I’ve always loved school librarians. How much? When I was in eighth grade, I chose “library helper” over art class as my elective so I could spend more time in the school library with the librarian. (Okay, I also loved having first dibs on the new book arrivals while they were still in pristine condition before anyone else got their grimy hands on them.) Therefore it should come as no big surprise that a blog over at the School Library Journal’s website called A Fuse #8 Production should nab this week’s coveted Friday Find spot.

Elizabeth Bird, a children’s librarian at the Children’s Center at the 42nd Street of the New York Public Library system, blogs on the School Library Journal website. While her blog is filled with many great resources related to children’s literature, what really grabbed my attention is her current series of posts that report the results of a poll of her readers to find their Top 100 Children’s Novels. Starting at the bottom of the list and working her way toward the #1 spot, every day she metes out reviews, comments, fun facts, cover photos and more on five titles, and every day I check to see what five books came up next on the list.

As Elizabeth explains in her first post of the series:

So as we embark on this massive countdown, I would like to remind all of you that there will be many emotional humps and surprises along the way. There are heroes and villains here. I guarantee that in the course of the countdown you will see one book that makes you boo, and another that makes you cheer, perhaps in the same post. This is a passionate list. There are books included here that I adore and there are definitely books here that I abhor. My job is to never show the difference. So sit back and get ready to complain or cheer in turns. It’s totally within your rights.

We’re currently about halfway through the list, and I’m so anxious and excited to find out what books are at the top. Aren’t you?

Learn more

Visit A Fuse #8 Production blog at the School Library Journal website.

Wondering what makes Elizabeth (Betsy!) Bird’s blog so darned good? There’s an interesting analysis at The Value of Blogging, a post found at Dan Blank: Publishing, Innovation & the Web.

Follow the School Library Journal (@sljournal) on Twitter.

Want to read about more Friday Finds?

Whatever the reason, the fact is that more and more children are ending up with iPhones (and iPod touches) in their hands. To help you find apps that are age-appropriate, fun and perhaps even a bit educational, we’ve compiled the following list of resources. Happy tapping!

PicPocket Books

I just discovered PicPocket Books on Twitter last week, and I’m dying to try out one of their mobile picture books. They reproduce printed books for the iPhone and build in a bit of interactivity along the way. The pictures on the iPhone are the sames ones that kids love in the printed books, and your child can choose to have a narrator read the story with words highlighted as they are read. My favorite feature is that a child can touch unfamiliar words to have them read again.

Currently PicPocket Books has 18 books available at the Apple App Store, and they cost from $0.99 to $3.99 each. Titles range from Monster Trucks to Cucumber Soup. Notably, one of their new releases is Round is a Mooncake by Roseanne Thong and illustrated by Grace Lin, who just won a Newbery Honor Award for her book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.

25 Best iPhone Apps for Kids (Babble)

The folks over at Babble (the magazine and community for a new generation of parents, dontcha know) have put together their 25 Best iPhone Apps for Kids. They’ve divided the list up into the Top 5 in each of five categories: stimulating development, learning math, learning to read, getting quiet time, and my favorite, road trip sing-alongs. While there are a couple of titles for older children, overall the list offers a selection of titles geared toward the younger crowd. And who can resist a country version of Five Little Monkeys as a road trip sing-along?

The Best iPhone Apps for Kids (New York Times)

The Gadgetwise blog over at the New York Times chimed in with their list of the Best iPhone Apps for Kids. They highlight such titles as Wheels on the Bus (electronic pop-up book), Scoops (catch the falling ice cream game) and even Oregon Trail (a remake of the 1980s classic educational software). They also include some of the time-filler apps like Koi Pond (your touch causes ripples on the pond) and Bubble Snap (a virtual sheet of shrink-wrap bubbles). I wonder if I’ll enjoy Oregon Trail as much as I did 20 years ago?

15 iPhone Apps to Tame the Kids (Mashable)

And last but not least, Mashable pulled together a list of 15 iPhone Apps to Tame the Kids. They’ve divided their list into three sections: Toddlers, Younger Kids and Older Kids. The goal of this list is to offer ways to keep your child occupied in the car, on the plane, or anywhere else they need an interesting diversion. Some of the apps on the list are free (or have free versions) while the others cost no more than $2.99. And really, what child would NOT love playing Balloonimals where they blow into the iPhone microphone to inflate a balloon and then shake the iPhone to turn it into an animal? Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m dying to try this one, too. Let me just click on over to the App Store…

UPDATE (January 27, 2010): With today’s big reveal of the Apple iPad, are the following iPhone apps facing obsolescence? Not according to Gizmodo.com (who was blogging live from the Apple iPad event):

The iPad can run “virtually every one of these apps, unmodified, right out of the box.” They can either run it very small, 1:1 pixel, in the center of the screen. Or they can “pixel double” it and run it full screen, in a low resolution mode.

UPDATE (February 19, 2010): Thanks to Roberto Greco – who can be found at www.grecolaborativo.com and @rogre on Twitter – for the pointer to the following list of kids’ iPhone apps. Thanks, Rob!

My Recommended Kid Games (A Whole Lotta Nothing blog)

Matt Haughey, creator of MetaFilter and the personal blog A Whole Lotta Nothing, recently wrote about kid-friendly apps for the iPhone. He first downloaded one of the apps to keep his two-year-old daughter occupied while waiting for a table in a restaurant. In the two years since, he’s added more apps that he thinks have withstood the test of time and that are worth a couple of bucks. He describes iPlayPhone – the first app that he downloaded for his daughter – as, “Mostly just a noisemaker for the youngest to mash on without messing up your phone.” Another app that I really want to try looks interesting is Fairy Trails, which works on an iPhone 3GS and is a type of augmented reality that uses the built-in camera to allow kids to click on fairies that appear on the iPhone screen as they pan it around the room.

Anyone else have a list of iPhone kid-friendly apps to share?

Twitter is quickly becoming my go-to place to discover the hottest topics and trends in education and parenting. And Twitter is where I discovered this week’s Friday Find, PBS Parents. According to their website, PBS Parents is:

… the trusted online resource that’s filled with information about your child’s development from birth through the early school years. Created with input from experts in child psychology, early childhood education, media and other fields, PBS Parents provides the answers you need to be your child’s first, best teacher.

One would have a hard time arguing that PBS doesn’t create some of the best educational television programming around. What’s so exciting is that they take the same level of quality to their online content, and the PBS Parents website is no exception. I am particularly impressed with the Education portion of the website and the range of topics that they address. From Early Math and Going to School to Children with Disabilities, they provide a wealth of information for parents. And don’t miss their Bookfinder, a tool that offers book suggestions from a database of more than 1,400 titles.

Thank you, PBS Parents, for continuing to provide us with resources and access to experts that will help us become better parents!

Learn more by visiting the PBS Parents website at http://www.pbs.org/parents/. You can also follow their tweets at http://twitter.com/pbsparents. Looking for a kid-friendly site? Try PBS Kids at http://pbskids.org/ for the younger Sesame Street-loving kiddos, and PBS Kids Go at http://pbskids.org/go/ for the early elementary crowd.

The Friday Find for this week is Nickelodeon Parents Connect, a website that is chock-full of information for parents, including advice on learning and school issues. And I don’t just mean generic information, I mean information that is specific to San Diego. According to their website:

Nickelodeon’s ParentsConnect is an informational, community-based Web site for parents to connect with local family events, great deals and activities, age-relevant content, and other parents.

Of particular interest to us at An Educated Choice are their articles regarding education. They offer advice on kindergarten, elementary school, reading, special education, homework help and homeschooling. Specific articles address topics such as Is Your Child Ready for Kindergarten?, Helpful Tutoring and Educational Resources, and Awesome School Fund-Raisers.

Another favorite feature is their annual Parents Picks Awards for San Diego. These honors are awarded based upon votes cast by parents regarding family-friendly resources in our community. The awards include categories such as Best Preschool, Best Museum, Best Music Class, and more. Not only do they list the winners in each category, but you can also print out a list of all of the nominees in each category, which is a terrific resource in itself.

Congratulations, Nickelodeon Parents Connect! And by the way, we love your tagline: We’re not perfect. We’re parents.

As parents, we’re always looking for ways to help our children develop those crucial literacy skills that they need to be successful in life. Cheerios would like to help us work toward that goal with their Spoonfuls of Stories program. I first learned of the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories program on their Facebook page “where reading, nutrition and you come together.” I clicked on over to the program’s main website where I learned that,

Cheerios’ commitment to kids doesn’t stop with breakfast. Reading is a key building block for learning and life. That’s why we created the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories® program to help get books into kids’ hands and encourage parents and kids to read together.

There are a couple of reasons why I chose Spoonfuls of Stories as this week’s Friday Find. First of all, they have given away more than 40 million high-quality new books to children by placing them inside specially marked packages of Cheerios. That’s right, 40 million books! And when I say high-quality books, I mean award-winning books like All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee:

Here’s the book trailer for All the World:

As if that weren’t enough, Cheerios is also sponsoring First Book, a non-profit literacy organization that provides new books to children in need. They’ve already donated more than $3.2 million to the organization. In addition, they are hosting a 6 Million Minutes Read-a-Thon and challenging parents to read to their children for 15 minutes a day. Once they reach the 6 million minutes mark, Cheerios will donate 250,000 books to First Book.

There’s just something about a big, corporate entity giving back to the community that warms my heart. Hurray for Cheerios’ Spoonful of Stories and thank you for your commitment to nurturing the whole child.

If you’re a parent in San Diego, and especially if you’re paying private school tuition (or considering it), you’re probably always on the lookout for bargains. This week’s Friday Find, San Diego Bargain Mama, will help you find those bargains.

San Diego Bargain Mama is the brainchild of Stacey Ross, a stay-at-home mom who began the concept in 2007 as a newsletter that contained great deals from all around San Diego County. What began as a newsletter that she emailed to her friends and family has evolved into a website, blog, and even events.

I came across San Diego Bargain Mama on Twitter when I was searching for people who were being followed by people that I was following. (If you’ve ventured onto Twitter, you know what I’m talking about!) After reading just a couple of her tweets I quickly jumped over to take a look at her Twitter page, and then her website where I found a plethora of bargains just sitting there waiting for me to take advantage of them!

Here are a few examples of bargains that San Diego Bargain Mama has discovered recently:

• Free Soda at AMC Theaters
  With the cost of concessions at theaters these days, this is probably worth at least $27, right?
• 50% off an entree at the Broken Yolk Cafe
  Have you been to this place? Helloooo four egg Californian omelet! Hey, they weren’t awarded Best Breakfast for nothing!
• $5 off any purchase of $25 or more at Learning Express in Carlsbad
  See? There’s an extra $5 to put toward that private school tuition!
• And too many “Kids Eat Free” offers at local restaurants to even list

From one mom who loves to find deals to another, my hat is off to San Diego Bargain Mama!

You can check out San Diego Bargain Mama yourself at the following locations:
Website: http://sandiegobargainmama.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sdbargainmama

1. My daughter and I listened to Jeff and Jerry every morning for years on our drive to the private school that she attended and where I happened to work. Their show was interesting, family-friendly, and made us laugh.
2. Many San Diegans consider the Showgram to be a San Diego institution. Similarly, many consider private schools to be institutions. (See how it’s all coming together?) While their show isn’t on the radio anymore, they do have a web-based show called Live From Jerry’s Garage (LFJG) that is recorded in Jerry’s garage. Really! You can even watch episodes on their website. As Jeff says,
   

   This isn’t a really good morning show. It’s in a guy’s garage. But it’s the only one left in town!

3. One morning on the Showgram, Laura – who is also on the show along with Little Tommy and Randy – mentioned her search for a private school in San Diego for her child. (Another tie to private schools!)
4. The goal of the Friday Finds is to “… highlight a blog, website, Twitter feed, or Facebook fan page that we think is interesting and relevant to people who are interested in private school education in San Diego.” I’m guessing that a lot of people who are interested in private school education in San Diego are also interested in Jeff and Jerry.
5. Finally, if there’s one thing I admire and can relate to it’s being motivated to make virtual lemonade out of really tart lemons.

So hurray for Jeff & Jer and the rest of the Showgram family! Congratulations on being selected as this week’s Friday Find. We’ll listen to you – and watch you – anywhere you’re broadcasting.

There are rumors circulating that today, Friday, January 15, there will be a big announcement concerning the future of the Jeff & Jer Showgram. Our fingers are crossed that they’ll be announcing a return to the radio airwaves, but whatever happens, you’ve gotta love their gumption.

Learn more

On the web
http://jeffandjer.com/

Twitter
http://twitter.com/jeffandjer

Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffandjer

YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/jeffandjershowgram

The original post, which appeared on Wisebread.com (a blog about living large on a small budget), raised the following four points on why a family would choose private schools over public schools:

1. Private schools give families the choice to live where they want.
2. Families have a choice in the educational curriculum.
3. Students get more individual attention with smaller class sizes.
4. Equipment and resources are more abundantly available.

All of these are great reasons to choose a private education for your child. But then I wondered how relevant the argument is given our current state of the economy. So, I made the following comment:

I realize I’m a johnny-come-two-years-late to this discussion, but I think the points raised are even more relevant today than they were two years ago. Interestingly enough, our current economic downturn has made private schools an attractive option for a lot of families. State budget-tightening means that public schools are cutting back even more on what they offer. Too often this results in an increase in class size and reduction of classes, subjects and services. Many parents – who previously may have never even considered private education – are investigating whether private schools could work for their families because they are not willing to compromise their child’s education and future.

Of course, the economic downturn has also meant that affording a private school education is not as easy as it once was for many families. Some are looking for increased financial aid (which many schools have beefed up in response to the economy), tuition assistance from grandparents, and/or cutting back on other areas of their household budget to be able to keep their children in private schools.

So what do you think? Does the economic downturn and the crisis in our public schools make private schools a more appealing option for families?

Photo credit: Susan Sermoneta

The NYC Private Schools Blog is an online community which encompasses all aspects of NYC private schools (approximately 800 schools). Although there are many wonderful sites and communities which cover NYC public schools, there are few which focus on NYC private schools.

While the focus of the blog is on private schools in the five boroughs, it also provides a plethora of information useful for anyone interested in private schools no matter the location. For example, visitors to the site can learn about different types of schools, the admissions process, paying for private schools and the financial aid process, child development and learning issues, and much more. And with 14,196 followers on Twitter, they must be doing something right!

Congratulations, NYC Private Schools Blog. We look forward to more great posts.

In this second category, the books regale with stories and events that might be ever-so-slightly based in fact, but mostly are fictitious and just plain fun. (I must admit, however, that a couple of times I have been surprised at how closely some of the more outlandish stories and events seem to resemble real life!)

If you are interested in reading funny, fictitious, and far-fetched stories about life in private schools, here are five you might consider. Just remember – they’re novels. Fiction. Not true. Enjoy!

	Academy X: A Novel by Andrew Trees Welcome to Academy X, an ethical wonderland in which up is down, right is wrong, and parents and students will stop at nothing (including lying, plagiarizing, and even seduction to name a few) in order to get into the Ivy League. Caught in the middle is John Spencer, a bumbling but lovable English teacher struggling through the final weeks of his spring semester. But keeping focused on a Jane Austen seminar proves problematic when his crush on the school librarian as well as a pending promotion threaten to divert his attention. Things become even more complicated when the college counselor asks John to lie (or at least exaggerate) in a recommendation letter for the very student who he’s just discovered is a plagiarizer. Things only get worse for John, who discovers that no price is too high to achieve a coveted admission to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton—even if that includes his own disgrace.
	Admissions by Nancy Lieberman This sharply observed and bitingly funny novel exposes the over-the-top absurdity of New York City`s elite private school admissions circus. For Manhattan’s most affluent parents, the Tuesday after Labor Day marks the beginning of the city’s most competitive and vicious blood sport: the start of the private school admissions process. But for Helen Drager, mother of Zoe, it shouldn’t be such an ordeal. After all, Helen’s best friend Sara is an admissions officer at Zoe’s current K-8. But Sara’s position becomes precarious, and Helen soon finds herself drawn ever deeper into the mounting lunacy generated by the fierce competition.
	The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn This is an amusing story of what happens when a New Yorker loses her job, her husband, and her ritzy Park Avenue pad and is forced to carve out a new niche for herself and her two private school-educated daughters. After transferring the girls to public school and renting a shabby-chic (at best) flat upstairs from a knicherie, Ivy Ames takes her billionaire friend Faith’s advice and starts a consulting business to help privileged pre-schoolers get into the city’s premier kindergartens. Light on substance yet heavy on laughs.
	Private Lives of Private School Moms: A Novel by Julie Heath Is it possible to raise grounded, well-adjusted children in an exclusive private school world where scandals and the outrageous acts of other parents surpass the imagination? That’s the challenge faced by four immensely appealing women, diverse in cultural backgrounds and personalities, yet strong in character, who’ve bonded together over this common goal. Follow the hilarious complications of some of the misguided parents chronologically through the Kindergarten school year at the prestigious Archimedes School, an institution built on the banks of Spa Creek in scenic Annapolis, Maryland.
	Schooled by Anisha Lakhani Here’s Anna, a newbie teacher with Ivy credentials whose passion for the low-paying teaching profession is cause for celebration at the upper-crust Langdon school, where as the exotic-looking newcomer, she is mistakenly identified as a coveted minority hire. With low pay and even lower expectations from teachers and parents, Anna realizes there’s no way she can survive—until she learns about lucrative after-school tutoring gigs. And just like that, Anna’s ideals go out the window. In a hilarious out-of-control spiral into obsession with all-things designer, expensive and showy, Anna transforms into someone who believes money can buy everything and everyone. There is redemption, of course, in the form of a teacher who bucks the system, and Anna discovers some of her students are pretty wonderful.