Amanda’s VIP with Usborne Books & More

30/01/2021

Perfect for all my sports 🏀🏈⚽️⚾️🥎 lovers!!!

Children who love sports can find out all about the future careers they can have as they discover what a lifeguard does all day, how to become a sports photographer, what it takes to be an athletic trainer, and much, much more.

Recommended for ages 7 years and up. Ask your Consultant for more information.

27/01/2021

Love this!!! 🥳

Explore the amazing microscopic world of germs – bacteria, viruses, and other microbes. Discover how they can make you sick and how your body fights them off, as well as some of the useful things they do for us.

See Inside Books are packed with lively illustrations and fascinating flaps! Recommended for ages 7 and up. Ask you Consultant for more details.

18/01/2021

Looking for cute V-Day gifts let me know 💝

04/01/2021

❓Do fish wear pajamas? What's the sound of an iceberg melting?❓

💡Find the answers to these and many more questions in a book that explores the history, science, environment and art of our planet's seas and oceans.

🤗🥳

01/12/2020

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Monday after a long weekend = hard. And also, how is tomorrow December?!?!

In case you need to hear it today, you don't need to be perfect. You are here to be you.

👇👇👇 Drop a photo in the comments of your REAL YOU today!

27/11/2020

Happy Black Friday! Are you cozying up on the couch with pie today or shopping sales? Or maybe BOTH? 🥧🛍️

You can catch some gift giving ideas in this Epic Gift Guide: https://youtu.be/mNs1_ZTYB2g

💬 Which of these would a kid in your life love to dive into? Need help finding the perfect gift? I'm here to help!

26/11/2020

Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for this season... even in the year 2020. As you head into this long holiday weekend, take a pic of something you're thankful for and share it in the comments.

I am so thankful for each of you for being a part of this community and supporting my book business 😍

I hope you and yours have a wonderful day! ❤️

25/11/2020

What do your Thanksgiving Weekend Plans include?

I'll be enjoying some family time, snuggly book reading, and.... CHRISTMAS prep (shopping & decorating)!

24/11/2020

Anyone else busy with holiday prep already?? We keep a cart full of activity books in our house because they are absolute sanity savers when I need a moment or two to get something done like Thanksgiving Prep! Take a peek in this video at some of the newest activity books from our Fall catalog.

💬 What activity is a win in your house to keep the kids busy so you can get things done?

Need a mom break today? Try out one of our sample Fall Activity Pages: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Da9n8JyXK6Muzy0yRUYbNAuurlZusqA3?usp=sharing

Check out our June 2020 Usborne Books & More Activity books Including Unworry Magic Painting, Bugs and Under the Sea Matching Games, Sticker Dolly Dressing M...

23/11/2020

Good morning! Today's edition of Make It Monday involves FOOD of course... it is Thanksgiving week! 😉 Grabbed this Apple Spice Cake recipe from our Start to Cook book.

💬 How do you feel about involving your little chefs in the kitchen? 👩🏽‍🍳👨🏽‍🍳
A - We do it all the time! My kids love to cook!
B - Umm, no thanks, I have enough messes to deal with already
C - We cook together on occasion
D - How do I get in on this kids cooking action?!

20/11/2020

!!

If you have never heard or seen our nonfiction Beginner Book Box sets...they are gorgeous! 😍 Even these pictures still cannot do the incredible illustrations and photography justice for these books.

✅Each exclusive library contains:
- 10 of the best selling titles per subject
- Simple text perfect for early readers
- Each title includes internet links!

📚 Our three sets are 📚:
Animals, Science & History

If you have a nonfiction lover, home/virtually learning student, or early reader these are going to be right up your ally! They are recommended for ages 6+ and each book is 32 pages long.

Check them out here:
https://m9968.myubam.com/search?q=BEGINNER+BOX

19/11/2020

There are T minus 7 days until Thanksgiving! Things might be looking a little different this year for celebrating so let's kick off the count down with a few laughs. 😆

I'll start us off with 3 of my favorite...

💬 Share below more!

18/11/2020

It's time to cast your PIE votes!

You must choose 1 or comment with your favorite holiday dessert!

🍎 vs 🎃 Pie!

17/11/2020

Where are my fellow bookworms!?

Who can relate? Am I the only one that loves the smell of a brand new book!! 😍📚

Which one do you do most in your spare time?

16/11/2020

🌳🌲 Leaf & Bark Art! 🍁🍂

We are full into Fall so let's celebrate with some nature activities! These were some of my favorites to do as a kid.

📃 Supplies needed:
Variety of fallen leaves
Trees (rooted in the ground of course)
Paint & brushes
Paper (copy paper will do)
Pencil
Books
Crayons

I have several ideas for you to celebrate the falling leaves & outdoors. These are taken from our very own "365 Science Activities" book!!

1. Make Leaf Prints
2. Compare Leaf Shapes
3. Dried leaves
4. Make Bark Rubbings

13/11/2020

I hope this week discussing The Yes Brain has been helpful. 🌟Don't forget to comment on all the posts this week so you can enter our giveaway of the YES BRAIN and one of the featured books! 🎁

One of the best ways to help the kids in our life develop a Yes Brain is to work on it ourselves as adults. While some us are naturally more balanced, resilient, insightful, or empathetic, our brains are plastic and we can grow! Here are some ideas…

🧘 Reduce the commitments outside your home on your calendar next week
🧘 Go to bed early tonight!
🧘 Stop using your phone or other screen at least 1 hour before bedtime this weekend
💪 Make a list of hard things you've overcome
💪 When you're faced with a set-back, tell yourself, "I can do hard things."
💪 Make a list of things you learned from your failures
💡 Start a gratitude journal
💡 Start a daily or weekly journal to record your life and feelings
💡 PAUSE before responding to a child or social media post that makes you angry
💗 Read a book written by an author of another ethnicity or cultural background
💗 Read a historical fiction book focusing on the perspective of an indigenous or minority person
💗 Ask your friends how you can pray for or serve them that day

💬 Which idea from the list would you like to implement this weekend?

12/11/2020

Empathy is the perspective that allows us to keep mind that we are not only "me," but part of a "we" and other people's experiences matter too. 💗
- Empathy is learned through daily interactions and experiences
- It's not enough to understand the perspective of another, empathy also means we care enough to take action to make it better.

💗 Strategies for developing empathy:
#1- Teach the Language of Empathy! Kids need the vocabulary words to communicate care.
#2- Expand the Circle of Concern! Increase kids' awareness of people outside their family. Non-fiction and biographies are great resources for this! In fact, studies have shown that people that read more tend to be more empathetic than people who read less.

💬 Have you ever read a book that introduced you to a perspective you hadn't considered before? What was it?

11/11/2020

Insight is the ability to look within ourselves and understand ourselves. It allows us to make good decisions and be more in control of our lives. 💡
- PAUSE and pretend that you're a spectator observing a scene unfold. 📺
- The power of the pause is that allows us to CHOOSE how we want to respond to a situation.

💡 Strategies to help kids learn insight:
#1- Reframe pain- Ask kids, "Which struggle do you prefer?"
#2- Avoid the Red Volcano Eruption- Teach kids to pause before erupting. The book Red, Red, Red is soooooo good for that!

💬 Let's practice Insight! 💡 How are you feeling right now? Now, that you've identified that feeling, ask yourself what's behind it and what can you do to maintain or cope with the feeling?

10/11/2020

Resilience is a state of resourcefulness that gets us through challenges 💪
- When our kids face hard things, our short-term goal is to achieve balance or get in the green zone (see yesterdays post for more info). But the long-term goal to set-backs is resilience… this means the green zone is BIGGER and they are less likely to have intense reactions. Both balance and resiliency help kids bounce back from set-backs.
- Behavior = communication. So, when a child is misbehaving or mopey rather than trying to immediately change behavior, focus on what the behavior is communicating and teach them skills. For example: A child hits a sibling while playing a board game. Rather than focusing on the hitting… focus on the feeling they are communicating (frustration over not winning, struggles over taking turns) and teach them a skill to handle that.
- Sometimes kids need pushin' and sometimes they need cushion. (Pushin'= forcing kids to work through their discomfort themselves and cushion= "rescuing" them when it's too much.

💪 Strategies to help kids develop resilience:
#1- Shower your kids with the "4 S's"! Help them feel- safe, seen, soothed, and secure.
#2- Teach mindsight skills! Show them how they can shift their perspectives so they aren't victims to their emotions and circumstances. The books below are INCREDIBLE resources for this strategy!

💬 What misbehaviors have you seen in the kiddos in your life that are really communicating something?

My kids get whiney and start fighting at about 11:30 am every morning… As soon as that happens, I know they don't need punishment… it's time for a lunch break!

p.s. To find all the Yes Brain posts that have happened this week, you can tap on the Yes Brain in the popular topics.

09/11/2020

Balance is a skill that creates emotional stability and regulation of the body and brain. 🧘
- Leads to the green zone where kids feel calm and in control of their bodies and decisions.
- When kids are upset they may leave the green zone and enter the revved-up, chaotic red zone OR the shut-down, rigid blue zone.
- Parents can encourage balance by finding the sweet spot between being involved in their kids' lives and giving them independence.

🧘 Here are a couple of strategies to help:
#1- Balance the family schedule! Make sure there isn't too much rushing. Kids can balance better when there is down time for family connection and and they have time to be BORED.
#2- SLEEP! Establish a simple bedtime routine at an appropriate time so kids can get enough sleep. Stories before bed can help kids transition to nap time bedtime.

Here are some books and games perfect for helping with strategies #1 and #2.

💬 Is there a set bedtime at your house (for you and/or your kiddos)? Or, are you more go with the flow?

08/11/2020

Happy Sunday, Friends! 🍁 This week we're going to talk about helping kids be happier, more interested in the world, more flexible, and easier to work with! 🙌🏻 Sounds great right? Not only does this make your job easier… it also strengthens parent-child connections! 🏆

How does all this good stuff happen? 🤷🏼‍♀️ It's the natural result of helping kiddos develop what Dr. Daniel J. Seigel and Dr. Tina Payne Bryson call a "Yes Brain." 🧠 The four fundamentals of a Yes Brain are: balance, resilience, insight, and empathy. 💬 Comment on each post this week for the chance to win The Yes Brain AND one of the UBAM books featured this week! 🎁 You'll be able to find each day's post by tapping the topic "Yes Brain."

🚫 A No 🧠 is:
- Reactive and fearful, rigid and shut down, worrying it might make a mistake.
- Might lead to gold stars and external success, but does so by rigidly adhering to convention and the status quo and becoming good at pleasing others, to the detriment of curiosity and joy.

✅ A Yes 🧠 is:
- Flexible, curious, resilient, willing to try new things and even make mistakes.
- Open to the world and relationships, helping us relate to others and understand ourselves.
- Leads to true success because it prioritizes the inner world of a child and looks for ways to challenge the child's whole brain to reach its potential.

💬 Which words or phrases for the No Brain and/or Yes Brain list stand out to you?

06/11/2020

🌟Feature Friday!🌟
Home, Sweet Home by Moira Butterfield

🏡 What makes a house a home? Is it our bedrooms or kitchen, furniture or pictures on the wall? Is it the neighborhood and great community we grow up with? Is it the sweet memories and laughter we create along the way with our families?

This book does a beautiful job highlighting diverse cultures and regions and how unique each one's definition of “home" can be! What is typical in our home may be uncommon in another, and we might find that how we live may be more similar, or more different, than we knew! It is an awesome conversation starter AND also makes a great housewarming gift for new homeowners with kids! 🏡🏙🏕🕌⛰🗺🌍

• Ages 3-7 (and up)
• Regularly $12.99, but for a limited time only- $9.75 in our Internet Specials!!🎉💸
•https://m9968.myubam.com/p/8430/home-sweet-home

05/11/2020

🥰🍂Thankful Thursday!🍂🥰

Share one thing below that you're thankful for today! Let's all spread some encouragement and focus on all the positives around us as we enter into this Thanksgiving season! 💗

04/11/2020

⚡️Mom Win Wednesday!⚡️

Tired of books falling over like dominoes when you (more like your kiddos) try to stand them up on your shelves or table?! 😂 Well, here's an easy and cheap / to transform your piles of collapsed books into visual superstars!🤩🙌🏽📚

IKEA DISH RACKS! Only $2.99!

💥VOILÁ- instant organization! And the covers can face out for easy visibility and accessibility!

What is your favorite IKEA Hack?? Share below (and bonus points for a pic)!🤩🙌🏽

03/11/2020

🇺🇸📊 It's Election Day! Here are some fun activities to introduce kids to the idea of voting and to show them that voting is fun AND important! You can download the activity pages for various ages to print & color! https://www.momsrising.org/blog/crafts-activities-and-ideas-to-celebrate-voting-with-your-kids

🖍 For younger kids, you can make voting-themed crafts, create a voting-related story, or hold a mock election and let the kids vote. If the kids are older, you can talk over snacks about the issues that matter most to them, ask if they have thoughts on the candidates or issues being discussed in the election season, and answer (or look up together!) any questions they might have.

🗳 Also here's another activity for younger kids to print out your own election ballots and “I Voted" stickers!
https://www.learningliftoff.com/voting-printables-for-kids/

📸 Drop a GIF or selfie below of your voting experience!👇🏼🗳

02/11/2020

Actual photo of my kids. 👁👀
What time did yours wake (you) up the last couple mornings? 5:10 am for us, thanks Daylight Savings!!🥱 Oh, and HAPPY NOVEMBER!!😍🍁🦃

Kids - the most disturbing alarm clocks ever. 👀😱🤣

23/10/2020

📚📚

19/10/2020

Three delightful Farmyard Tales train stories with a wind-up model train to bring the tales to life. Each story has sturdy tracks embedded in the thick card pages and there's even a wheel to change the direction of the tracks.
Find out more here: https://m9968.myubam.com/search?q=Poppy+and+Sam%27s+Wind-up+Train+Book

06/10/2020

💃 Little Ballerina Dancing Book Sneak Peek💃

Recommended Ages: 3+ years
Other books in this series: Press a sound books

A lovely sound book that will have every little girl tapping her feet. Simple moves to the music from famous ballets such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and the Nutcracker are shown through clear illustrations and simple diagrams, making them easy for any budding ballerina to master. Press the embedded sound buttons to hear the music related to the moves. A QR code on the back will lead to all of the music online.

26/09/2020

We are all here because we have 1 thing in common...for the love of BOOKS 🥰📚!

✨Let's show em off!

It's time for a SHELFIE! 📷 That's right, I want to see your bookshelf!

25/09/2020

!

Let's talk about one of my family's FAVORITE authors! From Dragons 🐲 to Monsters 👹 Emma Yarlett has some of our most popular and top selling books...and for a good reason!

📚Her books include📚:
Nibbles the Book Monster
Nibbles Numbers
Nibbles The Dinosaur Guide
Nibbles The Monster Hunt
Dragon Post
Beast Feast

📖 Each story has a playful, silly, and problem solving storyline that is entertaining and interactive! These books include flaps to lift, "books" inside the book, and letters to open. 😍

We simply cannot read these enough!

💬 Which title is a favorite with your readers OR which one would you want to add to your collection?!

Need to add one (or more 😉) to your shelves? Shop all of Emma Yarlett here: https://m9968.myubam.com/search?q=EMMA+YARLETT

24/09/2020

Fall will soon be upon us. The leaves will be changing. Temperatures will be dropping. Sweaters, boots & scarves everyday! Which can only mean 1 thing...HOLIDAY seasons!

In the comments vote for your favorite upcoming holiday using a GIF!!!

🎃 Halloween 🕷
🦃 Thanksgiving 🥧
🎅🏼 Christmas 🎁

23/09/2020

There are two types of people...

People who use bookmarks and monsters!!!

Let's hear it...which one are you?!?

21/09/2020

Whether you are learning at home or looking for a fun project for the weekend....lets BUILD together 🏗!

✨ Here is a Make it Monday project for your little creators, builders, architects and engineers! Lets imagine and put those little minds to work using one of our 100 Science Experiments ideas!! ✨

📃 Supplies you will need:
1️⃣ Uncooked spaghetti or tooth picks
2️⃣ Marshmallows (mini's work best)

Let their imaginations go to work! 🧠How tall can you build your tower? Will you make a Princess Castle? Maybe Egyptian Pyramids? Or a dream home?

Who's creation is the strongest of them all? Check out the tips on how to make your structure stable 💪🏼

💬 Show us a picture of what you made! Didn't have the supplies...try blocks, legos, magna tiles, sand, sticks, or boxes! Let's see what you can create!

18/09/2020

: the You Choose series!...

These are a DEFINITE favorite in my house! (One that I didn't see coming!)

These books put the kids in control, allowing them to make a choice on each page. With fun characters, interesting prompts, and plenty of options, they can get a new book each time they sit down to read. 😍

It is a nightly (sometimes multiple times a day) read in my house, and it leads to lots of laughter! 🤣

Add them to your wish list here:
https://m9968.myubam.com/p/3795/you-choose
&
https://m9968.myubam.com/p/7341/you-choose-in-space