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).

AND/OR

2.Subscribe to our RSS feed. Leave 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 subscription.

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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).

AND/OR

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.

Well, not yours actually. Your kid’s. And not really in lights either. In a book. A truly fabulous book that’s custom made for your kid. Really custom made – not just a book with their name thrown in using a different font.

Custom Made For Kids has created the perfect gift for any kid from birth to age 8. Their first creation, The First Adventures of Incredible You, is created just for you using your answers to 16 questions.

“The Sarah’s” behind Custom Made For Kids sent my son a sample book and we are all loving it! It mentions our favourite hockey team, many members of his family, the street we live on and many more details that are specific to him. His grandmothers were thrilled to read about themselves as well!

You can take a virtual tour and see three pages of the book to give you an idea of what you’re getting. The site is super easy to use and there are default answers to every question if you can’t think of a good answer or if it doesn’t really apply.

The First Adventures of Incredible You would make a fabulous gift to welcome a new baby, for birthdays, Christmas or really any occasion. Like, you know, Happy Tuesday!

Use the coupon code op15 and receive 15% off through 11/15/07.
Yay! Christmas gifts!

This is a Mother-Talk book review.

Flirting In Cars is a new novel by Alisa Kwitney. (I’m not sure why but I have a very hard time saying her name, even in my head.) At first glance, it’s a cheesy love story of the kind that I’d never read. But truthfully? I read it in two days while parenting a toddler, which means it was really damn good for a love story! Definitely still chick-lit, but with the main character being in her 40′s and strikingly “normal” it’s very readable chick-lit.

It’s the story of a Jewish mother & daughter, Zoe & Maya, who move to the country so Maya can attend a school that caters to learning disabilities. They think they’re going for just a year to catch Maya up to grade level and then moving back to Manhattan as quickly as they left. Zoe, being a stereotypical Manhattanite, doesn’t drive or cook and feels very isolated in what sounds to me like a country paradise and struggles with the open spaces, isolation and feeling generally out of her element. The book takes you on an emotional roller coaster as Maya loves her school & Zoe falls in love with a “local yokel.” The eclectic mix of town and city-folk is rather entertaining, and the way that Kwitney describes the interactions between them made me feel as if I was there (and I actually wanted to be there, living in her amazing rented house).

Flirting In Cars would make a great summer read for anyone who is beyond the classic romance novel but secretly still yearns for a good love story. And really, don’t we all?

We’ve got a copy of this book to give away. To enter, email theopinionatedparent at gmail dot com (just put the book title in the subject line) by midnight MST on Aug 19/07 to enter! One winner will be randomly selected using random.org. (Incidentally, that’s the site we use for all of the T.O.P. contest draws, in case you were wondering.) Congratulations Kim!

(I have to throw in a hearty CONGRATULATIONS to T.O.P. contributing writer Reesh who gave birth to a beautiful baby girl late Tuesday night!)

Guest review by T.O.P. reader Amy

A few weeks ago, my youngest daughter started biting out of frustration. In searching for ways to help her stop this behavior, I was recommended the book “Teeth Are Not For Biting” by Elizabeth Verdick. I was quickly turned on to all the books in her Best
Behavior Book Series. The hard durable board books are the ones my daughter reaches for first at bedtime.

They are simple, but get the point across with repetition. The illustrations are colorful and the books also give children ideas on what good things to do with teeth instead of biting. Other books in the series include “Feet Are Not For Kicking” and “Words Are Not For Hurting”.

Even at 18 months old, my daughter now understands that biting hurts.

Amy is a working mom with two girls; Ashley is four and Audrey is 18 months. In addition to working, she is currently getting her Master’s in Elementary Education and plays bassoon in her community’s concert band. She blogs at ashleyandaudrey.blogspot.com.

This is a Mother-Talk book review.

The Other Mother is a new (released this week, I believe) novel by Gwendolyn (Wendy) Gross that addresses the “mommy wars” from a fictional standpoint. While I think the mommy wars (between staunch stay at home and staunch working mothers who see no story but their own) are ridiculous and closed minded, they really do happen in some circles. I loved the way this book kept them as an undercurrent throughout the story without ever actually mentioning them.

The essential premise of the book is that the two mothers, Amanda & Thea, are truly only at war with themselves and their choices (as is usually the case in life) and they’re both envious of the other. Thea, the stay at home mom, is jealous of Amanda’s ability to have a break, pee in privacy and enjoy stimulating adult conversation. Amanda, the working mom, is jealous of the unlimited time that Amanda has with her children and the control she has over all aspects of their lives. Both of them show their envy by judging the other and justifying their own choices. Hmmmm…

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who is struggling with the “mommy wars” and wants to see what they’re really all about while enjoying a great fictional read a the same time. It’s the kind of book you can choose to analyze or just read and either way you’ll likely enjoy it.

Want a copy for yourself? To be entered in the random draw, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com by midnight MST tomorrow with The Other Mother in the subject line. It’s that easy! Congratulations Angelina!

Gifts is a new-ish book edited by Kathryn Lynard Soper and written by a group of mothers brought together by their child’s diagnosis of Down Syndrome (or “Up Syndrome” as one adult child in the book calls it! I love it!).

Most of the stories are mothers’ accounts of adjusting to their child’s diagnosis. I read this book cover to cover in three days (and I don’t have much spare time so that’s saying something) and hung off every word. I have a lot of experience with people with T21 yet I still don’t know how I would instinctually react if my own child were born with an extra chromosome. The stories of these mothers made me realize that no matter what my reaction was, it would be normal and someone else has already reacted the same way.

Opinionated Parent Michelle is a contributing author and she makes us proud! This book will be the first purchase I make if and when I ever know of someone who is going through the T21 diagnosis of their child. It’s an amazing read for anyone, but for a parent to know that they’re not alone is perhaps the second best gift of all. Second, of course, to our children. No matter how many chromosomes they happen to have.

I’ve been reading The No-Cry Discipline Solution: Gentle Ways to Encourage Good Behavior Without Whining, Tantrums, and Tears by Elizabeth Pantley as part of the latest Mother-Talk blog book tour. I will admit a slight parenting book addiction, though I rarely follow any of their advice and just do what comes naturally and what works for us. I like to read and talk about as many strategies as possible so that I have a large bank of things to pull from in all aspects of parenting (and teaching) though most of what I do is instinctual and also based on the way I was raised. (Yes, I want to be just like my mommy!)

In our house our parenting leans toward attachment and very gentle discipline & distraction as well as logical consequences. With a background in early childhood education I can be quite critical (via internal dialogue only) about the parenting techniques of some people because I’ve seen first hand what continuous punishment/yelling/insert ineffective parenting strategy here does to a child.

So that’s why, when I read The No-Cry Discipline Solution I was immediately caught up in it.

Part one (parenting attitudes) and part two (skills & tools) may seem unnecessary to those of us without anger & discipline issues, but to any parent who is struggling (which can be any of us on any given day, right?) these more theory focused chapters are extremely important. They give you the background which will enable you to successfully implement the strategies that Pantley presents. Part three directs anger in a non-judgmental but very helpful way. Though I’m not an angry person I can see how this chapter would almost be like mild therapy for someone who is, and I love the way that she so gently yet adamantly tells parents that anger damages children and to get help if they need it. So so true.

Part four, if you’re desperate and don’t have time to read the rest, gives concrete examples of specific solutions for the problems we experience every day. (Sibling fights, several sleep issues, doesn’t come when called, hitting a parent and so many more.) This is my favourite section of the book and I think of is as a manual of sorts. One you keep on a main floor shelf where you can pull it out easily as a reference before you deal with a situation that might either blow up in your face or frustrate both you and your child.

In all, a very highly recommended book! I’ll be referencing it regularly.

Want more? Check out Elizabeth’s website & watch some videos of Elizabeth in action on the right side of this page.

A few opinionated parents have been reviewing children’s books from Immedium. See what they thought below:

by CPA Mom

Nicole graciously asked me to be involved with another review – and as a mother of a 2 and 4 year old, I was eager to help her out on this one. She forwarded me copies of books from a publishing company called “Immedium.” Just from their description of themselves on their website, I knew these were not going to be your ordinary children’s books. And I was not disappointed.

The first book we (my children and I) reviewed was the first one they published: Wonderbaby from A to Z by Oliver Chin, Illustrated by Joe Chiodo. Right away, this was not your ordinary board book. The first four pages, which introduced “WonderBaby,” kind of lost me a bit. We’ve read this book several times now, and I’m still not sure what a “loco” mole is supposed to be! However, the alphabet section is one of the best I have ever seen. Each page not only has a noun corresponding to the letter, but a verb as well. So instead of “A is for Apple,” you have “Acts like an Animal.” Masterful! And bonus? Each page of the book has a ladybug “hidden” on it which my 2 year old discovered (before I did!) and loves to look for on each page. This book is engaging and educating. A real keeper.

The second and third books we looked at were The Year of the Dog: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac and The Year of the Pig: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac which are the first and second books from their annual series Tales of the Chinese Zodiac. These two were my favorite and also the favorite of my 4 year old. We didn’t have print copies so he sat on my lap while we read them as .pdf files. The characters were enchanting, the stories engrossing, at least, to my 4 year old. He eagerly “turned the pages” to see what was going to happen. And I liked how educational the books are, both of which have a description at the end of what it means to be born in the Year of the Dog (or Year of the Pig). The illustrations are extraordinary pieces of art. I can’t wait to get each of the books in this series.

The fourth and final book was the only disappointment to us. I couldn’t even get either child to sit and “read” the entire book. The Octonauts & The Only Lonely Monster has so many illustrations all squeezed in on the pages that they were lost. I confess, it was hard for me, as an adult, to keep track of where the story was going. It was the furthest from a linear story line I had ever seen; it is too busy.

So overall, Immedium is doing a great job. I love the multi-cultural aspects of their books and the uniqueness of their products. I will definitely be looking for some of these on our next shopping trip to the book store.

by Michelle

One thing we stress in our house is reading. My 3 yr old daughter has a book shelf overflowing with books and she still doesn’t have enough! She loves to “read” anytime during the day, but especially before bed. It’s become a ritual for her to pick out the book she wants read to her each night. I’m so glad to see she has already developed a love for books, which is why I jumped at the opportunity to review 5 children’s books from http://www.immedium.com.

My daughter sat on my lap, transfixed, as we went through each story. She enjoyed the characters and how vibrant and colorful they are. At the end of a story she would ask me, “Again?” and we would have to go through it again. That is how entertaining these books were for her – she is so active and is constantly on the go, so for her to sit still on my lap was a good sign she was enjoying the stories!

According to their website, “Immedium inspires a world of imagination” and I have to agree! My daughter’s favorite book seemed to be “The Year of The Pig” as she likes farms. I like the fact the stories are multicultural and can show my daughter another place she otherwise wouldn’t be able to learn about.

by Stephanie

When it comes to reading children’s books, often times it seems like they’re all the same. Cheesy story lines with make believe animals or scenarios that your children have a hard time identifying with. Don’t you wish there was a line of books out there that seem like they were made for your children? Well Oliver Chin has come to our rescue. He’s written a line of story books that not only can your children Identify with, but they can also learn lessons from.

The Adventures Of WonderBaby From A to Z is about the life of an infant baby growing up in his family. You learn all about interesting little things that little babies do, with much more enthusiasm. It makes you wonder what the next letter is going to say. You can feel the love and know that the baby has a place in the family. It’s goofy yet entertaining, even for adults.

The Year Of The Dog is a great one. It’s tales of childhood friendships keeps you on edge as you wonder what’s coming around the next corner. It teaches a lesson to respect your animals, as it nonchalantly teaches you to be yourself and to follow your instincts. This great tale of mans best friend is a must have for all young ones.

The Octonauts is a great tale of a underwater crew who are looking for fun, when they come upon a lonely creature. They are trying to help the lonely creature find his family when they realize that he is the only one like him in the sea. It is a great way to show our kids that every single person is unique and we all have our own special qualities. It is a super cute story and another must have for all young ones.

The Year Of The Pig is a tale of a little farm pig who just wants to help out, when she’s just getting in the way. Everyone tells her what she should be doing instead of what she wants to do. Finally she listens to her heart and helps out the farmer. It’s an easy and fun way to teach your young ones that they have to be themselves, follow their heart and that there is a place in this world for everyone.

Timmy & Tammy’s Train Of Thought is a great one for the kids. Every child can identify with this one. This story is about Timmy and Tammy dreaming about trains, playing with trains, and wanting to ride a train. Much to their surprise, their parents have a surprise trip planned for them, a train ride. We all can identify with pretending to be a train engineer or something else that we wanted to be as a kid. It’s a fun read and a must have for all dreamers.

Welcome to today’s stop on the Mother-Talk blog book tour for my new favourite gift for boys!

The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn & Hal Iggulden is a package of excitement from the moment you take it out of the box (or pull it off the shelf, if you’re the old fashioned type). The bright red cover is thick & hard & reminiscent of something you’d find in Grandpa’s library. I couldn’t wait to open it.

The inside of the book, if you were to flip really quickly, looks like nothing special. No colour at all. However, as soon as you stop flipping and start reading, this book is totally awesome! Even for me – a girl! My husband liked it just as much and our son will now grow up doing lots of the crazy & fun activities in the book (if I ever let them get it long enough to actually accomplish anything.)

It contains detailed instructions on so many things that simply say “childhood.” Not boyhood, necessarily, unless you’re a froofy girl. I can think of tons of girls who would love this book. I know I would have. Maybe not the history of war, but almost all of the activities & games would have been right up my alley.

The book covers so many amazing things that I can hardly wait for my son to grow into. How to build a go-kart, build a treehouse, juggle, make a bow & arrow, make a paper airplane, hat, boat & water-bomb, how to marble paper, how to make disappearing ink, write in code…enough to fill many amazing summers that will be engraved forever in memories. There’s also great information on grammar, wars, extraordinary stories from history and, perhaps the most important – girls.

This is an awesome book. If there are boys on your gift list who don’t have it, buy it. I happen to think new dads are left out of the whole birth-gift scenario and this would be a fab book to present to a new father of a son. It’s like you’re saying Congratulations! Have fun helping your kid experience real life. He may break a few bones and he’ll definitely get bruises, but hey – we’re making men here!

Check out this very cool awesome promo for the book on You-Tube. And if you didn’t see Conn Iggulden on the Colbert Report, watch this.

Also, be sure to go enter the Harper Collins contest where they’re giving away 100 free copies!

Thanks to Harper Collins, we also have two copies to give away! To be entered in the random draw, email me via this link before Friday 5-18 at midnight.

Welcome to today’s stop on the Mother-Talk blog book tour for Healthy Mother, Healthy Child by Elizabeth Irvine.

Beth is a mother, a nurse and a yoga instructor (and apparently a Catholic, which seems a little out of place in this book, but whatever) and she integrates her experience in all of those areas to bring us Healthy Mother, Healthy Child. The subtitle of the book is ‘Creating Balance in Everyday Life’ and really, it couldn’t have come at a better time. Two months pregnant and parenting a barely one year old, having to go back to work full time to earn a maternity leave (25% of my salary, but anything helps), running several websites, having a dad with cancer, a husband who doesn’t cook (but does everything else – bless him) I’m in serious need of a little balance around here.

The book is lovely. It’s full of lovely relaxing photos of mother & children meditating and practicing yoga. It goes through the basics, from the asanas (poses) to breathing to eating and expands into alternative therapies, challenges & ways to express feelings (based on her experiences of severe allergies with her own son).

It’s really a how-to guide to creating health & well-being using a multi-pronged approach. I really liked the way she took the principles of yoga and made them accessible to moms – including easy ways to include your children in your practice and teach them to meditate, appreciate silence and start creating a healthy life while they’re young. For anyone interested in learning how to share the benefits of yoga with kids and also explore the “granola lifestyle,” you’d like this book. If you’re not Catholic, just take that part with a grain of salt.

Check out Beth’s website and blog.

Thanks to Beth, I’ve got a copy of Healthy Mother, Healthy Child to send to one lucky reader. Email me through this link and a winner will be selected randomly! Congratulations Sheena!

Dr. Michael Breus (Ph.D. sleep specialist, not MD – just to clarify) has written a great book called GOOD NIGHT: The Sleep Doctor’s 4 Week Program to Better Sleep & Better Health. When we were given the opportunity to review it, I jumped on it because my husband is a crappy sleeper. Great guy, crappy sleeper.

While, after two months, we still haven’t made it all the way through the four week program (something always comes up – like hockey playoffs) we have implemented a lot of it and the things he suggests really do work. He takes the science and “dumbs it down” into an easily understandable guide that addresses pretty much any question you may have, from how to arrange your bedroom to what to eat & when to exercise.

Whether you’re an insomniac or not, I would recommend this book to you if you want to improve your sleep. It’s NOT intended for parents of kids with newborns. Dr. Breus admits that parents of newborns should really just get used to sleep deprivation, but this book will help you take a good look at your own sleep habits outside of the demands of your children.

Dr. Breus points to the link between sleep and overall quality of life and health. A large proportion of us are experiencing sleep problems such as frequent night waking or stress-induced insomnia but few of us are doing anything about it. For many of us, I would guess that it’s because we’re not quite sure where to start. This is where Good Night can help.

The primary goal of the book is helping you figure out what works for you and it guides you though a process of testing a variety of methods and journaling the results in order to decide what to do next. I love that it’s not a strict “program” like many of the books I’ve read directed toward parents that urge you not to stray from the program lest you rot in hell and never sleep again.

He talks about the “sleep debt” that we accrue and provides the reassuring news that we can, indeed, pay it back. To help with this, he provides a series of tools for self-evaluation of your sleep needs and sleep habits, identifies the major “sleep thieves” and presents his flexible sleep improvement program. He presents a whole slew of ideas which are really very simple but can be quite effective if you’re willing to give them a chance. (Not blogging in the hour before bed? I don’t think so. Heh.)

Whether you want to do a quick sleep upgrade or the whole program, Good Night is a great book. Though I signed on for my husband, I found that when I followed the recommendations with him, I slept better too. (Now if only our son would learn to sleep…)

Dr. Breus has a new official website where he’s currently offering a free sleep starter kit if you buy his book from Amazon, and is giving away a free meditation & relaxation mp3 (about 12 minutes long) to people who subscribe to his newsletter via his new site. The newsletter is full of tips on how to sleep better and use sleep as a beauty tool and includes reviews of sleep products and accessories.

If you’re a sleep deprived blogger, click here to see if you qualify for the bloggers’ sleep challenge.

We’ve got three copies of the book to give away to our readers. To be entered in the random draw, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with GOOD NIGHT in the subject line and the correct answer to the question “On The Insomnia Blog, what’s the name of one of the pillow brands Dr. Breus says he likes?” If you’d be so kind, please also tell us one sleep-related product you’d like to see reviewed or topic you’d like to see addressed in Dr. Breus’s newsletter. We’ll compile all of the entries so that Dr. Breus can address the items you’re interested in. Contest closes at midnight MST on 5/8/07. Congratulations Michelle, Kris & Shirley!

Bilingual living is awesome if you’re so inclined. I’ve always wanted to be bilingual but without direct immersion it was next to impossible, even with 14 years of French in grade school & university.

Among many other benefits, bilingualism gives children a head start in brain development and can put them at the front of the pack in their future job searches. But sometimes, you want the Hola without the Dora.

The multilingual books & CD’s from our friends at Il Cocco di Mamma make great learning tools and allow you to enjoy the wonder of language without the crazy fake accents displayed by those of us who try and fail. They carry several of the classic Dr. Seuss books and some awesome ‘Elmer the elephant’ stories, beautifully illustrated picture dictionaries & flash cards and CD’s packed with traditional children’s folk songs in various languages.

Il Cocco di Mamma is offering TOP readers FREE SHIPPING in the US and Canada, and always offers free gift wrapping with every purchase. Now that’s the kind of service opinionated parents like to see!

For sparing you the Dora for at least half an hour…you’re very welcome!

We’ve got a multilingual gift package from Il Cocco di Mamma for one lucky TOP reader, including a book (English-Italian), CD (Spanish) and FlashWords (English-French). To be entered in the random draw, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with ICDM package in the subject line and tell us one product in the books & CD’s category at Il Cocco di Mamma that’s not mentioned in this review. Contest closes at midnight MST on 4/30/07. Congratulations Rhodie!

When you’re expecting, the talk is all about the tummy. It’s all you can focus on and that growing baby monopolizes all the conversations. Suddenly, when the baby is born, he or she becomes the focus of all the attention (that’s a good thing!) and the tummy memories slowly start to fade (that’s a bad thing). Even if you, like me, took weekly belly shots and kept a pregnancy journal, there’s something lacking about a box of pictures and a book. I even tried to scrapbook my photos but it was too hard to narrow it down and fit everything I wanted to say into one book.

Tummy Talk’s founding partners and best friends Angela Horiuchi-Yvkoff and Karen Vardeny saw a hole in the market and filled it beautifully. They’ve developed the perfect (and I don’t use that term lightly) journal to preserve your pregnancy memories with elegance & style. The book is 10 ½” x 10 ½” and is hard bound with a durable, pewter spiral binding in a suede-like material with four colour choices. Each cover has a Swarovski crystal on it, adding to the understated elegance. Each book contains 105 color pages on acid free and lignin free, heavy-weight paper for pasting memorabilia, inserting photos and journaling your thoughts & experiences. The back of the book contains 3 pieces of coordinating blank letterhead for the first letters to the baby for placement inside the cover pocket. These girls really did think of everything – there are 3 pages of scrapbook cut-outs included for baby’s first love notes that can be pasted on album pages.
The book is separated into 5 sections that include pregnancy stories, doctor’s visits, weekly journaling, baby shower and birth details. The sections are divided with multi-coloured coated tabs for easy navigation and there’s a clever pocket on each tab for those letters & other memorabilia.

As a scrapbooker myself, I understand the aversion some scrappers have to purchasing bundled books that force you to scrap certain things. Tummy Talk is perfect for both the avid scrapper and the scrap-a-phobics among us. It doesn’t fence you in at all and allows for complete creativity but has just enough to guide the scrapping newbie or the expectant mother who has no urge to ever scrapbook but wants to preserve the precious memories of her growing belly. You won’t believe the quality and beauty of the Tummy Talk book until you see it. It’s breathtaking. The perfect gift for the expectant mother and the perfect splurge to treat yourself in your own pregnancy. After all, it’s for the baby.

Tummy Talk is available at several storefront and online retailers or from their online store. For Canadian & International orders, please contact La Mama Maternity. (Be sure to check the Tummy Talk online store for additional pregnancy goodies as well!)

We have a beautiful Tummy Talk pregnancy journal for one lucky TOP reader (value $75 USD). To enter, email theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with Tummy Talk in the subject header and tell us the name of one of the four beautiful colours that Tummy Talk is available in. Contest closes at midnight MST on 4/18/07. Congratulations Ryan!

Registered dietitians Liz Weiss & Janice Newell Bissex are the chefs & the brains behind Meal Makeover Moms.

Their book, The Mom’s Guide To Meal Makeovers (Available from Amazon) is full to overflowing with great ideas for bringing nutrition back to the family dinner table (and lunch box).

With the use of fast food, takeout, and convenience meals continuing to rise in North America, this cookbook should really be a staple in the family kitchen. It includes a 5 step meal makeover plan – the how & the why behind the makeover. The Best of the Bunch is a chapter dedicated to improving the convenience foods we use & love (or love to hate). They’ll tell you which brands are the most nutritious and tasty, and give you some quick fix tips to make them even more nutritious. See a sample here. Check out some of their great recipes free ~ There are over 120 in the book!

You can join their free Mom’s Club for a helpful bi-monthly e-newsletter and more. And they’ve recently launched a new blog ~ check it out!

We’ve got an autographed copy of The Mom’s Guide to Meal Makeovers for one lucky TOP reader. To enter, send an email to theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with Makeover in the subject line and tell us which of their sample recipes you’re going to try this week! Contest closes at midnight MST on 4/13/07. Congratulations Kayla!

Remember those first few months of parenthood?

Yeah, me either.

Neither did married par.entrepreneurs Lynne Tapper and Leland Brandt when their daughter Sofie was born. With the chaos that is new parenthood behind them, this professional organizer and stay at home dad team set to creating an organizational tool to help the rest of us navigate through the daze and come out the other end with some semblance of sanity. Their creation, Baby Daze, is the ultimate organizer for new parents. With eight helpful sections including feeding/diapering, pumping, milestones, medical and a gift record, it’s thorough enough to feel like a life saver and simple enough to not be overwhelming in the least. There’s also a ‘notes’ section at the back for those things that don’t really fit anywhere else (like your note to self to check www.theopinionatedparent.com every day for great reviews, tips & contests!). When my son was born, I used a journal to record every feeding (to the minute), every poop and every phone call. With that on top of the post it notes about gifts, questions to ask the health nurse and who to phone back I was pretty much buried in paper and still didn’t know which end was was up. If I’d had Baby Daze, I’m pretty sure it would have been a lot easier. I can only imagine that it’s even more necessary with subsequent children.

Expecting twins or know someone else who is? These brilliant parents have a plan for you too. Each log page has alternating shaded and unshaded lines to enable parents to keep track of two babies with one book.

You can order through their secure site, over the phone or at one of their retailers.

Bonus feature: Create sitter slips online – free!

Save 10% on your entire order with the code OPINION07.
You’ll find Baby Daze in the TOP Shops, where we feature exclusive shopping discounts for TOP readers.
Bitten by the shopping bug? Check the TOP Shops first!

You could win your own Baby Daze book just by emailing theopinionatedparent@gmail.com with Baby Daze in the subject line and the correct answer to the question What’s another section in the brilliant Baby Daze organizer that’s not mentioned in this review? Contest closes at midnight MST on 3/30/07. Congratulations Nicky!

It’s not as hard as you might think. And it’s free!

TOP is taking part in the Mother-Talk blog book tour for A Running Start: How Play, Physical Activity, & Free Time Create a Successful Child by Rae Pica.

As I was reading this book, there was a continuous running commentary in my head saying things like “Yes!,” “I agree!” and “Why don’t the powers that be who keep forcing curriculum down our throats get that?”

A Running Start is a book that I’m really glad I had the chance to read before my son is old enough to be registered in anything more than rhyme time at the library. It resonated with me as a teacher who’s fighting for less “objectives” for the six year olds I teach as more and more are piled on and also as a new mother trying to do her best job as a parent in this crazy world. Rae hits home on so many issues related to the sad state of competi-parenting, and compels parents to, above all else, make sure family comes first. Sounds great, but for many parents it’s harder said than done. Rae shares research and fact-based reasons why families need to make the effort to eat dinner together every night (with no TV on), why competitive sports can wait until the teen years and why compassion is so much more valuable than competition. She devotes an entire chapter to helping you figure out when your own children are ready to be registered in sports (and, as cute as it may be, why the preschool soccer league might be better replaced with a family walk in the park).

Rae also dispels the “super-kid myth.” You know, the one that tells you your four year old daughter needs to be in dance, soccer, play group, a pre-ivy-league preschool and also needs to practice her flash cards after dinner? The one that tells you your son needs to register for hockey and practice three times a week at three years of age because he will, of course, be the next Jarome Iginla if you just give him a head start? In our minds, I like to think most parents know that the super-kid myth is just that. A myth. But it’s hard to resist the pull of the multitude of classes and programs that are available nowadays. Over scheduled kids are usually the victims of very well-intentioned parents. A Running Start brings us back to the basics. Back to the days when looking for animals in clouds and climbing trees with your brother filled the hours after school before the family dinner (instead of the rush through the drive through so you’re not late for baseball practice).

Perhaps my favourite section of this book was the section on relaxation. Many children truly don’t have enough down time today. Childhood is the only time when we get to experience true wonder. As parents, there’s such a short period of time when we get to be parents of small children. Rae eloquently, but with no guilt implied, speaks to the need for allowing boredom in order for imagination to take over. Living in a house full of the newest technology and with a husband who is a techie by profession, we try to make a concerted effort not to expose our son to electronic sources of entertainment. As he grows older, it will be harder but after reading Rae’s book I am reaffirmed in my efforts. My kids WILL be allowed to be kids. After all, they’ve only got one chance.

Since becoming a parent, have you noticed a distinct drop in brain power? Memory?

Yeah, me too.

As parents, we’re responsible for taking our children (and sometimes our spouses and our own parents) to medical appointments and keeping on top of their health. For the most part, I think we do pretty well. However, in a stressful situation there’s a good chance of forgetting something important.

If, heaven forbid, someone you love ever has a serious injury or becomes extremely ill or disabled, chances are high that the more appointments you attend and the more specialists you talk to, the less you’ll remember.

Since medical experts claim that doctors base approximately 80% of their diagnosis on what they are told about a patient, My Medical Assistant could actually save a life.

Created by Donna McCaslin, My Medical Assistant is a place to record all of those facts. What may seem mundane at the time can prove to be invaluable. For families, Donna has made mini books available and a standard binder will easily hold all of the books for a family of 4-6 people. The nice thing about this option is that when your kids move out (yes, they will) they can each take their own book with them for future reference. (Don’t worry, they’ll still call home if they don’t need to ask when their last tetanus shot was.)

My Medical Assistant can be ordered online at mymedicalassistant.com or by phone at (866) 366-6533. Prices range from $7.95 for the Mini to $49.95 for the Executive.

We have four great prizes from My Medical Assistant for lucky TOP readers.
The grand prize winner will receive a binder with 4 mini editions (valued at $46.80). Second place will receive a Standard edition (valued at $21.95) and third and fourth place will each receive a mini edition (valued at $7.95).
Email theopinionatedparent[at]gmail[dot]com with MMA in the subject heading and the correct answer Where does Donna McCaslin, the creator of My Medical Assistant, live. You’ll find the answer on her home page. Contest closes at midnight MST tonight. Congratulations Jackie, Kris, Jack & Shaun!

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TOP is the last stop of the week on the Mother-Talk blog book tour for Erika Schickel‘s new book, You’re Not The Boss of Me.

Having been a confirmed “book review hater” my entire life and, honestly, having felt a little inferior in book clubs requiring intelligent discussion of literature, I am surprised at how much I’m loving these Mother-Talk tours. It could be the pressure-free forum of blogging, or perhaps it’s that the books are always awesome. Whatever it is, expect more book reviews to come!

You’re Not The Boss of Me has been described as a “momoir,” but it’s really so much more. It’s 25 chapters, each one an essay unto itself and each one reminiscent of a compelling blog post. Erika’s honest writing all at once made me think, made me cringe, made me want to hug my baby and never let him go…and a whole range of other crazy stuff. She writes not only about her experiences as a mother but about her experiences and accompanying thoughts as a woman. A real woman, who also happens to be a mother. It’s not all pink bows and cloth diapers. She writes about pregnancy, getting lap dances from hot (female) strippers after getting her daughters bathed and jammied, mama-gatherings of ‘alterna-moms’ (which scare me, simply because it sounds like I’d fit in!), losing herself in the world of Grand Theft Auto, foot surgery and many other subject that really don’t fit together at all. I mean that in a good way. This is definitely not just another momoir. By revealing her own authentic self, Erika gives herself, and perhaps the rest of us, permission to be who we are, to screw up and, most importantly, to be completely real. It’s an entertaining peek into someone else’s reality ~ drastically different from my own, which makes it even more of a great read.

Read it. You won’t be sorry.

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The Opinionated Parent is taking part in the Mother Talk blog book tour for the book Good Kids, Bad Habits.

I was so excited to be invited to participate in this tour – this book is right up my alley as a mom, a teacher and a fitness professional. It was perfect timing, as I had just finished reading the related books for adults, YOU The Owners Manualand YOU On A Diet.

The book is written by a pediatrician and mother of three, Dr. Jennifer Trachtenberg. She’s a renowned parenting expert and board-certified pediatrician who has practiced pediatric and adolescent medicine for more than 12 years. She is also a clinical instructor in pediatrics at The Mount Sinai Medical Center and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She’s obviously quite qualified to be writing on this topic.

The book begins with a quiz that’s helpful in letting you know how you’re doing now, and the rest of the book dissects the quiz and gives ideas on how to improve your child’s habits now for a better chance at a healthy future. The sections are split up into “rattle, bear and backpack” to mean infant, child and tween/teen. The symbols are a little juvenile but I like the simplicity of it and the fact that the applicability to children of all ages makes it more of a reference book than a ‘how to right now’ book.

The chapters cover eating, activity, cleanliness, study habits, self-esteem building, safety practices and illness prevention via medical check-ups. Each chapter contains helpful charts and checklists which are also available for reading and/or printing at the website.

Each chapter deals with “The 4 I’s” within the covered topics. Identify if there’s a problem, Inform your children about it, Instruct them with regard to improving, and then Instill the good habit. She does mention modeling, but I think it’s way more important than the emphasis put on it. Parents are the child’s first teacher and they learn what they live.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The subject matter is close to my heart and Dr. Jen does a great job of “dumbing it down” into normal language. At first I was slightly annoyed by the simplicity, as I am by the newspaper since I can read at much higher than the 4th grade level they’re written at. However, I grew to appreciate the fact that this book is accessible and understandable to any even moderately literate parent.

One thing that was missing from this book was information on feeding children chemicals, pesticides and processed foods as well as information about household chemicals. A chapter on organics and natural alternatives would have been a perfect addition.

So head over to the website where you can take the healthy kids test and find out what kind of parent you are. Being only 10 months old, my son received 10/10 on his test and if we keep it up, he’ll have a real age of 32 when he’s 40. The challenge will be keeping it up! I’ll try to remember to check in with Good Kids, Bad Habits annually to evaluate our progress.

As an aside, I highly recommend taking the adult version of the test for yourself! Good or bad, you’ll get some tips to make it better. Chronologically, I’m 30. My real age is 24. Woo hoo!

In all, this is definitely a recommended book. Especially for first time parents and parents who are concerned about passing their own bad habits on to their children. Sort of a gentle version of Honey, We’re Killing The Kids! Perhaps this book will prevent some families from getting in so deep that they need that show.

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Goodness knows I need all the help I can get. I think we saw the doctor last month, but it’s all a blur. For a healthy child like mine, my postnatal lack of brain power isn’t really an issue. Much. But it certainly could be. Whether your child is in perfect health or not, Your Child’s Health and Wellness Record will keep the important health information safe and organized.

Designed by Canadian RN, BScN, photographer and mother of three, Karen Melnick, Your Child’s Health and Wellness Record along with the companion Document Organizer are both extremely thorough and very well organized. You’d be hard pressed to find something on the market that even comes close. Both are hardcover and filled with beautiful black and white photography (a la Karen).

The record book is essentially a health journal for parents to record health, wellness and educational details for their child. Karen recommends one book per child which can then be given to them when they enter adulthood and begin to manage their own health. This is not a medical advice book. Rather, the focus is on parents learning to communicate with health professionals to ensure that your concerns are taken seriously, advocating collaboratively for your child, and learning what details are important to record and why. Granted, it’s not rocket science, but I don’t know of a parent who couldn’t use a little support and the right tools to make it a little easier. I was impressed by the ample space for details about a wide variety of health professionals, such as chiropractor, speech therapist, naturopath, occupational therapist and more. They are suitable for children who are developing typically, and those who have complex health or developmental issues. A book like this is hard to find. I suppose that’s why it’s been honoured with the Exceptional Parent Award of Excellence. Well deserved.

The companion document organizer is a customizable, 3-ring binder for organizing reports, assessments, resource materials, report cards and more. If the binder doesn’t come with a section you need, guaranteed there’s a label in there for you to make your own. One binder is enough for your whole family. No more stray post-its and sheets of loose-leaf – yay!

Karen’s site also offers some great tips on how to talk so your health professionals will listen to help you become an effective advocate for the little people you love so much.

Each item is sold separately for $39.99 Can. / $34.99 US each and are available from the order page at her website. I’d say it’s a small investment that can have a potentially huge payback in terms of your child’s health and safety. What an awesome baby shower gift this set would be!

You’ll also find Your Child’s Health and Wellness Record at our TOP Shops page! Get 10% off your order with the code H101.

Win your own award winning Health and Wellness Record and Document Organizer set, valued at $79.98. Send an email to theopinionatedparent [at] gmail [dot] com with WELLNESS in the subject line and the answer to the question In what Canadian province does Karen Melnick live? Get your answers in by midnight MST on Wednesday, February 28, 2007. Congratulations, Mary!

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Straight Edge, Inc. is an educational supply company who’s mission is to encourage kids to read through innovative products. The Opinionated Parents have been reviewing several of their products over the past weeks and have been very impressed. We’ve had team members as well as friends who are parents, preschool teachers, early elementary teachers, and homeschoolers take a look at the products and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.The Inside-Outside Puzzles are a cool take on the good old puzzle. They’re made of sturdy 1/4″ board and at first glance are just a puzzle with an appealing picture. However, printed underneath the puzzle on the tray is a colorful cross section that illustrates and explains how things work with clearly printed captions for early readers. A reviewers 3 year old son loved this puzzle (we tried the dairy barn edition) and didn’t want to give it up so that we could take it to a homeschooling family who are currently exploring farming. When we finally did pry it out of his sad little hands (and replaced it with a toy to thank him for helping us – we’re not that mean!) we were able to share it with a family who have 3, 5 and 7 year old children. All three of those children enjoyed it. The older kids truly learned something from it and the 3 year old just loved that there was something under the puzzle pieces that she could hide and uncover. Learning is learning, right? Perhaps doing these educational puzzles with your kids will reduce the number of “Why” and “How” questions you are bombarded with all.day.long.

The Story in a Box books are board books each with a built in drawer holding 7 stand-up characters or props related to the story. These were tested in a preschool classroom of 3 & 4 year olds as well as in a kindergarten and a grade one classroom and all age groups thoroughly enjoyed them. The younger children explored the early reading skill or making up a story to go with the pictures and characters and enjoyed, primarily, the dramatic play aspect of using the characters as “actors” to tell the story. The school age children moved toward reading (or, in some case, making up, which is a step in the right direction) the story and using the cardboard characters to act out the plot as it actually happened in the story. With both groups, we asked them to tell “the next chapter” of the story using the characters and the creative play that came out of that was imaginative, intelligent and downright hilarious! These are available in seven classic fairy tales and would be a great purchase for parents and/or teachers of children aged 3-6.

In the Abigail’s Adventures series, each book comes with an Abigail doll that little ones will enjoy. The stories follow 3 1/2 year old Abigail through a series of activities. We reviewed the “Abigail Ice Skates” edition and it was very well received by a reviewers 2 1/2 year old daughter who is actually learning to skate. The book reinforced the lesson her mother had been trying to teach her for the past month ~ if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…Why is it that toddlers listen to books better than they listen to their parents?

Last, but very far from least, we reviewed the Read a Mat, Write a Mat and Color a Mat series. These are WAY cool. The Write a Mats and Color a Mats are similar to items that I use regularly in my own classroom and they’re always popular with the children. Something about writing on plastic instead of paper always gets them going. The Straight Edge series’ offers WAY more titles than I have ever seen in any store. I especially love the Read a Mats though. They come in over 40 titles that are sure to entice even the most fidgety kid to spend a few minuted actually sitting at the table.

As a teacher I love the idea of toys that disguise learning as fun. Not that learning isn’t fun. It certainly is. But these products are great even for those kids that do need to be tricked into thinking they’re not doing homework!

The Opinionated Parent has a selection of Straight Edge Products for one lucky reader! The set is intended for children aged 3-5 years. To enter, email us at theopinionatedparent [at] gmail [dot] com with STRAIGHT EDGE in the subject heading and the answer to the question What is one product that Straight Edge carries that is not mentioned in this review? Contest closes Friday, February 9, 2007 at midnight MST. The randomly selected winner will be contacted via email. Congratulations Leah!

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Today I’m one of the final stops on the blog book tour for Cycle Savvy, The Smart Teen’s Guide to the Mysteries of Her Body, the newest book by Toni Weschler. Does that name sound familiar? It should. She is the author of the infamous Taking Charge of Your Fertility, which I read and loved when we were considering trying to conceive our first child. As a well informed and educated woman, I was shocked (and a little ashamed) at the information that I didn’t know about my own body.

Toni’s new book, aimed at young women aged 14-18, is all about knowledge. As a teacher, a mother and a strong woman, I firmly believe that education is never a bad thing. Knowledge: Good. Ignorance: Bad is one of the points that Toni emphasizes throughout the book and is the reason I so highly recommend it to you. In this world of (ahem) world leaders in denial (ahem) pushing for abstinence only education, it’s high time young women were provided with the “down and dirty” about their bodies. (Not that there’s anything dirty about it, at all!) My first instinct is to think that parents should be educating their daughters about this stuff. This is closely followed by the thought that even if the lines of communication are open, there are many parents who don’t know this stuff themselves.

Did you know that your waking temperature shifts predictably throughout your cycle? Do you know why? And what about that wet stuff in your underoos? Do you know what it really means?

If not, then you have several options as I see it. The following are among them:

1) Teach nothing aside from abstinence. Maybe mention periods once or twice, blush wildly, and then leave a box of maxi-pads in the bathroom. Allow your daughter to deal with the consequences of lack of education, whatever those may be. (Please note: this book does not advocate sex. It simply advocates knowledge. I realize this is not the opposite of abstinence, but is all too often the opposite of what girls who only hear of abstinence receive.)

2) Give your daughter this book to read and hope that she learns more than you did at her age. Also hope that she doesn’t start having unprotected sex just because she thinks she can predict her fertile times. (Please note: Toni explicitly states that charting your cycle does not protect you from pregnancy or STI’s and is only a method of getting to know your developing body’s cycles. Sometimes, however, people skim for the content they want to find.)

3) Read this book yourself and become educated. Allow your daughter to read this book. Discuss it. Maybe even compare your cycles if that’s not too weird. Allow her to chart if she wants to. Allow her to think it’s freaky if she wants to, but provide her with the base knowledge, open lines of communication and a place to find more information if she wants it. Emphasize the fact that while abstinence is the only guaranteed protection against pregnancy and STI’s, there are steps one MUST take if they make the informed and educated decision to have sex.

Please, mothers of girls, I beg of you. Choose number 3. If I, as your daughter’s teacher, have to try to explain this to your child who has no knowledge, no background and nobody else to talk to about it, I’m happy to, but I certainly can’t do the job that you can as her mother and, in the interest of keeping my job, have to often refer her back to you for some of the difficult answers.

I had a few questions for Toni that she was gracious enough to answer, and I’d like to share her answers here with you:

1. As a teacher in the Canadian school system, I have always wished there was an earlier introduction to “sex-ed” (I intensely dislike that word) than grade five. By that time many of the girls are wearing bras and menstruating or are nearing that time. What is your opinion on when the topics of cycles, hormones, menstruation etc should be introduced in schools? (I know that parents should be doing it gradually at home from the toddler years and we should just be reviewing and debunking any myths, but unfortunately that’s rarely the case.) Also, do you have any advice on how best to bring up the topic of earlier introduction with parents, administrators and government while keeping my job? (Perhaps I’ll suggest your book as a resource!)

The reason I chose to write my book for girls at least 14 years and older is that I wanted them to have both the maturity for the more complex subject matter, and a point of reference of having menstruated for at least a couple years in order to understand the concepts discussed in the book.

So to answer your specific question, I think girls should start learning about the fact that they will start having periods by age 9 or 10, to be sure that they won’t be shocked when they eventually do get it. But I think the concept of cycles and hormones is more complex than they really need to understand until they are about 14 or so.

I think it is enough to explain early on that women’s bodies are capable of getting pregnant and nurturing and growing babies in their wombs, and one of the ways they do so is by developing a rich and cuddly site in which the fertilized egg can burrow in and develop. If pregnancy does not occur that cycle, the blood is shed in the form of a period. I don’t think they need to know much more until they have had their period for a couple years. THEN, my book should be able to answer all of their questions, and more.

But if we don’t start educating 13 or 14 year-old girls by explicitly discussing issues of pregnancy, STDs (now called STIs) date rape, emotional and physical vulnerability, etc. we will be remiss in sending them out in the world to protect themselves adequately. And it should go without saying that education is the key. It’s specifically LACK of education that gets girls into trouble!

2. What can parents of boys do to raise them to respect girls/women and understand their basic workings and cycles without making them (a) the freaky kid who talks about periods all the time or (b) roll on the floor laughing when they even broach the subject?

What a great question! To be honest, I need more time to think about it…

But they can start by not doing all the boys chores for them, so that boys will grow up knowing that they are responsible for themselves, and should not expect a woman to pick up after them and do everything for them!

For whatever it is worth, though, I think teen boys would really enjoy reading my book for teen girls, because it is jam packed with all sorts of tidbits that guys would be interested in reading. And if truth be told, the very fact that it is written for girls may make them even that much more interested.

I felt like a lucky member of the paparazzi when I received Toni’s answers. This famous (infamous?) woman who I admire took the time to “talk” to me? Cool! Yes, I’m a loser.

In a nutshell, this book comes with my highest recommendations. It’s informative and educational, non-judgmental, well-written, thoughtful and, perhaps most importantly, empowering. Toni writes to teens from the perspective of someone who simply wants to empower them, not lecture them. It is best suited for the 14-18 year (perhaps 28? 38? I’m 30 and loved it…) age range because of the slightly mature content. It’s also a wonderful alternative to Taking Charge of Your Fertility for women (and men!) of any age who aren’t wanting as much detail and/or who are intimidated by a thick “fertility” book. I hope I’ve done it justice with this review. My husband has listened to me for a week saying “Wow! This book is great! Our kids are definitely reading this! I want to introduce this to our curriculum!” … on and on and on and I hope I’ve portrayed the way I really feel with enough but not too much detail. This is my first “formal” book review, and it turns out I love reviewing books. I can’t wait for the next one!

Feeling lucky? I have three copies of this book to give away!

To enter, send me an email at muchmoreopinionated at gmail dot com with CYCLE SAVVY in the subject heading telling me why you want a copy of this book and your mailing address. This time, I’ll surprise the winners with a book in the mail! You have until midnight MST on Boxing Day (December 26, 2006) to enter. Congratulations to Jenny and Cindy who won here, and Chelle who won the other!

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