Celebrate March Reading Month: Reading Facts

• Students who reported having four types of reading materials (books, magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias) in their home scored, on average, higher than those who reported having fewer reading materials.
• Children whose parents read to them become better readers and perform better in school.
• The number of words read in a year by a middle-school child who is an avid reader might approach 10 million compared to 100,000 for the least motivated middle-school reader.
• The percentage of pre-kindergarten children who are read to three times or more in a week by a family member increased from 78 percent in 1993 to 86 percent in 2005.
• A mother’s education was one of the factors most strongly associated with reading frequency. However, when the number of siblings increased, the frequency of reading decreased.
• Children who have poor academic outcomes in elementary school, particularly those who have difficulty learning to read, are more likely to engage in delinquency, violence and substance use during adolescence.

Sources: Scholastic 2008 Kids & Family Reading Report, Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, National Center for Education Statistics, Literacy Company.

What is a Snipe to you?

Before anyone opens up Charmed Adventures: Snipes are Real!, make sure they take a moment do the Pre-Reading activity sheet. (Click here for Activity Sheets and save to your computer to print.) Snipe is quite anxious to learn how people envision where it comes from and looks like. If you would like to share your pre-reading activity sheet creativity with other fans and Snipe, please send a scan or picture of the completed sheet to: Snipe@CharmedAdventures.com .*

* Entrants agree that personal data, especially name and creative work may be processed, shared and otherwise used for the purposes and within the context of the Charmed Adventures Fan pages and any other purposes outlined in these Official Rules. Participants have the right to access, review, rectify or cancel any personal data held by Sponsor by writing to Sponsor at snipe@charmedadventures.com.

Snow Crisis

Check out the new Social site created around Charmed Adventures. Learn about the Snow Crisis Aunt Crystal just had: http://charmedadventures.ning.com/

Now Available - Charmed Adventures: Snipes are Real!

Hi Everyone,

Join me on a Charmed Adventure with flying frogs, a glowing heart pendant, creatures from the water world and much more! This book is dedicated to all of you whom have encouraged people to follow their dreams and taught the people around them that anything can become real when you put your mind to it. I personally appreciate your support and encouragement over the years.

Charmed Adventures is a prefect stocking stuffer or gift for children ages 6-9 to introduce them to the experience of a novel without the heavy reading content.

Charmed Adventures: Snipes are Real! is now available through a link provided on the Charmed Adventures website below. As more stores & online sources pick up the book I will be adding the links to the purchase page, including book signing events. To visit, just click on the links below or paste the URLs into your browser.

www.charmedadventures.com http://www.charmedadventures.com Purchase/Events (Click on the BookLocker Icon)

I strongly encourage you to download the pre-reading and post-reading activity sheets for your young reader to engage their mind in creative thought development. Take a look and let me know what you think!

Nicole

Nicole Longhini-McElroy

Charmed Adventures - Author

M: 248.496.4620

E: nicolelonghini@comcast.net / nicole@charmedadventures.com

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time all creatures celebrate the unity which has developed across the elements of the earth. They are especially grateful to those humans that have been watching out for earth and those that inhabit it.

As you will learn soon from Nicole, there are creatures on earth whom protect the different elements of the earth. The better everything interacts on earth, the easier the creatures lives become and they are very thankful for everyone's contributions.

To celebrate the bountiful harvest season the creatures and their guardians want to Thank You whom have made a difference in the world. In return, we ask that you reach out to someone that has touched your life and simply thank them for being themselves. Thanksgiving is the time we thank those around us, we might have taken for granted what they do naturally, and let them know being themselves is alright in our book.

Nicole on becoming an "Artist"

As long as I could remember growing up my parents fostered my gravitation to art. Developing ability to draw, sew, crochet, crafting, drama and my attempts to write (content good - grammar not so much). Each area I was blessed to have talented teachers that I would see on week nights, weekends and summer break. I even looked at changing schools my junior year to a place that could provide me more advance art classes, but at the time didn't want to start from scratch friendships.

I was often seen as the "Artist" at school wearing my own unique style and hand painting clothing with my vision of cool characters. As I look back, I realized it wasn't only my parents that fostered my passion for art, but also the people that surrounded me on a daily basis. Even if they were making fun of what I was wearing, they noticed and I made my point of being unique.

In developing the book I decided to make the illustrations through another person's vision and computer skills. It was great working with Adam to direct the look and feel of the characters and their surroundings. Through my training I have developed an appreciation for other people's talents and recognize to use them where my weaknesses are (computer cartoon illustration).

"Artist" to me is the ability to create something fresh and imaginative utilizing your surroundings to enhance and engage the lives of others through your own vision.

Earth Creatures are getting Excited!

As a display of their excitement, the earth creatures are ensuring the trees around my house are at prime color for Halloween. It is the one night they get to join the humans in celebration of having fun without hiding. Most of their time is spent assuring that the young humans are without harm during their travels from house to house. Removing bad spells/charms that would prevent smiles on children's faces. The earth creatures try to make sure that tree roots and rocks stay out of the way of the children running from house to house.

At the end of the night all the earth creatures gather in their clans across the planet and celebrate with apple cider and maple sugar sticks in specially decorated pumpkin houses carved out just for the night. You can occasionally see the glowing pumpkins, but when you look inside all you see is light as earth creatures are invisible to humans.