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Bring the Library Home: Bookboard Subscription GIVEWAWAY!!!

March 25, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · 7 Comments

I am a member of Bookboard’s Blog Ambassador program. I am compensated, from time to time, with free products and monetary payments. Any views expressed in this post are completely my own.

I’ve been talking about the awesomeness that is Bookboard for a good long while, now. Bookboard is an online digital library subscription service: basically, it puts a library of children’s books at your fingertips, right on your iPad. Bookboard even has its own librarian on staff, always looking out for new titles to add to the collection.

With our Bookboard membership, we have access to new reading material every day, and the more we read, the more great books we unlock. I have personally witnessed how this keeps kids motivated and interested in reading more. They become little book monsters, fed by pages! 🙂

photo credit: demandaj via photopin cc
photo credit: atmtx via photopin cc

And the cost? Well the free trial is, you know, FREE. And then the subscription service costs $4.99/month, which is slightly less than what we typically rack up in late fees every time we visit the local library. If you are more organized than me and tend to get your books back on time, the fee is still well worth it, in my opinion, simply for the variety and ease of use. And if you already have a book monster at home, you don’t have to check out the maximum number of books every time you go to the library, as Bookboard will be a fantastic supplement.

You can read all the details on how to get started with a free trial to Bookboard. But for today, let’s make one of you a winner!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win a 1 year subscription to Bookboard! If you love what you see and sign up for a subscription and then win this contest, you will be refunded!

Mandatory entry: sign up for the free trial at Bookboard (remember, they DON’T take your credit card information, so there is NO RISK with the free trial. It is really and truly FREE!). Select and read one book and leave the name of the title in the comments section, along with the email address you used for the free trial. You must have an iPad with iOS5 or higher for Bookboard to work.

The contest will run until 11:59 pm am on April 8th when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please. Stuff Parents Need is not responsible for prize fulfillment.

How to Unlock the Magic and Get Free Children’s Books Online

February 23, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

I am a member of Bookboard’s Blog Ambassador program. I am compensated, from time to time, with free products and monetary payments. Any views expressed in this post are completely my own.

I’ve been writing about Bookboard for over a year now. This is an online digital library subscription service that we absolutely love. At Bookboard, you’ll find an amazing assortment of books for every reading level, from pre-readers to young adult!

photo credit: Jenn Durfey via photopin cc

I’ve got a complete review of Bookboard here if you’d like to get all of the details. But what I want to stress to you today if you haven’t tried it yet is that you can unlock this service for a period of time FOR FREE. Your credit card information is NOT collected…Bookboard couldn’t charge you if they tried! 🙂

If you are like me, you’ve signed up for subscription service trials before and then forgotten about them…that is, until your credit card bill came. Darn it!!! But that’s not the case for Bookboard. When you sign up for the free trial, there are truly no strings attached; nothing to remember to cancel. While the exact number of books you’ll get to read for free varies by age range, a safe bet is right around 8 (I think we read 14 before our trial was over, so it may be more books for younger readers?).

In any case, it is a very generous and fun trial. Bookboard provides such a nice free trial because they believe that you will love the service so much that you’ll want to subscribe. Subscriptions are as low as $4.99/month (if you purchase a 6 month subscription). In my opinion, it is a BARGAIN. But why don’t you decide for yourself and check out Bookboard today for free? It’s like going to the library without having to leave the house! 🙂

Give the Gift of New Books for a VERY Low Price!

November 17, 2013 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

I am a member of Bookboard’s Blog Ambassador program. I am compensated, from time to time, with free products and monetary payments. Any views expressed in this post are completely my own.

We continue to love our subscription to Bookboard. This is a digital library subscription that provides access to TONS of new books for your children (perfect for kids from birth-age 12). I’ve blogged about Bookboard here and here if you want to read more about how the service works and why we are so nuts about it.

Bookboard is a very affordable service for all the book access you receive, and I’m really excited that they have finally made gift cards available, as this makes an outstanding gift to give to a child or even to an entire family. For $54.99, you can purchase the gift of reading FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR for a family with a tablet. I think this makes it one of the very best values for a gift I have seen this year, as it comes to just $4.58/month!

If you aren’t quite ready to jump into a year-long subscription for your family or for a family you know, then definitely try out their free trial. They don’t collect any payment information from you; it really is 100% free with no strings attached! We did the free trial ourselves and read 14 books before it was over…an impressive amount, if you ask me!

I hope this helps some of you out with your holiday shopping this year. The gift of reading is one of the very best gifts you can offer to a child, in my opinion! And this gift requires 0 trips to the mall! 🙂

Finding “Singable” Books Online: Bookboard Makes It Easy!

October 8, 2013 · by Tiffany Merritt · 1 Comment

I am a member of Bookboard’s Blog Ambassador program. I am compensated, from time to time, with free products and monetary payments. Any views expressed in this post are completely my own.

Layah, my 17 month-old daughter, LOVES to sing songs. She also loves to read books. So a book that contains words that can be sung is pretty much her Holy Grail.Bookboard, our favorite way to read books, has an entire collection of singable books, and we’ve been adding them to our library to enjoy.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Wheels on the Bus are already favorites of her, so I was very excited to see them offered on Bookboard. In addition to the great library of books available for perusal, you’ll also find dozens of curated collections. These can help you find just the right material for your child depending on their interests (oceans, outer space, and favorite non-fiction finds are just a few examples!).I introduced you to Bookboard last month (check out the post here if you missed it), and I’m excited to get to talk with you about it again. We are still loving the subscription, and I still believe it is one of the very best values in a subscription service that I have yet to see! If you subscribe for 6 months, you pay just $4.99 each month for access to SO MANY books! Darah and I have read over 50 books in the last month, and we didn’t have to haul any of them back and forth from the library, nor did I have to fork over any money for them beyond my subscription fees. Darah is treated to new books every single night before bed. And if I’m being completely honest, it is a treat for the parents, too! I get tired of reading the same books over and over, so it is really nice to always have something fresh and new to read!

If you have a tablet, then this children’s digital subscription library really is a must. Bookboard offers a 100% free trial that is very generous (we read 14 different books before ours ended!) and you don’t even have to give them your credit card information for the free trial. You have absolutely nothing to lose!

Why would they do that? Because they know what they are offering is SO worth the subscription price, but they want you to see for yourself with absolutely no risk! We use this service on our iPad more than any other and I think it is an awesome find!

What are your kids loving to read lately? I’d love to hear!

Online Books for Kids: We Love Bookboard (Try it FREE!)

September 14, 2013 · by Tiffany Merritt · 3 Comments

I am a member of Bookboard’s Blog Ambassador program. I am compensated, from time to time, with free products and monetary payments. Any views expressed in this post are completely my own.

We have a new nightly ritual in our home that involves reading several online books for kids. After we put Layah down for the night, Darah and I find the iPad and plop down to read anywhere from 1 to 4 books we have never read before. We don’t have a huge stack of library books to keep track of, and we aren’t spending a small fortune at a bookstore, either. Everything we need is on Bookboard.

Bookboard is a children’s digital subscription library for the tablet. If you own a tablet, and if you have a child in your life, then this is something I want to VERY STRONGLY encourage you to try out. In fact, Bookboard offers free trial subscriptions (you don’t give them your credit card, so there’s no way they can charge you, I promise!).We actually did the free trial first, and I was really impressed that it didn’t end until we had read 14 books. That’s a ton of books that we got to read for free!

I have SO many things that I want to share with you about Bookboard. When you find something that is this effective (Darah BEGS to read more and more and more when we use Bookboard!) and that is this affordable (start with the free trial, and if you get hooked like we did, go for the 6 month subscription, which is only $4.99/month for all-you-can-read books! Bookboard has a HUGE assortment of books designed for children ages infant up to 12. The library of options you see is based on your child’s age and when appropriate, reading level.

Bookboard also encourages children to keep reading by unlocking new books for their library after the children read 2-3 other books. This is exactly why Darah wants to read more…unlocking a new book is pretty serious motivation for that kid!

In the coming months, I’m going to share with you some of our favorite reads through a curated collection of titles, and I’m also going to share with you more details on how the program works. But for now, I want to encourage anyone reading this with a tablet to check out the free trial. And then PLEASE come back and share your thoughts with me on the service and how your child or grandchild is liking it, or any questions you might have for the creators of this amazing service.

Free Access to over 300 Children’s Books! And an IPad Mini GIVEAWAY!!!

January 29, 2013 · by Tiffany Merritt · 2 Comments

Less is More….Except for Books

As you probably know if you have been reading my blog for a while, my house is on the small side. We have 1400 square feet for a family of 4. That means that we have to put our stuff under scrutiny every once in a while to make sure it doesn’t get completely out of control. I make a trip to my favorite thrift store about once a month to drop off several bags of donations.

Darah has already learned how to be very practical when looking at her stuff. This is an ability that I’m quite proud to be instilling in her. I remember pitching huge fits when my parents would try to get me to let go of toys long forgotten. I want Darah to be able to let go and move on, and even to be glad to share with others.

But there’s one are where I’m not a ruthless weeder, and that is with her books. She has well over 150 and I’m perfectly fine with that. I want her to always have stories at her fingertips, very easily accessible, and I want her to see the joy in reading not just one book each night, but several. Darah is even enjoying getting to read her old board books again now that they are in her little sister’s room.

Meeting Kids in Their (Digital) Space

As much as I love for Darah’s book shelf to be overflowing, I also need to think about how her generation is going to learn and grow. E-readers are going to be the norm in her school in just a few years. Hard copies of books will be a bit of a novelty! Since Darah is already extremely savvy with how to use an iPad, I’m excited to have found a way to bring a whole library of books her way on the device.

Let me introduce you to Bookboard. This site makes it easy to read with your child, and as she learns how, for your child to read on her own. Bookboard has an extensive collection of online chapter and picture books designed for kids from pre-reading all the way to age 12. While the site is still in its early stages, already it has over 300 books available, and it is growing every day.

I just signed up for an account for Darah, and it was extremely easy. Even though I have a first generation iPad, which is not ideal for Bookboard, it still works well enough that I will be using the site. Bookboard is a very engaging way for Darah and I to spend time together reading. The books are more interactive in a digital format. Bookboard is also a great way for us to try out some chapter books, which Darah is starting to enjoy.

Perhaps what I love the most about Bookboard, though, is the fact that children can be encouraged to strive to read more difficult books. As you complete books, other books will become unlocked and available. The more you read, the more choices you have for what to read next! Parents are easily able to log in and see what progress their kids have made reading, and this is an especially nice feature if you can’t always been with your child during story time. You can even share your child’s accomplishments as they unlock new books with your friends via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest!

Here’s a quick video that shows more about how Bookboard works. It’s totally worth the 90 seconds, I promise!

GIVEAWAY!

And now for the REALLY good news: anyone who signs up for Bookboard between now and February 11th and reads a book will be entered into a drawing for an iPad mini (which, of course, you can use to read books on Bookboard!). When you sign up, you’ll receive one month of completely free access to Bookboard (along with access to those 300+ books). There’s nothing at all to lose except for some great literary adventures with your kids. Rules and details for the giveaway can be found at Bookboard.com.

This post is sponsored by Bookboard. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Funducate Educational Curriculum for the Home: Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

November 11, 2011 · by Tiffany Merritt · 61 Comments

My mom used to have lots of workbooks for me when I was in preschool and kindergarten. I remember working at an advanced level, doing second grade workbooks when I was maybe 5. I’m not telling you this to try to brag on my childhood self, but rather to show that most children can perform and learn beyond what you might expect of them if given the right tools and encouragement. Kids are little sponges, and they will soak up what is around them, whether it be amazing educational information or just junk on tv. Either way, they are paying close attention.

I’ve been on the lookout for some supplemental early childhood curriculum that I can have at home and use with Darah in the afternoon time between her nap and when her dad gets home from work. There are MANY resources out there, but I was drawn to a company that has won the Parent Tested Parent Approved Award, which I know is tough to earn!

Allow me to introduce to you Funducate, a company run by a husband and wife team, is focused on improving literacy in America through not only reading, but also singing and art. I am a big fan of approaching learning from many different angles, so this style really appealed to me! We’ve been working through lots of great products all about the ABCs. We have a wonderful coloring book that has a page for each letter. Darah is really enjoying that. But my favorite item is the My ABC Journal, which is spiral-bound and contains all those same great coloring pages along with pages to practice writing each letter! Darah is a bit young for the writing aspect, but I’ll be so glad to have this on hand when she is ready. I will likely photocopy these pages so that Darah can practice multiple times. I like that they show both upper-case and lower-case letters for practice and that the lines for practicing are wide. This is such a great resource, and it is easy to take on road trips, too!

Buy it!: Funducate has a variety of great resources that encourage literacy in many fun ways. The My ABC Coloring Book is a great buy at $5.50 and the My ABC Journal is well worth its reasonable $12.50 price tag. Be sure to check out their resources that help prepare kids for learning cursive, too!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to win a Funducate My ABC Journal and My ABC Coloring Book (ARV $18).

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