Advice I Can't Wait To Read

By Joyce Szuflita

I have a few favorite blogs that I read the minute the subscription comes into my mailbox without fail; Hip Slope Mama, A Child Grows in Brooklyn and eensies (eensies.blogspot.com). I recommend that you subscribe to all three, not only because it is more convenient than constantly looking to see if there is a new post, but because it lets them know that someone out there is reading and that is so important for the lonely blogger.


If you haven’t seen eensies “small, easily digestible bits of advice that promote learning outside of the classroom” you should run to this smart and simple site that not only gives great parenting advice but is also probably the best way to prepare your child for the Kindergarten G & T test or just a life long love of investigation and learning. So you may ask, why is the mother of 15 year olds in love with a blog about learning to read? It makes me nostalgic for the good old days, reassures me that I did some things right and brings me back down to earth with the realization that it is the sweet little things you do as part of your daily grind that bring the most pleasure and reward.


I was reading a post the other day http://eensies.blogspot.com/2008/12/mails-here.html and they mentioned reading the labels on food boxes. This opened a whole world of memories for me. My girls like to cook and in elementary school when they began to study nutrition I made my own eensie. They would shop with me. To keep them from driving me batty, I put them in charge of reading the nutritional labels on all of the food we were buying. It was easy for them to read and if they wanted something full of sugar or salt or empty calories (who doesn’t!) I could just say check out the label. They often didn’t need a lot of convincing to put the box back on the shelf. They also made a game of finding the most appealing cereal that was the least bad for them. Then we graduated to the ingredients list and the price per unit label on the shelf – reading, science and math! What a world of questions that opened up! They have always been good eaters but now they are smart eaters (and good shoppers), and it all started with wanting to keep them occupied when we were grocery shopping.


Eensies has some favorites too, so while you are subscribing to them, check out The Write Start and Parent Hacks.


Joyce Szuflita is a working mother of twins. She has been a Brooklyn resident for 28 years. As NYC School Help, she consults with families who are doing the school search; public or private, nursery school through high school. Her aim is to save you time, clarify your priorities, present you with thorough information in a clear uniform format so that you can make an informed decision about your child's education. She takes a crazy stressful process and makes it clear and manageable. Joyce is also a regular contributor to Hip Slope Mama.

Posted by Monkeydoodle at Monday, January 19, 2009