Scratchie: A Touch-and-Feel Cat-Venture with board book bite

Great board books leave older readers grinning when they finish them. The purpose of a board book is to entertain those young readers with introductory vocabulary, bright colors and durable pages, just in case they get chewed on. Scratchie: A Touch-and-Feel Cat-Venture succeeds in all of those categories and one more. It does the rare thing for a board book in allowing older readers (see: the adult reading the book) to grin when they finish presenting the book to the young audience. The result is a board book with just a little bit of bite.

Scratchie: A Touch-and-Feel Cat-Venture with board book bite

Let’s be clear, I’m not talking ‘bite’ as in societal commentary or controversial parenting opinions.

Scratchie starts out talking directly to the human who is reading the book. The cat invites you to scratch along with them, first off the doormat and then climbing the wooden table that leads to the kitchen counter. Along the way young crawlers to pre-K kids can scratch the surfaces that present themselves on each page.

As cute as cats can be, they sometimes lead to trouble, which is what happens to Scratchie. Towards the end of the book our cat takes things one scratch too far and makes a big mess, just before the human in the book comes to break up the party. Suddenly Scratchie is at a loss of what to do. All that our cat can do is lie on her side and offer for you to pet her.

See, it’s just a little ‘bite’. However, this is just the sort of non-saccharine board book that some parents clamor for. Every bit of Scratchie is fabulous for children. It’s a board book that will allow their emerging senses to touch, chew and turn every page with glee. It also has that ever so slight gleam in those last two pages that accept and expect a mess, or just a little chaos to happen. And that is just the spirit that some new parents need to know is headed their way as said young reader grows.

Mon Petit Busy Day, a huge board book that deserves more

Board books are awesome. Having said that, not all board books are created equal and determining if it’s the right one for your little soon-to-be reader requires some thought. Is the content too simple, are the pages too busy, are the pages too small or are the interactive features in the board book not sturdy enough? Mon Petit Busy Day is an oversized board book by Annette Tamarkin on Little Simon that has a lot going for it, but might fall between the cracks for other parents too.

Mon petit busy day, board book, pre-K, baby book, board books, Annette Tamarkin, simon kids Continue reading Mon Petit Busy Day, a huge board book that deserves more

Quantum Physics for Babies, one of four simple STEM board books

“Those books bring back lots of memories”, said the man in his late 80’s, as he looked over at me. He saw the title, Quantum Physics and proceeded to tell me how he graduated from Georgia Tech and used physics in his daily work before he retired. I politely told him that this was a physics book, but its title is Quantum Physics for Babies. In his defense, he was sitting about eight feet away from me and the “for babies” part of the title is in smaller font.

STEM, board books, chris ferrie, rocket science for babies, Newtonian physics for babies, quantum physics for babies, general relativity for babies, Continue reading Quantum Physics for Babies, one of four simple STEM board books

Moko-Maki is a graphic design/kawaii, find-it book for pre-k and up

What’s a Moko-Maki? It’s perhaps simpler to explain what is kawaii. Kawaii is one of the under currents of Japanese culture. At its simplest kawaii is cute, but it has sub-genres that break it out to those beyond a normal adjective. Kawaii can also mean cute, with a very creative and fun bent. That is the angle that Moko-Maki by Satu Kontinen pursues and nails the definition of kawaii to the floor.

Moko-maki, kawaii, Japanese,

Continue reading Moko-Maki is a graphic design/kawaii, find-it book for pre-k and up

Boudreaux’s Butt Paste stops diaper rash cold

I partnered with Life of Dad and Boudreaux’s Butt Paste® for this campaign, but all opinions are my own. Expectations and milestones. These are things that parents and DIY homeowners will toast with equal celebration and dread.  When you first move into a house it’s no big to paint a room. Fast forward a couple of years and that room begets a tree that need chopping down, dry wall that has to be patched and a lawn that needs to be mowed every week for nine months. The milestones for a child are different. Boudreaux’s Butt Paste® can be key to knocking down a big one for children, diaper rash.

Boudreaux’s Butt Paste, diaper rash, children, baby shower, UFO

Continue reading Boudreaux’s Butt Paste stops diaper rash cold

Judge not lest you be judged, in theory and reality #SisterhoodUnite #ad

We were compensated for this post. Having said that, all thoughts are our own. I judged someone on social media one. It was for the silliest of reasons too for someone who I never met, Renee Zellwegger. It was right after she appeared with a drastically different face, remember that? I was filled with righteous indignation about how her new look would do something or another causing harm to society and the tectonic plates underneath Oklahoma and California. A couple hours after I wrote it I took it down. Sure I had a right to judge her, just as she has a right to judge me; but, neither action would do any good, nor promote anything positive. Stop judging is one of the thoughts behind the #SisterhoodUnite campaign at Similac now. If you’ve got a positive story about your parent experience go there now and share it!

Judge not lest you be judged, in theory and reality #SisterhoodUnite #ad

Continue reading Judge not lest you be judged, in theory and reality #SisterhoodUnite #ad

The power of vacations and imperfect children #UniteMonday #ad

We partnered with Similac and were compensated for this post. All thoughts are our own. Our vacation just ended. It was an awesome experience at the beach where our kids learned to swim, mom and dad had a chance to relax and everyone’s diet went south, especially the children’s. By diet, I mean the food that they eat. At every corner it seemed that there was an ice cream store. To that end it’s time for a group hug, (albeit just a big larger than when we left) and say that it’s OK to bend the parenting rules from time to time.

The power of vacations and imperfect children UniteMonday

Continue reading The power of vacations and imperfect children #UniteMonday #ad

Is this really what #ImBornToDo this Father’s Day? #spon

That’s a tricky question, what are you born to do? If you don’t change the world by the age of 25 have you failed? What if you don’t have as much stuff as your parents by the time that you’re a certain age? I’d guess that very few people really know what they’re born to do. For the most part they improvise, accept certain things, learn new tricks and hopefully love-or at least enjoy what they do in this life. Whatever stage of life you’re in it’s worth checking out #ImBornTo to learn about the March of Dimes and discover countless ways that you can support them and have probably been helped by them.

Is this really what #ImBornToDo this Father’s Day

Continue reading Is this really what #ImBornToDo this Father’s Day? #spon

Copy Protected by Chetan's WP-Copyprotect.