Unforseen Side Effects of an Expensive Education

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, I had the opportunity to spend 6 years of my life pursuing advanced degrees in English. This is an opportunity for which I am grateful--and for which I am still making monthly payments. Upon the completion of said degrees, I chose to make a career shift. Now I stay home with my children. Despite the inherent challenges, I love it. However, early on I encountered an unexpected problem: while reading books to my young daughter I had to repeatedly suppress the urge to make edits to the texts with a Sharpie. I am grateful for my daughter's love of books, but after being nearly driven to distraction several times by the repeated reading of books I couldn't stand, I started making lists. I noted various authors and titles that I could read over and over without being overcome with the urge to poke out my eyes. Now, with this blog, I endeavor to share these eye-poke-less (in my opinion) books with my other Mom and Dad friends. Hopefully this will help to make story time more enjoyable for everyone. Perhaps it will even save you from finding yourself spinning a web of white lies in order to cover up the fact that you hid that one book you couldn't stand to read even one more time under the couch...

Monday, April 12, 2010

Time For Bed

Mem Fox, Jane Dyer.

This is a great book to help establish that ever essential bedtime routine for even the smallest baby. The repetitive rhyming story and the soothing illustrations are a great way to signal to the little one that it is time to sleep. There is something cathartic, too, for a parent to read about the mundane daily acts of caring for a child. Perhaps it is that it helps one to reflect on the actual significance of the things that can seem so small...

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