I Do It!

September 21, 2009

A friend of mine from Colorado with a two and a half year old boy said today that she just realized the pertinence of my book Grandpa, Do It! I Do It, Too!. All of a sudden he is is saying “Daddy do it!” or “Mommy do it!” or “I do it!” There are examples everywhere! They’re everywhere! They’re everywhere! This article on early exploration is from www.explorationsearlylearning.com. Jo@Mylestones shares an I Do It Too! moment. Ask Dr Sears.com has a good page of information, too, on dependence, independence and interdependence.


Seal Beach Seal in Alamitos Bay

September 20, 2009

The last several years we’ve been here in Alamitos Bay we have had a visiting sea lion every now and then. My mom in Arizona calls him “her seal” because we first saw him when she was visiting us. She always asks if we’ve seen him lately. We went for a long time without seeing him – once or twice a year. Today he was sunning himself on the breakwater. He didn’t seem to care at all that boaters were going by him all the time. This Google map has a red star in the center – the sea lion was on the breakwater just below the star – on the thin line jutting in the water. You can drag the map up and around so you can see how he made his way up to the houses from the ocean near Seal Beach. Here are some pictures I took of him this morning.

Sea Lion is in Center of PhotoThe Houses are all around this area of the Alamitos Bay. The sea lion is on the breakwater in the middle of the photo.

Dragon Boat Glides ByA dragon boat crew practices their rowing while the sea lion stretches out on the breakwater.

Sea Lion with Jetskier
The sea lion sits up to watch the jetskier as the jetskier watches him.

Another Dragon BoatThis dragon boat crew is also so intent on rowing that they don’t see the sea lion either. But he’s laid back down again.

KayakersKayakers go in for a closer look.

Sea Lion Sits Up Time for him to check out what is going on.

Turns Over The sea lion turns over on his side.

He stayed and napped for quite a while. Then he quietly slipped back into the water. Later this evening he was back on the breakwater. One of the boat owners we talked to when we took the photos this morning said the sea lion has been hanging around more in the last five days…..


Photos From Book Readings

September 19, 2009

Here are some photos from two book readings of “Grandpa, Do It! I Do It, Too!” that I did. One was on June 19 at a day care center in Long Beach, CA. The other reading was on Father’s Day at Wayfarer’s Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. I first blogged about them on June 15 and on June 22, 2009.

DC1

DC2

Chapel1

Chapel2

Chapel3

BookFamilyAron and Cyndi (Austin’s parents), Austin and Grandpa Ron, Grandma Sue and Pam.


Outdoor Activities in Orange County

September 18, 2009

Lots of parks and reserves are listed at the Orange County website. The Orange County Register has a link with outdoor actities and events that has great ideas for family fun! Enjoy!


Teaching Kids to Read

September 17, 2009

I taught my daughter to read when she was three. Now she has a three year old and she wants to teach him to read. I think we started out just reading her favorite books over and over again and later we got workbooks to do, too. I did find some interesting websites that have suggestions on how to go about it now:
The Well-Trained Mind
starfall.com
Reading Buddy 2.0
Succeed to Read
Preschool Express
WowzaBrain

If you have a suggestion, feel free to add a comment!


Nature Rocks

September 16, 2009

The back of my Autumn Nature Conservancy magazine had a little ad on the back for Nature Rocks: Let’s Go Explore. It is a fun website to click through – complete with children’s voices and ducks! Here is a Staycation Guide (takes a while to load – it is a pdf file) on things to do as a family close to home. A fun feature to play with is Find Nature. Great photos can be seen here. Enjoy!


Shared Sibling Activities For Youngsters

September 14, 2009

I don’t remember how I found this blogspot but it had an interesting interview with the twin authors of The Siblings’ Busy Book that I just ordered for my daughter. It has at-home activities that keep the interest of brothers and sisters of different ages while they are creating something together.

Found lots of similar books by reading the various reviews in Amazon. Actually, the day care centers would probably enjoy the ideas in these books as much as the parents do! – Here are some of them – Be sure to check out the similar books at the bottom of the book descriptions:
more Art oriented books
Arts and Crafts type books
Busy Books for various ages


Happy Grandparents Day!

September 13, 2009

This e-card says it all! Enjoy!! It is from
grandparents.com.

For a little more info on Grandparents Day, check out my earlier blog.


The Great Reno Balloon Race in 28th Year

September 12, 2009

The Great Reno Balloon Race is this weekend. The visitrenotahoe.com site has all kinds of pictures and info. The Reno momslikeme.com sponsored The World’s Largest Pajama Party this morning with Farmer’s Insurance. Here’s a Flickr slideshow from the RenoTahoe website including my favorite – The Energizer Bunny! This video is pretty awesome! There are lots more videos on the same page as that one. Enjoy!


Do You Know Kids With Allergies?

September 10, 2009

The Itchy Kids Club website is a wonderfully fun information center for kids and families dealing with allergies, asthma and eczema from food or the environment. For example, here are 10 Things Children With Food Allergies Want You To Know! I found the website entertaining as well as very full of all kinds of useful data for dealing with the itchy side of life! 🙂 A very cute book written by Jill Grabowski is also available for purchase to share the funny side of it all.