A word to parents...

As parents we're parenting differently, and better, than our parents...right? Maybe not.

Here's an insightful article about what teachers really want from us. Timely for this back-to-school time of year. Let's all support our teachers...they're vital to our future!

Farmers Markets

What better way to engage your child and encourage them (and ourselves) to be healthy than by buying, preparing, and eating healthy foods from your local Farmer's Market? My family happens to live near five (5) Farmer's Markets that are each within a 30 minute drive...enough choices to keep my family interested for the entire growing season, and beyond!

I'll admit, at first my tween daughter wasn't too interested. But with a little coaxing—and letting her know we needed her help—she agreed to go. As soon as we let her help us shop (and pay the vendors herself) she loved it. Before we knew it she was identifying fruits and veggies that "looked good", saying "let's get some of these," suggesting a yummy dish for dinner that night, coming up with desserts we could bake with the fruit we found, or wanting to buy herbs to season our food with—it was great! There's just something so much fun about shopping together as a family, within our community, for a necessity: food. We have to talk things over, compromise, help carry what we buy—really work together (which isn't always easy)—but we always look forward to coming home and planning a meal to cook that night, and for the next few days, too.

A plus at our larger Farmer's Market in St. Paul, Minnesota is that there's almost always entertainment happening somewhere between the isles of the outdoor Pavillion...a folk band with someone playing a saw (yes...a saw that you cut wood with!), a violinist, a guitar player, or maybe a banjo player singing some tunes—even a tap dancer once! It's always different and it's always entertaining. When I turned around last summer and saw my daughter had volunteered to square dance and was laughing with a bunch of strangers in the middle of the market, I knew I'd found a regular destination for our family to visit and have fun at, all the while supporting our efforts to be healthy. Bonus: we get to support our local farmers.

If you haven't involved your child with a visit to your local Farmer's Market already, give it a try. Want to find the nearest Farmer's Market to you? The AMS (Agricultural Marketing Service) on the USDA web site works to maintain a current listing of markets throughout the United States. Find yours here and plan a visit. You won't regret it.

You Are Important....even more!

Our award-winning You Are Important board book series is now even larger! These five titles have been successfully building healthy confidence in young children...

And now we've added two more board books to the series. Now available:
You Are Helpful:

Children want to be helpful and are eager to become more independent. We see this whenever they insist "I can do it myself!" or "Let me!" This warm, inviting book introduces young children to age-appropriate ways they can help out: putting their toys away, getting dressed by themselves, waiting their turn, sitting still at the doctor's office, and more. Written in simple words, vividly illustrated with realistic scenes that relate to children's everyday lives, You Are Helpful lets children know they are competent and capable.

You Are Healthy

Experts have identified key behaviors important to children's health. These include active play, eating right, washing hands, drinking water, getting enough sleep, and spending time with loved ones. This warm, inviting book introduces little ones to things they can do to stay healthy and happy. Written in simple words and vividly illustrated, You Are Healthy is an ideal introduction to a lifetime of good health.

Add these to your collection easily online at marengreen.com, where you save 20% today and everyday!

Are Western Diets Making The World Sick?

A valid question...and a thought-provoking one, too.

Kevin Patterson's essay published in Canada's Maisonneuve journal describes his experiences working as an internist-intensivist at the Canadian Combat Surgical Hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Mr Patterson's essay is a fascinating read on many levels, but the stand-out part to me is this one thing he noticed: Afghan soldiers, police and civilians he treated in Kandahar had radically different bodies in that there was the absence of any fat underneath their skin.

Compare that to what he finds in Canadians or Americans or Europeans: most of their organs are encased in fat.

According to Patterson, "this why 40 percent of North American adults have metabolic syndrome. The syndrome is caused by being fat, even at levels North Americans would not recognize as abnormal. Obesity prompts the receptors that insulin acts upon to become numb to its effects. As we grow fatter, and insulin resistance proceeds, higher and higher levels of insulin are necessary to get the sugar out of the blood. Eventually, overt diabetes may supervene, as it has for 8 percent of North American adults, a tenfold increase since the turn of the last century."

I don't know about you, but that's scary bit of information...especially because we know so much more today about health and wellness. We've got to change. And we can. We can change our diets and behaviors, but it's clear many of us struggle with the motivation to do so. Which is why I'd like to propose some motivation for every time we want to consume unhealthy foods or resort to behaviors that support being a couch potato: think of a child in your life.

We owe it to children today to exhibit a healthy lifestyle so they'll model it and grow up healthy and happy. Especially in our technology-advanced world that so easily supports a sedentary, unhealthy, fast-food lifestyle.

Change today. Start with our title You Are Healthy. Read it together. Make a change for yourself—and for the children in your life. They deserve it.

OMG! FYI…I’m LOL these are now officially recognized by the Oxford English Dictionary. OK.

You’ve probably heard the news about this recently. In case you haven’t, let me be the first to tell you these expressions (FYI, OMG, LOL) are no longer simply letters understood by kids. They’ve reached the point of being understood by a wide enough audience (me included, I’m happy to say) to be included in the dictionary. A true sign of our times.

I’m really okay with it, although I can easily recall my daughter using these acronyms a few years ago and feeling clueless...I had no idea what she was talking about. But that was okay too since I could appreciate the humor in it. Dad was clueless. Daughter thought it was funny. The world was right (for her anyway).

We’ve always had an appreciation for humor in our household, and (most of the time) I think it's been good for us. Most of us are better people when we don't take ourselves too seriously. Most reasons to laugh are good reasons—and it brings some joy, perspective, and general lightheartedness into what otherwise can be "our stressful lives"—not to mention our sad and depressing state of affairs in the world around us (especially lately).

This was exactly why it was so easy to make the decision to publish
The Dirtiest Hair in the World.

I remember the day the manuscript (with illustrations) showed up at our offices like it was yesterday…we laughed out loud (oops, I mean LOL)...and hard...I mean with side-ache and all. We knew this book would be a source of shared laughter between kids…parents and kids…teachers and kids…librarians and kids…pretty much anyone. You don’t have to take our word for it, though. In addition to this representative review,

“As original as it is entertaining…beautifully told and illustrated…highly recommended for family, school, and community library children’s picturebook collections.”—Midwest Book Review Children’s Bookwatch

it also has a Mom’s Choice Award honoring its excellence, too.

We’re glad so many of you like it too, since our sales in the U.S. keep climbing (thank you!). And our Claire (as we so lovingly refer to this book since Claire is the main character who is adorable...and creative, strong, funny, stubborn, smart...and the list goes on!) has been published internationally! Here’s the first look at the Korean version which has already sold over 3,000 copies (we’re helping the rest of the world LOL now, too!).

Thanks for reading – and thanks for buying our books. We appreciate your support—and that you’re supporting the young children in your lives.

WIN A COPY! Leave a comment by April 15th telling us your favorite way to LOL with the kids in your life and we’ll enter you into our random drawing to win a FREE copy of The Dirtiest Hair in the World.

Children with Greatest Self-Control Have Greater Success in Life!

According to this study cited in a recent NPR article, “Children who had the greatest self-control in primary school and preschool ages were most likely to have fewer health problems when they reached their 30s,” says Terrie Moffitt, a professor of psychology at Duke University and King's College London.

Moffitt’s study found that self-control predicted adult success, even after accounting for the participants’ differences in social status and IQ. “Identical twins are not identical on self-control,” Moffitt said. “That tells us that it is something they have learned, not something they have inherited. And she says self-control can be best learned in preschool.

Examples of self-control in the article include: expecting a 4-year-old to hang up her coat without being asked, putting their lunch away when they arrive at school, hanging up their clothes, and washing their hands before they play.

You can help develop your little one’s self control at school or home with Maren Green’s newest title You Are Helpful—from our award-winning ‘You Are Important’ series. You Are Helpful develops a child’s self-control by positively reinforcing the many ways they can help out: when they dress themselves, when they put toys away, when they do chores at home, when they put trash in the right place, when they listen and follow instructions, and more.

Get your copy here. Available in board book or paperback format.

Am I A Quirky Parent?

I didn’t think so…but if pursuing a healthy lifestyle for my family is worthy of being called “quirky”, I guess I am.

I got to thinking about this after reading Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s recent online interview with writer, cancer survivor, and mother of two young children, Amanda Enayati who has written about pursuing a healthy life for her family by cutting excessive sugars, bad fats, dyes, preservatives and pesticides from their diet and reducing her household’s “toxic burden.” Ms. Enayati thinks other might consider her quirky, eccentric, and even annoying. But she's okay with that, too.

Like Ms. Enayati, I’m willing to be considered “different” in the name of pursuing a healthy lifestyle for my family—especially when it comes to my young daughter. It’s so important today to use what we know. And we know so much more today.

In my parent’s generation, they didn’t have access to the information we do today. We know more, and have access to more, and that enables us to make positive changes in our lives—and change is good! I appreciate that I live in this “information” era and can make informed decisions when it comes to pursuing a healthy lifestyle and being a good parent.

But there’s another aspect of having access to all this information: sometimes it’s just too much information. Which is why I try hard to rely on my common sense. While learning the pros and cons, the tried and true, the false and fake, the insightful and the idiotic, the sheer volume of all that information serves as an important reminder that I need use my common sense. That’s a good thing for all of us to remember since we’re the ones who decide what works best for our families and children—quirky or not.

Common sense is also an important component of Maren Green Publishing and the award-winning books we publish. Why? Because it works. And because it’s good for young children. Our common sense approach supports and expands children’s understanding of their life experiences in positive, affirming, fun, and educational ways. With our books you can be help make sure the children you know grow up happy, confident, and healthy—physically and emotionally.

Do you think it’s okay to be a quirky parent, too? Do you think common sense is an important factor in today’s “information” era?

Let us know what you think and win a FREE book to share with a young child in your life. Simply leave a comment with your email address and we’ll enter you in a drawing for a FREE Maren Green book of your choice. Winner will be randomly drawn from entries and notified March 15, 2011.

Thanks for reading!