Sally Thompson of Sun Sailor Newspapers, reports in this article titled Putting Family First is goal for grassroots movement that "Members of Putting Family First have been reducing activities to make more time for their families for the past five years. It’s a concept that is gaining attention."

Posted by Susan at 3/23/2004 09:51:00 AM | Link

 
Putting Family First would like to thank everyone that came to our local Barnes and Noble store on Saturday, March 20. What a busy day! Your purchases helped us raise over $300. Since we are a non-profit organization with no regular income to support this website and other community events, the extra $$ is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!

Posted by Susan at 3/22/2004 04:32:37 PM | Link

 
This Saturday, March 20, Putting Family First will host a fundraiser and celebrate Dr. Seuss's 100th Birthday at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Minnetonka, MN, from 9 am to 8 pm. We invite you to join in on the celebration!

Celebration activities include:

Rick Kupchella, KARE-11 reporter and weekend anchor will read and sign his book Tell Me What We Did Today from 10-11 am.

Book signings from 10-noon with local authors:
- Barbara Z. Carlson, Putting Family First: Successful Strategies for Reclaiming Family Life in a Hurry-Up World
- Maureen Lahr and Julie Pfitzinger, Keep Talking: Conversation Starters for the Family Meal.

Story time readers include:
- Judy Johnson, Mayor of Plymouth at 10:30 am
- Bob Fisher, organizer of Bob's Sleepout for Interfaith Outreach & Community Partners, at noon
- Joan Gill, storyteller at 2pm.


Download/printout our flyer and present it when making a purchase to be entered in a drawing for a $25 BARNES&NOBLE gift card. PFF will receive a percentage of all purchases made with this flyer, so don't forget!

If you are from out of town, you can still support us by always making any Amazon or B&N purchases through our website. Just visit our books page, click on any book to reach the Amazon or B&N websites, fill your shopping cart with anything, and follow the sites instructions to complete your order.

Thank you in advance to everyone supporting us.

Posted by Susan at 3/17/2004 07:40:32 PM | Link

 

Every week on our "Family Night", I read aloud one-two chapters from the Mysteries in our National Parks series, by Gloria Skurzynski, Alane Ferguson. This series is about a family that travels to National Parks because the Mom is a wildlife veterinarian and is asked to investigate and solve mysteries at the Parks. We enjoy visiting National Parks ourselves, so we get lots of inspiration to visit the Parks that we've read about.  

To order these books or read more of our recommendations, visit our Books page.

Posted by Susan at 3/16/2004 07:48:14 AM | Link

 

Anne Johnson: "Love You Forever" is our favorite toddler book portraying a family. We made up a musical jingle to go with the main sentence, and now even humming the melody elicits great feelings.  We also enjoy the Nancy Drew mysteries, LOVED Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz, and read often from the Hans Christian Andersen Book of Classics.  We read aloud in our big bed, and it's wonderful. We also so love doing the I Spy books, over and over again, for they are ageless and fun! -- Anne J

To order these books or read more of our recommendations, visit our Books page.

Posted by Susan at 3/14/2004 07:52:19 AM | Link

 
The Schneider family reads from the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborn.

"Every night before bed we travel to different times and to different places with Jack and Annie. Everytime they visit their treehouse, a new adventure begins!"

To order these books or read more of our recommendations, visit our Books page.

Posted by Susan at 3/12/2004 09:00:45 AM | Link

 
From Barbara Carlson:

Our kids favorite books were called Value Tales and were a series of books that came in the mail about once a month. They were beautiful books full of wonderful illustrations but the best part was that they were about real people.  Each book was a story of someone from history and the value that they taught us.  Examples....

Value of Foresight:  Story of Thomas Jefferson
Value of Determination:  Story of Helen Keller
Value of Believing in Yourself:  Louis Pasteur
Value of Caring: Story of Eleanor Roosevelt

Our kids wanted to read them over and over again. They are out of print but you can find them used on the web. -- Barbara C.

To order these books or read more of our recommendations, visit our Books page.

Posted by Susan at 3/10/2004 07:57:24 AM | Link

 
Lots of exciting things this month. Thursday evening, March 4, Bob Bigelow and Tim Carter will speak about Youth Sports – who wins and who loses. See previous post for details.

On Saturday, March 20, Putting Family First will be holding a Book Fair fundraiser at the Minnetonka, MN Barnes & Noble store. We want to encourage families to "resolve to read" any way, every day. Throughout this month, we will feature book reviews from families and share tips on how to read together as a family.

For more information about the Book Fair, check out our new Reading Together page.

Posted by Susan at 3/02/2004 09:07:04 PM | Link