Daddy Mojo used to teach. Being an ex educator he’s interested in many things about education, such as teaching policies, best practices and bureaucracy.
The Great Shelby Holmes by Elizabeth Eulberg is a middle school book with its tongue slightly in cheek. Shelby Holmes is a 9-year-old local who knows everybody in her New York City neighborhood. She had a new neighbor move in downstairs, 11-year-old John Watson, who is used to moving from place to place. They quickly meet and become friends due to his boredom and her needing someone to assist her.
Continue reading The Great Shelby Holmes, middle grade caper stuck in a rut
This post is brought to you by Unstuck Life Courses and The Motherhood. All opinions are mine. It’s a myth that the ostrich sticks their head in the sand. In reality they’ve just got small heads, dig holes in the dirt to place their eggs and sometimes have to check on them. However, people do not have that excuse. I do not have that excuse. But ignoring things or hoping that they’ll merely pass over is something that I do often. Sure we’ll come back to the task, but that interim has a cost in one way or another. It could be a financial loss because I can’t find something, a reputation decrease or simply an eyesore in the things that I don’t clean up. Knowing that, as well as my personal weaknesses, I agreed to try Unstuck Life Courses.
Unstuck Life Courses are a series of videos, exercises and worksheets designed to help folks improve their lives.
Yeah, that’s about where I tuned out too. I don’t need help, I just this-or-that or that one thing that will assist me with this. Thank you very much.
Here’s the thing though about life and the moments where you get stuck. For me now it’s the clutter, both online and off that jams me up. A genius keeps a messy desk, but mine was more akin to press release graveyard than ‘creative-at-work’. Our stuck moments; those triggers that we can’t seem to get past will change as we get older or work past them.
Continue reading Life Unstuck Courses, Making A Change for the better
Imagine if you put a Wimpy Kid book and a summary of middle school education-by their individual subjects in a magic blender. The result would be a book from The Big Fat Notebook series. This is an immediately accessible book that serves as a refresher to anyone outside of middle school or a study guide for those in the thick of it.
This is a book that manages to dance between education and entertaining with such deftness you’ll all but want to go back in time to re-learn your respective classes. There is a Big Fat Notebook for World History, American History, English, Math and Science. We looked at The Big Fat Notebook for Science and it made us realize that we certainly weren’t as smart as a middle school student, yet.
Continue reading The Big Fat Notebook, middle school education they’ll want to read
CityBlock is the fourth entry into the series by Christopher Franceschelli and Peskimo. Technically these books aren’t a series in that there is a continual story they’re telling. Rather, its presentation and format that they use that make their books stand out in a crowded field of board books. Their previous books looked at the alphabet, numbers and dinosaurs and displayed each of them in a durable manner that appealed to children and had elements that made them fun to look at for adults.
Continue reading CityBlock, a board book that entertains toddlers and up
The Inside Job-And Other Skills I Learned as A Superspy starts out of the gate with the team on a mission. We’re immediately introduced to a team of superspies who are all kids ranging in age from 11 to their late teens. Hale serves as the book’s central character. He’s a young kid who, along with his sister and other friends is ex-SRS agents who were intent committing crimes all over the world.
That’s an accurate overview of the book but it’s also a lot to take in at once. What is SRS and how am I supposed to keep track of six strong protagonists, a couple antagonists and a shadowy organization that may or may not include Hale’s mom-who he thought was dead?
Continue reading The Inside Job, middle school spy fun with action and heart
Giraffes Ruin Everything, it’s true. Many years ago Richard Pryor had a routine that made a parallel illogical and entertaining jump that snakes will make you run into trees. Giraffes Ruin Everything is a children’s book that ages 3 to 8 will howl with laughter at. Parents will like the book too because it teaches kids a valuable lesson that they might have trouble learning the first time.
Continue reading Giraffes Ruin Everything, but this book makes it all better
Kids love trucks. Kids love cake. Kids love being silly. If you combine these you’ll get The Mixed-Up Truck, by Stephen Savage. It’s the story of a cement mixer and its first day on the job who means well, but keeps making simple mistakes. Kids make mistakes too. The Mixed-Up Truck is also an allegory for children that it’s normal to make mistakes.
Continue reading The Mixed-Up Truck gets teaching kids (and having fun) allegorically A-OK
Salina Yoon is an author whose distinctive style makes her work immediately memorable for its demographic. Yoon has a way of speaking to the pre-school to early elementary school audience like few who write for that field. If I didn’t know that she was a grown woman I’d swear that she attended our son’s pre-school class with him. Bear’s Big Day is another example of her channeling everyone’s inner 4 year old going back to school, or in this case, starting school.
Continue reading Bear’s Big Day by Salina Yoon, soothing school jitters for small kids
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