Monster spray

Are your kids afraid of night monsters and ghosts? Do they use it as an excuse to not go to bed? Or do you feel they are really afraid to go to bed? What are they afraid of? Of nightmares? Of monsters hidden in the closet or under the bed? Are they afraid of ghosts? What do you tell your kids about monsters and ghosts? Do your kids believe you? Tell me your story, here is mine...

The doctor was talking to the Little Girl.
"Are you afraid of monsters in your room?", asked the doctor.
The Little Girl nodded her head.
"Where do the monsters hide?", asked the doctor.
"Behind the toy stand!", answered the Little Girl.
"Have you seen the monsters?", asked the doctor.
The Little Girl nodded her head once more.
"What do you do when you see them?"
The Little Girl placed her hands over her eyes and closed them.

"I know what you need, I am going to write here a recipe, and your dad will pick it up at the store!", said the doctor, "It is a special spray that has a smell that only monsters can smell, it smells horrible for them and they go away!"
The Little Girl, at night, before going to bed sprayed the corners of the room with the spray.
That night she slept very well, no monsters appeared. The monsters told at monster school that they should not go to the Little Girls room, it had a horrible smell that no monster could smell.
From that day onwards, the monsters never again appeared at the Little Girls room.

Books final proof approved

What a great day!

What a great day today, the first two books final proof has been approved today. Both titles will be available on Amazon worldwide in 7 days in paper-cover format. The kindle versions are already available. I am really excited and need to say a huge thank you to everybody that as helped me in this quest. Some more actively, other not so, but nevertheless a simple like on my facebook page has been enough to keep me motivated into continuing the work.

I have referenced the first 100 facebook fans in the books dedication. I really appreciate your support, many of you I know personally, others not, but the simple fact that you have given me your support really means a lot to me. You believed and motivated me when the book was just a simple idea.
Now we have two books that have stories to live on their own, that my daughter enjoys each time I tell them to her while she looks at the pictures. I hope you can have this shared experience between yourselves and your children as you read the book to them. It is really something special I feel each time we read a book for the second or third, or nth time, as they know the story and listen to it over and over again, they seem to enjoy it even more, and even tell pieces of the story as we read it.

I have one more thing to ask you, it is really, really important. If you do buy the book, be it the paper-cover or the kindle version, please, please, do write a review on it at amazon's site. My belief is that the true experience of reading the book for your child comes from the paper-cover version, therefore I have asked to price the kindle version at minimum price, it's just for people to read it and get the feeling for what the book is. Maybe they enjoy it and get the paper-cover version to experience the reading to their children or grandchildren.

Have many, many ours of shared love with your children, and do share with me your stories. It is great to have a pool of experiences to make some fantastic stories come to life.


Alex.

Salad Icecream

Do your kids like ice-cream? How often do you allow them to eat it? Do they ask frequently for ice-cream? What are their favorite flavors? Do you give them ice-cream as a reward? Do you make eating ice-cream like a special event? What do they learn when eating ice-cream? Sharing? Giving? Tell me your story, here is mine...

"Papi, I want Ice-cream!", asked the Little Girl.
"Why do you want Ice-cream?"
"I have cleaned my room every day this week", said proudly the Little Girl.
"Ah! That is nice, let's check your reward board", said Papi.
Effectively the reward board as 7 stars in the room cleaning target. One star for each day the Little Girl cleaned the room. And in the end of the row was a picture of an ice-cream.
"Let's go and get you your ice-cream!", said Papi.

At the ice-cream shop...
"I want orange ice-cream, orange is healthy!", said the Little Girl.
"I don't want chocolate, chocolate is not healthy."
"And I want banana, banana is a fruit it is healthy."
"Do you have tomato ice-cream? I want a salad ice-cream."

Dunking Oreos

Do your kids dunk Oreos in milk? Did you teach them to do it? Where did they learn? How do they come up with this idea? Is it from TV commercials? Or from other kids in kindergarten? If from other kids, where did they get it from? Tell me your story, here is mine...

"Papi, look at those cookies, they are milk cookies!", said the Little Girl pointing at some Oreos box.
"Milk cookies ?", asked Papi.
"Yes, they have milk in the middle, and they have chocolate, they are my favorite cookies!", answered the Little Girl.
"You never eaten those cookies Little Girl! Why do you say it's your favorite?", asked Papi.
"Look Papi, look at the boy, chocolate with milk in the middle!", explained the Little Girl.
"That is not chocolate, and in the middle it's not milk!", said Papi.
"Yes, it is, yes it is, I want my favorite cookies!", cried the Little Girl.

"OK, I'll take a box for you, but you are going to taste as soon as I pay for the box!", said Papi.
"Yeepeee!", said the Little Girl.
After paying for the cookies, Papi opened the box, and another small pack inside. He took a cookie and handed over to the girl, "Here, try it, see if it is chocolate with milk!"
The Little Girl took a bite, "Baaahh, it's not chocolate, and inside is not milk! You are right Papi."
The Little Girl continued eating the cookie, "Papi, if I open the cookie, the inside is good, the cookie I don't like!", and suddenly the Little Girl was opening the Oreos and licking the filling.
At home the experiences continued...
"Papi, if you put the cookie in milk it is good!", explained the Little Girl, "You open the cookie, lick the white, and then dunk the cookie in milk and you eat it."
"Oh! No! Another sugar source she found", thought Papi.

Two pixie fairies

Do you read to your kids? Do they retell the stories you read them? Do you read them the stories the same way or add each time a bit of fantasy? Are they faithful to the story? Do they add other characters? Do they make themselves part of the story? Have you read Peter Pan for them? Do they take place of any character in the story? Do they tell the stories to other kids? Do they know the story from the pictures? Tell me your story, here is mine...

Peter Pan was going to the city to fetch Wendy. Tinkerbell went with Peter Pan. The Little Girl saw Peter Pan fly away. She wanted to follow Peter Pan, but Peter Pan said no, this was Wendy's story, not the story of the Little Girl.
The Little Girl went to Pixie land to look for a pixie to come in her story. The Little Girl went to talk with the Pixie Queen and asked her for a pixie fairy to come with her.
"What is the adventure you want to have?", asked the Pixie Queen.
"I want to fetch Mami and Papi to go and fight the Pirates!", answered the Little Girl.
"But in Neverland no grown-ups are allowed.", said the Pixie Queen.
"But my Papi is a special grown-up, he knows how to play, and he sees the things like me!", answered the Little Girl.
"Very well, and Mami?", asked the Pixie Queen.
"I love my Mami!", answered the Little Girl.
"Very well Little Girl, you can go with Loudbell and Loverbelle, they will help you in your adventures!", offered the Pixie Queen.
"Wow, two pixie fairies... that is so cool!", said the Little Girl.
"You need for the grown-ups, they are big and need a lot of pixie dust to fly!", said the Pixie Queen.
The Little Girl flew from the island and to the city. the Little Girl went with the two pixie fairies, Loudbell and Loverbelle. It was so fun to fly over the city, to see all the roofs. This is the way home, we will fetch Papi and Mami.
"Mami, Papi, we have to save the Indian princess, we must fly to the pirate island, come...", said the Little Girl.
Loudbell and Loverbelle sprinkled Papi and Mami with pixie dust. And now they were flying to Neverland.

More proofing, more spelling, more format, more layout, more drawings

Received on the email the first proof for my second book.
This one as the advantage of learning from the first one. I reused the templates for editing, so much faster to get this one almost ready.
Nevertheless I used the same template for the other book which from the proofing identified that the editing and layout are not to my liking. So now reapplying the new template. Tweaked a bit the sentences as well.
Now the book is back into review for publishing.
But feels great. this second book will come out just one week after the first. This will tell the readers that I am keen on writing some more books.
You all have great fun, if you want to help me proof read the book, you can get the kindle book. It's already available at amazon. I've priced it at the minimum price, after all my belief is that the book is best experienced on the printed version while reading it to our children. the format of the printed version is to maximize that experience.

You can get the kindle version here.
As with the previous book, all the images on the same side so that the child can follow the story with the drawings. All the text on the other side so that the parent can read it. Big letters, small paragraphs, that can be read fast, so that the little ones don't get bored. The kindle version does not have this layout problem, everything is simply a stream with text and image. the placement of the images is different to allow a more fluid reading and following of the drawings.
For those thinking about buying the book for kindle while it's still under this proof-reading, do not worry, after all you will always be able to refresh the book at no extra cost. And your help is extremely appreciated.
The greatest help you can give to this new author is to write a review of the book if you liked it. It might not seem a big deal, but for new authors it is the best you can do, be it for me or any other author. In this new world of self publishing where the authors can break the barriers of the publishing companies, writing reviews allow for authors that would otherwise be completely unknown to get some visibility.
A great help, and please provide me your feedback. This is a fantastic journey, I am glad I have you helping and motivating me.

Flower time is back, it is Spring

Does your child understand the seasons? Is it something that just comes each day? Today I wake up and it's winter, today is summer, today is spring? Does your child understand the cycle of the seasons? Did you manage to explain the season cycle it to your child? Is your child still trying to understand what a week is? Did you manage to explain him what a week is? What is the message you give your children for spring? Tell me your story, here is mine...

The sun has been very sleepy for the last three months. That is the winter. The sun comes out only for a few hours, and then goes back to bed. He needs to recover its energy. He is not to long up in the sky, so there is no time to make the air warm and melt away the snow.
But he has energy now, he wants to have breakfast. And the sun is going to have breakfast for 3 months. Everything the sun does takes it 3 months to do. So he slept 3 months, and now he is having breakfast for 3 months.

"What does the sun eat for breakfast?", asked the Little Girl.
The sun likes to smell the flowers, so he smells the earth and the flowers grow in the suns direction. And because the flowers needs sun to grow, he gives the flowers its warmth and light. The flowers grow and offer the sun their smell, which gives more energy to the sun. And as the sun gets more energy, the snow is melting away into water. the flowers also need the water to grow.
And to make the breakfast better, the little birds come and sing. They fly above in the sky looking for beautiful flowers and the empty nests to lay their eggs. The bears, the rabbits, the squirrels come out of their winter houses and play in the grass smelling the beautiful flowers.
The sun's breakfast is called Spring, and it lasts for 3 months.
"Wow, so cool!", said the Little Girl, "and what happens when the sun finishes breakfast?"
After having breakfast the sun is full of energy. So the sun goes up in the sky and send warmth everywhere. The water becomes warmer, and we can go to the beach or lake. The sun likes to see children play. That's when it's hot outside and we can go out and play football, swim in the lakes, have picnics. And for how long is the sun going to be up in the sky?
"For 3 months!", answered the Little Girl.
Right, for 3 months, all the sun does takes 3 months, and this time when the sun is up in the sky and makes everything warm is called Summer. It is the time the days are longer. It is the time for playing outside.
"And after Summer?", asked the Little Girl.
Then for the next 3 months we have Autumn, the sun is tired of having been up in the sky all the time. So he is getting tired but doesn't want to go to bed. Just like the Little Girl. So he opens the eyes, and closes the eyes, always sleepy not wanting to sleep. And so the sun does not give so much warmth and energy. The leaves in the trees become gold, yellow, orange and red. The air becomes a little bit colder. The sun wants to stay awake but can't and sometimes cries, we have lot of rain.
"Oh, that is not good!", says the Little Girl.
It is good, it is time to recover energy. So after being 3 months not wanting to go to bed, the sun finally goes to rest. Than winter comes again for 3 months. The air is cold, we have snow, Santa Claus comes again, we drink hot chocolate and wait for spring to come.
And now it'S spring, so let's go out and smell the flowers, listen to the birds and watch the rabbits.
"Yeah, let's go fetch flowers for mommy", said the Little Girl.
We have to let the flowers grow, we can't stop the flowers from growing, we want the flowers to grow and become very beaituful, so let's go outside and just look at them, and smell them.