Getting boys to read (a guest post)

I had a lot of friends as a kid. Anne of Green Gables, all the March girls, the Hardy Boys, Katy of What Katy Did, the Naughtiest Girl in School and countless other imaginary people were significant in my early life. The world of books was as important to me as the “real world”. Sometimes more so.
getting boys to love reading

My seven year old son doesn’t seem anywhere near as enamoured with reading as I was at the same age. As someone who still considers a good book one of life’s greatest pleasures, this worries me. So when Dymocks literacy expert Ryan Spencer invited me to ask questions about kids and books, I had quite a few. Particularly around boys and reading. This is a longer than normal post but I found the answers so helpful that I had to publish all of them. I hope you find the below as enlightening (and encouraging) as I did.

 

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HELLO! Sarah – Catching up with an old friend

Today on the blog I am really excited to have Sarah over, shooting the breeze and chatting about life in general. Sarah started this blog with me last year around this time. She had to let co-authoring the blog go early in the year due to personal reasons. I often have readers ask about how Sarah is going, so it’s perfectly lovely to have here again, sharing her wisdom, humour and what life is teaching her right now.

 

hello Sarah

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Food organisation: How it can save you money and time – A Guest Post

Today on the blog I have the lovely Sarah from the Routine Queen guest posting. I love food, but I am not great at organising meals or keeping the pantry in order.  Or baking. Sarah, on the other hand, is a gun at household organisation and she’s just the gal to share her knowledge. You should definitely check out her blog for more.

Sarah shares some simple tips on food organisation. Ones that even I can follow.

food organisation

One of the biggest expenses in every household is food. We enjoy it, we need it and we also waste a lot of it. But I’ve found that by taking an organised approach to food in your home you can save not only lots of money but time too! Read more

The Harshest Critic of the Stay at Home Mum: Herself (a guest post)

Today I have Kate from One Small Life guest posting on the blog. Kate talks about the complicated criticisms stay at home mums level at themselves, the presumptions made about other people’s thoughts and the reality of it all. I found myself relating to so much of this beautiful post and I thank Kate for sharing so honestly.

the harshest critic of the stay at home mother

It was that time of year.  Time to get to know the parents of the kids my kid shares a classroom with.

We sat in the sun sipping chai and chatting pleasantly when one of us began asking around the table what we did.  There was a lawyer, a physio, an accountant, the director of a promising start-up – the rest I’m unsure of.  At first I was listening with interest.  What an interesting group of women.  Then my head got fuzzy.  Because I realized soon I would have to say something.  And what would I say? Read more

How Health Insurance Can Help With Healthy Living Costs – A Guest Post

Health Insurance & Your fitness and well being - tips from Health Insurance CompareAs we focus on our health this week, we have a guest post from HealthInsuranceComparison.com.au on how to choose the best kind of health insurance for your needs. I must admit, that my first foray into private health insurance was to avoid tax. As we started a family, we relied on health insurance a little more and it mattered more what was covered. Now, as we enter a new phase of our family life – no more little babies for us – I am once again thinking about whether the right things are covered. Having cover that includes benefits for wellbeing and fitness is important to both Sarah and I, so that’s what we asked Health Insurance Comparison to chat to us about.  Read more