My oldest child is pretty darned good at a lot of stuff, if I may say so myself.  She’s a top reader, she swims like a fish, and I’m always amazed by what a good big sister she is.

She does struggle with a few things though, like putting her dirty clothes in the hamper and eating the same dinner as the rest of the family.  Oh, and math.  Math is a bit of a challenge for her too.

Kyle is the son of a math teacher, and I’m the daughter of an engineer.  While that might make it sound like math should come naturally to her, it actually means that both of us know what it feels like to have a parent throw up his hands in frustration and say, “What do you MEAN you don’t understand?”  So we really try hard not to do that.

Thing is, sometimes a parent isn’t the best person to help a child grasp mathematical concepts.  DreamBox to the rescue!

DreamBox is a cool new online math learning tool for kids in grades K-2.  It includes more than 350 lessons in the form of adventures that respond dynamically to the child as they “play”.  The lessons conform to the math curriculum standards set by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and they’re intended to develop “conceptual understanding, computational fluency, and problem-solving ability.”

I checked out the DreamBox curriculum page and was gratified to see that in fact the focal points for the first grade curriculum listed there do mirror what I’ve been seeing on Tacy’s math worksheets.  I’m not a teacher myself, obviously (god bless teachers for the job they do - I could never be one), so I don’t have a strong opinion on what sort of techniques are most effective where it comes to introducing math concepts.

However, I do think it’s important that whatever techniques are used, kids need to develop a positive association with math early on.  Math concepts build on each other, and they simply don’t stop.  The difficulties I had in Algebra I, way back in eighth grade, kept compounding all the way through high school and college.  I never did catch up.

Worse, math starts to play a crucial role in other subjects - like chemistry and physics - even as early as high school.  A freshman engineering student like me who never mastered Algebra I is going to be [expletive] when she encounters Fluid Dynamics or Linear Circuits.

But back to first grade, where all this learning begins, and to DreamBox, which helps kids internalize the logic of mathematical concepts.  In some ways, early math seems like a bunch of memorization - 1+1=2 because it just DOES.  Sure, you can count on your fingers, but eventually you’re going to run out of fingers, and besides, it’s just easier to memorize what those answers are.

What DreamBox reinforces, through games that illustrate these concepts, is a means of logically thinking  through the problem to get to the answer.  Think about it: How often in life are we presented with a problem in the form of x+y=z?  Most of the time, we’re figuring out word problems - the exact sort of problems many of us hated because we couldn’t just scribble down our memorized answers.  We actually had to think through those problems, and we hadn’t learned to do that right from the beginning, the way our kids are now.

Furthermore, when I wrote that DreamBox responds dynamically to the child, I didn’t just mean that the program gives her an “Attagirl!” when she answers correctly or a “Try again!” when she makes a mistake.  DreamBox actually adjusts the lesson - the difficulty, the pacing, the information provided to Tacy as she plays - based on her answers and how long she takes to arrive at them, WHILE she is playing.  More personalized even than a personal tutor!

Who knows what Tacy will want to study when she gets to college, or if she’ll even go to college.  Maybe she’ll become a child star and start paying the mortgage. (I can dream, right?) But the important point is that a lack of understanding of math fundamentals won’t keep her from what she wants to pursue.

To learn more about the DreamBox online math learning tool, check out their website and the other Parent Bloggers Network reviews!

If you haven’t already figured this out from reading my personal blog, I’m a fairly laid-back parent where it comes to my children’s development.  Even when it became obvious that CJ would need a little extra help in the language department, I figured it would just take time for her to catch up.

Likewise, my approach to choosing a day-care-slash-preschool for my kids was also pretty basic.  My top priorities were their safety and comfort.  Academics were secondary.

But I’ve always loved reading, and I couldn’t help twitching a bit every time the girls would put down a book and stare raptly up at the TV.  I wanted them to love reading, but I didn’t want to push them into a love for reading.

The LeapFrog Tag Reader has been a great resource in helping them enjoy reading, especially CJ.  Tacy can already read on her own, but CJ is still learning her letters.  She’s not yet sight-reading any words (except her own name), but with this magic pen - the Tag Reader - she’s well on her way.

She runs the electronic pen over the pages of the LeapFrog Tag books (including Olivia, one of her very favorites), and the stories are read TO her - word by word.  She can go back and explore the words on the page at her leisure, which is especially cool and prolongs the reading experience.  It won’t be long before she’s starting to sight-read on her own.

LeapFrog is the first sponsor of the Savvy Source sidebar widget, which links to a quiz on the Savvy Source site that assesses the developmental stages of your child, based on your answers to a series of questions in a dozen different skill categories.

If you haven’t already heard of Savvy Source, you must not read blogs - or you’ve been hiding under a rock.  Several prominent parent bloggers (including a few PBN bloggers) post regularly for Savvy Source about family activities in their respective cities - their Being Savvy initiative.  Beyond that, Savvy Source is a fantastic reference for preschool research, particularly in big cities where preschool selection is an Event with a capital E.

The Savvy Quiz generates personalized recommendations for your child - toys and games and activities - based on their developmental stage.  Any parent of more than one child knows how vastly different they can be in terms of their personal skills, even when they’re the same age.  For example, Tacy was always highly verbal, whereas CJ is extremely physical and artistically inclined.  The same toys, games, and activities that interested Tacy when she was three aren’t necessarily what CJ enjoys now that she’s three.  The Savvy Quiz provides guidance for choosing what’s appropriate for a child’s developmental stage, not just their age.

Finally, the sidebar widget (over there, look to the left), is a revenue generator (whoo!) that bloggers can install on their blogs (main sites and review blogs) to guide their readers over to the Savvy Quiz while earning a few extra bucks.  Right now the widget is invitation-only, but all the PBN bloggers who are participating in this campaign have invitations to dole out - so start sucking up!

Although we are typically a family of healthy eaters - meaning that we eat healthy food and a lot of it - I’ll freely admit that my personal standards go out the window (and head straight for the nearest Long John Silver’s) when I’m pregnant.

The way I see it, I can’t drink and I can’t ride my bike and toward the end I can’t even put on my shoes without contorting myself.  I deserve those Reese’s cups, dammit.

But yesterday, my third (and final) baby was born.  And back on the Reese’s cup wagon I go.

Being healthy is important to Kyle and me because we’d like to stick around for a while.  Moreover, we want to model healthy habits for our own kids so that they’ll hopefully stick around even longer than we do.  It’s all well and good to heap broccoli on your child’s plate, but you really ought to take a helping for yourself too.

Beyond the fruits and veggies, we’re taking other steps to eat even more healthfully.  I read Fast Food Nation when it came out, and I read it again recently.  Not only did those readings impress upon me the importance of avoiding the golden arches (although Kyle does take the girls as a treat after a morning of swimming), they made me think about the quality of the meat we prepare and serve at home.  We’re avowed omnivores, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.  So it’s important for us to educate ourselves about what we’re eating and how we’re preparing it.

Colorado’s independent ranchers are disappearing.  Huge meatpacking plants (including feedyards), like the one in Greeley described in Fast Food Nation, are becoming the norm.  I like the idea of supporting the local economy by purchasing locally ranched meat.

Likewise, while we’re big patrons of the produce section, I want to branch out beyond the baby carrots and seedless green grapes.  There’s all sorts of ways to prepare produce so that we aren’t just ticking off our daily servings - we’re actually enjoying them!  Plenty of local farmers markets and fruit and vegetable picking farms offer a great way to buy fresh produce while providing an afternoon of family entertainment.

Another step we recently took, mainly out of convenience but with many added benefits, was our switch to milk delivery.  It’s more expensive, but it tastes better, lasts longer, and is locally produced without additives.

A big change that I plan to implement for myself is portion control.  Sure, I’m eating healthy foods - but I’m still probably eating too much of them at once.  I need to pay more attention to the serving sizes that I’m consuming, whether it’s labeled on the box or I’m just eyeballing what’s on my plate.

Finally, I’m kicking my soda habit that I established this pregnancy.  I’ve never been a soda drinker; we hardly ever have it around the house.  But for some reason, it’s what I’ve wanted to drink.

No more.  I’m back to water, seltzer, and a new habit - tea.  Those are my daytime drinks, because I’d rather spend my calories on something that requires a little noshing.  Much more satisfying.

So while I wouldn’t call any of these inititatives a resolution, they’re all small changes that complement our family’s current eating habits and will help us become even healthier in 2008.

——————————

Write your own post today about how you plan to eat more healthfully in 2008, and you could win a $50 gift card to Kroger - the largest supermarket chain in the US.  Go get the details at PBN, and check out Kroger’s website while you’re at it - they’ve got some great information about choosing and preparing meats, seafood, fruits and vegetables, along with a ton of recipes that even provide nutrition information per serving!

When I first asked my older daughter what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas, she told me, “A Webkin.” Instead, she’s already received something much cooler: Bella Sara collectible trading cards.

The cards feature detailed drawings of horses, along with what could be considered “affirmations” for the elementary-school set. Some are a little new-age for my taste, but many are worth internalizing, such as “Learn to trust in the people who care about you.” and “Have the courage to learn from your weaknesses and grow stronger.” The horses have names like Janus, Nike, and Cybele, which is far preferable to the names of other toy equines out there (I trust you know what I mean).

The cards can be used to play actual card games, or the horses pictured on the cards may be activated online (using the code on each card) and housed in a stable in the world of Bella Sara. There, girls can feed and care for their horses, play games with them, and learn more about horses in general. Although the Bella Sara site is online, there’s no interaction with other users, which makes it ideal for kids who are just beginning to learn about Internet safety.

Bella Sara was created by a Danish social worker, Gitte Odder Braendgaard. Her son enjoyed Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering cards, but her daughters showed no interest. Braendgaard conceived Bella Sara as an alternative card-based activity for girls, with a stronger focus on imagination and self-esteem and less emphasis on competition. It has become a tremendous hit in Scandinavia since its introduction in late 2005, and the cards became available nationally in the US in early 2007. Recent coverage of Bella Sara includes this NYT article, which gives more information concerning the history of the cards.

My older daughter already enjoys using the computer, particularly for playing games that have an element of continuity. Being able to keep track of her progress is a key motivator for her. So she has really enjoyed activating her horses online, where she can return to care for them and play games. We also don’t have any pets, so caring for horses online is an acceptable substitute for all of us - especially considering that we live in Colorado where many girls her age actually DO have their own horse.

I asked her about her favorite aspects of Bella Sara, and she affirmed that the online play is lots of fun for her. She loves to feed the horses and play jumping games with them. As in other collectible trading card games, there are rare cards in Bella Sara that have iridescent backgrounds. She reported that when she activated these horses online, they were placed in a different kind of stable - “more like a castle!” Interestingly, while she thinks these rare cards are pretty cool, she told me that she was disappointed that these horses’ feet never got dirty; she can’t clean the manure out of their shoes like she can with the horses in the regular stable.

If only she thought it was such fun to clean up her room, right?

The cards are geared toward the 6-12 age range, so she’s only just getting started. She’s had a great time introducing her friends to the cards and showing them her online stables. While I like to encourage her interest in solid subjects like history and science, I don’t object to her enjoyment of Bella Sara. It’s fanciful and girly, but it incorporates good messages. Not all play has to involve learning, and Bella Sara is certainly more wholesome than a lot of the activities and characters aimed at girls her age.

And even though Santa won’t be bringing her any Webkinz, she’ll find a Bella Sara plush horse on Christmas morning instead. Something tells me she won’t be disappointed.

Learn more about Bella Sara on their website, and purchase the cards on Amazon!

Growing up, I ate school lunches.

My parents felt it was easier to buy me a $1.25 lunch ticket each week - that’s right, five meals for $1.25 - than to pack a lunch.  And since I packed lunches for my older daughter at her day care back east, I have to agree with them.  Cooking veggies and chopping up fruit and making grilled cheese sandwiches EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. got to be tiring.  It’s no wonder that most of her classmates had lunches full of packaged preservatives.  I was about ready to succumb to Lunchables myself when we moved and found a day care that served lunch.

Sometimes I packed my own lunch, in my (shudder) Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox.  The thermos didn’t function well though, so I bought my own milk.  Seven cents for white milk, ten cents for chocolate - these were the days when a penny was actually worth something.

But most of the time I ate the school lunch.

I loved the pizza and the fish sandwiches.  Fish was always offered on Fridays, and I was an adult before I understood why.  The pizza was a rectangular slab with congealed cheese and specks of sausage, but it was pretty good.  I ate the corn and the so-called Texas Toast and would have a spoonful or two of mushy olive green peas.  Spaghetti was passable.  Salisbury steak was strange, but not inedible.  Tomato soup was a no-go.

When I got to middle school, they served nachos and ice cream bars in the cafeteria.  Guess where most of my lunch money went?

When I got to high school, they served pop tarts each morning.  And we had open lunch, which meant we could walk off campus to a local liquor store that also sold candy bars and chips.  When my friends and I could drive, we went to Noble Roman’s for pizza and breadsticks (also a good place to get served sangria underage at night - filthy-minded waiters there) or to Burger King (also known as BK Lounge for some reason that escapes me now).

School lunches aren’t inherently bad - it’s just all of the other add-ons that are offered that tempt kids away from the good stuff.  If they didn’t sell ice cream or pop tarts or soda, maybe more kids would eat more of the healthy foods that comprise a balanced meal.

Instead, schools want to raise money.  And sponsorships help them do that.  Even the high school DECA program would make money selling candy bars on those days that it was too cold to walk off campus.  I understand the need for fundraising, but couldn’t they sell something else, like carrot sticks?

We’ve still got another year before we’re faced with the decision to buy school lunches or pack lunches for our older daughter.  Granted, she’s now old enough to help pack her own lunch.  And she’d rather eat a bowl of peas than a school cafeteria fish sandwich.  So at this point, I’m leaning toward getting back in the habit of packing lunches.

After all, she’s got all that time at college to gorge on pizza.

Check out School Menu and its parental counterpart Family Everyday, two sites that work together with School Food Services Directors to provide and promote healthy eating and physical fitness for kids and their parents.