Category: Books Reviews

Books Reviews, Children's Books, Education, Parenting

Children’s Book about Learning From Failure – Mindset Matters

Erin Sluka

Sample copy sent for feature from Smith Publicity

 

Mindset Matters
By: Bryan Smith

 

Children do not like to lose. They need to learn and then learn to have fun but they take winning very seriously at times. Eventually that desire to win can begin to define them and that is not the direction we want our kids mindsets to head at that young age. Mindset Matters about Amelia who loves to skateboard. But, when she has a fall and hand injury and fears it will interfere with her sport she feels like a failure. Amelia’s Dad teaches here to have a different mindset. It is a mindset that about learning and growing.

 

Mindset Matters is great for the grades 1-5 age group. Teach your kids how to find their Gonna-Get-It-Done attitude. Not only is this book for the child athlete, but it can be related to sibling competition and hobbies as well as academics. Use Amelia’s story to start a conversation that will empower your child. I read this to my son the night before basketball camp.

Find Mindset Matters on Amazon and bookstores near you.

Back to School 2017, Books Reviews, Children's Books, Education, Gift Guides, Kids

Anti-Bullying Children’s Book – It’s Good To Be Kind

Erin Sluka

Copy sent for feature from Wear The Cape Kids

Anti-Bullying Children's Book - It's Good To Be Kind

It’s Good To Be Kind

By: Lauren DuBois Rosemond

Leonard the Lion wears a red cape and doesn’t let his position on the animal chain bring fear towards him from the other animals. Instead he uses his power to empower others. He will teach your pre-schooler to early elementary student to think ahead about their actions and whether they may HURT or HELP those around them. They can learn to be better than bullying and better than bad choices even in their communities.

You can find this book on Amazon and at Wear The Cape’s online shop. Remember, you cannot lift yourself up by putting others down.

About Wear the Cape™ and the kidkind foundation

Wear the Cape™ is the first global, mission-powered brand with the nerve to equate being kind with being cool. By coaching kids to be BETTER THAN THAT™, Wear the Cape breaks down barriers and brings people together—a world of new values prevails: It’s cool to be inclusive, tolerant and socially responsible. From its line of apparel and accessories, to its educational tools and its own non-profit the kidkind foundation, Wear the Cape sparks awareness and raises money to build heroes, a kid at a time. Wear the Cape’s products and resources are designed to create teachable moments between kids and the grown-ups they look up to with Hero Tags that tee up conversations about what it means to stand up and stand out; to stick up for the underdog; to do what’s right, not what’s easy. Wear the Cape donates 10% of its net profits directly to the kidkind foundation, and the rest is reinvested in the design and production of new products, as well as character-building educational materials for parents and teachers to help the kids they love. Wear the Cape’s work with communities and schools is helping mold everyday heroes that will create a kinder, better world for us all.

Books Reviews, Food, Recipes

Lemon Garlic Chicken Legs Instant Pot Recipe

Erin Sluka

Instant Pot Chicken Recipe

My husband and I stared a low carb diet and he is watching his red meat intake. This leaves us having to get real creative on cooking poultry, lean pork and seafood that isn’t loaded in sauces and cheeses. I have had an Instant Pot for a few months now and had only used it twice because I feel lost in how to use it. Then I got The I Love My INSTANT POT Recipe Book.

Instant Pot recipe

I chose to recreate the lemon garlic chicken legs recipe that is in the recipe book. It was so easy and cooked up great. My husband son and I polished them off. I even had leftover lemon and garlic for the asparagus.

lemon chicken

Lemon Garlic Chicken Recipe

  • 1/3 C Olive Oil
  • 1/4 C Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
  • 1 Tbsp Lemon Zest
  • 4 Garlic Cloves (minced)
  • 1/4 Tsp Sea Salt
  • Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
  • (I also adde pinch of smoked paprika)
  • 2 Lbs. Chicken wings or legs
  • 1 C chicken broth

Mix all but chicken and broth. Add chicken and marinade in fridge for at least 1 hour (I threw all in a large ziploc to marinade). Add chicken broth to the pot. Insert a steam basket (I don’t have one yet so used tad less broth and laid in there-came out great). Fix so not overlapping. Lock Lid. Set to manual 10 minutes. When timer beeps, let pressure release naturally for 5 minutes, Then quick release pressure until float valve drops and unlock lid. Place cooked chicken onto parchment-lined baking sheet and put under oven broiler for 3-5 minutes until browned.

instantpot lemon chicken

BONUS: Want a free MOVING GUIDE? I have one I made for my readers. Get your guide HERE!

If you are like me and use Amazon to buy books you can pick up this recipe book on Amazon. It is full of great Instant Pot recipes.

Books Reviews, Education, Parenting, Tips and Tricks

Managing Emotions with the Home Edition: Feeling Buddies for Families Toolkit

Erin Sluka

This is a compensated post for the review of the Feeling Buddies or Families Toolkit

Managing Emotions

We have 3 boys in our family. I have helped raise my husbands boys since they were 5 and 11 and they are now 19 and 24. We also have an 8 year old. Having a child much younger tends to result in a bit of spoiled tendencies and he can be a bit dramatic. He is what one would describe as…spoiled. We have tried many tactics that never seem to stick. He remains feeling entitled, melts down easily when he doesn’t get his way and tends to get bossy with others. I heard about the HOME EDITION: Feeling Buddies for Families Toolkit when I was approached and asked to become an Ambassador for the brand. I knew this may be just what we need before he gets much older and set in his ways.

boys

Getting Started

We have not begun using the program with him yet because we have some tasks to do prior to introducing him to the toolkit. This is explained in the Quick Start Guide that is the first thing to read when your kit arrives. Here is what your first tasks are:

  1. Review and follow the Quick Start Guide: This guide will give you steps with the order in which to use the kit.
  2. Watch the video coaching sessions with Dr. Becky Bailey in the order the Quick Start Guide suggests
  3. Read the provided book, Managing Emotional Mayhem

By the time you get to Step 7 you will have watched 6 videos, read the book, downloaded some materials to be used with your child and get to know your Feeling Buddies plush and how it will be used with our child.

Following this guide will ensure that as you introduce your child to the Feeling Buddies for Families Toolkit that it will be used correctly and introduce them as tools, not toys for your improvement on their emotional wellbeing. Make sure you take this time first before getting the kids involved. You will love getting to know Dr. Becky Bailey in the videos.

home-edition

The HOME EDITION: Feeling Buddies for Families Toolkit is a new product from Conscious Discipline, a leading provider in social-emotional learning and classroom management resources. This toolkit known for use in the classroom has now been modified for use in your home with your children and is only available at www.feelingbuddies.com to purchase for only $99.

Stay tuned as I will post about our progress using this toolkit between now and the end of April including a video by Anthony on how he feels this worked for him at the end.

What do you think so far? Is this a toolkit you can benefit from in your home?