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GuestBlog

Guest Blog - Would you like to have a blog post on PittsburghMom.com? This is your chance! We feature some of our users-turned-bloggers on this guest blog. If you're interested in submitting a guest blog post, please email Heather at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


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Great Books for Tween and Teens

Written by Heather Starr Fiedler. Posted in Guest Blog

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If you are looking for great recommended books for the the teens on your list. Go no further than the Carnegie Librabry Teen Section.

The teen librarians there have put together a great list divided by different catagories that kids like--there are over 30 catagories in the fiction area alone. Just check it out. They have other great lists and resources on their website. Once you have found the right book, you can order right here.
African American History -- Fiction and Nonfiction Celebrate Black History all year long with one of these books.
Believers and Doubters Struggling with your faith, something that EVERYONE goes through.
Books can be Murder
Brothers and SistersThey drive you crazy, but you love them anyway.
Censorship Causes Blindness: Read!Celebrate Banned Books Week by checking out one of these titles about what happens when the culture of censorship reigns supreme.
Chill out and laughLighten up! Try one of these laugh out loud funny books.
The College YearsGain new perspective on life after high school.
Dear Diary...Read all their secrets in these novels written as diaries, blogs, or other interesting formats.
Don't Stop me if you've heard this one...Retellings of classics
Get Your Game OnIs gaming your life? Try one of these books about gaming and gamers when you can't play.
Girl Power! FictionThese books show that girls can accomplish anything.
Graphic NovelsTeen Graphic Novels- Get a Graphic Novel @ Your Library
Holden Caulfields for the New AgeThe Catcher in the Rye is a classic teen novel. These books feature characters that are reminiscent of the feelings expressed in that book.
It's Rough Out ThereTeen Life and Issues Fiction Booklist
Looking BackHistorical Fiction Picks
Love All AroundThe ups and downs and unpredictable turns of love...
Manga Mania!Fill your otaku impulses! These manga series will get you started.
Modern Day Fairy TalesIt's not all "Once upon a time" and happy endings anymore...
Novels in VerseEnjoy poetry and fiction? Try a novel in verse. These authors use the freedom of verse form to express themselves and their stories.
Outdoor Pursuits: SurvivalWhether you prefer being outside or sitting inside on the couch, these books about teens surviving in the great outdoors will spark your imagination.
Out of the ClosetFiction featuring gay and lesbian characters.
Romance Through the YearsHistorical Romance.
Science FictionThink science fiction is all just spaceships and time travel? Think again...
Short Takes: Short Stories for TeensWhat's better than one long story? A bunch of short ones!
Sports BooksBooks about sports
SurvivalTesting your wits to stay alive
Teen Pregnancy and Parenthood: Fiction and Nonfiction What would you do if you, your girlfriend or a friend was pregnant? These titles explore some choices teens make.
Teens Around the World: Fiction About International Teens Have you always longed to travel? Want to know how teens in other parts of the world live? Try one of these fiction titles and travel the globe without leaving your living room.
Thrillers and Mysteries for the Adrenaline JunkieThese thrillers and mysteries will keep you turning the pages.
Touchdown!Are you a football fan? Then you're sure to find something you'll enjoy! Fiction, nonfiction and movies.
Things that Go Bump in the Night
Vampires: Bloodsucking Fiends? Vampires get a bad rap...read these books and decide for yourself if they're really all that bad.
The Twentieth Century is History! Teen Historical Fiction Historical fiction from not too long ago...
Wisdom, Wonder, WomenStrong Females in Fantasy
Urban Teen FictionTeens living life the hard way
War -- What is it good for?War affects everyone, in many different ways.

Building Blocks the Best Investment

Written by Heather Starr Fiedler. Posted in Guest Blog

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Blocks are so important to a child's development, that I am going to dedicate an entire week to different kinds of blocks and building materials.

Good wood blocks are expensive, no doubt about it. View as an investment. After your children finish with them 13 years or so down the line, you can save them for your grandchildren. As a baby gift, go in with 3-4 friends and purchase some good blocks, your friend will thank you. There are also many new block sets out there that are not anywhere that expensive.

Here is what a child learns from playing with blocks:

Stack and Pile
Share
Cooperate
Build the strength in their fingers and hands
Eye-hand coordination
Understand perspectives.
Develop skills in design, representation, balance and stability
Build vocabularies
Develop skills of grouping and sorting
Add
Subtract
Multiply
Gravity
Balance
Geometry
Creativity
About self in space
Impulse control
Longer attention spans
Boost Language development
Classify
Measure
Order
Count
Use fractions
Become aware of depth, width, length, symmetry, and shape
Wonder and exploration
Problem solve
Planning
Develop dispositions toward curiosity and learning
Dramatic Play
AND SO MUCH MORE



Check out some great wooden blocks on my website.

WEDGITS

Written by Heather Starr Fiedler. Posted in Guest Blog

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"The brightly colored plastic wedge-edged open squares of Wedgits nest, stack and balance in such surprising and satisfying ways, who wouldn't want more of this open-ended manipulative masterpiece?

As your children explore ways of building and balancing structures or stacking and nesting with these five geometric shapes they will be amazed with how the plastic molded pieces fit perfectly together without interlocking. They will find that it's possible to make the blocks "wedge" together and form solid structures and very complex models. While simple in design, using Wedgits will test your child's dexterity as well as his spatial skills and stretch his cognitive thinking abilities. Opposing forces, levers, fulcrums are all problems your child will need to resolve as he reproduces the complex structures." from www.timberdoodle.com

WEDGiTS are also good for children with special needs because they are easy to grasp and they are designed for success. No matter what age your child is their is a WEDGiTS set for them--Starter Set, to Deluxe Set to WEDGiTS on Wheels.

 

I am invisible

Written by Heather Starr Fiedler. Posted in Guest Blog

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I nabbed a babysitter two weekends in a row.  A coup to get on a 14-year-old's social schedule back-to-back weekends.  After having a silly night out right before Halloween - an eighties costume party with parent friends from elementary school - we were looking to do something quieter the second weekend.  My husband was wanting to go out to a nice adult dinner - you know the kind that doesn't involve chicken nuggets or cutting someone's meat.  But we also had an invite for a cocktail party with some of his co-workers.  I hadn't had the chance to meet them yet and it was on the other side of town - involving a trip across the river which is sometimes so foreign to folks in Pittsburgh.  Since our passports were valid we headed to the South Hills from the North Hills to see how the other half lives.

 Great house, great snacks, a fun beer selection, interesting people.  But it was also like every other work event I've gone to with him in the last eight years - I was invisible.  Now, I'm not a wallflower or a shrinking violet and my husband is the life of the party.  But as I learned more about every single person in the room - their jobs, their kids, the last concert they went to, the latest book they had read, favorite family spots around town - not one person in four hours asked me what I do.  Was I unimportant?  Did they have no social skills?  I met two full time stay-at-home dads there.  They were a novelty that everyone quipped about.  Their wives made a good deal of money affording them the opportunity to be home with their kids.   I know I could have volunteered up more about myself, but it's now a long time running joke in our house - will anyone ask what I do?  I don't have a self-esteem problem, but it's nice to feel like someone wants to know more about you.

So my hopes of meeting a new friend were dashed.  As we drove home, I pointed out my invisibility to my sweet husband.  He said they all missed out on getting to know more of me.  We came home to little boys tucked snugly in their beds and all was ok in my world.  Even twenty years out of high school, I long to be accepted, but when the day is over, my true priority is my family.  That's what it's all about.

 Anna


Guest Blogger Bio
I'm a full time stay-at-home mom of two boys - ages 8 and 5.  They are active little guys, who love school and all sports and their Wii.  This year is the first year I have both of them in school together - even though we live in a district with only half-day Kindergarten.  I'm truly lucky to be home with them.  When my first was born, my husband and I hoped to have me home with him for one year. It's parlayed into nearly nine years now - round the clock child rearing responsibility but being there for them for homework and school bus stops and being the first to hear about the trials and tribulations of growing up these days.  With the full time focus on the kids, I have to watch that they become independent and I don't do too much for them. We've always wanted to give them the chutzpah to stand up and be their own little men.  The ultimate goal is to raise "American Gentleman".

In my past life I was a marketing and advertising executive in the cable and telecom industry.  I was hip to all the trends, happenings and goings-ons.  I worked amidst fun people in an industry full of great perks - tickets, sporting events, parties.  Now, it's slowed down, but is definitely more down to earth and an environment where I want my boys to grow up.  I find myself wanting to retreat into the days of simpler times.

 

Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852)

Written by Heather Starr Fiedler. Posted in Guest Blog

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Some of the every best blocks and block concepts were developed in 1800 and we still buy and use them today.


Friedrich Froebel, the German educationalist, is best known as the originator of the 'kindergarten system'. He went on to develop special materials (such as shaped wooden bricks and balls - gifts), a series of recommended activities (occupations) and movement activities, and an linking set of theories.


Froebel went on to influence one of the greatest architects. Frank Lloyd Wright was interested in architecture early in his life and his mother purchased a set of Froebel kindergarten blocks at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia so that he could begin building. Frank was fascinated by the blocks and much of his architectural design was influenced by the geometric shapes he experimented with as a child. Wright would later say "The maple-wood blocks..are in my fingers to this day."


So today your kids can be influenced by a man who understood play and learning and lived over 168 years ago. These toys (or gifts as he called them) are very similar if not exact replicas of what he originally invented.


To see the "Gifts" still available today, visit my website.


Material taken from:




There are many books about Friedrich Froebel available through Amazon.com.









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