Writing a Children's Book - Knowing Your Audience

If you are writing a children's book, you have to know who you are writing for. You may remember your favorite titles from your childhood. Some of them may still be popular. But without taking time to learn what children are reading today, you will be writing a children's book that will simply collect dust.

It may surprise you how much variety there is in children's literature. It would be a mistake to assume that the success of the Harry Potter books, for instance, means that the children's bookshelves are full of witchcraft and wizardry. In exploring the children's literature section of the bookstore, you will see there is no 'right' way to write for children. You have the opportunity to find self-expression and write a children's book that is uniquely yours.

You must get to know your audience. You would write differently for a five-year-old than you would for a fourth grader. You may want to cater to a specific reading level. Choose your audience before you begin, and be true to that audience.

Writing a Children's Book - Knowing Your Audience

Toddlers

Children of this age are in their explore stage. They are concrete learners and accept information at face value. They appreciate seeing colors, shapes and textures in the books they are reading. Illustrations should be big and bold, since most of the toddlers are still not able to read, they will just look at the pictures. Cloth books and pop-ups are very effective if you want to get the attention of your toddler audience. The famous book of Bill Martin, Jr., Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, made use of big illustrations of animals and simple, repeating words that children can understand easily.

Preschoolers and Primary Graders

Like the toddlers, preschoolers and primary graders enjoy picture books and early readers. This age group can identify colors, shapes, letters, and numbers, but they still prefer to read books with more illustrations. They can still appreciate books made for toddlers. In fact, you can write a book targeting both toddlers and this age group. Preschoolers and primary grade readers both like books of fiction as well as non-fiction. They like to read about animals, sports, family and school. Using repetitive verse will help these children learn to read.

Upper Primary Grade

Books for the upper primary grade children are more complex and usually have more than 100 pages. Children at this stage like to read books with chapters and will still appreciate illustrations, but not as much as toddlers and preschoolers. They will appreciate books like Judy Moody or Ivy & Bean. These kinds of books have stories that upper primary graders can relate to. The characters in these stories are regular grade school children who have lots of adventures.

Middle Grade

Middle grade children understand the world better at this point in their lives. They already know what conflicts are and will want to find out about the resolution. They can identify closely to the characters in a book and can relate the stories to real life situations. Their interests are expanding and they can read books about history, sports, crafts, science and the like. Books for this stage have fewer pictures compared to the first three age groups.

Young Adult

Young adults are the teenage group. Teenagers already have issues with love, family, friends and school. The kinds of books teenagers want to read will be about love, sex, family problems and drugs. The teen world is in between the children and the adult world, so they are usually confused and are often attracted to danger. Young adults are inclined to read more complex books like thrillers, science fiction, fantasies, romance and other exciting stuff.

To write a children's book, you should know what your audience is reading. Your best resource, of course, is the children themselves. If you want to write a children's book, you should find out firsthand what interests them. Talk to them about what books they choose to read, and what their favorites are. Read to children if you have an opportunity, and observe what gets the most animated reactions from them. It won't take long for you to get a feel for your audience!

Writing a Children's Book - Knowing Your Audience
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Terence Tam is the founder of Bookpal, he previously spent 6 years as an academic and was a contributing author for several academic books. Frustrated with the level of service he was getting with traditional publishers, he set up his own self publishing company to help other authors publish and market books with cost effective yet efficient solutions

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Encouraging Children's Language Development

Parents and carers can use a range of strategies to encourage children's language development. We thought of the following:

Talking to the child - even before a child can speak it is important for the adults and children around him to talk to him, for instance, by explaining what you are doing together ('It's time for Adam's lunch, isn't it?'), or what is happening ('It's lovely and sunny out here', 'Mummy will be here soon'). Remember to leave pauses so the child has chance to respond.

Using facial expression to convey meaning - children may not understand the words but they will usually understand the meaning if clear expression is used. For instance, if a child picks up a piece of soil in the garden and is about to eat it you might take it off him saying 'yuck' or 'nasty'. He may not know what 'yuck' or 'nasty' mean. If, at the same time, you also scrunch up your face and stick out your tongue to indicate a horrible taste, the child will understand your meaning quite clearly. Most adults do this quite naturally when speaking to young children.

Encouraging Children's Language Development

Reading and story-telling.

Social interaction. Including the child in experiences that give him the opportunity to hear conversations and meet new people.

Language and Other Areas of Development

The child's ability to communicate and use language effectively is of key importance to many other areas of their development.

Language has particularly close links with intellectual development and is the main tool by which we are able to develop our thought processes. For example, we use words to help us store and recall memories and other information.

Think about the word 'sunshine' - what memories and thoughts does this bring up for you?

Everyone's memories and thoughts will be a little bit different. When we asked a group of students this question, their answers included:

warmth light my holiday in Cyprus summer a t-shirt I have with a sun motif flowers.

This is a good example of the way in which words act as tools to help us organise and recall our thoughts and memories.

We also tend to use words mentally to direct and plan our actions, for example: "I'll drop these off at the library first and then call into the supermarket."

It follows that children whose communication skills are impaired in some way, or who have limited vocabularies, may also find it more difficult to develop reasoning skills and acquire new concepts.

Communication skills are essential if children are to express themselves clearly and understand others. It follows that there are close links between language and communication skills and the development of social skills. Poor communicators tend to find social situations difficult, and also find it more difficult to build relationships with other people.

Becoming a Communicator

Effective use of language involves far more than simply learning words - the child also needs to learn a whole range of skills around speech and communication, such as understanding how a conversation works. These are known as pragmatic skills.

Pragmatic skills begin to develop in the early weeks of life, with tiny babies 'turn taking', initiating communicative interchanges, and 'talking' non-verbally to their carers.

Pragmatic skills include:

knowing that you have to answer when a question has been asked; being able to participate in a conversation by taking it in turns with the other speaker; the ability to notice and respond to the non-verbal aspects of language; awareness that you have to introduce a topic of conversation in order for the listener to fully understand; knowing which words or what sort of sentence-type to use when initiating a conversation or responding to something someone has said; the ability to maintain a topic; the ability to maintain appropriate eye-contact (not too much staring, and not too much looking away) during a conversation; the ability to distinguish how to talk and behave towards different people and in different situations.

Many everyday activities can be used to encourage children's language development, for example during mealtimes or group work. Parents and carers should look for opportunities to help children develop their language. This would include opportunities to:

use questions listen learn new vocabulary speak.
Handling Mistakes

Young children make many mistakes in their speech. They often use grammar incorrectly and they may mispronounce words because they have difficulty in making the correct sounds. They substitute the difficult sound for an easier one, for instance 'th' for 's', as in 'yeth' for 'yes'. Such difficulties usually resolve themselves by 5 or 6 years of age.

It is very important to tackle such errors in a positive way if you are to boost the child's confidence. Avoid direct correction of errors. Show the child that you have understood what he is trying to tell you and also teach him how to say the word correctly. For example:

Child: 'mook.'

It is better to respond with 'Yes! Book, book.' than 'No, not mook, book.'

With older children too, it often helps to echo back mistakes correctly. They get the message but they do not feel criticised. This can be the key to good communication between the two of you.

Child: 'I have to do vis homework for tomorrow.'

Adult: 'You have to do this for tomorrow? OK.'

Some children are so keen to get the words out, or have so much to say, that they stumble over their words. Parents may worry that the child is beginning to develop a stutter but this is just a temporary stage that many children go through. It is not a true stutter. It is only likely to become a problem if parents or carers make a fuss and try to correct the child's speech. The child then becomes self-conscious and a real stutter may develop, at which stage the help of a speech therapist may be required.

Delayed Language Development

Children may be slow in learning to talk for several reasons, including:

genetics - it may be that the child's parents were late talkers too. he or she may have been concentrating on other aspects of development, such as learning to walk. not enough individual attention from adults - children learn to talk from adults rather than children. This can be a problem in large families or where there are twins or young children who are very close in age. lack of encouragement. deafness - A child cannot learn to speak if he or she cannot hear the words spoken by other people. They also needs to able to hear themselves so that they can improve their own attempts at words. Interestingly, during the first year, profoundly deaf babies often babble at the same time as other babies, but they stop after a few months. This may be because they cannot hear themselves and so can't reinforce their babbling.

It is extremely important to recognise deafness in children at an early age, as the earlier the child receives treatment the better the outcome. Parents and carers are ideally placed to notice that something is wrong with a child's hearing. Such problems are also often picked up at the routine developmental checks carried out by health visitors during the first year or so.

Encouraging Children's Language Development
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Linda Pollitt, Director of Studies, Learning Curve

http://www.learningcurve-uk.com

To try a free short child psychology course visit:

[http://www.onthecurve.co.uk]

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25 Fun, Cheap, And Easy Things To Do With Your Kids This Summer

Summer is a great time to finally squeeze in all of those activities that you don't have a chance to do during the school year. Here are 25 fun, cheap, and easy ideas for keeping your kids busy until the school bell rings again in the fall.

1. Map out all of the different parks in your county and hit each one (on a different day) with a picnic lunch.

2. Teach the kids some jump rope rhymes from your own childhood.

25 Fun, Cheap, And Easy Things To Do With Your Kids This Summer

3. Find a new trail to hike.

4. Plan a scavenger hunt. All you need to do is list 20 or so items that are frequently found in nature. Then distribute the list to each of the kids. The first person or team to find everything and bring them back wins a small prize.

5. Tour a local factory or museum.

6. Take the kids to a scenic area with a set of watercolors and ask them to paint what they see.

7. Visit a local botanical garden.

8. Call your local public library to ask if they are sponsoring any reading contests or special story times.

9. Get a group of friends together and take the kids to the nearest water park or amusement park.

10. Start your own reading incentive program for the kids. For every three books, treat them to a sundae or a special trip to the bookstore.

11. Check your local newspaper for fun community events, such as local dance performances or magic shows.

12. Explore a new bike path.

13. Each Friday, eat a picnic lunch somewhere new.

14. Teach the kids how to cook or bake something delicious.

15. Teach the kids how to decorate cakes and let them experiment with a few cupcakes.

16. Bake a dozen muffins and take them to your spouse's office. Visit for a bit.

17. Take turns with other parents in your community teaching the kids about different crafts.

18. Get a nice new workbook. Before the school year ends, ask the teacher what books she recommends, so your child will keep up with her studies.

19. Plant a vegetable or flower garden together.

20. Ask your children to research a charity and brainstorm ways that they can raise money for it.

21. Visit a local farm or orchard and help out for an afternoon.

22. Ask the kids if they would like to learn a new sport or activity. The summer is a great time to try something new without the commitment that often comes with starting it for a school year.

23. Assign the kids a pen pal, and encourage them to write notes and letters every couple of weeks.

24. Have the kids try out a new musical instrument.

25. Make an obstacle course with sidewalk chalk and time each other on how long it takes to complete the course.

Get creative and think of your own ideas to enjoy some fun in the sun, and don't forget to spend some unstructured time, doing absolutely whatever you want.

25 Fun, Cheap, And Easy Things To Do With Your Kids This Summer
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Jamie Jefferson writes for Momscape.com and Susies-Coupons.com, where she shares discounts and specials on specialty kids' clothing as well as coupons for name brand outdoor gear.

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How To Get Children Interested In Reading

Most people already know the benefits of reading. People learn by reading. People also have fun and feel fulfilled by reading. As a person reads more and more, the person's literary skills improve. Reading makes people into better readers, writers, and speakers.

Unfortunately, children do not read much anymore. Because most people never get interested in reading as children, as adults they also do not read much. Some polls even say that the majority of people in the United States do not read anymore. You probably want your children to pick up the beneficial hobby of reading. Let me suggest a few ways that you can get children interested in reading.

Less TV - You can get children to read more by getting them to watch less TV. Children read less because they lazily waste their time rotting their mind in front of a TV--a behavior they usually pick up from their parents. Consider deciding not to have a TV, or at least do not have cable. Even if you do have a TV, watch less yourself because children model their behavior after the adults in their life.

How To Get Children Interested In Reading

Suggest Books That Would Interest The Child - You can also get children to read by helping them find books they like. You can do this by bringing the children to a library or book store and letting them pick out books that interest them. You can also suggest books about topics of interest to the child. For example, if you have a child who likes to play soccer, consider suggesting a book about soccer to the child.

Do Not Push Too Hard - If you try to force children to read, or if you otherwise pressure them to much, you will make them dislike reading. Try not to make reading seem like a chore. Instead, you want to get the children to read on their own free-will. You want them to read voluntarily because they see the fun and self-benefit of it. Forcing your children to read will make them into good slaves who like to obey orders, but it will not make them into good readers who like to read.

Teach Children To Read Well - Children will not want to read if they cannot do it or if they cannot do it well. People like to do what they do well. If you have a talent for singing, you would like to sing. In contrast, if you sing horribly, you will not waste your time embarrassing yourself at it. Children will want to read more if they feel like they read well. Teach them how to read better in a positive environment. Additionally, compliment their reading abilities so that they feel proud and confident of their reading abilities. If they feel proud and confident of their reading abilities, the children will want to read more.

Use those methods to get your children to read more. Also, feel free to think of more methods.

Whatever you do, good luck and have fun!

How To Get Children Interested In Reading
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Scott Hughes owns and operates a website about books for readers at OnlineBookClub.org. You can discuss this article and reading in general at the Book and Reading Forums. It's completely free.

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What's My Car Worth? Using Kellys Blue Book to Determine the Value of Your Car

As the saying goes, your car is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Nevertheless you still want to get the highest amount that you can for your used car. So the trick here is to determine how to make your car more attractive to buyers and to  know the baseline amount that cars similar to yours are selling for in your local market. The best place to start your search for tips and car values is Kellys Blue Book for cars.

Kellys Blue Book for cars is a renowned automotive industry standard car appraisal guide that provides step by step guides that will help you sell your car but also gives you the "Private Party" value of your car. And the Blue Book for cars is easy to use. At the Kellys Blue Book website click the tab for used cars, then under  KBB Values type in your car's year, make and model or simply choose the specified data from the drop down menu that appears once you click the down arrow beside the required data box. For example, if you want to sell a 2005 Ford Focus, choose 2005 from the year box, Ford from the make box and Focus from the model box.

After pressing the GO button, you will be redirected to the  Value page where you have to choose the "Private Party" Value. The Private Party Value aims to provide you with the fair market price others would be willing to pay. Then select your car's trim or version by clicking the list that appears. For example, if your trim is Focus ZX4 S Sedan 4D, click that and go to the KBB Equipment page where you choose your car's specific details, including transmission and mileage, and accessories. Don't be overwhelmed with the number of selections, the standard items included on your model are already checked on the  page, you just have to revise or add more equipment as needed by simply clicking the appropriate selections. After making the appropriate selections, the final Kellys Blue Book page will appear. You have to select your car's overall condition - whether excellent, good, fair or poor. The description on each characteristic is described in the Kellys Blue Book page so you're not confused. But if you still can't decide, there is always the KBB condition quiz to further help you in your choice. But beware! Be truthful and remain as unbiased as possible when making your choices on this KBB page. Don't let your sentimental attachment to your car cloud your choice. If you do, you will get an incorrect blue book for cars appraisal value. When you're done, you will see the KBB Private Party Value for your specific car's condition. You can further confirm your car's value by comparing it with other similar cars in the market by browsing through  Local Listing Search. This will show you available similar cars available in your area. Once you become satisfied that you know your car's blue book value, you can then concentrate on making your car more attractive to buyers, so that you'll see the green!!

What's My Car Worth? Using Kellys Blue Book to Determine the Value of Your Car

What's My Car Worth? Using Kellys Blue Book to Determine the Value of Your Car
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For more information on Kellys Blue Book and other car price value guides like NADA bluebook or Edmunds Guide, go to http://www.Kellys-Blue-bk.com You may reprint this article in its entirety, but you may not make changes or edit the material, and you must leave the Author's Resource Box intact.
Thanks!

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Two Super Activities to Teach Your Kids the Books of the Bible

Do you and your kids know all 66 books of the Bible? If not here are two super fun activities that will have your kids reciting the names of God's great books over and over again. Just follow the directions and have fun!

Memorizing the Books of the Bible Activity #1:

Unscramble It!

Two Super Activities to Teach Your Kids the Books of the Bible

For this activity you will need envelopes that contain the letters of any book in the Bible. Scramble the letters up. Divide your class into 2 teams. Give an envelope to a child on the first team and tell him that on the word "Go" he must unscramble the letters to write out a book of the Bible. Tell him that if he can unscramble the book within 30 seconds, he will earn 100 points for his team. (You can make the amount of time longer or shorter depending on your class.) As a challenge, you could give both teams an envelope that contains the same book. The first team to unscramble and find it in the Bible wins 100 points.

Memorizing the Books of the Bible Activity #2:

Bible Book Jump Rope

For this activity you will need a jump rope and 2 turners. Have a child from one team come forward. You will give him a book from the Bible. They must say the next 10 books that follow. If they are successful, they get 100 points for their team. Now the child gets to jump rope 10 times. For each successful jump up to 10, they get 10 extra points for their team. So, if the child jumped 8 times without stopping, he will earn 80 extra points.

Here's a tip: If you give the child a book from the Bible towards the end such as First John, he should just say the next 10 books by "wrapping" around to the beginning of the Bible. For example, the next 10 books after First John would be Second John, Third John, Jude, Revelation, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua.

Two Super Activities to Teach Your Kids the Books of the Bible
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If you liked this Sunday School/Homeschooling idea, then sign up to receive Scripture Lady's Free Email Kid Tips packed full with creative ideas and receive 6 FREE BIBLE REVIEW GAMES to help get the kids you minister to excited about the Bible!

Just click here: http://myfreebiblegames.com to receive your 6 FREE BIBLE REVIEW GAMES!

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5 Great Games to Teach Your Kids the Books of the Bible

I believe one of the main goals of every Sunday School teacher should be is that their class knows all the books of the Bible by heart. If we want our kids to grow up being scholars of God's Word, they need to know where every book is and have an idea of its main characters. Here are 5 fun games you can play to get your kids on the road to better knowing the greatest book of all time.

To Play:

You will need to make a set of "Bible Book Cards". You can easily do this on your computer with some colorful graphics or you can simply print the names of all the books of the Bible on some index cards. Some of the games use points. So, on the backs of the cards, in random order, you will want to print point values of 100 to 500. Kids REALLY like earning points for their teams. Finally, I suggest you laminate all the cards for long-term use.

5 Great Games to Teach Your Kids the Books of the Bible

5 Great Games

1. OT/NT Sort - Simply get 2 boxes and label one "Old Testament" and the other "New Testament". Grab 10 or so of the Bible Book Cards and set a timer to 30 seconds. When you say, "Go", give a child the opportunity to correctly sort the cards in their appropriate boxes. For every one he got correct, tally up the points for his team. As the children learn their books better, you will be able to give them more cards to sort.

2. Order Up! - Grab a clothesline and some clothespins. Give a child a set of Bible Book Cards that you would like him to put in order. You might want to limit it to 5 cards to begin with until he gets to know the Bible. For this game the points are tallied only on the cards that were placed out of order. The team with the least points wins. You might consider setting a time limit on this game as well.

3. Grab and Find - Grab a bucket and put in some Bible Book Cards. Have a child come up and pull out a card. Give him 15 seconds to find the book in the Bible. If he is successful, he gets the points on the card for his team.

4. Name a Character - This is played the same as #3 above, but instead of finding the book in the Bible, the child must say one main character that is in the book that he chose.

5. Guess the Book - Lay out 5 Bible Book Cards on a table. Read a Bible verse from one of the books and give a child the chance to guess which book on the table it comes from. Reward the points on the back of the card if the guess was correct. Keep reading verses for the other cards until there are 2 left. Lay out more cards to make it harder.

If points are involved in a game, I usually have a child from the class come forward and be my scorekeeper. Have fun!

5 Great Games to Teach Your Kids the Books of the Bible
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If you liked this Sunday School/Homeschooling idea, then sign up to receive Scripture Lady's Free Email Kid Tips packed full with creative ideas and receive 6 FREE BIBLE REVIEW GAMES to help get the kids you minister to excited about the Bible! Just click here: http://myfreebiblegames.com to receive your 6 FREE BIBLE REVIEW GAMES!

Kathy Vincent is the director of a performing ministry for children called The Scripture Lady and has been traveling around Southern California for the past 14 years ministering to preschoolers and elementary aged children with the Word of God through musical, thematic presentations. She is also a regular seminar speaker, author/creator of over 30 products for the Christian children's worker and a veteran homeschooling mom of two.

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