Yep, yep, yep! They do! They do!(You would have to be a Land Before Time fan to catch that… are you?)

Anyway, back to Taco Bell – they are giving BOOKS with the kids’ meals!!!!

I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not – but, I LOVE BOOKS!

And the books are teaching about kindness, courage, honesty, and perserverance.

So not only are they promoting literacy, they are teaching good values, as well!

And that, in my book, rocks!

Here is a pic of the one my son got:

(I know it’s terribly blurry, I’ll try to get a better shot of it tomorrow.)

GO READ A BOOK!

I’m so excited – I just ordered the crafts and goodies for the January mailings for the letters for children!

The theme is going to be ‘animals’. I haven’t picked out what books I am going to be talking about, but, I can show you the crafts and goodies – they are so cute!

And I’m sure I will have no problem finding great, and fun, books to talk that are all about animals!

I really get so excited when I order the goodies, and especially when they arrive, but, I also have such a blast picking out the books to talk about!

Ok, well, let me show you the goodies.

For the craft, we are going to make animal necklace pouches:

Aren’t those so cute? I hope I get to make one with my daughter – I just love it when there is an extra one for her and I to make together!

And to go along with that, the children will receive two animal bookmarks each:

Awfully cute, but, they are that clip kind, so I hope the smaller fingers can manipulate them. They were just too adorable not to get.

I’ll have to ask my moms how the little ones do with those.

Now ya’ll:

GO READ A BOOK!

Once again, this sweet little blog has been neglected! I have tons of stuff I want to talk about here, but, I have been very busy working on other things.

One of them is my personal blog, Hippie Spelunker. I just carry on over there about whatever I feel like at the time!

And today, I had fully intended to really buckle down and get to work on things, but, then I was blessed with yet another migraine. Ugh! It’s times like these that I really wish I was The Headless Mommy!

Well, I hope to get back over here soon – I’ve got tons to share with you – like all of the great books my mother and sister-in-law bought my kids for Christmas!

And a fabulous social bookmarking site for all of us bookworms!

Now..

GO READ A BOOK!

I forgot to tell you, that a few weeks ago I finally finished National Velvet – it was fabulous! I really loved it, once I just pushed myself to read it.

You might not remember, but, I had talked about how it was difficult to read, because there was so much I didn’t understand.

The story is based in England, and so, therefore, there were English expressions that I didn’t understand.

It was also written in the 1930’s, so there were expressions of that time that I didn’t understand.

And there was a lot of horse and horse equipment talk, that I, either am not versed on enough yet (I’m getting there) or it was ‘horse talk’ that was English or English and 1930’s – you know what I mean?

And I am very ‘type A’ when reading – I have to read every single word in the book – from the very front cover to the very back cover. I’ve often been stalled out from reading a book, because I am ’stuck’ in a very boring foreword chock-full of words or ideas that I don’t understand. I was just talking about this with my son recently. He said, “Mom – why don’t you just start reading the book?”

And I explained to him my biblio-perfectionist need to read those boring forewords and introductions, etc.

He thought it was very silly.

Well, on the same token, I really need to ’see’ every sentence that I read. And when I cannot do that, I get stuck. It is very hard for me to forge on ahead not really knowing what hill or valley or horse body part or whatever the author has just told me about.

However, I realized that if I didn’t get over that with this book, I was never going to finish it. And I was determined to read the whole thing, as Shawn brought it home for me from his classroom and that was just way too sweet!

So I pushed myself to not hang on and attempt to understand every single word, and just read on through – and it turned out that I really loved the book!

It was made into a movie with, I think Mickey Rooney and Katherine Hepburn…ok, I could totally have those wrong – but, anyway, I really want to see it!

And the theme is so classic, about the ‘average Jane’ persevering and accomplishing something really grand! Fabulous!

Here is the book:

GO READ A BOOK! 

That’s right!

…sent me a holiday card!

And I love it! Well, any bookworm would – it is so cute!

You can check it out here:

Season’s Readings!

Awesome! I wish I could’ve pasted it here, it is so cute!

Oh well – ya’ll just go look! Ok? And make sure you have your speakers turned on!

And then…

GO READ A BOOK!

I finally got my most important (to me!) lens going at Squidoo! I have been meaning to do this for a long time, and it feels so good to have it started!

Please go visit: Kids Love to Read!

And then, don’t forget to…

GO READ A BOOK!

My daughter brought home an invitation from the local public library for a gathering in the children’s department.

How cute is this?

I just think that is too cute – and that little Booky Chef guy is adorable!

I was so excited about it when I saw it! My 13 year old son peers over my shoulder to see what I’m carrying on about, and says, “Aw, MOM! You’re NOT gonna make us go to that, are you?!”

Well, let me tell you something – Momma didn’t skip a BEAT!

I turned up to him, and said, “Yes! Of course we’re going!” …with the most serious face I could muster!

And if he doesn’t watch his cookies – I just might make him go, too! He may never have to know I was bluffing! HA!

He did ask me then, “Well, do we get food?”

HAHAHA! I said, “That’s what it says!”

And he sulked off silently.

I’m sure my daughter and I will probably go – whether the creatures, ah, I mean – her brothers – will join us, I don’t know!

Now, ya’ll go….

READ A BOOK!

Have you heard about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library? It is a FABUUU program in which EVERY child in enrolled counties from birth to age 5 receives one FREE book per MONTH in the mail!

How amazingly cool is that?

I remember hearing about it, but, it was launched nationwide when my youngest was four, and by that time – we had SOOOO many books in the house! Ya’ll know me! Heehee!

Dolly started the program in 1996 in the county where she is from, in order to foster a love of reading among the preschoolers and their families. That’s my kinda girl!

The program was such a smashing success, that it was launched nationwide in 2000.

Each community gets sponsors to help pay for the program.

Then *from the Imagination Library website*….

“The community pays for the books and mailing, promotes the program, registers the children, and enters the information into the database. From there The Dollywood Foundation takes over and manages the system to deliver the books to the home.”

In my community, the program is handled through the United Way.

You can find the main site here: Imagination Library.

Now – let me tell you what sad thing got me thinking about all of this. My local paper ran an article about the program in my county.

                 

Here is where Mrs. Booky-Bookworm gets very, very sad.

Of all the precious potential Jr. Bookworms, birth to age 5, in my county – less than 10% of them are signed up and receiving their monthly book!

What?!

What?!

Oh me, oh my – that is just way too sad!

I am going to research it further and see what we can do around here to pick that number up – and you go check out the program in your county, ok?

Oh – check this out…the first book the children receive is ‘The Little Engine That Could’ (one of my favorites!) and the last book they receive is ‘Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come’. I am loving this program the more I read about it – those are two awesome books!

The website itself is so cute, with a train theme (fitting) and on the homepage, Dolly is sitting in a little box-thing with five sweet little children and on the box, it says,

*DREAM MORE * LEARN MORE * CARE MORE * BE MORE *

Very, very cool! (I know, I said that already, but, it is!)

You know, Dolly and Oprah – two fine and fabulous women, who didn’t have children of their own, but, sure have given a lot to – and helped a lot of – children all over the world! Gotta love ‘em!

Now…

GO READ A BOOK!

…my stealing a line from them? It’s just a cute little tagline in the sidebar of one of the catalogs…

And it is way too cool to just be sitting there quietly in the catalog, rather than having it SHOUTED from the bloggy mountaintops!

Here it is:

~~~Reading is a gift. Give it.~~~

Isn’t that just great??? I, personally – LOVE IT!!

And from the mountaintops – I shall SHOUT it!

I do have a mountain right beside my house, actually. And the road you take to the top is called…dun dun dun….Mountain Street.

Perhaps the mountain outside my window needs to be annointed, too – now that the Bloggy Mountain has been annointed.

Bloggy Mountain – I think I like that, too!

But…

~~~Reading is a gift. Give it.~~~

That – is pure class! Through and through!

Now,

**Click the bookworm to go to My Very Own Mail.**

I stumbled upon the neatest book this morning while I was browsing on Squidoo.

Have you guys joined Squidoo yet? I love this site – you can check out my first lens here: Kids Love Halloween!
So I was browsing around on Squidoo – different lenses for kids, or for books, or for kids and books, and I stumbled upon what could easily be the My Very Own Mail Mascot Book!

The book is called, “Wow! I’m Reading! Fun Activities to Make Reading Happen” and it provides wonderful – and fun – ideas for teaching little ones to read. It is part of a series and they also have books on science, math, and even arts and crafts! And let me tell you, doing arts and crafts with little ones is one of my very favorite things to do! What a cool series!

And great low price on a used version, too! You’ve gotta love Amazon!

GO READ A BOOK!