Auto-B-Good is the Emmy Award winning animated series that teaches great lessons in character development to children ages 4-10. The 10 characters are all cars with distinct personalities and they make up the town of Auto. The lessons are well played out throughout each episode and after viewing them with your child there are plenty of ways you can apply what has been learned in each lesson. I can easily see how you could use 1 episode each week as the basis of your homeschool character/Bible curriculum.

I reviewed “Blazing the Trail-Season Two-Volume 6”. The episodes on this DVD are “Breaking New Ground” which is about caring and empathy, “Level 39” which is about willpower, “Western Hero” about hero worship, and “Road Rage” which focuses on self-discipline.

The people at Rising Star Studios want to give 1 lucky reader of TheMomMaven their own copy of  “Blazing the Trail.”

Mandatory 1st Entry: Visit AutoBGood.com and click on “about the show” and then on “character traits” and read about the different character traits featured in episodes of Auto-B-Good. Then come back here and leave me a comment telling me which character trait you’d like to focus on with your child.

Bonus Entries: To be completed after the Mandatory 1st Entry

• Follow AutoBGood on Twitter
• Like Auto-B-Good on Facebook and leave a comment about this giveaway (with a link back here) on the Auto-B-Good Facebook wall.
• Tweet about this giveaway and include @MomMaven @AutoBGood and a link to this giveaway in your tweet
• Blog Subscribers get 1 entry
• GFC Friends get 1 entry
• Networked Blog Followers get 1 entry
• Facebook Likers get 1 entry

This giveaway is open to everyone! The winner will be chosen at 10pm on August 6, 2010.

Disclaimer: I received 1 copy of this DVD for the purposes of this review. All opinions are 100% mine.

The post Auto-B-Good DVD Review & Giveaway appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Together, We Can Make a Difference
Through the dedication of advocates, child welfare professionals, elected officials and support groups around the country, the total number of children waiting for a safe and permanent family has decreased from more than a half million to 463,000 between 2003 and the end of 2008. These numbers tell us that, together, we can make a difference for children in foster care.

But there is still so much work to be done, as there are more than 123,000 children waiting to be adopted with the help of an adoption agency. Some adopted agencies recommend the aspiring foster parents to attend a Foster Parent Licensing program.

Want to learn more about how you can get involved? Click here, and follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Join us May 27 at 2 p.m. EST on Twitter for an #AdoptUsKids one hour chat to get the message out about National Foster Care Month.

The post May is National Foster Care Month appeared first on The Mom Maven.

This book is geared towards 6-10 year olds and would make a great addition to any church or family’s library. It is perfect for family or homeschool devotions as it can be used for 25 weeks of activities. You could use it for an entire school year’s worth of devotions if you add in some Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter devotions to round out the year. Creation Inspirations is an affordable curriculum too, at only $12.99 + shipping and handling this is a book that every family with young children can use to learn more about God and His amazing creations.

The post Creation Inspirations-Book Review appeared first on The Mom Maven.

In case you aren’t familiar with the Worst-Case Scenario books, they have been around for 10 years. The original book has spawned multiple sequels including: parenting, politics, life, work and more. The books are fun, fact-filled looks at how to handle the worst-case scenario of any situation.

Parenting is divided into three chapters and an appendix. Chapter One: Ages Zero to Three, includes entries such as How to Deal with a Screaming Baby on an Airplane, How to Get your Baby to Sleep and How to Survive Baby Gear Overload. My favorite in this chapter is How to Give your Baby a Bath without a Bathtub. This article lists several containers you could use as a makeshift bathtub; my favorite part is the list of what not to use.

Do Not Use:

• Drive-through car wash (with open car windows)
• Toilet bowl
• Front-loading washing machines
• Outdoor power sprayer
• Dishwasher
• Hot tub

Chapter Two:Three to Twelve includes; How to Remove Chewing Gum from Hair, How to Discipline an Imaginary Friend and How to Rid a Bedroom of Monsters. My favorite in this chapter is How to Remove a Wad of Paper from your Child’s Nose. I found this one interesting for two reasons; first when I taught pre-school I had one little girl who was always putting things up her nose, and second because recently my sister and brother-in-law needed a chapter called ‘How to Remove a Shark’s Tooth from your Son’s Ear’…long story as you can imagine.

Chapter Three: The Teenage Years covers things like: How to Survive Teenage Angst, How to Avoid a Prom Corsage Wound and How to Survive Empty-Nest Syndrome. My favorite though is How to Determine if your Child is Driving your Car-which includes placing an analog watch under the car tire! In the Appendix, they cover Essential Parenting Cliches, the “Birds and the Bees Speech”, an IM/Text lingo decoder and a teen slang glossary.

This is the parenting book for all parents in all stages of parenting. It is funny and helpful at the same time. If you would like to purchase The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Parenting you can do so at their website.

You can win The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Parenting right here from The Mom Maven!

Mandatory 1st Entry: Leave a comment telling me the worst-case parenting scenario you have survived.

Bonus entries:

• Follow both @MomMaven and @WorstCaseBooks on Twitter and leave me a comment with your Twitter name
• Tweet This “Win The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook Parenting from @MomMaven & @worstcasebooks http://bit.ly/HmXxR” and leave a comment with the tweet’s URL
• Become a fan of Worst-case scenarios on Facebook and leave me a comment letting me know you did it.

This giveaway is for US residents only. The drawing will be held August 7, 2009 at 7:00pm. Good Luck!

The post The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Parenting appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Now that you have figured out what time your child should be going to sleep, work backwards from there to allow 30-60 minutes for the bedtime routine. The bedtime routine is important because it gives the child the cues he needs to settle himself down and prepare for sleep. A sample bedtime routine includes 1 or both parent participating in…
• bath time
• brush teeth
• go potty
• story time
• prayers
• lights out (parent leaves the room)
• [tweak the above so that it fits your family and is age appropriate]

The next part is where it gets difficult for most parents. Except in cases of infants who wake for nighttime feedings, illness and night terrors, the child is in bed for the night. They shouldn’t get up for a drink, another hug, “I can’t sleep” etc. This is where most parents fail the bedtime routine-and if they would just stick with it a week or two their life would be so much more blissful. If the child comes out of their room (this is not a time for conversation keep it simple)…

• 1st time-give them a hug an “I love you.” and walk them back to bed
• 2nd time-give them a hug and walk them back to bed (no talking)
• 3rd time-walk them back to bed (no hug, no talking)
• Depending on their age when you begin this routine, they may really push you the first few nights. I know of parents who have sat in the doorway of their child’s room (without talking with the child) so that the child will stay in bed, even if they cry and whimper for a while, they can and will eventually self-pacify and learn that the sooner they relax and go to sleep the better it is.

Consistency is the key to all parenting. In bedtime you need to be consistent in the bedtime and the bedtime routine. Kids of all ages need bedtimes that allow them to get the sleep their body needs. Purchase cool kids beds for your children so that they’ll love their bedroom.

What does your child’s bedtime routine consist of? Leave me a comment and let me know.

The post Tips for Bedtime Bliss appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Mike is also the creator of “The Letterman” from PBS’ longtime educational show “Electric Company”. Mr Thaler is known as “America’s Riddle King” and travels to classrooms worldwide helping children and teachers create their own stories riddles and books.

Eleven years ago, at age 60, Thaler devoted his life to Jesus Christ and he says, “life has gone from black and white to glorious Technicolor.” Today he uses his imaginative storytelling and passion for Christ in his new series “Tales from the Back Pew”. He says it’s “Black Lagoon goes to church.” These books are published by ZonderKids and are for ages 6-9.

I have read one book in the series, Preacher Creature Strikes on Sunday, and I have shared it with a few children of varying ages. This is a great book for kids who have never been to church or who are maybe moving to a new church. Thaler does a good job of expressing a child’s fear of the unknown and what the child may have heard about church.

There are very long songs with a thousand verses, and just when you think you’re done, they go back to the beginning and start all over again. And you have to stand the whole time. It’s sort of like the Pledge of Allegiance…only longer. And then, instead of paying you for singing, they collect money.

Of course in the end the child enjoys church and can’t wait to go back next Sunday. The illustrations in the books are beautiful and imaginative. Jared Lee is the illustrator and he has worked with Thaler for over 30 years.This would be a great book for a child new to a Protestant, main stream denominational church setting, similar to what I grew up in. The children I know and shared this book with come from either an Assemblies of God or non-denominational/Pentecostal background and they were unable to relate the church experiences in this book. We all enjoyed the way the child in book shared the Old Testament stories of Moses, Noah, and Jonah.

You can purchase the book:Preacher Creature Strikes on Sunday OR

You can enter to win the book:

How to Enter:
For your first entry:Since Mr Thaler is known as “America’s Riddle King” you must leave me a comment with a riddle and it’s answer. You must also follow or subscribe to this blog and leave a comment here telling me that you have done this Please leave a valid e-mail address or twitter name so that I can notify if you win. **You must do all of this to be entered.

If you would like extra entries you can earn them for doing any or all of the following:

* tweet this contest and post the url of the tweet as a separate comment (you can do this 1x per day each day of the contest-just post each tweet url in a separate comment)
* blog about this contest and link to this post (not just a link to the contest) then leave me a link to your post in a separate comment
* stumble this post with a review and link it here in separate comment

The winner will be chosen on Friday, March 13th at 8:00pm. Good Luck!!

The post Tales from the Back Pew-Kids Book Review and Giveaway appeared first on The Mom Maven.

That is the pivotal question-How do you respond? For most of us instinct kicks in and we want to start the “Not my kid-your kid must have provoked him.” defense. That is definitely not what should happen. Before you enter the school-take some deep breaths and remember that what is important here is helping your child not keeping your mommy reputation intact. Some basic tips on what to do during this meeting are:

• Don’t immediately go on the defensive
• Listen carefully to what is said about the incident by the principal, the victim and your child. Restate what you have heard to make sure you understand the details.
• Calmly discuss the situation with all involved.
• Ask the principal what the school policy requires the punishment/reaction to be (most schools have a zero tolerance bullying policy in place-sometimes even just one incidence of bullying can lead to suspension).
• Assure the principal that you take bullying very seriously and that you will deal with it at home and be in contact with the principal.

As the two of you head to your car, keep breathing deeply. This is when it gets very hard you want to either cry or lash out at your child but this is not the time or place. It is often best to be silent in the car and let the child process what he has just witnessed in the school office. Assuming your child is guilty and has confessed to the bullying there are action steps that need to take place.

• Discuss/explain that bullying is not acceptable behavior.
• There must be an apology and restitution should be made. If something was ripped or broken during the incident it must be replaced-at the child’s expense. Otherwise the child should be required to do something for the victim. You may need to work with the victim’s parents on this one.
• Show respect to the school officials and accept whatever punishment is handed down from the school. One major lesson that bullies need to learn is respect of others and their property. You need to model that behavior by respecting the school and its leaders.
• Specify concrete consequences for bullying. Be firm and consistent in your discipline. Follow through with whatever punishment you hand down.

Now that the immediate response is over, take a break. Let your child go to their room and you do something relaxing so you can both get your perspective back on the big picture. I will not blame all bullying on how a parent does there job as a parent but…if a child bullies-there are some major character flaws that need to be fixed. Our children need to be taught empathy, respect and compassion. We need to model these traits in our daily lives and we need to reward good behavior-especially in areas our child is lacking-but growing in.

We also need to examine the atmosphere in our home. Are negative speech and put-downs allowed? Is there a lot of violence on the television and video games that our children view? Do we value each person in our family or are some seen as “less important” than others? The social atmosphere in our home, school, church and civic groups help to form who our child becomes and how they behave in social situations. As parents, on of our jobs is to train our children so that they know how to behave and react when they are with other people. This training is the parent’s responsibility not the school’s or even the church’s.

• Teach and model acceptable ways to reduce stress, frustration and anger.
• Be involved in your child’s school and other activities.
• Decrease the violence at home
• Teach and model taking responsibility for your actions
• Teach empathy, respect and compassion-teach your child to prefer others over themselves

None of us want our child labeled as a bully. If you see signs that your child has some of the common character/behavior traits of a bully work with your child to make changes so that it never reaches the point where you get that call to the principal’s office.

The post What if Your Child is the Bully? appeared first on The Mom Maven.

B is for Bethlehem is, at its core, an alphabet book. It was actually written for a second grade class to perform. This book, written in couplets, is a beautifully simple telling of the Christmas story. We begin with “A’s for Augustus, emperor of Rome, Who decreed, ‘To be counted, let each man go home.” We continue through the entire alphabet until we reach, “Z is for Zeeland and Zurich and Zanzibar. You’ll be lighting candles wherever you are.”

B is for Bethlehem is beautifully and vividly illustrated. The illustrations are reproductions of mixed-media collage that was created using watercolor, cut paper, and drawings. As simple as the couplet text is, the amazing illustrations are full and detailed. This contrast brings a wonderful sense of balance to this book.

This book is a must have for any family with young children. Though my children are older, this will be the 14th year we share this book together as part of our family Christmas tradition. Over the next week or so I will share with you my top 2 Christmas books for children.

If you would like to purchase this book it is available on Amazon.com, Borders.com and Booksamillion.com and the isbn number is 0-525-44622-2.
Happy Reading

The post Christmas Books for Children appeared first on The Mom Maven.