On November 5th, 2008, writers Bruce Kluger and David Tabatsky had a simple idea: to recapture the exhilarating spirit of the 2008 presidential election from the perspective of our nation’s youngest citizens.They emailed a handful of friends, asking them if their children had something they wanted to say to President – elect Barack Obama. Those friends forwarded the email to their friends—and within six weeks, Kluger and Tabatsky had received nearly one thousand submissions. In the end, the same infectious enthusiasm that had fueled the Obama campaign itself produced this landmark book, Dear President Obama: Letters of Hope from Children Across America (Beckham Publications Group), a remarkable collection written and illustrated by 179 children from all regions of the country.

What a great idea for a book. A lot of times our children’s voices go unheard and to gather up their thoughts during a historic time in our lives is priceless. The 179 contributors to Dear President Obama (ages 4 through 18), come from 29 states, representing all regions of the country. They sent their letters and drawings to us by email, snail mail and fax—and one even zapped her letter directly from her iPhone.

Some kids wrote their letters in longhand, some used a keyboard, and a few even dictated theirs over the phone. Still, others chose colored pencils and crayons to express themselves. You really need to see this book up close to get the full impact that it has on on children.

After being given a copy to review I have to say that this book, for me, was somewhat of an eye opener. Because I never really stopped to think what the younger kids thought or how they felt about what was going on around them. And this is so very important to them and their future. It also opened up a great channel of communication with myself and my kids. Being able to discuss how they are feeling or what they would like to see President Obama accomplish has been absolutely wonderful.

I am excited to say that I have also been given the opportunity to host a giveaway of a copy of Dear President Obama to one lucky Dirty Shirt reader, so you too can share with their children. Please see rules below to enter today…

Giveaway

• MAIN RULE – Tell me in comments who you would share this book with. (remember if this rule is not followed then no others will count)
• 1 Extra Entry – Subscribe to my RSS feed or by email (or let me know if you already are) in a separate comment
• 1 Extra Entry – Favorite The Dirty Shirt in Technorati and leave your name (I will be checking) in a separate comment
• 1 Extra Entry – Follow me on Twitter (button in subscribe section on on the right sidebar) and let me know your Twitter name in a separate comment.
• 1 Extra Entry – Tweet this giveaway. Please leave direct URL in comments so I can check or click Tweet button at the top of this post (next to title) and add @jentifa to it.
• 2 Extra Entries – Write a post on your blog linking to my blog.

This giveaway will run through midnight on July 31, with winner being announced the morning of August 1. Winner will be chosen using Random.org from all valid entries and notified via email. Winner will have 48 hours to contact me before another winner is chosen. Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

I would like to introduce the readers of The Dirty Shirt to a great product called Goosie Cards.They are the first and only custom flash cards for children. Goosie Cards are created online by the magic of your personal photos, creativity and language…by you for your children. Members log in to their account at Goosiecards.com, upload their own photos, add text to their cards and check out. All Goosie Cards are created and shipped to customers within 3 days. It’s that easy!

Making Goosie Cards is fun!  Every Goosie Card is unique with your favorite, real life photo and text.  They are an innovative learning tool, designed to have fun with your photos, while creatively teaching your child about their world.  They help your child learn visual object recognition in a playful way and help initiate communication.  You can make a special set of flash cards for a little one that stars each member of their family to teach them who’s who or maybe their own set of personal ABCs to teach them every letter in the alphabet from their point of view…like Mm is for Mommy. The wonderful thing about Goosie Cards is that they grow with your child.  There is really no age limit on the custom cards because they are created as your child develops their reading, language and communication skills. You can create 10, 20 or 26 custom cards and the prices range from $28 to $46.

Goosie Cards can also be purchased “as is”, meaning pre-made sets.  This is a perfect gift for a parent that loves good quality cards and photographs. They are wonderful teaching tools for children and each set is created with full color, beautiful, professional photos designed to stimulate young minds. The above cards are from the Favorite Foods selection. They have others too like the ABCs, 123s and the Animal Kingdom. One of my favorites is the Head To Toe collection.

I can’t say enough about these great cards. Some of the features to these cards are that every card is unique, you get high quality photos, the cards are laminated so you can wipe them clean and they are made from heavy card stock. But this is only a few of the reasons why these cards are great. My number one reason is my nephew. Let me explain.

My nephew has been diagnosed with Autism and the creator of these cards supports the Autism community. The Goosie Cards are amazing tools for Non-Verbal Communication. They offer flexibility to teach with visual aids, the personal photos that you can use reflect the actual world that the child is in, the photos help associate words and emotions and you have up to 5 lines of text to provide directions to simple activities. Having just finished the Autism walk in my community I know how important this type of product can be.

Goosie Cards would like to extend The Dirty Shirt readers free shipping from now until 12/31/08. Just enter the code “freeship08” during checkout. And I would like to extend a personal thank you to Jennifer Marchetti the Founder and CEO of Goosie Cards for introducing me to this product. I know you will love these cards, so weather it be for your children or for a gift I recommend you get a set of these. They would make the perfect holiday gift!

I just love this next entry to the Christmas Giveaway here at The Dirty Shirt. It is the V. Smile Baby Infant Development System by VTech.

This development system teaches children ages 9 months to 3 years a variety of things such as colors, shapes, animals, vocabulary, numbers, music and baby sign language. It is a great way to spend real, quality time with your child and be a very important part of their learning. Some of the features are:

• Offers 3 modes of learning, Play Time, Watch & Learn, and Learn & Explore, where your baby can go from playing to watching educational videos to making choices about what he wants to learn
• Connects wirelessly to a receiver, which transmits from to up to 9 feet away
• Activity panel provides independent learning on-the-go for the youngest learners
• Each Baby Smartridge offers unique learning activities and includes 5 different baby signs
• Includes activity panel, console receiver, and Learn & Discover Home Baby Smartridge

Your child will have fun playing, learning and laughing. And you know what? You guessed it. The wonderful people at VTech have offered one of my readers their very own V. Smile system. See below for rules.

• MAIN RULE – Visit VTech and come back and tell me your favorite product in comments. (remember if this rule is not followed then no others will count)
• 1 Extra Entry – Subscribe to my RSS feed or by email (or let me know if you already are) in a separate comment
• 1 Extra Entry – Place my Christmas Giveaway button on your side bar and leave a separate comment
• 1 Extra Entry – Stumble this post and leave your Stumble name (I will be checking) in a separate comment
• 1 Extra Entry – Favorite The Dirty Shirt in Technorati and leave your name (I will be checking) in a separate comment
• 1 Extra Entry – Follow me on Twitter (button on the top left sidebar) and let me know your Twitter name in a separate comment
• 2 Extra Entries – Write a post on your blog linking to my blog and the VTech website.

This Christmas Giveaway will run through the month of November ending at midnight on November 30th. Winner will be chosen using Random.org from all valid entries and submitted to PRIZEYWinners as well as notified via email the first week of December. Winner will have 48 hours to contact me before another winner is chosen. Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.