Monday, June 16, 2008

almost time: a review and a giveaway

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Summer is whizzing by already and if you have a little one starting school this year (or in the next few years), this post is for you.

Author and mom Stacey Kannenberg asked me to review her two wonderful books "Let's Get Ready for Kindergarten" and "Let's Get Ready for First Grade." Stacey, I'm impressed and I wish they had been in print when my oldest was a preschooler. I remember when my daughter had her first assessment by Miss Pilgrim (her real name) who was to become her K4 teacher. Asked to do a number of tasks, my daughter did pretty well, but she couldn't point to her shoulder when Miss Pilgrim kindly asked her to do so. (Seriously? Did we not sing "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" a thousand times?) Unless you happen to be a teacher, I would guess that most moms don't have a clue about how to help their first child prepare for school -- I know I didn't. That's where Stacey can help.

From pre-reading skills to more advanced concepts like vowels, ordinal numbers and adding money, Stacey's books include the basics and more. Children can write on the pages with dry erase markers (always a good time) and parents get a little advance notice of what will their child will be learning. This is the stuff you know to do with your second child. :)  (If you're homeschooling, these books give you a great head start as well.)

Stacey's books are available online at www.cedarvalleypublishing.com, but she agreed to let me do a little giveaway here. (Sorry, international friends. These books have some U.S. specific material, so I am limiting the giveaway to domestic shipping only.) Leave a comment and let me know what you and your little one (or grand-little one) do to introduce new concepts in a fun way -- we can all learn together. The kindergarten book is already promised to a special girl, so on June 20 I will have my son randomly choose a commenter to receive "Let's Get Ready for First Grade." Please pass the word to parents you know. Thanks!

OK Ladies! There were only two of you and I still had my son do a random draw...Angela, he chose comment number one. Please email me your snail mail address and I will send this to you next week. I appreciate the comments from both of you!

3 comments:

Angela DeRossett said...

Great giveaway! I have one starting 1rst and one starting Kindergarten this year! Things we like to do together include m&m counting, measuring beans, planting flowers, and word card games.

kamewh said...

I like to teach by having my sons actually "do" things. For instance, this past week my older preschool-age son helped his father plant trees and learned about how a tree grows, why it needs to be watered, etc.

Thank you for the giveaway!

Angela DeRossett said...

Thanks so much Chris!!! I sent my mailing address to you. Tell your son thank you too!