If You Were Me and Lived In.... a Look at Cultures Around the World

Disclosure: Carole P. Roman sent me these books for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Do you like to read books about different cultures? Since we don't travel very often, I love to teach Hazel about different cultures and I have found books to be a wonderful way to do this. Today I get to share three books from a wonderful series by Carole P. Roman. The series is If You Were Me and Lived In...A Child's Introduction to Cultures Around the World. Unlike the books in the Ancient Culture series I shared last week, these books focus on current cultures in the countries. The series of books that include a map of the country as well as a picture of a globe showing where the country is and a pronunciation guide with meanings as well. We will go in alphabetical order with our three countries and start with If You Were Me and Lived in...Australia. 

Summertime Family Fun

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Can you believe summer began yesterday? We are getting ready for some fun family gatherings this summer. Hazel and I head to my parents for the Fourth of July since the fireworks are visible from my parents' deck and there is a fun parade in their town. My parents have the best view of the fireworks on their street so they invite their neighbors to come watch from their deck. There is always a group of adults and kids showing up to watch, so this year I thought it would be fun to have some activities for the kids while we are waiting for the fireworks to begin. My mother also hosts a family reunion for her siblings (she is one of five), their children and grandchildren. I always am her event planner/assistant hostess. Since I am one of thirteen in cousins and most of them have at least one child now, I figured it would be good to have some games and activities to entertain the kids and families at the beach and the dinner she hosts. So for these two big family activities we turned to Oriental Trading for some great summer and patriotic things to entertain the guests. After all they are a great place to turn for all summer and party needs.

How the Queen Found the Perfect Cup of Tea

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Between my Tea Parties Around the World Series and National Princess Week Resources and Giveaway (have you entered yet?) How the Queen Found the Perfect Cup of Tea by Kate Hosford and illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska found its way to me.

Finding Time for Exercise in My Busy Schedule

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Fabletics. I will receive a small payment for writing it. The links however are for your convenience and I will not receive money if you purchase from them.

Now I know as we all do that I need to exercise on a regular basis. However I have gotten into the habit of not having time. Then in December I had a huge awakening. My doctor informed me that my levels put me at pre-diabetic. She suggested I start exercising more, losing weight and see a nutritionist. My adventure began. I am not on a diet. I have done the diet thing. In fact I was successful as a Weight Watchers member after having Hazel, but by the end I had tableaued. I know what I need to do to lose weight, but sometimes life gets in the way. Now when I first had Hazel walking was easy. I put her in a stroller and actually met a neighbor who became a good walking buddy (and a good friend). We use to meet each other and walk a couple of miles as we pushed our kids. Now that Hazel is older it is not so easy and my friend moved further away. Having a buddy is one of the best motivators for continuing an exercise regime. So if you have one, use them to get you moving and stay moving.

Crafty Weekends Link Party -- Valentine Edition

This has been a very busy week and today I managed to catch a cold. Ugh!! My crafting didn't happen, but the party must go on. So I am sharing some features from last week as well as a bonus of free printable Valentines from last week and from previous Crafty Moms Share posts. Valentine's Day is Tuesday so these are perfect for anyone who needs something quickly! Many of these go with small gifts but also can be used without them. (When did Valentines start to include the gifts? I never received them when I was little.) I have listed the gifts after the links. I hope this will help relieve stress for some mom or dad out there. Let me know if you use one and/or which one is your favorite!

Multicultural Books for Your 1st through 3rd Graders -- Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Capstone Publishing gave me copies of these books free of charge for this review in return for an honest review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I get to share with you some fun multicultural books from a silver sponsor of Multicultural Children's Book Day. These group of nine books are a mix of picture books and easy reader chapter books. We will start with the amazing picture books. The first book is appropriate for January since it is about a girl who cannot wait to meet the POTUS when she goes to work with her mother at the White House. It is When Penny Met POTUS by Rachel Ruiz and illustrated by Melissa Manwill. 

Soccer Star -- a Multicultural Children's Book Day Review #ReadYourWorld

Disclosure: Mina Javaherbin gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review in return for an honest review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am sharing with you a wonderful multicultural book that gives an inside look at life as a child in Brazil. It is Soccer Star by Mina Javaherbin and illustrated by Renato Alarcao. This tale follows Paulo Marcelo Feliciano through his day. His hope is to have time to practice soccer, but first he and his teammates must do their work. 

Announcement: Multicultural Children's Book Day Twitter Party (and Giveaways)

Please join us for our Multicultural Children's Book Day

Win 1 of 12 Book Bundles! Giving away Book Bundles every 6 minutes!

Twitter Party

Friday, January 27th

9 pm to 10 pm EST

Hashtag: #ReadYourWorld

We will be discussing the state of children's book publishing and giving away diversity book bundles every six minutes! We invite EVERYONE to join us: authors, publishers, parents, caregivers, librarians, KidLit lovers. You don't have to be an author or publisher sponsor to join us! Let's talk about our favorite multicultural and diverse children's books, authors, and illustrators!

How do you join the Twitter party? Just use hashtag #ReadYourWorld to find us. When you tweet, use the hashtag so everyone can find you!

Register below to be able to win!!

Mystery of the Golden Temple -- Multicultural Book Review

 Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Pack-n-Go Girls as part of the Multicultural Kids Product Promotion Services. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Every night Hazel and I enjoy reading some stories. Lately she reads one to my parents over the phone and then I read a few picture books to her and then we read a chapter or two from a chapter book. She is very into the Rainbow Magic series, but this past week we also enjoyed reading Mystery of the Golden Temple by Lisa Travis. This book is in a series of books by Pack-n-Go Girls. This is the first book set in Thailand. They have books set is Austria and Mexico and are hoping to come out with a new one this fall set in Brazil. They are also hoping to come out with Pack-n-Go Girls dolls. To do this, they need people's help. Please consider donating something to this kickstarter campaign. It will be open through June 25, 2015. They are almost at their goal, so go help them make it!

Cheap Doll Finds

It has been almost a month since I shared our cheap doll finds with you. I thought I would share some more with you today. Today's came from The Dollar Tree, Staples and Michaels.

Awhile ago I shared the soccer ball (along with #1 fingers for the cheerers) I found for Hazel's dolls. Now I found the right sized baseball for her dolls. Now they just need a bat and mitts. I found these sports bounce balls in the party favor section at Micahels.

Around the World in 12 Dishes: South Africa -- Sosaties

Today we are doing our last post for Around the World in 12 Dishes. The group seems to be a bit defunct right now. There have been no plans for the next season and South Africa is the last country chosen. But I promised Hazel we would continue to explore the world one country a month, so we are going to continue on our own schedule and our link parties. This season I have been writing the introduction posts on Around the World in 12 Dishes website, but as I was about to write the introduction to South Africa I discovered the link code problems which still has not been resolved, so I didn't bother to write it there since there would not be a place to link up. (If I do not get the codes switched to my account by next week I will do my own link codes as a blog hop, so come back and check Bolivia, Senegal and here.) I also added a new picture to my Bolivia post. The arroz con leche looks much better cold!

Johannesburg at Night By Hillbrow_Tower.jpg:Kemptonreporterderivative work: 
Heitor C. Jorge (Hillbrow_Tower.jpg) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

American Girl or 18-inch Doll Accessories from a Party Store Product Review

 Disclosure: I was sent these products to review free of charge from Shindigz Party Supplies. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I added links to the particular products for your convenience, but not for any compensation. 

Yesterday I received an email from Shindigz informing me that my DIY American Girl Themed Party had won an award (you can see the award badge on the post). I responded what a coincidence since I was about to write a review of Shindigz products to use with an 18-inch doll. So yes, here are some ideas of party supplies that work with 18-inch dolls like American Girl dolls. We are getting ready for a Valentine themed Doll Play Date later this week. Hazel invited a few of her friends and their dolls over. We are planning on having a tea party with the dolls. First of course all the dolls need tiaras. These mini tiara combs are the perfect size for the dolls.

Hunger Action Month

Today I am going to remind you that September is Hunger Action Month. I have joined a group of amazing moms to try to fight hunger for children. Did you know that hunger affects 16.2 million American kids? Or that kids go to school hungry every day and in fact 3 in 5 teachers say they have students who come to school hungry every day in their class? Did you know that we are raising the largest generation of kids in hard times since the Great Depression? Did you know that just $1 can help connect a child to as many as 10 healthy meals? (Source: No Kid Hungry)

Stone Soup Plan

Now much of what we did for Hunger Action Month, we actually did in August in preparation. I e-mailed local public libraries and preschools with story time plans to start a food drive. I already shared all of this in August. I shared to ideas using the classic tale, Stone Soup and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. For the Stone Soup plans I used ideas from the story time food drive I helped organize at my library last year as well as a few ideas I found on-line and a memory game I made. The Very Hungry Caterpillar plan came from several blogs and things I found on-line. The original idea came from The Good Long Road.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Plan

The next thing we did was to host a canned food drive at Hazel's butterfly party. Between me cleaning out our cabinets and what Hazel's friends brought we had a very full bag of food for our local food pantry. When Hazel is older I am hoping to volunteer with her at the food pantry and the local soup kitchens.

I also would like to share some more books to help start the discussion of hunger with children. For the younger children a good short story about hunger is The Hungry Monster by Phyllis Root. This story is about an alien monster that lands on Earth and is very hungry. He tastes things he sees--a daisy, a rock,  a tree, and then he sees a girl who gives him her banana (instead of him eating her) and he finally finds something he likes to eat. The girl is a little disgusted since he eats the peel and all. It is a wonderful introduction to talk about people who do not have enough to eat or enough good food to eat. The Very Hungry Caterpillar will also work for this. An activity following this discussion could be going to the grocery store and buying some food for your local food pantry. Let your child pick out some nutritious canned food and then bring it to the food pantry together.

For older children I like Kids Against Hunger by Jon Mikkelsen. In this story two friends wonder why their soccer coach does not get upset when a teammate missing practice every Wednesday. They decide to follow him one Wednesday and discover he is volunteering for an organization called Kids Against Hunger. The teammate explains that when he was younger his family went through rough times when they did not have enough to eat and now he likes to help others in that situation. The boys want to help to and suggest that they ask the coach to move their Wednesday practice to Thursday so the whole team can volunteer. It is a nice story to show how kids can help by donating their time. And of course the obvious activity with this book would be to volunteer at a food pantry or soup kitchen. To find a food pantry in your area look here. 

Another easy thing to do is Dine Out for No Kid Hungry. There is still five days left to have a portion of your meal donated. Just click the link to see what local restaurants are offering near you.

So I hope you will join us in trying to end hunger throughout the world even if it is making a donation (food, money or time) to your local food pantry and/or soup kitchen. Also feel free to join us in this link party to share what you have done to end childhood hunger!