Amanda's Books and More: child

Showing posts with label child. Show all posts

Friday, April 19, 2019

What to Do When You're Feeling Blue

What to Do When You're Feeling Blue

by Andi Cann

About the Book:

Title: What to Do When You're Feeling Blue | Author: Andi Cann | Pages: 35 | Genre: Picture Book

Book Description:

Sometimes kids are happy. Sometimes they are sad. Kids learn in this book that it’s okay, either way!

Your child will learn that sadness happens. Meant to be loved and enjoyed, again and again, this book with colorful pictures and rhymes will help children learn that all feelings are okay and offer ideas about coping with sadness. Children will learn that they have the power to feel better and that happy feelings are just around the corner! Most importantly, children will learn that they are important and loved!

Today, depression is a real problem and is affecting children early in childhood. Teaching your children that changing emotions are a part of life will help create resilience and cope with life’s ups and downs.

Please note: if you suspect your child suffers from depression, please seek help! The National Alliance for Mental Illness can be reached at www.nami.org

Purchase on Amazon

Our Review:

Kids need to know that it's okay not to be happy all the time. This picture book lets children know that it's normal to have days when you are feeling blue and you don't need a reason either. It also gives a variety of ideas of what to do when you're down like read a book or think about things that you enjoy doing like. The unique illustrations inside are colorful and cheerful. It also offers a contact number at the beginning of the book for a loved one battling with depression.

Amanda (age 11) says the book is nice and the art is good for little kids. She likes that the author didn't just say a couple of things that you can do to be happy, but a lot of things. She also likes the rhyming words. Amanda and I both recommend this book for children ages 4 - 7.

Related Review:

The Magic of Friendship Snow

About the Author:

Andi Cann

Andi loves writing books for kids! With two of her own, although they're grown now, she has always been an avid reader and an enthusiastic promoter of early reading!

It all started in Andi's early life in the Midwest part of the United States. Her life was rich with books, reading, and library visits. Nancy Drew was one of her best friends! Mrs. Gladieux, the town librarian, encouraged her love of reading, and allowed her to check out many more books than were allowed! Andi's stories are about children learning to embrace their uniqueness, find friends, or stand up for themselves.

Andi's memorable characters include Mr. Hoopeyloops, Alabama Oh, Jojo, Puddles, Rex, Rory the Elf, and MerryLyn, with many more on the horizon. Click "follow" to be notified when a new book comes out! And, if you liked the books, please leave a review. It helps me and other readers.

Andi lives in Arizona with her husband, a dog named Beau, chickens, and countless free range bunnies. She loves art, animals, and reading good books!

Visit her website!

Disclosure: Amanda and I own this book from Amazon Kindle. This is our honest and voluntary review.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Photos of this Past Week with #Linky

Welcome to my Picture Perfect
Party Linky #154!

This blog is best viewed in Google Chrome.
Click on the images to view them larger.

I thought it was so cute that our cat, Prince, was curled up with Amanda's baby blanket. His head and paws were wrapped around the mommy dog and puppy that are sewn on it.

In the photo above, Amanda is doing school work in the dark. It gets dark early, around 6 pm, because we're having winter right now. If you live in South Africa, like we do, then you have to contend with "load shedding." That's what happens when our country's electricity provider, Eskom, cuts the power from region to region, from time to time, because there just isn't enough electricity to power the whole country.

In the photo below, Amanda is drinking a cup of tea at her grandma's house (my South African mother-in-law). I thought the peachy-pink and yellow roses were stunning.

*********************

Here's a peek at
My Latest Post

on 1camera1mom:

Redberry Farm Family Fun

The kiddies train is going past the Redberry Farm
maze, which is the largest permanent hedge
maze in the Southern Hemisphere!

I posted a nice selection of photos of our family
at the Redberry Farm, so be sure to take a look!

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My Latest Book Review:

The Contaminants
Book 1 in the New Dakota Series
Science Fiction for middle grade

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Now on to my blog hop...

Come link up your Wordless Wednesday

(with or without words) or any picture post

at this Picture Perfect Party Linky.

Join me on this fun and easy blog hop!

If you host your own blog hop(s), then feel free
to link them on my Blog Hops page!

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and

I'm also now on Instagram!

Here are the easy rules:

Follow me on one or more links above or via email.
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Tell others about this hop on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.

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This is a Wordless Wednesday blog hop.

Visit my Blog Hops page to see the hops that I often link up to.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Picture Perfect Party Linky #29

I can hardly believe that this little girl will be five on Thursday!

Amanda is so much fun and brings us lots of joy.

In these pictures she's enjoying an afternoon

stroll with our dog, Benny, and me. She brought

her My Little Ponies with.

If you linked last week and left me a message,

I will still follow those up. I didn't get as

far as I had hoped and these last few days have

been busy with birthday preparations.

Now on to my blog hop...

Here's your chance to link up your Wordless Wednesday (with or without words)

or any picture post at this Picture Perfect Party Linky (P.P.P.L.)! Come join me

(Tina @ Amanda's Books and More) on this fun and easy blog hop!

If you host your own blog hop(s), then feel free to link them on my Blog Hops page!

If you're interested to be a guest co-host

on my Wednesday hop or my Saturday hop,

please send an email to:

morleychristina[at]gmail[dot]com

I would love for you to follow me on Google Friend Connect

and also on

Google+

Twitter

Facebook

Leave me a comment with a link and I will follow back!

Here are the easy rules:

Follow me. Please leave a comment so that I can follow back (as long as your blog is family friendly).
Link-up your post with a picture and follow as many new blogs as you like. Make sure you let them know that you’re following through this P.P.P.L. hop, tell them how you are following them and add your URL to the message, so they can follow back.
Grab the button below and add it on your post or on your side-bar, so that we can spread the word and get more people to the party.
Share about this hop on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.

The Button Code:

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Saturday, June 9, 2012

Saturday Morning Fun

What do you do with your kids on a Saturday morning?

Amanda still needs help getting dressed in the mornings and since we’re having winter below the equator, I need to make sure she’s dressed warmly. It was dark outside and everyone was still in bed when Amanda got me up this morning. Normally, after taking her to the toilet and dressing her, I’d put on the TV and leave her watching children’s programs, but not this morning. She saw her Disney princess magnetic dress-up dolls at the coffee table and asked me to take turns with her dressing Cinderella. How could I say no? We played with that until Samantha came through. Samantha was happy to join Amanda and I took the opportunity to go and do something else.

Disney Princess Magnetic Wooden Dress-Up Doll Set

A little bit later, Amanda found me at my computer. When I saw her standing next to me, I remembered the e-book I had downloaded onto my PC yesterday called Amanda Finds Her Manners by Cindy Adkins. Amanda Finds Her Manners is about a lively girl who attends a fancy tea party and tries desperately to remember her manners. But, the harder she tries, the more she makes mistakes! This book is already a Bestseller! It's an e-book for ages 4-8 on Amazon. Sorry, but there are no illustrations, except for its sweet cover.

E-book on Amazon

Amanda hadn’t heard the story yet, so I put her on my lap and double clicked on my free Kindle app. When it downloaded to my computer, it came with three free classic books: Aesop’s Fables, Pride and Prejudice, and Treasure Island.

Amanda was very excited to hear her name in the story. At first she wondered if it was about her, but I explained that the girl had the same name. To make the story more fun for a 4-year-old, I got her to act out some of the things like to wiggle her nose when the bunny wiggled its nose. She stayed on my lap for the whole story and happily bounded off to a new activity once it was finished.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend with your family and don’t forget to read to your kids!

Related posts:

Monday, June 4, 2012

An Unconventional Question

I asked Amanda an unconventional question and I got an unconventional answer.

I’ll begin with the conventional question. As soon as Amanda got back from her Nanna’s, we all basically asked her the same thing, “Did you have a nice time with Nanna?” Of course, the answer was yes. She was very excited to tell us all about it.

Here are a few of the things she told me:

Her Nanna bought her small yoghurts with Barbie pictures on them. She got to pick out a squeeze bottle of honey at the store. She got to have treats all the time. Her Nanna let her to do anything she liked (I’m sure within reason). For dinner, they ate Gnocchi, which she struggled to pronounce. (It’s funny how a detail like that is important to a four-year-old, but I like it when she shares the details. I’m pretty sure she mentioned it because it was new for her.)

The part her Nanna told me was that they spent as much time at the beach as possible.

Not long after Amanda arrived home from her visit, I decided to ask her a less standard question. Instead of “Did you have a nice time with Nanna?” I asked her, “Did Nanna have a nice time with you?”

With barely a pause, Amanda replied, “No.” Then she looked straight at me and, with the voice of a teacher wanting to explain something to her pupil, said, “It’s hard work babysitting.”

For me, that was a remarkable answer, especially since she came up with it all by herself. I do know her Nanna had a nice time with her, she adores her grandkids, but I’m also sure it was hard work. This is the wisdom of a four-year-old.

I took this photo of Amanda in her Hello Kitty swimsuit running on the beach by her grandparents’ house at Britannia Bay, South Africa, December 2011.

Here are more posts on the funny and/or profound things that Amanda has said:

Monday, May 28, 2012

Protecting Your Child Even from the Relatives – Part 2

Once, when I was about six years old, my family went to stay with my great-grandmother. I don’t know if that was my first time meeting her, but I do know that it was my last time. While we were there, my older brother constantly pointed out my faults, real ones and made up ones. I tried to defend myself verbally and loudly. This was not a good mix for an elderly woman.

My great-grandmother didn’t know how to handle the sibling rivalry, so she sided with my brother. I was told that I would not be permitted to take meals at the table with the others. My mom put up a fight about that, so I was finally permitted, but only on the condition that I would not speak one word. Later, she took my brother to the grocery store and let him pick out chocolates for himself.

At one point, my mom decided that enough was enough. She cut our stay short, but still, the damage had been done. Later on in my life, my great-grandmother asked me to visit her. I felt too vulnerable to accept the offer and, instead, kindly declined as a visit was not something I felt safe enough to do. I kept contact by sending a few birthday cards over the years.

Healthy relationships in a family are a vital part of your child’s life. If your child is being mistreated by a member of the family, then it is up to you to bring a stop to it. It’s our job as parents to protect our children when relationships develop that are not healthy. You might think it’s your job to protect the abuser, because the abuser is also a family member, but you are not helping the abuser by allowing his or her behavior to continue. I once heard Dr. Dobson, from Focus on the Family, say that if the parents can’t stop a sibling from mistreating the other sibling, they are obligated then to seek outside help and intervention.

I’m glad to say that my family loves each other and my brother and I are friends. Hopefully, if you are estranged from a relative, reconciliation can take place. It’s better than separation, but sometimes, separation is necessary. I would like to leave you with these wise words by Reinhold Niebuhr:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.”

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Protecting Your Child Even from the Relatives – Part 1

Recently I received a phone call from a desperate mom. She told me that her daughter’s grades had dropped drastically and she was no longer communicating with them. The mother decided to make an appointment with the school and she wanted to know from me what the procedure would be.

I always believe in instilling hope in a person when their walls seem to be caving in, so, after answering questions about the school, I said that I believed the daughter was avoiding communicating with them because she didn’t want to hurt their feelings. To me this is monumental. If the child is still on your side, then the task of reaching that child is so much easier. The mom confirmed that her daughter had said something to that affect. I replied, “That’s great! It shows your daughter still loves you!”

Now, the girl had shared with me about a week prior that she was stressed by the grandparents who were visiting. I asked the mom if her daughter’s behavior had changed more during the past week or so. She said it had. I then explained that she had told me how the grandparents had been favoring her younger brother and that she also didn’t like how the grandmother treated her mom.

The mother understood that her daughter might have felt rejected by the grandparents. However, I could sense that she didn’t realize how much it hurt her daughter to see her mom being ill treated too. I used the example of an abusive marriage to explain how her daughter must feel. I described a marriage where the child knew that the father sometimes beat the mother and even if he never hit the child, the child would still be wounded emotionally. It’s important for us as moms to realize that how we allow other people to treat us affects our children.

Another thing I suggested to help the daughter with her emotions was that she should keep a journal and write down her feelings on a daily basis. In this way, she won’t be burying her feelings, but she’ll be able to process them more constructively. I mentioned to the mom that one day her daughter will leave home and if she has unresolved issues then she will carry that baggage with her into her marriage and future family.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Dora the Explorer

The other day, Amanda received a cute jean dress with Dora the Explorer printed on it. The dress was a hand-me-down from a friend who is a couple years older than her. A lot of the clothes she owns have been handed down; some are even from her sisters. When I first found out that I was pregnant with my fourth child, one of my concerns was how we’d be able to buy all the clothes she would need. I had given all the baby things of her sisters away by that stage, except for one or two sentimental items. Not only did God not let me down, He surprised me with how abundantly He could provide for her.

Amanda hadn’t owned anything with Dora before, so when my four-year-old saw a series of adventure books with Dora at the store, I let her pick one. She chose Dora Saves the Snow Princess. I read it last night to her and her friend. It’s an interactive storybook, so it’s nice to have a friend do the actions and speaking parts with.

Below I have added previous stories related to the challenges and blessings of having another child. They are listed in order from top to bottom:

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Measuring Up – 2

I asked a question in my previous post “Does your child measure up?” Now, I would like to rephrase that question and ask, “Do you measure your child against other children and for what purpose?”

My son, Jeremiah, is my first child. He took his first unaided steps at 9 months of age, which is really young. This happened soon after watching his 3rd cousin, who was 6 months older, walking. (I searched on Google to find out exactly how they were related.) However, sometimes he would wet his bed up until around 6 years of age. He played hard all day and slept deeply at night, so deeply that he couldn’t wake himself up when he needed to urinate, not even when we took him ourselves. Was something wrong with him? No, and he eventually outgrew this problem. Some things just take time and don’t need medical attention or parental pressure.

The same morning that I pondered on this topic, I began to read the 1st book of a trilogy that my daughter, Samantha, borrowed from the library. The book is called, The Wind Singer, by William Nicholson and is the 1st of the Wind on Fire trilogy. I haven’t been able to put these books down. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that the theme in The Wind Singer is about the lie behind measuring people by using exams on certain subjects. The people in the story are living inside a large city and are tested every year to prove their intelligence and their worth from as early as 2 years of age. (By the way, these books are not for sensitive readers as the author doesn’t sugarcoat his storytelling, although I do recommend them.)

My thoughts on this subject are best expressed through an encounter I had with a near stranger. Earlier this year, we had a visitor whom we hardly knew. For some reason I was talking with our guest about the education system. I told him how school systems are only able to measure certain types of intelligences, like mathematics and language, but how there are many children sitting inside these schools who might be good in other areas. As an example, I suggested that a child who is good at gardening would not be recognized in his or her area of intelligence. Our guest then told me that his son struggled in school, but was now happy as an adult doing landscaping.

I hadn’t known this about his son before the conversation, but I don’t believe the example I gave was a coincidence. I believe the Holy Spirit was speaking through me even though I wasn’t aware of the significance of my words until he shared his own son’s experience. If you would like to read more about the Holy Spirit then you can start by reading my post in my blog, Happy Moms, Happy Homes called “Discovering Your Potential – Part 3 of 5.”

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Measuring Up – 1

Jessica walking Amanda to school.

As I was working on my last post “Some Things Take Time,” I began to ponder these next two posts on measuring up. It’s such an important topic that I took my time writing this, wanting to make sure that I communicate it as clearly as possible.

Does Your Child Measure Up?

Most of us have seen charts that measure a child’s developmental stages from infant to toddler. These charts help us as parents to know when our baby should be rolling over, sitting up on his or her own, crawling and the like. We need to be informed, because we spend more time with our children than the medical professionals do and we might notice something out of the ordinary that they never saw.

It’s important that our children get the professional care that they need, but that is not what these posts are about. They are about addressing the kind that parents do with one healthy, normal kid against another. Pride, not the interest of the child, drives this kind of comparing.

Let me use a short scenario. Dad takes his son Jimmy at age 2 ½ to his very first day at playgroup. While there, Dad meets the father of another boy named Johnny who he finds out is the same age and has a birthday in the same month as Jimmy. Both dads are standing proudly by watching their boys at play. The boys run up to their dads, telling them excitedly about something they had been playing. Johnny is speaking in full sentences, but Jimmy is not yet able to. Up until that moment, Jimmy’s dad had thought his son was a bright spark, but now he begins to wonder.

What would you say to Jimmy’s dad? I’d love to hear from you, but I might not respond to comments on this post as there is more that I want to say on this topic in “Measuring Up – Part 2.”

Sunday, April 15, 2012

How to Handle Fear

When Amanda was younger, she used to be fearful of shadows. It’s easy as an adult to logically understand what causes shadows and to know that they cannot hurt you, but you cannot dispel the fear in a child’s mind using logic alone.

I used Amanda’s bedtime to play shadow games with her. I would put on the light and we would cast shadows against the wall with our hands. If trees cast shadows on the window, I’d pick her up, open the window and point out the trees. Also, whenever we took a walk and saw our own shadows, I would encourage Amanda to jump on mine and then I’d pretend, in a joking way, to get hurt. She would laugh and play along. The more she saw that shadows were a natural and normal occurrence, the less she became fearful of them.

The other night, Amanda and I took Benny, our dog, for a walk. It was already dark outside and the street lights were on. She wasn’t afraid, not even once. She even asked to play the jump-on-my-shadow game.

Being fearful is not only a childhood problem. Many adults are controlled by their fears. The Bible states that perfect love casts out fear (1John 4:18). One would have thought faith was the answer to fear, but it is love. It's a good topic to think about and an important one. We should ask ourselves throughout the day whether we are living out of fear or out of love. We can swap very quickly from one to the other. Let love rule and not fear.

The above photo was taken yesterday at my son's high school rugby game. It was the perfect morning for Amanda to play a jump-on-my-shadow game on the sidelines.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Listen to Your Child

I’m sure that we’ve all heard how important it is to listen to our children. Usually it’s in light of the fact that they will eventually become teenagers and the teen years can be challenging. So, if you haven’t been listening when they were small then they won’t talk to you when they’re big. It’s a good message, but not quite the angle I’m taking today.

I’ve already done a couple of posts on the value of listening to your child and I’m sure I’ll be writing more in the future. This time I’m going to share from my own mistakes with Amanda, specifically on two different occasions. Both times I thought she was just exaggerating. The job of a mom can be tedious and so it’s easy to want to brush off complaints made by one’s child as being no big deal. Both times I was slow to respond to Amanda’s complaints and both times it was a big deal. My bad.

The first time happened in 2010. I was dressing Amanda and as I was pulling on her pants, she began to protest loudly. I was thinking, what could possibly be the problem? So, I told her to settle down, because I had to dress her. This was me being slow to respond. When she didn’t calm down, I took her pants off in frustration. Something fell to the floor, but it took some investigating to actually find out what it was. It turned out to be a bumble bee. The strange thing is that it had never made a sound. I called my husband for help and we got it out the window. I was shocked to find six stings on her leg and I immediately applied sting ointment. I later googled it and discovered that bumble bees, unlike honey bees, can sting more than once.

At this point, you might be wondering how it got there. I also wondered the same thing. We hang all our washing outside to dry unless it’s raining. We live in South Africa and electricity is very expensive here, so washing lines are standard at most homes. It had to have gotten trapped inside her pant leg when we brought the washing in off the line the night before and since it never made a sound, I never knew it was there.

The second time I was slow to respond to Amanda happened just a few days ago. We went for a short, fifteen minute walk with the dog and were about six minutes away from our house when she complained that her shoes were hurting her. To protect her feet from thorns and such, we make sure she has something on her feet. It was a warm day, so she wasn’t wearing socks. I figured we were almost home, so she could endure a little bit more. She didn’t say anything after that, so I thought I had made the right decision. I forgot that little people have very fragile skin. Once we were home, I was shocked to find that her skin had chafed open at her one heel and the other one was quite red. Again, my bad.

I hope that you can learn from my mistakes and be quicker to respond to your child when he or she complains about something. Yah, I know, kids do a lot of complaining. It’s part of growing up. But, the thing is, they might be complaining for the right reasons. Life is full of interruptions. Allow yourself to be interrupted. Your kid is more important than the flow of the day.

P.S. She liked picking out her Disney Princess Band-Aids. Ariel was the winner.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Giving thanks for fish and chips

I mentioned previously that Amanda had been sick. When your child is sick, it’s often difficult to know what’s wrong and if you need to take him/her to the doctor. If you do take your child to the doctor, the doctor will decide what the problem is, but there is room for error even with all the learning and years of experience that your doctor will have had. At the end of the day, you know your child and you must go with your gut feeling to insure his/her good health.

Two days ago, I was still worrying about Amanda. It wasn’t clear to me if she was on the road to complete recovery. Deep down I knew that she was, but there was a specific moment that I doubted myself. It was at that precise moment, as the worry thoughts passed through my mind, that Amanda voiced what I had not said. “Mom, don’t worry, I’m fine.”

How did my child know what I was thinking? How did she know what to say at the right time? It was so specifically appropriate that I decided to heed her advice. Out of the mouths of babes, God speaks (Luke 10:21).