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?

Use a Lima Bear Book as a Resource For a Homeschooling or Anytime Lesson | Ages 4 to 8

January 16, 2015 by lbp Leave a Comment

One of our reviewers, Sara at Classically Homeschooling, is such a fan of the Lima Bear Series that she details how to use the Lima Bear Book, The Cave Monster as a resource for lessons that last can an entire week! This clever, thoughtful “lesson plan” is great to use for non-homeschooling parents and caregivers as well.

Below is an excerpt from Classically Homeschooling‘s blog post. You can read the entire post here.

Sara says,

The Cave Monster is an awesome book for a unit study.

Monday

Discuss what caves are.
Read The Cave Monster
Color a coloring sheet on caves, stalactites, and stalagmites
Begin a science experiment creating stalactites and stalagmites
Tuesday

Discuss monsters and creatures that live in caves
Read The Cave Monster
Talk about how the friends worked together to defeat the monster
Chat about ways to work with friends to achieve goals
Create a monster project following the directions in the activity section of The Cave Monster
Wednesday

Talk about big, bigger, and biggest and small, smaller, and smallest
Read The Cave Monster
Discuss the sizes of the Cave Monster
Count the number of friends who came to rescue L. Joe Bean
Draw a picture a favorite scene and count the characters in the picture

Thursday

Introduce the term homonym to your children
Read The Cave Monster
Count how many homonyms you found
Copy them onto a sheet of paper
Check and see how your science experiment is going
Friday

Introduce the concept of plot to your children
Read The Cave Monster
Discuss the plot
Act out the climax with a sponge ball target practice by following the directions in the activity section of The Cave Monster
Did you create a stalagmite or stalactite?

Classically Homeschooling does such a great job with her lessons ideas. You can use her example to create a “lesson plan” for any of your own children’s favorite books, too. If you have come up with a similar “lesson plan” for any of the Lima Bear Series, let us know, we would love to share your ideas with our fans. Use our “extended the learning” pages at the back of each book for a jump start on your own lesson plan.

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.

Children Can Learn More Through Reading Than You May Think

December 28, 2014 by lbp Leave a Comment

Learning While Reading Is Easy Once You Get Started

The key to learning while reading is to include your child in the reading process. You are not simply reading to your child, you are reading with your child. Enjoy watching your child’s excitement as he/she figures out the answers to your questions. For example, after reading the whole book through one time, go back a re-read the book, asking your child to reason out how a picture on the page relates to the story. On the very first page of How Back-Back Got His Name, Lima Bear is shown asleep with a candle next to his bed. The wax has dripped down the sides of his end table (a thimble – too cute, I know). You could ask your child, “why do you think the candle wax is drooping?” Could it be that before it was blown out that it was burning for a long time?

Additional Activities Stem From the Questions that Pop Up While You Read

While you are talking about candles, why not create a little project where you both research how the first candles were made. You could try to make your own candle or visit a candle making shop. See how easy it is? We’ve read just one page of one book and we’ve come up with several great questions and activities already! You can do it too!

Lima Bear Resources to Keep the Learning Going

“Extend the learning” pages, found in the back of each Lima Bear Book, are available to give you a jump start! Interactive reading ideas are also for you in the back of each book. With a little practice, you and your child will be coming up with your own great ideas for additional learning. Feel free to share your own tricks to help your child learn as he reads.

Read Interactively With Your Child | Take Reading to the Next Level

December 19, 2014 by lbp 2 Comments

Reading to Your Child Interactively

Reading a book to your child is a great way to help your child to learn. Sometimes, though, simply reading the words on the page may not be stimulating enough for your little one. Sometimes your child might be perfectly content to sit and listen but on other days, he may not be able to keep one foot still! Do not fret. Your child can still learn and keep his energy at a high level, too.

The trick is to read to your child interactively.

How to Begin Reading to Your Child interactively

Start by going with the old standby. Find a cozy corner, grab a blanket and start to read. Once the story has begun to unfold, come up with some questions before moving to the next page. Use questions that will encourage interaction. For example:

Point to some of the pictures on the page and see if your child can describe what the illustrations are. In How Back-Back Got His Name, for example, the 1^st page has some terrific illustrations. You could ask, “Why do YOU think the dime in the picture is so big?” If stumped, you could point out to your child that maybe the dime is so big because Lima Bear is so small?

Are you getting a sense for how easy reading interactively can be?

Lima Bear Resources to Keep the Learning Going

If you are ever stuck, remember that in The Lima Bear Series, interactive reading ideas have been provided for you in the back of each book to get you started. “Extend the learning” pages ideas are available to give you a jump start!

We will have more ideas for you as well in the next post. Please share any interactive ideas that have worked for you and your child as well.

Welcome to the Lima Bear Press Blog!

December 4, 2014 by lbp 1 Comment

Our Mission

Lima Bear Press is a family company created to capture forever the wonderful tales a father used to make up for his children when they were little. Author Tom Weck spun his entertaining tales to his four young children, especially at bedtime. They wanted to hear these stories over and over. After his children had grown and started families of their own, his second son, Peter, persuaded him to put these stories to print so they would live on and could be enjoyed by children everywhere. [Read more…]