Book Review: The Next Right Thing
What do you do when you can’t decide what to do next? In her book The Next Right Thing: a Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions, Emily P. Freeman captivates her readers with simple truths and easy-to-follow action steps to do the next right thing in each of the 24 chapters. I took this book on a recent international trip with the intention of reading it on a long flight. However, I found myself not wanting to read it quickly. I’m a book-a-day kind of reader yet this one subconsciously encouraged me to slow down and let the information simmer. It was an invitation to turn off my e-reader and look out the window. I patted myself on the back for packing my capsule wardrobe with pants that fit (read Chapter 21). And that’s just how I emotionally reacted to the book, not even a review of the content! Emily’s book is great for the “here and now” decisions where you need to just do the next right thing instead of waffling in indecision. It’s also for the bigger life decisions where you need to stop collecting gurus. It’s for staying in the moment by asking yourself “What is…
Book Review: Everything No One Tells You About Parenting a Disabled Child
What do you wish you knew about parenting a disabled child? Parenting a disabled child is a daunting task, and author and advocate Kelly Coleman turned her experience into a disability resource book so that other parents and caregivers would have access to explanations and resources that make navigating the systems a bit smoother. This newly published book Everything No One Tells You About Parenting a Disabled Child – Your Guide to the Essential Systems, Services, and Supports is an incredible resource for parents and caregivers. Schools, medical offices, and therapy clinics should have a copy of this in the lobby. Not only is it helpful to parents, but it gives others insight into the struggle and loneliness families feel when navigating systems and services. No parent ever thinks they will be there, but if you are, you are not alone in the journey. No matter where you are in your journey, this book is a roadmap and a comfort to find you are not alone. As a teacher and tutor, this book gave me talking points to use with clients as I help them understand what an IEP meeting looks like and how to advocate for their child at…
3 Easy Tips For Reading Picture Books With Children
What picture book could be enjoyed by all ages? I love a good picture book discussion with little kids, big kids, and grandkids! Megan Dowd Lambert, in her book Reading Picture Books with Children: How to Shake up Storytime and Get Kids Talking About What They See, explains The Whole Book Approach to reading picture books with children through examples, tips, and stories of her own journey. It’s a phenomenal resource for parents, teachers, tutors, speech therapists, artists, and librarians that will turn your storytime into a picture book playground. I happened upon this book while browsing the “new book” section at the library. Surprisingly it is not a new publication, but I have been delighted with the find and immediately added it to my educational resource list for my tutoring business. I also knew I would write about it in my newsletter. It’s fine to read a book cover to cover and enjoy the story, but it’s a much richer experience to read and discuss the text, the art, and the book layout. Along with teaching the reader about all the parts of a book, from the jackets to gutters to endpapers, Lambert addresses the importance and steadfastness of…
Review: Hair Gel Powder
What hard-to-find product belongs in your travel bag? I found the traveling unicorn! And it has gorgeous wavy hair from hair gel powder! For several years, only one thing has been missing from my liquid-free travel toiletries bag – hair gel. For me, I need some hair product to tame my curls. After losing my luggage for a whole 2-week Eastern European trip, I found that there are certain products I prefer to have with me. Conditioner and gel make my hair happy. I discovered shampoo bars and conditioners a few years ago, but the elusive unicorn was a solid hair gel bar. After intensive internet hunting, I discovered a different type of unicorn than I was hunting. Instead of a solid, powder gel exists in DIY recipes and is for sale by small companies. It comes as a highly concentrated powder you mix with a little water turning it into gel right in the palm of your hand. Brilliant! (Cue the Asana flying unicorns and glitter!) Most formulas have flaxseed, coconut oils, arrowroot powder, gums, resins, and other natural ingredients. This results in soft hold gel with touchable curls free from parabens, sulfates, and other icky stuff. Some companies…
Teachers Pay Teachers Review
What quality educational resource do you wish you could add to your teacher or tutor toolkit? Teachers Pay Teachers, an online marketplace, is a powerful educational resource for teachers, tutors, and parents powered by educators. Instead of a few supplemental activities that only go with one particular curriculum, imagine the whole teacher supply store, your favorite teacher’s file cabinet, data-driven best practices resources, creative ideas, pretty things, suggestions for every topic under the sun, and the homeschool curriculum conference all in one place! That is Teachers Pay Teachers in a nutshell. What is TPT? I discovered this online resource while teaching elementary school and it became even more useful when I started my tutoring business. I knew how to teach the topics, but I was willing to purchase some fun original educational resources or extension activities for my summer school lessons. With over 9 million resources, this is a treasure trove for buyers and sellers of original educational resources. Teachers may need to fill gaps in the curriculum, post anchor charts, or create warm-up material. There are lesson plans, games, flashcards, room decorations, speech therapy activities, assessments, special education resources, seasonal themes, worksheets, projects, foreign languages, ESL, task cards, classroom…
How to make kombucha at home with 3 ingredients
How do you feel about the rising prices of kombucha? Get a scoby, some tea, and some sugar, and for a fraction of the cost you can make kombucha at home with 3 ingredients. Kombucha and other fermented foods continue to rise in popularity although they have been around forever. The prices are also on the rise which is what made me look into making kombucha at home and how I discovered the ultimate resource. Learn how to make kombucha at home In my quest to learn how to make kombucha at home, I came across The Big Book of Kombucha: Brewing, Flavoring, and Enjoying the Health Benefits of Fermented Tea by Hannah Crum and Alex LeGory at my local library. Of all the resources I found, this one has been my favorite and the most helpful. Each one of my questions, from recipes to fermentation time, has been answered by the Kombucha Mama. It truly is the “one go-to resource for all things kombucha.” Learn to troubleshoot and branch out From brewing techniques to flavor combinations to troubleshooting, to how to travel internationally with your scoby (helpful for my future plans for international scoby hotels startups), to highlights of…
Hard is not the same thing as bad
What moments of parenting feel overwhelming to you? Book Review: Hard Is Not the Same Thing as Bad If I were to sit down to a coffee chat with new friends, I’d include Abbie Halberstadt on the invite list. While I do not actually know Abbie, her humor, advice, and encouragement would make us easy friends who could laugh and cry together before we even finished my first cup of coffee and her hot chocolate. Reading her book Hard is not the Same Thing as Bad felt like sitting in on a weekly book club with Abbie. #hintstab I have been following Abbie Halberstadt, author of M is for Mama, for a while and looking forward to her latest book Hard is Not the Same Thing as Bad. She posts on social media about the miraculous and messy world of motherhood. She and her husband have 10 children (including 2 sets of twins with identical birthdays) and their story can be found on her parenting podcast and blog https://misformama.net/. Abbie’s down-to-earth honesty is refreshing as she shares her parenting experiences through the lens of hard is not the same thing as bad and her hope in Jesus Christ. So many…
Yoga Pretzels
What is a quick and easy way to help kids stretch their bodies and increase their patience and confidence? Product Review: Yoga Pretzels Years ago as a young teacher, I purchased a pack of Yoga Pretzels: 50 fun yoga activities for kids and grownups. This card deck has traveled with me to my various classrooms and tutoring sites. It has helped my students and children stretch during those silent 3-minute stretch breaks while testing, gave us fun activities to do during indoor recess, and helped calm the minds of tutoring clients as they transition from school to tutoring sessions. Now my grown-up daughter is borrowing them for her pediatric occupational therapy sessions. Yoga Pretzels are a quick and easy way to help kids stretch their bodies and brains while increasing their patience and confidence. These Yoga Pretzels have definitely been worth whatever I paid for them 15 years ago! A quick search shows they are still available in stores and on Amazon today. The sturdy cards have a picture of the yoga pose on one side and step-by-step instructions beautifully illustrated on the other side. There’s also an instructional booklet enclosed. I briefly talked to my students and clients about…
Product Review: LB Love Organics
How do you choose what type of hand lotion to buy? With so many “avoid these chemicals” messages it’s hard to find a good hand lotion, let alone a swoon-worthy hard lotion bar that smells nice and supports small businesses. So how do you know what organic small businesses you can support? If you are like me, word of mouth is the best advertisement for any business, big or small. When a friend tells me they love a product, it’s helpful, or that they know and trust the owner, I’m interested! Let me tell you about a product I am LOVING right now. Spice Cider Hard Lotion Bar by LB Love Organics. Not only does this company focus on sensitive skin products, but it uses simple and organic ingredients. The tagline is “sensitive skincare, simple ingredients.” Meredith of LB Love Organics grew her company out of her personal research for products for the dry and sensitive skin of her family members and her friends’ love of her creations. She did all the research AND created products so all we have to do is click the purchase button. As a bonus, my order came quickly and with a personal note and…
Product Review: Neso Tents
What type of beach shade do you use? After years of dragging the big heavy beach canopy bag down to the shore and hoping we could get it set up and down by ourselves if my husband wasn’t on the trip, I found a new easier beach shade, a Neso Tent, that weighs considerably less! Neso beach tents are a breeze to use and store. These lycra/nylon tents provide water resistant sunshade with different configurations depending on where you put the poles. There is a slight learning curve to setting them up on a windy day but tutorial videos helped. This Neso beach tent was great for our multigenerational beach trip so the great grandmas, the tired surfers, and the baby could have shade. We did have our tent blow down once but the winds were over 20 mph and changing directions. I was quite impressed with how well it did on other windy days and much less worried than usual about the umbrella flying down the beach or the whole canopy tent overturning and hurting someone. This beach tent can also be used in the backyard or sidelines. Instead of filling the bags with sand, you can use…