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I just posted an article about being the kind of parent who gets involved and makes sure your children stay academically sharp over the summer. One of the points I made talked about sitting down with your kid and helping them to choose a book that engaged them on a personal level.

For some kids, reading is a chose. For others, it is a delightful escape. No matter, all children need to be reading as often as possible. The more they read, the better they get at reading. The better they are at reading, the more they read. It’s an unending circle.

More often than not, someone just needs to spend one-on-one time with a child and help them to find at least one book that captures their interest. I LOVE to read, but a textbook on Economics puts me to sleep and is often a struggle for me to comprehend on a satisfactory level. I’m no different from anyone else. If we are honestly interested in what we are reading, it is easier to read.

For some kids, the text that hooks them might be a sports magazine, or a book about robots, or a story about a princess. One genre I have found interests a wide variety of children of school age is fantasy adventure. It just seems to resonate with children, probably because children have more vivid imaginations by nature than their adult counterparts.

Here then, is one reading suggestion along these lines: Chin and the Magic Stones: Book One – Becoming Guardians by L.J. Salazar.

It has adventure chock full of riddles. It has an entire world of fantasy vivid with the potential of magic. It has lessons in the value of positive thinking, and it has a protagonist that kids can relate to in our modern world. If you think your child would find joy in the fantasy genre, this is a good first book to give them as they embark on their new reading journey.

Clocking in at a brief 108 pages, Chin and the Magic Stones will not overwhelm a struggling reader. And, it will leave more confident readers anxious for the next book in the series. It is generally suited for young readers from the ages of 7 to 11, but we all know that kids read at many different levels at any given age, so this is a book actually appropriate for a much broader age range.

And, in the end, it all comes down to helping our children make reading choices that will not only engage and excite them, but also have a positive impact on their lives. Anyone who experiences Chin’s adventure along with him will come away with the benefits of some of the lessons he learns about believing in himself and understanding that positive thoughts lead to self esteem and the fulfillment of dreams. These are lessons we all need to learn – over and over.

Salazar is the father of an 11-year-old son, so you can rest assured that this story is coming from someone who understands the age group for which he is writing. On the surface, this is the exciting adventure of a boy and his dog (the extraordinary Eagle). On a deeper level, it’s a handbook for positive thought.

Take a look at Chin and the Magic Stones on Amazon’s website. You can pick it up for less than $10.

It’s summertime. At least for now, schools all over the nation are out for the season and kids (and teachers) have the opportunity to recharge and relax. I know that from a educator’s standpoint, we NEED this time to take a step back. Teachers would have meltdowns regularly if they did not have summer breaks. I know a lot of people see teaching as a job where you do not work as many hours in a day or as many days in a year as most other salaried folks, but they fail to take into consideration the almost constant engagement you have with students and their families throughout the school year. Teaching is indeed a job you take home with you.

However, that wasn’t my point. Sorry about that tangent.

My point is that, as parents, we need to make sure our kids still have opportunities to learn over the summer break. It is true that a good bit of time at the beginning of each school year is spent reteaching some of the skills kids seem to lose over the summer months. That’s not going to change.

You can help your kids stay just a little bit sharper, though, with minimal planning and effort.

Keep your kids active.
When I was a child, summer meant being outside from morning until late-night sundown. We ran and built forts and skateboarded down hills. We built dams in the creeks behind my neighborhood and explored old civil war bridges and chimneys in those same woods. Of course, I grew up in the DC outskirts of Virginia, where summers were temperate. Here in Florida I have to put a little more effort into figuring out places we can go to be active without getting to heatstroke. We load up on water and hit the local beaches and parks.

Help your kids stay interested in reading.
Especially with struggling readers, summer can mean months without picking up a books. Sit down with your child and help them find a book or magazine that is in their interest area. Find fun reading material that will wake up their imaginations. And, no matter how old your child, offer to read aloud to them. Even your teens will benefit from some reading aloud by mom or dad.

Find some fun lesson ideas.
If you are really motivated, you might even do some research and find some fun lessons online to help bolster any areas your child struggled in this past year. You don’t have to be a teacher to find a search engine and type in “lessons multiplication grade 4” – or whatever the relevant subject may be. You would be surprised at the massive cache of free worksheets and lesson ideas out there floating around in cyberspace.

I found some worksheets and learning strategies I am going to use this summer to help my daughter with some of the reversals she struggles with in reading and writing (b, d, p, etc.). I am also going to take things a step ahead and work with her on multiplication and division. She did not cover that in Kindergarten, but she loves math and actually delights in working ahead.

Anyway, my message is simply this – use the summer to keep your kids sharp. Believe me, the teachers will love you this fall. Parental involvement is something that has been proven to make a difference and teachers can tell which kids are receiving more parental involvement than others.

She fought hard. She had the money to fight hard. She had resources most people will never be able to access, due to money. And still, cancer is relentless. You can fight and use all the money in the world to try and find a way to beat cancer, but in the end you are powerless.

My mother has cancer. She has been fighting hard for over 14 years now. Mom living this long with the sort of cancer she has is a miracle. It is nearly unheard of. And still, if cancer wants to win — it will. I suppose that’s the reality that makes me feel so out of control when it comes to understanding my mother’s illness. She tries every day to live life as though nothing is wrong. After all these years, I have to believe that her ability to keep on living and to not give in to the cancer by giving up onn a normal life is why she is still with us.

I have Farrah’s family in my heart today. I know they must have all had a similar outlook after watching her fight so hard. They must have been focused on life as usual and the reality that we can often beat cancer. In the end, cancer won, but I am convinced that Farrah and everyone around her learned a lot about love and faith along the way.

A lot of what I plan to do while I have the whole summer off work is catch up on my reading. I want to re-read at least four on my Truman Capote books (I have multiple copies of all his books – he is my favorite author). And, I want to get going on the books I have added this past year to my time travel fiction collection. No, not time travel romance novels (Ick), but thoughtful time travel fiction generally residing in the science fiction or fantasy. I finally got a copy of Time Camera by Terence Lee (so far, it looks awkwardly written, but holding to a cool premise) and the first in the Time Travelers, Inc. series – Reflections of Toddsville by Hollie Van Horne.

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music that words make.
–Truman Capote

…, just not in Florida.

I’m stuck in Florida. At least until my daughter is 18. I cannot imagine her father being alright with us moving away. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, because the job situation here in the schools is horrific. I suppose I thought it was like that everywhere.

It’s not. When I was up in WV visiting family, I took the time to check out postings in various counties. In the county where my dad lives there are already posting for at least 4 high school level special education teachers. In the town where a lot of my family lives and at least four of my relatives teach – they have already posted job openings for 5 high school level English teachers and 4 high school level special education teachers.

It’s enough to make me feel like drawing blood, I tell you. I want to pack it all up and just move to a place that actually has the money and desire to hire teachers. Instead, I am stuck in a district that has cut almost 1000 instructional and support jobs during the past two school years.

I know the courts like to see children living close to both parents, but at what point so they become sympathetic to the fact that the mother is struggling to support the child. Sheesh.

…and more.

Now that I am back in town, I am back to my couponing hobby. I love getting more “bang for my buck”, so to speak, when it comes to groceries and personal care items. I have found that if I plan carefully, I can combine weekly sale prices with coupons and often come out on top.

This week at Publix I came home with 10 free packs of Bic Soleil Bella razors, 8 free packs of Fisher Fusions fruit and nut mixes, as well as 6 free pints of Starbucks ice cream and a couple of Morningstar Farms entrées. I also bought a couple of pints of Starbucks for less than 25 cents each last week, before the very cool $2/1 coupons that came out in this past Sunday’s Smart Source insert. We love coffee ice cream that actually tastes like a cup of rich coffee.

Now, if I only had a bigger freezer.

In addition to the free food items I got this week, I also picked up a couple packs of Perdue breaded chicken breast nuggets – which came out to about $1.20 a pack after the Buy One Get One sale and coupons in this Sunday’s Smart Source. Even without the coupons these nuggets were a great deal with the Publix sale price.

I picked up a couple of Duncan Hines cake mixes for about 35 cents each after using Target coupons (my Publix will accept Target coupons as “competitor” coupons). I like to make my cakes from scratch, but at that price it will be nice to have a couple of mixes on hand.

There are a lot of good deals this week if you carefully pair the sale prices up with coupons. I’m looking for my coupons for Honey Maid graham crackers and Dannon kids’ yogurts. Free or almost free will be the outcome if I can locate those particular coupons.

Money is tight for everyone. Be a smear shopper. Make sure you get your hands on the weekly coupon inserts. Save them from week to week, because they might not garner the great deal for a month or so out – but it will always be worth it. I go to my local Wal-Mart where they package two copies of my local paper on Sundays and sell them for the price of one. I pick up two or three sets and I always recoup my investment tenfold. Be on the lookout for coupon booklets available at grocery stores. Look for online printable coupons (they tend to have the highest dollar amounts).

About an hour or so of planning a week for me always returns great results.

Back when I lived in Morgantown, WV I stumbled upon the Forks of the Cheat Winery. I had been out picking wild blackberries with my mother, who was in town for the summer from Florida. We decided to go to the winery and pick up some local wine and the owner, Jerry, asked what we had been out and about doing, since we were all smudged and rumpled from being out in the wild berry patches.

When I told him we had been picking berries all morning and still did not have enough for a pie, he took us up the hill and showed us the Vineyard’s lovely cultivated blackberry patches. In the end, he and I had made an agreement that I could come out and pick berries anytime I wanted and all I needed to do in return was leave half the berries in the vineyard’s freezer.

That was an amazing summer, filled with amazing blackberry pies and blackberry ice cream. I remember, in particular, hosting a blackberry ice cream party at my apartment for a bunch of my friends.

Anyway, today as my dad and my daughter and I were driving back across the state from my grandmother’s house to my dad’s place on the Shenandoah, we made a little side trip to the Vineyard. A few years ago my dad stopped and bought some of their Bad Cat and Airmail Jones (both sweet whites). He wanted some more and I wanted to pick up a bottle of their Niagara. She tasted it that day when we had been out picking berries and tells me often that it reminds her exactly of the grapes that used to grown in front of her childhood home.

Of course, I ended up with two bottles for myself – Reisling (my favorite) and a bottle of their Schwarzer Bär, which they categorize as an off-dry white. Both were outstanding.

The Forks of the Cheat Winery has changed a lot, but the wine is just as great as I remember. Now the grounds have terraced gardens and areas to sit and look out over the mountains. Apparently they have a lot of food and wine events there now. No wonder, it’s one of the most lovely places in the area.

Now, the challenge will be to get all of the bottles safely back to Florida in my suitcase, because the winery is unable to ship to Florida.

I have been thinking lately that my daughter and I dine out too often for my budget. We eat at places that are reasonable and I’m not breaking the bank, but I had a food epiphany today.

My dad took me to a little place in Charles Town, WV today called John’s. It’s right up the road from the old Rainbow Room bar, where Patsy Cline used to perform. It’s unassuming to look at and advertises country cooking, but it is anything but. The menu is expansive and everything on it is high quality and absolutely amazing.

My epiphany is basically this – I have no business dining out at all unless the food I am paying for is at least as good as the food at John’s, and that is not something you are going to find all that often in the price range of John’s. Therefore, I really have no business spending my money of food that is only mediocre when I am really rather a good cook on my own.

John’s is no particular style. It’s just skillfully prepared food at about the same prices you might expect to pay at any given chain steakhouse. I had an almond crusted chicken tonight that actually had me scraping the pan-drippings off my platter. The crab cakes and breaded shrimp were better than any seafood I have had in all my years of living in Florida. My daughter had vegetable soup that was more like a stew and a meal unto itself. I could go on and on, because I shamelessly sampled from everyone’s meals to make sure I had a taste of everything. I kid you not, if you are within 50 miles of this place you need to take the time to give it a try.

I’m looking for a good link now, but they must not have a website. So, here is the information:

John’s My Pappy’s Place
U.S.340S (south of Charles Town)
Rippon, WV 25441
Map
304-725-4348

The last day of school for Gigi was Tuesday. My last day was yesterday. Some of the teachers went in today, but I was told I could stay home, which suits me fine while I sit and lick my wounds after the layoffs.

Anyway, Saturday Gigi and I are flying into Dulles. We are spending a week or so with my dad. He built a lovely home on the banks of the Shenandoah River and I can relax while Gigi runs wild and plays in the fields and in the water. We will probably take some time to go into DC, most likely so Gigi can see the National Zoo. I told her I would take her to where mommy went on field trips as a child and she is quite excited. We will also take time to drive out to see my grandmother. My daughter is fortunate to have a great grandparent alive and I feel bad that we did not get over to see her last summer. I had a set of great grandparents alive until I was about 13, and then another great grandmother who lived until I was 23. I was super fortunate and I want to make sure Gigi appreciates the time she has with Grandma Dot.

I know when we come back into town I have to resign a lot of my time for a job search, so I am determined to make the most of relaxing at the beginning of the summer break. I will be SO happy when I am finally at a place where I have a continuing contract with the school district so I can let down my guard just a bit.

OK, so it’s not doom, really. However, Saturday I got the dreaded letter from the school district informing me that I have been terminated. On the bright side, it’s not due to my job performance. On the dark side, I am still trying to get used to working in a system where seniority is more important that job performance, effectiveness in the classroom, and talent.

My boss is livid. When someone like me is let go to make room for someone else in the district that lost their position and has more seniority, the school gets no say at all in who is placed with them. She told me that the last two people they have been assigned to them have been useless. They are essentially dead weight in the department. Those of us who she has interviewed and hand picked end up picking up the slack. It’s good to know I was appreciated.

I went through the tears and panic over the weekend. Today I have been able to let off some steam with my co-workers. I feel a lot more ready to face the months ahead now. I may very well be placed quickly in another position. Or, there might be an instructional position out there for me. That is what I really want anyway. Still, I wanted to be the one that decided I was leaving for another position. I did not want to be forced out by circumstances and the fact that I am just a name on the list to the people at County.

Pray for me.