Education, Media, & Literacy

My sister recently told me about a series she started reading called “His Dark Materials,” by Phillip Pullman. She told me she liked the first book but just emailed me recently rescinding her recommendation after finding out some disturbing information about the rest of the series. Apparently Pullman has used these books to promote his […]

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” –William Arthur Ward Each night for the last several months my husband and I have taken a few minutes before bed to write down something that we’re grateful for or something that happened that day to let us know that […]

Before we had kids, my husband and I decided that we wanted to be very selective about the movies our family both viewed and owned. We decided that we only wanted to own movies that are family friendly and appropriate for most everyone. We feel that sexual content is the most offensive and inappropriate, so […]

If you’ve learned anything about me so far, it should be that I love reading and books. Further evidence of this is demonstrated in this morning’s happenings. My husband and I woke up bright and early to get up to the Salt Lake City Library for a book sale. Second only to Black Friday, library […]

This poem is the perfect description of what books are to me. Books are keys to wisdom’s treasure; Books are gates to lands of pleasure; Books are paths that upward lead; Books are friends. Come, let us read. Emilie Poulsson In my last semester of college I took a calligraphy class and I actually used […]

A lexophile is a person who loves words and word plays.  I do, do you? A bicycle can’t stand alone; it is two tired. Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana. A backward poet writes inverse. A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion. If you don’t pay your exorcist, you can […]

Zoe’s Hats, Sharon Lane Holm (Colors and patterns) Water, Water; Eloise Greenfield (Nature) Look at the Baby; Kelly Johnson (Body parts) The Cuddle Book, Guido Van Genechten (love, family relationships) A Nap in a Lap, Sarah Wilson (love, family) The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle Is Your Mama a Llama?, Deborah Guarino Sometimes I Like […]

A lot of times the best advice comes from long ago and in this case, just over 70 years ago. One of the best books that I have read on how to communicate with others is “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. I’m not talking about superficial tricks to manipulate others, […]

Reading is, in my opinion, one of life’s luxuries. Unfortunately, in recent years I haven’t been able to read as much as I would like.  However, reading is still important for me as an adult and even more important in the development and maturation of children. Reading books helps children develop an imagination, learn to […]

It’s funny how once you learn about something new, you start to hear about it and notice it everywhere! This is how baby sign language has been for me. I’m sure people have been talking about baby sign language for a while, but I only caught on just recently because I have a young baby […]