MomReviews

The introduction to Christie Mellor’s Were You Raised By Wolves? Clues to the Mysteries of Adulthood is titled “Hello, Brand New Grown-up!”, but her advice is so practical, even not-brand-new grown-ups can benefit from it. Her goal is to demystify the brave new world of moving the heck OUT of your parents’ house already by dispensing practical wisdom on everything from basic cooking and cleaning tips to how to dress both in the workplace and just how to dress so that you don’t, you know, embarrass yourself.

Mellor begins with the absolute basics-what the new grown-up needs to know to live on their own. How to make a bed, for example, with a drawing showing exactly how to tuck in the corners. How to clean a toilet, 20 amazing uses for baking soda (seriously, it’s unbelievable how many uses there are for baking soda and yet it’s still so cheap to buy), how to really deep clean before company comes. Useful kitchen tips include how to make coffee that is drinkable, how to hard-boil eggs, make basic soup and salad dressing, even how to make homemade mayonnaise. I turned down the corner on the page for how to poach chicken, because it never occurred to me to add bay leaf and peppercorns to the liquid!

Her chapter title “You, in the World. Not Being an Embarassment” has advice on how to tip, how to be a good party guest, how to be an even better houseguest, and how to handle situations involving alcohol. She even has a detailed drawing on how to build a cool little outdoor bar for your patio. But my favorite chapter title has to be “Put on Those Big Boy Pants!”, with advice on how to act like a real grown-up by throwing a dinner party, arranging flowers, and making a hostess gift.

I’m telling you, if someone you know is graduating from college this year, or moving out of their parents’ house and getting their first apartment, be a good friend and get them this book. It’s not just a boring list of “things you should know”. It’s written in a casual, friendly, well-meaning style and it is chock full of really useful information. I could have used a book like this when I first lived on my own!

The book is available on Amazon.com. Buy a copy, put it in a gift box along with some dishtowels and potholders, and you’ve got the perfect “congratulations on getting your first place” gift! To read what other reviewers thought, stop by the Parent Bloggers Network blog to get links to other reviews. Thanks again, PBN!

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My 28 month old daughter soaks up information like the proverbial sponge, with her vocabulary increasing every day-she speaks in sentences now and tells us JOKES!-and she LOVES to learn new things. Even after eleven years of parenting, I am always looking for creative suggestions on ways to teach concepts and have fun at the same time, so I was thrilled to find the book Gymboree Play & Learn, 1001 fun activities for your baby and child.

The book is divided into separate sections for babies ages 0+, 3+, 6+, 9+, 12+, 18+, 24+, 30+, and then years 3, 4, and 5. In the 24+ section, I found suggestions for teaching patterns using colored blocks, making a homemade sock octopus toy, tying shoe boxes together for a stuffed animal “train” (I just sent a bunch of shoe boxes to recycling, darn it!), painting sugar cookies with food coloring, teaching rhyming words, even teaching the positive side of the word “no” by asking ridiculous questions like “are we standing in the ocean right now?”. There are enough suggestions to keep us going for months!

And because she loves to “read” and be read to, I also got the Gymboree board books Shapes, and also Alphabet. All of these books use easy to recognize shapes in colors that just pop off the page.

Click any of the above links to go to the pages on Amazon where you can buy Play & Learn and the Shapes or Alphabet board books, you and your child are sure to enjoy them!

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