents is a new children's book blog that showcases the talents and kidlit insights of Pam Coughlan (MotherReader), Susan Kusel (Wizards Wireless), and Jen Robinson (Jen Robinson's Book Page). The team will be working with Gina Montefusco from PBS - and various guest contributors - to share a love of reading. From Gina's post ...
Parents can come to Booklights to get book ideas for kids of all ages, "Show and Tale" time, and interviews and literacy news. But most of all, Booklights is about getting kids to love reading, to experience the joy of finding a book that's so good that dinner can wait, TV time can wait, and sleep can wait.
First, read
Pam,
Susan, and
Jen's introductions. Then, go read their favorite picture books (
Jen,
Susan,
Pam). Can't you just picture them sitting under their covers with a flashlight reading?! Congratulations, ladies.
By: ReadingTub,
on 4/21/2009
Blog:
Share a Story - Shape a Future
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Last week, we talked about some of the Reading Tips we gathered during Share a Story-Shape a Future 2009. This week, I’ve rounded up the resources and ideas related to reading aloud.
Reading aloud is crucial to our development as readers and communicators. As Donalyn Miller pointed out in her post, you’re never to old to enjoy having a story read aloud. Still not sure? Then visit The Reading Zone, where you can follow along as Sarah shares the reactions and excitement of her middle school students.
These are posts from the week, as well as links and posts mentioned in the comments. Sarah wrote a post in early April about her process for reading aloud. Although it wasn’t directly part of Share a Story, it goes to the heart of what we hope this event will do. So we’ve included it below.
Understanding Read Aloud with Young Children
Thoughts and Tips for Reading Aloud with Independent Readers
Read Aloud Resources for Adults
Next Week: Books and Booklists. There were so many recommendations, we’re going to break this into a series.
By: ReadingTub,
on 4/16/2009
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Share a Story - Shape a Future
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In today's edition, I've pulled together the full week's agenda in one post. It is still sorted by day, but it includes all of the hyperlinks from the main posts, as well as other bloggers who added to the discussion.
Thanks to the outstanding work and dedication of our bloggers, this is an incredible resource as a place to start thinking about ways to engage kids in writing. To make it even handier, we have created a downloadable version, too.
Event Takeaways
Day 1: Raising Readershost: Terry Doherty @
Scrub-a-Dub-TubDay 2: Selecting Reading Materialhosted by Sarah Mulhern at
The Reading ZoneDay 3: Reading Aloud - It's Fun, It's Easyhosted by Susan Stephenson at the
Book Chook blog
Day 5: Share a Story-Shape a Future: What the Future Holdshosted by Elizabeth O. Dulemba at
Dulemba.comMy thanks (again) to everyone who participated in Share a Story-Shape a Future 2009!
One of the most commented upon aspects of this year’s Literacy Blog Tour was the collection of reading tips and ideas. In this post we’ve pulled together blog posts, references to websites, and some creative ideas offered by participants and their visitors. There were tons of ideas, but the list below focuses on ways to help you “sneak” reading into your day.
We welcome more ideas, so if you leave a link in the comments, I’ll come back and add it here.
2:00PM: updated to fix the list snafu
Websites with Reading Ideas
Reading Tips – a one-page set of easy-to-use ideas courtesy of Reach Out and Read
14 Fantastic Hints on Reading Aloud by Mem Fox – a post by Susan Stephenson (The Book Chook)
20 Ways to Incorporate Literacy Into Your Own Kids' Lives - Valerie Baartz (The Almost Librarian) offered these in an interview at The Book Chook.
Tif Talks Books has posts about Sorting and Roaming Around the Known – Tif says these are two tools she learned about in a Parents as Teachers workshop.
Ideas for Mixing Reading into Your Day
Bathtub Fun - One of our favorite "pre-reading" activities was playing with foam letters in the bathtub. William would line them up from A to Z and then hide his eyes. I would remove a letter and he would try to guess which one was missing. Sometimes instead of removing a letter I would rearrange them. As he got older, we would spell words for each other and then read them. (Tricia Stohr-Hunt, post at The Miss Rumphius Effect)
Letter Art - Kids love to make art using all kinds of media. I invested in alphabet rubber stamps so that William's art could be adorned with letters and words. In the beginning, the artwork contained his just his name stamped on the page. Then, the objects in the scenes were labeled. Now, the art is fully described or sometimes forms the pages of a story. (Tricia Stohr-Hunt, post at The Miss Rumphius Effect)
Write Stories - When you find a book or character your child loves, try to imagine together what the next adventure might be. (Tricia Stohr-Hunt, post at The Miss Rumphius Effect)
Sign Poetry - Travel is actually a very good time to practice reading skills. We keep a pen and paper in the car and often play a game where we collect words and phrases for poetry. We read and write (not me silly, I’m driving!) words we find on signs, billboards, bumper stickers, license plates, etc. Once we have a decent list, we make up silly poems using the words. (Tricia Stohr-Hunt, post at The Miss Rumphius Effect)
Never Leave Home Without It - Anytime we leave the house for errands we carry a bag that holds plain paper, crayons or colored pencils, and a few books that William has selected. Now the mantra before heading out is "Go to the bathroom and then grab a book." There always seems to be time to read in the car, the doctor's office, the restaurant, you name it. (Tricia Stohr-Hunt, post at The Miss Rumphius Effect)
Light Up the Night - Buy your child a flashlight or book light and let him/her read under the covers. William will actually go to bed early if I tell him he can have time reading AFTER lights out. Reading undercover is fun and helps build independence. (Tricia Stohr-Hunt, post at The Miss Rumphius Effect)
Make a List - Keep a running list of favorite books or authors in a spreadsheet or table or use an online service like Goodreads.com. Before you head out to the library or to the bookstore, bring a print out. This list lays out your groundwork. You have information to provide those librarians when they ask what you've liked in the past and you've got solid sources to go back to in case you aren't able to find anything new during that trip. (recommended by Valerie Baartz)
Next post: Literacy Resources
As we were gearing up for Share a Story-Shape a Future, we were collecting lots of information. We were visiting lots of our favorite spots, identifying new resources and links, and thinking about what people had suggested in the comments to Jen Robinson's post about Encouraging Read-Aloud.
The more we collected, the more we realized that this was turning into a cohesive resource. And since the value of information is in the sharing, it only seemed logical to put everything together in one place and make it accessible to anyone who might want it. Hence, the Literacy Resource Kit.
We had links to it yesterday, but it really does deserve it's own spot in the sun. Depending on the results of
the survey, we may try to go back through the tour and collect posts, links, and booklists.
"Reading is magic. When you encourage a child to read, you are actually conferring two special magical powers on him - the power to solve problems, and the power to enter other worlds."
~ Susan Stephenson ~
This is a day where it's easy to get ahead of ourselves since Susan is launching Day Three from Australia. If you're a regular Book Chooker, you know how passionate Susan is about reading aloud with kids. What you may not know, is that she is also an
author,
children's writer, and an all-round
incredibly creative person. We're all in for a treat - Aussie style!
Day 3: Reading Aloud - It's Fun, It's Easy
hosted by Susan Stephenson at the
Book Chook blog
More Great Posts
My favorite book to read with kids about 4-6th grade (yes, if framed correctly they still do like the read aloud) is John H. Ritter's Over The Wall. I love the raw emotion of the main character and how the writing makes you want to sit on the edge of your seat at parts, gives you great sympathy for the main character at other times and always connections you to thinking about the metaphor in the title.