Every child loves to see their name in print and if there’s a way to make seeing your name in print more exciting, it is seeing your picture along side it. Proud Canadian company Mini Me Books has gotten it just right with their creation of The Octopus Book.

There are three available options, all of which are fantastic and only get better as you put a few more dollars into it. The first, with personalized text including the name of the child and their parents, sells for $32.99. For $39.99, you can personalize the names of the characters, and upload an image of your child. Finally, for $49.99 you can personalize text and photo for your child and 2 adults. My son has the $49.99 edition of The Octopus Book and I can tell you very honestly that it’s worth every penny and you will love it as much as your child will! The quality is second to none - better, in fact, than many of the thousands of books that fill my house and classroom from bookstores and other sources. The pages are thick and shiny and the paper is certified to the environmental and social standards of the Forest Stewardship Council. The binding is sturdy and tough, and the integration of the uploaded photographs is professional and…perfect. This does not look like a homemade book. It’s one that we have read daily since it arrived and will continue to read for many years.

Sure, it’s more than you’d spend on an average book at the store…but this is no average book. If you’re able to make the investment for your child, I assure you that you won’t regret it. I highly recommend it.

Save 10% on your Mini Me Book purchase with the code TOP10.

Win it! We’re giving away a personalized Mini Me Book valued at $49.99 to one lucky TOP reader! To enter, leave a comment on this post letting us know what little person in your life would be the lucky recipient before 11:59 mst on October 10, 2008.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

There are very few magazines that I feel are worthy of my money each month, either at the news stand or via slightly less expensive subscriptions. My short list just got one longer with my introduction to Kiwi Magazine. The content is second to none - I don’t think there was one article I didn’t thoroughly enjoy in the latest issue. Covering topics like budgeting, crafts, cooking, vaccination, memory making, wellness, style, play and more, and all from an organically green perspective, it’s like your favourite parenting magazine without the adds for hot dogs. Speaking of advertising, Kiwi has it’s fair share but through it I’ve been introduced to healthier & more organic options for things I have never allowed my kids to experience. Organic & chemical free sprinkles for our ice cream? Heck yes! There’s even an article showcasing some organic and natural alternatives to the dreaded hotdog that I had no idea were available. Did I mention an annual (bimonthly) subscription is only $11.95? If you have a family and any desire to green up your life, Kiwi magazine is for you.

Be sure to check out the great resource that is the Kiwi Magazine website.

Win it! We’re giving away a one year subscription to Kiwi Magazine to one lucky reader. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post before midnight MST on September 16/08.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED

The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by the fabulous James Patterson is presented as a book that will get young boys reading. My sense of humour indicates that I’m a 12 year old boy inside, and my love for this book proves it. I’ve read all of James Patterson’s adult novels and thoroughly enjoyed them, which was the main reason I decided to review The Dangerous Days of Daniel X.

Patterson created Daniel as a character with a tremendous power - the coolest of all super powers…the power to create. As an alien hunter trying to avenge the death of his mother and father, Daniel keeps himself alive by using his way-cool power. The book starts out with a preying mantis-like character entering his family home and killing his parents. He’s left alone and his character is often heartbreaking, manifesting friends and family with his power to keep himself company. Through the rest of the book, Daniel aims to kill all of the aliens on “The List.” The majority of the plot focuses on number 6 on the list, Ergent Seth. Without giving any more of the plot away, I’ll just say that he’s a crazy powerful & most dangerous alien and you can read the book to find out what happens.

It’s completely age appropriate for a young school aged to tween boy, with juvenile language (in a good way) and short 2-3 page chapters, but has amazing crossover potential. Dare I say, kind of like Harry Potter? When I read a little bit of it to my husband, he thought the aliens sounded a little “Men In Black-esque” - full of the action that boys love with a little of the silly and none of the frilly. My 2 year old boy, of course, didn’t read it but I’ll definitely be filing it away for him for when he’s somewhere between 6 & 12 when he’s sure to love it. It’s the kind of book I’ll likely read to him in grade one or two and he’ll read again alone when he’s in grade 3 or 4. It’s not written for teenagers so anyone older than that likely wouldn’t be interested but for the younger set and the adults like me who love childrens literature it’s fantastic.

Win it! I have one brand spanking new copy of this book to ship to a reader. Leave a comment on this post by midnight tonight to enter. One winner will be drawn at random and emailed bright and early tomorrow morning. It’s all packaged up and waiting for an address. Maybe yours?

Additional entries available. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED…PACKAGE MAILED THIS MORNING!

I am incredibly embarrassed to say that I received this book over two months ago and didn’t get a chance to even open the cover until my unplugged time last week. Once I finally did sit down with it, I couldn’t put it down. And that’s saying something for a mom of a newbie and a barely two-bie.

Somebody’s Daughter, by Marie Myung-Ok Lee, is about a young woman named Sarah who was born in Korea and adopted by a caucasian couple in the American midwest shortly thereafter. After a life of feeling like she never really fit, she dropped out of university and traveled to Korea to study the language and eventually began the search for her birth mother. Marie writes very eloquently and interweaves the story of Sarah and her birth mother Kyung-Sook in such a way that I felt that I stepped into each of their lives for the hours I was reading. How someone who wasn’t adopted herself can present both sides of the story in such a realistic way is beyond me. It takes incredible talent to write a book like Somebody’s Daughter and I’m so glad I found the time to read it. I’m tempted to give away how it ends, but you’ll just have to read it. It would be an amazing book club pick - it’s a book that almost anyone would love whether you’re looking for deep conversation or just an escape into the land of literature.

Win it! Marie is giving away a copy of Somebody’s Daughter to one reader. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post before noon MST on July 30/08.

Get up to three additional entries into this contest!

1. Blog about this contest using one of the top three images found here. Leave a comment with the direct link to your post (not to your main page, and in a separate comment from your other entry).

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CONTEST CLOSED & WINNER EMAILED - Congrats Michelle!

When I heard the title of this book, I knew we’d love it.

Child of Wonder: Nurturing Creative and Naturally Curious Children by Ginger Carlson is designed to nurture children who think, wonder, and love to learn. It’s a well-organized, easy-to-read collection of inspiring ideas and techniques to guide children’s creative development. A thoughtful, engaging resource for parents and educators seeking to understand creativity and to encourage it in practical ways, this guide illustrates multiple intelligences and learning styles and provides tools to develop a creatively supported environment that cultivates family participation. An array of complementary hands-on activities explore topics such as imaginative play, math, movement, music, cooking, science, storytelling, visual arts, questioning, cooperative games, media, and nature.

TOP Contributing Writer Grace reviews this book for you all the way from Dubai, UAE.

I have to admit, I felt a little guilty while reading this book because I realized how much my child is missing in the creativity department. My four year old is creative in her own way but I think it is the product of creative stimulation she gets mostly in school, and not at home. With the limited time I have because of working full time, 6 days a week, I lack the time to research for fun activities to do with her. I know, that should not be a reason for not coming up with fun and creative things to do with her; I do buy books and we read a lot at home because we have no television but sometimes I do wish to find some other ways to nurture her natural creative spirit. The book reading and coloring books can become a monotonous routine.

Thanks to this book, I can now plan things to do with my daughter every chance we have.

The book provides a rich resource of ideas, creative things to do line by line! With this one copy, I know my activity planner will be filled until she is old enough to do things on her own! I like the part where it explains that we should not prevent kids from exploring and experimenting things, no matter how messy or how different the outcome from our adult point of view. I know so many parents are guilty with this one, including myself. Now I know better. This is one book each mom and dad should have. - Grace

Order your autographed copy here. Check out Ginger’s blogs for more of her wonder-ful writing.

Win it! We’re giving away a signed copy of Child of Wonder to one randomly selected winner. To enter, leave a comment on this post. Any comment is fine, but we’d love to hear your own thoughts on childhood creativity, childrens’ sense of wonder or ideas for creative and wondrous activities. Contest closes at noon MST on June 5, 2008.

Additional entries available. See contest entry information and rules.

I’ve always been a very happy person and can see the positive in almost any situation. I believe that happiness is a choice. You may not be able to control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it. I tend to find the “Negative Nellie” type of person annoying and energy draining and choose not to spend my time with them.

Since having children I find it even easier to find joy in every day things - like the dew on a blade of grass or the feel of the rain on my head as I stomp in a puddle.

Focus Friends is a mom-run company out of Colorado producing a series of children’s books and products based on characters called Focus Friends. Each of the characters created by founder and author Lisa Rey Marks is imbued with a special gift or valuable trait and the books and products provide a springboard for teaching young children to develop the positive thought patterns and emotions that will help them to live happier lives.

The debut title, Joy Is The Greatest Gift, features Joyann - a friend with the focus of creating joy. With colourful illustrations and flowing rhymes, it’s a book that captured the attention of my children and would do the same for yours. And while books are always preferred over tech toys, books with positive lessons like this are absolutely first-rate in my book.

Win it! Focus Friends is giving a copy of Joy Is The Greatest Gift away to one TOP reader. To enter, leave a comment on this post before noon MST on May 20, 2008.

Additional entries available. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED - CONGRATS CINDI!

If you’re like me, the excitement of that little plus sign was soon replaced with questions…lots and lots of questions. From how to deal with round-the-clock nausea, to how I was going to find an outfit for my shower that wouldn’t make me look like a beached whale; my mind was racing. I asked my mom, my friends, my mom’s friends…anyone who had experience was fair game. As a fashion-conscious woman, I was concerned with looking my best during my pregnancy. I wanted to radiate the joy I felt over the life that was growing inside me.

If you’re pregnant today, you know that books on pregnancy abound. Last time I checked Amazon, I saw over 100,000 books on pregnancy! A majority of these books educate moms-to-be on everything from dealing with common pregnancy discomforts to breathing your way through labor pain. I have yet to read a pregnancy book as unique, uplifting, and down-to-earth as The Hot Mom To Be Handbook: Womb With a View. Jessica Denay, author and founder of the Hot Moms Club provides advice to pregnant women on embracing their beauty and confidence as a mom while retaining their sense of self. This is THE book for pregnant moms who want practical, attainable tips that will help them look and feel like the hot mama they are all pregnancy long!

The Hot Mom To Be Handbook reads like a conversation with your best girlfriend.
Each chapter corresponds to the 9 months of gestating. Jessica Denay compiles her experience as a mom along with that of other hot moms to provide suggestions and advice on everything from engaging your inner calm to maintaining your sense of humor throughout your pregnancy. Above all I love how she empowers women to trust their maternal instincts and intuition about themselves and their growing babies.

My favorite aspect of the book is the journal questions at the end of each chapter. They motivate and encourage moms to creatively reflect and document the various aspects of their pregnancy that are threatened to be lost once sleep deprivation sets in. The Hot Mom to Be Handbook is filled with inspirational quotes, satirical narratives, and innovative resources. You’ll laugh as you relate to other moms. Sit down with this fun, light-hearted informational book written from one mom to another and embrace the hot mama that you are! - Caryn

I could easily summarize what I feel after reading this book in one sitting: I wish I read this before I got pregnant 5 years ago!

The Hot Mom To Be Handbook, Womb with a View by Jessica Denay made me laugh at the funny analogies, got me teary eyed with the heart-warming stories and had me nodding and nodding remembering all the hilarious old wives tales and scary birth stories I was told when I was pregnant. Thanks to books like these, today’s moms are stronger, sexier, more confident and smarter than ever.

I have also learned that moms should not abandon their personal goals, fulfillments and fashion just because they have children. I admit I had been neglecting myself thinking that all those things (including fashion!) pale in comparison to my child’s needs and desires. Now, five years after giving birth, I am ready to reclaim the fun and improve my outer appearance. I do want to be a hot mom! - Grace

See Jessica and Trista on Entertainment Tonight here.

Win it! We’ve got a copy to give away! To enter, leave a comment telling us a bit about your (or your partner’s) pregnancy. Did you/Do you feel hot? Did it suck beyond suckage? Do share! Contest closes on April 30 at noon MST.

Additional entries available. See contest entry information and rules.

CONTEST CLOSED

Happy Earth Day, dear readers. Today, more than ever, we’re thinking about ways to include our children in all of our earth saving activities.

The great new book My Bag and Me (only $8.58 right now at Amazon via that link) is a fantastic addition to any home library.

It’s a rhyming story book that teaches lessons about reusing shopping bags to save the earth, and there’s a (cute!) reusable bag for your child built right in to the book. The story is very short and concise, but within those few pages addresses some great concepts - saving the land and sea, setting an example for others, reminding your parents to be earth-friendly, and that we can all make a difference. I love it, my son loves it, and thanks to this book and bag I’ve got a little helper that ensures I’ll never forget my bags in the car again. (I used to forget them 9 out of 10 times, so that’s great!)

Win it! We’re giving away a copy of My Bag and Me to one reader who leaves an Earth Day comment on this post. Entries must be received by midnight MST tonight to qualify!

CONTEST CLOSED

Additional entries available. See contest entry information and rules.

Kate Trueblood understands the complication of balancing a career and family. She is the mother of two children, a writer, and an Associate Professor at Western Washington University.

Trueblood’s most recent novel, The Baby Lottery, was chosen to appear as a Book Sense Pick in 2007, and she was selected for the Jack Straw Writer’s Series in the Northwest. This book deals with many of the issues facing women today, including pregnancy vs. abortion, career vs. family, and marriage vs. divorce. The story follows five old college friends as they struggle to come to terms with their lives.

Kate sees The Baby Lottery as a piece of literature that challenges social questions and does not fit into the category of chick lit, and we totally agree.

How would you feel if one of your oldest and closest friends chose to have a late term abortion? How would you react? Would you support her? Would you judge her choice? And, what about your own choices; are you content with the choices that you have made?

Kathryn Trueblood’s second novel, The Baby Lottery, is a piercing, insightful examination of the decisions women make about motherhood. Told through the voices of five different women, the story centers around one of the women’s choice to terminate her pregnancy. The bonds of friendship are tested and strained as each woman reacts to the abortion based upon her own circumstances and experiences. Each perspective is profoundly different, but each reaches the same conclusion; there are no easy answers.

Kathryn Trueblood is a truly gifted writer. She has crafted a story that grabs you and won’t let go; each page leaves you hungry for the next. Also, the language in The Baby Lottery is stunning. I found myself rereading passages just to savor the words. The characters are well developed, and I could relate to each of the women in some way. Entertaining and deeply provocative, The Baby Lottery definitely deserves a spot on your reading list. - By Kelli

Nan, the non-judgmental nurse; Jean, the bitter and opinionated ex-social worker; Virginia, the overworked and underappreciated lecturer; Tasi, the detached career-oriented professional; and Charlotte, the alcoholic enigma – this is their story. Their friendship has survived over the years through turbulent relationships, lost loves, life changes, career upheavals, motherhood and failed pregnancies etc. But when Charlotte announces her decision to have a late-term abortion, it acts like an earthquake, arousing varying reactions among her friends and shaking their friendship to the core.

With poetic language and realistic imagery, Author Kathryn Trueblood takes the readers on an unforgettable journey into a woman’s life – the choices she has to make, the consequences she has to endure, and most importantly, the life she can bring into this world or take out. The viewpoints and experiences of the friends provide an intelligent and varied perspective into the hot topic of abortion and other issues close to a woman’s heart. The characters all act and react in a way that feels so true to life. It’s easy to relate to them, finding a bit of Jean’s longing or Nan’s pragmatism in ourselves. Their pain is our pain, their lives are our lives. What I liked most and what felt very real to me was that the problems weren’t resolved in a bid to provide a happy ending, but rather the hope of a better future was conveyed.

Simple and elegant, this is a story that will live long in my memory for being one of the most engaging books on female relationships and motherhood. - By Rashmi

Win it! We’ve got two copies of The Baby Lottery to give away. To enter, leave a comment on this post by April 25. Any comment will qualify, but we’d love to read about your opinions on the book or the social issues therein.

Get up to three additional entries into this contest!

1. Blog about this contest using one of the top three images found here. Leave a comment with the direct link to your post (not to your main page, and in a separate comment from your other entry).

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Maximum four entries total per person.

CONTEST CLOSED

I have heard new parents wonder what they’re supposed to do all day with their baby. You can only spend so much time rocking, walking and staring at black and white toys, right?

Honestly, the baby thing came easily to me and I’m good with the K-5 crowd, but between the ages of 2 and 5 I’m a little short of ideas.

I recently read Play & Learn: 1001 Fun Activities For Your Baby and Child from the supposed world-renowned Gymboree company. I say supposed because I was shocked to learn that Gymboree was more than a cute kids clothing store. Yes, I live under a log.

The 1001 activities are sorted into 11 age groups (from 0+ months to 5+ years) to meet typical developmental milestones. The design is colourful and engaging and it’s easy to read cover to cover or pick up and point to one activity you’d like to try that day. The activities cover every topic, including music, arts & crafts, science & nature, family interaction, active play, outings and more.

This is an awesome book and one that I’d highly recommend for parents of newborns right up to pre-schoolers. It would also make a great baby gift.

Also from Gymboree, my son has been reading Shapes and Numbers. Though not enthralling in any way, they’re great for their simple illustration and the inclusion of the words in French, German, Spanish, and Italian in addition to English. My two year old loves to point and label and these books are just right for that type of kid. And if I ever need to know how to say “crescent” in German, I’m all set.

Win it! Win a copy of Play & Learn: 1001 Fun Activities For Your Baby and Child - just click the image above to view the book online and leave a comment telling us one activity you find in there that you’d recommend to a parent needing ideas. Contest closes April 8, 2008.

Get up to two additional entries into this contest!

1. Blog about this contest using one of the top three images found here.

2. Leave a comment with the direct link to your post (not to your main page, and in a separate comment from your other entry).

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Subscribe to our RSS feed. eave an additional comment to let us know that you did this for your extra entry. Be sure to leave a valid email address so we can confirm your new subscription.

Maximum three entries total per person.

CONTEST CLOSED

Scrapbooking is one of my favourite hobbies, but you’d never know it to look at our office. There are drawers and bins full of supplies and stacks of pictures just sitting there silently tormenting me. My son is two next month and I haven’t scrapbooked a single page since his first birthday montage. Pregnancy, moving, returning to work, birth, living with two monkeys and a busload of badly behaved pets…it all adds up to no free time for my hobbies.

I’ve tried a bit of digital scrapping and there’s some great stuff out there but the time it takes to Photoshop everything all together and make it just right is more than I have. And then when I do finally complete a page, how the heck do I print a quality 12×12 inch page to fit my albums? My printer isn’t that large, and none of the local stores offer a 12×12 option.

Enter How Fast They Grow, a mom-owned full service digital scrapbooking site. With their patent-pending Digi-scrapbook program, you can scrapbook if you can upload photos, drag & drop, choose colours and type. There is seriously nothing to it, and the final product is amazing! There are a ton of templates to choose from and more are being added all the time.

I was getting down on myself when my daughter was 2 months old and I hadn’t even scrapbooked her newborn photos. Not one single page. It was shortly after that when I received an email from founding mom Cathy Bennett about How Fast They Grow and I decided to give it a shot.

Within 2 hours I had a dozen pages completed. The one pictured at right took me approximately 4 minutes! I ordered them online and they were on my doorstep within a week. If I had to do those 12 pages sitting at my craft table, it would have taken me a dozen or more hours spread over several months when I could find a few minutes here and there. At $7.50/page, it’s hardly more costly than an embellished scrapbook page I’d make by hand. Yes, it sounds expensive, but when you consider the thousands of dollars sitting unused in my scrapbooking area I’m actually saving money! (At least that’s what I plan to tell my husband.)

Membership in the site is free. I suggest you join and make some pages to see what it’s like. You don’t pay anything unless you place an order. It’s fun and more than a little addictive!

The pages are true 12×12 and will fit in any standard album, but albums are also available from their online shop. And gift cards! Say hello to my dream baby gift. (Or stocking stuffer. Hint hint, husband.)

How Fast They Grow is currently only shipping to the US but there are plans to add Canada and Europe very shortly. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear. In the meantime, MyUS, Ship Happens Sumas or another such site can get your pages to you anywhere. (Disclaimer - I’ve never tried either of those sites but they sound cool to me. Let us know if you have any experience with them or know of another one. We’d love to check them out. I’ll open comments on this post.)

Save 20% with the code TOP until Friday, April 18, 2008. At just $6/page, you can’t beat it!

Review by Andrea, T.O.P. Contributing writer and owner of the fabulous EcoBaby Canada

I really enjoyed reviewing “The Frantic Woman’s Guide to Feeding Family and Friends” by Mary Jo Rulnick. This book could not have come at a more appropriate time. I have to admit, I am a frantic woman, and this book somehow made that okay.

The book goes over everything, including kitchen organization, a list of all the staples you need in your cupboard, and there are tips and tricks throughout the book to make your life a little easier. Mary Jo Rulnick even tells you how to unload and store your groceries!

The book is laid out in a seasonal sort of format for recipes and such, including a meal plan for fall, winter, spring and summer. To top it off there are also some meal plans for special occasions like PMS and kid’s parties. The preplanned recipe schedule really takes the brainwork out of it, and hence, takes the stress out of it.

I’m one of those women who freaks out at about 5:00pm when I have no idea what I should cook. This was not the case for the past week or so though. I followed the winter meal plan 2. All I had to do was photocopy the grocery list, go grocery shopping, and follow the instructions. So for the past week, I still didn’t know what we were going to have at 5:00pm, but all I had to do was open the book and follow the instructions. Seeing as I already did the essential grocery shopping, I knew I had everything I needed. Plus, I could get everything at my local grocery store!

This book has seriously taken a huge stressor out of my life, and I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to relieve a little dinnertime stress.

Now all I need is a frantic woman’s guide to getting all your kids to bed before 8:00pm, or maybe a frantic woman’s guide to housework!

Buy it at Amazon.

WIN IT! We’ve got a copy to give away to one reader. To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with FRANTIC! in the subject line by midnight MST on 3/13/08.

Get an additional entry into this contest by blogging about it!

1. Blog about this contest using one of the top three images found here.

2. Email the direct link to your post (not to your main page, and in a separate comment from your other entry) to theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with FRANTIC! in the subject line to receive your second entry.

Congratulations Cindy!

Raising kids is a huge responsibility. No big shock there. However, raising them should encompass more than assisting them to survive to legal adulthood. As parents, we also have a responsibility to teach our children to be savvy with their finances and give them more than a fighting chance at future financial security. You know, so they’ll spring for the very best in senior care facilities for their fabulous parents.

Financial literacy expert Susan Beacham and NYT bestselling author Lynnette Khalfani Cox have joined to co-write a series of smart & creative picture books which teach children some real life money lessons. The Millionaire Kid$ Club books - two volumes so far - use situations that children could easily imagine themselves in to teach that there are four things that you can do with money: save, spend, donate or invest.

Susan Beacham is also the creator of the cool banks pictured at right - a pig, cow or football with four sectioned areas for cash designated for saving, spending, donating and investing. I’m fairly sure I would have loathed that delayed gratification as a child and very likely would have benefited from using a bank like this.

Win it! We’re giving away a cow bank and book set to one lucky winner. To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com before midnight MST tonight with MONEY in the subject line and tell us (a)why this bank and book set will benefit your child or (b) a money horror story from your past that you’d hate for your child to re-live. Good luck!

Congratulations Jared!

Given my love of shopping for kids clothing online, I was both delighted and a teeny bit sad to discover the wonderful gifts available from Gifted Grasshopper. Delighted because there is truly no better gift than the gift of literacy, and a little sad because now that I have these awesome gift bags bursting with books in my radar there’s bound to be a lot fewer clothing purchases when a new baby arrives.

Founded by two first grade teachers turned moms Laura and Jen, The Gifted Grasshopper “is the result of a lifetime love of children’s literature, a love for sharing wonderful stories with children and for watching their eyes sparkle as they discover a new favorite book or author.”

The gifts come in four sizes - petite, small, medium & large - to fit every budget and there’s a large selection under $25. The signature tote bags are stuffed with books sorted according to age level and come with Gifted Grasshopper Glasses (to help your child spot new letters or words or even give them special reading powers), a Gifted Grasshopper bookmark with parent tips on it, and the adorable Griffen the Grasshopper as a special reading buddy for the recipient child.

Looking for a special theme bag? Laura and Jen will create a custom bag just for you when you.

The Gifted Grasshopper gives away a $44.99 bag each month to those who sign up for their e-mail list AND a $24.99 bag each month tho those who comment on their blog.

Save 10% on purchases of $24.99 or more with the code PARENT10.

Time To Feed Baby is a journal for recording your baby’s feeding schedule. While it might seem silly to experienced moms or those without children, as a first time mom it is often essential to track feedings, poops & pees and other details in a pretty little book. Sometimes it’s for health reasons and at other times it’s just for the sake of the mother’s sanity. (For subsequent kids you don’t have a spare second or a free hand to write anything down, so it’s a good thing we’re usually more relaxed about this stuff!) Either way, Time To Feed Baby is a great resource.

Sure, you could use any old notebook but why would you when you can have a great bound keepsake book for only $10? Time to Feed Baby also includes a pocket in the back for storing articles, doctor information, and other loose notes. It works for both breast and bottle fed babies and is completely gender neutral, making it a great shower gift too!

It’s another weekend giveaway! To enter to win your own copy of this book, send an email with TIME TO FEED BABY in the subject line and your full name and mailing address with blog link if you have one in the body to theopinionatedparent@gmail.com before midnight MST on 2/17/08. One winner will be selected at random. Congratulations Stacey!

Scrapbooking is a great hobby and I love it, but I don’t have nearly enough time to do it justice. My kids are lucky if they get a few pages a year. It’s time consuming and incredibly expensive. Though worth it, it’s great to have an option that takes less time away from the family I’m trying to preserve memories for.

Your Birthday Book available from Amazon for less than $15 is totally not a cheesy pre-packaged baby book. It’s a birthday book! You start it at birth and fill it out every year until your child’s 18th birthday.

Birthdays provide the perfect annual opportunity to preserve moments in time as your child changes from year to year. Contrary to scrapbooking, Your Birthday Book gives you fun, fast, and casual birthday activities for ages 1-18 as well as spaces to stick birthday pics and a random images from each year, cute questions to ask your kid, and a time-capsule envelope for stashing away odds and ends (artwork, school papers, hand tracings, birthday cards, invitations, and other memorabilia) that would otherwise be shoved in a box in the closet if you weren’t a devoted scrapper. (Or is that just me?) It encourages you to complete the same four activities for each birthday. The question prompts and tone shift each year, but the essence intentionally remains intact.

What a great way to preserve memories - I love it!

We’re giving one away this weekend! Just a little reward for RSS subscribers and readers who take the time to pop in over the weekend. To enter, send an email with BIRTHDAY BOOK in the subject line and your full name and mailing address with blog link if you have one in the body to theopinionatedparent@gmail.com before midnight MST on 2/17/08. One winner will be selected at random. Congratulations Tara!

When you have a baby everyone tells you to enjoy and record every moment because they go by so fast, and that’s so incredibly true. But nobody tells you when you get pregnant to take lots of pictures and record even the yucky moments because there will come a time when you will wish you remembered. The Happy Baby, Healthy Mom Pregnancy Journal can help you do just that but in addition to being a place to record the dirty details it also offers a week-to-week plan devised by Dr. Robert Greene for obtaining optimal health throughout pregnancy and the first 12 crazy weeks of the postpartum period. It contains indispensable tips about healthy eating for two, keeping fit, and relieving those oh so many discomforts. It also guides you through each doctor’s appointment, offers advice about prenatal testing, and includes questionnaires for tracking common and no-so-common pregnancy symptoms. I am a firm believer in “Congratulations on conceiving!” gifts and this will be yet another of my go-to-gifts for expecting mamas.

Win it! Random House is giving a copy of the Happy Baby, Healthy Mom Pregnancy Journal to one opinionated parent. To enter, simply email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com before midnight MST on 2/15/08 with HAPPY & HEALTHY in the subject line, your complete name & mailing address and…that’s it!. Congratulations Kirstin G!

But not everyone is as neurotic as I am, thankfully.

If you’re freaked out about your little people becoming teens, you’re not alone. Or maybe your in the midst of teen angst right now. You’re still not alone.

When to Worry: How to Tell if Your Teen Needs Help—and What to Do About It, by Lisa Boesky, Ph.D. is a new book (new-ish, because I’m amazingly behind what with this whole growing and birthing a human experience)

From the press release: For many parents, raising an adolescent can be challenging, stressful and overwhelming. Parents can easily feel helpless when suddenly faced with a moody, defiant, unpredictable, or overly-sensitive teenager. At some point every teen acts out, but how can parents tell if these changes are a normal part of adolescence or if their teen is in need of help?

Lisa Boesky is a clinical psychologist and an expert on troubled teens. See her at drlisab.com and whentoworry.com. In When To Worry she shares warning signs of serious problems, effective solutions for a variety of problems including depression, eating disorders and school issues, the pros and cons of medications for teens, cutting and self-mutilation, substance abuse and so much more.

If it sounds scary, it is. But it becomes much less so with a book like this at hand. Sadly, life is tough for many teens and knowing when they need help is the first step to actually being able to help them effectively. Thank goodness for books that tackle these topics because without them you all might be neurotic freaks like me.

We’ve got a copy of When To Worry to give away! One winner will be randomly selected from all valid entries. To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with WHEN TO WORRY in the subject line and that it!
You must include your full name and mailing address within your email or your entry will be invalid. (That’s just so we can ship your prize asap after the draw if you win - entries are deleted after the draw is complete and are never shared with anyone - it just makes things much faster for us!) Contest closes at midnight MST on February 15, 2008. Good luck! Congratulations Ryan S.!

This is a Mother-Talk book tour.

I’m not usually a memoir fan, but Kelly has taken what could easily have just been a book about a typical woman who survives breast cancer while her father fights his own cancer (sadly, a common enough occurrence today) and made it into a completely absorbing and often heart wrenching story of the middle place. The place so many of us can relate to. “The Middle Place is about calling home. Instinctively. Even when all the paperwork — a marriage license, a notarized deed, two birth certificates, and seven years of tax returns — clearly indicates you’re an adult, but all the same, there you are, clutching the phone and thanking God that you’re still somebody’s daughter.”

I honestly can’t put my finger on what I loved most about this book. Maybe it was that I can relate? Not to having breast cancer, but to having a father with advanced invasive bladder cancer and certainly to thanking God that I’m still somebody’s daughter. Maybe it was the fact that it’s so easy to read? Maybe it’s her familiar style of writing; like talking to an old friend? I don’t know, but I can tell you that it’s a great book and you’ll love it. You’ll particularly love it if you’re a daughter and also if you have a parent with cancer, but you’ll probably love it even if you’re neither of those. I just can’t tell you why.

Kelly Corrigan is also the founder of the great website CircusOfCancer.org - a how-to site to help you step up when your friend is diagnosed with breast cancer.

Playaway is one of those ideas that made me wonder why it took so long for someone to invent it and, at the same time, incredibly glad that someone did!

So, what are they? Each Playaway is a pre-loaded digital audio player. They’re about half the size of a deck of cards and hold content that ranges from six to 40 hours of play time. They come ready to listen (with batteries, earbuds and a lanyard) and are completely portable. Kind of like a book on CD without the need for a CD player or a library (though they are in lots of libraries!) For us, they’ve become the ultimate in convenience. I’ve always been an audio book lover for car travel but rarely take time to get to the library & borrow them. Now I’ll be ordering my books from Playaway and sharing them after - since the units run off of AAA batteries & can be replaced as needed, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be used and used…and used!

Playaway has a selection of 700 audiobooks and there’s something for absolutely everyone! We listened to 100 Gross & Silly Songs which is awesome for kids and kids at heart, and we’re part way through Anne of Green Gables - still one of my favourite stories. I’m especially struck by the intelligent design of the Playaway. It remembers where I was and starts at the right spot ever time. No more flipping through tracks to try to find the right part of the right chapter. Praise the Playaway!

Receive 20% off your first order with the code OpinionatedParent20.

I highly suggest using this code today and giving yourself a reputation as the best gift giver in town! However…

Playaway is also listed in the TOP Shops, where we feature only the most fabulous online retailers offering discount codes exclusively for Opinionated Parents everywhere.

Whether the pregnancy was planned or not, the Prego Planner from Braelyn Bounty Bug will help you make sure the rest of the pregnancy is a little more…organized.

The first thing to strike me when I pulled this planner from the box was the gorgeous exterior. It almost makes me wish I was 4 weeks instead of 36 weeks pregnant (I said almost - I’m not crazy) so that I could carry it around with me. At only 7.5″x9″ it would be easy to do, but it just wouldn’t make sense at this point. It really is beautiful, but what’s inside is just as good.

The first section is an undated calender perfect for noting any appointments or special things that happen throughout the pregnancy. (Dec. 19 - “Felt baby move! Or was it gas?”) (Jan. 4 - Definitely not gas!) Totally functional, yet important enough to be printed on stunningly awesome paper.

Section 2 is for all of those details that are easy to forget - OB, midwife, hospital & pharmacy info, prenatal records, and lots of room to record your questions and concerns so you don’t have to rely on your pregnant brain to be working when you show up to your appointment.

The next section helps you through interviewing and selecting a pediatrician and has lots of room to record interview responses and any concerns & questions as well as appointment information.

The fourth section is loaded with checklists - for you & for baby - as well as a place to record the gifts that you receive.

The final section deals with labour and delivery with space for birthing class notes, phone lists, your birth plan, more checklists, the birth story and post-partum information.

All that in an easy to carry little binder! The binder rings are a great feature that is often neglected. It’s so easy to remove pages you don’t need or add paper should you find yourself needing more. It retails for $38 and comes in 3 great styles including the zebra print shown above, ‘dressy’ and a classic chocolate.

Also check out the Tot Tag from Braelyn Bounty Bug - a clever diaper bag checklist that opens to reveal a customizable identification card!

You can win a Prego Planner and a Tot Tag of your very own! To enter the random draw, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with BRAELYN BOUNTY BUG in the subject line by midnight MST on Dec. 3/07 and tell us the name of the stylin’ mom behind the company. Congratulations Gwen!

The Daring Book For Girls is the one we’ve all been waiting for! It was shortly after my review of The Dangerous Book For Boys that I heard of the impending arrival of this one and I’ve been waiting ever since. I was SO excited to tear into the package when it arrived (so much so that the messy innards of the strange packing envelope had to be vacuumed from my floor) and the book did not disappoint right from the first page.

The Daring Book For Girls brought back memories of playing with my cousins at my Grandma’s farm and of our huge childhood backyard (and the wicked treehouse my dad built for me). It’s the kind of book you’ll want to read from cover to cover just because and then keep it to pull out anytime you’re looking for a little bit of adventure. It’s great if you have a daughter or a niece to share it with, but it’s certainly not necessary. You can have a blast with this book alone and parts of it can be enjoyed with your sons as well (just as the Dangerous book can certainly be enjoyed by many girls). I do love, though, that much of it is really geared to girls - unless your son wants to tie a sari, and more power to him. It’s a classic, and one that should never ever be freecycled or given away. I’m saving my copy along with a threatening note stating that it had better be kept in the family for my great great grandchildren to enjoy.

This book has you covered no matter what your interests…as long as you’re not limited to playing with dolls - barf - this is for the daring among us. From playing four square and other schoolyard games to making cloth covered books and tying a sari or bandana, from climbing trees to building a campfire to tying your hair up with a pencil (I’ve always wanted to do that and now I can!), you can (and I have and will continue to) have SO MUCH FUN with this amazing book.

Check out the book’s website here, watch the video and buy it here!

I got lucky enough to get my hands on a giveaway copy for one of you! To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with DARING in the subject line. To qualify, tell me one thing from the table of contents that you’re dying to read (click on the book cover from here) or share a daring adventure from your own childhood. Come on - entertain me! Contest closes at midnight MST on 11/26/07. One winner will be chosen at random. Congratulations Lynn!

We’ve reviewed a School Zone product before and it was fabulous so I wasn’t surprised to see that the three that recently arrived in the mail were just as wonderful.

The 3D Think & Blink Alphabet Flash Cards are a fancy take on the old alphabet cards and the cool holographic images are sure to entire even the most reluctant learner into playing school. As you tilt the cards slightly, the image shifts from letter to picture (beginning with that letter sound, obviously). Every child that I showed these too loved them and most of them even got into alphabetizing by the end of play time. These cards are recommended for children aged 3-6 but I used them with my 18 month old son and he loves them! Exposure to literacy (provided that it’s not on TV) can’t happen too early.

Tracing Trails (Pre-Writing Skills) is a great little book that contains several exercises to help develop the hand-eye coordination that’s necessary to eventually write clearly. It comes with 68 reward stickers and is a great practice tool! (And it’s only $3.79!) Tracing Trails is recommended for kids aged 3-5 which sounds just about perfect. A couple of kids in my class (4&5 year olds) with extremely weak fine motor skills were able to feel very successful with some pages from this book.

The Flash Action Wonder Words Combo is a WAY cool workbook that covers a huge range of early reading skills from basic sight word recognition & beginning/ending sounds through comprehension, categorizing and sequencing and also comes with an awesome software package allowing your child to practice their reading skills independently. This book is a steal at $15.99 and I’d highly recommend it for almost every 5-6 year old I know.

You could win all three of the above items! To enter the random draw, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with SCHOOL ZONE x3 in the subject line. In the body of the email, tell us the original name of School Zone and the year that it opened. (See “about us.”) Contest closes 11/9/07 at midnight MST. One winner will be chosen at random. Congratulations Shannon!

I’m the first to admit that I don’t use cookbooks. I copy recipes that I like at restaurants, see on tv or taste elsewhere by making them up myself and they’re often better than the original. Not because I’m a great cook but because they contain things that I like! If I really need a recipe, I get it from the internet. I use recipe books so rarely that I recently gave away 30 when I moved because I couldn’t foresee using one any time soon. However, I was an easy convert when I received Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. (Yes, she’s married to Jerry.)

It’s a book full of simple ways to sneak vegetables into your kids’ food. Like pureed cauliflower in scrambled eggs. Who’da thunk? I consider myself very creative in the kitchen and I’d never have thought of that one. My son is a fruit & veggie kid, but I know there will come a day when I need to perform these sneaky maneuvers so I’m grateful to have some great ideas from this book to add to my bag of tricks. The instructions on how to puree food are, well, duh…but I can see how someone who has never really cooked would benefit from that. I did love the idea of making a bunch and freezing them to throw into recipes when you need something quickly. That would also be a great way to use cases of fresh produce that’s on sale before it goes bad.

I tried a couple of the recipes and plan to try many more. My faves so far are the french toast (with pumpkin puree in the eggs), scrambled eggs (with pureed cauliflower that you totally can’t taste) and pita pizzas (which we make all the time but now will be spreading spinach puree on) and macaroni and cheese (with butternut squash). The four recipes I had time to try all took just a few minutes and hardly any work. And yes - they were delicious! When I have some more time, I can hardly wait to try the coffee cake and some of the muffins!

I can tell I’m going to love this book!

Though these books are CRAZY in demand, we were lucky enough to get an extra copy to give to a lucky T.O.P. reader. To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com by midnight tonight (10/19) with Deceptively Delicious in the subject line and include the answer to one or more of the following questions: What tricks have you used to get your kids to eat their veggies? How have you encouraged your kids to eat healthy? What are some of your nutrition goals as a family? Congratulations Alana!

(Here’s a contest from Harper Collins where you can also enter to win your own copy!)

I won my copy of The Complete Organic Pregnancy but, had I not, I would gladly have paid for it. In fact, this book is worth much more than its very reasonable price. Written by Dierdre Dolan and Alexandra Zissu, this book is my new bible for pregnancy, child, home and work safety. As a “trying to be as organic as possible” mama, I worry endlessly about the chemicals that my family is exposed to. The Complete Organic Pregnancy is full of information presented in such a way that it actually makes me feel better about what I’m doing while educating me instead of scaring the crap out of me. We can’t afford to live completely organically. We can’t afford to rebuild our home to be free of toxins. We also can’t afford not to follow much of the advice presented in this book. It’s been our philosophy that our children will have everything organic for as long as possible, even if we can’t afford it for ourselves. The bodies of babies are so small, so pure, that I find it hard to even imagine putting pesticides and chemicals anywhere near them.

The book is organized into three sections: “Transforming,” “Growing,” and “Living.” It covers everything you need to know from the moment you decide a pregnancy is somewhere in your future through to breastfeeding and raising children in our toxic world. It’s nothing like the boring ‘prego textbooks’ most of us have read. I’d hardly even classify it as a ‘pregnancy book,’ lest you not read it if you’re done having your children or don’t plan to parent at all. Everyone should read this book!

While reading TCOP, I felt like I was having an informative conversation with a good friend who happened to have the inside scoop on exactly everything that is important to me about toxins. I like to think of myself as an informed and environmentally conscious person. In fact, for many of my friends I am the go-to person for organic, natural, safety and toxin information, but these two authors blew me away with the depth of their research and knowledge.

For the list lovers (of which I am one) you can turn to pages listing chemicals to avoid in your cosmetics, what the numbers mean on the bottom of plastic containers and the top twelve contaminated non-organic fruits and veggies.

For the research lovers, there’s plenty of quality referenced material in this book for you. It’s a delightful mix of educational and informative research, lists, personal diaries, recommendations, must do’s, can do’s, don’t do’s and reassurances.

And they have a blog!

Passing on the love, I’m giving away my copy! (I read it twice, but it’s still in great condition.) To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com before midnight MST tonight with Organic Prego in the subject line and random.org will pick a winner. Congratulations Ami!

And it can be if you’ve got the right attitude and the right products. We recently were given the opportunity to check out the first level of the Start To Read series from School Zone. I brought it into my classroom to use with one of my higher level students and after trying it out I will not hesitate to purchase School Zone products for my own children when the time comes. I didn’t realize it until I looked around my classroom but I already own many School Zone products and I use them every day! They make great flash cards & puzzle cards that I’ve been using since my first year of teaching.

The kit includes 2 books, 2 CD’s containing read-alongs and songs, 2 journals with a pencil, stickers and stencils, 16 laminated comprehension sheets for each book and a dry erase marker & eraser. If all of their kits come with similar items, you’ll never need to buy anything else for your reading “lessons.” (Other than books - kids should have lots and lots of books in every room!)

This kit is labeled “level 1″ but is way beyond kindergarten students at the beginning of the year. I didn’t look into what they mean by “level 1″ but it contains sight words and word families that wouldn’t be decoded by most kids until at least late kindergarten or into the fall/winter of grade one. I’d recommend this kit for the time when your child already knows the initial consonant sounds and short vowel sounds, can recognize some basic sight words (a, the, is, it…) and is ready to move on from there. It’s very thorough and would be a great tool for the summer break between ECS & grade one or as a supplemental tool for home reading practice. One tip, though - make sure you do it with your child and don’t just sit them at the table with a workbook. That’s not how kids learn to love to read.

Be sure to check out the bargain bin for specials too!

You could win the pictured kit! To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com before midnight MST on 10/2/07 with School Zone in the subject line and tell us another School Zone product that you’d try out if you could. Congratulations Jenna!

It’s another Mother-Talk book tour and we’re proud to announce that T.O.P is one of the few Mother-Talk Star bloggers! (The highest rated bloggers who have first choice of the great books that Mother-Talk represents.) Since reading is one of my favourite things to do I was very excited to hear that. So is teaching reading, which made this tour a perfect fit for me!

This time, it’s a review of the first set of BOB Books, a box set of phonetic readers. Our review set hasn’t arrived yet but luckily I had a friend with the box I was to review and she lent them to me. These are some great books which made their way very quickly into my classroom (I’m an early literacy teacher in “real life”) and will definitely come home again (my own set, of course, when it finally arrives!) when my son’s a little older. Hopefully they’ll be joined by the rest of the box sets too!

There’s so much to love about BOB Books (fun stuff notwithstanding). They’re a lot like the books that I learned with that are now out of print and very hard to find.

When kids are first learning to read, they need books that focus on initial consonant sounds and one or two vowels at a time (short or long, not both, which is why Dick and Jane suck when they’re together)with large print and little illustration to distract from the words. BOB Books does all of this perfectly, and also integrates numbers from 1-10 in their beginner set (but not the number words, thank goodness) which is a nice touch.

As the sets progress, they move through more complex letter combinations with sight words and mixed short vowels, word families (words that all end in the same sound; the -at family would include cat, sat, that, fat, bat etc), compound words and long vowels.

These are exactly the kind of books I will be recommending to the parents of my kindergarten students when they inevitably ask me what they should buy for home reading books to help their child get started on decoding and independent reading.

I didn’t notice at first but these books are from Scholastic and that’s a huge bonus! That’s the company that your child’s teacher will likely send home book order forms from and the company that offers the in-school book fairs. They’re who I buy 99% of my books from and they have great products, great quality and great prices.

New this month from Sterling Publishing is what just might be the new and long awaited alternative to the often maligned “What to expect…” series. It’s called Great Expectations - Baby’s First Year, and any new parent would be thrilled to receive such a thorough and easy to read book. (FYI, there’s also a Pregnancy & Childbirth version that’s just as good.)

Great Expectations - Baby’s First Year has everything you’d need in a first year book, and none of the annoying parts that cause some parents to overreact or worry that they’re not boosting their baby’s IQ enough. It contains an easy to read chronology of what to expect day-by-day, week-by-week and month-by-month during baby’s first year. The book is incredible thorough with a complete how-to section, a shopping guide that analyzes features of strollers, cribs and car seats, a section addressing parental needs and an A–Z of baby medical problems.

The authors, a mother-daughter team, are honest and non-judgmental in their advice to trust your own parental instincts. For the things that aren’t usually instinctual, you’re going to want this book.

It just might be your lucky day because we’ve got two copies to give away! Enter the random draw by emailing theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with Great Expectations in the subject line and telling us the names of the two authors before midnight MST on 9/21/07. Congratulations Melanie F. and Leesa T.!

By Jenn

What it is: “A step by step guide to making money online with your passion for natural family living.”

Cost: $47.00 – Packaged E-book Download

I am a small business owner who has recently made the leap from local farmers’ market to the Internet and so I was very excited to be given the opportunity to try the Natural Mom Business Guide program.

To get started I downloaded and printed out the entire e-book. I read through it and made tons of notes in the margins and highlighted information that I thought was relevant to me. Once I had read the book, I went back over it and started working through it section by section at a more thorough pace, testing the ideas as I read them. I then read the additional guides, transcripts and listened to the audio interviews that come with the package.

This program guides you through the may different types of Internet based businesses and provides links and information about each of them. It also provides you with many ideas and options to get visitors to your site, creative ways to fund your initial business costs and how to get started with your first website.

As an existing website owner I found some of the information as bit unnecessary for my purposes (it would be great for people just starting, though) but I was able to use the majority of the program to start improving the look and feel of my site as use the techniques outlined in the program to boost my visitor volume. I even took Carrie’s advice and started a business blog - something I had been thinking about for a long time but wasn’t sure how to start.

My only disappointment was that the guide is somewhat self - promoting. Many of the links you are directed to belong to The Natural Mom, but don’t let that deter you. This program had lots of great ideas and points you in the right direction to use them. I found that once I had the fundamentals I was able to come up with ideas on my own and had more confidence to implement those new found ideas!

Carrie Lauth also has a natural moms podcast. The business guide reviewed is available here for $47 and if you’re not ready to commit to that there’s a free mini-course at that site too.