Coloring Pages of Scenes from The Labyrinth, Easy Downloadable PDFs

April 8, 2015 by lbp Leave a Comment

We just added more downloadable coloring pages to the Lima Bear Press website. The pages are taken directly from our latest title, The Labyrinth. The Labyrinth’s illustrations are super colorful and perfect for spring. You could use every bright color in your crayola box.

Compare the color scheme your child comes up with to the color scheme our illustrator, Len DiSalvo chose. Ask you child why Mr DiSalvo chose the colors he did. Was it the expression on the character’s faces that affected his choice of colors? Does the current season have an effect on the colors picked? How about your child’s mood? Use the downloadable coloring pages as a family activity. Download a couple of coloring pages and have each member of the family color the page. Later, compare the completed pages.

Enjoy and visit us for more downloadable coloring pages!

Something That Makes You Different Can Be A Good Thing | Help Your Child To Embrace What Makes HIm Different

March 24, 2015 by lbp Leave a Comment

Kids do not want to be different

The last thing a kid wants to be is different. To be different means attention and it is not always good attention. You could be a different in a whole lot ways. You could have a lisp, like Cindy Brady had. You could be the last one picked for the sports team. You could always get the lowest grade in the class or the highest grade for that matter. You could stay back a year instead of moving forward with your classmates or you could be asked to skip a grade. Whatever the difference, we are programmed to believe that different is bad. Wouldn’t it be great to convince our kids and for them to actually believe that different is good?

How a difference can be a good thing

In the Lima Bear Press series book, How Back-Back Got His Name, one of Lima Bear’s friends, Plumpton, has an emergency and sends for Lima Bear for help. Plumpton is an opossum, you see, and somehow his back was missing. When all his buddies come to his aid to help him find his back, they all find themselves in danger from the kids playing in the Big Meadow. Plumton must use his special skill, his difference of playing dead, to get past the kids and save his friends. Plumpton’s difference is what enables him to save his friends!

Reading a story like How Back-Back Got His Name with your child is a great way to illustrate how a difference can be an advantage, something can be embraced, even valued! Share what made you different when you were a kid.

Can You Recognize the Signs of Childhood Bullying?

January 30, 2015 by lbp 1 Comment

No One Likes a Bully

No one likes a bully, least of all a child who may not know how to handle such mean behavior. It is important for parents to recognize the signs of bullying reflected in your child’s behavior so you can help them to do something about it. In the Lima Bear Book, Bully Bean, the bullying behavior is easy to spot. Poor Lima Bear is tossed into a hole that he was too small to crawl out of himself. As if that were not enough, he was also pushed into a mud puddle. Lima Bear has an opportunity to deal with the bullying by showing kidness when the bully of all bullies, Bully Bean, gets trapped. Not all children have such an opportunity to turn the tables on the situation and they may need a little help to cope.

Recognizing the signs of bullying

Dr Michele Borba, author of The Big Book of Parenting Solutions, says “… bullying is starting at younger ages and may be more intense.” Also that, “…our children don’t always tell us that they have been bullied.” This means parents have to be more vigilant than even when assessing changes in our children and watchful for signs of bullying. Dr. Borba outlines 19 signs that your child may be being bullied. Here are just a few from her list.

Does your child:

…have a marked change in their personality?

…suddenly NOT want to go to school?

…have a change in eating habits? either too much or too little?

…have a drop in grades?

or do YOU feel in your gut that something is just not right with your child?

Any of these changes in your child could signal that your child is being bullied. In our next post we will examine the steps parents can take if they suspect bullying. Hang in there. There are ways you can help.

Reading to Your Child Is Fantastic But Do You Know Why?

January 22, 2015 by lbp Leave a Comment

Why Reading Your Child Is a Good Thing to Do

We know that you intuitively know that reading to your child is a good thing. Here at Lima Bear Press we love to share ideas for HOW to read interactively with your child, thereby increasing the learning. But do you know the reasons WHY reading aloud to your child is so important? The United Through Reading organization outlines a few of the many benefits of reading aloud to your child.

UnitedThroughReading.org tells us that:

Reading aloud with children is a powerful educational tool which:

Nurtures the self-esteem of children
Instills the joy of reading at an early age
Strengthens the bond children need with their families while preparing them for academic success
Plus, research shows that reading aloud to children appears to be the single most important activity for building earliest emergent reading skills

A Child’s Self-esteem Can be Increased When a Parent Reads Aloud to Him/Her

We know that YOU did not need a reason to read with your child but it nice to know the wonderful benefits that can result when you do. One of the most intriguing benefits to reading aloud to your child is the building of self-esteem. It makes sense, though, that a child’s self-esteem can be increased when a parent reads a loud to him. Think about it for a second. Not only is the child learning vocabulary and language skills, he is also recognizing that time spent with him is time well spent. How powerful is that? She learns about behaviors and how to respond to situations which can be a huge ego boost to a youngster in social situations. He is armed with new skills that he can pull out and use at will. Can you think of more way a child’s self-esteem may be increased?

Author Tom Weck Reveals Secrets of The Lima Bear Children’s Books in Latest Interview

January 9, 2015 by lbp Leave a Comment

If there is one thing that we here at Lima Bear press have heard over and over again, it is that kids love to have the Lima Bear Books read to them over and over and over again. Recently, the author of the Lima Bear Series, Tom Weck, was interviewed by Rachel Koestler-Grack of Story Monster’s Ink. In the interview Tom revealed a few secrets about those exciting beans from Beandom and how the Lima Bear Books have come to be.

Secret #1: Why bean-sized bears in Beandom?

Tom:

When children come into the world, they come into a world that’s sized wrong, it’s sized for adults. Due to their small size, the Lima Bears encounter many of the same obstacles children face, living in an oversized world.

Secret #2: What are the two strict criteria that each Lima Bear Story must have?

Tom:

The story must be well written and expand a child’s mind in both knowledge and vocabulary. Tom says, “I think young minds are under- estimated in terms of how much they can absorb.”

Secret #3: What is the author’s favorite child’s reaction to each Lima Bear Book?

Tom:

Laughter!

Thomas loves to laugh, and all of his stories trigger sidesplitting laughter from children and parents alike. In fact, if the story doesn’t incite an up- roar of hilarity, it won’t go to print.

You can read Tom Weck’s entire interview with Rachel Koestler-Grack at Story Monsters Ink’s December issue. Tom’s interview starts on page 12.

A New Childrens E-digest, StoryMonstersInk: Great Information For Great Kids Books for Parents, Educators and Kids Alike

January 7, 2015 by lbp Leave a Comment

Tom Weck, co-author of the Lima Bear Series was interviewed by Story Monsters Ink, for their December edition. Story Monsters Ink is a free, subscription-based e-digest (magazine, really) that provides parents, teachers, and children with the latest news on book releases, book events, and author profiles. The magazine features reviews by children on children’s books (how cool is that?) and offers regular features including “Conrad’s Corner” (science stuff that kids and parents can both understand) as well as monthly picks of “Monster Approved” books. It is super colorful, informative and fun.

Tom was excited to be interviewed for the magazine and revealed the backstory of how the Lima Bear Series came to be, how his past of storytelling to his own siblings and then to his own children inspired the series and how his Peace Corp experience helped him develop the rhyming sequences that are a mainstay of each of the Lima Bear Books. Tom describes the collaboration with his son Peter to bring the tales to life (and publication). You can read the entire article at the StoryMonstersInk website. Tom’s interview begins on page 12.