Mother’s Day in the United Kingdom may have been Mar. 22, but new mama Meghan Markle still wished mothers all over the world a joyous day in a sweet Instagram post this weekend.
Even though the world got a glimpse of Archie Harrison Mountbattan-Windsor last week during a much-anticipated press appearance, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared a new type of pic this time. The proud parents posted a sweet photo of the baby’s feet cradled in his loving mother’s hand.
Along with the pic, the pair posted well wishes for the holiday and a quote from the poem “lands” by Nayyirah Waheed.
While Prince Harry didn’t directly reference his own mother, the forget-me-nots seen in the photo’s background are a possible reference to Princess Diana. The delicate flowers, which were also in Markle’s bridal bouquet, were Diana’s favorite.
When it comes to Mother’s Day, it’s near impossible to give the perfect gift that shows how much mom really means to you. No gift can compare to all the late nights and snuggle sessions, but a good book can come close! Whether the mom in your life loves a suspensful thriller or a quick inspirational poem, our roundup of Mother’s Day gift ideas has a little something for everyone.
When The Lights Go Out
Told in Mary Kubica's trademark mystery style, When The Lights Go Out($5) is an intertwined tale of a mother's love and her daughter's quest to find her place in the world amidst a lifetime of secrets. Perfect as a Mother's Day gift, this book is hard to put down and will leave you running for a hug from your own mom.
Lost Roses: A Novel
Martha Hall Kelly's newest piece, Lost Roses: A Novel ($14) is a perfect historical fiction pick. Set as a prequel to her bestselling Lilac Girls, Lost Roses is inspired by true events, and features the beloved character's mothers as they navigate World War I.
First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies
With over 30 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List and a similar ranking on the Amazon top seller list, Where the Crawdads Sing ($13) is an easy pick. Alone in a marsh for her entire adult life, a young woman battles a murder charge that lends itself to a beautiful tale of love, life and loss.
Educated: A Memoir
New York Times bestselling memoir, Educated ($15) by Tara Westover is a must-read. Following the footsteps of a young girl from a survivalist family in the mountains of Idaho, the true-life tale details Westover's first step into a classroom at the age of 17 and her insatiable thirst for knowledge.
Cat and Nat's Mom Truths: Embarrassing Stories and Brutally Honest Advice on the Extremely Real Struggle of Motherhood
There Are Girls Like Lions: Poems About Being A Woman
The busy mom won't wait to be able to get their hands on this gorgeously illustrated collection of poems on womanhood. There Are Girls Like Lions ($12) is a 30-poem book is perfect for mothers, daughters, sisters and anyone who needs a little inspiration.
Love & Lemons Every Day Cookbook
For moms on a mission to feed healthy meals to their family, Love & Lemons Every Day Cookbook ($22) is the perfect gift. With over 100 new vegetarian recipes and gorgeous photos, the kids will hardly miss the meat in this plant-based collection.
When you shell out a few bucks for a box of Girl Scout cookies, you might not realize much the proceeds from those tasty treats can go a long way for a girl with dreams.
Here are three Girl Scout troops making a difference with their cookie earnings.
The Zipper
After learning that autistic children have trouble processing information around them and are unable to regulate all their senses at once a troop from Girl Scouts of Southern Appalachians decided to put their cookie money to use by building an interactive sensory resource for children with autism in their community.
The “Zipper”—a five-foot wooden tunnel with three thousand blue zip ties attached—was designed and built entirely by the troop of seven girls, including drilling, cutting, sanding, staining and sealing the wood for the structure, now serves as a tool for patients at the University of Tennessee’s Pediatric Language Clinic, an early intervention center and training site serving autistic children.
Menstrual Hygiene Lockers
A troop of 5th graders from Girl Scouts of Western Ohio decided to use their cookie money to fund the installation if hygiene lockers in their middle school bathrooms. The troop's goal was to help young girls at school to feel more comfortable and confident and to fight the stigma around menstrual periods.
The troop faced an uphill battle in getting the school to agree to install the lockers, but they never gave up until the lockers were finally installed. The girls also wrote up flyers to advertise the hygiene lockers, which included an age-appropriate poem for younger girls who may not have learned about menstruation and puberty.
First Scuba Diving Troop
A Girl Scout Troop from Austin, Texas made waves last year when they opened the first underwater cookie booth at the bottom of a pool at Dive World Austin. The troop of Girl Scout divers used their earnings for trip to the Florida Keys on order to volunteer at a coral restoration facility.
This year’s cookie funds will go towards their Women’s Dive Day event in July, which the troop hosts for central Texas divers. This annual event celebrates women in diving and conservation.
Growing up with a learning disability—or parenting a child with one—can be very challenging. One young girl’s clever poem about dyslexia perfectly captures what it’s like.
Teacher Jane Broadis took to Twitter to share a poem written by her 10-year-old student diagnosed with dyslexia. The poem instantly gained praise for its powerful message and for the clever way it was written as a reverse poem meant to be read forwards and then backwards again, giving it new meaning.
Today in Y6 we looked at poems that could be read forwards & backwards. I was stunned by this one written by one of my 10 year olds. Please share – I would love her work to be appreciated further afield. I wonder if it could even find a publisher? pic.twitter.com/tmEQpiRrhq
Many Twitter users also commended Broadis on being an excellent teacher and her humbling reply: “It is a privilege to help find, nurture and celebrate the talents of children” as proof the world needs more teachers—and kids—like these two.
February is Black History Month so it’s the perfect time to read up, get busy and get inspired with the kids. While this list is just a fraction of the African Americans who have changed history, we’ve found some kid-approved action-items to help connect with these heroes you really should know. Scroll down to learn more.
1. Mae C. Jemison
Born in 1956 On June 4, 1987 Mae C. Jemison became the first African-American woman to enter the space program. On Sep. 12, 1992. she joined the crew of seven astronauts on the Endeavour, becoming the first African-American woman in space. Born in Decatur, Alabama and raised mostly in Chicago, Il, Jemison holds multiple awards and degrees including a a B.S. in biomedical engineering and an M.D. She has worked as a medical doctor (including in the Peace Corps). As a child, Jemison spent a lot of time in her school library, reading especially books about space.
Born in 1856, in 1893 Daniel Hale Williams opened the Provident Hospital: the first medical facility to have an interracial staff. A major pioneer in the field of medicine, he was one of the first surgeons in the world to successfully perform open heart surgery. As a child he was encouraged to apprentice with a shoemaker and later a barber, but he pushed on to higher education and eventually completed medical training at Chicago Medical College. Because of discrimination, African Americans were not allowed in hospitals, not to mention given staff positions. So Williams opened his own hospital He later also became in chief surgeon at Freedmen’s Hospital, a facility that cared for former enslaved persons. In 1895 he co-founded the National Medical Association, because the American Medical Association did not allow African-American members.
A poet, an author and a teacher, Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks made history in 1950 when she became the first African-American woman to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Brooks began writing at a very young age and published her first poem at 13.By the time she was 16 she had already published nearly 75 poems. Throughout her lifetime, she was awarded more than 75 honorary degrees and a number of prestigious awards and positions. She was the Poet Laureate of Illinois from 1968 until her death in 2000 and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1988.
The first African-American Major League Baseball player in the 20th century, Jackie Robinson made history when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, ending a 60 years of segregation in the league. that same year he became Rookie of the Year. In 1949 he was named National League MVP in 1949 and in 1955, helped win the World Series. Born Jack Roosevelt Robinson, he had an older brother who won a silver medal. Jack Roosevelt Robinson had an older brother—Matthew Robinson—who won a silver medal in the 200-meter dash in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin (Jesse Owens won the gold). Remember, this was Nazi-occupied Germany and his brother’s courage and conviction inspired Jackie to achieve his athletic goals. And achieve them he did.
When Morrie Turner wondered why there were no minorities in cartoons, his mentor—Charles M. Schulz—suggested that Turner create one. And create he did. Wee Pals,which first appeared in the early 1960s as Dinky Fellas, became the first American syndicated comic strip with a diverse and integrated cast of characters. In addition to the long-running cartoon, he also created the Kid Power animated series, wrote numerous books and was honored with such awards as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Cartoonists Society and the Sparky Award from the Cartoon Art Museum. Family Circus honors Morrie with a character (Morrie).
If you’ve got a little writer in your house, try this easy way to transform an ordinary ballpoint into an old-fashioned quill pen worthy of scribing a masterpiece. Read on for the simple tutorial.
You will need:
A ballpoint pen (like a simple Bic pen)
A feather
Scissors
Tape
Step 1. Deconstruct.
Take your ballpoint pen apart. You shouldn’t need scissors or a knife for most pens. You need the little ballpoint pen part hiding inside that tube of plastic. (Caution: pen can leak ink so put away your white table linens).
You should choose a feather with a decent sized quill (this is the hollow part of the feather also known as the calamus) because this is where you’ll be stashing the “guts” of the ballpoint pen.
Step 2: Quill It Work?
Make a small snip at the end of the quill. Slide the thin ballpoint pen inside. If the fit is not tight enough, use a little scotch tape to secure it by wrapping the quill to bind the pen inside. It’s also a good idea to wrap the part of the pen that sticks out with scotch tape, to help avoid leaks onto tiny fingers.
Step 3: Pen It! Voila! You’ve got a modern vintage writing implement! Now write a haiku or poem. Or your memoirs.
Tip: If your feather isn’t big enough to hold the pen, or if you prefer to use a pencil, you can just lash it to the pen using tape or yarn.
If your little literati are already enjoying (and repeating) nursery rhymes it might be time to take their poetry reading list to the next level. Here are some great poets to get your kid started.
The King of Rhyme: Shel Silverstein No way we can write about great kid’s poets without including Shel Silverstein. He reads like the Seuss’ college-age big brother and is guaranteed to make your kids laugh out loud. Where the Sidewalk Ends, with the gems like “Ridiculous Rose” and “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out” belongs on the bookshelf of every budding bard. Parents of younger kids should know there are a few poems that might cause a fright: a little boy who slipped down the drain, for example, but that’s no reason not to treat the kids to all that Silverstein has to offer.
The Classics: Poetry for Young People Series
Didn’t think a kid could handle Edna St. Vincent Millay? This awesome series of books will show you otherwise. With selections of poems from famous poets, including Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe as well as themes like animals and seasons, these books will prove that you’re never too young to find your muse.
The Poet Laureate for Littles: Jack Prelutsky Jack Prelutsky’s numerous volumes of kid’s books span decades and range from anthologies of translated works to original (and perfectly silly) poems. With titles like It’s Raining Pigs & Noodles, Something Big Was Here and I’ve Lost My Hippopotamus, you’ll enjoy reading them as much as the kids.
The Household Name: Pablo Neruda While they may not understand all of the undertones to Neruda’s works, his praise of everyday things like onions, tomatoes, clothing and bird watching are a great way to show children that poems can be about the simple things around them. Ode to Minecraft, anyone?
The Hero: Ernest L. Thayer
If you don’t recognize the name of this famous poet, you will surely recognize the title of his most epic work, Casey at the Bat. Don’t be deterred by the length: the kids will be so enmeshed in the story of the Mudville nine they won’t even notice you’re still reading a poem.
What’s the first poem you read to your kiddo? Let us know in the comments below.
While it may be true that a household full of kids is not always synonymous with peace or quiet, in honor of International Day of Peace, we’ve got plenty of ways for the kids to keep the peace. Read on for some inspiration.
Peace, defined. Grab the dictionary and get to know the definition of peace. Then have them write a sentence or a poem inspired by the word.
Hug it out. Random, unrequested hugs between family members will do more than just melt your heart. melting and just might get them to share their toys a little easier.
Go global. Spin a globe and have them close their eyes and point (this works just as well with a map). Then spend some time together finding out some facts about the country they randomly chose.
Bake love, not war. Whip up a batch of awesome cookies and bring them to your police station, where they can be distributed to the local “peace” officers.
Pets for peace. If you have a pet of your own, take a few minutes to just pet them calmly. If you don’t have one, find out if you can visit your local animal shelter as a volunteer to help feed or engage the animals.
The family that plays together. Take some time to play a board game or another activity like building with LEGOs together, as a family. Even just thirty minutes!
Visualize whirled peas. Make dinner with your child: let them pick ingredients and help with the prep. This may lead to less negotiating over a few more bites, too.
Quiet time. Have each member of the family sit and read or play quietly for at least 15 minutes. Let them choose the activity, but avoid electronics.
Practice peace. Do some simple yoga stretches with your kids. Everyone will focus and have fun. Great poses for kids include sun salutations, “mouse” or child’s pose, downward dog and tree. Here’s a ten-minute instructional video from yoga instructor Sarah Klein and her 10-year-old niece.
Take a hike. Go for a walk outside, in the forest or a nearby park. Take time to breath in the fresh air and have everyone point out one thing they love about nature.
How to you keep it peaceful with the kiddos? Share your tips in the comments below.
Almost every kid has wished for a new name at some point. Whether their name has an unfortunately but uncanny rhyme with a bodily function, or they just simply don’t FEEL like an Owen, littles love to assert their independence by trying on different identities. Take this imaginative play game to 11 by helping them create their very own “updated” birth certificate. Make sure to honor it by calling them “Super Hulk Elsa Elmo” all through dinner.
Photo: Hooverwebdesign.com
Pick a Printable
There are plenty of templates online for customized birth certificates (that are fun enough that you don’t have to worry about a visit from the FBI). Let your child choose the theme he or she wants, from spaceships to trains to flowers.
Make it Official with a Fingerprint
Nothing says official business like a fingerprint. Using an ink pad or even a little tempura paint smeared on a plate, have them add a thumbprint or hand print to the certificate. Want to add even more pomp and circumstance to the ceremony? Watch this video on how forensics technicians take fingerprints at the station, so ensure it’s legit.
Photo: Todd Dailey via Flickr
Hold a Naming Ceremony Seal the deal with a naming ceremony. There are a million ways you and your newly monikered kiddo can celebrate, and a simple little ceremony will do the trick. Have them dress in an outfit of their choosing, write a name poem and then you read it aloud in a special location.
Any more ideas for a fun identity change? Tell us in the comments below!
