She has used her educational and career experience in creating unforeseen twists and turns in her written work.  Her writing style varies as Caryn finds herself comfortable in writing both fiction and non-fiction genres.  Caryn has been published in several arenas including psychological journals, newspapers, blogs, compilations, fiction and self-help books.

Caryn resides in a small town south of Fort Worth, Texas with her family.  She enjoys spending time outdoors and is actively involved with her daughter’s school and in the local community.

“Fish Sticks, Books and Blue Jeans: Teaching kids to be thankful for everything (yes, even fish sticks) everyday!”  A gratitude workbook designed for children ages 5 and older with at least basic drawing and writing skills.  Fish Sticks includes simple writing and drawing exercises based on learning to focus on what is present within the child’s life, offering gratitude and thankfulness for these things as well as learning how they can take action and do their part to create a better world. The book was based on the request of Caryn’s then 6 year old daughter Sami, who simply asked for a gratitude workbook like the ones her parents had.  When none were able to found (for children), Sami replied “that’s ok, we’ll just make one!” and Fish Sticks, Books and Blue Jeans was born!

For more information, please CLICK HERE.

After 10 years in the corporate world, developing business for such companies as IBM-IFF, Aviva-Abeille Vie, New Frontiers, and International publishing company, Hatier, expanding her technical skills in therapy, psychology, management and leadership, Astrid turned to what she knew was her true mission in life; to share the empowering spiritual truths with the world. Psychic and Medium since birth, her uncanniness to assess personalities and situations, to offer immediately implementable solutions and solve crisis situations in record time has earned her world wide recognition, as a reader, an advisor and an inspirational speaker.

After having spoken on behalf of the United Nations Association for 7 years, and receiving a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition in 2006 from U.S. House of Representatives, Member of Congress, Anna Esshoo, in recognition of outstanding and invaluable services to the community, Astrid now dedicates her services to the general public.

Her clients, worldwide, remain for the most part anonymous.

Find out more about Astrid on her website at www.BrilliantEssence.com.

For more information, please CLICK HERE.

Celebrating entrepreneurial moms and all they do to birth and grow a business

The Business Baby Shower, a new contest celebrating entrepreneurial moms and all they do to birth and grow a successful company while balancing family life, was recently launched as a partnership between The Mom Entrepreneur and Corporate Mom DropOuts.

The Contest, which runs from January 1 – April 30, 2010, will create awareness of mom entrepreneur companies and their products and services. Participants will complete an application process as well as submit a two minute video of their business for consideration by a panel of judges.

For more information, please CLICK HERE.

As usual, we had a great time sharing ideas with parents and others loving and interacting with children.  If you didn’t hear the show live, you can listen to the podcast (we’ll make a link live here as soon as possible).  If you were able to join us, there are many resources listed here that we referred to in the show.

Playing with sounds and patterns of sound in our language is especially important for children as they are learning how to spell and how to decode words.  Besides, it’s fun.  Think about silly rhymes and rhyming songs you love (I was listening to country music this morning before the show and heard lots of rhymes).  Don’t forget tongue-twisters.  When writing my new book Anytime Reading Readiness, I collected a tongue-twister for every letter of the alphabet and listed them.  Here’s the one for X:

The excited experts explained that the extra X-rays were excellent (remember that we’re playing with sound, not letters so the fact that many of these words start with -ex but are the “cksssss” sound you get when you say the letter “x” is OK).

Dr. Seuss always played with silly animals and names in his books so anytime you pick up one of his titles (like Cat in the Hat or Hop on Pop) you are playing with those sounds integral to our language.

Here’s a list of five other books with terrific rhymes and beginning sound emphasis.  Stop from time to time as you read and point out the sounds that are same and different within the words you are reading.  Talking about words gives your child a new level of awareness.

A Sock is a Pocket for Your Toes by Liz Scanlon
Jazz Baby by Liz Wheeler
Baby Bear, Baby Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr.
Bear Hugs:  Romatically Ridiculous Animal Rhymes by Karma Wilson
My First Action Rhymes by Lynne Cravath (complete with actions - you and your child don’t have to sit still when you read!)

The Library Lady shares practical ways to play as well on her website in an article about how young children learn.  Scholastic points out that playing with poetry is another good way to pay attention to those patterns.
Check out Anytime Reading Readiness (for parents of 3-6 year olds) and Before They Read (for teachers) for even more ideas!

A Primer for Engaged Interactive Read Aloud

Introduce the book with a prediction (try to figure out by the title and the illustrations on the cover what the book will be about - don’t just guess, put some thought and exploration into it).  HINT: Predictions don’t have to be correct to be a good one.

• Interruptions by the reader or the listener are always allowed!
• Changing your voice, pausing, being intense and slowing down all add to the drama of the story (after all, we’re competing with TV and videos)
• Thinking, wondering and pondering with your child as you read
• Posing “how” and “why” questions at times.
• Enjoying the text together.

For more on all of these topics, visit TLA’s website and check out Anytime Reading Readiness (for parents) and Before They Read (for educators)- two brand new titles from Maupin House for partnering between families and educators of children ages 3-6.  They’ve even combined these two titles into a Home/School Literacy Partnership Set of 2 teacher books and 20 parent books for classroom collaborations.

Have fun!

Cathy P. Miller
President,
TLA, Inc.
Home of the Literacy Ambassador®
13001 Monte Vedra Road, SE
Huntsville AL 35803
256-883-7005
FAX 256-882-9933
cathypmiller@comcast.net
www.readingisforeveryone.org
Twitter/Facebook @litambassador,
Linked in at http://tiny.cc/WqNWd

Engaged Interactive Read Aloud - what it looks like - fun, easy.  I can do it with an actual book “Goodnight Moon” since so many people know that story and we can make reading a book aloud work, even on radio if you are up to it!

Through varied avenues such as her award-winning Reading is for Everyone® tutorial model, her contributions to Educationworld.com as their national “Reading Coach” monthly columnist and her training for children, educators and parents, Cathy Puett Miller, The Literacy Ambassador®, spends her time spreading the news that reading can be fun, powerful and practical.  Formation of her new company, TLA, Inc. in 2008 has expanded her opportunities to do just that.  For more information on Cathy’s book, “Powerful Picture Books” and two titles that work well together:  Anytime Reading Readiness (for parents of 3-6 year olds) and Before They Read (for teachers in preschool and kindergarten), please click here.

Mrs. Miller received the coveted 2003 National Silver Award for investigative educational reporting from Parenting Publications of America.  Mrs. Miller’s most recent projects involve presenting at regional and state reading conferences, creating and managing the pilot of the Madison County AL United Way’s Fun Learning Moments school readiness initiative, writing books for parents and educators on early literacy, and conducting a national research study on at-home reading.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

Diana Ennen is the President of Virtual Word Publishng, www.virtualwordpublishing.com where she specializes in publicity and marketing.  She’s also the co-author of numerous books including So You Want to Work at Home Mom: The Christian’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business and Virtual Assistant - The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA and accompanying Workbook .  Diana loves publicity and thrives on getting media attention both for herself and for her clients. 

She has been featured in numerous books and magazines including Forbes, Family Circle, Readers Digest, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, USA Today, Woman’s World, etc.  One of her true passions is helping others start their own business and she remains extremely active online mentoring and providing expert advice on business start-ups.  She is a wife and mother to three terrific kids and a very supportive husband.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

1. How many 1/4 cups to fill up your cereal bowl? (estimation)
2. What do those fractions add up to make? (addition of fractions)
3. How many minutes until we leave?  How many hours until you return home? (elapsed time)
4. There are so many sports math possibilities  like this post on basketball mat. (ratios, subtraction)
5. License plate addition.  Add up the three numbers on the license plates.  (addition)
6. Restaurant menu addition.  Add up the items ordered before you get the bill!  (decimal addition)
7. Restaurant tipping.  Move the decimal to get 10%, double it and voila! you have your tip.  (percentages)
8. Search for patterns in your house or in nature. (geometry)
9. How many more pages left in your book?  (subtraction)
10. Fair shares of snack or dessert.  Divide up the food into equal parts.  (division)

OTHER GAMES . . .

• Penny Dice Game
• Math Bingo
• Pig
• Math War.  Use a deck of cards and play War.  The winner is the one who can add up the sum fastest.

Lara Galloway, The Mom Biz Coach, is a sought-after business coach, speaker, writer and Blog Talk Radio show host in the mom entrepreneur world. Her work has helped countless mompreneurs define success on their own terms and achieve it. Her signature training program, The Mom Biz Makeover, teaches mompreneurs how to create a sustainable business that fits into their family life and still allows them to achieve success on their own terms. Known for her pay-it-forward attitude and love of helping others, Lara’s Engagement Marketing Strategy allows her to take a passive approach to earning income and an aggressive approach to spending quality time with family. Join her on Thursdays for her Audio Blog on BlogTalkRadio.com/MomBizCoach and on Tuesdays for her WoMEN: What Mom Entrepreneurs Need Teleseminar Series (a free series, but you must register for the calls by signing up at www.whatmomentrepreneursneed.com). And she’s nearly always in her “Twitter Office”: www.twitter.com/mombizcoach.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

Christine Holland is the founder and owner of Drinkmarx, LLC.  Drinkmarx are customizable drink markers for cups, cans, and bottles (12-24oz).  Her previous careers provided her with the connections and knowledge to move forward in achieving her dream of owning her own business.  Christine graduated with Honors in Science/Natural Science from UW-Madison.  There she majored in Bacteriology aspiring to go into the medical profession.  After receiving her undergraduate degree, she attended Physician Assistant training at Midwestern University in Downers Grove, IL.  There she received her master’s in Medical Science and became a board certified Physician Assistant.  She worked in urgent care, pediatrics, and internal medicine for four years before changing her career to pharmaceutical sales.  For eight years, she worked as a cardiovascular sales representative for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.  It was this past April, however, when Pfizer began downsizing its sales force and she was unfortunately laid-off.  Christine saw this change as an opportunity to escape corporate America, start her own business, and be more available for her 2 boys (Parker 5 & Braxton 2), husband, and soon a new baby due at the end of January, 2010.  Christine sees every new opportunity as an adventure and her most recent one with Drinkmarx has proven to be just that!  For more information, visit http://www.drinkmarx.com.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION