Brandi's Place

I honestly didn’t know what I wanted to write about today, so I asked my kids. They wanted me to talk about fuzzy socks.  “Fuzzy socks?” I said. “How interesting! What do you like about fuzzy socks?” And my oldest daughter said “They keep my feet all toasty!” “Mine too!” said my youngest.  But one problem I tend to have with fuzzy socks is that they tend to make your feet very slippery on our tile floors. “No problem,” my oldest says “the better for dancing in!” So I asked her to demonstrate what dancing in fuzzy socks looked like. She was absolutely right. The fact that fuzzy socks make your feet slippery is a positive instead of a negative because they are excellent for dancing. My youngest also displayed her best moves in her slippery socks. It’s been a long time since I’ve been a child. Maybe I will have to put on my fuzzy socks and slip slide around the floor with my kiddos today. What about you? What do you like best about fuzzy socks?

As mothers, one of the challenges we often face is protecting our children from unwanted attention from strangers. Even people who mean well can sometimes overstep the boundaries of your comfort zone when it comes to interacting with your children. But let me share with you a story of one young mother of twins who dared to let her guard down in a moment of compassion for a fellow human being and shared her children with a complete stranger. The following story was posted on a friend's social media account and I have obtained special permission from her to share it with you today. ====================================================================== I took the twins to Walmart today for our weekly grocery shopping. An older woman approached me in the cereal aisle, and I instantly sighed in annoyance because I knew the "typical twin questions" were about to start pouring out of her mouth.  When I go out in public, I always plan for an additional 20 minutes just for a

I was recently given the opportunity to read and review a new YA sci-fi novel called The Blue Barricade by Kesten Harris. I wanted to post my review here because I felt like this book would be appropriate for teens as well as young adults. I found no foul or suggestive language in the book and for my family that is a huge plus! The following came from the book’s info on Amazon: Wander Locke never thought the AI War would affect the small, lunar town he called home. The Aggressive Intellectuals would never come to the Moon! He wouldn't have to deal with the war that his grandfather died in. The smoldering remains of his house proved him wrong, taking his parents with it.  He comes to realize that his little sister's body wasn't found in the wreckage. This leads him to believe that she was captured by the AI themselves. The only way to find and rescue her is to become an explorer through less than honorable means...  The president tasks him with chasing an elusiv

  Suppose your child is brilliant at crunching numbers and can memorize facts like nobody’s business, but they aren’t making much headway on their reading comprehension scores. And maybe you’ve been thinking, “What’s the big deal?”    And I am here to tell you that reading comprehension may not seem very important now, but will make learning increasingly difficult as the child gets older if they show little to no improvement.    All information is passed on from teacher (or parent) to the child through language. If the child does not fully comprehend what they are hearing, then they do not obtain the knowledge that a teacher is attempting to pass on to them. There are also numerous studies that link poor language development to behavior issues. Here is one such study: http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/language-development-and-literacy/according-experts/literacy-outcome-language-development-and-its As you can read from this study, there is a strong correlation betw

(A note to the teacher: The goal of this exercise is similar to every other writing assignment; only we are basically asking them to take the creative writing process in reverse to break down a book in order to a good enough understanding to write a review. This assignment also reinforces reading comprehension, a necessary skill for all elementary subjects.) Have you ever read a really good book and wanted to tell someone all about it? Or what if the book wasn’t very good and you want to explain why you thought so? Today we are going to learn how to write a book review to tell someone about a story we read and discuss our opinion about it! Let’s review from last week. What is an OPINION ? An opinion is how you express your feelings or unique point of view regarding a subject. On the other hand, a FACT is a statement of information. Opinions can be arguable, facts, in general, are not arguable. Now let’s talk about a book you have read. You will need to have the book

Opinions and Facts: A Writing Project for Elementary Students Hey Students! Did you ever experience something so out-of-this-world that you just had to tell someone about it? Sometimes it is difficult to describe to someone everything that happened so that that person really understands everything you experienced. Let’s do a writing project together to helps us tell about what we know using both facts and opinions. First, let’s talk about what is a fact and what is an opinion. An OPINION is how you express your feelings or unique point of view regarding a subject. On the other hand, a FACT is a statement of information. Opinions can be arguable. Facts, in general, are not arguable. For example, let’s look at this picture of a kitten:  If I say, “This is a white and grey kitten lying on a pink blanket next to a white flower.” All of those statements are facts, not opinions. There is no argument. But if I say “This adorable kitten is lying on a pretty blank