Your Daycare Library – Books to Make Your Daycare Feel Like Home

Posted on August 31, 2010 by

The best daycares are the ones that really feel like home for the child-warm, inviting, safe, and fun. Books are such a key part of every young child’s life that a few great books in your daycare reading space can make all the difference.

We’ve selected some titles that will get your library or reading space started off right. Already have a reading space? Well, these books will be a welcome addition. We picked these titles for a few reasons. The illustrations are bold and engaging. The stories will keep kids’ attention long enough to finish the book, and we love that these authors include images of children of all shades and colors.

The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler
Beautiful illustrations and rhyming text make this a fun read for children in the 4 to 8 age range and a great book for story time for kids under five. It’s all about celebrating kids of all shades, colors, and ability levels. The book radiates warmth, kindness, and love for all children.

Whoever You Are by Mem Fox
We like that this book talks about people from all over the world and how we share many similarities no matter where we live. We love the spirit of unity that this book encourages as well as the whimsical illustrations that fill the pages. Children will be captured by the rich painting like illustrations that capture the beauty of all people.

I’m Just Like My Mom/I’m Just Like My Dad by Jorge Ramos
Who doesn’t love a good book celebrating the bond between mother and child and father and child? This book filled with brightly colored, cartoon-like illustrations is a great bilingual book that celebrates family and teaches some Spanish, too.

Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn
This cute little board book–perfect for little hands–is a wonderfully easy read. It tells the story of little Lola and how much she enjoys her weekly visits to the library with her mom. This book celebrates and encourages reading from an early age.

We hope you enjoy these titles as much as we have.

Happy Reading!

Author: Shannon Harmon
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Baby Diapers

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Roberta Sullivan

Baby diapers are most certainly big business in the United States and all other western countries. Disposable diapers are what most people use and there is a never-ending market for them. Most parents find them much more convenient than cloth diapers. You can clean up easily without having to launder the diaper.

Disposable diapers were first seen in stores in the 1940s, but they took a while to catch on. They were too expensive for most people and those who could afford them often had servants to do the baby care and laundering so they did not see the benefit. Also, the early disposable diapers were just in one size that did not always fit the baby well, so they leaked worse than cloth diapers.

In the 1950s, when disposable diapers started to be manufactured in different sizes, they became more popular with the rich. It was not until the 1970s that the price of disposable diapers (along with many other plastic-based products) dropped to the point where they became affordable for most people. People very quickly found how convenient they were and it was soon considered very old-fashioned and even unhygienic to use cloth diapers.

Disposable diapers have continued to improve every decade, becoming lighter weight, more absorbent and better fitting. Different styled diapers for boys and girls appeared, they were given cute designs, and diapers became more environmentally friendly due to customer demand. There are now several large manufacturers, all claiming to make the best disposable diaper for your baby.

In the late 1990s and 2000s there has been a swing back towards cloth diapers. This has come about for many reasons. One is the increasing interest in the environment. People are concerned at the way our garbage is increasing. They do not always think of the environmental cost of laundering cloth diapers, and the electricity, water and detergent that it uses.

Cloth diapers have changed a lot in the last 50 years. The cotton used these days is treated so that it stays much softer and is easier to wash than it ever used to be. They come in different colors now with cute patterns. Diaper pins have gotten more cute too, and many cloth nappies do not even need them, because they fasten with buttons or velcro.

Even with cloth diapers you do have a disposable section which is the liner. This means you do not have to deal with big mess on the diaper itself. Another advantage of cloth diapers is that children who wear them will usually toilet train earlier because they can feel the unpleasantness of being wet in a cloth diaper. On the other hand, a small baby in a cloth diaper is more likely to wake when it is wet for this same reason.

Cloth diapers are also less irritating to the skin for most babies, and as many babies these days develop skin problems like eczema, this can be important for parents in their choice of baby diapers.

Baby diapers, baby cribs, car seats, how in the world do you know what to buy for your new baby? Please review my articles on all of these topics at Thew New Mother’s Survival Guide

Author: Roberta Sullivan
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Times

Originally posted 2009-08-28 22:52:58. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Blogging for Bucks

Posted on August 31, 2010 by Brad

TechAid of Technology, Gadgets, Product, reviews, Health. creates some interesting opportunities for profitable blogging.  While Google may frown on paid posting TechAid is certainly doing something right with a PR 3 blog on a free host.  If you take a look at his programs he certainly runs a risk with PPP or Pay Per Post which, I have never much liked.  I had Google drop one site that contained links top them and their little affiliate icon from a page rank of 5 to 0.  There were no posts for Pay Per Post only an affiliate link.  That is a service I can’t recommend.

He does have two other noted services which I just signed up with.  Buy Blog Reviews and A.W. Surveys both seem like good opportunities for the average blogger to turn a little more cash.  As always though when it comes to paid reviews you need to be careful and if you want to do it over the long term with any success you are going to need at minimum four blogs and preferable a dozen.  You will also need to be prepared to abandon a blog because it is still being down graded by Google.

Originally posted 2008-11-26 09:29:17. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Introducing Fancy Nancy Books & Fancy Nancy Dolls to Your Daughter

Posted on August 31, 2010 by

In case you are searching for an ideal book you can enjoy reading together with your little girl, you might want to think of reading the Fancy Nancy books. These books are an assortment of stories that have been created by Jane O’Connor and these are so exciting that both you as well as your daughter are certain to be charmed by them.

Who Will Enjoy These Stories?

These kinds of story books are usually ideal for kids aged 4 years and over. The tales are self contained so you do not have to invest in every one of the books within the collection in order to enjoy the plots. Each book is filled with beautifully created drawings that illustrate the escapades that the little girl from the books has.

What Do These Books Contain?

The Fancy Nancy stories are centered on a young child called Nancy. She has a particular type of character which helps to make her extremely interesting. She is also similar to other little girls due to the fact that she enjoys playing with clothes and loves the idea of dressing up so that she can always look her best whatever the occasion may be.

Just about every book focuses on a specific adventure or situation which Nancy discovers herself in. These are written with excellent style and splendid expressions which makes it quite simple for folks, both young and old to picture exactly what little Nancy could be like if she existed in real life.

As soon as you get started on the story books, you might be interested to learn more about other reading books that happen to be particularly developed to help a young kid to improve his or her reading skills. There are also some great Fancy Nancy dolls that you can buy that have been created to correspond to specific story books from the series.

Fancy Nancy books are a terrific way to help introduce your child towards the delights of reading. They also make a fantastic present for virtually any occasion. Take a look online and compare and contrast the prices that are on offer. You may be lucky enough to buy the whole series of books at a great bargain.

Find out more about Fancy Nancy books and buying a Fancy Nancy doll online today.

Author: Linda Bennett
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Children’s Religious Books – Value Books, Standin’ Tall, The Safety Kids and The Power Tales

Posted on August 30, 2010 by

Growing up, I remember reading books and listening to tapes of several children’s book series that taught specific values: Standin’ Tall, the Safety Kids, and The Power Tales. Each of the series contained a set of activity or picture books with a cassette tape accompanying each book. My siblings and I loved to hear and read the stories, and we remember some of the lessons and songs to this day.

Standin’ tall was a series of twelve books, each titled a specific value such as work, cleanliness, gratitude, obedience, etc. Each tape told a dramatized story with catchy songs, and each book contained attractive illustrations to color, the words to the story, and other activities. Just the other day, I sang to my son some of the songs from the “Cleanliness” book while giving him his bath.

The Safety Kids was probably our favorite series. It was two cassette tapes with companion books that taught social safety rules such as not going with strangers, memorizing your phone number, or who to talk to if you are lost. We loved to listen to them, and the children enacting the drama on the tape felt like friends who were coming to play whenever we put on the tapes. We danced to the music and learned the concepts being taught. I still remember my phone number from that period of time in my life because one of the songs teaches a child to memorize his phone number.

The power tales was a series of books that taught values through stories of historical figures like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and even Walt Disney. The stories were entitled “The Power of Courage – Featuring the story of Florence Nightingale”. Each book had a tape to go with it with the dramatized story and other lessons to go with the value.

I know the books and tapes we read and listened to had an impact on me because I still remember the songs well and have the desire for my children to learn those same values. As children, we learned without feeling like we were learning. We were having fun singing and dancing while internalizing important values and helped shape the people we became.

Trent Bowen is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is a collector of LDS media. He is the owner of http://www.prophetpaintings.com. He believes that children’s religious books can bless the lives of children.

Author: Trent Bowen
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Tips From A Stay At Home Dad

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Brad

Sarah is now a little more than a month old and it is time for me to do a little analysis of the pros and cons of gift giving.  As a stay at home dad let me point out that I am all about practicality and functionality over what is cute.  Without further ado here is my short list

  • A good bath towel is preferable to a receiving blanket. Unless the person giving the receiving blanket has made them, which isn’t hard with a sewing machine and $2.00/yard material, a bath towel is infinitely cheaper, more durable, warmer, and has long lasting practicality.  I’ll make my case for this in a separate post, but here is the quick price comparison from Wal-Mart package of 4 20″x30″ thin yet cutesy receiving blankets, $12.00.  Terry cloth bath towels in the 24″x48″ size range can regularly be had for $2.00 to $3.00 each on sale.
  • Stay at home parents should consider cloth diapers.  I’ll make my case for using them in another post too, but the financial end of it is easy.  Wal-mart’s price for a dozen name brand pre-fold cloth diapers is $11.49 and a package of six rubber pants is $3.00.  The generic newborn diapers at walmart are $12.00 for 56 and considerably more for the name brand ones.  The average baby is going to go through eight to twelve disposables a day depending on the baby, but for coparative purposes we’ll lowgball it at eight.  That equals $12.00 give or take a week in diapers.  Call it $50.00 a month for the first three months and theprice goes up from there sharply.  I recommend four packages of cloth diapers, two packages of diaper pins, and two packages of rubber pants, call it $60.00 after taxes.
  • Don’t skimp on buying baby wipes, go directly for the large refill box of generics.  Wal-mart has their generic brand in packages of six (6) – eighty count packages for less than $8.00.  At nearly $4.00 each for an 80 count package in a semi hard plastic box, the price difference here is easy to figure out.  Though some people are going to gasp at this notion, most baby wipes can be washed, dried and reused at least once.  I discovered this by accident, but once I did I realized they are still much stronger than paper towels and good enough for some tough jobs like cleaning the surface of my flattop stove, inside the microwave, coffee spills, and any other job where liquid is involved.  My guess is they would be great for car detailing work too.
  • Bottles are a pain to clean and sterilize unless you can keep on top of it.  Buy lots of small ones, a good bottle brush with a nipple cleaner, a 1 gallon batter bowl, and an electric kettle.  Since I have to hand wash my dishes to get them clean, I prefer to do a large lot of bottles at once, and do them separately from all the other dishes, or at least first.  If you have hard water this is about the only way to ensure they actually get clean and don’t end up with that scumy film the dishwasher leaves on plastics.  Once you get them clean sterilize them in boiling water. bottles, nipples, rings, and even their pacifiers.  I find the best and safest way to get boiling water fast is a cordless electric kettle.  It takes three or four minutes to get six or seven cups boiling which about fills the one gaqllon batter bowl I use to sterilize bottles in.  With a spout and handle you can easily pour the water water out later rather than fishing through a container of really hot water if you need something immediately.
  • Don’t buy expensive baby detergent until you have used your normal stuff.  Telling parents they need special baby detergents for all of babies things is nothing more than an act of commercial terrorism playout out against parental paranoia.  Simply put advertisers know the mommy brigade will buy anything if you can convince them not doing so is not only the worst possible thing they canh do for their child, but makes you a bad parent if you don’t buy their product.  Some babies will have real skin issues and specialty soaps should be considered for them.  These conditions are very rare.  If clothes washed in your normal detergent irritate your babies skin simply add between a quarter and a half cup of borax powder to the wash cycle.  This usually solves the problem, which was caused by the detergent not fully rinsing away.
  • Sleep and coffee are your friends.  Catch a nap whenever you can.  Television isn’t that important and frankly in this day and age can be watched after the fact very easily.  If the baby is asleep at eight o’clock make the most of it rather than staying up to catch Bones, House, or your latest favorite reality show.  You can download those shows later if you didn’t DVR them.  Drink as much coffee as it takes to be wide awake and properly alert.  Light roasted coffee, such as those designated breakfast blends, have the most caffiene for they cup.  A French Press coffee pot is an excellent gift for any parent to be.
  • Don’t buy an expensive baby sling.  I can only do so many things at once and many of them require both of my hands.  If your baby is the type that demands to be held regularly this can hamper the other things you want or need to do. I blog for a living and sometimes making a deadline for a paid post has to be done no matter what Sarah wants from me.  I am not a person who can type one handed, so at first I improvised a baby sling out of a king size bed sheet which worked well enough to hold her in place next to me while I did other things.  This was hell on my neck, so I had to redesign it.  I will make a full post on this later, but you can easily make one the right size out of three to four yards of cheap material.  I paid $1.00/yard for mine as opposed to $25.00 for a fancy sling.

As I said before there are some things that just can’t be put off when you have a baby in your care and in a few minutes I expect Sarah is going to wake up and I will have to take care of them.  I have more tips and articles forthcoming.  Stay tuned.

Originally posted 2008-12-11 04:33:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Dioxins in Disposable Diapers

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Alan King

Dioxins in disposable diapers manufactured with a chlorinated bleaching process are concerning parents and researchers alike. Chlorinated compounds that give us paper products that are whiter than white can break down into toxic materials. These materials irritate skin, pollute the environment, and can raise a number of concerns for health issues such as cancer and immune system depression.

Disposable diapers fall into the ranks of bleached paper products manufactured with chlorinated wood pulp. Dioxins have shown to accumulate easily in the human body, being stored in fatty tissues. Trace amounts of dioxins have been found in paper products that we use every day, including the disposable diapers we swaddle children in for years. Alternatives such as cloth and chlorine-free diapers do exist, though cloth diapers certainly dont win many points in ease of use and cleaning.

Chlorine-free diapers, though, offer a handy product that is safer for use and kinder to sensitive baby skin. Chlorine-free diapers dont contain the dioxins so dangerous to our health. Also, the lack of dioxins means that, when disposed of, chlorine-free diapers are safer for the environment. It is important to remember that any dangerous chemicals stored in landfill can potentially leach into water supplies. There are so many disposable diapers in landfill now, that the potential risk of dioxins finding their way to into ground water cannot be ignored.

Truthfully, there is a lack of study on single-use disposable diapers and the dioxin connection. How much of the chemical is transferred during diaper use remains to be determined with solid backup. However, the concern is certainly present, as dioxins have shown to transfer through contact with skin. Until common disposable diapers have been proven safe for use and free of skin irritants, parents should opt for a safer choice. Chlorine-free diapers provide a good alternative that is safe for use and better for the environment than traditional disposable diapers that use chlorination in the bleaching process.

For more info on the health benefits of Chlorine Free Diapers
please check out the authors website at http://www.chlorinefreediaper.com

Author: Alan King
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Information

Originally posted 2009-08-29 10:09:22. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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