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Stop by my blog, A Mama’s Rant and enter my Get your toddler to sleep with a little help from Johnson’s contest. I’m giving away $50 worth of Johnson’s baby products!

While setting up the contest, I learned that a leading sleep expert, Dr. Jodi A. Mindell, recommends that you use Johnson’s bedtime products (bath wash and lotion) followed by quiet activities like reading books is the best way get your child to go to sleep. You may also want to try some sleep-inducing snacks.

Here are some sleepy time book recommendations from a few of my favorite publishers.

Kane/Miller Book Publishers

Sophie’s Big Bed by Tina Burke. Even though she’s been sleeping in a big girl bed for years, my daughter really enjoyed this book. If you’re trying to transition your child from crib to bed, this is a wonderful book to read together. Also available in Spanish. (Baby/Preschool)

I Don’t Want to Go to Bed by Tony Ross. Why do I have to go to bed when I’m not tired and get up when I am? asked the Little Princess. Why indeed? Because the King and Queen know best, that’s why. Never mind about spiders and monsters, never mind another glass of water, it’s time to go to bed! But when the Little Princess finally goes and the King comes in to kiss her goodnight…she’s gone! Baby/Preschool.

Marc Just Couldn’t Sleep by Gabriela Keselman and illustrated by Noemi Villamuza. It’s bedtime, but Marc just can’t sleep. He’s scared. He’s worried. Mom to the rescue! One of the first things you learn as a parent is you can’t force anyone, particularly your own child, to fall asleep. If they just can’t sleep, they just can’t sleep. Marc’s resourceful and resilient mom know this, but, like the rest of us, tries anyway. Ages 4 to 8.

The Nights Of The World by Corinne Albaut and illustrated by Arno. Everyone closes their eyes the same way, but then what? An original way in which to discover other places and people and to learn about similarities and differences. Read about five children from five different regions of the world and learn how each child sleeps. Ages 4 to 8.

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Do you have a salt marsh near you? I grew up near one in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. We had a field trip there in sixth grade, and I can still remember all the things I learned about including how to safely eat a prickly pear cactus. (Yes, there are wild cacti in on the Jersey Shore. Who knew?)

Sandy Hook is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area and according to their fall newsletter, they’re having a salt marsh walk on November 3, 2007 at 2 p.m. If you live in the New York City/Jersey Shore area, you should check it out. Don’t forget to bundle up! I remember going fishing with my dad out on the ocean side of Sandy Hook in the winter, and boy was it windy and cold.

If you want to learn more about salt marshes, check out A Day in the Salt Marsh by Kevin Kurtz and illustrated by Consie Powell from Sylvan Dell Publishing. Rhyming verse introduces you and your child to marsh animals and plants. I really enjoyed how each page showed the hourly changes in the marsh as the tide comes and goes.

As with all Sylvan Dell books, a “For Creative Minds” section is at the end of the book. You can play a salt marsh plants and animals matching game or learn more about tides and tidal animals. (To view a PDF of the “For Creative Minds” section, click here. You can also download a PDF of a Teaching Activity Guide.)

A salt marsh is a great place to collect shells. So with that in mind, how about pairing the book with some edible stuffed shells courtesy of FamilyFun.com?

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Did you know that the seasons change in the oceans as they do on land? Ocean Seasons by Ron Hirschi and illustrated by Kirsten Carlson, explores seasonal changes in the Pacific Ocean. Like on land, spring brings new plants and baby animals. Plankton lights up the ocean in the summer. Autumn winds blow across the sea, and humpback whales swim to warmer waters in winter.

The “Creative Minds” section - a feature of all Sylvan Dell Publishing books - explores the ocean’s food web and its plants and animals. Creative Minds and the Sylvan Dell website are great resources for teachers and homeschoolers. The website features an Ocean Seasons teaching activities PDF that further explores the book, vocubulary, animal classification, and humpback whale migrations. The website also has a page of learning links about kelp, sea creatures from the book, the ocean food web, and whale migration.

So what food to pair with Ocean Seasons? Let’s try an update on the tuna fish sandwich from the U.S. Tuna Foundation. They recommend this back-to-school recipe as a healthy alternative to mayo rich tuna salad sandwiches on white bread. Plus, it’s a easy way to get fish and some Omega 3s into your kid’s diet.

Scoop-It-Up Tuna Salad
Makes 2 Servings

Ingredients:

1. One 6-ounce can solid white or light tuna in water, drained and flaked
2. 1 small carrot, shredded (about 1/2 cup)
3. 3 tbsp. light canola mayonnaise
4. Salt and pepper
5. Scoopers: Baked tortilla chips, cucumber wheels, mini whole wheat pitas, celery sticks, and whole grain crackers

Directions:

1. Combine the tuna, carrot, mayonnaise, and salt and pepper to taste in a medium bowl and mix well.
2. To pack for a school lunch, place the tuna salad in a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid. Keep it in an insulated lunch bag with a ice pack.
3. Pack “scoopers” in separate containers or baggies.

In My Backyard by Valarie Giogas and illustrated by Katherine Zecca is a wonderful counting and rhyming book for ages four to eight. Familiar wild backyard animals from foxes to squirrels are featured. If your child is like my daughter Lucie, baby animals are the coolest thing around. So I liked how each animal is shown by baby as well as family group name.

Each stanza gives readers information on the animals including including what they eat, where they live, or what kind of noise they make. So not only are you getting an entertaining story, but your children are learning about wildlife that’s all around us.

As with all Sylvan Dell Publishing children’s books, there’s also a “For Creative Minds” section. It includes animal facts, how to watch for signs of wildlife, and what to do if you find an injured animal.

So what kind of animals are in your backyard?

We have our neighborhood cat, the occasional rattlesnake under the deck, birds, and a zillion grasshoppers, flies, and mosquitos. Nearby we have foxes, prairie dogs, and frogs in the pond at the golf course. Some folks even have toads living in their window wells. Our neighbors had a garter snake living in theirs.

We also have lots of wasps that we have to watch out for when we pick blackberries. The challenging thing about berries is that you have to part the bushes, which are full of thorns, to get at all the berries. But we managed to pick enough to make a blackberry cobbler.

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