Wednesday, November 12, 2014

940 Saturdays ~ Review

940 Saturdays
Family Activities & a Keepsake Journal
by Harley A Rotbart, MD
ISBN: 9780804185424
$17.90 (Diary - hardback)


About the book:
There are 940 Saturdays between a child's birth and the day he or she turns 18.

That may sound like a lot when there are adventures to plan and hours to fill. But as your child learns to walk, ride a bicycle, and drive, the years pass quickly. This beautiful package includes both a removable booklet with a thousand ideas for family activities that you and your child will love at every age, and a keepsake journal for preserving what you saw and did, thought and felt, so you can savor these memories in the years to come.

My thoughts:
I want to open by saying that this book wasn't quite what I thought. I thought it would be a nice non-fiction chapter book sharing ideas and activities to do with kids and since I have a little daycare and firmly believe in keeping kids BUSY at all times I jumped for the chance to read this one. =D

It wasn't quite what I thought. This book is 99% journal 5% activities booklet. Each double page spread has sections for 4 Saturdays. Parents list activities they did as a family that weekend. Saturday #293 might be "Our family went hiking in Fontenelle Forest this weekend ~ we saw a beautiful dance by the Winnebago Tribe from the Sioux City area. We also participated in a night time hike and watched the forest come alive." Saturday # 319 "Boys Scout Camping ~ Tommy was responsible for bringing and making the biscuits. And all the kids learned to set up their tents, start a fire safely and keep food out of the reach of bears."

Now imagine 940 Saturdays of that! What a treat that journal would be for your family to review at the end of the year and talking about the neat things you've done that year. Now, I'm sure all the Saturdays won't be filled in ~ or maybe you'll have brief notes like: 

"Susie snuck out tonight ~ grounded for 2 months." or "Tommy learned to mow & trim the lawn today." or how about: "Mom & Dad's anniversary, kids with grandparents for weekend."

The back of the book has a little pocket book with 31 pages. It's filled with family activities split up by ages/years and lists several categories & activities for each - a category might be Animals & Pets. Starting with age 0-2 you can do fun things like "Teach animal sounds, play with animal toys & feed ducks at the local pond." Age 2-5 & 5-11 has another long list of activities and Age 11-14 & age 14-18  has a series activities good for all those ages. At the end of that category is a small paragraph on how to plan your day & where to go. 

Categories include:
Acting * Animals & Pets * Arts & Crafts * Aviation * Backyard & Park Play * Birds * Board & Card Games * Boating * Bowling * Building, Engineering & Design * Business & Money * Carpentry & Woodworking * Cars & Trucks * Camping * Celebrations & Holidays * Car Wash * Cleaning, Chores & Repairs * Climbing * Circus & Carnival * Collecting & Sorting * Computers & Other Digital Devices, Cooking & Baking * Dance * Debates, etc.....

As you can see this list of categories is extensive. Activities cover a wide range of ages and many of the activities are fun for adults as well. I think you could even use it as a family enrichment program within your neighborhood or church. I personally won't use the journal I don't think - but the little booklet will be priceless this coming summer with my daycare kiddos. =D Big & Little.
Harley A. Rotbart M.D.
About the author:
Nationally renowned parenting authority Harley A Rotbart, MD is Professor & Vice Chairman or Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine/Children's Hospital Colorado and has been named to Best doctors in America every year since 1996. He is a regular contributor to Parent's Magazine & The New York Times. Dr Rotbart lives with his wife in Colorado they are the parents of 3 grown children.

You can follow Dr Rotbart on Twitter, Facebook or on his blog @ NoRegretsParenting.com



Other books by the author:
 

I received this book to review as a member of the Blogging For Books review program in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for reading GivingNSharing.

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