My Reading List

Can you tell what is going on in my life just by looking at these titles?

1. Your Two-Year-Old: Terrible or Tender (by Louise Bates Ames) This book has great insight on two-year-old development and I'm constantly nodding my head as it distinguishes between two-year-old and two-and-a-half-year-old behavior. It is funny, too, because it is old. It talks about letting your child have his own phonograph and records!

2. I Brake for Meltdowns: How to handle the most EXASPERATING behavior of your 2-to5-year-old (by Michelle Nicholasen & Barbara O'Neal) This one is definitely for me. It gives specific instructions on how to handle child-parent clashpoints. I love the sample dialogues. In fact, today I met a mom at the Aquarium who was having "one of those days" starting with trying to put on her two-year-old's shoes. I told her I'd just read about a "fast talking" diversionary tactic and showed her a couple of seconds later when I put on Xavier's shoes. Of course, she doesn't know that I never have trouble with Xavier refusing to put on shoes, but anyway, she seemed happy to talk with another mom of a two-year-old and said she was going to try out fast talking next time.

3. Basic Statistical Analysis (I won't mention the author, I don't think any of you will be reading it anytime soon, except Joe). School again. (BIG SIGH). I can hardly wait to be finished but I also don't want to finish because it means I will be job searching (and we know that takes a long time, especially if you're not credentialed to teach) plus then we'll only have six months before even more school loans come due. Why did I think grad school was such a good idea again?

4. Lupe Vargas and her Super Best Friend; Jingle Dancer; My Pal, Victor; One Night; Salt Boy; Josais, Hold the Book; Romina's Rangoli; Jalapeno Bagels; Halmoni and the Picnic; Mama and Papa Have a Store; The Tortilla Factory; How My Parents Learned to Eat; The Lotus Seed; A Gift from Papa Diego; Sumi's First Day of School Ever; I Lost My Tooth in Africa; The Way We Do It in Japan; dear juno; Catch that Goat!; An Angel Just Like Me; The Always Prayer Shawl, and so on. Yes, this is called procrastination. I am doing an independent study class on multicultural children's literature. It's too bad that it's not a regular semester class like most of my online classes since I obviously have no self-discipline. You see, I've had a year to finish the course and I currently have 28 out of 40 book reviews plus a paper and a half still to finish before November 15th. Still, I've had so much fun with this class. I get to go to the library all the time. After reading several articles about what is (and isn't) "multicultural" in today's educational circles, I am pretty picky about the books I get, so the ones above are the ones I've really liked. If you have a chance, check them out!