It’s LeapFrog’s My Own Story Time Pad, and since it’s geared toward kids ages 24 months to 6 years (my youngest is 7), I decided to send it home with Dan to try out with his 4-year-old daughter. Here’s his review:

Last week I finally bought an e-reader. Like most of us these days, I’m trying to get what I want while staying on budget. After much debate, I decided to buy a Nook Simple Touch from Barnes & Noble. While my six-year old daughter will no doubt end up “borrowing it” soon, my youngest daughter, who is four, will not. This is where Leap Frog’s My Own Story Time Pad enters the market.

My Own Story Time Pad resembles one of today’s e-readers but has what my preschooler will relate to. The construction is what we can expect from Leap Frog, a solid and durable design. On the front there are four faux e-reader or tablet computer options. I call them faux because they are really meant to resemble the adult version. While they offer limited capabilities, they are enough for my daughter. The four options include alphabet, e-mail, a book and music with a paw print in the middle as the command or enter button.

The “Alphabet” mode allows users to choose a letter on the pad. A character voice pronounces the letter’s sound and uses it in a few words. The “E-mail” simulates e-mail from a character on the reader. The character reads the e-mail while the words are shown on the screen. In the “Book” or “Story” mode, a character tells a short story complete with simple graphics. Finally, the “Music” mode plays either a few children’s songs or allows the user to make music using the Pad’s keyboard using instruments and sound sampling. At the end of the mode function the Pad will ask if you have done another activity, like “have you checked your e-mail?” keeping the child busy and engaged much like we are when using an iPad, tablet computer or in my case, the Nook.

As a father, I think this will both educate and distract. I say distract because my youngest does not need a full-blown e-reader or tablet computer. With this she will know what a tablet computer or e-reader do and be a little more ready for them when the time arrives. The experience left me wanting more, but realizing that this is enough for my youngest…for now.

Pros:

Solid construction

Good platform for learning reading, as well as an intro to electronic devices

Cons:

Small screen

Simple graphics

Dan can be found at his blog, The-DG,

Look for a giveaway on this toy coming soon!

Congratulations to

Rondah Stepp of Stoutsville, OH!

Enjoy your prize, Rondah!

Congratulations to

Angela Winesburg of Frederick, MD!

Enjoy your prize, Angela!

My dear friend, Amy, a freelance writer who is currently fighting her second battle with breast cancer and has a gorgeously-written blog on the subject, It’s in the Genes, once told me that she gets crabby when she’s not writing regularly. At the time, I wasn’t sure exactly what she meant, even though it was when I was working in the Herbalife club most of the time (and NOT writing) and I was, in fact, becoming crabbier and crabbier.

It has now been around a year since Amy’s crabby comment and I think I now finally and fully understand what she means. Even though it was crazy trying to blog every single day in May during the Blogathon, I was happier because writing brings me such joy. I know it may not seem that way, considering how often I have actually blogged since May, but I’m coming to terms with the fact that no matter how busy I am, I must, for my peace of mind and well-being, write for fun at least several times a week.

This probably stems from the pile of journals I started keeping at the age of 11, along with the stories, poetry and songs I was always penning. Writing is a huge component of who I am, and that’s something I need to remember, not stifle.

Truth be told, writing of any kind has been difficult to squeeze in these days what with the kids being home almost 24/7, plus my office job for LOGIA, which I love and am completely grateful for, but which does not afford me the time to write that I used to have. I miss my freelance writing business dreadfully and hope that someday, when the economy is better, I can get back to it, at least part-time.

In the meantime, plan on seeing me here much more often. I need to carve out a bit of time here and there to write, and this is the best place to do it.

Plus, I have so much to write about, I can’t even decide where to start!

What activity in your life is essential to your mental and emotional well-being? Why?

I did mine using the feed address from my blog. The largest words in the resulting Wordle are the ones that you use the most.

Here’s my result:

I knew I used the word “just” a lot, but this is ridiculous! And the biggest word in my Wordle is “many,” for Pete’s sake!

Phew. Well, along with being a fun little project, creating this cute little image has also inspired me to be more creative in my choice of words.

Here’s what LeapFrog is up to (from a press release):

Another school year is underway, Education Nation has launched, Waiting for Superman is on movie screens, and we all want to give our children the best possible school experience. Knowing that literacy statistics in recent years have been discouraging at best, in 2009, LeapFrog decided we had to do more to help our youngest kids get started on the right foot—in Kindergarten, the year when “learning to read” usually begins.

So we donated $1.5 million in Tag Readers and books to the classrooms of 10,000 Kindergarten students nationwide. And after using them for a few months, here’s what teachers told us:

o 99% of them said they’d recommend Tag systems to other teachers and to parents, because it makes a real difference.

o   96% said their students’ attitudes about reading improved.

o   95% said their students wanted to spend more time reading.

o   97% said their students’ reading skills improved.

WELL. We felt confident that Tag would have a positive effect in the classroom, but even we were amazed by this feedback. Because teachers have made it clear that Tag helps them and their students, LeapFrog has launched the Tag. Give. Read. program, empowering anyone to “give the gift of reading” by putting Tag materials into the hands of 30,000 more students.

2 ways to get involved:

1.   GIVE TO A TEACHER. LeapFrog has donated $100,000 to DonorsChoose.org, to match donations, dollar-for-dollar, made to teachers who request Tag for their classrooms. This is teachers’ opportunity to post a request for Tag Readers and books, being sure to reference “LeapFrog Tag Readers” in the request. And it’s everyone else’s opportunity to help a teacher out. Everyone can give, no amount is too little, and LeapFrog’s gift effectively doubles every dollar given.

2.   “LIKE” LEAPFROG ON FACEBOOK. LeapFrog will give a Tag book to a Kindergarten teacher for each new Facebook fan we get—it’s what we’re calling our “Virtual Book Drive.” That way even someone who is unable to contribute financially can lend a hand by becoming a fan.

Pretty cool initiative, huh?

THE PRIZE:

Tag Reading System + US Map and 2 additional books for YOU.

Tag map

Tag Reading Sytem

PLUS, choose a Kindergarten teacher to receive a Tag kit for classroom use, consisting of 2 Tag School Readers and headphones, along with 2 copies each of 15 Tag books.

TO ENTER:

♣    “Like” LeapFrog on Facebook, then leave a comment here with your Facebook name. Limit one comment per person.

WANT BONUS ENTRIES?

♣    Suggest to 10 of your Facebook friends that they “Like” LeapFrog on Facebook too. The more “Likes” LeapFrog gets, the more books they get to give away! Leave a comment here telling me you did this.

♣    Subscribe to my blog via RSS or email, then leave a comment letting me know.

♣    Tweet this giveaway and leave a comment with the link. (You can do this daily.) Optional phrasing for your Tweet: I’m entered to win a Leapster Tag Reading System, U.S. map & 2 books from @MomofTwinsPlus2. Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/25jov9h.

♣    Post on your blog with a link about the giveaway and leave a comment here with a link to your post.

♣    Follow my blog on Networked Blogs and leave a comment here letting me know.

♣    Become a fan of Parenting By Trial and Error on Facebook and leave a comment here letting me know.

PLEASE READ: Giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time, Sunday, December 19, 2010. Any comments left after this time will be deleted. Open to residents of the U.S. only. The winner will be chosen using random.org. Winner will have 24 hours to respond to notification with shipping info. If no response, another winner will be chosen.

GOOD LUCK!

Cindi Hoppes of Edwardsville, IL,

winner of the Fibers.com $25 gift certificate giveaway!

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest.

I’m always in awe of parents who have the patience of Job—ones who have the ability to not only provide discipline in a calm, loving manner, but who also let their children get creative and crafty in their home on a regular basis without complaining about it.

I’m the first to admit I occasionally judge other parents, but many times I’m comparing myself to them: how good they are at A, B, C, or how they let their kids slide down the stairs on the couch cushions because it’s good, clean, indoor fun. When all I’d be thinking is, “Hey! That’s going to ruin my couch cushions!”

My children’s latest in-home craze is to build forts. Forts and kids go together like a runny nose and cold and flu season. When I was a child, building forts was one of my own favorite past times, and I have fond memories of playing in them on rainy days, peeking out from the sheet ceiling to watch the lightning. In this technological age you can even find directions on how to build a fort on the web, for kids who’d rather Google it than experiment by trial and error.

My children like to gather every unattached blanket and bed sheet in the house and proceed to create a fort that spans the entire downstairs living room. I remain upstairs silently grateful that the kids have been kept busy for at least an hour without fighting or needing a snack, but I’m fully aware that this brief moment in my day will have consequences and is simply the calm before the storm.

The cherubs then appear upstairs to beckon, “Come see the fort mom!” with excitement in their eyes, anticipating my enthusiastic response to their budding architectural skills. I wander downstairs with them, hand in hand, and look at the creation that’s given me a few quiet moments of respite.

It is times like these when my brain splits in two and I become the Sybil of myself, which is to say that there is the good mom response (GM) and there is the controlling woman response (CW), and I need a few seconds to make sure the correct persona is the only one speaking aloud.

GM: “Wow!” I exclaim. “What a huge fort! You could fit about 35 kids in that thing.”

CW: Seriously? I can’t even see the other side of the room! Are those the sheets from my bed? I just made that bed!

GM: “Boy howdy you kids are creative, using the craft wire to poke holes in the edges of the blankets so you could string it up to the drapery panels. I never would have thought of that! I can see you also used every book in the house to secure the edges of the sheets to the book shelves. And every Yankee Candle too. Just be careful that those don’t fall off and hurt your heads.”

CW: For the love of all that is good, they punctured my blankets with wire? And seriously? They used every book in the house as sheet weights? Wait’ll those books  fall on their heads, then they’ll learn.”

I restrain that controlling woman so only good mom speaks aloud, which inspires even more glee from the children who then ask, “Can we eat lunch in the fort? And watch a movie? Please please please please please?”

GM: “Why of course you can! That sounds like such fun! How ‘bout I make a picnic and bring it down here and you all can play in the fort while you wait? After lunch you can watch a movie, how’s that sound?”

CW: Fabulous. Now I’m going to have to vacuum bread crumbs and wipe peanut butter smudge off the carpet after they eat in there. And no doubt some kid is going to spill her drink. And they’re going to want popcorn with that movie. Ugh.

But I make lunch. And they joyfully eat it in the fort. Five minutes later, their lunch inhaled, they scurry upstairs to announce, “We’re going to go play next door. ‘K mom?”

GM: “Wait a minute. You kids need to go clean up downstairs before you leave. Make sure you fold everything back up and put away all the books.”

CW: And that room better look just like it did before you started.

They pick up, rush out the door in a Tazmanian whirlwind and I wait for the dust to settle momentarily. That eerie silence pierces my ears a few seconds. I relish this brief moment before I head downstairs to find what I know I’m going to find.

The blankets, “folded” in lumpy piles, that wouldn’t fit back into the closest even I used those vacuum suction bags. The furniture, misplaced and moved in various parts of the room. My books, still stacked on the shelves that held up the sheets. More books on the floor—along with packing tape, scissors, and bits of wire from previously held blanket corners. Lunch plates. Bread crust. At least there is no popcorn.

The whole thing is enough to give me a migraine. At moments such as these I really admire those parents who embrace this mess as part of childhood, pleased that their children were able to form fond memories of their youth–when they ate lunch in the tent-city sized fort downstairs. I wish I were more like them. I give myself a mental pat on the back for allowing only Good Mom to speak, although now that the children are gone, Controlling Woman is back and has a headache. I’m trying to channel the patience of Job, but it’s difficult. Perhaps I should build the fort back up and watch a movie.

Rachel Vidoni is a freelance writer and mediocre mom at best, as evidenced by the controlling woman that lives inside her head. If you’d like to tune in to read about her latest life mistakes or feel better about your own parenting skills, visit her blog at East Coast Musings.

So now I have yet another thing to add to my already impossibly long to-do list: Figure out how to fix it.

In the meantime, please excuse the weirdness on the home page until I get it figured out.

I knew from the moment I decided to become a freelance writer that one of my few true loves, writing-wise, is parenting. I absolutely love it. However, I was warned by many that the parenting field is very competitive and extremely flooded, so I decided to start in a less competitive genre to cut my teeth. As I had hoped, I did get some profitable work, as well as some great clips, by starting in agriculture.

As soon as I started writing this blog, nearly 2 years ago, I was hooked for life on being a parenting writer. The fodder for posts is infinite, plus I can honestly say that my passion for it is endless. All I want to do now is write children’s books and parenting essays, columns, books and blogs for a living. It is truly a joy.

My new blog is yet another stone on the path to reach this goal of writing in almost nothing but the aforementioned genres. I hope that I will see you over there, and if you’d be so kind as to leave a comment here and there, I’d be grateful.

And in case you were worried, I’ll still be posting here most weekdays. You can’t get rid of me that easily!