We often travel to Wisconsin to visit my family. It is a 4 hour drive, so are always looking for ways to keep the kids busy and entertained.  Bill hates to stop, so it is a long four hours.  A great item to check out for car rides, bedtime, and really any time is the Giddio Audio Adventures.  We listened to the Billy Brown Goes Hiking CD on our drive home, and it was a life saver for us.  Will was super crabby, and the only thing that made him quit screaming was this CD.  It definitely holds your children’s attention.  It is geared towards kids aged 3 - 7 (though it worked on my 1 year old too!)  This is actually pretty cool.  Instead of a narrator reading a story, there is a full cast.  Everyone has their own voice.  I love that it makes my kids use their imagination.  I’m not the only one who likes this either — it has won several awards (Dr. Toy’s Best Products 2007, several iParenting media awards, and Creative Child magazine’s Seal of Excellence).  We ended up having to listen to it more than once, because they like it so much (run time is between 30 - 45 minutes depending on which CD you are listening to).

I love that you can even try this out.  If you go to their site, you can download Billy Brown And The Mystery Package for free!  You can also print off the CD covers and have your kids color them!  I highly recommend checking this out as a great alternative to TV!

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Best Buy is one of my most favorite stores.  Usually.  However, last night was an entirely different story (and this review is actually going to be more like rant instead).  On Sundays, Best Buy closes at 7.  I personally thought I had plenty of time.  What I didn’t know was that out of the three people in the computer department, 2 of them were new.  Interesting times, let me tell you.  In the amount of time it took me to get waited on, I could have seriously taken a CDL training course.  The other thing is that I went looking there for a desktop.  This weeks ad had a ton of them in there.  Surprise, Surprise.  Of all the desktops that had in their ad, they had 1 in stock.  Yes, 1 in stock.  They had some not in their ad but the CPUs along were over $1,000.  Ummm, no thanks.  I ended up walking out of Best Buy at 8:00 pm — one hour after they closed due to their employees having no training!

/rant over

Often when we are in the doctor’s office, we see Highlights.  For many of your who are in my age range, we all pretty much remember Highlights.  It is one of the few magazines that is for children and is educational.  My only issue with Highlights is that it is for old kids, and I have younger ones.  When I found out that Highlights now makes High Five, I was estatic.  High Five is for preschool age children, and it is a huge hit in my house.  When Madison’s magazine comes, she literally will spend an hour flipping through it herself on the chair.  That is even before we sit down together to do some of the activities!  I love that it is right at her level.  You aren’t going to find a small business for sale or a crossword puzzle. Instead, there are stories and activities that you can do with with your children.  In my latest issue, we learned how to make bathtub crayons and chocolate covered bananas.

If you are needing a gift for a preschool age child or have on yourself, make sure you subscribe to High Five.  It is the only magazine I have seen on the market for that age group, and you know it is quality since it is made by Highlights!

Don’t you wish your kids came with a handbook?  I know I wish mine did.  I luck out that my children are still young.  We don’t have the out of control tweens or tweenagers here.  I don’t having challenging behaviors to deal except for 4 year old energy.  However, I don’t want my kids to turn into those kids!  That is why I decided to look at The Total Transformation Program.  I also read on so many moms blogs about their children treating them poorly — calling them names, being violent, not listening, etc.  What always floors me is that they would not put up from that behavior from a stranger, but it is okay for their children to behave in that matter.

Now, I wasn’t expecting much.  Instead, I got 7 CDs, 1 DVD and a workbook.  The first thing I do have to tell you:  this program will NOT work if you don’t put the time into it.  This isn’t read the book, and you have a magic pill to make everything good again.  There is work involved here.  Now, if you have younger children like mine, you may have to do some modification on this program.  (Then again I don’t have a lot of the problems either so I just am modifying it for my own needs).  I’ll be honest, if you don’t want to do the work, then don’t buy this.  Otherwise it will just end up being a bookend in your house.

What I have learned so far?  First, I learned that some of my parental methods are not the right ones (which I knew already).  You are able to find out what you fall under for your ineffective parenting roles.  Personally, I am the screamer.  I know, I shouldn’t but I do.  However, I never realized what I was teaching my children.  When I get into a yelling match with Madison, I am showing her that we are emotional peers.  I have come down to her level and just undermined my own authority (this was my duh! moment).  I also am showing her that no one is in control.  Now, this seems like common sense, but you don’t even realize this is what is going on. (All of this is in the workbook).  You have to assume parental control.  You need to give simple directions and quit asking your kids to do things.  You tell them to do their homework versus asking them.  You have to disconnect when disrespect occurs.  When the scream starts, you walk away.  There is no reasoning with your children.  You are the boss (and there are scripts in the workbook that you can use).  You need to lessen the stimulation in their lives.  Give positive feedback when appropriate.  If they do good, tell them.  You can’t just be on their butts about all the negative behavior.  You need to show them that good behavior gets them a much better response.

This is how The Total Transformation Program works.  First, get the workbook.  The workbook has a pretest for each lesson which is your introduction for the lesson.  Next, you listen to the audio CD.  These are long (I’d say maybe an hour or so), so make sure you have the time to listen.  Then after the CD is over, you go back to the workbook.  There is a summary of what you should have gotten from the lesson, exercises for you to do, and an action plan for you.  Then do it again with the next lesson.  They recommend one CD a week, so this is pretty easy to schedule somewhere in your life.

Now, this isn’t going to work with every single kids out there.  There is no way I can say it will.  The part I like about this program is that you can work it according to your schedule, your pace, and your family.  They have a 30 day trial, so you can try this out with your family.  If it is not working, send it back!  They also have a parental support line.  They can clarify lessons for you and even direct you to the correct response to incidents occurring in your house.   This isn’t a program that leaves you high and dry after you get the stuff in the mail.  They are with you every step of the way.

If you are at your wits end with your children, I definitely think this is program you should try out.  I’ve seen little changes I have made with my daughter (like it keeping it simple) already working with her.  I’d love to hear from any of you who have tried this program and tell me your thoughts!

I know you all have been waiting for this (I know, it has been like waiting for all your blackheads to go away when we were like teenagers.  Never thought it would happen, yet it did)!  I finally have a winner chosen for this awesome giveaway Sony allowed me to do.  I have to thank all people who entered!  This has been one of my best giveaways I have ever done.  I do apologize that it has taken me about an hour to tally all the extra entries that you all did.  So — without further ado, the winner is:

#34 is Julie from Julie’s Journal!  I will be contacting her shortly!