Noggin: Get Ready to Read

Much to the chagrin of my wife, our son gets up in the morning, eats breakfast, then gets out of his high chair, retrieves the remote, points to the TV and says "cars." You see, mornings when Ben does not go to "Mothers (Fathers) Day Out," I let him watch cartoons while I print out orders and mailing labels. Noggin is the station of choice.

This morning I saw a spot featuring the partnership with Noggin and First Book (follow link to learn more, and see, wife o'mine, TV doesn't always Stink. One can find a benefit from time to time).

The subjects of books is very dear to my wife. She is a former 3rd grade teacher turned college professor. As a prof, she teaches future teachers how to teach reading to their future students and believes that early positive experiences with books and reading are key to successful literacy development.

I am drawn to the First Book program for a couple of reasons. One of my friends and I have a continual debate over America and the state of things. He contends that the US provides everyone with the same opportunity to succeed and each person has to make his/her own breaks to succeed.

I contend that while that is true on its face, not everyone comes into this world with the same advantages/benefits/situation and thus not everyone is granted the same chance to succeed. Home life, neighborhood, outside influences, parenting, and thousand of other influences play a much larger role than just pulling yourself up by your boot straps. This is especially true during early childhood development when a child doesn't have much say in life.

I am of the belief that a program like First Book helps by promoting reading early on. For all our problems in this country, I truly believe the easiest way to change the direction of this nation is by education. Not the teach to the test education that is currently mandated, but actual learning, exploring, reading, and more.

Anyway, we think that the Noggin and First Book partnership is really cool. Take a look. We hope you agree, and that you might consider joining Sandbox Threads in donating to First Book.

Sen. Obama & Sandbox Threads Cross Paths

While you cannot see it in this photo, Ben is sporting his My Mama's for Obama shirt while watching Senator Obama speak.

Doors for the event opened at 4pm, and we arrived shortly afterwards. Unfortunately, the event held 10,000 and we were 10,003. Not literally, but we were about to go through security when the fire marshal said no mas. We then made our way to the overflow area, and low and behold, Senator Obama came out and spoke with us first. While we didn't get to shake hands or get a great picture of Ben with Obama, we did get to see him and hear a short speech those inside did not get to hear. We also got to hear his other speech while Ben ran around with all the other kids outside the event.

We were bummed not to get to "see" both speeches, but overall it worked out better for us as a family.

New Look at Sandbox Threads

I really need to stop, and I hope am I finally at a point where I can, but as you can see Sandbox Threads has just had another face life. Included in update SBT 3.1, you will notice a new, brighter logo, no more gray background, and also a big overhaul of the blog to make it look almost identical to the rest of the site.

We think the makeover makes the site more welcoming. The new colors warm up the screen, and unlike before, the background compliments the rest of Sandbox Threads' color scheme.

I probably should get a different hobby, but I'm a night owl that also has a toddler and a pregnant wife who go to bed around the same time, 8 pm, so I find myself on the computer "tweaking" Sandbox Threads until the wee hours of the morning.

Here's to hoping the tweaking is done (at least for a few months).